CHAPTER VIII

SUBDIVISIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT

I

HEN the old government gave place to the new in 1789, the state papers of the old Congress were placed in the hands of Roger Alden and Henry Remsen, the former having those which related to domestic affairs, the latter those relating to foreign affairs. The papers were turned over to the Secretary of State when his department was created. When John Jay assumed temporarily the direction of the Department, he put Remsen in charge of the foreign affairs and Alden in charge of its domestic duties; and when Jefferson entered upon the office of Secretary of State, he confirmed this arrangement, and the heads of these subdivisions held equal rank. His estimates for the expenses of his Department in 1790 were for "The Home Office" and "The Foreign Office"; but after Alden's resignation on July 25 of that year the arrangement of a single chief clerk, which the law had originally contemplated, was effected, and the two divisions of the Department were merged under Remsen.1 In 1802 William Thornton was put in charge of the patent business of the Department and that became the first distinct 1 Ante, p. 95.

2

and permanent subdivision. The first specific appropriation for the salaries of the Secretary and officers (clerks) of the Department was for the year 1792 and amounted to $6,300;1 and it rose slightly in the subsequent years. The compensation of the chief clerk had been fixed by law at $800, but the Act of 1794 gave him an additional allowance of $200. No clerk could be paid more than $500 under the law, until the Act of 1795 permitted the Secretaries of State, Treasury, and War to vary the compensation according to the services performed, keeping the whole expenditure within the appropriation, but no principal clerk was to receive more than $1,000. In 1797 the appropriations had risen to $16,497.64.5 In 1799 the salary of the Secretary was increased to $5,000, and in 1801 there was an appropriation of fifteen per cent over the amount appropriated in 1799 to the clerks in the several departments. Following this provision, on June 25, 1801, the clerks addressed Secretary Madison, asking him to apportion the extra allowance among them. The extra allowances occasionally provided by law were the only compensation received by the clerks beyond their regular salaries, and the custom

8

11 Stat., 226.

2 See Statement of Appropriations and Expenditures of the Dept. of State from 1789, Washington, 1777, Ex. Doc., No. 38, 44th Cong., 2d Sess., Senate.

3 1 Stat., 392.

4 1 Stat., 443.

5 1 Stat., 498.

e 1 Stat., 729.

72 Stat., 117, 119.

8 Madison MSS., Lib. Cong.

which prevailed in England among the clerks in the Foreign Office of receiving pecuniary gifts from foreign ministers never became the practice in Washington. The expectations of such gifts in London are indicated by the following letter to Rufus King, American envoy at London, dated January 15, 1800:

The Clerks of the Foreign Office present their respects to Mr. King and have taken the liberty of directing the Bearer Mr. Turner to wait upon His Excellency for the Christmas gratuity usually given to them by the Foreign Ministers.1

As the organic act of the Department provided that the Chief Clerk should be appointed by the head of the Department, so were the inferior clerks appointed by him and directly responsible to him. The power of the President as the head of the executive branch of the government was not interfered with by this arrangement, however, as he might still direct the Secretary to appoint or remove clerks whenever he chose to do so. This power has been exercised freely by some Presidents and not at all by others, the frequency and extent of the use depending upon the varying dispositions of Presidents and circumstances which seem to call for the exercise of the power. Two examples will suffice to illustrate.

The first is from Andrew Jackson:

The President with his respects to the Secretary of State, begs leave to draw his attention to a regulation adopted by the President at the commencement of his administration, 1 Dept. of State MSS., Passport Letters, I.

to wit, that where any officer under the Government contracted debts and failed to pay them, but took the benefit of the insolvent debtors act, he should be forthwith removedreport has been made that such violations of the rule have been made in the patent office; you will cause the necessary inquiries to be made, in your Department, and report the same to me, that such clerks may be removed-The enquiry will only be to debts contracted under the present administration and not before.

Sir:

August 1st, 1831.

WASHINGTON, August 6, 1831.

Lemuel W. Ruggles Esq., clerk in the "Patent Office," is hereby dismissed from office as it has been reported to me that he has taken the benefit of the Insolvent Debtors' Act for debts contracted during my administration. The heads of Departments are charged to report all clerks, who are guilty of the same conduct, to the President for dismissal. Very Respectfully,

ANDREW JACKSON.

Secretary of State.1

A second example was furnished in 1885, when Thomas F. Bayard, the Secretary of State, required the Chief Clerk, Sevellon A. Brown, to resign, saying that the President had directed him to make the request.

The executive staff of the Department in 1790 has already been given. It varied little from year to year, separations from the service being few. In

1 Papers from the President, 1825 to 1832, Dept. of State MSS. 2 Ante, p. 96.

1800, with the annual salaries received, it was as

The Act of April 21, 1806,2 required the Secretary of State to report to Congress at the beginning of each year the names of the clerks employed and the sum paid each; and this report of the Secretary also indicated the duties performed by each.

REPORT.

IN pursuance of the act of Congress, entitled "An act to regulate and fix the compensation of clerks," &c. the secretary of state has the honor to report to Congress, the annexed list of the persons employed in his office, and to state that the business of the department generally is in a state of progressive increase; that particularly the business relating to patents issued for useful arts, has increased at the rate of doubling in four years; and that patents for lands, and the business attending the impressment of American seamen, have also much increased. It is his opinion, therefore, that 1 Madison MSS., Lib. Cong.

2 2 Stat., 397.