Horatio King (Encyclopedia America)

KING, Horatio, American statesman: b. Paris, Me., 21 June 1811; d. Washington, D. C, 20 May 1897. He learned the printer's trade and published The Jeffersonian in his native town, and subsequently in Portland, 1831-38. The next year he was appointed clerk in the Post Office Department in Washington; became First Assistant Postmaster-General in 1854; was Postmaster-General January- March 1861; and was the first man in public office to deny the power of a State to withdraw from the Union. He published 'An Oration before the Union Literary Society of Washington' (1841); 'Sketches of Travel; or Twelve Months in Europe' (1878).