Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
In the Georgia Declaration of Causes issued when the state seceded, one of the things listed is this:
"... These interests, in connection with the commercial and manufacturing classes, have also succeeded, by means of subventions to mail steamers and the reduction in postage, in relieving their business from the payment of about $7,000,000 annually, throwing it upon the public Treasury under the name of postal deficiency. ..."
[See http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Georgia_Declaration_of_Causes for the entire document]
"These interests" appear to be "The navigating interests" of the North in context.
I know that there was a large stink over the Post Office in the days before the Mexican War; there was a great controversy about private mail services. One such venture was the American Letter Mail Company that had been established by the Lysander Spooner. Spooner's company charged 5 cents/letter on their routes: substantially less than the government did. Spooner was forced out of business, but the US Mail lowered their rates as a result.
Is this what the Georgians are complaining about? Do they really see this as one of the issues justifying secession? Or am I missing some other US-Mail-related events in there?
Regards,
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
The south was paranoid, concerning the threat of 'outside' agitators, using the mails to innundate the south with inflamatory and seditious propaganda, to subvert white votes and/or incite peaceful slaves to bloody insurrection. Lowering the postal rates would make such objectives all the easier realize.
To the fevered southern imagination any and every thing, not under their direct control was a potential threat, even lower postal rates.
The south was paranoid, concerning the threat of 'outside' agitators, using the mails to innundate the south with inflamatory and seditious propaganda, to subvert white votes and/or incite peaceful slaves to bloody insurrection. Lowering the postal rates would make such objectives all the easier realize.
To the fevered southern imagination any and every thing, not under their direct control was a potential threat, even lower postal rates.
Well, maybe, but the censorship issue isn't included above,. The Buchanan administration had allowed the slave states to interfere with the mail without protest, so they have no Cause for secession there.
The mail steamers issue looks to be something else. In the 1840s, mail steamers were apparently hot stuff: fast ships carrying mail and passengers. The British firm Cunard was a major competitor on routes to the US.
When steamship technology arrived, the US Congress passed a subsidy bill in 1845. It provided for the construction and operation of the mail steamers on a variety of routes in the Atlantic and Pacific. Part of the idea became to tie the new California territory to the US via mail and traffic across Panama after the Mexican War.
Most of the routes went to England, France and Germany in the Atlantic. The Pacific ones obviously were all on the West Coast. But one route did terminate in the South, at Charleston. A South Carolina man received an annual subsidy of $45,000 for operating it.
Part of the deal was training US sailors in the new steam technology. Another part was that US Navy watch officers served aboard them to gain experience (4 midshipmen each and I think 2 other officers.) It was a form of subsidized shipbuilding/commercial shipping to get a foot in the new technology (with overtones of N-ROTC training).
I am not at all sure why the Georgians would mention it, though. The subsidies peaked in 1852, were reduced in 1856, and ended altogether in 1858. Hard to see that as a Cause of secession in 1861.
On the rates issue, I have no idea what they were upset about.
Regards,
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
Its a laundry list of their grievances with the Federal government. Apparently it ticked them off that the post office was subsidized and losing money. "Theses interests, in connection with the commercial and manufacturing classes, have also succeeded, by means of subventions to mail steamers and the reduction in postage, in relieving their [read: Northern] business from the payment of about $7,000,000 annually, throwing it upon the public Treasury under the name of postal deficiency.
Apparently they took it seriously enough that the Confederates apparently did run a profitable system.
"Reagan cut expenses by eliminating costly and little-used routes and forcing the railroads that carried the mail to reduce their rates. Despite the problems the war caused, his department managed to turn a profit, "the only post office department in American history to pay its own way" wrote William C. Davis." (wikipedia, but I had read that snippet in an Honorable Defeat, but I just don't feel like finding it!)
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Postal Rates and secession 
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