Now let us see what is the scope of the State Department, for it is much more than a foreign office, though that is its principle function. It embraces the duties which in other countries are given to the Keeper of the Seal, the Minister of Justice, etc., such as—
(1) keeping, promulgating and publishing the laws, (2) custody of the Great Seal, (3) preservation of the Government Archives, and (4) charge of all official relations between the general Government and the several States.
Its scope is more particularly indicated by the bureaus into which it is divided, namely,—
the Bureau of Indexes and Archives; the Bureau of Accounts of the State Department; the Bureau of Rolls and Library; the Bureau of Appointments; the Bureau of Statistics, or Foreign Commerce; the Consular Bureau; the Diplomatic Bureau.
Each of these bureaus is presided over by a chief, and at the head of them all is the chief clerk, who is “the executive officer of the Department of State under the direction of the Secretary.”
The Bureau of Indexes and Archives is a sort of postoffice and recorder’s office combined, for it receives the incoming mail, opens it and classifies it as either diplomatic, consular or miscellaneous, then indexes it so that if necessary it can be readily traced, and then turns over to the Chief Clerk the diplomatic correspondence and the more important consular and miscellaneous correspondence. This the Chief Clerk reads, and the most important is submitted to the Assistant Secretaries of State, while the remainder is turned over to the various bureaus for their attention. Likewise after the Secretary and his Assistants have signified the replies which are to be made to the most important of the mail and have examined and signed the same, it is collected from all the bureaus, and the out-going mail is indexed in another set of books.
The Bureau of Accounts of the State Department classifies its business as follows:
(1) International indemnities, or trust funds. If you are an American citizen living abroad and suffer a loss of property unlawfully, you may expect the loss to be made good through this Bureau of Accounts; that is unless you happen to be a missionary, for Uncle Sam doesn’t always extend, or try to extend, to missionaries the same protection that is enjoyed by other citizens living abroad.