Scope and Content Note
The papers of Horatio King (1811-1897) span the years 1832-1906, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1857-1891. The collection consists chiefly of letters received by King relating to the Democratic Party, politics, the Post Office Department, proposed legislation, patronage, the secession crisis of 1860-1861, King's literary, historical, and social activities, and social life in Washington, D.C., in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Also in the collection is correspondence of his son, Horatio C. King, with Fitz-John Porter and Daniel Sickles.
Prominent correspondents include Adam Badeau, Chauncey F. Black, James Buchanan, Nahum Capen, Schuyler Colfax, Andrew Gregg Curtin, George Ticknor Curtis, J. C. Bancroft Davis, John A. Dix, William Maxwell Evarts, John W. Forney, Edward Minor Gallaudet, Hannibal Hamlin, William Harkness, Joseph R. Hawley, Joseph Holt, John James Ingalls, Harriet Lane Johnston, De B. Randolph Keim, George Kennan, Robert Todd Lincoln, Hugh McCulloch, Justin S. Morrill, Levi P. Morton, Crosby Stuart Noyes, Franklin Pierce, Benjamin Perley Poore, Fitz-John Porter, Daniel Edgar Sickles, Ainsworth Rand Spofford, John C. Spooner, Moses Coit Tyler, John Wanamaker, and Robert C. Winthrop.