Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State

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Object Details

Maker
Robert C. Hinckley (American, 1853-1941)
Date
Before 1891
Geography
Unknown
Culture
North American
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Overall: 29 in x 24 1/4 in; 73.66 cm x 61.595 cm
Provenance
This portrait of William L. Marcy, which is a copy, was purchased by the Department of State from Mr. Hinckley on December 10, 1891
Inscriptions
None
Credit Line
The Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.
Collection
The Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.
Accession Number
RR-1981.0093

Biography

William Learned Marcy (1786–1857) was born to a farming family in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. He graduated from Brown University, studied law, and opened a practice in Troy, New York. He was a U.S. senator from New York and governor of the state before President James K. Polk named him secretary of war. In 1853 President Franklin Pierce appointed Marcy secretary of state.

As secretary, Marcy negotiated the 1854 Gadsden Treaty with Mexico, a purchase of land just south of New Mexico that was wanted for a transcontinental rail route. Marcy also oversaw the drafting of the Ostend Manifesto, a document that detailed the rationale for the purchase or even the seizure of Cuba from Spain. The manifesto proved an embarrassment to the Pierce administration, criticized at home as well as abroad for its support of the expansion of slavery. In 1855, Marcy negotiated a treaty with Great Britain over reciprocal fishing rights in Canada.

Marcy died in New York shortly after the end of President Pierce’s term.