Overview
Contains mainly letters from Caleb Cushing to his law partner, Sidney Webster, along with a document on maritime neutrality, a broadside circular by Cushing on the Trent Affair, and some letters and other documents by and about Sidney Webster.
Dates
- Creation: 1857-1909
Creator
- Cushing, Caleb, 1800-1879 (Person)
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.4 linear feet (1 box)Contains approximately fifty-five letters from Caleb Cushing to his law partner, Sidney Webster, organized by year from 1957 to 1863. Further materials include a document on maritime neutrality written by Cushing, as well as a 1861 broadside circular by Cushing on the Trent Affair. The collection also contains some letters and other documents by and about Sidney Webster more directly.
Biographical / Historical
Caleb Cushing (1800-1879) was an American democratic political and lawyer. He served as a Congressman from Massachusetts and was the Attorney General under President Franklin Pierce (1853-1857). He was interested in territorial expansion and managed early relations between the United States and China, negotiating the Treaty of Wangxia in 1844. Cushing arranged a treaty with Columbia to give the United States the right-of-way to a trans-oceanic canal after the Civil War and worked to settle the Alabama Claims. Cushing served as ambassador to Spain (1874-1877), negotiating for resolution of the Virginius Affair. Sidney Webster (1828-1910) was his law partner and regular correspondent. Webster was a lawyer and expert on constitutional law, and served as Franklin Pierce’s personal secretary during his presidency.
Arrangement
Letters are arranged in chronological order, followed by the documents, circular, and other materials.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2009M-80. Purchase, Bayard Livingston and Kate Gray Kilgour Fund, in 2010 February.
Processing Information
Processed by Betts Coup, 2019.
Creator
- Cushing, Caleb, 1800-1879 (Person)
- Title
- Cushing, Caleb, 1800-1879. Caleb Cushing letters to Sidney Webster, 1857-1909 (MS Am 3321): Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University.
- Date
- 2019 July 8
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou03213
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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