Rufus King

Rufus King ( born March 24, 1755 in Scarborough, Massachusetts, Maine today, † April 29, 1827 in Jamaica, Queens, today New York City ) was an American politician and diplomat. The lawyer is one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States. As representatives of the Federalist Party King ran unsuccessfully in the elections in 1804 and 1808 for the office of Vice - President and in 1816 for the office of President of the United States.

Biography

Early years

King was born the son of Sabilla Blagden and Richard King. His father was a farmer and merchant who had brought it to a modest prosperity. As it with the introduction of the Stamp Act came by the colonial authorities in 1765 riots, the family estate was looted. Next year the barn was burnt down by looters. Kings father then joined the Loyalists. However, he died in 1775 shortly before the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. But King and his brothers were in the camp of the insurgents.

Training

King attended Dummer Academy and went on to study at Harvard. After completing his studies he began in 1777 trained as a lawyer with Theophilus Parsons. The following year, he interrupted his studies and joined the militia to fight in the American War of Independence against the British. As a Major, he fought in the Battle of Rhode Iceland. He then took the broken training again and was admitted to the bar in 1780. As such, he practiced in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Political career

King was first in 1783 and then in 1784 and in 1785 elected to the State Assembly of Massachusetts. From 1784 to 1787 he participated as a delegate for Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, where he was at that time the youngest of the delegates. He also took part in 1787 at the Philadelphia Convention. There he worked closely in the development of the final text of the new Constitution of the United States along with Alexander Hamilton. King was one of the politicians who signed the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787. Back home in Massachusetts, he worked with success for the ratification of the Constitution. His candidacy for the post of a Senator in the Senate of the United States failed.

On pushing Hamilton King then moved to New York City, where he was elected in 1789 in the New York State Assembly. The new constitution entered into force at first you could in New York State do not agree on who should be sent as an additional senator for the state of New York in the Senate of the United States next to Philip Schuyler. Alexander Hamilton suggested before King as a candidate. Background were political intrigues, which should be prevented from James Duane, a member of the influential Livingston family, was elected to the office. Governor George Clinton wanted to provoke a rift between the Livingston and Schuyler family. Hamilton, the son Schuyler, King supported discreet and this was chosen in 1789 as senator for the state of New York. 1795 succeeded King 's re-election, but he joined in 1796 from his post because he had been appointed the United States Ambassador in Britain.

Diplomat and a candidate in presidential elections

King was from 1796 to 1803 and later from 1825 to 1826 U.S. envoy in London. During his first term, he played an important diplomatic role, as he was able to solve various issues in dispute between the two countries, which had become negotiable because of the Jay Treaty. Although King was a Federalist, he remained under President Thomas Jefferson in office and was relieved only at the insistence of the British in 1803. During his time in London King also had contact with the South African freedom fighter, Francisco de Miranda and supported his trip to the United States, on the Miranda seeking support for his failed 1806 expedition to Venezuela.

1804 and 1808 King applied unsuccessfully as a candidate of the Federal party for the office of Vice President of the United States. In 1813 he was re-elected for the state of New York in the Senate of the United States and held that office until 1819. 1816, King ran for the governorship of the State of New York, but was defeated by incumbent Daniel D. Tompkins. That same year, King became the last presidential candidate of the Federalist Party also unsuccessful in the presidential election against James Monroe.

King competed in 1819 and 1820 again for the office of a senator for the state of New York. Although the Federalist Party was at that time already in resolution, but in 1819 due to disputes in the Democratic-Republican Party elected no new Senator and 1820 succeeded King to be re-elected. The warring camp of the Democratic Republicans were both trying to win voters from the former federal warehouse for the upcoming gubernatorial elections and supported therefore concluded King, who remained until 1825 in the Senate.

Family

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

Kings wife Mary Alsop was born 1769 in New York City and died 1819 in Jamaica, Queens. She was the only daughter of John Alsop, a wealthy New York merchant, who had participated in the Continental Congress as a delegate of the State of New York. 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 in 1827 and he was on the Grace Church Cemetery in Jamaica, Queens, buried. His King Manor called home that King purchased in 1805 in Queens, is now a public museum.

Known descendants

At Kings descendants include:

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

Swell

  • King Charles R. The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, 4 vol 1893-97
  • Ernst, 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.
Ambassadors of the United States William King (governor) Cyrus King James G. King John A. King List of United States Senators from New York Aaron Burr John Sloss Hobart James Watson (New York) Gouverneur Morris Theodorus Bailey (politician) Obadiah German Nathan Sanford Martin Van Buren Nathaniel P. Tallmadge Daniel S. Dickinson Hamilton Fish Preston King (politician) Edwin D. Morgan Reuben Fenton Francis Kernan Thomas C. Platt Warner Miller Frank Hiscock Edward Murphy, Jr. William M. Calder James M. Mead Irving Ives Charles Goodell James L. Buckley Daniel Patrick Moynihan Hillary Rodham Clinton John Laurance DeWitt Clinton John Smith (New York politician born 1752) William L. Marcy Silas Wright Henry A. Foster John Adams Dix William H. Seward Ira Harris Roscoe Conkling Elbridge G. Lapham David B. Hill Elihu Root James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr. Robert F. Wagner John Foster Dulles Herbert H. Lehman List of signers of the United States Constitution Abraham Baldwin Richard Bassett (politician) Gunning Bedford, Jr. John Blair, Jr. William Blount Jacob Broom Daniel Carroll George Clymer Jonathan Dayton John Dickinson (Pennsylvania and Delaware) William Few Thomas Fitzsimons Benjamin Franklin Nathaniel Gorham William Samuel Johnson John Langdon (politician) William Livingston James Madison James McHenry Thomas Mifflin William Paterson (judge) Charles Pinckney (governor) George Read (U.S. statesman) John Rutledge Roger Sherman George Washington Hugh Williamson James Wilson Integrated Authority File
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