Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/630



duties assigned to them, or the execution of their trusts, and before they shall be entitled to receive any emolument therefor, respectively take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation therefor, respectively take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation, before some magistrate, and cause a certificate thereof to be filed in the general post-office: “I, A. B. do swear, or affirm (as the case may be) that I will faithfully perform all the duties required of me, and abstain from every thing forbidden by the laws in relation to the establishment of the post-office and post roads within the United States.” Every person who shall be in any manner employed in the care, custody, conveyance or management of the mail, shall be subject to all pains, penalties and forfeitures for violating the injunctions, or neglecting the duties required of him by the laws relating to the establishment of the post-office and post roads, whether such person shall have taken the oath or affirmation above prescribed or not.

. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the Postmaster-General to provide by contract, for the carriage of the mail on any road on which a stage wagon or other stage carriage shall be established, on condition that the expense thereof shall not exceed the revenue then arising. It shall also be lawful for the Postmaster-General to enter into contracts for a term not exceeding eight years, for extending the line of posts, and to authorize the persons so contracting, as a compensation for their expenses, to receive during the continuance of such contracts, at rates not exceeding those for like distances established by this act, all the postage which shall arise on letters, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets and packets, conveyed by any such post; and the roads designated in such contracts shall, during the continuance thereof, be deemed and considered as post roads within the provision of this act: and a duplicate of every such contract shall, within sixty days after the execution thereof, be lodged in the office of the comptroller of the treasury of the United States.

. And be it further enacted, That no other than a free white person shall be employed in carrying the mail of the United States, on any of the post roads, either as a post-rider or driver of a carriage carrying the mail; and every contractor who shall have stipulated or may hereafter stipulate to carry the mail, or whose duty it shall be to cause the same to be conveyed on any of the post roads as aforesaid, and who shall, contrary to this act, employ any other than a free white person as a post-rider or driver, or in any other way to carry the mail on the same, shall for every such offence forfeit and pay the sum of fifty dollars; one moiety thereof to the use of the United States, and the other moiety thereof to the person who shall sue for and prosecute the same, before any court having competent jurisdiction thereof.

. And be it further enacted, That the Postmaster-General shall be authorized to allow the postmasters at the several distributing offices such compensation as shall be adequate to their several services in that respect: Provided, that the same shall not exceed, in the whole, five per cent. on the whole amount of postages on letters and newspapers received for distribution: Provided also, that if the number of mails, received at and despatched from any such office is not actually increased by the distributing system, then no additional allowance shall be made to the postmaster.

. And be it further enacted, That whenever it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the Postmaster-General that any road established, or which may hereafter be established as a post road, is obstructed by fences, gates or bars, or other than those lawfully used on turnpike roads to collect their toll, and not kept in good repair, with proper bridges and ferries where the same may be necessary, it shall be the duty of the Postmaster-General to report the same to Congress with