Rufus King

Politician and diplomat, born in Scarboro, Maine (then part of Massachusetts), USA. A lawyer, he represented Massachusetts at the Continental Congress (1784–7) and the Constitutional Convention (1787), where he played an influential role in arguing for a strong central government. Having moved to New York City, he became a US senator (Federalist, 1789–96), continuing his eloquent advocacy of Federalist positions. He resigned to serve as ambassador to Great Britain (1796–1803), then returned to run unsuccessfully for the vice-presidency (1804, 1808). He returned to the Senate (Federalist, NY, 1813–25) and was the last Federalist to run for the presidency (1816). In the Senate, he continued his lifelong opposition to the spread of slavery, resisted the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and even supported the emancipation of the slaves. Retiring from the Senate, he went back to Great Britain in 1825 as the US ambassador, but illness forced him to come home (1826), where he soon died.

For the American Civil War general, see Rufus King (Civil War General).

Rufus King (March 24, 1755–April 29, 1827) was an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat. He represented New York in the United States Senate, served as Minister to Britain, and was the Federalist candidate for both Vice President and President of the United States.

Career

Rufus King was born in Scarborough, which was then a part of Massachusetts but is now in the state of Maine. King attended Harvard College, but his studies were interrupted by the American Revolutionary War. King was first elected to the Massachusetts state assembly in 1783, and returned there each year until 1785.

Politics

1787 King was sent to the Constitutional Convention, where he worked closely with Alexander Hamilton on the Committee of Style and Arrangement to prepare the final draft.

At Hamilton's urging he moved to New York City and was elected to the New York state legislature in 1788. Governor George Clinton proposed Rufus King as a compromise candidate, and he was elected.

Diplomat

King played a major diplomatic role as the Minister to the Court of St. James (Britain) from 1796 to 1803 and again from 1825 to 1826. Although he was a leading Federalist, Thomas Jefferson kept him in office until King asked to be relieved.

Anti-Slavery

King had a long history of opposition to the expansion of slavery and the slave trade. In 1785, King first opposed the extension of slavery into the Northwest Territories, although he was willing "to suffer the continuance of slaves until they can be gradually emancipated in states already overrun with them."

In 1817, he supported Senate action seeking abolition of the slave trade, and in 1819 spoke strongly for the antislavery amendment in the Missouri statehood bill. [Arbena 1965]

One of King’s most consequential interventions in Congress was in regards to the 1820 Tallmadge Amendment debate, which sought to limit slavery in Missouri as it became a state. King appealed to the now fading Revolutionary sense of equality to attack slavery. He declared that all legal and otherwise attempts to uphold slavery were “absolutely void, because [they are] contrary to the law of nature, which is the law of God.” Thought the amendment failed and Missouri became a slave state. King reflected the gradual ideological evolution of the Atlantic abolitionist movement.

Family

Many of King's family were also involved in politics and he had a number of prominent descendants. His brother William King was the first governor of Maine and a prominent merchant, and other brother Cyrus King was a U. In 1786 he married Mary Alsop, the daughter of Congressman John Alsop, and their sons John Alsop King and James Gore King also went on to serve in the Congress. Another son, Charles King, was also President of Columbia College.

King died in 1827 at his farm in Jamaica, Queens and is buried in the Grace Church Cemetery in Jamaica, Queens, New York. The home that King purchased in 1805 and expanded thereafter and some of his farm make up King Park in Queens. The home, called King Manor, is now a museum and is open to the public.

The Rufus King School, also known as P.S. 26, in Fresh Meadows, New York, was named after Rufus King, as was the Rufus King Hall on the CUNY Queens College campus.