Broken Glass: Caleb Cushing & the Shattering of the UnionKent State University Press, 2005 - 482 pages One of the most colorful, controversial, and misunderstood public figures of the 19th century "The most hated man in New England,"as critics dubbed him on the eve of the Civil War, Caleb Cushing, brash and controversial, was perhaps the last of 19th-century America's renaissance figures. Poet and politician, essayist and diplomat, general and lawyer, this multidimensional scion of a Newburyport, Massachusetts, mercantile family moved in and out of positions of power and influence for more than fifty years. First as a spokesman for the Whig and then the Democratic Parties, Cushing served in Congress, as the minister to China, as a general in the Mexican War, as U.S. attorney general, and as a legal adviser and diplomatic operative for Presidents Lincoln, Johnson, and Grant. With an unharnessed mind and probing intellect, Cushing inspired and infuriated contemporaries with his strident views on such topics as race relations and gender roles, national expansion and the legitimacy of secession. While his positions generated arguments and garnered enemies, his views often mirrored those of many Americans. His abilities and talents sustained him in public service and made him one of the most outstanding and fascinating figures of the era. Biographer John Belohlavek delivers a work of importance and originality to specialists in the areas of mid-nineteenth-century political, legal, and diplomatic history as well as to those interested in New England history, antebellum gender relations, civil-military relations, and Mexican War studies. |
From inside the book
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... Republican Party are dubious , but he parlayed ties with conser- vative Secretary of State William Seward and radical Senator Charles Sumner into both personal wealth and political position . Successive Re- publican administrations ...
... republican principles of the Federal Union , universally disseminated , as the only method of giving a stable foundation to freedom , and delivering the civilized world from the horrors of war . " Cushing called for a grand vision of a ...
... republican habits . " Even as a young man , Gush- ing approached the institution with more reason than passion . He had little experience with slavery ; his exposure to African Americans revolving around the small free black community ...
... Republican from Boston , but he already feared opposition in his bid for reelection . Everett hoped to begin a newspaper — the Massa- chusetts Journal with his brother John as the editor . The notion had been bandied about by Senator ...
... . He moved with ease from a Federalist philosophy of government involve- ment in the economy into the National Republican sphere of promoting protective tariffs , domestic manufactures , national banking , and HIGH STREET , 1800-1826 21.
Contents
1 | |
25 | |
57 | |
Battling the British Lion and the American Fox 18371840 | 88 |
Tyler and the Corporals Guard 18411843 | 114 |
The Road to China 18431844 | 150 |
The Warrior of Manifest Destiny 18451848 | 181 |
The Doughface Democrat 18481853 | 210 |
The Most Unpopular Man in New England 18571861 | 283 |
From Massachusetts Exile to Washington Insider 18611869 | 316 |
The Diplomat Reemerges 18691879 | 342 |
Conclusions | 369 |
Notes | 384 |
Bibliography | 459 |
Index | 473 |
The Power Broker Attorney General 18531857 | 242 |