page_title: Horatio King
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: Horatio King / Later life
caption_attribution_description: English: Horatio King, Postmaster General of the United States
context_page_description: Horatio King was Postmaster General of the United States under James Buchanan.
context_section_description: On retiring from office, he remained in Washington, D.C., during the Civil War, serving on a board of commissioners to carry into execution the emancipation law in the District of Columbia. His efforts led to a considerable number of former slaves settling in the District.
  After his retirement from office, King practiced in Washington as an attorney before the executive department and international commissions. He was active in procuring the passage of three acts in 1874, 1879, and 1885 respectively, requiring the use of the official "penalty envelope," which has secured a large saving to the government. He also took an active part in the work of completing the Washington Monument, serving as secretary of the Monument Society from 1881. King was a frequent contributor to the press, and published An Oration before the Union Literary Society of Washington (Washington, D.C., 1841), and Sketches of Travel; or, Twelve Months in Europe (1878).
  He was married twice. In 1846 he married Anne Collins in Maine. They had three children: Anne, Horatio Collins and Henry Franklin.  After her death, he married Isabella E. Osborn in Washington in 1875. In 1881, he purchased land in West Newton, MA and built a house there on the corner of Temple and Sterling Streets which he and his wife Isabelle used as a summer residence, near the home of their son, Henry Franklin King.
  Prior to his death, King had been the last surviving member of the Buchanan Cabinet.  King was buried in Washington's Congressional Cemetery.
caption: Tomb of Horatio King
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