Page images
PDF
EPUB
[merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

has charge of all moneys paid into the Treasury of the United States, also of all disbursements, the auditing of accounts, and the collection of revenue. It also supervises the mint and coinage of money, and has charge of the coast survey, including the erection and management of light-houses. 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

[graphic]
[blocks in formation]

AMERICA

SEAL OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT.

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 its 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

[graphic]

to report annually to Congress concerning the bureau of navy-yards and docks; of the state of the army, the expenditures of construction, equipment, and repair; of the military appropriations in detail, and provisions and clothing; of ordnance and all matter concerning the bureaus over hydrography; of medicine and surgery. which the department has special super- To these have since been added a bureau vision. This department has also in charge the publication of the official records of the Civil War, an enormous work. All the archives captured from or surrendered by the Confederate government are also in charge of this bureau of records.

The first Attorney-General of the United States, Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, was appointed under act of Congress of Sept. 24, 1789. The Attorney - General is required to act as attorney for the United States in all suits in the Supreme Court; he is also the legal adviser of the President and the heads of departments, and also of the solicitor of the treasury. He is further charged with the superintendence of all United States district attorneys and marshals, with the examination of all applications to the President for pardons, and with the transfer of all land purchased by the United States for government buildings, etc. The name, Department of Justice," by which this division of the cabinet is now largely known, was given to it about

1872.

66

[blocks in formation]

NAVY

UNITED

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

STATES OF AMERIC

SEAL OF THE NAVY 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 labor and labor statistics. Concerning this work report is made annually. These different bureaus have charge, under the Secretary, of all matters relating to the sale and survey

[graphic]
[blocks in formation]

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; the supervision of the accounts of railroads; the investigation of labor troubles, and collection of statistics thereon. The Secretary of the Interior has also charge of the mining interests of the government, of the census of the United States, and of the receiving and arranging of printed journals of Congress, and other books printed and purchased for the use of the government. 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

[subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

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 duties of the head of this department have now a scope that would amaze the ghost of the first official appointed, could he be permitted to revisit the scene of his earthly labors. In addition to the enormous and varied detail of labors connected with mail transportation here supervised, a series of maps of all parts of the country are kept, and continually revised to secure their entire accuracy to date. The condition of this

[graphic]
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

department, financially and otherwise, is reported annually.

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 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, the seed division, the silk section, the ornithological division, the bureau of animal industry, etc. On July 1, 1891, the weather bureau, which had hitherto been a branch of the signal service of the War Department, was transferred, by act of Congress, to this department.

[graphic]
[blocks in formation]

Thomas Jefferson.
Edmund Randolph
Timothy Pickering
John Marshall
James Madison
Robert Smith..
James Monroe

John Quincy Adams.
Henry Clay

Martin Van Buren.
Edward Livingston
Louis McLane
John Forsyth
Daniel Webster
Hugh S. Legare.
Abel P. Upshur.
John C. Calhoun
James Buchanan
John M. Clayton.
Daniel Webster
Edward Everett
William L. Marcy.
Lewis Cass..

Jeremiah S. Black.
William H. Seward
Elihu B. Washburne.
Hamilton Fish
William M. Evarts.
James G. Blaine.
F. T. Frelinghuysen.
Thomas F. Bayard
James G. Blaine.
John W. Foster.
Walter Q. Gresham.
Richard Olney
John Sherman

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Appointed. Sept. 26, 1789 Jan. 2, 1794 Dec. 10, 1795 May 13, 1800 March 5, 1801 March 6, 1809 April 2, 1811 March 5, 1817 March 7, 1825 . March 6, 1829 May 24. 1831 May 29, 1833 27, 1834

. June

[blocks in formation]

SECRETARIES OF THE TREASURY.

Sept. 11, 1789 Feb. 2, 1795 . Jan. 1, 1801 14, 1801

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

SECRETARIES OF WAR.

Henry Knox Timothy Pickering James McHenry.

Samuel Dexter

Roger Griswold
Henry Dearborn
William Eustis
John Armstrong
James Monroe
William H. Crawford
George Graham
John C. Calhoun
James Barbour
Peter B. Porter
John H. Eaton.
Lewis Cass.
Joel R. Poinsett
John Bell

John C. Spencer.
James M. Porter
William Wilkins
William L. Marcy.
George W. Crawford.
Charles M. Conrad
Jefferson Davis
John B. Floyd
Joseph Holt

Simon Cameron

March

5, 1901

[blocks in formation]

Alexander Hamilton..

Oliver Wolcott.

Samuel Dexter

Edwin M. Stanton

Albert Gallatin

. May

[blocks in formation]

Ulysses S. Grant, ad interim. Aug.
Lorenzo Thomas, ad interim..Feb.

12, 1867

21, 1868

[blocks in formation]

Name.

J. Crowninshield
Paul Hamilton

William Jones

B. W. Crowninshield.

Smith Thompson

Samuel L. Southard

John Branch

Levi Woodbury
Mahlon Dickerson
James K. Paulding.
George E. Badger..
Abel P. Upshur
David Henshaw.
Thomas W. Gilmer
John Y. Mason
George Bancroft

John Y. Mason

William B. Preston

William A. Graham.

John P. Kennedy

James C. Dobbin.

Isaac Toucey.

Gideon Welles.

Adolph E. Borie.

George M. Robeson.

Richard W. Thompson.
Nathan Goff, Jr.

William H. Hunt.
William E. Chandler.

William C. Whitney.
Benjamin F. Tracy.
Hilary A. Herbert.
John D. Long.

44

Appointed. March 3, 1805 March 7, 1809 Jan. 12, 1813 .Dec. 19, 1814 Nov. 9, 1818 .Sept. 16, 1823 March 9, 1829 . May 23, 1831 June 30, 1834 June 25, 1838 March 5, 1841 .Sept. 13, 1841

.July 24, 1843 Feb. 15, 1844 March 14, 1844 March 10, 1845 .Sept. 9, 1846 March 8, 1849 .July 22, 1850 22, 1852 March 7, 1853 March 6, 1857 March 5, 1861 March 5, 1869 June 25, 1869 March 12, 1877 Jan. 6, 1881

.July

. March 5, 1881 . April 1, 1882 March 6, 1885 March 5, 1889 March 6, 1893 March 5, 1897 March 5, 1901

SECRETARIES OF THE INTERIOR.

Thomas Ewing..

March 8, 1849

Alexander H. H. Stewart.... Sept. 12, 1850

[blocks in formation]

Name.

Charles A. Wickliffe.
Cave Johnson.
Jacob Collamer.
Nathan K. Hall.
Samuel D. Hubbard.
James Campbell.
Aaron V. Brown.
Joseph Holt.
Horatio King.
Montgomery Blair.
William Dennison.
Alexander W. Randall.
John A. J. Creswell.
Marshall Jewell.
James N. Tyner.
David McK. Key.
Horace Maynard.
Thomas L. James.
Timothy O. Howe.
Walter Q. Gresham.
Frank Hatton..
William F. Vilas.
Don M. Dickinson.
John Wanamaker.
Wilson S. Bissell.
William L. Wilson.
James A. Gary.
Charles E. Smith.

[blocks in formation]

Edmund Randolph. William Bradford. Charles Lee. Theophilus Parsons. Levi Lincoln. Robert Smith. John Breckinridge. Cæsar A. Rodney. William Pinkney. Richard Rush. William Wirt. John M. Berrien. Roger B. Taney. Benjamin F. Butler. Felix Grundy.. Henry D. Gilpin. John J. Crittenden. Hugh S. Legare. John Nelson. John Y. Mason. Nathan Clifford. Isaac Toucey. Reverdy Johnson. John J. Crittenden. Caleb Cushing. Jeremiah S. Black. Edwin M. Stanton. Edward Bates... Titian J. Coffey, ad James Speed.. .Sept. 26, 1789 Henry Stanbery. .Aug. 12, 1791 William M. Evarts. Feb. 25, 1795 E. Rockwood Hoar. Nov. 28, 1801 Amos T. Ackerman. March 17, 1814 George H. Williams. . June 26, 1823 Edwards Pierrepont. March 9, 1829 Alphonso Taft. 1, 1835 Charles Devens. 25, 1840 Wayne MacVeagh...

POSTMASTERS-GENERAL.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

March 6, 1841 Benjamin H. Brewster.

July

2, 1864 23, 1866

15, 1868

March 5, 1869 June 23, 1870 Dec. 14, 1871 .April 26, 1875 . May 22, 1876 March 12, 1877 March 5, 1881 Dec.

19, 1881

« PreviousContinue »