KASSON, John Adams, lawyer, born near Burlington, Vermont, 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 United States 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 United States 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 188,5 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.