Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission, by Year: 1872

Note: Career Foreign Service appointees are asterisked.

• Christopher Columbus Andrews (1829–1922)
  • Minister Resident, Denmark (1869)
  • Minister Resident, Sweden (1869–1877)
• George Bancroft (1800–1891)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, United Kingdom (1846–1849)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Germany (1867–1871)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Germany (1871–1874)
• Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett (1833–1908)
  • Minister Resident/Consul General, Haiti (1869–1877)
• Henry Baxter (1821–1873)
  • Minister Resident, Honduras (1869–1873)
• Richard Beardsley (1838–1876)
  • Agent/Consul General, Egypt (1872–1876)
• Thomas Biddle (1827–1875)
  • Minister Resident, El Salvador (1871–1873)
  • Minister Resident, Ecuador (1875)
• Jacob Beeson Blair (1821–1901)
  • Minister Resident, Costa Rica (1868–1873)
• George Henry Boker (1823–1890)
  • Minister Resident, Turkey (1871–1875)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Russia (1875–1878)
• George H. Butler (?–1886)
  • Agent/Consul General, Egypt (1870–1872)
• Michael John Cramer (1835–1898)
  • Minister Resident, Denmark (1870–1876)
  • Chargé d’Affaires, Denmark (1876–1881)
  • Chargé d’Affaires, Switzerland (1881–1882)
  • Minister Resident/Consul General, Switzerland (1882–1885)
• John Thomas Croxton (1837–1874)
  • Minister Resident, Bolivia (1872–1874)
• Andrew Gregg Curtin (1815–1894)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Russia (1869–1872)
• Charles E. De Long (1832–1876)
  • Minister Resident, Japan (1869–1872)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Japan (1870–1873)
• Hamilton Fish (1808–1893)
  • Secretary of State (1869–1877)
• John Morgan Francis (1823–1897)
  • Minister Resident, Greece (1871–1873)
  • Minister Resident/Consul General, Portugal (1882–1884)
  • Chargé d’Affaires, Portugal (1882)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Austria (1884–1885)
• Charles T. Gorham (1812–1901)
  • Minister Resident, Netherlands (1870–1875)
• Charles Hale (1831–1882)
  • Agent/Consul General, Egypt (1864–1870)
  • Assistant Secretary of State (1872–1873)
• Silas A. Hudson (1815–1896)
  • Minister Resident, Guatemala (1869–1872)
• William Hunter (1805–1886)
  • Chief Clerk (1852–1855)
  • Secretary of State ad interim (1853)
  • Assistant Secretary of State (1855)
  • Secretary of State ad interim (1860)
  • Second Assistant Secretary of State (1866–1886)
• Stephen Augustus Hurlbut (1815–1882)
  • Minister Resident, Colombia (1869–1872)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Peru (1881)
• John Jay II (1817–1894)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Austria (1869–1875)
• Joseph Russell Jones (1823–1909)
  • Minister Resident, Belgium (1869–1875)
• Charles Hance Lewis (1816–)
  • Minister Resident, Portugal (1870–1875)
• Frederick Ferdinand Low (1828–1894)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, China (1869–1873)
• Leopold Markbreit (1842–1909)
  • Minister Resident, Bolivia (1869–1873)
• George Perkins Marsh (1801–1882)
  • Minister Resident, Turkey (1849–1853)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Italy (1861–1882)
• Thomas Henry Nelson (1824–1896)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Chile (1861–1866)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Mexico (1869–1873)
• James Lawrence Orr (1822–1873)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Russia (1872–1873)
• James Rudolph Partridge (1823–1884)
  • Minister Resident, Honduras (1862)
  • Minister Resident, El Salvador (1863–1866)
  • Minister Resident, Venezuela (1869–1870)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Brazil (1871–1877)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Peru (1882)
  • Minister Resident, Nicaragua (Not commissioned; nomination withdrawn before the Senate acted upon it.)
• Henry Augustus Peirce (1808–1885)
  • Minister Resident, Hawaii (1869–1877)
• William Anderson Pile (1829–1889)
  • Minister Resident, Venezuela (1871–1874)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Brazil (Not commissioned; nomination first rejected and then tabled by the Senate.)
  • Minister Resident, Venezuela (Not commissioned; nomination withdrawn before the Senate acted upon it.)
• Charles N. Riotte (1814–1887)
  • Minister Resident, Costa Rica (1861–1867)
  • Minister Resident, Nicaragua (1869–1873)
  • Minister Resident, Costa Rica (Not commissioned; nomination tabled by the Senate.)
• Joseph Pomeroy Root (1826–1885)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Chile (1870–1873)
  • Minister Resident, Netherlands (Not commissioned; nomination withdrawn before the Senate acted upon it.)
• Horace Rublee (1829–1896)
  • Minister Resident, Switzerland (1869–1876)
  • Chargé d’Affaires, Switzerland (1876)
• Robert Cumming Schenck (1809–1890)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Brazil (1851–1853)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, United Kingdom (1870–1876)
• Daniel Edgar Sickles (1825–1914)
  • Minister Resident, Netherlands (1866)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Spain (1869–1874)
• John Leavitt Stevens (1820–1895)
  • Minister Resident, Paraguay (1870–1873)
  • Minister Resident, Uruguay (1870–1873)
  • Minister Resident, Sweden (1877–1883)
  • Minister Resident, Hawaii (1889–1890)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Hawaii (1890–1893)
• Francis Thomas (1799–1876)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Peru (1872–1875)
• James Milton Turner (1840–1915)
  • Minister Resident/Consul General, Liberia (1871–1878)
• Elihu Benjamin Washburne (1816–1887)
  • Secretary of State (1869)
  • Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, France (1869–1877)
• Julius White (1816–1890)
  • Minister Resident, Argentina (1872–1873)
  • Minister Resident, Argentina (1872)
• Edward Rumsey Wing (1845–1874)
  • Minister Resident, Ecuador (1869–1874)