Louis McLane

Louis McLane entered Andrew Jackson’s cabinet after serving as American minister in London, where he helped reopen trade with the British West Indies. The Delaware lawyer and former naval midshipman had served in both houses of Congress before receiving his first diplomatic appointment. He became Treasury secretary in 1831 and moved to the State Department in 1833. ¹

As Secretary of State, McLane reorganized departmental work into distinct bureaus and concluded an arrangement with Spain over American property seized during the Napoleonic Wars. The northeastern boundary with British North America and outstanding disputes with Mexico remained unresolved. French failure to pay an agreed indemnity for seizures of American ships produced a sharper conflict: McLane favored reprisals against French exports, while Jackson initially rejected that course. McLane resigned in 1834. ¹

James K. Polk returned him to London as minister in 1845, during the dispute over the Oregon country. McLane expected to take part in negotiating the boundary, but the decisive talks occurred in Washington. His diplomatic career thus included both the reopening of a valuable colonial trade and a later mission whose principal negotiation proceeded beyond his immediate control. The two London appointments and his brief secretaryship formed separate stages of a career spanning the politics of the early republic and continental expansion. ¹