::: TREATY PERIOD :::

Handling mail to or from Hawaii took a dramatic turn in September, 1850. Hawaii and the United States had just signed a Treaty of Friendship and Commerce. At that time, Hawaii feared imminent French occupation and hoped the Treaty would intimidate the French. Postal affairs were an afterthought but tucked away in the Treaty was Article 15, where the two countries created an arrangement to exchange mail. Article 15 read:

So soon as steam or other mail packets under the flag of either of the contracting parties, shall have commenced running between their respective ports of entry, the contracting parties agree to receive at the post offices of those ports all mailable matter, and to forward it as directed, the destination being to some regular post office of either country; charging thereupon the regular postal rates as established by law in the territories of either party receiving said mailable matter, in addition to the original postage of the office whence the mail was sent. Mails for the United States shall be made up at regular intervals at the Hawaiian post office, and despatched to ports of the United States, the postmasters at which ports shall open the same, and forward the enclosed matter as directed, crediting the Hawaiian Government with their postages as established by law and stamped upon each manuscript or printed sheet.

All mailable matter destined for the Hawaiian Islands shall be received at the several post offices in the United States and forwarded to San Francisco or other ports on the Pacific Coast of the United States, whence the postmasters will despatch it by the regular mail packets to Honolulu, the Hawaiian Government agreeing on their part to receive and collect for and credit the post office department of the United States with the United States rates charged thereupon. It shall be optional to prepay postage on letters in either country, but postage on printed sheets and newspapers shall in all cases be prepaid. The respective post office departments of the contracting parties shall, in their accounts, which are to be adjusted annually, be credited with all dead letters returned.

[Emphasis added]

Although the clause was to become effective only once "mail packets" were running between the two ports (meaning contract mail service) and only after Hawaii created a "regular post office" and had "regular postal rates," Hawaii's Foreign Minister, Robert Crichton Wyllie, decided to test the willingness of San Francisco post master J. B. Moore to proceed with the Treaty plan ahead of those events happening (indeed, the contract route pre-condition would wait until September, 1867, to be realized). On September 9, 1850, Wyllie sent a letter bag to Mr. Moore asking him to accept the letters in accordance with the Treaty. Wyllie guaranteed the Hawaiian government would pay all United States postage owed on the prepaid letters in the bag.

Impact of Article 15 and the Wyllie/Moore Agreement

• First, Article 15 stipulated normal United States domestic postage rates applied to mail from Hawaii. Thus, Hawaiian mail received at San Francisco was, once entered there, treated the same as a letter originating in San Francisco. Fees charged to get the mail to the San Francisco office were additional.



• Second, Wyllie's promise to pay any United States postage due on mail received in the official letter bag created the means for Hawaii residents to send mail to the United States with United States postage pre-paid. Until then, all mail was sent collect.



• Third, the Treaty forced Hawaii to establish a formal post office (no real force other than inertia resisted creating one).



• Fourth, mail from Hawaii to Europe could be handled at the same rates and in the same manner as mail originating in the United States and Hawaii had no need to create separate postal treaties other than with countries having no treaty with the United States.



• Fifth, changes in United States domestic postal rates directly affected the postal rates on Hawaiian foreign mail going to or through the United States. This feature means Hawaiian foreign mail during the Treaty Period cannot be understood without a comprehensive knowledge of United States rates.



• Sixth, the absence of a contract service between Honolulu and San Francisco impacted inbound mail until September, 1867, when contract service finally was established. Mail destined for Hawaii was sent to the San Francisco Post Office but it was necessary for Hawaii to appoint a mail agent in San Francisco to receive the mail from the San Francisco Post Office and deliver it to a ship bound for Hawaii. Letters directed to Hawaii often are addressed to a business firm in San Francisco, sometimes the same firm appointed as the mail agent, and the firm would act as a forwarder to put the mail aboard a vessel.

By the time these changes occurred, the mail route via San Francisco and Panama was well established so other than mail for Pacific ports or addressed to people living in California or Oregon, almost all of the mail was sent by the steamer route.

Although Article 15 was an afterthought, it continued to govern the exchange of mail between Hawaii and the United States until July 1, 1870, when it was replaced by a formal Postal Convention. As shown on the main page for Postal History, I divide the Treaty Period into segments paralleling changes in United States postage rates as those changes were applied to mail from Hawaii. We thus have the:

Inaugural Treaty Period: September 9, 1850 to sometime in July or August, 1851, when details of a United States postage rate change, effective July 1, 1851, became known in Honolulu.

Early Treaty Period: from an uncertain date in July or August, 1851 to May 16, 1855, when Hawaii learned higher United States postage rates on prepaid mail to the East, effective April 1, 1855, were in place.

Middle Treaty Period: from May 16, 1855 to August 30, 1863, when Hawaii learned United States postage rates were reduced, effective July 1, 1863.

Late Treaty Period: from August 30, 1863 to June 30, 1870. This Period is so complicated by mistakes and multiplicity of rates it is broken into six sub-parts for studying rates.

For many reasons, the Treaty Period is the "Classic Period" of Hawaiian Postal History. During the twenty years of the Treaty Period, Hawaii introduced its first postage stamps and stocked stamps of the United States for use in prepaying postage. Postmarks are colorful, stamps (when used) include some of the great rarities, rates are often complex and sometimes mysterious and mail transportation was usually primitive and always exciting. Many cover discoveries still await collectors.

How did this cover travel from Honolulu to New Bedford? Why does it say PAID but there is only a Hawaiian stamp on it? Why does the Honolulu postmark say "U. S. Postage Paid" when Hawaii was a separate country? What is the significance of the PAID/8/SHIP mark and where was it applied?

Dating Treaty Period Covers: Finding the correct month and year for covers is essential to form a correct understanding of rates, post office practices and mail carriage. This task is complicated because for most of the Treaty Period, postmarks used in Hawaii and San Francisco give only the month and day without the year. Tools developed over the past two decades have aided the job of fixing year and month dates:

• A census of surviving mail from the Treaty Period now includes 1,197 covers, wrappers, fronts and large pieces. This census provides an excellent pool of information showing progressive wear in the postmarking devices, introduction of new postmarking devices and changes in rate marks.



• Jim Shaffer developed an unpublished study fixing the time frame for progressive wear in the postmarks and dates for introduction of new postmarks.



• New comprehensive rate tables based on post office correspondence and newspaper notices show when new rates actually went into effect, sometimes different than the stated official effective date due to delay in transportation of news about a rate change.



• A complete sailing log has been developed from newspapers, Harbor Master records and other resources. This log shows dates of departure and arrival for all vessels sailing between Honolulu and San Francisco.

Now, even without a year date shown on the cover, all but a small handful of surviving Treaty Period mail can be identified with a particular year and month. Rate marks and postmarking devices narrow a cover to a specific time frame. Postmark months and days can now be compared to sailing tables to find the exact year, month and day when a cover left Honolulu. These tools have even identified manuscript datelines with mistaken year dates and postmarks with mistaken dates. Please let Post Office in Paradise know if you need assistance in fixing the date of a cover.

For rates, see Mail Rates.

For postmarks and rate marks during the Treaty Period, see:

• Honolulu Postmarks



• San Francisco Postal Markings.

SAN FRANCISCO POSTMARK DATES: San Francisco Postmarks on mail to be forwarded via the steamer route were dated on the expected date for the steamer sailing, not when the letter was received at the post office. The dates sometimes are off by a day or two either because it was more convenient or because the steamer was delayed. San Francisco postmarks on mail for delivery in San Francisco were dated when the letter was entered at the post office. Once mail from San Francisco was diverted to the Overland Stage late in 1859, letters were postmarked the day the stage left. When there were disruptions in the overland mail, letters were again routed by the steamers. But throughout the Treaty Period, San Francisco dated its postmark on or about the day the letter left the San Francisco office, not when it was received there, except mail for local delivery.

Deciphering the Honolulu to New Bedford cover: This cover graced the collections of Seybold, Green, Harris and Rust, some of the great Hawaii collectors of the 20th Century, so some hefty collectors thought it significant, I suspect principally because of the scarcity of Scott No. 6 on original cover. But another story tells of the postal arrangements and transportation methods in the mid-19th Century Pacific Basin.

• We know the Honolulu postmark date is October 3. It is type 236.05 (I), therefore it was applied before 1855 because by October, 1855, Honolulu was using another device, type 236.05 (II). We also know a different rate applied to prepaid mail in October 1855. The stamp is Hawaii Scott No. 6, issued about June, 1853. The two possible years are 1853 and 1854. None of the 1853 sailings from Honolulu work. The sailing tables put it on the American schooner E. L. Frost, departing Honolulu October 4, 1854 and arriving San Francisco October 28, in time to be postmarked on November 1, when the Panama steamer John L. Stephens departed for Panama City.



• The sender, probably on an outer island because of the pen cancel, paid 13¢ in cash for a 13¢ Hawaiian postage stamp and sent the letter to Honolulu by one of the interisland schooners. The letter was received by the Honolulu post office and shown on the prepaid letter way bill accompanying the letter bag to San Francisco. At San Francisco, the letter bag was opened, U. S. postage on prepaid mail was charged to the account of the Honolulu Post Office and the PAID/8/SHIP mark was applied. This letter was a single weight letter, weighing a half ounce or less so it was rated 6¢ for United States postage to the East under the 1851 rates, plus a 2¢ ship fee paid to the captain of the ship bringing the letter to the post office. San Francisco presented the postage account to Honolulu for payment on a quarterly basis. Of the 13¢ paid, Hawaii kept 5¢.



• The stamp itself was of absolutely no value once the letter left Hawaii. Because of the accounting arrangement between the post offices in Honolulu and San Francisco, the letter was rated as Paid at San Francisco. Thus the San Francisco Paid/8/SHIP mark (the SHIP referred to an incoming ship letter to explain the amount of 8¢ rather than 6¢) was why the letter was recognized in the United States postal system as a prepaid letter.



• Continuing with the transit of the letter, it arrived at Panama City where it was offloaded for the overland carriage to Chagres, on the Caribbean side. Crossing the Panama Isthmus before the Panama Railroad was completed in January, 1855 meant loading the mail onto mules for the ride to the crest of the mountains and transferring the mail bags to river boats on the Chagres River. Once at Chagres, the mail bags were loaded onto regular steamers and taken to New York. Because this letter was entered into the United States mail at San Francisco, it received no other transit marks and was delivered to New Bedford in due course. The cover was delivered in New Bedford about a month after leaving San Francisco, say about December 1, 1854, and less than two months after leaving Honolulu, a great improvement over transit times of ten years earlier.

Deciphering the Honolulu to Manchester, England cover: This cover (shown at the top of this page) benefits by the trans-Atlantic "tombstone" style rate mark showing it was stamped 29 Jan 1853. We also know blue ink was used for the San Francisco postmark only in December, 1852 and January, 1853. So we can fix this cover to 1852 with ease. Identifying the rate is more complicated.

• The letter was handed into the Honolulu Post Office on or before November 22, 1852, and 36¢ postage was paid in cash for the entire transit to England, consisting of the 5¢ Hawaiian rate, 29¢ U.S. rate from San Francisco to England plus the 2¢ ship fee paid to the captain of the ship carrying the letter to San Francisco.



• The sailing ship Zoe left Honolulu on November 22, 1852, and arrived at San Francisco on December 12. San Francisco made a bookkeeping entry charging 31¢ to the Honolulu Post Office and collected it through the quarterly accounting system arranged between the two post offices.



• The cover left San Francisco on December 16 aboard the steamer Tennessee and traveled the usual route to New York City where it was placed aboard a trans-Atlantic steamer for Liverpool.



• The manuscript "31" designates the United States postage from San Francisco to England. The red stamped "3" indicates the U.S. credit to Great Britain for prepaid letters carried by the Collins Line of U.S. packets. Prepayment of the U.S. to England rate was indicated by the orange red tombstone marking applied at Liverpool.



• A receiving postmark on the back tells us the letter was delivered in Manchester on January 29, 1853, two months and a week after leaving Honolulu.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Coburn, Jesse L., Letters of Gold, The U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, Inc. and The Philatelic Foundation, 1984, "Prologue", p. 5-16; "Gold", p. 18-35; and "Establishment of California Postal System", p. 38-70. Excellent history of the early California mail from early exploration through the Gold Rush Period; superbly illustrated with covers showing the various cancels used in connection with the California mail of the period; describes the early route via Mexico (p. 12-13) and the importance of Monterey; traces the establishment and early development of the San Francisco Post Office; covers early mail routes from the Eastern States, including the Isthmus route across Panama (p. 22-24); details the postal rates (pages 40-42; 52-62) affecting California mail.



• Hargest, George E., History of Letter Post Communications Between the United States and Europe, 1845-1875,Smithsonian Studies In History And Technology, Number 6, Smithsonian Institution Press, City of Washington, 1971. Important for figuring rates on mail to Europe via the U.S. and Transatlantic service.



• Starnes, Charles J., United States Letter Rates To Foreign Destinations, 1847 to GPU-UPU, Leonard H. Hartmann, Philatelic Bibliopole, Louisville, 1982. U.S. foreign letter rates (see page 21 for U.S. rates to Hawaii); errs in the private ship rate of September, 1867, on Hawaiian mail; table show UPU entry dates for member countries.



• Wierenga, Theron, United States Incoming Steamship Mail 1847-1875, published by author, Muskegon, Mich., 1983. U.S. Postal Rates; excellent study of ship fee and Panama route.



• Wierenga, Theron, The Gold Rush Mail Agents to California and their Postal Markings, 1849-1852, published by the author, Muskegan, Mich., 1987. Gives details on Panama steamer arrivals and departures for the period as well as Panama connections and N.Y. arrivals and departures.

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