The Secretary of State heads the U.S. Department of State and is principally concerned with foreign policy; the position is equivalent to a Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department and the Foreign Service.
The Secretary of State is appointed by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate.
The Secretary of State is fourth in succession to the president and the first non-elected successor.
- Vice President
- Speaker of the House of Representatives
- President pro tempore of the Senate
- Secretary of State
- Secretary of the Treasury
Created in 1789 by Congress as the successor to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of State is the senior executive department of the United States Government.
The Secretary of State responsibilities include the following:
- Serves as the President’s principal adviser on U.S. foreign policy;
- Conducts negotiations relating to U.S. foreign affairs;
- Personally participates in or directs U.S. representatives to international conferences, organizations, and agencies;
- Negotiates, interprets, and terminates treaties and agreements;
- Supervises the administration of U.S. immigration laws abroad;
- Informs the Congress and American citizens on the conduct of U.S. foreign relations;
- Promotes beneficial economic intercourse between the United States and other countries;
- Administers the Department of State;
- Supervises the Foreign Service;
- Advises the President on the appointment of U.S. ambassadors, ministers, consuls, and other diplomatic representatives;
- Advises the President regarding the acceptance, recall, and dismissal of the representatives of foreign governments.
| Secretary of State | President | Home State | Appointment |
| Thomas Jefferson | George Washington | Virginia | 1789 |
| Edmund Randolph | George Washington | Virginia | 1794 |
| Timothy Pickering | George Washington John Adams |
Pennsylvania | 1795 1797 |
| John Marshall | John Adams | Virginia | 1800 |
| James Madison | Thomas Jefferson | Virginia | 1801 |
| Robert Smith | James Madison | Maryland | 1809 |
| James Monroe | James Madison | Virginia | 1811 |
| John Quincy Adams | James Monroe | Massachusetts | 1817 |
| Henry Clay | John Quincy Adams | Kentucky | 1825 |
| Martin Van Buren | Andrew Jackson | New York | 1829 |
| Edward Livingston | Andrew Jackson | Louisiana | 1831 |
| Louis McLane | Andrew Jackson | Delaware | 1833 |
| John Forsyth | Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren |
Georgia | 1834 1837 |
| Daniel Webster | William Henry Harrison John Tyler |
Massachusetts | 1841 |
| Abel P Upshur | John Tyler | Virginia | 1843 |
| John C. Calhoun | John Tyler James Polk |
South Carolina | 1844 1845 |
| James Buchanan | James Polk Zachary Taylor |
Pennsylvania | 1849 |
| John M. Clayton | Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore |
Delaware | 1849 1850 |
| Daniel Webster | Millard Fillmore | Massachusetts | 1850 |
| Edward Everett | Millard Fillmore | Massachusetts | 1852 |
| William L. Marcy | Franklin Pierce James Buchanan |
New York | 1853 1857 |
| Lewis Cass | James Buchanan | Michigan | 1857 |
| Jeremiah S. Black | James Buchanan Abraham Lincoln |
Pennsylvania | 1860 1861 |
| William H. Seward | Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson |
New York | 1861 1865 |
| Elihu B. Washburne | Ulysses S. Grant | Illinois | 1869 |
| Hamilton Fish | Ulysses S. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes |
New York | 1869 1877 |
| William M. Evarts | Rutherford B. Hayes James Garfield |
New York | 1877 1881 |
| James G. Blaine | James Garfield Chester Arthur |
Maine | 1881 |
| F.T. Frelinghuysen | Chester Arthur Grover Cleveland |
New Jersey | 1881 1885 |
| Thomas F. Bayard | Grover Cleveland Benjamin Harrison |
Delaware | 1885 1889 |
| James G. Blaine | Benjamin Harrison | Maine | 1889 |
| John W. Foster | Benjamin Harrison | Indiana | 1892 |
| Walter Q. Gresham | Grover Cleveland | Indiana | 1893 |
| Richard Olney | Grover Cleveland William McKinley |
Massachusetts | 1895 1897 |
| John Sherman | William McKinley | Ohio | 1897 |
| William R. Day | William McKinley | Ohio | 1898 |
| John Hay | William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt |
Washington D.C. | 1898 1901 |
| Elihu Root | Theodore Roosevelt | New York | 1905 |
| Robert Bacon | Theodore Roosevelt William Howard Taft |
New York | 1909 |
| Philander C. Knox | William Howard Taft Woodrow Wilson |
Pennsylvania | 1909 1913 |
| William J. Bryan | Woodrow Wilson | Nebraska | 1913 |
| Robert Lansing | Woodrow Wilson | New York | 1915 |
| Bainbridge Colby | Woodrow Wilson | New York | 1920 |
| Charles E. Hughes | Warren Harding Calvin Coolidge |
New York | 1921 1923 |
| Frank B. Kellogg | Calvin Coolidge Herbert Hoover |
Minnesota | 1925 1929 |
| Henry L. Stimson | Herbert Hoover | New York | 1929 |
| Cordell Hull | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Tennessee | 1933 |
| E.R. Stettinius, Jr. | Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry Truman |
New York | 1944 1945 |
| James F. Byrnes | Harry Truman | South Carolina | 1945 |
| George C. Marshall | Harry Truman | Pennsylvania | 1947 |
| Dean G. Acheson | Harry Truman | Connecticut | 1949 |
| John Foster Dulles | Dwight Eisenhower | New York | 1953 |
| Christian A. Herter | Dwight Eisenhower | Massachusetts | 1959 |
| Dean Rusk | John Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson |
New York | 1961 1963 |
| William P. Rogers | Richard Nixon | New York | 1969 |
| Henry A. Kissinger | Richard Nixon Gerald Ford |
Washington, D.C. | 1973 1974 |
| Cyrus R. Vance | Jimmy Carter | New York | 1977 |
| Edmund S. Muskie | Jimmy Carter | Maine | 1980 |
| Alexander M. Haig, Jr. | Ronald Reagan | Connecticut | 1981 |
| George P. Schultz | Ronald Reagan | California | 1982 |
| James A. Baker, III | George H. W. Bush | Texas | 1989 |
| Lawrence S. Eagleburger | George H. W. Bush | Michigan | 1992 |
| Warren M. Christopher | William Clinton | California | 1993 |
| Madeleine Albright | William Clinton | New York | 1997 |
| Colin Powell | George W. Bush | New York | 2001 |
| Condoleezza Rice | George W. Bush | Alabama | 2005 |
| Hillary Clinton | Barack Obama | Illinois | 2009 |
| John Kerry | Barack Obama | Colorado | 2013 |