| John Watson Foster | |
|---|---|
| |
| 32nd United States Secretary of State | |
In office June 29, 1892 – February 23, 1893 | |
| President | Benjamin Harrison |
| Preceded by | James G. Blaine |
| Succeeded by | Walter Q. Gresham |
| Personal details | |
| Born | March 2, 1836 Petersburg, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | November 15, 1917 (aged 81) U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Profession | Lawyer, General, Politician |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States
|
| Service/branch |  Union Army
|
| Years of service | 1861 - 1865 |
| Rank |  Colonel
|
| Battles/wars | American Civil War |
John Watson Foster (March 2, 1836 – November 15, 1917) was an American military man, journalist and diplomat.
Born in Petersburg, Indiana, and raised in Evansville, Indiana, he was first a lawyer and then served as a colonel for the Union in the American Civil War. Following the war he worked as a journalist, editing the Evansville Daily Journal from 1865 to 1869. Thereafter he was the U.S. Minister to Mexico (1873–1880), to Russia (1880–1881) and to Spain (1883–1885). In the Benjamin Harrison Administration he served as a State Department "trouble shooter" before replacing James G. Blaine who had succumbed to what became a fatal attack of Bright's Disease. He served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison in 1892 and 1893. He also helped the Qing Dynasty in drafting the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895 as a legal consultant and commissioner.
His grandchildren included John Foster Dulles, who also became a U.S. Secretary of State; Allen Welsh Dulles, a Director of Central Intelligence; and economist and diplomat Eleanor Lansing Dulles. Foster's son-in-law, Robert Lansing, also served as U.S. Secretary of State.[1] He is also the great-grandfather of the noted Catholic theologian Cardinal Avery Dulles.
References[]
- ↑ "Biographies of the Secretaries of State: John Watson Foster". U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. http://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/foster-john-watson.
- Devine, Michael (1981). John W. Foster: Politics and Diplomacy in the Imperial Era, 1837–1917. London: The Ohio University Press. ISBN 0-8214-0437-7.
External links[]
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Wikisource has original works written by or about: |
- 1892-1893: Secretary of State John Watson Foster
- John W. Foster profile at Internet Accuracy Project
The original article can be found at John W. Foster and the edit history here.