William R. King
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| William R. King | |
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| In office March 4, 1853 – April 18, 1853 |
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| President | Franklin Pierce |
| Preceded by | Millard Fillmore |
| Succeeded by | John C. Breckinridge |
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| In office December 14, 1819 - April 15, 1844 July 1, 1848 - December 20, 1852 |
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| Preceded by | None Arthur P. Bagby |
| Succeeded by | Dixon Hall Lewis Benjamin Fitzpatrick |
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| Born | April 7, 1786 Sampson County, North Carolina |
| Died | April 18, 1853 (aged 67) Selma, Dallas County, Alabama |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
William Rufus deVane King (April 7, 1786 – April 18, 1853) was a U.S. Representative from North Carolina, a Senator from Alabama, and the thirteenth Vice President of the United States. Excluding John Tyler and Andrew Johnson — both of whom ascended to the Presidency — he was the shortest-serving person to occupy that office (45 days, see List of U.S. Vice Presidents by time in office).
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[edit] Early life
King was born in Sampson County, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1803. He was admitted to the bar in 1806 and began practice in Clinton, North Carolina. King was a member of the North Carolina House of Commons from 1807 to 1809 and city solicitor of Wilmington, North Carolina in 1810. He was elected to the Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1811 until November 4, 1816, when he resigned. King was Secretary of the Legation at Naples, Italy and later at St. Petersburg, Russia. He returned to the United States in 1818 and located in Cahawba, Alabama, where he became a slaveholder on a large plantation.
[edit] Politics
King was a delegate to the convention which organized the State government. Upon the admission of Alabama as a State in 1819 he was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the United States Senate, and was reelected as a Jacksonian in 1822, 1828, 1834, and 1841, serving from December 14, 1819, until April 15, 1844, when he resigned. He served as President pro tempore of the United States Senate during the 24th through 27th Congresses. King was Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands and the Committee on Commerce.
He was Minister to France from 1844 to 1846. He was appointed and subsequently elected as a Democrat to the Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Arthur P. Bagby and began serving on July 1, 1848. During the conflicts leading up to the Compromise of 1850, King supported the Senate's gag rule against debate on antislavery petitions, and opposed the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.[1] King supported a conservative proslavery position, arguing that the Constitution protected the institution of slavery in both the Southern states and the federal territories, placing King in opposition to both the abolitionists' efforts to abolish slavery in the territories and the Fire-Eaters' calls for Southern secession.[2]
On July 11, 1850, just two days after the death of President Zachary Taylor, King was again appointed President pro tempore of the Senate, which made him first in the line of succession to the U.S. Presidency, because of the Vice Presidential vacancy. King served until resigning on December 20, 1852 due to poor health. He served as President pro tempore of the Senate during the Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses and was Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Committee on Pensions.
[edit] Vice Presidency
He was elected Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket with Franklin Pierce in 1852 and took the oath of office March 24, 1853 in Cuba, where he had gone because of his health. This unusual inauguration took place because it was believed that King, who was terminally ill with tuberculosis, would not live much longer. The privilege of taking the oath on foreign soil was extended by a special act of Congress for his long and distinguished service for the government of the United States. Even though he took the oath twenty days after inauguration day he was still Vice President during those three weeks, but did not hold the power of the office.
Shortly afterwards, Vice President King returned to his plantation, "King's Bend," Alabama, and died within two days. He was interred in a vault on his plantation which was across the river from Cahaba. City officials of Selma and some of King's family wanted to move his body within Selma where they believed the town's co-founder should be interred. Other family members wanted his body to remain at the family plot. In 1882, the Selma City Council appointed a committee to select a new plot for King's body. There are different versions of how his body was taken from "King's Bend", however after twenty-nine years he was reinterred in Live Oak Cemetery, Selma, Dallas County, Alabama.
Following King's death the office of Vice-President remained vacant until 1857 when John C. Breckenridge was inaugurated. In accordance with the Presidential Succession Act of 1792, the President pro tempore of the Senate was next in order of succession to President Pierce from 1853 to 1857.
[edit] Personal relationships
For fifteen years in Washington, D.C., prior to his presidency, James Buchanan lived with his close friend King.[3] Buchanan and King's close relationship prompted Andrew Jackson to refer to King as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy," while Aaron V. Brown spoke of the two as "Buchanan and his wife."[4][5] Further, some of the contemporary press also speculated about Buchanan and King's relationship. Buchanan and King's nieces destroyed their uncles' correspondence, leaving some questions as to what relationship the two men had, but surviving letters illustrate "the affection of a special friendship," and Buchanan wrote of his "communion" with his housemate.[4] Buchanan wrote in 1844, after King left for France, "I am now 'solitary and alone,' having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for man to be alone; and should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection." Such expression, however, was not unusual amongst men at the time. Though the circumstances surrounding Buchanan and King have led authors such as Paul Boller to speculate that he was "America's first homosexual president," there is little evidence that King and Buchanan had a sexual relationship.[4]
[edit] Legacy
In honor of his inauguration as Vice President, the newly formed Washington Territory named King County for him, as well as Pierce County after President Pierce, in hopes of gaining speedy admission to the Union by currying favor with the new administration (Washington did not become a state until 1889). Pierce and King Counties still exist, but on February 24, 1986 the King County Council passed Motion 6461, "setting forth the historical basis for the 'renaming' of King County in honor of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." On April 19, 2005, Washington Governor Christine Gregoire signed Senate Bill 5332 into law, formalizing the prior resolution and officially designating King County's name to be in honor of Martin Luther King. Despite objections that Martin Luther King only visited King County once, it should be noted that William R. King never visited at all. William R. King was called a "gentle slave monger" by John Quincy Adams.[citation needed] This fact was mentioned in the proposal to re-designate King County in 1999 to honor M.L. King, Jr.
[edit] References
- ^ United States Senate: William Rufus King, 13th Vice President (1853)
- ^ United States Senate: William Rufus King, 13th Vice President (1853)
- ^ Klein, Philip S.; President James Buchanan: A Biography; Newtown, CT: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962; pg. 111
- ^ a b c Baker, Jean H.; James Buchanan; Henry Holt and Company; 2004; pages 25-26
- ^ Boller, Paul F.; Not So!, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995; pg 75
[edit] External links
- William R. King at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- William R. King at Find A Grave
- The Faces of William R. King
- Who is William Rufus King?
- The Other Buchanan Controversy
- Obituary addresses on the occasion of the death of the Hon. William R. King, of Alabama, vice-president of the United States : delivered in the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, eighth of December, 1853
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| Class 2: King • Lewis • Fitzpatrick • Clemens • C. Claiborne Clay • Warner • Goldthwaite • Morgan • Bankhead, Sr. • Comer • J. Heflin • Bankhead, Jr. • Swift • Sparkman • H. Heflin • Sessions Class 3: Walker • Kelly • Chambers • Pickens • McKinley • Moore • McKinley • C. Comer Clay • Bagby • King • Fitzpatrick • Spencer • Houston • Pryor • Pugh • Pettus • Johnston • White • Underwood • Black • Graves • Hill • J. Allen • M. Allen • Stewart • Denton • Shelby |
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