King himself stood “one heartbeat from the presidency.” Not once, but twice - once while president pro tempore of the U.S. King’s contemporaries included American presidents and vice presidents - as well as senators and representatives and other elected officials - and foreign dignitaries. One rumor circulated had it that King’s immediate relatives destroyed some of his correspondence after his death, in particular exchanges with James Buchanan, the 15th president of the U.S. Even so, there are few public documents existing on his life and service. One account reported that William Rufus King was said by his contemporaries to be a noble specimen of an American statesman and gentleman. His influence was felt in the District of Columbia, the State of Washington, France and Russia. gnawed their lips and clenched their fists as they heard him." Provenance Frederick Gore King,, 1926 sold to Herbert Lee Pratt, New York his granddaughter Edith Gibb McLane, Annapolis, Md.MAGNOLIA - William Rufus DeVane King (1786-1853) is memorialized in many places, most notably in North Carolina in Clinton and Chapel Hill and in Alabama in Selma. His portrait was painted in 1819-20, a time when he tried to rouse opposition to the admission of Missouri as a slave state, defending before the Senate "the natural liberty of man and its incompatibility with slavery in any shape." John Quincy Adams recorded: "He spoke with great power, and the great slaveholders. A delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, an active framer of the Constitution, minister to Great Britain, opponent of the War of 1812, senator from New York, and the Federalist Party's last candidate for the presidency (overwhelmingly defeated by James Monroe in 1816), King had a public career that extended through the administrations of the first six presidents of the United States. Artist Gilbert Stuart, - Sitter Rufus King, - Date 1819-1820 Type Painting Medium Oil on panel Dimensions Panel: 77.5 x 64.8 x 0.3cm (30 1/2 x 25 1/2 x 1/8") Frame: 108.6 x 95.9 x 11.4cm (42 3/4 x 37 3/4 x 4 1/2") Credit Line National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution this acquisition was made possible by a generous contribution from the James Smithson Society Restrictions & Rights CC0 Object number NPG.88.1 Exhibition Label Rufus King was one of the last of the Founding Fathers.
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