United States Postmaster General

United States Postmaster General
Incumbent Louis DeJoy since June 16, 2020
United States Postal Service
Style	Postmaster General
Status	Chief executive
Member of	Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service
Seat	475 L'Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C. 20260
Appointer	Board of Governors
Term length	No fixed term
Constituting instrument	39 U.S.C.   § 203
Formation	1775
First holder	Benjamin Franklin
Deputy	Deputy Postmaster General
Salary	$303,460 [1]

The United States postmaster general (PMG) is the chief executive officer of the United States Postal Service (USPS). ^[2] The PMG is responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the agency.

The PMG is selected and appointed by the Board of Governors of the Postal Service, which is appointed by the president. The postmaster general then also sits on the board. The PMG does not serve at the president's pleasure and can only be dismissed by the Board of Governors. ^[3] The appointment of the postmaster general does not require Senate confirmation. ^{[4] [5]} The governors and the postmaster general elect the deputy postmaster general.

The current officeholder is Louis DeJoy, who was appointed on June 16, 2020. ^[6]

History

The office of U.S. postmaster general dates back to country's founding. The first position, during the colonial-era British America, was that of Postmaster General. Benjamin Franklin was appointed by the Continental Congress as the first postmaster general in 1775; he had previously served as deputy postmaster for the Thirteen Colonies since 1753. ^[7] The formal office of the United States postmaster general was established by act of government on September 22, 1789. ^[8]

From 1829 to 1971, the postmaster general was the head of the Post Office Department (or simply "Post Office" until the 1820s ^{[9] : 60–65}) and was a member of the president's Cabinet. During that era, the postmaster general was appointed by the president of the United States, with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. ^{[9] : 120}

After passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883 and prior to the passage of the Hatch Act of 1939, ^[10] the postmaster general was in charge of the governing party's patronage and was a powerful position which held much influence within the party, as exemplified by James Farley's tenure from 1933 to 1940 under Franklin D. Roosevelt. ^[11]

After the spoils system was reformed, the position remained a Cabinet post, and it was often given to a new president's campaign manager or other key political supporters, including Arthur Summerfield, W. Marvin Watson, and Larry O'Brien, each of whom played important roles organizing the campaigns of presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, respectively, and was considered something of a sinecure. Poet and literary scholar Charles Olson, who served as a Democratic National Committee official during the 1944 U.S. presidential election, declined the position in January 1945.

In 1971, the Post Office Department was re-organized into the United States Postal Service, an independent agency of the executive branch, and the postmaster general was no longer a member of the Cabinet ^[12] nor in line of presidential succession.

The postmaster general is now appointed by the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service, not appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. ^{[9] : 120  [13]}

List of postmasters general

Under the Continental Congress (1775–1789)

No.	Name		Start	End
1		Benjamin Franklin	July 26, 1775	November 7, 1776
2		Richard Bache	November 7, 1776	January 28, 1782
3		Ebenezer Hazard	January 28, 1782	September 26, 1789

US Post Office Department (1789–1971)

As non-Cabinet department (1789–1829)

Parties

   Independent    Federalist    Democratic-Republican

No.	Name			State	Start	End	President(s)
4			Samuel Osgood	Massachusetts	September 26, 1789	August 12, 1791		George Washington (1789–1797)
5			Timothy Pickering	Pennsylvania	August 12, 1791	January 1, 1795
6			Joseph Habersham	Georgia	February 25, 1795	November 28, 1801
								John Adams (1797–1801)
								Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809)
7			Gideon Granger	Connecticut	November 28, 1801	March 17, 1814
								James Madison (1809–1817)
8			Return Meigs	Ohio	March 17, 1814	June 26, 1823
								James Monroe (1817–1825)
9			John McLean	Ohio	June 26, 1823	March 4, 1829
								John Quincy Adams (1825–1829)

As cabinet department (1829–1971)

Parties

   Democratic    Whig    Republican

No.	Name			State	Start	End	President(s)
10			William Barry	Kentucky	March 9, 1829	April 10, 1835		Andrew Jackson (1829–1837)
11			Amos Kendall	Kentucky	May 1, 1835	May 18, 1840
								Martin Van Buren (1837–1841)
12			John Niles	Connecticut	May 19, 1840	March 4, 1841
13			Francis Granger	New York	March 6, 1841	September 18, 1841		William Henry Harrison (1841)
								John Tyler (1841-1845)
14			Charles Wickliffe	Kentucky	September 18, 1841	March 4, 1845
15			Cave Johnson	Tennessee	March 6, 1845	March 4, 1849		James K. Polk (1845-1849)
16			Jacob Collamer	Vermont	March 8, 1849	July 22, 1850		Zachary Taylor (1849–1850)
17			Nathan Hall	New York	July 23, 1850	August 31, 1852		Millard Fillmore (1850–1853)
18			Samuel Hubbard	Connecticut	August 31, 1852	March 4, 1853
19			James Campbell	Pennsylvania	March 7, 1853	March 4, 1857		Franklin Pierce (1853–1857)
20			Aaron Brown	Tennessee	March 6, 1857	March 8, 1859		James Buchanan (1857–1861)
21			Joseph Holt	Kentucky	March 9, 1859	December 31, 1860
22			Horatio King	Maine	February 12, 1861	March 4, 1861
23			Montgomery Blair	District of Columbia	March 5, 1861	September 24, 1864		Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865)
24			William Dennison	Ohio	September 24, 1864	July 25, 1866
								Andrew Johnson (1865–1869)
25			Alexander Randall	Wisconsin	July 25, 1866	March 4, 1869
26			John Creswell	Maryland	March 5, 1869	June 22, 1874		Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877)
27			James Marshall	Virginia	July 3, 1874	August 24, 1874
28			Marshall Jewell	Connecticut	August 24, 1874	July 12, 1876
29			James Tyner	Indiana	July 12, 1876	March 3, 1877
30			David Key	Tennessee	March 12, 1877	June 2, 1880		Rutherford B. Hayes (1887–1881)
31			Horace Maynard	Tennessee	June 2, 1880	March 4, 1881
32			Thomas James	New York	March 5, 1881	December 20, 1881		James A. Garfield (1881)
								Chester A. Arthur (1881–1885)
33			Timothy Howe	Wisconsin	December 20, 1881	March 25, 1883
34			Walter Gresham	Indiana	April 3, 1883	September 4, 1884
35			Frank Hatton	Iowa	October 14, 1884	March 4, 1885
36			William Vilas	Wisconsin	March 6, 1885	January 6, 1888		Grover Cleveland (1885–1889)
37			Donald Dickinson	Michigan	January 6, 1888	March 4, 1889
38			John Wanamaker	Pennsylvania	March 5, 1889	March 4, 1893		Benjamin Harrison (1889–1893)
39			Wilson Bissell	New York	March 6, 1893	March 1, 1895		Grover Cleveland (1893–1897)
40			William Wilson	West Virginia	March 1, 1895	March 4, 1897
41			James Gary	Maryland	March 5, 1897	April 21, 1898		William McKinley (1897–1901)
42			Charles Smith	Pennsylvania	April 21, 1898	January 8, 1902
								Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909)
43			Henry Payne	Wisconsin	January 9, 1902	October 4, 1904
44			Robert Wynne	Pennsylvania	October 10, 1904	March 5, 1905
45			George Cortelyou	New York	March 6, 1905	January 14, 1907
46			George Meyer	Massachusetts	January 15, 1907	March 4, 1909
47			Frank Hitchcock	Massachusetts	March 5, 1909	March 4, 1913		William Howard Taft (1909–1913)
48			Albert Burleson	Texas	March 5, 1913	March 4, 1921		Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921)
49			Will Hays	Indiana	March 5, 1921	March 3, 1922		Warren G. Harding (1921–1923)
50			Hubert Work	Colorado	March 4, 1922	March 4, 1923
51			Harry New	Indiana	March 4, 1923	March 3, 1929
								Calvin Coolidge (1923–1929)
52			Walter Brown	Ohio	March 5, 1929	March 4, 1933		Herbert Hoover (1929–1933)
53			James Farley	New York	March 4, 1933	September 10, 1940		Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945)
54			Frank Walker	Pennsylvania	September 10, 1940	May 8, 1945
								Harry S. Truman (1945–1953)
55			Robert Hannegan	Missouri	May 8, 1945	December 15, 1947
56			Jesse Donaldson	Missouri	December 16, 1947	January 20, 1953
57			Arthur Summerfield	Michigan	January 21, 1953	January 20, 1961		Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961)
58			Edward Day	California	January 21, 1961	August 9, 1963		John F. Kennedy (1961–1963)
59			John Gronouski	Wisconsin	September 30, 1963	November 2, 1965
								Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969)
60			Larry O'Brien	Massachusetts	November 3, 1965	April 10, 1968
61			Marvin Watson	Texas	April 26, 1968	January 20, 1969
62			Winton Blount	Alabama	January 22, 1969	January 1, 1971		Richard Nixon (1969–1974)

US Postal Service (1971–present)

No.	Name		Start [14]	End	President(s)
62		Winton Blount	January 1, 1971	January 1, 1972		Richard Nixon (1969–1974)
63		Ted Klassen	January 1, 1972	February 16, 1975		Richard Nixon (1969–1974)
						Gerald Ford (1974–1977)
64		Benjamin Bailar	February 16, 1975	March 15, 1978		Gerald Ford (1974–1977)
						Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
65		William Bolger	March 15, 1978	January 1, 1985		Jimmy Carter (1977–1981)
						Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
66		Paul Carlin	January 1, 1985	January 7, 1986		Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
67		Albert Casey	January 7, 1986	August 16, 1986		Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
68		Preston Tisch	August 16, 1986	March 1, 1988		Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
69		Anthony Frank	March 1, 1988	July 6, 1992		Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)
						George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)
70		Marvin Runyon	July 6, 1992	May 16, 1998		George H. W. Bush (1989–1993)
						Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
71		William Henderson	May 16, 1998	May 31, 2001		Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
						George W. Bush (2001–2009)
72		John Potter	June 1, 2001	December 6, 2010		George W. Bush (2001–2009)
						Barack Obama (2009–2017)
73		Patrick Donahoe	January 14, 2011	February 1, 2015		Barack Obama (2009–2017)
74		Megan Brennan	February 1, 2015	June 15, 2020		Barack Obama (2009–2017)
						Donald Trump (2017–2021)
75		Louis DeJoy	June 15, 2020	present		Donald Trump (2017–2021)
						Joe Biden (2021–2025)
						Donald Trump (2025 -)

See also

• Postmaster General
• John Reagan, the only postmaster general of the Confederate States

References

1. "DeJoy hired four people who worked for his businesses to work at USPS". CNN . September 15, 2020. Archived from the original on September 16, 2020. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
2. "39 U.S. Code § 203 – Postmaster General; Deputy Postmaster General". Archived from the original on February 3, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
3. "Members of the Board of Governors – Who we are". about.usps.com. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
4. "Board of Governors Announces Selection of Louis DeJoy to Serve as Nation's 75th Postmaster General". about.usps.com – Newsroom. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
5. "39 U.S. Code § 202 – Board of Governors". Archived from the original on January 29, 2022. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
6. "PMG/CEO Louis DeJoy – Who we are/Leadership". about.usps.com. Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
7. "Benjamin Franklin – About USPS" (PDF). United States Postal Service. Historian US Postal Service. February 2003. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 6, 2019. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
8. "Letters Sent By the Postmaster General, 1789–1836". National Archives and Records Service. August 15, 2016. Archived from the original on October 22, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2023.
9. The United States Postal Service: An American History 1775–2006 (PDF). United States Postal Service. 2020. ISBN   978-0-9630952-4-4. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 6, 2014. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
10. Savage, Sean J. (1991). Roosevelt: The Party Leader, 1932–1945. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN   978-0813117553. Archived from the original on July 9, 2020.
11. "Farley and Howe to Rule Patronage; to Ease Roosevelt's Burden, They Will Meet the Office-seekers at Capital. Working All Next Month. Meantime, Republicans Plan to Reorganize Committees and Start Publicity for 1936". The New York Times. January 11, 1933. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved August 1, 2020.
12. "History of the United States Postal Service". Mailbox Near Me. Archived from the original on March 6, 2022. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
13. "About the Board of Governors". United States Postal Service. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
14. Since July 1, 1971, the postmaster general has been appointed by and serves under the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service.

External links

• "Postal leadership". USPS. June 2020. Archived from the original on October 3, 2014.
• "Papers of Arthur E. Summerfield, Postmaster General, 1953–1961". Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library. Archived from the original on May 12, 2008.