Ричард Раш: Американ саяхатшысы, саяси қайраткері және дипломаты

American lawyer, politician and diplomat (1780–1859)

Richard Rush (August 29, 1780 – July 30, 1859) was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat who served as the 8th United States Attorney General from 1814 to 1817 and the 8th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1825 to 1829. He served as John Quincy Adams's running mate on the National Republican ticket during the 1828 United States presidential election. He served as Attorney General of Pennsylvania in 1811 and as Comptroller of the Treasury during the James Madison administration. Rush became one of Madison's closest advisers during the War of 1812 and Madison elevated him to United States Attorney General in 1814. Rush remained in that position after James Monroe took office. He served as the acting Secretary of State briefly in 1817 and negotiated the Rush–Bagot Treaty, which limited naval forces on the Great Lakes. Rush served as the ambassador to Britain from 1818 to 1825. He negotiated the Treaty of 1818 which set the boundary between the U. S. and Canada and had discussions with George Canning that led to the announcement of the Monroe Doctrine. He served as minister to France from 1847 to 1849. He helped establish and served on the board of regents for the Smithsonian Institution.

Rush was born on August 29, 1780, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the second son, and third child, of Benjamin Rush and Julia (Stockton) Rush, daughter of Richard Stockton and Annis Boudinot Stockton. He entered the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton University) at the age of 14, and graduated in 1797 as the youngest member of his class. He studied law in the practice of William Lewis and was admitted to the bar in 1800. Rush married Catherine Eliza Murray on the fall of 1809. They were the parents of eleven children including the lawyer and writer Benjamin Rush and Union Army colonel Richard H. Rush.

As a lawyer, Rush first gained attention with a speech he gave which condemned the British naval attack during the Chesapeake Leopard affair. In 1811 he was appointed Attorney General of Pennsylvania. He successfully acquitted William Duane in a libel suit brought forth by the Pennsylvania Governor Thomas McKean. His popularity prompted an offer to run for Congress but he declined. In November 1811, President James Madison appointed Rush Comptroller of the Treasury. He was acting Secretary of State briefly in 1817. During this time Rush concluded the Rush Bagot Convention, which demilitarized the Canadian boundary on the Great Lakes. to succeed John Quincy Adams, who had taken the position of Secretary of State upon his return. He remained in Britain for almost eight years, and negotiated a number of important treaties, including the Treaty of 1818. Upon the election of John Quincy Adams in 1825, Rush (having made a study of Britain, and the British Navy in particular, while he was there) desired to become the Secretary of the Navy. Adams, however, immediately nominated him for the post of 8th Secretary of the Treasury, which he accepted. After a short time with the Anti Masonic Party, in the later 1830s Rush became a member of the Democratic Party. He was opposed to anti slavery sentiments because he believed they threatened the stability of the Union. In 1817, Rush elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. During the 1820s, Rush was a member of the prestigious society, Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences, who counted among their members former presidents Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams and many prominent men of the day, including well known representatives of the military, government service, medical and other professions.