President James Monroe selected Senator Southard to be Secretary of the Navy in September 1823, and he remained in office under President John Quincy Adams. Southard proved to be one of the most effective of the Navy's early Secretaries. He endeavored to enlarge the Navy and improve its administration, purchased land for the first Naval Hospitals, began construction of the first Navy dry docks, undertook surveys of U.S. coastal waters and promoted exploration in the Pacific Ocean.
Responding to actions by influential officers, including David Porter, he reinforced the American tradition of civilian control over the military establishment. Also on Southard's "watch," the Navy grew by some 50 percent in personnel and expenditures and expanded its reach into waters that had not previously seen an American man-of-war.
In 1829, after leaving his Navy post, Samuel Southard became Attorney General of New Jersey. After briefly serving as that state's Governor in 1832-33, he reentered the U.S. Senate. During the next decade, he was a leader of the Whig party and a figure of National political importance. Failing health forced his resignation from the Senate in 1842. Samuel Southard died in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on 26 June of that year.
USS Southard (DD-207, later DMS-10), 1919-1946, was named in honor of Secretary of the Navy Samuel Southard.
Samuel Lewis Southard was born in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, on 9 June 1787. After graduating from college in 1804, he lived for several years in Virginia, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. He returned to New Jersey in 1811. Elected to the State Assembly in 1815, Southard was appointed to the State Supreme Court shortly thereafter. He left the Court in 1820 and entered the U.S. Senate, where he was a member of the committee that produced the Missouri Compromise.
To learn more about U.S. Navy history, please go to the Naval History and Heritage Command website: www.history.navy.mil/ or visit the NHHC blog The Sextant.