The Portland Gazette

General Post Office. A committee was raised in Congress to investigate the affairs of the Post Office Department, and have reported on the following subjects:

1. The expenditure of public money by the department, for transporting the mail from Washington city to Fredericksburg, in the years 1814, 1815 and 1816.

2. Whether duplicates of all contracts made by this department, and all proposals respecting them, have been lodged with the comptroller of the treasury or not.

3. Whether the postmaster general has, once in three months, rendered to the secretary of the treasury a quarterly account of all receipts and expenditures of the department or not.

4. Whether the postmaster general has paid into the treasury of the United States the balance due from him, as the law requires, or not.

5. Whether the public money was not loaned to Benjamin Tallmadge and John G. Jackson.

6. Whether the postmaster general, in his annual reports to congress, of the contracts made by this department, has reported them conformably with law, or not.

7. Whether he has annually reported to congress all contracts made by his department, or not.

It appears by the report, that on each of these subjects, except the 5th, there has been a deviation from law and a mismanagement in the concerns of that office.

In relation to the fourth head of inquiry, it appears that the balance due from the Post Office Department to the Department of the Treasury, amounted, on the 1st day of Jan. 1819, to the sum of $653,491.99, which includes all money then on hand, and debts due to the Post Office Department: the amount of which the committee have no documents to ascertain.

Reference to documents Nos. 16, 17, and letter of the Postmaster General, accompanying his report of debtors to his department.

The committee have contented themselves with submitting the above brief statement of the objects to which their inquiries have been directed, together with the connected evidence and explanations for the information of the house, without suggesting any resolution or act for its adoption.

The report was, with the documents accompanying the same, referred to a committee of the whole, and ordered to be printed.