KING, DAN. 



KING, PKESTON. 



467 



professiou, and during this period so won upon 

 the respect and confidence of his townsmen, as 

 to be elected to the highest civil offices in their 

 gift. As a magistrate, and as a member of the 

 General Assembly, he served his fellow-citizens 

 from 1828 to 1834, inclusive. These seven 

 years of his political life embrace the period in 

 which efforts were begun and prosecuted to 

 procure the substitution of a liberal Constitu- 

 tion in place of the old Charter, Mr. Dorr 

 was at this time a member of the General As- 

 sembly, and with him Dr. King was a promi- 

 nent actor among those who were the advo- 

 cates of a new Constitution, and the extension 

 of the right of suffrage. With Mr. Dorr, he 

 took a leading part in the organization of the 

 Suffrage Party. By a convention of this party 

 he was nominated for first senator, at a time 

 when there were only ten State senators, and 

 they elected by general ticket. This was evi- 

 dence of the high estimation in which he was 

 held by his political friends. Subsequently he 

 was nominated by the same party for Congress. 

 From this time, his active career as a politician 

 ceased. The Dorr War (so called) came on not 

 many years after. In that he took no part. 

 He entirely disapproved of taking up arms to 

 force a Constitution upon unwilling men, even 

 a minority. While in political life, and in office, 

 though chiefly engaged in the cause of a new 

 Constitution, and the extension of suffrage, yet 

 he gave attention to other important and worthy 

 objects. He was an active friend of the rem- 

 nant of the Narraganset tribe of Indians. He 

 and Mr. Benjamin B. Thurston, afterwards for 

 many years a member of Congress, were ap- 

 pointed by the Ehode Island House of Rep- 

 resentatives, of which body they were mem- 

 bers, to report a plan of treating and governing 

 the Indians. He drew the report a paper 

 worthy to be classed among the best of his pro- 

 ductions. It was through his influence and 

 active exertions that a considerable annual ap- 

 propriation was made by the State for the sup- 

 port of a school among these Indians. From 

 Charlestown he removed to Woonsocket, where 

 he pursued his profession for a period of about 

 ten years. From Woonsocket he removed to 

 the town of Taunton, in Massachusetts. After 

 a residence in Taunton of about ten years, he 

 returned to Rhode Island, purposing to retire 

 from the practice of medicine, and soon after 

 commenced writing his " Life and Times of 

 Thomas Wilson Dorr." Upon its completion, 

 finding his greatest enjoyment in the duties of 

 his profession, he returned to it with new zeal. 

 After residing for a short period in Providence, 

 he removed to Smithfield, where he continued 

 to reside until his death. Dr. King was a 

 diligent student, keeping himself thoroughly 

 informed in all that was new pertaining to his 

 profession. 



Besides the regular work of his avocation, 

 and the discharge of the civil duties which were 

 devolved upon him by his fellow-citizens, his 

 hours of leisure were devoted to works of pro- 



fessional and general utility. He invented a 

 most valuable surgical instrument for the ad- 

 justing of fractured bones, which, if patented, 

 would doubtless have been a source of consid- 

 erable income to him, but which he freely 

 ga^e for the use of the profession. For many 

 years he was an esteemed and prominent mem- 

 ber of the Massachusetts and Bristol County 

 Medical Societies. Before the Bristol County 

 Society, while resident in Taunton, he was re- 

 peatedly called to lecture on subjects of medical 

 science and practice. 



He also made many valuable contributions to 

 the literature of his profession. Many inter- 

 esting and important articles from his pen ap- 

 peared from time to time in the " Medical Jour- 

 nal " and other periodicals. His " Quackery 

 Unmasked," an able and well-written work, was 

 favorably noticed in the "North American 

 Review," and by the "Boston Medical and 

 Surgical Journal," as well as by other medical 

 publications of high authority. " The Life and 

 Times of Thomas W. Dorr, with Outlines of 

 the Political History of Rhode Island," is a 

 work of ability, and gives a faithful outline of 

 the political history of that State. Dr. King 

 was also the author of other valuable books 

 and pamphlets. 



KING, Hox. PRESTOS, an American states- 

 man, and at his death Collector of the port of 

 New York, born at Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence 

 County, in 1806, committed suicide while suffer- 

 ing under a sudden attack of insanity, November 

 12, 1865. He graduated with honors at Union 

 College, and was in due course of time admitted 

 to the bar of St. Lawrence County. He early 

 developed tastes which led him into politics, 

 and being a strong friend of Silas Wright, 

 and an admirer of Gen. Jackson and his admin- 

 istration, bought and consolidated two news- 

 papers of Ogdensburg, and in 1830 became edi- 

 tor and proprietor of the St. Lawrence " Repub- 

 lican." For a time he was postmaster at Og- 

 densburg. In 1834 he was elected to the As- 

 sembly, and was afterwards reflected three 

 successive terms. In 1845 he was first chosen 

 to a seat in Congress, which he continued to 

 occupy until 1851. During the period of his 

 life which we have reviewed, he acted earnestly 

 and with continually growing influence with 

 the Democratic party, in which he bid fair to 

 become a leader. In 1854 Mr. King thought 

 that he could follow it no longer; and as he 

 had been a Barnburner in 1848, he determined 

 to adhere to the logical consequences of his 

 position, and entered into the organization of 

 the Republican party. He received the Repub- 

 lican nomination for Secretary of State in 1855, 

 supported Fremont in 1856, and was elected to 

 the United States Senate in 1857, where he 

 served a full term, and was Chairman of the 

 Committee on Revolutionary Pensions. 



He was a prominent member of the Baltimore 

 Convention of last year, where he took a loading 

 part in securing the nomination of Mr. Johnson, 

 his warm personal friend, for Vice-President. 



