Robert Lansing

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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
President	Woodrow Wilson
Preceded by	William Jennings Bryan
Succeeded by	Bainbridge Colby
Counselor of the U.S. 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, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Eleanor Foster Lansing (1890 - 1928, his death)
Alma mater	Amherst College
Profession	Lawyer, politician

Robert Lansing (/ˈlænsɪŋ/; October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and Conservative Democratic^[1] politician who served as Legal Advisor 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. Before U.S. involvement in the war, Lansing vigorously advocated in favor of the principles of 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.

Contents

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  1 Career
  
  • 
    1.1 World War I
    
  
  
  • 
    1.2 Post-World War I
    
  
  


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  2 Personal life and family
  


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  3 Authorship
  


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  4 Legacy and honors
  


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  5 References
  


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  6 External links
  

Career

Robert Lansing was born in Watertown, New York in October 1864, 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, in the Bering Sea Arbitration in 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's Secretary of State nomination

Lansing and Solicitor General of the United States John W. Davis in 1917

World War I

Lansing advocated "benevolent neutrality" at the start of World War I. 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".

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).

A few weeks before the formal end of World War I, Lansing informed the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire that since the Americans were now committed to the causes of the Czechs, Slovaks and South Slavs, the Empire's proposal to satisfy the tenth of Wilson's Fourteen Points by granting the nationalities autonomy within the Empire was no longer sufficient. Within two weeks, these new nations began to declare themselves independent and Austria-Hungary ceased to exist.

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. Edith Wilson was displeased by Lansing's independence, and requested Lansing's resignation in 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

Eleanor Foster

In 1890, Lansing married Eleanor Foster, the daughter of Secretary of State John W. Foster.^[2] 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.^[3][4]

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.^[5]

References

1. 
   ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=Y3UeAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA121&dq=Robert+Lansing+progressive&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7KNhVeiVI-_B7AbwtYGYAw&ved=0CB8Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=Robert%20Lansing%20progressive&f=false
   


2. 
   ^ Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Biographies of the Secretaries of State: Robert Lansing accessed 13 January 2010
   


3. 
   ^ Internet Accuracy Project, John W. Foster accessed 13 January 2011
   


4. 
   ^ Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Biographies of the Secretaries of State: John Watson Foster accessed 13 January 2011
   


5. 
   ^ 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 1476617546. Retrieved 7 December 2017. 
   

• 
   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "^{article name needed}". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. 
  

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Lansing.

Wikisource has the text of a 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article about Robert Lansing.

• Robert Lansing Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University


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  Works by Robert Lansing at Project Gutenberg
  


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  Works by or about Robert Lansing at Internet Archive
  


• The Peace Negotiations: A Personal Narrative


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• Robert Lansing (1921). The Peace Negotiations: a personal narrative at Project Gutenberg


• 
  Robert Lansing at Find a Grave
  


• BBC article on DSS


• U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) Website


• Washington Post article on DSS


• Diplomatic Security Special Agents Association


• Unofficial Diplomatic Security Special Agent Forum


• Mobile Security Deployments (MSD)


• Computer Investigations & Forensics Investigative Resource Page


• U.S. Diplomatic Security - Office of Foreign Missions (OFM)


• 
   "Lansing, Robert". Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). 1922. 
  

Political offices
Preceded by William Jennings Bryan	U.S. Secretary of State Served under: Woodrow Wilson 1915 – 1920	Succeeded by Frank Polk (Acting)

v t e United States Secretaries of State
Secretary of Foreign Affairs 1781–89	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 Albright Powell Rice (tenure) Clinton (tenure) Kerry (tenure) Tillerson Pompeo

v t e Cabinet of President Woodrow Wilson (1913–21)
Vice President	Thomas R. Marshall (1913–21)
Secretary of State	William Jennings Bryan (1913–15) Robert Lansing (1915–20) Bainbridge Colby (1920–21)
Secretary of the Treasury	William G. McAdoo (1913–18) Carter Glass (1918–20) David F. Houston (1920–21)
Secretary of War	Lindley M. Garrison (1913–16) Newton D. Baker (1916–21)
Attorney General	James C. McReynolds (1913–14) Thomas W. Gregory (1914–19) A. Mitchell Palmer (1919–21)
Postmaster General	Albert S. Burleson (1913–21)
Secretary of the Navy	Josephus Daniels (1913–21)
Secretary of the Interior	Franklin K. Lane (1913–20) John B. Payne (1920–21)
Secretary of Agriculture	David F. Houston (1913–20) Edwin T. Meredith (1920–21)
Secretary of Commerce	William C. Redfield (1913–19) Joshua W. Alexander (1919–21)
Secretary of Labor	William B. Wilson (1913–21)

Authority control	WorldCat Identities BIBSYS: 90721835 BNF: cb129324304 (data) GND: 118778757 ISNI: 0000 0001 2101 0302 LCCN: n50039266 NARA: 10582412 NDL: 00523593 SNAC: w6gb23js SUDOC: 056836783 VIAF: 45098186