Austin Augustus King

Austin Augustus King ( born September 21, 1802 Sullivan County, Tennessee, † April 22, 1870 in St. Louis, Missouri ) was a U.S. Representative (Democratic Party) and from 1848 to 1853, the tenth Governor of Missouri. This state he represented also in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Early years and political rise

Austin King attended the public schools of his home in Tennessee. After a subsequent law degree, he was admitted in 1822 as a lawyer. He then worked in this profession first in Jackson and then after a 1830 made ​​moving to Columbia ( Missouri). During the Black Hawk War, King was a colonel in the army.

In the years 1834 and 1836 King sat as an MP in the House of Representatives from Missouri. Between 1837 and 1848 he was a judge in the Fifth Judicial District of the State of. On August 7, 1848 he was elected as a candidate of his party as the new governor of Missouri, where he prevailed with 59 percent of the vote against the Whig James S. Rollins.

Governor and congressman

King took up his new post on 20 November 1848. During his tenure, eight more counties were created in Missouri. At that time, the first overland stagecoach line was put into operation. A mental hospital was opened. Also at this time, the Pacific Railroad Railway Company began planning for railroad technical development of the state.

1852 failed a first attempt to be elected to Congress. In 1860, King was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Baltimore and Charleston. Already in 1855 he was a delegate to a conference of the slaveholders, which was held in Lexington. This conference stood up for slavery in the Kansas Territory, which fueled the situation there and contributed to the tension in the area.

Between 1862 and 1863, King was a judge again and 1863-1865 he was a deputy in the U.S. House of Representatives. After his re-election had failed, he retired from politics. He died in 1870 in St. Louis. Austin King has been married twice.

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