Page 436 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

422 .

align more closely with Adams. An Anglophobe from youth,

51
Cushing never wavered from a distrust of England.
Cushing, elected to the House in 1834 as an ardent Whig,

had become just as zealous in his defense of Tyler after his

succession to the Presidency. As a result, he incurred the
acrimony of Henry Clay and the majority of the Whig party. In

1842, out of political expediancy, Cushing decided not to run

again for Congress. He anticipated an appointment from Tyler

to the Cabinet and the President did not fail him. The Whigs

in Congress were not about to confirm Tyler's nomination of a

man who had deserted them. Consequently, the Senate rejected

Cushing's name three consecutive times as Secretary of the

Treasury. But Cushing, as Adams noted, "has not made his court

to Captain Tyler in vain. His obsequiousness and sacrifice of

principle lost him the favor of his constituents, .but Mr.

Tyler had more precious favors in his gift, and has lavished

11 52
them in profusion upon Cushing. The President's appointment
of Cushing as minister to China occurred while Congress was not

in session. When the Senate discussed the matter in therext
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sessionu Cushing was already in China.

Aside from Adams' crusty cormnent, most Whigs interested

in foreign affairs did not seriously object to Cushing's appoint-

51
claude M. Fuess, "Caleb Cushing, a Memoir," Massachu­
setts Historical Society, Proceedings, LXIV (1930-32), 440-41.
Fuess, Life of Caleb Cushing.
52
Adams, Memoirs, XI, 338.
53
Fuess, Life of Caleb Cushing, I, 412. See earlier
chapters in Fuess, Life of Caleb Cusing and Fuess, Daniel Webster
for the growth of the split between Tyler and the Whigs and
Cushing's role in it.