U.S. Post Office - Sunday Delivery - 1829

U.S. Post Office - Sunday Delivery - 1829

1829 stamp less letter to Rev. Austin Hubbard of Taneytown, MD from the Committee of Petitioners against Sunday mails. Postmarked New York. Four pages. Sealing wax hole not affecting letter or address, overall in vg cond.

 

“New York, September 29, 1829

Dear Sir,

The undersigned, acting as a Committee, beg leave to address you on the duty of petitioning the next Congress, to prevent the transportation of the mail on the Sabbath, and the keeping open of Post-Offices on that holy day......”

“The undersigned do not assume any right to dictate to others; but, from a deep conviction of the importance of the object, and its obvious and momentous bearings on the best interests of our country, and as inhabitants of a city which eminently needs an increasing and pervading sense of religious obligation, as the basis of morality and the preservation from vice, they trust they shall be excused for preparing this circular letter, and transmitting it to Gentlemen in different parts of the land, who, it is supposed, will regard it in the same candid spirit in which it is written.....”

“On this point there is, among the friends of the Sabbath, with few exceptions, a decided opinion in favor of petitioning at every session of Congress, till they are successful. How long it will take, they do not profess themselves able to decide. But they think there can be no doubt of ultimate success, if the petitioners are faithful to themselves and to God....”

“No great moral evil ever becomes less by letting it alone; and this is pre-eminently true of Sabbath-breaking.” “The longer this evil continues, the more strongly will the precedent be pleaded.” “Petitioning is a constant testimony against a national sin, and a continued act of fidelity to God our Creator and Redeemer. It may be that this very testimony is indispensable to avert the wrath of God from our land.”

“Let us request, then, Dear Sir, that immediately after receiving this letter, you lay it before some of your most judicious friends – men who are the intelligent and decided advocates of religion and civil liberty; and that you agree upon the fittest man of your number to draw up a petition, which, when approved, shall be offered for signature. .... Every religious man should consider the Sabbath as dear to him as the lives of his children, and should plead for it with as much importunity as he would plead for their lives or his own. ....”

“This whole business should be conducted in the manner least calculated to give offence. If oppositions should exist, the temper and manner of the petitioners should be mild and conciliating; while firm and decided in the performance of their duty, they should avoid all unnecessary collision with those who differ from them in opinion.....”

The letter is signed in print by the Committee of Petitioners in the City of New York:

Richard Varick Jonas Platt Joseph Smith John Stearns John D. Keese Thomas Stokes Peter Hawes Arthur Tappan Elijah Pierson

The discussion over Sunday mail began in Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1809. Hugh Wylie, the town postmaster, followed the unofficial custom of sorting mail and keeping his post office open on Sundays so that the townspeople could pick up their mail following Sunday services. Wylie, an elder in the local Presbyterian Church, was expelled from the church for this extreme violation of the Sabbath. Then U.S. Postmaster General Gideon Granger responded by having Congress pass federal legislation, the 1810 Postal Act, governing all 2,300 post offices, declaring that the U.S. mail would be delivered seven days each week and that all post offices that received mail had to be opened at least one hour per day.

Petitions began arriving in Congress from religious groups asking that the law be repealed. Postmaster General Granger and his successor, Return J. Meigs, were more concerned with the transportation of the mail on Sunday than whether the post office remained open. Religious petitioners refused to separate the two issues. The arguments of the postal officials were pragmatic. To suspend Sunday mail movement they argued would create unprecedented scheduling and coordination problems. The disruption to the economy would be far-reaching and incalculable. Merchants and public officials needing to keep abreast of vital events affecting markets and national security issues relied on the rapid transmission of information that was provided only by mail.

By 1828 the General Union for the Promotion of the Christian Sabbath (GUPCS) was formed in New York City. The GUPCS launched a new and much broader Congressional petition campaign to repeal the 1810 Postal Act. Its member pledged to boycott all businesses that operated on Sunday. After a call for petitions went out, such as the letter being offered, 467 petitions arrived in Congress by 1829 and more than 900 by May 1831.

In 1830 three states filed petitions with Congress opposing repeal of the 1810 law. One of the states, Indiana, strongly endorsed the secular ideals of the United States Constitution and concluded its petition with the words “There are no doctrines or observances inculcated by the Christian religion which require the arm of civil power either to enforce or sustain them; we consider every connection between church and state at all times dangerous to civil and religious liberty.”

By the 1850’s, postmaster generals were eliminating Sunday mail delivery. Following the Civil War the practice ceased completely. In 1912, a coalition of ministers and postal clerks finally convinced Congress to close all post offices on Sunday.

 

$ 475.00
# 1273