He had been for more than twenty years an intimate friend of Mr.Johnson and held, as already narrated, a confidential relation to him at the time of his accession to the Presidency.

He had been especially influential in the National Republican Convention of 1864 in securing for Mr.Johnson the nomination for the Vice-Presidency.

The original disagreement with Mr.
Seward was generally ascribed to the influence of Mr.King upon the President, but when, with Mr.Seward in the Cabinet, Mr.King was appointed collector of customs for the port of New York, it was understood to mean that a perfect reconciliation had taken place between all the Republican factions in his State.

The change in the President's position was a complete surprise to Mr.King and left him in a peculiarly embarrassing situation.

He was essentially a radical man in all his political views, and the evident tendency of the President towards extreme conservatism on the question of reconstruction was a keen distress to him.