Pay attention class!
William Rufus KING was a Vice President of the USA? True or False.
True. Briefly.
When? 1853. Yes only in that year, but not the whole year. Considerably less than twelve months.
From Alabama, he was New Hampshireman Franklin Pierce’s Democratic running mate in the 1852 election. Though the two did not meet during the nomination or campaign. Uh? Yep and there is more, or rather less.
In 1852 to give geographic balance to the New Englander heading the ticket, King was nominated in absentia, having travelled to the hot and humid climate of Cuba for his health. (Maybe he should have gotten a second opinion.) After the Democratic ticket won, a special act of Congress allowed King to take the Vice-President’s oath of office at the US consulate in Havana on 24 March 1853. A little later he returned to his home in Alabama and died there on 18 April 1853; he was Vice President for little more than three weeks, none of it spent in Washington D.C. He must have the title for the shortest VP term, though John Tyler is often credited with that. Tuberculosis was the killer, perhaps to make a comeback aided by anti-vaxxers near and far.
Pedants note. The Wikipedia entry credits him with forty-five days in office, longer than Tyler as above. How that number is arrived at given he took the oath on 24 March and died on 18 April is one of the mysteries of WikiWars. In the Wikipedia text he is credited with holding the office from 4 March (when President Pierce took the oath) though the text also clearly states King did not swear the oath until the 24th of March because he had not been in D.C. on 4 March. Members of Pedants United (PU) are sure that he was only VP after he took the oath, not when the office was vacated, or when Pierce was sworn in. Those who agree may tell anyone they please.
I first came across this spectral Vice President reading a biography of Franklin Pierce, discussed elsewhere on this blog for avid clickers.