William King (governor)

William King ( born February 9, 1768 in Scarborough, Cumberland County, Massachusetts, † June 17, 1852 in Bath, Maine ) was an American politician and from 1820 to 1821 the first governor of the state of Maine.

Early years

Born in present-day Maine William King attended the local schools of his home. He then worked in a sawmill, which he bought up later. In the further course, King was also involved in the real estate business and in the shipbuilding industry. King was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson. In 1795 he was elected to the House of Representatives from Massachusetts. Between 1803 and 1806 he was again in this body and from 1807 to 1811 he was State Senator. At the outbreak of the War of 1812, King was appointed as a major general of the militia to defend the Maine district. The present state of Maine was then part of Massachusetts. In Maine, to King deposed in 1813 for the separation of the territory of a Massachusetts. After he was in 1816 again elected to the Senate from Massachusetts, he was able to reach in 1818 the Parliament approves the separation of Maine. Meanwhile, the matter was, however, become the subject of nationwide debate. It was less about Maine as to the question of admission of new states and the related question of slavery. U.S. Senator Henry Clay was able to solve with the Missouri Compromise called this problem in 1820. Then Missouri as a state in which slavery was allowed and Maine was admitted as a free state in the Union.

Governor of Maine

Due to his efforts to split off from Massachusetts King was very popular in Maine and he was elected the first governor of the new U.S. state. As Governor, he had to build a new administration. He also passed new tax laws. William King took up his new post on 15 March 1820. Already on 28 May 1821 he came back to it after he had been appointed by President James Monroe a special envoy in Spain.

Another Journey

In 1824, King was able to negotiate an agreement with the Spanish Government, by which the United States were kept out of the turmoil of the Mexican independence. Between 1831 and 1834, King was head of the customs authority in Bath, Maine. In 1835 he applied unsuccessfully for a return to the post of governor of Maine. After the transformation of the American party system in those years he had been the Whig Party connected. After he retired from public life. William King died in 1852. He was married to Ann Frazier, with whom he had a child. His brother Rufus King was also a well-known politician.

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