An 1859 Letter from Emile La Sére, President of the Louisiana Tehuantepec Company, to the Louisiana State Bank forwarding a copy of the official notification by the Postmaster General not to renew the Company’s mail contract that precipitated the formation of the Pony Express

1859 · New Orleans

by LA SÉRE, Emile

New Orleans, 1859. Very Good. Autograph Letter Signed. Quarto 2pp. Louisiana Tehuantepec Company, New Orleans, September 22-23, 1859; together with a tipped-in one-page manuscript copy of a letter to Emile La Sére from first Assistant U.S. Postmaster General Horatio King dated September 16, 1859. One old vertical centerfold, the tipped-in manuscript copy and final blank leaf are moderately toned with some light chipping at the edges, very good.

A detailed letter neatly written by Emile La Sére to the President and Directors of the Louisiana State Bank, informing them of the U.S. Post Master’s decision not to renew the mail contract of the (truncated) Louisiana Tehuantepec Company, and asking for their continued financial support. Fluent in English, French, and Spanish, La Sére was an influential businessman and politician who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the first district of Louisiana from 1846-51.

The copy of the September 16, 1859 termination letter reads in part:

“As the contract with your Company for transporting the mails on route No 8162, between New Orleans and San Francisco via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, will expire by express limitation, on the 30th instant, it will be impossible [for you] to complete a trip commenced at New Orleans on the 27th inst. only three days previous to its termination; and I am therefore directed by the Post Master General to inform you, that having heretofore declined to renew your contract for that service and being unwilling to grant any extension thereof, no mail will be dispatched on the 27th inst. from New Orleans …”

In Emile La Sére’s accompanying letter of September 22-23, he discusses the implications of Post Office Department’s decision:

“I have to apprise you of a communication received this day from the 1st Asst. Post Master General, relative to our Mail Contract with the U.S. Government and of which I beg leave herewith to hand your enclosed copy. The Board of Directors entirely dissent from the view assumed by the Post Master General, of the contract entered into with this Company and have immediately so informed him by telegraph as also of our readiness to convey the mail. The Board claims that the Contract is not completed until after the performance of the trip hence to Minatitlan on the 27th and from San Francisco to Ventosa … to this end arrangements have long ago been entered into between this Company and the owners of the Propeller “Habana” and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and for the non-fulfilment of any part of these agreements, this Company becomes liable in damages to these parties; respectively in the sum of Ten Thousand and Three Thousand dollars. I have deemed it my duty thus plainly to state the facts of the case, and to request that you will inform the Board whether under these circumstances you will pay over the last instalment of $1,500 lately granted this Company as a further loan by your Institution to enable them to carry out their part of the contract … And in conclusion I would beg leave further to state, that although the Post Master General may decline or demur paying the stipulated Contract price for the performance of this last trip, the Board feel nevertheless persuaded that were Congress appealed to, the sum justly earned would not be withheld.”

The termination of the mail contract of the Louisiana Tehuantepec Company thus opened the door for private competition and in 1859, the Leavenworth & Pike’s Peak Express Company, renamed a year later the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Company, started an express mail service between St. Joseph and San Francisco on April 3, 1860, which became known as the Pony Express. During the Civil War Emile La Sére went on to serve in the Confederate States Army, first as major of the 10th Louisiana Regiment, and later as chief quartermaster of the Trans-Mississippi Department. In 1864, he was appointed the Confederacy’s commercial agent in Mexico.

A scarce, primary source letter documenting the early development of the U.S. Postal Service in the Southwest and California before the Civil War. (Inventory #: 585589)

$2,800.⁰⁰ add to cart or Buy Direct from
Between the Covers Rare Books

Offered by

Between the Covers Rare Books, Inc.

112 Nicholson Rd.
Gloucester City, NJ 08030-1225

mail@betweenthecovers.com

(856) 456-8008

Specializing in African-Americana, Americana, Archives & Manuscripts, First Editions, Literature, Poetry, Women, Military History, Photography, Sports, Mysteries

More from this seller

First Edition

Die Ballade vom traurigen Cafe (The Ballad of the Sad Cafe)

by McCULLERS, Carson

(Zurich) : Diogenes Verlag , 1961
(click for more details)

First Edition

[12 film stills]: "Wolfe and Montcalm", one of the Chronicles of American Photoplays produced by The Yale University Press

[New Haven] : Yale University Press / [Pathe] , 1924
(click for more details)

The ABAA
Promise

You can be confident that when you make a purchase through ABAA.org, the item is sold by an ABAA member in full compliance with our Code of Ethics. Our sellers guarantee your order will be shipped promptly and that all items are as described. Buy with confidence through ABAA.org.