Rush, Richard, an American statesman; born in Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 29, 1780; son of the preceding. He was graduated at Princeton College in 1797; and was attorney-general of the United States from 1814 to 1817. In 1817 he was temporary Secretary of State under President Monroe, and was by him appointed minister to England, from whence he was recalled in 1825 by President Adams, who made him Secretary of the Treasury. In 1828 he was candidate for the vice-presidency on the same ticket with President Adams, who was nominated for rëelection, and received the same number of electoral votes. In 1836 President Jackson appointed him commissioner to obtain the Smithsonian legacy, then in the English Court of Chancery, in which he was successful, and returned in 1838 with the entire amount, $515,169. In 1847 he was appointed minister to France. At the close of President Polk's term he asked to be recalled and spent the rest of his life in retirement. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., July 30, 1859. He left "Memoranda of a Residence at the Court of St. James," two volumes; "Washington in Domestic Life"; "Occasional Productions, Political, Diplomatic, etc., while the Author resided as Envoy Extraordinary from the United States, at Paris," published by his sons (1860).
Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia,
1912.