William R. King

William R. King

William Rufus DeVane King (born April 7, 1786 in Sampson County , North Carolina , † April 18, 1853 in Dallas County , Alabama ) was an American politician and the 13th Vice President of the United States for 45 days until his death in 1853 United States under President Franklin Pierce . He was also a member of both chambers of the US Congress .

Life

King graduated in law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1803 successfully and was admitted to the bar in 1806. From 1807 to 1809 he was a member of the House of Representatives of North Carolina , beginning in 1811 he was elected to the House of Representatives three times as a member of the Democratic Republican Party of the United States , until he gave up his mandate in the fall of 1816 to take his home in Europe as a diplomat to represent. King served first in Naples , the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and later in the Russian capital Saint Petersburg as legation secretary .

In 1818 he returned to the United States, settled in the newly constituting state of Alabama, where he was elected to the constituent assembly of the territory and, after joining the Union as a state in 1819, was the first Alabama senator in Congress . After the break-up of the Democratic Republican Party in the mid-1820s, he became a supporter of Andrew Jackson ; as such, he was re-elected several times until King returned to the diplomatic service in 1844 to represent his country in France as envoy . Here he succeeded Lewis Cass .

On his return he was again Senator from Alabama in 1848, now as a member of the Democrats . He became chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee until he gave up his mandate at the end of 1852 for health reasons. Previously, he was still at the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore as running mate of Franklin Pierce for the presidential election in 1852 , which was successful for the Democrats.

Therefore, at the time of his resignation, he was already elected but not yet inaugurated Vice President of the United States. King went to Cuba for a cure for the winter of 1852/53 ; his poor health prevented in the spring of 1853, even taking part in the solemn inauguration of the President on March 4 in Washington . Since it was clear that King would not return to Washington himself, he was introduced to his own office as Vice President in Havana , Cuba. The Congress passed a special law specifically for this.

William R. King's tomb

In April 1853, King returned to die at his King's Bend plantation in Dallas County. He died on April 18 after 45 days in office without having performed any official act. The office of vice-president remained vacant until the end of Pierce's term of office in March 1857, since before the 25th amendment to the constitution of 1967 this office could only be filled by popular elections every four years.

homosexuality

Some historians believe that King had a long-term homosexual relationship with later President James Buchanan . Both were single and lived together in a Washington apartment for 16 years. The king, who appears dandy to others , was dubbed "Miss Nancy" or "Aunt Fancy" by President Andrew Jackson and other congressmen, which should allude to his suspected homosexuality.

literature

• Thomas J. Balcerski: Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King. Oxford University Press, New York 2019, ISBN 978-0-19-091459-2 .
• Jules Witcover: The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power. Smithsonian Books, Washington, D. C. 2014, ISBN 978-1-5883-4471-7 , pp. 122-128 (= 13. William R. King of Alabama ).
• Daniel Fate Brooks: The Faces of William Rufus King ; in Alabama Heritage Issue 69, pp. 14ff .; 2003

Web links

Commons : William R. King  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Wikiquote: William R. King  - Quotes

• William R. King in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• William R. King in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)

• William R. King in the database of Find a Grave (English)

swell

1. ↑ James W. Loewen; Read Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong ; 1999, ISBN 1-56584-344-4 , p. 367.
   Robert W. Merry: A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent. Simon and Schuster, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-7432-9743-1 , p. 135 .