speculation centred was the true and proper relation between Church and State. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica and De Regimine Principum) was the most successful champion of the Church; Marsilius of Padua (Defensor Pacis) and Dante (De Monarchia) of the State. During the Renaissance and the Reformation political theory made important advances. By the work of Maehiavelli (Il principe, Discorsi) politics was divorced from theology and ethics, and elevated to the position of an independent science. Jean Bodin, reviving the method and spirit of Aristotle, laid the foundations of modern systematic politics in his epoch-making treatise, De Republica. In the revolutionary period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the so-called natural-law philosophy was dominant. The fundamental premise of this system was the universal prevalence of an immutable law of natural justice, under which and independently of any government all men hold certain natural rights, e.g. life, liberty, and property. From this premise followed the theory of a contract as the basis of all legitimate government, the administration of government for the good of the parties to the contract, and the right of revolution whenever government is perverted to selfish ends by the rulers. Of these doctrines John Locke (Two Treatises of Civil Government) and Jean Jacques Rousseau (Le contrat social) were the most influential expounders. During the same period the opposing doctrines of the divine right of kings and governmental absolutism were developed by Robert Filmer (Patriarcha) and Bossuet (Politique tirée de l'écriture Sainte), while Thomas Hobbes turned the natural-law theory to the defense of absolutism (The Leviathan). As opposed to the a priori conception of these writers, Montesquieu (Esprit des lois) placed the study of political science upon an historical basis.
The modern theory of politics, dating from the reaction against the excesses of the French Revolution, is based on the historical-scientific premise that all institutions are the product of an evolutionary movement in which the conscious will of individuals plays a comparatively unimportant part. The method followed is historical and comparative, in contrast to the deductive style of the preceding school. The numerous problems arising out of the development of modern democracy, those involved in Nationalism, Federalism, and Imperialism, and the determination of the proper function of government, are the questions upon which general attention is fixed.
Bibliography. The most important works on the history of political theory are: Dunning, A History of Political Theories (New York, 1902); Janet, Histoire de la science politique dans ses rapports avec la morale (Paris, 1850, 1872); Bluntschli, Geschichte der neueren Staatswissenschaft (Munich, 1864); Mohl, Geschichte und Litteratur der Staatswissenschaften (Erlangen, 1855-58); Pollock, Introduction to the Study of the Science of Politics (London, 1890). Consult also: Lieber, Manual of Political Ethics (Boston, 1838-39); id., Legal and Political Hermeneutics (ib., 1839); Woolsey, Political Science; or the State Theoretically and Practically Considered (New York, 1877); Wilson, The State (Boston, 1889); Sidgwick, Elements of Politics (London, 1896); Willoughby, The Nature of the State (New York, 1896); Bosanquet, The Philosophical Theory of the State (London, 1899).
STATE, Department of. One of the nine executive departments of the Government of the United States, presided over by a Secretary who is a member of the Cabinet and first in the line of succession to the Presidency after the Vice-President. In rank the Department of State stands first among the other departments and is also the oldest in point of origin. It was in fact the logical successor of the old Department of Foreign Affairs created in 1781 and presided over first by Robert R. Livingston and afterwards by John Jay. The Department of State is the organ of communication between the Government of the United States and all foreign governments, as well as with the Governors of the individual States. The Secretary of State conducts all such correspondence; has charge of the negotiation of all treaties and conventions; he preserves the originals of all treaties, public documents, and correspondence with foreign governments as well as of the laws of the United States; he publishes all statutes and resolutions of Congress and proclamations of the President; he is the custodian of the great seal which is affixed to all commissions of appointment requiring the consent of the Senate, proclamations, warrants for extradition, pardons, etc., emanating from the President; he issues and keeps a record of passports granted to American citizens traveling abroad; issues warrants for the extradition of criminals to be delivered to foreign governments; presents foreign ministers to the President; etc. He makes an annual report of the conduct of foreign affairs for the year, publishes the consular reports and the ‘foreign relations’ of the United States, and performs such other duties relative to the conduct of foreign affairs as the President may direct.
To aid the Secretary of State, an Assistant Secretary was provided for in 1853; in 1866 a second assistant was created, and in 1874 a third, each charged with the supervision of a particular branch of the department. The business of the department is distributed among seven bureaus, namely, a diplomatic bureau, a consular bureau, a bureau of indexes and archives, a bureau of accounts, a bureau of rolls and library, a bureau of foreign commerce, created in 1897 (formerly the bureau of statistics), and a bureau of appointments, created in 1898. The name of each bureau indicates broadly the nature of the business assigned to it. Besides the Secretary and the three assistant secretaries there is a solicitor, detailed from the Department of Justice, an assistant solicitor, created in 1900, seven chiefs of bureaus, two translators, sixty-three clerks, and a number of messengers, making a total force of about one hundred employees.
The following is a list of the Secretaries of State from the organization of the department in 1789 to the present, with the dates of their appointment: Thomas Jefferson, September, 1789; Edmund Randolph, January, 1794; Timothy Pickering, December, 1795; John Marshall, Mav, 1800; James Madison, March, 1801; Robert Smith, March, 1809; James Monroe, April, 1811; John Q. Adams, March, 1817; Henry Clay, March, 1825; Martin Van Buren, March, 1829; Edward Livingston, May, 1831; Louis McLane,
