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The History of the Department of State

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Extract

In previous papers of this Journal I have shown that the Department of State was created to manage not only the foreign affairs of the government, but such domestic executive business as did not naturally fall under the war and treasury departments; and in addition it has performed certain temporary or occasional duties some of which have passed to other departments and some of which are still under its jurisdiction. In the natural expansion of the business of the government the tendency has been to transfer from the Department all those duties which are purely domestic, and those which have been thus transferred will now be considered.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1909

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References

1 See this Journal, 1:867, 2:591, 3:137.

2 I Stat. 109.

3 Id., 318.

4 No biography of Thornton exists, but a careful study of his career and accomplishments would be interesting and valuable. He had studied medicine; he was the author of erudite pamphlets on the origin of language; his genius in architecture is stamped upon the Capitol; he helped to lay out the grounds of the White House. He became an ardent sympathizer with the South American struggle for independence and applied for a South American mission. A great many of his letters are in the Department of State MSS., especially among the applications for office, 1809-1828, and his papers are in the Library of Congress MSS.

5 Thornton to J. Q. Adams, September 15, 1820; to Jefferson, January 8, 1821; to Madison, January 20, 1821. Department of State MSS. applications for office.

6 Department of State MSS., Miscellaneous Letters, 62:5.

7 Id., vol. 45.

8 Id., vol. 45.

9 Id., vol. 59.

10 Id., vol. 59.

11 Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1:571.

12 IV. Stat. 303, V. 115.

13 IV Stat. 396.

14 V Stat. 117 et seq.

15 On the subject of the history of the Patent Office, see Official Gazette, vol. 12, No. 15, and the “Patent System of the United States, a History,” by Levin H. Campbell, Washington, 1891; also Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 1900, VIII, “The American Patent System.”

16 “Origin of the Copyright Laws in the United States,” in “A collection of Papers on Political, Literary and Moral Subjects,” by Noah Webster, p. 173 et seq., New York, 1843.

17 XV Stat. 125.

18 II Stat. 171.

19 IV Stat. 436.

20 XI Stat. 380.

21 R. S. U. S. 4948.

22 I Stat. 101.

23 Circulars, vol. 1, No. 15, Department of State.

24 Report of Committee on the Ninth Census, to the House of Representatives, by Mr. Garfield, January 18, 1870, 41st Cong., 2d Session.

25 IX Stat. 428.

26 See “History and Growth of the U. S. Census,” by Carroll D. Wright and William C. Hunt, Senate Doe. No. 194, 56th Cong., 1st Sess., 1899-1900.

27 The letters may be found under their respective dates in tht Department of State MSS., Miscellaneous Letters.

28 Department of State MSS., Miscellaneous Letters.

29 See for the history of the Department of Justice, “The Department of Justice; its History and Functions,” by James S. Easby-Smith, Washington, 1904.

30 I Stat. 51 n.

31 Id., 50.

32 Department of State MSS., Papers end Records of the Territories, I.

33 Id., I.

34 I Stat. 123.

35 Department of State MSS., Papers and Records of the Territories, I.

36 Department of State MSS., Papers and Records of the Territories, I.

37 Department of State MSS., Governor Claiborne's Correspondence Relative to Louisiana, Vol. I.

38 XVII Stat. 484.

39 I Stat. 468.

40 II Stat. 716.

41 Id., 718.

42 II Stat. 231.

43 Daniel Brent, Chief Clerk of the Department.

44 Department of State MSS., Lands South of Tennessee, vol. 1

45 III Stat. 117.

46 Department of State MSS., Lands South of Tennessee (unbound papers).

47 Department of State MSS., Lands, vol. II.

48 Department of State MSS., Lands South of Tennessee, vol. 9.

49 III Stat. 489.

50 X Stat. 719.

51 XVIII Stat. 42.

52 XIII Stat. 386.

53 XV Stat. 58.

54 XXVI Stat. 1084.

55 III Stat. 342.

56 IV Stat. 608,

57 XII Stat. 141.