Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/272

 KING

KING

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native of Hopkinton, Mass. He was brought up on a I'arm, received a public school education, and in 1829 entered the office of the Jeffersonian, published in Paris, where he learned the printer's trade. He soon becaiue equal owner of the jour- nal with Hannibal Hamlin, and in 1831 the sole proprietor. In 1833 he moved to Portland, where he edited and published the Jeffersonian un- til he sold it to the Standard in 1838. He was married in 1835 to Ann Collins, of Port- land, Maine, who died in 1869, and in 1875 to Isabella G. Osborne, of Auburn, N.Y., who survived him. He received appointment as clerk in the post-office dei^art- ment at Washington from Amos Kendall in March, 1839, and was gradually advanced. In 1850 he was put in charge of the foreign mail service, where he originated and perfected postal arrangements of great importance, one of which was the reduction, between Bremen and the United States, of the half-ounce letter rate from twenty cents (then, 1853, the lowest rate to Eu- rope), to ten cents, which was the beginning of low postage across the Atlantic. In March, 1854, he was appointed first assistant postmaster-gen- eral by President Pierce, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Major Hobble. He held this position until Jan. 1, 1861, when he became acting postmaster-general. On Feb. 1, 1861, on the transfer of General Holt to the war depart- ment, he was nominated by President Buchanan, and, February 12, confirmed by the senate, as postmaster-general, serving inthat capacity until the inauguration of President Lincoln and the appointment of his successor, March 7, 1861. He is the only man who ever entered the post-office department in the lowest clerkship and left it as postmaster-general. He remained in Washing- ton during the civil war, and served, by unsolic- ited appointment by President Lincoln, as one of a board of commissioners to settle for the slaves emancipated in the District of Columbia ; this action being prior to the issue of the general emancipation proclamation. Though exempt by law from performing military duty in the civil war, he furnished a representative recruit, who was duly mustered in and served in the Federal army. This exhibition of patriotism and public spirit received official acknowledgment from the government. After retiring with Buchanan's

cabinet, he practised as an attorney before tae executive departments and international commis- sions in Washington until about 1875, when he retired as far as practicable from active business. After leaving the post-office department he worked assiduously some eight years before con- gress to secure the adoption of the "penalty envelope," the use of which has saved the gov- ernment many thousand dollars. This, and many other works for the public good, he did without thought of, or receipt of, any financial reward. He was a member, and most of the time secretary, of the Washington National Monument society from 1869 until the completion and dedi- cation of the monument, Feb. 22, 1885. He re- ceived the degree of LL.D. from Dickinson col- lege in 1896. He is the author of ; An Oration Before the Union Literary Society of Washington (1841); Sketches of Travel (1878) ; Turning on the Light : A Review of Buchanan^s Administra- tion (1895). He died in Washington, D.C., May 20, 1897.

KING, Horatio Collins, publisher and author, was born in Portland, Maine, Dec. 22, 1837 ; son of the Hon, Horatio and Anne (Collins) King, He was graduated at Dickinson college in 1858 ; studied law with Edwin M. Stanton in Washing- ton, D.C.; i-emoved to New York city, and was admitted to the bar in 1861. He entered the volunteer service in August, 1862 ; was honorably discharged, October, 1865, with brevets of major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel, and was awarded the congressional medal of honor for distinguished bravery near Dinwiddle, Va., March 29, 1865. He resumed law practice in New York in 1865, He was associate editor of the New York Star, 1871- 76, and publisher of the Christian Union, 1870-73, and the Christian at Work, 1873-76. He resumed the practice of law in 1877, and was admitted to the U.S. supreme court in 1890, He was major of the 13th regiment, N.Y.N.G., 1877 ; judge advo- cate of the 11th brigade, 1880, and judge advocate- general of New York, 1883-86. He was a mem- ber of the Brooklyn board of education, 1883-94, and resigned in 1894 to accept the trusteeship of the New York State Soldiers' and Sailors' home, ■which office he also resigned in February, 1900. He was made secretary of the Army of the Potomac in 1877 ; was elected director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic society ; was Democratic candidate for secretary of state in 1895, and a delegate to the sound money state and national conventions at Syracuse and Indianapolis, 1896. He was elected a member of the Brooklyn club, the New York Press club, the Loyal Legion, the Grand Army of the Republic, the Medal of Honor legion and the Societj- of the Sons of the Ameri- can Revolution. He was chairman of the Fred- ericksburg National Park association in 1898;