American political leader, born in Smyrna, DE, on the 28th of May 1786, son of Allan McLane (1746–1829), a well-known Revolutionary soldier. He was admitted to the bar in 1807. He entered politics as a Democrat, and served in the Federal House of Representatives in 1817–1827 and in the Senate in 1827–1829. He was minister to England in 1829–1831, and secretary of the treasury in Jackson’s cabinet from 1831 (when in his annual report he argued for the United States Bank) until May 1833, when he was transferred to the state department. He retired from the cabinet in June 1834. He was president of the Baltimore & Ohio railway in 1837–1847, minister to England in 1845–1846, and delegate to the Maryland constitutional convention of 1850–1851. He died in Baltimore, MD, on the 7th of October 1857.
