ted, and prepare statements and reports when required. Compensation, $1,200.

One miscellaneous clerk, who prepares, annually, the tabular statement exhibiting the number of miles the mails are carried on railroads and in steamboats, in coaches and stages, in sulkies and on horseback; prepares the report for Congress of all land and water mails established or ordered within the year, other than those put under contract at the regular lettings; keeps the file of miscellaneous letters belonging to the contract office; makes indexes to the mail routes; assists at the annual lettings of mail contracts, and attends to the miscellaneous business of the office. Compensation, $1,200.

One report clerk, who prepares reports, weekly, to the Auditor, of all affirmative orders or decisions of the Postmaster General reducing or increasing the mail service, all allowances for temporary service, and all changes of pay on the contracts, examining all the calculations arising out of changes in the rates of pay; he prepares reports, weekly, to the Third Assistant Postmaster General, of all the decisions, orders, and changes, above stated, embracing also the changes of schedules, and keeps a journal of all curtailments and allowances; he also keeps a book showing separately the curtailments and allowances made in each section. Compensation, $1,200.

Two contract clerks, who prepare the contracts and transmit them to be executed by the contractors; report them to the Auditor when executed ; make all entries on them affecting the route, schedule, or pay; make all transfers of contracts; keep registers and files of all contracts, and prepare the report to Congress of all contracts executed within the year. Compensation, $1,200.

Two letter-book clerks, who record and send out all communications from the contract office, and do such other copying as is from time to time required. Compensation, $1,000.

2. The appointment office is under the immediate charge of the Second Assistant Postmaster General. The duties of this officer involve a superintendence of all business relating to the establishment and discontinuance of post offices; changes of site and names; appointments and removals of postmasters, giving them instructions in their duties under the laws and regulations of the Postmaster General; furnishing them with blanks and stamps; and, generally, of all such matters as are necessary to prepare them for the proper management, reception, and delivery of the mails of the United States. To aid him in these duties, the following persons are assigned to the office of the Second Assistant Postmaster General, viz:

A principal clerk, (at a compensation of $1,600,) who, under the general direction of the Second Assistant, supervises the business of the office; prepares correspondence on special cases; reports weekly to the Auditor, and to the contract and inspection offices, all post office changes, files and preserves the bonds and oaths of postmasters appointed by the President and Senate, keeps a record of them, and also of all letter carriers in the cities. He is also agent for purchasing stationery for the use of the Depart

ment.

Four corresponding clerks (three of whom receive a compensation of $1,400, and the fourth $1,200) prepare the correspondence with postmasters and all others, touching the proper administration of each post office; procure all information preparatory to the establishment or discon

tinuance of post offices; brief and file in their proper places all letters and papers received, and make up all cases for appointments, new offices, discontinuances, &c., to be presented to the Second Assistant or his principal clerk, for the decision of the Postmaster General.

Two bond and register clerks (compensation $1,200) prepare and send out letters of appointment, with the requisite bonds and oaths; enter new offices, new appointments, changes, &c., on the bond books; return imperfect bonds for correction; endorse and file bonds, duly executed; and prepare, record, and transmit postmasters' commissions.

One letter-book clerk, who records the correspondence of the office, prepares copies of papers when required, and performs miscellaneous duties. Compensation, $1,000.

3. The inspection office is under the charge of the Third Assistant Postmaster General, whose duty it is to see that all postmasters at the beginning and ends of routes, and all others who may be directed by the Postmaster General, keep and return, according to instructions, registers of the exact time of the arrival and departure of the mails; that blank registers are sent to all postmasters, and that they are kept constantly advised of the true time of arrival and departure, according to the schedule as arranged in the contract; that all registers returned by postmasters are examined; all delinquencies of contractors, appearing on the face of such registers or otherwise, duly noted, and the cases arising out of them made up and prepared for the action of the Postmaster General. It is also his duty to sign, quarterly, the certificates for the pay of contractors, and to advise the Auditor of all deductions therefrom, for whatever cause; to maintain a direct correspondence with ten special agents and eighteen mail agents; to grant certificates for the pay of the latter; to give them instructions as to their duty; report them, for defalcations in the performance of it, to the Postmaster General; and, as far as his capacity and the force at his command will enable him, to do all that may have a tendency to enforce a regular and exact performance of their stipulations on the part of contractors.

The duty of providing and sending out muil bags, and mail locks and keys, and of answering to all demands for these articles, has been transferred to this, from the contract office.

In the discharge of the foregoing duties, the Third Assistant Postmaster General is aided by the following persons, viz:

A principal clerk, (at a compensation of $1600,) who reads and distributes among the clerks, daily, the letters addressed to this office; enters in the hand books of the different clerks all orders originating in the contract office affecting the service or pay of contractors; notes the changes and additions reported from the appointment office; makes the propositions on all cases to be presented to the Postmaster General, for fines, deductions, or suspensions of pay; prepares the annual report to Congress of all fines imposed and deductions made from the pay of contractors; attends to miscellaneous correspondence, and, in the absence of the Third Assistant Postmaster General, superintends the general business of the office.

Six clerks, to each of whom is assigned a section of the United States. It is their duty to notify to the postmasters at the ends of routes the schedules of the arrival and departure of the mails, and of their mode of conveyance according to contract; to see that the postmasters keep and return weekly and monthly registers, showing all failures to arrive and depart in

contract time, as well as all deviations from the mode of service required by contract; to examine and compare all mail registers received, and record them alphabetically by States; to prepare reports of all failures, and enter them in a journal; to notify to each contractor all fines imposed and deductions made from his pay; to prepare, in ordinary cases, official letters requiring explanations from contractors for neglect of duty, for the signature of the Third Assistant; to render certificates, signed by him, to the Auditor, of service performed by the contractors, with a statement of all penalties imposed, at the end of each quarter; to make up the cases of failing contractors for a suspension of their pay, and for the removal of the same; to report all postmasters who have failed to return mail registers; to have all drivers and mail carriers sworn according to law, and to note all changes made in the contract office, affecting contractors, &c. Two of these clerks receive a compensation of $1,400, and the rest $1,200.

One clerk, (at a salary of $1,200,) who receives and keeps an account of mail bags, mail locks and keys, and sends them to postmasters throughout the United States who need them.

A letter-book clerk, (at a salary of $1,000,) who records all the letters and notices written and sent froin this office.

4. The miscellaneous or fourth subdivision, like the three preceding ones, has the general superintendence of the Postmaster General, but is under the immediate supervision of the chief clerk of the Department, to whom is more especially assigned the management of its financial concerns. In this process he directs the payment of the quarterly balances reported by the Auditor to be due to about 2,500 mail contractors and other persons; keeps cash accounts with eleven banks, and with about eight hundred postmasters who are under orders to retain the proceeds of their offices to meet the drafts of the Postmaster General, and sees that about two hundred other postmasters deposite the proceeds of their offices, quarterly, at the points directed. He prepares, for the signature of the Postmaster General, all correspondence relating to the cash accounts, and such other correspondence as the Postmaster General specially directs; collects the information and details required to answer the calls of Congress; supervises, generally, the office of mail depredations, the receiving office, and dead-letter office; opens, reads, and distributes among the officers of the Department, for their attention, the correspondence addressed to the Department and to the Postmaster General. He is also the agent for the payment of the salaries and for the contingent fund of the Department. Besides the chief clerk, there are employed in this division eleven clerks, as follows:

One clerk, who keeps the appropriation accounts, registering under its proper head of appropriation each draft and warrant issued by the Postmaster General; furnishes a quarterly statement of the payments under each head; renders occasional assistance in corresponding, and performs miscellaneous duties for the Postmaster General and chief clerk. Salary, $1,400.

A clerk on mail depredations, who prepares for the signature of the Postmaster General all the correspondence arising from losses in the mails; keeps a register of each case of loss, and enters therein, from time to time, a history of all the proceedings; makes up each case, and transmits it to the proper agent, with such instructions as its nature seems to require; examines and presents to the Postmaster General, for his decision, all claims for

services rendered in the pursuit and detection of depredators, or for investigating robberies committed; reports monthly, to the Postmaster General, the condition of the business, and performs all other duties incident to this branch of the public service. Compensation, $1,400.

A journal clerk, who keeps the journal of the Postmaster General, in which are recorded, daily, all his orders and affirmative decisions, including changes and modifications in mail contracts, appointments of postmasters, establishments and discontinuances of post offices, and changes of their names and sites; all fines imposed and deductions made from the pay of mail contractors, &c. Salary, $1,400.

A dead-letter clerk, who receives from the openers all dead letters containing articles of value, records them in an alphabetical register, noting the kind of money or article each letter contains; sends out all such letters to the writers thereof; sees that the postmasters to whom they are sent for delivery return the proper receipts for them, or the letters themselves, if the writers be not found; corresponds with all persons having business with this office; keeps charge of the dead-letter money, and deposites it in the general funds of the Department, when so directed by the Postmaster General. Compensation, $1,200.

A receiving clerk, who enters in an alphabetical register the amount of each postmaster's quarterly return, and the date of its reception at the De⚫ partment; sends circulars to postmasters who fail to make their returns, and reports quarterly, to the appointment office, all such delinquents. He also prepares, for the information of the Postmaster General, at the end of each quarter, a statement comparing the revenue for the quarter just ended with the corresponding quarter of the preceding year, in all offices paying nett $100 and upwards. Compensation, $1,200.

A warrant clerk, who aids the chief clerk in his cash accounts, and draws all the warrants and drafts issued by the Postmaster General, exceeding in number 10,000 a year. Compensation, $1,200.

A clerk, who compares all the dead letters received with the dead-letter bills sent with them by the postmasters; calls on the postmasters who are delinquent to render bills with their dead letters; and, when dead letters are sent without the proper bill, prepares it as a voucher to the Auditor. Salary, $1,000.

A letter-book clerk, who records and sends out all the correspondence prepared in the miscellaneous division, and does such other copying as is required of him by the Postmaster General and chief clerk. Salary, $1,000.

A clerk, who receives, in the first instance, the quarterly returns of all the postmasters in the United States; opens them, takes out the dead letters and the post bills, sending the former to the examiner of the dead-letter bills, and the latter to their proper place of deposite, for the use of the mail depredation clerk. Salary, $1,000.

Two clerks, who open the dead letters after they have been compared with the dead-letter bills, and preserve and hand over to the clerk in charge of the dead-letter office all letters containing articles of value. Salary, $1,000 each.

In the appointment office one other clerk is employed in copying the bond books, in which are recorded, by counties, the names of all the post offices and postmasters in the United States. Compensation, $1,000.

There are also employed in the Department one messenger, (compensation $750,) and three assistant messengers, (compensation $350 each ;)

two watchmen at $300 each, and one laborer at $300.

form such duties as usually attach to their respective stations.

These all per

In the foregoing statements it has been my purpose to give, as near as practicable, the whole number of persons, and their duties, at the date of the resolution to which this communication is an answer.

The following persons have been employed since that period, viz: Two local agents, (one at Cincinnati, Ohio, the other at Louisville, Kentucky,) whose duty it is to board all steamboats arriving at those places, and to obtain from the commanders, officers, and crews of said boats, all letters brought from their several places of departure or landing; to pay two cents each for all letters so obtained; to deliver said letters into the post office, to be rated with the legal postage, and to make to the Postmaster General weekly reports of their operations. These agents are of recent appoint-ment, and the returns already received from them confirm me in the opinion that their services save to the Department not less than $125 a week," clear of expenses. Their compensation is $800 per annum.

There are also employed in the Department, on temporary and miscellaneous duties, four clerks, to whom compensation is allowed at the rate of $1,000 per annum. Two of these will be discharged in a few days, and the other two will be retained only so long as their aid is found indispensable to the public service.

A day watchman (compensation $360) is employed to take care of the building, direct persons having business in it to the officers they wish to visit, and to send out blanks to postmasters.

An assistant messenger is employed in searching for post bills, for the use of the clerk on mail depredations, and in doing the duties of porter and messenger in the dead-letter and receiving offices, where several cartloads of postmasters' returns are handled quarterly.

Three laborers distribute fuel through the building, and assist in cleansing it daily.

Although the foregoing specifications of the duties performed by the of ficers and clerks in the several bureaus of the Department may appear, to those not acquainted with the vast amount of details requiring attention, to be amply set forth, it is nevertheless due to them to say that all, or nearly all, of them perform other duties of minor importance, which occupy considerable portions of their time.

It is not practicable to state precisely "the time required for the performance of the duties assigned to each officer and clerk," because the amount of labor to be performed, except in a very few cases, is not spread equally over the whole year, but varies according to circumstances which cannot be obviated by timely arrangement or forecast. During the sessions. of Congress, for instance, the labors of the Department are greatly increased by the calls of the respective Houses, committees, and of individual members, for information necessary to the purposes of legislation, or to answer applications from their constituents. The annual letting of mail contracts may be cited as another period of great labor. Many thousand bids or proposals have to be carefully read and folded, and a synopsis of the contents entered on each paper. Accompanying most of these are letters of guaranty and letters of recommendation, which undergo the same process. The bids, having been again carefully examined, are entered in the book of proposals, each under the appropriate number of the route bid for, and, the entries being completed, they are then ready for the decision of the Postmaster General. The process of letting the con