Copyright Notice: This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. Copyright © 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

Engraving of William Rufus King by W.H. Dougal, 1854. Image from Archive.org.
Engraving of William Rufus King by W.H. Dougal, 1854. Image from Archive.org.
Two North Carolina natives have held the office of vice president of the United States. The first, William Rufus King, was born in Sampson County and was elected to the post as Franklin Pierce's Democratic running mate in 1852. He died just after his inauguration. The second, Andrew Johnson, was born in Raleigh and joined Abraham Lincoln's 1864 ticket as the only southern senator supporting the Union. After Lincoln's assassination in 1865, Johnson assumed the presidency.

Additional Resources:

"Obituary addresses on the occasion of the death of the Hon. William R. King, of Alabama, vice-president of the United States : delivered in the Senate and House of Representatives, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, eighth and ninth December, 1853."  Washington, D.C.: Robert Armstrong. 1854. https://archive.org/stream/obituaryaddresse00arms#page/n7/mode/2up  (accessed September 6, 2012).

"KING, William Rufus de Vane, (1786 - 1853)." Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=K000217 (accessed September 6, 2012).

Image Credits:

Dougal, W.H. "William R. King." From "Obituary addresses on the occasion of the death of the Hon. William R. King, of Alabama, vice-president of the United States : delivered in the Senate and House of Representatives, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, eighth and ninth December, 1853."  Washington, D.C.: Robert Armstrong. 1854. https://archive.org/stream/obituaryaddresse00arms#page/n7/mode/2up  (accessed September 6, 2012).Image from Archive.org.

Citation

Smith, David C. "Vice Presidents, U.S.." NCpedia. Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. Accessed on March 3rd, 2025. https://www.ncpedia.org/vice-presidents-us.