PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTMENTS AT PORTSMOUTH. 107
��NAMES OF PERSONS WHO HAVE HELD CERTAIN PRESI- DENTIAL APPOINTMENTS AT PORTSMOUTH, N H, WITH INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
��BY HON. THOMAS L. TULLOCK.
��Benjamin Franklin was appointed General Deputy Postmaster in 1753, and in the following year startled the people of the colonies by giving notice that the mails for New England, which theretofore had left Philadelphia once a fortnight in winter, would start once a week throughout the year. In 1 760 he proposed to run stage wagons between Philadelphia and Boston for the conveyance of the mail, one start- ing from each city on Monday morn- ing, and reaching its destination by Saturday night. Franklin was removed from office by the British ministry in 1774. The Continental Congress appointed a committee to devise a system of post-office communication, and on July 26, 1775, a report was submitted, and the plan proposed was adopted, whereupon Dr. Franklin was appointed Postmaster-General, at a salary of $1,000, which compensation was doubled April 16, 1779, and December 27, 1779, increased by con- gress to $5,000 per annum. Franklin was succeeded as Postmaster-General November 7, 1776, by his son-in-law, Richard Bache, who remained in office until January 28, 1782, when Ebenezer Hazard became the last Postmaster- General under the confederation. Stephen Osgood, of Massachusetts, with a salary of $1,500, was appointed the first Postmaster-General under the Federal government, serving from September 26, 1789, to August 12, 1 79 1, when he was succeeded by Timothy Pickering (with a salary ad- vanced to $2,000), who remained until Joseph Habersham, of Georgia, the last Postmaster-General under Wash- ington, was commissioned, February 25, 1795, at a yearly salary of $2,400.
��The office located in Philadelphia in 1796 was established in Washington when the government was removed to the Federal city. In 1802 the United States ran their own stages between Philadelphia and New York, finding horses, coaches, and drivers, and trans- porting both mail and passengers.
The following list of postmasters at Portsmouth, N. H., is compiled from the records of the Post-Office Depart- ment, which was organized September 26, 1 789, when Stephen Osgood became the Postmaster General under the Federal Constitution, which, having been ratified by a sufficient number of States, became valid March 4, 1 789. In the first congress which assembled in that year, John Langdon, of New Hampshire, was elected President of the Senate, April 6, for the purpose of opening and counting the votes for President and Vice-President of the United States. The official records of the government are dated subsequently to the inauguration of Washington, which occurred April 30, 1 789, when John Langdon, who had declared the vote electing Washington and Adams, administered to them the oath of office. There is, however, in the office of the Auditor of the Treasury for the Post- Office Department, an account book kept by Benjamin Franklin when he was Postmaster General, and in his own hand- writing, from which it appears that Jeremiah Libbey was postmaster at Portsmouth January 5, 1776, but we can not give the date of his original appointment. He continued in office until April 1, 1798, and died in 1824, aged 76.
In 1790, the general post-office was located in New York city, at which
�� �
