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Hilary Herbert
33rd United States Secretary of the Navy
In office March 7, 1893 – March 4, 1897
President	Grover Cleveland
Preceded by	Benjamin F. Tracy
Succeeded by	John Long
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alabama's 2nd district
In office March 4, 1877 – March 3, 1893
Preceded by	Jeremiah Norman Williams
Succeeded by	Jesse F. Stallings
Personal details
Born	Hilary Abner Herbert (1834-03-12)March 12, 1834 Laurens, South Carolina, U.S.
Died	March 6, 1919(1919-03-06) (aged 84) Tampa, Florida, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Children	Leila Herbert
Education	University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Confederate States
Branch/service	Confederate States Army
Rank	Colonel
Commands	8th Regiment Alabama Infantry
Battles/wars	American Civil War

Hilary Abner Herbert (March 12, 1834 – March 6, 1919) was Secretary of the Navy in the second administration of President Grover Cleveland. He also served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Alabama.

Biography

Herbert was born in Laurensville, South Carolina in 1834, and moved with his family to Greenville, Alabama in 1846. He was educated at the University of Alabama and the University of Virginia, where he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Eta chapter). He practiced law in Greenville until the Civil War.

Herbert entered the Confederate Army as a second lieutenant. He served as captain of the Greenville Guards, and was later promoted to the rank of colonel of the Eighth Regiment, Alabama Infantry. Herbert was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness May 6, 1864.

After the war, Herbert returned to his law practice in Greenville, Alabama. He was elected to Congress in 1877 from Montgomery, Alabama as a Democrat. He served eight terms in this office. During his tenure as Congressman, Herbert was chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs and was largely responsible for the increased appropriations which led to the revival of the United States Navy. However, he was among those who favored a more limited program than the one proposed by Secretary of the Navy Benjamin F. Tracy in 1890, which called for 40 battleships; only four battleships were authorized as a result. Tracy had been influenced by the works of naval strategist Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, which called for a large fleet capable of offensive action. Herbert also became well known for leading a charge in Congress to reduce the funding of the United States Geological Survey, resulting in a public feud with paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh.

Herbert espoused racist views during his tenure in Congress, namely in his opposition to the Reconstruction Acts. Herbert vocally opposed the acts and any granting of suffrage to African Americans, speaking in congress and claiming African Americans were unfit to have such rights. He claimed "the granting of universal suffrage to the Negro was the mistake of the nineteenth century".

In 1893, President Grover Cleveland appointed Herbert as Secretary of the Navy. By this time Herbert was able to muster support for an enlarged navy, despite the Depression of 1893, and brought the fleet to some level of preparedness for the Spanish–American War. Having converted to Mahan's school of naval thought, five battleships (the Kearsarge and Illinois classes) and sixteen torpedo boats were authorized during Herbert's tenure.

From 1897, when he left his Cabinet seat, to his death on March 6, 1919, six days before his 85th birthday, Herbert practiced law in Washington, D.C.

Namesake

USS Herbert (DD-160) was named in honor of Secretary Herbert.

References

1. Friedman, pp. 23-25, 30
2. Friedman, pp. 23-25
3. ^ VITALIS, ROBERT (2010). "The Noble American Science of Imperial Relations and Its Laws of Race Development". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 52 (4): 909–938. doi:10.1017/S0010417510000502. ISSN 0010-4175. JSTOR 40864901. S2CID 145467230.
4. Friedman, pp. 30-38
5. Bauer and Roberts, pp. 162-165

• Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775–1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-26202-0.
• Friedman, Norman (1985). U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-0-87021-715-9.
• Hammett, Hugh B. Hilary Abner Herbert: A Southerner Returns to the Union. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1976
• Herbert, Hilary Abner. The Abolition Crusade and its Consequences; Four Periods of American History. New York: Scribner's Sons, 1912.
• Herbert, H. A. (1914). History of the Arlington Confederate Monument, by Hilary A. Herbert. Washington, D.C.: B.S. Adams, printer. Complete document is available for free here:

External links

• Media related to Hilary A. Herbert at Wikimedia Commons
• Works by Hilary A. Herbert at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Hilary A. Herbert at the Internet Archive

• United States Congress. "Hilary A. Herbert (id: H000524)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-02-13
•  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Naval History and Heritage Command.
• "Hilary A. Herbert". Find a Grave. Retrieved February 13, 2008.

v t e United States secretaries of the Navy
Secretaries	Cabinet-level Stoddert Smith Hamilton Jones Crowninshield S Thompson Southard Branch L. Woodbury Dickerson Paulding Badger Upshur Henshaw Gilmer Mason Bancroft Mason Preston Graham Kennedy Dobbin Toucey Welles Borie Robeson R Thompson Goff Hunt Chandler Whitney Tracy Herbert Long Moody Morton Bonaparte Metcalf Newberry Meyer Daniels Denby Wilbur Adams Swanson Edison Knox Forrestal Dept. of Defense Sullivan Matthews Kimball Anderson Thomas T. Gates Franke Connally Korth Nitze Ignatius Chafee Warner Middendorf Claytor Hidalgo Lehman Webb Ball Garrett O'Keefe Dalton Danzig England Winter Mabus Spencer Braithwaite Del Toro
Under Secretaries	Forrestal Bard A. Gates Sullivan Kenney Kimball Whitehair Thomas T. Gates Franke Bantz Fay BeLieu Baldwin Baird Warner Sanders Middendorf Potter Macdonald Woolsey Murray Goodrich Garrett Howard Danzig Hultin Pirie Livingstone Aviles Work Davidson Modly Raven
Assistant Secretaries	Pre–1954 Fox Faxon Soley McAdoo T. Roosevelt Sr. Allen Hackett Darling Newberry Satterlee Winthrop F. Roosevelt G. Woodbury T. Roosevelt Jr. Robinson Jahncke H. Roosevelt Edison Compton Bard Hensel Kenney Andrews Koehler Askins Fogler Post–1954 Financial Management and Comptroller Energy, Installations and Environment Manpower and Reserve Affairs Research, Development and Acquisitions General Counsel of the Navy defunct: Air Installations and Logistics Material Research and Development Research, Engineering and Systems Shipbuilding and Logistics

v t e Chairs of the United States House Committee on Armed Services
Military Affairs Committee (1822–1947)	Eustis Hamilton Vance Hamilton Drayton R. Johnson McKay C. Johnson Thompson Dawson Stanly Haralson Botts Burt Bissell Benton Quitman Faulkner B. Stanton Blair Buffington Schenck Garfield Logan Coburn Banning Sparks Henderson Rosecrans Bragg Townshend Cutcheon Outhwaite Hull Hay Dent Kahn McKenzie Morin James Quin McSwain Hill May
Naval Affairs Committee (1822–1947)	Fuller Crowninshield Storrs Hoffman Anderson White Jarvis Ingham Thomas Wise Parmenter Holmes King F. Stanton Bocock Benson Bocock Morse Sedgwick Rice Pike Scofield Whitthorne Harris Cox Herbert Boutelle Herbert Cummings Geissenhainer Boutelle Foss Padgett Butler Britten Vinson
Armed Services Committee* (from 1947)	Andrews Vinson Short Vinson Rivers Philbin Hébert Price Aspin Dellums Spence Stump Hunter Skelton McKeon Thornberry Smith Rogers
Alternately named National Security in 104th and 105th Congresses.

v t e Cabinet of President Grover Cleveland (1893–1897)
Secretary of State	Walter Q. Gresham (1893–1895) Richard Olney (1895–1897)
Secretary of the Treasury	John G. Carlisle (1893–1897)
Secretary of War	Daniel S. Lamont (1893–1897)
Attorney General	Richard Olney (1893–1895) Judson Harmon (1895–1897)
Postmaster General	Wilson S. Bissell (1893–1895) William Lyne Wilson (1895–1897)
Secretary of the Navy	Hilary A. Herbert (1893–1897)
Secretary of the Interior	Hoke Smith (1893–1896) David R. Francis (1896–1897)
Secretary of Agriculture	Julius Sterling Morton (1893–1897)

• 1834 births
• 1919 deaths
• People from Greenville, Alabama
• United States secretaries of the navy
• Confederate States Army officers
• People of Alabama in the American Civil War
• Cleveland administration cabinet members
• People from Laurens, South Carolina
• Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Alabama
• 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives