In 1847, a series of articles entitled "The Orgies of King" appeared in an Athens newspaper purporting to describe shameful ceremonies that had been enacted at the missionary's house.
[citation needed] In 1851, he was appointed U. S. consular agent in Athens, and, on March 23, 1851, some Greeks, who had come to one of his services at his house for the purpose of making a disturbance, were dispersed only by his display of the American flag.
He had been accused of "reviling the God of the universe and the Greek religion," though he had done no more than preach the ordinary Calvinistic doctrines, and though Greece enjoyed nominal religious freedom.
The diplomatic correspondence, which fills 200 printed pages of executive documents, resulted in the issue of an order by the king of Greece in 1854, freeing him from the penalty that had been imposed.
Albert Haven Slocomb, well known for his letter to John Hay questioning the American citizenship of Ion Hanford Perdicaris, traveled to Athens and stayed in King's household between November 1861 and May 1862.
He published a "Farewell Letter" in Arabic to his friends in Syria (1825), which was translated into various European languages, put on the Index Expurgatorius at Rome, and produced a great effect in the Eastern Churches.