FOSTER, JOHN WATSON

(1836d. Washington, D.C. He graduated from Indiana State University and was admitted to the Indiana bar after studying law at Harvard. In the Civil War, where he served in the Union army as a major, he distinguished himself at Fort Do nelson and Shiloh and was promoted to colonel. Afterwards he was editor of the Evansville Daily Journal and postmaster of that town. His diplomatic career began in 1873, when he was appointed Minister to Mexico. In 1880 he became minister to Ru ia and in 1883 minister to Spain. Between 1892 and 1893 he served as Secretary of State in the Harrison administration. He represented the United States in the Bering Sea Arbitration at Paris in 1893 and at the Alaska Boundary Tribunal which met in London in 1903. China sought his aid as her representative at the peace negotiations ending the war with Japan in 1895, and he also represented that country at the Second Hague Conference in 1907. He negotiated a number of treaties for the United States and was the nation’s special amba ador on several mi ions to foreign countries. China conferred upon him the Order of the Golden Grain in 1916. His writings, which relate largely to arbitration and diplomacy, include Diplomatic Memoirs, published in 1909.