Rufus King (politician)

Rufus King (around 1819)

Rufus King (born March 24, 1755 in Scarborough , Province of Massachusetts Bay , † April 29, 1827 in Jamaica , New York ) was an American lawyer , politician and diplomat . As a signatory to the Constitution , he is one of the Founding Fathers of the United States .

King achieved his success as a representative of the Federalist Party in the 1780s and 1790s, when he worked as a delegate for Massachusetts on the constitution and subsequently convinced his state to adopt it. From 1789 to 1796 he was the first Senator for New York alongside Philip Schuyler . In 1796 he was appointed ambassador to Great Britain by George Washington and in this capacity he enforced the Jay Treaty ; In 1803 he asked Thomas Jefferson for his release.

Thereafter, during the era of the decline of the federalists, King ran hopelessly for the office of vice president in the 1804 and 1808 elections, as well as unsuccessfully as an independent in the 1812 presidential election and, this time nominated, as the historically last federalist presidential candidate in the 1816 election . Between 1813 and 1825 he sat again for New York in the Senate; In 1825 he was reappointed ambassador to Great Britain by John Quincy Adams , but had to resign in 1826 for health reasons.

biography

Early years

King was born to Sabilla Blagden and Richard King. His father was a farmer and merchant who had achieved modest prosperity. When unrest broke out in 1765 with the introduction of the stamp law by the colonial authorities, the family's property was looted. The next year, the barn was set on fire by looters. King's father then joined the Loyalists. However, he died in 1775 shortly before the outbreak of the American War of Independence . King and his brothers were in the rebel camp.

education

King attended Dummer Academy and then studied at Harvard . After completing his studies, he began training as a lawyer with Theophilus Parsons in 1777 . The following year he interrupted his training and joined the militia to fight in the American Revolutionary War against the British. As a major, he fought in the Battle of Rhode Island . He then resumed the interrupted training and was admitted to the bar in 1780. As such, he practiced in Newburyport , Massachusetts.

Political career

King was first elected to the Massachusetts General Court in 1783 and then in 1784 and 1785 . From 1784 to 1787 he was a delegate for Massachusetts at the Confederation Congress, where he was one of the youngest delegates. He also took part in the 1787 Philadelphia Convention . There he worked closely with Alexander Hamilton on the development of the final text of the new United States Constitution . King was one of the politicians who signed the United States Constitution on September 17, 1787. At home in Massachusetts, he successfully campaigned for the narrow ratification of the constitution. However, his candidacy for the post of senator in the United States Senate failed there.

At Hamilton's urging, King then moved to New York City, where he was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1789 . When the new constitution came into force, New York State could not initially agree on who, in addition to Philip Schuyler , should be sent to the Senate of the United States as a further Senator for New York State. Alexander Hamilton proposed King as a candidate. The background was political schemes to prevent James Duane , a member of the influential Livingston family, from being elected to office. Governor George Clinton wanted to provoke a rift between the Livingston and Schuyler families. Hamilton, Schuyler's son-in-law, discreetly supported King, and King was elected Senator for New York State in 1789. King succeeded in re-election in 1795, but resigned as early as 1796 after being appointed ambassador of the United States to Great Britain .

Diplomat and candidate in presidential elections

King was US envoy in London from 1796 to 1803 and again from 1825 to 1826 . During his first term in office, he played an important diplomatic role when he managed to resolve various disputes between the two states that had become negotiable under the Jay Treaty . Although King was a federalist, he remained in office under President Thomas Jefferson and only asked for his replacement in 1803 at the urging of the British. During his time in London, King also had contact with the South American freedom fighter Francisco de Miranda and supported his trip to the United States, where Miranda sought support for his 1806 failed expedition to Venezuela .

In 1804 and 1808, King ran for the office of Vice President of the United States in vain for the Federalist Party. In 1805 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1813 he was re-elected to the United States Senate for New York State and held that office until 1819. In 1816, King ran for the office of Governor of New York State, but was defeated by incumbent Daniel D. Tompkins . In the same year, King was the last presidential candidate of the Federalist Party, also unsuccessfully, in the presidential elections against James Monroe .

King ran again for the office of Senator for New York State in 1819 and 1820. The Federalist Party was already in the process of dissolution, but no new senator was elected in 1819 due to disputes in the Democratic-Republican Party . King then succeeded in being re-elected in 1820. The quarreling camps of the Democratic Republicans both tried to win voters from the former federalist camp for the upcoming gubernatorial elections and therefore unanimously supported King, who remained in the Senate until 1825.

family

King's brother William was the first governor of Maine. His other brother, Cyrus, was a member of the United States House of Representatives for Massachusetts . His son James (1791-1853) was a Congressman for New Jersey . His other son, John Alsop King (1788–1867), was governor of New York State .

King's wife, Mary Alsop, was born in New York City in 1769 and died in Jamaica, Queens in 1819. She was the only daughter of John Alsop , a wealthy New York merchant who had attended the Continental Congress as a New York State delegate. She was also the great niece of John Winthrop , governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony . King married Mary Alsop on March 30, 1786 in New York City.

King died on April 29, 1827 and he was buried in Grace Church Cemetery in Jamaica, Queens. His house called King Manor , which King bought in Queens in 1805, is now a public museum.

Known descendants

King's descendants include:

• David Crosby , musician
• Floyd Crosby , cameraman
• Charles King , General
• John Alsop King , politician
• Rufus King , General
• Rufus King, Jr. , officer
• Jane Wyatt , actress

swell

• King Charles R. The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, 4 vols. 1893-97
• Seriously, Robert. Rufus King: American Federalist . Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1968
• Arbena, Joseph L. “Politics or Principle? Rufus King and the Opposition to Slavery, 1785-1825. " Essex Institute Historical Collections (1965) 101 (1): 56-77. ISSN  0014-0953
• Perkins, Bradford; The First Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1795-1805 1955.

Web links

• Rufus King in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)