America's First Federal Department Was Born on July 27
On this day · 27 July 1789
On July 27, 1789, Washington signed the law creating the Department of Foreign Affairs—the first executive department of the new United States.
When the U.S. Constitution took effect, the new government had a president and a Congress but no agencies to run anything. That changed on July 27, 1789, when President George Washington signed an act establishing the Department of Foreign Affairs—the very first federal executive department created under the Constitution.
It was a lean operation, charged with managing the young republic’s dealings with other nations. The name lasted barely two months. By an act of September 15, 1789, Congress handed the department a grab-bag of domestic chores—keeping the national seal, the laws, and the records—and renamed it the Department of State to fit its broader duties.
The first department of the United States government was built not for war or money, but for talking to the rest of the world.
Thomas Jefferson became the first Secretary of State, taking up the post in 1790. More than two centuries later, the same department still steers American foreign policy—now from a workforce of tens of thousands, a long way from its one-room beginnings.
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