Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/528

The evergreen plant kalmia was named in his honor. Besides several scientific works, he wrote “A Voyage to North America,” an account of the soils and the natural curiosities of this country (Abo, 1753-'61; English translation, London, 1772).

KALOPOTHAKES, Martha Hooper Blackler, missionary, b. in Marblehead, Mass., 1 June, 1830; d. in Athens, Greece, 16 Dec., 1871. She became interested in missions, and in 1858 married M. D. Kalopothakes, who studied medicine and theology in New York city. He returned to Greece, his native land, as a Protestant missionary, accompanied by his wife, who acquired the Greek language, and assisted him in editing a weekly paper. She labored as a missionary, and exercised a wide influence among the Greek women. During the last three years of her life she translated books from the English, and edited a juvenile paper that was published in Greek.

KANE, Elias Kent, senator, b. in New York city, 7 June, 1796 ; d. in Washington, D. C, 11 Dec, 1835. He was a cousin of John Kintzing Kane. He studied law, practised in Nashville, Tenn., and in 1815 removed to Kaskaskia, Illinois territory. He was a delegate to the convention that framed the state constitution of Illinois in 1818, and was the first secretary of state, and after- ward a member of the legislature. He was elected to the U. S. senate as a Jacksonian Democrat, and re-elected for a second term, serving from 5 Dec, 1825, until his death.

KANE, George Proctor, merchant, b. in Balti- more, 21 Aug., 1817 ; d. there, 23 June, 1878. His parents came from fhe north of Ireland. He be- came a grain-merchant in Baltimore, and during the famine in Ireland was active in sending food to the suffering peasantry. He held various local offices, and during the administration of Presidents Taylor and Fillmore was collector of the port of Baltimore. While marshal of police in 1861 he endeavored to protect the 6th Massachusetts regiment from the assaults of the mob, but resisted the demand of Gen. Butler for the surrender of arms in the pos- session of the city authorities. As a suspected protector of contraband traffic in arms, and head of an armed force hostile to the United States,- he was arrested in June, 1861, and confined in Fort McHenry, and subsequently in Forts Warren and Lafayette. When released at the end of fourteen months he went to the south, where he remained till the close of the war. He was sheriff of Baltimore in 1873, and at the time of his death mayor.

KANE, John Kintzing, jurist, b. in Albany, N. Y., 16 May, 1795 ; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 21 Feb., 1858. He was graduated at Yale in 1814, studied law with Joseph Hopkinson, was admitted to the bar in 1817, and practised in Philadelphia. At an early period of his life he manifested an in- terest in public affairs as a member of the Feder- alist party. He was sent to the legislature in 1823, but shortly afterward joined the Democratic party. He filled the office of solicitor of Philadel- Ehia in 1828-'30. In the electoral canvass of 1828 e ably supported Andrew Jackson. He was ap- pointed in 1832 one of the three commissioners under the convention of indemnity with France of 4 July of the preceding year. He prepared the report of that commission, and was the author of " Notes " on questions decided by the board, which were published after the conclusion of its labors in 1836. The first printed attack on the TJ. S. bank was written by him, and passages in the messages and public utterances of President Jackson were supposed to have been of his composition. His enjoyment of the friendship of the president led to his being for a brief period subjected to social proscription in Philadelphia, the stronghold of the bank party. A memorable letter addressed by Jackson to James K. Polk during the campaign of 1844 was written by Kane, and during what is known as the " Buckshot war " in Pennsylvania he was the effective manoeuvrer of the Democratic party. He became attorney-general of Pennsyl- vania in 1845, but resigned in 1846 on being ap- pointed U. S. judge for the district of Pennsyl- vania. He was distinguished for his attainments in the Roman and continental law, and his judicial decisions, especially in the admiralty and in the patent law, were much cited. His action in the case of Passmore Williamson, who was committed for contempt of court in a proceeding under the fugitive-slave law, was, however, violently assailed by the Abolition party. He led in the struggle of the first board of trustees to open Girard college, and took a prominent part in the controversy which divided the Presbyterian church into the new and old schools. He was one of the trustees and legal advisers of the Presbyterian church in the United States. From 1856 until he died he was g resident of the American philosophical society. — [is son, Elisha Kent, arctic explorer, b. in Phila- delphia, Pa., 20 Feb., 1820 ; d. in Havana, Cuba, 16 Feb., 1857, was obliged, owing to illness, to leave, in his seventeenth year, an elective course at the University of Virginia. Improving in health, he applied himself so diligently to study that while but twenty- two years of age he graduated in medicine at the head of his class at the University of Penn- sylvania. Kane en- tered the U. S. navy, 21 July, 1843. as as- sistant surgeon, and was promoted to be passed assistant sur- geon, 14 Sept., 1848. He served as sur- geon in China, on

the coast of Africa,

in Mexico, where he was wounded while on special service, in the Mediterranean, and on coast-survey duty in the Gulf of Mexico, from which he was relieved, at his urgent request, for duty with the first Grinnell arctic expedition. In all his service he eagerly sought opportunity for travel, exploration, and adventure, and once, in descending into the crater of Teal, in the Philippines, he barely escaped with his life. His experiences included six months of practice as a physician in China, an encounter with Bedouin robbers in Egypt, and a visit to the king of Dahomey in Africa. Kane prepared for his arctic voyage in two days' time, and sailed as surgeon of the " Advance " under Lieut. Edwin J. DeHaven, who commanded the squadron, the " Advance " and " Rescue." These vessels, purchased, strengthened, and fitted out through the liberality of Henry Grinnell, were accepted by the United States, under the joint resolution of congress, approved 5 May, 1850, for the purpose of assisting in the search for the English expedition under Sir John Franklin. The squadron discovered "Grinnell Land," an island north of Cornwallis island, which should not be confounded with the better known Grinnell Land bordering on the frozen sea. Failing to reach an advantageous point for further search, DeHaven decided to return home the same year,