United States Postmaster General

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United States Postmaster General
Seal of the former Post Office Department
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, the members of which are appointed by the president of the United States, with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. The postmaster general then also sits on the board. The PMG does not serve at the pleasure of the president, and can 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 15, 2020.^[6]

History[]

The office, in one form or another, dates from before the United States Constitution and the United States Declaration of Independence, having been based on the much older English and later British position of Postmaster General. Benjamin Franklin was appointed by the Continental Congress as the first postmaster general in 1775^[7] serving just over 15 months. Franklin had previously served as deputy postmaster for the British colonies of North America since 1753.

Until 1971, the postmaster general was the head of the Post Office Department (or simply "Post Office" until the 1820s).^[8]:60–65 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.^[8]:120 From 1829 to 1971, the postmaster general was a member of the president's Cabinet. After the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883 and prior to the passage of the Hatch Act of 1939,^[9] 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 1933-1940 tenure under Franklin D. Roosevelt.^[10]

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 supporter, including Arthur Summerfield, W. Marvin Watson, and Larry O'Brien (all of whom played key roles organizing the campaigns of presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, respectively), and was considered something of a sinecure. Notably, poet and literary scholar Charles Olson (who served as a Democratic National Committee official during the 1944 United States 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^[11] nor in line of presidential succession. The postmaster general is now appointed by the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service, appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate.^[8]:120[12]

The postmaster general is the second-highest paid U.S. government official, based on publicly available salary information, after the President of the United States.^[13]

List of postmasters general[]

Under the Continental Congress[]

	Name	Date appointed
1	Benjamin Franklin	July 26, 1775
2	Richard Bache	November 7, 1776
3	Ebenezer Hazard	January 28, 1782

U.S. Post Office Department, 1789–1971[]

As non-Cabinet department, 1789–1829[]

Parties

  No party   Federalist   Democratic-Republican   Democratic   Whig   Republican

Political Party	Name	State of residence	Date appointed	President(s) served under
4	Samuel Osgood	Massachusetts	September 26, 1789	Washington
5	Timothy Pickering	Pennsylvania	August 12, 1791	Washington
6	Joseph Habersham	Georgia	February 25, 1795	Washington, Adams, Jefferson
7	Gideon Granger	Connecticut	November 28, 1801	Jefferson, Madison
8	Return J. Meigs, Jr.	Ohio	March 17, 1814	Madison, Monroe
9	John McLean	Ohio	June 26, 1823	Monroe, J. Q. Adams

As cabinet department, 1829–1971[]

Parties

  No party   Federalist   Democratic-Republican   Democratic   Whig   Republican

Political Party	Name	State of residence	Date appointed	President(s) served under
10	William T. Barry	Kentucky	March 9, 1829	Jackson
11	Amos Kendall	Kentucky	May 1, 1835	Jackson, Van Buren
12	John M. Niles	Connecticut	May 19, 1840	Van Buren
13	Francis Granger	New York	March 6, 1841	W. H. Harrison, Tyler
14	Charles A. Wickliffe	Kentucky	September 13, 1841	Tyler
15	Cave Johnson	Tennessee	March 6, 1845	Polk
16	Jacob Collamer	Vermont	March 8, 1849	Taylor
17	Nathan K. Hall	New York	July 23, 1850	Fillmore
18	Samuel Dickinson Hubbard	Connecticut	August 31, 1852	Fillmore
19	James Campbell	Pennsylvania	March 7, 1853	Pierce
20	Aaron V. Brown	Tennessee	March 6, 1857	Buchanan
21	Joseph Holt	Kentucky	March 14, 1859	Buchanan
22	Horatio King	Maine	February 12, 1861	Buchanan
23	Montgomery Blair	District of Columbia	March 5, 1861	Lincoln
24	William Dennison	Ohio	September 24, 1864	Lincoln, A. Johnson
25	Alexander W. Randall	Wisconsin	July 25, 1866	A. Johnson
26	John A. J. Creswell	Maryland	March 5, 1869	Grant
27	James W. Marshall	Virginia	July 3, 1874	Grant
28	Marshall Jewell	Connecticut	August 24, 1874	Grant
29	James N. Tyner	Indiana	July 12, 1876	Grant
30	David M. Key	Tennessee	March 12, 1877	Hayes
31	Horace Maynard	Tennessee	June 2, 1880	Hayes
32	Thomas Lemuel James	New York	March 5, 1881	Garfield, Arthur
33	Timothy O. Howe	Wisconsin	December 20, 1881	Arthur
34	Walter Q. Gresham	Indiana	April 3, 1883	Arthur
35	Frank Hatton	Iowa	October 14, 1884	Arthur
36	William F. Vilas	Wisconsin	March 6, 1885	Cleveland
37	Donald M. Dickinson	Michigan	January 6, 1888	Cleveland
38	John Wanamaker	Pennsylvania	March 5, 1889	B. Harrison
39	Wilson S. Bissell	New York	March 6, 1893	Cleveland
40	William L. Wilson	West Virginia	March 1, 1895	Cleveland
41	James A. Gary	Maryland	March 5, 1897	McKinley
42	Charles Emory Smith	Pennsylvania	April 21, 1898	McKinley, T. Roosevelt
43	Henry C. Payne	Wisconsin	January 9, 1902	T. Roosevelt
44	Robert J. Wynne	Pennsylvania	October 10, 1904	T. Roosevelt
45	George B. Cortelyou	New York	March 6, 1905	T. Roosevelt
46	George von L. Meyer	Massachusetts	January 15, 1907	T. Roosevelt
47	Frank H. Hitchcock	Massachusetts	March 5, 1909	Taft
48	Albert S. Burleson	Texas	March 5, 1913	Wilson
49	Will H. Hays	Indiana	March 5, 1921	Harding
50	Hubert Work	Colorado	March 4, 1922	Harding
51	Harry S. New	Indiana	February 27, 1923	Harding, Coolidge
52	Walter F. Brown	Ohio	March 5, 1929	Hoover
53	James A. Farley	New York	March 4, 1933	F. Roosevelt
54	Frank C. Walker	Pennsylvania	September 10, 1940	F. Roosevelt, Truman
55	Robert E. Hannegan	Missouri	May 8, 1945	Truman
56	Jesse M. Donaldson	Missouri	December 16, 1947	Truman
57	Arthur E. Summerfield	Michigan	January 21, 1953	Eisenhower
58	J. Edward Day	California	January 21, 1961	Kennedy
59	John A. Gronouski	Wisconsin	September 30, 1963	Kennedy, L. Johnson
60	Lawrence F. O'Brien	Massachusetts	November 3, 1965	L. Johnson
61	W. Marvin Watson	Texas	April 26, 1968	L. Johnson
62	Winton M. Blount	Alabama	January 22, 1969	Nixon

U.S. Postal Service, 1971–present[]

	Name	Date appointed[14]	President(s) served under
62	Winton M. Blount	July 1, 1971	Nixon
63	E. T. Klassen	January 1, 1972	Nixon, Ford
64	Benjamin F. Bailar	February 16, 1975	Ford, Carter
65	William F. Bolger	March 15, 1978	Carter, Reagan
66	Paul N. Carlin	January 1, 1985	Reagan
67	Albert Vincent Casey	January 7, 1986
68	Preston Robert Tisch	August 16, 1986
69	Anthony M. Frank	March 1, 1988	Reagan, H.W. Bush
70	Marvin Travis Runyon	July 6, 1992	H.W. Bush, Clinton
71	William J. Henderson	May 16, 1998	Clinton, Bush
72	John E. Potter	June 1, 2001	Bush, Obama
73	Patrick R. Donahoe	January 14, 2011	Obama
74	Megan Brennan	February 1, 2015	Obama, Trump
75	Louis DeJoy	June 15, 2020	Trump, Biden

See also[]

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

References[]

External links[]

• "Postal leadership". USPS. June 2020. Archived from the original on 2014-10-03.
• "Papers of Arthur E. Summerfield, Postmaster General, 1953–1961". Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library. Archived from the original on May 12, 2008.