a founding father of the United States, who helped frame the federal Constitution (Constitution of the United States of America) and effect its ratification. An active Federalist (Federalist Party) senator and able diplomat, he ran unsuccessfully for vice president (1804, 1808) and for president (1816).

Beginning his career in Massachusetts, King served in the state legislature (1783–84) and in the Continental Congress (1784–87), where he introduced the resolution (February 21, 1787) calling for a convention at Philadelphia to draft a new Constitution. An eloquent advocate of a strong central government, he signed the new document and contributed substantially to its acceptance in Massachusetts. In the Continental Congress he introduced a resolution (1785) that would prohibit slavery in the Northwest Territory—a provision included permanently in the Ordinance of 1787, which set the pattern for future standards in the territories.

In 1788 King moved to New York where, after a year in the state assembly, he was elected one of its first U.S. senators (1789–96) and became a recognized Federalist leader in Congress. Sharing the Anglophile sentiments of his party, King went on to represent the new nation with tact yet firmness as ambassador to Great Britain for eight years (1796–1803) and again in 1825–26. During the period of domination by the (Jeffersonian) Democratic-Republican Party, King served once more in the Senate (1813–25) but received only a modest proportion of electoral votes for the nation's highest offices on three different occasions.