CALEB CUSHING - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 08/07/1807 - HFSID 321199

CALEB CUSHING
Pleading "professional and official" duties in Washington, he declines an invitation to lecture in Albany.
Autograph Letter signed: "C Cushing", 1 page, 5x8. Washington, 1867 August 7. To "Edw. De Forest Esq.", in full: "I have received your favor of the 21st ult. inviting me to deliver a lecture for the Young Men's Association of Albany, and I regret to be constrained to reply that my occupations here, professional and official, leave to me no leisure for any object of attention. I am Very respectfully". Caleb Cushing (1800-1879), a Democrat, represented his Massachusetts district in the US Congress (1835-1843). After the Senate rejected his nomination to be President Tyler's Secretary of the Treasury, Tyler appointed him US Minister to China (1843-1845), where he negotiated the first treaty between the two nations. During the Mexican War, Cushing raised, equipped and commanded a volunteer regiment, seeing no combat there. After two failed runs for Governor of Massachusetts and a year on that State's Supreme Judicial Court, he served as US Attorney General under President Pierce (1853-1857). A "doughface" northern Democrat who supported the South on the issue of slavery, Cushing presided over the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore in 1860, until he walked out with southern Democrats. Then he presided over the Charleston convention which nominated James Breckinridge for President. Although he remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, his southern sympathies dogged the rest of his career. When President Grant nominated him for the US Supreme Court, Senate opposition compelled withdrawal of the nomination (the second time Cushing had been rebuffed for a Cabinet post). Cushing served as US Minister to Columbia and then to Spain. When he declined this invitation, Cushing was serving (1866-1870) on a 3-man commission appointed by President Johnson to propose revisions in the federal legal code. Multiple folds. Left edge notched from binding. Toned. Light surface creases. Pencil and ink notes (unknown hand). Stray ink marks. Corners slightly worn and creased. Otherwise, fine condition.