Robert R. Hitt
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| Robert Roberts Hitt | |
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| In office May 4, 1881 – December 19, 1881 |
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| Preceded by | John Hay |
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| Succeeded by | J.C. Bancroft Davis |
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| Born | January 16, 1834 Urbana, Ohio, USA |
| Died | September 20, 1906 Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island, USA |
| Political party | Republican |
| Profession | Secretary, Politician |
Robert Roberts Hitt (January 16, 1834 – September 20, 1906) was born in Urbana, Ohio to Reverend Thomas Smith Hitt and Emily John Hitt. He and his parents moved to Mount Morris, Illinois in 1837. There he was educated at Rock River Seminary and later at De Paul University. An expert short hand writer and only one at that time who represented that skill, he became a very close friend of President Abraham Lincoln, so close that during the famous Lincoln-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 in Chicago, Illinois when Lincoln was a lawyer. In 1872, Hitt was a personal secretary for Senator Oliver P. Morton and in December 1874 he was appointed by President 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 was United States Assistant Secretary of State under James G. Blaine during President James A. Garfield and President Chester A. Arthur's Administrations in 1881 and was elected to represent Illinois 5th district in the United 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 by President William McKinley as a member of the commission to establish government in the Sandwich Islands. During the last years of his life he was Regent of the Smithsonian Institution. He died on September 20, 1906. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Mount Morris, Illinois along with his parents.
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| Preceded by John Hay |
United States Assistant Secretary of State May 4, 1881 – December 19, 1881 |
Succeeded by J.C. Bancroft Davis |
| Preceded by Robert M.A. Hawk |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 5th congressional district December 4, 1882 – March 3, 1883 |
Succeeded by Reuben Ellwood |
| Preceded by Thomas J. Henderson |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 6th congressional district March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1895 |
Succeeded by Edward D. Cooke |
| Preceded by Hamilton K. Wheeler |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 9th congressional district March 4, 1895 – September 20, 1906 |
Succeeded by '' |
