John Watson Foster (March 2, 1836 – November 15, 1917) was an American diplomat and military officer, as well as a lawyer and journalist. His highest public office was
U.S. Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
under
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...
, although he also proved influential as a lawyer in technically private practice in the international relations sphere.
Early life
![Major John W](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Major_John_W._Foster.jpg)
Foster was born on March 2, 1836, in
Petersburg, Indiana
Petersburg is a city within Washington Township and the county seat of Pike County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 2,383 at the 2010 census.
Petersburg is part of the Jasper Micropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Petersburg w ...
, and raised in
Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...
. He was the son of Matthew Watson, an Indiana farmer, and the former Eleanor Foster (née Johnson). He graduated from the fledgling
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universi ...
in 1855, but decided not to become a preacher as his parents hoped. Instead, Foster attended
Harvard Law School, then moved to
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...
to begin his legal career.
In 1861, Foster volunteered in the
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...
in the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
.
Initially commissioned as a major, he rose to the rank of colonel, serving with the
25th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, the
65th Indiana Volunteer Mounted Infantry and the
136th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Foster's troops became the first to enter
Knoxville, Tennessee
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...
after the successful campaign by General
Ambrose Burnside
Ambrose Everett Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was an American army officer and politician who became a senior Union general in the Civil War and three times Governor of Rhode Island, as well as being a successful inventor ...
.
Foster was a member of the
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States
The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS), or simply the Loyal Legion is a United States patriotic order, organized April 15, 1865, by three veteran officers of the Army. The original membership was composed of members ...
- a military society of officers who had served in the Union armed forces during the Civil War.
After the war, Foster returned to Indiana and (in addition to his legal practice) edited the ''
Evansville Daily Journal''. He used the paper to promote the
Republican Party from 1865 to 1869.
Washington career
Foster moved to
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
, under President
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
, and had a summer home in
Henderson Harbor, New York. As a reward for his political service after the Republican Party split in 1872 as a result of scandals and rampant corruption in Grant's first administration, which even reached Vice President
Schuyler Colfax
Schuyler Colfax Jr. (; March 23, 1823 – January 13, 1885) was an American journalist, businessman, and politician who served as the 17th vice president of the United States from 1869 to 1873, and prior to that as the 25th speaker of the Hous ...
and had caused reformers to nominate
Horace Greeley in futile opposition to Grant's second term, successive Republican Presidents Grant,
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governo ...
and
James A. Garfield
James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months latertwo months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War gene ...
appointed Foster the
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico (1873–1880), then
to Russia (1880–1881). President
Chester A. Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He previously served as the 20th vice president under President James ...
made Foster the
United States Ambassador to Spain
The incumbent ambassador is Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón, she was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on January 7, 2022 and presented her credentials on February 2, 2022.
This is a list of United States ambassadors to Spain from 1779 to th ...
(1883–1885).
In
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...
's administration, Foster served as a State Department "trouble shooter" before becoming
Secretary of State for the final six months of Harrison's term (from June 29, 1892, to February 23, 1893). As such, Foster replaced
James Gillespie Blaine, who had succumbed to
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied ...
, of which he later died. As Secretary of State, Foster "helped direct the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy."
After leaving public office, Foster remained in Washington and invented a new type of legal practice, lobbying for large "corporations seeking favors in Washington and chances to expand abroad."
Foster also used his government and political contacts to secure legal fees as counsel to several foreign legations. He also continued to serve presidents part-time on diplomatic missions. As such, Foster negotiated trade agreements with eight countries, brokered a treaty with Britain and Russia concerning seal hunting in the
Bering Sea, and negotiated one of the many
Unequal treaty
Unequal treaty is the name given by the Chinese to a series of treaties signed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, between China (mostly referring to the Qing dynasty) and various Western powers (specifically the British Empire, France, the ...
s between imperial powers and China, technically as legal consultant and commissioner for the
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...
, requiring China to cede land, pay reparations, open treaty ports, or grant extraterritorial privileges to foreign citizens.
First Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the ...
.
In 1903, Foster published ''American diplomacy in the Orient'', followed in 1904 by ''Arbitration and the Hague Court.'' In 1906, he wrote ''The practice of diplomacy as illustrated in the foreign relations of the United States''. Foster wrote many other books.
Family
Foster married
Mary Parke McFerson in 1859. Three of Foster's children never reached adulthood. Foster sent his son to
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
. Foster doted on his daughters' grandchildren, regaling them with tales of life on the frontier as well as in foreign lands (of which he retained many curios). His daughter Edith Foster married
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
minister Allen Macy Dulles, and their children included
John Foster Dulles (who also became a U.S. Secretary of State) and
Allen Welsh Dulles
Allen Welsh Dulles (, ; April 7, 1893 – January 29, 1969) was the first civilian Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), and its longest-serving director to date. As head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the early Cold War, he ...
, (
Director of Central Intelligence). Foster's daughter Eleanor married State Department legal advisor
Robert Lansing
Robert Lansing (; October 17, 1864 – October 30, 1928) was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as Counselor to the State Department at the outbreak of World War I, and then as United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wi ...
(who later also served as U.S. Secretary of State); their niece
Eleanor Lansing Dulles became an economist and diplomat.
Foster was also the great-grandfather of the noted Catholic convert and theologian
Cardinal Avery Dulles
Avery Robert Dulles (; 1918–2008) was an American Jesuit priest, theologian, and cardinal of the Catholic Church. Dulles served on the faculty of Woodstock College from 1960 to 1974, of the Catholic University of America from 1974 to 1988, a ...
.
Death and legacy
Foster died in Washington, D.C. on November 15, 1917. His body was returned to Evansville, Indiana, where it remains in
Oak Hill Cemetery, which is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places for Vanderburgh County.
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, John W.
1836 births
1917 deaths
Ambassadors of the United States to Mexico
Ambassadors of the United States to Russia
Ambassadors of the United States to Spain
Dulles family
Indiana Republicans
Politicians from Evansville, Indiana
Union Army colonels
United States Secretaries of State
Benjamin Harrison administration cabinet members
19th-century American diplomats
Washington, D.C., Republicans
Harvard Law School alumni
People from Petersburg, Indiana
Writers from Evansville, Indiana
19th-century American politicians
Indiana University alumni
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace