RUFUS KING. RUFUS KING, the son of Richard | fleet, of freeing Newport from its King, a wealthy merchant, was born British occupants. In this affair young in 1755, at Scarborough, his father's King acted as aid to the American residence, in the district of Maine. He general. In 1780 he was admitted to received an excellent preparatory edu- the bar, and began the practice of his cation under the direction of Samuel profession at Newburyport. In his Moody, a teacher of repute of the first case, it is said, he had his instrucByfield Academy, in the town of New- tor, Parsons, as his antagonist. Thence bury, from whose hands he passed to he was sent, in 1784, to the Legislature, Harvard College, where his studies or General Court, as it was termed, were interrupted by the opening scenes of Massachusetts. He was chosen a of the Revolutionary war. The death representative to Congress the same of his father occurred about the same year, and continued a member of that time. On the reopening of the institu- body to the formation of the Constitution at Cambridge, having pursued his tion. education in the interim with his former preceptor, a rigorous instructor, who, “in many respects, is said to have resembled the celebrated Busby," 1 he joined its band of students and graduated with honor as a classical recommendation to the States-it had scholar and accomplished speaker in power to effect nothing more of a more-of 1777. We then find him engaged in uniform system of imposts for the pubthe study of the law with Theophilus lic revenue. There was some relucParsons, subsequently the chief justice tance on the part of Pennsylvania to of Massachusetts, at Newburyport, and meet the provisions of the act, growing the war being still in progress, he took out of an alleged inequality of the part in the military expedition to disbursements, in consequence of which Rhode Island, in 1778, conducted by General Sullivan, with the expectation, through the assistance of the French 1 Delaplaine's Repository, Art. Rufus King. No one saw more clearly, or urged more zealously, the wants of a just consolidated government. One of the prominent measures of the old Confederacy, in its latter days, was the the State applied its quota, not to the general treasury but to the public creditors within her own jurisdiction. To remedy this grievance, and bring the tax where it belonged, at the disposal of the General Government, Mr. King strong personal connection with the and Mr. Monroe were sent by Congress society of New York, in 1788, made to represent the case to the legislature. that city his residence. He had, two A day was appointed for the hearing, and Mr. King took especial pains to prepare himself, as was his custom, for the occasion. Perhaps the very extent of his preparation defeated his usual ease and readiness, for, the opening of the case being assigned to him, he grew embarrassed, hesitated, and was compelled to request his coadjutor to take up the discussion. Monroe, ever fluent at a certain level, proceeded with the ordinary aspects of the question, while Mr. King, having freed his mind of the constraint of his elaborate preparation, when his companion concluded, rose and delivered a finished and eloquent address. We may here remark that it was Mr. King's habit to study the subject of his speeches thoroughly, making elaborate notes, but reducing the points of his discourse to a few heads, so that he trusted at last to the powers of his own mind on the occasion. His language then had the advantage of a sonorous utterance and impressive manner. He was also a prominent member of the Convention of 1787, which formed the Constitution, of which he was one of the most intelligent advocates, and was one of the committee appointed to prepare and report the final draft of the instrument. When the question of its adoption was brought before his own State, he rendered a no less important service in the ratifying convention, in which he sat as a member from Newburyport. Mr. King having already formed a years before, been married to Mary Alsop, the daughter of a wealthy, patriotic merchant of the place, a mem ber of the old continental Congress, who had been driven from New York by the British occupation, and had taken refuge with his daughter, his only child, at Middletown, Connecticut. On the withdrawal of the British, he returned to the city, and there, in March, 1786, the daughter, then in her sixteenth year, became the bride of the young New England statesman. John Adams addressed to him a letter of congratulation, from England, on the event, in which, with some other instances of the kind, he playfully found a bond of federal union. "I heard some time ago," he wrote, "of your marriage with the daughter of my old friend, Mr. Alsop, as well as of the marriage of Mr. Gerry, and of both with the more pleasure, probably, as a good work of the same kind, for connecting Massachusetts and New York in the bonds of love, was going on here. Last Sunday, under the right reverend sanction of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of St. Asaph, were married Mr. Smith and Miss Adams. It will be unnatural if federal purposes are not answered by these intermarriages." The Mr. Gerry mentioned in the letter is Mr. Elbridge Gerry, the member of Congress, who about this time was married to a Miss Thompson, of New York. Colonel 1 1 Griswold's Republican Court, p. 100. William S. Smith, Secretary of Legation at London at the time of his marriage to Miss Adams, was a native of New York, a gentleman well known in the social circles of the city. The features of Mary Alsop, Mrs. King, are preserved on the canvas of Trumbull an interesting portrait of an animated countenance, graceful and beautiful in the higher elements of goodness. Mr. King's position in the political world was so well understood and appreciated at New York, that he was chosen, together with General Schuyler, one of the first United States Senators from the State, under the new Constitution. He was at the time a member of the New York Legislature. He served through his term of office in the Senate, and in 1795 was reëlected. Much has been said of his eloquence in this body, particularly of a speech on a personal issue, which was made a strict party test, and excited an interest other wise disproportionate to the occasion; we allude to the question of the citizenship of Albert Gallatin, and the consequent uncertainty of his claim to a seat in the Senate. Mr. King, of course, took the Federalist side, in opposition to Gallatin and the rising members of the Republican party. This occurred in 1794, the year of Jay's British Treaty, which was emphatically the question of the time. The agitation on this subject can hardly be appreciated at the present day, involving as it did so much of the old feeling of the war which had just passed, and, what was a great deal more with politicians, so much of the party struggle for power of the future. In this matter the Federalists were of one mind, and King, by the side of Fisher Ames, and others of his personal friends, stood nobly by the administration of Washington. The popular opposition to the treaty was so great, that when Hamilton and King appeared at a public meeting in New York, to defend its positions, neither were allowed to speak. They conse quently had recourse to the pen, and became the joint authors of the "Essays on the Treaty," which bore the signature "Camillus." Of these the first ten were the work of Hamilton, while the remainder, discussing the commercial and maritime articles, were by Mr. King. His ability exhibited in this affair, together with his many other special qualifications, led to his nomination by Washington as minister to England. He was particularly recommended for the post by Hamilton, who, in a letter to the President, thus spoke of his friend: "The importance, to our secu rity and commerce, of a good understanding with Great Britain, renders it very important that a man able and not disagreeable to that government, should be there. Mr. King is a remarkably well informed man, a very judicious. one, a man of address, a man of fortune and economy, whose situation affords just ground of confidence; a man of unimpeached probity where he is known, a firm friend to the government, a supporter of the measures of the President; a man who cannot but feel that he has strong pretensions to confidence and trust."1 Mr. King's nomination to the mission 1 Sparks' Washington, XI. 128. was made to the Senate in May, 1796, and immediately confirmed. A picture of his leisure at this time in a graceful sketch written by his son, President Charles King, which we have just cited, may interest the reader. After noticing his care in introducing from New Hampshire the pines and firs which now adorn the grounds, the writer proceeds: "Some acorns planted near the house in 1810 are now large His residence abroad, as minister to England, was continued for six years, through the remainder of Washing. ton's administration, the whole of that of John Adams, and two years of the first term of Jefferson. The negotia tions of the mission at that time chiefly concerned the disputed commercial trees. Mr. King indeed planted, as the rights of the two countries, which were involved in various discussions aggravated by the belligerent condition of Europe. Of these, the right of search touched most nearly the honor of the country; and, on this question, Mr. King was most earnest and patriotic in his demands. Mr. King had left America in the full faith and confidence of Federalism, then the dominant party, having stood the test of the agitation on the British treaty. He returned to his adopted State, to find a new order of things established. "The popular air was in another direction," to quote the language of his son, "and Mr. King was of too lofty a character to trim his bark to the veering breeze." He had long since abandoned professional life as a lawyer, and now chose a residence in the country, the most dignified retirement for a statesman out of office. He became the purchaser of a country seat on Long Island, at Jamaica, in the neighborhood of New York, a spot still in his family, and honored as the residence of his son, Governor John A. King. Thither he removed his family from the city, in 1806, and found pleasing occupation in the planting and decoration of his grounds. Romans builded-'for posterity and the immortal gods,' for to his eldest son, now ocupying the residence of his father, he said in putting into the ground an acorn of the red oak: 'If you live to be as old as I am, you will see here a large tree;' and, in fact, a noble, lofty, wide-proportioned red oak now flourishes there, to delight with its wide-branching beauty, its grateful shade, and more grateful associations, not the children only, but the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of him who planted the acorn. "Mr. King possessed, in a remarkable degree, all the tastes that fit one for the enjoyment of country life. He had a large and well selected library, particularly rich in its books relating to the Americas, and this library remains unbroken. With these true, tried, unwavering and unwearying friends—and such good books are-Mr. King spent much time; varying, however, his studious labors with out-door exercise on horseback, to which he was much addicted; and in judgment of the qualities, as well as in the graceful management of a horse, he was rarely excelled. He loved, too, his gun and dog; was rather a keen sportsman and good shot; though often, when the pointer was hot upon the game, his master's attention would events, since he had been prominently be diverted by some rare or beautiful engaged in his embassy in England shrub or flower upon which his eye in discussing the very elements and happened to light, and of which-if sources of the struggle. Though not, not the proper season for transplanting we are told, at the outset ar advocate it into his border-he would carefully of the war, with many other sound mark the place, and make a memo- patriots, judging the country unpre randum thereof, so as to be enabled to pared for the struggle, and opposed as return at the fitting time and secure his he was by the tenor of his political prize. In this way he had collected in life to the party in power, yet, like a his shrubberies all the pretty flower- good citizen, war being once declared, ing shrubs and plants indigenous to he gave it his earnest support. One the neighborhood, adding thereto such of the first incidents of the controversy strangers as he could naturalize; so was an utter depression of the moneyed that, during a visit made to him many interests of the country-one of those years after he began his plantation, by panics in Wall street which still conthe Abbé Correa, then minister from tinue to be experienced at irregular Portugal to this government, but even intervals, when credit seems utterly ex more distinguished as a man of letters tinct, and the banks on the verge of and particularly as a botanist the annihilation. At this crisis, in 1812, learned Abbé said he could almost Mr. King made his appearance at a study the flowers and the trees of the general meeting of the citizens of New central and eastern portion of the York, held at the Tontine Coffee House, United States in these grounds. Mr. and gave that advice of forbearance King loved, too, the song of birds towards the banks, which it has on -and his taste was rewarded by the such occasions since been found expenumber of them which took shelter in dient, even under our present stringent this secure and shady plantation, where laws, to maintain by relaxed judicial no guns were ever allowed to be fired, interpretation. interpretation. At that time, the innor trap nor snare to be set. The gar- dulgence, in the face of a calamitous den and the farm also came in for their war, was still more imperative. share of interest and attention; and nowhere did care judiciously bestowed, and expenditure wisely ordered, produce more sure or gratifying results."1 In this honorable leisure Mr. King passed the few years intervening before the breaking out of the second war with England-not, we may be assured, an unobservant spectator of 1 Homes of American Statesmen, p. 360-1. In May, 1813, Mr. King again took his seat in the Senate of the United States, and was again reëlected by the Legislature of New York, in 1820. His course in the earlier time was distinguished by his support of the administration in the contest with Great Britain, his speech on the burning of the Capitol at Washington being often spoken of for its eloquence and patriotic fervor. "History," says the late Senator |