By covering both administrative and non-administrative aspects of the postal network, this four-volume reset edition shows how this system was part of a larger network which included different modes of transport and communication (steamboats, railroads, telegraphs) as well as political parties (the Democrats, Whigs and Republicans)

VOLUME 4 Reform, Part II: 1861-1914 Introduction: Reform, Part II: 1861-1914 I. Postal Telegraphy Gardiner G. Hubbard, Postal Telegraph (1869) Leonidas Trousdale, The Postal Telegraph System (1869) The Postal Telegraph. Statement of a Few Facts Showing What has Been Accomplished in Europe, and What the Development Might Be in America (1872) S. F. Covington, The Postal Telegraph (1875) Charles A. Sumner, The Postal Telegraph (1879) F. H. Giddings, Railroads and Telegraphs: Who Shall Control Them? (1881) New York Board of Trade and Transportation, A Postal Telegraph and Telephone: What Has Been Accomplished in Great Britain (1882) The Business Practices of Western Union J. A. Price, Postal Telegraphy (1882) Some Serious Considerations Concerning a Governmental Telegraph (1883) E. B. Vedder, A 'Postal' or Government Telegraph Would be Unconstitutional, Inexpedient, and Dangerous (1888) Gardiner G. Hubbard, Postal Telegraph: An Address Delivered ... Before the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New-York (1890) II. Parcels Post James L. Cowles James L. Cowles, A Parcels Post: A Cent a Pound (1894) James L. Cowles, The Post-Office the Citadel of American Liberty (1899) New York Postal Progress League [1903] C. A. Hutsinpillar, The Parcels Post (1904) George H. Maxwell, Perils of Parcels Post extension: Centralization of Trade (1908) S. R. Miles, The Menace of a Parcels Post [1909] Charles William Burrows Charles William Burrows, Further Thoughts on Parcels Post (1908) Charles William Burrows, One Cent Letter Postage: Second Class Mail Rates and Parcels Post (1911) The Widening of the Debate on Parcels Post W. P. Bogardus, Post Parcels [1911] Emma Frantz, The Parcels Post: The Mail Order House and their Effect upon the Future of the United States [1911] George Hoyt Allen, I Want a Parcels Post [1911] Debates over the General Parcels Post World Postal League, The Public Service Post Office (1914) Merchants' Association of New York, Against Further Extension of the Parcels Po