of tijp 
 
 (HolUttmn of Nnrllj ffiaroltntana 
 
 C6 
 K54 
 
This BOOK may be kept out TWO WEE] 
 ONLY, and is subject to a fine of FV 
 CENTS a day thereafter. It -wasJtatoi out 
 
 the day indicated below: 
 
 SEP 4 19i8 
 
 
^^jiA^u..^ A y( 
 
 
 1 
 
» m 
 
 OBITUARY ADDRESSES 
 
 ON THB 
 
 #aasOT of % gtatlj 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HOK WILLIAI R, KING, 
 
 OF ALABAMA, 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 ^: '^-^ 
 
 €mtt 0f il]^ Inito States, 
 
 EIGHTH AND NINTH DECEMBER, 1853. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 PRINTED BY ROBERT ARMSTRONG. 
 
 1854. 
 
 *- 
 
y 
 
■« 
 
 |it tjjc Jpm of ^tpmtittatiks of % Inittb 
 
 States. 
 
 December 19, 1853. 
 
 Resolved, That the members of the House 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 House, thirty thousand copies of the proceedings 
 of the Senate and House of Representatives, and the ad- 
 dresses of the members, in regard to the death of the late 
 Vice-President of the United States, the Hon. William 
 R. King, together -vrith so much of the President's Message 
 of the present Session as relates thereto, and the proceed- 
 ings of the Supreme Court of the United States on the 
 
 same subject. 
 
 Attest, 
 
 JOHN W. FORNEY. 
 
 Clerk H. B. U. S. 
 
 3 
 
 si) 8 
 
 r 
 
•9 
 
 gtatlj of IMilliam ^\. |iing. 
 
 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 universal 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.'* 
 
t- 
 
 '^ 
 
 §hximx^ %)iktssts. 
 
 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 unavoid- 
 ably absent, to ask that we may pause for a day at 
 least in our deliberations 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 
 Confederacy, to whom the life and services of William 
 R. King are known, who would not be ready with 
 some offermg, 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 influ- 
 ences 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 throw^n freely open to the 
 world, and challenge its closest scrutiny, with a con- 
 sciousness 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 seductions 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 successfully, 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 survive. 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 Colo- 
 
 «- 
 
m m 
 
 nel King. His was an instance in which greatness" 
 was achieved without the aid of those brilliant quali- 
 ties whose rare assemblage the world calls genius, 
 but by what is better far, a sound judgment, a reso- 
 lute purpose to pursue the right, and a capacity to 
 gather wisdom from experience. 
 
 He was no orator, and yet from the force of cha- 
 racter he could wield an influence which mere oratory 
 never commanded. He had none of that presumptu- 
 ous self-confidence which so often misleads ourselves 
 and others, and which, though a 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 depositary 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 honour required it. He 
 was a man, sir, whose whole soul would have sick- 
 ened 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 
 
8 
 
 twentj'-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, 
 our Minister to Russia. Upon his return he emigrated 
 to Alabama, where he was almost immediately sent 
 to their Constitutional Convention. 
 
 And at the first session of the first Legislature 
 which assembled afterward, he was sent to the Senate 
 of the United States from the State of Alabama, 
 where he may be said to have served continuously, 
 until his election to the Yice-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 wusdom 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 fiiltered 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 the 
 emptiness of the earthly objects of our usual pursuit, 
 that much-prized honor was to him the Dead-Sea 
 
 m ^ 
 
$- 
 
 'S 
 
 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 affectionate care. In 
 vain did the aspirations of a whole people ascend to 
 Heaven for his recovery. The balmy influences of 
 neither sea nor sky could revive or restore 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 among 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 chronicles 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 prominent and useful part. It will be told, 
 too, and perhaps heard, with most interest in the 
 traditions 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 
 
 -i> 
 
10 
 
 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 deceased, the members of the Senate will go 
 into mourning, by wearing crape on their left arm for thirty 
 days. 
 
 Ordered, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate 
 this resolution to the House of Representatives. 
 
 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 cheerful- 
 ness. It was my good fortune to enjoy the acquaint- 
 ance of the late Vice-President — I hope, even some 
 portion of his friendly regard — for a longer 23eriod, 
 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 relations to him as mem- 
 
 •i) 
 
•# 
 
 11 
 
 bers of this Senate are, by the performance of 
 this day's melancholy duty, about 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-President, without vio- 
 lating the most scrupulous dictates of sincerity. I 
 can &Siy nothing but what is good of him, for I have 
 never &een or heard any thing but good of him for 
 thirty years that I have known him, personally and 
 by reputation. 
 
 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 regret, particularly on 
 this occasion, the unavoidable absence of our col- 
 leagues from Alabama. It is the province of those 
 of us not connected with him by political associa- 
 tions, especially of those inhabiting remote parts 
 of our common country, to express their cordial 
 concurrence in the affectionate praises pronounced 
 by his fellow-citizens and neighbors. 
 
 Few of the public men of the day had been so in- 
 timately 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 different kind 
 
12 
 
 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 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 proceed- 
 ings, and that urbanity of manner, which are re- 
 quired in a presiding officer. Not claiming, although 
 an acute and forcible debater, to rank with his illus- 
 trious contemporaries, whom now, alas ! we can men- 
 tion only to deplore — with Calhoun, with Clay, and 
 with Webster, (I name them alphabetically, and who 
 will presume to arrange them on any other princi- 
 ple,) whose unmatched eloquence so often shook the 
 walls of this Senate — the late Vice-President pos- 
 sessed 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 Kepublic. 
 
 In fact, sir, he was highly endowed with what 
 Cicero beautifully commends as the honi Senatoris 
 jp'nidentia, tlie "" wisdom of a good Senator ;" and in 
 
-t 
 
 13 
 
 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 govern- 
 ment by deliberative assemblies; its willingness, 
 while it asserts the largest liberty of parliamentary 
 right, to respect what the Senator from Virginia, in 
 another connection, has called the self-imposed re- 
 strictions of parliamentary order ; and I do not think 
 it an exaggeration to say, that there is no trait in its 
 character which has proved more conducive to the 
 despatch 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 perpetuate 
 constitutional liberty. 
 
 The long and faithful senatorial career of the late 
 Vice-President received at last its appropriate re- 
 ward. 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 constitution- 
 ally and permanently, during its continuance, in the 
 chair of the Senate. 
 
 -s 
 
14 
 
 A mysterious dispensation of Providence has 
 nipped these crowning honors in the bud. A disease, 
 for which the perpetual summer and perfumed 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 jurisdic- 
 tion, 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. 
 
 Thus, sir, he has left us to chase for a little while 
 longer the shadows which he has exchanged for un- 
 utterable realities. He has left us prematurely for 
 every thing but his spotless name, and his entrance 
 on the well-earned honors of his unambitious career. 
 And we. Senators, for all the interchange of kind- 
 ness ; 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 connection 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 Vir^rinia. 
 
 ^ 
 

 15 
 
 MR. CASS, of Michigan. 
 
 Mr. President : — Again has death invaded the 
 high places of our land, and has taken from us a 
 citizen distinguished hy his tfilents, his worth, and 
 his services, and enjoying the confidence and affec- 
 tion of his countrymen. In the Providence of 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 ali^o ready" is a so- 
 lemn admonition announced to us from the cradle to 
 the grave, by the mighty and the lowly, as they suc- 
 cessively 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 manifestations 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 xAmerican people. Upon this occasion 
 I desire to do little more than to express those senti- 
 ments of affectionate regard with which an acquaint- 
 ance of many years had inspired me, leaving to 
 
16 
 
 others, who have this day well fulfilled the task, to 
 present those features of his character 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 encourage- 
 ment, than to William K. 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 councils ; and the ripe fruit 
 of his experience, joined to these endowments, gave 
 conviction to his opinion, and authority to his ex- 
 ample. We always heard him with attention, for he 
 elucidated every subject he investigated, and brought 
 to our discussions the stores of his knowledge and 
 experience, with a manner as unassuming as it was 
 captivating. While loving the State in which he 
 so long resided, and which had given him so many 
 proofs of confidence and affection, he loved also our 
 common country, and at home and fibroad 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 kindness of his heart, and in the social 
 circle he was the very model of the accomplished 
 
IT 
 
 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, 
 sustaining 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 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 wall live, honored and 
 cherished, long after all those who are now taking part 
 in this tribute to his worth shall have followed him in 
 the journey, where, for a brief space, he has preceded 
 us through the dark valley of the shadow of death. 
 
 MR. DOUGLASS, of Illinois. 
 
 I can scarcely hope to add any thing of value 
 to what has been so well said by others. For the 
 
 «« 
 
«• 
 
 18 
 
 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 ob- 
 scure the freshness of the first impression, or assuage 
 the keenness of that sorrow which filled every heart. 
 But no matter what the lapse of time or its results, 
 the meeting of the Senate, and the absence of one 
 whom all admired and loved, and delighted to greet 
 and honor, call up associations and reminiscences 
 w^iich 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 intercourse, are alone 
 capable of realizing the extent of our loss. His ex- 
 ample in all the relations 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 performance of arduous 
 public duties — always performing his trust with 
 fidelity and ability, and never failing to command 
 the confidence, admiration, and gratitude of an en- 
 lightened constituency. While he held, in succession, 
 numerous official stations, in each of which he main- 
 tained and enhanced his previous reputation, yet the 
 
 -^ 
 
<$) 
 
 19 
 
 Senate was the place of his 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 deport- 
 ment. Here, where his character was best under- 
 stood, 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 testi- 
 monial in addition to what has been so appro- 
 priately and eloquently expressed by others. A 
 quarter of a century has elapsed since I became 
 acquainted with William R. King as a brother Se- 
 nator 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 opportunity is offered of paying a tribute 
 to the memory of one who so honorably deserved it. 
 
 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 wellspent life. 
 The Roman poet has immortalized the sentiment — 
 
 ^' Nee male vixit, qui natus moriensque fefellit." 
 
 But William R. King, who was everywhere known. 
 
 ife" 
 
i»- 
 
 20 
 
 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 oc- 
 casions similar to the present when speaking of such 
 a man. It is not enough to say of him that he per- 
 formed 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 usefulness as a 
 legislator. He was emphatically a business memher 
 of the Senate, and without ostentation, originated 
 and perfected more useful measures than many who 
 filled the public eye hj greater displaj^, and daily 
 commanded the applause of a listening Senate. He 
 never sought with some of his contemporaries 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 the glory of the Republic. 
 
 He graced the chair of the Senate longer than 
 
««) 
 
 21 
 
 any other man that ever occupied it — not continu- 
 ously, or by virtue merely of repeated election's as 
 our temporary President, but often also at the request 
 of the Presiding Officer. I think he was thus engaged 
 in the performance of the duties of President 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 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 maintained 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 indul- 
 gence 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 yielding himself up as an instrument of oppression 
 to the minority. But he sought an honest and 
 enduring fame, and he obtained it without the em- 
 
 •i) 
 
22 
 
 ploy men t of any unworthy means, or the slightest 
 sacrifice of principle. He engaged no hireling press, 
 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 nearlv 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 Wood- 
 bury, the astute Grundy, the witt}', sarcastic, and 
 ever-ready Holmes, the classic Bobbins, and, among 
 many others justly distinguished, the graceful and 
 accomplished orator of Carolina, Robert Y. Hayne, 
 
23 
 
 " "Whose words had such a meltinor flow. 
 And spoke of truth so sweetly well, 
 They dropp'd 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 fiime we now commemorate, as to one not in- 
 ferior in integrity and honor to the proudest among 
 them. But these reminiscences are attended by the 
 mournful reflection that our connections with them 
 in this world are ended for ever — 
 
 "Around us, each dissever'd chain 
 In sparkling ruin lies, 
 And earthly hands can ne'er again 
 Unite those broken ties." 
 
 The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 
 
 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. 
 
m 'S) 
 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 . Thursday, December 8, 1853. 
 
 A MESSAGE was received from the Senate by the hands 
 of AsBURY DiCKEXS, its Secretary, as follows : 
 
 In Senate, December 8, 1853. 
 
 Resolved unanimoudy, 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 deceased, 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 in- 
 tended to commemorate, have months ago been 
 heralded to every hamlet of our wide-spread con- 
 federacy; and the generous hearts of even distant 
 
 24 
 
 •* 
 
25 
 
 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 
 usa2:e, the Senate, over whose deliberations the dis- 
 tinguished dead so long presided with sucTi marked 
 ability, pauses from its labors to consecrate 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 indulgence of the House of Re- 
 presentatives, while, in behalf of the State of Ala- 
 bama, 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- 
 sary any thing more than a cursory allusion to the 
 political services of William R. King. ^^ 
 
 He was born on the 7th day of April, t;.7»6, in 
 the State of North Carolina. Coming into being 
 almost contemporaneously 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 ex- 
 periment of self-government, whose principles were 
 
 1 
 
 mmM 
 
26 
 
 evolved from our Revolutionary struggle, had just 
 fiiirly emerged from the misty domain of specula- 
 tion, 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 
 tlie principles of the republican school, he connect- 
 ed 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 member, 
 having conferred upon him the Solicitorship of the 
 judicial circuit in which he resided, he resigned his 
 seat in that body. After holding the office of Soli- 
 citor for two years, he was again returned to the 
 Legislature for the years 1808-0. Li 1810, so 
 soon as he had attained the age prescribed by the 
 Constitution, he was elected a member of Congress 
 from tlie Wilmington district, in which body he con- 
 tinued to serve until the year 181G. During this 
 period of American history, there were just ascend- 
 ing from the verge of the political horizon, and 
 rapidly tending toward the zenith, names which 
 were destined to illustrate the irreatness of our 
 country, and impress themselves imperishably 
 upon her monumental records. That immortal 
 triumvirate, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster, for 
 
27 
 
 whose decease the sable habiliments of a nation's 
 wo have scarce disappeared, were just then be- 
 ginning 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. Kandolph and Lowndes were 
 there too — and other great names indelibly secured 
 by the diamond pen of history's muse. Among these 
 stood William K. King, a co-w^orker and a compeer. 
 Differing somewhat fi'om them all in many gf those 
 great attributes of mind, which dazzle and lead cap- 
 tive the admiring throng; yet in all the elements 
 w^hich go to make up the useful legislator — in pru- 
 ^ dence, 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 sailors' 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 afterward to St. Petersburg. Having 
 returned home at the expiration of two years, he 
 determined to break from the endearments of his 
 fiitherland, and cast his fortunes in the then almost 
 unpeopled wilds of distant Alabama. This land 
 w^as now to constitute the theatre of his after use- 
 fulness. God ffave him sufficient length of davs to 
 see " the wilderness blossom as the rose ;" and be- 
 
28 
 
 hold 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, and was one of the most active and 
 efficient of those who laid the foundations of our 
 State polity. So soon as the constitution 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 K. King to the second office in their gift — 
 a period of more than thirty years, he continued to 
 speak for Alabama upon the floor 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. 
 
 »S) 
 
29 
 
 As may justly be inferred, from the long and un- 
 checked career of success which distinguished the 
 life of Mr. King, and the respect and confidence 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 re- 
 compense 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 ma- 
 tured counsels of a wise and honorable old age. In- 
 telligence, honesty, and fidelity distinguished the 
 administration of every public trust confided to his 
 hands. Amid all the fluctuations of public senti- 
 ment, and all the mutations 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 
 w^orldly 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 forma- 
 tion of an almost perfect man. To w^isdom and 
 patriotism as a statesman, to love of right, and 
 devotion to principle, he added a temper respectful 
 
 m' 
 
30 
 
 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 mea- 
 sure 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 en- 
 genders, and always tolerant of the opinions of others, 
 he was inflexible and unswerving in the maintenance 
 of his own— ^ 
 
 " Yir Justus, et tenax propositi.'* 
 
 In all those more intimate and tender relations 
 wdiich bound him to his friends, his kindred, and his 
 servants, he was all that friendship could ask, or affec- 
 tion claim, or humanity and kindness enjoin. While 
 in that higher and more solemn relation, which he 
 bore to the Author of us all, he was exact and scru- 
 pulous 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 fleeting, final hour, he 
 leaned with humble trust upon the merits of his 
 Saviour. 
 
 " His life was gentle — and the elements 
 
 r 
 
 So mix'd in him, that nature might stand up 
 And say to all th^ world — ' This was a man.' " 
 
 In the first month of this year, the Vice-President 
 resigned his post of Presiding Oflicer of the Senate, 
 with the vain hope that a winter residence in Cuba 
 might ameliorate his health. But the balmy breezes 
 
 
31 
 
 of the ocean gem could not relume the waning fire 
 that flickered to itvS close. Death was demanding its 
 victim, and the dying patriot felt that he must need 
 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 fra- 
 grance shall still cling around his memory, exhaled 
 from the clustering virtues which beautified his cha- 
 racter. Calmly he confronted 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 darken' d west, nor hides 
 Obscured amid the tempests of the sky — 
 But melts away into the light of heaven." 
 
 How fruitful, Mr. Speaker, in admonition to us, 
 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 hofirs of his life. 
 
 m ^ 
 

 Upon the full tide of an almost jDopular acclaim, he 
 had been just elevated to one of the most exalted 
 stations of the earth. But along with the flattering 
 consciousness of popular confidence and merited pro- 
 motion, came the stunning sense that life's decaying 
 energies were sinking to the grave. While the joyous 
 gratulations of an admiring peoj^le were welling up 
 from the depths of the nation's heart, and falling 
 with thrilling accents upon the ear of gratified am- 
 bition, there was mingling with them another voice 
 from the spirit-land, whose tones were heard above 
 the loud tumult of popular applause, and calling to 
 the fiiiling statesman — 
 
 " Child of the dust, come away I'' 
 
 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 immolation. 
 What a humiliating mockery of earth's a.spirations, 
 which end in nothingness — of its evanescent honors, 
 which vanish at the touch ! and how strikingly sug- 
 gestive of the solemn reflection that 
 
 " The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 
 Mr. Speaker, I offer the following resolution : 
 
 liesolved^ That from an unfeigned respect to the late 
 William 11. King, Vice-President of the United States, and 
 President of the Senate, the Speaker's chair be shrouded ii\ 
 black during the present session of Congress ; and, as a fur- 
 ther testimony o^ respect for the memory of the deceased^ 
 
 -* 
 
g) 9 
 
 33 
 
 the members and officers of this House Tvill go into monrn- 
 ing, 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 instruc- 
 tion and encouragement. 
 
 The representatives of a great nation pause, in the 
 midst of the initiation of legislative business, to ex- 
 press respect for a citizen who owed his elevation 
 less to those striking qualities that are sure to excite 
 public interest and insure popular favor, than to 
 those gentle virtues w^hich are so slow to secure 
 general appreciation. 
 
 The Congress of the United States, in paying the 
 tribute of gratitude to the departed functionary, de- 
 clares that it commemorates the virtue by which he 
 achieved elevation, and thus it connects purity of 
 social life with the honors of official distinction. 
 
 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 ser- 
 vice to her in places of distinction. 
 
 3 
 
 i) 
 
34 
 
 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, 
 but which I shall so feebly express 3 and while they 
 and their constituents, and mine, judge according to 
 their various political creeds, of the public measures 
 which are connected with the name and services 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 patriotism, 
 in which those measures were proposed or advocated. 
 
 I do not suppose, that in the tribute which we are 
 now paying to the memory of a distinguished states- 
 man, we are acquitting ourselves, as the representa- 
 tives of the people, of the indebtedness of the country 
 for services through years of unremitted 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 patriotism which the lives and 
 services of our good men impart ; and while we should 
 lament the consequences of a neglect of their exam- 
 ples and precepts, we should do honor to virtues 
 which we had ceased to imitate, and venerate the 
 patriotism which, we had forgotten to follow. * 
 
 a- 
 
The gentleman who has preceded me has given to 
 the House a sketch of the public services of the late 
 Vice-President KixG. It is an instructive lesson ; 
 one that we should " teach diligently unto our chil- 
 dren." 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 willing- 
 ness to reward them. The history of our country 
 shows that consummate statesmanship may be com- 
 bined with the possession and professional exercise 
 of military skill. The halls of legislation, 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 discharge the duties of minis- 
 terial office. And we have seen the accomplished 
 warrior lay aside his military trappings, and assume 
 the garb and discharge 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 
 patriotism has its services and its sacrifices in the 
 halls of legislation and the walks of diplomacy ; and 
 
 •» 
 
Sf 
 
 36 
 
 that the qualifications for lofty place were to be 
 manifested in the silent, laborious, unpretending pri- 
 vacy 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 esti- 
 mate by a false standard of the services of their 
 public functionaries, and it shows how much con- 
 fidence may be j)laced 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 ch alien "in o; attention. He moved 
 
 C CO 
 
 among his fellow-men w^ith manifestations of constant 
 respect for their rights and their positions; and 
 among his fellow-legislators he was distinguished by 
 that constant deference to others which is the cha- 
 racteristic of excessive modesty and available talents. 
 Abroad, sir, in Europe, he presented himself with no 
 demands, as a man, upon the consideration of others, 
 and no claim to distinction, in the free use of his 
 ample means. But as the representative of a nation 
 of freemen, he claimed the regard which his repre- 
 sentative character challenged, and he maintained 
 social hospitalities with the profusion 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 
 
-1 
 
 37 
 
 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 
 readily, because the courteous bearing of that distin- 
 guished man deprived his opposition of all appear- 
 ance of bitterness, drew from the defeat of his oppo- 
 nents, when their defeat ensued, the sting of morti- 
 fied self esteem, or imparted to his own discomfort 
 the ease of gentlemanly submission. 
 
 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 great- 
 ness, in the midst of all her amplitude of extent, and 
 in the midst of all her profusion of means; more 
 than that, sir, in the midst of all her munificence 
 of men. 
 
 Though absent, sir, absent to die, far from the im- 
 mediate seat of his duties, yet the memory of his 
 excellence and purity sustained him in the affection 
 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 concilia- 
 tory habits, his sagacity as a statesman, and his jus- 
 tice as their Presiding Officer. 
 
 The annunciation to-day of the death of Mr. Vice- 
 
 ®' 
 
f 
 
 38 
 
 President KiXG conies to us, sir, witli no surprise. 
 The nation has ah^eady, in some form, manifested its 
 regard for a faithful j)ublic ser^^ant. The announce- 
 ment brings no monition of the brevity of human 
 enjoj^ment and the uncertainty of human life. He 
 had lived nearly to man's aj)pointed time, and be- 
 yond 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 gen- 
 tle 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 occu- 
 pies 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 
 statesmanlike abilities by which he illustrated all 
 offices in his life. 
 
 The addresses on this occasion, and the adoption 
 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 
 
 (i- 
 
m f ) 
 
 39 
 
 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 
 Si 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 gentlemen who have preceded 
 me, and to the quiet meditation of my own heart, the 
 retrospect of his irreproachable 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 3^ou, to remember the life of the statesman 
 with exultation, or forget to mourn the daith of the 
 gooel man with sympathetic expression. How na- 
 tural, then, that I should turn your attention to a 
 few pages in the history of a man, who has filled 
 
 -D 
 
40 
 
 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 Eufus King was a noble specimen of an 
 American statesman and gentleman. The intimate 
 friend of John C. Calhoun, and the contemporary of 
 Webster, Clay, Cass, and Benton, he maintained a 
 proud position in the Senate of the United States 
 by his strong, practical good sense, his experience 
 and wisdom as a legislator, the acknowledged recti- 
 tude 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 himself, and hence it 
 was that he was truthful and sincere to all the world. 
 His course in the Senate was considerate and digni- 
 fied. He never yielded to the impulse of the mo- 
 ment, but made his tongue wait upon his judgment. 
 He never knew what it was to speak, act, or legislate 
 by indirection. He was frank and loyal to his col- 
 leagues, 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 when- 
 ever 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 Na- 
 tional Convention was divided, one of the men who 
 
.« 
 
 41 
 
 afterward played a most conspicuous part in history, 
 spoke but a few words, and these without emphasis. 
 Yet such was the conviction he produced, that his 
 views w^ere 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 individually, Mr. King was the very type of an 
 American gentleman. Free from artifice and dis- 
 guise, his every thought and instinct was chivalric. 
 Not to adventitious circumstances, not to the chances 
 of birth or fortune, not to the society into wdrich he 
 was thrown, was he indebted either for the dis- 
 tinction 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, wdiile 
 his eminent virtues served to illustrate our national 
 character. As Americans, we recognise no standard 
 of greatness which is not based on moral excellence, 
 such as pre-eminently distinguished the early 
 founders of our institutions and laws ; and, in this 
 respect, few of the great men whose names have 
 passed into our history can boast of a nearer ap- 
 proach to those great exemplars than he whose irre- 
 
 -» 
 
«■ 
 
 42 
 
 parable loss we now mourn in common with the 
 whole country. 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 re- 
 ferred 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 intermission, ever since. He was a 
 member of that body when he was nominated for 
 the Yice-Presidency, 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 principle and conviction a States' Rights man ; 
 but he did not love the Union less because he loved 
 Alabama more. While he was serving his own 
 State with fidelity and honor, he was not remiss in 
 his duties to the whole American Confederacy. 
 Like his illustrious prototyj)e, 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 1849-50, 
 Mr. KixG voted for nearly all the compromise 
 measures as an act of devotion to the National 
 Union, without surrendering a single cardinal point 
 
 t' 
 
(i' 
 
 43 
 
 of the political faith which had guided him through 
 life, and had secured to him the affection and at- 
 tachment 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 exciting 
 period. It was well known that the governments 
 of England and France, severally and jointly, op- 
 posed the annexation of Texas to the American 
 Union, and that similar instructions had been given 
 by these governments to their respective ministers 
 in Y/'ashington and Texas. These instructions were, 
 no doubt, intended to be used with diplomatic effect ; 
 neither party seeming at the time willing to pro- 
 ceed to extremities. Mr. KiXG, true to American 
 character, and to the generous instincts of his na- 
 ture, did not plunge into the labyrinth of European 
 diplomacy. 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 Eichelieu, but he had 
 no means of refusing to answer a plain question, 
 honestly proposed by a foreign minister, whose 
 official rank did not add the w^eight of a feather to 
 the volume of his private character. Mr. KiXG re- 
 
 ^ : > ii 
 
44 
 
 ceived 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 re- 
 lations with France would not be disturbed by the 
 event. The king's reply was reported to Mr. Cal- 
 houn, then Secretary of State, and the annexation 
 was accomplished, without even a protest from any 
 European power. Subsequently, when the diplomatic 
 correspondence was published, Mr. Guizot, 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 repre- 
 sentative 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 policy of France as against 
 England ; but our minister's straightforward course 
 put an end even to 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 but the person of our minister achieve 
 
 *d 
 
45 
 
 a signal triumph over the sinuous course of European 
 j)olitics 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 ''he 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 recipient of his kind- 
 ness in this res|)ect. 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 cha- 
 racter looked to no return of favors. After his election 
 to the Vice-Presidency, when lingering under a pain- 
 ful and mortal disease, in a foreign country, his 
 thoughts naturally reverted to his own beloved Ala- 
 bama. Once more he wished to behold the sun of 
 his country — once more 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 unison 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 suffirages had raised him. 
 They had an abiding confidence in his integrity as a 
 
 4 ^ 
 
46 
 
 statesman, and a warm sympathy for his bodily suf- 
 ferings. With breathless anxiety did the people 
 receive the tidings of the progress of his illness, and 
 each note of sorrow, which travelled with the velo- 
 city of light, found a painful echo in the public 
 breast. To the people of his country 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 prospect 
 and greatness of this glorious Union. The strife and 
 clamor of ruthless partisans had subsided ; 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 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 shipwreck' d brother — 
 Seeing, shall take heart again. 
 
 -® 
 
»9 
 
 47 
 
 " 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^o often invaded this 
 House during the six years in which I have been a 
 member of Congress, that whenever a new Congress 
 convenes, I am strongly impressed with the convic- 
 tion, that some of our body, during their term of 
 service, must pay the debt of nature, and end their 
 lives in the public service. 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 
 invaded by the King of Terrors ; and men in public 
 station are everywhere constantly reminded, that for 
 life, and all their earthly blessings, they are depend- 
 ent upon Him " in whose hands our breath is, and 
 whose are all our ways." 
 
 The official announcement of the death of the Hon. 
 William E. King, late Vice-President of the United 
 States, and the well-deserved eulogies this day pro- 
 nounced 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. 
 
 (i g) 
 
48 
 
 AVith 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 presented 
 them for our consideration. I had the 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 firmness, 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 cheer- 
 fully express these views of the distinguished man, 
 whose death we now commemorate, 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 toward those who differ with us. 
 For, after all, the exertions of the wisest and the 
 best men among us are but transient ; they are vain 
 and futile, unless sanctioned and approved by the 
 great Author of all good. Mr. KixG appeared to me 
 possessed, in a high degrce, of a w^ise moderation, 
 and of a tolerant spirit ; and his long experience in 
 
49 
 
 public life made him eminently useful. He seemed 
 to me to combine, in a very high degree, the strictest 
 integrity and purest honor, and what the great poet 
 so admirably portrays — 
 
 " "With all good grace to grace a gentleman." 
 
 MR. ASHE, of North Carolina, rose, and said — 
 
 Mr. Speaker : — Having the honor to represent 
 the county in which William R. 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 friendship 
 and confidence, and being at present the representa- 
 tive 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 add- 
 ing my humble but heartfelt testimonial to the 
 truthfulness of the richly-deserved and high com- 
 mendations which have been bestowed on him 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 im- 
 mortalize, to assimilate to itself the noble and vir- 
 tuous endowments of deceased friends. Hence we 
 have, as the remains of a venerable antiquity, the 
 most magnificent Egyptian pyramids, splendid Gre- 
 cian mausoleums, Roman sepulchres of extensive 
 
 dimensions ; but these were designed to j)ortray the 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 outward rather th|Ln the inward man. As ancillary 
 to the same end, various expedients and devices were 
 adopted to perpetuate, to rescue from the destruction 
 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 cha- 
 ritable deed, of a benevolent thought, are worth more 
 than a " Pelion upon Ossa" of such monuments. Pos- 
 terity 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 to the 
 author. And such a prized volume have we afforded 
 us by the life of William R. King ; a contemplation 
 of which fills our hearts with gratitude, 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 phi- 
 losopher 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 
 
 ■d 
 
«- 
 
 51 . 
 
 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, commanded the admiration of the 
 American world, though widely differing one from 
 another in peculiarities of character, yet each, in his 
 life, left us a 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 thrilling 
 eloquence of Clay, or the philosophical discrimina- 
 tion of Calhoun, yet, in the various positions which 
 it was his fortune to fill, we find developed the true 
 elements of moral and intellectual greatness. 
 
 " Perhaps one of the highest encomiums ever pro- 
 nounced on a man in public life," said the late John 
 Quincy Adams, " is that of a historian, eminent 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 sel- 
 dom belong to the great benefactors of mankind.' " 
 Such were not the qualities of Colonel King ; but in 
 
f 
 
 52 
 
 all the relations of life, in every position he attained, 
 he was fully equal to their responsibilities, and dis- 
 charged their varied duties with fidelity and ability. 
 
 Colonel King was born in Sampson county, in my 
 State, April, 1786. His father, William King, was 
 a gentleman of foi;tune and character. During the 
 Ke volution ary war, he rendered important services 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 en- 
 abled him to bestow on his children all the advan- 
 tages of education which our country at that time 
 afforded. 
 
 Colonel King was sent at an early age to the Uni- 
 versity 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 love 
 and esteem of his associates. He studied law with 
 William Duffy, an eminent jurist, residing in the 
 town of Fayette ville, where he formed friendships 
 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 
 
 m» 
 
53 
 
 judicial district, in which situation he continued for 
 two years. He was then again returned to the Legis- 
 Lature 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 im- 
 portant crisis in our national affairs. France domi- 
 nant in Europe, England mistress of the ocean, our 
 neutrality was grossly disregarded by each of these 
 supercilious Powers. To our menacing protests, 
 France ultimately yielded respect. England con- 
 tinued 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 
 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 sus- 
 tain 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, 
 associated 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 Go- 
 vernment, and as soon as it was done, she, although 
 Colonel KiXG was then absent from the State, honored 
 
 i>— ' i 
 
1.9 
 
 54 
 
 him with one of her first Senatorial appointments in 
 the Congress of the United States ; a most flattering 
 mark of confidencej which confidence 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 expe- 
 rienced friends. What is the lesson which posterity 
 can learn from this volume ? It is useful I It is signifi- 
 cant ! Let the honor, let the happiness of our coun- 
 try, as with him, be our ruling aspiration ; but in its 
 advocation let us so attemper, as he did, our con- 
 duct ; so dispense the charities of life, that we can 
 command for ourselves the love of friends, the ad- 
 miration 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 friend- 
 ship, 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 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 
 
 i- 
 
 — # 
 
55 
 
 the ancient practice, which limits 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 fel- 
 low-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, I in 1820— we 
 remained for thirty years, (with the exception of the 
 brief interval in which he represented his country at 
 a foreign court,) members of the same body — inti- 
 mately associated in all the current business of that 
 body, and in all the amenities of social and private 
 hfe. 
 
 But my knowledge of him goes beyond thirty years 
 —goes back to forty— and not then to the beginning 
 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 2^uhlic 
 man who could so long retain the confidence 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 republics whose people 
 were given up to fickleness and versatility. 
 
 'W 
 
g 
 56 
 
 These circumstances plead my excuse for departing 
 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 deceased 
 — 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 Kepublic. 
 
 To me it only belongs to join my voice to theirs, 
 and to the voices of all who knew him, in celebrating 
 the integrity and purity of his life — the decorum of 
 his manners — his assiduous and punctual attention 
 to every duty — and the ability and intelligence 
 which he brought to the discussion of the national 
 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, (besides 
 that of having first given them the vital air,) for 
 their constant and grateful remembrance — whereso- 
 ever 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, 
 
f 
 
 57 
 
 — a providential privilege to assist in doing honor to 
 his memory in the presence of the national repre- 
 sentation. 
 
 MR. PHILIPS, 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, 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 E. 
 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 Kepublic never produced a 
 man of more exalted integrity, or of a higher chivalry 
 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 xilabamian, that I 
 learned from all quarters and all parties, that through 
 his long service in the public councils of upward of 
 
 »- 
 
58 
 
 a quarter of a century, he had not only preserved his 
 reputation intact, but freed even from the breath of 
 suspicion. 
 
 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 confi- 
 dence 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 
 advantage to his country; well, therefore, may we 
 conclude, in the language of the Presidential Mes- 
 sage, 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 unani- 
 mously adopted. 
 
 i i I 
 
»' 
 
 •f 
 
 Associate 
 Justices. 
 
 SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 r 
 
 December 9, 1853. 
 
 Pursuant to adjournment, the Court met this morning at 
 the Capitol : 
 Present — 
 The Honorable Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice. 
 » John McLean, 
 
 James M. Wayne, 
 John Catron, 
 Peter V. Daniel, 
 Samuel Nelson, 
 Robert G. Grier, 
 Benj. R. Curtis, Jr. 
 John A. Campbell, 
 Jonah D. Hoover, Esquire, Marshal. 
 William Thomas Carroll, Clerk. 
 
 Proclamation being made, the Court is opened. 
 
 At the opening of the Court this morning, Mr. CusniNG, 
 the Attorney-General of the United States, addressed the 
 Court as follows : 
 
 Mat it please your Honors : — I rise to submit a 
 motion which seems to be called for by the nature 
 
 59 
 
60 
 
 of the subject-matter. God, in his inscrutable but 
 supreme will, has removed from the service of the 
 country, and from that path of honor which, through 
 a long lifetime of greatness and goodness, he had so 
 nobly trod, the Vice-President of the United States. 
 When the voice of some future panegyrist, on the 
 banks of the Mississippi, the Bravo, or the Columbia, 
 shall speak of the heroes, the legislators, the states- 
 meia, and the magistrates of our country, as he re- 
 counts the names borne on that glorious roll of im- 
 mortality, he cannot fail to pause wdth unalloyed 
 satisfaction at the name of William R. King. Pro- 
 vidence from time to time raises up men to lead 
 armies on to victory through the clash of the battle- 
 field, or by rare gifts of written or spoken thought 
 to wield, at will, the fiercest impulses of nations. 
 Such men, if they have a superlatively splendid 
 career, yet have an agitated one. They create 
 events, and they partake of the vicissitudes of 
 events. They may, they often do, have shaded 
 sides of the mental formation, without which the 
 bright ones w^ould be too dazzlingly brilliant. They 
 come to be praised or dispraised alternately, accord- 
 ing to the light in which their actions are viewed, and 
 the flux or reflux of the tides of popular emotion. If 
 William R. King be not of these, yet he has an 
 appropriate and perhaps a more enviable place in 
 the temple of fame and in the hearts of Americans. 
 For of him it is with plainest truth to be said, that 
 
61 
 
 with lofty elements in'iiis character to merit and 
 receive the most absolute commendation, there is 
 nothing in it open to censure. He stands to the 
 memory, in sharp outline, as it were, against the 
 sky, like some chiselled column of antique art, or 
 some consular statue of the imperial republic 
 wrapped in its marble robes, grandly beautiful in 
 the simple dignity and unity of a faultless pro- 
 portion. 
 
 Placed at an early age in that august assembly, 
 the highest, all things considered, in this or any 
 other land — the Senate of the United States — and 
 continuing there, save with brief interruption of the 
 most eminent diplomatic employment, during a 
 whole generation of time, and repeatedly elevated to 
 preside over its deliberations, he had grown to be, 
 not of it merely, but its representative man, its typi- 
 cal person, its all-conspicuous model of an upright, 
 pure, spotless, high-minded, chivalric American Sena- 
 tor. This it is, in my judgment, which constitutes 
 the distinctive trait in his character and career, and 
 which drew to him the veneration and the confi- 
 dence of his countrymen. We think of him almost 
 as an historical monument of senatorial integrity, 
 rather than as a mere mortal man of the age. Like 
 that gallant soldier, who received the baton of mar- 
 shal in the very scene of his achievements, and fell, 
 struck by a cannon-shot, in the act of grasping 
 the insignia of his command, so the Vice-President 
 
 •9 
 
«.■ 
 
 62 
 
 did but reacli the pinnacle of his greatness to die. 
 Such a death, so timed, though premature for us 
 whom he has left behind to the toils and cares of 
 public duty, was not premature for the consummate 
 completeness of his renown. Knowing how deeply 
 his loss must be deplored by your Honors, it is 
 deemed fitting for me to move that this Court, in 
 unison with what has been done by the two Houses 
 of Congress, do now adjourn, in manifestation of its 
 respect for the memory of the deceased Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the United States. 
 
 To which Mr. Chief-Justice TANEY replied : 
 
 The Court is sensible that every mark of re- 
 spect is due to the memory of the late Vice-Presi- 
 dent, William E. King. 
 
 His life was passed in the public service, and 
 marked, throughout it, by its purity, integrity, and 
 disinterested devotion to the public good. 
 
 It is true, that no part of it connected him par- 
 ticularly with the judicial branch of this Govern- 
 ment. But the people of the United States had ele- 
 vated him to the highest office but one in their gift ; 
 and the loss of a Statesman like him, so honored, 
 and so worthy of the honor bestowed, is felt to be a 
 public calamity by this department of Government, 
 as well as by that to which he more immediately be- 
 longed. And as a token of their high respect for 
 
 m- 
 
 4 
 
f 
 
 63 
 
 him while living, and their sincere sorrow for his 
 death, the Court will adjourn to-day without trans- 
 acting its ordinary business. 
 
 Test: WM. THOS. CARROLL, 
 
 Clerk of Supreme Court TJ, S. 
 
 f"'* 
 
 THE END.. 
 
 m 
 

 
 
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