Third Assistant Secretaries of State
NOTE TO READERS
Updates to the Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission database are currently suspended. For information about the Department’s current and recent leadership, we recommend visiting the Department of State homepage’s Biographies of Senior Officials and List of U.S. Ambassadors.
Notice posted on January 12, 2024.
Last
updated March 14, 2024.
A Federal appropriations act for the year ending Jun 30, 1875 (Jun 20, 1874; 18 Stat. 90), authorized the President to appoint a Third Assistant Secretary of State. The Secretary of State was authorized to prescribe the duties of the Assistant Secretaries and other Department of State employees, “and may make changes and transfers therein when, in his judgment, it becomes necessary.” The Third Assistant Secretary’s duties varied over the years, including such diverse assignments as: supervision of several geographic divisions; oversight of the Bureaus of Accounts and Appointments; international conferences and commissions; and ceremonials and protocol, including presentation to the President of chiefs of foreign diplomatic missions. The Foreign Service Act of 1924 (May 24, 1924; 43 Stat 146) abolished numerical titles for Assistant Secretaries of State.
- Charles Payson (1878–1881)
- Walker Blaine (1881–1882)
- Alvey Augustus Adee (1882–1886)
- John Bassett Moore (1886–1891)
- William Morton Grinnell (1892–1893)
- Edward Henry Strobel (1893–1894)
- William Woodville Rockhill (1894–1896)
- William Woodward Baldwin (1896–1897)
- Thomas Wilbur Cridler (1897–1901)
- Herbert Henry Davis Peirce (1901–1906)
- (1906–1908)
- William Phillips (1909)
- Chandler Hale (1909–1913)
- Dudley Field Malone (1913)
- William Phillips (1914–1917)
- Samuel Miller Breckinridge Long (1917–1920)
- Van Santvoord Merle-Smith (1920–1921)
- Robert Woods Bliss (1921–1923)
- Joshua Butler Wright (1923–1924)
- Benjamin Moran (Not commissioned, although his nomination of Jun 22, 1874, had been confirmed by the Senate.)