Chapter XXI. making Appropriations for the service of the Post-Office Department during the fiscal Year ending the thirtieth of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, and for other Purposes
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Chap. XXI.— An Act making Appropriations for the service of the Post-Office Department during the fiscal Year ending the thirtieth of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, and for other Purposes.March 3, 1851. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,* That the following 592 sums be, and the same are hereby appropriated, for the service of the post-office-department, for the year ending the thirtieth of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, out of any moneys in the treasury arising from the revenues of the said department, in conformity to the act of the second of July, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, and for other purposes, viz:— For transportation of the mails, including the service in California Transportation of mails. and Oregon, three millions four hundred and seventy-six thousand dollars.
For transportation of the mails in two steamships from New York, Steamship mail to Bremen and Havre. by Southampton, to Bremen, at one hundred thousand dollars for each ship, under the contract with the Ocean Steam Navigation Company of New York; and for transportation by two ships under the same contract, from New York to Havre, at seventy-five thousand dollars each, in addition to an unexpended balance of former appropriations, two hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars.(*a*)(*a*) See act of 1845, ch. 69; 1846, ch. 31; 1847, ch. 37; 1848, ch. 79 and ch. 98; 1849, ch. 103; 1850, ch. 56.
For transportation of the mails across the Isthmus of Panama, forty-five Isthmus of Panama. thousand dollars. For compensation to postmasters, one million eight hundred and Postmasters. seventy-five thousand dollars. For ship, steamboat, and way letters, forty-five thousand dollars.Ship, &c., letters. For wrapping paper, thirty-five thousand dollars. For office furniture, nine thousand dollars.Sundries. For advertising, eighty thousand dollars. For mail bags, thirty-six thousand dollars.
For blanks, thirty-five thousand dollars. For mail-locks, keys, and stamps, ten thousand dollars. For mail depredations, and special agents, thirty-five thousand dollars. For clerks in the offices of postmasters, four hundred and twenty-five Clerks in post-offices. thousand dollars. For miscellaneous items, eighty thousand dollars.Sundries. For new mail-locks, and keys, twenty-five thousand dollars. For maps of post routes, six thousand dollars. For incidental expenses of post-offices in California, from the dates Post-offices in California. respectively of their establishment, to the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-one, sixty-six thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, in addition to the commissions allowed by law to postmasters; to be expended at such offices in such proportions, and under such regulations, as the Postmaster-General may direct, and to be accounted for as commissions.
Sec. 2. *And be it further enacted,* That the Postmaster-General Letter carriers in Oregon and California. shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint letter carriers for the delivery of letters from any post-office in California or Oregon, and to allow the letter carriers who may be appointed at any such post-office to demand and receive such sum for all letters, newspapers, or other available matter delivered by them, as may be recommended by the postmaster for whose office such letter carrier may be appointed, not exceeding five cents for every letter, two cents for every newspaper, and two cents for every ounce of other available matter; and the Postmaster-General Their appointment and compensation. shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to empower the special agents of the post-office-department in California and Oregon to appoint such letter carriers in their districts respectively, and to fix the rates of their compensation within the limits aforesaid, subject to, and until the final action of, the Postmaster-General thereon.
And such appointments may be made, and rates of compensation modified from time to time, as may be deemed expedient; and the rates of compensation may be fixed and graduated in respect to the distance of 593THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS. Sess. II. Ch. 22. 1851. the place of delivery from the post-office for which such carriers are appointed; but the rate of compensation of any such letter carrier shall not be changed after his appointment, except by the order of the Postmaster-General; and such letter carriers shall be subject to the Made subject to provisions of Stat, 1836, ch, 270. provisions of the forty-first section of the act entitled “An Act to change the organization of the post-office department, and to provide more effectually for the settlement of the accounts thereof,” approved July second, eighteen hundred and thirty-six; except in cases otherwise provided for in this act.
Sec. 3. *And be it further enacted,* That in all cases of fine, penalty, Fines and forfeitures; their recovery and remission. forfeiture, or disability, or alleged liability for any sum or sums of money, by way of damages, or otherwise, under any provision of law relating to the post-office department, or the officers, operations, or business thereof, the Postmaster-General shall be, and he is hereby authorized to prescribe such general rules and mode of proceeding, as shall to him appear expedient for the government of the auditor of the post-office department, in ascertaining the facts in each case in which it shall be certified to him by such auditor, that the interests of the department probably require the exercise of the power conferred by this act; and upon the facts being ascertained as aforesaid, the said auditor shall have power, with the written consent of the Postmaster-General, to mitigate or remit such fine, penalty, or forfeiture, remove such disability, and to compromise, release, and discharge such claims for such sum or sums of money and damages, on such terms as the said auditor shall deem just and expedient; and that in all cases where a Compromise of judgments. judgment shall have been obtained for a debt or damages due the post-office department, and it shall satisfactorily appear by the return of execution or otherwise, that such judgment, or so much thereof as remains unpaid, cannot be collected by due process of law, the said auditor shall be, and he is hereby authorized, with the written consent of the Postmaster-General, to compromise such judgment and accept in satisfaction thereof, less than the amount of such judgment: *Provided,*Proviso.
That the power conferred by this section shall not extend to any case of fine, penalty, forfeiture, disability, alleged liability or claim which shall be incurred, accrue, or arise subsequent to the passage of this act, or to any judgment obtained after the passage thereof. Sec. 4. *And be it further enacted,* That the Postmaster-General is Compensation of special agents. hereby authorized to allow hereafter to the special agents of the post-office department the annual salary of sixteen hundred dollars: *Provided,*Proviso.
That no more shall be expended for this purpose, during the present year, than is already appropriated in this act. Approved, March 3, 1851.