来源：《经济学人》
刊登日期：2021年6月5日
Before Colorado became the 38th state of U.S., it had post offices. The first opened in 1859 in Auraria, a mining settlement founded by migrants from the South searching for gold. Life could be unpredictable west of the Mississippi. Gold failed to materialise, drought ruined farmers and settlers clashed with Native Americans. Soon Auraria merged with a rival company town—Denver City. Today a university campus stands on its location. Amid all the upheaval, argues Cameron Blevins, a historian at the University of Colorado-Denver, one feature remained constant: the postal service.
在科罗拉多成为美国第38州之前，就已经有了邮局。第一家于1859年在奥拉里亚开业，奥拉里亚是一个由寻找黄金的南方移民建立的采矿定居点。密西西比河以西的生活可能变幻莫测。黄金梦未能实现，干旱摧毁了农民，定居者与美洲原住民发生冲突。不久，奥拉里亚就与竞争对手丹佛市合并了。今天，这里有一所大学校园。科罗拉多州丹佛大学的历史学家卡梅伦•布莱文斯认为，在所有的剧变中，有一个特征始终不变：邮政服务。
Rather than focusing on ideas that were spread by the post, in “Paper Trails” Mr Blevins considers the infrastructure of the agency itself. Using a database compiled by Richard Helbock, a postal historian, he charts the rapid opening and closure of post offices in the second half of the 19th century—thereby tracing America’s westward expansion.
在《信件线索》一书中，布莱文斯并没有把注意力集中在通过邮政传播的思想上，而是考虑邮政这种基础设施本身。利用邮政历史学家理查德·赫尔博克编制的数据库，他记录了19世纪下半叶邮局的快速开放和关闭，从而追踪了美国的西进扩张。
In 1864 there were few branches on land controlled by Native Americans, which still accounted for most of the West. Over the next 25 years, as indigenous people were killed or forced onto government reservations, the post offices multiplied exponentially. Using these as a proxy for settlement, Mr Blevins regards colonisation of the West as a result of big government rather than individualism. As federal subsidies and land grants tempted easterners into the mountains, deserts and high plains of Indian Country, the post kept them connected.
1864年，印第安人控制的土地上只有很少的邮政分支机构，印第安人仍然占据了西部的大部分地区。在接下来的25年里，随着印第安人被杀害或被迫进入政府保留区，邮局数量成倍增长。布莱文斯把这些邮局作为代表定居点的指标，认为对西部的殖民是大政府的结果，而不是个人主义。当联邦政府的补贴和土地授予吸引东部人进入印第安人的山区、沙漠和高原时，邮政系统使他们保持联系。
In the mid-19th century the Post Office Department was far from a centralised bureaucracy. To keep up with migration patterns, postal services were attached onto existing businesses. The federal government commissioned private coaches to carry the mail, and granted short-term contracts to local businessmen to act as town postmasters. These flexible partnerships enabled the mail quickly to follow migrants, helping knit together remote parts of a vast country.
在19世纪中期，邮政部门远非一个中央集权的官僚机构。为了跟上移民模式，邮政服务依附于现有的商业。联邦政府委托私人马车运送邮件，并授予当地商人担任镇上邮政局长的短期合同。这些灵活的伙伴关系使邮件能够迅速跟随移民，帮助把一个幅员辽阔的国家的偏远地区联系在一起。
“Paper Trails” is a reminder that, long before the recent argues over postal voting, the post was political. Until 1971 the postal service was a cabinet-level department in the executive branch, and jobs within it were assigned as patronage. Of the 80,000 appointments submitted to the Senate for approval between 1829 and 1917, nearly 62,000 were for post-office jobs. Congressmen were frequently caught up in rows over who should be postmasters in their districts.
《信件线索》提醒人们，早在最近关于邮寄投票的争论之前，邮政就具有政治意义。在1971年之前，邮政服务是行政分支中的一个内阁级部门，其内部的工作以互惠互利的形式分配。在1829年至1917年间提交参议院批准的8万项任命中，有近6.2万项是邮局职位。国会议员经常为谁应该在他们的选区担任邮政局长而争吵不休。
For all that, the existence of the 19th-century postal service was not itself divisive. Democrats and Republicans alike stuffed the department with supporters; to please constituents, congressmen from both parties sought more routes in their districts. Today the post remains popular: last year 91% of Americans viewed the agency favourably.
尽管如此，19世纪邮政服务的存在本身并没有造成分裂。民主党人和共和党人都把这个部门塞满了支持者；为了取悦选民，两党议员在各自选区寻求更多的邮递路线。如今，邮政系统仍然很受欢迎：去年，91%的美国人对邮政持赞成态度。