SMITH, ROBERT (1757-1842), an American statesman, was U.S. secretary of the navy, 1802-05, and attorney general, 1805-09, under Jefferson; also secretary of state, 1809-11, under Madison. In the last mentioned post he entered into an agree ment with David M. Erskine, the British minister at Washing ton, which was promptly repudiated by George Canning, the British foreign secretary; and, when Canning sent the insolent Francis James Jackson to take Erskine's place at Washington, it became necessary for Secretary Smith to break off all rela tions with the British minister. Smith was much maligned by his enemies, the chief of whom was Albert Gallatin, who had been kept out of the office of secretary of state ; and the reputation of Smith has subsequently suffered at the hands of historians. But a recent writer has pointed out that as a member of the Maryland legislature, and as secretary of the navy under Jeffer son, Smith appeared eminently successful; and this writer has also shown that his work as secretary of state was of a high order, that Gallatin's charges against him (the mishandling of govern ment funds) broke down completely, and that Gallatin, by threatening to resign as secretary of the treasury, prompted Madison to call for the resignation of Smith. After his retire
ment Smith reviewed his career as secretary of state in an Address to the People of the United States (June 181 1). There after he served in various positions in Maryland, and died on Nov. 26, 1842, the last survivor of the electoral college of 1789, which elected George Washington first president of the United States.
See Charles C. Tansill, "Robert Smith, Secretary of State," in Samuel Flagg Bemis (ed.), The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy, iii. 151-200 (1927).