Kag-Key: Kagi through Keys

See below for annotated biographies of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists. Sources include: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography and Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.


KAGI, John Henry, 1835-1859, attorney, militant abolitionist.  Second in command under John Brown on his raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harper’s Ferry.  He was killed in the raid.  Aided fugitive slaves in Nebraska in 1855.  Participated in anti-slavery activities in Kansas, 1856-1857, where he joined John Brown’s group.


KANE, Thomas Leiper (January 27, 1822- December 26, 1883), Union soldier.  In 1848 he became chairman of the Free Soil State Central Committee, and upon the passage of the Fugitive-slave Law of 1850, found that the duties of a United States commissioner were in conflict with the dictates of his conscience and resigned the office. His father construed his letter of resignation as contempt of court and he was committed. This action, however, was overruled by the supreme bench and he was set free, becoming an active agent of the Underground Railroad.  Served under General Henry W. Slocum in the Twelfth Corps.

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, p. 258; Gallagher, 1993, pp. 92-93)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 258-259:

KANE, THOMAS LEIPER (January 27, 1822- December 26, 1883), soldier, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the son of John Kintzing [q.v.] and Jane Duval (Leiper) Kane, and the brother of Elisha Kent Kane [q.v.]. He attended school in Philadelphia until he was seventeen then visited England and France, remaining some years in Paris. Upon his return to Philadelphia he studied law with his father and was admitted to the bar in 1846 but rarely practised. He did, however, hold the position of clerk under his father who was judge of the United States district court for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. He also served as one of the United States commissioners in this district. At heart he was an abolitionist and contributed many articles on this and other subjects to the press of the day. In 1848 he became chairman of the Free Soil State Central Committee, and upon the passage of the Fugitive-slave Law of 1850, found that the duties of a United States commissioner were in conflict with the dictates of his conscience and resigned the office. His father construed his letter of resignation as contempt of court and he was committed. This action, however, was overruled by the supreme bench and he was set free, becoming an active agent of the Underground Railroad. Having become interested in the activities of the Mormons, he took part in securing the assistance of the government in their westward migration and accompanied them in their wanderings for a considerable time. In this way he became a friend of Brigham Young and won his confidence to such an extent that in 1858, when Young had called upon his people to resist the entrance of United States troops into Utah, and a proclamation had been issued declaring the territory to be in a state of rebellion, Kane was able to convince the Mormon leader that such an action would be useless and so brought about an amicable settlement of the affair. In later years he continued his interest in the Mormon church, though there is no evidence that he ever became a member.

Shortly after his return to Philadelphia he removed to the northwestern part of Pennsylvania and founded the town of Kane. It was here that he organized at the outbreak of the Civil War a regiment of woodsmen and hunters known as the "Bucktails." He was elected colonel of this regiment on June 12, 1861, but shortly resigned in favor of the Mexican War veteran, Charles J. Biddle. He was immediately elected lieutenant-colonel and continued to serve with the regiment. He was wounded at Dranesville and captured at Harrisonburg. On September 7, 1862, he was appointed brigadier-general for gallant services and commanded the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, XII Army Corps, at Chancellorsville. He contracted pneumonia and was in the hospital at Baltimore just before the battle of Gettysburg when he was entrusted with a message to General Meade that the Confederates were in possession of the Union cipher. He delivered the message after considerable difficulty and resumed command of his brigade on the second day of fighting, although still too weak to sit his horse. He was compelled to resign November 7, 1863, being brevetted major-general for "gallant and meritorious services at Gettysburg" on March 13, 1865. Upon retiring from the army he resided at his home in Kane and also in Philadelphia, taking an active interest in charitable matters and serving as the first president of the Pennsylvania Board of State Charities. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and other organizations and was a director in various enterprises. He was the author of three privately printed books: The Mormons (1850): Alaska (1868), and Coahuila (1877). He had married, on April 21, 1853, Elizabeth Dennistoun Wood, who afterward became a doctor of medicine. He died of lobar pneumonia in Philadelphia.

[S. P. Bates, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, Volume I (1869); War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army); 0. R. H. Thomson and W. H. Rauch, History of the Bucktails (1906); E. P. Oberholtzer, Philadelphia: A History of the City and Its People (n.d.), Volume II; F. J. Cannon and G. L. Knapp, Brigham Young and His Mormon Empire (1913); T. B. H. Stenhouse, The Rocky Mountain Saints (1873); the Press (Philadelphia), December 27, 1883.]

J.H.F.


KANOUSE, Peter, Boontoon, New Jersey, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1835-38.


KANOUSE, William R., Maryland.  American Anti-Slavery Society.


KAPP, Friedrich (April 13, 1824-October 27, 1884), publicist and historian. He and his friends became interested in the slavery question and his writings and political agitation brought him into the front ranks of the newly founded Republican party, for which his labors were incessant and fruitful. No German did
more, with the exception of Carl Schurz [q.v.], to unite the German-Americans in support of the Union during the Civil War.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 259-260:

KAPP, FRIEDRICH (April 13, 1824-October 27, 1884), publicist and historian, was born at Hamm, Westphalia, where his father, Dr. Friedrich Kapp, was the distinguished director of the Gymnasium. At Easter 1842, young Friedrich entered the University of Heidelberg as a law student, undertaking at the same time studies in philosophy and philology. He went to the University of Berlin in the summer of 1844; after his year of military service he was admitted to the practice of law at Hamm on April 7, 1845. With the outbreak of the revolution he left Hamm in March 1848 and became a newspaper correspondent, first in Frankfurt, later in Brussels and Paris. He returned to Germany in 1849 to participate in the new revolution, but actual contact with the movement revealed its stupidity and he again went to Paris. In July 1849 he moved on to Geneva, and there was associated with a group of German and Italian revolutionists, whose futile plottings wearied him and caused him to abandon the movement.

In March 1850 he came to New York and there, with two dollars, began his American career. His recent bride, Louise Engels, joined him in the summer. He became a member of the law firm of Zitz, Kapp & Froebel; yet, despite his early success, he had no liking for the law. He began to write for many newspapers and periodicals, including the early numbers of the Nation, and in 1850 he became the editor of the New-Yorker Abendzeitung. From 1861 to 1865 he was the American correspondent for the Kolnische Zeitung and with his return to Berlin in 1870 he became the regular correspondent of the New York Nation. His political notions were idealistic and he entertained an optimistic belief in the capacity of the people for leadership. Once in America he became associated with the Whigs, because he thought that with them the arts and knowledge were among the highest things in life. He became a powerful influence among the German population of New York; no German project was launched without his advice and assistance. He and his friends became interested in the slavery question and his writings and political agitation brought him into the front ranks of the newly founded Republican party, for which his labors were incessant and fruitful. No German did
more, with the exception of Carl Schurz [q.v.], to unite the German-Americans in support of the Union during the Civil War. From 1867 to 1870 he was an active member of the New York Board of Immigration, where he successfully introduced various reforms.

Kapp was a man of extensive culture: his home in New York was the center of a literary and political circle. It is he who is portrayed as "the citizen of two worlds" in Bertold Auerbach's Das Landhaus am Rein (translated as The Villa on the Rhine, 1869). Neither the extent nor the value of his historical writings has yet been sufficiently appreciated. His first writings appeared at a time when the general state of historical writing in America was low; his researches were based chiefly upon manuscript sources, he possessed a fresh and vigorous style, and his writings were characterized by their realism and humor. His Leben des Amerikanischen Generals Friedrich Wilhelm van Steuben, published in New York and Berlin in 1858, was privately printed in English in 1870 and published in 1884. His most valuable biographical work; Leben des Americanischen Generals Johann Kalb (Stuttgart, 1862), was translated in 1884. The Geschichte der deutschen Einwanderung in Amerika (New York, 1867) has frequently been republished under various titles. A third important study of eighteenth-century American hi story was his Friedrich der Grosse und die Vereinigten Staaten van Nord-Amerika, published at Leipzig in 1871. His Aus und uber Amerika (Berlin, 1876), two brilliant volumes on the United States, was another important title in a lengthy bibliography (see Deutsch-Amerikanisches Magazin, I, 371, 73). Written after he had definitely returned to Germany in 1870, it was unfavorably received in America because of its realism and candid opinions. The last years of his life were devoted to his literary and political activities. Naturalized as a Prussian in 1870, he was elected to the Reichstag as a National Liberal in 1871 and served 1871-78 and again 1881-84. He was also a member of the Prussian Landtag, 1874-77. Admiring Bismarck as the bringer of German unity, he found it difficult to accept his domestic policies. He died of diabetes in Berlin while engaged upon a monumental history of the German book trade, of which the first volume, Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels bis in das siebenzehnte Jahrhundert, was published posthumously at Leipzig in 1886.

[Nation (New York), October 30, November 6, 13, 1884; Ernest Bruncken, German Political Refugees in the U. S . . . . 1815-1860 (reprinted from Deutsch-Amerikanische Geschichtsblatter, 1904); A. B. Faust, The German Element in the U. S. (2 volumes, 1909); Simon Sterne, Memorial Resolutions ... of the Medico-Legal Society of New York (1884); H. von Holst, in Preussiche Jahrbucher, Volume LV (1885); H. A. Rattermann, in Deutsch Amerikanisches Magazin, Volume I (issues of October 1886, January, April 1887); New York Evening Post, October 28, 1884; information from Heinz Singer of Berlin.]

F. M-n.


KASSON, John Adam, 1822-1910, lawyer, diplomat.   Supporter of the Free-Soil Party. Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa.  Served as a Congressman from 1863-1867, 1873-1877, 1881-1884.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 494; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 260-261; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 12, p. 392; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 260-261:

KASSON, JOHN ADAM  (January 11, 1822-May 18, 1910), diplomat, son of John Steele and Nancy (Blackman) Kasson, was descended from a Scotch-Irish immigrant, Adam Kasson, who came to America in 1722. Born at Charlotte, Vermont, he was educated at an academy in Burlington, and at the University of Vermont, where he graduated second in his class in 1842. He studied law in the office of his brother in Burlington, and then at Worcester, Massachusetts, and after being admitted to the bar devoted himself to mercantile and maritime practice. On May 1, 1850, he married Caroline Eliot (G. M. Kasson, Genealogy of a Part of the Kasson Family, 1882; although Who's Who in America, 1899, gives his status as "unmarried"). In 1850 he moved to the West, settling first at St. Louis, where he became associated in his law practice with B. Gratz Brown. In 1857 he established himself at Des Moines, Iowa. As early as 1848 he had shown an interest in the slavery question and had gone as a delegate to the Free-Soil convention in Buffalo. He now became an active Republican and chairman of the Republican state committee. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1860, and as a member of the drafting committee shared with Horace Greeley the chief responsibility for the platform finally adopted.

On Lincoln's election to the presidency, Kasson, through the good will of political friends in Missouri, became first assistant postmaster-general. This might easily have been a routine job, with patronage-peddling as its principal activity. Kasson made it of high importance. He secured the codification of the postal laws and devised a plan for securing uniformity in postal intercourse between the United States and foreign nations. At his suggestion the President called a postal conference which met in Paris in 1863, and to which Kasson was sent as a delegate. In this conference the way was prepared for the foundation of the International Postal Union. Later in 1867, Kasson acted as United States commissioner in the negotiation of six postal conventions.

In 1862 he was elected to Congress, after a close contest for the nomination in which his control of patronage materially aided him. In the post-bellum controversy over reconstruction he clearly belonged to the moderate wing of his party, but, to judge from his frequent abstentions from voting, he lacked the courage vigorously to oppose the radicals, and he withdrew from Congress in 1866. He was elected to the state legislature, serving from t868 to 1872 and taking a leading part in the successful fight for a new state capitol. In 1872 he was again a candidate for Congress, and served from 1873 to 1877. He voted for resumption of specie payments, and for the Civil Rights Bill, but against the Force Bill of 1875. In 1877 he was appointed by President Hayes as minister to Austria-Hungary, and in that post gained great popularity. Returning to the United States, he again entered the House, serving from 1881 to 1884. A member of the committee which drafted the Civil Service Act of 1883, he piloted it through the debates to final passage. In 1884 he was sent to Berlin as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, and he served as the American representative in the international conference to regulate the status of the Congo. He here performed important services, helping to secure the acceptance by the conference of liberal treaty provisions for the protection of the natives and for freedom of trade, and promoting the agreement to respect the neutrality of the region. In 1889 he was one of the American representatives at the Berlin conference held to regulate the status of Samoa. Under the McKinley administration he served as a member of the British-American Joint High Commission of 1898 which made an unsuccessful effort to solve the Alaskan boundary question, and as special commissioner to negotiate reciprocity agreements with foreign countries under the Dingley Act. Though he was successful in negotiating a number of such conventions, his work failed to receive the approval of the Senate, and after having once offered his resignation and seen it declined, Kasson laid down his post in 1901. He died at Washington in May 1910.

Kasson was not a great political leader, but he had genuine abilities, and some pretensions to scholarship. In 1887 he was president of the Centennial Commission which directed the celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the drafting of the Constitution, and for this occasion prepared his "History of the Formation of the Constitution," published in the first volume of the History of the Celebration ... (2 volumes, 1889). It was later republished in The Evolution of the Constitution of the United States of America and History of the Monroe Doctrine (1904). He wrote on the tariff, revealing himself as a firm but not always logical protectionist, with a bent toward reciprocity (Information Respecting Reciprocity and the Existing Treaties, 1901). In 1890 he gave a course of lectures before the Lowell Institute on the Historical Evolution of Diplomacy, following these with similar courses at Johns Hopkins. His "History of the Monroe Doctrine" is a summary of judicious quality. One of his most interesting contributions was a speech to the Naval War College, published with the title, International Arbitration (1896). In this address Kasson brings forward the fruitful idea, of classifying certain types of disputes as peculiarly susceptible of submission to arbitration. In international matters, indeed, he showed much breadth of view, a willingness to enter into closer relations with other nations, an interest in the protection of weaker peoples, and a genuine desire to promote the cause of peace. Not an imposing figure, he deserves an honorable place amongst American diplomats. In personal bearing he was cool, and suave, without great personal magnetism.

[Perhaps the best account of Kasson's life is in E. H. Stiles, Recollections and Sketches of Notable Lawyers and Public Men of Early Iowa (1916). See also B. F. Gue, History of Iowa (4 volumes, 1903); "John A. Kasson: An Autobiography," Annals of Iowa, July 1920; Ibid., July 1899, January 1900, July 1911; J. L. Laughlin and H. P. Willis, Reciprocity (1903); A. B. Keith, The Belgian Congo and the Berlin Act (1919); Pioneer Lawmakers' Association of Iowa, Reunion of I911 (1913); Who's Who in America, 1910-11; obituaries in Washington Post, Sioux City Journal, and Register and Leader (Des Moines), May 19, 1910. Kasson's activities in Congress are naturally to be traced in the Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe, Congressional Record, and his diplomatic career in the archives of the State Department.]

D. P.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 494:

KASSON, John Adams, lawyer, born near Burlington, Vt., 11 January, 1822. After graduation in the University of Vermont in 1842, he studied law in Massachusetts, and was admitted to the bar. He practised law in St. Louis, Missouri, until 1857, when he removed to Des Moines. Iowa. He was chairman of the Republican state committee from 1858-'60, when he was a delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln first assistant postmaster-general, which office he resigned in 1862, and was elected to congress as a Republican, serving from 1863-'7. He was U. S. postal commissioner to Paris in 1863, and again in 1867, when he negotiated postal conventions with Great Britain and other nations. He was a member of the Iowa house of representatives from 1868-'73, when he was again elected to congress, serving from 1 December, 1873, till 3 March, 1877. He was appointed U. S. minister to Austria in 1877, having first declined the mission to Spain, and remained in Vienna until 1881, when he was again elected to congress, serving from 4 March, 1881, till his appointment on 4 July, 1884, as minister to Germany, where he was succeeded in 1885 by George H. Pendleton. He was president of the committee on the centennial celebration of the adoption of the constitution, held in Philadelphia in September, 1887. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 494.



KEEP, John, 1781-1870, Oberlin, Ohio, educator, college trustee.  Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1837-38.  Opposed slavery, women’s and African American rights advocate.  Trustee of Oberlin College from 1834-1870.  Attended World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840.


KEESE, Samuel, abolitionist, Peru, New York, American Anti-Slavery Society, Manager, 1841-42.


KEIGHN, John, abolitionist, officer of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, reorganized April 23, 1787.

(Nash, Gary B., & Soderlund, Jean R. Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and Its Aftermath. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, p. 124)


KEITH, George, circa 1639-1716, born Aberdeen, Scotland, Society of Friends, Quaker.  Early Quaker opponent of slavery. As a result, he was declared an apostate and disowned by the Philadelphia church in 1692.  Wrote early protest of slavery and owning slaves, An Exhortation and Caution to Friends Concerning Buying or Keeping of Negroes, in 1693.  Exhorted Quakers to free their slaves. 

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 502; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 289-290; Bruns, Roger, ed. Am I Not a Man and a Brother: The Antislavery Crusade of Revolutionary America, 1688-1788. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1977, pp. 5-9, 17, 31, 39; Drake, Thomas. Quakers and Slavery in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1950, pp. 14-15, 20; Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 17; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, pp. 8, 93; Zilversmit, Arthur. The First Emancipation: The Abolition of Slavery in the North. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967, p. 57; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 12, p. 460)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 289-290:

KEITH, GEORGE (circa 1638-March 27, 1716), founder of the "Christian Quakers," schoolmaster, Anglican missionary, was born at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, about the year 1638, though the exact date cannot be determined. Only a short part of his life and his public career directly touches America, but that contact is of much importance in the history of American Quakerism. He was educated at Marischal College in Aberdeen and received the degree of Master of Arts at Aberdeen University in 1658. He was a scholar of marked ability, especially in mathematics and Oriental studies. He intended to enter the ministry of the Church of Scotland but became a convinced Quaker under the ministry of the Quaker apostle, William Dewsbury, in 1664. He quickly became one of the foremost interpreters of the central principles of the Quaker faith for which he 3uffered severe persecution, including a long imprisonment in the Tolboth. He exercised a profound influence on Rebert Barclay, the author of the Apology, the first great interpretation of the faith of the Quakers. In his own line of interpretation Keith produced important books, the best of which are: Immediate Revelation not Ceased (1668) and The Universal Free Grace of the Gospell Asserted (1671). He married Elizabeth Johnston of Aberdeen and both he and his wife, who became a Quaker, traveled in 1677 with George Fox, William Penn, and Robert Barclay on a momentous missionary expedition through Holland and Germany. Shortly after his return from the Continent Keith established a boarding school in Middlesex. About 1685 he was appointed surveyor-general of New Jersey to run the boundary line between East and West Jersey (Archives of the State of New Jersey, 1 series, Volume I, 1880, pp. 480, 571). In 1689 he settled in Philadelphia where he became head master of the famous school which William Penn was founding in that city, now called the William Penn Charter School.

Before going to America Keith had become influenced by the teaching of Francis Mercurius van Belmont and had become a mild advocate of the transmigration of souls. In one of his early publications in Philadelphia, The Presb1terian ... Churches in New England . .. Brought to the Test (1689), he expressed sympathy with the use of the Lord's Supper as an agape, or love meal, as portrayed in the New Testament. He further denied the sufficiency of the inner Light and criticized the Philadelphia preachers for their tendency to slight the importance of the Christ of history. He also attempted to correct slackness in the administration of Quaker Discipline. After the death of Fox (1691) and Barclay (1690) Keith quite plainly aspired to be the recognized Quaker leader and authority. For these reasons, and owing to his somewhat contentious disposition, he came into sharp collision with the Quaker leaders in Pennsylvania, especially with Thomas Lloyd, the deputy-governor of the province, and with William Stockdale, a prominent Quaker preacher. The controversy became extremely bitter and ended in the formation of a separatist party known as the "Christian Quakers," popularly known as "Keithians." The defection was serious from the point of view of the main body of the Quakers, as it profoundly affected sixteen out of the thirty-two Meetings of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Earnest efforts were made for a reconciliation and when these efforts failed a vigorous declaration of disunity was issued against Keith by the Meeting of Ministers and Elders in Philadelphia, and the action was approved by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting held at Burlington, New Jersey, July 4-7, 1692. Three years later he was "disowned" by London Yearly Meeting, the complaint being his "unbearable temper and carriage" and because he refused to withdraw intemperate charges against Friends in Philadelphia.

Keith thereupon rented a hall in London where, while still wearing the Quaker garb, he preached and administered baptism and the Lord's Supper, issuing vigorous pamphlets against prominent Friends, especially against William Penn. (See The Deism of Willia111 Penn and his Brethren, 1699.) In 1700 he entered the Anglican Church and was ordained by the Bishop of London, preaching his first sermon at St. George's Church, May 12, 1700. He returned to America in 1702 as the agent of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. He did much to expand and establish the Episcopal Church in New Jersey and he spent two years traveling widely throughout the colonies, everywhere attacking the Quakers and drawing away many of their member s to the Episcopal Church (A Journal of Travels from New Hampshire to Caratuck, 1706). One counter effect of the work of Keith was to push the Society of Friends in Philadelphia over to a much more positive formulation of orthodoxy. The "Keithians" gradually joined the Episcopal Church or in some cases drifted into the Baptist societies, or, as frequently happened, returned to their original home in the Society of Friends. Keith returned to England in 1704 and died in March 1716.

[Alexander Gordon's article in The Directory of National Biography contains a fuller account of Keith's English career. See also: Fasti Academiae Mariscallanae Aberdonensis, Volume II (1898); George Fox, Journal (1901); William Sewel, The History of the ... Quakers (3rd ed., 1728); Robt. Barclay, The Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth (1876); Francis Bugg, Pilgrim's Progress from Quakerism to Christianity (1698); H. M. Lippincott, "The Keithian Separation," in Bulletin of Friends' Historical Association, Autumn Number, 1927; R. M. J ones, The Quakers in the American Colonies (19n); Jos. Smith, A Descriptive Catalog of Friends' Books (1867), II, 18-50; Minutes of the Society of Friends for Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and for London Yearly Meeting, covering the controversial period.]

R.M.J.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 502:

KEITH, George, clergyman, born in Aberdeen, Scotland, about 1639; died in Sussex, England, in 1716. He was educated in the schools of the Church of Scotland and at the University of Aberdeen. Becoming a Quaker in 1664, he suffered confiscation and imprisonment, and in 1675 was engaged with Robert Barclay in a discussion before the students of Aberdeen university concerning Quaker doctrines. A continuance of persecutions induced Keith to emigrate to the United States in 1684. He became a surveyor in New Jersey, and was engaged to determine the boundary-line between the eastern and western parts of the state. He removed to Philadelphia in 1689, and took charge of a Friends' school, but left it to travel in New England, where he engaged in controversy with John Cotton and Increase Mather. On his return to Philadelphia he became involved in disputes with his own sect. He then went to London and met William Penn in controversy, who pronounced him an apostate and dismissed him from the society. Keith responded in an able argument, and formed a society of his own known as the Christian or Baptist Quakers, or Keithians. Becoming again dissatisfied, he was ordained in the Church of England, and in 1702 was sent by the Society for propagating the gospel on a mission to Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He was signally successful in this work, 700 Quakers under his influence receiving baptism in the Episcopal church. He subsequently returned to England, and became rector of Edburton, Sussex. Bishop Burnet, who was his fellow-student at Aberdeen, says of him in his “History of My Own Times”: “Keith was the most learned man ever in the Quaker sect, well versed both in the Oriental tongues and in philosophy and mathematics.” Besides theological works, he published “Journal of Travels from New Hampshire to Caratuck” (London, 1706); “Standard of the Quakers” (1702; republished in Janney's “History of Friends,” Philadelphia, 1867); and “New Theory of Longitude” (1709). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 502.


KELLEY, Abby (Foster), 1811-1887, Pelham, Massachusetts, Society of Friends, Quaker, radical abolitionist leader, women’s rights activist, radical social reformer, orator, lecturer.  Active supporter of the American Anti-Slavery Society, doing lectures, fundraising, and participating in anti-slavery conferences and distributing petitions.  Married abolitionist Stephan S. Foster.  Member of the Underground Railroad, Worcester, Massachusetts.

(Bacon, 1974; Drake, Thomas. Quakers and Slavery in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1950, pp. 14, 158, 176-177; Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, pp. 191, 275-276, 286; Mayer, 1998; Morin, 1994; Sterling, 1991; Yellin, Jean Fagan and John C. Van Horne (Eds). The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women’s Political Culture in Antebellum America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994)


KELLEY, William Darrah, 1814-1890, lawyer, jurist, abolitionist.  Kelley always opposed slavery and, with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, abandoned the Democratic party to become one of the founders of the Republican organization. Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.  Elected in 1860.  Called the “Father of the House.”  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 505; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 12, p. 494; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe; Gates, 2013, Volume 10, p. 510 Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 299-300)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 299-300:

KELLEY, WILLIAM DARRAH (April 12, 1814-January 9, 1890), congressman, was born in Philadelphia. One group of his ancestors came from Ireland and settled on the Delaware in 1662; another group, of French Huguenot extraction, were early settlers in New Jersey. Both his grandfathers fought in the American Revolution. William Darrah was the youngest of four children and the only son of David and Hannah (Darrah) Kelley. His father, a leading watchmaker and jeweler of Philadelphia, was financially wrecked during the crisis following the War of 1812, and died in 1816.

Kelley attended the congregational school of the Second Presbyterian Church until he was eleven, when he found employment in a lottery office at a salary of a dollar a week. He worked for a time with an umbrella maker, and shortly after became copy-reader in the printing office of Jesper Harding [q.v.]. At the age of thirteen he became a jeweler's apprentice. His indenture expired in 1834 when employment was scarce in Philadelphia, so he proceeded to Boston where he worked at enameling. He employed his leisure hours in study; contributing al so to the periodical press and winning a reputation as a lecturer and debater. He suffered an injury in 1838 and returned to Philadelphia where he read law. He was admitted to the bar in 1841, was appointed prosecutor of the pleas for Philadelphia in 1845 and, in 1847, was appointed judge of the court of common pleas, oyer and terminer, and quarter sessions. When the latter office was made elective in 1851 Kelley was recommissioned for ten years. As judge he showed evidence of sound legal mind as well as genuine interest in public welfare.
Kelley always opposed slavery and, with the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, abandoned the Democratic party to become one of the founders of the Republican organization. He resigned the judgeship in 1856 to run for Congress; was defeated, and resumed legal practice until 1860 when he was elected to Congress from the Fourth Pennsylvania District. He was reelected fourteen times and served for twenty years on the committee on ways and means, of which he was chairman in 1881-83.

Although exempt from military service, he answered the emergency call of September 1862, and joined an artillery company just before the battle of Antietam, but never took part in an engagement. He favored a vigorous prosecution of the war, and boldly criticized the dilatory practices of General McClellan; he favored conscription and urged Congress to use negro soldiers. He supported all measures for the abolition of slavery and extension of suffrage to the freedmen; he believed in the "state suicide" theory and in military reconstruction.

After the war he advocated the reduction of internal taxes and became an extreme advocate of protection for American industries. He had once been a free trader, but impressions made on him by English laboring conditions and the business depression of 1857 led to the abandonment of this position and, by 1866, he was recognized as the leader of high protectionists in Congress. For over twenty years, in speeches, pamphlets, and books, he endeavored to refute the "abstract generalities" of free trade and vigorously maintained that protection was needed to attract immigrants, to keep out the "pauper labor" goods of Europe, to develop and diversify American industry, and to make the United States independent of England. He religiously believed in protecting all American industries and gloried in the creation of new ones, plate-glass, beet sugar, and tin-plate being his hobbies. Though he had no iron or steel holdings, he labored so assiduously for high duties, especially on iron and steel, that his colleagues called him "Pig Iron."

He held the unique position of being the chief mouthpiece for the inflationists as well as the protectionists. He opposed the resumption of specie payments until the exportation of precious metals could be checked by a protective tariff. In the depression following the panic of 1873 he adopted theories which bordered closely on repudiation. He believed that more money was needed for the development of the South and West; that it was essential for labor; and he was certain that contraction was a "double- quick march to bankruptcy." His own remedy for the, financial situation was the $3.65% bond bill.

He traveled widely in America and Europe, and wrote a number of books based on his travels and on other subjects, publishing Speeches, Addresses, and Letters on Industrial and Financial Questions (1872); Lincoln and Stanton (1885); The Old South and the New (1888), and other smaller works. His interest in the West led him to be inveigled into receiving a small amount of Credit Mobilier money, but he escaped the censure of Congress. Fiery, humanitarian, and honest, apt at repartee, he was considered the best orator on the Republican side of the House. He was twice married and had four children. His first wife was Isabella Tennant of Baltimore; his second, Caroline Bartram Bonsall of Philadelphia. He died in Washington, D. C., after suffering ill health for many years.

[Biographical Album of Prominent Pennsylvanians, 1 series (1888); L. P. Brockett, Men of Our Day (1872); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); "Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of William D. Kelley," House Misc. Doc. No. 229, 51 Congress, 1 Session; T. C. Smith, The Life and Letters of James Abram Garfield (2 volumes, 1925); R. C. Caldwell, James A. Garfield (1931); Evening Star (Washington), January 10, 11, 1890; letters in the possession of the family.]

H.T.I.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 505: 

KELLEY, William Darrah, congressman, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 12 April, 1814; died in Washington, D. C., 9 January, 1890. His grandfather, John, was a Revolutionary officer, of Salem county, N. J. William was apprenticed first to a printer and subsequently to a jeweller in Boston, where, while following his trade, he acquired a reputation as a writer and speaker. Returning to Philadelphia in 1840 he studied law, was admitted to the bar the next year, and while practising his profession devoted much time to literary pursuits. He was attorney-general of the state in 1845-'6, and a judge of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia from 1846 till 1856. Until 1848 Mr. Kelley was a Democrat and free-trader, but in 1854 he joined the Republican party, became a protectionist and an ardent abolitionist, and delivered in Philadelphia in 1854 an address on “Slavery in the Territories,” that became widely known. In 1860 he was a delegate to the National Republican convention, and was elected to congress, where he was for many years before his death the senior member of the house in continuous service. He was a member of numerous committees, such as those on naval affairs, agriculture, and Indian affairs, was chairman of that on weights and measures in the 40th congress, and of that on the Centennial celebration. He was often called the “Father of the House,” and was popularly known as “Pig-iron Kelley.” In addition to many political speeches and literary essays, he published “Address at the Colored Department of the House of Refuge” (Philadelphia, 1850); “Reasons for abandoning the Theory of Free Trade and adopting the Principle of Protection to American Industry” (1872); “Speeches, Addresses”; “Letters on Industrial and Financial Questions” (1872); “Letters from Europe” (1880); and “The New South” (1887). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 505. 


KELLOGG, Francis W., 1810-1878, Republican Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Served in Congress 1859-1865, 1868-1869.  Raised six regiments of cavalry for the Union Army.  Voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 505; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)


KELLOGG, Orlando, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery

(Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)


KELLOGG, Spencer, Utica, New York, abolitionist leader, treasurer of the New York Anti-Slavery Society (NYASS).  Vice President, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS), 1834-1835. 

(Sernett, Milton C. North Star Country: Upstate New York and the Crusade for African American Freedom. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002, p. 52; Sorin, Gerald. The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971, p. 103n)


KELLOGG, William Pitt (December 8, 1830- August 10, 1918), senator and governor of Louisiana, “in 1856 he became a delegate to the state convention in Bloomington at which the Republican party of Illinois was organized. Four years later he was chosen a presidential elector on the Lincoln ticket. In March 1861, President Lincoln named him chief justice of Nebraska Territory”.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 305-306:

KELLOGG, WILLIAM PITT (December 8, 1830- August 10, 1918), senator and governor of Louisiana, descended from Joseph Kellogg who settled at Farmington, Connecticut, about 1651, and the son of the Reverend Sherman and Rebecca (Eaton) Kellogg, was born in Orwell, Vermont. He secured his formal education at Norwich Military Institute, and after his removal to Illinois in 1848, read law several winters while teaching a district school. Upon being admitted to the bar in 1853, he began practice in Canton, Illinois. Like many other young Western lawyers, he early won a place in local politics, and in 1856 became a delegate to the state convention in Bloomington at which the Republican party of Illinois was organized. Four years later he was chosen a presidential elector on the Lincoln ticket. In March 1861, President Lincoln named him chief justice of Nebraska Territory, but he resigned at the outbreak of war to raise a regiment of cavalry in Illinois. After serving for less than a year in the Missouri campaign under Pope and winning promotion to the rank of brigadier-general, he was compelled by ill health to resign.

One of President Lincoln's last official acts was to commission Kellogg collector of the port of New Orleans, where he promptly became conspicuous as a Carpet-bag politician. The legislature of Louisiana elected him in 1868 to the United States Senate, but his nomination by the Republican or "Radical" party for the governors hip of his adopted state led to his resignation in 1872. His entire administration was torn with dissensions. The announcement of his election was followed by a battle of injunctions. Two returning boards were organized to canvass the ballots, two rival legislatures convened, and two governors duly inaugurated. When the failure of Congress to decide between the contesting state governments threw action upon the administration, President Grant recognized Kellogg as the legitimate governor (May 22, 1873). The trials of his term included a riot, during which the conservatives by seizure of the state buildings drove the "usurper" Kellogg to the customhouse for refuge until he was restored by a presidential proclamation. A second threat of civil conflict led to a compromise which left Kellogg in office for the remainder of his term. In violation of the spirit of the compromise, he was impeached by the lower house, but the state Senate wisely dismissed the case. The Louisiana election of 1876 resulted again in dual governments and it was to the Republican faction that Kellogg owed his second election as United States senator. Notwithstanding the  questionable legality of the election, the national Senate by a close party vote seated Kellogg rather than his contesting rival, although the Democratic legislature was ultimately recognized by President Hayes. Declining to be a candidate for reelection to the Senate, where he had in no way distinguished himself; he was elected to the House of Representatives for one term, 1883- 85. Thereafter, except for his appearance as a delegate at the Republican national conventions until 1896, he dropped out of politics, living in retirement at Washington, D. C., until his death. He was married June 6, 1865, to Mary Emily Wills at Canton, Illinois.

While there can be no doubt that Kellogg undertook to serve Louisiana under grave difficulties, falling heir to the bitter hatred which had been accumulating against Carpet-baggers and which vented itself in several attempts upon his life, he indubitably lacked the force demanded by the troublous times, and his administration augmented rather than mitigated the odium which attached to Carpet-bag rule.

[In addition to the usual sources for the Reconstruction period of Louisiana history including the state newspapers-the New Orleans Bee, the National Republican, and the Daily Picayune-see W. D. Foulke, Life of Oliver P. Morton (2 volumes, 1899); Timothy Hopkins, The Kelloggs in the Old World and the New (1903), Volume I; W. L. Fleming, Doc. History of Reconstruction, Volume II (1907); Ella Lonn, Reconstruction in Louisiana after I868 (1918); G. S. Merriam, The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles (1885), Volume II; Charles Nordhoff, The Cotton States (1876); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); Evening Star (Washington, D. C.), August 10, 1918; Washington Post, August 11, 1918; Nation, November 11, 1915.]

E. L.


KEMP, James Bishop, 1764-1827, Baltimore, Maryland, clergyman.  Vice President of the Maryland Society of the American Colonization Society. 

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, p. 318; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 111, 115)


KENNARD, John H., Baltimore, Maryland.  Traveling agent for the Young Men’s Colonization Society in Baltimore, Maryland.  Recruited emigrants for colony in Africa. 

(Campbell, Penelope. Maryland in Africa: The Maryland State Colonization Society, 1831-1857. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1971, pp. 101-102)


KENNEDY, James M., abolitionist, Kentucky, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1836-37.


KENNEDY, John H., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Philadelphia Society of the American Colonization Society.  Assistant to head Ralph Gurley. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 125-126, 174, 175)


KENNEDY, John Pendleton (October 25, 1795-August 18, 1870), author and statesman. .  Opposed extension of slavery in the new U.S. territories.  “He had begun to fill public office, through election in 1820 to the Maryland House of Delegates. During these years he was an ardent supporter of John Quincy Adams. Early in 1838 he was elected as a Whig to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives caused by the death of Isaac McKim. He failed of reelection in November of that year but was successful in 1840 and 1842. In Congress he was chairman of the committee of commerce for a time. He strongly opposed the annexation of Texas and held that its admission by joint resolution was unconstitutional.”

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 333-334:

KENNEDY, JOHN PENDLETON (October 25, 1795-August 18, 1870), author and statesman, was the son of John Kennedy, a native of north Ireland of Scotch descent, and his wife, Nancy Clayton Pendleton, a Virginian whose forebears were English. Kennedy was born in Baltimore, Maryland, where his father was at the time a prosperous merchant. He received his general education at what became Sinclair's academy and at Baltimore College in his native city, graduating from the latter in 1812. During the war with England which broke out in that year he participated in the battles of Bladensburg and North Point. After studying in the law offices of an uncle and of Walter Dorsey in Baltimore he was admitted to the bar and began practising in that city in 1816. In 1824 he married Mary Tennant, daughter of a Baltimore merchant, but she died within a year, and in 1829 Elizabeth Gray of Ellicott Mills, Maryland, became his wife. Kennedy did not like the law, and a legacy from art uncle who died at about this time made him less dependent upon it. Therefore he gradually withdrew from his practice and began to live more in accordance with his natural inclinations. In the early years of his greater leisure the qualities distinguishing him during the remainder of his life reached maturity. He was broad, tolerant, and cheerful, had a genial humor, and a deep love for his fellow men. He was greatly interested in local affairs and served on various civic committees. For some years he was provost of the University of Maryland. He was also president of the board of trustees of the Institute founded in Baltimore, largely in accordance with his advice, by George Peabody in 1866.

The last forty years of Kennedy's life were chiefly devoted to creative writing and to politics. He had begun scribbling as a schoolboy but published nothing of importance until 1832, when under the pseudonym Mark Littleton he published Swallow Barn, a series of sketches of life in Virginia shortly after the Revolution. This was well received and was followed in 1835 by "Littleton's" Horse-Shoe Robinson, a novel dealing with the battle of King's Mountain. Three years later came Rob of the Bowl, a novel of early colonial Maryland, which was less popular. But a humorous political satire published in 1840, under the title Quodlibet: Containing Some Annals thereof ... by Solomon Second-thoughts, Schoolmaster, delighted many, especially the Whigs, of whom the author was one. His last major work, Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt, appeared in two volumes in 1842. Kennedy's works of fiction were classed by some contemporary critics with those of Cooper and Irving. Among his minor writings were pamphlets and articles for the press, notably for the National Intelligencer, discussing political questions. The first of these having influence was a pamphlet issued in 1830 (under the pseudonym Mephistopheles) which reviewed the report on commerce by C. C. Cambreleng of the national House of Representatives. The views presented caused Kennedy to be regarded as a leading exponent of protection. Already he had begun to fill public office, through election in 1820 to the Maryland House of Delegates. During these years he was an ardent supporter of John Quincy Adams. Early in 1838 he was elected as a Whig to fill a vacancy in the House of Representatives caused by the death of Isaac McKim. He failed of reelection in November of that year but was successful in 1840 and 1842. In Congress he was chairman of the committee of commerce for a time. He strongly opposed the annexation of Texas and held that its admission by joint resolution was unconstitutional. Largely through his influence an appropriation of $30,000 was voted for a test of Samuel Morse's electro-magnetic telegraph.

Following the death of President Harrison Kennedy wrote the manifesto entitled A Defense of the Whigs (1844), denouncing the political defection of Tyler. In the congressional election of 1844 he was defeated, but two years later he was chosen to the Maryland House of Delegates, was made speaker, and served one term. In July 1852 he accepted the secretaryship of the navy under President Fillmore and while filling that office organized four important naval expeditions, including that sent to Japan under Matthew C. Perry. When he left office in March 1853, following the inauguration of President Pierce, his public career ended, but his interest in politics continued. In 1860 he voted for Bell and Everett and strove, by writing and speaking, to prevent secession. When this proved futile, he supported the Union cause in the war, voting for Lincoln in 1864. But after the conflict ended he favored "amnesty and forgiveness to the weak and foolish who have erred, charity for their faults and brotherly assistance to all who repent." Kennedy died at Newport, R. L, after a long illness.

[The Kennedy manuscripts in the library of the Peabody Institute include extensive correspondence, a diary, and an uncompleted autobiography. For printed sources see H. T. Tuckerman, The Life of John Pendleton Kennedy (1871); E. M. Gwathmey, John Pendleton Kennedy (1931); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy, 1852; V. L. Parrington, The Romantic Revolution in America (1927); The Cambridge History of American Literature, Volume I (1917); E. A. and G. L. Duyckinck, Cyclopedia of American Literature (2 volumes, 1875).)

M.W.W.


KENNEY, Gerrit, New York, American Abolition Society.

(Radical Abolitionist, Volume 1, No. 1, New York, August 1855)


KENT, George, abolitionist, Concord, New Hampshire, American Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1837-40, 1840-41.


KENT, Joseph (January 14, 1779-November 24, 1837), congressman, governor, senator. In congress he supported  bills providing for the repeal of the four-year term of officials, and forbidding interference with anti-slavery and abolition mail sent to the south.

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 347-348:

KENT, JOSEPH (January 14, 1779-November 24, 1837), congressman, governor, senator, was born in Calvert County, Maryland, the son of Daniel Kent. His education mu st have included the study of medicine, for he was licensed as a physician in 1799. He was the partner of Dr. Parran of Lower Marlboro for a time, but in 1801 he established an independent practice at Bladensburg, Maryland, where he also engaged in agriculture: He entered the militia as surgeon and rose to be colonel of cavalry. He was interested in public affairs and in 1811 entered the national House of Representatives. With the exception of the years 1815-19 he served until 1826. Although he was first elected as a Federalist, he voted for the War of 1812 and later became a Republican, serving as a Monroe elector in 1816. He opposed the tariff bills of 1820 and 1824, voted for the bill providing for the general survey for roads and canals (1824), and favored other internal improvement measures. In the discussion over the admission of Missouri, he supported the compromise measures. During the presidential election of 1824, he took no part in the caucus, and in the House voted for Adams, with four of the nine Maryland representatives.

In 1826 Kent resigned from the House to become governor of Maryland (January 9, 1826-January 15, 1829). He won his first election by a vote of fifty-nine to thirty; his two reelections were almost unanimous. His messages were said to have established "a new era" in that he "added the expression of opinions and recommendation of measures, and an assumption of that responsibility which justly belongs and should always appertain to this branch of the government" (Niles' Weekly Register, January 6, 1827). Having been a director of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, he was greatly interested in internal improvements by both federal and state aid. He urged state support both for the canal and for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, deprecating the idea of antagonism between the two projects. He also supported the resolution of a previous legislature for a popular presidential vote by districts, but he insisted upon state equality in the election by the House. In matters of social importance he favored prison reform and aid to schools and colleges.

Having become closely identified with the National Republicans, Kent in 1831 was a member and a vice-president of the Baltimore convention which nominated Henry Clay for the presidency and was himself later elected to the Senate, taking his seat on December 2, 1833. Here he was a friend and faithful follower of Clay, supporting the censure on Jackson's removal of deposits, and opposing Jackson's attitude toward France, the land distribution bill, and the surplus distribution bill. He favored some non-partisan measures, including the bills providing for the repeal of the four-year term of officials, forbidding interference with anti-slavery mail, and those granting aid to the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. He also favored a reform in the method of electing the president and a reduction of the vote necessary to override a presidential veto. Although he seldom spoke in debate, when he did, according to Clay, it was always to good purpose. His death occurred at his home, "Rosemount," near Bladensburg, following a fall from his horse. His eulogy was pronounced by Clay. He had married twice. His first wife was Eleanor Lee Wallace, who died in 1826. His second wife was Alice Lee Contee.

[H. E. Buchholz, Governors of Maryland. (1908); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); Remarks of Mr. Kent of Maryland in Relation to the Removal of the Public Deposites (sic) (1834); Niles' Weekly Register, January 10, 1829; Congressional Globe, 25 Congress, 2 Session, p. 8; Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, D. C.), November 25, 27, 1837.]

W. C. M.


KER, John, Mississippi, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1839-1841. 

(Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961)


KETCHUM, Edgar, New York, New York, Church Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1861-64.


KEY, Francis Scott, (August 1, 1779-January 11, 1843), author of "The Star Spangled Banner," lawyer, Washington, DC, American Colonization Society, Vice-President, 1833-41, Manager, 1834-39, Director, 1839-40.

(Burin, Eric. Slavery and the Peculiar Solution: A History of the American Colonization Society. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2005, pp. 14, 24; Campbell, Penelope. Maryland in Africa: The Maryland State Colonization Society, 1831-1857. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1971, pp. 7, 10; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 529-530; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, p. 363; Staudenraus, P. J. The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961, pp. 51, 55-56, 114, 124, 126, 130, 189-190, 208).

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, p. 362-363:

KEY, FRANCIS SCOTT (August 1, 1779-January 11, 1843), author of "The Star Spangled Banner," lawyer, was born on the family estate, "Terra Rubra," then in Frederick but now in Carroll County, Maryland. He was the great-grandson of an Englishman, Philip Key, who came to Maryland about 1720, and son of John Ross Key, who married Ann Phoebe Charlton. He attended St. John's College, Annapolis, 1789-96, living with his grandmother Ann Ross Key at "Belvoir" on the Severn River, and with her sister Mrs. Upton Scott in Annapolis. After graduation he studied law under Judge J. T. Chase in Annapolis, and in 1801 he opened practice in Frederick, whither he was accompanied by a fellow student, Roger B. Taney, later chief justice, who married his only sister. On January 19, 1802, in the beautiful "Chase House" in Annapolis, then owned by Colonel Edward Lloyd, he married the colonel's daughter, Mary Tayloe Lloyd, by whom he had six sons and five daughters. Shortly after his marriage the family moved from Frederik to Bridge Street, Georgetown, D. C., where Key was at first associated in practice with his uncle, Philip Barton Key [q.v.]. It was as an influential young Washington attorney that Key was called in 1814 upon the mission that occasioned "The Star Spangled Banner." During the British retreat from Washington a prominent physician, Dr. William Beanes, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, was seized and confined aboard the British fleet. Key was asked to undertake his release. Accompanied by Colonel J. S. Skinner, government agent for exchange of prisoners, he went down the Chesapeake from Baltimore on September 5, visited Admiral Cockburn, and secured Beanes's liberation, but he was detained pending the projected attack on Baltimore and was off the city in an American vessel during the attack. Through the night bombardment of September 13-14 he remained on deck in agonized suspense but at daybreak was overjoyed to see the flag still flying over Fort McHenry. In intense emotional excitement he then composed the poem.

According to an account by Chief Justice Taney in the 1857 edition of Key's poems, the verses were first set down from memory on an envelope on the way ashore that morning and were rewritten in a hotel that night. Next morning he showed them at the home of Judge Joseph Hopper Nicholson, who had married his wife's sister. The judge was enthusiastic, and according to a fairly authentic story, his wife at once took the poem to a printer, who struck off handbills for circulation through the city. It was published m the Baltimore American, September 21, sung in Baltimore taverns and theatres, and soon gained nation-wide popularity. Probably Key himself had in mind the well-known English tune "To Anacreon in Heaven" in writing the poem, though its adoption has also been credited to Judge Nicholson and to the first singer of the poem, the actor Ferdinand Durang. The tune had been previously used for a song of the American Revolution, "Adams and Liberty." Key's manuscript fair copy was preserved in Annapolis by Mrs. Nicholson until her death in 1847 and is now in the Walters Gallery, Baltimore. Neither before nor after writing his famous song did Key take his muse at all seriously. The slender collection of his poetry published posthumously (Poems of the Late Francis S. Key, Esq., 1857) contains obituary, religious, amatory, and mildly facetious verse, respectable in meter but 6£ slight consequence, save perhaps the hymn, "Lord, with Glowing Heart I'd Praise Thee," still included in hymnals. Key was of a warmly religious nature, in 1814 seriously considered entering the clergy, was delegate to the general conventions of the Episcopal Church, 1814-26, and for many years was lay reader in St. John's Church, Georgetown. An effective speaker, as suggested by several of his addresses preserved in print, with a quick, logical mind, he had an extensive practice in the federal courts. He was United States attorney for the District of Columbia, 1833-41, and in October 1833 he was sent by President Jackson to Alabama, where he negotiated a settlement between the state and federal governments over the Creek Indian Lands (T. C. McCorvey, "The Mission of Francis Scott Key to Alabama in 1833," Alabama Historical Society Transactions, Volume IV, 1904). About 1830 he changed his residence from Georgetown to Washington. Until his death l)e remained slender, erect, fond of riding, with dark blue eyes and thin, mobile features, expressive of his ardent, generous nature. He died of pleurisy at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Charles Howard, Mt. Vernon Place, Baltimore. His body was placed first in the Howard vault, St. Paul's Cemetery, Baltimore, then transferred in 1866 to Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Frederick. He has monuments there, at Fort McHenry, and /it Eutaw Place in Baltimore, and in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

[Francis Scott Key Smith, Francis Scott Key, Author of the Star Spangled Banner (1911), and "The Star Spangled Banner," Current History, May 1930; P. H. Magruder, "The Original Manuscript of the Final Text of the 'Star-Spangled Banner,'" Proceedings U. S. Naval Inst., June 1927; O. G. T. Sonneck, Report on the Star Spangled Banner (1909); Anne Key Barstow, "Recollections of Francis Scott Key," Modern Culture, November 1900; H. D. Richardson, Sidelights on Maryland History (1913), Volume II; T. J. C. Williams, History of Frederick County, Maryland (1910), Volume I; Maryland History Magazine, June 1907, June 1909, June 1910; Mrs. Julian C. Lane, Key and Allied Families (1931); the Sun (Baltimore), January 13, 1843.]

A.W.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 529-530;

KEY, Francis Scott, author, born in Frederick county, Maryland, 9 August, 1780; died in Baltimore, Maryland, 11 January, 1843, was the son of John Ross Key, a Revolutionary officer. He was educated at St. John's college, studied law in the office of his uncle, Philip Barton Key, and began to practise law in Frederick City, Maryland, but subsequently removed to Washington, where he was district attorney for the District of Columbia. When the British invaded Washington in 1814, Ross and Cockburn with their staff officers made their headquarters in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, at the residence of a planter, Dr. William Beanes, whom they subsequently seized as a prisoner. Upon hearing of his friend's capture, Key resolved to release him, and was aided by President Madison, who ordered that a vessel that had been used as a cartel should be placed at his service, and that John S. Skinner, agent for the exchange of prisoners, should accompany him. General Ross finally consented to Dr. Beanes's release, but said that the party must be detained during the attack on Baltimore. Key and Skinner were transferred to the frigate “Surprise,” commanded by the admiral's son, Sir Thomas Cockburn, and soon afterward returned under guard of British sailors to their own vessel, whence they witnessed the engagement. Owing to their position the flag at Fort McHenry was distinctly seen through the night by the glare of the battle, but before dawn the firing ceased, and the prisoners anxiously watched to see which colors floated on the ramparts. Key's feelings when he found that the stars and stripes had not been hauled down found expression in “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which gained for him a lasting reputation. On arriving in Baltimore he finished the lines which he had hastily written on the back of a letter, and gave them to Captain Benjamin Eades, of the 27th Baltimore regiment, who had participated in the battle of North Point. Seizing a copy from the press, Eades hastened to the old tavern next to the Holliday street theatre, where the actors were accustomed to assemble. Mr. Key had directed Eades to print above the poem the direction that it was to be sung to the air “Anacreon in Heaven.” The verses were first read aloud by the printer, and then, on being appealed to by the crowd, Ferdinand Durang mounted a chair and sang them for the first time. In a short period they were familiar throughout the United States. A collection of Key's poems was published with an introductory letter by Roger B. Taney (New York, 1857). James Lick bequeathed the sum of $60,000 for a monument to Key, to be placed in Golden Gate park, San Francisco, Cal., and it was executed by William W. Story in Rome in 1885-'7. The height of this monument is fifty-one feet. It consists of a double arch, under which a bronze figure of Key is seated. It is surmounted by a bronze statue of America with an unfolded flag. The material is travertine, a calcareous stone of a reddish yellow hue, extremely porous, but of great durability. Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, 1888.


KEYES, Perley G., New York, abolitionist leader.

(Sorin, Gerald. The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971)


KEYS, William, Highland County, Ohio, Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, Vice-President, 1835-39.



Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.