Hon. Benj. F. Butler,
Sir,
I leave for your inspection three forms of a card to the public for Mr Spooner’s contribution – one recommends him as having been “the immediate agent in effecting the reduction of postage”; the second as having been “one of the immediate and most efficient agents” If you should be willing to sign either, please sign the one which you think most just to Mr Spooner and most conducive to his interests-
If, after signature, you will leave the card in your office for me, I will call for it –
Your obt sevt
Josias Howe
To the Public
The subscribers, believing that Lysander Spooner, by the publication of his argument against the constitutionality of the laws prohibiting Private Mails, and by establishing private mails, and inviting the government to test that question, was one of the immediate and most efficient agents in effecting the reduction of postage in 1845, and that the financial success of that reduction is what has now given us another; and being informed that Mr Spooner, by his contest with the government in 1844, became involved in debts which is unable to discharge; recommend that a public contribution be made to compensate him for his services and lopes(?) in effecting cheap postage –
To the Public
The subscribers, believing that Lysander Spooner, by the publication of his argument against the constitutionality of the laws prohibiting Private Mails, and by establishing private mails, and inviting the government to test that question, was one of the immediate and most efficient agents in effecting the reduction of postage in 1845, and that the financial success of that reduction is what has now given us another; and being informed that Mr Spooner, by his contest with the government in 1844, became involved in debts which is unable to discharge; recommend that a public contribution be made to compensate him for his services and lopes(?) in effecting cheap postage –
To the Public
The subscribers, believing that Lysander Spooner, by the publication of his argument against the constitutionality of the laws prohibiting Private Mails, and by establishing private mails, and inviting the government to test that question, was the immediate agents in effecting the reduction of postage in 1845, and that the financial success of that reduction is what has now given us another; and being informed that Mr Spooner, by his contest with the government in 1844, became involved in debts which is unable to discharge; recommend that a public contribution be made to compensate him for his services and lopes(?) in effecting cheap postage –