Robert Smith (American cabinet member)

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Robert Smith


6th United States Secretary of State
In office March 6, 1809 – April 1, 1811
President	James Madison
Preceded by	James Madison
Succeeded by	James Monroe
United States Attorney General Acting
In office March 2, 1805 – August 7, 1805
President	Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by	Levi Lincoln
Succeeded by	John Breckinridge
2nd United States Secretary of the Navy
In office July 27, 1801 – March 4, 1809
President	Thomas Jefferson
Preceded by	Benjamin Stoddert
Succeeded by	Paul Hamilton

Personal details
Born	(1757-11-03)November 3, 1757 Lancaster, Province of Pennsylvania
Died	November 26, 1842(1842-11-26) (aged 85) Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Political party	Democratic-Republican Party
Spouse	Margaret Smith
Alma mater	Princeton University
Profession	Lawyer
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	Continental Army
Battles/wars	American Revolutionary War

Robert Smith (November 3, 1757 – November 26, 1842) was the second United States Secretary of the Navy from 1801 to 1809 and the sixth United States Secretary of State from 1809 to 1811. He was the brother of Senator Samuel Smith.

Smith was born in Lancaster in the Province of Pennsylvania. During the American Revolutionary War, he served in the Continental Army and participated in the Battle of Brandywine. He graduated from Princeton in 1781 and began to practice law in Maryland. Smith became the Presidential Elector in the Electoral College for Maryland in 1789, then a member of state's senate from 1793 to 1795, and finally a member of Maryland's house of delegates from 1796 to 1800. President Thomas Jefferson appointed him as Secretary of the Navy in July 1801 after William Jones declined the position. On March 2, 1805, the Senate confirmed the appointments of Smith as United States Attorney General and Jacob Crowninshield as Secretary of the Navy. However, Crowninshield declined his appointment, so Smith briefly served as both Attorney General and Secretary of the Navy. Eventually, President Jefferson appointed John Breckinridge to replace Smith as Attorney General and Smith resumed his role as a full-time Secretary of the Navy. Smith finally left the office of Secretary of the Navy with the end of President Jefferson's administration on March 4, 1809. Jefferson's successor, President James Madison, immediately appointed Smith as Secretary of State, an office which he held from March 6, 1809, until his forced resignation on April 1, 1811.

Smith was closely allied with his brother, Maryland Senator Samuel Smith. He bitterly opposed Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin. Madison thought he could be his own Secretary of State, but Smith so often pursued opposite policies that Madison finally demanded his resignation. In Madison's April 1811 “Memorandum on Robert Smith” the president offered a laundry list of Smith's shortcomings: he questioned Smith's loyalty; he found Smith's diplomatic correspondence wanting; he had been indiscreet in conversations with the British; and he had opposed the Administration's efforts to secure concessions from Britain and France by limiting trade. Apparently Smith was bewildered by these and other charges leveled by Madison and published an exoneration of himself, "Robert Smith's Address to the People of the United States," an attack on Madison's foreign policy. Madison offered Smith the post of ambassador to Russia, currently then held by John Quincy Adams. Smith considered the offer, but in the end, he refused the post.

Smith became the president of the not-yet-fully-organized American Bible Society in 1813. In 1818, he became the founding president of the Maryland Agriculture Society and afterwards retired to a more private life where he enjoyed his wealth. Robert Smith died in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 26, 1842. The USS Robert Smith was named for him.

References

Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg. Madison and Jefferson, New York: Random House (2010), p. 495.

Clifford Egan, "Robert Smith" in Edward S. Mihalkanin, ed. American Statesmen: Secretaries of State from John Jay to Colin Powell, Greenwood Press 2004, pp. 478–83.

External links

Robert Smith at Find A Grave
Robert Smith at the Naval Historical Center
Robert Smith at the United States Department of State
Robert Smith at the Hall of the Secretaries of State

Political offices
Preceded byBenjamin Stoddert	United States Secretary of the Navy 1801–1809	Succeeded byPaul Hamilton
Preceded byJames Madison	U.S. Secretary of State Served under: James Madison 1809–1811	Succeeded byJames Monroe

United States secretaries of the Navy

Secretaries

Cabinet-level

Dept. of Defense

Under
Secretaries

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 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 Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809)
Secretary of State	James Madison (1801–1809)
Secretary of the Treasury	Samuel Dexter (1801) Albert Gallatin (1801–1809)
Secretary of War	Henry Dearborn (1801–1809)
Attorney General	Levi Lincoln Sr. (1801–1805) John Breckinridge (1805–1806) Caesar Augustus Rodney (1807–1809)
Secretary of the Navy	Benjamin Stoddert (1801) Robert Smith (1801–1809)

v t e Cabinet of President James Madison (1809–1817)
Secretary of State	Robert Smith (1809–1811) James Monroe (1811–1817)
Secretary of the Treasury	Albert Gallatin (1809–1814) George W. Campbell (1814) Alexander J. Dallas (1814–1816) William H. Crawford (1816–1817)
Secretary of War	William Eustis (1809–1813) John Armstrong Jr. (1813–1814) James Monroe (1814–1815) William H. Crawford (1815–1816)
Attorney General	Caesar Augustus Rodney (1809–1811) William Pinkney (1811–1814) Richard Rush (1814–1817)
Secretary of the Navy	Paul Hamilton (1809–1813) William Jones (1813–1814) Benjamin Williams Crowninshield (1814–1817)

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