POSTAL ACTS OF 1792, 1845, 1879
The Post Office performed two services indispensable to
newspapers as they developed through the nineteenth century: It aided editors’ news-gathering efforts, and it carried
publications from print shop to readers. In the late 1800s,
postal laws also began adjusting to the expanding role of
advertising and magazines in American journalism.
Postal Act of 1792
The Post Office Act of February 20, 1792, the first overhaul of postal laws under the Constitution, represented the
nation’s earliest communication policy. The act committed
the federal government to facilitate the circulation of news
by extending several privileges to the press.
The 1792 postal law, modified slightly in 1794, allowed
newspapers—regardless of size, weight, or advertising content—to circulate within one hundred miles or anywhere
in the state of publication for 1 cent; those mailed outside
the state and beyond one hundred miles paid 1.5 cents. Letter postage, in contrast, was divided into nine zones, ranging from a minimum of 6 cents per sheet for delivery up to
thirty miles to a maximum of 25 cents per sheet for any distance beyond 450 miles. The privilege accorded the press
was striking, especially considering differences in size. The
typical newspaper was three to four times the size of a onesheet letter. Thus, a three-sheet letter mailed beyond 450
miles paid 75 cents when a newspaper could be dispatched
for 1.5 cents.
Congress adopted this policy favoring newspapers,
most of which had partisan affiliations, to bind the nation
together as a political entity. The generation that crafted the
first postal policy recognized that the geographic and social
diversity of the United States threatened national unity. In
Federalist No. 84, Alexander Hamilton anticipated the
problem as well as the solution for a nation fraying at the
edges: “[P]ublic papers will be expeditious messengers of
intelligence to the most remote inhabitants of the Union.”
During debates on the 1792 postal law, lawmakers of various political factions echoed Hamilton’s point in supporting low, relatively flat (that is, just two zones) newspaper
postage. A few members of Congress, however, expressed
concerns that cheap newspaper postage would unleash a
flood of city newspapers into the countryside to compete
with local publications.
The 1792 law also facilitated the long-distance flow of
news by allowing editors to exchange their papers postagefree. Long before the advent of press associations and the
telegraph, editors liberally reprinted non-local information
culled from newspapers obtained through the mails. The
practice, which began in colonial times, was formalized by
the 1792 postal law: “[E]very printer of newspapers may
send one paper to each and every other printer of newspapers within the United States, free of postage, under such
regulations, as the Postmaster General shall provide.” Editors made liberal use of this postal privilege. On the eve
of the War of 1812, for example, frontier papers borrowed
seven times more news than they produced locally. During a thirty-one-day period in 1843, publishers received an
average of 364 exchanges. Congress continued postage-free
printers’ exchanges until 1873; by that time, the telegraph and the press associations using it had matured sufficiently
to provide superior nationwide news-gathering services.
Postal policy established in 1792 thus allowed newspaper editors to gather news from anywhere in the nation at
no cost and then to disseminate it to readers, also anywhere,
at low rates. For political papers, exchanges tied small-town
publications to the county seat, state capital, and federal
capital. Because of the service’s reciprocal nature, papers
in state capitals as well as Washington, D.C., obtained a
great deal of political intelligence from towns throughout the nation. By exchanging news through the mails on
highly favorable terms, hundreds of party papers synthesized a national political community that transcended local
orientations. Emulating political parties, countless other
antebellum groups—religious denominations, reform interests (e.g., abolitionists, public school advocates), professional societies, and more—began using the nearly uniform
newspaper rates and postage-free exchanges to build their
national associations. Most notably, antislavery groups
capitalized on the postal system to sustain a national (or at
least a northern) movement. People who never met face-toface because of geography and primitive transports formed
communities of interest by sharing information in periodicals carried through the mails.
Postal Act of 1845
Although provisions lowering letter postage formed the
centerpiece of the Post Office Act of March 3, 1845, Congress did make two changes affecting the press. Postage remained unchanged for all newspapers under 1,900
square inches; larger papers paid higher magazine rates.
This size limit responded to demands that postage bear
some relation to the size of publications. In fixing the
1,900-inch size limit, however, Congress carefully determined that standard papers would continue to enjoy the
lowest rates.
As part of the 1845 postal reform, Congress created a
new category of newspaper postage: free delivery for weekly
newspapers within thirty miles of the office of publication. This measure aimed to make local papers, especially
those in rural areas, more competitive with urban dailies
by relieving subscribers of postage. This privilege sparked
considerable debate, especially over which regions stood to
benefit the most. Petitioners, mainly from rural areas, told
Congress that most towns now supported their own publications. Congress withdrew the provision of free local circulation in 1847 because of declining revenues but restored
it in a different form in 1851. Whereas the 1845 law had a
thirty-mile postage-free zone, the new act permitted most
weekly papers to circulate without charge in their county of
publication. Some advocates underscored the cultural benefits of protecting the country press from “The poisoned
sentiments of the cities, concentrated in their papers,” as
one congressman put it during the debates. Others simply
pointed out that the free in-county provision simply compensated the rural press for the privileges that encouraged
the long-distance circulation of city newspapers. Current
postal law continues to accord privileges to periodicals that
circulate within the county of publication.
Postal Act of 1879
The Post Office Act of March 3, 1879, laid the foundation
for modern mail classification by creating the basic mail
categories used until the 1990s—first class for letters, second class for periodicals, third class for advertising, and
fourth class for parcels. The Mail Classification Act’s more
narrow purpose, however, was to align postal policy with
late nineteenth-century developments in the newspaper,
magazine, and advertising industries.
Crude rate classifications devised between 1863 and
1876 unsuccessfully aimed to confine the most favored
rate—two cents a pound after 1874—to bona fide newspapers and magazines. Advertising material in the third class
paid postage eight times higher than that charged periodicals in the second class. Enterprising advertisers thus began
issuing their promotional material just frequently enough
to qualify as periodicals, postal administrators complained.
Some of these publications had no regular list of subscribers and subsisted entirely on advertising revenue. A series
of administrative rulings in the mid-1870s unsuccessfully
labored to divert the flood of advertising sheets to the more
expensive third class.
To strengthen its hand, the Post Office urged Congress to
redefine the primitive second-class mail category so that it
clearly excluded advertising circulars. Postal officials finetuned the legislation in consultation with leading newspaper
and magazine publishers in New York City, Philadelphia,
and perhaps other large cities. Despite differences, newspaper and magazine interests closed ranks with one another
and with postal authorities against the so-called illegitimate
periodicals, publications designed primarily for advertising
purposes. The negotiations assured that monthly and quarterly magazines and trade journals would still qualify as
bona fide periodicals despite the growing volume of advertising they carried.
Congress intended the Mail Classification Act of 1879 to
subsidize informative periodicals in the second class while
relegating advertising matter to the much more expensive
third class. To qualify for the second class, a publication had
to (1) appear at regular intervals at least four times a year;
(2) come from a known office of publication; (3) consist
of printed sheets without substantial binding; and (4) disseminate “information of a public character, or be devoted
to literature, the sciences, arts, or some special industry,
and having a legitimate list of subscribers.” In addition, the
1879 law specifically excluded from the second class “publications designed primarily for advertising purposes, or for
free circulation, or for circulation at nominal rates.” Much
of the 1879 statutory language still determines publications’
postal classification.
When Congress halved second-class postage to one cent
a pound in 1885, moderately priced magazines began blanketing the nation, marking the emergence of the modern
magazine industry. Many of these new magazines quickly filled with advertising, and postal officials spent decades
embroiled in controversies about which deserved the most
favorable postal rates. Congress partly resolved the policy
controversy with a 1917 law that charged periodicals a dual
rate: a lower flat rate on their editorial content and higher
postage scaled to distance on their advertising matter. This
approach treated advertising on the pages of periodicals
more like advertising circulars in the third class. The rate
structure for periodicals devised in 1917 remains a cornerstone of postal policy today.
Further Reading
John, Richard R. Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Kielbowicz, Richard B. News in the Mail: The Press, Post Offi ce,
and Public Information, 1700-1860s. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1989.
Kielbowicz, Richard B. “Origins of the Second-Class Mail Category and the Business of Policymaking, 1863–1879.” Journalism Monographs No. 96 (1986).
Kielbowicz, Richard B. “Postal Subsidies for the Press and the
Business of Mass Culture, 1880–1920.” Business History
Review 64 (Autumn 1990): 451–488.
Kielbowicz, Richard B., and Linda Lawson, “Protecting the
Small-Town Press: Community, Social Policy and Postal
Privileges, 1845–1970.” Canadian Review of American
Studies 19 (Spring 1988): 23–45.
Post Office Act of Feb. 20, 1792, c. 7, 1 Stat. 232.
Post Office Act of May 8, 1794, c. 23, 1 Stat. 354.
Post Office Act of Mar. 3, 1845, c. 43, 5 Stat. 732.
Post Office Act of Mar. 3, 1879 (Mail Classification Act), c. 180,
20 Stat. 355.
Starr, Paul. The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications. New York: Basic Books, 2004.
War Revenue Act, Act of October 3, 1917, c. 63, 40 Stat. 300.
Richard B. Kielbowicz