- Robert R. Hitt
Infobox US Cabinet official
name=Robert Roberts Hitt
order=13th
title=United States Assistant Secretary of State
term_start=May 4 ,1881
term_end=December 19 ,1881
predecessor=John Hay
successor=J.C. Bancroft Davis
birth_date=birth date|1834|1|16|mf=y
birth_place=Urbana, Ohio , U.S.
death_date=death date and age|1906|9|20|1834|1|16|mf=y
death_place=Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island , U.S.
party=Republican
spouse=
profession=Secretary ,Politician Robert Roberts Hitt (
January 16 ,1834 –September 20 ,1906 ) was born inUrbana, Ohio to Reverend Thomas Smith Hitt and Emily John Hitt. He and his parents moved toMount Morris, Illinois in 1837. There he was educated at Rock River Seminary and later atDe Paul University . An expert short hand writer and only one at that time who represented that skill, he became a very close friend ofPresident Abraham Lincoln , so close that during the famousLincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 , at the request of Lincoln, Hitt was used as a short hand note taker. Lincoln had first used him in many trials inChicago, Illinois when Lincoln was alawyer . In 1872, Hitt was a personal secretary forSenator Oliver P. Morton and in December 1874 he was appointed byPresident Ulysses S. Grant First Secretary of the American Legation in Paris, serving from 1874 to 1881 and as Charge d'Affaires a part of that time. He wasUnited States Assistant Secretary of State underJames G. Blaine duringPresident James A. Garfield andPresident Chester A. Arthur 's Administrations in 1881 and was elected to representIllinois 5th district in theUnited States House of Representatives in 1882. He became Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs at the beginning of the Fifty-first Congress. He was appointed in July 1898 byPresident William McKinley as a member of the commission to establish government in theSandwich Islands . During the last years of his life he was Regent of theSmithsonian Institution . He died onSeptember 20 ,1906 . He is buried in "Oakwood Cemetery" inMount Morris, Illinois along with his parents.External links
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