" Thomas Watkins says that
the store contained "a little candy, tobacco, sugar, and coffee, and
the like;" though Mr. Watkins, being then a small boy, and living a
mile in the country, was not a frequent visitor at the store.
LINCOLN APPOINTED POSTMASTER.
Business was not so brisk, however, in Berry and Lincoln's grocery,
even after the license was granted, that the junior partner did not
welcome an appointment as postmaster which he received in May, 1833.
The appointment of a Whig by a Democratic administration seems to have
been made without comment. "The office was too insignificant to make
his politics an objection," say the autobiographical notes. The duties
of the new office were not arduous, for letters were few, and their
comings far between. At that date the mails were carried by four-horse
post-coaches from city to city, and on horseback from central points
into the country towns. The rates of postage were high. A single-sheet
letter carried thirty miles or under cost six cents; thirty to eighty
miles, ten cents; eighty to one hundred and fifty miles, twelve and
one-half cents; one hundred and fifty to four hundred miles, eighteen
and one-half cents; over four hundred miles, twenty-five cents.
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