KARSTEN
KASSON
liead of a prominent classical school there. At
the first call for troops in 18G1 he offered his serv-
ices, and in August, 1862, he was made acting
colonel, without commission, of the 1st New
Jersey cavalr\'. He was commissioned lieutenant-
colonel of the regiment in February, 1862, and
took part in nearly all the battles in Virginia.
He was wounded at Rappahannock Bridge, but
joined his regiment again in time to participate
in the battle of Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 18G2. In
1863 he organized the 2d New Jersey cavalry and
was assigned to the army of the Tennessee. His
command was constantly in service until the
close of the war and he gained distinction as a
commander. He was brevetted brigadier-general
for gallant and meritorious services, April 9, 1868,
and was mustered out of the volunteer service in
November, 1865. He accepted a commission in
the regular army, spent three years on the fron-
tier, resigned his commission in 1870 to accept
the professorship of Continental languages and
literature at the College of New Jersey, Prince-
ton, and held the chair until his death, which
occurred in New York city, Dec. 27, 1892.
KARSTEN, Qustaf Friedrich, educator, was born at Petershagenfeld bei Tiegenhof, West Prussia, Germany, May 2, 1859 ; son of Michael and Henrietta (Glodde) Karsten. He received his early education at Tiegenhof high school and at the Marienburg gvmnasium and subsequently pursued courses at the universities of Leipzig, Konigsberg, Heidelberg, Geneva, Freiburg and Tiibingen. He was privat-docent of Germanic and Romance philology at Geneva university, Switzerland, 188.5-86, and in the latter year be- came professor of Romance philology and in 1889 professor of Germanic languages at the Univer- sity of Indiana. He was elected secretary of the phonetic section of the Modern Language Asso- ciation of America in 1887. In 1896 he founded and became editor-in-chief of the Journal of Germanic Philology. He received the degree of Ph.D. from Freiburg university, Germany, in 1883. He is the author of many lectures and contributions to the leading American and Euro- pean periodicals.
KASSON, John Adam, diplomatist, was born at Charlotte, Vt., Jan. 11, 1822; son of John Steele and Nancy (Blackman) Kasson ; grandson of Adam and Honor (Steele) Kasson, and a de- scendant of Adam and Jane (Hall) Kasson, who sailed from Belfast, Ireland, in 1722, landing in Boston, Mass., with seven sons and two daughters. He prepared for college in the public schools and a country academj', and was graduated from the University of Vermont in 1842. He then entered as a student the law office of his brother, tutored for some months in 1843 in Virginia, and on his return renewed the study of law in the office of
Judge Emery Washburn, at Worcester, Mass.,
and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in
1844. He practised at New Bedford. Mass., 1844-
49 ; removed to St. Louis, Mo., and there practised
law successfully for six years, and in 1857 settled
in practice at Des
Moines, Iowa. He
was chairman of the
Republican state com-
mittee, 18.58-60, and a
delegate to the Re-
publican national
convention at Chi-
cago in 1860, where
he was a member of
the committee and
sub-committee on res-
olutions. He was first
assistant postmaster-
general of the United
States by appoint-
ment of President Lin-
coln, 1861-62 ; revised and codified the postal law
of the United States, and prepared the scheme
and invitation to foreign governments to partici-
pate in the " International Postal Conference"
at Paris, which was initiated by the U.S. post office
department, and which laid the foundation of the
present " Postal Union " embracing the civilized
world. In 1863 he was the U.S. special commis-
sioner to that conference, which gave him a vote
of thanks, and in 1867 he was again sent to Europe
to make postal treaties with various countries.
He was a Republican representative from the
fifth Iowa district in the 38th and 39th con-
gresses, 1863-67, the 43d and 44th congresses, 1873-
77, and the 48th and 49th congresses. 1881-84,
serving on the ways and means committee, as
chairman of the committee on coinage, weights
and measures, and on the committee of foreign
affairs. He secured the passage of the laws re-
ported by his committee establishing the metric
decimal system in the United States. He was a
member of the Iowa state legislature for three
terms, 1868-73, elected especially to secure the
erection of the state capitol building at Des
Moines ; was U.S. minister to Austria, 1877-81,
and left his .seat in congress in 1884 to accept the
office of U.S. minister to Germany, serving 1884-
85 ; and was special envoy to the Congo interna-
tional conference at Berlin, 1885 ; but on the ac-
cession of Grover Cleveland to the Presidency,
he resigned his diplomatic post, though Prince
Bismarck had privately requested his retention b}'
the new administration. He was president of the
interstate constitutional centennial commission
at Piiiladelphia, 1887 ; and was commissioned as
U.S. special envoj' to the Samoa international
conference at Berlin, 1889, where he secured an
