Caleb Cushing served as U.S. attorney general from 1853 to 1857 in the administration of President Franklin Pierce. A distinguished public servant, Cushing was the first attorney general not to maintain a private law practice while serving in the cabinet.

Cushing was born on January 17, 1800, in Salisbury, Massachusetts. A precocious student, Cushing entered Harvard at the age of thirteen. Following his graduation in 1817, Cushing studied law with a Boston law firm and was admitted to the bar in 1821. Though he started a private law practice, he found himself pulled in different directions. He was elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1825 and was elected to the state senate in 1826, yet during this period Cushing began to publish books, including a book on political economy. His momentary desire to be a writer and intellectual led him to resign his seat. He spent three years in Europe researching and writing a lengthy...