Newman, Jerry Seinfeld’s nemesis in his eponymous sitcom, famously (and ominously) said that “When you control the mail, you control information.”
That was something Benjamin Franklin, the polymath Founding Father, knew very well. He’d overseen the mail service from 1753 until 1774, improving a rough system connecting the 13 British colonies. But, Smithsonian Magazine wrote, when it became clear that war between the Americans and Britain was inevitable, Franklin and his fellow rebels relied on an underground communications network, sharing information that would prove crucial to the revolutionaries’ success.
In 1775, the Continental Congress created what would become the United States Postal Service, with Franklin as its first Postmaster General. It was, the agency’s website says, “the first — and for many citizens, the most consequential — function of the new government.”
Now, 251 years since its creation, the USPS is still for many Americans a vital government function, even as the service faces a financial crisis that’s forced it to temporarily pause pension plan payments and raise prices for packages and priority mail and postage stamps.
They still get the mail to Americans, no matter how remote or far-flung their location, said Steve Kochersperger, the USPS’s historian and corporate information services manager. And they’ll get letters, packages and parcels to them by whatever means is necessary: by auto, by boat, by air, even by mule.
Here’s a look back at this iconic American institution that has faced unprecedented challenges in recent years.
War and Commerce Fuel Postal Innovation
Before the Civil War, Kochersperger explained, Americans had to travel to their local post office, and, in many smaller communities, that meant a trip to the general store or another centrally located business.
Newspapers, vital sources of information from the Colonial period well into the 20th century, were given subsidies to allow them to be mailed, a way of keeping people informed. But it could be costly to mail letters and correspondence, said Lynn Heidelbaugh, curator with the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. In 1845, postage rates were lowered to make them more affordable, and in 1847, postage stamps were introduced, adding convenience. Mail was delivered to post offices by horses, stage coaches and later by train.
As the Civil War unfolded, Heidelbaugh said, it wasn’t uncommon to see women with children lined up at urban post offices awaiting letters from sons and husbands away at war. In 1863, free home delivery began in cities, though “it took decades of debate in Congress” for free home delivery to spread to small towns and villages, she said. By 1902, rural free delivery was standard throughout the U.S.
John Wanamaker, a Philadelphia department store owner, was appointed postmaster general by President Benjamin Harrison in 1889 and lobbied for rural free delivery (RFD), commemorative stamps and pneumatic tubes — innovations that would be implemented after his term ended in 1893, Kochersperger said.
“Sears & Roebuck and Montgomery Ward, they were the Amazons of their day,” Kochersperger said. “Their businesses expanded when they could send catalogs to people directly.” Americans, even in far-flung places, could receive home-delivered parcels starting in 1913.
Infrastructure Equals Access
The USPS’s mandate for universal service meant it had to be able to access sometimes hard-to-reach areas, Heidelbaugh said, and that helped many communities become more physically connected.
“Rural delivery helped make the case for better roads,” she said. “Rural communities were already trying to improve roads and having a rural carrier using those roads helped them make the case to demand better roads that were graded, paved and maintained.”
The Constitution gives Congress the power to establish post offices and postal roads, a provision Heidelbaugh said has “huge latitude,” and one that’s been interpreted to include not just paved roads, but also waterways, canals, railways and air mail service. That’s had implications for rural communities, and commercial entities: “When those funds go toward different [postal] routes, the businesses transporting the mail get a steady stream of income, so for example, rail companies carrying mail can invest more in passenger service.”
Reaching Hard-to-Reach Places
The postal service can be a lifeline, both figuratively and even literally, for many Americans in remote or distant places, from rural areas in the Continental United States to hard-to-reach areas of Alaska to faraway territories like Guam and military bases all over the world.
Newspapers and letters have helped keep families informed and connected, “especially in times of crisis, like during war, if you had a loved one far away,” Kochersperger said.
The mail is a way for the federal government to provide services to people, to communicate (the Internal Revenue Service, for instance, communicates with taxpayers via mail). During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, the Postal Service “was incredibly important in delivering lifesaving medications and so many other things” to people who could not venture out.
“If your nearest pharmacy is a day’s drive away, you may depend on the Postal Service to get medications that keep you alive,” he noted.
The American Samoa Post Office is the only U.S. post office in the Southern Hemisphere. There are post offices at the South Pole and Greenland, Kochersperger said, and post offices aboard ships all over the world. USPS delivers to remote Alaskan villages accessible only by air and only at certain times of year. There is a Detroit River service that delivers mail to boats navigating the waterway, and the Supai Post Office delivers mail to members of the Havasupai tribe in the Grand Canyon — by mule train, “the best and most cost-effective way” to access an area inaccessible by auto and too dangerous for a helicopter or small aircraft, he said.
Throughout the United States, he said, “You can take for granted when you drop something in the mailbox that it’s going to get there.”
‘The Math Is Pretty Simple’
The 21st century has brought stark challenges for the Postal Service, which has struggled for decades to keep costs in line while still delivering to areas all over the United States and the world.
USPS has been losing money each year since 2007, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said — a total of about $109 billion through fiscal year 2024. Americans’ habits are changing: Communications, bill paying, even document signing can all take place online. In fiscal 2024, USPS delivered 112 billion pieces of mail, and while that might sound like a massive volume, it’s actually down nearly 50% from its peak in 2006, according to the Postal Regulatory Commission.
In comments made May 8, Postmaster General David Steiner said the fiscal outlook for the Postal Service under its current business model is “unsustainable.”
“The math is pretty simple,” he said. “Revenues and services cannot offset the costs associated with the universal service obligation.”
Congress, he said, views allotting more money to the Postal Service “as a public service reimbursement for the universal service that the Postal Service provides to the nation — a service no other private enterprise is willing or capable of doing.”
But Steiner acknowledged to Congress in March that 71% of postal routes cost the Postal Service money. Meanwhile, postage costs, despite frequent increases, remain the lowest among industrialized nations.
Critics have said the Postal Service needs a dramatic overhaul. The Wall Street Journal wrote in a May 11 editorial that another congressional “bailout” for the Postal Service is not the answer. “Its business model is an anachronism in a digital world,” and the number of addresses it must reach keeps going up — as do costs.
“Something has to give,” the Journal said, urging Congress to let go of mandates on postage rates and universal delivery and “let Mr. Steiner run the business like a business.”
Meanwhile, Steiner proposed updating Congress’ reimbursement amount to better reflect today’s fiscal realities, including changes to the USPS’s ability to borrow money and reforms to its retirement plans. The need for a robust Postal Service should not be partisan, Steiner added.
“The Postal Service was created to serve the nation,” Steiner said.
Phaedra Trethan is a national correspondent for USA TODAY, writing about history and Americana.
