Papers of John Adams, volume 21
th1796
To the Honorable the President and Members of the Senate of the United States
The Petition of the Inhabitants of Georgetown South Carolina and its vicinity
Humbly sheweth
That your Petitioners suffer much inconvenience for the want of a Post between this place and Charleston; until the late alteration of the Route of the Post, your Petitioners always enjoyed the benefit of a speedy and regular communication with their Fellow Citizens of Charleston, but agreeably to the present mode of conveyance, their Letters, Newspapers &c: go a circuitous route of 260 Miles which subjects your Petitioners to great delay and disappointment in their business.
456Your Petitioners therefore request of your Honorable House to take the premises into consideration and grant them a Post to go once a Week between Georgetown and Charleston; and your Petitioners as in duty bound shall ever pray—1
RC (DNA:RG 46, Records of the U.S.
Senate); docketed: “Legis: 1st: Sess: 4th. Cong: / Petition / of Abraham Cohen’s /
and others relative to the / Posts from George Town in / South Carolina.
/ April 1st. / 1796.” and “Petition of the
Inhabitants / of George Town to the / Honble The Senate.”
Thirty-five South Carolina residents signed this
petition, led by Georgetown postmaster Abraham Cohen (ca. 1739–1800), a
London-born merchant and Freemason who hosted George Washington at
Prince George’s Lodge, No. 16, for a public dinner in 1791 (George
Alexander Kohut, “Notes on the Civil and Military Status of American
Jews,” The Menorah, 18:255 [Jan. 1895];
Washington, Papers, Presidential Series
,
8:141–142; Barnett A. Elzas, The Jews of South
Carolina: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day, Phila.,
1905, p. 34). For the development of U.S. postal routes, see also Descriptive List of
Illustrations, No. 7, above.