respecting boundary and other treaties are also under the direction of this department. This department also files all acts and proceedings of Congress, and attends to the publication of the same and their distribution throughout the country. No regular annual report is made to Congress concerning the work of this department, but special information is given whenever any unusual event or complication in our foreign relations occurs. The first Secretary of the Treasury was Alexander Hamilton, who was appointed upon the organization of the department, Sept. 2, 1789. This department has charge of all moneys paid into the Treasury of the United States, also of all disbursements, the auditing of accounts, and It also super the collection of revenue. vises the mint and coinage of money, and has charge of the coast survey. The marine hospitals of the government are also under its direction, and it controls the regulation and appointments of all custom-houses. The Secretary is obliged to make a full report to Congress, at the opening of each regular session, of the business done by the department during the year, and the existing financial condition of the government. The department has an important bureau of statistics dealing with the foreign and domestic trade of the country. It also supervises the life-saving service, and has control of the National Board of Health. The War Department dates from Aug. 7, 1789. John Knox was its first Secretary. It has in charge all business growing out of the military affairs of the government, attends to the paying of troops, and furnishing all army supplies; also supervises the erection of forts, and all work of military engineering. The department is divided into a number of important bureaus, the chief officers of which are known as the commanding - general, the adjutant-general, the quartermaster-general, the paymaster - general, the commissary-general, the surgeon-general, the chief engineer, the chief of survey, and the chief of ordnance. The signal service is under the control of this department. It is made the duty of the Secretary of War to report annually to Congress concerning the state of the army, the expenditures of the military appropriations in detail, and all matter concerning the bureaus over SEAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. which the department has special super- The first Attorney-General of the Unit- NAVY DEPRALMENT SEAL OF THE NAVY DEPARTMENT. The Navy Department (1789) was at first included in the War Department, but in 1798 the two branches of the service were separated. Aug. 21, 1842, this department was organized into five bureausthe bureau of navy-yards and docks; of construction, equipment, and repair; of provisions and clothing; of ordnance and hyarography; of medicine and surgery. To these have since been added a bureau DEPARTMENT SEAL OF THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. of navigation, one of steam engineering, and one of recruiting, to which last has been added the work of equipment formerly provided for in connection with the construction bureau. It also keeps a library of war records. The Secretary of the Navy has charge of everything connected with the naval service of the government, and the execution of the laws concerning it, and makes annual reports to Congress of the conditions of the department. All instructions to subordinate officers of the navy and to all chiefs of the bureaus emanate from him, while the department supervises the building and repairs of all vessels, docks, and wharves, and enlistment and discipline of sailors, together with all supplies needed by them. The first Secretary of the Navy was Benjamin Stoddert, of Maryland. The Department of the Interior was created by act of Congress, March 3, 1849. The business of the department is conducted by eight bureaus-viz., bureau of the public lands, pensions, Indian affairs, patents, education, railroads, and the geological survey. These different bureaus have, charge, under the Secretary, of all matters relating to the sale and survey of the public lands; the adjudication and payment of pensions; the treaties with the Indian tribes of the West; the issue of letters patent to inventors; the collection of statistics on the progress of education; and the supervision of the accounts of railroads. The Secretary of the Interior has also charge of the mining interests of the government, and of the receiving and arranging of printed journals of Congress, and other books printed and purchased for the use of the govern- the seed division, the silk section, the ment. The first to fill this office was Thomas Ewing, of Ohio. The Post-office Department was established May 8, 1794. It has the supervision of all the post-offices of the country, their names, the establishment and discontinuance of post-offices, the modes of carrying the mails, the issue of stamps, the receipt of the revenue of the office, and all other matters connected with the management and transportation of the mails. Samuel Osgood, of Massachusetts, was the first to fill this office. The Department of Agriculture was at first a bureau of the Interior Department; but in 1889, by act of Congress, it was made independent, and its chief, the Secretary of Agriculture, became a member of SEAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. the President's cabinet. This department embraces numerous divisions and sections, such as the botanical division, the section of vegetable pathology, the pomological division, the forestry division, the chemical division, the division of entomology, DEPARTMENTO ornithological division, the bureau of ani- SEAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF Name. J. Crowninshield Paul Hamilton William Jones B. W. Crowninshield. Smith Thompson Samuel L. Southard. John Branch Levi Woodbury Mahlon Dickerson James K. Paulding. Adolph E. Borie. March 5, 1841 Montgomery Blair .Sept. William Dennison 13, 1841 July 24, 1843 Alexander W. Randall. Feb. 15, 1844 John A. J. Creswell. March 14, 1844 Marshall Jewell March 10, 1845 James N. Tyner. .Sept. 9, 1846 David McK. Key. March 8, 1849 Horace Maynard .July 22, 1850 Thomas L. James. 22, 1852 Timothy O. Howe. .July March 7, 1853 Walter Q. Gresham. . March 6, 1857 Frank Hatton .March 5, 1861 William F. Vilas. March 5, 1869 Don M. Dickinson. June 25, 1869 John Wanamaker March 12, 1877 Wilson S. Bissell. Jan. 6, 1881 William L. Wilson. .March 5, 1881 James A. Gary. .April 1, 1882 Charles E. Smith. March 6, 1885 Henry C. Payne.. March 5, 1889 Robert J. Wynne. March 6, 1893 March 5, 1897 March 10, 1902 June 24, 1904 Charles J. Bonaparte..........July 1, 1905 ATTORNEYS-GENERAL. Edmund Randolph. William Bradford. Charles Lee.. 21, 1898 Feb. 20, 1801 March 5, 1801 March 3, 1805 John Breckinridge. Cæsar A. Rodney. William Pinkney Richard Rush William Wirt March 5, 1869 James Harlan.. Orville H. Browning. Samuel J. Kirkwood. David R. Francis.. Cornellus N. Bliss. Ethan A. Hitchcock. .July 27, 1866 John M. Berrien. .Nov. 1, 1870 .Oct. 19, 1875 ..March 12, 1877 March 5, 1881 April 6, 1882 March 6, 1885 16, 1888 March 5, 1889 March 6, 1893 .Aug. 24, 1896 March 5, 1897 Dec. 21, 1898 Jan. Roger B. Taney. John Y. Mason. Jeremiah S. Black. Edwin M. Stanton. Edward Bates ... .Sept. 13, 1841 .July 1, 1843 March Oct. June 6, 1845 17, 1846 21, 1848 March 8, 1849 July 22, 1850 March 7, 1853 March 6, 1857 22, 1863 Dec. 20, 1860 March 5, 1861 .Dec. .July Titian J. Coffey, ad interim..June .Sept. 26, 1789 Aug. 12, 1791 James Speed Feb. 25, 1795 Nov. 28, 1801 Henry Stanbery William M. Evarts. March 17, 1814 E. Rockwood Hoar. June 26, 1823 .March 9, 1829 Amos T. Ackerman. George H. Williams. May 1, 1835 Edwards Pierrepont .May 25, 1840 Alphonso Taft 2, 1864 23, 1866 .July 15, 1868 March 5, 1869 .June 23, 1870 Dec. 14, 1871 .April 26, 1875 May 22, 1876 |