The following gentlemen voted against the measure, as every sensible and honest Senator 
should have done: 
Messrs. Alcorn, Allison, Anthony, Boutwell, Cameron, Clayton, Cooper, Cragin, Dennis, Flanagan, Frcling- 
huysen, Hager, Harvey, Hitchcock, Howe, Ingalls, Lewis, Mitchell, Morrill (Maine), Morrill (Vermont), Morton, 
Oglesby, Pease, Robertson, Sargent, Scott, Sherman, Spencer, Sprague, Tipton, Washburn, West, Windom and 
W right. 
This should have settled the matter, and we really thought it might rest for one season, but 
the paid lobby agents of the express companies were watching, ready for any act of meanness, 
and for any dirty work. They could present twenty or fifty thousand cogent reasons why the law 
should be changed, and every one with a tint of green on the back. 
All was now kept perfectly quiet until the night of the last session of Congress, and near mid¬ 
night. The Sundry Civil Appropriation Hilly the closing up of the season’s work, was under 
consideration, when Senator Rumsey, of Minnesota, prepared the following innocent looking 
amendment, which was offered by Senator Hamlin, of M fine, who recommended its passage: 
That section 8 of the act approved Juuc 20, 1874, “ making appropriations for the service of the Post-officc- 
Department for the fiscal year ending June 30,1875, and for other purposes,” be, and the same is hereby amended 
as follows : Insert the word “ ounce ” in lieu of the words “ two ounces.” 
In the haste incident to an all-night session, this amendment was adopted, and not half the 
Senators, in fact only those in the secret, were aware of its character. The Senate amendments- 
being thought unimportant were adopted in the House, and not a dozen members were aware of 
the bad work they were doing, and the trick of which they were made the victims. This treach¬ 
erous amendment doubled the postage on all merchandise, and that at once, for the law took, 
immediate effect. 
Now let us look at the effect of this unexpected piece of legislation. All booksellers, seeds¬ 
men and other merchants had arranged their prices so as to meet the old rate of postage, and its 
sudden and unexpected increase caused embarrassment and loss, and the entire suspension of 
many kinds of business, to the great injury not only of the merchants but also of their customers. 
As fast as postmasters learned of the passage of the law doubling postage on merchandise, they 
stopped all matter not having paid the postage required by the new law. Tuns of our seeds were 
stopped that had been shipped before the law was passed, while our customers were waiting and 
writing and complaining and suffering. Finally the Postmaster-general found it impossible to obey 
the law, and was compelled, in violation of this unwise law of Congress, to order that all merchan¬ 
dise should pass at the old rates until matters became better understood and somewhat regulated.. 
Just at this time we were giving large quantities of seeds to the grasshopper sufferers of the 
West, and on these we were paying more than a hundred dollars a week postage to the Govern¬ 
ment. This new law doubled postage and caused us an additional expense of nearly a thousand 
dollars, as the result of our efforts to serve the starving people of the West. This, however, was- 
of no consequence as long as the express men got rich and a few Congressmen didn’t get poor. 
There is another beautiful thing about this matter. Canada merchants can send merchandise- 
to any part of the United States, through the mails, for one-half the rates charged Americans, so 
they are advertising their goods in our cities, stating why they are enabled to under-sell our mer¬ 
chants. The wisdom of our law makers is certainly beyond ordinary comprehension. 
Let the people emphatically and at once demand the repeal of this hasty and odious law. See 
the Congressmen, write to them, and in every way let the wishes of the people be known. Those 
Congressmen who were deceived should show their indignation at the fraud by demanding the 
repeal of the law at the very opening of the next Congress. We do not state that any member of 
Congress received money for his vote on this measure, but we do say that the express companies 
could afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for that night’s work; and we do not imagine 
they are too honest or too conscientious to place money where it “will do the most good.” 
The Wisdom of our Postage Laws. — We can now send a paper weighing four ounces 
to London, England, for two cetits , but if we send it only to New York we must pay four cents. 
The seeds we send to Canada cost us by mail sixteen cents a pound, but we can send by express 
or freight to some point in Canada and mail there, for four cents a pound. Thus is our Govern¬ 
ment driving business and consequently money into other channels. A merchant doing business, 
in that way would soon get to the poorhouse or the lunatic asylum. 
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