Post Office Department, Washington, 4th March, 1833.: In future, the following rules and regulations are to be observed. 1st...24th.

UNRECORDED EARLY POST OFFICE RULES AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING ALL CURRENT STATES AND TERRITORIES

[POST OFFICE, UNITED STATES]. [BARRY, William Taylor, U. S. Postmaster General]. Post Office Department, Washington, 4th March, 1833. In future, the following rules and regulations are to be observed. 1st...24th. [caption-title]. 8vo, pp. 4, unbound, uncut, as issued. [Washington, D. C., 1833].

First Edition. Apparently unrecorded. An interesting piece of post office ephemera illuminating the rapid expansion of the Post Office Department, here covering the limits of the geographical United States. Issued under Barry's signature, it illustrates his concern about cleaning up the Post Office Department which had been under investigation since 1831, and which by 1834-5 would be the target of investigations by both houses of Congress. Barry (1784-1835), a graduate of the College of William & Mary, an American statesman and jurist, served as a representative to the U. S. House of Representatives from Kentucky, and as a U. S. Senator. In 1829 he was appointed Postmaster General by Andrew Jackson, thus becoming the first Postmaster General to sit as a member of the President's Cabinet, serving until 1835. Here are 24 very specific numbered rules and regulations governing appointments, mail contracts, mail depredations, detailed duties of clerks, deposits, locks, statements, bookkeeping, etc. The first rule divides the national post office into two divisions, "The first, the Southern Division, under the superintendence of C. K. Gardner, the Senior Assistant, will comprise...," the 12 named southern states (including the District of Columbia), as well as the territories of Florida and Arkansas, and "The second, the Northern Division, under the superintendence of S. R. Hobbie, Assistant, will comprise...," the 12 named northern states, and Michigan Territory. The third division, "will be that of finance, under the superintendence of Chief Clerk, O. B. Brown, who shall be the treasurer of the Department..." To give one an idea of the scope of the postal deparment, postal employees accounted for 76 percent of the civilian federal workforce by 1831. Postmasters outnumbered soldiers 8,764 to 6,332, and were the most widespread representatives of the federal government. Signed in print at the end: "W. T. Barry." Moerately browned; fold tear with no loss, and a little chipping of blank edges of second leaf. Not in OCLC or American Imprints.