colonial governments. Post-offices were made for the country, and not the country for them. They are the offspring of improvement. They never go before it. Settlements are first made; after which the progress is uniform and simple, extending to objects in regular order, most nece:5sary to the comfort of man; schools, places of public worship, court-houses, and markets; post-offices follow. Roads may, indeed, be said to be coeval with settlements. They lead to all the places mentioned, and to every other, which the various and complicated interests of society require.
"It is believed, that not one example can be given, from the first settlement of our country to the adoption of this constitution, of a post-office being established, without a view to existing roads; or of a single road having been made by pavement, turnpike, &c. for the sole purpose of accommodating a post-office. Such, too, is the uniform progress of all societies. In granting then this power to the United States, it was, undoubtedly, intended by the framers and ratifiers of the constitution, to convey it in the sense and extent only, in which it had been understood and exercised by the previous authorities of the country.
"This conclusion is confirmed by the object of the grant and the manner of its execution. The object is the transportation of the mail throughout the United States, which may be done on horse-back, and was so done, until lately, since the establishment of stages. Between the great towns, and in other places, where the population is dense, stages are preferred, because they afford an additional opportunity to make a profit from passengers. But where the population is sparse, and on cross roads, it is generally carried on horseback. Unconnected with passengers and other objects, it cannot be doubted, that the mail itself may be carried in every part of our Union, with nearly as much economy, and greater despatch, on horseback, than in a stage; and in many parts with much greater. In every part of the Union, in which stages can be preferred, the roads are sufficiently good, provided those, which serve for every other purpose, will accommodate them. In every other part, where horses alone are used, if other people press them on horseback, surely the mail-carrier can. For an object so simple and so easy in the execution, it would, doubtless, excite surprise, if it should be thought proper to appoint commissioners to lay off the country on a great scheme of improvement, with the power to shorten distances, reduce heights, level mountains, and pave surfaces.
"If the United States possessed the power contended for under this grant, might they not, in adopting the roads of the individual states for
Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol III).djvu/39
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CH. XVIII.]
POWERS OF CONGRESS—POST-OFFICE.
31
