CUSHING, CALEB (1800-1879), American political leader and lawyer, was born in Salisbury, Massachusetts, on the 17th of January 1800. He graduated at Harvard in 1817, was tutor in mathematics there in 1820-1821, was admitted to practice in the court of common pleas in December 1821, and began the practice of law in Newburyport, Mass., in 1824. After serving, as a Democratic-Republican, in the state house of representatives in 1825, in the state senate in 1826, and in the house again in 1828, he spent two years, from 1829 to 1831, in Europe, again served in the state house of representatives in 1833 and 1834, and in the latter year was elected by the Whigs a representative in Congress. He served in this body from 1835 until 1843, and here the marked inconsistency which characterized his public life became manifest; for when John Tyler had become president, had been “read out” of the Whig party, and had vetoed Whig measures (including a tariff bill), for which Cushing had voted, Cushing first defended the vetoes and then voted again for the bills. In 1843 President Tyler nominated him for secretary of the treasury, but the senate refused to confirm him for this office. He was, however, appointed later in the same year commissioner of the United States to China, holding this position until 1845, and in 1844 negotiating the first treaty between China and the United States. In 1847, while again a representative in the state legislature, he introduced a bill appropriating money for the equipment of a regiment to serve in the Mexican War; although the bill was defeated, he raised the necessary funds privately, and served in Mexico first as colonel and afterwards as brigadier-general of volunteers. In 1847 and again in 1848 the Democrats nominated him for governor of Massachusetts, but on each occasion he was defeated at the polls. He was again a representative in the state legislature in 1851, became an associate justice of the supreme court of Massachusetts in 1852, and during the administration (1853-1857) of President Pierce, was attorney-general of the United States. In 1858, 1859, 1862 and 1863 he again served in the state house of representatives. In 1860 he presided over the National Democratic Convention which met first at Charleston and later at Baltimore, until he joined those who seceded from the regular convention; he then presided also over the convention of the seceding delegates, who nominated John C. Breckinridge for the presidency. During the Civil War, however, he supported the National Administration. At the Geneva conference for the settlement of the “Alabama” claims in 1871-1872 he was one of the counsel for the United States. In 1873 President Grant nominated him for chief justice of the United States, but in spite of his great learning and eminence at the bar, his ante-war record and the feeling of distrust experienced by many members of the senate on account of his inconsistency, aroused such vigorous opposition that his nomination was soon withdrawn. From 1874 to 1877 Cushing was United States minister to Spain. He died at Newburyport, Mass., on the 2nd of January 1879. He published History and Present State of the Town of Newburyport, Mass. (1826); Review of the late Revolution in France (1833); Reminiscences of Spain (1833); Oration on the Growth and Territorial Progress of the United States (1839); Life and Public Services of William H. Harrison (1840); and The Treaty of Washington (1873).
CUSHING, WILLIAM BARKER (1842-1874), American naval officer, was born in Delafield, Wisconsin, on the 4th of November 1842. He entered the Naval Academy from New York in 1857, but resigned in March 1861. When, however, the Civil War began, he volunteered into the navy, was rated acting master’s mate, and became a midshipman in October 1861, and a lieutenant in July 1862, serving in the North Atlantic blockading squadron. The work of blockade, and of harassing the Confederates on the coast and the rivers of the Atlantic seaboard, called for much service in boats, and entailed a great deal of exposure. Cushing was distinguished by his readiness to volunteer, his indefatigability, and by his good fortune, the reward of vigilance and intelligence. The feat by which he will be remembered was the destruction of the Confederate ironclad “Albemarle” in the Roanoke river on the 27th of October in 1864. The vessel had done much damage to the Federal naval forces, and her destruction was greatly desired. She was at anchor surrounded by baulks of timber, and a cordon of boats had been stationed to row guard against an expected Federal attack. Lieutenant Cushing undertook the attack on her with a steam launch carrying a spar-torpedo and towing an armed cutter. He eluded the Confederate lookout and reached the “Albemarle” unseen. When close to he was detected, but he had time to drive the steam launch over the baulks and to explode the torpedo against the “Albemarle” with such success that a hole was made in her and she sank. Cushing’s own launch was destroyed. He and the few men with him were compelled to take to the water; one was killed, another was drowned, Cushing and one other escaped, and the rest were captured. Cushing himself swam to the swamps on the river bank, and after wading among them for hours reached a Federal picket boat. For destroying the “Albemarle” he was thanked by Congress and was promoted to be lieutenant-commander. On the 15th of January 1865 he took a conspicuous part in the land attack on the sea-front wall of Fort Fisher. After the war he commanded the “Lancaster” (1866-1867) and the “Maumee” (1868-1869) in the Asiatic Squadron. In 1872 he was promoted commander at what was an exceptionally early age, but he died on the 17th of December 1874 of brain fever. He had suffered extreme pain for years before his death, and in fact broke down altogether under disease contracted in the discharge of his duty.
CUSHION (from O. Fr. coisson, coussin; according to the New English Dict., from Lat. coxa, a hip; others say from Lat. culcita, a quilt), a soft bag of some ornamental material, stuffed with wool, hair, feathers, or even paper torn into fragments. It may be used for sitting or kneeling upon, or to soften the hardness or angularity of a chair or couch. It is a very ancient article of furniture, the inventories of the contents of palaces and great houses in the early middle ages constantly making mention of it. It was then often of great size, covered with leather, and firm enough to serve as a seat, but the steady tendency of all furniture has been to grow smaller. It was, indeed, used as a seat, at all events in France and Spain, at a very much later period, and in Saint-Simon’s time we find that at the Spanish court it was still regarded as a peculiarly honourable substitute for a chair. In France the right to kneel upon a cushion in church behind the king was jealously guarded and strictly regulated, as we may learn again from Saint-Simon. This type of cushion was called a carreau or square. When seats were rude and hard the cushion may have been a necessity; it is now one of the minor luxuries of life.
The term “cushion” is given in architecture to the sides of the Ionic capital. It is also applied to an early and simple form of the Romanesque capitals of Germany and England, which consist of cubical masses, square at the top and rounded off at the four corners, so as to reduce the lower diameter to a circle of the same size as the shaft.
CUSHMAN, CHARLOTTE SAUNDERS (1816-1876), American actress, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on the 23rd of July 1816. Her father, a West India merchant, left his family in straitened circumstances, and Charlotte, who had a fine contralto voice, went on the operatic stage. In 1835 she successfully appeared at the Tremont theatre as the countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro. But her singing voice failing her she entered the drama, and played Lady Macbeth in the same year. She then engaged herself as a stock actress, but was soon given leading parts. In 1842 she managed and played in the Walnut Street theatre in Philadelphia. She accompanied Macready on an American tour, winning a great reputation in tragedy, and in 1845 and in 1854-1855 she fulfilled successful engagements in London. She was a keen student, and acquired a large range of classic rôles. Her best parts were perhaps Lady Macbeth and Queen Katherine, her most popular Meg Merrilies, in a dramatization of Scott’s Guy Mannering. Her figure was commanding and her face expressive, and she was animated by a temperament full of vigour and fire. These qualities enabled her to play with success such male parts as Romeo and Cardinal Wolsey. During her later years Miss Cushman worked hard as a dramatic reader, in which capacity she was much appreciated. Her last appearance on the stage took place on the 15th of May 1875, at the Globe theatre, Boston, in which city she died on the 18th of February 1876.
See Emma Stebbins’s Charlotte Cushman, her Letters and Memories of her Life (Boston, 1878); H. A. Clapp’s Reminiscences of a Dramatic Critic (Boston, 1902); and W. T. Price, A Life of Charlotte Cushman (New York, 1894).