Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 1.djvu/859



steal the mail, or shall steal or take from or out of any mail, or from or out of any post-office, any letter or packet, or if any person shall take the mail, or any letter or packet therefrom or from any post-office, whether with or without the consent of the person having custody thereof, and shall open, embezzle, or destroy any such mail, letter or packet, the same containing any article of value, or evidence of any debt, due, demand, right or claim, or if any person shall, by fraud or deception, obtain from any person having custody thereof, any mail, letter or packet, containing any article of value, or evidence thereof, such offender or offenders, on conviction thereof, shall be whipped, not exceeding thirty lashes, or imprisoned, not exceeding two years, or both, at the discretion of the court before whom such conviction is had. And if any person shall take any letter or packet, not containing any article of value or evidence thereof out of a post-office, or shall open any letter or packet which shall have been in a post-office, or in the custody of a mail-carrier, before it shall have been delivered to the person to whom it is directed, with design to obstruct the correspondence, to pry into another’s business, or secrets, or shall secrete, embezzle or destroy any such mail letter or packet, such offender, upon conviction, shall pay for every such offence a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars. Provided also, and be it further enacted, that every person who shall be imprisoned by a judgment of court under the 14th and 15th sections of this act, shall be kept at hard labour during the period of such imprisonment.

. And be it further enacted, That the postmasters shall, respectively, publish at the expiration of every three months, or oftener, when the Postmaster General shall so direct, in one of the newspapers published at or nearest the place of his residence, for three successive weeks, a list of all the letters remaining in their respective offices, or instead thereof, shall make out a number of such lists, and cause them to be posted at such public places in their vicinity, as shall appear to them best adapted for the information of the parties concerned; and at the expiration of the next three months, shall send such of the said letters as then remain on hand as dead letters, to the general post-office, where the same shall be opened and inspected; and if any valuable papers or matter of consequence shall be found therein, it shall be the duty of the Postmaster General to return such letter to the writer thereof, or cause a descriptive list thereof to be inserted in one of the newspapers published at the place most convenient to the supposed residence of the owner, if within the United States; and such letter, and the contents, shall be preserved, to be delivered to the person to whom the same shall be addressed, upon payment of the postage and the expense of publication. And if such letter with its contents, be not demanded by the person to whom it is addressed, or the owner thereof, or his lawful agent, within two years after the advertisement thereof as aforesaid, the said contents shall be applied to the use of the United States, until the same shall be reclaimed by the proprietor thereof. The manner of such application to be specially stated by the Postmaster General to the Secretary of the Treasury.

. And be it further enacted, That letters and packets to and from the following officers of the United States, shall be received and conveyed by post, free of postage. Each postmaster, provided each of his letters or packets shall not exceed half an ounce in weight; each member of the Senate and House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States; the Secretary of the Senate and Clerk of the house of Representatives, provided each letter or packet shall not exceed two ounces in weight, and during their actual attendance in any session of Congress, and twenty days after such session; the President of the United States; Vice President; the Secretary of the Treasury; Comptroller; Auditor; Register; Treasurer; Commissioner of the