 | BIOGRAPHY
John Watson Foster
Secretary of State,
Term of Appointment:
06/14/1905 to
present
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- Born in Pike County, Indiana, March 2, 1836;
- Graduated from Indiana University in 1855 (A.M. 1858);
- Attended Harvard Law School;
- Admitted to the bar in 1857 and commenced practice in Evansville, Indiana;
- Married Mary Parke McFerson in 1859;
- Served in the Union Army, attaining the rank of brevet brigadier general; edited the Evansville Daily Journal 1865-1869 and was postmaster of Evansville 1869-1873;
- Chairman of the Republican State Committee in 1872;
- Served as Minister to Mexico 1873-1880 and as Minister to Russia 1880-1881;
- Established an international-law practice in Washington, DC;
- Served as Minister to Spain, 1883-1885;
- Special plenipotentiary to negotiate reciprocity agreements, 1890-1891;
- Agent of the United States in the Fur-seal Arbitration, 1892-1893;
- Commissioned Secretary of State in President Harrison's Cabinet June 29, 1892, and served until February 23, 1893;
- As Secretary of State, signed the abortive treaty of 1893 for the annexation of Hawaii;
- Commissioner for China in the negotiation of the Treaty of Peace of 1895 with Japan;
- Ambassador on Special Mission to Great Britain and Russia in 1897;
- Agent of the United States before the Alaska Boundary Tribunal in 1903;
- Represented China at the Second Hague Conference in 1907;
- Author of numerous published writings;
- Died in Washington, DC November 15, 1917.
Released on July 15, 2003
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