The Freedmen's Bureau as established by Act of Congress March 3, 1865, "with the supervision and management of all abandoned lands and the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen from rebel states," was an outgrowth of the Port Royal experiment and other such enterprises carried on elsewhere. Social conditions in the South at the close of the war called for increased efforts on the part of northern benevolence, but this was only possible through governmental aid and supervision. The societies already at work during the war made appeals to the government toward this end. One committee, for example, on December 1, 1863, stated that the needs represented "a question too large for anything short of government authority, government resources, and government ubiquity to deal with."[30] The organization of the Freedmen's Bureau as affecting South Carolina consisted of a commissioner at Washington, an assistant commissioner for the State at large with headquarters at Charleston, and sub-assistant commissioners--one for each of the five districts into which the State was divided. Furthermore, there was a subdivision of each district with agents in charge. For the educational work of the Freedmen's Bureau there was a corps consisting of a general superintendent on the commissioner's staff, a State superintendent correspondingly on the assistant commissioner's staff at Charleston, and the various sub-assistant commissioners and agents who combined the supervision of schools with their other duties. The personnel of this hierarchy consisted of General O. O. Howard, Commissioner, J. W. Alvord, general superintendent of education, General Rufus Saxton, General R. K. Scott, Colonel J. R. Edie, successively, assistant commissioners, and Reuben Tomlinson, Major Horace Neide, Major E. L. Deane, successively, State superintendents of education. These officers, beginning with the lowest, made to their respective chiefs monthly, quarterly or semi-annual reports which were finally submitted to the commissioner at Washington, who was required to make "before the commencement of each regular session of Congress, a full report of his proceedings." The duties of the general superintendent were to "collect information, encourage the organization of new schools, find homes for teachers and supervise the whole work."[31] Similarly, the State superintendent was to take cognizance of all that was "being done to educate refugees and freedmen, secure proper protection to schools and teachers, promote method and efficiency, and correspond with the benevolent agencies ... supplying his field."[32] On October 5, 1865, Tomlinson sent out this notice to the people of the whole State: "I request all persons in any part of this state ... to communicate with me furnishing me with all the facilities for establishing schools in their respective neighborhoods."[33]