MACK VON LEIBERICH, KARL, FREIHERR 1828), Austrian soldier, was born at Nenslingen, Bavaria, on Aug. 25, 1752. In 1770 he joined an Austrian cavalry regiment, becoming an officer seven years later. During the brief war of the Bavarian Succession he served on the staff of Count Kinsky, and subsequently under the commander-in-chief Field Marshal Count Lacy. He was promoted first lieutenant in 1778, and cap tain on the quartermaster-general's staff in 1783. In 1785 Mack married Katherine Gabrieul, and was ennobled under the name of Mack von Leiberich. In the Turkish war he was employed on the headquarters staff, becoming in 1788 major and personal aide-de-camp to the emperor, and in 1789 lieutenant-colonel. He distinguished himself greatly in the storming of Belgrade. Shortly after this, disagreements between Mack and Loudon, led to the former's demanding a court-martial and leaving the front. He was, however, given a colonelcy (1789) and the order of Maria Theresa, and in 1790 Loudon and Mack, having become reconciled, were again on the field together. During these campaigns Mack received a severe injury to his head, from which he never fully recovered. In 1793 he was made quartermaster-general (chief of staff) to Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg, commanding in the Netherlands. He enhanced his reputation by the ensuing campaign, receiving a wound at Famars. In 1797 he was promoted lieutenant field marshal, and in 1798 accepted command of the Neapolitan army. Forced to take refuge from his own men, he escaped to the French camp, and was sent to Paris, whence he escaped in disguise two years later. He was not employed for some years, but in 1804 was made quartermaster-general of the army, with instructions to prepare for a war with France. He attempted hastily to reform the army, and in 1805 became the real com mander (under titular commander-in-chief Archduke Ferdinand) of the army which opposed Napoleon in Bavaria, but his position was ill-defined and his authority treated with slight respect by his colleagues. (See NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS.) See Schweigerd, Oesterreichs Helden (Vienna, 1854) ; Wiirzbach, Biogr. Lexikon d. Kaiserthums Oesterr. (Vienna, 1867) ; Ritter von Rittersberg, Biogr. d. ausgezeichneten Feldherren d. oest. Armee (Prague, 1828) ; Raumer's Hist. Taschenbuch (1873) defends Mack.
when Crawford's ill-health forced him out of politics. As an able representative of the Middle Atlantic States free-trader ex porting and carrying-trade interests, he was well qualified to ne gotiate for the opening of the British West Indian trade, which was the main business of the London post under the new Jackson Administration. His appointment was the signal for a great pro tectionist outcry against the "Wilmington conspiracy" to bargain away the advantages of the tariff of 1828. The Government allowed him to follow his own course in the negotiations, with the result that within ten months after he had presented his cre dentials, an agreement was reached which ended an irritation of nearly 5o years. The cabinet, as the British were privately in formed, favoured a reduction of the American tariff ; but this was not secured until the southern free-traders organized the nullifi cation movement and brought about the adoption of the Com promise tariff of 1833, which McLane, who had returned in the meantime to the United States as secretary of the treasury, had influenced by formulating the administration tariff proposals. Then came a turning-point in his career. He refused to join Van Buren in approving Jackson's proposal to remove deposits from the bank without the authority of Congress and was transferred to the Department of State. He resigned the next year, 1834, breaking with Van Buren. From 1834-37 he was president of the Morris Canal and Banking Company (New York), and from 1837-47 president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In 1845, when the Democrats returned to office without Van Buren and when Anglo-American relations were strained over the Oregon question, McLane accepted from President Polk an appointment to return to England "upon condition that if he could induce the British Government to reconsider the rejection of the offer of '49 he, the President, would consult the Senate as to the propriety of accepting this compromise." Whatever may have been McLane's real influence upon Lord Aberdeen, he had the satisfaction of seeing another great difference between the two countries "amicably" settled, and this time in conjunction with the triumph of free trade—the repeal of the British Corn Laws and the substitution of the low Walker tariff of 1846 for the high Whig tariff of 1842.