Rufus King Rufus King ( March 24 , 1755April 29 , 1827 ) was an American lawyer , politician , and diplomat . He was a delegate for Massachusetts to the Continental Congress . He also attended the Constitutional Convention and was one of the signers of the United States Constitution on September 17 , 1787 , in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . He represented New York in the United States Senate , served as Minister to Britain , and was the Federalist candidate for both Vice President ( 1804 , 1808 ) and President of the United States ( 1816 ) . Biography . Early life . He was born on March 24 , 1755 at Scarborough which was then a part of Massachusetts but is now in the state of Maine . He was a son of Sabilla Blagden and Richard King , a prosperous farmer - merchant , who had settled at Dunstan Landing in Scarborough , near Portland , Maine , and had made a modest fortune by 1755 , the year Rufus was born . His financial success aroused the jealousy of his neighbors , and when the Stamp Act 1765 was imposed , and rioting became almost respectable , a mob ransacked his house and destroyed most of the furniture . Nobody was punished , and the next year the mob burned down his barn . It was not surprising that Richard King became a loyalist . All of his sons , however , became patriots in the American War of Independence . Career . King attended Dummer Academy ( now The Governor ' s Academy ) and Harvard College , graduating in 1777 . He began to read law under Theophilus Parsons , but his studies were interrupted in 1778 when King volunteered for militia duty in the American Revolutionary War . Appointed a major , he served as an aide to General Sullivan in the Battle of Rhode Island . After the campaign , King returned to his apprenticeship under Parsons . He was admitted to the bar in 1780 and began a legal practice in Newburyport , Massachusetts . King was first elected to the Massachusetts state assembly in 1783 , and returned there each year until 1785 . Massachusetts sent him to the Confederation Congress from 1784 to 1787 . He was one of the youngest at the conference . Politics . In 1787 , King was sent to the Federal constitutional convention at Philadelphia where he worked closely with Alexander Hamilton on the " Committee of Style and Arrangement " to prepare the final draft . He returned home and went to work to get the Constitution ratified and to position himself to be named to the U . S . Senate . He was only partially successful . Massachusetts ratified the Constitution , but his efforts to be elected to the Senate failed . At Hamilton ' s urging , he moved to New York City , and was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1789 . When the United States Constitution took effect , the State Legislature disagreed on who should be chosen besides Philip Schuyler for U . S . Senator from New York . Alexander Hamilton endorsed Rufus King as a candidate , thwarting the plans of the prominent Livingston family , who had hoped to place one of their own , James Duane , on the seat . Governor George Clinton , looking to cause a rift between the Livingstons and the Schuyler family ( Hamilton was Philip Schuyler ' s son - in - law ) , discreetly supported King , and as a result he was elected in 1789 . He was re - elected in 1795 but resigned on May 23 , 1796 , having been appointed U . S . Minister to Great Britain . Before becoming Minister to Britain , King was offered the post of Secretary of State by President George Washington but declined it . Diplomat and national candidate . King played a major diplomatic role as Minister to the Court of St . James from 1796 to 1803 , and again from 1825 to 1826 . Although he was a leading Federalist , Thomas Jefferson kept him in office until King asked to be relieved . He successfully settled disputes that the Jay Treaty had opened for negotiation . His term was marked by friendship between the U . S . and Britain ; it became hostile after 1805 . While in Britain , he was in close personal contact with South American revolutionary Francisco de Miranda and facilitated Miranda ' s trip to the United States in search of support for his failed 1806 expedition to Venezuela . He was the unsuccessful Federalist Party candidate for Vice President in 1804 and 1808 . In 1813 , he was elected again to the U . S . Senate , and served until March 4 , 1819 . In April 1816 , he lost the election for Governor of New York to the incumbent Daniel D . Tompkins of the Democratic - Republican Party . Later that year , King was nominated by the Federalists in the United States presidential election , 1816 , but lost again . King was the last presidential candidate to be nominated by the Federalists before their collapse at the end of the First Party System of the United States . In 1819 , he ran for re - election as a Federalist , but the party was already disbanding and had only a small minority in the New York State Legislature . Due to the split of the Democratic - Republicans , no successor was elected to the U . S . Senate , and the seat remained vacant until January 1820 when King was elected again . Trying to attract the former Federalist voters to their side at the next gubernatorial election in April 1820 , both factions of the Democratic - Republican Party supported King , who served another term in the U . S . Senate until March 4 , 1825 . In 1822 he was admitted as an honorary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati . Anti - slavery activity . King had a long history of opposition to the expansion of slavery and the slave trade . This stand was a product of moral conviction which coincided with the political realities of New England federalism . While in Congress , he successfully added provisions to the 1785 Northwest Ordinance which barred the extension of slavery into the Northwest Territory . But he also said he was willing " to suffer the continuance of slaves until they can be gradually emancipated in states already overrun with them . " He did not press the issue very hard at this time . At the Constitutional Convention , he indicated that his opposition to slavery was based upon the political and economic advantages it gave to the South , but he was willing to compromise for political reasons . In 1817 , he supported Senate action to abolish the domestic slave trade and , in 1819 , spoke strongly for the antislavery amendment to the Missouri statehood bill . In 1819 , his arguments were political , economic , and humanitarian ; the extension of slavery would adversely affect the security of the principles of freedom and liberty . After the Missouri Compromise , he continued to support gradual emancipation in various ways . Library . At the time of his death in 1827 , King had a library of roughly 2 , 200 titles in 3 , 500 volumes . In addition , King had roughly 200 bound volumes containing thousands of pamphlets . King ' s son John Alsop King inherited the library and kept them in Jamaica , Queens , until his death in 1867 . The books then went to John ' s son Dr . Charles Ray King of Bucks County , Pennsylvania . They remained in Pennsylvania until donated to the New - York Historical Society in 1906 , where most of them currently reside . Some books have extensive marginalia . In addition , six commonplace books survive in his papers at the New - York Historical Society . Family . Many of King ' s family were also involved in politics and he had a number of prominent descendants . His brother William King was the first governor of Maine and a prominent merchant , and his other brother , Cyrus King , was a U . S . Representative from Massachusetts . His wife Mary Alsop was born in New York on October 17 , 1769 , and died in Jamaica , New York , on June 5 , 1819 . She was the only daughter of John Alsop , a wealthy merchant and a delegate for New York to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776 . She was also a great niece of Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony . She married Mr . King in New York City on March 30 , 1786 , he being at that time a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress then sitting in that city . Mrs . King was a lady of remarkable beauty , gentle and gracious manners , and well cultivated mind , and adorned the high station , both in England and at home , that her husband ' s official positions and their own social relations entitled them to occupy . The latter years of her life , except while in Washington , were passed in Jamaica , Queens , New York . King died on April 29 , 1827 , and his funeral was held at his N Y in Jamaica , Queens . He is buried in the Grace Church Cemetery in Jamaica , Queens , New York . The home that King purchased in 1805 and expanded thereafter and some of his farm make up King Park in Queens . The home , called King Manor , is now a museum and is open to the public . The Rufus King School , also known as P . S . 26 , in Fresh Meadows , New York , was named after King , as was the Rufus King Hall on the CUNY Queens College campus and King Street in Madison , Wi . Rufus King High School in Milwaukee , Wisconsin is named after his grandson , Rufus King , a general in the American Civil War . Descendants . Rufus King ' s descendants number in the thousands today . Some of his notable descendants include ;