When in the year 1803, after having served his native country with
distinguished ability for more than seven years as Minister
Plenipotentiary of the United States at the Court of St. James, Rufus
King returned to New-York, the city of his adoption, he found his
political friends in a hopeless minority, and the rule of party
absolute, exclusive, and even vindictive. Mr. King had trained himself
from early life to the duties of a Statesman, and to that end neglected
no study, and above all, no self-discipline that might qualify him for
the career he desired to pursue. After serving several years as a
Delegate from Massachusetts in the Continental Congress (from 1785 to
1789), and having, as a member of the Convention called for the purpose,
been actively instrumental in forming the Constitution of the United
States, Mr. King became in 1788 a resident of the city of New-York,
where he had married two years before, MARY, the only child of JOHN
ALSOP, a retired merchant of that city. Mr. King was much known in
New-York, for the Continental Congress during his term of service held
its sessions there; and the character he had established for himself on
the score of talent and capacity, may be estimated by the fact, that he,
with General Schuyler for a colleague, was selected as one of the first
Senators of the United States from the State of New-York, under the new
constitution.
His services proved so acceptable, that on the expiration of his first
term, in 1795, he was re-elected, and it was in the second year of his
second term--in 1796, that he was appointed by Washington Minister to
England.
In that post Mr. King continued throughout the residue of General
Washington's administration, through the whole of that of John Adams,
and, at the request of President Jefferson, through two years of his
administration, when, having accomplished the negotiations he had in
hand, Mr. King asked to be, and was, recalled.
During this long residence abroad, remote from the scene of the angry
partisan politics which disturbed the close of Washington's term, and
the whole of that of Mr. Adams, and which resulted, in 1800, in the
entire overthrow of the old Federal party, and the success of Mr.
Jefferson and the Republican party--Mr. King had devoted his labors, his
time and his talents, to the service of his whole country, and was
little prepared, therefore, either by taste or temper, for participation
in the angry broils which, on his return home, he found prevailing
throughout the Union. Adhering, as he did to the end, to the political
principles of his early life, he never doubted, nor saw occasion to
change the faith which had made him a Federalist, when the name included
the Telfairs and Habershams of Georgia, the Pinkneys and Rutledges of
South Carolina, the Davieses and the Sitgreaves of North Carolina, the
Washingtons and the Marshalls of Virginia, the Carrolls and the Hindmans
of Maryland, the Bayards and the Kearnys of Delaware, the Tilghmans and
the Binghams of Pennsylvania, the Patersons and the Stocktons of New
Jersey, the Jays and Hamiltons of New-York, the Woolcots and the
Johnsons of Connecticut, the Ellerys and Howells of Rhode Island, the
Adamses and Otises of Massachusetts, the Smiths and Gilmans of New
Hampshire, the Tichenors and Chittendens of Vermont. But that faith was
now in "dim eclipse." The popular air was in another direction, and Mr.
King was of too lofty a character to trim his bark to the veering
breeze. Having acquired, or rather confirmed by his residence in England
(where country life is better understood and more thoroughly enjoyed,
probably, than any where else) a decided taste for the country Mr. King
soon determined to abandon the city, where--having no professional
pursuits nor stated occupation--he found few attractions, and make his
permanent abode in the country. After looking at many points on the
Hudson River and on the Sound, he finally established himself at the
village of Jamaica, in Queens county, Long Island, distant about twelve
miles from the city of New-York. In comparison with some of the places
which he had examined on the waters of the Sound and the North River,
Jamaica offered few inducements of scenery or landscape. But it did
offer what to him, and especially to his wife, were all-important
considerations--proverbial healthiness, and ready access to church,
schools and physicians. Mrs. King's health was already drooping, and
from the quiet, regular life of the country, its pure air, and the
outdoor exercise to which it leads, and of which she was so fond, the
hope was indulged that she might be completely restored. The property
purchased by Mr. King, consisting of a well-built, comfortable and roomy
house, with about ninety acres of land, is situated a little to the west
of the village, on the great high road of the Island from west to east.
It is a dead level, of a warm and quick soil, readily fertilized, the
ridge or back-bone of Long Island bounding it on the north. He removed
his family thither in the spring of 1806, and at once commenced those
alterations and improvements which have made it what it now is--a very
pretty and attractive residence for any one who finds delight in fine
trees, varied shrubbery, a well cultivated soil, and the comforts of a
large house, every part of which is meant for use, and none of it for
show.
When Mr. King took possession of his purchase, the house, grounds and
fences were after the uniform pattern, then almost universal in the
region. He soon changed and greatly improved all. The house, fronting
south, was in a bare field, about one hundred yards back from the road,
and separated from it by a white picket fence. A narrow gravel path led
in a straight line from a little gate, down to the door of the house,
while further to the east was the gate, through which, on another
straight line, running down by the side of the house, was the entrance
for carriages and horses. Two horse-chestnut trees, one east and the
other west of the house, and about thirty feet from it, were, with the
exception of some old apple trees, the only trees on the place; and the
blazing sun of summer, and the abundant dust of the high road at all
seasons, had unobstructed sweep over the house and lawn, or what was to
become a lawn. Not a shrub or bush was interposed between the house and
the fence, to secure any thing like privacy to the abode. On the
contrary, it seemed to be the taste of the day to leave every thing open
to the gaze of the wayfarers, and in turn to expose those wayfarers,
their equipages, and their doings, to the inspection of the inmates of
all roadside houses. Mr. King, who had cultivated the study of Botany,
and was a genuine admirer of trees, soon went to work in embellishing
the place which was to be his future home, and in this he was warmly
seconded by the taste of Mrs. King. The first step was, to change the
approach to the house, from a straight to a circular walk, broad and
well rolled; then to plant out the high road. Accordingly, a belt of
from twenty to thirty feet in width along the whole front of the ground,
was prepared by proper digging and manuring, for the reception of shrubs
and trees; and time and money were liberally applied, but with wise
discrimination as to the adaptedness to the soil and climate, of the
plants to be introduced. From the State of New Hampshire, through the
careful agency of his friend, Mr. Sheaffe of Portsmouth, who was
vigilant to have them properly procured, packed, and expedited to
Jamaica, Mr. King received the pines and firs which, now very large
trees, adorn the grounds. They were, it is believed, among the first, if
not the first trees of this kind introduced into this part of Long
Island, and none of the sort were then to be found in the nurseries at
Flushing. Some acorns planted near the house in 1810, are now large
trees. Mr. King indeed planted, as the Romans builded--"for posterity
and the immortal gods," for to his eldest son, now occupying the
residence of his father, he said, in putting into the ground an acorn of
the red oak--"If you live to be as old as I am, you will see here a
large tree;" and, in fact, a noble, lofty, well-proportioned red oak now
flourishes there, to delight with its wide-branching beauty, its
grateful shade, and more grateful associations, not the children only,
but the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of him who planted the
acorn. Mr. King possessed, in a remarkable degree, all the tastes that
fit one for the enjoyment of country life. He had a large and well
selected library, particularly rich in its books relating to the
Americas, and this library remains unbroken. With these true, tried,
unwavering and unwearying friends--and such good books are--Mr. King
spent much time; varying, however, his studious labors with outdoor
exercise on horseback, to which he was much addicted; and in judgment of
the qualities, as well as in the graceful management of a horse, he was
rarely excelled. He loved, too, his gun and dog; was rather a keen
sportsman, and good shot; though often, when the pointer was hot upon
the game, his master's attention would be diverted by some rare or
beautiful shrub or flower upon which his eye happened to light, and of
which--if not the proper season for transplanting it into his border--he
would carefully mark the place and make a memorandum thereof, so as to
be enabled to return at the fitting time, and secure his prize. In this
way he had collected in his shrubberies all the pretty flowering shrubs
and plants indigenous to the neighborhood, adding thereto such strangers
as he could naturalize; so that during a visit made to him many years
after he began his plantation, by the _Abbe Correa_, then Minister from
Portugal to this Government, but even more distinguished as a man of
letters, and particularly as a botanist--the learned Abbe said he could
almost study the _Flowers_ and the _Trees_ of the central and eastern
portion of the United States in these grounds. Mr. King loved, too, the
song of birds--and his taste was rewarded by the number of them which
took shelter in this secure and shady plantation, where no guns were
ever allowed to be fired, nor trap nor snare to be set. The garden and
the farm also came in for their share of interest and attention; and
nowhere did care judiciously bestowed, and expenditure wisely ordered,
produce more sure or gratifying results.
About the year 1817 Mr. King turned his attention to the importation of
some cattle of the North Devon breed. In the preceding year he received
as a token of a friendship contracted during his residence in England,
from Mr. Coke of Holkham (the great English Commoner, and warm friend of
America in the revolutionary contest, and always interested in whatever
might promote the welfare of the people in whose early struggle for
their rights he had sympathized), two beautiful cows of the North Devon
breed, as being particularly adapted, as Mr. Coke supposed, to the
light, level soil of the southern slope of Long Island,--similar in
these qualities to that of his own magnificent domain at Holkham, in
Norfolk. Mr. King was so much pleased with these animals, so beautiful
in themselves, of a uniform mahogany color, with no white marks, finely
limbed almost as deer, with regularly curved and tapering horns, of
extreme docility, and easily kept, that in 1817 he imported several
more, and was thus enabled to preserve the race in purity, and
measurably to supply the demand for the pure stock, which is now widely
scattered throughout the country.
While thus enjoying with the real zest of a cultivated mind, and of a
disposition keenly alive to the aspect, the voices and the beauties of
nature, the pleasures of a country life; Mr. King was not unmindful of,
nor indifferent to the great and interesting contemporaneous drama of
politics, which, although mainly played out in Europe, swept our
republic too at last into its vortex. His early training, early
instruction, and early and eminent successes in public life, made it
alike unsuitable and impossible for him to withdraw himself wholly from
the scene. And accordingly, although never in the whole course of his
life seeking office, or putting himself forward, Mr. King was frequently
appealed to, in his retirement, by political friends, sometimes
consulted by political opponents,--while he was in the habit of
receiving with elegant and cordial hospitality at Jamaica, distinguished
visitors, both of his own country, and from abroad. Among such visitors
was the Abbe Correa, as already stated, about the period when, as
Secretary of State to President Monroe, John Quincy Adams was asserting
in his correspondence with the English Minister the right of the United
States to the free navigation of the St. Lawrence. After discussing with
Mr King in the library, the points of international law brought up by
this claim,--in the course of which, somewhat to the surprise of the
Abbe, Mr. King evinced entire familiarity with the analogous points
brought up and settled, as regards European rivers, in the then recently
held Congress of Vienna; and maintained the position, that what was law
between states in Europe conterminous to great navigable streams, must
be law here; and that what Great Britain had assented to, and had joined
in requiring others to assent to, in respect to the Rhine, she must
assent to in respect to the St. Lawrence,--the Abbe proposed a walk in
the grounds, and once there, laying aside politics, diplomacy, and
international law, the two statesmen were soon very deep in botany and
the system of Linnaeus, and agriculture, and in all the cognate questions
of climate, soils, manures, &c., and seemed quite as eager in these
pursuits, as in those grave and more solemn questions of state policy,
which occupy, but do not, in the same degree, innocently and surely
reward the attention and interest of public men. It was on occasion of
this visit, that the Abbe Correa expressed his gratification at finding
in the plantation of Mr. King so large a collection of the plants and
shrubs indigenous to that part of our country,--a gratification
enhanced, as he added, by the previous discussions in the library, in
the course of which he had such demonstration of Mr. King's varied and
comprehensive, yet minute knowledge of the great public questions which
had agitated Europe, and of the more recent, as well as more ancient
expositions of international law applicable thereto.
Previously to this period, however, Mr. King had been recalled to public
life. At the commencement of the war of 1812 with Great Britain, Mr.
King, though disapproving both of the time of declaring, and of the
inefficiency in conducting, the war, and reposing little confidence
either in the motives or the abilities of the administration, did
nevertheless feel it his duty, the sword being drawn, to sustain, as
best he might, the cause of his country. Among the first, and for a time
most discouraging results of the war, was the stoppage of specie
payments by all the banks south of New England. The panic in New-York
unavoidably was very great; and very much depended upon the course to be
taken by its banks and its citizens, as to the effect to be produced
upon the national cause and the national arm, by the suspension of
payments. In this emergency, appealed to by his former fellow-citizens,
Mr. King went to the city, and at the Tontine Coffee House, at a general
meeting called to deliberate on the course to be taken by the community
in regard to the banks, and in general in regard to the rights and
duties alike, of creditors and debtors under the circumstances, he made
a speech to the assembled multitude, in which, after deploring the
circumstances which had forced upon the banks the necessity of
suspension, he went on to show that it was a common cause, in which all
had a part, and where all had duties. That the extreme right of the
bill-holder, if enforced to the uttermost against the banks, would
aggravate the evil to the public, although possibly it might benefit a
few individuals; while, on the other hand, good to all, and strength and
confidence to the general cause, would result from a generous
forbearance, and mutual understanding that, if the banks on their part
would restrict themselves within the limits as to issues and credits
recognized as safe previous to the suspension, the community at large on
their part, might, and possibly would continue to receive and pass the
bills of the banks as before, and as though redeemable in coin. He urged
with great power and earnestness the duty of fellow-citizens to stand
shoulder to shoulder in such an emergency,--when a foreign enemy was
pressing upon them, and when, without entering into the motives or
causes which led to the war, about which men differ,--all Americans
should feel it as their first and foremost obligation to stand by their
country. The particular province of those he addressed was not so much
to enlist in the armed service of the country, as to uphold its credit,
and thus cherish the resources which would raise and reward armies; and
if New-York should on this occasion be true to her duty--which also he
plainly showed to be her highest interest--the clouds of the present
would pass away, and her honor and her prosperity, with those of the
nation of which she formed part and parcel, would be maintained and
advanced. The effect of this address was decisive, and to an extent
quite unprecedented in any commercial community under such
circumstances; confidence was restored, and the course of business went
on almost unruffled and undisturbed.
In 1813, Mr. King, after a lapse of seventeen years from his former
service as a Senator of the United States, was again chosen by the
Legislature of the State of New-York, as one of its Senators in
Congress; and from the moment he resumed his seat in the Senate, he took
leave, for the remainder of his life, of the undisturbed enjoyments of
his rural abode; for a large portion of his time was necessarily spent
at Washington, it being part of his notion of duty, never to be remiss
in attendance upon, or in the discharge of, any trust committed to him.
Still, his heart was among his plantations and his gardens, and even
when absent, he kept up a constant correspondence with his son and his
gardener, and always returned with fond zest to this quiet home.
In 1819, Mrs. King, whose health had been long declining, died, and was
buried with all simplicity in the yard of the village church; where
together they long had worshipped, and which stood on ground originally
forming part of Mr. King's property. At the time of her death, all the
children had left the paternal roof, and settled in life with their own
families around them; and solitude, therefore, embittered the loss to
Mr. King of such a companion. And she was eminently fitted by similarity
of tastes and acquirements, to share with her husband the cares and the
pleasures of life, as well as its weightier duties. She was in an
especial manner a lover of the country, and had cultivated the knowledge
which lends additional charms to the beauties and the wonders of the
vegetable creation. Over all these beauties, her death cast a pall; and
although he repined not, it was easy to see how deep a sorrow
overshadowed his remaining years. Yet he nerved himself to the discharge
of his public duties with unabated zeal and fidelity; and when
re-elected in 1820 to the Senate, was punctual as always at his post,
and earnest as ever in fulfilling all its requirements. His own health,
however, before so unshaken, began to fail; and at the closing session
of 1825, Mr. King, in taking leave of the Senate, announced his purpose
of retiring from public life; having then reached the age of seventy
years, of which more than one half had been spent in the service of his
country, from the period when he entered the Continental Congress in
1784, to that in which he left the Senate of the United States in 1825.
But John Q. Adams, who had become President, pressed upon Mr. King the
embassy to England. His enfeebled health and advanced age induced him at
once to decline, but Mr. Adams urged him to refrain from any immediate
decision, and to take the subject into consideration after he should
return home, and then determine. Recalling with lively and pleasant
recollection the years of his former embassy to England, and hoping
assuredly to be able--if finding there the same fair and friendly
reception before extended to him--to benefit his country by the
adjustment of some outstanding and long-standing points of controversy
between the two nations; influenced too, in a great degree, by the
opinion, of eminent physicians, that for maladies partaking of weakness,
such as he was laboring under, a sea-voyage could hardly fail to be
beneficial, Mr. King, rather in opposition to the wishes of his family,
determined to accept the mission,--first stipulating, however, that his
eldest son, John A. King, should accompany him as Secretary of Legation.
It is proof of the strong desire of the then administration to avail of
Mr. King's talents and character, and of the hope of good from his
employment in this mission, that an immediate compliance with this
request was made; and the gentleman who had been previously nominated
to, and confirmed by, the Senate, as Secretary of Legation, having been
commissioned elsewhere, Mr. John A. King was appointed Secretary of
Legation to his father.
The voyage, unhappily, aggravated rather than relieved the malady of Mr.
King; his health, after he reached England, continued to decline, and he
therefore, after a few months' residence in London, asked leave to
resign his post and come home. He returned accordingly, but only to die.
He languished for some weeks, and finally, having been removed from
Jamaica to the city for greater convenience of attendance and care, he
died in New-York, on the 29th of April, 1827.
As with Mrs. King, so with him--in conformity with the unaffected
simplicity of their whole lives--were the funeral rites at his death.
Borne to Jamaica, which for more than twenty years had been his home,
the body was carried to the grave by the neighbors among whom he had so
long lived,--laid in the earth by the side of her who had gone before
him, to be no more separated for ever; and a simple stone at the head of
his grave, records--and the loftiest monument of art could do no
more--that a great and a good man, having finished his course in faith,
there awaits the great Judgment. Children, and grandchildren, have since
been gathered in death around these graves, which lie almost beneath the
shadow of trees planted by Mr. King, and within sight of the house in
which he lived.
It was desired, if possible, to introduce a glimpse of the pretty
village church into the engraving, but the space was wanting.
Mr. John A. King, the eldest son of Rufus King, now occupies the
residence of his father, and keeps up, with filial reverence and
inherited taste, its fine library, and its fine plantations. The
engraving presents very accurately the appearance of the house; the
closely shaven lawn in its front, and the noble trees which surround it,
could find no adequate representation in any picture.
=Clay.=
[Illustration: Clay fac-simile of letter]
[Illustration: Ashland, Residence of Henry Clay]