Before America had the Declaration of Independence, much less the Constitution, the nation had the Postal Service. Before Benjamin Franklin wooed France into the alliance that won our freedom, he sowed the seeds of the U.S. mail. The history of the United States of America cannot be understood without the post office.
The many reasons this is true boil down to a few essentials. America’s mail service enabled the distribution of cheap news sources that engaged an informed citizenry. The mail was a lifeline connecting frontier to home base. It was the sinew of commerce and the lifeblood of democracy.
At every stage in our history, Americans have moved more information and more products across greater distances with greater speed than any nation before. And no nation spread that bounty more broadly than the U.S., where the same first-class stamp carries a letter next door or to the Arctic Circle
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