Horatio King

Horatio King

Horatio King (born June 21, 1811 in Paris , Massachusetts , † May 20, 1897 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician ( Democratic Party ) and post office minister under President James Buchanan .

Career

Horatio King, who was born in present-day Maine , attended a community school. At the age of 18 he took up a job at the Jeffersonian in Paris, where he learned the printing trade. He then became the owner and editor of a newspaper. In 1833 he moved to Portland , where he published until 1838. The following year, 1839, King went to Washington, DC , where he served as a clerk in the Post Office Department and gradually rose in his position. In 1854 he was first appointed Assistant Postmaster General and in early 1861 he was appointed Postmaster General in the Buchanan Cabinet . In this position he was then asked in January 1861 about the franking (English. Franking privilege ) by a member of Congress from South Carolina . In his remarks at the time, King was the first to officially deny the right of a state to secede from the Union. King served as Postmaster General between February 12 and March 7, 1861.

After he left the government, he stayed in Washington during the Civil War and served on a Board of Commissioners that dealt with the implementation of the emancipation laws in the District of Columbia. His efforts resulted in a significant number of early slave settlements in the district.

King also practiced as a lawyer in Washington before the Executive Department and international commissions. He was also actively involved in the passage of three laws (1874, 1879, and 1885) that allowed the use of public penalty envelopes, which was a great saving for the government. King also took an active part in the completion of the Washington Monument and served as Secretary of the Monument Society from 1881 . Throughout his life he participated in the press repeatedly and published several works, which would be: An Oration before the Union Literary Society of Washington (Washington DC, 1841) and Sketches of Travel or Twelve Months in Europe (1878).

Before his death on May 20, 1897, King was the last surviving member of the Buchanan cabinet.

family

He had a son named Horatio Collins King , who was an officer in the Union Army who received a Medal of Honor .

Web links

• Horatio King in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)

• Horatio King in the database of Find a Grave (English)