Robert Lansing
Oxford Dictionary of Political Biography:
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Robert Lansing
(b. Watertown, New York, 17 Oct. 1864; d. 30 Oct. 1928) US; Secretary of State 1915 – 20 The son of a lawyer and banker, Lansing graduated BA from Amherst College in 1886. Thereafter he read law in his father's office, was called to the bar in 1889, and that same year joined his father's practice. Specializing in international law, he acted as counsel for the Chinese and Mexican legations in Washington, DC, 1894 – 5 and 1900 – 1; counsel for the US Bering Sea Claims Commission 1896 – 7; and counsel for the USA at the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal 1903. He was a founder member of the American Society for International Law in 1906 and in 1907 he established the American Journal of International Law, which he continued to edit until his death.
In 1902 Lansing made an unsuccessful bid to enter the political arena when he stood as Democratic candidate for mayor of Watertown. Although elective office eluded him he entered the public service as a counsellor for the State Department 1914 – 15, a role which enabled him to serve as acting Secretary of State during the absences of Secretary Bryan, and eventually to become Secretary of State in 1915 after Bryan's resignation. In 1920, amid controversy, he left office himself in response to a request from Wilson that he resign. The President accused Lansing of having usurped his authority by calling Cabinet meetings during the President's illness. After his resignation, Lansing returned to practising international law.
Gale Encyclopedia of Biography:
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Robert Lansing
Robert Lansing (1864-1928), American lawyer and statesman and an expert in international law, was secretary of state in Woodrow Wilson's Cabinet.
Robert Lansing was born in Watertown, N.Y., on Oct. 17, 1864. He graduated from Amherst College in 1886 and 3 years later joined his father's law firm. His marriage to Eleanor Foster, daughter of John W. Foster, President Grover Cleveland's secretary of state, made possible a career in international law. He served as legal counsel in many important international negotiations, including the Bering Sea Arbitration (1892-1893), the Bering Sea Claims Commission (1896-1897), the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal (1903), the North Atlantic Fisheries Arbitration (1909-1910), and the American and British Claims Arbitration (1912-1914). He also helped found the American Society of International Law and its Journal.
President Woodrow Wilson appointed Lansing counselor of the State Department in 1914. He influenced policy in several important crises, including the Lusitania affair after the outbreak of World War I. Following the unexpected resignation of Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, Lansing assumed his place in June 1915.
Lansing played a useful but subordinate role in the Wilson administration. He was a supporter of the Allied forces in the war, despite his condemnation of their violations of neutral rights, and he strongly favored American intervention against the Central Powers in April 1917. During World War I Lansing negotiated the Lansing-Ishii Agreement with Japan (1917), which helped curb Japanese expansionism in East Asia. He also applied the doctrine of nonrecognition to the Bolshevik regime in Russia. He took little part in formulating American war aims. Despite his differences with the President, Lansing retained Wilson's confidence until 1919, when, at the Paris Peace Conference, he expressed criticism of Wilson's plan for a league of nations. However, after signing the Versailles Treaty, the secretary returned to Washington and sought unsuccessfully to obtain senatorial acceptance for the League Covenant.
Lansing's attempt to assume leadership of the Cabinet during Wilson's illness in 1919 incurred the President's wrath. Wilson forced him to resign in February 1920. Lansing practiced law in Washington, D.C., until his death on Oct. 30, 1928.
Lansing published several books concerning the Paris Peace Conference and the war years. His more general publications include Government: Its Origin, Growth, and Form in the United States (1902), with Gary M. Jones, and Notes on Sovereignty (1921).
Further Reading
Lansing's own works include the autobiographical The Peace Negotiations: A Personal Narrative (1921) and War Memoirs of Robert Lansing (1935). No full-length biography of Lansing exists, but two excellent studies provide detailed information about his policies and character: Daniel M. Smith, Robert Lansing and American Neutrality, 1914-1917 (1958), and Burton F. Beers, Vain Endeavor: Robert Lansing's Attempts to End the American-Japanese Rivalry (1962). Lansing is discussed in Samuel Flagg Bemis, ed., American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy, vol. 10 (1928).
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Robert Lansing
Lansing, Robert, 1864-1928, U.S. Secretary of State (1915-20), b. Watertown, N.Y. An authority in the field of international law, he founded the American Journal of International Law in 1907 and remained an editor of it until his death. He served as counsel for the United States in several international disputes, and he became attached (1914) to the Dept. of State. President Wilson appointed him to succeed William Jennings Bryan as Secretary of State after the latter's resignation. Lansing was a strong, although not outspoken, advocate of U.S. participation in World War I on the side of the Allies. Because Wilson largely conducted foreign policy himself with his political confidant Edward M. House, Lansing had little influence in the negotiations that led to the declaration of war against Germany. In 1917, Lansing concluded with Kikujiro Ishii of Japan the Lansing-Ishii agreement, which gave U.S. recognition to Japan's special interests in China, while reaffirming the Open Door policy. Lansing, who was nominal head of the U.S. commission to the Paris Peace Conference, lost Wilson's confidence because he did not regard the Covenant of the League of Nations as essential to the peace treaty. The breach between the two was completed when Wilson learned that during Wilson's illness Lansing had on several occasions called the cabinet together for consultations. In Feb., 1920, at Wilson's request, Lansing resigned. He later returned to his law practice. His writings include The Big Four and Others at the Peace Conference (1921), The Peace Negotiations (1921), and Notes on Sovereignty (1921). The War Memoirs of Robert Lansing (1935) was published posthumously.
Bibliography
See studies by D. M. Smith (1958, repr. 1972) and B. F. Beers (1962).
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Robert Lansing
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 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 17, 1864 Watertown, New York, U.S. |
| Died | October 30, 1928 (aged 64) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Amherst College |
| Profession | Lawyer, Politician |
Robert Lansing (October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) served in the position of Legal Advisor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I where he vigorously advocated against Britain's policy of blockade and in favor of the principles of freedom of the seas and the rights of neutral nations. He then served as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson between 1915 and 1920. He was nominated to the office after William Jennings Bryan's resignation. He negotiated the Lansing-Ishii Agreement with Japan in 1917 and was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at Paris in 1919.
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Contents
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Career
He 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 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 1892-93, as counsel for the United States Bering Sea Claims Commission in 1896-97, as solicitor for the government before the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal in 1903, as counsel for the North Atlantic Fisheries in the Arbitration at The Hague in 1909-10, and as agent of the United States in the American and British Arbitration in 1912-14. In 1914 Lansing was appointed by President Wilson counselor to the State Department.
World War I
Lansing advocated "benevolent neutrality" in World War I, and eventually American participation. 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 issued on 13 May, 9 June, and 21 July. William Jennings Bryan resigned as Secretary of State following Wilson's second note, in which Wilson rejected the German arguments that the British blockade was illegal; was a cruel and deadly attack on innocent civilians; and that the Lusitania had been carrying munitions. Bryan considered the note too provocative and resigned in protest after failing to moderate it, to be replaced as Secretary of State by Lansing, who later said in his memoirs that following the tragedy he always had the "conviction that we would ultimately become the ally of Britain".
In 1916, using funds discretionary to himself, 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) many years later.
A few weeks before the formal end of World War I, Lansing informed the crumbling Austro-Hungarian government that the Americans could no longer negotiate on the basis of Wilson's Fourteen Points. Lansing pointed out that since the Americans were now committed to the causes of the Czechs, Slovaks and South Slavs, the tenth point, autonomy for the nationalities, was no longer valid. Within two weeks, Austria-Hungary was no more.
In 1919, he 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. During Wilson's stroke and illness, Lansing called the cabinet together for consultations on several occasions. In addition, Lansing was the first cabinet member to suggest that Vice President Thomas R. Marshall assume the powers of the presidency. Wilson was disturbed by Lansing's independence, and Lansing resigned in 1920 at Wilson's request. Afterward, he practiced law in New York City.
Personal life and family
In 1890, Lansing married Eleanor Foster, the younger daughter of the then serving Secretary of State John W. Foster.[1] Eleanor's older sister, Edith, was the mother of John Foster Dulles, who also became a U.S. Secretary of State, Allen Welsh Dulles, a Director of Central Intelligence, and Eleanor Lansing Dulles, a diplomat and noted author.[2] As a result of these connections, Lansing was Secretary of State himself as well as being the son-in-law of one Secretrary of State and uncle by marriage of another.[3]
State Senator Robert Lansing (1799–1878) was his grandfather; Chancellor John Lansing, Jr. and State Treasurer Abraham G. Lansing were his great-granduncles.
Authorship
He became associate editor of the American Journal of International Law, and with Gary M. Jones was author of Government: Its Origin, Growth, and Form in the United States (1902). He wrote also: The Big Four and Others at the Peace Conference, Boston (1921) and The Peace Negotiations: a personal narrative, Boston (1922).
References
- ^ 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
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Lansing |
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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
- Works by Robert Lansing at Project Gutenberg
- Robert Lansing's Gravesite
- 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.
This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by William Jennings Bryan |
United States Secretary of State Served under: Woodrow Wilson 1915 – 1920 |
Succeeded by Frank Polk (Acting) |
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Oxford Dictionary of Political Biography
A Dictionary of Political Biography. Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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Gale Encyclopedia of Biography
Gale Encyclopedia of Biography. © 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Columbia Encyclopedia
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
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