Background
Louis McLane was the son of Allan and Rebecca (Wells) McLane. He was born on May 28, 1786 in Smyrna, Delware.
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(Excerpt from Letter of the Hon. Louis M'lane: Late Secret...)
Excerpt from Letter of the Hon. Louis M'lane: Late Secretary of State on the Subject of Anti-Masonry; Addressed to the Anti-Masonic Committee, at Harrisburgh The architects, with their assistants and pupils, formed associations called lodges. In 1459 a grand lodge was instituted at Strasburg, of 9. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Louis McLane was the son of Allan and Rebecca (Wells) McLane. He was born on May 28, 1786 in Smyrna, Delware.
At the age of twelve Louis became a midshipman in the navy and cruised for a year on the Philadelphia under Commodore Stephen Decatur. He left the navy in 1801, however, and entered Newark College, Delaware, but apparently abandoned his course without taking a degree.
Louis began to read law under the direction of James A. Bayard. From this preceptor he seems to have acquired federalistic principles which were never fully eradicated. Admitted to the bar in 1807, he practised law in Smyrna. McLane's political career began in 1817 when he entered the lower house of Congress as a Jeffersonian Republican. He remained for ten years in this branch and was then transferred to the Senate. While in London, his principal achievement was an agreement regarding trade with the West Indies. In 1831 he was recalled and made secretary of the treasury, because Jackson wished the diplomatic post for Van Buren. McLane's views on finance did not accord with those of the President. He urged Congress to recharter the Bank of the United States, although it was well known that the President was opposed to such action. Jackson overlooked this defection and his friends talked of running McLane for vice-president in 1832; but when the Senate refused to ratify Van Buren's diplomatic appointment, Jackson decided to make Van Buren the presiding officer of the body which had sought to ruin him politically. Meanwhile McLane's position in the Treasury Department became very uncomfortable when the President, in 1832, vetoed the bill to recharter the bank. His sympathies were with that institution, but he could not hope for the coveted place on the bench unless he could retain Jackson's good will until the first vacancy should occur. He therefore formulated a plan whereby Edward Livingston was to be sent to France, he himself was to succeed to the Department of State and W. J. Duane was to take the Treasury portfolio. His wishes were gratified in 1833, but within a few months Jackson dismissed Duane for refusing to remove the government deposits from the United States Bank and appointed Roger Brooke Taney in his place.
Taney removed the deposits, but the Senate refused to confirm his appointment and the "martyred secretary" had prior claim to the first vacant seat on the supreme bench. Foreseeing the success of his rival and the blasting of his own hopes, McLane began to talk of resigning his portfolio and did so when he was overruled on questions concerning the French spoliations. The principal diplomatic questions which demanded his attention as secretary of state (May 29, 1833 - June 30, 1834) were those with Mexico regarding claims and boundaries; with Great Britain on the subject of the Northeast Boundary; and with France concerning spoliation claims. With Mexico he was firm but reasonable. With Great Britain he could accomplish nothing because the views of the two governments were at that time irreconcilable. On the spoliation claims he took a firm stand, and when the French Chambers refused to appropriate the money to pay the claims, he advised the president to ask Congress for authority to issue letters of marque and reprisal against French shipping, but Jackson was dissuaded by Taney and Van Buren from taking so drastic an action. McLane soon resigned from the cabinet in the hope, as Van Buren believed, of becoming the anti-administration candidate for the presidency at the next election.
After leaving the cabinet, McLane resided for a time in New York, where he was president of the Morris Canal & Banking Company. In 1837 he moved to Baltimore, tempted by what was then considered to be a munificent salary, $4, 000 yearly, to accept the presidency of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, a position which he held for ten years. While still in the employ of this company he was sent as United States minister to England by President Polk to conduct negotiations on the Oregon question (June 1845 - August 1846). When Buchanan expressed a wish to relinquish his portfolio for a place on the supreme bench Polk planned to make McLane secretary of state, but the vacillating Buchanan changed his mind and there was no vacancy in that department. McLane retired from the presidency of the railroad in 1847, and a year later refused to go to Mexico as one of the commissioners to procure the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. He performed his last public service as a member of the Maryland constitutional convention of 1850, and died in Baltimore seven years later.
McLane was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a member of the Federalist Party and later the Democratic Party. He served as the U. S. Representative from Delaware, U. S. Senator from Delaware, U. S. Secretary of the Treasury, U. S. Secretary of State, Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom, and President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. As a member of President Andrew Jackson's Cabinet, McLane was a prominent figure during the Bank War. McLane pursued a more moderate approach towards the Second Bank of the United States than the President, but agreed with Jackson's decision in 1832 to veto a Congressional bill renewing the Bank's charter. He also helped draft the Force Bill in 1833. McLane's greatest achievement was his introduction of orderly procedure into the operations of the department. He had undoubted ability, but ambition and jealousy ended abruptly what might have been a successful diplomatic career.
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(Excerpt from Letter of the Hon. Louis M'lane: Late Secret...)
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As a legislator McLane was sometimes a political non-conformist. Usually he upheld the party program, but he invariably championed the cause of the Bank of the United States. In 1818 he opposed an investigation of its discounts, and he denied the power of Congress to interfere with the operations of the bank. Although he was opposed to slavery, he denied the power of Congress to exclude Missouri from the Union because her constitution permitted slavery; and when the legislature of Delaware instructed him to vote against admission, he refused to obey, on the federalistic ground that he was an officer of the Union and not the agent of his state. In 1824 he was an ardent supporter of Crawford, and when the presidential election devolved upon the House of Representatives he remarked that "they might as well think of turning the Capitol upside down as of persuading him to vote for Jackson". Four years later, however, he supported Jackson and was rewarded by being offered first the position of attorney-general and second, that of minister to England. Resigning from the Senate (1829), he accepted the latter post with reluctance, in order, as he said, "to preserve my chance for what I frankly tell you would make me happier than any other honor the Bench".
Robert Milligan McLane, his son, attained some distinction in politics and diplomacy. Louis McLane's principal weakness was his reluctance to cooperate with his fellows. Unless he could dominate, he would refuse to "play the game. " His greatest ambition was to be a distinguished jurist; but Jackson doubtless rendered him a service by not elevating him to the bench, for his temperament was far from being judicial. He gave promise as a diplomat, but his precipitate resignation from the cabinet deprived him of an opportunity to demonstrate his abilities in this field of action. He succeeded best as an executive. As such, he could give rather than receive orders, and he was more at liberty to formulate his own plans. As an executive he was capable and systematic. He was an enemy of waste, whether of money or time, and conducted any enterprise entrusted to him with order and efficiency.
Quotes from others about the person
McLane's biographer, Professor John A. Monroe, describes him as follows: "the problem was that few people could love Louis McLane. .. He was intelligent and able, clear-minded and efficient, but to the average man and even to some of his children, he was not lovable. He was almost sinfully ambitious, as his father had encouraged him to be. He was often meanly suspicious, and life had encouraged him to be ever mindful of his welfare and that of the large family dependent on him. He was easily affronted and held grudges almost with glee against those who crossed him. He was immensely persuasive, but in the long run he abandoned in disgust each of the successive scenes of his triumphs. It was to Kitty and the children that he was true, and the children learned to admire but not to love this stern, busy, handsome, sensitive man. "
In 1812 McLane married Catherine Mary, eldest daughter of Robert Milligan.
8 August 1746 - 22 May 1829
9 November 1790 - 11 January 1845
31 January 1822 - 22 February 1887
21 December 1826 - 10 July 1885
20 January 1819 - 13 December 1905
23 June 1815 - 16 April 1898
