Answer to Hon. J. D. Ashmore, M. C., of South Carolina, asking if he could frank Public Documents, now that his State had "seceded". . 48 A Frank Answer to Hon. A. G. Jenkins, Member of Congress from Virginia, asking why a Route Agent in his District was removed . . 49 President Buchanan's Views on the Right of Secession and of Coercion as applied to a State; his Forbearance; his Letter on the Assassina- President Buchanan's Record; Testimony of Judge Black and General Holt; General Dix's Famous Despatch, "Shoot him on the Spot". 151 Account of the Bursting of the "Peacemaker" on the Potomac near Washington; Two Members of the Cabinet and other distinguished The Duel between Jonathan Cilley, of Maine, and William J. Graves, of Kentucky, both Members of Congress; Death of Mr. Cilley; In- BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF HORATIO KING. FOR One who has loved, admired, and revered the subject of this sketch from earliest recollection, to write a brief biography without prejudice is not an easy matter. His life for more than fourscore years has been without spot or blemish in my sight, and, to avoid the appearance of undue partiality, I shall rely mainly upon the comments of those who knew him well and intimately, although not connected with him by ties of consanguinity. Horatio King was the son of Samuel and Sally (Hall) King, and was born in Paris, Maine, June 21, 1811. His father was a farmer and emigrated from Massachusetts. His grandfather was George King, of Raynham, in the State last named, who, with his three brothers, served in the war for independence. George was orderly-sergeant and clerk of the Raynham Company, and one of his brothers fell in the war. Like most of the old and patriotic stock of the Revolution and their immediate descendants, these ancestral relatives of his were stanchly Democratic, which may, so far as early impressions go, account for Mr. King's political orthodoxy. Like most of the country-reared young men of that period, he was brought up on the farm and had a personal knowledge of what life upon the farm is, or rather what it was at that time, for it is somewhat different now. His poem herein, entitled "Employment Necessary to Happiness," may be taken as descriptive in no slight degree of his farm life. In the ordinary acceptance of that term, Mr. King was 7 |