the leading position. Among those members of Congress who actively participated in the formation of the new party were Senator Kennedy, and Messrs. H. Winter Davis, J. Morrison Harris, and E. H. Webster, of Maryland; T. Hardeman, Jr., and Joshua Hill, of Georgia; William C. Anderson, F. M. Bristow, Laban T. Moore, Robert Mallory, and Green Adams, of Kentucky; George Briggs, of New York; John A. Gilmer, J. M. Leach, W. N. H. Smith, and Z. B. Vance, of North Carolina; H. Maynard, Thomas A. R. Nelson, R. B. Brabson, William B. Stokes, Emerson Etheridge, James M. Quarles, and R. Hatton, of Tennessee; A. R. Boteler, of Virginia; Edward Bouligny, of Louisiana, and others.

In commencing this movement, the gentlemen who have taken the lead disclaim any spirit of presumption. Their circular takes the ground that "the exigencies of the country seemed to require the formation of a new party, founded on national and conservative principles. They have reason to believe that such is the conviction of a great and patriotic portion of the people, including very many members of the present dominant and contending parties, who have been made sensible of the dangerous and disturbing consequences likely to result from the further pursuit of their party controversies, and whom it is in the highest degree desirable to draw together into fraternal union and efficient political co-operation. In answer, therefore, to this apparent demand, the movement for a 'Union party' has been inaugurated."

Of this party Senator Crittenden seems to be the central figure, if not the head.

CALEB CUSHING,

OF MASSACHUSETTS.

As a

THE career of Caleb Cushing, as a scholar, author, lawyer, statesman, diplomatist, general, and judge, has been remarkably eminent for one who is still not past the meridian of life. man of industry and indomitable perseverance in whatever he undertakes to accomplish, it is conceded that he has no superior, if indeed an equal, among the leading men of New England. Nearly all of his peers-the eminent statesmen and orators with whom he acted or contended on the hustings or in the halls of legislation within the last quarter of a century-have passed into the realms of death or immortality. John Quincy Adams, Isaac C. Bates, Levi Lincoln, John Davis, Levi Woodbury, Leverett Saltonstall, Daniel Webster, and Rufus Choate have disappeared: of the brilliant group, Lincoln, Everett, and Cushing alone. survive.

Among the leading men of New England who have flourished since Mr. Cushing's appearance on the public stage, it is doubtful if any one has exhibited more varied and profound knowledge of the science of our own Government and of foreign Governments, of jurisprudence, of equity and maritime laws, of international law, of commerce, of common law, of art, science, and literature, and of the living and dead languages, than he.

In foreign countries men generally become distinguished in some specialty,-in parliament, on the bench, at the bar, as poet, editor, scholar, or general. In our own country we find men eminent in many walks; but rarely does a man so versatile and so unquestionably able on all points as is Mr. Cushing, come before the public in any country.

Caleb Cushing was born at Salisbury, Massachusetts, on the 17th day of January, 1800. He early evinced fine powers of intellect, and great fondness for study. After due preparation,

he entered Harvard College when but thirteen years of age, and was graduated in 1817. His collegiate career was one of uncommon brilliancy. The opinion which the government of the college had of his capacity and learning was best exhibited in 1819, when he was appointed a tutor in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in that institution. He held this office two years.

The two years that elapsed between his graduation and his appointment to the tutorship were passed by Mr. Cushing as a law student at Harvard, under Asahel Stearns, first Law Professor. In 1821 he entered the law office of Ebenezer Moseley, Esq., at Newburyport, where he studied for a year, and was admitted to the bar in the following year. In 1823 he was married to Caroline Wilde, daughter of Judge Wilde, of the Supreme Judicial Court, a lady of rare intellectual endowments. At the bar he at once gave evidence of great abilities, and rose rapidly into a lucrative practice. For many years he and Rufus Choate were generally considered by the public as at the head of the famous Essex bar; and many comparisons were made by their respective friends and admirers as to which was the more eloquent, able, and successful lawyer.

Mr. Cushing's political life began early in the year 1825, when he was chosen a representative from Newburyport to the State Legislature. In the next year he was elected a Senator from Essex County, and displayed powers which marked him at once as a promising man for the future of Massachusetts and of the Union.

He continued in the successful practice of law till 1829, when he went to Europe with his wife, and travelled for two years. During this interval, Mrs. Cushing wrote a series of "Letters on France and Spain," which were printed for private circulation; while her husband employed himself with unceasing industry in obtaining a knowledge of the laws, institutions, statistics, and literature of the countries which they visited. his return, Mr. Cushing published his "Review of the Late Revolution in France," and also his best book, "Reminiscences of Spain." Like others of our best writers,-Irving, Prescott, Ticknor, and A. H. Everett,-Cushing early exhibited a taste for Spanish subjects, and has done his part in paying back the

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debt which the New World owes to Castile and Leon. He also contributed occasionally to the "North American Review." In 1832, about a year after their return from Europe, Mrs. Cushing died; and by her death Mr. Cushing lost a companion who thoroughly appreciated his superior talents and active genius, sympathized with his objects, and encouraged him in all his labors. She left no child, and her husband, not marrying again, devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits and public affairs.

In 1833 and 1834, Mr. Cushing again served in the Legisla ture for Newburyport, and in the latter year was elected to Congress, and took his seat in that body in December, 1835. He was thrice re-elected, and sat in the House of Representatives until March, 1843. He made his first effort on the 26th of January, 1836, in a prepared argument in support of the right of petition. He avowed that, although he was, and had ever been, utterly opposed to the Abolitionists and their mischievous crusade against the constitutional rights of the South in regard to the question of slavery, yet he held to the sacred right of petition. He would have all respectfully-worded petitions received, referred, and reported upon.

The 9th of February following, a debate occurred on the Naval Appropriation Bill, in Committee of the Whole, which led to an exciting scene, of a personal nature, between Mr. Cushing and Mr. Ben Hardin, of Kentucky. Mr. Hardin, an old and experienced member, a radical of great ability, who had the reputation of being "the terror of the House," and whose wit was once declared by John Randolph, of Roanoke, to be like a butcher-knife whetted on a brick-bat, had addressed the House against sundry repairs at navy-yards at the North, in a strain of emphatic severity. He had denounced the extravagance of members, who were, he said, forever proposing appropriations for fortifications along the Atlantic coast, which would require, if their wishes could be gratified, two hundred millions of dollars and a standing army of eighty thousand men.

Mr. Cushing, being a new member, and ambitious, no doubt, to distinguish himself in an impromptu debate, replied to the famous and much-feared Kentuckian in very decided and unmistakable terms. He was courteous and parliamentary, but severe. Witnesses of the scene say that the House was elec

trified. Members on all sides looked up in surprise to see who was the young speaker with the clear, ringing voice and confident manner. Mr. Hardin, himself looking amazed and surprised, obtained the floor after Mr. Cushing had concluded, and commenced a reply. At first he seemed in doubt where to begin, or what to say; but, recovering his self-possession, he proceeded in a characteristic strain of denunciation and ridicule of the Massachusetts member who had dared to cross his path, which made the House wonder what was coming next. He sneered at Mr. Cushing for having prepared and read to the House his maiden speech. He accused him of hailing from the land of the Yankees, where the soil was barren, and rocky, and unproductive; where the inhabitants got their living by fishing, by peddling tin ware, wooden clocks, and wooden nutmegs, and where many of them indulged in eating pork, molasses, and codfish; where blue-lights were held out to the enemy, and where the Hartford Convention was held, during the war with Great Britain. By the desire of a host of members, the floor was conceded to Mr. Cushing, for the purpose of making a rejoinder.

Mr. Cushing, cool, collected, self-poised, and resolute, began by alluding to the parade of objections raised against him. He admitted that he had deliberately prepared his first speech. He had done so because he was not only a new member, but one of the youngest members of the House, and could not assume to address the assembled representatives and law-makers of the nation, for the first time in his life, upon a question of great importance, without preparing himself. If he had been anxious to imitate the habit of the gentleman from Kentucky,— to take the floor, at any time, or upon any or every question under discussion, and commence speaking, no matter where, not knowing what to say or where to leave off, but running on in a helter-skelter style until he might exhaust himself, he doubted not that he could, like the gentleman from Kentucky, at least amuse if he could not instruct the House. It was most true, he said, that he had come from New England. He was proud of it. The soil of Massachusetts was, indeed, rocky and less productive than that of more favored localities; but then it was peopled by a hardy, industrious, and intelligent race of men, whose industry and perseverance had made it blossom like the