KING, RUFUS (1755-1827), American political leader, was born on March 24, at Scarborough, Me., then a part of Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard in 7 and was ad mitted to the bar in i780. He served in the Massachusetts general court in 1783-84 and in the Confederation Congress in 1784-87. During these critical years he adopted the "States' rights" atti tude. It was largely through his efforts that the general court in 1784 rejected the amendment to the Articles of Confederation authorizing Congress to levy a 5% impost. On Feb. 21, 1787, he introduced the resolution in Congress sanctioning the call for the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, in which he supported the large-State party. In 1788 he was one of the most influential members of the Massachusetts convention which ratified the Fed eral Constitution. He removed to New York in 1788, was elected to the New York assembly in the spring of 1789, and was chosen one of the first representatives of New York in the U.S. Senate. In this body he served in 1789-96, becoming one of the recognized leaders of the Federalist Party. He was minister to Great Britain in 1796-1803 and again in 1825-26; was the Federalist candidate for vice-president in 1804 and 1808, and for president in 1816. He was returned to the Senate in 1813 and re-elected in 1819. In the Missouri compromise debates he supported the anti-slavery programme, but for constitutional reasons voted against the sec ond clause of the Tallmadge amendments providing that slaves born in the State after its admission into the Union should be free at the age of 25 years. He died at Jamaica, L.I., on April 29, 1827.
The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, begun about 1850 by his son, Charles King, was completed by his grandson, Charles R. King, and published in six volumes (1894-1900).
Rufus King's son, JOHN ALSOP KING (1788-1867), was edu cated at Harrow School, England, and in Paris, served in the War of 1812 as a cavalry lieutenant, and was a member of the New York assembly in 1819-21 and of the New York senate in 1823.
When his father was sent as minister to Great Britain in 1825 he accompanied him as secretary of the American legation and re mained as chargé d'affaires until Aug. 1826. He was a member of the New York assembly again in 1832 and in 1840, was a Whig representative in Congress in 1849-51, and in 1857-59 was gov ernor of New York State. In 1861 he was a delegate to the Peace Conference in Washington.
Another son, CHARLES KING (1789-1867), was also educated abroad, served in 1814 in the New York assembly and was presi dent of Columbia college in A third son, JAMES GORE KING (1791-1853), was an assistant adjutant-general in the War of 1812, was a banker in Liverpool and in New York, and was president of the New York and Erie railroad until 1837. In London in 1835 he secured the loan to American bankers of ii,o00,000 from the governors of the Bank of England. In 1849-51 he was a representative in Congress from New Jersey.
Charles King's son, RUFUS KING (1814-76), graduated from the U.S. military academy in 1833, and was adjutant-general of New York State in a brigadier-general of volunteers in the Union army in 1861 and U.S. minister to the Papal States in 1863-67.
His son, CHARLES KING (b. 1844), served in the artillery until 1870 and in the cavalry until 1879; he was appointed brigadier general U.S. Volunteers in the Spanish War in 1898 and served in the Philippines. He wrote Famous and Decisive Battles (1884), Campaigning with Crook (1890) and stories of military life.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-See E. H. Brush, Rufus King and His Times (1926) ; S. F. Bemis (editor), The American Secretaries of State (1927).