After Ulysses S. Grant was elected, he appointed Creswell Postmaster General. As Postmaster General, he reorganized the Post Office Department, introduced penny postcards and postal telegraphs, proposed a postal savings system. Creswell proved to be one of the ablest organizers ever to head the Post Office. He cut costs while greatly expanding the number of mail routes, postal clerks and letter carriers. He introduced the penny postcard and worked with Fish to revise postal treaties. A Radical, he used the vast patronage of the post office to support Grant's coalition. He asked for the total abolition of the franking privilege since it reduced the revenue receipts by five percent. The franking privilege allowed members of Congress to send mail at the government's expense. When Creswell suddenly resigned in 1874, historians have speculated this was due to impending scandals that plagued the Grant administration, however, Creswell gave no official reason for his resignation. Fatigue and an important personal matter may have been factors why Creswell resigned. During the beginning of the Grant administration, it was reported by the New York Times, July 29, 1869, that Creswell injured himself in Baltimore while on a visit to his father-in-law Rev. James McIntire, near Elton. His left elbow was fractured by a fall from a porch on a chair. Creswell was in deep pain, but the injury was not considered serious and was expected to heal in a few weeks. Creswell said he felt better and he would take a few days off before he returned to Washington. Appointed African Americans and patronage Creswell, as Postmaster-General, had enormous power in distributing patronage nationally in the Postal Service. During Reconstruction as a Radical Republican Creswell appointed African Americans to serve in every state working in the Postal System. African American postal workers encountered abuse in certain areas of the South. Creswell appointed more African Americans than any of his predecessors. In distributing patronage Creswell followed the spirit of Civil Service reform and improved the efficiency of the postal service. Creswell was known to have "distributed the enormous patronage of his office with a minimum of friction." Prior to 1865, African Americans were banned from working in the Postal Department, mostly due to the Southern racism of not allowing blacks to handle the mail. At the end of the Civil War this restriction was lifted, but white postmasters in major cities around the nation only appointed