To obviate, if possible, the necessity of
considering this question, it is suggested whether it be not expedient
to fix by law the amounts which shall be offered to railroad companies
for the conveyance of the mails, graduated according to their average
weight, to be ascertained and declared by the Postmaster-General. It
is probable that a liberal proposition of that sort would be accepted.
In connection with these provisions in relation to the Post-Office
Department, I must also invite your attention to the painful excitement
produced in the South by attempts to circulate through the mails
inflammatory appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves, in prints
and in various sorts of publications, calculated to stimulate them to
insurrection and to produce all the horrors of a servile war. There is
doubtless no respectable portion of our countrymen who can be so far
misled as to feel any other sentiment than that of indignant regret at
conduct so destructive of the harmony and peace of the country, and so
repugnant to the principles of our national compact and to the dictates
of humanity and religion.
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