UC-NRLF nhrmftg tfjf REFERENCE. No. Division Range Shelf Received <*. vu W . / t^a WAS HI N GTO N. D.C 1854. OBITUARY ADDRESSES OCCASION OF THE DEATH HON. WILLIAM E. KING, OF ALABAMA, VICE PEESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES DELIVERED IN THE SENATE AND IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, EIGHTH OF DECEMBER, 1853. WASHINGTON: PRINTED BY BEVERLEY TUCKER. 1854. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. DECEMBER 12, 1853. On motion by Mr. ADAMS, of Mississippi, it was Resolved, That the Committee on Printing cause to be published and bound in pamphlet form, in such manner as may seem to them appropriate, for the use of the Senate, ten thousand copies of the addresses made by the members of the Senate, and members of the House of Representatives, together with so much of the Message of the President of the United States as relates to the death of the Hon. WILLIAM R. KING, late Vice President of the United States. Attest, ASBURY DlCKINS, Secretary. DEATH OF WILLIAM R. KING. Extract from the Annual Message of the President of the United States to Congress. "Since the adjournment of Congress, the Vice President of the United States has passed from the scenes of earth, without having entered upon the duties of the station to which he had been called by the voice of his countrymen. Having occupied, almost continuously, for more than thirty years, a seat in one or the other of the two Houses of Con gress, and having by his singular purity and wisdom secured unbounded confidence and uni versal respect, his failing health was watched by the nation with painful solicitude. His loss to the country, under all the circumstances, has been justly regarded as irreparable." OBITUARY ADDRESSES, SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1853. Mr. HUNTER, of Virginia, rose and addressed the Senate as follows : Since the adjournment of the last Congress an event has occurred which it becomes us to notice. The American people have lost a Vice President, and the Senate a Presiding Officer, by the death of WILLIAM R. KING, who departed this life in April last at his home in the State of Alabama. I rise, as the Senators from that State are unavoidably absent, to ask that we may pause for a day at least in our deliberation upon the affairs of life, to devote it to the memory of one who was bound to us by so many personal and official ties. Surely, sir, there are none within the limits of this wide-spread Con- federacy, to whom the life and services of WILLIAM R. KING are known, who would not be ready with some offering, either of public respect or personal affection, to bestow upon his tomb. There have been few public men, whose lives have been as long and as active as his, who have made more friends, and none, I am sure, ever left fewer enemies. Nor was his one of those cold and impassive characters, which shed their light without heat, but its kindly influences fell with genial and friendly warmth within whatever circle he might move. It is a happy thing for a country when the lives of its public men may be thrown freely open to the world, and challenge its closest scrutiny, with a consciousness on the part of the friendly critic that there is no blot to be concealed, and no glaring fault which a love of truth forbids him to deny, and his own sense of right scarcely allows him to palliate. Here, at least, is a public man, in whose life there can be found no instance of a mean or equivocating action, none of a departure from the self-imposed restraints of a refined and lofty sense of honor, and none in which either the fear of man or the seduc- 9 tions of ambition tempted him to a deed which could destroy either his own self-respect or the respect of others for him. He trod the difficult and devious paths to political preferment long and suc cessfully, and yet he kept his robes unsoiled by the vile mire which so often pollutes those ways. It is said, that the story of every human life, if rightly told, may convey a useful lesson to those who sur vive. Of all the public men whom I have known, there are none whose lives teach more impressively the great moral of the strength which public virtue gives than that of Colonel KING. His was an in stance in which greatness was achieved without the aid of those brilliant qualities whose rare assem blage the world calls genius, but by what is better far, a sound judgment, a resolute purpose to pursue the right, and a capacity to gather wisdom from experience. He was no orator, and yet from the force of character he could wield an influence which mere oratory never commanded. He had none of that presumptuous self-confidence which so often mis leads ourselves and others, and which, though a 10 dangerous, is still a commanding quality ; but he knew how to inspire a people with a just confidence in the soundness of his judgment and the integrity of his purpose so as to be looked to as a safe de positary of trust and power. Although gentle and kind in his intercourse with others, he could be stern enough when the public interests or his personal honor required it. He was a man, sir, whose whole soul would have sickened under a sense of personal dishonor. It is not surprising, then, that each step in the political career of such a man should have been crowned with public honors. At the age of twenty- one he was elected to the Legislature of North Caro lina, his native State, where he served until he was made Solicitor. In that capacity he acted for two years ; at the expiration of which time he was again returned to the Legislature, in which body he served during the years 1808-9. In 1810, being then twenty-five years of age, he was sent to the House of Representatives of the United States, where he served from 1811 to 1816, when he resigned to go abroad as Secretary of Legation to Mr. Pinckney, 11 our Minister to Kussia. Upon his return he emi grated to Alabama, where he was almost immedi ately sent to their Constitutional Convention. And at the first session of the first Legislature which assembled afterwards, he was sent to the Senate of the United States from the State of Ala bama, where he may be said to have served continu ously, until his election to the Vice Presidency, with the exception of two years, when he was Minister to France. Finally, he was elected the Vice President of the United States, by a large majority of the American people. As he ascended step by step to this elevation, his vision seemed to grow with his horizon, and when the occasion came he was always found equal to it. For, to the aid of a sound judg ment, he brought, as he grew older, the wisdom of a large experience. His political career may be said to have been one triumphant march through life, a march in which his step neither faltered nor stumbled, in ascending to that place, which was perhaps the chief object of his aspiration. And yet as if to show that even the most successful of men must sooner or later feel 12 the emptiness of the earthly objects of our usual pursuit, that much-prized honor was to him the Dead Sea fruit which turns to ashes on the lips. It came, but it came too late. The breath of public applause could not revive the flame which flickered in the lamp of life. In vain did the assiduity of relatives and friends surround him with affection ate care ; in vain did the aspirations of a whole peo ple ascend to Heaven for his recovery. The balmy influences of neither sea nor sky could revive or re store him. When the public messenger came to clothe him with the forms of office, his chief earthly wish was to see his home once more, and in the midst of familiar scenes to die amongst his friends. His desire was gratified. Life and its busy scenes on this side the grave are now closed on him for ever. But its tale yet remains to be told. Not by me, sir, or at this time. But it will be told in the chro nicles of his State hereafter, when it may become a labor of love to some of her sons to write the story of its founders and sages. It will be told in our own political history by whoever may portray the stirring and eventful scenes in which he acted a 13 prominent and useful part. It will be told, too, and perhaps heard, with most interest in the tradi tions of a family of which he was the ornament and pride. Mr. President, those to whom our people have been long accustomed to look in times of difficulty and emergency for counsel and opinion, are falling fast around us. It is an anxious thing to feel their loss at a period like this, pregnant with change, and teeming, perhaps, with great and strange events. The men we cannot recall; but let us preserve their memories ; let us study their teachings, and it will be well if, in many respects, we shall follow their examples : I offer the following resolution Resolved, That from respect to the late WILLIAM R. KING, Vice President of the United States, and President of the Senate, the chair of the President of the Senate be shrouded with black ; and, as a further testimony of respect to the memory of the de ceased, the members of the Senate will go into mourning by wear ing crape on their left arm for thirty days. Ordered, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate this resolution to the House of Representatives. 14 MR. EVERETT, of Massachusetts. MR. PRESIDENT : I have been requested to second the motion which has just been made by the Senator from Virginia. I do so with great cheerfulness. It was my good fortune to enjoy the acquaintance of the late Vice President I hope, even some portion of his friendly regard for a longer period, probably, than most of those within the sound of my voice a period of nearly thirty years. Such being the case, I feel as if I ought not to remain silent at this last moment, when our relation to him as mem bers of this Senate are, by the performance of this day s melancholy duty, to be closed for ever. There is an ancient maxim, sir, founded at once in justice and right feeling, which bids us " say nothing but what is good of the dead." I can obey this rule, in reference to the late Vice Presi dent, without violating the most scrupulous dic tates of sincerity. I can say nothing but what is good of him, for I have never seen or heard any thing but good of him for thirty years that I have known him personally and by reputation. 15 It would hardly be expected of me, to attempt to detail the incidents of the private life or the public career of the late Vice President. That duty belongs to others, by whom it has been, or will no doubt be, appropriately performed. I re gret, particularly, on this occasion, the unavoida ble absence of our colleagues from Alabama. It is the province of those of us, not connected with him by political associations, especially of those inhabiting remote parts of our common country, to express their cordial concurrence in the affec tionate praises, pronounced by his fellow-citizens and neighbors. Few of the public men of the day had been so intimately associated with the Senate as the late Vice President. I think he had been a member of the body for more years than any person now belonging to it. Besides this, a relation of a dif ferent kind had grown up between him and the Senate. The Federal Constitution devolves upon the people, through the medium of the Electoral Colleges, the choice of the presiding officer of this body. But whenever the Senate was called to 16 supply the place temporarily, for a long course of years, and till he ceased to belong to it, it turned spontaneously to him. He undoubtedly owed this honor to distinguished qualifications for the chair. He possessed, in an eminent degree, that quickness of perception, that promptness of decision, that familiarity with the now somewhat complicated rules of congressional proceedings, and that urbanity of manner, which are required in a presiding officer. Not claiming, although an acute and forcible debater, to rank with his illustrious contemporaries, whom now, alas ! we can mention only to deplore with Cal- houn, with Clay, and with Webster (I name them alphabetically, and who will presume to arrange them on any other principle), whose unmatched eloquence so often shook the walls of this Senate the late Vice President possessed the rare and the highly important talent of controlling, with impartiality, the storm of debate, and moderating between mighty spirits, whose ardent conflicts at times seemed to threaten the stability of the Re public. 17 In fact, sir, he was highly endowed with what Cicero beautifully commends as the boni Senatoris prudentia, the " wisdom of a good Senator ;" and in his accurate study and ready application of the rules of parliamentary law, he rendered a service to the country, not perhaps of the most brilliant kind, but assuredly of no secondary importance. There is nothing which more distinguishes the great national race to which we belong, than its aptitude for government by deliberative assem blies; its willingness, while it asserts the largest liberty of parliamentary right, to respect what the Senator from Virginia in another connexion has called the self-imposed restrictions of parlia mentary order ; and I do not think it an exagge ration to say, that there is no trait in its charac ter which has proved more conducive to the des patch of the public business, to the freedom of debate, to the honor of the country, I will say, even which has done more to establish and per petuate constitutional liberty. The long and faithful senatorial career of the late Vice President received at last its appropriate 18 reward. The people of the United States, having often witnessed the disposition of the Senate to place him at their head, and the dignified and acceptable manner in which he bore himself in that capacity, conferred upon him, a twelvemonth since, that office, which is shown by repeated and recent experience to be above the second, if not actually the first, in their gift ; the office which placed him constitutionally and permanently, during its continuance, in the chair of the Senate. A mysterious dispensation of Providence has nipped these crowning honors in the bud. A dis ease, for which the perpetual summer and per fumed breezes of the tropics afforded no balm, overtook him at an age when he might, in the course of nature, have reasonably looked forward to still many years of active service. Clothed by a special and remarkable act of Congress, even while under a foreign jurisdiction, with the last constitutional qualification to enter upon the high office to which he had been elected, he returned, not to exercise its functions, but to seek his much- loved home, and there to die. 19 Thus, sir, he has left us to chase for a little while longer the shadows which he has exchanged for unutterable realities. He has left us prematurely for everything but his spotless name, and his en trance on the well-earned honors of his unambitious career. And we, Senators, for all the interchange of kindness for all the cordial intercourse of private life for all the acts of co-operation in the public service to which for at least four years the Senate was looking forward in its connexion with him, have nothing left to offer to his friends and his memory, but the unavailing tribute of this last mournful farewell. Mr. President, I second the resolutions of the Senator from Virginia. MR. CASS, of Michigan. MR. PRESIDENT : Again has death invaded the high place of our land, and has taken from us a citizen distinguished by his talents, his worth, and his services, and enjoying the confidence and affec tion of his countrymen. In the Providence of 20 God, these visitations come to warn us, that none are exempt from the decree, that in life we are in the midst of death, and that be ye also ready is a solemn admonition, announced to us from the cradle to the grave, by the mighty and the lowly, as they successively fall before the great destroyer. The lesson is the more impressive, the higher is the position, and the more eminent the character of him, whose departure we may be called upon to mourn. And when one who occupied the second station in our country, is summoned from the duties of this life to the responsibility of that which is to come, as the loss is a national one, the manifes tation of public sympathy, and the acknowledgment of the public grief, should be national also. Our lamented friend, the late Vice President, has been taken from us. full of years, indeed, and of honors, but in the midst of his usefulness, and when he was just prepared to enter upon the high career to which he had been called by the American people. Upon this occasion, I desire to do little more than to ex press those sentiments of affectionate regard, with which an acquaintance of many years had inspired 21 me, leaving to others, who have this day well ful filled the task, to present those features of his cha racter and services which endeared him to his countrymen in life, and will endear to them his memory, now that the scenes of life are for ever closed upon him. His career was eminently useful and fortunate : and in the whole range of American statesmen, there are few, indeed, to whom our youth can better look, when seeking models of imitation and encouragement, than to WILLIAM R. KING. Firm but courteous, frank and fearless, of high honor and irreproachable morals, he brought a vigorous intellect, and varied and extensive in formation, to the public counsels ; and the ripe fruit of his experience, joined to these endowments, gave conviction to his opinion, and authority to his example. We always heard him with atten tion, for he elucidated every subject he investigated, and brought to our discussions the stores of his knowledge and experience, with a manner as un assuming as it was captivating. While loving the State in which he so long resided, and which had 22 given him so many proofs of confidence and affec tion, he loved also our common country, and at home and abroad, proved himself the true patriot, the able and faithful citizen. In all the relations of private life he was loved and honored, as well from the amenity of his manner as from the kind ness of his heart, and in the social circle he was the very model of the accomplished gentleman. For. almost half a century he was in the public service, and was intimately connected with many of the great events which marked that long and stirring period, and he proved himself equal to all the circumstances in which he was placed, sustain ing himself with signal ability among men whose renown is written in imperishable characters upon the history of our country. But better than all this, and above all this, he was a sincere Christian; adding another to the long list of eminent men who have searched the Gospel of Jesus, and have found it the will and word of God. In his last illness, when the world and the things of the world were fast fading before him, he found hope and consolation in the promises of 23 the Saviour ; and calmly surveying the approach of death, he looked beyond its power to the glorious immortality promised to the believer. The places that knew him will know him no more ; but though dead, his memory is embalmed in the hearts of his countrymen, and there it will live, honored and cherished, long after all those who are now taking part in this tribute to his worth, shall have fol lowed him in the journey, where, for a brief space, he has preceded us through the dark valley of the shadow of death. MR. DOUGLAS, of Illinois. I can scarcely hope to add anything of value to what has been so well said by others. For the last eight months the mournful event, which is now officially announced to the Senate, has been known, felt, and lamented by us all. In the mean time, we have passed through scenes well calculated to engross our thoughts and divert our attention, if not to obscure the freshness of the first impression, or assuage the keenness of that sorrow which filled 24 every heart. But no matter what the lapse of time nor its results, the meeting of the Senate, and the absence of one whom all admired and loved, and delighted to greet and honor, calls up associations and reminiscences which impart to the occasion all the effects of a sudden and unexpected bereavement. Those whose happiness it was to be associated with Colonel KING, in public duty and private inter course, are alone capable of realizing the extent of our loss. His example in all the relations of life, public and private, may be safely commended to our children as worthy of imitation. Few men in this country have ever served the public for so long a period of time, and with a more fervent patriotism or unblemished reputation. For forty-five years he devoted his energies and talents to the perform ance of arduous public duties always performing his trust with fidelity and ability, and never failing to command the confidence, admiration, and grati tude of an enlightened constituency. While he held, in succession, numerous official stations, in each of which he maintained and enhanced his previous reputation, yet the Senate was the place of his 25 choice, and the theatre of his greatest usefulness. Here he sustained an enviable reputation during a period of thirty years senatorial service, always manifesting his respect for the body by his courtesy and propriety of deportment. Here, where his character was best understood, and his usefulness and virtues most highly appreciated, his loss, as a public man and a private friend, is most painfully felt and deeply lamented. MR. CLAYTON, of Delaware. I shall only pay a debt of honor to the spirit of the dead by offering my humble testimonial in ad dition to what has been so appropriately and elo quently expressed by others. A quarter of a century has elapsed since I became acquainted with WILLIAM R. KING as a brother Senator on this floor. During the greater part of that long period I was an attentive observer of his course as a public man, and I cannot in justice remain silent when an op portunity is offered of paying a tribute to the memory of one who so honorably deserved it. 26 That man who, dying, can be said to have passed his days without a stain upon his reputation, has justly earned the honors due to a well-spent life. The Roman poet has immortalized the sentiment (t Nee male vixitj qui natus moriensque fcfellit" but WILLIAM R. KING, who was everywhere known, may be truly said to have passed from the cradle to the grave without a blot upon his name. The chief part of his history is written upon the records of this Senate, in which his high character as a legislator and a statesman was firmly established. I would avoid the commonplaces employed on occasions similar to the present, when speaking of such a man. It is not enough to say of him that he performed his duties well as a member of the Senate. He was distinguished by the scrupulous correctness of his conduct. He was remarkable for his quiet and unobtrusive, but active, practical use fulness as a legislator. He was emphatically a business member of the Senate, and, without osten tation, originated and perfected more useful mea sures than many who filled the public eye by greater 27 display, and daily commanded the applause of a listening Senate. He never sought with some of his cotemporaries to earn a brilliant reputation by the exhibition of splendid powers of oratory ; and, to his honor be it spoken, he never vexed the ear of the Senate with ill-timed, tedious, or unnecessary debate. He preferred to be checked for silence rather than to be tasked for speech. Yet, on all occasions, when a great issue was before the country, calling for the exercise of manly firmness, courage, and patriotism, Mr. KING was abreast with those who stood foremost for the safety and glory of the Republic. He graced the chair of the Senate longer than any other man that ever occupied it not continu ously, or by virtue merely of repeated elections, as our temporary President, but often also at the re quest of the Presiding Officer. I think he was thus engaged in the performance of the duties of Presi dent of the Senate during the greater part of the terms of five Vice Presidents ; and at last he reached the second office in the gift of the people an office excelled in honor only by one other in the 28 world. To preside over such an assembly as the Senate of the United States, and to do that as he did it, was enough to satisfy the highest aspirations of an honorable and patriotic ambition. In this elevated position he was distinguished (and I may add he was never excelled) for the dignity of his deportment, the impartiality of his decisions, and the promptness and fidelity with which he main tained the order and enforced the rules of this body. I can remember no instance in which he lost sight of what was due to his own self-respect or the rights of his political opponents, by the indulgence of party feelings in the chair. Presiding, as he did, when party spirit raged in torrents of fire, all just men will admit that he could have been no common man who maintained his high character for justice and impartiality at such a period. A little man, at that time, would have shown his littleness by yield ing himself up as an instrument of oppression to the minority. But he sought an honest and en during fame, and he obtained it without the em ployment of any unworthy means, or the slightest sacrifice of principle. He engaged no hireling press, 29 no mercenary libeller to traduce others, or to trumpet his own fame. He paid respect to the feelings of others, and rigidly exacted the observance of the same respect for himself. Generous as he was brave, his conduct to his opponents suffering under defeat was always liberal and kind ; and, by his inflexible truth, he won the entire confidence of men of all parties in his own unblemished honor. Others have spoken of his services in other places, but I shall speak of nothing to which I was not a witness. While Mr. KING remained in the Senate, there was still one member of the body who had served with me on this floor during the memorable session of 1829-30, and the earlier years of Presi dent Jackson s administration. It is melancholy to reflect that nearly all the rest of the Senators of that period have closed their career on earth, and that not one of those who survive remains here with me to-day. The master spirits of the time were among the Senators of that day. I speak not of the living. But here, then, were Clay, Calhoun, Forsyth, Web ster, and Livingston, the learned and laborious 30 Woodbury, the astute Grundy, the witty, sarcastic, and ever-ready Holmes, the classic Bobbins, and among many others justly distinguished, the grace ful and accomplished orator of Carolina, Robert Y. Hayne, " Whose words had such a melting flow, And spoke of truth so sweetly well, They dropped like the serenest snow, And all was brightness where they fell." Oh ! I could enumerate, and delight to dwell on, the virtues of them all, and then revert to him whose fame we now commemorate, as to one not inferior in integrity and honor to the proudest among them. But these reminiscences are attended by the mournful reflection that our connexions with them in this world are ended for ever " Around us, each dissevered chain In sparkling ruin lies, And earthly hands can ne er again Unite those broken ties." The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 31 MR. HUNTER. As a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, I move that the Senate do now ad journ. The motion was agreed to, and the Senate ad journed to Monday. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1853. A MESSAGE was received from the Senate by the hands of ASBURY DICKINS, its Secretary, as follows : " IN SENATE, DECEMBER 8, 1853. "Resolved unanimously, That from respect to the late WILLIAM R. KING, Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate, the chair of the President be shrouded with black ; and as a further testimony of respect for the memory of the de ceased, the members of the Senate will go into mourning by wearing crape on the left arm for thirty days. " Ordered, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate this resolution to the House of Representatives." The message having been read MR. HARRIS, of Alabama, rose and said : MR. SPEAKER : The tidings of the mournful event which the resolution from the Senate is intended 34 to commemorate, have months ago been heralded to every hamlet of our wide-spread Confederacy, and the generous hearts of even distant lands have mingled their regrets with our own, that a wise and virtuous and distinguished man has been stricken from the number of earth s children. Tears have ceased to flow; and hearts the most deeply penetrated by the afflicting visitation of Providence have learned to contemplate it with that spirit of resignation which time ever supplies as a medicine for the sorrows of earth. But in conformity with a solemn and impressive usage, the Senate, over whose deliberations the distinguished dead so long presided, with such marked ability, pauses from its labors, to conse crate a brief day to the memory of WILLIAM K. KING. And while the sympathizing sons of sister States gather around his bier, I crave the indul gence of the House of Representatives, while, in behalf of the State of Alabama, I offer the tribute of her homage and respect to the memory of her most distinguished citizen. Recent events, familiar to us all, render unneces- 35 sary anything more than a cursory allusion to the political services of WILLIAM R. KING. He was born on the 7th day of April, 1786, in the State of North Carolina. Coming into being almost cotemporaneously with the adoption of our Federal Constitution, his eventful and protracted life covers one of the most remarkable periods in the history of the world. When the dawn of mature manhood first began to open upon him, the great experiment of self-government, whose principles were evolved from our revolutionary struggle, had just fairly emerged from the misty domain of speculation, and assumed the form and semblance of a philosophic truth. Instinct with the spirit of the age, and true, as he proved to be through life, to the principles of the republican school, he connected his fortunes with that party which claimed, as the exponents of its political faith, Jefferson and Madison. He had no sooner attained his majority than he was elected a member of the Legislature from his native county. He was re-elected the ensuing year; but the Legislature, of which he was a 36 member, having conferred upon him the solicitor- ship of the judicial circuit in which he resided, he resigned his seat in that body. After holding the office of Solicitor for two years, he was again returned to the Legislature for the years 18089. In 1810, so soon as he had attained the age pre scribed by the Constitution, he was elected a mem ber of Congress from the Wilmington district, in which body he continued to serve until the year 1816. During this period of American history, there were just ascending from the verge of the political horizon, and rapidly tending towards the zenith, names which were destined to illustrate the greatness of our country, and impress themselves imperishably upon her monumental records. That immortal triumvirate, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, for whose decease the sable habiliments of a Na tion s woe have scarce disappeared, were just then beginning to exhibit the giant proportions of their unmatched intellects, and entrancing their country men and the world by the electric power of their resistless eloquence. Randolph and Lowndes were there too and other great names indelibly secured 37 by the diamond pen of history s muse. Among these stood WILLIAM R. KING, a co-worker and a compeer. Differing somewhat from them all, in many of those great attributes of mind, which dazzle and lead captive the admiring throng ; yet in all the elements, which go to make up the useful legislator in prudence, caution, firmness, wisdom, and patriotism, occupying with them the same proud pedestal ; and lending his influence and his voice to the successful vindication of "free trade and sailor s rights." In 1816, Mr. KING, having been tendered the appointment of Secretary of Legation under Mr. Pinckney, resigned his seat in Congress, and ac companied that distinguished statesman, first to Naples, and afterwards to St. Petersburg. Having returned home, at the expiration of two years, he determined to break from the endearments of his fatherland, and cast his fortunes in the then almost unpeopled wilds of distant Alabama. This land was now to constitute the theatre of his after use fulness. God gave him sufficient length of days to see " the wilderness blossom as the rose ;" and behold the Territory, which he had adopted as his home, emerge from its chrysalis state, to the full blown condition of a sovereign party to the Union, and under the nurturing appliances of intellect and industry, attaining a degree of wealth and prosperity commensurate with his own increasing fame. Soon after Mr. KING S arrival in the Territory he was deputed a delegate to the convention which assembled to organize a State government. To the performance of the delicate and responsible duties of this new position he brought the aid of that matured experience he had gathered in the councils of the Union, arid was one of the most active and efficient of those who laid the founda tions of our State polity. So soon as the constitu tion was put in operation he was chosen one of the Senators from that State in the Congress of the United States. From that period, Mr. Speaker, to the time when the voice of all the people of the Union called WILLIAM R. KING to the second office in their gift a period of more than thirty years, he continued to speak for Alabama upon the floor 39 of the Senate ; saving the brief period of two years, during which time he represented this Government at the Court of St. Cloud. In verity, he was to Alabama a true and faithful son, as she was unto him a cherishing mother ! Truly, has he filled the measure of a patriot s duty, for his entire life was devoted to the service of his country. As may justly be inferred, from the long and unchecked career of success which distinguished the life of Mr. KING, and the respect and confi dence he always enjoyed, his popularity was not the result of those factitious aids which give to demagogues and political tricksters an ephemeral existence, but was the natural consequence and well-deserved recompense of his exalted qualities of head and heart. For forty years he brought to his country s use the rich gifts of his patriotism and his wisdom the glowing energies of his early manhood, and the matured counsels of a wise and honorable old age. Intelligence, honesty, and fide lity distinguished the administration of every pub lic trust confided to his hands. Amidst all the fluctuations of public sentiment, and all the muta- 40 tions of party, he pursued the path of duty by the light of principle, and dying, leaves behind him an example of consistency and public virtue upon which the patriot may ponder with pleasure, and from which the mere aspirant for worldly honor may draw an instructive lesson. His life is a beautiful illustration of the truth, that the line of duty is alike the path of safety and the way to honor. The personal character of Mr. KING was affluent in all those qualities which contribute to the for mation of an almost perfect man. To wisdom and patriotism as a statesman ; to love of right, and de votion to principle, he added a temper respectful and courteous to others ; a courage unquestioned, and honor intact. No stain blurred the pure ermine of his good name. Conceding to all men the full measure of what was their due, he was punctilious in the exaction of what was due to himself. Exempt from that acrimony which party collision too often engenders, and always tolerant of the opinions of others, he was inflexible and unswerving in the maintenance of his own 41 t( Yir Justus, et tenax propositi." In all those more intimate and tender relations which bound him to his friends, his kindred, and his servants, he was all that friendship could ask, or affection claim, or humanity and kindness en join. While in that higher and more solemn rela tion, which he bore to the Author of us all, he was exact and scrupulous in the discharge of all those duties, enjoined by a regard for the sacred behests of religion ; and in the closing scenes of life s fleet ing, final hour, he leaned with humble trust upon the merits of his Saviour. " His life was gentle and the elements So mixed in him, that nature might stand up And say to all the world < This was a man/ " In the first month of this year, the Vice Presi dent resigned his post of Presiding Officer of the Senate, with the vain hope that a winter residence in Cuba might ameliorate his health. But the balmy breezes of the ocean gem could not relume the waning fire that flickered to its close. Death was demanding its victim, and the dying patriot 42 felt that he must needs obey the summons. He hastened home from Cuba to spend his last hours among the friends who watched with such intense solicitude his gradual decline. Like the imprisoned monarch whose life went out on the storm-rocked island of the sea, he did not wish to sleep upon a foreign strand, but rather on the banks of the Alabama, " in the bosom of the people he had loved so well," and served so faithfully. In the midst of that people he died beneath that sod he takes his final rest. But a fragrance shall still cling around his memory, exhaled from the clustering virtues which beautified his character. Calmly he con fronted the icy monster ; and with Christian dignity, resigned him to his fate. "Be silent," said he, to the anxious friends around him, " let me die quietly." Silence prevailed, and quietly his noble spirit passed to the land of shadows. " He sat, as sets the morning star, which goes Not down behind the darkened west, nor hides Obscured amidst the tempests of the sky ; But melts away, into the light of heaven." How fruitful, Mr. Speaker, in admonition to us, 43 who were associated with Mr. KING in the direction of this great Government, and who now survive him. are the circumstances which give such melan choly prominence to the closing hours of his life. Upon the full tide of an almost popular acclaim, he had been just elevated to one of the most ex alted stations of the earth. But along with the flattering consciousness of popular confidence and merited promotion, came the stunning sense that life s decaying energies were sinking to the grave. While the joyous gratulations of an admiring people were welling up from the depths of the nation s heart, and falling with thrilling accents upon the ear of gratified ambition, there was ming ling with them another voice from the spirit-land, whose tones were heard above the loud tumult of popular applause, and calling to the failing states man " Child of the dust, come away !" The garlands had been thrust upon the victim, only that it might prove a more fitting sacrifice for the altar, which already smoked for its immo- 44 lation. What a humiliating mockery of earth s aspirations, which end in nothingness of its evan escent honors, which vanish at the touch ! and how strikingly suggestive of the solemn reflection, that " The paths of glory lead but to the grave." Mr. Speaker, I offer the following resolution : Resolved, That from an unfeigned respect to the late WILLIAM R. KING, Vice President of the United States, and President of the Senate, the Speaker s chair be shrouded in black during the present session of Congress ; and as a further testimony of respect for the memory of the deceased, the members and officers of this House will go into mourning, and wear black crape on the left arm for thirty days. .Resolved, As a further mark of respect, that this House do now adjourn. MR. CHANDLER, of Pennsylvania, rose, and said MR. SPEAKER : The spectacle presented in this House, at the present moment, is replete with in struction and encouragement. The Representatives of a great nation pause, in the midst of the initiation of legislative business, to 45 express respect for a citizen who owed his elevation less to those striking qualities that are sure to ex cite public interest and insure popular favor, than to those gentle virtues which are so slow to secure general appreciation. The Congress of the United States, in paying the tribute of gratitude to the departed function ary, declares that it commemorates the virtue by which he achieved elevation, arid thus it connects purity of social life with the honors of official dis tinction. The Representatives from the State of Alabama have requested me to take a part in the discharge of the melancholy duties in which this House is now engaged. It is an honor to be called to do honor to the memory of the good ; and patriotism finds a grateful exercise in recalling the obligations under which the nation rests to those who have done service to her in places of distinction. I should have promptly declined the service, if I did not believe that my colleagues, the Representa tives of Pennsylvania on this floor, shared in the sentiments of respect for the dead which I entertain, 46 but which I shall so feebly express ; and while they and their constituents, and mine, judge according to their various political creeds, of the public mea sures which are connected with the name and ser vice of the deceased, they have looked through the mist with which party hostility and party partiality alike invest their objects, and have done honor to the purity of motive and the consistency of patriot ism, in which those measures were proposed or ad vocated. I do not suppose that, in the tribute which we are now paying to the memory of a distinguished Statesman, we are acquitting ourselves, as the Re presentatives of the people, of the indebtedness of the country for services through years of unremit- ted devotion. Sir, while the nation shall enjoy the prosperity with which she is now blessed, she will feel and confess her obligations to those whose talents, virtues, and devotion procured the blessing. And should adverse circumstances overtake us, we should then recall the lessons of wisdom and patriot ism which the lives and services of our good men impart; and while we should lament the conse- 4T quences of a neglect of their examples and precepts, we should do honor to virtues which we had ceased to imitate, and venerate the patriotism which we had forgotten to follow. The gentleman who has preceded me, has given to the house a sketch of the public services of the late Vice President KING. It is an instructive les son one that we should " teach diligently unto our children." One that at the present time comes with peculiar pertinency, and seems to illustrate the nature of our institutions, and to encourage the growth of quiet, unobtrusive virtues, by showing the ability of the people to appreciate, and their willingness to reward them. The history of our country shows that consummate statesmanship may be combined with the possession and professional exercise of military skill. The halls of legisla tion, and the Bureaus of the Departments have been the arenas of noble and successful efforts of those who came from the activity of the camp to take part in peaceful forensic contests, or to dis charge the duties of ministerial office. And we have seen the accomplished warrior lay aside his 48 military trappings, and assume the garb and dis charge the duties of the first office of our nation. But while these things show the versatility of genius and the wonderful adaptation of mental powers, they lead sometimes to the apprehension that the people who seemed so struck with the ser vices of the military man, would overlook the unob trusive qualities of the civilian, and forget that pa triotism has its services and its sacrifices in the halls of legislation and the walks of diplomacy; and that the qualifications for lofty place were to be mani fested in the silent, laborious, unpretending privacy of the closet, as well as in the more stirring and striking duties of military life. The official life of Mr. KING redeems the people of the United States from imputations of a false estimate by a false standard of the services of their public functionaries, and it shows how much confi dence may be placed in their judgment of the capa bility of men to discharge distinguished trusts. The manners of Mr. KING were unobtrusive, re tiring, gentle. No appearance, no act of his could be regarded as challenging attention. He moved 49 among his fellow-men with manifestations of con stant respect for their rights and their positions ; and among his fellow-legislators he was distinguished by that constant deference to others which is the characteristic of excessive modesty and available talents. Abroad, sir, in Europe, he presented him self with no demands, as a man, upon the conside ration of others, and no claim to distinction, in the free use of his ample means. But as the repre sentative of a nation of freemen, he claimed the re gard which his representative character challenged, and he maintained social hospitalities with the pro fusion which his ample means warranted, and his generous patriotism suggested. Mr. KING, sir, was a party man. Few men, Mr. Speaker, attain political distinction in a country like ours without party attachments and party feelings. And none will more readily pardon Mr. KING for his efforts for party measures than those who, differing from him in politics, know by the purity of their own motives how to do justice to the sincerity of those by which he was influenced ; and this the more readilv because the courteous 50 bearing of that distinguished man deprived his op position of all appearance of bitterness, drew from the defeat of his opponents, when their defeat en sued, the sting of mortified self-esteem, or imparted to his own discomfort the ease of gentlemanly sub mission. Sir, from the quiet walks of life, that seemed at first to promise little eminence, Mr. KING rose to the second office in this great Republic, attaining that position, too, in the midst of all his country s greatness, in the midst of all her amplitude of ex tent, and in the midst of all her profusion of means ; more than that, sir, in the midst of all her munifi cence of men. Though absent, sir, absent to die, far from the immediate seat of his duties, yet the memory of his excellence and purity sustained him in the af fection and respect of his brethren of the Senate- Chamber, who seemed to feel it a pleasure as well as a duty to testify to him their full appreciation of his conciliatory habits, his sagacity as a statesman, and his justice as their Presiding Officer. The annunciation to-day of the death of Mr. 51 Vice President KING comes to us, sir, with no sur prise. The nation has already in some form mani fested its regard for a faithful public servant. The announcement brings no monition of the brevity of human enjoyment and the uncertainty of human life. He had lived nearly to man s appointed time and beyond man s common lot, and had enjoyed much more than ordinary honors. It comes not now, sir, to startle us into any manifestation of special sorrow. Months have passed, since he breathed forth his gentle spirit to God who gave it, and the poignant grief which his death caused even in his limited family circle, has given place to the silent sorrow that occupies itself in a mournful, placid recollection of the virtues of the dead. We listen, sir, to-day to the formal annunciation of the demise of Mr. KING, that we may, by public demonstration, show to the world our respect for the high office which he vacated by his death, and our appreciation of the beautiful moral qualities and statesman-like abilities by which he illustrated all offices in his life. The addresses on, this occasion, and the adoption 52 of the resolutions which are now on the table, can add nothing to the future happiness of the dead cannot augment the fame which his social virtues and his public career have earned. But, sir, they tell the world that a Republic can be grateful to those who have done her service, and that republicans can appreciate those gentle qualities which give dignity and honor to a statesman s life, and insure peace and consolation to a Christian s death. MR. MILTON S. LATHAM, of California, said MR. SPEAKER: Gratitude for the kindness of a friend, as well as reverence for the greatness of a man prompt me to unite my stranger voice with yours in this mournful requiem for the departed. And if an apology be needed that thus early I claim your attention, let it be enough to say that, from the lips now cold and fixed, and the voice now hushed in death, came first the encouraging words of counsel and incentive, the gentle tones of sympathy and feeling, that have placed me, to-day, among you. I could leave to the gentle- 53 men who have preceded me, and to the quiet medi tation of my own heart, the retrospect of his irre proachable life, and the rehearsal of the noble principles that he so long and firmly advocated, were it not that over every mountain and valley, every plain and ravine of California, are scattered thick the adopted homes of Alabamians, who, while the memories of their childhood are fresh, or the graves of their fathers green, can never fail, with you, to remember the life of the statesman with exultation, or forget to mourn the death of the good man with sympathetic expression. How natural, then, that I should turn your attention to a few pages in the history of a man, who has filled every place but one to which the ambition of an American citizen may aspire, and has filled all with distinguished credit to himself and honor to the country. WILLIAM RUFUS KING was a noble specimen of an American statesman and gentleman. The in timate friend of John C. Calhoun, and the cotem- porary of Webster, Clay, Cass, and Benton, he maintained a proud position in the Senate of the 54 United States, by his strong, practical good sense, his experience and wisdom as a legislator, the acknowledged rectitude of his intentions, and that uniform urbanity of manner which marked, not so much the man of conventional breeding, as the true gentleman at heart. He was no sophist to him self, and hence it was that he was truthful and sincere to all the world. His course in the Senate was considerate and dignified. He never yielded to the impulse of the moment; but made his tongue wait upon his judgment. He never knew w r hat it was to speak, act, or legislate by indirection. He was frank and loyal to his colleagues, as he was devoted to his own State, and sincerely attached to the Union. Is it a wonder, then, that the Senate listened to every word which fell from his lips ; that his voice was potential whenever it pleaded the cause of his country ? It is said that during a primary meeting held by one of the factions into which the first French National Convention was divided, one of the men who afterwards played a most conspicuous part in history, spoke but a few words, and these with- 55 out emphasis. Yet such was the conviction he produced, that his views were instantly adopted. He possessed the genius of character ; he believed what he said, and produced conviction in others. It is this peculiar " genius of character" which gave force and direction to Mr. KING S speeches in the United States Senate, and produced that deference to his avowed opinions and principles which none of his colleagues shared in a more eminent degree. In all that belonged to him indi vidually, Mr. KING was the very type of an Ameri can gentleman. Free from artifice arid disguise, his every thought and instinct was chivalric. Not to adventitious circumstances, not to the chances of birth or fortune, not to the society into which he was thrown, was he indebted either for the distinc tion to which he rose in public life, or to the grace which adorned his private character. He never borrowed thoughts or sentiments from others. His mind and heart were of American growth, while his eminent virtues served to illustrate our national character. As Americans we recognise no standard of greatness which is not based on moral excellence, 56 such as pre-eminently distinguished the early foun ders of our institutions and laws; and in this re spect few of the great men whose names have passed into our history, can boast of a nearer approach to those great exemplars, than he whose irreparable loss we now mourn in common with the whole coun try. During his long and eventful life, of which a very large portion was spent in the public service, there is not an act which can be referred to but to his honor not a suspicion that could mar the purity and lustre of his escutcheon. Mr. KING became a member of the Senate in 1819, when the State of Alabama was admitted into the Union, and enjoyed the honor of representing her, with but one inter mission, ever since. He was a member of that body when he was nominated for the Vice Presi dency, and its presiding officer. The respect of his colleagues had already assigned him the place to which he was subsequently called by the almost unanimous voice of the people. He was from prin ciple and conviction a State s Eights man ; but he did not love the Union less because he loved Ala bama more. While he was serving his own State 57 with fidelity and honor, he was not remiss in his duties to the whole American Confederacy. Like his illustrious prototype, John C. Calhoun, he battled for the rights of his State in order to secure that harmony between Federal and State power, which is the essence of the Union, and without which, it is impossible to preserve our system of self-government. In the memorable session of 184 9- 50, Mr. KING voted for nearly all the com promise measures as an act of devotion to the Na tional Union, without surrendering a single cardinal point of the political faith which had guided him through life, and had secured to him the affection and attachment of the citizens of his own State. The most important event in his political history, was when he represented the United States in the Court of France during a most interesting and ex citing period. It was well known that the Govern ments of England and France, severally and jointly, opposed the annexation of Texas to the American Union, and that similar instructions, had been given by these Governments to their respective Ministers in Washington and Texas. These instructions were, 58 no doubt, intended to be used with diplomatic effect; neither party seeming at the time willing to pro ceed to extremities. Mr. KING, true to American character, and to the generous instincts of his nature, did not plunge into the labyrinth of European di plomacy. He had nothing to disguise, nothing to withhold, nothing to ask for that was not just; and with the straightforwardness and dignity which ought always to characterize an American Minister abroad, at once demanded of the King himself a frank avowal of his intentions. Louis Philippe might have been prepared to evade the artful ap proaches of a Talleyrand or a Richelieu ; but he had no means of refusing to answer a plain ques tion, honestly proposed by a foreign Minister, whose official rank did not add the weight of a feather to the volume of his private character. Mr. KING received the desired reply as to the final course the French Government meant to adopt should Texas be annexed, and became at once satisfied that our relations with France would not be disturbed by the event. The King s reply was reported to Mr. Calhoun, then Secretary of State, and the annexa- 59 tion was accomplished, without even a protest from any European Power. Subsequently, when the diplomatic correspondence was published, Mr. Gui- zot, then the French Premier, attempted to raise a question of veracity between himself and Mr. KING, in regard to the reply given by Louis Philippe to our representative in Paris. But such was the character for honesty and truth he had established for himself during his short residence in the French capital, and such the suspicions with which Mr. Guizot s acts were viewed by the French public, that there was not a single French paper which dared to doubt the word of our Minister ; and the aspersion was only translated from an English paper, and published in the French Government journal. The object was merely to justify the po licy of France as against England ; but our Minis ter s straightforward course put an end to even that subterfuge. He demanded, as a gentleman, that the King should respect the assurance given him in regard to Texas; and the King did respect it, and Mr. Guizot furnished a copy of it in writing to Mr. KING. Thus did not only our Government, 60 but the person of our Minister, achieve a signal tri umph over the sinuous course of European politics and statesmen. Pending this controversy, it is said, Mr. Guizot attempted to assuage Mr. KING, by assuring him that "he had often been told that he (Guizot) lied." To which Mr. KING modestly replied, that "Ae had never been told so." French appreciation of sarcasm had no difficulty in discovering the true meaning of Mr. KING S caustic reply. I cannot but allude to his kind and noble disposition to bring forward, and advance the fortunes of young men, struggling up in life. I have myself been the re cipient of his kindness in this respect. In all such relations he never assumed the position of patron and client. It was not his position, but his heart which determined the place occupied by his friends, and his exalted character looked to no return of favors. After his election to the Vice Presidency, when lingering under a painful and mortal disease, in a foreign country, his thoughts naturally re verted to his own beloved Alabama. Once more he wished to behold the sun of his country once more 61 he desired to breathe the invigorating air of home. Friend and kindred had followed him abroad; but he yearned for a wider circle of hearts beating in uni son with his own. The American people had taken a deep interest in his recovery. They had a pride in seeing him occupy the position to which their suf frages had raised him. They had an abiding confi dence in his integrity as a statesman, and a warm sympathy for his bodily sufferings. With breathless anxiety did the people receive the tidings of the pro gress of his illness, and each note of sorrow, which travelled with the velocity of light, found a painful echo in the public breast. To the people of his coun try did the old statesman and patriot return, to draw his last breath. Once more he trod the soil of his home ; once more his eyes gladdened with the sight of his native land, free, prosperous, and happy; once more his heart beat with rapturous delight at the future prospects and greatness of this glorious Union. The strife and clamor of ruthless partisans had sub sided; the olive leaf of peace had once more spread her blessings over twenty-five millions of contented beings ; and as his dying lips murmured a blessing 62 on them all, his pure soul was wafted to that unknown land, which, in the midst of the busy scenes of his life, his Christian heart always looked to as his last and surest resting-place. " Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime; And departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time. " Footprints that perhaps another, Sailing o er life s solemn main A forlorn and shipwrecked brother Seeing, shall take heart again. " Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait." MR. TAYLOR, of Ohio, said : MR. SPEAKER : Death has so often invaded this house during the six years in which I have been a member of Congress, that whenever a new Con gress convenes, I am strongly impressed with the 63 conviction, that some of our body, during their term of service, must pay the debt of nature, and end their lives in the public employment. The Senate, though only numbering sixty-two members, rarely passes a session without being called upon to pay the usual funeral honors to some one or more of its members. Even the executive mansion is not unfrequently in vaded by the King of Terrors ; and men in public station are everywhere constantly reminded, that for life, and all their earthly blessings, they are de pendent upon Him " in whose hands our breath is, and whose are all our ways." The official announcement of the death of the Hon. WILLIAM R. KING, late Vice President of the United States, and the well-deserved eulogies this day pronounced upon his character, bring freshly to our recollection the manly form and gentlemanly bearing of that distinguished man, and his long and eminent public service. With the incidents of his private life and history, I am not so familiar as to speak advisedly ; but his personal friends upon this floor, have clearly pre sented them for our consideration. I had the 64 pleasure to know him for many years as a public man, and to meet him often in the social circles of this city. And though we differed widely in our opinions upon some of the most important political questions that have lately agitated the country, I always found him mingling moderation with firm ness, and a proper respect for the opinions of those who differed with him. A just and high sense of honor seemed to me to mark his public and private career ; and I cheerfully express these views of the distinguished man, whose death we now commemo rate, because I hold that no differences of opinion in politics, should ever make us forget that we are all Americans, that we are all under the protection of the same Constitution and laws, and must share alike the benefits or evils that may result from our public actions. A higher motive should always check a too great asperity of political feeling, and inculcate a wise moderation and proper toleration towards those who differ with us. For, after all, the exertions of the wisest and the best men amongst us are but transient ; they are vain and futile, unless sanctioned and approved by the great Author of all good. Mr. King appeared to me possessed in a high degree^ of a wise moderation, and of a tolerant spirit ; and his long experience in public life made him eminently useful. He seemed to me to com bine, in a very high degree, the strictest integrity and purest honor, and what the great poet so ad mirably portray* " With all good grace to grace a gentleman." MR. ASIIE, of North Carolina, rose and said : MR. SPEAKER : having the honor to represent the county in which WILLIAM E. KING was born, and the larger portion of the district which first returned him as a member of this House having enjoyed, in a manner grateful to my recollection, his friend ship and confidence, and being at present the repre sentative of a numerous and highly respectable kindred he left with us, I feel it a solemn duty that I should not allow the present occasion to pass without adding my humble but heartfelt testimonial to the truthfulness of the richly-deserved and high commendations which have been bestowed on him 66 by the honorable gentlemen who have preceded me. After the indulgence of obsequial griefs, which are a fit tribute to departed worth, the soul thirsts to immortalize, to assimilate to itself the noble and virtuous endowments of deceased friends. Hence we have, as the remains of a venerable antiquity, the most magnificent Egyptian pyramids, splendid Grecian mausoleums, Koman sepulchres of extensive dimensions ; but these were designed to portray the outward rather than the inward man. As ancillary to the same end various expedients and devices were adopted to perpetuate, to rescue from the de struction of time the personal appearance, after the soul had taken its flight. Vain imaginings ! Empty conceits ! The recorded reminiscence of a good work, of a charitable deed, of a benevolent thought, are worth more than a " Pelion upon Ossa" of such monuments. Posterity is grateful, and if it can be benefited by any single incident of a man s life, the character of the benefactor will be remembered and appreciated. And if his deeds of goodness should fill a volume, posterity will never weary in " turning the leaf to read it," and to acknowledge its gratitude 6T to the author. And such a prized volume have we afforded us by the life of WILLIAM K. KING, a contemplation of which fills our hearts with gra titude, and inspires us to rejoice, that as one among us he lived, and to sorrow that " he is no more." I believe it was Philip of Macedon who gratefully sacrificed to the gods that a son had been born to him in time to derive instruction from the great philosopher, Aristotle. If such was the veneration of a barbarian warrior for a heathen philosopher, how much more grateful should we feel, both as statesmen and citizens, that our lots should have been cast in the same horoscope with that of Clay, Calhoun, and King, in the history of each of whom " there is a philosophy teaching by example" well fitted to steer our frail bark down its wayward course, clear of the dangerous rocks and shoals, which are prone to wreck it. These distinguished compatriots, who, for nearly half a century, com manded the admiration of the American world, though widely differing one from another in pecu liarities of character, yet each, in his life, left us a 68 legacy which, the more we read, the more we will appreciate. The two former, "having gathered together their earthly harvest," previous to the adjournment of the last Congress, have received from their admiring friends that tribute of respect which we are now called upon to render to the last. While we do not claim for our distinguished friend either the thrill ing eloquence of Clay, or the philosophical dis crimination of Calhoun, yet, in the various positions which it was his fortune to fill, we find developed the true elements of moral and intellectual great ness. " Perhaps one of the highest encomiums ever pronounced on a man in public life," said the late John Quincy Adams, "is that of a historian, emi nent for his profound acquaintance with mankind, who, in painting a great character by a single line, says: he was just equal to all the duties of the highest offices which he attained, and never above them. There are, in some men, qualities which dazzle and consume to little or no valuable purpose. These seldom belong to the great benefactors of 69 mankind. " Such were not the qualities of Colonel KING ; but in all the relations of life, in every po sition he attained, he was fully equal to their responsibilities, and discharged their varied duties with fidelity and ability. Colonel KING was bom in Sampson County, in my State, April, 1786. His father, William King, was a gentleman of fortune and character. During the revolutionary war, he rendered important ser vices to his country s cause, both by personal service and the generous use of his fortune. After the conclusion of the war, he was a member of the Convention which was called to adopt the Federal Constitution, and was repeatedly elected a delegate to the General Assembly from his county. His situation in life enabled him to bestow on his chil dren all the advantages of education which our country at that time afforded. Colonel KING was sent at an early age to the University of North Carolina, located at Chapel Hill, which institution he left in his seventeenth year, bearing with him the happy consolation of having commanded the respect of his professors, the 70 love and esteem of his associates. He studied law with William Duffy, an eminent jurist, residing in the town of Fayetteville, where he formed friend ships which he preserved with affection to the day of his death. On being admitted to the bar, he settled in his native county, from which he was returned the following year as a member of the Legislature. By this body he was elected Solicitor for the Wilmington judicial district, in which situ ation he continued for two years. He was then again returned to the Legislature for the years 1808-9. In the year 1810 he was elected to the Congress of the United States, being the Twelfth Congress. This was a most important crisis in our national affairs. France, dominant in Europe, Eng land, mistress of the ocean, our neutrality was grossly disregarded by each of these supercilious powers. To our menacing protests, France ulti mately yielded respect. England continued her career of haughty insolence. War or national degradation was inevitable. True republicans avoided not the issue, but met it boldly. Colonel KING acted with them with his 71 whole soul ; and, though one of the youngest mem bers of the Congress, he was distinguished for the firm and fervid earnestness with which he supported the illustrious Madison in his patriotic efforts to sustain the honor of our country. He continued a member of Congress until after the conclusion of the war, when he accepted a diplomatic position abroad, as sociated with that scholar and statesman, William Pinckney. On his return from Europe, he changed his residence from North Carolina to Alabama, car rying with him the cordial respect and good wishes of all the enmity of no one. Alabama was then a territory, but on the eve of organizing a State government, and as soon as it was done, she, al though Colonel KING was then absent from the State, honored him with one of her first Senatorial appointments in the Congress of the United States a most flattering mark of confidence, which con fidence he enjoyed in the amplest manner during the remainder of his long and eventful life. It is unnecessary for me to read further from the volume of his life. His subsequent career has already been detailed by able and experienced friends. What is 72 the lesson which posterity can learn from this volume? It is useful ! It is significant ! Let the honor, let the happiness of our country, as with him, be our ruling aspiration ; but in its advocation, let us so attemper, as he did, our conduct, so dispense the charities of life, that we can command for ourselves the love of friends, the admiration of opponents. While such is the brilliant picture of his public career, his private life, his frank and confiding disposition, his uniform courtesy and kindness, the single-hearted devotedness of his friendship, his love of right, his hatred of wrong, his bold and chivalric temper, present a character worthy of our study and emulation. " A combination and a form indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man." MR. BENTON, of t Missouri, said : MR. SPEAKER : The relation in which I have stood to the eminent deceased, whose loss we all deplore, must plead my excuse for a departure from the 73 ancient practice which limit the number of tribute- offerers, on an occasion like the present, to the mover and seconder of the resolutions which express the sense of the House at the death of a fellow- member. Natives of the same State, and nearly of the same age, we emigrated when young to, what was then, the Far West; and by the favor of our adopted States, were both returned, and nearly at the same time, to occupy seats on the floor of the American Senate. Commencing he in 1819, 1 in 1820 we remained for thirty years (with the exception of the brief interval in which he represented his coun try at a foreign court), members of the same body intimately associated in all the current business of that body, and in all the amenities of social and private life. But my knowledge of him goes beyond thirty years goes back to forty and not then to the be ginning of his Congressional service when I first saw him on this floor. And I mention this first time of seeing him, and in what place, to do honor to the public man who could so long retain the con- 74 fidence of his constituents ; and to their honor for the steadiness of their support; and to the credit of our institutions, to which such stability between constituent and representative promises a duration, not to be measured by the brief lives of those Re publics whose people were given up to fickleness and versatility. These circumstances plead my excuse for depart ing from a custom which limited the number of those who should have the privilege of expressing, in the presence of the national representation, their own and the general feeling, at the demise of a brother member. The members who have preceded me have stated, and well stated, the illustrious career of the de ceased tracing his course through a long gradation, always rising, of public honors from the General Assembly of his native State, to the second office of his country the Vice Presidency of this great Republic. To me it only belongs to join my voice to theirs, and to the voices of all who knew him, in cele brating the integrity and purity of his life the de- 75 corum of his manners his assiduous and punctual attention to every duty and the ability and intelli gence which he brought to the discussion of the na tional affairs during his long service of thirty years. Faithful to his adopted State, he exhibited, when duty to her permitted, the beautiful trait of filial affection to the honored State of his birth a State which has so many claims upon her children (be sides that of having first given them the vital air), for their constant and grateful remembrance wheresoever they may go. As friend, as associate, as native of the same State with the late Vice President KING, I appear on this occasion, and feel it to be, in me his senior in age a providential privilege to assist in doing honor to his memory in the presence of the national repre sentation. MR. PHILLIPS, of Alabama, said : MR. SPEAKER : I cannot permit this occasion to pass by without paying tribute to the memory of the deceased. It is not, sir, to contribute to a mere ceremony, 76 or to conform to any public expectation, that I now occupy the floor. My feelings are far too deep for such lip-service demonstration. It was my fortune, Mr. Speaker, to have enjoyed the full confidence and friendship of WILLIAM R. KING, for the whole period of my residence in the State which I have now the* honor to represent. I early learned to appreciate his high qualities ; and time, which tests all things, served but to confirm my judgment. I may now safely say of him dead, what, with equal confidence, I may have said were he now living, that the Republic never produced a man of more exalted integrity, or of a higher chi valry of character. I visited Washington for the first time a few years ago, and though it has been said (with what truth I cannot assert), that corruption here stalks at noon day, it was with just pride as an Alabamian, that I learned from all quarters .and all parties, that through his long service in the public councils of upwards of a quarter of a century, he had not only preserved his reputation intact, but freed, even from the breath of suspicion. 77 It was this purity of character, joined to the high qualities of a remarkably well-balanced mind, that enabled him to enjoy, for so long a period, the con fidence of the people of his own State, and of the whole Confederacy. He has filled the highest offices, and discharged the weightiest duties, with honor to himself and ad vantage to his country; well, therefore, may we con clude, in the language of the Presidential message, that the death of such a man is an irreparable loss to the country. A great man has fallen, and it is fit we mourn him ! Dying, as he lived, with a full knowledge of the past, and a just appreciation of the future, may I not indulge in the hope that the light of his ex ample may long continue to illuminate the path of the future representatives of the State which holds his remains and cherishes his memory. The question was taken, and the resolutions were unanimously adopted. THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. " DEC 22 fftjy *^* t LD 21-100m-7, 40 (6936s)