Rufus King
Massachusetts-born Federalist who represented New York in the Senate across four decades and ran for president in 1816.
Overview
King was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, where he spoke often and signed the Constitution, then moved to New York and served in the Senate from 1789 to 1796 and again from 1813 to 1825. A leading Federalist, he championed the Jay Treaty, opposed the War of 1812 as a New England Federalist, and in 1817 delivered one of the earliest Senate speeches against the spread of slavery into new territories. He was minister to Britain twice and the last Federalist candidate for president, receiving 34 electoral votes in 1816.
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