Robert Lansing

Robert Lansing (born Oct. 17, 1864, Watertown, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 30, 1928, Washington, D.C.) was an international lawyer and U.S. secretary of state (1915–20), who negotiated the Lansing–Ishii Agreement (1917) attempting to harmonize U.S.–Japanese relations toward China; he eventually broke with Pres. Woodrow Wilson over differences in approach to the League of Nations.

Appointed associate counsel in the Bering Sea arbitration (1892–93), he served frequently thereafter as federal counsel or agent before international tribunals, including the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal (1903) and the North Atlantic Coast Fisheries Tribunal of Arbitration (1910). In 1914 President Wilson appointed him counsellor to the state department, and the following year, after the resignation of William Jennings Bryan, Lansing became secretary of state. Wilson made all major foreign policy decisions, however, and relied upon his friend, Col. Edward M. House, to handle delicate negotiations abroad. Lansing did draft important notes upholding the rights at sea of the United States as a neutral power during World War I, including a challenge to the British blockade of western Europe. He persuaded the government of Denmark to sell to the United States its islands in the West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands) to prevent possible German occupation of them; and after the entry of the United States into World War I, he negotiated the Lansing–Ishii agreement (1917), in which the United States recognized the special interests of Japan in China in return for Japan’s commitment to the Open Door Policy of equal trading rights for all countries there.

Following the Armistice (November 1918) a rift developed when Wilson ignored Lansing’s advice that the President should not attend the peace conference. In Paris Wilson delegated little responsibility to him and seldom consulted him. Their views diverged fundamentally: to Wilson the League of Nations was essential and needed to be created immediately; to Lansing the conclusion of the peace treaty was more urgent, and he felt the matter of the League might better be postponed. Lansing also opposed certain provisions that Wilson inserted in the League Covenant. In Washington, however, Lansing exerted himself to gain Senate approval of the peace treaty, despite his known reservations. During nearly five months following Wilson’s illness (September 1919), he directed foreign policy and conducted Cabinet meetings. Wilson resented this show of independence and requested Lansing’s resignation, which became effective Feb. 13, 1920.

Lansing returned to his law practice in Washington and wrote The Peace Negotiations (1921) and The Big Four and Others of the Peace Conference (1921).