Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-02-09
THE NEW CABINET.
Gen. Cushing, sssresary 81 State.
lFr,,,. ,ha NJ y t..r,tJ &c Ng..l.I

|
ton, lets in flood of light the cabinet ques
ton. The confident tone with which, he speaks @
} he.positive selection of Gen. Caleb Cushing O
| Massachusetts, for the State Department, w,
have every reason to conclude is justified by tn,
facts in the case. Several of the latest Pilgrim
from Concord, arriving in this city within the las
few days. and several of our private correspon
dents, North, East and South, sustain the dec
aratons of premier on this point, speaking
with absolute confidence ofthe settling down OF
Gen. Pierce upon Caleb Gushing for the State
| Department.
| Now if this should be the case, the questions
naturally arising are:-Who is Caleb Cushing!
| What is he! What are his antecedents! What
are his proclivitiesl Can Gen. Pierce build a
Cabinet which will be unit, upon this founda-
ton! Will Gen. Gushing be satisfactory to the
''old fogies," to ''Young America to the hun
kers, the barnburuers the ''haId Shells and .soft
shells,'' to the Unionsts and the secessonists of
| the South! Can they all rally upon Gen. Cush-
| ing? And if they cannot, what is to happen?
General Gushing, then was distinguished wing
member of Congress in the revolutionary extra
wing session of l941. But he stood fast by the
side of John Tyler and the democrats on those
bank vetoes, together with Wise and Gilmcr of
Virginia, and Profit of INDIANA, of the House, and
VIM G. Rives, of Virginia, of the Senate. And
these men were christened by MIR. Clay as John
TyIer's Corporal's Guard. They were not,
however, neglected by Captain Tyler. Mr..
Gushing sent as Commissioner to China
Mr., Profit on mission to Bueuos Ayres, Mr..
Wise to Brazil, Mr.. Gilmer was appointed Sec
! retary of tho Navy, aud for Mr.. Rives he
went back to the wing church, was received in
good communion, in the campaign of A. as an
ally of Mr.. Clay, worked hard, also, in the CAM
paign of '48, for Gen. Taylor and was rewarded
with the mission to France, which he still holds.
Mr.. Gushing, atte concluding commercial
treaty with China returned home; and having
taken strong ground with the democracy, he WIS
appointed by President Polk Brigadier General
in the army of Mexico, and was first attached to
| the column of General Taylor on the Rio Grande.
He acquitted himself with credit of the duties
attached to his command, and we doubt not that
his connection with the army in Mexico has had
good deal to do with the we'll known favorable
| predictions of General Pierce
Since the Mexican war, the democracy of Mas
sachusetts have evinced the highest esteem for
General Gushing, in running him as their can
didate for Governor, their candidate for the Uni
ted States Senate, aud other responsible offices.
He is fine scholar and able debater, and has
proved himself q bold, active, and sagacous poll
tician. We presume that if put into the State
| Department. he will not disappoint his friends;
but may, perhaps, surprise the cou ntry with his
profound capacities for the hard, knotty question
of diplomacy with which he will have to grapple.
| With respect to his political procivities, we
apprehend he is identified with the progress
sive school of Young America though not to the
extreme tillibustering propensities of the Demo-
| cratic Review. He is not an 'old fogy," we
are quite sure, whatever that dreadful term
may imply. He is not afraid of Cuba, and not
IN the least fastidious about proclaiming the
Monroe doctrine. He is believer in the old
Roman practice of still moving the god Terminus
| lit+Ia f,rtl, &c
boundaries by Chinese wall of selfish converva-
tism. He is firm disciple of Gallileo. and be-
lieves that the world moves, while it seems to be
standing still. He thinks, with Bishop Berkeley,
that the ''star of empire is tending westward:
and that there is something in the maxim or that
hard old Scotchman, Carlyle. that commerce is
King" The atmosphere ofthe democratic party
has expanded his views the tariff question into
the conviction that the policy of Robert j. Walker
and the policy of Sir Robert Peel, have done
more for our commerce and that of the world
than all the high protective tariffs of the last
| quarter ota century. This is the sort of man we
understand Gen. Cushing to be; and, whether Fl.
nallY appointed Premier or not, this brief sketch
teisns arser may be useful to all those po
upon which his friends SO sang aine of his as
| sured success.
Abstaining for the psesent. from the discussion
of any other probable cabinet appointment. we
submit the latest Secretary of State to the various
factions of the democracy. Not having been
violently identified with any of them he ought,
perhaps, to be satisfactory to all. Why not?-
| L he old Bourbons, we know will shrug their
shoulders, but what have they to say? "Let
them speak out now, forever hereafter hold
their pence There is no time to be lost.
Correspondence of the N Y, Express.
WASHINGTON, Feb. g. 1858.
Arriving In this place land such placeD last
. Yard I
ind the political sceneshifters the chiefs of the
little managing cfques, the letter writer's and the
special correspondents of the newspaper press, SO
entirely in the dark respecting the determiua-
tions, inclnatons, and intentions of Gen. Pierce
in regard to his cabinet
First, then, it is well known as a fact that Mr.
Senator Hunter, of Virginia. was offered the
State Department, and that he has concIusively
declined to accept it, General Pierce, no doubt,
thought it due to Virginia, from her position as
the great meiiator between the North and South
and in consideration of her confidence in General
Pierce, as expressed in the high complement she
paid him, in leading of with his name in the
| Baltimore Convention.
But he having declined the honor, the peculiar
obligations ofGen. Pierce to Virginia are can
celled He is free to seek his Premier else
where.
Who, then, is to be the Secretary of State!
This question can now be answered by repeat
ing that Caleb Cushing, of Massachusetts, is the
man, or your correspondent is verv much mista-
ken. But if the meeting, the other day, by APP
pointment, between Gen. Pierce and Gen. Cusl-
ing, in Boston, signifies anything, it signifies the
State Department for Massachusetts. And ifthe
attentions which have been shown to Gen. Cush
ing by the Boston Democrats, for a week or ten
days past, and the anable suavity with which he
receives them, mean anything they are strong
circumstantal proof that the question of the
State Department. is settled affair. l regard
| it, and, content with the superior scholarship,
talents, observation, experience and progressive
principles ofGe Cushing the s'old fogies"-and
who they are and what they are, they must de-
eide for themselves the sold fogies'' may di