Thomas Cushing

Thomas Cushing

Thomas Cushing III (born March 24, 1725 in Quincy , Province of Massachusetts Bay , † February 28, 1788 in Boston , Massachusetts) was an American politician and in 1785 governor of the state of Massachusetts. Between 1774 and 1776 he was a member of the Continental Congress .

Early years

Thomas Cushing attended the Boston Latin School and then Yale University until 1744 . After completing a law degree, he began working as a lawyer in Boston. Between 1761 and 1774 he was a member of the colonial parliament of Massachusetts, of which he was chairman.

Political career in Massachusetts

At the beginning of the American independence movement, Cushing was rather reserved to hostile to it. Nevertheless, he was elected by the Americans to the first continental congress and then wanted by the British as a traitor. Between 1774 and 1776 he remained in Congress. In 1776 he was not re-elected because of his still hesitant attitude towards the declaration of independence . For this he was from 1775 General Plenipotentiary of the Continental Army for Massachusetts. With that he had finally joined the American Revolution. In 1779, he declined to run again for Congress. Instead, he was elected the first lieutenant governor of Massachusetts in 1780 , an office he held until his death in 1788.

In 1785, in this capacity, he had to bridge the five months between the resignation of John Hancock and the inauguration of James Bowdoin as governor. Cushing had applied for governor himself at the time, but was defeated by Bowdoin. He was later a delegate to the assembly that ratified the United States Constitution for Massachusetts , and was a founding member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1780 .

Thomas Cushing was married to Deborah Fletcher (1727-1790).

Web links

• Thomas Cushing in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Thomas Cushing . Massachusetts State General Court
• Thomas Cushing in the database of Find a Grave (English)