The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Volume III: Oath - Zollverein
• O
• Oath
• Oath of Allegiance
• Occupation
• Oceanica
• Ochlocracy.
• O'conor, Charles
• Office-holders, Danger of an Aristocracy of
• Ohio
• Oligarchy
• Olmstead Case. (see Pennsylvania.)
• Omnibus Bill. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Opinion. (see Public Opinion.)
• Opposition
• Order of the Day. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Orders In Council. (see Embargo, In U. S. History.)
• Orders, Religious . (see Congregations.)
• Ordinance of 1787
• Oregon
• Oriental Question
• Ostend Manifesto
• Outlawry
• Outlet
• Over-production
• P
• Pacific Railroad. (see Internal Improvements, Railroads.)
• Paper Money.
• Paraguay (republic Of).
• Parasites, Social
• Pardon.
• Paris Monetary Conference
• Parley.
• Parliament, the British
• Parliamentary Law.
• Participation In Profits.
• Parties, Political
• Party Government In the United States.
• Party Names In U. S. History. (see American Party, Anti-federal Party, Anti-masonic Party)
• Patent Office
• Patents, and the Patent System.
• Patronage
• Patrons of Husbandry. (see Grangers.)
• Pauperism
• Peace.
• Peace Congress. (see Conference, Peace.)
• Pendleton, George H.
• Penitentiary Systems. (see Prisons and Prison Discipline.)
• Pennsylvania
• Penny Banks. (see Banks, History and Management of Savings.)
• Pensions. (see United States Pension Laws, and the Pension Laws of Other Countries.)
• Persia.
• Personal Liberty Laws
• Personal Union
• Peru
• Petition
• Petition, Right of
• Philosophy of Law
• Physiocrates.
• Pickering, Timothy
• Pierce, Franklin
• Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth
• Pinckney, Thomas
• Piracy
• Plenty and Dearth.
• Poland
• Police
• Police Power of a State
• Political Arithmetic. (see Arithmetic, Political.)
• Political Assessments. (see Assessments, Political.)
• Political Economy.
• Political Economy, History of
• Political Science
• Politics, Nature and Character of
• Polk, James Knox
• Poll Tax
• Popular Sovereignty
• Population.
• Portugal.
• Postoffice
• Postoffice Department
• Postoffice Savings Banks. (see Banks, History and Management of Savings.)
• Powers of Congress. (see Congress, Powers Of.)
• President. (see Executive.)
• President Pro Tem. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Press, the Newspaper and Periodical
• Previous Question. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Prices
• Primary Elections.
• Priority of Debts Due to the United States and to the States
• Prisoners of War
• Prisons and Prison Discipline
• Private Bills. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Private Calendar. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Privateering
• Privilege. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Prizes, Maritime
• Production of Wealth
• Products On Paper
• Profits
• Prohibition
• Promotion
• Property
• Property, Landed . (see Rent.)
• Property, Literary
• Proportional Representation
• Protection. Restrictions Upon Freedom of Exchange
• Protection In the United States.
• Protestantism. (see Churches, Protestant.)
• Prussia
• Public Debts. (see Debts, National, State and Local.)
• Public Lands of the United States
• Public Lands, Office of
• Public Opinion
• Public Policy
• Public Revenues. (see Revenues, Public.)
• Q
• Quarantine
• Quids
• R
• Races of Mankind
• Radicalism
• Railways, History and Political Economy of
• Railways, Legislation Concerning, and Management Of, In the United States
• Railway Clearing House. (see Clearing, and Clearing Houses.)
• Randolph, John
• Rebellion
• Rebellion, the (in U. S. History)
• Reciprocity
• Recognition
• Reconstruction
• Refuge, Right of . (see Asylum.)
• Refunding of the Public Debt of the United States
• Reichsrath
• Reichstag
• Removal of Deposits. (see Deposits, Removal Of.)
• Removals From Office
• Rent
• Representation
• Representative Democracy. (see Democracy, Representative.)
• Republic.
• Republican Party
• Repudiation.
• Resignation.
• Restrictive System. (see Embargo, In U. S. History.)
• Returning Boards
• Revenue
• Revolution.
• Revolution, the
• Rhode Island
• Ricardo, David
• Riders
• Right of Inheritance. (see Inheritance.)
• Right of Petition. (see Petition, Right Of.)
• Riu Kiu.
• River and Harbor Bills. (see Internal Improvements.)
• Roads. (see Transportation, Means Of.)
• Roads and Canals. (see Internal Improvements.)
• Rohmer's Doctrine of Parties. (see Parties, Political.)
• Roman Catholic Church.
• Rotation In Office. (see Civil Service Reform.)
• Rules. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Rush, Richard
• Russia
• S
• Saint-simonism. (see Socialism.)
• Salary Grab
• San Domingo
• Sandwich Islands
• Sanitary System
• Savings
• Savings Banks. (see Banks, History and Management of Savings.)
• Saxony
• Schools. (see Education and the State)
• Schurz, Carl
• Science. (see Social Science.)
• Scotland
• Scott, Winfield
• Scratching
• Search, Right of
• Secession
• Sedition Laws. (see Alien and Sedition Laws.)
• Seminole War. (see Slavery, II.)
• Senate
• Sergeant-at-arms. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Sergeant, John
• Servia, Principality of
• Sessions of Congress. (see Congress, Sessions Of.)
• Seward, William H.
• Seymour, Horatio
• Shay's Rebellion. (see Confederation, Articles Of.)
• Sherman, John
• ShimonosÉki Indemnity
• Shinto
• Siam
• Silver
• Silver Bill. (see Hayes, R. B.)
• Sinking Fund
• Sintooism. (see Shinto)
• Slavery
• Smith, Adam
• Smuggling
• Socialism and Socialists
• Social Contract
• Social Science
• Society
• South Carolina
• Southern Confederacy. (see Confederate States.)
• Sovereignty
• Sovereignty (in U. S. History). (see Popular Sovereignty.)
• Spain
• Speaker. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Speakers. (see Congress, Sessions Of.)
• Speculation
• Spoils System
• Squatter Sovereignty. (see Popular Sovereignty)
• Stamp Act Congress
• Standing Armies. (see Armies.)
• Standing Orders. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Stanton, Edwin M .
• State, Department of
• State Rights. (see State Sovereignty, II.)
• State Sovereignty
• State, the
• States, Constitutional and Legal Diversities In
• Statistics
• Stephens, Alexander H.
• Stevens,thaddeus
• Stock Exchange Clearing House. (see Clearing, and Clearing Houses.)
• Stock Jobbing. (see Agiotage.)
• Story, Joseph
• Strict Construction. (see Construction.)
• Strikes and Lockouts
• Subsidies.
• Sub-treasury. (see Independent Treasury.)
• Suffrage
• Sumner, Charles
• Sumptuary Laws. (see Laws, Sumptuary.)
• Supply. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Supreme Court. (see Judiciary.)
• Sweden.
• Switzerland
• T
• Table. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Tammany Hall
• Taney, Roger Brooke
• Tariffs of the United States.
• Tartar, Tartary
• Ta-tsing (great Pure)
• Tauism (tao-ism, To;, Or Doctrine of Lao-tse).
• Taxation, Principles of
• Taxation, National and Local. (see Revenue, Public; Taxation.)
• Taylor, Zachary
• Telegraph
• Tellers. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Temperance Movement In the United States. (see Prohibition, Police.)
• Ten-hour Law
• Tennessee
• Term and Tenure of Office
• Territorial Waters
• Territories
• Texas
• Third Estate
• Tie. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Tilden, Samuel Jones
• Times-spirit, the . (see Zeitgeist.)
• Tompkins, Daniel D.
• Ton-kin. (see Tonquin.)
• Tonquin (tong-king Or Tun-kin).
• Transportation, Means of
• Treason
• Treasury Department.
• Treaties.
• Treaties, Fishery.
• Treaties of the United States
• Trent Affair
• Tungusic Races. (see Tartar.)
• Turkey.
• Tyler, John
• U
• Union, the (in U. S. History),
• Union Party. (see Republican Party.)
• United States Notes.
• United States Notes. Legal-tender Cases—decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.
• United States of America
• United States of Colombia. (see New Grenada.)
• United States Pension Laws and the Pension Laws of Other Countries
• United States Surplus Money
• Universal Suffrage. (see Suffrage.)
• Universities
• Usury
• Utah
• Utility
• Utopia
• V
• Value
• Van Buren, Martin
• Vermont
• Veto
• Vice-president. (see Executive, V.; Electors, Senate; Administrations.)
• Virginia
• Virginia Resolutions. (see Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions.)
• W
• Wage Fund, the
• Wages
• "waltham System,"
• Wants.
• War. (see Declaration of War, Belligerents, Exchange of Prisoners.)
• War, the Civil. (see Rebellion, The, In U. S. History.)
• War Department.
• Wars (in U. S. History).
• Washington City. (see Capital, National.)
• Washington, George
• Washington Territory
• Ways and Means. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Wealth.
• Webster, Daniel
• Weights and Measures.
• West Virginia
• Wheeler, William A.
• Whig Party
• Whisky Insurrection
• Whisky Ring
• White, Hugh Lawson
• White League. (see Ku-klux Klan.)
• Wilmot Proviso
• Wilson, Henry
• Wirt, William
• Wisconsin
• Woman Suffrage. (see Suffrage.)
• Wright, Silas
• Wyoming
• Wyoming Territory
• X
• X Y Z Mission
• Y
• Yazoo Frauds
• Yeas and Nays. (see Parliamentary Law.)
• Z
• Zeitgeist.
• Zollverein.
• Lists of Writers
• The Following Is a List of the Subjects Treated By American Writers:

STATE

STATE, Department of. This is the oldest, and ranks by long established usage as the first, of the departments of the United States government. Founded by act of July 27, 1789 (1 Stat. at Large, p. 28), the department is presided over by a secretary of state, who is a member of the cabinet, and is sometimes (though erroneously) styled prime minister. The functions of the secretary of state embrace a great variety of responsible duties. He is the organ of the government in all communications of whatever nature with foreign government. Such communications, although in form purporting to emanate from the president whenever important diplomatic matters are concerned, are always prepared at the department of state, and signed by the secretary, although they must first have the president's approval. The secretary conducts all correspondence with the ministers and consuls of the United States residing abroad; he has exclusive charge of negotiations concerning foreign affairs; he only, according to official etiquette, can communicate with the representatives of foreign powers residing in the United States, upon public affairs. He is the official organ of correspondence between the president and the governors of the various states in the Union. He has charge of all treaties which have been made, and conducts negotiations as to new treaties or modifications of old ones. All the laws of the United States are preserved in the archives of the state department as they come enrolled on parchment from congress, after being approved by the president. The secretary publishes the United States laws, resolutions, presidential proclamations, treaties, etc., properly edited, in annual volumes. The secretary of state is custodian of the great seal of the United States, and affixes the seal with his countersign to commissions or appointments to office in the higher grades, to executive proclamations, to warrants for pardon, extradition, etc. He records and issues passports to Americans traveling abroad. He makes annual report to congress (more recently made monthly) on the commercial relations of the United States with foreign countries, based upon information gathered by our ministers and consuls abroad. A register of the department of state is issued annually, with full lists of consular and diplomatic agents, salaries, fees collected, regulations concerning precedence of diplomatic agents, etc. The department also publishes a volume of consular regulations, in frequently revised editions.

—The secretary of state is aided by a first assistant secretary, who becomes acting secretary in his absence, salary $4,500; a second and third assistant secretary, salaries $3,500 each, who are charged with correspondence with diplomatic and consular officers, and with such public business and correspondence as may be assigned to them by the secretary. The business of the department is distributed among seven bureaus: a diplomatic bureau, having charge of correspondence with American ministers residing abroad; a consular bureau, charged with the correspondence with the consulates of the United States; a bureau of indexes and archives, having charge of the mails, the registry and indexing of correspondence, and the preservation of the archives; a bureau of accounts, having the custody and disbursement of appropriations, care of funds and bonds, and of the building and property of the department; a bureau of rolls and library, having custody of the rolls, treaties and laws, with their promulgation and the care of the library and public documents, as well as of the revolutionary archives; a bureau of statistics, charged with the preparation of the reports upon commercial relations; and a law bureau, for the examination of all claims, and of questions of law submitted by the secretary or his assistants.

—This widely distributed business is performed by a force of sixty-two officers and clerks, besides fourteen messengers and laborers, drawing annual salaries to the amount of $112,350 in 1884. The contingent and miscellaneous expenses of the department of state amounted to the very moderate sum of $25,050 the same year. The department is located in the new and commodious granite building forming the south wing of the massive edifice known as the state, war and navy department building, erected in 1871-81. The department of state has had as its secretaries, from the beginning of the government, a series of statesmen distinguished in the political annals of the country. The following list exhibits the names, with the term of office occupied by each: