Harvey Magee Watterson

Harvey Magee Watterson (* November 23, 1811 in Bedford County, Tennessee; † October 1, 1891 in Louisville, Kentucky ) was an American politician. Between 1839 and 1843 he represented the state of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Harvey Watterson enjoyed a classical education. After a subsequent study of law and qualifying as a lawyer, he started in Shelbyville to work in his new profession. In this city he also edited a newspaper. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Democratic Party launched a political career. In 1835 he was elected to the House of Representatives from Tennessee. In the congressional elections of 1838 Watterson succeeded in the ninth constituency of his state of the catchment in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, where he succeeded the later U.S. President James K. Polk on March 4, 1839. After a re-election he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1843 two legislative sessions. During this time there were initial discussions about a possible annexation since 1836 the independent Republic of Mexico Texas. In 1842, Watterson opted not to run again.

After his retirement from the U.S. House of Representatives, he worked for a year on a diplomatic mission in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires. From 1845 to 1847 he was a member and chairman of the Senate from Tennessee. In the following years, Watterson operated in the newspaper business. He was the owner and editor of several newspapers in Tennessee. In June 1860, he served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore. In the presidential elections of that year, he served as an elector for Stephen A. Douglas.

After the Civil War Watterson was appointed by President Andrew Johnson in a commission to analyze the situation in the states of the former Confederacy. He then practiced for 14 years as a lawyer in the capital Washington. He later moved to Louisville in Kentucky, where he again worked in the newspaper industry. In this city Harvey Watterson also died on 1 October 1891. His son Henry (1840-1921) was 1876-1877 congressman for the state of Kentucky.