Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission, by Year: 1883

NOTE TO READERS

Updates to the Principal Officers and Chiefs of Mission database are currently suspended. For information about the Department’s current and recent leadership, we recommend visiting the Department of State homepage’s Biographies of Senior Officials and List of U.S. Ambassadors.

Notice posted on January 12, 2024.
Last updated March 14, 2024.

Note: Career Foreign Service appointees are asterisked.

Alvey Augustus Adee (1842–1924)
- Third Assistant Secretary of State (1882–1886)
- Second Assistant Secretary of State (1886–1924)
- Secretary of State ad interim (1898)
- Assistant Secretary of State (1924)
William Waldorf Astor (1848–1919)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Italy (1882–1885)
Jehu Baker (1822–1903)
- Minister Resident, Venezuela (1878–1881)
- Minister Resident, Venezuela (1884)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Venezuela (1884–1885)
Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin (1837–1914)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Iran (1883–1885)
- Chargé d’Affaires and Consul General, Iran (1883)
John Armour Bingham (1815–1900)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Japan (1873–1885)
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)
Rollin Mallory Daggett (1831–1901)
- Minister Resident, Hawaii (1882–1885)
John Davis (1851–1902)
- Assistant Secretary of State (1882–1885)
William Lewis Dayton Jr. (1839–1897)
- Minister Resident, Netherlands (1882–1885)
Nicholas Fish (1846–1902)
- Chargé d’Affaires, Switzerland (1877–1881)
- Minister Resident, Belgium (1882–1885)
Lucius Harwood Foote (1826–1913)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Korea (1883–1885)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Korea (1884)
John Watson Foster (1836–1917)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Mexico (1873–1880)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Russia (1880–1881)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Spain (1883–1885)
- Secretary of State (1892–1893)
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)
Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen (1817–1885)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, United Kingdom (1870)
- Secretary of State (1881–1885)
Richard Gibbs (1819–1894)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Peru (1875–1879)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Bolivia (1883–1885)
John Acoming Halderman Jr. (1838–1908)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Thailand (1882–1885)
Henry Cook Hall (1820–1901)
- Minister Resident, Costa Rica (1882)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Costa Rica (1882–1889)
- Minister Resident, El Salvador (1882–1883)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, El Salvador (1882–1889)
- Minister Resident, Guatemala (1882)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Guatemala (1882–1889)
- Minister Resident, Honduras (1882)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Honduras (1882–1889)
- Minister Resident, Nicaragua (1882)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Nicaragua (1882–1889)
Wickham Hoffman (1821–1900)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Denmark (1883–1885)
William Henry Hunt (1823–1884)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Russia (1882–1884)
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)
John Mercer Langston (1829–1897)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Haiti (1877–1885)
- Chargé d’Affaires, Dominican Republic (1883–1885)
Cornelius Ambrose Logan (1832–1899)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Chile (1873–1876)
- Minister Resident, Costa Rica (1879–1882)
- Minister Resident, El Salvador (1879–1882)
- Minister Resident, Guatemala (1879–1882)
- Minister Resident, Honduras (1879–1882)
- Minister Resident, Nicaragua (1879–1882)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Chile (1882–1885)
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Spain (1877–1880)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, United Kingdom (1880–1885)
George Earl Maney (1826–1901)
- Minister Resident, Colombia (1881–1882)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Bolivia (1882–1883)
- Minister Resident, Paraguay (1889–1891)
- Minister Resident, Uruguay (1889–1890)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Paraguay (1890–1894)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Uruguay (1890–1894)
- Minister Resident, Ecuador (Not commissioned; nomination withdrawn before the Senate acted upon it.)
Philip Hicky Morgan (1825–1900)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Mexico (1880–1885)
Levi Parsons Morton (1824–1920)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, France (1881–1885)
Thomas Andrew Osborn (1836–1898)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Chile (1877–1881)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Brazil (1881–1885)
Thomas Ogden Osborn (1832–1904)
- Minister Resident, Argentina (1874–1884)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Argentina (1884–1885)
Seth Ledyard Phelps (1824–1885)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Peru (1883–1885)
George Potwin Pomeroy (1837–1887)
- Agent/Consul General, Egypt (1882–1884)
Aaron Augustus Sargent (1827–1887)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Germany (1882–1884)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Russia (Not commissioned although nomination was confirmed by the Senate.)
Eugene Schuyler (1840–1890)
- Diplomatic Agent/Consul General, Romania (1880–1881)
- Chargé d’Affaires and Consul General, Romania (1880–1882)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Greece (1882–1884)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Romania (1882–1884)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Serbia (1882–1884)
- Agent/Consul General, Egypt (1889–1890)
- Assistant Secretary of State (Not commissioned; nomination withdrawn before the Senate acted upon it.)
William Lindsay Scruggs (1836–1912)
- Minister Resident, Colombia (1873–1876)
- Minister Resident, Colombia (1882–1884)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Colombia (1884–1885)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Venezuela (1889–1892)
John Henry Smyth (1844–1908)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Liberia (1878–1881)
- Minister Resident/Consul General, Liberia (1882–1885)
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)
Alphonso Taft (1810–1891)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Austria (1882–1884)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Russia (1884–1885)
William Widgery Thomas Jr. (1839–1927)
- Minister Resident, Sweden (1883–1885)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Sweden (1889–1894)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Sweden (1897–1905)
Lewis Wallace (1827–1905)
- Minister Resident, Turkey (1881–1882)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Turkey (1882–1885)
- Chargé d’Affaires, Paraguay (Not commissioned; nomination to be Chargé d’Affaires to Paraguay and Uruguay withdrawn before the Senate acted upon it.)
- Chargé d’Affaires, Uruguay (Not commissioned; nomination to be Chargé d’Affaires to Paraguay and Uruguay withdrawn before the Senate acted upon it.)
William Williams (1821–1896)
- Chargé d’Affaires, Paraguay (1882–1885)
- Chargé d’Affaires, Uruguay (1882–1885)
John Russell Young (1840–1899)
- Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, China (1882–1885)