George Maxwell Robeson
26th United States Secretary of the Navy
In office June 25, 1869 – March 12, 1877
Preceded by	Adolph E. Borie
Succeeded by	Richard W. Thompson
New Jersey Attorney General
In office 1867–1869
Preceded by	Frederick T. Frelinghuysen
New Jersey's 1st congressional district
In office March 4, 1879 – March 3, 1883
Preceded by	Clement Hall Sinnickson
Succeeded by	Thomas M. Ferrell
Personal details
Born	(1829-03-16)March 16, 1829 Oxford Furnace, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	September 27, 1897(1897-09-27) (aged 68) Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Alma mater	Princeton University
Profession	Politician, Lawyer
Military service
Branch/service	New Jersey Militia
Rank	Brigadier General
Battles/wars	American Civil War

George Maxwell Robeson (March 16, 1829 – September 27, 1897) was an American Republican Party politician and lawyer from New Jersey who served as a Union army general during the American Civil War, and then as Secretary of the Navy during the Grant Administration. During the 19th Century, Sec. Robeson's seven years in office was second in time length only to Sec. Gideon Welles's tenor. Robeson, as Secretary of Navy, was an industrious administrator and through his strong departmental leadership was able to contain the established Naval officer hierarchy. Sec. Robeson supported and developed the early stages of submarine and torpedo technology in keeping U.S. harbors safe from foreign attack. Sec. Robeson secured Congressional funding for the 1871 Polaris expedition led by Capt. C. F. Hall. During Reconstruction, Sec. Robeson was a scholarly and forceful advocate of President Grant and the Radical Republican agenda to end the Southern vestiges of slavery having supported the citizenship and voting rights for the African American freedmen. In 1874, Sec. Robeson responded to the naval threat imposed by Spain during the Virginius Affair. His tenor as Secretary of the Navy, however, was marred by corruption charges in 1876 concerning profiteering from ship builder contracting.

Robeson, a native of New Jersey, graduated from Princeton University at the young age of 18. Robeson studied law and passed the bar in 1850. Practing law, Robeson diligently worked his way through the legal profession and in 1858 he was appointed public prosecutor for Camden County. During the American Civil War Robeson associated with the Republican Party and was a member of the New Jersey Sanitary Commission . Appointed Brigadier General by Governor Charles S. Olden, Robeson worked to recruit enlistments to fight for the Union. After the war in 1867, Robeson was appointed New Jersey Attorney General by Gov. Marcus L. Ward. Supported by New Jersey Senator A.G. Cattell, Robeson was appointed Secretary of Navy by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1869 after Sec. Adolph E. Borie had resigned office.

After Robeson resigned as Secretary of the Navy in 1877, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in both 1878 and 1880. Robeson's grandfather was George C. Maxwell and he was nephew of John Patterson Bryan Maxwell, both of whom also represented New Jersey in the House of Representatives. As U.S. Representative for New Jersey, Congressman Robeson served as minority leader of the Republican Party. Robeson was defeated from office by Thomas M. Ferrell in a bitter election campaign held in 1882. The highly contested election loss left the embittered Robeson $60,000 in debt and he was forced to sell his Washington property. Robeson moved to Trenton and resumed his law practice until his death in 1897.

George M. Robeson was born on March 16, 1829 in Oxford Furnace, New Jersey, near Belvidere in Warren County. ^[1][2] His father was Philadelphia Judge William H. 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.^[1] Robeson was the nephew of U.S. Congressman John Patterson Bryan Maxwell.^[3] Robeson gained a scholarly reputation by having graduated from Princeton University at the early age of 18 in 1847.^[1] Upon graduation, Robeson studied law at Newark in Chief Justice Hornblower's law office.^[1] Robeson graduated and was admitted to the bar in 1850.^[1] Robeson was admitted as a legal counselor in 1854.^[1] Robeson initially set up his law practice in Newark, but then moved his practice to Jersey City.^[1] In 1858, Robeson was appointed public prosecutor for Camden County.^[2]

During the Civil War, he was appointed a brigadier general in the New Jersey Militia by the Governor of New Jersey, and also served as the Attorney General of New Jersey from 1867-1869.

President Ulysses S. Grant appointed George M. Robeson Secretary of Navy on June 25, 1877, having replaced Sec. Adolph E. Borie, who resigned on same day^[4] Robeson would become one of the longest held cabinet Naval secretary positions, with the exception of Sec. Gideon Welles, and would serve until March 12, 1877 at the end of President Grant's second term in office and at the beginning of President Hayes's Administration.^[4] This was Robeson's first position on being given national federal authority and he had no previous affiliation with Naval ships.^[4] Robeson, however, was familiar with ocean lifestyle having grown up in New Jersey.^[4] Robeson's appointment to the Secretary of Navy was influenced by Sen. A. G. Cattell of New Jersey.^[4] Robeson, a young man around 40 upon assuming office, was considered an impatient administrator, high strung, and strong in physical prowess.^[4]

Robeson's predessor Sec. Borie, Grant's first appointment, had let the Navy Department be run by Rear Admiral David D. Porter.^[5] Borie, apparently did not have any interest in running the Navy Department, and let Porter have unprecedented authority.^[5] All orders from the Naval Department had to go through Porter's office to be approved.^[5] Porter ran the Naval Department autocratically making as many as 45 "arbitrary and extravagant" changes in the Naval Department in only two months.^[5] Robeson, however, after his appointment in June 1869, assumed strong leadership of the Naval Department and Porter's dogmatic control immediately ended.^[6] Sec. Robeson was not willing to be Porter's subordinate, as Borie had been.^[6] Porter was virtually barred from the Navy Department Office building; only visiting 4 times during Robeson's tenor. ^[6] On November 16, 1870, Robeson wrote Porter a letter specifically stating Porter's limited authority and Porter was told to report regularly to Robeson's Naval Office. ^[6]

During the Reconstruction Era, Secretary of the Navy Robeson arrived in Norfolk, Virginia on November 1, 1870 and he was saluted by naval warships in the harbor.^[7] Robeson's purpose was to speak for and support Republican Rep. James H. Platt's reelection to the U.S. Congress.^[7] During the stump speech ceremony in honor of Republican Congressman Platt, Robeson forcefully advocated Republican Radical Reconstruction.^[7] Robeson in his scholarly manner on the steps of the Norfolk City Hall spoke on the Republican Party's achievements in successfully defeating the Southern Rebellion, ending the "barbarism of slavery", elevating millions of African American freedmen by giving them citizenship, full suffrage and education, having completed the Pacific Railroad, reducing taxes and paying off the Civil War debt.^[7] Robeson, however, was ubruptly interrupted by a Conservative who asked Robeson "If the Republicans have done so much for the slaves, what have they done for their masters?"^[7] Robeson quickly replied that the Republican Party, after the War, had been very gracious to the South by limiting the punishment of hanging, "having destroyed the cause of the crime, to let the crime itself go unpunished".^[7] Following Robeson, a riot broke out, eggs were thrown, and guns were fired. Several persons were wounded as the meeting broke up, however, Robeson was kept from harm.^[7]

During Sec. Robeson's tenor, submarine and torpedo technology were beginning to be tested by the U.S. Navy.^[8] The Intelligent Whale, an experimental hand-cranked submarine, owned by Oliver Halstead, had been semi-officially successfully tested in 1866 by Thomas W. Sweeney, however, the U.S. Navy did nothing with the ship until October, 1869 when the ship was examined and recommended to Sec. Robeson by Cmdrs. C. Melancthon Smith, Augustus L. Case, and Edmund O. Matthews.^[8] Sec. Robeson appointed another committee to “…to examine, inspect, and report on the merit of said boat.”^[8] After the second committee gave a favorable review, Robeson and Halstead signed a contract on October 29, 1869 to purchase the submarine for $50,000, in addition to gaining information concerning "air purification and pressure, diving and surfacing."^[8] Halstead then towed the ship from Newark to the New York Navy Yard where the ship remained to be tested.^[8] Unfortunately for Robeson and the U.S. Navy, Halstead, who was contracted to test the submarine, was murdered by George Botts on July 2, 1871.^[8] Apparently, Halstead was involved in a love triangle between himself, Mary E. Wilson, and Botts. With Halstead dead, the testing of the Intelligent Whale was stalled for over a year.^[8]

A matter of foriegn espionage came up on March 2, 1872 when British Naval officer Rear Adm. Edward Augustus Inglefield sneaked into the New York Navy Yard, found and inspected the secluded vessel mored on a wharf.^[8] Inglefield had initially been denied to see the ship.^[8] Although Inglefield took notes and gained abundant information on the Intelligent Whale, given in part to the British Admiralty, no one at the New York Naval Yard took notice of this lapse of security.^[8] Robeson finally ordered testing on the ship to begin during the late summer of 1872.^[8] After a week delay, on September 18, 1872, the ship was officially tested by the U.S. Navy; Halstead's nephew, Abraham Halstead, manned the ship.^[8] On the first and only test the ship took on water do to a defective hatch seal; Halstead and his helper barely escaped with their lives.^[8] The "Intelligent Whale" was deemed a failure by the U.S. Navy, in part due to Oliver Halstead's death, since Halstead's knowledge was essential to the ship's operation.^[8]

The testing of torpedoes by Robeson's Navy Department proved to be more successful.^[8] The U.S. Navy, in July 1869, established a torpedo station off of Newport, Rhode Island.^[8] The Navy was looking for inexpensive and effective underwater defense weapons.^[8] In the summer of 1872, inventor entrepreneur, John L. Lay's self-propelled remote control torpedo test proved to bare fruit.^[8] The Bureau of Ordnance, impressed by the trial, informed Robeson, “…at Schenectady, New York, a successful trial of the torpedo-boat invented by Lay.”^[8] The submarine and torpedo testing during the 1870's were the foundations for modern American underwater warfare.^[8]

In his last year in office Robeson was investigated by Congress; while no charges were made at the time, the House report was negative^[9] and historians argue that he was exceedingly careless and partisan in his role as Secretary.^[10]

In July 1876, the House Committee on Naval Affairs, controlled by Democrats, launched an investigation.^[11]; it found the Robeson had made deposits totalling $320,000 to his bank account between 1872 and 1876. Robeson, while Secretary of Navy, allegedly took $320,000 in bribes from a grain company to pay for a new vacation home.^[12] Robeson was also alleged by a House committee to have squandered $15,000,000 of missing Naval construction funds to purchase real estate in Washington. Robeson was so adept at hiding his financial tracks that he was known as "the cuttle fish" of the Navy.^[13] The Naval Committee's, all Democratic majority report stated Sec. Robeson had run a "system of corruption" and recommended that he either be impeached to the House Judiciary Committee or that reform laws be made by Congress. No articles of impeachment were drawn up for Robeson, apparently due to Grant's second term was ending. Grant did not ask Robeson to resign and the Naval Committees minority Republican report exonerated Robeson. ^[11]

After leaving the Navy Department Robeson returned to his law practice in Camden County. From March 4, 1879-March 3, 1883, he served as U.S. Congressman from New Jersey, representing New Jersey's 1st congressional district, then again returned to his practice and worked there until his death at age 68 in 1897. Robeson is buried at Belvidere Cemetery in Belvidere, New Jersey.

On Janurary 23, 1872 Robeson married Mary Isabella (Ogston) Aulick, a widow with a son, Richmond Aulick.^[14] Robeson and Mary had a daughter named Ethel Maxwell, who married William Sterling, the son of Maj. John Barton Sterling, on November 22, 1910 in Christ Church, Mayfair, England.^[14][15] Mary's son, Richmond, graduated from Princeton University in 1889.^[14]

• List of American Civil War generals

• Friedman, Norman (1985). U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. ISBN 0-87021-715-1.

• "George Maxwell Robeson (1829 - 1897)". Dictionary of American Biography. 1. New York, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1936.
• "Robeson, George Maxwell". The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. IX. Boston, Massachusetts: The Biographical Society. 1904. ((cite journal)): Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)

• United States Congress. "George M. Robeson (id: R000330)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-02-12
• George Maxwell Robeson at The Political Graveyard
• "George M. Robeson". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2008-02-12.

v t e United States Secretaries of the Navy
Secretaries	Cabinet-level Stoddert Smith Hamilton Jones Crowninshield S Thompson Southard Branch L. Woodbury Dickerson Paulding Badger Upshur Henshaw Gilmer Mason Bancroft Mason Preston Graham Kennedy Dobbin Toucey Welles Borie Robeson R Thompson Goff Hunt Chandler Whitney Tracy Herbert Long Moody Morton Bonaparte Metcalf Newberry Meyer Daniels Denby Wilbur Adams Swanson Edison Knox Forrestal Dept. of Defense Sullivan Matthews Kimball Anderson Thomas T. Gates Franke Connally Korth Nitze Ignatius Chafee Warner Middendorf Claytor Hidalgo Lehman Webb Ball Garrett O'Keefe Dalton Danzig England Winter Mabus Spencer Braithwaite Del Toro
Under Secretaries	Forrestal Bard A. Gates Sullivan Kenney Kimball Whitehair Thomas T. Gates Franke Bantz Fay BeLieu Baldwin Baird Warner Sanders Middendorf Potter Macdonald Woolsey Murray Goodrich Garrett Howard Danzig Hultin Pirie Livingstone Aviles Work Davidson Modly Raven
Assistant Secretaries	Pre–1954 Fox Faxon Soley McAdoo T. Roosevelt Sr. Allen Hackett Darling Newberry Satterlee Winthrop F. Roosevelt G. Woodbury T. Roosevelt Jr. Robinson Jahncke H. Roosevelt Edison Compton Bard Hensel Kenney Andrews Koehler Askins Fogler Post–1954 Financial Management and Comptroller Energy, Installations and Environment Manpower and Reserve Affairs Research, Development and Acquisitions General Counsel of the Navy defunct: Air Installations and Logistics Material Research and Development Research, Engineering and Systems Shipbuilding and Logistics

v t e Cabinet of President Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877)
Secretary of State	Elihu B. Washburne (1869) Hamilton Fish (1869–1877)
Secretary of the Treasury	George S. Boutwell (1869–1873) William Adams Richardson (1873–1874) Benjamin Bristow (1874–1876) Lot M. Morrill (1876–1877)
Secretary of War	John Aaron Rawlins (1869) William W. Belknap (1869–1876) Alphonso Taft (1876) J. Donald Cameron (1876–1877)
Attorney General	Ebenezer R. Hoar (1869–1870) Amos T. Akerman (1870–1871) George Henry Williams (1871–1875) Edwards Pierrepont (1875–1876) Alphonso Taft (1876–1877)
Postmaster General	John Creswell (1869–1874) James William Marshall (1874) Marshall Jewell (1874–1876) James Noble Tyner (1876–1877)
Secretary of the Navy	Adolph E. Borie (1869) George M. Robeson (1869–1877)
Secretary of the Interior	Jacob Dolson Cox (1869–1870) Columbus Delano (1870–1875) Zachariah Chandler (1875–1877)

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