The US postal system was established with Franklin as first Postmaster
On this day · 26 July 1775
Nearly a year before independence, the colonies set up their own post office and handed the keys to Benjamin Franklin.
On July 26, 1775, the Second Continental Congress established an American postal system and appointed Benjamin Franklin as the first Postmaster General — almost a full year before the Declaration of Independence. The move turned the colonial mail network into the Post Office of the United States.
Franklin was an obvious choice. He had been postmaster of Philadelphia since 1737 and had served as a joint Postmaster General under the British crown, surveying post roads, tidying the accounts, and pushing riders to carry mail by night as well as day.
A reliable post was more than convenience; it was the nervous system of a rebellion.
Congress gave Franklin a salary of $1,000 plus funds for a secretary, and the power to appoint deputies across the colonies. The resulting network — routes eventually running from Maine to Florida — helped bind the scattered colonies together. Franklin held the post until late 1776, when he left to serve as a diplomat in France.
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