CUSHING, kOSVOW, CAUL] (1800-79). An American statesman, the first American Minister Plenipotentiary to China. He was born at Salisbury, :Mass., and was educated at Harvard, where he graduated when seventeen years old. Ile practiced law at NewburTport, and was elected to the State Legislature in 1825 and to the State Senate in 1826. From 1829 to 1831 he traveled in Europe. He was elected to Congress in 1835, and served four terms as a Whig, but afterwards joined the Democratic Party. Presi dent Tyler nominated him as Secretary of the Treasury, but the Senate rejected the nomina tion. Tyler then appointed him to China, where new ports were to be opened ac cording to the Treaty of Nankin... Here he made good use of his erudition and talents. When he arrived, February 24. 1844. at Canton in the frigate Brandywine, he had already made the general outline of the treaty, which greatly abridged the subsequent negotiations. The Peking Government honored the United State; by sending as High Treaty Commissioner Ki Ying, a member of the Imperial family, who. on July 3, 1844, signed the convention, which con tained sixteen provisions not included either in the English Treaty of Nanking or in the treaty supplementary thereto. Among these was the right of Christian missionaries to follow the openings of commerce and to build dwelling houses, churches, and hospitals and to have cemeteries, while Chinese scholars acting as teachers or assistants were to be protected from injury. The purchase of books was legalized. and American citizens were forbidden to engage in the opium trade, or to use the flag of the United States to cover a violation of the laws of China. In short, this treaty, because of its
fullness of detail and clear exhibition of the rights conceded by the Chinese Government to foreigners dwelling within its borders, was the leading authority in settling disputes until 1860, when foreigners were admitted to Peking.
After his return to the United States Cushing advocated the :Mexican War, and furnished the necessary funds to equip a regiment of which he was made colones. 11c subsequently rose to be briga dier-general. In 1852 he became associate justice of the Supreme Court of \lassachusetts. and in 1853 entered the Cabinet, of President Pierce as Attorney-General, serving through the entire ad ministration. Ile favored the Union cause dur ing the Civil War. When the arbitration of the `Alabama Claims' was to be settled at Geneva in 1871, President Grant chose Sir. Cushing as one of the three men who were to be counsel for the United States. In 1873 he was nominated Chief Justice of the United States, but the nomination was withdrawn. From 1874 to 1S77 he was Minister of the States at the Court of Spain. Mr. Cushing was a man of unusual erudition and of rare ability. imposing in person and forcible in argument. lie was the author of The Practical Principles of Political Economy (1826) ; The Growth and Territorial Progress of the Called States (1839) ; Reminiscences of Spain (1833) ; Historical Renew of the Late Rerolution in France (1833) ; The Treaty of Washington (1873).