Preliminary Inventory of the General Records of the Department of Justice, Record Group 60

The office of Attorney General of the United States was created by the Judiciary Act of September 24, 1789. Edmund Randolph, former Governor and attorney general of Virginia, was appointed by President Washington as the first Attorney General of the United States. Although the Attorney General joined the President's Cabinet as early as 1792, the powers and emoluments of the office fell short of those of the other Cabinet members. It was not until 1818 that Attorney General Wirt was officially accorded office space, a clerk and an office boy as assistants. In 1829 President Jackson recommended to Congress that the Attorney General be given the supervision of suits for the recovery of money and property to which the Government was entitled and of all Federal criminal cased in the lower Federal courts. By an act of Congress of June 22, 1870, the Department of Justice was finally created and began its formal existence on July 1, 1870.

Marion Johnson

1981, 8.5" x 11", paper, 82 pp.

101-J1981