John A. King

John Alsop King (January 3, 1788 – July 7, 1867) was an American politician who was Governor of New York from 1857 to 1858.

Life

He was born in the area now encompassed by New York City on 3 January 1788, the son of U.S. Senator Rufus King (1755–1827) and Mary (Alsop) King. He had four brothers, among them Congressman James G. King (1791–1853), and Charles King who was President of Columbia University.

When his father was appointed the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, the family moved to Britain, and King was educated at Harrow School. Upon graduating from Harrow, King returned to New York City to study law. He was admitted to the bar and practiced in New York City.

John King's law career was interrupted by a stint in the military; he served as a cavalry lieutenant in the War of 1812. After the war, however, he returned to his law practice and then ventured into politics. King was a member of the New York State Assembly (Queens Co.) in 1819, 1820 and 1820–21; of the New York State Senate (First D.) in 1823; and again of the State Assembly in 1832, 1838 and 1840.

John A. King (1817–1900)

John Alsop King (July 14, 1817 Jamaica, Queens County, New York – November 21, 1900 Manhattan, New York City) was an American politician from New York.

Life

He was the son of Gov. John A. King (1788–1867) and Mary (Ray) King (1790–1873). He attended Union Hall Academy in Jamaica; and graduated from Harvard College in 1835. Then he engaged briefly in mercantile pursuits, studied law, was admitted to the bar, and practiced for some time. However, he spent most of his life as a gentleman farmer, looking after the family estate. On February 21, 1839, he married Mary Colden Rhinelander (1818–1894), a granddaughter of New York Attorney General Josiah Ogden Hoffman (1766–1837), and they had five daughters.

He was a delegate to the 1872 Republican National Convention; a presidential elector in 1872, voting for Ulysses S. Grant and Henry Wilson; and a member of the New York State Senate (1st D.) in 1874 and 1875. In 1876 and 1880, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress.

He was President of the New-York Historical Society from 1887 until his death.

John A. Macdonald

Sir John Alexander Macdonald GCB KCMG PC PC QC (11 January 1815 – 6 June 1891) was a Canadian politician and Father of Confederation who was the first Prime Minister of Canada (1867–1873, 1878–1891). The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career which spanned almost half a century. He drank heavily, and in 1873 was voted out during the Pacific Scandal, in which his party took bribes from businessmen seeking the contract to build the Pacific Railway. Macdonald's greatest achievements were building and guiding a successful national government for the new Dominion, using patronage to forge a strong Conservative Party, promoting the protective tariff of the National Policy, and building the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway. Economic growth was slow during his years in office, as Canada verged on stagnation; many residents migrated to the fast-growing United States. He fought to block provincial efforts to take power back from Ottawa. His most controversial move was to approve the execution of Métis leader Louis Riel for treason in 1885; it permanently alienated the Francophones who saw themselves humiliated.