Robert Lansing

The Peace Negotiations: a Personal Narrative (Dodo Press) Robert Lansing

Robert Lansing (1864-1928) was born in Watertown, New York. He graduated from Amherst College in 1886 and was admitted to the bar in 1889. From then until 1907 he was a member of the law firm of Lansing & Lansing at Watertown. Lansing served in the position of Legal Advisor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I where he vigourously advocated against Britain's policy of blockade and in favour of the principals of freedom of the seas and the rights of neutral nations. He then served as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson between 1915 and 1920. He was nominated to the office after William Jennings Bryan's resignation. He negotiated the Lansing-Ishii Agreement with Japan in 1917 and was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at Paris in 1919.