Thomas Jefferson (right) was the United States' first secretary of state. From his day until the swearing in of John Kerry as the nation's 68th secretary of state, the job has remained remarkably the same. Oh, it's shed some peripheral duties, and the State Department has grown right along with the United States' role in world affairs, but it still operates much the same as Jefferson and George Washington envisioned it.
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Portrait by Rembrandt Peale
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