Richard Rush was born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, on August 29, 1780, the second son (and
third child) of prominent physician Benjamin Rush and
Julia (Stockton) Rush. He graduated from the College of
New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1797, stdied law
at the office of William Draper Lewis, and was admitted
to the bar in 1800. He married Catherine Eliza
Murray on August 29, 1809, and the couple ultimately had
ten children.

Almost as soon as he had established his practice,
Rush began gaining statewide and then national attention
as a public speaker and successful trial lawyer. That
attention led to his being named Attorney General of
Pennsylvania in 1811, and as Comptroller of the U.S.
Treasury later that same year. In the latter position,
Rush became one of President
James Madison's most trusted advisors throughout the War of 1812.

In 1814 Madison offered Rush the choice of Secretary
of the Treasury or Attorney General of the United States.
Rush chose the latter, making him the youngest person
ever to serve in that position. Since the attorney
generalship was at the time a part-time position, Rush
maintained his private law practice while in the office.
He also found time to edit a codification of United
States laws before Madison's term ended in 1817.

Upon the inauguration of President James
Monroe on March 10, 1817, Rush
was made acting Secretary of State, in which position he
served until John Quincy Adams'
return from Europe on September 22, 1817. During his
brief tenure in that position, Rush concluded the
discussions with British Ambassador Charles Bagot that
ended with the Rush-Bagot Treaty, in which the United
States and Great Britain agreed to mutually disarm the
Great Lakes.

In October 1817, Rush replaced John
Quincy Adams as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom; the appointment
was formalized on February 12, 1818, and he remained in
the position until April 27, 1825. Despite having once
been known for his anti-British sentiments, Rush became
quite popular in Britain and was therefore able to
negotiate a number of important treaties with the British
government. The most important of those treaties, the
Anglo-American Treaty of 1818, fixed the 49th
parallel as the boundary between Canada and the United
States, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky
Mountains, and permitted for 10 years the settlement of
both U.S. citizens and British subjects in the Oregon
Territory without prejudicing the claim of either
government to the region. He also participated in
conferences concerning Latin America with George Canning,
British Foreign Minister, that led to the enunciation of
the Monroe Doctrine.

In 1820, Rush received one electoral vote as a
Federalist for the office of Vice-President, despite the
Federalists having no presidential candidate that year.
In 1824 he received a single vote at the
Democratic-Republican Convention to be John Quincy Adam's
running mate. Upon Adams' election to the presidency,
Rush was named Secretary of the Treasury, in which
position he served from March 7, 1825 to March 5, 1829.
During his tenure Rush paid off almost all of the
national debt and left his successor with a substantial
treasury surplus.

Rush was the vice-presidential
candidate during Adams' unsuccessful campaign for
re-election. After leaving the Treasury Department, he
was asked by the cities of Georgetown and Alexandria,
Virginia, to negotiate loans from England and the
Netherlands; he was successful. In 1835 he and
Benjamin C. Howard were sent by President Andrew Jackson to
prevent an outbreak of hostilities in the Ohio-Michigan
boundary dispute. In 1836 Jackson sent him to England to
accept the legacy left to the United States by James
Smithson. That legacy led to establishment of the Smithsonian
Institution, and Rush served as one of its first
regents.

Rush returned to public service on March 3, 1847, when
President James Knox
Polk named him Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary to France. After King Louis Philippe
was overthrown, Rush was among the first foreign
diplomats to recognize the French Second Republic. He
remained in France until March 3, 1849, when he was
recalled by new President
Zachary Taylor.

Upon his return to the United States,
Rush retired to Philadelphia, where he died on July 30,
1859.