William Goddard (publisher)

Franklin had made significant contributions to the postal system in the colonies while serving as the postmaster of Philadelphia from 1737 to 1753, and as joint postmaster general of the colonies from 1753 to 1774.[50][51][52] Because of Franklin's rebellious political stances, he was dismissed from the postal service in 1774, which brought about a flurry of protests from the Americans. Among the most outspoken was Goddard, who established his Constitutional Post to give the colonists sympathetic to the revolutionary cause a private communication network free from British eyes. Officials of the British postal system at the time began opening private correspondence mail for investigating. They also were interfering with the delivery of newspapers, which was the main means of getting news to the colonies. Goddard's newspapers became a sympathizer to the Patriot cause, and the British hindered the delivery of them, even banning altogether the delivery of some. Because of this, Goddard decided to design a new post delivery system for them. He started with his first post office delivery point at the London Coffee House in Philadelphia, a meeting place for merchants which became the center of much of the political life of the city prior to and during the revolution. Goddard established another in Baltimore. Because of war time activity with few people sending mail, and mail thieves taking advantage of the instability of the war, Goddard's experiment with the new postal route proved unsuccessful.[53]

He first made known his post office project in the Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser on July 2, 1774.[54][55] He brought into existence 28 other post offices in several colonies. The colonies paid a subscription to Goddard for the service which was further improved with the net revenues.[56] This became the foundation for the United States Post Office Department.[3][57][58] A side benefit of Goddard's ideas ultimately lead to the United States Postal Inspection Service.[59]

Goddard had hired his own post riders and created a postal system that came to be known as The Constitutional Post, which would provide mail service to the colonies between New York and Philadelphia.[60] Goddard established a system of postal routes and post offices, which presence and use brought about the discontinuance of the British postal system. Known as Goddard's Post Offices, it was a private enterprise and competed with the British postal system.[61] Goddard stressed the idea that the various Constitutional Post Offices should be under the jurisdiction of a central government.[62][lower-alpha 5] He ran the new mail service as a private concern. It was so efficient that the Continental Congress, on May 29, 1775, took the first step and appointed a committee headed by Franklin and worked out its organization as an independent postal establishment. It was named The Constitutional Post. On July 26, 1775, Congress officially developed the new nation's first postal system.[3][52][64] Goddard's oversight and organization at that time was operating from New Hampshire to Georgia.[65] Congress, needing to deal with other urgent matters, delayed Goddard's proposed plan until after the Battles of Lexington and Concord in the Spring of 1775.[39][66]

Goddard's Constitutional Post plan was ultimately implemented, assuring communication between the colonies and keeping them informed of various events during the conflict with Britain. Distrustful of the Crown, the colonial populace was turning to and using the postal system now provided by Goddard. Ultimately, Goddard and his revolutionary post was so successful that it finally forced the Crown post out of business in the American colonies by Christmas Day 1775, when the king's last postrider delivered mail.[67][68] Goddard's Constitutional Post proved to be a success and by 1775, his post system was flourishing with 30 post offices delivering mail between Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Colonial Williamsburg. Goddard's plan for a colonial post office would be one that was established and maintained by popular subscription and would be managed and controlled by a private committee that would be elected annually by the subscribers. The committee would appoint postmasters, determine postal routes, hire post-riders and fix the rates of postage. In what was to Goddard an unexpected turn of events, when the Continental Congress authorized a post office run by the government, it passed over Goddard and instead named Benjamin Franklin as the first American Postmaster General. [51]

Pass by Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin appointed Goddard as Surveyor of the Post,[69] giving him the authority to travel as needed to investigate and inspect postal routes and to ensure mail delivery.[59][70]

Recognition of Goddard's role in the development and implementation of the U. S. Post  Office has been largely ignored by many historians until recently.[3][65] Goddard, a one time apprentice of Franklin and who was naturally influenced by his years of experience with the colonial postal system, still felt that he was the general creator of the postal system then in use in the colonies. Goddard was a candidate for the position of postmaster-general, but instead Franklin was chosen. He then sought the secretaryship but was passed over when Franklin selected his son-in-law Richard Bache. Franklin, however, recognized and appreciated Goddard's many efforts in organizing the colonial post-office system and appointed him as Surveyor of the Posts.[71] There has always been an American postal system in place ever since the establishment of Goddard's post offices in 1774.[72]

Goddard was disappointed when Franklin was given the position of Postmaster-General by the Continental Congress. However, he conceded to Franklin, who was 36 years his senior and had many years of experience as postmaster, and reluctantly agreed to serve instead as Riding Surveyor for the new U.S. Post Office. Franklin drew up a pass that allowed Goddard to travel at his discretion in his new position. Franklin authored and signed the pass and presented it to Goddard.[73][59] When the newly created American government under the U.S. Constitution began, the American postal system had about seventy-five post offices and 1,875 miles of post roads to serve a total colonial population of three million people. Franklin served as postmaster for one year at which time the Postmaster's position was given to Bache. Deeply disappointed at being passed over again, Goddard resigned.[74] Franklin would later leave the Bonds he had on the Goddards to Bache in his last will and testament of 1788.[75] Franklin died on the evening of April 17, 1790, at the age of 84.[76]

Feeling uninspired over his appointment to Surveyor of the Posts, Goddard, in a letter to Congress, dated June 21, 1776, had recited his services in the establishment of the Constitutional Post Office and reminded the delegates that they had given the Postmaster General no authority to reimburse him and his friends for their outlay of money in "establishing Postmasters, hiring Riders...", and establishing post offices throughout the colonies. Wanting to serve his country at the onset of war, and needing the opportunity to replenish his financial situation, he asked the Congress for an appointment as a lieutenant colonel. The Congress passed on his letter to the Board of War. The Board subsequently referred Goddard's appeal to General Washington, who, on July 29, 1776, in a letter to Congress, expressed the belief that the induction of Mr. Goddard "into the Army as Lieutt. Colo, would be attended with endless confusion." Thereafter no more was heard from Goddard about his military aspirations.[77]

In 1774, in response to the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament passed what was referred to by the colonists as the Intolerable Acts. A bill known as the Boston Port Bill was presented at the House of Commons on March 14, 1774.[78] The intrusive bill passed both houses of Parliament with little opposition and was signed by the King a couple of weeks later.[79]

Among other measures the Intolerable Acts closed the port of Boston and radically altered the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Many colonists viewed the acts as an arbitrary violation of their rights, and in response they organized the First Continental Congress on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia to establish a representative political body to oppose such laws. When the Boston riots erupted in September 1774 over the Coercive Acts, the colonies had lost much trust of the British Crown entirely. Since most of the Colonists were born in the colonies at that time and had never seen the actual 'mother land' they had very little sentiment left for King George III or for the British authorities in the colonies. As a result, the Continental Congress was convened at Philadelphia in May 1775 to create an independent government that would represent the colonists and oppose the arbitrary rules thrust upon them by the Crown. When Benjamin Franklin began to publicly lend support for the American Revolution he was dismissed from the royal postal service which resulted in widespread protests among the colonists, where Goddard was among the most outspoken.[80] "Constitutional" post offices,[lower-alpha 6] were established in Baltimore and Philadelphia the same year in which Franklin was dismissed. "Constitutional post office" was the term employed by Goddard to distinguish them from the British system that was currently in operation.[81]

During the few years leading up to the Revolution, Goddard became well noted for the innovations he introduced to the postal system as it came to be employed in mail delivery between the various colonies. Goddard's postal system came about as the result of a series of conflicts involving his newspaper the Pennsylvania Chronicle, and the Crown Post, a postal administration and mail delivery system that was in use in the British colonies prior to the advent of American independence, under the authority of the British crown. As the idea of revolution began to surface throughout the colonies, the British began manipulating the Crown Post by blocking the mail and communications between the various colonies in an effort to prevent them from organizing with each other. The Crown also resorted to the delay or destruction of newspapers and opening and reading private mail, a form of postal censorship that the British crown considered legal. Goddard's Pennsylvania Chronicle was sympathetic to the revolutionary ideas being put forth by Benjamin Franklin and others so Goddard's publications were routinely criticized by and under the constant scrutiny of the Crown Post authorities. Franklin had just fallen from grace with the British monarchy by exposing Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson with his own letters, showing him to be in collusion with British efforts to impose more laws and taxes on the colonies in America. His involvement with the Chronicle further prompted the Crown in their dealings with Goddard's newspaper. In their effort to see the Pennsylvania Chronicle delivered, Franklin and Goddard persevered and in the midst of British scrutiny would create a separate postal system that ultimately became the postal system in use in the United States today.[38] After the war, Goddard became involved in a controversy between Generals Charles Lee and George Washington involving the acrimonious publication of Lee's account of Washington's alleged conduct during the war.[82][83]

One of the first issues for the delegates was how to collect and deliver the mail between the various colonies. Franklin, who had just come back from England, was made chairman of a Committee of Investigation to start a colonial postal system. The issue was a pressing one as the existing Crown Post was now routinely manipulating the mail of the colonists prior to the revolution. William Goddard experienced the abuse of authority of the Crown Post in Philadelphia after forming a partnership with Benjamin Franklin to publish the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a paper sympathetic to the revolutionary cause. Goddard was one among several publishers who used private carriers rather than those of the British crown to deliver his Chronicle so as to get the newspapers past the scrutiny of the Crown post, who was opposed to Goddard and his Chronicle for their revolutionary sympathies.[84] So adamant was the Crown towards Goddard and the Chronicle, that the local Crown postmaster intercepted and refused to deliver mail and other newspapers from other cities and towns to Goddard, depriving him of a critical source of information. The Crown Post also imposed a heavy tax on newspaper delivery. In 1773, the Pennsylvania Chronicle was finally forced to go out of business.[85]

General Charles Lee was passed over for command of the Continental Army by the Continental Congress who on June 15, 1775, unanimously appointed George Washington to be their commander.[86] A disappointed Lee felt that the command should have been given to him and came to publicly criticize Washington as "...a certain great man who is damnably deficient", following Washington's defeats at the battles of White Plains and Fort Washington, in the fall of 1776.[87]

Some years later Lee had requested Goddard to publish his account of the matter. In the July 6, 1779, issue of the Maryland Journal Goddard had printed General Lee's "Some Queries, Political and Military", which consisted of a three-volume work that contained twenty-five pointed questions about the management of the war by Congress, and the conduct of George Washington in particular.[88] The "Queries" of the court-martialed general incited a Baltimore mob led by three Continental officers who confronted Goddard on the evening of July 8, They demanded at his home that he surrender and appear in front of the Whig club. Goddard grabbed his sword and called Eleazer Oswald[lower-alpha 7] to his side. He insisted that he not be treated in such a manner. He agreed to meet the club members in a civilized manner at a local coffee house but was doubtful that they would accept his offer. A mob led by Colonel Samuel Smith caught up with him later and carried him away. Overwhelmed and helpless, Goddard agreed to publicly apologize for publishing Lee's attack on Washington in his paper, which Goddard later repudiated. Goddard and Oswald informed the state authorities of the mob attacks while defending Lee. They also demanded public protection for themselves and their right to freedom of the press, but ultimately had their demands rebuffed.[90] In the July 16 issue of the Maryland Journal, they subsequently published an acrimonious account about why and how they were treated. They championed Lee's cause, printed the correspondence between Oswald and Smith, and retracted the apology that was coerced from Goddard.[91] The long-term consequence of this episode was that Goddard and General Lee became good friends.[83][92]

In September 1782, Lee, on his way to Philadelphia, stopped for a few days in Baltimore to visit the Goddards. He went on to Philadelphia, where he died October 2.[93] It is not known exactly how the papers of General Lee came into the hands of his friend Goddard. Goddard's original plans to publish the papers never reached fruition.[92] Knowing the controversial and critical nature of the work and that its publication was likely to cause trouble,[94] Goddard, in a letter of May 30, 1785, wrote to Washington informing him that he had received a letter from Lee asking him to publish his work which roundly criticized Washington. Goddard enclosed a hand-written copy of the proposed title page on June 14, and later sent Washington a printed title page as part of his prospectus of Lee's projected three-volume work. The title page read: Miscellaneous Collections from the Papers of the late Major General Charles Lee.[82][92] Goddard's letter to Washington from Baltimore, dated May 30, 1785, said that the Manuscript Papers of General Lee came into his hands after Lee's death, and he was taking care to prepare them for publicizing by removing offensive material.[92] Washington, in a reply letter of June 11, 1785, to Goddard, referred to the news he had received from him objectively and wrote of his actions that were now in question.[95] Goddard continued to publish his newspaper in Baltimore for thirteen more years and was never again harassed.[91] After Lee died, he left Goddard a sizable portion of his estate.[96]