The provisional Congress, which was uni cameral, expired 15 Feb. 1862, and the Senate and House of Representatives, elected under the permanent Constitution, met in Richmond 18 Feb. 1862. The members of this Congress were chosen from the most distinguished men of the South. the 26 Senators, fourteen had been formerly members of the United States Con gress, and in the lower house, out of 106, 33 had also represented the South at Wash ington." Subsequently, in the course of the war, the character of the Confederate Congress in general ability declined, many of the best men joining the army. One very necessary depart ment of the new government it was found diffi cult to organize. This was the post office. The position of Postmaster-General was offered by President Davis to Mr. Ellet of Mississippi and later to Mr. Wirt Adams of the same State; but both declined. Then J. H. Reagan of Texas, after twice refusing, was persuaded to accept the office. His reluctance was due to the fact that he knew the labor of organization would be heavy, and that if the mail facilities were ferior to those formerly furnished by the Fed eral government, there would be great dissatis faction. But Mr. Reagan was thoroughly competent. He sent letters to Washington be fore the war began, and invited a number of clerks in the Post Office Department to take positions in the Confederate post office. All but two accepted. With their help organization proceeded rapidly, and on 13 May Mr. Reagan announced that on the first of June the Fed eral service would cease and the Confederate service would begin. All postmasters were re quired by that date to render their final ac counts to the United States government, and were invited to continue their duties under the Confederate government. The Postmaster General of the United States suspended the Federal service to take effect the same day. The permanent Constitution of the Confederate States required that the post office should be self-sustaining after 1 March 1863. In 1859-60 the United States had conducted the post office department in the States that were to form the Southern Confederacy at a loss of $1,941,425. Hence a radical change of management was necessary to meet the new requirement. Ac cordingly Postmaster Reagan persuaded the rail roads to carry the mails at one-half the former rate and to accept the bonds of the Confederacy in payment. He raised the rate on packages, newspapers and letters, the postage on the last being fixed at five cents per half ounce for a distance of less than 500 miles and 10 cents for a greater distance. The franking privilege was abolished and mail routes considered un necessary were reduced in number or discon tinued. As a result of these and other radical changes, the reports of the Postmaster-General show that by the latter part of 1862 a surplus was obtained, and from that time on there was a net annual increase of receipts over ex penditures.
The various States of the Confederacy made no changes in the organization of their judici ary system, but the provisional Constitution of the Confederacy provided that each State should be erected into a distinct judicial district, the judge having all the powers hitherto vested in the judges of the District and Circuit Courts; and that the several district judges together should comnose the Supreme bench, a majority of them constituting a quorum. During the year 1861 these District Courts were organized, and they were continued under the permanent Constitution. Congress, however, passed an act 31 July 1861, providing that the Supreme Court should be organized only under the permanent Constitution. Accordingly, in the Congress that
met in the establishment of a Supreme Court was discussed, but nothing was done until the following year. In January 1863, Senator Hill in the Senate said: °I think it high time the judicial department of the government be thoroughly organized; for it has been a limping concern long enough." Finally, on 18 March 1863 the Senate passed a bill to organize the Supreme Court. This bill was intended to carry out the provisions for a Supreme Court as found in the permanent Constitution; provi sions that were practically identical with those of the Constitution of the United States. The bill provided for a Supreme Court of the Con federate States to consist of a chief justice and four associate justices, any three of whom should constitute a quorum. The court was to hold annually at the seat of government two sessions, and its appellate jurisdiction was lim ited to appeals from the Confederate District Courts in the several States. Under a law passed by the provisional Congress (16 March 1861), it had been provided that the Supreme Court should also have jurisdiction in appeals from the State courts, °where was drawn in question the validity of a treaty or statute of, or an authority exercised under, the Confeder ate States; or where was drawn in question the validity of a statute of, or an authority exercised under any State, on the ground of their being repugnant to the Constitution, treaties, or laws of the Confederate States; or where was drawn in question the construction of any clause of the Constitution, or of a treaty, or statute, or commission held under the Con federate States." This law of the provisional Congress was significantly repealed in the Sen ate bill above mentioned. Whereupon the Rich mond Examiner declared that a Supreme Court, without the circuit feature of the Su preme Court of the United States, and acting simply as a court of appeals from the inferior tribunals of the Confederation, could do no mischief and might do much good. "But had the original law been allowed to stand, pro phetic inspiration was not necessary to foresee that the career of the Southern Confederacy would have been but a pursuit of the catas trophe which overwhelmed the late Union." The Supreme Court as thus constituted, how ever, never saw the light of day after all. The Senate bill, after having been twice read in the lower house, was referred (20 March 1863) to the Committee on Judiciary, and no further mention of it is to be found. There has been much discussion as to the reason why the Confederacy failed to establish a Supreme Court. It seems clear that the reason was two fold. The experience of the South with the Supreme Court of the United States had, in the opinion of many, been disastrous to State rights. Moreover, at this time the military exigencies were much greater than the judicial; hence it seemed wise to defer the establishment of such a tribunal to a more peaceable season. The absence of a Supreme Court, however, had its natural result. The Federal District Courts and even the State Supreme Courts interpreted the Confederate Constitution and in some instances declared the acts of Congress unconstitutional. When a Confederate court in South Carolina decided that Congress had no right to tax State bonds, the war tax on bonds was not collected in that State. The existence of a court of final resort might have aroused antag onism among the sovereign States; bur it seems to have been necessary.