Transcriber: Majd Mustafa Reviewer: omar idmassaoud
In 2005,
America began celebrating September 17th as National Constitution Day.
Sometimes it's called Citizenship Day,
but the holiday was created in order to honor
and recognize the effort of 39 founding fathers
who put a lot of time and energy and effort
to create the United States Constitution.
Well, in their honor today,
I’d like to tell you a little bit about one of those founding fathers
who signed the Constitution,
my fifth great grandfather, Rufus King.
Now, I just learned about Rufus a few years ago
after my mom had passed away.
I realized I didn’t know a whole lot about her background or family.
So I joined a genealogy software program,
did a little work and found out that Rufus
was actually an ancestor of my maternal grandfathers.
What I learned in his story was absolutely incredible.
And that’s what I want to share with you right now.
Rufus was born in 1755
in the northern part of the Massachusetts colony.
The part that’s now the state of Maine.
When he was four years old, his mother passed away.
When he was 10, he went with his father on a trip to Boston
to find a lawyer to help with some legal issues back home.
Well, the lawyer they found
became one of Rufus’ lifelong mentors, role models and friends.
The lawyer was John Adams.
Rufus, about 10 years later, graduated from Harvard College, first in his class.
Signed up for the army, became a major in the Revolutionary War Army,
and after his service there was over,
he went back to Massachusetts and studied law,
and eventually he was appointed as a representative for Massachusetts
to the Confederation Congress that met in New York City.
And in 1787, Rufus was selected to become one of the youngest delegates
to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia,
where he served on more committees than anyone else there.
At the encouragement of his friend Alexander Hamilton, his fellow Federalist,
Rufus decided to move permanently to New York and start over there.
He was elected to the New York State Assembly,
and in 1789,
Rufus King became New York’s very first United States senator.
He served in this position for seven years
until President Washington appointed him as Minister Plenipotentiary
to the Court of St. James in England and King George, the third.
But Rufus flourished over there.
Absolutely loved it.
He remained in that position throughout the remainder of Washington’s term,
all of John Adams’s and the first three years of Thomas Jefferson’s.
In fact, it was while he was working for Jefferson
that Rufus learned about a secret deal Napoleon had made
to regain control of New Orleans and the Mississippi River.
Well, Rufus wasn’t going to have any of that
and immediately notified Secretary of State James Madison,
and began the process that eventually led to the Louisiana purchase,
which was something Rufus helped negotiate.
After all that, Rufus decided it was time to come back.
Bought a little farm in Jamaica, New York,
and spent the next 10 years as a gentleman farmer
until the events with the War of 1812 put Rufus back into the Senate.
And he stayed there for 12 years until 1825,
when President John Quincy Adams
asked him to once again serve as our minister to the Court of St. James
and help repair some fences.
Rufus agreed and went back to London,
but he was only able to stay for about a year
until his health forced him to return home, which he did.
And on April 29th 1827,
less than a year after the death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,
Rufus King passed away after nearly 50 years of public service.
But his story doesn't end there.
What absolutely astounded me
was when I learned about his descendants and other members of his family
and all that they had accomplished.
He had a half brother who became a congressman from Massachusetts.
Another half brother became the first governor of the State of Maine.
One of Rufus’ four sons, became the governor of New York.
Another son became a congressman from New Jersey.
Another one was president of Columbia College,
and a fourth one became the speaker of the House
in the Ohio State Legislature.
One of his grandsons was a New York state senator,
and another grandson, graduated from West Point,
was appointed as a United States minister to the Vatican
before and after the Civil War.
During the Civil War,
he was a brigadier general for the Union Army.
And another one of Rufus’ grandsons
became the president of the University of Cincinnati.
After having served as dean of their law school,
one of Rufus’ granddaughters married a gentleman
named William Henry Waddington,
who in 1879 became prime minister of France.
And this is my favorite part:
His great great great grandson in law was Irving Berlin,
the man who wrote, “God bless America”.
So Rufus’ and his family’s story was absolutely incredible.
And I appreciate the opportunity
for being able to share that with you today.
Thank you.