By the act of 21st of April, 1806, (ch. This conclusion is confirmed by the object of the grant and the manner of its execution. . When the Constitution was ratified in 1789, the Postal Clause in Article I, Section 8 gave Congress the power "To establish Post Offices and post Roads" and "To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper" for executing this task. See the laws referred to in Post-Master-General v. Early, 12 Wheat. 21. The reason is obvious. Such, too, is the uniform progress of all societies. E) Exclusive powers. 151, 169 (1845). It never could have been contemplated.13, 1125. Again, when the Court sustained an order of the Postmaster General excluding from the second-class privilege a newspaper he had found to have published material in contravention of the Espionage Act of 1917, the claim of absolute power in Congress to withhold the privilege was sedulously avoided.15 FootnoteUnited States ex rel. 1140. it declared that Congress may not exercise its control over the mails to enforce a requirement which lies outside its constitutional province. Already the post-office establishment realizes a revenue exceeding two millions of dollars, from which it defrays all its own expenses, and transmits mails in various directions over more than one hundred and twenty thousand miles. Under the confederation, this very power to establish post-offices was construed to include the other powers already named, and others far more remote. The Post Office has the constitutional authority to designate mail routes. And, if it be the right and duty of congress to provide adequate means for the transportation of the mails, wherever the public good requires it, what limit is there to these means, other than that they are appropriate to the end?23. It was largely construed to meet the obvious intent, for which it was delegated. The Post Office is removing around 15% of its total high-speed processing letter machines from many locations, Motherboard reported. . See also Blount v. Rizzi, 400 U.S. 410, 416 (1971) (quoting same language). Now, this involves a plain departure from the very ground of the argument. In the first draft of the constitution, the clause stood thus, Congress shall have power to establish post-offices. It was subsequently amended by adding the words and post-roads, by the vote of six states against five; and then, as amended, it passed without opposition.7 It is observable, that the confederation gave only the power to establish and regulate post-offices; and therefore the amendment introduced a new and substantive power, unknown before in the national government. They never go before it. the import of that term was enlarged, and with it the powers of the constitution, in a proportional degree, beyond what they were in the confederation. v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Assn's, 453 U.S. 114 (1981), Searight v. Stokes, 44 U.S. (3 How.) 9, p. 103, 104. Much more to prohibit any other persons under penalties from conveying letters, despatches, or other packets from one place to another of the United States? Nay, it is not only not true, that these laws have stopped short of an exposition of the words sufficiently broad to justify the making of roads; but they have included exercises of power far more remote from the immediate objects. . In the next place, let us see, what upon this narrow interpretation becomes of the power in another aspect. The sense, in which words are commonly used, is that, in which they are to be understood in all transactions between public bodies and individuals. . Today's Postal Service is an independent agency that funds its operation through the sale of postage, products and services. And when the fledgling United States adopted the Constitution in 1783, the document called for Congress "to establish post offices and post roads" but was silent on any other services. On the contrary, they are universally understood for all other purposes, not inconsistent with the constitutional rights and uses of the Union, to be subject to state authority and rights. The words of the constitution are, Congress shall have power to establish post-offices and post-roads. What is the true meaning of these words? Seven words of Article I, section 8, of the Constitution grant the postal power to Congress. The received general meanings, if not the only meanings of the word establish, are, to settle firmly, to confirm, to fix, to form or modify, to found, to build firmly, to erect permanently.14 And it is no small objection to any construction, that it requires the word to be deflected from its received and usual meaning; and gives it a meaning unknown to, and unacknowledged by lexicographers. 4911 posts. When congress found those roads suited to the purpose, there could be no constitutional reason for refusing to establish them, as mail-routes. As a farther proof upon this subject, the statute book contains many acts passed at various times, during a period of more than twenty years, discontinuing certain post-roads.11 A strong argument is also derivable from the practice of continental Europe, which must be presumed to have been known to the framers of the constitution. Answer: Article 1, Section 8 clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to establish post offices and post roads. All Rights Reserved. To establish Post Offices and post Roads; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective. See Rawle on the Constitution, ch. These delegated powers are often referred to as the "enumerated" or "expressed" powers. It was thought necessary to insert an express provision in the constitution, enabling the government to exercise jurisdiction over ten miles square for a seat of government, and of such places, as should be ceded by the states for forts, arsenals, and other similar purposes. In every other part, where horses alone are used, if other people pass them on horseback, surely the mail carrier can. 4 Elliots Debates, 356. 233. A much broader power of exclusion was asserted in the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935.21 Footnote 49 Stat. Power to Prevent Harmful Use of Postal Facilities. 1141. That work was principally designed to meet objections, and remove prejudices. 1 Tuck. v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Assn's, 453 U.S. 114 (1981), in which the Court sustained the constitutionality of a law making it unlawful for persons to use, without payment of a fee (postage), a letterbox which has been designated an authorized depository of the mail by the Postal Service. If not, then the power to carry the mails may be obstructed; nay, may be annihilated by the neglect of a state.22 Could it have been the intention of the constitution, in the exercise of this most vital power, to make it dependent upon the will, or the pleasure of the states? This is an utter mistake. 16114) (C.C.N.D. 4 Elliots Debates, 354; Ibid. Postal Service, whose financial condition resembles that of the federal government, of which the USPS is another ailing appendage, is urging cancellation of Saturday deliveries . But that consequence does not follow; for when a road is declared by law to be a mail-road, the United States have a right of way over it; and, until the law is repealed, such an interest in the use of it, as that the state authorities could not obstruct it.12 The terms of the constitution are perfectly satisfied by this limited construction, and the power of congress to make whatever roads they may please, in any state, would be a most serious inroad upon the rights and jurisdiction of the states. Ill. 1855), Searight v. Stokes, 44 U.S. (3 How.) The fact, if true, that congress have not hitherto made any roads for the carrying of the mall, would not affect the right, or touch the question. The grounds of the former opinion seem to be as follows. If the power be to point out, or designate post-offices, then it supposes, that there already exist some offices, out of which a designation can be made. 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. as it chooses. 12 FootnotePub. "They want $3.5 billion for something that will turn out to be fraudulent, that's election money . There are different roads from several of these places to the others. When the Constitution was ratified in 1789, the Postal Clause in Article I, Section 8 gave Congress the power "To establish Post Offices and post Roads" and "To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper" for executing this task. Best Answer Copy It's true that Article 1, Section 8 says: [The Congress shall have the power] to establish Post Offices and Post Roads. So, they have a right to erect hospitals, custom-houses, and courthouses in a state. Johnsons Dict. Under the constitution congress has, without any questioning, given a liberal construction to the power to establish post-offices and post-roads. The U.S. 13. But the power itself was so crippled by the confederation, that it could accomplish little. But see United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606 (1977) (border search). But the argument would have it, that, because this exercise of the power, clearly within its scope, has been hitherto restrained to making existing roads post-roads, therefore congress cannot proceed constitutionally to make a post-road, where no road now exists. It may, therefore, well be deemed a most beneficent power, whose operations can scarcely he applied, except for good, and accomplish in an eminent degree some of the high purposes set forth in the preamble of the constitution, forming a more perfect union, providing for the common defence, and promoting the general welfare. The latter turns upon a question of implied power, as incident to given powers.27 The former turns upon the true interpretation of words of express grant. Exclusive Power as an Adjunct to Other Powers. 6. It is no longer a power to designate a thing, or mark out a route; but it is a power to create, and fix every other thing necessary-and appropriate to post-offices. 16. . 1138. A decade earlier, however, the Court, without passing upon the validity of the original construction of the Cumberland Road, held that being charged . It will be most satisfactory to give it in the very words of its most distinguished advocate: The first of these grants is in the following words: Congress shall have power to establish post-offices and post-roads. What is the just import of these words, and the extent of the grant? On this point his reasoning would appear to be vindicated by such decisions as those denying the right of the states to prevent the importation of alcoholic beverages from other states.8 FootnoteBowman v. Chicago & Nw. In Article I, Section 8, the Constitution gave Congress the ability "To establish Post Offices and post Roads." That means it not only does Congress have the power to create a postal system, it had the ability to acquire and control the land for the "post roads" to carry the mail and the buildings needed to maintain the system. Farris, who identified himself as "postmaster of North Carolina," petitioned the South . It is not less effective, as an instrument of the government in its own operations. The constitution itself also uniformly uses the word establish in the general sense, and never in this peculiar and narrow sense. It was based on the Constitutional authority empowering Congress "To establish post offices and post roads". See also Hannegan v. Esquire, 327 U.S. 146 (1946), denying the Post Office the right to exclude Esquire Magazine from the mails on grounds of the poor taste and vulgarity of its contents. . United States Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Assn's. The Constitution gave power over the Postal Service to Congress, granting Congress the power to establish post offices and post roads. To establish the constitution is to make, and fix, and erect it, as a permanent form of government. It's far from a hot take, and has been discussed before. It never entered into the heads of the wise men of those days, that they possessed a power to create post-offices, without the power to create all the other things necessary to make post-offices of some human use. 1145. The right to exact postage and to protect the post-offices and mails from robbery by punishing the offenders, may fairly be considered, as incidents to the grant, since, without it, the object of the grant might be defeated. To establish Post Offices and post Roads; Postal Power: Historical Background. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation: 160 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. Exclusive jurisdiction over a road is one thing; the right to make it is quite another. C) Reserved powers. It delivers Social Security checks to seniors who rely on those benefits to survive," former Democratic. Clearing House, 194 U.S. at 506. If they had never erected a custom-house, or court-house, they could not now do it. Now, if the meaning of the word here was simply to point out, or designate post-offices, there would have been an end of all further authority, except of regulating the post-offices, so designated and pointed out. But it may be asked, if such was the intention, why were not all the other terms of the grant transferred with it? Under any other interpretation, the power itself would become a mere nullity. What power gives the congress the power to establish post. Thus, the Act of 20th of February, 1799, ch. R. 136, 144, 145. 41,) the president was authorized to cause to be opened a road from the frontier of Georgia, on the route from Athens to New-Orleans; and to cause to be opened a road or roads through the territory, then lately ceded by the Indians to the United States, from the river Mississippi to the Ohio, and to the former Indian boundary line, which was established by the treaty of Greenville; and to cause to be opened a road from Nashville, in the state of Tennessee, to Natchez, in the Mississippi territory. Ordinance, 18 Oct. 1782; 1 U. S. Laws, (Bioren & Duane,) 651; 7 Journ. The latter is not doubted by any persons; why then is the former? We. Suppose a state should prohibit a sale of any of the lands within its boundaries by its own citizens, for any public purposes indispensable for the Union, either military or civil, would not congress possess a constitutional right to demand, and appropriate land within the state for such purposes, making a just compensation? It would be absurd to say, that, by omitting from the constitution any portion of the phraseology, which was deemed important in the confederation. To establish rules of naturalization is to frame and confirm such rules. If the United States possessed the power contended for under this grant, might they not, in adopting the roads of the individual states for the carriage of the mail, as has been done, assume jurisdiction over them, and preclude a right to interfere with or alter them? If you cannot create a post-office, you can do no more, than mark out one already existing. The power has been constantly exercised by the states ever since the adoption of the constitution. As you know, the United States Postal Service is a pillar of our American Democracy that is enshrined in the Constitution, which empowers Congress to "establish Post Offices and Post Roads." The Postal Service provides critical services for the American people: delivering medicine to seniors, paychecks to workers, tax refunds to millions . So the post office is in the Constitution, but it's not exactly mandated or defined. To establish Post Offices and post Roads; . 1142. In the former act of government, (the confederation,) we find a grant for the same purpose, expressed in the following words: The United States, in congress assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right and power of establishing and regulating post-offices from one state to another, throughout the United States, and of exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as may be requisite to defray the expenses of the said post-office. The term establish was likewise the ruling one in that instrument and was evidently intended and understood to give a power simply and solely to fix where there should be post-offices. The 1792 act reinforced the power of Congress to establish official mail routes. . 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