of Oneida; John K. Porter of Albany; Clerk of Appeals, Henry
Jones of Cattaraugus.]

The question of negro suffrage troubled the convention. The Radicals
had a decided majority--"not less than fifty," Greeley said; but Weed
and Raymond, now the acknowledged friends of the President, had the
power. Shortly after Johnson took the oath of office, Preston King
presented Weed to the new Executive and the three breakfasted
together. King's relations with the President bore the stamp of
intimacy. They had served together in Congress, and on March 4, 1865,
that ill-fated inauguration day when Johnson's intoxication humiliated
the Republic, King concealed him in the home of Francis P. Blair at
Silver Springs, near Washington.[1033] After Lincoln's death King
became for a time the President's constant adviser, and through his
influence, it was believed, Johnson foreshadowed in one of his early
speeches a purpose to pursue a more unfriendly policy towards the
South than his predecessor had intended. For a time it was thought
King would displace Seward in the Cabinet if for no other reason than
because of the latter's part in defeating the former's re-election to
the Senate in 1863. However, differences between them were finally
adjusted by King's acceptance of the collectorship of the port of New
York in place of Draper. This, it was understood, meant a complete
reconciliation of all the factions in the State. Within sixty days
thereafter, King, in a moment of mental aberration, took his life by
jumping from a Jersey City ferry-boat.

[Footnote 1033: Edward L. Pierce, _Life of Sumner_, Vol. 4, pp. 230,
250.]

There was something peculiarly pathetic in the passing of King. In
accepting the collectorship he yielded to the solicitation of friends
who urged him to retain it after his health, due to worry and
overwork, was seriously impaired. "He thought it incumbent upon him,"
says Weed, "to sign nothing he did not personally examine, becoming
nervously apprehensive that his bondsmen might suffer."[1034] It was
surmised, also, that the President's change of policy occasioned him
extreme solicitude as well as much embarrassment, since the threatened
breach between President and Radicals made him sensitive as to his
future course. He was a Radical, and, deeply as he regarded the
President, he hesitated to hold an office, which, by associating him
with the Administration, would discredit his sincerity and deprive him
of the right to