[James Watson]. American journalist and diplomatist, born in Claverack, NY, on the 8th of February 1802, a son of Samuel Blatchley Watson, an American Revolutionary general, descended from Richard Watson, an Englishman, who in 1635 helped to found Hartford. James Watson Webb was educated at Cooperstown, NY, commissioned second-lieutenant in the United States army (1819); first-lieutenant (1823); adjutant Third Infantry (1826); resigned, in 1827, on becoming editor of the New York Morning Courier, which was consolidated, in 1829, with the Enquirer, the consolidated journal being under the editorship of Webb until 1861, when it was absorbed in The World. In June 1842 he was wounded in a duel with Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky, for which, after indictment, he was imprisoned, but was released at the expiration of the second week. In 1849 he was appointed Minister to Austria, but the Senate refused to indorse the appointment. Having solicited a major-general’s commission at the outbreak of the Civil War, he refused the offer of that of brigadier-general. He was Minister to Brazil (1861–70), and was instrumental in settling outstanding claims of United States citizens against that country. While in Paris in 1865 he negotiated a treaty with the Emperor for the removal of French troops from Mexico. He wrote Altowan: or, Incidents of Life and Adventure in the Rocky Mountains (1846); Slavery and its Tendencies (1856); National Currency, a pamphlet (1875). He died in New York City on the 7th of June 1884.
