390 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



months' or a year's notice for the community to prepare 

 for the change. In fact my plan would be to admit noth- 

 ing whatever into the mail bags until it had the impres- 

 sion of the post-paid stamp upon it. This would unload 

 the mail of tons and tons of matter that is transported 

 hundreds of miles to be used for wrapping paper. This 

 is fact, as every postmaster in the country can verify. 

 In the year 1832, as Agen of the Postt Office Department, 

 I was examining several post offices in Indiana, 1 and in 

 three offices in the county of Clark, I found more than 

 ten bushels of "public documents" that had been sent 

 there by Gov. Jennings, when in Congress, and deemed 

 of so little importance by those to whom they were ad- 

 dressed that they would not take them out, though "free." 

 And although I am in much more of a reading community 

 here, many free documents have remained uncalled for 

 and went to waste paper, while lots and lots of Legisla- 

 tive documents and newspapers every year are marked 

 "dead" because the owners will not pay the tax to make 

 them live. 



So, sirs, I would make every thing mailed pay. Let all 

 the public offices that now frank, charge the money paid, 

 with day of date and cause, and let that account be a 

 matter of record, and pass the ordeal of the proper Audi- 

 tor. 



I would, instead of allowing "a limited number of 



'The Post Office Department in a letter of May 26, 1832, in- 

 structed Robinson to act in concert with Daniel Kelso in detecting 

 depredations on the mail. In December, 1832, Robinson appeared 

 as a witness in the case of the United States v. William C. Keen, 

 postmaster at Printer's Retreat, Switzerland County. The case 

 was dismissed at that time for lack of evidence but Keen was 

 later tried and convicted on a charge of secreting a letter con- 

 taining two bank notes. On December 22, 1832, Robinson was 

 asked to return his commission for investigating the mails. Order 

 Book of the Federal District Court of Indiana, in Federal Build- 

 ing, Indianapolis; Postmaster General, Letter Books, vol. Y, pp. 

 427-28; vol. Z, p. 1, in Post Office Department, Washington, D. C; 

 Final Record Book, United States Circuit Court, Federal Building, 

 Indianapolis, 2:392-97. 



