View source for William R. King

{{Short description|Vice President of the United States in 1853}}
{{Other people|William King}}
{{distinguish|Rufus King}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = William R. King
| image               = William Rufus DeVane King 1839 portrait (cropped).jpg
| caption             = 1839 portrait
| office              = 13th [[Vice President of the United States]]
| president           = [[Franklin Pierce]]
| term_start          = March 4, 1853{{efn|King was inaugurated—near [[Matanzas, Cuba|Matanzas]], in the [[Kingdom of Spain|Spanish]] colony of [[Captaincy General of Cuba|Cuba]]—twenty days after his term began (March 4) due to poor health. He was the first and only vice president of the United States to be sworn in on foreign soil.}}
| term_end            = April 18, 1853
| predecessor         = [[Millard Fillmore]]
| successor           = [[John C. Breckinridge]]
| jr/sr2              = United States Senator
| state2              = [[Alabama]]
| term_start2         = July 1, 1848
| term_end2           = December 20, 1852
| predecessor2        = [[Arthur P. Bagby]]
| successor2          = [[Benjamin Fitzpatrick]]
| term_start3         = December 14, 1819
| term_end3           = April 15, 1844
| predecessor3        = Seat established
| successor3          = [[Dixon Hall Lewis]]
| office4             = [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate]]
| term_start4         = May 6, 1850
| term_end4           = December 20, 1852
| predecessor4        = [[David Rice Atchison]]
| successor4          = David Rice Atchison
| term_start5         = July 1, 1836
| term_end5           = March 4, 1841
| predecessor5        = [[John Tyler]]
| successor5          = [[Samuel L. Southard]]
| order6              = [[List of United States ambassadors to France|United States Minister to France]]
| term_start6         = April 9, 1844
| term_end6           = September 15, 1846
| president6          = [[John Tyler]]<br>[[James K. Polk]]
| predecessor6        = [[Lewis Cass]]
| successor6          = [[Richard Rush]]
| state7              = [[North Carolina]]
| district7           = {{ushr|NC|5|5th}}
| term_start7         = March 4, 1811
| term_end7           = November 4, 1816
| predecessor7        = [[Thomas Kenan]]
| successor7          = [[Charles Hooks]]
| office8             = Member of the <br>[[North Carolina House of Representatives|North Carolina House of Commons]]
| term_start8         = 1807
| term_end8           = 1809
| birth_name          = William Rufus DeVane King
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1786|4|7}}
| birth_place         = [[Sampson County, North Carolina]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1853|4|18|1786|4|7}}
| death_place         = [[Selma, Alabama]], U.S.
| party               = [[Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic-Republican]] (before 1828)<br>[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] (1828–1853)
| education           = [[University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
| restingplace        = [[Old Live Oak Cemetery]]
| signature           = William R King Signature.svg
| signature_alt       = Cursive signature in ink
}}

'''William Rufus DeVane King''' (April 7, 1786 – April 18, 1853) was an American politician and diplomat. He was the 13th [[vice president of the United States]] from March&nbsp;4 until his death in April 1853. Earlier he had served as a [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. representative]] from [[North Carolina]] and a [[United States Senate|senator]] from [[Alabama]]. He also served as [[United States Ambassador to France|minister to France]] under President [[James K. Polk]].

A [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]], he was a [[Perpetual Union|Unionist]] and his contemporaries considered him to be a moderate on the issues of sectionalism, slavery, and westward expansion, which contributed to the [[American Civil War]]. He helped draft the [[Compromise of 1850]].<ref name="alher">{{cite journal |year=2003 |author=Daniel Fate Brooks |title=The Faces of William R. King |journal=Alabama Heritage |publisher=University of Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama Department of Archives and History |volume=69 |issue=Summer |pages=14–23 |url=http://www.havana-mobile.com/AH_69_William_Rufus_King.pdf |access-date=2013-05-03 |archive-date=2012-03-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321051710/http://www.havana-mobile.com/AH_69_William_Rufus_King.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> He is the only United States vice president to take the oath of office on foreign soil; he was inaugurated in [[Captaincy General of Cuba|Cuba]], due to his poor health. He died of [[tuberculosis]] 45&nbsp;days later, becoming the third vice president to die in office. Only [[John Tyler]] and [[Andrew Johnson]], both of whom succeeded to the presidency, have had [[List of vice presidents of the United States by time in office|shorter tenures]]. King was the only U.S. vice president from Alabama.

== Early life ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2022}}
King was born in [[Sampson County, North Carolina]], to William King and Margaret DeVane. His family was large, wealthy, and well-connected. He graduated from the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]] in 1803, where he was also a member of the [[Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies|Philanthropic Society]]. [[William Alexander Graham]], whom King would later oppose in the election of 1852, attended the university at the same time (Graham was a member of the rival Dialectic Society). Admitted to the bar in 1806 after [[Reading law|reading the law]] with Judge William Duffy of [[Fayetteville, North Carolina]], he began practice in [[Clinton, North Carolina|Clinton]]. King was an ardent Freemason and was a member of Fayetteville's Phoenix Lodge No. 8.

==Political career==
[[File:William Rufus King..jpg|thumb|upright|left|Portrait of King, {{circa}} 1840]]
King entered politics and was elected as a member of the [[North Carolina House of Commons]], where he served from 1807 to 1809, and he became city solicitor of [[Wilmington, North Carolina]], in 1810. He was elected to the Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth [[United States Congress|Congresses]], serving from March 4, 1811, until November 4, 1816, when he resigned to become Secretary of the [[Legation]] for [[William Pinkney]] during Pinkney's appointment as [[United States Ambassador to Russia|Minister to Russia]] and to a special diplomatic mission in [[Naples]]. King was only 24 years old when he became a congressman for the first time. He did not reach the constitutional age of 25 for service in the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] until after the term began, but the Twelfth Congress did not convene until November 4, 1811, and King was not sworn in until then.

When he returned to the United States in 1818, King joined the westward migration of the cotton culture to the Deep South, purchasing property at what would later be known as "King's Bend" between present-day [[Selma, Alabama|Selma]] and [[Cahaba, Alabama|Cahaba]] on the [[Alabama River]] in [[Dallas County, Alabama|Dallas County]] of the new [[Alabama Territory]], which had been recently separated from [[Mississippi]]. He developed a large cotton [[plantations in the American South|plantation]] based on slave labor, calling the property "Chestnut Hill". King and his relatives formed one of the state's largest [[slavery|slaveholding]] families, collectively owning as many as 500 people.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

William Rufus King was a delegate to the convention that organized the [[History of Alabama|Alabama state government]]. Upon the admission of Alabama as the [[State of Alabama|twenty-second state]] in 1819, he was elected by the [[Alabama State Legislature|State Legislature]] as a [[United States Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic-Republican]] to the [[United States Senate]].

King was a follower of [[Andrew Jackson]], and was re-elected to the Senate as a [[Jacksonian democracy|Jacksonian]] in 1822, 1828, 1834, and 1841, serving from December 14, 1819, until his resignation on April 15, 1844. During this time, in March–April 1824, William R. King was honored with a single vote at the [[Democratic-Republican Party]] caucus to be the party's candidate for the office of vice president of the United States in the upcoming [[1824 United States presidential election|1824 presidential election]]. Later, he served as [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate]] during the [[Twenty-fourth United States Congress|24th]] through [[Twenty-seventh United States Congress|27th]] Congresses. King was Chairman of the Senate's [[U.S. Senate Committee on Public Lands|Committee on Public Lands]] and the [[U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce|Committee on Commerce]].

He was appointed [[United States Ambassador to France|Minister to France]] and served from 1844 to 1846. After his return, King resumed serving in the Senate and was appointed and subsequently elected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of [[Arthur P. Bagby]]. He held his seat from July 1, 1848, until his resignation on December 20, 1852, because of ill health and his having been elected vice president of the United States.

During the conflicts leading up to the [[Compromise of 1850]], King supported the Senate's [[gag rule]] against debate on antislavery petitions and opposed proposals to abolish slavery in the [[District of Columbia]], which Congress administered.<ref name="senate.gov">{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/about/officers-staff/vice-president/VP_William_R_King.htm|title=U.S. Senate: William Rufus King, 13th Vice President (1853)|website=www.senate.gov|access-date=2020-06-23|archive-date=2020-06-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618172025/https://www.senate.gov/about/officers-staff/vice-president/VP_William_R_King.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> King supported a pro-slavery position, arguing that the [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]] protected the institution of slavery in both the Southern states and the [[Territories of the United States|federal territories]]. He opposed both the [[abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]]' efforts to abolish slavery in the territories as well as the [[Fire-Eaters]]' calls for Southern [[secession]].<ref name="senate.gov"/>

On July 11, 1850, two days after the death of President [[Zachary Taylor]], King was appointed Senate [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate|President pro tempore]]. Because [[Millard Fillmore]] ascended to the presidency, the vice presidency was vacant, making King first in the [[United States presidential line of succession|line of succession]] under the law then in effect. He also served as Chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations]] and the Committee on Pensions.

== Relationship with James Buchanan ==
{{See also|List of federal political sex scandals in the United States|Sodomy laws in the United States}}
[[File:JamesBuchanan crop.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[James Buchanan]], 15th [[president of the United States]] (served 1857–1861). He shared a [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] boardinghouse with his friend and colleague, William R. King.]]

The claim for King's [[homosexuality]] has been put forward by biographer Jean Baker.<ref>Jean H. Baker, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wQeVkzfTJcEC&q=communion James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857–1861], 2004, page 26</ref> It has been supported (to an extent) by Shelley Ross, [[James W. Loewen]], and [[Robert P. Watson]]. It focuses essentially on his close and intimate relationship with President [[James Buchanan]]. The two men lived together for 13 years, from 1840 until King's death in 1853. Buchanan referred to the relationship as a "communion",<ref name="ReferenceB">Robert Watson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=A6LRVg0kn28C ''Affairs of State: The untold story of presidential love sex and scandal, 1789-1900''], Plymouth, 2012</ref> and the two often attended official functions together. Contemporaries also noted and commented on the unusual closeness. [[Andrew Jackson]] mockingly called them "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy" (the former being a 19th-century euphemism for an effeminate man<ref>''The Wordsworth Book of Euphemisms'' by Judith S. Neaman and Carole G. Silver (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., Hertfordshire)</ref>), while Representative [[Aaron V. Brown]] referred to King as Buchanan's "better half".<ref>Jean H. Baker, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wQeVkzfTJcEC James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857–1861], 2004, page 75</ref>

However, historian Lewis Saum has pointed out, "Customs and expressions were different in the mid-1800s than they are today... "Miss Nancy" was "a fairly common designation for people who wore clean clothes and had good manners". He also noted that Aaron Brown was a political rival of King.<ref>Lewis Suam, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, University of Washington, 2001.</ref>

Loewen has described Buchanan and King as "Siamese twins". Sol Barzman, a biographer of vice presidents, wrote that King's "fastidious habits and conspicuous intimacy with the bachelor Buchanan gave rise to some cruel jibes." Buchanan adopted King's mannerisms and romanticized southern culture. Both had strong political ambitions, and in 1844, they planned to run as president and vice president.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> They spent some time apart while King was on overseas missions in France, and their letters remain cryptic and avoid revealing any personal feelings at all. In May 1844, Buchanan wrote to Cornelia Roosevelt: <blockquote>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 [I] 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.</blockquote> After King died in 1853, Buchanan described him as "among the best, the purest, and most consistent public men I have known."<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Baker concluded that while some of their correspondence was destroyed by family members, the length and intimacy of the surviving letters illustrate "the affection of a special friendship" between King and Buchanan, with no way to know for certain whether it was a romantic relationship.<ref>[[Jean H. Baker]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=KoTpWjUsP1sC&pg=PA26 James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857–1861], 2004, pp. 25-26.</ref>

== Vice presidency and death (1853) ==
The [[1852 Democratic National Convention]] was held at the [[Maryland Institute College of Art|Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts]] Hall in [[Baltimore]]. [[Franklin Pierce]] was nominated for president, and King was nominated for vice president.

{{anchor|Death}}
Pierce and King defeated the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] candidates, [[Winfield Scott]] and William Alexander Graham. Because King was ill with tuberculosis and had traveled to [[Cuba]] in an effort to regain his health, he was not able to be in Washington to take his oath of office on March 4, 1853. By a special Act of [[United States Congress|Congress]] passed on March 2,<ref>32nd Congress, Sess. 2, Chapter 93, [https://govtrackus.s3.amazonaws.com/legislink/pdf/stat/10/STATUTE-10-Pg180.pdf 10 Stat. 180]</ref> he was allowed to take the oath outside the United States, and was sworn in on March 24, 1853, near [[Matanzas, Cuba]], by the U.S. consul to Cuba, [[William L. Sharkey]].<ref name="senate.gov"/><ref name="harpers">{{cite book|title=Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History|page=195|editor=Benson Lossing|publisher=[[Harper & Brothers]]|year=1907|access-date=July 15, 2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1hg-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA195}}</ref><ref name="aoc-vp">{{cite web|title=Vice Presidential Inaugurations|publisher=Architect of the Capitol|access-date=July 15, 2013|url=http://www.aoc.gov/nations-stage/vice-president-inaugurations|archive-date=May 22, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522024507/http://www.aoc.gov/nations-stage/vice-president-inaugurations|url-status=live}}</ref> King is the first and, to date, only vice president or president of the United States to take the oath of office on foreign soil.

Shortly afterward, King made the journey to return to Chestnut Hill. He died within two days of his arrival on April 18, 1853, aged 67, of tuberculosis. He was interred in a vault on the plantation and later reburied in [[Selma, Alabama|Selma]]'s [[Old Live Oak Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite web| last=Bennett| first=Jim| title=Alabamians With National Aspirations| work=JCHA Newsletter| date=April 2014| url=http://www.jeffcohistory.com/newsletter_Apr_14_pg3.html| publisher=Jefferson County Historical Association| location=Birmingham, Alabama| access-date=June 1, 2018| archive-date=June 2, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602192509/http://www.jeffcohistory.com/newsletter_Apr_14_pg3.html| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 25688-25689). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref> King never carried out any duties of the office.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Guide to the United States Government|editor1=Patrick, John J. |editor2=Pious, Richard M. |editor3=Ritchie, Donald A.|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordguidetouni00john/page/363 363]|isbn=978-0-19-514273-0 |access-date=June 24, 2013|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordguidetouni00john|url-access=registration|quote=king, william.}}</ref>

Following King's death, the office of vice president was vacant until [[John C. Breckinridge]] was inaugurated with President [[James Buchanan]] in March 1857.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="150px">
File:Chestnut Hill King's Bend Alabama.jpg|Engraving of Chestnut Hill, published following King's death in the ''Illustrated News'', New York, April 30, 1853. The house was destroyed by fire during the 1920s.
File:Crypt of William R. King.jpg|Crypt of William R. King in Live Oak Cemetery, Selma, Alabama.
</gallery>

== Legacy and honors==
[[File:William R. D. King Vice President.jpg|thumb|right|[[Frontispiece (book)|Frontispiece]] of book of memorial addresses published after King's death]]
* In 1852, the [[Oregon Territorial Legislature]] named [[King County, Washington|King County]] for him. King County became part of [[Washington Territory]] when it was created the following year, and then part of the State of [[Washington (state)|Washington]] in 1889.  In 1985, the King County government amended its designation and its logo to honor instead the late national  [[Civil Rights Movement]] leader [[Martin Luther King Jr.]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Motion No. 6461|url=https://www.kingcounty.gov/elected/executive/equity-social-justice/mlk/other-resources/motion-6461.aspx|publisher=King County, WA|access-date=29 May 2018|archive-date=30 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180530035325/https://www.kingcounty.gov/elected/executive/equity-social-justice/mlk/other-resources/motion-6461.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> The change was made official April 19, 2005, when Governor [[Christine Gregoire]] signed into law Senate Bill 5332, effective July 24, 2005.<ref>{{cite web|title=State law changed to rename King County|url=http://your.kingcounty.gov/exec/news/2005/04/19mlkjrCounty.htm|publisher=King County, Washington|access-date=11 December 2013|archive-date=18 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140418072934/http://your.kingcounty.gov/exec/news/2005/04/19mlkjrCounty.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonvotes.org/2005-SB-5332|title=2005 Senate Bill 5332: Honoring the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr|website=WashingtonVotes.org|language=en|access-date=2018-09-25|archive-date=2021-07-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726074022/https://www.washingtonvotes.org/2005-SB-5332|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://apps2.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5332&Year=2005&BillNumber=5332&Year=2005|title=Bill Information, SB 5332 - 2005-06 - Honoring the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.|website=Washington State Legislature|access-date=2018-09-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180926020139/http://apps2.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5332&Year=2005&BillNumber=5332&Year=2005|archive-date=2018-09-26|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2005-06/Pdf/Bills/Session%20Laws/Senate/5332.SL.pdf#page=1 ENGROSSED SENATE BILL 5332] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302021802/http://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2005-06/Pdf/Bills/Session%20Laws/Senate/5332.SL.pdf#page=1 |date=2021-03-02 }}, 59th [[Washington State Legislature|Legislature of the State of Washington]], 2005 Regular Session.</ref>
* The King Residence Quadrangle at the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]], his alma mater, is named for him.
** An 1830 portrait of King is held at New East Hall in the Philanthropic Chambers of the [[Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies]], a debating society which he had joined during college.
* King was a co-founder of [[Selma, Alabama]], which he named after the [[Ossian]]ic poem "The Songs of Selma".<ref name="alher"/> After his death, city officials and some of King's family wanted to move his body to Selma. Other family members wanted his body to remain at Chestnut Hill. In 1882, the Selma City Council appointed a committee to select a new plot for King's body. His remains were then reinterred  in the city's [[Live Oak Cemetery]] under a white marble mausoleum erected by the city.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jaffee|first=Al|title=The Ghoulish Book of Weird Records|publisher=Signet|year=1979|pages=136–140|isbn=0-451-08614-7}}</ref>

==Notes==
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==References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
{{CongBio|K000217}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070810123804/http://www.alabamamoments.state.al.us/sec09.html Who is William Rufus King?]
* ''[https://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]''

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{{s-par|us-sen}}
{{s-new|seat}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of United States senators from Alabama|U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Alabama]]|years=1819–1844|alongside=[[John Williams Walker]], [[William Kelly (senator)|William Kelly]], [[Henry H. Chambers]], [[Israel Pickens]], [[John McKinley]], [[Gabriel Moore]], [[Clement Comer Clay|Clement Clay]], [[Arthur P. Bagby]]}}
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{{s-aft|after=[[John C. Breckinridge]]}}
{{S-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:King, William R.}}
[[Category:William R. King| ]]
[[Category:1786 births]]
[[Category:1853 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century vice presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:19th-century American diplomats]]
[[Category:Alabama Democratic-Republicans]]
[[Category:Alabama Democrats]]
[[Category:People from Sampson County, North Carolina]]
[[Category:American people of English descent]]
[[Category:James Buchanan]]
[[Category:Vice presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Democratic Party vice presidents of the United States]]
[[Category:Pierce administration cabinet members]]
[[Category:Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina]]
[[Category:Democratic-Republican Party United States senators from Alabama]]
[[Category:Jacksonian United States senators from Alabama]]
[[Category:Democratic Party United States senators from Alabama]]
[[Category:Presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate]]
[[Category:Chairmen of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United States to France]]
[[Category:1852 United States vice-presidential candidates]]
[[Category:Democratic Party (United States) vice presidential nominees]]
[[Category:Democratic Party members of the North Carolina House of Representatives]]
[[Category:People from Clinton, North Carolina]]
[[Category:People from Dallas County, Alabama]]
[[Category:American Freemasons]]
[[Category:19th-century American planters]]
[[Category:North Carolina Democratic-Republicans]]
[[Category:North Carolina lawyers]]
[[Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Alabama]]
[[Category:19th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:United States senators who owned slaves]]
[[Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves]]
[[Category:Historical figures with ambiguous or disputed sexuality]]
[[Category:19th-century United States senators]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the North Carolina General Assembly]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives]]