Senator William R. King, a member of Phoenix Lodge 8 of Fayetteville, NC and later the 13th Vice President of the US, conducted the first sustained senate filibuster beginning February 18, 1841. It lasted 3 weeks, ending on March 11 and was in opposition to Senator Henry Clay's support of a bill to re-charter the Second National Bank. When Brother Clay (Grand Master of Kentucky in 1820) unsuccessfully attempted to change senate rules to block the filibuster, a defiant Brother King suggested Clay "make his arrangements at his boarding house for the winter."
King won on both counts. The senate did not change its filibuster rules and those same rules substantially remain in effect today. The effort to re-charter the Second National Bank failed, as did the bank itself.
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