=266. Early Legislation.=—The first Congress, which was organized shortly before Washington was inaugurated, contained some eminent men, chief among them perhaps being James Madison of Virginia, in the House of Representatives, and John Adams of Massachusetts, who, as Vice President, presided over the Senate. The members were residents of the districts they represented, and their salary was at first six dollars a day. The most important work they did, after determining the rules of procedure that should govern them, was to organize those portions of the administration and government that had been left vague by the Constitution. They established the three departments of State, Treasury, and War, whose Secretaries, along with the Attorney-General, formed the President’s Cabinet.[105] The Post-Office Department was also organized, but the Postmaster-General was not then included in the Cabinet. Congress furthermore organized the Federal judiciary along the lines of circuit and district courts that it follows at present, the Supreme Court having been authorized by the Constitution, but the number of its justices not having been settled. They also passed a tariff law giving mild protection to manufacturers, as well as a moderate system of internal duties on distilled spirits. They arranged for the payment of the foreign and domestic public debt of the United States, about fifty-four million dollars, mainly incurred to carry on the Revolution, and also, after much discussion, agreed to assume a large part, _i.e._ twenty-one million five hundred thousand dollars, of the debts of the individual states contracted for the same purpose. The latter measure was carried only by means of an agreement to fix the Federal capital at a point on the Potomac River (afterward Washington), in return for which concession Southern votes were secured.[106] Finally, Congress established a National Bank with a capital of ten million dollars and a charter running twenty years, and also laid before the states twelve amendments to the Constitution which, as we have seen (§ 254), had been suggested during the state debates on the adoption of that instrument.[107]