s sincere friendship for the
President and from his earnest desire to harmonize the Republican party
in New York and bring its full strength to the support of the
Administration. The office had given him no pleasure. It had indeed
brought him nothing but care and anxiety. The applications for place
were numerous and perplexing, the daily routine of duty was onerous and
exacting, and his pecuniary responsibility to the Government, much
exaggerated by his worried mind, constantly alarmed him. Mr. King
found himself therefore so situated that, whichever way he turned, he
faced embarrassment in his career, and as he imagined, disaster to his
reputation. In the conflicting emotions incident to his entangled
position, his brain was fevered, and his intellect became disordered.
From the anguish which his sensitive nature could not endure, he sought
relief in the grave.

Mr. King was born in 1806 at Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence County, New York,
which throughout his life continued to be his home. He became
prominent in political affairs, while still a young man, as a zealous
supporter of President Jackson in whose interest he edited a paper.
He attached himself to that strong school of New-York Democrats of
whom Silas Wright was the acknowledged leader. After conspicuous
service in the New-York Legislature, he entered Congress in 1845 and
remained until 1851. When the South demanded the abrogation of the
Missouri Compromise Mr. King followed his personal convictions, broke
from his Democratic associations and aided in the organization of the
Republican party. He adhered steadily to the fortunes of the new party
and brought with him a strong popular support--the large Republican
majorities in Northern New York being originally due in no small degree
to his personal influence and earnest efforts.

CHAPTER IX.

The controversies between the President and Congress, thus far
narrated, did not involve what have since been specifically known as
the Reconstruction measures. Those were yet to come. The
establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau was at best designed to be a
temporary charity; and the Civil Rights Bill, while growing out of
changes effected by the war, was applicable alike to all conditions
and to all times. The province of the Special Committee on
Reconstruction was to devise and perfect those measures which should
secure the fruits of the Union victory, by prescribing the essential
grounds upon which the revol