A nine volume set given to Caleb Cushing at time of Graduation from Harvard University by his Uncle A. Johnson so signed on Volume 1 with Cushing signing and dating the remainder of volumes.

Caleb Cushing (1800 –1879) was an American statesman and diplomat who served as a U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts and was Attorney General under President Franklin Pierce. Born in Salisbury, Massachusetts, in 1800, he was the son of John Newmarch Cushing, a wealthy shipbuilder and merchant, and of Lydia Dow from Seabrook, New Hampshire who died when he was ten. The family moved across the Merrimac River to the prosperous shipping town of Newburyport in 1802. He entered Harvard University at the age of 13 and graduated in 1817. He was a teacher of mathematics there from 1820 to 1821, and was admitted to practice in the Massachusetts court of common pleas in December 1821. He began practicing law in Newburyport in 1824.

After serving in the Massachusetts House and Senate 1825-28, he spent two years in Europe before again serving in state legislature until 1834. From1834 to 1843, he was a representative to Congress being chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs during the 27th Congress. In 1843 President Tyler appointed Cushing to be commissioner and Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States to China. In 1844 he negotitated the Treaty of Wang Hiya, the first treaty between China and the United States.

In 1847, Cushing raised the necessary funds privately to field a Massacuhsetts Regiment to serve in the Mexican American war, personally serving first as U.S. Army colonel and afterwards as brigadier-general of volunteers. In 1851-52, he served as mayor of Newburyport, Massachusetts for whom he had written a major history of the town. During the administration of President Franklin Pierce he was 23rd Attorney General of the United States. He held positions in the administrations of James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and U. S. Grant. He was noteworthy in the country’s efforts to negotiate a treaty for the Panama Canal while Minister to Columbia.

Please view all photos to judge condition for yourself but the collection is quite rare and made even more so by the provenance of such an important American Statesman as Caleb Cushing.

Samuel Johnson LL.D. (1709 – 1784), often referred to simply as Dr Johnson, is one of England's best known literary figures; a poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer and a critic of English Literature. He was also a great wit and prose stylist, well known for his aphorisms. Dr Johnson is the most quoted of English writers after Shakespeare and has been described as one of the outstanding figures of 18th-century England. Johnson's preface and notes distinguishes this set from other works about Shakespeare.