General Post Office report

January 20, 1790

This printed and bound report of seven numbered pages is about the current state and proposal for improvements to the General Post Office by Samuel Osgood, Postmaster General and addressed to Alexander Hamilton, Treasury Secretary. It is structured like a letter opening with the context of its composition: "General Post Office, New York, January 20, 1790"; salutation to “Sir”; and on page seven a valediction: “I am, Sir, with esteem, Your most obedient, humble servant, Samuel Osgood,” and concludes with the notation of the intended recipient: “The Hon. Alexander Hamilton, Esq., Secretary of the Treasury.” It is for all intents and purposes the Postmaster General’s annual report, which has been addressed at various times throughout the history of the US postal service to the President, to the Secretary of the Treasury (the department to which the General Post Office answered in 1790), and to Congress.