K: Kapp through King

See below for annotated biographies of anti-slavery Whigs. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.

KAPP, Friedrich (April 13, 1824-October 27, 1884), publicist and historian. He and his friends became interested in the slavery question and his writings and political agitation brought him into the front ranks of the newly founded Republican party, for which his labors were incessant and fruitful. No German did
more, with the exception of Carl Schurz [q.v.], to unite the German-Americans in support of the Union during the Civil War.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 259-260:

KAPP, FRIEDRICH (April 13, 1824-October 27, 1884), publicist and historian, was born at Hamm, Westphalia, where his father, Dr. Friedrich Kapp, was the distinguished director of the Gymnasium. At Easter 1842, young Friedrich entered the University of Heidelberg as a law student, undertaking at the same time studies in philosophy and philology. He went to the University of Berlin in the summer of 1844; after his year of military service he was admitted to the practice of law at Hamm on April 7, 1845. With the outbreak of the revolution he left Hamm in March 1848 and became a newspaper correspondent, first in Frankfurt, later in Brussels and Paris. He returned to Germany in 1849 to participate in the new revolution, but actual contact with the movement revealed its stupidity and he again went to Paris. In July 1849 he moved on to Geneva, and there was associated with a group of German and Italian revolutionists, whose futile plottings wearied him and caused him to abandon the movement.

In March 1850 he came to New York and there, with two dollars, began his American career. His recent bride, Louise Engels, joined him in the summer. He became a member of the law firm of Zitz, Kapp & Froebel; yet, despite his early success, he had no liking for the law. He began to write for many newspapers and periodicals, including the early numbers of the Nation, and in 1850 he became the editor of the New-Yorker Abendzeitung. From 1861 to 1865 he was the American correspondent for the Kolnische Zeitung and with his return to Berlin in 1870 he became the regular correspondent of the New York Nation. His political notions were idealistic and he entertained an optimistic belief in the capacity of the people for leadership. Once in America he became associated with the Whigs, because he thought that with them the arts and knowledge were among the highest things in life. He became a powerful influence among the German population of New York; no German project was launched without his advice and assistance. He and his friends became interested in the slavery question and his writings and political agitation brought him into the front ranks of the newly founded Republican party, for which his labors were incessant and fruitful. No German did more, with the exception of Carl Schurz [q.v.], to unite the German-Americans in support of the Union during the Civil War. From 1867 to 1870 he was an active member of the New York Board of Immigration, where he successfully introduced various reforms.

Kapp was a man of extensive culture: his home in New York was the center of a literary and political circle. It is he who is portrayed as "the citizen of two worlds" in Bertold Auerbach's Das Landhaus am Rein (translated as The Villa on the Rhine, 1869). Neither the extent nor the value of his historical writings has yet been sufficiently appreciated. His first writings appeared at a time when the general state of historical writing in America was low; his researches were based chiefly upon manuscript sources, he possessed a fresh and vigorous style, and his writings were characterized by their realism and humor. His Leben des Amerikanischen Generals Friedrich Wilhelm van Steuben, published in New York and Berlin in 1858, was privately printed in English in 1870 and published in 1884. His most valuable biographical work; Leben des Americanischen Generals Johann Kalb (Stuttgart, 1862), was translated in 1884. The Geschichte der deutschen Einwanderung in Amerika (New York, 1867) has frequently been republished under various titles. A third important study of eighteenth-century American hi story was his Friedrich der Grosse und die Vereinigten Staaten van Nord-Amerika, published at Leipzig in 1871. His Aus und uber Amerika (Berlin, 1876), two brilliant volumes on the United States, was another important title in a lengthy bibliography (see Deutsch-Amerikanisches Magazin, I, 371, 73). Written after he had definitely returned to Germany in 1870, it was unfavorably received in America because of its realism and candid opinions. The last years of his life were devoted to his literary and political activities. Naturalized as a Prussian in 1870, he was elected to the Reichstag as a National Liberal in 1871 and served 1871-78 and again 1881-84. He was also a member of the Prussian Landtag, 1874-77. Admiring Bismarck as the bringer of German unity, he found it difficult to accept his domestic policies. He died of diabetes in Berlin while engaged upon a monumental history of the German book trade, of which the first volume, Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels bis in das siebenzehnte Jahrhundert, was published posthumously at Leipzig in 1886.

[Nation (New York), October 30, November 6, 13, 1884; Ernest Bruncken, German Political Refugees in the U. S . . . . 1815-1860 (reprinted from Deutsch-Amerikanische Geschichtsblatter, 1904); A. B. Faust, The German Element in the U. S. (2 volumes, 1909); Simon Sterne, Memorial Resolutions ... of the Medico-Legal Society of New York (1884); H. von Holst, in Preussiche Jahrbucher, Volume LV (1885); H. A. Rattermann, in Deutsch Amerikanisches Magazin, Volume I (issues of October 1886, January, April 1887); New York Evening Post, October 28, 1884; information from Heinz Singer of Berlin.]

F. M-n.



KELLOGG, Orlando, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. Elected as a Republican to the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses and served from March 4, 1863, until his death.

KELLOGG, ORLANDO, a Representative from New York; born in Elizabethtown, Essex County, New York, June 18, 1809; pursued an academic course; engaged in the carpenter's trade in early youth; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1838 and commenced practice in Elizabethtown; surrogate of Essex County 1840-1844; elected as a Whig to the Thirtieth Congress (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1849); was not a candidate for renomination in 1848; resumed the practice of his profession in Elizabethtown, New York; delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860; elected as a Republican to the Thirty-eighth and Thirty-ninth Congresses and served from March 4, 1863, until his death in Elizabethtown, New York, August 24, 1865; interment in Riverside Cemetery.

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present.

(Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)



KENNEDY, John Pendleton (October 25, 1795-August 18, 1870), author and statesman. . Opposed extension of slavery in the new U.S. territories. “He had begun to fill public office, through election in 1820 to the Maryland House of Delegates. During these years he was an ardent supporter of John Quincy Adams. Early in 1838 he was elected as a Whig to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives caused by the death of Isaac McKim. He failed of reelection in November of that year but was successful in 1840 and 1842. In Congress he was chairman of the committee of commerce for a time. He strongly opposed the annexation of Texas and held that its admission by joint resolution was unconstitutional.”

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 333-334:

KENNEDY, JOHN PENDLETON (October 25, 1795-August 18, 1870), author and statesman, was the son of John Kennedy, a native of north Ireland of Scotch descent, and his wife, Nancy Clayton Pendleton, a Virginian whose forebears were English. Kennedy was born in Baltimore, Maryland, where his father was at the time a prosperous merchant. He received his general education at what became Sinclair's academy and at Baltimore College in his native city, graduating from the latter in 1812. During the war with England which broke out in that year he participated in the battles of Bladensburg and North Point. After studying in the law offices of an uncle and of Walter Dorsey in Baltimore he was admitted to the bar and began practising in that city in 1816. In 1824 he married Mary Tennant, daughter of a Baltimore merchant, but she died within a year, and in 1829 Elizabeth Gray of Ellicott Mills, Maryland, became his wife. Kennedy did not like the law, and a legacy from art uncle who died at about this time made him less dependent upon it. Therefore he gradually withdrew from his practice and began to live more in accordance with his natural inclinations. In the early years of his greater leisure the qualities distinguishing him during the remainder of his life reached maturity. He was broad, tolerant, and cheerful, had a genial humor, and a deep love for his fellow men. He was greatly interested in local affairs and served on various civic committees. For some years he was provost of the University of Maryland. He was also president of the board of trustees of the Institute founded in Baltimore, largely in accordance with his advice, by George Peabody in 1866.

The last forty years of Kennedy's life were chiefly devoted to creative writing and to politics. He had begun scribbling as a schoolboy but published nothing of importance until 1832, when under the pseudonym Mark Littleton he published Swallow Barn, a series of sketches of life in Virginia shortly after the Revolution. This was well received and was followed in 1835 by "Littleton's" Horse-Shoe Robinson, a novel dealing with the battle of King's Mountain. Three years later came Rob of the Bowl, a novel of early colonial Maryland, which was less popular. But a humorous political satire published in 1840, under the title Quodlibet: Containing Some Annals thereof ... by Solomon Second-thoughts, Schoolmaster, delighted many, especially the Whigs, of whom the author was one. His last major work, Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt, appeared in two volumes in 1842. Kennedy's works of fiction were classed by some contemporary critics with those of Cooper and Irving. Among his minor writings were pamphlets and articles for the press, notably for the National Intelligencer, discussing political questions. The first of these having influence was a pamphlet issued in 1830 (under the pseudonym Mephistopheles) which reviewed the report on commerce by C. C. Cambreleng of the national House of Representatives. The views presented caused Kennedy to be regarded as a leading exponent of protection. Already he had begun to fill public office, through election in 1820 to the Maryland House of Delegates. During these years he was an ardent supporter of John Quincy Adams. Early in 1838 he was elected as a Whig to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives caused by the death of Isaac McKim. He failed of reelection in November of that year but was successful in 1840 and 1842. In Congress he was chairman of the committee of commerce for a time. He strongly opposed the annexation of Texas and held that its admission by joint resolution was unconstitutional. Largely through his influence an appropriation of $30,000 was voted for a test of Samuel Morse's electro-magnetic telegraph.

Following the death of President Harrison Kennedy wrote the manifesto entitled A Defense of the Whigs (1844), denouncing the political defection of Tyler. In the congressional election of 1844 he was defeated, but two years later he was chosen to the Maryland House of Delegates, was made speaker, and served one term. In July 1852 he accepted the secretaryship of the navy under President Fillmore and while filling that office organized four important naval expeditions, including that sent to Japan under Matthew C. Perry. When he left office in March 1853, following the inauguration of President Pierce, his public career ended, but his interest in politics continued. In 1860 he voted for Bell and Everett and strove, by writing and speaking, to prevent secession. When this proved futile, he supported the Union cause in the war, voting for Lincoln in 1864. But after the conflict ended he favored "amnesty and forgiveness to the weak and foolish who have erred, charity for their faults and brotherly assistance to all who repent." Kennedy died at Newport, R. L, after a long illness.

[The Kennedy manuscripts in the library of the Peabody Institute include extensive correspondence, a diary, and an uncompleted autobiography. For printed sources see H. T. Tuckerman, The Life of John Pendleton Kennedy (1871); E. M. Gwathmey, John Pendleton Kennedy (1931); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1852; V. L. Parrington, The Romantic Revolution in America (1927); The Cambridge History of American Literature, Volume I (1917); E. A. and G. L. Duyckinck, Cyclopedia of American Literature (2 volumes, 1875).)

M.W.W.



KING, Daniel Putnam, statesman, born in Danvers, Massachusetts, 8 January, 1801; died there, 26 July, 1850. In 1842 Mr. King was elected to Congress as a Whig, and he kept his seat until the end of his life, taking an active part in debate in opposition to the war with Mexico.

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 538-539:

KING, Daniel Putnam, statesman, born in Danvers, Massachusetts, 8 January, 1801; died there, 26 July, 1850. He was a descendant of William Kinge, who came in 1635 from England to Salem, Massachusetts Daniel was graduated at Harvard in 1823, and began the study of law, but found it uncongenial, and turned his attention to agriculture. After filling various municipal offices in his native town, he was elected to the legislature in 1835, and after serving two years was returned as senator from Essex County. He held this office for four years, and during the latter half of the term was president of the senate. Again in 1842 he was a member of the state house of representatives and speaker of that body. In 1842 Mr. King was elected to Congress as a Whig, and he kept his seat until the end of his life, taking an active part in debate in opposition to the war with Mexico. Robert C. Winthrop delivered a memorial address on his death.—His son, Benjamin Flint, lawyer, born in Danvers, Massachusetts, 12 October, 1830; died in Boston, 24 January, 1868, entered Harvard in the class of 1848, and afterward practised law in partnership with Joseph Story. At the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted in the 44th Massachusetts Regiment, and in 1863 was an officer in the 18th U. S. Colored Troops. The following year he was appointed judge-advocate on the staff of General George L. Andrews, and was afterward detailed as provost-marshal. He returned to his regiment in 1864, and he was honorably discharged from the service that year, when he resumed his law practice in Boston. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 538-539.



KING, John Alsop, 1788-1867, statesman, lawyer, soldier, political leader, diplomat, U.S. Congressman, Governor of New York, son of Rufus King. He opposed compromises on issues of slavery, especially the Fugitive Slave Law. Supported admission of California as a free state. Active in the Whig Party and later founding member of the Republican Party in 1856. Elected Governor of New York in 1856, serving one term.

(Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 543-544; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Vol. 5, Pt. 2, p. 394)

Biography from Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 543-544:

KING, John Alsop, statesman, born in New York City, 3 January, 1788; died in Jamaica, New York, 7 July, 1867, was, with his brother Charles, placed at school at Harrow during his father's residence in England. Thence he went to Paris, and then returned to New York, where he was admitted to the bar. In 1812, when war with Great Britain was declared, he gave his services to the country, and was later a lieutenant of cavalry stationed in New York. Soon after the war he moved to Jamaica, New York, near his father's home, and was for several years practically engaged in farming. He was elected in 1819 and in several subsequent years to the assembly of the state, and, with his brother Charles, opposed many of the schemes of De Witt Clinton. He was, however, friendly to the canal, and was chosen to the state senate after the adoption of the new constitution. From this he resigned in order that he might, as secretary of legation, accompany his father on his mission to Great Britain. The failure of the latter's health obliged him to return, and his son remained as charge d'affaires until the arrival of the new minister. Returning home to his residence at Jamaica, he was again, in 1838, sent to the assembly, and in 1849 he took his seat as a representative in Congress, having been elected as a Whig. He strenuously resisted the compromise measures, especially the Fugitive-Slave Law, and advocated the admission of California as a free state. He was an active member of several Whig nominating conventions, presided over that at Syracuse, N.Y., in 1855, where the Republican Party was formed, and in 1856, in the convention at Philadelphia, warmly advocated the nomination of General Fremont. He was elected governor of New York in 1856, entered on the duties of the office, 1 January, 1857, and especially interested himself in internal improvements and popular education. On the expiration of his term he declined a renomination on account of increasing age, and retired to private life, from which he only emerged, at the call of Governor Morgan, to become a member of the Peace Convention of 1861. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was active in its diocesan conventions. [Son on Rufus King]. Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. III, pp. 543-544.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, p. 394-395:

KING, JOHN ALSOP (January 3, 1788-July 7, 1867), congress man, governor of New York, was the eldest son of Rufus, 1755-1827 [q.v.], and Mary (Alsop) King and brother of Charles and James Gore King [qq.v.]. He was born in New York City, but a good part of his boyhood was pa ss ed, with his brothers, in England, while the father was United States minister to that country. He attended Harrow School under the head mastership of Dr. Joseph Drury, while Lord Byron and Robert Peel were pupils there. The discipline was a rare experience for American boys. At that time, the opening years of the nineteenth century, the curriculum was rigidly confined to Latin and Greek. From Harrow the King brothers were sent to a branch of the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris for drill in the use of the French language. Their father, having been relieved of the English mi ss ion by the Jefferson administration, had returned to America. In Paris the boys took prizes and were schoolfellows of several of the Empress Josephine's young relations. When they rejoined their parents this family was settled at Jamaica, Long Island John's later studies were chiefly confined to the law. Although admitted to the bar, he had hardly begun practice when the War of 1812 interrupted his plans, and he was commissioned a lieutenant of cavalry at New York.

After the peace, King, who had married Mary Ray, January 3, 1810, cultivated a farm on Long Island not far from his father's estate. At this time his interest in agriculture became dominant. His other absorbing interest was politics. Schooled in Federalism, his earlier alliances in New York were with anti-Clintonian Democrats, or Republicans. He was a member of the state Assembly in 1819-21 and of the state Senate in 1823-25, resigning his seat to go to London as secretary of legation with his father, who was appointed minister to the Court of St. James's by President John Quincy Adams. After his return to America King was in turn allied with the anti-Masons, the National Republicans, and the Whigs, harboring also antislavery sentiments. He was sent at intervals by his district to the state Assembly (1832, 1838, 1840), suffering several defeats for the same office, however. He was a delegate to the Whig national convention of 1839 and ten years later was sent to Congress as a Whig representative, his brother James having a seat for a New Jersey district in the same House. In Congress King opposed the Clay compromise measures, particularly the Fugitive-slave Bill, and urged the admission of California as a free state. He was a delegate to the Whig national convention of 1852, but two years later he presided at the New York state anti-Nebraska convention and in the New York Whig convention of 1855 he moved the adoption of the name "Republican." He was a delegate to the first Republican National Convention in 1856. In the state convention of that year he was named for governor on the second ballot and was elected in November by a large plurality. His term of office was uneventful, the perennial New York issues of education and canal enlargement receiving the usual emphasis in his messages to the legislature. New York's attitude on the question of slavery extension was also set forth at length. The private life to which King retired at the age of seventy-one was only once interrupted, when he was appointed a member of the New York delegation to the Peace Conference of 1861 at Washington. He was stricken by paralysis while making a Fourth of July address to his Long Island neighbors in 1867 and died three days later in the homestead that had been his since his father's death in 1827. He had seven children, one of whom, Charles Ray King, M.D., edited The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King.

[W. W. Spooner; Historic Families of America (n.d.); The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King (6 volumes, 1894-1900), ed. by C. R. King; D. S. Alexander, A Political History of the State of New York, Volume II (1906); "Eulogium on the Late Governor John A. King," Trans. New York State Agric. Society, pt. I, Volume XXVII (1868); Union League Club of New York Proceedings in Reference to the Death of John A. King, July 11th, I867 (1867); Bayard Tuckerman, The Diary of Philip Hone (2 volumes, 1889); J. A. Scoville, The Old Merchants of New York, volumes I-III (1863-65); New York Tribune, July 8, 1867.

J.W.B.



KING, Leicester, 1789-1856, Warren, Ohio, abolitionist leader, political leader, businessman, jurist, leader of the anti-slavery Liberty Party. Manager, 1837-1839, and Vice President, 1839-1840, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). Ohio State Senator, 1835-1839. Member, Whig Party. U.S. Vice Presidential candidate, Liberty Party, in 1848.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 302; Mitchell, Thomas G. Antislavery Politics in Antebellum and Civil War America. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007, p. 24; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, p. 50)



KING, Rufus (January 26, 1814-October 13, 1876), soldier, editor, diplomat. As a Whig congressman he voted against the fugitive slave bill and the other compromise measures of 1850.

(Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 400-401)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 400-401:

KING, RUFUS (January 26, 1814-October 13, 1876), soldier, editor, diplomat, the third son of Rufus King, 1755-1827 [q.v.], and Mary (Alsop) King, and brother of Charles and John Alsop King [qq.v.], was born in New York City. Several years of his boyhood were passed in London while his father was minister to the Court of St. James's. Between the ages of seven and ten he was a student in a London boarding school. One of his masters at this period called him a "prodigy in learning" (Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, post, Volume III, p. 50). For three years he was in a Paris school, chiefly for the purpose of acquiring the French language. Returning to America, he was tutored for Harvard by the Reverend Dr. J. S. J. Gardiner, rector of Trinity Church, Boston. He was graduated from Harvard in 1810 at the age of nineteen and began reading law with the well-known jurist, Peter Van Schaick, of Kinderhook, New York, continuing his studies at the famous Litchfield, Connecticut, school under Tapping Reeve and James Gould.

In the War of 1812 he left the legal profession to serve as assistant adjutant-general of militia. At the end of the war he opened a commission house in New York, which he conducted with moderate success for three years. In 1818 he established in Liverpool the house of King & Gracie and remained as senior partner in that enterprise until 1824. He was then asked by John Jacob Astor to become manager of the American Fur Company, but declined. He accepted, however, a partnership in the New York banking house of Prime, Ward & Sands, beginning thus a long and successful career as a banker. His interests and activities extended beyond Wall Street. In 1835 he was made president of the New York & Erie Railroad and served until 1839. The road was then making its first surveys westward from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. The first construction work on the line was done in King's administration, but was stopped by the financial stringency that began in 1836 and continued for over two years. King's business reputation helped to get needed support for the enterprise. In the panic of 1837, when specie payments were suspended, he was able to render an unusual service to the financial interests, not -of New York only but of the country at large. Going to London, he persuaded the officials of the Bank of England to loan £1,000,000 sterling (with the guaranty of Baring Brothers) to be distributed among the New York banks. The consignment was made to Prime, Ward & King and the responsibility for handling the money fell chiefly to the junior partner. So wisely was the apportionment made that the operation was a complete success, resulting in the resumption of specie payments in May 1838, with prompt repayment of the loan to the Bank of England. King's repeated election as president of the New York Chamber of Commerce is some indication of his standing in the business community during. that period, and the frequent references to him in Philip Hone's diary represent him as a leading spirit in the select social circles that foregathered on Manhattan Island in the early nineteenth century.

Meanwhile, King, with his brothers, had become interested in Whig politics, and having established a residence in New Jersey, where he had a home on the heights of Weehawken, he was elected to Congress in 1848. He served only one term, as a minority member of the House, his brother John holding a New York seat at the same time. He voted against the fugitive slave bill and the other compromise measures of 1850, and did what he could to uphold the Taylor administration. On February 4, 1813, he married Sarah Rogers Gracie, daughter of Archibald Gracie, and sister of Eliza, his brother Charles's wife. She with four daughters and three sons survived him.

[W. W. Spooner, Historic Families of America (n.d.); E. H. Mott, Between the Ocean and the Lakes, The. Story of the Erie (1899); Chas. King, "James Gore King," in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, January 1854, reprinted in Freeman Hunt, Lives of American Merchants (1858), Volume I; J. A. Scoville, The Old Merchants of New York, volumes I-III (1863-65); The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King (6 volumes, 1894-1900), ed. by C. R. King; George Wilson, Portrait Gallery of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York (1890); Bayard Tuckerman, The Diary of Philip Hone (2 volumes, 1889); New York Tribune, October 5, 1853.]

W. B. S.

Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.