Ebenezer Hazard (January 15, 1744 – June 13, 1817) was an American businessman and publisher. He served in a variety of political posts during and after the American Revolutionary War: as

Postmaster of New York City A post office may have operated in New York City as early as 1687. The United States Postal Service has no information on New York's postmasters prior to the year 1775. The New York City Post Office is first mentioned in Hugh Finlay's journal dat ...

; in 1776 as surveyor general of the Continental Post Office;

United States Postmaster General The United States Postmaster General (PMG) is the chief executive officer of the United States Postal Service (USPS). The PMG is responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the agency. The PMG is selected and appointed by ...

where he served from 1782 to 1789. In 1792 he published the first English translation of ''A Short Account of the Mohawk Indians, their Country, Language, Figure, Costume, Religion, and Government'' (1644), compiled from letters written by Dutch minister

Johannes Megapolensis Johannes Megapolensis (1603–1670) was a ''dominie'' (pastor) of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Dutch colony of New Netherland (present-day New York state in the United States), beginning in 1642. Serving for several years at Fort Orange (present ...

to friends about his years of ministry near present-day

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

Biography

Hazard was born in Philadelphia and educated at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

. He established a publishing business in New York City in 1770, but quit that business after five years. He was appointed first postmaster of the city under the Continental Congress. In 1776, he was appointed as surveyor general of the Continental Post Office. He was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1781 and was elected a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

that same year. In 1782 Hazard succeeded

Richard Bache Richard Bache (September 12, 1737 – April 17, 1811), born in Settle, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, immigrated to Philadelphia, in the colony of Pennsylvania, where he was a businessman, a marine insurance underwriter, and later served as ...

as the United States Postmaster General, serving until 1789. (From 1785 to 1790, New York City served as the capital of the United States.) During his tenure as Postmaster General under the new Federal Constitution, Hazard reorganized the Post Office. He established a system to transport mail by stagecoaches on main routes in order to increase capacity, displacing the old horse and rider system. Hazard did not keep President

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

's favor, however; because during the Constitutional Convention, he had put a stop to the customary practice by which newspaper publishers were allowed to distribute copies by mail. Washington wrote an indignant letter to

John Jay John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, patriot, diplomat, abolitionist, signatory of the Treaty of Paris, and a Founding Father of the United States. He served as the second governor of New York and the f ...

about this action. He said that it was doing "mischief" by "inducing a belief that the suppression of intelligence at that critical juncture was a wicked trick of policy contrived by an aristocratic junto." As soon as Washington could take action, he had Hazard replaced by

Samuel Osgood Samuel Osgood (February 3, 1747 – August 12, 1813) was an American merchant and statesman born in Andover, Massachusetts, currently a part of North Andover, Massachusetts. His family home still stands at 440 Osgood Street in North Andover ...

. As a member of the old Congress Osgood had served on a committee to examine the post-office accounts. Henry Jones Ford
''Washington and His Colleagues - A Chronicle of the Rise and Fall of Federalism''
1918. The

Chronicles of America ''Chronicles of America'' is a fifty volume series on American history published by Yale University Press. A series of film adapations was also commissioned from the series and about 15 completed. Entries in the series were first published in 19 ...

Series, Gutenberg project After being replaced, Hazard moved back to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. He helped to establish the Insurance Company of North America in that city. He worked at this until his death. Long interested in history, in 1792 he printed the first English translation of

' ''A Short Account of the Mohawk Indians, their Country, Language, Figure, Costume, Religion, and Government,'' first published in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in 1644. It was a record of the Dutch missionary's observations of the Mohawk and their territory west of

during the period of Dutch rule. Megapolensis is considered the first Protestant missionary to Native Americans. Hazard also published at Philadelphia his two-volume ''Historical Collections; Consisting of State Papers, and Other Authentic Documents; Intended as Materials for an History of the United States of America.'' The first volume appeared in 1792 and the second in 1794.

Personal life

Hazard married Abigail Arthur in 1783, and they had two children. He died at his home in Philadelphia on June 13, 1817, and was interred at the Arch Street burying ground. His remains were later relocated to

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

References

External resources

at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

holds important compilations of pamphlets that were assembled by Ebenezer Hazard. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hazard, Ebenezer 1744 births 1817 deaths American publishers (people) Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences People of the Province of New York People of colonial Pennsylvania Politicians from Philadelphia Princeton University alumni United States Postmasters General American businesspeople in insurance Postmasters of New York City Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia)

Biography

Personal life

References

Further reading

External resources