  caleb cushing (january 17, 1800 â january 2, 1879) was an american diplomat who served as a u.s. congressman from massachusetts and attorney general under president franklin pierce. ==biography== ===early life=== born in salisbury, massachusetts, in 1800, he was the son of john newmarch cushing, a wealthy shipbuilder and merchant, and of lydia dow, a delicate and sensitive woman from seabrook, new hampshire, who died when he was ten. the family moved across the merrimack river to the prosperous shipping town of newburyport in 1802. he entered harvard university at the age of 13 and graduated in 1817. he was a teacher of mathematics there from 1820 to 1821, and was admitted to practice in the massachusetts court of common pleas in december, 1821. he began practicing law in newburyport in 1824. there he attended the first presbyterian church. on november 23, 1824, cushing married caroline elizabeth wilde, daughter of judge samuel sumner wilde, of the supreme judicial court. his wife died about a decade later, leaving him childless and alone. he never married again. ===state legislature=== cushing served as a democratic-republican member of the massachusetts house of representatives in 1825, then entered the massachusetts senate in 1826, and returned to the house in 1828. afterwards, he spent two years, from 1829 to 1831, in europe. upon his return, he again served in the lower house of the state legislature in 1833 and 1834. then, in late 1834, he was elected a [[united states house of representatives|re
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