. . .In our courts, such acts receive the same construction that43 would be put upon any other remedial legislation; that is, a fair, sensible, practical interpretation, without reference to any merely technical rule in favor of the accused.”117

The question arose in 1858 as to the legality of carrying letters to and from the postoffice in a town where a public carrier had not been appointed. The attorney general was of the opinion that the act forbade this. “A person,” he said, “who intends to make the carrying of letters his regular business, or part of his business, and to do it periodically for hire, in opposition to the public carrier, is legally incapable of receiving authority to take letters out of the postoffice for that purpose.”118 But when the question went to the courts, a contrary position was taken. The Act of March 3, 1851119 authorized the postmaster general “to establish postroutes within the cities or towns.&rdqu. . . Read More