United States Secretary of State
What was the position of Robert Bacon from 1909 to Mar 1909?
Robert Bacon Robert Bacon ( July 5 , 1860 – May 29 , 1919 ) was an American statesman and diplomat . He was also a leading banker and businessman who worked closely with Secretary of State Elihu Root , 1905-1909 , and served as United States Secretary of State from January to March 1909 . He served as ambassador to France 1909 to 1912 . He was a leader in the Preparedness Movement setting up training programs for would-be Soldiers before the United States entered the First World War in April 1917 . He was defeated narrowly as a candidate for the United States Senate in 1916 . He was commissioned as a major in the United States Army in 1917 , and played a major role as Chief of the American Military Mission at British General Headquarters . Early life and family . Born in Jamaica Plain , Massachusetts , to William Benjamin Bacon and Emily Crosby Low , he was a graduate of Harvard University ( Class of 1880 ) , where he was a member of the A.D . Club and Delta Kappa Epsilon . He was married on October 10 , 1883 , to Martha Waldron Cowdin . They had four children : Robert Low Bacon , Gaspar Griswold Bacon , Elliot Cowdin Bacon , and Martha Beatrix Bacon ( 1890–1967 ) who married George Whitney ( 1885–1963 ) . Their son Robert was a United States Congressman ; their other son Gaspar was the President of the Massachusetts Senate from 1929 to 1932 and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1933 to 1935 . Career . He worked in the steel world , including partnership with J.P . Morgan & Co . for many years starting in 1894 . He acted as J.P . Morgans chief lieutenant and participated in the formation of the U.S . Steel Corporation and the Northern Securities Company . The pressure of the job shot his nerves , and he left the company in 1903 . After Theodore Roosevelt ( with whom he was friends at Harvard ) had been reelected , Bacon was named Assistant Secretary of State in 1905 , a position which he held until 1909 ; he was acting secretary while Elihu Root was in South America in 1906 . For the last 38 days of Roosevelts term , he became full secretary from January 27 to March 5 , 1909 , because of Roots election to the Senate . Bacon obtained the advice and consent of the Senate for the Panama Canal treaties with Colombia and Panama . He served as United States Ambassador to France from 1909 until 1912 . He was supposed to return home on the RMS Titanic with his wife and daughter , but delays kept them in Paris . In August 1914 , he went to France to help with the work of the American Field Service – which provided ambulances and drivers to support French and British forces . He was also attached to the British Army Medical Corps and assisted with the establishment of a typhoid hospital near Ypres . His book For Better Relations with Our Latin American Neighbors was published in 1915 . He was a staunch advocate of the United States entry into World War I and spoke in favor of increased military preparedness via universal military service as the president of the National Security League in 1916 . He criticized President Woodrow Wilson for inaction at the invasion of Belgium and sought the Republican nomination for U.S . Senate against William M . Calder . Bacon continued to push for a stronger national defense as well as a protective tariff that could be used for the mobilization of industry in case of war . Although he had support from former president Theodore Roosevelt and Elihu Root , Bacon lost the race by about 9,000 votes and pledged to support Calder . He was named as the candidate of the American Party but withdrew on account of his pledge to Calder . He was then commissioned a major in the U.S . Army in May 1917 before sailing to France as a member of General Pershings staff . He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1918 and served as chief of the American military mission at British General Headquarters working with British commander , General Sir Douglas Haig . He returned to the United States in April 1919 . Bacon died on May 29 , 1919 , from blood poisoning after undergoing surgery on his mastoiditis . Memorial . A sculpture entitled The Sacrifice was made by Malvina Hoffman as a memorial to the late Ambassador of France , Robert Bacon , and alumni of Harvard University who lost their lives during the World War I . In it , the head of a 13th-century crusader lay on the lap of a draped woman . The sculpture was dedicated in 1923 at the Cathedral of St . John the Divine in New York . After the War Memorial Chapel at Harvard University was completed in 1932 , it was installed there . Further reading . - Davis , Calvin D . Bacon , Robert ( 05 July 1860–29 May 1919 ) American National Biography ( 1999 ) https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0600017 - Jessup , Philip C . Elihu Root ( 2 vols. , 1938 ) - Scott , James Brown . Robert Bacon : His Life and Letters ( 1923 ) . - Scott , James Brown . “Robert Bacon : Secretary of State , January 27 , 1909 , to March 5 , 1909,” in The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy , vol . 9 ed . Samuel Flagg Bemis et al . ( 1928 ) . - Robert Bacon . Dictionary of American Biography ( 1936 ) online