General James Watson Webb was a United States diplomat, newspaper publisher and a New York politician in the Whig and Republican parties.
Early life
Webb was born in Claverack, New York to Catherine Louisa Webb and Gen. Samuel Blachley Webb, a Revolutionary officer of distinction. At age 12, he moved to Cooperstown, New York to live with his brother-in-law and guardian, Judge George Morrell. He entered the United States Army in August 1819, advanced to the grade of first lieutenant in 1823, and in the following year became assistant commissary of subsistence.
Career
In September 1820, a party led by Lewis Cass, governor of the Michigan Territory, on its return from the exploration of the source waters of the Mississippi River, encountered Lt. Webb and a small group of soldiers at the mouth of the Black River in what is now Port Huron, Michigan. H.R. Schoolcraft, historian of the trip, said Webb and his men were returning to Fort Gratiot, a frontier outpost, with a boat full of freshly harvested watermelon. In the fall of 1827, he resigned from the army to become a newspaper publisher, purchasing the Morning Courier which he published in the interest of General Jackson. In 1829, he purchased the New York Enquirer, which he consolidated with the Courier under the title of the New York Courier and Enquirer. He remained connected with this paper for more than 30 years. Historian Don C. Seitz wrote of those days: In 1834, Webb used the Courier and Enquirer to coin the name of a new political party: the Whigs. Webb had formerly been a supporter of Jackson, but no longer. That same year he recycled or invented extravagant rumors of miscegenation, that the abolitionists had counselled their daughters to marry blacks, and Lewis Tappan had divorced his wife to marry a black woman, and that the Presbyterian minister Henry Ludlow was conducting interracial marriages, which fueled the organized mob violence of New York's anti-abolitionist riots that June.
Diplomatic career
In 1849, Webb was appointed minister to Austria, but the appointment was not confirmed. In 1851, he was appointed engineer-in-chief for the State of New York with the rank of Brigadier General, but refused to accept the appointment. In 1861, he was appointed minister to Turkey, but even though it had been confirmed by the United States Senate, he declined. According to biographer Glyndon Van Deusen, "Webb, an inveterate beggar for office, wanted a diplomatic appointment that would be lucrative." Shortly afterward, Webb was appointed minister to Brazil and served in that position for eight years, resigning when he was accused of extorting a large sum of money from the Brazilian government. At Paris in 1864, Webb claimed he was instrumental to negotiating a secret treaty with Emperor Napoleon III for the removal of French troops from Mexico. Abraham Lincoln's biographer, Carl Sandburg, wrote that Webb "believed that Lincoln should have appointed him major general, rating himself a grand strategist, having fought white men in duels and red men in frontier war." In 1869, he resigned the mission to Brazil, and returned to live in New York.
Personal life
On July 1, 1823, Webb was married to Helen Lispenard Stewart. Helen was the daughter of Irish born merchant Alexander L. Stewart and Sarah Amelia Stewart. Before her death in 1848, they were the parents of:
Robert Stewart Webb, a publisher who married Mary Van Horne Clarkson and Frances Starkweather..
Lispenard Stewart, who died young.
Helen Matilda Webb, who married Nathan Denison Morgan.
Artemesia Barclay Webb, who died young.
Catherine Louisa Webb, who married James Gilchrist Benton in 1859.
On November 9, 1849, he married Laura Virginia Cram, the daughter of Jacob and Lydia Cram. Webb lived for a time at the present-day 7 Pokahoe Drive in Sleepy Hollow, New York, a house that was later owned by John C. Frémont. Together, they were the parents of:
