or guarantors, and the same may be immediately recovered by the United States, for the use of the Post Office Department, in an action of debt against either or all of the said persons.
Contracts not to be made with persons who have entered in combination.Sec. 28. And be it further enacted, That no contract for the transportation of the mail shall knowingly be made by the Postmaster General, with any person who shall have entered into any combination, or proposed to enter into any combination, to prevent the making of any bid for a mail contract by any other person or persons; or who shall have made any agreement, or shall have given or performed, or promised to give or perform, any consideration whatever, or to do or not to do any thing whatever, in order to induce any other person or persons not to bid for a mail contract. And if any person so offending be a mail contractor, he may be forthwith dismissed from the service of the Department:Proviso. Provided, That whenever the Postmaster General shall exercise the power conferred on him by this section, he shall transmit a copy or statement of the evidence on which he acts to Congress, at its next session.
No payment to be made until after the execution of contract.Sec. 29. And be it further enacted, That no person whose bid for the transportation of the mail may be accepted, shall receive any pay, until he shall have executed his contract according to law and the regulations of the Department; nor shall any payment be made for any additional regular service in the transportation of the mail, unless the same shall have been rendered in obedience to a prior legal order of the Postmaster General.
Part of act of March 3, 1825, ch. 65, repealed.Sec. 30. And be it further enacted, That so much of the act concerning the Post Office Department, approved March third, eighteen hundred and twenty-five, as directs that duplicates or copies of contracts or orders made by the Postmaster General shall be lodged in the office of the Comptroller of the Treasury, be repealed.
Postmasters to be furnished with schedule of times of arrival and departure.Sec. 31. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Postmaster General to furnish to the postmasters at the termination of each route, a schedule, specifying the times of arrival and departure at their offices, respectively, of each mail, a copy of which the postmaster shall post up in some conspicuous place in his office; and the Postmaster General shall also furnish a notice in like manner, of any change or alteration in the arrivals and departures which may be ordered by him. And it shall be the duty of every postmaster promptly to report to the Department every delinquency, neglect, or malpractice of the contractors, their agents or carriers, that may come to his knowledge. And the Postmaster General shall cause to be kept, and returned to the Department, at short and regular intervals, by postmasters at the ends of routes, and such others as he may think proper, registers, showing the exact times of the arrivals and departures of the mails.
Penalty for detaining letters, &c. in a post office.Sec. 32. And be it further enacted, That if any postmaster shall unlawfully detain in his office any letter, package, pamphlet, or newspaper, with intent to prevent the arrival and delivery of the same to the person or persons to whom such letter, package, pamphlet or newspaper may be addressed or directed in the usual course of the transportation of the mail along the route; or if any postmaster shall, with intent as aforesaid, give a preference to any letter, package, pamphlet, or newspaper, over another, which may pass through his office, by forwarding the one and retaining the other, he shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, and imprisoned for a term not exceeding six months, and shall, moreover, be for ever thereafter incapable of holding the office of postmaster in the United States.
Certain postmasters to be appointed by and with the consent of the Senate.Sec. 33. And be it further enacted, That there shall be appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a Deputy Postmaster for each post office at which the