The Post Office Department is the former name of the United States Postal Service when it was a Cabinet department. It was headed by the United States Postmaster General .

The Postal Service Act signed by President George Washington on February 20 , 1792 established the Department. Postmaster General John McLean was the first to call it the Post Office Department rather than just the "Post Office." The organization received a boost in prestige when President Andrew Jackson invited his Postmaster General, William T. Barry , to sit as a member of the Cabinet. [1]

During the Civil War , postal services in the Confederacy were provided by the Confederate Post Office Department , headed by Postmaster General John Henninger Reagan .

The Postal Reorganization Act signed by President Richard Nixon on August 12 , 1970 , replaced the cabinet-level Post Office Department with the independent United States Postal Service . The Act took effect on July 1 , 1971 .

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