Jay, serious problems limited the effectiveness of the nation's foreign policies. As the wartime pressures for unity disappeared after 1783, sectional and parochial interests resurfaced, and skeptics increasingly voiced doubts about the ability of Congress to identify and promote a coherent national interest. Several of the thirteen states established their own tariff schedules for foreign imports, and the federal government's failure to enforce a national commercial policy inhibited its ability to retaliate effectively against the discriminatory trading practices of European nations.24 The widespread American perception of its nation's insecurity contributed to the emerging national mood for a new constitution. When the framers of the Constitution convened in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, they drafted a document that permitted the new national government to pursue an active and energetic foreign policy. Almost without exception, those who had had foreign affairs responsibilities, including official diplomatic functions, supported the new Constitution because they believed it would provide enlarged governmental authority for the enhancement of the nation's security. Not surprisingly, The Federalist essays, which Alexander Hamilton, Jay, and Madison wrote to influence the ratification debates in the states, focused heavily on foreign threats to the nation as a justification for a stronger central government. 25 Foreign Affairs under the Constitution The new Constitution did not specifically establish a foreign ministry. Article II, section 2, however, permitted Congress to establish executive departments. The same section also authorized Congress to pass legislation giving the power of appointment of lower government officers to the President, courts of law, or "the heads of Departments." On May 19, 1789, Representative James Madison of Virginia introduced into the First Congress a resolution for the creation of "a Department for foreign affairs, at the head of which shall be an officer called the Secretary of the United States for foreign affairs." Madison also included a provision giving the President sole authority to remove the secretary. Today the President's power of removal is taken for granted, but the extensive congressional debate at the time revealed no immediate consensus on the question. Four positions emerged: the Senate had removal power equal to its "advice and consent" power in appointment; Congress could legislate the modes of removal as well as appointment of executive officers; executive offi cers, once appointed, could be removed only by impeachment; and Madison's position that the President had sole power under the Constitution to remove executive officials.26 The arguments of Madison, who favored a strengthened executive and more rigorous separation of executive-legislative powers, prevailed and were incorporated into the legislation creating the Department of Foreign Affairs as the first executive agency of the new government. President George Washington signed the measure into law on July 27, 1789. This legislation also provided for a chief clerk or deputy and specified that in addition to his other duties the Secretary of Foreign Affairs was to "perform & execute such duties, as shall from time to time be enjoined on, or intrusted to him by the President of the United States, agreeable to the Constitution,... respecting foreign affairs."27 In creating additional executive departments, Congress decided that there did not appear to be sufficient work for a separate home department. It therefore passed another measure, which President Washington approved on September 15, 1789, combining home and foreign affairs into a single Department of State. The intention of this law was that the Department of State would conduct those domestic duties that did not clearly fall under the responsibilities of the War and Treasury departments, the other two executive agencies. To reflect the added domestic dimension, the law also changed the title of the agency head from Secretary of Foreign Affairs to Secretary of State. The lawmakers assigned responsibility to the Department of State for "the safe-keeping of the acts, records and seal of the United States." The secretary of state was to publish the laws and was given custody of "all books, records and papers, remaining in the office of the late Secretary of the United States in Congress assembled." Congress also reaffirmed the primacy of the President over the secretary of state, who could not affix the seal of the United States to any commission until it was signed by the chief executive, "nor to any other instrument without the special warrant of the President therefor."28 In considering appointments for the new government, President Washington offered John Jay the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court. When Jay accepted, Washington nominated Thomas Jefferson on September 26, 1789, to serve as the nation's first secretary of state. 29 Jefferson preferred to remain as American minister in Paris, but his sense of public duty told him that he should accept the President's call. 30 Until Jefferson took up his duties on March 22, 1790, Jay maintained continuity in foreign affairs by serv Thomas Jefferson took up his duties as Washington's secretary of state in March 1790 and did much to define his department's broad duties, which encompassed patents and the census as well as the conduct of foreign affairs. Englehart Cruse submitted this drawing with his letter requesting a patent for his steam engine. ing as secretary of state ad interim. Both Washington and Jefferson well understood that the functions of the Department of State were supposed to be extensive. Washington wrote Jefferson that "it was the opinion of Congress that, after the division of all the business of a domestic nature between the departments of the Treasury, War, and State, those which would be comprehended in the latter might be performed by the same person, who should have the charge of conducting the department of foreign affairs," and Jefferson broadly defined the department's mission as embracing "the whole domestic administration (war and finance excepted)." In the absence of specific congressional mandate, the President decided in which department certain responsibilities should reside. Jefferson assumed, for example, that he would oversee the post office, to which Congress gave permanent status in March 1792, and he asked Postmaster General Timothy Pickering to prepare estimated expenses for postal services. Washington nevertheless decided that the post office, "as a branch of Revenue," should be part of the Treasury Department. But reluctant to grant Treasury still further duties and more concerned with balancing the powers of the executive agencies than with consistency, the President directed that the Department of State should manage the newly established mint.31 A law approved in April 1790 authorized the secretary of state to issue letters of patents for inventions. The review procedure was arduous, but Jefferson, who took genuine interest in scientific and mechanical advances, devoted long hours to the patent process. The burden soon became too much even for Jefferson, who drafted a bill that Congress approved in 1793 simplifying the patent review process. It was not until 1849, however, that the Department of State was divested of all responsibilities over patents. Other legislation in the 1790s specified that copyright applications for books and maps required a copy of each map or book to be deposited in the Department of State. The department thus became the depository for all books written in the United States. Engraved prints and musical compositions were later added as copyrighted items deposited in the department. The department also administered the decennial census. For the first census, the U.S. marshals filed returns with the federal district courts and forwarded the results to the President, and the secretary of state merely supervised the publication and distribution of the final report. For the second census (1800), however, the secretary of state was also required to prepare instructions for the U.S. marshals, and the district courts that received the data had to send the returns to the secretary, who again oversaw its publication and distribution. 33 The Department of State had other domestic duties as well. Until 1818 the office of the attorney general was located in the State Department. There was no Department of Justice until 1870, and the attorney general, who at first worked only part-time for the government, had little legal authority. The federal marshals and attorneys received their instructions from the secretary of state for several decades. The secretary and the attorney general together recommended executive pardons to the President.34 Further, the Department of State, acting in the name of the President, served as the medium of correspondence with the state governors and supervised territorial affairs, including the appointment and commissioning of territorial officers. Congress also specified that the secretary of state should secure copies of state laws. Although the Department of the Treasury managed sales of public lands, Congress required the secretary of state to countersign the land patents and record them in his office. 35 Despite its additional domestic responsibilities, the Department of State remained a small agency. In June 1790 Jefferson's estimate to Congress of his department's annual expenses was only $7,961, $7,300 of which was for salaries: his Papeis to be furnished to our Ministers & Change des affin Each of them to receive one copy of the laws in octave, one copy of the Journals of the Senate, one copy of the Journals of the House of Representatives, one of treneau's papers, tone of their papers, with such pamphitets as Mr. Jefferson may specially direct. _ M. Short to receive in addition to there one Richmond Jefferson's chief clerk, Henry Remsen, Jr., left lengthy instructions in his "Memorandum on the Disposition of Papers in the Department of State" in May 1790. The extract above concerns what ought to be supplied to ministers abroad. own ($3,500), that of five clerks (two of whom were chief clerks), a part-time French interpreter, and two messengers. The remaining $661 was for office rent, firewood, and miscellaneous items but excluded other expenses, such as the preparation of the 1790 census. 36 Both Jefferson and the Congress seemed to assume that most of the department's domestic duties would be fairly routine in nature, but the paperwork and administrative details nonetheless proved to be time-consuming and taxing on its small staff. When he became secretary of state, Jefferson managed to persuade Congress to hire a second chief clerk to handle the domestic side of department affairs, but the appointed individual resigned less than two months later. Jefferson then decided to continue with one chief clerk, Henry Remsen, Jr., who henceforth handled all department matters. The Diplomatic Establishment Jefferson also prepared estimated expenses for U.S. diplomats. Though Jefferson, like most Americans at the time believed in republican simplicity and economy and shared their antipathy to the quarrels and intrigues of European courts, he nonetheless understood, as did few Americans, the importance of diplomacy and of maintaining an adequate U.S. representation abroad on a liberal allowance. He also respected European diplomatic traditions, including the custom of presenting gifts to foreign monarchs and ministers. Because of deep-seated congressional opposition even to a modest diplomatic establishment, however, he realized that he would have to make the best possible case for the foreign service. Serene in the Enlightenment belief that rational men make rational decisions when presented with compelling evidence, Jefferson applied his analytic abilities to influence congressional opinion. To support his position, he conducted extensive research in the journals of Congress for precedents for reasonable allowances previously made to American diplomats. He unearthed nine resolutions of the Continental Congress authorizing payment of salaries and expenses of American diplomats. A 1776 congressional resolution, for instance, stated "that the [American] commissioners should live in such a stile and manner at the Court of France, as they may find suitable and necessary to support the dignity of their public character," and that "a handsome allowance [should] be made to each of them as a compensation for their time, trouble, risk and services." He also discovered that Congress passed this resolution again in May 1778 when it appointed commissioners to the courts of Spain, Tuscany, Vienna, and Berlin. 38 Further, he consulted experienced American diplomats for details on their expenses abroad and collected as evidence from the foreign affairs archives many letters from American diplomats explaining the high cost of living in European capitals and the necessity of acquiescing in European diplomatic practices if American representation was to be taken seriously. As John Adams had explained to Jay in 1785: There is a certain appearance in proportion to rank, which all the Courts of Europe make a serious point of extracting from every body who is presented to them. I need not say to you, Sir, because you know it perfectly, that American Ministers have never yet been able to make this appearance at any Court. They are now less able to do it than ever. I lament this necessity of consuming the Labour of my fellow Citizens upon such objects as much as any man living: but I am sure that the consequences of debasing your Ministers so much below their rank, will one day have consequences of much more importance to the Husbandman, artisan, and even Labourer. Jefferson also collected Jay's reply to Adams, which had concluded, "In short, your salary is more than what a private Gentleman may with care live decently upon, but is less than is necessary to enable you to live as other Ministers usually and generally do." 1139 Finally, Jefferson prepared a chart demonstrating that compared with other courts, including those of such lesser powers as Sardinia and the Sicilies, the proposed U.S. diplomatic establishment was indeed modest.40 Jefferson presented his extensive research findings to President Washington. He also forwarded three options for the staffing of the diplomatic establishment abroad. The least expensive ($36,986) provided for one minister plenipotentiary assigned to Versailles, three chargés d'affaires assigned to London, Madrid, and Lisbon, and an agent posted to Amsterdam, and other expenses, while the most costly ($49,893) provided for one minister plenipotentiary, four chargés d'affaires, and other expenses. None of the options provided for U.S. representation outside of western Europe or called for the title of ambassador, which seemed pretentious for a simple democratic nation.41 President Washington was prepared to go even further than Jefferson in requesting comfortable salaries for diplomatic officers. He objected only to Jefferson's inclusion of the item of stationery, which he believed should be a personal, not a public, expense. Washington and Jefferson agreed to request $40,000, though they knew that Congress would balk at the amount. Their budget submission included $9,000 for salary and all expenses of one minister plenipotentiary and $4,500 for each chargé d'affaires, $1,350 for secretaries for each minister and chargé, and an additional amount equal to one-seventh the salary of each for his outfit and appurtenances. The chargés d'affaires were to be permanent, not ad interim, appointments. Washington and Jefferson lobbied members of Congress, and Jefferson testified before the Senate and conference committees on the bill. These efforts ultimately succeeded, but the experience presaged the rituals and difficulties of succeeding secretaries of state in wresting annual appropriations from Congress. 42 Another of Jefferson's lasting achievements as first secretary of state was his preparation of instructions to U.S. diplomats abroad. These instructions, which required diplomats to send him reports once or twice a month as well as newspapers and other public documents relevant to American foreign policy, established a precedent followed thereafter by his successors." The Consular Establishment 43 Jefferson also recommended consular appointments to President Washington. Because of the 1784 congressional requirement limiting appointment of consuls and vice consuls to American citizens, Jefferson was hard pressed to find suitable candidates. Unlike most foreign nations, which already had many well-established merchants in foreign ports, the United States was a fledgling nation without many foreign business connections. The few eligible Americans abroad, Jefferson feared, might be deeply in debt "or young, ephemeral characters in commerce without substance or conduct" and, if appointed, "might disgrace the consular office, without protecting our commerce." He therefore asked Congress to amend the 1784 rule to permit foreign appointments as vice consuls where suitable Americans could not be found.* 44 After debating whether foreigners were eligible to be appointed consuls and vice consuls, the Senate "admitted that they were" for both offices.45 In practice, however, President Washington as well as succeeding administrations almost always followed Jefferson's guidelines of choosing foreigners, if expedient, as vice consuls but confining appointments as consuls to Amer ican citizens. In the summer of 1790 President Washington appointed twelve consuls, all Americans, and six foreigners for vice consul. The Senate confirmed all but one of the nominees (a Spaniard for vice consul).46 Another law allowed consuls and vice consuls, in lieu of salaries, to charge fees for their services and to own ships." Jefferson sent a circular to American consuls abroad on August 26, 1790, outlining their re |