many of the popular reforms. One provision he specially insisted upon, and every succeeding year adds to its value, and testifies to the sagacity which devised it. It was that which declared that the canals of the State should never be alienated by it, nor cease to belong to it, and that the tolls should not be reduced below a prescribed minimum until the debt was paid.

To return to the Senate. With the election and installation of Mr. John Q. Adams in March, 1825, Mr. King's term of service in the Senate expired. A few days before this, viz., on 26th February, he laid on the table of the Senate, expressly stating that it was not offered for present discussion, but for future consideration, the following resolution:

"Resolved by the Senate of the United States, That as soon as the portion of the existing funded debt of the United States for the payment of which the public land of the United States is pledged, shall have been paid off, then and thenceforth the whole of the public land of the United States, with the net products of all further sales thereof, shall constitute and form a fund which is hereby appropriated, and the faith of the United States is pledged that the said fund shall be inviolably applied, to aid the emancipation of such slaves within any of the United States, and to aid the removal of such slaves, and the removal of such free persons of color in any of the said States, as by the laws of the States respectively may be allowed to be emancipated or removed to any territory or country without the limits of the United States."

Mr. King had announced that he would not again be a candidate for re-election, and that his public career was about to end. There could therefore be no motive for this, in some sort testamentary proposal, but that of the general good. His public life had commenced in 1785, with a resolution prohibiting slavery in the region west of the Ohio. It closed in 1825, after forty years observation and experience of the dangers to be apprehended from the slavery question, and of its increasing preponderance in the councils of the nation, with a resolution, at once far-seeing, and on the part of the free States most liberal, to devote thenceforth the whole public domain, and all that it would bring, to the gradual extinction of slavery, with the permission, be it observed, and not by any assertion or exercise of federal authority, but with the permission and concurrence of the States within which slavery existed.

Mr. King returned to his home at Jamaica, and as he hoped and desired to the repose which his age and long services had fully earned. But the President, before Mr. King left Washington, tendered to him the appointment of Minister to England, which was declined. Yet the President would not be denied, and

earnestly renewed to Mr. King the offer, begging him not to decide at once, but to take the subject into consideration, and after reaching home to make up his mind, and communicate his decision. Unwilling even to seem to avoid any claim which his country made upon him, and yet most unwilling at the age of 70 to recross the seas, and enter anew upon a field, where, in the brilliant prime of his life, he had done good service, and left most favorable memories, his mind was long held in suspense; his family were unanimous in dissuading him from the mission, for his health, hitherto during a long career singularly robust, was giving way; but in this very fact was found the decisive consideration for acceptance, for his physicians upon being consulted, were of opinion that a sea-voyage and change of climate would restore his strength, and that he might yet efficiently serve his country. He accordingly accepted, on condition however that his eldest son, John A. King, should be appointed a Secretary of Legation, in order that he might not be without some of his family, an indulgence not unreasonable under the circumstances. Although another gentleman had been previously nominated to, and confirmed by the Senate for that post, the President and the Secretary of State, Mr. Clay, at once consented to Mr. King's wish, and appointed Mr. J. A. King his Secretary of Legation.* Unhappily the anticipations of the physicians as to the good effects of a sea voyage were not realized; on the contrary Mr. King suffered much at sea, and landed at Liverpool greatly enfeebled. Still unwilling to relinquish the trust confided to him, he went to his post at London, but neither care nor skill availed-his malady increased, and after some months he asked and obtained leave to resign, and returned home-to die. Leaving his son as Chargé d'Affaires in London, Mr. King returned to New York in August 1826, much emaciated and enfeebled-and after lingering in hopeless but happily not painful sickness, he died, in the city of New York, on 23d April, 1827, in his 73d year, and was buried at Jamaica, L. I.

The record thus hastily traced of the career of Rufus King presents him only as a public man. It remains to say that in all his relations as a husband, a parent, a friend, a neighbor and a citizen, he was exemplary; of unsullied integrity in public and in private life-lofty in his bearing, yet of most courteous and

*Mr. King had five sons:-John Alsop King, who was Secretary of Legation, and afterwards a Member of the State Legislature and Congress; Charles King, now President of Columbia College, and in 1812 a member of the Legislature; James Gore King, a wealthy merchant of New York, and lately member of Congress from New Jersey; Edward King, a distinguished lawyer, and Speaker of the House of Representatives of Ohio; and Dr. Frederick King. The two last named are dead.—[ED. REGISTER.

refined manners, of great natural capacity, enlarged and improved by continuous, comprehensive and well directed study, not disdaining popularity, yet prizing far above it, his own selfapproval-Mr. King went through a long political career, embrac ing as stormy a period as any known in our annals, honored and confided in alike by friends and opponents, without betraying a principle, or violating a trust, or asking office for himself or any one connected with him, (save in the case above referred to, of the Secretary of Legation.) His life closed as it had been conducted in firm reliance upon the merits and intercession of the Savior, and upon that gospel which is the only sure foundation of personal character and political morality.

(For the Register.)

GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER.

A brief account of this distinguished patriot, who was the col league of Rufus King in the first Congress, will not be inappropriate in this place.

General Schuyler was born in Albany, N. Y., in 1733, and belonged to a family originally from Holland. At an early age he began to display his active mind and military spirit. He was captain in the British colonial forces in 1755, and served in several of the northern expeditions. From 1768 to 1775 he cooperated with George Clinton, General Woodhull, and other patriots in the House of Assembly, in the struggle for the rights of the colonies against the British government. As a military man, he then bore the title of Colonel Schuyler. In 1775 he was one of the delegates chosen by the Provincial Congress, to represent New York in the Continental Congress. We find General Washington and Schuyler associated in the committee appointed to prepare rules and regulations for the government of the army. On the 19th of June, 1775, Schuyler was appointed by Congress the third Major-General in the continental army. His great and important services at Saratoga, and other battle fields of the revolution, as well as his personal sacrifices and devotion to the cause of the country, on all occasions during the contest, in council as well as in the field, are too well known to require a notice from us. Chancellor Kent says of him: "Take him for all in all, he was one of the wisest and most efficient

men, both in military and civil life, that the State or nation has produced."

General Schuyler was elected to the Continental Congress in 1779, and was re-elected in each of the three following years. In November, 1779, Congress appointed him to confer with General Washington on the state of the Southern department. In 1781 he was elected to the Senate of his native State, and was a member of that body when chosen United States Senator.

The first Congress of the United States under the Constitution met in the city of New York in April, 1789. New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island, were not at first represented in that Congress, nor did they vote for Presidential Electors at the first election the Legislature of New York not having passed the requisite laws, and the other two States not having adopted the Constitution. North Carolina finally came into the Union, November 21, 1789, and Rhode Island, May 29, 1790. The Legislature of New York, of 1788, although failing to provide for the choice of Senators and Presidential electors, passed an act dividing the State into six districts, for the election by the people of the six members of the House of Representatives, to which the State was then entitled. Under this law, in March, 1789, John Lawrance of New York city, Egbert Benson of Duchess, William Floyd of Long Island, John Hathorn of Ulster, Peter Sylvester of Columbia, and Jeremiah Van Rensselaer of Albany, were elected the first members of Congress from this State, under the present Constitution, and took their seats in the House in April and May, 1789.

The annual election in the State of New York, in April, 1789, was contested with much earnestness by the federalists and antifederalists, the former friendly and the latter opposed to the United States Constitution, which bad then just been adopted and gone into operation. It had received the sanction of the State Convention which met at Poughkeepsie in June, after a long and protracted discussion, on the 26th of July, 1788, by a vote of 30 to 27. There was a majority of anti-federalists in the convention; but a few of them voted with the federalists, and others absented themselves on the final vote, so as to secure the ratification of the constitution by the State. The State election referred to, in April, 1789, terminated generally in favor of the federalists, although Governor George Clinton, (anti-federalist,) was re-elected by a majority of 429 votes. On the 6th of June he called the Legislature together, by proclamation, to meet at Albany on the 6th of July following. In his opening speech, he stated that he had called the extra session to give the Legis

lature, at an early day, again an opportunity to elect United States Senators.

A bill, passed by the two houses on the 21st July, providing for the choice of Senators by concurrent resolution, having been rejected, as we have stated, by the Council of Revision, the Legislature finally made choice of two distinguished Federalists, viz: General Philip Schuyler, and Hon. Rufus King, by concur rent resolution, to represent the State in the Senate of the United States, that body being in session in the city of New York. Mr. King took his seat on the 25th, and General Schuyler on the 27th of July, 1789. The longest term was drawn by Mr. King.

When in 1791, General Schuyler was again a candidate for the office of United States Senator, Colonel Aaron Burr was his opponent. The rival candidates were entirely dissimilar in their character and manners. Burr was then a man of fascinating address,―eloquent and able. The manners of General Schuy ler had been formed in the camp, and had to some persons the appearance of austerity. He was also an ardent partisan of the federal school, and was supposed to be influenced in no inconsiderable degree by his son-in-law, General Hamilton. The political connections of Colonel Burr were with the anti-federalists. On the 18th of January, 1791, the motion in the New York Legislature to insert the name of Philip Schuyler as United States Senator, was rejected by a vote of 32 to 27; and the blank was filled with the name of Aaron Burr by a like vote in his favor.*

In 1792, being again in the State Senate, General Schuyler was active in the promotion of inland navigation, by the early establishment of companies for that purpose, in which he took a prominent part and interest. He also formed a plan for the improvement of the revenues of the State; in 1797 his plan was adopted, and to that we owe the institution of the office of Comptroller.

The term of Colonel Burr expiring in March, 1797, the Legislature proceeded to elect a successor, on the 24th of January, 1797. General Schuyler, who had been defeated by Burr six

* Colonel Burr took his seat in the Senate of the United States at the first session of the second Congress, in October, 1798. He was a constant attendant, and a zealous political intriguer. In 1797 he was elected a member of the Assembly of New York, with De Witt Clinton, and John Swartout. He then obtained the charter of the Manhattan company with concealed banking powers. In 1800 he was placed on the Presidential ticket with Thomas Jefferson and elected Vice President. After the expiration of his term, he engaged in the celebrated Western expedition-was arrested, tried and acquitted. Then followed his duel with General Hamilton, who was unfortunately killed. After this duel he never enjoyed the respect or favor of the public. He died at Staten Island in 1836 at the advanced age of eighty.-[ED. REGISTER.