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 {{Further|United States Post Office Department|Postage stamps and postal history of the United States}}
 {{See also|2020 United States Postal Service crisis|Postal Service Reform Act of 2022}}
-The first national postal agency in the US, known as the ''United States Post Office'' was founded by the [[Second Continental Congress]] in [[Philadelphia]] on July 26, 1775, at the beginning of the [[American Revolution]]. [[Benjamin Franklin]] was appointed the first [[United States Postmaster General|postmaster general]]; he also served a similar position for the American colonies.<ref>{{cite web|title=Benjamin Franklin. World of Influence. Man of Letters {{!}} PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_world_letters.html|access-date=March 11, 2021|website=www.pbs.org|archive-date=November 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127012817/http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_world_letters.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[United States Post Office Department|Post Office Department]] was created in 1792 with the passage of the [[Postal Service Act]]. The appointment of local postmasters was a major venue for delivering patronage jobs to the party that controlled the White House. Newspaper editors often were named.  It was elevated to a [[Cabinet of the United States|cabinet-level]] department in 1872, and was transformed by the [[Postal Reorganization Act of 1970]] into the U.S. Postal Service as an independent agency.<ref>Postal Reorganization Act, Pub. Law No. 91-375, 84 Stat. 719, at 720 (August 12, 1970), codified at {{usc|39|201}}.</ref> Since the early 1980s, many direct tax subsidies to the USPS (with the exception of subsidies for costs associated with disabled and overseas voters) have been reduced or eliminated.<ref name="PBS 5 things">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-u-s-postal-service/11433/ |title=The U.S. Postal Service; PBS|date=November 13, 2011|publisher=PBS|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014091138/https://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-u-s-postal-service/11433/ |archive-date=October 14, 2019|access-date=December 1, 2013}}</ref>
+The first national postal agency in the US, known as the ''United States Post Office'' was founded by the [[Second Continental Congress]] in Philadelphia on July 26, 1775, at the beginning of the [[American Revolution]]. [[Benjamin Franklin]] was appointed the first [[United States Postmaster General|postmaster general]]; he also served a similar position for the American colonies.<ref>{{cite web|title=Benjamin Franklin. World of Influence. Man of Letters {{!}} PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_world_letters.html|access-date=March 11, 2021|website=www.pbs.org|archive-date=November 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127012817/http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_world_letters.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[United States Post Office Department|Post Office Department]] was created in 1792 with the passage of the [[Postal Service Act]]. The appointment of local postmasters was a major venue for delivering patronage jobs to the party that controlled the White House. Newspaper editors often were named.  It was elevated to a [[Cabinet of the United States|cabinet-level]] department in 1872, and was transformed by the [[Postal Reorganization Act of 1970]] into the U.S. Postal Service as an independent agency.<ref>Postal Reorganization Act, Pub. Law No. 91-375, 84 Stat. 719, at 720 (August 12, 1970), codified at {{usc|39|201}}.</ref> Since the early 1980s, many direct tax subsidies to the USPS (with the exception of subsidies for costs associated with disabled and overseas voters) have been reduced or eliminated.<ref name="PBS 5 things">{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-u-s-postal-service/11433/ |title=The U.S. Postal Service; PBS|date=November 13, 2011|publisher=PBS|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191014091138/https://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/five-things/the-u-s-postal-service/11433/ |archive-date=October 14, 2019|access-date=December 1, 2013}}</ref>
 The [[United States Information Agency]] (USIA) helped the Post Office Department, during the Cold War, to redesign stamps to include more patriotic slogans.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Modarressi |first1=Matin |title="Our American Credo": The US Post Office and the Cold War |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/our-american-credo-us-post-office-and-cold-war |website=www.wilsoncenter.org |publisher=The Wilson Center |access-date=1 April 2024}}</ref> {{Anchor| strike & reorganization}}On March 18, 1970, postal workers in New York City—upset over low wages and poor working conditions, and emboldened by the Civil Rights Movement—[[U.S. postal strike of 1970|organized a strike]]. The strike initially involved postal workers in only New York City, but it eventually gained support of over 210,000 postal workers across the nation.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Great 1970 Mail Strike that Stunned the Country |work=Labor History Articles |publisher=American Postal Workers Union |date=March 2017 |url=https://www.apwu.org/labor-history-articles/great-1970-mail-strike-stunned-country |access-date=April 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422103224/https://www.apwu.org/labor-history-articles/great-1970-mail-strike-stunned-country |archive-date=April 22, 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref> While the strike ended without any concessions from the federal government, it did ultimately allow for postal worker unions and the government to negotiate a contract which gave the unions most of what they wanted, as well as the signing of the [[Postal Reorganization Act]] by President [[Richard Nixon]] on August 12, 1970. The act replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with a new federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service,<ref>{{cite web |author1=Boyd, Deanna |author2=Chen, Kendra |title=Postal Strike and Reorganization: Reinventing the System |work=The History and Experience of African Americans in America's Postal Service |publisher=[[National Postal Museum]] |year=2019 |url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/AfricanAmericanHistory/p11.html |access-date=April 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801074856/https://postalmuseum.si.edu/AfricanAmericanHistory/p11.html |archive-date=August 1, 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and took effect on July 1, 1971.<ref>{{cite web |last=Piazza |first=Daniel |title=8-cent Postal Service Emblem |publisher=Smithsonian [[National Postal Museum]] |date=April 15, 2008 |url=https://arago.si.edu/category_2038936.html |access-date=April 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306114222/http://arago.si.edu/category_2038936.html |archive-date=March 6, 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>