Government control of the post office was more about controlling the flow of information. Recently I was reading a biography of Ben Franklin, and the reason th

Government control of the post office was more about controlling the flow of information. Recently I was reading a biography of Ben Franklin, and the reason the Postmaster position was so important back then was that you could use it to control the newspapers that went out. "Bradford was the postmaster of Philadelphia, and he used that post to deny Franklin the right, at least officially, to send his Gazzette through the mail" - http://books.google.com/books?id=L64OOJGaCKIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=ben+franklin+american+life#PPA115,M1 http://books.google.com/books?id=L64OOJGaCKIC&printsec=f... ( search for "postmaster" )