The first post office in colonial America was created in 1639 in the Boston house of a man called Richard Fairbanks, which was also a tavern that sold “stronge water”.¹⁾

Newspapers were allowed to be mailed at exceptionally low rates as part of the Post Office Act of 1792, which the Founding Fathers saw as crucial for sustaining an informed population through sharing knowledge. As a result, by the early nineteenth century, newspapers constituted the majority of US mail. In 1840, 91 percent of white American adults could read, and the broad availability of newspapers contributed to this excellent literacy rate.²⁾

Because the United States Postal Service was the only official means to transfer money, the severity of the punishment was less a reflection of the government's brutality and more an evidence of the necessity of secure postal delivery. Congress quickly changed its mind, and mail theft for first-time offenders was made punished by a public flogging and a jail sentence of up to ten years in 1799. Second offenders, on the other hand, faced the death penalty, which remained in effect until 1872.³⁾

The post was deemed so important to a fledgling nation that John McLean, Postmaster General from 1823 to 1829, reported directly to President James Monroe and later to President John Quincy Adams. Following his tenure as Postmaster General, he will be appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Later in his career, he was considered a serious presidential candidate.⁴⁾