Cushing, Caleb

Caleb Cushing ( born Caleb Cushing ; January 17, 1800 - January 2, 1879 ) is an American statesman.

The son of a wealthy shipbuilder from Massachusetts . At 13, he entered Harvard University , graduated from it at the age of 17, and from 1824 he was engaged in legal practice. In 1825 - 1834 (and also later on in different years) he was a deputy of the state congress with a break in 1829 - 1831 - Cushing spent these years in Spain , then devoting to this journey the book “Reminiscences of Spain” , 1833 ).

In 1835 , Cushing began his career as a federal politician. In 1835 - 1843 he was a senator . In 1843 - 1845, the US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to China (in 1844 concluded the first state treaty between the USA and China ). In 1853 - 1857 US Attorney General. Later, Cushing performed a number of difficult diplomatic missions, including a member of the US delegation at the Colombian negotiations on the construction of the Panama Canal ( 1868 ) and at a meeting of the international tribunal in Geneva in the Alabama case ( 1871 ). Finally, from 1874 to 1877, Cushing was US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Spain.

Cushing's legal and diplomatic experience was great, but his political position has always been inconsistent: for example, during the Civil War he supported the North, although before that he had opposed the abolition of slavery. It was Cushing's well-known inconsistency that caused the distrust of many American politicians, as a result of which he was not approved in 1874 as a judge of the US Supreme Court .

In addition to the Spanish recollections mentioned, Cushing owns several more books, including The Review of the late Revolution in France , 1833, and the Treaty of Washington, a book on the Washington Treaty . , 1873 ).