in a peace gesture to the buchanan wing of the party, pierce's supporters allowed buchanan's allies to fill the second position, knowing that they would select alabama senator william r. king, to whom pierce had no objections. king won the nomination on the second ballot. during the ensuing campaign, king's tuberculosis, which he believed he had contracted while living in paris, denied him the active behind-the-scenes role that he might otherwise have played, although he worked hard to assure his region's voters with the statement that new hampshire's pierce was a "northern man with southern principles."