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United States Statutes at Large/Volume 1/1st Congress/1st Session/Chapter 16

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269621United States Statutes at Large, Volume 1Public Acts of the First Congress, First Session, Chapter XVIUnited States Congress


Sept. 22, 1789.
[Obsolete.]

Chap. XVI.An Act for the temporary establishment of the Post-Office.[1]

Powers and salary. Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be appointed a Postmaster General; his powers and salary[2] and the compensation to the assistant or clerk and deputies which he may appoint, and the regulations of the post-office shall be the same as they last were under the resolutions and ordinances of the late Congress. The Postmaster General to be subject to the direction of the President of the United States in performing the duties of his office, and in forming contracts for the transportation of the mail.

Limitations.
Continued by act of August 4, 1790, ch. 36.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall continue in force until the end of the next session of Congress, and no longer.

Approved, September 22, 1789.


  1. The acts passed for the establishment and regulation of the Post-office Department, and which are obsolete, have been, in addition to this act:  Act of August 4, 1790, chap. 36; act of March 3, 1791, chap. 23; act of February 20, 1792; act of May 8, 1794; act of March 3, 1797, chap. 19; act of March 28, 1798, chap. 24; act of March 2, 1799, chap. 43; act of December 23, 1814; act of February 27, 1815; act of February 1, 1816, chap. 7; act of April 9, 1816, chap. 43; act of March 3, 1825, chap. 64.

    The acts in force in reference to the Post-office Department are, the “act concerning public contracts,” April 21, 1808, chap. 48; act of March 2, 1827, chap. 61.  An act to change the organization of the post-office department, and to provide more effectively for the settlement of the accounts thereof, July 2, 1836, chap. 270; resolution of March 2, 1837; act of March 3, 1845, chap. 23, 34.

  2. By an act passed March 2, 1827, chap. 62, an addition was made to the salary of the Postmaster General of two thousand dollars, making the annual salary of that officer six thousand dollars.