FOSTER, John Watson, American states man and diplomat : b. Pike County, Ind., 2 March 1836; d. Washington, D. C., 15 Nov. 1917. The son of Judge Matthew Watson Fos ter, he was educated at the University of In diana and the Harvard Law School. He served in the Civil War and was promoted for gal lantry at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. For some years after the war he edited the Evansville Daily Journal and later acted as postmaster of the town and chairman of the State Republican Committee. From 1873 to 1880 he was Minister to Mexico, then to Russia for a short time, and from 1883 to 1885 in Spain. As special pleni potentiary he negotiated treaties with the Brit ish West Indies, Spain and Germany, and be came Secretary of State in 1892, in succession to Blaine, who had resigned after his quarrel with President Harrison. Foster made a treaty with the Americans in Hawaii providing for the annexation of the islands, which was withdrawn by President Cleveland before it could be rati fied. At the Bering Sea arbitration held in Paris Mr. Foster represented the United States
and at the invitation of the emperor of China he took part in the peace negotiations which ended the Chino-Japanese War by the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. He was afterward en trusted with a special mission for the United States to Great Britain and Russia and was successively appointed a member of the Anglo Canadian Commission and United States agent at the Alaska Boundary Tribunal. A remark able tribute was paid Mr. Foster in 1907 when, by request, he represented the Chinese govern ment at the second Hague Conference. In 1916, on Foster's 80th birthday, the late Presi dent Yuan Shi Kai of China conferred the Order of the Golden Grain upon him — a very rare distinction. Mrs. Robert Lansing is a daughter of Mr. Foster. The following works were published by Mr. Foster: 'American Diplomacy in the Orient' ' • 'A Century of American Diplomacy' ; 'Arbitration and The Hague Court' ; 'Diplomatic 'The Practice of Diplomacy.'