Louis McLane (1786–1857) was born in Smyrna, Delaware. He served as a midshipman in the U.S. Navy from 1798 to 1801 and attended Newark College (now the University of Delaware). After reading law, he embarked on a career in politics, serving five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1829, President Andrew Jackson named McLane minister to Great Britain. His diplomacy in opening U.S. trade to the British West Indies likely impressed Jackson, and soon McLane returned to Washington, D.C., to become the secretary of the treasury from 1831 to 1833. In 1833 Jackson named McLane secretary of state.
Like his predecessors, McLane tried but was unable to resolve the Maine boundary dispute with Great Britain or Mexican claims regarding Texas. But he did settle U.S. claims against Spain for property seized during the Napoleonic Wars. France was still refusing to make payments for its wartime damages, and McLane resigned from office in frustration.
McLane later returned to diplomacy in 1845 when President James K. Polk appointed him minister to Great Britain.