William R. King

Infobox_Vice_President
name=William R. King

---

caption=Daguerreotype of Vice-President King taken by Matthew Brady
order=13th Vice President of the United States
term_start=March 4, 1853
term_end=April 18, 1853
predecessor=Millard Fillmore
successor=John C. Breckinridge
order2=44th President pro tempore of the United States Senate
term_start2= May 6, 1850
term_end2= December 20, 1852
president2= Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
predecessor2= David Rice Atchison
successor2=David Rice Atchison
order3=39th President pro tempore of the United States Senate
term_start3=July 1, 1836
term_end3=March 4, 1841
president3=Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
predecessor3=John Tyler
successor3=Samuel L. Southard
order4= United States Senator
from Alabama
term4= December 14, 1819 - April 15, 1844
predecessor4= None
successor4= Dixon Hall Lewis
term5 = July 1, 1848 - December 20, 1852
predecessor5 = Arthur P. Bagby
successor5 = Benjamin Fitzpatrick
order6 = Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina's 5th district
term6 = March 4, 1811 - November 4, 1816
predecessor6 = Thomas Kenan
successor6 = Charles Hooks
birth_date=birth date|1786|4|7|mf=y
birth_place=Sampson County, North Carolina
death_date=death date and age|mf=yes|1853|04|18|1786|04|07
death_place=Selma, Dallas County, Alabama
alma_mater=University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
spouse=
party=Democratic
president=Franklin Pierce

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. King died of tuberculosis after 45 days in office. With the exception of John Tyler and Andrew Johnson—both of whom succeeded to the Presidency—he remains the shortest-serving Vice President.

Early life

King was born in Sampson County, North Carolina to William King and Margaret deVane, 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.

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. [ [http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_William_R_King.htm United States Senate: William Rufus King, 13th Vice President (1853)] ] 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. [ [http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_William_R_King.htm United States Senate: William Rufus King, 13th Vice President (1853)] ]

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.

Vice Presidency

King 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 to 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 afterward, King returned to his plantation, King's Bend, across the river from Cahaba, Alabama, and died within two days. He was interred in a vault on the plantation. 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.

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.

Personal relationships

For fifteen years in Washington, D.C., prior to his presidency, James Buchanan lived with his close friend King. [Klein, Philip S.; "President James Buchanan: A Biography"; Newtown, CT: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962; pg. 111] 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."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] 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. 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 Buchanan was "America's first homosexual president," there is little evidence that he and King had a sexual relationship.

Legacy

King's tomb is located at the Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, Alabama and is accompanied by a historical marker.

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. Though Washington did not become a state until 1889, Pierce and King counties still exist. King County has since changed its official designation and its logo to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.

References

External links

*
* [http://www.alabamaheritage.com/Issues/issue69.htm The Faces of William R. King]
* [http://www.alabamamoments.state.al.us/sec09.html Who is William Rufus King?]
* [http://www.tompaine.com/Archive/scontent/2458.html The Other Buchanan Controversy]
* [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=William%20Rufus%20King%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts "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 "]