William R. King

William Rufus King was a North Carolina-born lawyer, Alabama politician, diplomat, senator, and the 13th Vice President of the United States. He spent much of his political career representing Alabama and became one of the longest-serving members of the U.S. Senate before briefly serving as Franklin Pierce's vice president. Because of severe illness, King never returned to Washington after his inauguration and died only six weeks into his vice presidency.

King was born on April 7, 1786, in Sampson County, North Carolina, into a wealthy planter family. He attended the University of North Carolina and studied law before being admitted to the bar in 1806. King moved to Alabama Territory as a young man and established himself as a lawyer and planter, eventually becoming part of the political leadership of the developing territory.

King entered public life as a member of the North Carolina House of Commons before moving permanently into Alabama politics. After Alabama achieved statehood, he became one of its first U.S. senators, taking office in 1819. King also served briefly as president pro tempore of the Senate and became a prominent member of the Democratic Party.

King's diplomatic career included service as U.S. minister to France from 1844 to 1846. He returned to the Senate afterward and served as president pro tempore, placing him third in the presidential line of succession under the law then in effect. In 1852 the Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce for president and King for vice president, and the ticket won the election.

King was already suffering from tuberculosis when he was inaugurated on March 4, 1853. Because physicians believed the warmer climate of Cuba might improve his health, Congress passed a special act allowing him to take the oath of office there, and he was sworn in near Havana before returning to Alabama. He died at his plantation near Selma on April 18, 1853, only 45 days after becoming vice president, making him the shortest-serving vice president in American history.

King's legacy is primarily institutional: he was an important early senator from Alabama and one of the longest-serving congressional figures of his generation. His brief vice presidency demonstrates the constitutional and practical difficulties that could arise when an elected vice president was too ill to perform his duties. The Alabama city of King City, now known as part of the Selma area, and several historical sites preserve aspects of his association with the state.