Richard Rush Autographs, Memorabilia & Collectibles

RICHARD RUSH (1780-1859) was the son of Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was Attorney General of Pennsylvania (1811) before serving as U. S. Attorney General under Presidents James Madison and James Monroe (1814-1817). He was also Monroe's Secretary of State ad interim from March 10, 1817 until Sept. 21, 1817, while newly appointed Secretary of State John Q. Adams was in England. As Secretary of State ad interim, Rush negotiated the Rush-Bagot Treaty with Great Britain, which demilitarized the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain and limited the number of naval vessels there and internal waterways leading to the lakes. When Adams became President in 1825, Rush was appointed Secretary of the Treasury, serving until 1829. He was also U. S. Minister to Great Britain (1817-1825) and France (1847-1849). As U. S. Minister to Great Britain, Rush negotiated the Anglo-American Convention of 1818, which set the U. S./Canadian border between the Lake of the Woods in Minnesota and the Rocky Mountains at the 49th parallel and allowed for joint settlement of the Oregon Territory by the U. S. and Great Britain for 10 years. In 1836, Rush secured a bequest from James Smithsonian in Great Britain for over half a million dollars, which was used to establish the Smithsonian Institution.