With war already underway, Congress recognized that reliable communication between colonies was essential to coordinating resistance against Britain. Franklin, who had previously served as a royal postmaster, was the obvious choice to organize the new system, headquartered in Philadelphia. The move laid administrative groundwork for an independent nation still a year away from declaring itself one.
Franklin had actually been fired from his job as a royal deputy postmaster in 1774 for leaking letters that embarrassed British officials in Massachusetts. Rather than sidelining him, the controversy made him the natural pick when Congress needed someone who understood how to move mail across a fractured, war-torn landscape.
He set postage rates, established routes from Massachusetts to Georgia, and drew on decades of experience improving mail delivery times between the colonies. The United States Postal Service still traces its founding to this appointment, making it older than the country it serves.
Franklin held the post only about a year before leaving for diplomatic duties in France, but the system he built proved durable enough to survive the war and evolve into a permanent institution of the new republic.
Key people: Benjamin Franklin