CHAPTER XI

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE

In tracing the development of national administrative organization in the United States subsequent to 1860, no attempt will be made to present a thorough and detailed account of the alterations and innovations introduced in the various administrative departments and their respective subdivisions. On the contrary, an effort will be made to point out the more important changes effected in the general system of departmental organization, and to indicate the influences which have led to the establishment of additional administrative departments and, more particularly during the past decade, of detached bureaus and commissions. The establishment and organization of special administrative war agencies will be briefly reviewed in a separate chapter. Finally, an analysis of present proposals for the creation of additional administrative departments and bureaus, and especially the movement for the reorganization of the entire administrative branch of the national government, will be undertaken.

Reorganization, 1870. In the early development of the Department of State, a logical division of labor was effected at the instance and under the authority of successive heads of that department. Clerks who had demonstrated their special fitness for certain work were assigned to a particular group of duties. "This differentiation or division of labor," says Professor Mathews, constituted, in embryo, that classification of the work of the department which later brought into existence the various bureaus.” * The distribution of duties in the department effected by Secretary Forsyth in 1836 remained substantially unaltered until Hamilton Fish assumed control of the department in March, 1869.' The following year Secretary Fish, acting under his general authority 'Mathews, The conduct of American foreign relations, 43 (1922). 'Supra, 116.

as head of the department, ordered a redistribution of the duties assigned to the State Department.

Under Secretary Fish's directions, the department was divided into twelve bureaus, as follows: Chief Clerk's Bureau; First and Second Diplomatic Bureaus, under the general superintendence of the Assistant Secretary and the Second Assistant Secretary, respectively, but under the immediate direction of two bureau chiefs; First and Second Consular Bureaus, under the same arrangement as the diplomatic bureaus; Law Bureau, comprising simply the Examiner of Claims; Bureau of Accounts, managed by a disbursing clerk, who also acted in the capacity of superintendent of the department's building and property; Statistical Bureau, in charge of a librarian; Bureau of Translations, consisting merely of a translator for the department; Pardons and Commissions, in charge of a bureau chief; Domestic Records, comprising one clerk who served under the superintendence of the Assistant Secretary; and a Passport Bureau, in charge of a passport clerk. In addition to the clerical force employed in these bureaus, a number of unassigned clerks were engaged in the general work of the department, under the direction of the Chief Clerk, and a telegraph operator was employed in receiving and sending messages ordered by any of the secretaries or the Chief Clerk."

It should be kept in mind that the chiefs of these various bureaus were not recognized as such in the appropriation acts relating to the department, but were merely given that title by authority of the Secretary. The divisions of the Diplomatic and Consular bureaus were made along geographical lines, and their arrangement possessed an added feature, in that the Assistant Secretary and the Second Assistant Secretary were definitely assigned the duty of supervising their work. This latter arrangement was continued, however, for a brief period of only three weeks.*

Commissioner of Immigration; Examiner of Claims; Office of Superintendent of Statistics Abolished. Some additional offices had been established in the State Department during the period from 1860 to 1870. On July 4, 1864, an act was approved to encourage immigration into the United States, the first section of

Hunt, The department of state, 222-24 (1914).

Hunt, op. cit., 225.

which authorized the President to appoint a Commissioner of Immigration, who should be subject to the Secretary of State. This office continued under the State Department until its abolition by act of March 30, 1868. Mention was made, in a preceding chapter, of the provision made in 1848 for a clerk in the State Department to examine claims presented by American citizens against foreign governments. The office of Examiner of Claims was established by act of July 25, 1866, abolished by act of July 20, 1868, and reestablished on May 27, 1870. The nominal jurisdiction of the office was transferred to the Department of Justice upon the organization of that department in 1870, although the nature of its duties remained unchanged. The title of the office was changed to Solicitor for the Department of State by act of March 3, 1891. The office of Second Assistant Secretary of State was also created by the act of July 25, 1866, while that of the Superintendent of Statistics, created by statute in 1856, was abolished by act of July 20, 1868.* Congressional Recognition of Organization. Slight modifications in the organization of the department, as effected in 1870, were later made by Secretary Fish; namely, the creation of a separate mail division, and the substitution, for the Domestic Records Bureau, of a Territorial and Domestic Records Bureau in 1872, and the separation of the office of Keeper of Rolls from the Chief Clerk's Bureau in 1873. Congress granted legislative recognition to the bureaus established in the State Department, for the first time, in an appropriation act of March 3, 1873, which provided for the salaries of the two chiefs of the diplomatic and Consular bureaus, and of the chiefs of the Bureaus of Accounts, and of Indexes and Archives. In accordance with this provision, the Bureau of Indexes and Archives was organized and the Chief Clerk's Bureau abolished. Those bureaus created by departmental order, which were not recognized in this act, were retained by Secretary Fish, certain clerks in the department being assigned to act in the capacity of bureau chiefs."

13 Stat. L., 385, 386; 15 Stat. L., 55, 58.

6

Supra, 117.

945.

14 Stat. L., 224, 226; 15 Stat. L., 92, 96; 16 Stat. L., 378; 26 Stat. L., 908,

'Hunt, op. cit., 226.

'17 Stat. L., 485, 509.

Statutory Changes in Organization. Congress, having once recognized the internal organization of the State Department, frequently exercised its authority to introduce changes therein by subsequent legislation. The appropriation act of June 20, 1874, provided for only one Chief of the Consular Bureau and one Chief of the Diplomatic Bureau. Consequently the two divisions of those bureaus, established in 1870, were consolidated. The act of 1874 also provided for chiefs of four other bureaus, namely, Accounts, Statistics, Indexes and Archives, and Rolls and Library, and created the office of Third Assistant Secretary of State." The office of Translator was recognized by act of March 3, 1875, in addition to the six chiefs of bureaus. This act also authorized the Secretary of State to designate the Chief of the Bureau of Accounts as the disbursing clerk for the department.”

The act of August 15, 1876, provided for only five bureau chiefs and the translator. Accordingly, the Secretary of State directed that the Bureau of Statistics be placed under the supervision of a clerk in the department. The act of June 19, 1878, made provision for only four chiefs of bureau in addition to the translator, which made it necessary to discontinue the office of the Chief of Rolls and Library, but a clerk in the department was designated as librarian, with the same duties as had pertained to that bureau. Statutory provision for these two bureaus was again made by acts of March 3, 1881, and August 5, 1882, respectively."

Bureau of Appointments. No further changes were made in the organization of the department until 1898. A deficiency appropriation act, approved July 7, 1898, authorized the creation of a Bureau of Appointments, under the direction of a bureau chief. This bureau took the place of the Bureau of Commissions and Pardons established by Secretary Fish in 1870, the name of which had been changed to the Bureau of Commissions after the issuance of an Executive order by President Cleveland on June 16, 1893, transferring the duty of making out pardons for persons convicted of crimes against the laws of the United States from the Department of State to the Department of Justice."

10 18 Stat. L., 85, 90.

11 18 Stat. L., 343, 349.

12

19 Stat. L., 143, 148; 20 Stat. L., 178, 183; 21 Stat. L., 385, 391; 22 Stat. L., 219, 225. Cf. Hunt, op. cit., 229.

13

30 Stat. L., 652. Cf. Hunt, op. cit., 130.