(b. Scituate, Mass., 1 Mar. 1732; d. Scituate, 13 Sep. 1810; interred in family graveyard, Scituate), associate justice, 1789–1810. The son and grandson of judges of the Superior Court of the province of Massachusetts Bay, Cushing took his A.B. at Harvard College in 1751 and received an M.A. from Yale in 1753 and the same degree from Harvard in 1754. After reading law with the eminent Boston lawyer Jeremiah Gridley, he became a member of the Boston bar in 1755 upon Gridley's recommendation. The first years of his practice were difficult, despite being admitted in 1758 as an attorney to the superior court. Although he lived with his father at Scituate, he earned such a scant livelihood that in 1760 he moved to the northern frontier village of Pownalborough (now Dresden, Maine) where, as the only lawyer in the newly created county of Lincoln, he was appointed both justice of the peace and judge of probates. When his father retired from the superior court in 1772, he arranged for his son to succeed him as an associate justice. Cushing in 1774 married Hannah Phillips.

Forced by the rising conflict between the Colonies and the Crown to declare his allegiance to the patriot cause, Cushing alone of the royal appointees continued on the court after it was reorganized in October 1775 by the revolutionary council. He represented Scituate in the convention that drafted the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. As chief justice (he succeeded John Adams in 1777), he presided over Commonwealth v. Jennison (1783), the case that in effect abolished slavery in the state, and in 1787 he tried the leaders of Shay's Rebellion. A strong advocate of the Constitution, he acted as vice president of the state convention that narrowly ratified the document in February 1788.

The first associate justice that George Washington appointed, William Cushing served on the Supreme Court for twenty‐one years. His age and his increasingly ill health, coupled with the rigors of circuit riding, so taxed his strength that he wrote only nineteen opinions. The most important of these were Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), where he concurred with the majority that a state could be sued by a citizen of another state (see Eleventh Amendment); Ware v. Hylton (1796), in which he wrote that a treaty is of equal force with the Constitution and hence cannot be violated by state laws; and Calder v. Bull (1798), where in a two‐sentence opinion characteristic of his propensity for brevity and perhaps for over‐simplification, he agreed that the Constitution forbids ex post facto laws in criminal cases but not in civil ones. In January 1795, following the Senate's rejection of John Rutledge to be chief justice, that body confirmed President Washington's recommendation that Cushing be appointed to the post. After holding the commission for a week, Cushing declined because of ill health. He continued on the bench as an associate justice until his death, the last of Washington's original appointees.

Bibliography

• The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800, vol. 1 (1985), pp. 28–29, 101–103

— David R. Warrington

Cushing, William Barker (1842-74) Union naval officer, born in Delafield, Wisconsin. After being dismissed from the U.S. Naval Academy, Cushing volunteered for blockade duty and rose from acting master's mate to flagship commander. On blockade duty off the Carolinas, he led daring and successful night raids behind enemy lines. He used a small boat and an improvised spar torpedo to destroy the powerful Confederate ironclad Albemarle at Plymouth, North Carolina, (October 27, 1864), and received the thanks of Congress at President Abraham Lincoln's request. At Fort Fisher, commanding the Monticello, Cushing led a charge over the parapet (January 15, 1865). Commanding the Wyoming, he landed at Santiago, Cuba, intervening to stop executions of crew of the American steamer Virginius (1873).

Only weeks before his class was to graduate, Cushing's examination included the evaluation: “General conduct: bad. Aptitude for Naval Service: not good. Not recommended for continuance at the Academy.”

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

• Born: Mar. 1, 1732, Scituate, Mass.
• Education: Harvard College, A.B., 1751, M.A., 1754; Yale University, M.A., 1753 studied law under Jeremiah Gridley, Boston
• Previous government service: judge, probate court for Lincoln, Mass. (now Maine), 1760–61; judge, Superior Court of Massachusetts Bay Province, 1772–77; chief justice, Superior Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1777–89; Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, 1779; vice president, Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788; delegate to the electoral college, 1788
• Appointed by President George Washington Sept. 24, 1789, to fill one of the original six seats on the U.S. Supreme Court
• Supreme Court term: confirmed by the Senate Sept. 26, 1789, by a voice vote; served until Sept. 13, 1810
• Died: Sept. 13, 1810, Scituate, Mass.

William Cushing was an original member of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was the last judge in the United States to wear a full wig, a traditional adornment for British judges. Cushing did not stop wearing his wig until 1790.

Justice Cushing served 21 years on the Court, the longest term of President George Washington's original appointments, but wrote only 19 opinions. His most important opinion, Ware v. Hylton (1796), agreed with the Court's majority that a federal treaty cannot be violated by a state law.

See also Ware v. Hylton

1842–74, Union naval hero in the Civil War, b. Delafield, Wis., educated at Annapolis. Cushing became noted for a series of daredevil exploits, particularly for his sinking of the Confederate warship Albemarle at Plymouth, N.C., in Oct., 1864. In Jan., 1865, he took part in the seizure of Fort Fisher.

Bibliography

See biography by R. J. Roske and C. Van Doren (1957, repr. 1973).

William Cushing was born March 1, 1732. He graduated from Harvard College in 1751, and received an honorary master of arts degree from Yale University in 1753 and an honorary doctor of laws degree from Harvard University in 1785.

After his admission to the bar in 1755, Cushing began his judicial career in Lincoln County, Massachusetts (now a part of Maine), as judge for the Probate Court of that county during 1760 and 1761. In 1772, he served as a justice for the Massachusetts Superior Court, followed by a term as chief justice of that court from 1777 to 1789.

In 1779, Cushing was a member of the first Massachusetts Constitutional Convention. In 1788, he acted as vice president at the Massachusetts Convention, a convention that endorsed the U.S. Constitution.

Cushing returned to the bench in 1789 as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, rendering decisions until 1810.

In addition to his legal and judicial career, Cushing was active in the establishment of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a fellow of that institution from 1780 to 1810.

Cushing died September 13, 1810, in Scituate, Massachusetts.

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