This article of contract, made the fifteenth day of February, in the
year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, between the United
States (acting in this behalf by their Postmaster General) and Albert
C. Ramsey and Edward H. Carmick, William H. Aspinwall and Edwin
Bartlett, of the city of New York; Silas C. Herring, Elihu Townsend,
Simeon Draper, and R. B. Coleman, of the same place, witnesseth:
That whereas, by an act of Congress, passed March 3, 1845,
entitled “An act to provide for the transportation of the mail between
the United States and foreign countries, and for other purposes,” the
Postmaster General is authorized to contract for the transportation
of the United States mail between any of the ports of the United
States and a port or ports of any foreign power whenever, in his
opinion, the public interests will thereby be promoted; and whereas,
by another act of Congress, passed March 3, 1851, entitled “An act
to establish certain post-roads in the United States and the Territories
thereof,” the Postmaster General is authorized to enter into contracts,
for a period not longer than four years, for transporting
through any foreign country the mails of the United States, and that
in making such contracts, the Postmaster General shall be bound to
select the speediest, safest, and most economical route; and whereas
notice has been given by advertising, in accordance with the directions
of said act, for inviting proposals for mail contracts, under and
by virtue of the acts aforesaid; and whereas Albert C. Ramsey and
Edward H. Carmick have been accepted, according to law, as contractors
for transporting the mail on route No. 9, from Vera Cruz, via
Acapulco, to San Francisco and back, twice a month, according to the
schedule hereinafter mentioned, in thirteen days each way, being an
extension of two of the trips on the New Orleans and Vera Cruz line
through Mexico, for the purpose of conveying the mail, and thus
making one through-line in sixteen days between New Orleans and
San Francisco, at and for the sum of four hundred and twenty-four
thousand dollars per year, for and during the term commencing from
the time Congress shall ratify this contract, and ending four years
from that date, with the right reserved to the Postmaster General to
continue it one year longer, at the same terms:
Now, therefore, the said Albert C. Ramsey and Edward H. Carmick,
contractors, and Silas C. Herring, Elihu Townsend, Simeon
Draper, Robert B. Coleman, William H. Aspinwall, and Edwin
Bartlett, their sureties, do jointly and severally undertake, covenant,
and agree with the United States, and do bind themselves:
1st. To carry said mail within the times fixed in the annexed
schedule of departures and arrivals, and so carry until said schedule
is altered by the authority of the Postmaster General of the United
States, as hereinafter provided, and then to carry according to said
altered schedule.
2d. To carry said mail in a safe and secure manner, free from wet
or other injury, in weather-proof bags and vehicles on the land route,
and in a separate and convenient apartment on shipboard, to be suitably
fitted up under order of the department, at the expense of the
contractors, for the assorting and safe-keeping of the mails, and for
the sole and exclusive occupation, use, and accommodation of the
Post Office Department and its mail-agent, if the Postmaster General
shall require it for the use and accommodation of the mail and mail-agent,
and such mail-agent is to be conveyed without further charge.
In case the contractors fail to furnish such suitable accommodations,
the department shall have the right to provide the bags,
vehicles, or apartments, or other suitable accommodations, at the expense
of the contractors.
3d. To take the mail and every part of it from, and deliver it and
every part of it into, the post office at San Francisco, and to and from
the mail steamers at Vera Cruz on the New Orleans and Vera Cruz
line, and also to deliver and receive the mails at San Diego and Monterey,
regularly by each trip going and returning, as is now done by
the “Pacific Mail Steamship Company.”
They also undertake, covenant, and agree with the United States,
and do bind themselves, jointly and severally, as aforesaid, to be
answerable for the person to whom the said contractors shall commit
the care and transportation of the mail, and accountable to the United
States for any damages which may be sustained by the United States
through his unfaithfulness or want of care; and that the said contractors
will discharge any carrier of said mail whenever required to
do so by the Postmaster General; also, that they will not transmit
by themselves or their agent, or be concerned in transmitting, commercial
intelligence more rapidly than by mail, and they will not
carry out of the mail letters or newspapers which should go by post;
and that they will not, knowingly, convey any person carrying on
the business of transporting letters or other mail matter without the
consent of the department; and further, that the said contractors
will convey, without additional charge, post-office blanks, mail bags,
and the special agents of the department, on the exhibition of their
credentials.
They further undertake, covenant, and agree with the United
States, that the said contractors will collect quarterly, if required by
the Postmaster General, of postmasters on said route, the balances due
from them to the General Post Office, and faithfully render an account
thereof to the Postmaster General in the settlement of quarterly
accounts, and will pay over to the General Post Office all balances
remaining in their hands.
For which services, when performed, the said Albert C. Ramsey
and Edward H. Carmick, contractors, are to be paid by the said
United States the sum of four hundred and twenty-four thousand dollars
a year, to wit: quarterly, in the months of May, August, November,
and February, through the postmasters on the route, or
otherwise, at the option of the Postmaster General of the United
States; said pay to be subject, however, to be reduced or discontinued
by the Postmaster General, as hereinafter stipulated, or to be suspended
in case of delinquency.
It is hereby stipulated and agreed by the said contractors and their
sureties, that the Postmaster General may increase the service or
change the schedule, he allowing a pro rata increase of compensation
within the restrictions imposed by law for the additional service required;
but the contractors may, in case of increased service or change
of schedule, relinquish the contract, on timely notice, if they prefer it
to the change.
It is hereby also stipulated and agreed by the said contractors and
their sureties, that in all cases there is to be a forfeiture of the pay of
a trip when the trip is not performed, and of not more than three times
the pay of a trip when the trip is not duly performed and no sufficient
excuse for the failure is furnished; a forfeiture of at least one-fourth
part of it when the running is so far behind time as to lose connexion
with a depending mail, unless it is shown that the same was not
caused by neglect, or want of proper skill or misconduct, and a forfeiture
of a due proportion of it when a grade of service is rendered
inferior to the mode of conveyance above stipulated; and that these
forfeitures may be increased into penalties of a higher amount, according
to the nature or frequency of the failure, and the importance
of the mail; also that fines may be imposed upon the contractors,
unless the delinquency be satisfactorily explained to the Postmaster
General in due time, for failing to take from or deliver at a post office,
or a steam-vessel, the mail, or any part of it; for suffering it to be
wet, injured, lost, or destroyed; for carrying it in a place or manner
that exposes it to depredation, loss or injury, by being wet, or otherwise;
for refusing, after demand, to carry a mail by any vessel or
other vehicle which the contractors run or are concerned in running
on the route beyond the number of trips above specified; or for not
arriving at the time set in the schedule, unless not caused by neglect
or want of proper skill, or by misconduct. And for setting up or
running an express to transmit letters or commercial intelligence in
advance of the mail, or for transporting knowingly, or after being informed,
any one engaged in transporting letters or mail matter in
violation of the laws of the United States, a penalty of five hundred
dollars may be exacted for each offence, and for each article so carried.
And it is hereby further stipulated and agreed by the said contractors
and their sureties that the Postmaster General may annul the
contract for repeated failures; for violating the post office laws; for
disobeying the instructions of the department; for refusing to discharge
a carrier, or any other person having charge of the mail by
his direction, when required by the department; for assigning the
contract without the consent of the Postmaster General; for setting
up or running an express as aforesaid, or for transporting persons,
conveying mail matter out of the mail as aforesaid; or whenever the
contractors or either of them shall become a postmaster, assistant
postmaster, or member of Congress; and this contract shall in all its
parts be subject to the terms and requisitions of an act of Congress
passed on the twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and eight, entitled “An act concerning public
contracts.”
And it is hereby further stipulated and agreed by the said contractors,
that the steam-vessels for the service between San Francisco and
Acapulco shall be of a class contemplated by the act of Congress,
passed March 3, 1845, entitled “An act to provide for the transportation
of the mail between the United States and foreign countries,
and for other purposes;” and that the same shall be delivered to the
United States, or their proper officer, on demand made, for the purpose
of being converted into vessels of war, according to the tenor and
terms of the said act.
And it is hereby further expressly understood that this contract is
to have no force or validity until it shall have received the sanction of
the Congress of the United States, by the passage of an appropriation
to carry it into effect.
In witness whereof, the said Postmaster General has caused the
seal of the Post Office Department to be hereto affixed, and has attested
the same by his signature; and the said contractors and their
sureties have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year set
opposite their names, respectively.
| S. D. HUBBARD, Postmaster General. |
[SEAL.] |
March 3, 1853. |
| WM. H. ASPINWALL, |
[SEAL.] |
March 3, 1853. |
| EDWIN BARTLETT, |
[SEAL.] |
March 3, 1853. |
| By Wm. H. Davidge, their Att’y. |
|
|
| ALBERT C. RAMSEY. |
[SEAL.] |
February 25, 1853. |
| EDWARD H. CARMICK. |
[SEAL.] |
February 25, 1853. |
| SILAS C. HERRING. |
[SEAL.] |
February 25, 1853. |
| ELIHU TOWNSEND. |
[SEAL.] |
February 25, 1853. |
| SIMEON DRAPER. |
[SEAL.] |
February 25, 1853. |
| R. B. COLEMAN. |
[SEAL.] |
February 25, 1853. |
| THE MEXICAN OCEAN MAIL AND INLAND COMPANY, |
[SEAL.] |
February 25, 1853. |
| By Robert G. Rankin, President. |
|
|
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the Postmaster General in the
presence of—
- James Lawrenson.
- R. T. McLain.
And by the other parties hereto in the presence of—
- J. B. Nott, witness for A. C. Ramsey, S. Draper, and R. B. Coleman, and Edward H. Carmick.
- Edward S. Gould, witness to S. C. Herring.
Witness to Wm. H. Davidge’s signature, as attorney of Wm. H.
Aspinwall and Edwin Bartlett—
- James Lawrenson.
- R. T. McLain.
Witness to R. G. Rankin’s signature—
I hereby certify that I am well acquainted with Albert C. Ramsey,
and Edward H. Carmick, and Silas C. Herring, Elihu Townsend,
Simeon Draper, and R. B. Coleman, and the condition of their property;
and that, after full investigation and inquiry, I am well satisfied
that they are good and sufficient sureties for the amount in the foregoing
contract.
WM. V. BRADY,
Postmaster at New York.
The schedule of Departures and Arrivals.
Leave Vera Cruz on the 4th and 17th of each month. Arrive at
Acapulco by the 9th and 22d of each month.
Leave Acapulco on the 9th and 22d of each month. Arrive at San
Francisco by the 17th and 30th of each month.
Leave San Francisco on the 8th and 24th of each month. Arrive
at Acapulco by the 16th and 1st of each month.
Leave Acapulco on the 16th and 1st of each month. Arrive at Vera
Cruz by the 21st and 6th of each month.
Post Office Department,
March 7, 1853.
Gentlemen: The postmasters of New Orleans, San Francisco, Monterey
and San Diego, will be authorized to send a mail by the Vera
Cruz and Acapulco line, containing letters or papers expressly directed
to go by that line, when said communication is open, and you
are prepared to carry a mail, with the express understanding that
neither this department nor the government is to be in any way
holden for any expenses attending such service; but, as provided in
the contract, it is left for Congress to determine whether the contract
is to be sanctioned by an appropriation to carry it into effect—the
pay, if any, for said service commencing only in accordance with the
terms of the contract made February 15, 1853.
I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. D. HUBBARD,
Postmaster General.
Messrs. Ramsey & Carmick, New York.
Post Office Department,
March 7, 1853.
Sir: You are hereby authorized to make up and send a mail by the
Vera Cruz and Acapulco line, containing letters or papers expressly
directed to go by that line, when said communication is open, and the
contractors are prepared to carry a mail on the terms of their contract
of February 15, 1853. You would do well, perhaps, to advertise to
the above effect, adding that all letters, &c., not marked as above
indicated, will be forwarded by the Panama route.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. D. HUBBARD,
Postmaster General.
Postmaster,
San Francisco, California.
[Same to postmasters of New Orleans, San Diego, and Monterey.]
Office of the Mexican Ocean Mail and Inland Co.,
New York, June 15, 1853.
My Dear Sir: The position that our company sustains to the government,
(as the real parties by contract,) to execute the mail contracts
with Messrs. Ramsey & Carmick, renders it proper that the
Post Office Department should be advised of the state of forwardness
on the part of the contractors to fulfil the contracts.
Our vice president, Colonel Albert C. Ramsey, is now in Mexico
assigning the stations. In all this month and next month, the
coaches, wagons, and literas will be in Mexico—portions of them
being on their way now. By August 10 the mules and horses (1,000)
will be down from Coahuila, and we then expect to make the regular
transit across.
Although the contracts only require a bi-monthly mail, we are
making all our arrangements for a daily line of transit across Mexico,
feeling justified by the assurances we have from Mexico. We shall
also establish a weekly line of steamers from New Orleans to Vera
Cruz, (one steamer is now running there, and another now building;)
and with the use of the new envelopes,(when they appear,) we shall
actually afford a weekly line from New Orleans to San Francisco;
and if the steamers on the Pacific could be arranged, we could make
a daily line to San Francisco in sixteen days. Our land route will
be daily, in any case, on account of our Mexican facilities.
We have purchased and ordered the whole of the rolling stock for
the transit, and parties are now in Mexico clearing obstructions, and
we shall not, I think, require the full time allowed by the contract for
the transit, although trial only will verify our expectations.
We already have a margin in our favor in the gulf service, as our
steamer, the “Texas,” has performed the duty in sixty hours; and
the Pacific service has been done in twenty-four and thirty hours less
than schedule time. Our recent reports from Mexico justify us in the
expectation of carrying the mails in fourteen days from New Orleans
to San Francisco, and six months of experimental operation will, I
think, show the feasibility of doing the regular service in within fifteen
days.
In conclusion, I would add that we are exerting every energy in
pushing the thing up, and shall spare neither time nor money in proving
the truthfulness of all our positions.
An estafette mail will be carried from Vera Cruz and New Orleans
to San Francisco next month, until the service becomes regular.
I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,
ROBT. G. RANKIN,
President.
We have the highest assurance of our favorable position in Mexico.
Hon. James Campbell,
Postmaster General U. S., &c.
Post Office Department, July 9, 1853.
Sir: Your letter of the 15th ultimo came duly to hand. My attention
having been specially called to the circumstances connected with
the contemplated line to the Pacific via Vera Cruz and Acapulco, I
feel it my duty, after due deliberation, to inform you that the conditional
contract entered into between my predecessor, Mr. Hubbard,
and Messrs. Ramsey and Carmick, for the conveyance of the mails
over this line to San Francisco, does not meet with my approbation.
In the first place, as at present advised, I consider the route impracticable
for mail purposes.
In the second place, the sums of money yearly drawn from the
treasury for contracts, which have for several years been, and are
still in force, for the transportation of the mails between the Atlantic
and the Pacific, are very considerable, amounting to about $731,868.
In view of this fact, and of the many sections and neighborhoods, in
the different States, which are either greatly restricted in, or deprived
altogether of mail facilities, it appears to me both inexpedient and
unjust to go into the expenditure of a still further sum of $424,000
for the service in question.
Moreover, I disapprove of the principle upon which this contract is
made. In my opinion, if the Postmaster General has the right to
make such a contract at all, it ought to be made without the restriction
or limitation contained in yours, by which its force or validity is
made to depend upon the passage of an appropriation by Congress to
carry it into effect. I am unwilling to recognise any contingency of
this kind, because, although the contractors may, under such conditional
arrangement, establish no legal claim for compensation, they
may, nevertheless, go on and incur expenses, in the expectation that
they will be paid, and Congress, more from private sympathy than
from public policy or right, be at length induced to yield to a measure
to which its prior sanction never could have been obtained.
I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAMES CAMPBELL,
Postmaster General.
Robt. G. Rankin, Esq.,
Pres’t of the Mexican Ocean Mail and Inland Co., N. Y.
Post Office Department, September 23, 1853.
Sir: Should the proprietors of the Vera Cruz, Acapulco, and San
Francisco line apply for mail to take over their route, under the conditional
order of the late Postmaster General, dated 7th March, 1853,
before delivering such mail to them, you will report to department
for further instructions.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAMES CAMPBELL,
Postmaster General.
Postmaster,
New Orleans, Louisiana.
To Postmaster at San Diego, California: Same.
J. C.
To Postmaster at Monterey, California: Same.
J. C.
To Thos. J. Henley, Esq., San Francisco, California: Same.
J. C.
Washington, October 26, 1853.
Dear Sir: The Mexican Ocean Mail and Inland Company, and
Charles Morgan, of New York, (through the agency of the undersigned,)
present the following facts, and ask such decision as an impartial
consideration of this memorial may produce. The company
(having obtained from the government of Mexico peculiar and well-authenticated
privileges, whereby they were enabled to present to
the United States Post Office Department a schedule of mail service
which should insure the transmission of mails between New Orleans
and San Francisco in the short space of sixteen days) urged the department
for a mail contract authorizing the service, which was
granted, subject to an appropriation by Congress for payment. Thereupon
the company commenced proceedings for putting the route into
active operation. Proper agents were despatched to Mexico, and have
been actively engaged in overcoming such obstacles as, unremoved,
would have impeded rapid transit across that country. Roads were
improved, others made; coaches, harness, mules, and horses have
been purchased, and a large portion of them are already on the route,
ready to commence the carrying of the mails. In connexion with,
and forming a portion of, this through-route, a mail service from
New Orleans to Vera Cruz has been put into operation, the schedule
for which was so arranged as to meet at Acapulco with the mail
steamers on the Pacific, insuring a proper connexion on that end of
the line. Thus nothing stood in the way of the successful operation
of the route, save the obstacles on the land, which, being overcome,
would enable us at once to perform our contract in the specified time;
but now that arrangements are completed for this portion on the service,
your memorialists find that an alteration in the running on the
Pacific has thrown out of gear this well-arranged system. By the
present schedule between New Orleans and Vera Cruz, it is impossible
to meet the Pacific steamers, as they now run, at Acapulco, without
suffering long delays at the latter point, entirely ruining the efficacy
of this otherwise desirable medium of transit. The undersigned, C.
Morgan, now urges that a knowledge of the existence of a through-service
to San Francisco was the inducement for his accepting the
portion of service between New Orleans and Vera Cruz; as, upon the
successful working of the through-route, he depended for any profits
that might inure to his ships from his connexion therewith. He has
already put upon the route a first-class steamship of over 1,100 tons
burden, and is building another of about 1,500 tons burden for the
same purpose; which two vessels will embrace an investment of nearly
$300,000 for this first portion of the enterprise. The company depend
upon appropriations by Congress for the means of remuneration;
and as such appropriations can only be secured by proofs of the practicability
of the through-route, as per schedule, they, together, ask
your consideration of the efforts they have made, and the moneys
they have expended, under inducements the Post Office Department
held out to them, for such efforts and expenditures, by granting
a through-service and arranging schedule for connexion; and respectfully
petition that you will so alter the schedule between New Orleans
and Vera Cruz for the two trips per month, now being performed,
as will give them an opportunity of proving to Congress that
this is by far the most expeditious route yet opened to the rich commerce
of California; which proofs, they feel, must necessarily insure
the appropriations that shall furnish the means to enable them eventually
to carry the mails between the two great points in the short
space of thirteen days! Believing that your sense of justice, and
desire for advancing the mails in accordance with the progressive ideas
of this essentially progressive age, will induce an assent to their prayer,
they have the honor herewith to submit such temporary schedule, for
the said two trips per month, as shall furnish the desired proofs; and,
with sentiments of regard and esteem, subscribe, respectfully, yours,
The MEXICAN OCEAN MAIL AND INLAND CO.;
and CHARLES MORGAN,
per Harris & Morgan, of New Orleans.
Hon. James Campbell,
Postmaster General United States.
Schedule.
- Leave New Orleans 7th and 22d;
- Arrive at Vera Cruz 10th and 25th.
- Leave Vera Cruz 14th and 29th;
- Arrive at New Orleans 17th and 2d.
Office of the Mexican Ocean Mail and Inland Co.,
New York, October 29, 1853.
Dear Sir: Herewith please find a letter addressed to our firm from
the president of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, explaining
why the schedule of running on the Pacific has been changed, (thus
rendering useless the present schedule between New Orleans and Vera
Cruz;) and, further, approving the schedule which we had the honor
of submitting for your consideration in our memorial, dated in Washington,
D. C. Trusting the views of our case, to which your attention
has been called, will induce a favorable decision, we have the
honor to subscribe, with sentiments of regard and respect,
Your obedient servants,
HARRIS & MORGAN.
Hon. James Campbell,
Postmaster General United States.
[For the Commercial Advertiser.]
Office of the Mexican Ocean Mail and Inland Co.,
New York, October 27, 1853.
In your issue of Wednesday evening, in the postscript of telegraphic
news from Mexico, an important error occurred in relation to the
transmission of San Francisco news by our route. Your correspondent
says: “The news came over the New Mexico or Ramsey route,
and occupied about twenty-four days in its transmission.” The facts
are as follows: The news left San Francisco on the 1st of October by
the Nicaragua steamer Pacific; it arrived at Acapulco on the 8th,
crossed Mexico, and arrived at Vera Cruz on the 12th, where the
news remained from the 12th until the 22d, the regular sailing day
of the Texas, (the steamer that carried the news, instead of the Mexico,
as stated in your article.) If our steamer had left Vera Cruz on
the arrival of the news from Acapulco, our merchants would have
had the market prices in fifteen days from San Francisco via New Orleans.
If it should be asked why the Texas did not sail until the
22d, the only reply we have to offer is, that she was running on
schedule time appointed by the Post Office Department, and until
that schedule is altered the delay is likely to recur. With a proper
connexion, our line can deliver mails from San Francisco, into New
Orleans weekly, in less than sixteen days.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT G. RANKIN, President.
Be pleased to observe, by extract from Commercial Advertiser, the
transmission of California news from California, by our route, in
fourteen days!
H. & M.
Pacific Mail Steamship Company,
New York, October 28, 1853.
Gentlemen: Having examined carefully the schedule proposed by
you for running on the route between New Orleans and Vera Cruz, so
as to connect at Acapulco with our steamers between Panama and San
Francisco, I beg leave to inform you that it meets our approval.
When our company commenced to run weekly boats, the schedule
of the Texas was arranged to conform to the movements of those extra
boats. It happened, however, that the United States Mail Steamship
Company, although willing to perform extra service, and to let
that service speak for itself to Congress, was not willing to bind itself
as the government required, so as to shut out all prospect of extra
remuneration by a liberal legislature for extra duty; and, consequently,
the steamers, on intermediate weeks, on this side, were withdrawn.
The connexion being thus cut off, our company was obliged to discontinue
its weekly trips, after the schedule of the Vera Cruz and
Acapulco route had been arranged to conform to those trips.
My understanding with Mr. Rankin is, that when the route is fairly
opened, we will run steamers in the Pacific in due connexion; and I
am prepared to assign this duty to two of our smaller first-class steamers
the moment I am justified in so doing. Until then, the merits of
the route can be tested by arranging a schedule to conform to the arrivals
at Acapulco, and, as far as possible, to the departures thence
for San Francisco of our steamers now running; and the interests of the
government and of the public unite in recommending such a course.
Very truly, yours,
WM. H. ASPINWALL, President.
Messrs. Harris & Morgan.
Post Office Department,
November 3, 1853.
Gentlemen: In answer to your letter of the 26th ultimo, I have to
state that, at the request of Mr. Carmick, the contractor, the present
schedule of the New Orleans and Vera Cruz route was arranged to
connect with the contemplated route across from Vera Cruz to Acapulco,
which it was proposed to run in due connexion with an independent
line of steamers between Acapulco and San Francisco—thus,
with the route via Panama, giving a mail four times, instead of twice
a month, between the Atlantic States and California. It was not the
intention to connect at Acapulco with the steamers of the Panama line,
but, as above remarked, to establish an additional semi-monthly mail
to run, via Vera Cruz and Acapulco, alternately at regular intervals
with the line via Panama.
This arrangement was made with my predecessor, Mr. Hubbard,
with whom, as Postmaster General, also a conditional contract was
entered into for the part of the service between Vera Cruz and San
Francisco, which contract was to take effect only from the time it should
be ratified by Congress; nor was it to have any force or validity whatever
until it should receive the sanction of Congress by the passage of
an appropriation to carry it into effect. No such sanction has as yet
been given by Congress; but, apart from this, and without troubling
you with my views on the whole subject, it is simply necessary for me
to say that there can be no recognition by this department of any arrangement
by which the additional semi-monthly mail, clearly contemplated
by the then Postmaster General, can be dispensed with.
The application, therefore, for a change of schedule on the route from
New Orleans to Vera Cruz, must now be considered without reference
to any trips it may be proposed to run in connexion therewith beyond.
The contract requires three trips a month; you propose but two, and
it is unnecessary for me to say that the number of trips stipulated for
in the contract will be required.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAMES CAMPBELL.
Messrs. Harris & Morgan,
New Orleans, La.
Washington, November 12, 1853.
Dear Sir: It is with great reluctance that I encroach upon your
time at this particular season of your official duties; but what I have
to say can be read at your leisure, without much inconvenience.
After my interview with you, yesterday, I was impressed with the
idea that you had received from some quarter erroneous and unfavorable
views in regard to this great national enterprise that I am so
deeply interested in. I trust, however, that you will not permit any
such influence to operate in your mind without affording us an opportunity
to be heard. I consider it a duty I owe you and your high
position to explain, in a frank and upright way, the true object we
have in view in regard to this project; it is to test the merits of this
route for a mail communication, the benefit of which will accrue to
the country, the government, and those engaged in perfecting it. We
have asked no remuneration from the government while pursuing this
enterprise, but have gone to work, at our own expense, and proved
the entire feasibility of this rapid communication, without the least
hope or expectation that the department should in any way be subjected,
either directly or indirectly, to an acknowledgment of responsibility
for future remuneration. We desire to establish a great
national highway from ocean to ocean, over a route in which there
is a saving of 1,800 miles, between New Orleans and San Francisco;
and the day is not far distant when all the present routes will only be
secondary to it. This opinion is based on reasonable grounds: first,
the saving of time; and, second, the beauty of the country, and the
salubrious climate over which the route passes. There is but one
opinion on this subject among all Californians. We have conceived
that, in offering to our government the facilities of a rapid mail
communication on so important a route, we have a right to expect
from that government a liberal encouragement, at least by an expression
favorable to an enterprise where so much energy and capital
is invested. Our project has been fully investigated by the late cabinet,
and, after their mature consideration, it was acted upon. The
contract was sustained by an appeal of one-half of the United States
Senate in a memorial to the department, and by the personal solicitation
of the representatives from the South and West; also, by a memorial
from the most influential citizens of Louisiana—the same being
now on file in the department. General Rusk, who framed the law
under which the contract was made, also urged the advantages of this
communication on the department; among others were Senators Gwin
and Soulé. This communication must depend entirely on its merits,
and by its advantages for the public welfare. If it cannot offer greater
inducements to the government than the present routes, it cannot expect
to succeed; but if it can be proved that this is the speediest
route, the law seems not to be violated while offering facilities on the
part of the government to test so important an object. We have,
however, proved beyond a doubt that the transit can be made from
sea to sea in from three to four days, and I hope you may offer us
your liberal co-operation, without involving in the least a compromise
of the public interest; it is no more than we have a right to expect
from the department. Governor Marcy, without looking into details,
has expressed to me similar views, and says that our communication
seems to hold out great national advantages, and he did not doubt but
that you would look on it in a proper light. I feel confident that
Congress will support any measure that can be proved of public utility
for the South and West; and this is a southwestern measure, without
any demands from the public treasury, to build steam-ships or railroads.
I know the feeling that existed last Congress on this subject,
and I feel confident that it will be supported by the South and West.
I have spent several years of intense labor and a large amount of
money in bringing this enterprise to its present position. I have
passed through many deep and almost impenetrable barriers, and no
impediment shall stop the consummation of this great national work,
save that of the hand of Providence. I am sustained by capital and
energy, and I know no fail where perseverance can do the work. My
future reputation and welfare is largely involved in the success of this
project, and I sincerely beg that you will form no premature opinion
on this subject against my interest. I do not, however, believe that
you would do so, without an honest conviction of your judgment; but
I do know that all enterprises must expect opposition from various
causes. Envy is no small feature to contend with; and we have had
to combat against it, solely upon the ground that we have not been
disposed to divide our interest with others. The late administration
was made aware of these facts, and they received with great caution
any information coming from doubtful sources.
I most respectfully ask that you will give an order, permitting
me, as one of the contractors, to carry a mail over this route from
California, leaving it optional with persons to send by this way, and
to designate the same on the letter; and in giving such an order, I
wish you particularly to state that the department will in no way be
bound for any future remuneration for the service.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
E. H. CARMICK.
Hon. James Campbell.
Office of the Mexican Ocean Mail and Inland Co.,
November 23, 1853.
Sir: In accordance with a request from Messrs. Ramsey and Carmick,
the contractors named in the contract hereinafter mentioned, I
have the honor of reporting to your department the real character of
the relations this company sustains to the contract; the obstacles to the
non-fulfilment of it by a date as early as was anticipated; and a few remarks
explanatory of the route.
On the 15th day of February, 1853, a contract was made by the
United States government, acting by the Postmaster General, with
Albert C. Ramsey and Edward H. Carmick, of Pennsylvania, to carry
the United States mails between San Francisco and Vera Cruz, at certain
definite and specific periods mentioned in the schedule of the
contract, for the sum of $424,000 per year, for the period of four
years, with the privilege of extending it one year if the Post Office
Department thought proper. This contract was not of that liberal
form heretofore characteristic of all the other ocean mail contracts,
but was in a form of that specific and detailed character peculiar to
any short land service, where time might be insured to a minute.
The contract was, in fact, so stringent as to be incompatible with any
but an honest intention to fulfil its spirit and letter, in which spirit it
was, in fact, assumed by the parties associated in its performance.
This contract was printed and sent to the Senate at its last session,
and is now on its files. By the 5th section of the law of 1848 it is
illegal for contractors to assign their contracts; and although aware
that the department is not bound to recognise any but the contractors,
yet, frankness enforces the propriety of saying that, by specific covenants,
this company have agreed with Messrs. Ramsey and Carmick
to fulfil all the conditions of the contract on their part, to be kept and
performed in relation to the land service between Vera Cruz and Acapulco,
and that similar covenants have been made with the Pacific
Mail Steamship Company (William H. Aspinwall, esq., president)
for the sea service between Acapulco and San Francisco. The contract
distinctly specified that its schedule time (and in fact the spirit
of the contract) was to the intent that it should form part and parcel
of the contract for the gulf service, being an extension of two of the
trips between New Orleans and Vera Cruz, made (under a specific
law, August 30, 1852) with Mr. Carmick, so as to form, in its own
language, “one through-line in sixteen days between New Orleans and
San Francisco.” The gulf contract is without any condition as to
an appropriation; but the larger or Pacific contract is made contingent
upon an appropriation by Congress for its approval. The question
might be gravely raised, in looking at one contract as an integral
part of the other, whether the appropriation by Congress of $70,000
(a trifle more than it was bid for and taken by Mr. Carmick, viz:
$69,750) for the gulf service, was not an approval in terms of the
Pacific contract, and discharged the condition of approval contained in
it. But inasmuch as the parties associated in the enterprise have no
covert policy to pursue, and have not yet been able to carry the
mails in contract schedule time between Acapulco and San Francisco,
(although they have carried it repeatedly in six days, or two days less
than schedule time, between New Orleans and Acapulco,) they have
no disposition to raise issues or ask for unearned appropriations. They
presented their claims to the last administration on the sole integrity,
feasibility, and celerity of their route; the proposals for the service
were regularly advertised, and the contract awarded to the parties as
the lowest bidders, but not until the most critical, searching, and
minute examination was made of the practicability of the whole route.
The investigation was pursued by the late Postmaster General Hubbard
with a critical acumen that must have detected any imperfection.
The grants made to this company by the Mexican government, and
authenticated according to the highest forms known to the Mexican
laws, were not only critically examined, but verified at Washington
by the Mexican legation. These grants, instead of interfering with
treaty stipulations, will, if honestly developed, prove most conservative
elements in sustaining such stipulations by the promotion of commercial,
social, and domestic intercourse, and by the infusion of fraternal
comity in political and civil relations.
The obstacles to the non-fulfilment of the Pacific service.—As before
stated, the contractors, this company, and the Pacific Mail Steamship
Company, entered into mutual covenants, by which the latter company
obligated themselves to carry the mails between San Francisco and
Acapulco according to the contract and schedule time as therein set
forth by the department. At the date of the contract the Pacific Mail
Steamship Company were running a weekly line of steamers between
Panama and San Francisco, in the weeks intervening with their semi-monthly
mail; and the late administration intended, by this weekly
line and the Vera Cruz and Acapulco route, to send a weekly instead
of semi-monthly mail to San Francisco, and in sixteen days from New
Orleans instead of twenty-eight days (the average at that time of the
semi-monthly mails) from New York. The Pacific Mail Steamship
Company withdrew their weekly line, which of course prevented the
execution of the Pacific service in contract time until steamers could
be placed on the line between Acapulco and San Francisco, and which
this company are making arrangements to effect, not only in reference
to the line from New Orleans, but from New York, so as to carry passengers
in sixteen or eighteen days from New York to San Francisco.
In consequence, however, of the (early) non-performance of the Pacific
service in schedule time, it is understood that your department rescinded
the order made by the late Postmaster General Hubbard for
the postmasters at New Orleans, San Francisco, San Diego, Monterey,
and to forward letters by this route. The disappointment of the
contractors by the withdrawal of the weekly line was great and embarrassing,
and disordered the whole arrangements of this company;
and while we respectfully defer to the abstract correctness of the position
taken by the Post Office Department on account of it, we yet
hope that a great enterprise, so eminently calculated to benefit our
commerce, and one so earnestly demanded by our southern and western
citizens, as intimately connected with their interests, might have
a little further time to place itself right before Congress and the department.
It is respectfully suggested, in this connexion, that the Gulf service
is punctually performed twice a month, and will be three times a
month as soon as the steamer “Vera Cruz,” now nearly ready, can
be finished; that the land-service, as will be hereafter shown, (see appendix,)
has been performed, carrying an independent mail in sixty
hours, (instead of one hundred and twenty hours, schedule time;)
that this company have not asked for any special favors from the department—no
advance on the appropriations—as other ocean mail
companies have done; that no pay is asked for until the service is performed,
and the money honestly and equitably earned; and that the
2d section of the law of March 3, 1851, is applicable to our case, viz:
that the Postmaster General by this law “shall be bound to select the
speediest, safest, and most economical route.”
We deprecate a negation of the contract by the department until
further time is allowed us; and it is believed, in view of these facts
and the spirit of the law last referred to, that our enterprise may receive
an impartial consideration and presentation in your annual
report on the Post Office Department. An official condemnation,
emanating from the department under your administration, would be
a serious obstacle in the development of the Mexican grants. It is
believed by many that the department had full power under the law to
make the contract without the intervention of Congress for its approval;
but having been made with that contingency, it is now only asked
that this enterprise may go before Congress on its own merits and integrity.
A spirit of frank and honorable dealing renders it necessary
for the undersigned to say, that a difference exists among the associated
parties as to the real value and bearing of a government contract
on this enterprise, and this difference may have reached the ears
of the department.
Some of the parties believe that a government contract nationalizes
the route, and gives it an importance superior to mere individual enterprise,
and that the imperative necessity of “making time” insures
more despatch. Others of the parties believe that a line of fast steamers
from New Orleans to Vera Cruz, for the increasing southern and
western travel from the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers,
(composing the source of nearly seven-tenths of the whole resident
population of California out of the city of San Francisco,) and another
fast line of steamers from New York to Vera Cruz in six or seven
days, by steamers built expressly for mail and passenger service, (and
not naval service,) of about one thousand tons, in connexion with
similar steamers from Acapulco to San Francisco in six days, would
form a line that would take precedence of all others for celerity and
certainty. Experience has exploded the idea that the mail and naval
service can be performed by the same steamers, and an examination of
the steamers now in the employ of the United States and mail-service
department verifies the position that steamers suitable for a marine
battery are too slow for “mail-service,” and that the light and fast
steamer which can be propelled three hundred and fifty miles in
twenty-four hours is not suitable for a battery corresponding with her
tonnage or power adequate to such speed. They believe that such a line,
by this overland route, in sixteen, or eighteen, or twenty days, with
an independent mail, would seriously diminish the postage receipts
of the government, if not virtually supersede them, and render the
present mail contracts a sinecure in the hands of the parties holding
them. If offices should be opened in proper places for the receipt of
mail-matter by advertisements, and the company should enclose that
mail-matter in government-stamped envelopes, and guaranty the delivery
of the mail by this route in six, eight, or ten days earlier than
by the present government route, it is evident that the great bulk of
the mail-matter would go by the quickest route, even at double, triple,
or perhaps quadruple the present charge for postage. Such an independent
mail (clearly within the law) would, it is confidently believed,
measurably supersede the government mail, and reduce the postage
to a pittance. Moreover, such an independent line, not being trammeled
by government time, might connect with it English, West India,
Australian, and Asiatic mails, all of which are specifically allowed
by the several Mexican grants held by this company; and it is
believed that the time is not far distant when an English express independent
mail in forty-seven days, with Australia, will be in operation.
It is also thought by some, that this company should be entirely
disembarrassed in order to give an exclusive right to certain
foreign interests.
Having frankly stated the difference of opinion on this subject
among the associates in this enterprise, it is proper to say that a route
nationalized by a public contract is the true official expression of the
company’s opinion, and the one which is now before the department.
In conclusion on this point, it is respectfully suggested that this route
is to be one of the great inter-oceanic routes of Atlantic, California,
and Asiatic travel; that this enterprise may be fully developed by the
present administration of our government without expense in its
initial operations, but mainly by a prudent forbearance and official
approbation, and by an order to carry such mail matter as our citizens
may choose to send by it.
The enterprise is emphatically a southern and western one; although
originated by Pennsylvanians, yet its vitality is due to New Orleans
and southern influence, as the very numerous memorials on the files
of the department or Congress, and signed by southern and western
senators and members, will attest. The steamer Texas, which has
been performing the Gulf service during the last summer, has carried
a large amount of specie into New Orleans, (at the rate of one million
and a quarter per annum;) and soon as the specie and express wagons
of this company are fully at work, millions of dollars will flow into
the New Orleans mint from the gold placers and silver mines of
Mexico now being worked by American and Mexican combined
skill.
Of the practicability of the route.—The direct mail route runs from
Vera Cruz, by the way of Orizava, Cordova, Puebla, Matamoras,
Chietla, Mitapec, Kalcozotitlan, Chilapa, Tixtla, to Acapulco, with
branches from Puebla up to Mexico and via Cuernavaca.
This road was called by Humboldt the “Asiatic road,” as indicative
of the maritime commerce of Spain; and is the oldest road on the
continent of America. This route is no new thing, as many suppose,
but the whole enterprise is but a recast of one developed long before
our country had its name or a place among the nations of the earth.
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been received by the government
of Old Spain, transported over this road, in the interchange of
productions between the flotas of Spain and the galleons of the Indies,
and millions of American commerce are yet to be rolled over it in the
progress of American enterprise. The distance direct (as will be seen
by the annexed itinerary) from Vera Cruz to Acapulco is 404 miles,
and via the city of Mexico 517. Colonel Ramsey has since shortened
this distance to under 390 miles, and it will be reduced to less than
350.
Over this road the materials and machinery for the vast coffee and
sugar plantations of Mexico have to be transported, and these plantations
for magnitude and productions are almost unequalled.
From the fact that the current of foreign travel has been turned
towards the capital of Mexico, by the way of Jalapa and Perote, and
also from the further fact that the very limited amount of American
knowledge of Mexico is associated with the line of operations of the
American army during the late war, less is publicly or correctly known
of our lower, or more southern route, than of the upper or northern
route. The lower and shorter route presents the facilities of being
six hours shorter to Puebla, and of having lower grades, and a climate
unequalled for healthfulness, salubrity, and intertropical luxuriance
of productions.
There are features about the roads of Mexico generally that distinguish
them from our northern roads; they are not muddy, having no
frosts to produce periodic deterioration; they are only slightly disturbed
during the rainy months of June, July, and August. The
rains during these rainy months are not continuous, all-day rains,
but fall in showers seldom longer than an hour, generally in the afternoons
and at night, and the intervals between these showers are unclouded
and salubrious. The whole geological formation of Mexico is
eccentric, and the soil generally composed of the debris of matter of
volcanic origin. Such materials form the best roads, and with an exemption
from frosts, dust, mud, and rain, except in the rainy seasons,
and with no fences to obstruct the facilities for turnpike, road-making,
and travelling, presented in this part of Mexico, are unequalled.
It should be remembered that this company are not encumbered
with the necessity of enormous expenditures for making canals, building
railroads and plank-roads, to develop their resources; they have
only to expend under $50,000 to make one of the finest roads in the
finest climate of North America, to travel smoothly and pleasantly,
at the rate of seven and ten miles per hour, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific ocean.
From the certificate of Mr. Blumenkron, (see Appendix A,) a gentleman
intimately acquainted with the whole route from personal observation,
it will be seen that the facilities for the transportation of
mails and passengers across the republic is the work of but little effort
and expense; and from the extracts of Colonel Ramsey’s letter, (see
Appendix B,) it will be seen what has actually been done. From these
statements—and they are daily corroborated by Americans and Mexicans
who have passed over the route—it appears that the mails have
been carried over (at the worst of all seasons, the rainy ones) in 50,
60, 70, 80, and 81 hours; that the letter of Mr. Tyler announces their
arrival at Acapulco in six days from New Orleans, and that the mail
time across may be reduced to 48 hours, and passenger time to 54.
The difficulties, dangers, and expense of mail transportation over
this route are not comparable with the Panama route, as it formerly
was, or even as it now is, as to the 17 miles yet uncovered by railroad;
and this company confidently believe that they will be able to
carry the mails over this route for a sum 50 per cent. per mile less
than by the Panama route, and in a time under three days.
The company have placed a portion of their rolling stock upon the
road, at present equal to the transportation of fifty passengers per
week from ocean to ocean. This rolling stock consists of the very best
built Albany and Troy post-coaches, Concord (New Hampshire) passenger,
baggage, express and specie wagons, and about 500 horses
and mules, (at the last report 493.)
It is hoped the next advices from Colonel Ramsey will give information
that this rolling stock is in operation. It is intended to increase
the rolling stock with the increase of travel. The local travel
and business in Mexico will alone pay a large interest on the investment;
and were there no connexion with steamers on either side, and
as a mere stage route, the profits will be large, especially when that
portion of the route through the State of Guerrero is properly worked
and widened, and over a portion of the route the company hold the
exclusive right of passage, ferries, tolls, &c., for fifty years.
This company apprehend no difficulty in transporting any mails on
account of the weight, inasmuch as the company will be prepared to
transport the English mails, between England and Australia, in under
47 days; and those mails, it is said, weigh 11 and 12 tons.
The remarkable feature in this route is, that it passes through a
constant succession of cities, villages, ranches, &c., (few scarce ten
miles apart,) and through a population as dense as might have been
found on the old turnpike mail road from Albany to Buffalo before
the age of railroads, or on any of the great leading mail routes of New
York and Pennsylvania of a ratable distance; and the annexed itinerary,
taken from official Mexican documents, verifies the position.
Fears have been expressed that robberies might endanger the mail,
passengers, or property. This difficulty has been wondrously magnified,
and is provided against, as the vehicles of this company are all
armed with blunderbusses and revolvers; and small, but strong,
light, iron boxes for specie, jewelry, and valuables, are securely attached
as fixtures in each coach. The material fact, however, on this
point is, that this line of route is seldom visited by robbers, owing to
the more peaceful, permanent, and dense character of the population,
and the consequent exposure to detection. General Santa Ana has,
moreover, made a decree that the inhabitants of each district shall be
responsible for the damages by such depredations.
Much more might be said in relation to this route, but this memorial
has already become too long. Reiterating our former assertion,
that we only ask the opportunity of placing ourselves honorably before
Congress, on our own integrity, we hope that our enterprise may
receive such official sanction from the Post Office Department as
may be most compatible with the interests of the government and the
benefit of the community.
With great respect, your obedient servant,
ROBERT G. RANKIN,
President M. O. M. & I. Co.
Hon. James Campbell,
Postmaster General.