Biography of RICHARD RUSH
RUSH, Richard, statesman, born in Philadelphia, 29 August 1780; died there, 30
July 1859, was graduated at Princeton in 1797, and admitted to the bar of
Philadelphia in 1800, and early in his career won distinction by his defence
of William Duane, editor of the "Aurora," on a charge of libelling Governor
Thomas McKean. He became solicitor of the guardians of the poor of
Philadelphia in 1810, and Attorney-General of Pennsylvania in 1811,
Comptroller of the United States Treasury in November of the same year, and in
1814-1817 was United States Attorney-General. He became temporary United
States Secretary of State in 1817, and was then appointed Minister to England,
where he remained until 1825, negotiating several important treaties,
especially that of 1818 with Lord Castlereagh respecting the fisheries, the
northwest boundary-line, conflicting claims beyond the Rocky mountains, and
the slaves of American citizens that were carried off on British ships,
contrary to the treaty of Ghent. He was recalled in 1825 to accept the
portfolio of the Treasury which had been offered him by President Adams, and
in 1828 he was a candidate for the vice-presidency on the ticket with Mr.
Adams. In 1829 he negotiated in Holland a loan for the corporations of
Washington, Georgetown, D.C., and Alexandria, Virginia He was a commissioner
to adjust a boundary dispute between Ohio and Michigan in 1835, and in 1836
was appointed by President Jackson a commissioner to obtain the legacy of
James Smithson, which he left to found the Smithsonian institution.
The case was then pending in the English chancery court, and in August, 1838,
Mr. Rush returned with the amount, $508,318.46. He was minister to France in
1847-1851, and in 1848 was the first of the ministers at that court to
recognize the new republic, acting in advance of instructions from his
government. Mr. Rush began his literary career in 1812, when he was a member
of the Madison Cabinet, by writing vigorous articles in defence of the second
war with England. His relations with John Quincy Adams were intimate, and
affected his whole career. He became an anti-Mason in 1831, in 1834 wrote a
powerful report against the Bank of the United States, and ever afterward
co-operated with the Democratic party. He was a member of the American
Philosophical Society. His publications include "Codification of the Laws of
the United States" (5 vols., Philadelphia, 1815); "Narrative of a Residence at
the Court of London from 1817 till 1825" (London, 1833); a second volume of
the same work, "Comprising Incidents, Official and Personal, from 1819 till
1825" (1845 ; 3d ed., under the title of the "Court of London from 1819 till
1825, with Notes by the Author's Nephew," 1873) ; "Washington in Domestic
Life," which consists of personal letters from Washington to his private
secretary, Colonel Tobias Lear, and some personal recollections (1857); and a
volume of "Occasional Productions, Political, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous,
including a Glance at the Court and Government of Louis Philippe, and the
French Revolution of 1848," published by his sons (1860).
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