United States Department of Foreign Affairs

The Department of Foreign Affairs was established by Congress on January 10, 1781, to be headed by a Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The Secretary was to "keep and preserve all the books and papers belonging to the Department of Foreign Affairs"; "receive and report the applications of all foreigners"; correspond with ministers of the United States at foreign courts, with ministers of foreign powers in the United States, and other persons, "for the purpose of obtaining the most extensive and useful information relative to foreign affairs, to be laid before Congress when required"; and "transmit such communications as Congress shall direct" to U.S. ministers and other persons in foreign countries. On February 22, 1782, Congress specifically authorized the first Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Robert R. Livingston, to correspond with U.S. and foreign consuls, and many other of his duties were spelled out with more precision than previously. After this act of 1782, communications from U.S. ministers abroad came regularly to the Secretary, who submitted them to Congress; the replies of Congress also went through the Secretary. Congress continued to appoint special committees to consider diplomatic communications, and all matters of any significance were referred to Congress by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. After the Secretary''s position had been vacant for nearly a year, John Jay was elected to fill it on May 7, 1784, and served for the remainder of the pre-Federal period.

The staff of the continental foreign affairs establishment in the United States varied little in size and composition throughout the pre-Federal period; it was neither large nor complex. In a letter to Congress dated January 25, 1782, the first Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Robert R. Livingston, mentioned that he had appointed two clerks, who were "barely sufficient to do the running business of the office . . ." On March 1, 1782, Congress authorized the Secretary to appoint two "under secretaries," but resolved in April 1785 that there was to be but one such subordinate official. A few interpreters and a doorkeeper-messenger were also employed in the home office.

At certain times the President and the Secretary of Congress also took part in the conduct of foreign affairs. Exasperated by not receiving timely communications from the Committee for Foreign Affairs, Benjamin Franklin wrote testily to Chairman Lovell on August 10, 1780, "My chief letters will . . . for the future, be addressed to the President till further orders." During much of the interim between the departure of the first Secretary for Foreign Affairs and the commencement of official duties by the second -- June 1783 to December 1784 -- the Secretary of Congress kept the records of the Department of Foreign Affairs, as he had done earlier when the Committee for Foreign Affairs gradually disbanded. During that time the President of Congress and special committees were also active in foreign affairs.

The continental Department of Foreign Affairs and its diplomatic and consular representatives abroad continued to function for several months after the commencement of operations by the Federal Government in 1789. Even after the first Federal Congress established a "Department of Foreign Affairs" on July 27, 1789 (1 Stat. 28), John Jay continued to serve as Secretary. In February 1790 Thomas Jefferson returned from France and assumed leadership of the renamed Department of State.