Harvey Magee Watterson (November 23, 1811 – October 1, 1891) was an American lawyer, newspaper editor, and politician.
Watterson was what his only child Henry later described as an "undoubting Democrat of the schools of Jefferson and Jackson",[1] active in Tennessee politics at both the state and federal level.
With his friend Pierce's election as President of the United States in 1853, the Washington Union became the "organ of the Administration.
"[1] Again according to Watterson's son, the two's "rather conspicuous frivolity"[1] resumed: Watterson was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, Maryland in 1860, and was a presidential elector on the Douglas ticket for that year's presidential election.
After the Civil War, he was appointed by President Andrew Johnson as one of a commission to investigate the behavior in the states "lately in rebellion."