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CHAPTER IV

THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS OF THE GOVERNMENT-THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY BUILDING-THE TREASURY-THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE-THE PATENT OFFICE THE PENSION OFFICE-THE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERALTHE AGRICULTURAL BUILDING.

HE eight Executive Departments of the Government have their chief offices in the City of Washington, and are as follows: The Department of State, the Treasury Department, the War Department, the Navy Department, the Post-Office Department, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Agriculture. The heads of these Departments constitute the President's Cabinet, and each has the title of Secretary, except the heads of the Post-Office Department and the Department of Justice, who bear respectively the titles of Postmaster-General and Attorney-General. Each member of the Cabinet receives a salary of $8000 per annum. Besides these Departments, there are some minor institutions, such as the Smithsonian Institution, the Government Printing-Office, etc., which are managed by superintendents or commissioners, and are not directly responsible to any of the Executive Departments.

THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY BUILDING,

In which are the offices of the three Departments, stands west of the White House. It is a large and magnificent building, constructed of granite and thoroughly fire-proof. The style is the Italian Renaissance. Above a sub-basement and basement rise the three principal stories of the structure, crowned by an artistic mansard roof. At the centre of each façade is a handsome pavilion adorned with columns and rising a story higher than the rest of the building.

On the roof of the eastern one is the time-ball, dropped every day at noon by the officials at the Naval Observatory.

The building is five hundred and sixty-four feet from north to south, and three hundred and forty-two feet from east to west. The greatest height is one hundred and forty-five feet. There are five hundred and sixty-six rooms and more than two miles of corridors. The building was begun in 1871, from designs of A. B. Mullett, and completed in 1887, at a cost of nearly $12,000,000.

The interior is in keeping with the exterior in its handsome yet substantial construction. The grand staircases are of granite and have beautiful bronze balusters. The corridors are beautifully frescoed and paved with tessellated black and white marble, and the chief apartments are adorned and furnished with great taste and elegance.

THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Was the first of the Executive Departments to be created by Congress in 1789. Thomas Jefferson was the first Secretary. The business is in charge of the Secretary, who is aided by several assistant secretaries, chiefs of bureaus, etc., and numerous clerks. The Secretary is always the first of the Cabinet officers to receive his appointment, and his signature must accompany that of the President on the commissions of all the other members. He has charge of all matters pertaining to the intercourse of the United States with other nations and the several States of the Union. His relations with the President are very intimate and confidential, and should the President and Vice-President be, for any cause, removed from office, he would succeed as President.

The State Department has its offices in the southern portion of the building. On the third floor is the Library, founded by Thomas Jefferson, containing over fifty thousand volumes in many different languages. But of far greater interest to the visitor are the numerous relics deposited in the Library. Here may be seen the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, the desk on which it was written, and also the original engrossed copy bearing the signatures of members of Congress, notable among them those of John Hancock, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and Stephen Hopkins. The signature of the latter looks as though he had heard Franklin's

famous remark, that if they did not all hang together, they would all hang separately, but there is evidence to show that palsy, not fear, made his hand shake. The original draft of the Constitution is also carefully preserved, together with Washington's commission as Commander-in-Chief and his war sword. Hundreds of volumes contain the papers of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and some of the other Presidents. One hundred and seventeen volumes are filled with the Washington correspondence, and here can be seen letters to his overseer, giving minute directions about the cultivation of his farms, side by side with letters from the crowned heads of Europe and all the great men of his time.

Many curious and instructive things are to be found among the archives of the Department. All the treaties of the United States with foreign governments, from the earliest one, made by the infant nation with France in 1778, are carefully preserved. Those made with Oriental nations are very grand indeed, one with Turkey being resplendent with golden lettering, the signature or "cipher" of the Sultan being magnificent. A treaty with Japan was brought into the Department in a beautifully lacquered box, suspended from a pole carried by two officials, who were answerable for its safety with their lives. Diplomatic intercourse with the Oriental nations is marked by much magnificence and state, and costly presents are expected to be given and received. Several Japanese swords have been thus given to the State Department, and present a very grand appearance with their golden scabbards and jewelled hilts.

In charge of the Department is the Great Seal of the United States. It must be affixed to all executive proclamations, to pardons, and to all commissions of ministers and consuls to foreign countries. It is very carefully guarded, and is never impressed upon a document unless by the express order of the President.

The Bureau of Indexes and Archives has charge of all the correspondence of the Department. Many hundred letters and documents. are received daily and carefully indexed by name and subject before being sent to the various officials. Notwithstanding the hundreds of thousands received since the foundation of the Government, so complete is the system and so careful the practice, that any paper may be found by a five minutes' search.

The office of the Secretary, and the Diplomatic Reception Room,

in which the Secretary receives the officials of foreign governments, are on the second floor. The furniture of the Reception Room is of ebony, upholstered in brocade. The walls are painted in the Egyptian style, and the floor of tessellated marble is covered with Oriental rugs. Magnificent chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and the walls are adorned with busts and paintings of Secretaries Jefferson, Webster, Seward, Washburn, Fish, Evarts, Blaine, and Frelinghuysen. There is also a portrait of Lord Ashburton. A collection of portraits of all the Secretaries from 1789 may be seen in the anteroom at the west end of the corridor.

THE WAR DEPARTMENT,

Which has charge of all the military affairs of the Government, was established in 1789, General Knox being the first Secretary. Besides matters strictly military, many other subjects come under its supervision, such as the improvement of rivers and harbors, to which the Government devotes annually many millions of dollars, explorations and surveys, and the national asylums and cemeteries. The total annual expenditure of the Department is nearly $50,000,000.

The Department occupies the northern and western portions of the building. The offices of the Secretary are on the second floor in the central portion of the western wing. They are spacious apartments and are very handsomely furnished. There are some fine portraits of former Secretaries and paintings of great battles. On the walls of the stairway are other portraits of the Secretaries. In the corridor, three portraits especially deserving attention are those of the three great generals of the Civil War-Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan. There are also cases containing figures showing the uniform and equipments of the various branches of the service at the different epochs of the nation's history. Probably the most interesting are Morgan's famous riflemen and Washington's bodyguard. Other cases contain specimens of the fire-arms used, from the old flint-lock musket to the latest magazine rifle. An interesting exhibit is that showing the means of army transportation, both of the ordinary baggage and provision service and of the hospital corps. There is also a case containing specimens of the flags carried by the various branches of the service. Specimens of the armor-piercing

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