Smith, Robert, 1757-1842

Robert Smith was born on November 3, 1757, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to John Smith and Mary Buchanan. His brother was Senator Samuel Smith. He served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and participated in the Battle of Brandywine Creek, then went on to graduate from the College of New Jersey, now Princeton, in 1781. He married Margaret (Peggy) Buchanan on December 7, 1790, and together they had at least two sons. Robert Smith was the second appointed U.S. Secretary of the Navy from 1801 to 1809, then the sixth Secretary of State from 1809 to 1811. He is most well known for the Smith-Erskine Agreement of 1809, a trade agreement between the British Minister to the U.S. and Smith that failed when the British Parliament rejected it and that failure eventually led to the War of 1812. In 1811, Smith was forced by Madison to resign as Secretary of State because Albert Gallatin hated him and threatened to resign as Secretary of the Treasury if Madison didn’t force it. He died on November 26, 1842 and is buried in Westminster Burial Ground in Baltimore, Maryland. The USS Robert Smith, a Clemson class destroyer, was named in his honor.