 King
was born at Scarboro (Scarborough), MA (present Maine), in 1755. He
was the eldest son of a prosperous farmer-merchant. At age 12, after
receiving an elementary education at local schools, he matriculated
at Dummer Academy in South Byfield, MA, and in 1777 graduated from
Harvard. He served briefly as a general's aide during the War for
Independence. Choosing a legal career, he read for the law at
Newburyport, MA, and entered practice there in 1780.
King's knowledge, bearing, and oratorical gifts
soon launched him on a political career. From 1783 to 1785 he was a
member of the Massachusetts legislature, after which that body sent
him to the Continental Congress (1784-86). There, he gained a
reputation as a brilliant speaker and an early opponent of slavery.
Toward the end of his tour, in 1786, he married Mary Alsop, daughter
of a rich New York City merchant. He performed his final duties for
Massachusetts by representing her at the Constitutional Convention
and by serving in the commonwealth's ratifying convention.
At age 32, King was not only one of the most
youthful of the delegates at Philadelphia, but was also one of the
most important. He numbered among the most capable orators.
Furthermore, he attended every session. Although he came to the
convention unconvinced that major changes should be made in the
Articles of Confederation, his views underwent a startling
transformation during the debates. With Madison, he became a leading
figure in the nationalist caucus. He served with distinction on the
Committee on Postponed Matters and the Committee of Style. He also
took notes on the proceedings, which have been valuable to
historians.
About 1788 King abandoned his law practice,
moved from the Bay State to Gotham, and entered the New York
political forum. He was elected to the legislature (1789-90), and in
the former year was picked as one of the state's first U.S.
senators. As political divisions grew in the new government, King
expressed ardent sympathies for the Federalists. In Congress, he
supported Hamilton's fiscal program and stood among the leading
proponents of the unpopular Jay's Treaty (1794).
Meantime, in 1791, King had become one of the
directors of the First Bank of the United States. Reelected to the
U.S. Senate in 1795, he served only a year before he was appointed
as Minister to Great Britain (1796-1803).
King's years in this post were difficult ones
in Anglo-American relations. The wars of the French Revolution
endangered U.S. commerce in the maritime clashes between the French
and the British. The latter in particular violated American rights
on the high seas, especially by the impressment of sailors. Although
King was unable to bring about a change in this policy, he smoothed
relations between the two nations.
In 1803 King sailed back to the United States
and to a career in politics. In 1804 and 1808 fellow-signer Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney and he were the Federalist candidates for
President and Vice President, respectively, but were decisively
defeated. Otherwise, King largely contented himself with
agricultural pursuits at King Manor, a Long Island estate he had
purchased in 1805. During the War of 1812, he was again elected to
the U.S. Senate (1813-25) and ranked as a leading critic of the war.
Only after the British attacked Washington in 1814 did he come to
believe that the United States was fighting a defensive action and
to lend his support to the war effort.
In 1816 the Federalists chose King as their
candidate for the presidency, but James Monroe beat him handily.
Still in the Senate, that same year King led the opposition to the
establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. Four years
later, believing that the issue of slavery could not be compromised
but must be settled once and for all by the immediate establishment
of a system of compensated emancipation and colonization, he
denounced the Missouri Compromise.
In 1825, suffering from ill health, King
retired from the Senate. President John Quincy Adams, however,
persuaded him to accept another assignment as Minister to Great
Britain. He arrived in England that same year, but soon fell ill and
was forced to return home the following year. Within a year, at the
age of 72, in 1827, he died. Surviving him were several offspring,
some of whom also gained distinction. He was laid to rest near King
Manor in the cemetery of Grace Episcopal Church, Jamaica, Long
Island, NY. |
