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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that discovers something new about history every day of

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Speaker 1: the week. I'm Gabe Lucier, and today we're talking about

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Speaker 1: the origins of the US Postal Service, an institution that's

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Speaker 1: been delivering mail to Americans even before the US became

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Speaker 1: a country. The day was July twenty sixth, seventeen seventy five.

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Speaker 1: The US Postal system was established by the Second Continental Congress.

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Speaker 1: It was a full year before the colonies would declare

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Speaker 1: their independence from England, but the delegates recognized that mail

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Speaker 1: service was vital to their cause. In time, most citizens

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Speaker 1: came to share that high opinion, with the postal system's

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Speaker 1: operations serving as an early example of the benefits of

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Speaker 1: the new government. When the American Colonies were founded in

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Speaker 1: the sixteen hundreds, there wasn't much need for domestic mail service.

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Speaker 1: Most of the colonists correspondence was with people back in England,

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Speaker 1: and for those letters they relied on the British Royal

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Speaker 1: mail system. The arrangement was hardly perfect, though deliveries from

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Speaker 1: across the pond didn't adhere to a set schedule and

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Speaker 1: could often take several months to arrive, and if that

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Speaker 1: wasn't inconvenient enough, colonists also had to collect their mail

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Speaker 1: from local inns and taverns, as there were no post

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Speaker 1: offices or mail carriers to bring it to their homes.

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Speaker 1: In seventeen fifty three, Pennsylvania statesman Benjamin Franklin was appointed

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Speaker 1: Deputy Postmaster General of the American Colonies. During his tenure,

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Speaker 1: which lasted more than twenty years, Franklin made countless improvement

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Speaker 1: to the British mail system. He charted new, more efficient

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Speaker 1: routes for mail wagons and introduced standardized delivery costs based

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Speaker 1: on distance and weight. He also instituted the idea of

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Speaker 1: having postal riders traveled day and night using lanterns to

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Speaker 1: light their horse's way. Within a few years, Franklin had

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Speaker 1: vastly increased the speed of the mail, cutting delivery times

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Speaker 1: between Philadelphia and New York by fifty percent. His changes

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Speaker 1: proved so effective that by seventeen sixty one, the colony's

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Speaker 1: postal system was turning a profit for the first time

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Speaker 1: in its history. Ben Franklin was clearly the right man

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Speaker 1: for the job, but as the colonies moved toward independence,

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Speaker 1: the British crown began to have serious doubts about his allegiance. Finally,

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Speaker 1: in seventeen seventy four, Franklin was dismissed from his role

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Speaker 1: as postmaster due to his anti British stance on taxation

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Speaker 1: without representation. However, in just two years time, England's loss

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Speaker 1: would prove to be America's gain. The Revolution created a

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Speaker 1: much greater need for an organized domestic postal service, one

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Speaker 1: that wasn't controlled by the British. Such a system would

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Speaker 1: promote the free exchange of ideas among colonial leaders while

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Speaker 1: also providing a way to keep their supporters informed about

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Speaker 1: the cause. In an effort to meet this need, independent

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Speaker 1: post offices were established throughout the colonies, sometimes started by

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Speaker 1: town officials and sometimes by colonial assemblies. However, by the

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Speaker 1: summer of seventeen seventy five, the war with England was

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Speaker 1: in full swing and the need for a more unified

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Speaker 1: and more reliable postal system could no longer be ignored.

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Speaker 1: When the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia that may,

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Speaker 1: delegates like James Madison and of course Ben Franklin, made

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Speaker 1: sure that the nation's post was a top priority. On

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Speaker 1: In May twenty ninth, nineteen days after the meeting began,

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Speaker 1: the delegates appointed a committee of six members, including Franklin,

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Speaker 1: to quote consider the best means of establishing posts for

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Speaker 1: conveying letters and intelligence through this continent. The committee spent

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Speaker 1: nearly two months exploring the best way to do that,

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Speaker 1: and on July twenty fifth, it presented its findings to

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Speaker 1: the rest of the Congress. One day later, the draft

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Speaker 1: was debated paragraph by paragraph, and the version that was

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Speaker 1: ultimately adopted that afternoon became the charter of the new

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Speaker 1: United States Post Office, or USPO. In addition to establishing

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Speaker 1: the postal system, the Congress also appointed its first Postmaster General,

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Speaker 1: none other than Benjamin Franklin himself. His years of experience

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Speaker 1: with mail service and the colonies made him an obvious choice,

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Speaker 1: but Franklin's appointment also came with the added benefit of

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Speaker 1: annoying the British by essentially using one of the Crown's

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Speaker 1: former agents against it. Once again, Franklin proved to be

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Speaker 1: a smart hire, going on to establish new routes between

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Speaker 1: Florida and Maine, as well as regular service between the

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Speaker 1: US and Britain. He only served as postmaster for a

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Speaker 1: little over a year, at which point he was sent

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Speaker 1: to France as a diplomat, but his contributions during that

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Speaker 1: short time were enough to earn him the honor of

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Speaker 1: being pictured on the country's first general issue postage stamp,

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Speaker 1: which went on sale in New York City in eighteen

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Speaker 1: forty seven. Benjamin Franklin was succeeded as Postmaster General, first

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Speaker 1: by businessman Richard Basche in seventeen seventy six, and then

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Speaker 1: by publisher Ebenezer Hazard in seventeen eighty two. Seven years

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Speaker 1: after that, President George Washington appointed former Congressman Samuel Osgood

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Speaker 1: as the first Postmaster General under the new US Constitution.

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Speaker 1: By that point, there were approximate at least seventy five

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Speaker 1: post offices across the country, with the promise of many

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Speaker 1: more to come. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show. You

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Speaker 1: can also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or you can get in touch directly by writing to

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Speaker 1: this Day at iHeartMedia. Dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays

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Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day

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Speaker 1: in history class.