Editing William R. King (section)

== Vice presidency and death (1853) ==
The [[1852 Democratic National Convention]] was held at the [[Maryland Institute College of Art|Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts]] Hall in [[Baltimore]]. [[Franklin Pierce]] was nominated for president, and King was nominated for vice president.

{{anchor|Death}}Pierce and King defeated the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig]] candidates, [[Winfield Scott]] and William Alexander Graham. Because King was ill with tuberculosis and had traveled to [[Cuba]] in an effort to regain his health, he was not able to be in Washington to take his oath of office on March 4, 1853. By a special Act of [[United States Congress|Congress]] passed on March 2,<ref>32nd Congress, Sess. 2, Chapter 93, [https://govtrackus.s3.amazonaws.com/legislink/pdf/stat/10/STATUTE-10-Pg180.pdf 10 Stat. 180]</ref> he was allowed to take the oath outside the United States, and was sworn in on March 24, 1853, near [[Matanzas]], by the U.S. consul to Cuba, [[William L. Sharkey]].<ref name="senate.gov"/><ref name="harpers">{{cite book|title=Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History|page=195|editor=Benson Lossing|publisher=[[Harper & Brothers]]|year=1907|access-date=July 15, 2013|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1hg-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA195}}</ref><ref name="aoc-vp">{{cite web|title=Vice Presidential Inaugurations|publisher=Architect of the Capitol|access-date=July 15, 2013|url=http://www.aoc.gov/nations-stage/vice-president-inaugurations|archive-date=May 22, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522024507/http://www.aoc.gov/nations-stage/vice-president-inaugurations|url-status=live}}</ref> King is the first and, to date, only vice president or president of the United States to take the oath of office on foreign soil.<ref>{{Cite web |title=William Rufus King sworn in as Vice President in Havana, Cuba {{!}} House Divided |url=https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/11657 |access-date=2025-05-05 |website=hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu}}</ref>

Shortly afterward, King made the journey to return to Chestnut Hill. He died within two days of his arrival on April 18, 1853, aged 67, of tuberculosis. He was interred in a vault on the plantation and later reburied in [[Selma, Alabama|Selma]]'s [[Old Live Oak Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite web| last=Bennett| first=Jim| title=Alabamians With National Aspirations| work=JCHA Newsletter| date=April 2014| url=http://www.jeffcohistory.com/newsletter_Apr_14_pg3.html| publisher=Jefferson County Historical Association| location=Birmingham, Alabama| access-date=June 1, 2018| archive-date=June 2, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602192509/http://www.jeffcohistory.com/newsletter_Apr_14_pg3.html| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Wilson, Scott. ''Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons'', 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 25688-25689). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.</ref> King never carried out any duties of the office.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Guide to the United States Government|editor1=Patrick, John J. |editor2=Pious, Richard M. |editor3=Ritchie, Donald A.|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordguidetouni00john/page/363 363]|isbn=978-0-19-514273-0 |access-date=June 24, 2013|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordguidetouni00john|url-access=registration|quote=king, william.}}</ref>

Following King's death, the office of vice president was vacant until [[John C. Breckinridge]] was inaugurated with President [[James Buchanan]] in March 1857.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="150px">
File:Chestnut Hill King's Bend Alabama.jpg|Engraving of Chestnut Hill, published following King's death in the ''Illustrated News'', New York, April 30, 1853. The house was destroyed by fire during the 1920s.
File:Crypt of William R. King.jpg|Crypt of William R. King in Live Oak Cemetery, Selma, Alabama.
</gallery>