i-slavery sentiments, he had been an Anti-Mason, a
National Republican, and a Whig. Only when he acted with Martin Van
Buren against DeWitt Clinton did he flicker in his political
consistency. Although now sixty-eight years old, he was still
rugged--a man of vigorous sense and great public spirit. His
congressional experience came when the hosts of slavery and freedom
were marshalling for the great contest for the territory between the
Mississippi and the Pacific, and at the side of Preston King he
resisted Clay's compromise measures, especially the fugitive slave
law, and warmly supported the admission of California as a free State.
"I have come to have a great liking for the Kings," wrote Seward, in
1850. "They have withstood the seduction of the seducers, and are like
a rock in the defence of the right. They have been tried as through
fire."[490] John A. King was not ambitious for public place. He waited
to be called to an office, but he did not wait to be called to join a
movement which would be helpful to the public. His ear was to the sky
rather than to the ground. He believed Ralph Waldo Emerson's saying:
"That is the one base thing in the universe, to receive benefits and
render none." Like his distinguished father, he was tolerant in
dealing with men who differed from him, but he never shrank from the
expression of an opinion because it would bring sacrifice or
ostracism.

[Footnote 490: F.W. Seward, _Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 140.]

The ticket was strengthened by the nomination of Henry R. Selden of
Monroe for lieutenant-governor. Selden belonged to a family that had
been prominent for two centuries in the Connecticut Valley. Like his
older brother, Samuel L. Selden, who lived at Rochester, he was an
able lawyer and a man of great industry. These brothers brought to the
service of the people a perfect integrity, coupled with a gracious
urbanity that kept them in public life longer than either desired to
remain. One was a Republican, the other a Democrat. Samuel became a
partner of Addison Gardiner in 1825, and Henry, after studying law
with them, opened an office at Clarkson in the western part of the
county. In 1851, Henry became reporter for the Court of Appeals, and
then, lieutenant-governor. Samuel's public service began earlier. He
became judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1831, of the Supreme
Court in 1847, and of the Court of Appeals in 1856. When he resigned
in 1862, Henry took his place by