Robert Lansing

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Revision as of 10:30, 28 December 2021 by Rjensen (talk | contribs) (see)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) American politician and Secretary of State, (1864–1928) For other people named Robert Lansing, see Robert Lansing (disambiguation).

Robert Lansing


42nd United States Secretary of State
In office June 24, 1915 – February 13, 1920 Acting: June 9, 1915 – June 24, 1915
President	Woodrow Wilson
Preceded by	William Jennings Bryan
Succeeded by	Bainbridge Colby
Counselor of the United States Department of State
In office April 1, 1914 – June 23, 1915
President	Woodrow Wilson
Preceded by	John Bassett Moore
Succeeded by	Frank Polk

Personal details
Born	(1864-10-17)October 17, 1864 Watertown, New York, U.S.
Died	October 30, 1928(1928-10-30) (aged 64) New York City, New York, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Eleanor Foster (1890–1928)
Education	Amherst College (BA)

Robert Lansing (/ˈlænsɪŋ/; October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as Counselor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I, and then as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson from 1915 to 1920. A conservative pro-business Democrat, he was pro-British and a strong defender of American rights at international law. He was a leading enemy of German autocracy and Russian Bolshevism. Before U.S. involvement in the war, Lansing vigorously advocated freedom of the seas and the rights of neutral nations. He later advocated U.S. participation in World War I, negotiated the Lansing–Ishii Agreement with Japan in 1917 and was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at Paris in 1919. However, Wilson made Colonel House his chief foreign policy advisor because Lansing privately opposed much of the Versailles treaty and was skeptical of the Wilsonian principle of self-determination.

Career

Robert Lansing was born in Watertown, New York, the son of John Lansing (1832–1907) and Maria Lay (Dodge) Lansing. He graduated from Amherst College in 1886, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1889.

From then until 1907 he was a member of the law firm of Lansing & Lansing at Watertown. An authority on international law, he served as associate counsel for the United States, during the Bering Sea Arbitration from 1892–1893, as counsel for the United States Bering Sea Claims Commission in 1896–1897, as the government's lawyer before the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal in 1903, as counsel for the North Atlantic Fisheries in the Arbitration at The Hague in 1909–1910, and as agent of the United States in the American and British Arbitration in 1912–1914. In 1914 Lansing was appointed counselor to the State Department by President Woodrow Wilson. Lansing, who had argued cases before Judge Nicholas D. Yost in Watertown, was responsible for encouraging the judge's son, future Ambassador Charles W. Yost, to join the Foreign Service.

World War I

Lansing advocated "benevolent neutrality" at the start of World War I, but shifted away from the ideal after increasing interference and violation of the rights of neutrals by Great Britain. Following the sinking of the RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915 by the German submarine U-20, Lansing backed Woodrow Wilson in issuing three notes of protest to the German government. William Jennings Bryan resigned as Secretary of State following Wilson's second note, which Bryan considered too belligerent. Lansing replaced Bryan, and said in his memoirs that following the Lusitania tragedy he always had the "conviction that we would ultimately become the ally of Britain". Wilson selected Lansing as secretary because he was proficient in routine work and deficient in ideas and initiative. Unlike Bryan he lacked a political base. The result was that Wilson could be--and indeed actually was--entirely free to make all major foreign policy decisions. John Milton Cooper adds that it was one of Wilson's worst mistakes as president. Wilson told Colonel House that as president he would practically be his own Secretary of State, and "Lansing would not be troublesome by uprooting or injecting his own views."

In 1916 Lansing hired a handful of men who became the State Department's first special agents in the new Bureau of Secret Intelligence. These agents were initially used to observe the activities of the Central Powers in America, and later to watch over interned German diplomats. The small group of agents hired by Lansing would eventually become the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS).

Post-World War I

In 1919, Lansing became the nominal head of the US Commission to the Paris Peace Conference. Because he did not regard the League of Nations as essential to the peace treaty, Lansing began to fall out of favor with Wilson, for whom participation in the League of Nations was a primary goal. During Wilson's stroke and illness, Lansing called the cabinet together for consultations on several occasions. In addition, he was the first cabinet member to suggest that Vice President Thomas R. Marshall assume the powers of the presidency. Displeased by Lansing's independence, Edith Wilson requested Lansing's resignation. Lansing stepped down from his post on February 12, 1920.

After leaving office, Lansing resumed practicing law. He died in New York City on October 30, 1928, and was buried at Brookside Cemetery in Watertown, New York.

Personal life and family

In 1890, Lansing married Eleanor Foster, the daughter of Secretary of State John W. Foster. Eleanor's older sister Edith was the mother of John Foster Dulles, who also became Secretary of State, Allen Welsh Dulles who served as Director of Central Intelligence, and Eleanor Lansing Dulles, an economist and high level policy analyst and advisor for the State Department.

New York State Senator Robert Lansing (1799–1878) was his grandfather; Chancellor John Lansing Jr. and State Treasurer Abraham G. Lansing were his great-granduncles.

Authorship

Lansing was associate editor of the American Journal of International Law, and with Gary M. Jones was the author of Government: Its Origin, Growth, and Form in the United States (1902). He also wrote: The Big Four and Others at the Peace Conference, Boston (1921) and The Peace Negotiations: A Personal Narrative, Boston/New York (1921).

Legacy and honors

During World War II the Liberty ship SS Robert Lansing was built in Panama City, Florida, and named in his honor.

References

David Glaser (2015). Robert Lansing:A Study in Statecraft. pp. 1–3. ISBN 9781503545014.
Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, The Lansing Papers, 1914–1920, Volume I, Document 277. In the enclosure it is stated that "If the British Government is expecting an attitude of “benevolent neutrality” on our part—a position which is not neutral and which is not governed by the principles of neutrality—they should know that nothing is further from our intention."
John Milton Cooper, Woodrow Wilson: a biography (2009) p. 295
Arthur S. Link, Wilson: the struggle for neutrality 1914-1915 (1960) 3:427-428
Williams, Joyce G. (1979). "The Resignation of Secretary of State Robert Lansing". Diplomatic History. 3 (3): 337–343. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.1979.tb00319.x. JSTOR 24910117.
Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Biographies of the Secretaries of State: Robert Lansing accessed 13 January 2010
Internet Accuracy Project, John W. Foster accessed 13 January 2011
Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Biographies of the Secretaries of State: John Watson Foster accessed 13 January 2011
Lansing, Robert (21 November 2018). "The peace negotiations, a personal narrative". Boston, New York, Houghton Mifflin company – via Internet Archive.
Williams, Greg H. (25 July 2014). The Liberty Ships of World War II: A Record of the 2,710 Vessels and Their Builders, Operators and Namesakes, with a History of the Jeremiah O'Brien. McFarland. ISBN 978-1476617541. Retrieved 7 December 2017.

Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Robert Lansing". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.

External links

Political offices
Preceded byWilliam Jennings Bryan	U.S. Secretary of State Served under: Woodrow Wilson 1915 – 1920	Succeeded byBainbridge Colby

v t e United States secretaries of state
Secretary of Foreign Affairs 1781–1789	R. Livingston Jay
Secretary of State 1789–present	Jefferson Randolph Pickering J. Marshall Madison Smith Monroe Adams Clay Van Buren E. Livingston McLane Forsyth Webster Upshur Calhoun Buchanan Clayton Webster Everett Marcy Cass Black Seward Washburne Fish Evarts Blaine Frelinghuysen Bayard Blaine Foster Gresham Olney Sherman Day Hay Root Bacon Knox Bryan Lansing Colby Hughes Kellogg Stimson Hull Stettinius Byrnes G. Marshall Acheson Dulles Herter Rusk Rogers Kissinger Vance Muskie Haig Shultz Baker Eagleburger Christopher trips Albright trips Powell trips Rice tenure trips Clinton tenure trips Kerry trips Tillerson trips Pompeo trips Blinken trips
List of international trips made by secretaries of state of the United States

v t e Cabinet of President Woodrow Wilson (1913–1921)
Vice President	Thomas R. Marshall (1913–1921)
Secretary of State	William Jennings Bryan (1913–1915) Robert Lansing (1915–1920) Bainbridge Colby (1920–1921)
Secretary of the Treasury	William Gibbs McAdoo (1913–1918) Carter Glass (1918–1920) David F. Houston (1920–1921)
Secretary of War	Lindley Miller Garrison (1913–1916) Newton D. Baker (1916–1921)
Attorney General	James Clark McReynolds (1913–1914) Thomas Watt Gregory (1914–1919) A. Mitchell Palmer (1919–1921)
Postmaster General	Albert S. Burleson (1913–1921)
Secretary of the Navy	Josephus Daniels (1913–1921)
Secretary of the Interior	Franklin Knight Lane (1913–1920) John Barton Payne (1920–1921)
Secretary of Agriculture	David F. Houston (1913–1920) Edwin T. Meredith (1920–1921)
Secretary of Commerce	William C. Redfield (1913–1919) Joshua W. Alexander (1919–1921)
Secretary of Labor	William Bauchop Wilson (1913–1921)

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