Thomas Cushing

Thomas Cushing III ( born March 24, 1725 in Quincy, Massachusetts, † February 28, 1788 in Boston, Massachusetts ) was an American politician and in 1785 governor of the state of Massachusetts. Between 1774 and 1776 he was a member of the Continental Congress.

Early years

Thomas Cushing attended the Boston Latin School and then to 1744 the Yale University. After a subsequent law studies he started to work as a lawyer in Boston. Between 1761 and 1774 he was a member of the colonial Parliament of Massachusetts, whose chairman he was.

Political career in Massachusetts

At the beginning of the American Revolution Cushing this rather reserved until faced hostile. Nevertheless, he was chosen by the Americans in the first Continental Congress and then searched by the British as traitors. Between 1774 and 1776, he remained in Congress. In 1776 he was not re-elected because of his still hesitant attitude towards the Declaration of Independence. For this he was General Manager since 1775 the Continental Army for Massachusetts. He had finally joined the American Revolution. In 1779 he declined to run again for Congress. Instead, he was elected in 1780 for the first Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, a post he held until his death in 1788.

In 1785 he had to overcome as governor in this property, the five months between the resignation of John Hancock and the inauguration of James Bowdoin. Cushing had then advertised himself as governor, but was inferior to Bowdoin. He was later a delegate to the Assembly, which ratified the Constitution of the United States for Massachusetts, and one of the founders of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Deborah Fletcher (1727-1790) married Thomas Cushing died on February 28, 1788 in Boston.