It Is
Square, And Hardly Can Be Said To Have Any Settled Front Or Any
Grand Entrance.
It is not approached by steps, but stands flush on
the ground, alike on each of the four sides.
It is ornamented with
Corinthian pilasters, but is not over-ornamented. It is certainly a
structure creditable to any city. The streets around it are all
unfinished; and it is approached through seas of mud and sloughs of
despond, which have been contrived, as I imagine, to lessen, if
possible, the crowd of callers, and lighten in this way the
overtasked officials within. That side by which the public in
general were supposed to approach was, during my sojourn, always
guarded by vast mountains of flour barrels. Looking up at the
windows of the building, I perceived also that barrels were piled
within, and then I knew that the Post-office had become a provision
depot for the army. The official arrangements here for the public
were so bad as to be absolutely barbarous. I feel some remorse in
saying this, for I was myself treated with the utmost courtesy by
gentlemen holding high positions in the office, to which I was
specially attracted by my own connection with the post-office in
England. But I do not think that such courtesy should hinder me
from telling what I saw that was bad, seeing that it would not
hinder me from telling what I saw that was good. In Washington
there is but one post-office.
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