Article of the Week - William R. King

William R. King
The shortest-serving vice president, he is the
only U.S. executive official to take the oath
of office on foreign soil - in Cuba in 1853

William Rufus DeVane King (April 7, 1786 – April 18, 1853) was the 13th Vice President of the United States for about six weeks (1853), and earlier a U.S. Representative from North Carolina, Minister to France, and a Senator from Alabama. He was a Unionist and his contemporaries considered him to be a moderate on the issues of sectionalism, slavery, and westward expansion that would eventually lead to the American Civil War. He helped draft the Compromise of 1850. The only United States executive official to take the oath of office on foreign soil, King died of tuberculosis after only 45 days in office. With the exceptions of John Tyler and Andrew Johnson—both of whom succeeded to the Presidency—he remains the shortest-serving Vice President.

King was elected Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket with Franklin Pierce in 1852 and took the oath of office on March 24, 1853, in Cuba. He had gone to La Ariadne plantation, owned by John Chartrand, in Matanzas due to his ill health. This unusual inauguration took place because it was believed that King, who was terminally ill with tuberculosis, would not live much longer. The privilege of taking the oath on foreign soil was extended by a special act of Congress for his long and distinguished service to the government of the United States. Even though he took the oath 20 days after the inauguration day, he was still Vice President during those three weeks.

King was close friends with James Buchanan, and the two shared a house in Washington, D.C. for fifteen years prior to Buchanan's presidency. Buchanan and King's close relationship prompted Andrew Jackson to refer to King as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy", while Aaron V. Brown spoke of the two as "Buchanan and his wife".

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "William R. King"