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Postage

Postage image
Parent Issue
Day
2
Month
October
Year
1843
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The Cincínnati Gnzettc ia oui in favor of a reduciion ol the postnge rates. The fact, that the revenue of the Post Office Depnrtmeni in j and has been inercised since the abatemeiu of lostage, is a weighty consideraron. The use of the mail in the Slave Statee.owing to tlie degrading influence of 6lnvery on ihe maiority of the white population, is confined chiefly to the planters and those engnged in trade - but these classes weknow conslitute but a small portion of the people. In the Free States, every man almost corresponds or reads newspapers. - Henee the disproporüonatcly large atnount of receipts from postago in these States. The great cost of carrying the nmil in the Slave States, is owing to thn sparseness of the population, and the absence of that b-isk domestic coirmerce nnd spirit of enterprise which spring up under Free Labor institutions. and naturally inultiply the fncilities of travel and transportaiion. The broad fact is then nppurent, that owing to the maintcnancc of the siave-eystem at the South, there is in that section an annual deficiun the Pust office revenue, of betweer. fivr and six hundred thousand dollars, which has lo be mude up by the letter-wriiers and newspnper readers of the Frne Statop. What effect would reduction of postage have on this state of tliings? It would doubtless augment the receipts from thfl Free States - for hundreds of thousands of letters and paper would be sent and taken, the transgression of which is now preventcd by the high rates of postage. From the character and pursuits and wants of the people of these statcs, uil of us know that such would bc thf result. Would "he sanie cíTcct follow in the Slave StatesT It :s doubtless. The planters and mertliante therc alrendy use the maii generally to the extent of their wants; so that 60 far ns they are concerned, thft reduction of postage would diminish the revenue from tlie South; and it is scarcely probable that there would be such an increased use of the Post office by the reat of the people, as to niake up the deficiency. The grent tnass oí the people of the South are not much of a reading people. We know this from the statistics of erhiciüon, nnd froni the email number of periodicals taken there. Mr. Wise, if we recollect aright, boasted .hat there was not a nuwspaper taken in his District! Ilowever, we doubt not. that the grcatly increased revenue in the Free States resultingfrom o reduction of the Postage rate3, would more than compénsate for the deficiency arising in the Slave Statrs. from the same cause. By the woy, we may remarle, that this is but onc of tno instances, in whicli the people of the Free States are virtually tnxed to sustaiu the miserable economy of the Slave-Lubor eystem. -

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News