Officials on Cover continued...

VERY FINE. A COLORFUL AND RARE USE OF THE 6-CENT STATE DEPARTMENT STAMP ON A COVER FROM THE UNITED STATES CONSULATE IN MADRID, SPAIN, CARRIED BY B. F. STEVENS, THE OFFICIAL U.S. FORWARDING AGENT.

This cover was carried by diplomatic pouch from Madrid to London, where it was turned over to B. F. Stevens, the official U.S. forwarding agent. He arranged to send it to the U.S. by the next available steamer. At the State Department in Washington D.C., it was stamped and put into the mails for Cambridge Mass. (Image)

AN EXTREMELY RARE USE OF AN OFFICIAL STAMP ON MAIL ORIGINATING FROM THE UNITED STATES CONSULATE IN SHANGHAI, CHINA.

The addressee, John G. Thompson, is recorded in the annals of history as the defendant in a Supreme Court case (Kilbourn v. Thompson, 1881), which arose after Thompson, the House sargeant-at-arms, arrested and jailed Hallett Kilbourn, an uncooperative witness brought before a congressional committee investigating the bankruptcy of Jay Cooke & Co. in 1876. The ruling in favor of Kilbourn held that "Congress had exceeded its powers in subpoenaing and imprisoning Kilbourn, because the congressional investigation for which he had been called did not actually concern legislation, however, because of congressional immunity, only Thompson could be punished for the improper action." (http://law.jrank.org/pages/13571/Kilbourn-v-Thompson.html)

A scandal involving the U.S. Consulate and Postal Agency in Shanghai was also occurring at the time this cover was mailed to Thompson in June 1878: "This was also a period replete with scandals and accusations within the consulate general itself. The first occurred in 1877, when the vice consul general in charge, Mr. Oliver Bradford, was charged with having made fictitious vouchers among the expenses to be paid by the Post Office Department, having kept his postal agency books so as to gain an advantage from the exchange between silver and gold, and having opened and copied a letter passing through the agency from the surgeon of the consular jail to General W. Myers of the United States Army, in San Francisco. Bradford was tried and convicted on the latter charge. Testimony revealed that the former Consul General John C. Myers had mistrusted Bradford when, as vice consul general, the latter had been responsible for the postal agency. Myers, however, had been suspended by Minister Seward before he could act against Bradford. It was also learned that Bradford had lived alone in the consular building, and that a number of letters had been received by the addressees marked 'opened by mistake, O. B. B.' The ultimate disposition of this remarkable case is not made clear in the consular records." (The Consul General's Shanghai Postal Agency 1867-1907, by Peter L. Koffsky, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972).

The cover offered here was carried by diplomatic pouch from the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai to the Department of State in Washington D.C., where it was posted to Thompson at the House of Representatives. The single rate for mail addressed within the city limits was 2c, therefore, this is evidently overpaid 1c for a triple rate (1 to 1-1/2 oz.). The purple Washington D.C. datestamp and small quartered cork cancel are found on other covers from this period in 1878. Diplomatic mail from the U.S. Consulate General in Shanghai is rare in any form, but the use of an Official stamp -- in this case, the 7c State Department -- is truly remarkable (three other Official stamps on covers from the U.S. Legation in Peking are reported in the Markovits sale catalogue) (Image)

VERY FINE. A SMALL AND ATTRACTIVE COVER CARRIED BY DIPLOMATIC POUCH FROM THE UNITED STATES CONSULATE IN SONNEBERG, GERMANY, WITH THE 10-CENT STATE DEPARTMENT STAMP PAYING THE DOMESTIC POSTAGE.

This evidently weighed 1 to 1-1/2 oz, requiring three-times 3c domestic postage. (Image)