GEORGE M. ROBESON - AUTOGRAPH - HFSID 71321

GEORGE M. ROBESON
The 26th United States Secretary of the Navy pens his autograph on this 3½x2 piece of paper in iron gall ink
Signature: "George M. Robeson/Sec of Navy", in iron gall ink, 3½x2. George Maxwell Robeson (1829-1897) was a lawyer from New Jersey who served as an American Republican Party politician. A Union Army general during the American Civil War, Robeson became the Secretary of the Navy upon being appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant, and functioning in that capacity from 1869 to 1877. From 1879 to 1883, he was a U.S. Congressman representing the state of New Jersey. Robeson was known to be a hot-tempered, industrious administrator and through his departmental leadership was able to contain the established naval officer hierarchy. After limiting Congressional funding for the Navy, he supported the development of early submarine and torpedo technology, which he believed would be instrumental in keeping U.S. harbors safe from foreign attack. He also secured $50,000 in Congressional funding for the 1871 Polaris expedition led by Capt. C.F. Hall. In fact, Robeson led the investigation concerning the controversial death of Capt. Hall after the return of the shipwrecked Polaris crew in 1873. George Robeson supported President Grant and the Radical Republican Reconstruction laws meant to secure the citizenship and voting rights of African-Americans. In March 1877, Robeson's Secretary of Navy term of office ended and in a speech to his former Navy Department staff at his Washington D.C. home he admitted that during his tenure he made mistakes, but that he felt the U.S. Navy had made significant advancements. Irregularly cut. Toned and soiled. Pencil notations on verso (unknown hand). Otherwise, fine condition.