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William R. King

William Rufus DeVane King (April 7, 1786 – April 18, 1853) was an American politician and diplomat. He was the 13th vice president of the United States from March 4 until his death in April 1853. Earlier he had served as a U.S. representative from North Carolina and a senator from Alabama. He also served as minister to France under President James K. Polk.

For other people named William King, see William King (disambiguation).

William R. King

Seat established

David Rice Atchison

William Rufus DeVane King

(1786-04-07)April 7, 1786
Sampson County, North Carolina, U.S.

April 18, 1853(1853-04-18) (aged 67)
Selma, Alabama, U.S.

Democratic-Republican (before 1828)
Democratic (1828–1853)

Cursive signature in ink

A Democrat, he was a Unionist and his contemporaries considered him to be a moderate on the issues of sectionalism, slavery, and westward expansion, which contributed to the American Civil War. He helped draft the Compromise of 1850.[1] He is the only United States vice president to take the oath of office on foreign soil; he was inaugurated in Cuba, due to his poor health. He died of tuberculosis 45 days later, becoming the third vice president to die in office. Only John Tyler and Andrew Johnson, both of whom succeeded to the presidency, have had shorter tenures. King was the only U.S. vice president from Alabama.

Engraving of Chestnut Hill, published following King's death in the Illustrated News, New York, April 30, 1853. The house was destroyed by fire during the 1920s.

Engraving of Chestnut Hill, published following King's death in the Illustrated News, New York, April 30, 1853. The house was destroyed by fire during the 1920s.

Crypt of William R. King in Live Oak Cemetery, Selma, Alabama.

Crypt of William R. King in Live Oak Cemetery, Selma, Alabama.

The 1852 Democratic National Convention was held at the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts Hall in Baltimore. Franklin Pierce was nominated for president, and King was nominated for vice president.


Pierce and King defeated the Whig candidates, Winfield Scott and William Alexander Graham. Because King was ill with tuberculosis and had traveled to Cuba in an effort to regain his health, he was not able to be in Washington to take his oath of office on March 4, 1853. By a special Act of Congress passed on March 2,[9] he was allowed to take the oath outside the United States, and was sworn in on March 24, 1853, near Matanzas, Cuba, by the U.S. consul to Cuba, William L. Sharkey.[2][10][11] King is the first and, to date, only vice president or president of the United States to take the oath of office on foreign soil.


Shortly afterward, King made the journey to return to Chestnut Hill. He died within two days of his arrival on April 18, 1853, aged 67, of tuberculosis. He was interred in a vault on the plantation and later reburied in Selma's Old Live Oak Cemetery.[12][13] King never carried out any duties of the office.[14]


Following King's death, the office of vice president was vacant until John C. Breckinridge was inaugurated with President James Buchanan in March 1857.

In 1852, the named King County for him. King County became part of Washington Territory when it was created the following year, and then part of the State of Washington in 1889. In 1985, the King County government amended its designation and its logo to honor instead the late national Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968).[15] The change was made official April 19, 2005, when Governor Christine Gregoire signed into law Senate Bill 5332, effective July 24, 2005.[16][17][18][19]

Oregon Territorial Legislature

Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

King was a co-founder of , which he named after the Ossianic poem "The Songs of Selma".[1] After his death, city officials and some of King's family wanted to move his body to Selma. Other family members wanted his body to remain at Chestnut Hill. In 1882, the Selma City Council appointed a committee to select a new plot for King's body. His remains were then reinterred in the city's Live Oak Cemetery under a white marble mausoleum erected by the city.[20]

Selma, Alabama

United States Congress. . Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

"William R. King (id: K000217)"

Who is William Rufus King?

Obituary addresses on the occasion of the death of the Hon. William R. King, of Alabama, vice-president of the United States : delivered in the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, eighth of December, 1853