Alvey A. Adee

Who was Alvey A. Adee?

Alvey Augustus Adee was a long-time official with the United States Department of State who served as the acting Secretary of State in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. He was the second of three senior State Department officials--the first being William Hunter and the third Wilbur J. Carr--whose overlapping careers provided continuity and good management in American foreign policy for over a century, from the administration of President Andrew Jackson until that of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

A native of Astoria, New York, Adee got his start in diplomacy by becoming the private secretary of Daniel Sickles, whom Adee accompanied to Madrid when Sickles was named the U.S. Minister to Spain in 1869. While in Madrid, Adee met and was befriended by John Hay, who was then the Secretary of the U.S. Legation there.

Adee stayed at the Legation in Madrid for eight years, then returned to the United States in 1877 to take a temporary secretary position in Washington, DC with the State Department. A year later, he was named the Chief of the department's Diplomatic Bureau. In 1882, he was promoted to Third Assistant Secretary, and in 1886, he was promoted again to Second Assistant Secretary, a position he would hold until his death 38 years later.