William Burnet Kinney (September 4, 1799 – October 21, 1880) was an American politician and diplomat.
Contents
Early life and education
His grandfather, Sir Thomas Kinney, came to the United States from England before the Revolution to explore the mineral resources of New Jersey. Kinney was born to Abraham Kinney and Hannah Burnet on September 4, 1799, in the Speedwell section of Morristown, New Jersey. He was raised there and lived there in later life. He briefly attended the United States Military Academy. After graduating from Princeton University, he studied law under Joseph Coerten Hornblower.
Career
In 1820, he started a career in journalism in Newark, New Jersey. Between 1820 and 1825, he was the editor of the New Jersey Eagle. He founded the Newark Daily Advertiser in 1832. He was an unsuccessful Whig candidate for the U.S. Congress in 1843. In 1850, he was appointed by President Zachary Taylor as the U. S. minister to Sardinia. Prior to this event, he had been conspicuous in various public capacities, and among them as a delegate, in 1844, to the Baltimore Whig convention, where he was largely instrumental in securing the nomination of his friend, Theodore Frelinghuysen, for the vice-presidency, with Henry Clay.