George M. Robeson
George Maxwell Robeson was an American politician and lawyer from New Jersey. He served as Attorney General for the State of New Jersey from 1867 to 1869, until being appointed as Secretary of the Navy by President Ulysses S. Grant, in 1869, remaining in that post until 1877. A member of the Republican Party, he also served two terms as a U.S. Representative for New Jersey from 1879 to 1883.
Early life
George M. Robeson was born on March 16, 1829, in Oxford Furnace, New Jersey, near Belvidere in Warren County. Robeson's family was of Scottish origin, and was long-established in New Jersey; he was a descendant of Andrew Robeson, who served as surveyor-general of New Jersey in 1668. His father was Philadelphia Judge William Penn Robeson and his mother was the daughter of U.S. Congressman George C. Maxwell, who served in the 12th U.S. Congress from 1811 to 1813 representing Hunterdon, New Jersey. His brother William P. Robeson Jr. was a brevetted Brigadier general in the Union Army. Robeson was the nephew of U.S. Congressman John Patterson Bryan Maxwell.Robeson received a bachelor's degree from the College of New Jersey at the young age of 18 in 1847. Upon graduation, he studied law in Newark in former New Jersey Chief Justice Joseph C. Hornblower's law office. Hornblower, at the time, was involved in an abortive attempt to create a law school at the College of New Jersey; it is not clear whether Robeson's continuing education was related to this effort, but in any case, Robeson received a master's degree from the college in 1850, and was admitted to the bar in the same year. He was admitted as a legal counselor in 1854. He initially set up his law practice in Newark, but then moved his practice to Jersey City. In 1858, he was appointed public prosecutor for Camden County.
Civil War
By the outbreak of the Civil War Robeson had become associated with the Republican party. During the war he served on the state's Sanitary Commission and worked at recruiting and organizing troops for the New Jersey militia. For this latter work, late in the war he was given a commission as a brigadier general in the New Jersey Militia by Gov. Joel Parker; this appointment was essentially ceremonial, and did not involve service on active duty during the war.Attorney General of New Jersey (1867–1869)
Robeson was appointed Attorney General of New Jersey by Gov. Marcus L. Ward in 1867. Perhaps the most significant event of Robeson's relatively short career as Attorney General was his prosecution of Bridget Durgan, a young Irish immigrant working as a maid, for the murder of Mary Ellen Coriell, wife of her employer. Robeson was able to gain a conviction of Durgan on circumstantial evidence, persuading the jury not to factor in Durgan's age and gender during their deliberations. The jury took only one hour to convict Durgan of murder, and sentenced her to death. Robeson gained national attention for securing a death sentence for a young woman, something that 19th century juries were reluctant to specify. Durgan was hanged on August 30.Robeson resigned as Attorney General on June 22, 1869, to become United States Secretary of the Navy.
Secretary of the Navy (1869–1877)
On June 25, 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Robeson Secretary of the Navy, replacing Adolph E. Borie, who had resigned earlier that same day. Borie had found the duties of running the Navy Department demanding, and had apparently never particularly wanted the job anyway; one source suggests that he had taken the job as a courtesy to Grant for having offered it, and had spent his weeks in office simply waiting for an appropriate moment to resign. Robeson's appointment to the position was pushed by New Jersey Senator Alexander G. Cattell. The change came as a surprise to the general public, all the more so because Robeson was, at the time, largely unknown outside of New Jersey. He ended up serving in the position from June 26, 1869, until March 12, 1877, making him one of the longest-serving Naval secretaries of the 19th century, second only to Lincoln's secretary, Gideon Welles. Robeson came to the job with no previous experience related to maritime matters.As a cabinet member Robeson expressed support for the administration's reconstruction policies, including emancipation and granting of citizenship, complete with voting rights, for African-Americans. During an 1870 speech in Norfolk, Virginia, a very strong expression of such support—perhaps ill-advised in a Southern city—helped start a riot, involving, at first, the throwing of eggs at Robeson, and later gunfire. He filled in for Grant at certain public events, notably the 1873 dedication of a site in Philadelphia for the Centennial Exposition, which was successfully staged in 1876. Later, in 1874, he supported Senate Bill S.617, dubbed the "inflation bill," under which $400 million in greenbacks was to be placed into circulation, along with an equivalent amount of specie-backed money. Both houses overwhelming approved the bill, and Grant was expected to quickly sign it. However, after some deliberation, the President vetoed the bill, and an attempt to override the veto failed in the Senate.
Departmental control (1869)
Robeson's predecessor, Adolph Borie, had had little interest in running the Navy Department and let the service's seniormost uniformed officer, Vice Admiral David Dixon Porter, exercise unprecedented authority over the department. Porter proved to be an autocratic administrator, and caused considerable mischief during Borie's 14-week tenure at the department. One particularly controversial move involved changing a long-standing interpretation of a law defining the rank and standing of non-line officers within the navy, effectively demoting all these officers by one or more ranks so that all would be outranked by all line officers with comparable seniority. This would cause bitterness and have an adverse effect on the development of engineering and other specializations within the navy for decades to come.Soon after his appointment Robeson took steps to rein in Porter. Porter was discouraged from appearing personally at the Navy Department Office building, only visiting four times during Robeson's tenure. On November 16, 1870, Robeson wrote Porter a letter outlining the limits on Porter's authority, and ordering the admiral to report regularly to Robeson's Naval Office in writing. Porter became a staunch critic of Robeson for the remainder of his career, accusing him of corruption on a massive scale; nonetheless, on many policy matters the two had similar ideas, and Robeson's first annual report to Congress in 1869 reflected many of the ideas of Porter. Porter's influence would decline over time, while that of Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen, a close friend to President Grant, would increase.
Exploration
Arctic Exploration: the Polaris Expedition (1871-73)
During his term as Secretary Robeson authorized a number of exploratory missions. Prominent among these was the Polaris Expedition, the United States' first serious attempt at arctic exploration, an attempt to be the first nation to reach the North Pole. Despite Congress' general reluctance to spend money, Robeson was able to obtain $50,000 in funding for the expedition. On June 29, 1871, at 7 pm,, sailed from the New York Naval Yard, with Charles Francis Hall, a veteran of two previous arctic expeditions, in command.The expedition soon fell into disarray. On October 24 Hall fell sick after drinking a cup of coffee, and died two weeks later. After a perfunctory attempt to reach the pole by dog sled, in June 1872 the crew abandoned the mission and turned south. They were stopped by pack ice, and ended up split into two parties; one group rode an ice floe southward, while the other had to overwinter aboard ship, but both parties were ultimately rescued.
Upon the crew's return, Robeson, on June 5, 1873, opened an investigation into what had happened. While circumstantial evidence suggested that Hall had been murdered, lacking a body and most of the expedition's journals, the entire crew was cleared of wrongdoing. However, In 1968, Hall's body was recovered, and modern scientific testing revealed he had been poisoned with arsenic.
Hall, before his death, named Robeson Channel in honor of Secretary Robeson.
Survey for a Nicaraguan Canal
Another mission undertaken during Robeson's term was an 1872-73 expedition to Nicaragua to investigate possible routes for a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The expedition, led by Commander Alexander F. Crosman, USN, departed the United States for Nicaragua on March 10, 1872, and arriving at Greytown, Nicaragua on April 7. Five days later the expedition suffered a major setback when Crosman drowned in a boat accident; he was temporarily replaced by Commander Chester Hatfield, commander of USS Kansas, the screw steamer that had delivered the crew to Nicaragua, and later, after a brief withdrawal for regrouping, by Commander Edward P. Lull. Over the next year three principal route options were surveyed and evaluated by civil engineers and a Navy hydrographer, while biological and geological studies were produced and samples gathered. Hatfield, back in command of the Kansas, made detailed climate observations over a six-month period. A historical essay on previous efforts to initiate canal development was produced by historian J. P. Nourse of the U. S. Naval Observatory. Late in the expedition, in April 1873, a partially successful attempt was made to blast away several obstructions in the Rio San Juan, using kegs of gunpowder and several "torpedoes" acquired from the recently established Torpedo Station at Newport. The expedition had returned to the United States and submitted a preliminary report by December 1, 1874.The routes believed most promising were not sea-level routes. These surveys did not lead to any serious attempt at building a canal.