Preston King, tragic Republican Statesman

Grand Old Partisan celebrates more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics.

Today, I contemplate the life and death of Preston King, born in upstate New York, October 14th 1806. This conscientious attorney established a newspaper, the St. Lawrence Republican. During the Jackson administration he was elected, as a Democrat, to the state house.

In 1842, King won first of two congressional terms. Breaking with his party's pro-slavery establishment, he led the 'Barnburner' faction who formed core of the anti-slavery Free Soil Party. In 1848, he won, as that new party's nominee, two more terms in Congress.

King joined the New York GOP at its founding convention and was delegate at the 1856 Republican National Convention. Following year, the legislature elected him a U.S. Senator. He nearly became Abraham Lincoln’s running mate.

Here is where his life story took a tragic turn. Though a patriot, he proved inadequate to the burdens of office during the Civil War, growing corpulent and lethargic. Legislators denied him a second term, electing instead Governor and RNC Chairman Edwin Morgan. It was King who championed a Democrat, Andrew Johnson, as the GOP’s 1864 vice presidential nominee. Back to Basics for the Republican Party explains that Abraham Lincoln’s assassination made this one of the worst mistakes in his life.

King allied himself with this first President Johnson, who rewarded his misjudgment by naming him Collector for the Port of New York. Three months later, King committed suicide by jumping from a ferryboat.

A prominent newspaper commented:

"The guilt of this death is not upon the soul of the suicide, but upon the souls of living men, upon those who hunted him with such eagerness and rapacity, that life was a dreary burden, reason fell, and death became a welcome blessing."

Back to Basics for the Republican Party is my civil rights history of the GOP. To quote the book: "The more we Republicans know about the history of our party, the more Democrats will worry about the future of theirs. For more information, see www.grandoldpartisan.com. 

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Michael Zak is author of Back to Basics for the Republican Party, a history of GOP civil rights achievement.

Each day, his YouTube videos and TikTok videos and Rumble videos and Grand Old Partisan blog celebrate more than seventeen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. And, see Speech Raves for audience feedback from his presentations in thirty-one states.

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