those persons respectively. This order was thought
preferable, as the continuity of the subjects embraced in the
different branches of correspondence would thus be more distinctly
preserved. The letters, which follow, are chiefly to the President of
Congress, and to other officers and persons, who were in the United
States at the time they were written.

Mr Livingston continued a little short of two years in the Department
of Foreign Affairs. He resigned in June, 1783.

THE

CORRESPONDENCE

OF

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

* * * * *

ORGANIZATION OF A FOREIGN DEPARTMENT.

In Congress, January 10th, 1781.

Congress took into consideration the report of the committee appointed
to consider and report a plan for the Department of Foreign Affairs,
wherein they state,

That the extent and the rising power of these United States, entitle
them to a place among the great potentates of Europe, while our
political and commercial interests point out the propriety of
cultivating with them a friendly correspondence and connexion;

That to render such an intercourse advantageous, the necessity of a
competent knowledge of the interests, views, relations, and systems of
those potentates, is obvious;

That a knowledge, in its nature so comprehensive, is only to be
acquired by a constant attention to the state of Europe, and an
unremitted application to the means of acquiring well grounded
information;

That Congress are moreover called upon to maintain with our Ministers
at foreign Courts a regular correspondence, and to keep them fully
informed of every circumstance and event, which regards the public
honor, interest and safety;

That to answer those essential purposes, the committee are of opinion,
that a fixed and permanent office for the Department of Foreign
Affairs ought forthwith to be established, as a remedy against the
fluctuations, the delay and indecision to which the present mode of
managing our foreign affairs must be exposed; whereupon,

_Resolved_, That an office be forthwith established for the Department
of Foreign Affairs, to be kept always in the place where Congress
shall reside;

That there shall be a Secretary for the despatch of business of the
said office, to be styled "Secretary of Foreign Affairs;"

That it shall be the duty of the said Secretary to keep and preserve
all the books and papers belonging t