(ACT of April 30th, 1810.) 17. SEC. XIX. If any person shall rob any carrier of the mail of the United States, or other person intrusted therewith, of such mail, or of part thereof, such offender or offenders shall, on conviction, be imprisoned, not exceeding ten years, and, if convicted a second time of a like offence, he or they shall suffer death; or if, in effecting such robbery of the mail the first time, the offender shall wound the person having custody thereof, or put his life in jeopardy, by the use of dangerous weapons, such offender or offenders shall suffer death. And if any person shall attempt to rob the mail of the United States, by assaulting the person having custody thereof, shooting at him, or his horse, or mule, or threatening him with dangerous weapons, and the robbery is not effected, every such offender, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment not exceeding three years. And if any person shall 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 any release, receipt, acquittance, or discharge, or any other article, paper, or thing, mentioned and described in the eighteenth section of this act, 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, or either of the writings referred to, or next abovementioned, such offender or offenders, on conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned not exceeding seven years. 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 a 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 five hundred dollars. 18. SEC. xx. If any person shall rip, cut, tear, burn, or otherwise injure, any portmanteau, valise, or other bag, used, or designed to be used, by any person acting under the authority of the postmaster general, or any person in whom his powers are vested, in the conveyance of any mail, letter, packet, newspaper, or pamphlet, or shall draw, or break, any staple, or loosen any part of any lock, chain, or strap, attached or belonging to any such valise, portmanteau, or bag, with an intent to rob or steal any mail, letter, packet, newspaper, or pamphlet, or to render either of the same insecure, every such offender, upon conviction, shall, for every such offence, pay a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, or be im (ACT of April 30th, 1810.) prisoned not exceeding three years, at the discretion of the court before whom such conviction is had. 19. SEC. XXI. Every person who, from and after the passage of this act, shall procure, aid, advise, or assist, in the doing or perpetration of any of the acts or crimes, by this act forbidden to be done or performed, shall be subject to the same penalties and punishments as the persons are subject to, who shall actually do or perpetrate any of said acts or crimes, according to the provision of this act. 20. SEC. xx11. Every person who shall be imprisoned by a judg ment of court, under and by virtue of the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth, or twenty-first, sections of this act, shall be kept at hard labour during the period of such imprisonment. 21. SEC. XXIII. 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 the 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. 22. SEC. XXIV. 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 each member and delegate of the 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 (ACT of April 30th, 1810.) twenty days after such session; and, in case of excess of weight, that excess alone shall be paid for; the president of the United States; vice president; the secretaries of state, of the treasury, of war, of the navy; the attorney general; the comptroller; treasurer, auditor, register; supervisor of the direct tax for the district of South Carolina; superintendent of Indian trade; purveyor; the inspector and paymaster of the army; accountants of the war and navy departments; postmaster general; and the assistants postmaster general; John Adams, a former president of the United States; and Thomas Jefferson, late president of the United States; and they may all receive their newspapers by post free of postage: Provided, That the members of the senate and house of representatives, secretary of the senate, and clerk of the house of representatives, shall receive their newspapers free of postage only during any session of congress, and twenty days after the expiration of the same: And provided, That no letter or packet from any public officer shall be conveyed by post, free of postage, unless he shall frank the same, by writing his name and office on the outside of such letter or packet, and until he has previously furnished the postmaster of the office where he shall deposit the same, with a specimen of his signature. [See title LANDS-general laws, 10, ante page, 437.] SEC. XXV. If any person shall frank letters other than those written by himself, or by his order, on the business of his office, he shall, on conviction thereof, pay a fine of ten dollars: Provided, That the secretary of the treasury, secretary of state, secretary of war, secretary of the navy, and postmaster general, may frank letters or packets on official business, prepared in any other public office, in the absence of the principal thereof. And if any person, having the right to receive his letters free of postage, shall receive, enclosed to him, any letter or packet, addressed to a person not having that right, it shall be his duty to return the same to the post office, marking thereon the place from whence it came, that it may be charged with postage. And if any person shall counterfeit the hand writing or frank of any person, or cause the same to be done, in order to avoid the payment of postage, each person, so offending, shall pay, for every such offence, fifty dollars. 23. SEC. XXVI. Every printer of newspapers may send one paper to each and every other printer of newspapers, within the United States, free of postage, under such regulations as the postmaster general shall provide. SEC. XXVII. All newspapers conveyed in the mail shall be under cover, open at one end, and charged with a postage of one cent each, for any distance not more than one hundred miles, and one and an half cents for any greater distance: Provided, That the postage of a single newspaper, from any one place to another in the same state, shall not exceed one cent; and that the postmaster general shall require those who receive newspapers by post, to (ACT of April 30th, 1810.) pay always the amount of one quarter's postage in advance. If any person employed in any department of the post office shall improperly detain, delay, embezzle, or destroy, any newspaper, or shall permit any other person to do the like, or shall open, or permit any other to open, any mail or packet of newspapers, not directed to the office where he is employed, he shall, on conviction thereof, forfeit a sum not exceeding fifty dollars for every such offence. And if any other person shall open any mail or packet of newspapers, or shall embezzle or destroy the same, not being directed to himself, or not being authorised to receive and open the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, pay a sum not exceeding twenty dollars for every such offence. And if any person shall take or steal any packet, bag, or mail, of newspapers from or out of any post office, or from any person having custody thereof, such person shall, on conviction, be imprisoned, not exceeding three months, for every such offence, to be kept at hard labour during the period of such imprisonment. If any person shall enclose, or conceal, a letter, or other thing, or any memorandum in writing, in a newspaper, or among any package of newspapers, which he shall have delivered into any post office, or to any person for that purpose, in order that the same may be carried by post, free of letter postage, he shall forfeit the sum of five dollars for every such offence; and the letter, newspaper, package, memorandum, or other thing, shall not be delivered to the person to whom it is directed until the amount of single letter postage is paid for each article of which the package shall be composed. No newspapers shall be received by the postmasters to be conveyed by post, unless they are sufficiently dried, and enclosed, in proper wrappers, on which, beside the direction, shall be noted the number of papers which are enclosed for subscribers, and the number for printers. The postmaster general, in any contract he may enter into for the conveyance of the mail, may authorise the person with whom such contract is to be made, to carry newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets, other than those conveyed in the mail. When the mode of conveyance, and the size of the mails, will admit of it, magazines and pamphlets may be transported in the mail at one cent a sheet, for any distance not exceeding fifty miles; at one cent and an half for any distance over fifty, and not exceeding one hundred, miles; and two cents for any greater dis tance. 24. SEC. XXIX. If any postmaster, or other person authorized to receive the postage of letters and packets, shall neglect or refuse to render his accounts, and pay over, to the postmaster general, the balance by him due at the end of every three months, it shall be the duty of the postmaster general to cause a suit to be commenced against the person or persons so neglecting or refusing; and if the postmaster general shall not cause such suit to be commenced within six months from the end of every such three months, the balances due from every such delinquent shall be (ACT of April 30th, 1810.) charged to, and recoverable from, the postmaster general. That all suits which shall be hereafter commenced for the recovery of debts, or balances, due to the general post office, whether they appear by bond or obligations made in the name of the existing or any preceding postmaster general, or otherwise, shall be instituted in the name of the "Postmaster General of the United States." That certified copies, under the seal of the general post office, of the accounts current of the several postmasters, after the same shall have been examined and adjusted at that office, shall be admitted as evidence in all suits brought by the postmaster general for the recovery of balances, or debts, due from postmasters; and, in like manner, copies of such accounts current as are lodged in the office of the register of the treasury, certified by the register, under the seal of his office, shall be admitted as evidence. SEC. XXX. If any postmaster, or other person who shall receive and open, or despatch, mails, shall neglect to render accounts thereof for one month after the time, and in the form and manner prescribed by law, and by the postmaster general's instructions conformable therewith, he shall forfeit double the value of the postages which shall have arisen at the same office in any equal portion of time previous or subsequent thereto; or, in case no accounts shall have been rendered at the time of trial of such case, then such sum as the court and jury shall estimate equivalent thereto, to be recovered by the postmaster general in an action on the case. 25. SEC. XXXI. All pecuniary penalties and forfeitures incurred under this act, shall be one-half for the use of the person or persons informing and prosecuting for the same, and the other half to the use of the United States. 26. SEC. XXXII. It shall be lawful for the postmaster general to make provision, where it may be necessary, for the receipt of all letters and packets intended to be conveyed by any ship or vessel beyond sea, or from any port in the United States, to another port therein; and the letters so received shall be formed into a mail, sealed up, and directed to the postmaster of the port to which such ship or vessel may be bound. And for every letter or packet so received, there shall be paid, at the time of its reception, a postage of one cent, which shall be for the use of the postmasters, respectively, receiving the same. And the postmaster general may make arrangements with the postmasters in any foreign country, for the reciprocal receipt and delivery of letters and packets through the post offices. 27. SEC. XXXIII. The postmasters, and the persons employed in the transportation of the mail, shall be exempt from militia duties, and serving on juries, or any fine or penalty for neglect thereof. 28. SEC. XXXIV. Letter carriers shall be employed at such post offices as the postmaster general shall direct, for the delivery of letters in the places, respectively, where such post offices are es |