William and Mary Goddard, Printers and Public Servants

Bay," and affirmed the hope that the new system would be complete in all
points "by the first of September next, that being the time appointed for
the meeting of the Grand Congress at Philadelphia..." On October 5, 1774,
Goddard presented a peti tion to the Continental Congress,¹ which doubtless
had to do with his post office scheme, but as the text of it has not been pre-
served, one may not know what specific proposal he made to the delegates.
Several months later, in a broadside² published in New York on May 2, 1775,
he pounced upon "a certain John Foxcroft," who, he asserted, had begun
life as the servant of a Virginia gentleman of Williamsburg, and who, having
been appointed recently to the position of Master of the Posts in North
America, had "let loose the Reins of arbitrary Power" to such a length that
the liberty of the press had been abridged and detestable publications inim-
ical to the American cause had been circulated through the Philadelphia
post office. He offered to give this "Mushroom Gentleman" an explanation
on either a public or a private occasion, but he intimated that his offer would
not be taken up, as "the General of the Post-Office, like the renowned Gage,
keeps himself encag'd."

The "Constitutional Post Office," known popularly as "Goddard's Post
Offices," up to this time had received no official recognition. It was a pri-
vate concern, operating from Massachusetts to Virginia as early as May
8, 1775,³ side by side with the British post. It had been set going by God-
dard on subscribed capital,⁴ and that it had small chance of success as a
private enterprise is clearly comprehended when one learns that in the year
1776, even after it had become the official system of the colonies, the post-
mistress of Baltimore, Mary K. Goddard, received from postage only forty
odd pounds,⁵ and that for several years thereafter she paid the riders with
"hard money" out of her own purse. It must have been a devoutly hoped
for consummation of Goddard's plans when on July 26, 1775, the Consti-
tutional Post Office was taken over by Congress as the official system of the
United Colonies.⁶ After several months of attempted opposition to the new

¹ See Journals of Continental Congress, October 5, 1774. (Ford ed.)

² Ms. Division Library of Congress has a copy of this broadside.

³See references to his activity at this time in American Archives, 4th Series, 2: 537, where is given a list of
"Goddard's Post Offices" then established, and an interesting pronouncement on the subject of the "Constitu-
tional" and "unconstitutional" post offices by John Holt.

⁴ Memorial of William Goddard in Papers of the Continental Congress, 42: III, 178. Ms. Division Library of
Congress. Printed in American Archives, 4th Series, 6:1012.

⁵ Memorial of Mary K. Goddard to President Washington, in Papers of the Continental Congress, Letters, 78:
X, 617-619. Ms. in Library of Congress. See also ms. vol. of Mary Goddard's Post Office Accounts, 1786-1789,
in Maryland Historical Society.

⁶ Journals of Continental Congress. In a Congressional debate of October 7, 1775, it was said that a "Constitu-
tional Post is now established from New Hampshire to Georgia." The debate discloses further the fact that the

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