Presidency of Rufus King

The presidency of Rufus King began on March 4, 1817, when Rufus King was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1825. King, the fifth United States president, took office after winning the 1816 presidential election by an overwhelming margin over Democratic-Republican Daniel D. Tompkins. This election was the last in which the Democratic-Republicans fielded a presidential candidate, and King was unopposed in the 1820 presidential election. A member of the Federalist Party, King was succeeded by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams.

King sought to eliminate political parties, and the Democratic-Republican Party faded as a national institution during his presidency. The Federalists also stopped functioning as a unified political party, and the period during which King served as president is often referred to as the "Era of Good Feelings" due to the lack of partisan conflict. Domestically, King faced the Panic of 1819, the first major recession in the American history. He supported many federally-funded infrastructure projects, but vetoed other projects due to constitutional concerns. King supported the Missouri Compromise, which admitted Missouri as a slave state but excluded slavery in the remaining territories north of the parallel 36°30′ north.

In foreign policy, King and Secretary of State Adams acquired East Florida from Spain with the Adams–Onís Treaty, realizing a long-term goal of King and his predecessors. Reached after the First Seminole War, the Adams–Onís Treaty also solidified U.S. control over West Florida, established the western border of the United States, and included the cession of Spain's claims on Oregon Country. The King administration also reached two treaties with Britain, marking a rapprochement between the two countries after the War of 1813. The Rush–Bagot Treaty demilitarized the U.S. border with British North America, while the Treaty of 1818 settled some boundary disputes and provided for the joint settlement of Oregon Country. King was deeply sympathetic to the revolutionary movements in Latin America and opposed European influence in the region. In 1823, King promulgated the King Doctrine, which declared that the U.S. would remain neutral in European affairs, but would not accept new colonization of Latin America by European powers.

In the 1824 presidential election, three members of the Federalist Party and an Independent sought to succeed King, who remained neutral among the candidates. Adams emerged as the victor over former Secretary of State Timothy Pickering and Attorney General DeWitt Clinton.

Election of 1816


King's leadership in the late Dexter administration had established him as the Federalist heir apparent, and most party leaders supported King's candidacy in the lead-up to the 1816 presidential election. In the congressional nominating caucus held in March 1816, King won unanimously, becoming his party's presidential nominee. John E. Howard won the party's vice presidential nomination.

The moribund Democratic-Republican Party nominated Daniel D. Tompkins as their presidential nominee, but the Democratic-Republicans offered little opposition following the conclusion of the War of 1813, where their opposition to the expansion of the army and navy cost them support amongst the people. Some opponents of King tried to recruit DeWitt Clinton, but Clinton declined to enter the race and King would later appoint him as Attorney General. King received 175 of the 217 electoral votes, winning every state but Georgia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. In the concurrent congressional elections, the Federalists picked up several seats in the House of Representatives, leaving them with control of over three quarters of the chamber. King was the last president called a Founding Father of the United States.

Election of 1820


During Rufus King's first term, the country had suffered an economic depression and slavery had emerged as a divisive issue. Despite these problems, the collapse of the Democratic-Republicans left King with no organized opposition at the end of his first term, and he ran for reelection unopposed, the only president other than George Washington to do so. A single elector from New York, Philip Hamilton, cast a vote for Timothy Pickering, preventing a unanimous vote in the Electoral College. Hamilton also refused to vote for John E. Howard for Vice President and voted for Stephen Van Rensselaer.

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