held a high position on the Court of Inquiry ordered for the examination of charges against Major-General Scott.

In the year 1847, and while in Mexico, General Cushing, very unexpectedly to himself, received the nomination of the Democratic party for the office of Governor of Massachusetts. He received the largest vote that had been cast by that party for several years. He was also a candidate for the same office in 1848. In 1850, he was, for the fifth time, chosen a member of the State Legislature, and served with distinction during the exciting session of 1851. He was elected Mayor of the city of Newburyport in 1851 and 1852, and in the last-named year was chosen commander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, the oldest military organization in the United States. The Legislature of Massachusetts, at the session of 1852, having created the office of additional Justice of the Supreme Court, General Cushing was appointed to fill it. From this he entered the Cabinet of President Pierce as AttorneyGeneral, and filled the station with eminent ability. His decisions, numerous as they are, show a most extensive erudition. Among the important cases before him was the Enlistment difficulty between the United States and Great Britain, which arose in the fall of 1855. The opponents of the Administration took exception not only to the tone of the Attorney-General's official opinion, but to what they called his interference in the matter. In reviewing the subject at the time, Mr. E. Kingman, the wellinformed and experienced Washington adviser of several leading journals, said,

"The instructions of the Attorney-General to the United States District Attorney of Pennsylvania have been commented upon by the British press, and perhaps by the British Government, as rather irritating. Our own press seems to consider the instructions of the Attorney-General as a private act, for which he alone is responsible; and it has, therefore, in most cases, made an apology to the British Government for what it considers his presumption. It so happens, however, that the instructions were the act of the Government. They were not 'diplomatic,' that is true, for they are intended to be unambiguous. They were a matter of deliberate consideration, and were issued upon consultation and decision of the Executive Government, and were deemed necessary to call the attention not only of this country, but of Great Britain, to the dangerous aggressions of the latter upon our rights, and the apparent determination of Lord Palmerston to drag us into the present war."

The energetic action of Mr. Cushing in the discharge of duties not previously performed by the Attorney-General occasioned much comment; and to understand the reasons why these duties had devolved upon him, it is perhaps best to look at contemporaneous views. Mr. Kingman tells us that the labors of Secretary of State had become very burdensome, in consequence of the complications of foreign affairs, while the office of Attorney-General had become almost a sinecure. To create a division of labor, the judicial appointments, prosecution of offenders against the Neutrality Laws, extradition cases, and all cases coming under the Fugitive-Slave Law, were referred to Mr. Cushing; and the consequence was, "the business was efficiently

done."

After he assumed the duties indicated, foreign ministers came to the conclusion that the extradition treaties were a dead letter so far as the United States were concerned.

"The late (Fillmore) Administration did not break up any filibustering projects, nor obtain the conviction of any person on account of such enterprises. The Neutrality Laws cannot now be violated with impunity, and every project of the sort has been broken up, except the last expedition of Walker, in which the prosecution failed on account of the refusal of the French Consul, Dillon, to appear as a witness in court. So in regard to the bark Maury. The Attorney-General took up the matter upon the representation which was made to Mr. Marcy by Mr. Crampton on the 11th of October, and his report was made on the 22d. The prosecution of Hertz, Wagner, and others was, as we have seen, conducted under the direction of the Attorney-General with such efficiency that some persons are disposed to doubt his constitutional power on the subject. But it will be understood, from the above statement, that he has the power under the order of the President, and of course this power is exercised under his direction; and in regard to the Enlistment cases his proceedings, as is well known, are approved by the whole Administration." ""*

At the close of the Pierce Administration, General Cushing retired into comparative privacy; but the voice of his ever-faithful constituency again and again pressed him into their service. in the State Legislature. In that body he wields unmistakable influence, and even the journals politically opposed to him bear enthusiastic testimony to his being the legislator and orator. In

Letters in the New York "Journal of Commerce," Nov. 1855.

the discussion on the amendments to the Constitution of Massachusetts imposing disabilities on naturalized citizens, he greatly distinguished himself in opposition. It is impossible to condense his several efforts on this subject, but the point and force of his views may be gleaned from two brief paragraphs.

On February 11, 1859, he said, "Mr. Speaker, I, you, we, gentlemen of the House of Representatives, belong to that excellent white race, the consummate impersonation of intellect in man and of loveliness in woman; whose power and whose privilege it is, wherever they may go and wherever they may be, to Christianize and to civilize, to command and to be obeyed, to conquer and to reign. I admit to an equality with me, sir, the white man, my blood and my race, whether he be the Saxon of England or the Celt of Ireland. But I do not admit as my equals either the red men of America, or the yellow men of Asia, or the black men of Africa." This was greeted with tumultuous applause in the galleries.

As to the right of the State to enact such a law, he said, "The question whether the State has the power to enlarge the electoral basis of citizenship of the United States, is one that has been most earnestly debated, and is still debated; and we have now and here the reverse of that proposition; and that reverse comes in the odious form of disfranchisement. Can a State deprive a citizen of the United States of his right of votership?-that is, can a State narrow and abridge the electoral basis in its relation to citizenship of the United States? I am free to say that I doubt upon both these propositions. I will not undertake to speak dogmatically upon the question; but I doubt the right of Massachusetts thus to impose disabilities, at least in respect to the election of Federal officers, upon citizens of the United States."

In view of the disturbed condition of public sentiment and "the dangers which threaten our Union," growing out of the Harper's Ferry raid and the sectional discussion to which it gave rise, great "Union meetings" were called in the chief cities to maintain the Constitution. One of these, held in Fanueil Hall, Boston, December 8, was a powerful and gratifying demonstration. Letters were read from ex-President Pierce, Judge Curtis, and other eminent persons, and the assembly was ad

dressed by ex-Governor Lincoln, Edward Everett, and Caleb Cushing. Mr. Cushing vigorously denounced the recent "invasion of the State of Virginia" by men from Northern States. He brought the case home to Massachusetts, and asked his hearers what would they say if there were organized bands of invaders in Virginia, armed by subscription societies in Richmond, and inspired by sentiments of deadly hatred against them? Would they not say open war was better than war in disguise? It was unspeakably mean to insist on enjoying the benefits of the Union without participating in its burdens, and treacherous to demand the execution of the bond of Union by Virginia and not execute it in Massachusetts. "I say," continued Mr. Cushing, "it would be mean, treacherous, hypocritical, to pretend that that state of things is to continue; and therefore we are here assembled to discountenance all such sentiments, all such passions, and all such criminal enterprises on the part of the people of the Northern States against those of the Southern." The speech enchained the audience, and is characterized as "clear, forcible, and fairly overwhelming in its effect."

The above outline denotes a life of varied action and power, crowned with unvarying success. Without taking into account his orations and occasional addresses before literary and scientific societies, his writings have been very numerous. Besides the works already alluded to, and a translation of "Pothier on Maritime Contracts," he has been a prolific contributor to the "North American Review," the "United States Literary Gazette," the "Southern Review," the "American Review," the "Democratic Review," the "Annual Register," the "Knickerbocker," and other periodicals. He also furnished many of the articles in the "Encyclopedia Americana" on the geography, history, and institutions of Spanish America, in relation to which no writer in either hemisphere has displayed more accurate or comprehensive knowledge. He stands in the foremost rank as a debater and public speaker, prompt, fluent, vigorous, and self-possessed. He possesses an intrepid and executive genius; and there is work, resolution, and endurance in him, as well as learning, eloquence, and facility in literary composition.

GEORGE M. DALLAS,

OF PENNSYLVANIA

THIS eminent citizen is a son of Alexander James Dallas, a native of Jamaica, and one of the most distinguished and useful of America's adopted sons. "Indeed, in but few families have so many members risen to distinction and eminent public usefulness as in that of the subject of this sketch. His grandfather, who emigrated from Scotland* to Jamaica about the middle of the eighteenth century, was one of the most prominent professors of the particular branch of science to which his energies were devoted. Of his four sons, Robert Charles Dallas became one of the most voluminous and useful writers of his age; and Alexander James Dallas, Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of War of the Federal Republic, deservedly acquired by his public services a commanding position in the eyes of the American people. Their sister, Miss Dallas, married Captain Byron, of the English Navy, and was mother of the present and seventh Lord Byron. To the same family belonged the distinguished brothers, Sir George Dallas, whose political writings were so warmly admired by William Pitt, and Sir Robert Dallas, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. Nor have the wisdom of the bench and the deliberations of the councils only been indebted to this house; in the Church it is ably represented by those excellent religious instructors through the pulpit and the press, the Rev. Alexander Robert Charles Dallas, and the Rev. Charles Dallas, who, after gaining military laurels in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, under Wellington, are now zealously engaged in the promotion of the best interests of the human race."+

A memoir in the London "Illustrated News of the World," June 19, 1858, accompanying a portrait for which Mr. Dallas sat in that city, opens with this sentence:-"The Honorable George Mifflin Dallas, the Minister of the United States at the Court of St. James, like his predecessor, Mr. Buchanan, is a gentleman of Irish extraction and parentage."

† Allibone's "Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors," &c., vol. i., Phila., 1858.