From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Caleb Cushing
Caleb Cushing
Caleb Cushing from Massachusetts and Attorney General under Presi-
dent Franklin Pierce.
Biography
Early life
Born in Salisbury, Massachusetts, in 1800, he was the
son of John Newmarch Cushing, a wealthy shipbuilder
and merchant, and of Lydia Dow, a delicate and sensitive
woman from Seabrook, New Hampshire, who died when
he was ten. The family moved across the Merrimack Riv-
er to the prosperous shipping town of Newburyport in
1802. He entered Harvard University at the age of 13
and graduated in 1817. He was a teacher of mathematics
there from 1820 to 1821, and was admitted to practice in
the Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas in December,
1821. He began practicing law in Newburyport in 1824.
23rd United States Attorney General There he attended the First Presbyterian Church.
On November 23, 1824, Cushing married Caroline El-
In office
March 7, 1853 – March 4, 1857 izabeth Wilde, daughter of Judge Samuel Sumner Wilde,
of the Supreme Judicial Court. His wife died about a
President Franklin Pierce decade later, leaving him childless and alone. He never
Preceded by John J. Crittenden married again.
Succeeded by Jeremiah S. Black
State legislature
Member of the United States House of Representatives from Cushing served as a Democratic-Republican member of
Massachusetts’s
Massachusetts’s 3rd district
the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1825, then
In office entered the Massachusetts Senate in 1826, and returned
March 4, 1835 – March 3, 1843 to the House in 1828. Afterwards, he spent two years,
Preceded by Gayton P. Osgood from 1829 to 1831, in Europe. Upon his return, he again
served in the lower house of the state legislature in 1833
Succeeded by Amos Abbott and 1834. Then, in late 1834, he was elected a representa-
Personal details tive to Congress.
Born January 17, 1800(1800-01-17) Washington career
Salisbury, Massachusetts, U.S.
Cushing served in Congress from 1835 until 1843 (the
Died January 2, 1879(1879-01-02) (aged 78) 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th Congresses). During the 27th
Newburyport, Massachusetts, U.S.
Congress, he was chairman of the U.S. House Committee
Political party Anti-Jacksonian, Whig, Democratic on Foreign Affairs.
Here the marked inconsistency which characterized
Spouse(s) Caroline Cushing
his public life became manifest; for when John Tyler had
Alma mater Harvard University become president, had been read out of the Whig party,
Profession Teacher, Lawyer, Politician and had vetoed Whig measures (including a tariff bill),
for which Cushing had voted, Cushing first defended the
Signature vetoes and then voted again for the bills. In 1843 Presi-
dent Tyler nominated Cushing for U.S. Secretary of the
Treasury, but the U.S. Senate refused to confirm him for
Caleb Cushing (January 17, 1800 – January 2, 1879) was
this office. John Canfield Spencer was chosen instead.
an American diplomat who served as a U.S. Congressman
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Caleb Cushing
Cushing was, however, appointed by President Tyler, He became an associate justice of the Massachusetts
later in the same year, to be commissioner and United Supreme Judicial Court in 1852, and during the adminis-
States Ambassador to China, holding this position until tration of President Franklin Pierce, from March 7, 1853
March 4, 1845. In 1844 he negotiated the Treaty of Wang until March 3, 1857, was 23rd Attorney General of the
Hiya, the first treaty between China and the United United States. Cushing, a "doughface," i.e., a Northerner
States. While serving as commissioner to China he was with Southern sympathies, supported the Dred Scott de-
also empowered to negotiate a treaty of navigation and cision and to such a degree that Chief Justice Roger B.
commerce with Japan. Taney, who wrote the decision, wrote Cushing a letter
thanking him for his support.
Return to Massachusetts In 1858, 1859, 1862, and 1863 he again served in the
Massachusetts House of Representatives.
1860 and the Civil War
In 1860 he presided over the Democratic National Con-
vention which met first at Charleston and later at Balti-
more, until he joined those who seceded from the regular
convention; he then presided also over the convention
of the seceding delegates, who nominated John C. Breck-
inridge for the Presidency. Also in 1860 President James
Buchanan sent him to Charleston as Confidential Com-
missioner to the Secessionists of South Carolina.
Despite having favored states’ rights and opposed the
abolition of slavery, during the American Civil War, he
supported the Union. He was later appointed by Presi-
dent Andrew Johnson as one of three commissioners as-
signed to revise and codify the laws of the United States
Congress. He served in that capacity from 1866 to 1870.
Return to diplomacy
In 1868, in concert with the Minister Resident to Colom-
bia, Cushing was sent to Bogotá, Colombia and worked to
negotiate a right-of-way treaty for a ship canal across the
Isthmus of Panama.
At the Geneva conference for the settlement of the
Alabama claims in 1871-1872 he was one of the counsels
Caleb Cushing
appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant for the United
States before the Geneva Tribunal of Arbitration on the
In 1847, while again a representative in the Massachu-
Alabama claims.
setts state legislature, he introduced a bill appropriating
money for the equipment of a regiment to serve in the
Mexican-American War; although the bill was defeated,
he raised the necessary funds privately, and served in
Mexico first as United States Army colonel and after-
wards as brigadier-general of volunteers. He did not see
combat during this conflict, and entered Mexico City
with his reserve battalion several months after that city
had been pacified.
In 1847 and again in 1848 the Democrats nominated
him for Governor of Massachusetts, but on each occasion
he was defeated at the polls. He was again a representa-
tive in the state legislature in 1851, was offered the posi-
tion as Massachusetts Attorney General in 1851, but de-
clined; and served as mayor of Newburyport, Massachu- Cushing’s Chief Justice nomination
setts, in 1851 and 1852. (He had written a major history of
the town when he was 26 years old.)
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Caleb Cushing
From January 6, 1874 to April 9, 1877 Cushing was speaking he turned his left shoulder to the audience,
Minister to Spain. He defused tensions over the Virginius looking at his hearers askance, and with a squint,
Affair, and proved popular in the country. too, as it seemed to me, but I may have been
mistaken. There was something like a cynical sneer
Nomination to Supreme Court in his manner of bringing out his sentences, which
On January 9, 1874, Grant nominated him for Chief Justice made him look like Mephistopheles alive, and I do
of the United States, but in spite of his great learning and not remember ever to have heard a public speaker
eminence at the bar, his anti-war record and the feeling who stirred in me so decided a disinclination to
of distrust experienced by many members of the U.S. Se- believe what he said. In later years I met him
nate on account of his inconsistency, aroused such vig- repeatedly at dinner tables which he enlivened with
orous opposition that his nomination was withdrawn on his large information, his wit, and his fund of
January 13, 1874.[citation needed] anecdote. But I could never quite overcome the
impression he had made upon me at that meeting. I
Death could always listen to him with interest, but never
with spontaneous confidence.”
An acute attack of erysipelas in July 1878 was a warning
that his end was nearing. He died January 2, 1879, at
Newburyport, Massachusetts just 15 days shy before his External links
79th birthday, and is buried in Highland Cemetery in that • Caleb Cushing at the Biographical Directory of the
city.[1] United States Congress
• John William Weidemeyer (1900). "Cushing,
Works Caleb". Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography.
• Works by Caleb Cushing at Project Gutenberg
• History and Present State of the Town of Newburyport,
Mass. (1826) Persondata
• Review of the late Revolution in France (1833) Name Cushing, Caleb
• Reminiscences of Spain (1833); Alternative names
• Oration on the Growth and Territorial Progress of the
Short description American politician
United States (1839)
• Life and Public Services of William H. Harrison (1840) Date of birth January 17, 1800
• The Treaty of Washington (1873) Place of birth Salisbury, Massachusetts, U.S.
Date of death January 2, 1879
References Place of death Newburyport, Massachusetts, U.S.
[1] Caleb Cushing at http://www.findagrave.com
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Cushing, Caleb".
Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge
University Press.
• Caleb Cushing at the Biographical Directory of the
United States Congress
Further reading
• Belohlavek, John M. Broken Glass: Caleb Cushing & the
Shattering of the Union (2005)
• Fuess, Claude M. The Life of Caleb Cushing, New York:
Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1923. (2 vols.)
• Kuo, Ping Chia. "Caleb Cushing and the Treaty of
Wanghia, 1844." The Journal of Modern History 5, no. 1
(1933): 34-54. Available through JSTOR.
• Schurz, Carl. Reminiscences. New York: McClure
Publ. Co., 1907. Schurz reports his impressions of
seeing Cushing, in an effort to discourage anti-
slavery sentiment, speak at a “Conservative Union
Meeting” at Faneuil Hall in Boston just before the
Civil War (Volume II, Chapter IV, p. 162): “While
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Caleb Cushing
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Succeeded by
Gayton P. Osgood from Massachusetts’s 3rd congressional dis- Amos Abbott
trict
1835–1843
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by U.S. Minister to China Succeeded by
Edward Everett 1843–1845 John W. Davis
Preceded by U.S. Minister to Spain Succeeded by
Daniel E. Sickles 1874–1877 James Russell Lowell
Legal offices
Preceded by United States Attorney General Succeeded by
John J. Crittenden Served under: Franklin Pierce Jeremiah S. Black
1853–1857
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Caleb_Cushing&oldid=474296276"
Categories:
• United States Attorneys General
• Ambassadors of the United States to Spain
• Ambassadors of the United States to China
• Massachusetts State Senators
• Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
• Members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts
• American people of English descent
• Harvard University alumni
• 1800 births
• 1879 deaths
• Rejected or withdrawn nominees to the United States Executive Cabinet
• Withdrawn nominees to the United States Supreme Court
• People from Newburyport, Massachusetts
• Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justices
• Massachusetts Whigs
• Massachusetts Democrats
• Massachusetts Democratic-Republicans
• Massachusetts National Republicans
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