The
United States Secretary of State is the head of
the United States Department of
State
, concerned with foreign
affairs. The Secretary is a member of the President's
Cabinet and the
highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in
line of
succession and
order of precedence. The
current Secretary of State selected by President
Barack Obama is
Hillary Rodham Clinton. The office of
the Secretary of State is one of the most high-profile positions in
U.S. government. Three of the last four Secretaries of State have
been women.
History
On January 10, 1781, the
Second
Continental Congress created the
Department of Foreign
Affairs. On July 27, 1789,
George
Washington signed a
congressional bill into law
reauthorizing an executive Department of Foreign Affairs headed by
a Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Congress then passed another law
giving certain additional domestic responsibilities to the new
Department and changing its name to the Department of State and the
name of head of the department to the Secretary of State, and
Washington approved this act on September 15, 1789. The new
domestic duties assigned to the newly renamed department were
receipt, publication, distribution, and preservation of laws of the
United States, custody of the
Great Seal of the United
States, authentication of copies and preparation of commissions
of executive branch appointments, and finally custody of the books,
papers, and records of the
Continental Congress including the
Constitution itself and
the
Declaration of
Independence.
In the early years of the
republic, the
Vice President would be whoever had the second highest electoral
votes, and could be from a different political party from the
President. The Secretary of State as a member of the same political
party as the President, was therefore often viewed as the natural
stepping-stone to the Presidency.
Secretaries of State who later occupied
the White
House
included Thomas
Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John
Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren
and James Buchanan. The
secretaries who unsuccessfully ran for President (either before or
after their service at the State Department) are as follows:
Note that Seward, Bryan, Hughes, Hull, Muskie and Clinton ran for
president before service as Secretary of State.
Functions
Most of the non-original domestic functions of the Department of
State have been transferred to other agencies.
Those that remain
include storage and use of the Great Seal of the United
States, performance of protocol functions for the White House, drafting of proclamations, and replies to
inquiries. In accordance with the
United States Constitution, the
Secretary performs such duties as the President requires. These
include negotiating with foreign representatives and instructing
U.S. embassies or consulates abroad. The Secretary also serves as a
principal adviser to the President in the determination of U.S.
foreign policy and, in recent decades, has become responsible for
overall direction, coordination, and supervision of
interdepartmental activities of the
U.S. Government overseas,
excepting certain military activities.
As the highest-ranking member of the cabinet, the Secretary of
State is fourth in line to succeed the Presidency, coming after the
Vice President,
the
Speaker of
the House of Representatives, and the
President pro
tempore of the Senate.
(See United States
presidential line of succession.)
Federal law ( ) provides that a presidential resignation must be
accomplished by written communication from the President to the
office of the Secretary of State. This has occurred once, when
President
Richard Nixon resigned on
August 9, 1974 via a letter to Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger.
When there is a vacancy in the office of Secretary of State, it is
exercised by another member of the cabinet, as was common in
earlier history, or, in more recent times, by a subaltern official
of the State Department until the President appoints and the
United States Senate confirms a
new Secretary.
List of Secretaries of State
See also
References
External links
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