236 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.52 



great astonishment and distress on November 25th he set off for Washington 

 to accept of it. I dissuaded him from doing so from the following considera- 

 tions : First. The degradation to which such an office exposed a man of 

 literary and professional talents. It was an office that could be filled by any 

 clerk of a bank. Second. The vexations and poverty of political life. Third. 

 His comfortable establishment and excellent prospects in Pennsylvania, the 

 State of his ancestors and family. Fourth. The sickliness of Washington and 

 the insufficiency of the salary to support a growing family. Fifth. The dis- 

 honor which he would do to his understanding by such an act. Sixth. My age, 

 also my young family, which required his advice now and would still more 

 require it after my death. I offered to implore him not to accept of the ap- 

 pointment upon my knees, but all, all to no purpose. Oh, my son, my son 

 Richard, may you never be made to feel in the tmkindness of a son the 

 misery you have inflicted upon me by this rash conduct. He was dissuaded 

 from it by all his friends and was blamed for it by most of the citizens of 

 Philadelphia who knew him. 



December 30, 1811. 

 This day my son and his family set off for Washington to enter upon the 

 labor of the humble office he had preferred to the respectable and professional 

 office he held in Pennsylvania. This day also the awful news of the burning 

 of the theatre in Richmond, Virginia, reached this city, in which above sixty 

 persons, among whom was the Governor of Virginia and many other persons 

 of note, perished. It took place on the 26th of this month. 



The foreboding of this otherwise far-sighted man did not, how- 

 ever, come to pass. On the contrary, a most distinguished career 

 awaited Richard Rush. As indicated in his father's diary, he went 

 to Washington to accept the office of Comptroller of the Treasury. 

 From 1814 to 1817 he was Attorney-General of the United States. 

 In 1817 he acted temporarily as Secretary of State, and was then 

 appointed Minister to England, where he remained until 1825, negoti- 

 ating several important treaties. In that year he was recalled to 

 accept the position of Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet of 

 President John Ouincy Adams, and in 1828 he was candidate for the 

 Vice-Presidency on the ticket with 'Mr. Adams. He was Minister 

 to France from 1847 to 185 1. 



He was an author of prominence of his day and is especially 

 remembered by his "Residence at the Court of London from 1817 

 to 1825," still one of the important contributions by an American 

 to the history of our diplomacy. He also published a work entitled 

 "Washington in Domestic Life," and is by some considered the real 

 author of the Monroe Doctrine. 



However, I do not purpose to give here a biography of Richard 

 Rush, but simply to state his relation to the Smithsonian Institution. 

 This began in 1836, through the appointment by President Jackson 

 of Mr. Rush as the agent on behalf of the United States to assert 



