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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—MassachusettsCaleb CUSHING
(1800-1879)
CUSHING, Caleb, a
Representative from Massachusetts; born in Salisbury, Mass.,
January 17, 1800; was graduated from Harvard University in 1817;
studied law; was admitted to the bar at Newburyport in 1823; member
of the State house of representatives in 1825; served in the State
senate in 1827; again a member of the State house of
representatives in 1833 and 1834; unsuccessful candidate for
election to the Twenty-third Congress in 1833; elected as an
Anti-Jacksonian candidate to the Twenty-fourth and reelected as a
Whig to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh
Congresses (March 4, 1835-March 3, 1843); chairman, Committee on
Foreign Affairs (Twenty-seventh Congress); was not a candidate for
renomination in 1842; appointed by President Tyler as Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to China on May 8, 1843,
and also commissioner on the same date; resigned March 4, 1845;
while serving as commissioner to China was empowered to negotiate a
treaty of navigation and commerce with Japan; again a member of the
State house of representatives in 1845 and 1846; colonel of a
Massachusetts regiment which served in the war with Mexico;
appointed brigadier general by President Polk April 14, 1847;
unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor in 1847 and again in
1848; again elected to the State house of representatives in 1850;
offered the position as attorney general of Massachusetts in 1851,
but declined; mayor of Newburyport, Mass., in 1851 and 1852;
appointed judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts in 1852;
appointed by President Pierce as Attorney General of the United
States on March 7, 1853, and served until March 3, 1857; chairman
of the Democratic National Conventions at Baltimore and Charleston
in 1860; appointed by President Johnson as a commissioner to codify
the laws of the United States and served from 1866 to 1870;
instructed on November 25, 1868, in concert with the Minister
Resident to Colombia, to negotiate a treaty for a ship canal across
the Isthmus; appointed in 1872 by President Grant counsel for the
United States before the Geneva Tribunal of Arbitration on the
Alabama claims; nominated by President Grant in 1874 to be
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, but was
not confirmed by the Senate; Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary to Spain from January 6, 1874, to April 9, 1877;
died in Newburyport, Essex County, Mass., on January 2, 1879;
interment in Highland Cemetery.
Bibliography
Baldasty, Gerald J. “Political Stalemate in Essex County:
Caleb Cushing’s Race for Congress, 1830-1832.” Essex
Institute Historical Collections 117 (January 1981): 54-70;
Fuess, Claude M. The Life of Caleb Cushing. New York:
Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1923.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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