United States Secretary of State

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United States Secretary of State

The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State, often referred to as the State Department, is the United States Cabinet-level foreign affairs agency of the United States Federal government of the United States, similar to foreign ministries, foreign offices, ministries of external relations, etc....
, concerned with foreign affairs

Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs is an United States journal on international relations published by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually. The CFR is a private-sector group established in New York City in 1921, with the mission of promoting understanding of foreign policy and America?s role in the world....
. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet

United States Cabinet

The United States Cabinet is composed of the most senior appointed officers of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States, and its existence dates back to the first United States of America President of the United States, George Washington, who appointed a Cabinet of four people to advise and assist him in his dutie...
and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession

United States presidential line of succession

The United States presidential line of succession defines who may become or act as President of the United States upon the incapacity, death, resignation, or removal from office of a sitting president or a President-elect of the United States....
and order of precedence

United States order of precedence

The United States order of precedence is a nominal and symbolic hierarchy of important positions within the Federal government of the United States of the United States....
. The current Secretary of State selected by President Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the List of Presidents of the United States and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office....
is Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the List of Secretaries of State of the United States United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President of the United States Barack Obama....
. 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.

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Encyclopedia

The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State

United States Department of State

Foreign Affairs

United States Cabinet

United States presidential line of succession

United States order of precedence

Barack Obama

Hillary Rodham Clinton

History

On January 10, 1781, the Second Continental Congress

Continental Congress

The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....
created the Department of Foreign Affairs

United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs

The United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs was a position that existed in the United States government from January 10, 1781 to September 15, 1789....
. On July 27, 1789, George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the leader of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States of the United States of Americas ....
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

Great Seal of the United States

The Great Seal of the United States is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the Federal government of the United States. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself , and more generally for the design impressed upon it....
, authentication of copies and preparation of commissions of executive branch appointments, and finally custody of the books, papers, and records of the Continental Congress

Continental Congress

The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....
including the Constitution itself and the Declaration of Independence

United States Declaration of Independence

The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the Thirteen Colonies then at war with Kingdom of Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire....
.

In the early years of the republic

Republic

A republic is a state or country that is not led by a hereditary monarch but in which the people have an impact on its government. The word originates from the Latin term res publica....
, 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

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., it was built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the late Georgian architecture and has been the executive residence of every U.S....
included Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States , the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States....
, James Madison

James Madison

James Madison was an American politician and political philosopher who served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States , and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States....
, James Monroe

James Monroe

James Monroe was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States . His administration was marked by the acquisition of Florida ; the Missouri Compromise , in which Missouri was declared a slave state; the admission of Maine in 1820 as a free state; and the profession of the Monroe Doctrine , declaring U.S....
, John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams was an Foreign relations of the United States and Politics of the United States who served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from March 4, 1825 to March 4, 1829....
, Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren

Martin Van Buren was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. Before his presidency, he served as the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States and the 10th United States Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson....
and James Buchanan

James Buchanan

James Buchanan, Jr. was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and the last to be born in the 18th century....
. Secretaries who unsuccessfully ran for President (either before or after their service at the State Department) were Henry Clay

Henry Clay

Henry Clay, Sr. was a nineteenth-century United States statesman and orator who represented Kentucky in both the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate....
, Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster

Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman during the nation's antebellum. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests....
, John C. Calhoun

John C. Calhoun

John Caldwell Calhoun was the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States. He was a leading United States Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century....
, William H. Seward

William H. Seward

William Henry Seward, Sr. was a Governor of New York, United States Senate and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson....
, James G. Blaine

James G. Blaine

James Gillespie Blaine was a United States House of Representatives, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, United States Senate from Maine, two-time United States Secretary of State, and champion of the Half-Breed ....
, Walter Q. Gresham

Walter Q. Gresham

Walter Quintin Gresham was an United States statesman and jurist. He served as United States Postmaster General, as a judge on the United States Courts of Appeals, was a two-time candidate for the United States Republican Party presidential nomination and was United States Secretary of State, and United States Secretary of the Treasury....
, John Sherman

John Sherman (politician)

John Sherman nicknamed "The Ohio Icicle" was a United States House of Representatives and United States Senate from Ohio during the American Civil War and into the late nineteenth century....
, Elihu Root

Elihu Root

Elihu Root was an United States lawyer and statesman and the 1912 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the prototype of the 20th century "The Wise Men", who shuttled between high-level government positions in Washington, D.C....
, William Jennings Bryan

William Jennings Bryan

William Jennings Bryan was the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 1896, 1900 and 1908, a lawyer, and the 41st United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson....
, Charles Evans Hughes

Charles Evans Hughes

Charles Evans Hughes Sr. was a lawyer and United States Republican Party politician from the State of New York. He served as Governor of New York , United States Secretary of State , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Chief Justice of the United States ....
, Edmund Muskie

Edmund Muskie

Edmund Sixtus "Ed" Muskie was an United States Democratic Party politician from Maine. He served as Governor of Maine, as United States Senate, and as United States Secretary of State....
and Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Functions

's letter of resignation to Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger

Henry Alfred Kissinger is a Germany-born United States Jewish political scientist, bureaucrat, diplomat, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as United States National Security Advisor and later concurrently as United States Secretary of State in the Nixon administration....
.]] 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

Great Seal of the United States

Protocol (diplomacy)

In international politics, protocol is the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state.A protocol is a wiktionary:rule which guides how an activity should be performed, especially in the field of diplomacy....
functions for the White House

White House

United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America; the Federal Government of the United States; and all the State & local governments and Territorial Administrative bodies contained therein....
, 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

Vice President of the United States

The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office in the United States of America created by the Constitution of the United States....
, the Speaker of the House of Representatives

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives is the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. The current Speaker is Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic Party representing California's 8th congressional district....
, and the President pro tempore of the Senate

President pro tempore of the United States Senate

The President pro tempore is the second-highest-ranking official of the United States Senate and the highest-ranking senator. The United States Constitution states the Vice President of the United States serves ex officio as President of the Senate, and is the highest-ranking official of the Senate even though he or she only votes in the cas...
. (See United States presidential line of succession
United States presidential line of succession

The United States presidential line of succession defines who may become or act as President of the United States upon the incapacity, death, resignation, or removal from office of a sitting president or a President-elect of the United States....
.)

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

Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States and the only president to resign the office....
resigned in August 1974 via a letter to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger

Henry Alfred Kissinger is a Germany-born United States Jewish political scientist, bureaucrat, diplomat, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as United States National Security Advisor and later concurrently as United States Secretary of State in the Nixon administration....
.

When there is a vacancy as Secretary, the office 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

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism United States Congress, the lower house being the United States House of Representatives....
confirms a new Secretary.

List of Secretaries of State

External links

Internal links

The Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service
Diplomatic Security Service

The U.S. Diplomatic Security Service is the federal law enforcement arm of the United States Department of State. The majority of its Special Agents are members of the United States Foreign Service and federal law enforcement agents at the same time, making them unique....