The transportation has been maintained during the year to the full
extent authorized by the existing laws; some improvements have been
effected which the public interest seemed urgently to demand, but not
involving any material additional expenditure; the contractors have
generally performed their engagements with fidelity; the postmasters,
with few exceptions, have rendered their accounts and paid their
quarterly balances with promptitude, and the whole service of the
Department has maintained the efficiency for which it has for several
years been distinguished.
The acts of Congress establishing new mail routes and requiring more
expensive services on others and the increasing wants of the country
have for three years past carried the expenditures something beyond the
accruing revenues, the excess having been met until the past year by
the surplus which had previously accumulated. That surplus having been
exhausted and the anticipated increase in the revenue not having been
realized owing to the depression in the commercial business of the
country, the finances of the Department exhibit a small deficiency at
the close of the last fiscal year.
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