Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/276

 KING

KING

valuable books. He is the author of: The Cul- ture of the Olive {\SiQ), and numerous essays. He died in Flat Rock, S.C, Nov. 12, 1862.

KING, Preston, senator, was born in Ogdens- burg, N.Y., Oct. 14, 1806; an illegitimate son of John King and Margaret Galloway. He was graduated at Union college in 1827, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practised in St. Lawrence county, N.Y. In 1830 he established the St. Lawrence Republican and supported Andrew Jackson for President in 1832. He was postmaster of Ogdensburg, 1831-34; member of the state assembly, 1835-38, and a supporter of the annexation of Canada. "When the Canadian patriots were captured on the Canada side near Ogdensburg and some of them executed, he be- came temporarily insane and was committed to an asylum. He was a representative in the 28th and 29tli congresses, 1843-47, and in the 31st and 32d congresses, 1849-53, and it was due to his political influence that the Wilmot Proviso was brought up, Jan. 4, 1847, and passed the house. He joined the Republican party in 1854, and was the unsuccessful candidate of that party for secretary of state in 1855. He was U.S. senator from New York, 1857-63, and upon the expiration of his term, removed to New York city, and re- sumed the practice of his profession. He was a delegate to the Republican national convention of 1864; chairman of the ReiJublican national committee, 1860-64; presidential elector at large for New York in 1865, and collector of the port of New York by appointment of President John- son in 1865. He mysteriously disappeared from a ferry boat while crossing the Hudson river from New York city, Nov. 12, 1865, and his body was recovered from the water in May, 1866, and buried with suitable honors next to the graves of Ills fatlier and motlier at Ogdensburg, N.Y.

KING, Rufus, statesman, was born in Scarbor- ough, Maine, March 24, 1755; son of Richard and Isabella (Bragdon) King and gi-andson of Jolin King, who emigrated from Kent, England, about 1700, settled in Boston, Mass., and was married to Mary, daughter of Benjamin Stowell of New- ton, Mass. Richard King was a farmer, mer- chant and the lai'gest exporter of lumber from the district of Maine. Rufus King received his elementary education in the schools of Scarbor- ough; was sent to Byfield academy in Newbiuy- port in 1769, and was graduated from Harvard college in 1777. He studied law in Newburyport under Theophilus Parsons; was appointed aide- de-camp to General Sullivan in the Rhode Island campaign of 1778, and upon its unsuccessful termination he resumed his studies. He was admitted to the bar in 1780, and soon built up a large practice. He was a representative in the Massachusetts legislature in 1782, and a delegate

to the Continental congress, 1784-87, and intro- duced the anti-slavery bill before the latter body in March, 1785. He was appointed by the Massa- chusetts legislature one of the deputies to the Philadelpliia convention of May 25, 1787, to revise the articles of con- federation, and when the question of the adoption of the revis- ion was submitted to the states lie was sent to the Massa- chusetts convention, and by his familiar- ity with the provis- ions of the instru- ment and clear ex- planation of them,

contributed greatly to ^-^ -- ■• ' ^■'' its final adoption. He '/k. / j /k was married, in 1786, JlM^JU^^. to Mary, daughter of ' ly

John Alsop, a wealthy New York merchant and a deputy from that city to the first Continental congress, 1774-76, and retiring from the practice of the law lie removed to New York city in 1788. He was chosen a member of the New York assem- bly in 1789, but before he liad an opportunity to serve on any committee in that body he was elected, with Philip Schuyler, a U.S. senator, and he drew the long term, to expire March 3, 1795. The senate at that time sat with closed doors, and except in the journals no reports of the proceedings are to be found, and it was not until 1794 that a motion to make the proceedings public was carried. Mr. King was an advocate of the Jay treatj^ with Great Britain in 1794, and when he was prevented from explaining the pro- visions of that act to the i:)eople at a puljlic meet- ing, he published, in connection with General Hamilton, who had also been refused a hearing, a series of explanatory papers under the pen-name " Camillus." He was re-elected to the U.S. senate in 1795, and resigned in 1796, wlien ap- pointed by President Washington U.S. minister to England. He was at the court of St. James until 1803, when he was relieved at his own request, and on his return to the United States removed to Jamaica, L.I., where he interested himself in agriculture. He was the Federalist candidate for Vice-President in 1804, when he received fourteen electoral votes, and again in 1808, when he re- ceived forty-seven electoral votes. In 1813 he was again elected to the U.S. senate. He was opposed to the war of 1812, but when it was de- clared he gave the government his support. He was nominated for governor of New York in 1815, but was defeated by Daniel D. Tompkins. He was nominated by the Federalists for the