Even before its independence from England and through the Second World War, the United States has had many great statesmen and diplomats. This section highlights some of these extraordinary figures and provides references for further research. Postwar Secretaries of State and other outstanding U.S. diplomats are treated elsewhere in this website.
Benjamin Franklin was a noted diplomat and statesman for the United States during its nascent and revolutionary years. He first made a name for himself at the Albany Congress of 1754 as one of the first patriots to push for the unification of the colonies, and during negotiations related to the French and Indian Wars. In 1776, on the outbreak of the American Revolution, he served on a three-man commission to France charged with the crucially important task of gaining French support for the American independence struggle. Fortunately for the future United States, French diplomats and aristocrats were fascinated and charmed by his intellect, style, prudent moderation, and embodiment of Enlightenment ideals as expressed in the New World.
Franklin’s diplomacy, combined with the stunning American victory at the Battle of Saratoga--which proved to any remaining skeptics that the colonists could win--convinced King Louis XV to recognize and conclude an alliance with the new American republic in 1778. This feat made Franklin the first American minister to be received by any foreign government. It was from his position in Paris that Franklin carried out American diplomacy elsewhere in Europe. In 1782 he rejected repeated British appeals to end the war in exchange for a measure of autonomy. Holding to the colonists’ demand for outright independence, his goal was achieved the following year, when England signed the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. When Thomas Jefferson arrived in Paris in 1785, the French Foreign Minister, Vergennes, asked, "It is you who replace Dr. Franklin?" Jefferson replied, "No one can replace him, Sir; I am only his successor.”
Before he became the second President of the United States, John Adams was a distinguished legislator and statesman. He first gained wide notice in 1765 from his famous speech before the Massachusetts legislature. There he argued passionately that the Stamp Act was invalid because the commonwealth of Massachusetts was given no representation in the British Parliament and had not assented to the act. Upon the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Adams served in the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1778. In 1779 he was appointed minister plenipotentiary for the negotiation of a treaty of peace, and later commerce, with Great Britain. He worked with Benjamin Franklin and John Jay on a treaty that gave the United States access to the fisheries along its coast in November 1782, as well as the Treaty of Paris, which ended the war on September 3, 1783. During this period, Adams also was the minister to the Netherlands, where he managed to negotiate a loan from Dutch bankers for the nearly bankrupt American colonies, and in April 1782 won Dutch recognition of American independence. In 1785 Adams was appointed the first American minister to the Court of St. James in London, where he served for several years before returning to the United States to reenter the domestic politics of the new nation.
Although best remembered as the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson also had a storied diplomatic career. He served as the minister to France during the crucial few years following the Revolutionary War, from 1785 to1789. Upon his return, he was appointed by George Washington as America’s first Secretary of State. When Jefferson became “father” of the country’s oldest (as well as highest-ranked) cabinet department, the United States operated just two diplomatic posts and ten consular posts. The Department of State itself consisted only of a chief clerk, three assistant clerks, and a messenger. In 1791 the total domestic and foreign expenditures of Jefferson’s State Department were $56,000.
During his tenure as Secretary of State, Jefferson emphasized a posture of neutrality toward European conflicts, a policy guidepost that would endure long past his time. Although he failed to resolve pressing issues of American foreign policy, such as the protection of American territorial integrity from European powers, he laid important groundwork for his successors. Later, as president, Jefferson used his sophisticated grasp of diplomacy in such notable achievements as the 1803 Louisiana Purchase from France.
Son of President John Adams and later president himself, John Quincy Adams studied in Europe as a young man and then had a remarkable diplomatic career in the postrevolution period. During the presidency of George Washington, he served as minister to the Netherlands in 1794 and his father, as president, appointed him minister to Prussia (Berlin) from 1797 to 1801. He then returned to the Untied States to serve in Congress, but reentered the diplomatic service in 1809 as Minister to Russia and then chief negotiator of the Treaty of Ghent of 1814, which ended the War of 1812. After concluding that treaty, Adams became minister to the Court of St. James in London from 1815 until 1817.
Adams’s vast experience abroad made him an ideal candidate to serve as President James Monroe’s Secretary of State, a position he held from 1817 to 1825. As secretary in 1819, he signed with Spain the Adams-Onis (Transcontinental) Treaty, which ceded Florida to the United States and established a frontier line between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. In 1823 he was a major force in crafting the Monroe Doctrine (named for the President and not his Secretary of State). That pronouncement stated that “the American continents…are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers” and pledged the United States to defend the territorial integrity of all of the nascent republics of the two Americas. While the United States lacked the military power to enforce such a declaration at the time, the Monroe Doctrine set the tone and ground rules for United States–European relations in the Western Hemisphere. Historian Samuel Flagg Bemis rated John Quincy Adams as one of the true giants of American diplomatic history.
The American Civil War was decided on many fronts and battlefields, from the plains of Virginia to the oceans and waterways of the eastern seaboard, and all the way to the royal court in London. It was from there, under the leadership of Charles Francis Adams, son of John Quincy Adams, that the Union waged a relentless and successful diplomatic campaign to prevent the Confederacy from being recognized by any of the European powers. In appointing Adams as Minister to Great Britain in 1861, Secretary of State William Seward instructed him to “warn the British not to fraternize with our domestic enemy,” either formally or informally.
Adams’s arguments found resonance among antislavery European elites and were aided by Europe’s preoccupation with crises elsewhere on the continent as well as the Confederacy’s shaky success on the battlefield. But his exceptional diplomatic skills also played a major role in convincing Europeans to adopt policies that ran counter to commercial interests in maintaining access to agricultural products from the South, particularly cotton. While in Britain, Adams spent his days tirelessly refuting Confederate arguments, combating any diplomatic intrigues by Southern representatives and sympathizers, and keeping a watchful eye on British shipyards suspected of constructing ships for “the rebels.” Thanks in no small part to his efforts, the South received only minimal support from European powers throughout the Civil War.
William Seward was Secretary of State during and immediately following the American Civil War. He worked closely with Charles Francis Adams in London and other key U.S. diplomats to ensure European neutrality during that conflict. One notable incident in its early stages, known subsequently as the Trent Affair, occurred in 1861 when an American ship fired upon and then boarded a British mail ship to arrest two Confederate diplomats on board. While this action was a huge morale builder for the North at that stage of the war, the British were furious about the violation of their ship’s neutrality rights. With war a distinct possibility, Seward released the prisoners. Then, in a stroke of brilliance, he used the opportunity to thank Great Britain for finally agreeing with the U.S. conception of neutrality rights, a point the two nations had disputed since the War of 1812.
After the war, Seward pushed for the continued expansion of the United States, negotiating the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million. While at the time the purchase was mocked as “Seward’s Folly” and seen as a giant “polar bear garden,” later discoveries of oil and gold made the action seem yet further evidence of Seward’s genius.
John Hay was named U.S. Minister to Great Britain in 1897 by his close friend, William McKinley, and became Secretary of State the following year when he helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris to end the Spanish–American War. He is best remembered for his authorship of the Open Door Policy toward China and for paving the way for construction of the Panama Canal.
Lacking a territorial foothold within China such as had been established by several European powers by the end of the 19th century, the United States had a strong and clear national interest in promoting open trade with that country and supporting Chinese control over its own finances. When Secretary Hay in September 1899 sent notes to the major European powers calling on them to allow equal trading opportunities in China for all nations, the response was decidedly lukewarm. However, after the outbreak of the ultranationalist, anti-foreign Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the European powers began to recognize the importance of respecting China’s territorial integrity and permitting open trade. That year a second Open Door note received a more positive response from Europe. The Open Door Policy remained a fundamental tenet of U.S. diplomacy toward China for the next half century.
On the urging of President Theodore Roosevelt, who followed President McKinley, Secretary Hay led the U.S. effort to gain the rights to build a canal across the isthmus of Panama, then part of Colombia. He first signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, which nullified a previous treaty with Great Britain and allowed the United States sovereign control of any future canal. Then he signed with Colombia the Hay-Herran Treaty, which bought the rights and land for such a canal within Colombian territory, but this agreement was later rejected by the Colombian congress. After the United States covertly supported an uprising by parties favorable to Panamanian independence, Secretary Hay then signed the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty with the newly formed government of Panama. This agreement allowed construction of the canal to go forward. It opened in 1914.