Even before the War of 1812 was over, President James Madison had announced that he would honor the 2 term tradition and not run for POTUS in 1816.  In the early years of the United States the office of Secretary of State was looked at as the stepping stone to the presidency. Jefferson and Madison had been Secretary of State.

The Secretary of State for President Madison had been James Monroe. James Monroe had a sparkling resume. He had been a member of the Continental Congress, a Senator from Virginia, Minister to France, Secretary of State and acting Secretary of War. He wasn’t an exciting man, he was rather dull. He was a hard worker and known for his honesty. He had that going for him. James Monroe would be the choice of the Democratic-Republicans to replace President Madison. Monroe’s running mate would be Daniel Tompkins, the Governor of New York.

The Federalist Party was about to go belly up. They hadn’t even came up with a candidate to run against Monroe until a few states got together and decided to run Rufus King against Monroe. King had been a Senator from New York, an unsuccessful candidate for Vice-President in 1804 and 1808.  His running mate would be John Eager Howard a former Governor of Maryland. {below is Rufus King}

There wasn’t much of a campaign. King accepted the challenge of running against Monroe but even he knew he didn’t have a prayer of winning.

In the end the United States elected another POTUS from the state of Virginia. Four of the first 5ive Presidents of the United States would be from Virginia. James Monroe at age 58 would become POTUS #5. He won 16 of the 19 states. The electoral count wasn’t even close- Monroe 183 to King’s 34. The three states Rufus King won were all in New England. As cool as it would have been to have had a POTUS named Rufus, it was not to be.

Footnote: James Monroe was the last of the Founding Fathers to become POTUS. He like Adams and Jefferson would die on July 4th. Adams and Jefferson died July 4, 1826, Monroe would die July 4th, 1831.