As an official, he would obey
instructions, and as an assistant in legal, historical, or diplomatic
researches, he had no rival. He attained to high positions, and yet he
was never fully trusted by any administration or party. His personal
habits were peculiar. In later years, his economy degenerated into
parsimony. This may have been due in part to his lack of financial
skill. First and last he was led into many unprofitable undertakings,
and as a results, his patrimony, which was something, and his
professional earnings which were considerable, were consumed. He was
in debt usually, and he limited his expenses that he might meet his
liabilities. He was eccentric. I have met him at evening
entertainments arrayed in a dress suit with a bright red ribbon for a
necktie.
General Cushing had great qualities, but he was not a great man. He
had immense capacity that he could use in aid of others, but he lacked
ability to mark out a course for himself, or he lacked tenacity or
purpose in pursuing it. His ambition had no limits, and he would
swerve from his personal obligations in the pursuit of place. In my
administration he was made a judge of the Supreme Court of the State,
and upon an understanding that he would retain the place. During the
few months that he was upon the bench, he gave promise of success, but
upon the election of President Pierce, he could not resist the offer of
a seat in his Cabinet.
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