Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/549

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KENDALL
KENDALL
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missed for party reasons, secured for his executive council a broader basis by introducing members that possessed the confidence of the majority, and urged the judges to retire from the legislative council. On his retirement from office he was pre- sented with complimentary addresses by various fmblic bodies in Canada, and on his return to Eng- and he was appointed master-general of the ord- nance, 30 Nov., 1830, and became a privy councillor, and on 23 Nov., 1841, attained the rank of general.


KENDALL, Amos, journalist, b. in Dunstable, Mass., 16 Aug., 1789; d. in Washington, D. C, 11 Nov., 1869. His ancestor, Francis, came from England to Woburn, Mass., about 1640. His parents were poor, and, after working on his father's farm till he was sixteen years old, he entered Dartmouth with a year's preparation, and was graduated in 1811 at the head of his class, although he had been absent much during his course that he might support him- self by teaching. He then studied law, and in 1814 removed to Lexington, Ky., where he practised, and was also tutor in the fam- ily of Henry Clay dur- ing the latter's absence to negotiate the treaty of Ghent. He was then postmaster and editor of a local paper

at Georgetown, Ky.,

and in 1816 became co-editor and part owner of the " Argus of Western America," the state journal at Frankfort. He actively supported the Demo- cratic party, and also secured the passage by the legislature of an act setting apart half the profits of the Bank of the commonwealth as a school fund. He warmly supported Jackson in 1824, and the latter at the beginning of his term in 1829 appointed Kendall fourth auditor of the treasury. He acquired great influence with the administra- tion, and became one of the readiest and most power- ful political writers in the capital. Some of Jack- son's ablest state papers were attributed to Kendall's pen. He aided in shaping the president's anti-bank policy, was appointed a special treasury-agent to ne- gotiate with state banks, and during the quarrel with Calhoun, foreseeing the disaffection of the "Telegraph," the administration organ, advised the president to invite Francis P. Blair to establish the " Globe " in Washington. Harriet Martineau wrote of him at this time : " I was fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the invincible Amos Kendall, one of the most remarkable men in America. He is supposed to be the moving spring of the admin- istration ; the thinker, planner, and doer ; but it is all in the dark." He was made postmaster-general in 1835, and introduced many reforms in the department, also freeing it from debt. His action in 1835 in refusing to punish the postmaster of Charleston, S. C, for allowing the destruction by a mob of northern newspapers, which it was alleged contained "abolition documents," created much excitement. In his next annual report he urged the passage of a law forbidding the circulation in the mails of anything touching the subject of slavery. He retired from the cabinet in 1840, and afterward refused a foreign mission that was tendered to him by President Polk. He was for several years em- barrassed by a suit that was brought against him by certain mail-contractors, and which he chose to defend at his own expense, but it was finally de- cided in his favor. He established a bi-weekly called "Kendall's Expositor" in 1841, and the " Union Democrat," a weekly, in 1842, but both were soon discontinued. Kendall became asso- ciated with Samuel F. B. Morse in 1845 in the ownership of the latter's telegraph patents, and by his ability and enterprise aided in insuring their success. His connection with their manage- ment, after years of trial and defeat, made him a rich man, and he spent the rest of his life in Washington and at his country-seat, Kendall Green, near that city. He was active in works of philanthropy, contributed $100,000 toward build- ing the Calvary Baptist church in Washington in 1864, and after its destruction by fire in 1867 gave largely toward rebuilding it. He was the founder of the Washington deaf and dumb asylum and its first president, and gave it $20,000. Among his other gifts were % 25,000 to two mission schools, and several scholarships to Columbian college, of whose board of trustees he was for some time president. In 1860 Mr. Kendall published in the Washington " Evening Star " a series of protests against secession, and during the civil war he ear- nestly supported the administration by his pen, though he still called himself a Jackson Democrat. He was the author of "Life of Andrew Jackson, Private, Military, and Civil " (New York, 1843, un- completed) ; and a pamphlet entitled "Full Exposure of Dr. Charles T. Jackson's Pretensions to the Invention of the American Electro-magnetic Telegraph," which was republished with prefatory remarks by Prof. Morse (Paris, 1867). After his death appeared his autobiography, edited by William Stickney (Boston, 1872).


KENDALL, Bion Freeman, lawyer, b. in Bethel, Me., in October, 1827 ; d. in Olympia, Washington territory, 4 Jan., 1863. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1852. became a clerk in one of the departments at Washington, and then acted as astronomer for the expedition that was sent under Gen. Isaac I. Stevens to explore a route for the Pacific railroad. He afterward became a lawyer in Olympia, W. T., where he attained note in his profession, and was secretary of the legislature, also engaging in the lumber business. At the beginning of the civil war he made a four-months' trip in the southern states, and reported to Gen. Scott on the condition, resources, and war material of each. Soon afterward he was appointed superintendent of Indian affairs for Washington territory, and also edited a newspaper there. He was assassinated by a man whose father Kendall had attacked in his journal.


KENDALL, Edward Hale, architect, b. in Boston, Mass., 31 July, 1842. He was educated at the Boston Latin-school, studied architecture in Paris, and has practised his profession in New York city. Since 1884 he has been president of the New" York chapter of the American institute of architects. He was associated in designing the original Equitable building, and was the architect of the German savings-bank on Fourth avenue, the Washington building on lower Broadway, and the residences of Robert and Ogden Goelet on Fifth avenue. New York city.


KENDALL, George Wilkins, journalist, b. in Amherst (now Mount Vernon), N. H., 22 Aug., 1809 ; d. in Oak Spring, near Bowie, Tex., 22 Oct., 1867. He learned the printer's trade at Burlington, Vt., and then worked as a journeyman in the middle, southern, and western states. He went to New Orleans in 1835, and on 27 Jan., 1837, established there, with Francis A. Lumsden, the "Picayune,"