Louis McLANE, Congress, DE (1786-1857)

McLANE Louis , a Representative and a Senator from Delaware; born in Smyrna, Del., May 28, 1786; attended private schools; entered the United States Navy in 1798 as a midshipman on the U.S.S. Philadelphia and served one year; attended Newark College; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1807 and commenced practice in Smyrna; served in the War of 1812; elected to the Fifteenth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1817-March 3, 1827); reelected to the Twentieth Congress, but resigned, having been elected a Senator; chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Seventeenth through Nineteenth Congresses); elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1827, until April 16, 1829, when he resigned; appointed by President Andrew Jackson as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to England 1829-1831; appointed Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet of President Jackson 1831-1833; appointed Secretary of State by President Jackson 1833-1834; moved to Baltimore, Md.; president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Co. 1837-1847; again Minister to England 1845-1846; delegate to the Maryland constitutional convention in 1850; died in Baltimore, Md., October 7, 1857; interment in Greenmount Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Munroe, John A. Louis McLane: Federalist and Jacksonian. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1973.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present