United States Secretary of State Totally Explained

Everything about Us Secretary Of State totally explained

United States Secretary of State
Official seal
Incumbent:	Condoleezza Rice
First:	Thomas Jefferson
Formation:	April 6, 1789
Presidential Line of Succession:	Fourth	}

The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet. He or she's the highest ranked cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence.

History

On January 13, 1781, the Second Continental Congress created the office of Secretary of Foreign Affairs to head a "Department of Foreign Affairs". On July 27, 1789, George Washington 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, authentication of copies and preparation of commissions of executive branch appointments, and finally custody of the books, papers, and records of the Continental Congress including the Constitution itself and the Declaration of Independence.
The title of Secretary of State is British in origin. At the time of American independence, "Secretary of State" was a title given to senior members of the King's cabinet (for example, "Secretary of State in Charge of Colonies"). The position of "Secretary of State of the United States" was thus intended to be the most general and important office in the U.S. government, after the presidency.
Particularly in the early years of the republic, the post was regarded as a natural stepping-stone to the Presidency. Secretaries of State who later occupied the White House included Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren and James Buchanan. Secretaries who unsuccessfully ran for President (either before or after their service at the State Department) were Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, William H. Seward, James G. Blaine, Walter Q. Gresham, John Sherman, Elihu Root, William Jennings Bryan, Charles Evans Hughes and Edmund Muskie.

Functions

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, performance of protocol functions for the White House, drafting of proclamations, and replies to inquiries. In accordance with the United States Constitution, 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, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the President pro tempore of the Senate. (See United States presidential line of succession.) Federal law provides that a presidential resignation must be accomplished by written communication from the President to the Secretary of State. This has occurred once, when President Richard Nixon resigned in August 1974 via a letter to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
When there's 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 confirms a new Secretary.

List of Secretaries of State

#	Picture	Name	State of Residence	Term of Office	President(s) served under
1		Thomas Jefferson	Virginia	September 26, 1789 - December 31, 1793	George Washington
-		John Jay (acting)	New York	September 26, 1789 - March 22, 1790	George Washington
2		Edmund Jenings Randolph	Virginia	January 2, 1794 - August 20, 1795	George Washington
3		Timothy Pickering	Massachusetts	August 20 - December 10, 1795 (acting)	George Washington John Adams
3		Timothy Pickering	Massachusetts	December 10, 1795 - May 12, 1800	George Washington John Adams
-		Charles Lee (acting)	Virginia	May 13, 1800 - June 5, 1800	John Adams
4		John Marshall	Virginia	June 13, 1800 - March 4, 1801	John Adams
-		Levi Lincoln, Sr. (acting)	John Tyler
July 24, 1843 - February 28, 1844			John Tyler
-		John Nelson (acting
17		James Buchanan	Pennsylvania	March 10, 1845 - March 7, 1849	James K. Polk )	Rhode Island	March 4 - 7, 1853	Franklin Pierce
21		William Learned Marcy	New York	March 7, 1853 - March 6, 1857	Franklin Pierce)	Michigan	May 28 - June 9, 1895	Grover Cleveland
34		Richard Olney	Massachusetts	June 10, 1895 - March 5, 1897	Grover Cleveland)	New York	September 17 - September 29, 1898	William McKinley
36		William Rufus Day	Ohio	April 28 - September 16, 1898	William McKinley
37		John Milton Hay	District of Columbia	September 30, 1898 - July 1, 1905	William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt
-		Francis B. Loomis (acting)	New York	February 14 - March 12, 1920	Thomas Woodrow Wilson
43		Bainbridge Colby	New York	March 23, 1920 - March 4, 1921	Thomas Woodrow Wilson
44		Charles Evans Hughes	New York	March 5, 1921 - March 4, 1925	Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge
45		Frank Billings Kellogg	Minnesota	March 5, 1925 - March 28, 1929	Calvin Coolidge Herbert Hoover
46		Henry Lewis Stimson	New York	March 28, 1929 - March 4, 1933	Herbert Hoover
47		Cordell Hull	Tennessee	March 4, 1933 - November 30, 1944	Franklin D. Roosevelt
48		Edward Reilly Stettinius, Jr.	Virginia	December 1, 1944 - June 27, 1945	Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman
-		Joseph C. Grew (acting)	Maryland	January 20 - 21, 1953	Dwight D. Eisenhower
52		John Foster Dulles	New York	January 21, 1953 - April 22, 1959	Dwight D. Eisenhower
53		Christian Archibald Herter	Massachusetts	April 22, 1959 - January 20, 1961	Dwight D. Eisenhower
-		Livingston T. Merchant (acting)	District of Columbia	January 20 - 21, 1961	John F. Kennedy
54		David Dean Rusk	New York	January 21, 1961 - January 20, 1969	John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson
-		Charles E. Bohlen (acting)		January 20 - 22, 1969	Richard Nixon
55		William Pierce Rogers	Maryland	January 22, 1969 - September 3, 1973	Richard Nixon
-		Kenneth Rush (acting)		September 3 - 22, 1973	Richard Nixon
56		Henry Alfred Kissinger	District of Columbia	September 22, 1973 - January 20, 1977	Richard Nixon Gerald Ford
-		Philip C. Habib (acting)	California	January 20 - 23, 1977	Jimmy Carter
57		Cyrus Roberts Vance	New York	January 23, 1977 - April 28, 1980	Jimmy Carter
-		Warren Minor Christopher (acting)	California	April 28 - May 2, 1980	Jimmy Carter
-		David Newsom (acting)	Maryland	January 20 - 25, 1989	George Bush
61		James Addison Baker III	Texas	January 25, 1989 - August 23, 1992	George Bush
62		Lawrence Sidney Eagleburger	Florida	August 23 - December 8, 1992 (acting)	George Bush
62		Lawrence Sidney Eagleburger	Florida	December 8, 1992 - January 19, 1993	George Bush
-		Arnold Lee Kanter (acting)	Virginia	January 20, 1993	Bill Clinton
-		Frank G. Wisner (acting)		January 20, 1993	Bill Clinton
63		Warren Minor Christopher	California	January 20, 1993 - January 17, 1997	Bill Clinton
64		Madeleine Korbel Albright	District of Columbia	January 23, 1997 - January 19, 2001	Bill Clinton
65		Colin Luther Powell	Virginia	January 20, 2001 - January 26, 2005	George W. Bush
66		Condoleezza Rice	California	Since January 26, 2005	George W. Bush

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