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 Autobiography of Amos Kendal 
 
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^JXr^^-^A^^rV^ ICa^j^^^^^Ca-JIX 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHY 
 
 OF 
 
 AMOS KEl^DALL 
 
 EDITED BY HIS SON-IN-UW. 
 
 WILLIAM STICKNEY, 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 LEE, SHEPARD, AND DILLINGHAM. 
 
 1872. 
 K 
 

 ^'. r; r 
 
 /l-7/^sr 
 
 > ) n 'J 
 
 ELl\ 
 UNIVERSITY 
 \LIBRARY^ 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, 
 
 BY WILLIAM STICKNEY, 
 
 in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., 
 Cambridge, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The present work has been prepared in compliance with the 
 wish of him whose career it undertakes to describe. In his life 
 Mr. Kendall shunned personal notoriety, with a sensitiveness re- 
 markable in one so accustomed to public station and contact with 
 the world. He was widely known, as much so perhaps as any 
 American of his time ; but it was in his public capacity as an 
 editor, as -a government official, as a politician, as the promoter of 
 a great material enterprise. Of his private life the outside world 
 knew but little. What a husband he was, wdiat a father, friend, 
 and Christian, the thousands who honored his great powers and 
 admired his achievements were almost wholly ignorant. 
 
 It is not the object of the present work to expose to public 
 scrutiny his inner private life. Its purpose is simply to set forth 
 the leading facts in his career, to exhibit his intense patriotism, 
 which was indeed his ruling passion, and to make such revelations 
 of his purely personal history as are essential to the completeness 
 and symmetry of the narrative. The means to that end, the ma- 
 terials for the work, have been almost wholly furnished by his own 
 hand, and this memoir, though edited by another, is, in fact as in 
 name, an autobiography. 
 
 It is often said that the history of every human life, even the 
 humblest, furnishes some instructive pages, and it was a recog- 
 nition of this truth, and a consciousness that his own experience 
 had been rich, far beyond the average, in lessons especially fitted 
 for the guidance of American youth, that prompted his desire that 
 this record should be made. That his estimate of the exemplary 
 
iv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 value of his own career was just, it is believed the following pages 
 will sufficiently prove. If they do not, — if there shall be found few 
 instructive lessons, whose observan,ce is a condition of our national 
 welfare, in the life of Amos Kendall, — it may still be claimed that 
 his was purely and distinctively an American life, and as such 
 deserves careful study in these days when nationality is in danger 
 of fading into a mere ideal sentiment. 
 
 The work of the editor in the preparation of this volume has 
 been mainly that of selection and arrangement. The mere story of 
 Mr. Kendall's career is, for the most part, told in his own words, — 
 than which no words could tell it better. These writings represent 
 and reflect with strict fidelity the nature of their author, and are 
 themselves comprehensively and felicitously biographical. 
 
 The editor s chief difficulty has been in selecting from the great 
 mass of Mr. Kendall's writings those best fitted for a place in the 
 present work. This difficulty has been a serious one, and the 
 necessity of confining the volume within reasonable limits has 
 caused the omission of a large amount of matter which seemed, 
 and still seems, essential to a satisfactory treatment of the subject. 
 But it was necessary to draw the line somewhere, and this the 
 editor has done according to his best judgment. 
 
 In offering this autobiography to the public, the editor has 
 made no claim for it of literary merit or artistic and effective con- 
 struction. Its preparation has been to him a labor of love, and if 
 
 v.- 
 
 he has succeeded in giving a view not wholly unworthy and in- 
 adequate of the life and character of one whom it w^as his privilege 
 to know intimately and love tenderly, — one of the very last of 
 " the simple great ones gone," — he will consider his labor well be- 
 stowed, and his reward sufficient. 
 
 WM. STICKNEY. 
 
 Washington, D. C, February 1, 1872. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 Pages 
 The Kendall Family. — Birth of Amos. — Farm Life. — Family Government. 
 
 — The Fiddle. — School Days. — Sally Wright. — Kidd's Treasures. -- In- 
 vents a Pump. — Spearing Pickerel. — Cruelty to Animals. — Maternal 
 Affection. — '* 'Lection Day." — Fox Hunting. — Enters Academy. — First 
 Declamation. — Second Declamation. — Teaches School. — Enters Dart- 
 mouth College. — The Sleigh-Kide. — The Stage upset. — Early Composi- 
 tions. — College Pranks. — Card-playing. — Sacrifice of Homer. — Village 
 Riots. — The Duel . .1-25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 College Life. — Adventure. — Divining Rods. — Again teaches' School. — 
 Quarter-Day. — Temperance Movement in College. — College Riot. — Tne 
 Heher. — Dancing. — Journey to Vermont. — Cold Friday. — Body Snatch- 
 ers. — Cattle in College Cellar. — Political Parties in College. — Death of 
 Professor Hubbard- — Musical Reform . . . . . . .26-55 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 First Appointment on Senior Quarter-Day. — Zerah Colbum, the Boy Mathe- 
 matician. — School Teaching in Weston. — First Honors. — Philoi Euphra- 
 dias. — Commencement. — Review of College Life. — Studies Law. — Music 
 Reform Societies. — War with Great Britain. — Northern Sentiment on the 
 War. — National Fast. — Perpetual Motion. — Politics. — First Visit to the 
 Theatre. — Boston Churches. — First Vote. — Sickness. — Poetry. — Sham- 
 Fight. — Mr. Richardson. — In Love 56-90 
 
 '^O' 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Family Meeting at Deacon Kendall's. — Adieu. — Journey from Boston to 
 Washington in 1814. — President's Levee. — Arrangements with Mr. Bled- 
 soe of Kentucky. — Jouniey from Washington to the Oluo River. — Pitts- 
 burg. — Voyage in a Fiat-Boat. — Blannerhassett's Island. — Cincinnati. — 
 On Foot to Lexington. — Cut Money. — Disappointment. — Enters Family 
 of Mr. Clay. — Observations. — Unruly Boys. — Kentucky Training. — Party 
 at Mrs. Clay's. — Drafting. — Miseries of Human Life. — Air Castles. — How 
 to be Popular. — Victory. — Evening Party 91-128 
 
vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER y 
 
 Examination for Admission to the Bar in Frankfort. — Perplexed. — Better sac- 
 rifice One Hundred Tliousand Men and preserve the Union. — Land Specu- 
 lation. —Peace. —Illumination. —jMurder Trial. — Resigns the Sceptre of 
 Pedagogue. —A Mathematical Problem. — Sickness. — Kindness of Mrs. 
 Clay. — Professional Services. — Becomes Editor and Postmaster. — In Court. 
 
 — " The Religious Intelligencer." — Trouble 129-162 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Land Claim. — Financial Troubles. — Death of the "I^Iinerva Press." — Collect- 
 ing Tour. — " Fair Mary Ann." — Restless. — Biith of the Georgetown "Pa- 
 triot." — Poetry. — Colonel Johnson. — Lovedale. — Journey to Indiana. — 
 Swiss Settlements. — Politics. — "Good-bye, Ann." — Compensation of 
 Members of Congi-ess. — Contrast. — Removes to Frankfort. — The "Argus 
 of Western America." — Lively Times. — Dr. Anthony Hunn. — *' The Com- 
 mentator " and Mann Butler. — Plain Truth. — ■ Free Suffrage. — Humphrey 
 Marshall. — Political Tiimnph. — John H. Faruham. — Personal Attacks. — 
 Editorial Rules of Conduct. — Knob Lick . .... 16c{-198 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Renewal of Charter of United States Bank. — Arguments in favor of United 
 States Bank. — Failure of the Bank to "regulate the Currency," etc. — Bank 
 unconstitutional. — Taxing Branches of Bank in Ohio. — Review of Decision 
 of Supreme Court. — Constitution derives not its Authority from the People 
 in Mass. — The Government not one of a Popular Majority. — Enumerated 
 Powers. — Laws "necessary" and "proper." — Powers of States and the 
 United States on some Subjects coequal. — Opinion of Alexander Hamilton. 
 
 — "Alarming Times." — "Change your Tone or change youi- Coat." — Banks 
 in general. — Sketches on Education. — How a Republic may be well gov- 
 erned. — Primary Schools. — Relief Measures. — Establishment of a School 
 Fund. — Value, and a Standard of Value. — Money. — Paper Currency. — 
 Friend to Relief .... .... 199-236 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Marriage. — Letter from Miss Mary B. Woolfolk. — Letters to Miss TVoolfolk. 
 
 — Letters to his AVife. — Principles of the "Argus." — Habit is second Nature. 
 
 — Shadrach, his Life. — Schools. — Shadrach replies. — Schools, continued. 
 
 — An English Traveller's Opinion. — Ohio and the Federal Court — Secre- 
 taiy of State and the Presidency. — Common Schools. — Circular . 237 - 257 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Prospectus of Kendall and Merriwether. — Sunday Reflections on the Bible. 
 
 Ominous. — Sunday Reflections on Religion. — Death of his Wife. Obitu- 
 
 aiy. — Ability as a Writer 258 - 268 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Second Mamage. — Letters to his Wife. —Appointment as Fourth Auditor 269-295 
 
CONTENTS. . Vii 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Review of GovenmiPTit dimng First Three Years of General Jackson's Term. -^ 
 History of his Connection with the Government. — Duff Green and the Pub- 
 lic Printing. — Colonel Richard M. Johnson. — Anne Royal. — Transporta- 
 tion of Sunday Mails. — Who elected General Jackson? — Flight of Adams 
 and his Cabinet. — Abuses in Office, — Franking Letters. — Private Journal. 
 
 — Circular 296-320 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Letter from Kentucky Friends. — To Caleb Atwater, in reply to a Threatening 
 Letter. — ■ Perpetual Motion. — Cylinder Steamboat. — Letters to his Wife. 
 
 — Appointment as Postmaster-General. — Testimonial of Clerks in Fourth 
 Auditor's Office. — Opinion of the Public Press. — Narrative of his Connec- 
 tion with the Post-Office Department. — Interview with General Jackson. — 
 Major Barry. — Department in Debt. — Corruption. — Improvement of the 
 System. — Duties of different Officers connected with the Department. — 
 Bidding for Contracts. — ** Straw Bids." — The Post-Office organized as an 
 Independent Department. — Post-Office Law of 1835. — Specific Appropria- 
 tions. — Act of 1836 321-347 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Samuel L. Gouvemeur, Postmaster at New York. — Stockton and Stokes. — 
 Corruption. — Responsibility of the Head of a DeiDartment to the Courts for 
 his Official Action. — Unjust Verdict. — Committed to the Prison Limits. — 
 Silas Wright. — Truth and Honesty vindicated. — Peter G. Washington. — 
 Elisha Whittlesey. — Major Eaton. — Free. — Testimonial of Clerks in Post- 
 Office Department. — Notice to Postmasters. — Bill for Money-Order Bureau 
 in 1838. — Reply to an Invitation while in Prison Limits. — A Sentiment. 
 
 — Letter from Willian^ Smith. — Letter from Martin Van Buren, — Post- 
 master-General's Report. — Letter to his Wife from the Hermitage. — Hon. 
 Horatio King. — Death of Mr. Kendall's Father . . . 348 - 369 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Origin of the "Globe" Newspaper. — General Duff Green. — Isaac Hill. — Close- 
 Vote in the Senate. — John C. Calhoun. — Francis P. Blair. — "Globe" and 
 "Telegraph" Newspapers. — Thomas H. Benton. — Removal of Deposits. — 
 
 — Martin Van Buren. — William J. Duane. — A Delicate Service. — Lewis 
 Cass. — Levi Woodbury. — William T, Barry. — Roger B. Taney. — Impor- 
 tant Mission. ^Instructions. — James Gordon Bennett. — Breakfast Party 
 of Three. — President's Reasons for removing Deposits. — Removal of Duane. 
 
 — The coming Storm. — Henry Clay sounds the Tocsin. — Calhoun musters 
 his Forces. — "Richmond Enquirer." — Meeting of Congi^ess, — President's 
 Message. — Clay in the Senate and McDuffie in the House. — A Call on the 
 President declined. — Clay's Resolutions. — President's Policy denounced. — 
 Niles's Register. — Public Meetings. — " Executive Usurpation." — Remon- 
 strances, Memorials, and Petitions pour into Congress. — General Agitation. 
 — Daniel Webster. — Theodore Frelinghuysen. — "A Moment of Spasm and 
 Agony." — Delegations to the President. — The Old Hero roused. — Senate 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 Resolutions condemning the rresident. — A Protest from tlie President. — 
 Additional Resolutions. — House of Representatives sustain the Executive. 
 
 — Consequences • ... o70-4 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Letter to Henry A. Wise. — Thomas Ritchie. — " Babbling Politicians.*- — 
 WilHam J. Graves. —Letter to his Wife. —Evils of Secession shown m a Po- 
 litical Address in 1832. - The Federal Union must be preserved. — Remov- 
 als from Office. — Retirement from Post-Office Department. — Letter of 
 Resignation. — Reply of President Van Buren. — Resumes the Quill. — 
 "Kendall's Expositor." — What is Democracy. — Kendall Green. —A 
 Good Wife. — A Short Sermon. — Death of President Hamson. — A Fable, 
 Uncle Sam and his Dogs. — Another Sermon. —The "Union Democrat." 
 
 Tariff Taxation, a Dialogue. — Party Karnes. — Tariff Taxation. — Third 
 
 Dialogue. — Crawford's Statue of Washington .... 423 - 461 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Our own Affairs. — Tariff Taxation. — Cost of Collection. — "Who pays the 
 Tax, etc. — Weight on Producing Classes. — No Remedy. — A Blow at 
 Trade. — Effect on Foreign Producer. — Reaction of Tariff Taxation. — Why 
 preferred. — Protective Tariff. — Partnership. — How it opemtes. — Sugar, 
 Illustration. — Salt. — For Protection, for Revenue. — Arguments answered. 
 
 — Cheapens Manufactures. — Custom-House Frauds. — Smuggling. — Pro- 
 hibitory Tariff. — National Independence. — A Retaliatory Tariff. — What 
 Tai-iffs are like. — Deceptions of the System. — Free Trade. — Practical 
 Ex]30sition. — Home Market. — Not a Sectional Question. . . 462-503 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 New Things. — Life of Jackson. — ]\Ir. Wise. — Comets. — Partnership in 
 Agency Business. — End of the Comet. — Government. — Same, continued. 
 
 — Awful Visitation; Explosion on the Princeton. — Captain Stockton. — 
 The Sub-Treasury ; what is it ? — Ourself. — Not a Sermon. — Piivate Char- 
 acter. — Close of Editorial Labors 504-526 
 
 CHAPTER XVlir. 
 
 Connection with the Electric Tebgraph. — Letters to his Wife. — Death of his 
 Son AYilliam. — Death of his Wife's Mother and Brother by Fire. — Letters 
 to his Wife. — Reasons why Men should not live always. — Letters. — Death 
 of his Daughter Adela. — Letter to a Defaulter. — Letters to his Wife. — 
 General j\Ie( 'alia. — Birthday. — Letter to Professor Morse. — Letter to 
 William Stickney. — Letter to Rev. G. W. Samson, on Predestination 527-554 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. — Letter on the Times in 
 1850. — Letter to James Buchanan. — Letter to A. P. Hayne, on General 
 Jackson.— Lecture before Young Men's Christian Association: Subject, 
 Christianity. — Letter to James L. Orr. —"Threats will never bring Peace." 
 — Letter to the "Constitution." — Extracts from Papers.— Articles on Seces- 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 sion. —Letter to J. D. Caton. — " No War." — Letters to Samuel Medaiy, 
 Simon Cameron, W. H. Seward, William Stickney. — Death of his Son 
 John. — Letter to a Friend . . . - . . . . 600 - 627 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Lecture before Young Men's Christian Association, on General Jackson, — Let- 
 ters to W. H. Seward, Alfred T. Goodman, Henry S. Randall, J. J. Critten- 
 den, W. D. Wallach, Editor of "Evening Star." — Letters to Hon. J. D. 
 Caton. — Responsibilities of Postmasters. — Clerical Rebuke. — Letter on 
 Public Afifairs. — Death of his Second Wife. — Religious Experience. — A 
 True Practical Christian. — Religious Convictions. — Letter to Rev. T. R. 
 Howlett. — His Baptism. — Baptism of his Grandson. — Immersion not 
 Baptism. — "Marrying the Church." — The Lord's Prayer. — Dedication 
 of the Church. — Sunday-School Work. — Collections in Churches. — Condi- 
 tions of his Deed of Gift. — Trip to Europe. — Letter from Paris to Rev. T. 
 R. Howlett. — Visits Africa and Asia. — Welcome Home. — Destruction of 
 the Church. — Moves to the City. — *' Little Children."— Failing Health. 
 
 — Donation to Colmnbian College. — General Jackson. — Man's Nature. — 
 Rededication of the Church. — Trip Norih. — Returns in Feeble Condition. 
 
 — Continues to fail. — Messages to the Church. — Endowment of Two Mis- 
 sion Sunday-Schools. — Death. — Funeral. — Letter from Professor Morse. 
 
 — Conclusion 628-692 
 
 Appendix . . , * 693-700 
 
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KEJfDALL. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 The Kendall family is one of the oldest in New England. The 
 traditions of the family represent that two brothers, Thomas and 
 Erancis Kendall, came from England about 1640, and settled in 
 Woburn, Massachusetts. Thomas had no sons. 
 
 Francis Kendall, the progenitor of the family, had four sons, 
 Erancis, Thomas, Ealph, and Jacob, — all born in America. 
 
 Jacob, born in 1686, was twice married, and had nine sons, 
 Jacobs Daniel, Joseph, and Hezekiah by his first wife, and John, 
 Ebenezer, David, Nathan, and Abraham by his second wife. 
 
 John, Ebenezer, and Abraham moved to Dunstable about the 
 year 1726. There John had five sons, John, Jacob, Temple, Ed- 
 ward, and Zebedee. 
 
 John the second had two sons, John and Zebedee. 
 
 Zebedee, the father of Amos, had nine sons, six of whom grew 
 to manhood ; namely, Zebedee, Samuel, George-Minot, Amos, 
 John, and Timothy. All these were living in 1858, presenting 
 an array of old men not common in the same brotherhood. 
 
 Amos Kendall was born on Sunday, the 16th day of August, 
 1789. From early boyhood he was habituated to hard work on 
 his father's farm. The farm was composed of bog meadow, pine 
 plains, and oak hills. The meadows yielded the coarser kinds of 
 grasses intermixed with various ferns, cranberry-vines, and small 
 bushes ; but they also supplied most of the hay on which the 
 cattle subsisted during the long New England winters. Through 
 these meadows meandered a sluggish stream called Salmon Brook, 
 stocked with various kinds of fish. The pine plains rested on a 
 bed of gravel, and, except along the foot of the hills, were almost 
 barren. From these, however, the bread of the family was for the 
 
2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 most part drawn. ISText to the hills there were two four-acre 
 fields cultivated alternately in corn and rye. The corn crop was 
 always manured, and the rye was sown in the fall among the 
 corn; so that these fields were manured alternately every other 
 year. The plains between these fields and the meadows were gen- 
 erally used as sheep pastures, but once in ^ve or six years they 
 produced a veiy small crop of rye of excellent quality. 
 
 The oak hills were composed of clay soil, so full of rocks in 
 many places as to preclude cultivation without removing them. 
 With great labor small tracts were so far cleared as to become 
 good upland meadow, furnishing excellent hay for horses and 
 working oxen. These uplands supplied an abundance of stones, 
 with which the whole farm, except the pine plains, was enclosed ; 
 the fences were of stone combined with posts and rails. The up- 
 land meadows were cultivated in potatoes or corn once in five or 
 six years, but seldom in rye, on account of its inferior quality 
 when produced on a clay soil. A patch of flax was generally a 
 part of the annual crop, and this, with the wool from a small flock 
 of sheep, manufactured and made up in the household, furnished 
 almost the entire clothing of the family. 
 
 The rougher portions of the upland, much of which was never 
 cultivated, furnished pasturage for the horses, oxen, and milch cows 
 during the summer; but as much of the stock as was nbt used 
 on the farm was generally driven in the spring to a pasture on 
 Flat Mountain, in iN'ew Ipswich, N. H., twenty-five miles distant, 
 whence it was brought back in the fall. 
 
 The father and mother of Amos Kendall were exemplary mem- 
 bers of the Congregational Church, of which the former was a 
 deacon, Grace before and thanks after meat, and morning and 
 evening prayers, with the reading of a chapter in the Bible and 
 the singing of a hymn on Sunday, accompanied by the bass-viol, 
 played by their oldest son while he was at home, constituted the 
 regular religious exercises of the family. The father and mother 
 never failed to attend church on Sunday, except in case of sickness 
 or when absent from home ; and the entire family, one member 
 only excepted, were required to maintain a like regularity in 
 Sabbath observances. Except in special cases, all labor beyond 
 the simplest preparation of food for man and beast and all recrea- 
 tion were strictly prohibited on Sunday. The evening was spent 
 in learning and reciting the Westminster Catechism, in readino- 
 
 t3 
 
BOYHOOD. 3 
 
 religious books, and in practising sacred music. The whole family 
 could sing, and when all were present, could carry all the four 
 parts of ordinary tunes. 
 
 The family government was strict, and, so far as it bore upon 
 their eldest children, severe. They were not only prohibited 
 from dancing, playing cards, and all like amusements, but from 
 going to places where they were practised. The consequence was, 
 that the elder sons deceived their parents and indulged in those 
 forbidden recreations clandestinely. But a change came over the 
 father and mother before Amos grew up, and with him and the 
 younger children advice and admonition took the place of prohibi- 
 tion. 
 
 The change which took place in the minds of this worthy pair 
 with reference to domestic discipline is well illustrated by an ex- 
 ample. When Amos was a little boy, a fiddle was an abomination 
 to his father and mother. His eldest brother, who had quite a 
 taste for music, having constructed a bass-viol or two, determined 
 to try his hand upon a fiddle, and produced a very good instru- 
 ment. 
 
 Not daring to bring it to the house, he kept it in a cooper's 
 shop not far distant. His father, hunting there for something 
 one day, mounted a bench, so that his head was raised above the 
 beams of the shop, when his eyes fell upon the unlucky fiddle. He 
 took it by the neck, and apostrophizing it, " This is the first time 
 I ever saw you" dashed it into the fireplace. 
 
 Being on a visit to his parents about thirty years afterwards, 
 Amos Kendall went to meeting in Dunstable on a Sunday, and 
 there sat his father in the deacon's seat beneath the pulpit, as in 
 former times, and there was a fiddle in the choir I 
 
 The early education of Amos was in the free schools of Massa- 
 chusetts and New Hampshire. The boundary line between these 
 States ran through his father's farm, . who paid a school tax in 
 both States, and had the privilege of sending his children to 
 school in both. The summer schools were taught by women, and 
 were in general attended only by children who were not old 
 enough to assist their parents in their daily labors. They were 
 generally kept from two to three months in each summer. The 
 winter schools were usually kept by men, and lasted from six 
 weeks to two months in each year. They were open to children of 
 all ages from infancy to manhood. 
 
4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 These schools were from one to two miles distant from -^^^ 
 Kendall's, and having five chHdren, of whom Amos was 
 youngest, and one niece to be taught, he hired a female teacher one 
 winter and estabUshed a school at home. Here .Amos ^^^ 
 first distinction. He had just begun to read and spell, and had no 
 lessons to learn beyond the spelling-book. But he speUed m a 
 class with the other children, and the teacher having promised a 
 book to the one who should keep longest at the head, the prize was 
 awarded to him, the youngest competitor. 
 
 At school he was obedient and studious, excelling in all branches 
 except penmanship, in which he seemed to feel little interest. He 
 was particularly fond of arithmetic, and by means of sums set by 
 his elder brothers, and worked out in evenings by the light of the 
 kitchen fire, he became master of the fundamental rules before he 
 was allowed to cipher at school. He had just begun to read when 
 he heard his father promise his elder brother George, that if he 
 would read the Bible through in one year, he would give him a 
 new one. He asked his father whether he could have a new one 
 on the same condition, and was answered in the affirmative. The 
 prize was easily won. 
 
 It was the custom of Deacon Kendall to allow his bovs about 
 two hours' nooning in the summer. A large portion of this time 
 and of the winter evenings Amos devoted to reading, while the other 
 boys were at play. There Avas a small township library in Dun- 
 stable, in which his father held' two shares, entitling him to take 
 out a book on each share and retain it two months. The use of 
 one of these shares he gave to Amos, who in a very few years had 
 read nearly every book in the library. On one occasion he brought 
 home the second volume of ]\Iorse's large Geography, when his 
 father smilingly asked, " Do you expect to read that through in 
 two months ? " Receiving an affirmative answer, he said, " Well, 
 if you do, I will gi^'e you a pistareen." This was a Spanish coin 
 then in circulation, worth about twenty cents. The pistareen was 
 earned and paid. 
 
 This early reading was, perhaps, better remembered than the 
 reading of subsequent years, since almost every sentence of it pre- 
 sented some new idea to the impressible and expandino- niind 
 The value of it, especially in relation to geography and hist 
 was fully appreciated by him in subsequent stages of l^jg ^j 
 tion. 
 
BOYHOOD. 5 
 
 In the free schools Amos had but one competitor for pre-emi- 
 nence in spelling. This was a little girl of about his own age, 
 named Sally Wright. For two or three years the competition was 
 very keen, though Sally took the lead. At spelling-matches, then 
 quite common, she was always the first chosen, and Amos Kendall 
 was the first on the other side. Owing, however, to the superior 
 advantages possessed by the latter, he finally took the lead of his 
 fair rival. In this competition there was not a particle of envy 
 or ill-will ; on the contrary, the boy admired little Sally Wright 
 for her smartness, and thought that when they grew up he would 
 ask her to be his wife. But the Fates otherwise ordered. Sally 
 married a worthless man. It was perhaps thirty years before she 
 and her youthful competitor and admirer again met. He was then 
 casually passing her residence, which bore all the outward signs of 
 poverty, when it occurred to him to call, for the double purpose of 
 seeing her once more and ascertaining whether she would recog- 
 nize him. He knocked and was told to come in. On entering he 
 beheld Sally Wright sitting in a plain but cleanly room, with 
 several children around her, all clad in coarse clothing, but as neat 
 as a good mother's labor could make them. " Do you not know 
 me ? " said he. " No, sir," was her reply. " Do you not recollect 
 the boy, Amos Kendall, who used to go to school with you ? " 
 She sprang from her chair, and seized his hand, as if he had been 
 a long-lost brother. The last he heard of her she was a widow, 
 living with a brother. 
 
 So sober and thoughtful was Amos when a little boy, that he 
 was generally caUed "the Deacon." Though often praised for 
 his scholarship, he was as diffident and bashful as any girl. This 
 peculiarity was, no doubt, natural ; but in after life he attributed it 
 chiefly to a singular incident which occurred when he was a little 
 
 boy. 
 
 Though Dunstable was more than thirty miles from the sea, 
 tales of money buried in that region by pirates, particularly by 
 one Captain Kidd, were current among the population, and 
 generally credited. This money was supposed to be in iron pots 
 under the special charge of the Devil, who, though he could not 
 harm those who might dig for it, would employ all sorts of noises 
 and terrifying apparitions to scare them away, and not succeeding, 
 would turn the money into something else. In this shift, however, 
 his infernal majesty might be baffled by laying upon the trans- 
 
6 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 muted money a Bible and an open penknife, under the influence 
 of which it would, in the course of a few days, resume its original 
 character. 
 
 One of Amos's elder brothers was a full believer in these 
 tales, and the boys of the neighborhood entered into a conspiracy 
 
 to test his courage. 
 
 They filled two small iron pots with blacksmith's cinders and 
 buried them under a large white pine-tree in the midst of a dense 
 wood. One of the boys was then commissioned to notify the 
 destined victim that money was buried in that spot, and propose 
 that they two should go in the night and dig for it. Arrangements 
 were made, and in the middle of a dark night, rendered darker by 
 the surrounding forests, the boys repaired with lanterns and tools 
 to the designated spot, and began operations. They had not pro- 
 ceeded far before strange noises were heard in the bushes around 
 them : dogs barked, cats mewed, sheep bleated, cows lowed, and 
 horses neighed. The diggers came to a big root of the white pine, 
 which they began to cut away. The noises redoubled, accompa- 
 nied by the blowing of trumpets and other alarming sounds. Under 
 the big root they came upon a large black snake lying upon a flat 
 stone, which the companion of young Kendall pretended to kill 
 At this stage the noises became terrific : dogs howled, cats yelled, 
 cattle bellowed, women screamed, and bang, bang, went guns over 
 their heads in the pine-tree and among the surrounding bushes. 
 Though his companion pretended to be much terrified, the brave 
 boy, who believed it all the work of the Devil, nothing daunted 
 hauled out the black snake, and, turning up the stone on wliich it 
 was deposited, came upon the eagerly sought treasure ; but the 
 Devil had transmuted the gold and the silver into common 
 blacksmith's cinders. As this w^as not unexpected, the boys 
 lugged the pots home and deposited them in young Kendall's 
 chamber, placing upon the cinders in each a Bible and an open 
 penknife. There Deacon Kendall found them a few days afterwards 
 and pitched them out of the window. 
 
 This incident led Amos to conclude that his father's children 
 were not so smart as the neighbors' boys, and, enhancing his 
 natural diffidence, produced a bashfulness and reserve Avhich be- 
 came habitual and invincible. Only once during boyhood was it 
 thoroughly overcome in the presence of strangers. On a public 
 occasion a larger boy began to insult and abuse his next older 
 
BOYHOOD. 7 
 
 brother, when young Amos, highly excited, opened upon and soon 
 silenced him. The lookers-on thereupon insisted upon the van- 
 quished blackguard's " treating " Amos and his brother, which he 
 did, — with rum-toddy and gingerbread. 
 
 The mind of Amos Kendall always had a mechanical turn. 
 When a boy, he constructed in a rude way the machinery of little 
 wind and water mills and put them in operation. He thought 
 much on means of using the air as a regular motive power, but 
 with no result. He invented, however, a pump, on a principle not 
 in use in this country, and never, so far as he knew, put into oper- 
 ation. His father had a cider-press operated by two large wooden 
 screws. It occurred to him that if the threads had a water-tight 
 covering, and one end of the screw was immersed at a suitable 
 angle in water, and then made to revolve in the right direction, 
 the water must necessarily follow the groove and be discharged at 
 the top. With a jackknife he cut a groove around a stick of pine 
 wood, tied over it a sheepskin, which made it nearly water-tight, 
 and, turning it with the hand, one end being immersed in water, 
 found it to answer his expectations. 
 
 Years afterwards he learnt that it was an old invention at- 
 tributed to Archimedes, and had long been in use in Holland for 
 draining marshes. Yet the conception was as original with Amos 
 Kendall as it was with the first inventor. 
 
 It was a part of the parental teaching in the Kendall family 
 never wantonly to take the life of any creature, snakes excepted. 
 Birds and beasts which destroyed the farmers' crops, or were 
 valuable for food, or on account of their skins, were fair game for 
 his boys. In the neighboring streams and meadows were minks 
 and muskrats, which were trapped by them, and the skins sold to 
 raise " spending-money." Many an autumn morning Amos left his 
 bed before daylight, and, walking or running two or three miles, 
 visited his traps, and got home before sunrise. The boys were 
 also allowed to cultivate a small patch of tobacco, which they 
 manufactured into "pigtail" and sold to the chewers in the 
 neighborhood. From these two sources were derived nearly all 
 the funds they were able to control. 
 
 The amusements of Deacon Kendall's boys, other than such as 
 are common to all youngsters, were fishing, both with the rod and 
 spear, and hunting on a small scale. Salmon Brook, which ran 
 throucrh their father's farm, was stocked with a great variety of 
 
8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 fish, though none of them were large. Fishing with the spear 
 was chiefly practised at night. The boys had a skiff, constructed 
 by the oldest brother, in the centre of which was raised a jack, 
 composed of iron ribs, upon a standard four or five feet high. On 
 this were piled pine-knots, which, being set on fire, produced a 
 brilliant light. The pickerel sleep in still water near the surface, 
 and by careful rowing they may be closely approached. It was a 
 beautiful sight to see them lying motionless near the surface of the 
 water ; but it was cruel sport to strike them dead in that con- 
 dition. 
 
 An incident occurred while the boys were fishing with the rod 
 which made a deep impression on the mind of Amos. They were 
 joined by some neighboring boys, who suggested that fishes' eyes 
 were excellent bait. The experiment was tried, and several fish 
 just caught having been ruthlessly deprived of their eyes, the 
 sport proceeded with gratifying results. One of the boys put back 
 into the stream a sunperch, yet in full life, both of whose eyes 
 had thus been extracted. This method of providing bait was new 
 to the young Kendalls, but when they gleefully described it to 
 their father, he gave them an impressive lecture upon its cruelty, 
 and painted so vividly the condition of the poor blind fish returned 
 to its native element to starve, that throughout his long life Amos 
 Kendall, whenever he thought of it, seemed to see the mutilated 
 creature, as he saw it then, making its dark way through the water 
 among the bulrushes of Salmon Brook. It was thoughtlessness, and 
 not cruelty, which furnished the occasion for this useful lecture. 
 
 The following instance of the motherly affection of a mouse, 
 witnessed by Amos Kendall, and the impression it made upon him, 
 are not unworthy of record. 
 
 He was passing in the fall through his father's cornfield, when 
 he came upon a bundle of cornstalks lying between two rows, 
 which had been overlooked when the rest were removed. He 
 raised it up, when a mouse ran out of a nest which she had made 
 under it. He sprang forward to kill her, when she suddenly 
 stopped and turned back. Struck with this singular movement, 
 he paused to await the result. The mouse came up to him, appear- 
 ing to be perfectly tame. He stooped and put down his hand to 
 her, when she crept into it and up his arm in the most confiding 
 manner. On examining the nest, he found it full of young ones! 
 It was evident that maternal affection had conquered fear ; and her 
 
WINTER AMUSEMENTS. 9 
 
 movements were so mnch like an appeal for mercy to her offspring, 
 that young Kendall gently replaced the bundle of stalks upon the 
 nest, and left her to raise her family in peace. 
 
 The day on which the Governor of Massachusetts was inauon- 
 rated was formerly known as " 'Lection Day." It was a holiday for 
 the farmers' boys, who spent it in fishing, hunting, or such other 
 amusements as they might fancy. It was in the latter part of 
 May, a season at which the birds had hatched their young or laid 
 their eggs, and the boys of the neighborhood were accustomed to 
 have a hunt on that day for blackbirds' eggs, for the birds them- 
 selves, for crows and other feathered cr^me. A blackbird's egcj 
 counted one, a blackbird two, a crow's egg or a young crow five, an 
 old crow ten, etc. A meeting was held and sides chosen some 
 days before " 'Lection Day," and the woods were scoured for 
 crows' nests. If any were found containing young ones, these 
 were generally taken home and fed until the day of the hunt, for 
 no bird not killed on that day was to be counted. The day was 
 chiefly spent in exploring the bog meadows along Salmon Brook 
 for blackbirds' eggs, and at first quarts of eggs were collected. In 
 the afternoon the parties all came in, and the side which exhibited 
 the most game was the victor. The day's amusement was closed 
 by threshing eggs. In this game an egg was placed on the ground, 
 and the thresher, taking his stand about two rods distant, with a 
 large switch in his hand, advanced, with his eyes shut, and made 
 a blow at the egg. The only reward of victory in the hunt or the 
 game was the pride of success. 
 
 These hunts were encouraged by the farmers of the neighbor- 
 hood as means of diminishing the number of mischievous birds, 
 and they were eminently successful. 
 
 To that end young Amos contributed in another way. There 
 was a large sfcake by the side of a causeway through his father's 
 meadow, upon the, top of which he observed a blackbird almost 
 always standing. He set a small steel trap upon the top of this 
 stake, and at first caught nearly a dozen birds a day. The sur- 
 vivors seemed finally to understand that there was danger at the 
 stake, and captures soon became unfrequent. One morning the 
 trap was missing, and not a trace of it could be found. Some time 
 in the day a flock of crows in the edge of the woods, a few hun- 
 dred yards distant, attracted attention by angry screams and violent 
 plunges among the bushes. It proved that a large owl was there, 
 
10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 with the lost trap hanging by the middle claw of one of his feet. 
 He had carried it thus far, and being unable to alight in the trees, 
 had fallen upon the ground. He could rise a few feet, but the 
 weight of the trap dragged him down again. The owl was easily 
 despatched, and thenceforward the trap was fastened. 
 
 One winter, when Amos was about fourteen years old, two or 
 three neighboring men, after a deep snow, called at his father's 
 to borrow tools for the purpose of digging out a fox which they 
 had traced into a burrow in a neighboring wood. His brother- 
 George and himself accompanied them and witnessed the operation. 
 After the next snow-storm they also went fox-hunting. Falling 
 upon a track, they followed it to the burrow where the fox had 
 sought shelter. With no great labor they opened it, and found 
 therein two foxes, which they secured. Thus encouraged, they 
 sallied out after the next storm, and soon caught a fox in the same 
 way. They then took a wide circuit and came witliin a quarter 
 of a mile from home, when they saw a fox at a distance wallowing 
 through the snow, and gave chase. He, however, showed no dis- 
 position to burrow, but led them on a run about a mile and a 
 haK directly from home, when it becoming dark they gave up 
 the pursuit. The snow was nearly knee-deep, and they were much 
 heated and fatigued by the race. After stopping at a neighbor's 
 and procuring a drink of cider they made towards home ; but Amos 
 complained of weariness in his limbs, which increased as he pro- 
 gressed, so that within half a mile of his father's house he gave 
 out. He remembered having heard his grandfather speak of 
 sleeping comfortably under the snow when out on a hunt, and 
 proposed to his brother to cover him with the same bedding and go 
 home for a horse. After attempting in vain to assist him to walk, 
 his brother accordingly removed the snow with his feet, when Amos 
 laid down on the ground, and, with the fox-skin over his face, 
 was covered with several inches of snow. He fell asleep instantly 
 and had a pleasant nap. Waking, he felt perfectly well, and 
 thought he could walk home ; but on getting up and making the 
 attempt he found it impossible. The sinews of his legs seemed 
 entirely unstrung, and he had no control over them. It was now 
 night ; but he was soon relieved by seeing his brother approach- 
 ing through the darkness with a horse. Aided by his brother 
 he mounted and rode home, but after his arrival could not walk 
 without assistance. He felt entirely well, however, ate his supper 
 
FAEM WORK. n 
 
 as usual, was assisted to bed, and the next morning was as strono" 
 as ever. But this was the last of Amos's fox-hunting. 
 
 For some three years, after Amos was eleven years old, he 
 lived with his grandfather, who occupied a house about twenty 
 rods from his father's. His duties were to cut the wood, make the 
 fires, look after a few cattle, and do whatever jobs and errands his 
 grandfather and grandmother might require of him. During this 
 period, however, he labored with lii^ brothers on his father's farm 
 the most of the day, doing the " chores " at his grandfather's in 
 the mornings and evenings. 
 
 During the year 1803 and 1804 nearly all the labors of the farm 
 fell upon Amos and his brother George, who was nearly two years 
 his senior, his elder brother having left home, and his father being 
 disabled by rheumatism. 
 
 At this time he could do a man's work at mowing, reap- 
 ing, chopping, and any other kind of ordinary farm labor. But 
 the demands of the farm were so incessant and engrossing that he 
 was unable to go to school more than two or three weeks in each 
 of those years. 
 
 Deacon Kendall had become desirous to give his son Amos a 
 liberal education ; but his own means were not equal to such an 
 expenditure. He, however, told his son that if he was disposed to 
 go to college, and fit himself for a professional life, he would aid 
 him to the extent of his ability. Having no predilection for any 
 profession, and knowing that his life must be one of toil, Amos 
 would have been content to be a farmer ; but his love of knowl- 
 edge induced him to avail himself of his father's kind offer. 
 
 His first object was to fit himself with all possible economy for 
 teaching school, in order that he might, by his . own earnings, eke 
 out his father's scanty allowance. He had already made good 
 progTess in arithmetic and English grammar, when in the fall of 
 1804 his father closed a bargain with the preacher of the parish, 
 according to which Amos was to live with the preacher during the 
 winter, cut his fire-wood, take care of his horse and cattle, etc., and 
 in return should "receive instruction in the above-named branches. 
 This turned out to be a most disagreeable and unprofitable 
 arrangement. The preacher was morose, indolent, and thoroughly 
 selfish. His sole study seemed to be to receive from Amos as 
 much labor, and give in return as little instruction as possible. 
 Much of the labor required of the boy was utterly unprofitable : 
 
12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 lie was made to shovel paths from the house to the bam while snow 
 was falling rapidly, filling them as fast as they were cleared. 
 
 But this was not aU ; the housework of the family was done by an 
 orphan girl about Amos's own age, who had been intrusted to the 
 care of the preacher's wife by her dying father. She was remark- 
 ably kind and amiable in her disposition, and, as far as he could 
 judge, inoffensive in her conversation. Yet, upon the allegation 
 that she had told falsehoods about family affairs to some of the 
 neighbors, she was prohibited from visiting or speaking to any one 
 out of the family, or holding any conversation with visitors ex- 
 cept in the presence of the preacher or of his wife or his wife's 
 mother. For the most trivial things she was incessantly scolded, 
 and sometimes threatened even with horsewhipping. Amos sin- 
 cerely pitied the girl, while he learned to hate and despise her 
 tyrants, and he became the bearer of correspondence between her 
 and her old associates in the outer world. 
 
 He was himself thoroughly homesick; but he was afraid to 
 complain to his father, who was one of the deacons of the church, 
 and appeared to have perfect confidence in his pastor. He there- 
 fore made the best of his uncomfortable situation, and endured it 
 until he was called home in the spring of 1805. 
 
 Some time in the next summer his father asked him whether, 
 while at the preacher's, he had been the bearer of any letters to his 
 housemaid from the neighboring girls. He replied that he had ; 
 and not waiting for reproof, if any was intended, proceeded to tell 
 his father how the girl was treated, and added that he had carried 
 the letter in pure compassion, and would do the same again under 
 like circumstances. His father was silent, but afterwards asked his 
 son whether he would like to live with the preacher again the next 
 winter. To this the son replied, that, if kept at work all day and 
 furnished with a light at night, he could learn more at home than 
 he could at the preacher's. The subject Avas never mentioned again. 
 
 Up to that time Amos looked upon preachers as almost perfect 
 men, possessed of all those virtues and graces Avhich belong to the 
 Christian character, according to the New Testament, but he now 
 found that they were no better than their neighbors. 
 
 In the fall of 1805 he became for about eleven weeks a pupil 
 in the academy at New Ipswich, N. H. He boarded at the house 
 of his brother Samuel, who lived a mile and a half from the 
 academy, went thither to dinner every day, and paid for his board 
 
ENTERS THE ACADEMY. I3 
 
 by work on his brother's farm evening and morning. The expense 
 to his father was twenty cents a week for tuition, and about six 
 dollars in all for books. 
 
 This may be considered Amos Kendall's first entrance upon the 
 theatre of the great world, and the opening scenes were by no 
 means agreeable to him. Having been raised, thus far, among 
 plain farmers, he had little knowledge of human nature, and none 
 of the habits and humors of the more cultivated classes of society 
 Conscious of his own deficiencies, he looked upon every one as his 
 superior, and was confused at the slightest incident or remark which 
 could be construed as a disparaging reference to himself. Noting his 
 sensitiveness, some of the boys took pleasure in annoying him by 
 criticisms on his person and manners, against which his diflEidence 
 rendered him entirely defenceless. The discomforts of his situa- 
 tion were aggravated by the injudicious, or it may have been 
 wanton, conduct of his preceptor. Before he had a chance to wit- 
 ness the performances of the other pupils, he was required to speak 
 a piece of his own selection before the school. Eeceiving no 
 instruction as to the length or character of the piece suited to the 
 occasion, he committed to memory an oration, which occupied 
 seven octavo pages in a school-book then in use, called " Webster's 
 Third Part." 
 
 At the time of the performance he took his position, fixed his 
 eyes upon the other side of the room, and repeated the whole 
 oration, without moving hand or foot. His preceptor — who ought 
 to have perceived, if he did not, that the selection of such a piece 
 and the awkward performance were the result of ignorance and 
 bashfulness, which demanded from a just and judicious teacher 
 commiseration and encouragement — ridiculed him unmercifully, 
 comparing him to an immovable hydrant pouring forth its steady 
 stream of water. He carried his ridicule so far, that resentment 
 took the place of mortification in the bosom of the young orator, 
 and he resolved to show his persecutors that he could overcome 
 the difficulties under which he labored. 
 
 The next winter he spent at home, except one month, during 
 which he attended a free school in New Ipswich. His time at 
 home was spent in labor, in reading, and in practising declama- 
 tion. He committed to memory several pieces, and spoke them 
 before a glass, studying emphasis and gesticulation, — performing 
 himself the office of critic and instructor. 
 
14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 On the 15th of April, 1806, he resumed his studies at Kew 
 Ipswich Academy, boarding at his brother's, and paying for his 
 board by manual labor, morning and evening, as in the preceding 
 season. The only addition to his expenses was the price of a din- 
 ner in the village, at twenty cents per day, during the hot summer 
 weather. 
 
 Soon after his return to New Ipswich he was again called upon 
 for an exercise in declamation. He selected one of the pieces he 
 had practised during the preceding winter, and spoke it with a 
 good degree of self-possession, and with appropriate action. His 
 preceptor commended his performance, and his fellow-students 
 said, " You have greatly improved since last year ; where have you 
 been to school ? " They seemed more surprised when assured that 
 he had not been to school at all. He soon became distinguished in 
 his other exercises ; ridicule was succeeded by respect ; and before 
 the season closed he had the sweet revenge of aiding in their les- 
 sons some of those who were most forward in ridiculing him on 
 his first appearance at the academy. During all this time, how- 
 ever, though he wrote several pieces of composition, he could not 
 be induced, by fear of any consequences, to read one of them 
 before the school, — simply because of their want of merit, in his 
 own estimation. 
 
 During haying-time, this summer, Amos left school to aid his 
 brother on his farm, and spent two weeks in the severe labor of 
 mowing. To him it was unusually severe, on account of his recent 
 sedentary life. 
 
 In the faU of 1806 his studies were brought to a close by 
 the unexpected disappearance of the preceptor of New Ipswich 
 Academy. After remaining there a short time he returned to his 
 father's house. He worked on the farm during most of the fall, 
 but in December attended a free school, a few days, in the neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 Being now sufficiently advanced to become a teacher in the New 
 England free schools, though but sixteen years of age, his father 
 engaged a school for him, for two months, in the Lobb's Pond Dis- 
 trict, in lieading, Mass., at thirteen dollars per month and board. 
 After closing his school in Eeading he taught another for five 
 weeks, on the same terms, in Dunstable, now Nashua, N. H. He 
 was popular as a teacher, and was invited to teach both of these 
 schools the next winter. 
 
ENTERS COLLEGE. 15 
 
 In April, 1807, he became a student in the academy at Groton, 
 Mass., then, and for many years afterwards, under the charge of 
 Caleb Butler. There he paid for his board, at one dollar and fifty 
 cents per week, with the money obtained by teaching the preced- 
 ing winter ; but close application to study, and neglect of physical 
 exercise, impaired his health, never very robust, and it gave way to 
 such an extent that he was compelled to return home and recruit 
 his strength by hunting and moderate labor. On his return to the 
 academy, after a fortnight thus spent, he adopted a regular system 
 of exercise, walking and running, early in the morning and in the 
 evening. 
 
 By the end of summer he had finished his preparation for col- 
 lege, and on the 10th of September, after examination and pay- 
 ment of four dollars as entrance-fee, was admitted as a member of 
 the Freshman class, at Dartmouth College, by Professor Hubbard, 
 who was on a visit to Groton. There were admitted, at the same 
 time, Benjamin Fresco tt, Thomas C. Gardner, Moses Whitney, 
 Josiah Danforth, Daniel Eockwood to the Freshman class, and 
 Eoyal Bullard to the Sophomore class. The morning of the day 
 was one of hope and fear ; the evening, one of congratulation and 
 rejoicing. 
 
 His academic life, in fitting for college, was forty-seven weeks ; 
 twenty-eight in New Ipswich, and nineteen in Groton. The ex- 
 pense of this preparatory course, exclusive of books, was eighty- 
 five dollars and thirty-nine cents, of which forty-two dollars and 
 twenty-five cents was earned by him in teaching school The 
 actual cost to his father, therefore, was forty-two dollars and 
 eighty-four cents. 
 
 Having no means of paying the expenses of the fall term at 
 college, Amos pursued the studies of the class at home ; at the 
 same time participating, to a moderate degree, in the labors of the 
 farm. 
 
 In September he visited his friends in Eeading, where he was 
 treated with the utmost kindness, and was strenuously urged to 
 take charge of their school the next winter. This he declined 
 to do, hoping to secure a larger school with higher wages. 
 
 Through his father, aorreements were made that he should 
 teach the schools of the two adjoining districts in Dunstable, now 
 Nashua, K H. One of them was the same which he had taught the 
 preceding winter. His wages were to be the same, thirteen dollars 
 
16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 per month, and board, with the .addition of one dollar should he go 
 home, a distance of about a mile and a half, on Saturday evening, 
 and return on Monday morning. The engagement was for four 
 weeks only ; but by vote of a meeting of the district the school 
 was continued a week longer. In consequence of this extension 
 he lost the other engagement, but was soon employed to take charge 
 of a school in his native town. 
 
 The custom, in many of the school districts in New England 
 then, was to let out the board of the schoolmaster to the lowest 
 bidder. It was the fortune of the master, in this case, to be bid off 
 by a plain farmer, living more than a mile from the school-house 
 in a direct line, and nearly two by an indifferent road. The food 
 at this man's table was wholesome, but coarse, consisting almost 
 entirely of rye-bread, salt beef and pork, with potatoes and cabbages, 
 morning, noon, and night, varied only by various admixtures and 
 variable cookery. The house was full of air-holes, and the fuel, 
 green oak sticks. After wading through the snow several miles, to 
 and from the school-house, young Kendall might be seen, late in 
 the evening, sitting with his books on a table, — turning first one 
 side and then the other to a fire which seemed itself to be freezing, 
 with no sound around him but the wintry wind, — pursuing, by the 
 light of a tallow-candle, the studies of his class in college. He 
 foimd comfort, however, in an excellent feather-bed, furnished 
 with an ample supply of home-made blankets and coverlets. 
 
 While Amos was teaching in this district the young people of 
 Dunstable proposed getting up a sleigh-ride and ball, and he deter- 
 mined to join the party. There had been no snow for many days, 
 and the roads were in beautiful condition. On the appointed 
 morning the sky was overcast with ominous clouds, and by the 
 time the company had collected it began to snow very gently. 
 There were twenty-two sleighs, each containing a young man and 
 his lady-companion. His w^as a farmer's daughter, of precisely his 
 own age, having been born on the same day. The ride was to be 
 from the rendezvous in Dunstable to a tavern in Chelmsford, about 
 seven miles, where a ball was to be given at night. The snow fell 
 faster and faster, and before they reached Chelmsford the wind be- 
 gan to blow from the northeast. During their stay there it in- 
 creased to a gale, and the whole atmosphere appeared to be a mass 
 of furiously driving snow. Their course in returning, for about 
 three miles, was nearly north, along the banks of the Merrimack 
 
SLEIGH-RIDING. 
 
 17 
 
 River, the snow driving obliquely into their faces. It was impos- 
 sible for the drivers to see their horses, except in ghmpses, and 
 they went helter-skelter in utter confusion, like a fleet of un- 
 manageable shallops driven before the wind. It became intensely 
 cold, and fingers, toes, ears, and cheeks were frozen. Umbrellas 
 were no protection, and some were blown away. Kendall suffered 
 none of these calamities, his right ear being protected by a sheet 
 of ice. The snow blown among his hair, under the rim of his 
 hat, melted there, and then running down from the hair, froze, and 
 formed dangling icicles over the ear. At first he brushed them 
 off as they formed, but finding that they did not adhere to the ear, 
 which was not even cold, he suffered them to form anew, until 
 they became a sheet of ice, constituting an effectual protection 
 against the piercing wind. 
 
 The party all reached the rendezvous in scattered order, and 
 though many casualties were recounted, none of them were very 
 serious. Indeed, the disasters of the day added zest to the enjoy- 
 ment of the night, and the merry dance was kept up for many 
 hours with unflagging spirit. About midnight the storm abated, 
 and a party went out to inspect the condition of the roads, which 
 passed, almost uniformly, between stone fences. They reported 
 them to be filled with driven snow to the tops of the fences, and 
 wholly impassable. Of course the entire party, except three or 
 four whose residences were just at hand, had to remain not only 
 all night, but until the roads were broken out the next day. 
 There being no beds for them, when tired of dancing they slept in 
 chairs, or, 'gathering together in little clusters, amused each other 
 as best they could. 
 
 Breaking the roads, after a violent snow-storm, is a sort of holi- 
 day sport in New England. The farmers with their boys and hired 
 men, with their oxen and sleds, and with shovels of all sorts, from 
 the capacious cider-mill shovel down to the common spade, turn 
 out and make their way to the neighbors in every direction. 
 Where drifts are so deep and solid that oxen and horses cannot get 
 through, the snow is shovelled out until the road is made passable. 
 Many a merry greeting between neighbors, as they meet, takes 
 place on these occasions, ratified before extreme temperance days 
 by a mug of flip. Mip is a very agreeable beverage, composed of 
 sweetened beer put into a foam by the injection of a red-hot poker, 
 or its equivalent, and finished by an infusion of rum. 
 
 2 
 
18 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 It was but half a mile to the residence of Amos's lady-compan- 
 ion ; yet it was not until eleven o'clock, the day after the ride, that 
 he delivered her at her father's house, having made his way over 
 fences and across fields. He had then over four mHes to go to 
 reach his lodgings, on about three of which the roads were broken 
 out. On a part of the remaining distance the snow was drifted in 
 so deep and hard that he was obliged to break the surface by 
 stamping, before his horse could make his way through it, and the 
 sun was setting when he reached the end of his journey. 
 
 There was much extreme poverty in this district, and some of 
 the children could not attend school for want of shoes and decent 
 clothing. Among the scholars was one negro-girl, who was enti- 
 tled to all the privileges of the other children ; but as public opin- 
 ion would not allow her to be classed with the whites, she sat- 
 apart, and was taught by herself. 
 
 On the 19th January, 1808, Amos began to teach in his native 
 town, and on the 10th February finished his engagement, which 
 was not marked by any noteworthy events. 
 
 An occurrence happened in a neighboring school, however, illus- 
 trative of the troubles to which Yankee pedagogues are sometimes 
 exposed. The master whipped one of his male pupils quite 
 severely, though probably not more severely than the offence war- 
 ranted. The boy was the pet of one of those fathers who can 
 never be convinced that their children are in the wrong. A con- 
 spiracy was formed to seize the master, and ride him from the school- 
 house to his lodgings on a rail. The plot coming to the knowledge 
 of young Kendall, he disclosed and defeated it. The outraged 
 father then sued the master and held him to bail. The affair ^^-as 
 subsequently disposed of by arbitration, which virtually justified 
 the master and threw the costs upon the plaintiff. One of the 
 arbitrators was Deacon Kendall, who was used to tell his own 
 children that if they misbehaved at school, and being punished for 
 it, came to him with complaints, he would punish them again. 
 
 On the 25th of i\ larch Amos took passage at Amherst, IS". H., in 
 the stage, for Dartmouth College. This was his first travel by stage- 
 coach. The hill country between the Merrimack and Connecticut 
 rivers was still covered with snow, which had almost entirely dis- 
 appeared from the lowlands. The road over the hills having been 
 much travelled after the last snow-storm, was worn into cradle- 
 holes. These are formed as follows. In every path of trodden 
 
PERILS OF STAGE-RIDING. 19 
 
 snow there are slight inequalities ; the sleigh-runners in passing 
 over these first acquire an upward tendency, and then, pitching 
 suddenly down, dash up the snow and form another ridge, over 
 which they pass and pitch in the same manner and with the same 
 effect. Much-travelled roads, when the intervals between snow- 
 storms are considerable, thus become a series of little ridges and 
 hollows, over which the sleighs rise and fall like boats on the 
 waves of the sea. Such was the condition of the road travelled 
 by Amos on the 26th of March. The motion of the stage, then 
 placed on runners, made him very sick. 
 
 Being transferred to a wheeled carriage near Connecticut Eiver, 
 he was much better on arrival at Windsor, Vt., about 4 p. m. ; but 
 he had no appetite for dinner, and immediately took the stage for 
 the college, about eighteen miles distant. Here he met the young 
 man with whom he had agreed to chum, and they went on together. 
 The driver was a wild, drinking young fellow, careless and reckless, 
 singing vulgar songs and shouting at passers-by. A cart appeared 
 ahead attended by several persons, — some in the cart, some on 
 horseback, and some on foot, — on whom the driver exercised his 
 peculiar talent. As the stage drew alongside the cart the body of 
 a drowned man was seen in it. The driver ejaculated, " I am very 
 sorry," and was silent for a moment ; but it was only for a mo- 
 ment ; he soon burst out with a vulgar song. Owing to his fre- 
 quent and long stops at taverns, his condition was becoming per- 
 ceptibly worse. By collision with a cart he broke some portion of 
 his running-gear, rendering it unsafe to ride down the steep hills, 
 which were frequent. About 11 P. M., within three miles of 
 the college, on a level plain, where there was a sled-track in 
 the snow, which still appeared alongside of the carriage-track, the 
 driver, too stupefied to recollect that his carriage-wheels were far- 
 ther apart than the runners of a sled, wheeled suddenly into the 
 sled-track, and the next moment, striking a stump, over went 
 the stage. Slight bruises were the only injuries received by the 
 passengers ; but their strength, added to that of the driver, was 
 not sufficient to right the stage, which was only effected after about 
 an hour's delay, with the help of some of the neighbors, who had 
 been called from their beds. It was then discovered that the 
 vehicle, before badly damaged, was entirely disabled, and must be 
 abandoned. The driver, now somewhat sobered, borrowed saddles, 
 and placed his passengers on two of the horses, with their trunks 
 
20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 before them, and mounting the third with a bag of corn under 
 him, started for the college, driving the fourth horse before him. 
 They had gone but a few rods when his bag of corn became un- 
 tied, emptying half its contents on the ground. Of course they 
 must stop until he could gather up his grain. Again under way, 
 his loose horse trotted off, upon a sled-path, into the woods, and it 
 took half an hour to get him back. What with these incidents 
 and slow travelling on a muddy road, it was near 2 A. M. when 
 they reached the college. Having eaten nothing since breakfast 
 the preceding day, Kendall was so exhausted and sick that he 
 could take no supper, and went immediately to bed. 
 
 The next morning, Sunday, he rose about 10 A. M. in tolerable 
 condition. The next day he was examined, re-entered his class, 
 entered Commons for board at $1.50 per week, and became the 
 occupant of a room with Thomas C. Gardner as his chum. On 
 the 30th of March, 1808, he made his first recitation in college. 
 
 There were several societies at that time in Dartmouth College, 
 two of which — the Social Friends, having about one hundred resi- 
 dent members, and the United Fraternity, with about two thirds 
 of that number — embraced nearly all the students. On the 13th 
 of April Amos became a member of the Social Friends. 
 
 During his preparation for college he had written several pieces 
 of composition when that exercise was required, but could not be 
 induced to read one of them in public, on account of their obvious 
 imperfection, both in style and substance, according to his own 
 taste. Knowing that no excuse was likely to be taken in college, 
 he had, while keeping school, elaborated several pieces with all the 
 thought and care which he could command. When called upon 
 to read a piece of original composition in the class, he selected 
 one of these ; but so little confidence had he in its merits and 
 in himself, that he had to lean agamst the wall of the room, and 
 bring his elbows back against it, to enable him to hold the paper 
 still enough to be read. His tutor praised the piece ; his class- 
 mates said, " You must have practised much at composition," and 
 were greatly surprised when told it was the first piece he had ever 
 read in public. This success gave him considerable confidence ; but 
 never during his college life, and scarcely ever since, has he writ- 
 ten an article which he did not think could be improved. 
 
 Many circumstances conspired to render his first term in colleo-e 
 far from agTeeable. His chum had been in college the precedin^^ 
 
FOWL FLAY. 
 
 21 
 
 fall term, and had formed his associations. He belonged to a club 
 which spent part of the night in robbing hen-roosts, and cook- 
 ing and eating the stolen poultry. They visited alternately the 
 rooms of the members, each of whom in turn furnished table-fur- 
 niture, salt, pepper, butter, and bread. 
 
 It was not long before his chum brought in his companions late 
 at night, with a couple of stolen chickens which they proceeded 
 to dress and cook. They insisted on his getting up and partak- 
 ing of their cheer, and he reluctantly complied. On reflection, 
 however, he made up his mind not to repeat this piece of com- 
 plaisance, and to put a stop to the use of his room for such pur- 
 poses. 
 
 Accordingly, the next time they came in with their game he 
 declined getting up, without assigning any reason other than that 
 he was not hungry and was very sleepy. When their poultry was 
 cooked and on the table, they again invited him to get up, and, 
 when he declined, began to pull the bedclothes off. This excited 
 him, and he peremptorily demanded to be let alone, adding that if 
 such habits suited them they did not suit him, and he begged not 
 to be further molested then or thereafter. They dropped the bed- 
 clothes, ate their poultry in silence, and never came to the room 
 again while he occupied it. 
 
 On another occasion, a party having procured a hand-cart, with 
 ropes to haul by, proposed to supply each other with fuel from a 
 pile of wood, cut and split for the fire, and deposited about half 
 a mile from the college. Late one evening they called upon him 
 and Gardner to join them. Gardner went, but Kendall declined. 
 One of the party lingered behind, after the rest had gone, and in- 
 quired why he would not go ? He answered, " If we were at home, 
 and went to a neighbor's wood-pile in the night to supply our- 
 selves with wood, we would feel like thieves, would we not ? I 
 do not perceive the difference." " You are right," the young man 
 replied. " They have got me into this scrape, and I must go 
 through with it ; but they will not catch me in another.'* 
 
 Mr. Kendall, while teaching school, indulged in the common 
 amusement of playing cards, and was famihar with a number of 
 games. Though card-playing was prohibited at Dartmouth CoUege, 
 he was invited one evening into a room in the same building with 
 his OAvn, occupied by students of a higher class, and was iuduced by 
 them to play for money, at a few cents a game. They played at 
 
22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 loo until daylight the next morning, and when they quit, the ba - 
 ance of winnings and losses was about three dollars in Kendaii s 
 favor. He had felt an excited interest in the game, and therefore 
 came to a firm resolution never again to play for money. Only 
 once in after life was this resolution broken. On the 4th of 
 July, 1814, a newly-made friend invited him to a picnic celebra- 
 tion of the day, near Lexington in Kentucky. There were several 
 card-tables on the ground, and two of his companion's friends pro- 
 posed that they should play a game of whist for their dinners. He 
 plead his want of practice, when his friend insisted, and proposed 
 to be his partner. They won the dinner, when the other side pro- 
 posed to play on at a quarter each game. Having won the dinner, 
 KendaU felt that he could not decline, and, contrary to his wish, 
 continued to win. As in college, so here, he was in the end winner 
 to a small amount ; and having again felt an interest in the game, 
 he renewed his resolution with more determination tlian before, 
 and never after swerved from it. There is no difficulty in avoid- 
 ing, without reproach, playing for money, if one will make it a 
 a matter of principle, and so declare whenever invited to play. 
 
 On finishing the study of Homer, it was customary to sacrifice a 
 copy of the book to the manes of the author ; and the Freshman 
 class, or some of them, determined to maintain the usaofp. A small 
 altar of stones was erected in one of the college rooms, capped by 
 a tin basin, into which was poured a quantity of rum. A copy of 
 Homer was laid on the floor open at about the middle. The rum 
 was set on fire, and the students marching around the altar stamp- 
 ed as they passed on the open book, uttering various ejaculations 
 not at all complimentary to the ancient bard. As the leaves were 
 broken loose from the doomed book, they were placed upon the 
 altar and consumed in the blue flames of the burning rum. As in 
 similar cases, a portion of the sacrifice went to the officiating priests, 
 who became very noisy, locked the door and appointed a door- 
 keeper, declaring that no one should leave the room. Finding that 
 affairs were taking a turn not at all to his taste, Kendall desired 
 to be let out, but it was not until he had peremptorily declared that 
 he would not remain, that the door was opened. 
 
 On the 9th of June there was a serious riot in town. The vil- 
 lagers suffered their cows to remain on the common iu froj^^ of 
 the college during the night, where they were a great nuisan 
 Under the main college building there was a large unused c 11 
 
THE BATTLE OF THE COWS. 23 
 
 easily accessible from without. In tlie night the cows, about 
 twenty in number, were collected and driven into the cellar, and the 
 entrance barricaded. In the morning, the owners coming for their 
 cows, were told that they could not have them until they agreed to 
 yard them during the night. In consequence of this refusal, excite- 
 ment began to run higli ; an attack on the college was apprehend- 
 ed, and the students prepared to defend their prisoners. One of 
 them, named Darling, picked up a boy who was very abusive and 
 put him over a fence in the rear of the college. A short time 
 after, the father of the lad, named Baldwin, approached with stones 
 in his hands and dashed one of them through a window in the 
 college building. A general rush was the consequence, and in an 
 instant the villagers were flying before a shower of stones and brick- 
 bats. It was not long before a constable appeared and arrested 
 Darling for assault and battery upon the boy. A crowd followed 
 him into the presence of the magistrate who was to try him. Of 
 the assault there was no question ; but it was proved that the 
 boy was very insulting and was not injured. The magistrate an- 
 nounced his decision to be a fine of two dollars. There were sev- 
 eral hisses mingled with cries of "Appeal ! " "Appeal ! " The mag- 
 istrate told the constable to arrest those who insulted the court; 
 the constable replied, " I cannot distinguish them." The students 
 then left the room, formed a procession, marched yelling by the 
 complainant's house, and some of them threw stones at it. The 
 cattle were released in the evening ; but tills was not the end of 
 the affair, as far as Baldwin was concerned. 
 
 He kept a horse in a neighboring pasture. One morning the horse 
 had changed his color, and the words " Two dollars " appeared in 
 large letters on each of his sides. Baldwin was a goldsmith, and 
 had a large bow-window in his shop, against which hung many 
 watches. Eirst his sign was stolen ; then a large stone was dashed 
 against his bow-window, scattering the watches all over his shop, 
 and doing some of them serious injury. 
 
 About one hundred and thirty dollars had been subscribed by 
 the students to enable Darling to prosecute his appeal, but both 
 parties became anxious for a compromise, and it was finally effected. 
 In this affair Kendall sympathized with the object of the students, 
 and was one of those who attended Darling's trial and formed the 
 procession ; but he had nothing to do with shutting up the cows, 
 and disapproved of the outrages committed upon Baldwin. 
 
24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL, 
 
 Another affair, more ridiculous in its origin, but more serious in 
 its termination, soon after agitated the little community of Dart- 
 mouth College. Two of Kendall's classmates, Benjamin Prescott 
 and John H. Slack, were bantering each other, at fibrst in frblic, when 
 Slack, becoming excited, said he would not take a banter. There- 
 upon Prescott challenged him to a fight with pistols on the morn- 
 ing of the 4th of July, at an hour and place which he named. 
 Slack consulted some of his classmates, who told him his honor 
 was concerned, and he must fight. On the evening of the 3d of 
 July Slack invited Kendall to his room, and asked his advice. 
 He was advised to see Prescott, in company with others, and 
 bring about an explanation. This he declined, but was persuaded 
 to write. Kendall and two others then went with the letter 
 to Prescott's room, where they found him with his second. He 
 declared that there must be a fight, and instructed his second to 
 answer Slack that he expected to meet him the next morning at 
 the hour and place appointed. He acted his part so well, that 
 Kendall began to doubt whether he was not in earnest, and taking 
 him aside asked him what he meant. He said he meant to test 
 Slack's courage, but that nobody would be hurt. Having arrived 
 at the true state of the case, Kendall returned to his room, not 
 unwilling to see the game played out. 
 
 The next morning Prescott and Slack were summoned before the 
 faculty, and Kendall and others called up as witnesses. Though 
 it was proved that, so far as Prescott was concerned, the whole 
 affair was a joke, the faculty sentenced both parties to six mouths* 
 rustication, — Prescott, because he would not say that he thought 
 duelling in all cases wrong, and Slack, because — though he thought 
 it in all cases wrong — he would not say that he would in all cases 
 refuse to fight. Prescott's second was condemned to read a public 
 confession as a punishment for the part he had taken in the joke. 
 
 There was little sympathy for Slack, but much for Prescott. 
 The three higher classes sent in a petition for a remission of the 
 penalty ; the Freshman class was divided, a part signing the peti- 
 tion and a part sending in a remonstrance. The result of this 
 division in the class was much bitter feeling. It happened that 
 Kendall was absent when these papers were drawn up and pre- 
 sented. On his return he found that both parties counted on his 
 adhesion, but he sided with neither, because he considered ]3etition- 
 ing useless and remonstrance unnecessary. 
 
UNWISE POLICY. 25 
 
 The justice of Prescott's punishment, however, as well as the 
 expediency of Slack's, is very questionable. In effect, one was 
 punished for not belying his opinions, and the other for admitting 
 that he might be impelled by circumstances to do a wrong act. 
 The plain duty of the teachers having charge of these young men 
 was to reprimand their folly, and endeavor to instil better princi- 
 ples into the one and more correct views of moral duty into the 
 other. 
 
 Prescott never returned to Dartmouth College ; Slack returned 
 and graduated with the class. 
 
26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 The most interesting association formed by Mr. KendaU in col- 
 lege, resulted from his membership in a private club for mutual 
 improvement, which had been organized in the autumn of 1807, 
 and was unknown to him until he was invited to join it. It was 
 composed exclusively of members of his class, not more than a 
 dozen in all ; it had no constitution or regulations, no officers, the 
 members presiding in alphabetical order, and meeting weekly at 
 their own rooms. Its exercises were composition, declamation, and 
 forensic discussion ; all participating in each, not by appointment, 
 but in alphabetical order. It was the duty of all to observe and 
 criticise the performances of each, and this function was uniformly 
 exercised in a kindly spirit. Care was taken to invite none into 
 the club who were not of irreproachable moral character and sin- 
 cerely desirous of self-improvement. Though no injunction of 
 secrecy was imposed on members, the understanding was that they 
 should not speak of their club to outsiders, and its existence was 
 apparently unknown out of their own circle during their whole 
 college life. Never was a club more orderly, though without rules 
 of order, and never were the objects of an association more steadily 
 and faithfully pursued. It is with an affectionate remembrance 
 that their names are here recorded : namely, Joseph Perry, 
 Jonathan Curtis, Daniel Poor, Jonathan Fowle, Nathaniel H. 
 Carter, Eobert Crowell, Theophilus Wilson, Joseph Bailey, David 
 Pierce, Danid Rockwood, WiUiam Cogswell, Samuel Woodbury, 
 and Caleb Chase. 
 
 In July of this year Kendall made a visit, in company with his 
 classmate, Daniel Ptockwood, to Windsor, Yt., West Parish, where 
 lived a Mr. Cummings who married a sister of his father. They 
 desired to ascend Ascutney Mountain, about three miles distant, 
 and two young men, his cousins, consented to accompany them. 
 The cousins proposed that the party should ride on horseback to 
 the mountain, and up as far as practicable ; but being full of life 
 
A MOUNTAIN ADVENTURE. 27 
 
 and confidence the young students declined their offer. With a 
 lunch and a bottle of rum, they started on foot early in the morn- 
 ing. The day was exceedingly warm, but they went forward with 
 much spirit, though frequently checked by the cousins, until they 
 were about half-way up the mountain, when they began to feel the 
 effect of the heat and rapid walking. Eesort was had to the rum- 
 bottle to recruit their wasted strength. Around the top of the 
 mountain the trees had been killed by fires, and decaying trunks 
 had fallen across each other in every conceivable direction. 
 Among them was a luxuriant growth of tall weeds. Eising above 
 the whole, on the very summit, was a large rock. Up this they 
 climbed, and were rewarded by one of the finest views in nature. 
 On the west was the Green Mountain range ; on the east were the 
 mountains of New Hampshire ; to the southward and northward 
 the Connecticut Eiver valley on both sides was skirted by a mag- 
 nificent hill-country dotted with improvements. The river itself 
 washing the foot of the mountain, and meandering through a 
 narrow plain which formed the bottom of the valley, exhibited 
 its silvery waters in many windings, like a succession of small 
 lakes, giving a finish to the enchanting landscape. The isolated 
 mountain on which they stood seemed like a tower raised in the 
 midst of this magnificent scenery, merely to enable man to enjoy 
 its beauties. 
 
 But alas ! scarcely had the eye taken a general view of the scene, 
 when a duskiness, like approaching night, seemed to be creej^ing 
 over it. The cool air of the mountain-top, combined with the re- 
 action of the unusual stimulant they had swallowed, closed the 
 pores of the body and brought on a drowsiness which was perfect- 
 ly overpowering. The young students, descending from the rock, 
 made pallets of weeds, and had scarcely lain down upon them before 
 they were fast asleep. The sun was low in the west when the 
 cousins awoke them, saying it was time to go. On rising Kendall's 
 sinews seemed to be unstrung, and his limbs refused to obey his will. 
 He told his cousins that he was utterly unable to walk, and begged 
 them to form the best shelter they could of the dead lirSbs and 
 weeds, and leave him there until the next morning. They said he 
 could go, and should ; and taking him by the arms forced him for- 
 ward. Becoming excited, he broke from them and ran some dis- 
 tance over logs and rocks with perfect recklessness, not caring 
 whether he broke his neck or not. Becoming warm with exercise. 
 
28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 his indecision left him, and he kept on by himself, taking a ravine 
 which led in the direction of his uncle's. Whether it had ever 
 been explored before he knew not. Certain it is, that in some 
 places it was flanked by soHd rocks of great height which it was 
 impossible to scale ; its bottom was, in storms, the bed of a moun- 
 tain torrent, and could be descended only by leaping from cliff" to 
 cliff, where a sHp or false step would have plunged the leaper head- 
 long among ragged rocks many feet below. Once he came to a 
 huge rock, perhaps twenty feet high, which had fallen in from above 
 and completely filled the channel. He could neither get around 
 it nor over it, and there it seemed as if his journey would be ended 
 for the night, and perhaps forever. Finally he discovered a hole 
 under it, through which he crawled and reached the light of day 
 on tlie lower side. At length he found himself at the mouth of 
 the ravine, where there was a small house on a tract of land formed 
 by the wash from the mountain. Entering, he found a young 
 woman spinning, and telling her he was almost dead with fatigue, 
 he begged leave to lie down on the bed in the same room. She 
 consented, and he fell asleep immediately. 
 
 After perhaps half an hour he awoke, and going to the door saw 
 Eockwood approaching, supported by the two young men, pale and 
 bloody. It appeared that when Kendall broke loose upon the 
 mountain, they supposed that he intended to hide and remain all 
 night, and one of them followed until satisfied that such was not 
 his purpose. He then returned to Eockwood, and they kept on 
 down the same ravine. But Eockwood's nose began to bleed, and 
 he gave out entirely, so that they had to carry him a considerable 
 distance. As the cool of the evening came on he revived some- 
 what and became able to walk, supported on both sides. He was 
 so exhausted it was deemed best to leave him in the farmer's cot- 
 tage till the next day. Kendall, however, had so far recovered 
 his strength as to be able to return home with his cousins. After 
 a day's rest the young students returned to the college, satisfied 
 that it is often bad policy in a hot day to walk six miles when one 
 can ride four of them, and that rum is not always the safest res- 
 torative of exhausted strength. 
 
 On a subsequent visit to Windsor, with the same companion, 
 they again visited Ascutney, but with a different object. One 
 of the cousins claimed to be one of those fortunate mortals in 
 whose hands the divining-rod would indicate unerringly the loca- 
 
ORE-HUNTING. 29 
 
 tion of valuable metals. He had a set of rods, composed of two 
 hazel-bushes, of about eighteen inches long, flattened and tied to- 
 gether at the butts, around which was a small bulb composed of some 
 unknown substance covered with leather. The operator held the 
 small ends of the rods — one in each hand, back downwards — about 
 a foot apart. The theory is, that the bulb is attracted by any 
 metallic substance within its influence, and will incline the rods in 
 that direction. 
 
 After witnessing the operation near watches and other articles 
 composed in whole or in part of metals, they started for the moun- 
 tain in which the operator said there were masses of ore. About 
 half a mile distant he set his rods, which soon gave out a vibrat- 
 ing motion, with a gradual inclination towards the mountain. This 
 increased as they approached and ascended, until they were more 
 than half-way up to the summit, when the inclination was down- 
 ward. The operator then said they had passed the mine. Experi- 
 ments were tried in different directions, and at length a spot was 
 identified, where, apparently, the rods would not work at all. This 
 w^as alleged to be directly over the mine. But the two students 
 charged him with producing the action of the rods himself by an 
 imperceptible action of his hands, which it was plain he might do 
 from the manner in which he held them. This he denied, and of- 
 fered to submit to any test they might require. Going a short 
 distance from the alleged locality of the mine, they required him 
 to set his rods and place the back of his hands on a log ; each 
 of them took hold of one of his hands with both of theirs and 
 watched with the utmost vigilance. Neither by the sense of sight 
 nor feeling could they perceive the slightest movement of his hands, 
 yet the rods bent downward and downward until they formed an 
 angle of about forty-five degrees below a horizontal plane and made 
 livid bruises on the sides of his hands. The spectators were 
 confounded, but not convinced. 
 
 Their attention was now diverted by the discovery of a hedge- 
 hog, or porcupine, in a tree about thirty feet from the ground, which 
 they determined to capture. One of the cousins climbed up an- 
 other tree close by, and with a pole pushed the animal off. The 
 rest stood below with clubs, and, as soon as he reached the ground, 
 crossed them over his back and held him fast. They had no cord, 
 but succeeded in tying a withe around one of his hind legs, though 
 one of the cousins during the operation had several quills driven 
 
30 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 into his hands by a whisk of the creature's stumpy tail. He was 
 as obstinate as any other hog, and it took them a long time to get 
 him to the foot of the mountain, where, being out of patience, they 
 gave him to some boys whom they met on the road. 
 
 Many suppose this animal can project its quills to a considerable 
 distance. It is not so ; they are merely a defensive weapon, and 
 very effective against the brute creation. When threatened with an 
 attack and unable to escape, the hedgehog crouches upon its belly, 
 and erects the quills which cover its back and its sides to the end of 
 its blunt tail. This it can vibrate a short distance and strike its 
 quills into any object within reach. But woe to the man or beast 
 that attempts to seize him with hands, paws, or jaws, while in its 
 defensive position ! A dog at the college once ventured on the 
 perilous experiment. His mouth was stuck full of quills so that 
 he could not shut it, and his master, deeming his case hopeless, 
 thought it mercifid to kill him. 
 
 In July, 1809, Mr. KendaU joined the Handel Society, one of 
 several associations in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, organ- 
 ized for the purpose of cultivating sacred music, and expelling 
 from the service of the churches the light and jangling airs then 
 in general use. In this object they were entirely successful, though 
 they carried the reform to an extreme from which there was after- 
 wards a considerable reaction. 
 
 On the 19th of August the Freshman class was examined, and 
 all its members admitted to regular standing in the Sophomore 
 class. On Monday and Tuesday the various societies had exhibi- 
 tions in the following order, viz, : on Monday, the Eeligiosi, on Tues- 
 day the Social Friends, the Phi Beta Kajrpa, the United Fraternity ^ 
 and the Handel. On the 24th was the annual commencement, 
 with its usual performances. That evening, in company with his 
 father, KendaU left for home, where they arrived on the 26th. 
 
 The want of funds to pay his expenses at college again com- 
 pelled him to remain at home until he could replenish his ex- 
 chequer by keeping school. After a few days spent in visiting 
 relations and friends, he resumed his studies in order to qualify 
 himself to re-enter his class the next spring. 
 
 In October he agreed to teach a school in New Ipswich three 
 months, at S 14.50 per month, beginning on the 21st of Novem- 
 ber. On going there he was informed by his uncle, with whom 
 he was to board, that the school had heretofore been very 
 
PEDAGOGIC STRATEGY. ^l 
 
 disorderly, and that as a prejudice had arisen against him from 
 causes over which he had no control, it was feared that he would 
 have troubla Being thus forewarned, he began the school by- 
 imitating King Log. He announced no rules of order, took no 
 notice of whispering, laughing, or leaving seats, and went through 
 with all the duties of the day as listlessly as possible. The 
 second day was passed like the first until near its close, and the 
 children became so outrageous that he could stand it no longer. 
 Suddenly he cried " Silence ! " in a loud voice. Every eye was 
 turned upon him, and there was silence profound. 
 
 He then stated that he had been informed there were disorderly 
 persons in that school, and he had left them thus far to act out their 
 natural dispositions without restraint, in order that he might find 
 out who they were ; that he now had his eyes upon them, and 
 knew how to meet their disorder. He then proceeded to an- 
 nounce his rules and dismissed school. The next morning his 
 whole mariner was changed. In everything he was prompt and 
 decided, though kind and obliging, and the residt was that this 
 school was more orderly than any other he ever taught. The 
 parents of the children were, generally, intelligent and kind, ap- 
 parently exerting themselves to make his residence among them 
 agreeable, and he was cordially invited to take charge of the school 
 the next winter. Having by request continued the school a week 
 beyond his original agreement, he finally dismissed it on the 18th 
 of February, 1809. The amount received for this winter's labor 
 was $47.12-1^. 
 
 Eeturning home he found that his grandfather had died a few 
 days before at the age of eighty-five years, and a few days after- 
 ward he attended the funeral of his grandfather's brother, Jacob, 
 aged also upwards of eighty years. 
 
 On the 6th of March he returned to Dartmouth College, and im- 
 mediately thereafter was examined and re-entered his class. 
 
 The entire want of congeniality between him and T. C. Gardner 
 induced him to look out for another chum, and soon after his re- 
 turn he found himself associated with Jonathan Fowle in a room 
 in a private house. 
 
 ^N'othing out of the ordinary routine of college-life occuiTed un- 
 til the 19th of April, when a series of transactions was inaugurated 
 which afforded him a practical lesson not without its use in after life. 
 
 Each class except the Freshman had what was called its quar- 
 
32 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 ter-day. It was distinguished by a public exhibition, which in- 
 eluded the performance of certain orations and forensic discussions 
 given out by the faculty, and called Appointments. By the order 
 in which they were given out they indicated the relative estima- 
 tion in which the recipients were held by the facility for scholar- 
 ship and general merit. 
 
 It had been a practice from time immemorial for those who re- 
 ceived the higher appointments to "treat" the rest of the class on 
 the evening of the day of announcement, and for the class to " treat" 
 all the other classes on the day of performance. This custom was 
 productive of intemperance and rowdyism disgraceful to the col- 
 lege, and a few members of Kendall's class determined to make an 
 effort to break it up. They beheved a majority of the class would 
 sustain the movement, and one morning after recitation requested 
 their classmates to stop for the purpose of ascertaining their views. 
 Eesolutions were presented denouncing the custom, and declar- 
 ing that the class would neither encourage nor participate in it. 
 They were opposed by those who preferred a frolic to the reputa- 
 tion of the college ; but after discussion were adopted by a clear 
 majority. Those who took an interest in the movement deter- 
 mined to meet at two o'clock the same day for the purpose of con- 
 certing further measures. The other party occupied the interme- 
 diate time in electioneering against the movement, and met the 
 reformers at two o'clock with new recruits and in a most deter- 
 mined spirit. A resolution was offered rescinding the resolution 
 of the morning and ratif}dng the time-disgraced custom. A vio- 
 lent discussion ensued, and the success of the rescinding motion 
 became probable, when a few of the temperance party determined 
 to change their tactics and make it an individual instead of a class 
 affair. They retired and drew up a brief pledge to the effect that 
 they would neither " treat " nor participate in " treating " on the 
 day when the appointments should be given out or on Sophomore 
 quarter-day. Mr. Kendall returned into the meeting with this 
 paper, signed by himself and five others, and calling the attention 
 of his classmates, read it, and invited aU those who were opposed 
 to the custom of "treating" to sign it. This raised at once a 
 storm of excitement. James Bradford, the son of a clergyman, 
 and himself avowedly preparing for the pulpit, requested to see the 
 paper. It was put into his hands, when he spit upon it, tore it in 
 pieces, and stamped upon it. Kendall looked him in the face a 
 
TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT. 33 
 
 moment, and then said, " I can write another." Accordingly he 
 retired, wrote another and signed it ; but such a storm had been 
 raised that a large portion of those who were disposed to act with 
 the temperance party shrank from the responsibility, and only 
 thirteen signatures could be procured to the pledge in the class of 
 sixty members. 
 
 The next day the Sophomore appointments were given out. The 
 first was assigned to Nathaniel H. Carter, the second to Joseph 
 Perry, the third to Nathaniel Wright, the fourth to Daniel Poor, 
 the fifth to Eobert Crowell, the sixth to Amos Kendall, the seventh 
 
 to Samuel Woodbury, the eighth to Fairfield, and then 
 
 followed several to whom were assigned dialogues and forensic 
 discussions. Of the eight who received the principal appoint- 
 ments, six had signed the pledge against " treating." A tutor who 
 had previously expressed his opinion against the practice, after 
 reading off the appointments, in the name of the faculty pro- 
 hibited it, and announced that any one who " treated," or allowed 
 " treating " in his room, would be expelled. 
 
 Several of the students went from the recitation-room to Mr, 
 Perry's room, which was on the lower floor of the main college 
 building, for the purpose of congratulating him and talking over 
 the incidents of the day. In the midst of their conversation the 
 door was opened, and in came half a dozen classmates with a 
 decanter of rum, which they set on the table of a study-chair ; 
 they invited all present to drink, and set the example themselves. 
 KendaU, who was present, immediately left for his own room, not 
 knowing what might be going on there, and at the outer door met 
 two of the " treating " party, whose faces confessed their guilt. He 
 simply said " I see you," and passed on into his room, where he 
 found the table standing in the middle of the floor, with every 
 empty bottle and vessel in the room placed upon it in derision. 
 
 The next night several guns were fired into the windows of Mr. 
 Perry's room, shattering them into a thousand pieces. The same 
 night the windows of a room occupied by one of the tutors named 
 Ayres were broken, and a large quantity of filth laid at his door. 
 
 On the 25th Mr. Perry was called before the faculty, on the 
 charge of allowing " treating " in his room, and Kendall and Fowle 
 were called upon as witnesses. They stated what they saw, and, 
 among other things, that it was their classmate Folsome who 
 brought the liquor into Perry's room. Folsome, when called up, 
 
 3 
 
34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 denied it, when he was confronted with Fowle, Poor, and Kendall, 
 who all confirmed their original statement to his face, and it was 
 proved by Carter that the same party had thrust themselves with 
 their liquor into his room. 
 
 On the 27th Bradford and several others were called to account 
 for their conduct in this affair and various other misdemeanors. 
 The next morning the " Temple of Cloacina," or the " Little Col- 
 lege," so called by the students, was in ashes, the cushion of the 
 chapel desk torn into shreds and scattered through the building 
 and around the colleges, and the front and floor of the desk, to- 
 gether with the seats of the professors and tutors, were defiled 
 with filth. 
 
 The President, however, though greatly agitated, made a feehng 
 and excellent prayer, and then called on Tutor Ayres, who read the 
 sentence of the faculty expelling Folsome, and also that depriving 
 Bradford of all the privileges of the institution, and directing him 
 to leave it without delay. The form of Bradford's sentence was 
 occasioned by the fact that, in consequence of long absence, he was 
 not at that time a member of the class. Folsome and Bradford 
 immediately left the chapel, and as the faculty came out, the 
 former accosted Tutor Brown, cursed him, and charged him with 
 being the author of his disgrace. The Tutor, who was a most 
 amiable man, though endowed with remarkable firmness and self- 
 possession, took no notice of Folsome, but was seen to speak to 
 Professor Hubbard, and laugh. Not content with this exploit, 
 Folsome, the same day, threw a brickbat at Perry, insulted Fowle, 
 hallooed at Kendall when passing at a distance, and said he had 
 told a d — d lie, when his companions commenced singing a dog- 
 gerel song about him which some of them had composed- Of all 
 this none of the temperance party took any notice. 
 
 Mr. Perry was the only one of the obnoxious individuals whose 
 room was easily accessible to the malcontents, and so strong were 
 their apprehensions for his personal safety, that a few of his friends 
 for several nights kept watch in his room. As long as the watch 
 was continued, he was not molested ; but twice, when it was sus- 
 pended, his windows were dashed in, and once his door was battered 
 open with a log of wood. 
 
 Twice as Kendall passed out of the main college building a stick 
 of wood was thrown at him from a passage window in the third 
 story, to the manifest danger of his life. Sitting near his class- 
 
COLLEGE DISTURBANCES. 35 
 
 mate, Pillsbury, — who occupied one of the adjacent rooms, — at 
 supper the evening after the second assault, Kendall asked in a 
 good-humored tone, " Who keeps garrison in the passage between 
 your room and Goodwin's ? " (The passage from which the mis- 
 siles came.) Pillsbury replied, " That is our mode of salutation." 
 Kendall rejoined, " I should like to be saluted in a situation where 
 I could return the compliment." Pillsbury blushed, and was 
 silent. 
 
 As quarter-day approached, all sorts of rumors were circulated 
 such as that the temperance party, and Kendall in particular, were 
 to be hissed and driven from the stage ; that the students in general 
 would not attend in the chapel ; that there would be disturbances, 
 etc., etc. The evident object was to deter the public from attend- 
 ing; and such was the effect that the resident band of music 
 declined to play. Upon the suggestion of one of the tutors and 
 Professor Hubbard, application was made to the Handel Society to 
 perform some pieces of sacred music. The panic had reached the 
 society, and there was opposition, on the ground that the applica- 
 tion was not made by the class. Being himself a member of the 
 society, and also the committee to provide music, Mr. Kendall was 
 called on for an explanation. Somewhat provoked at the hesita- 
 tion of the society to aid the cause of right and virtue in such an 
 emergency, he related all the circumstances, under some excite- 
 ment, and concluded by telling them, " If you see fit to help us, 
 well ; if not, we will help ourselves." As there was still an 
 evident reluctance on the part of a large portion of the society^ 
 the application was pressed no further. 
 
 Being determined to have music, the temperance party sent a 
 messenger to a neighboring town, where he engaged four per- 
 formers. At their request the faculty had postponed the exhibi- 
 tion for one week, for the purpose of enabling them to complete their 
 arrangements, and in the hope that the excitement would subside. 
 
 On the morning of the 24th of May, the day to which the per- 
 formances had been adjourned, it was evident that active measures 
 were on foot to prevent the attendance of an audience. About 
 noon a party of negroes appeared and built a booth not twenty 
 rods from the chapel, which was soon furnished with seats, tables, 
 liquors, and eatables. ISTear by was mounted on a log an old iron 
 cannon, which from time immemorial had been without an owner, 
 and used by the students as a sort of plaything. 
 
36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 At 2 p. M. the faculty and performers entered the chapel. 
 Not thirty students other than the performers came in, and 
 the entire audience did not exceed eighty. A large portion 
 of the other students, with a promiscuous crowd of people, sur- 
 rounded the booth and the cannon. Simultaneously with those 
 in the chapel began the exercises at the booth. They consisted 
 of drinking, shouting, yelling, singing doggerel songs, and firing the 
 old cannon. 
 
 Undismayed, however, the performers in the chapel went through 
 with their exercises, removed their staging, retired to their rooms, 
 and spent a pleasant evening in social intercourse. The party on 
 the plain also dispersed, and all was quiet. Which party slept 
 that night with the most easy consciences and with the best hopes 
 for the future, it would not be difficult to determine. The perform- 
 ances were highly commended, and the little temperance party felt 
 that they had achieved a great victory. 
 
 For several days all remained quiet, and the rioters, when ques- 
 tioned as to their reasons for absenting themselves from the chapel, 
 generally gave some frivolous excuse. The faculty seemed unde- 
 cided as to the course they should pursue. At length they deter- 
 mined to call up all those who had absented themselves from the 
 chapel, and treat each according to the spirit he might evince on 
 examination. The mildest punishment contemplated for those who 
 had wilfully taken part in the disturbances, was a written acknowl- 
 edgment of error and regret, in a form which the faculty had 
 themselves prepared. They began with calling up the members 
 of the Senior class, who generally signed the acknowledgment. 
 Mr. Kendall's journal says, " Woodbury, however, who was deeply 
 implicated in the affair, was excused, affirming that he was forced 
 into the scrape." This was Levi Woodbury, afterwards distin- 
 guished in public life. 
 
 The Juniors engaged in the riot were next called up, only one 
 of whom signed the acknowledgment. Several were excused 
 and eight dismissed. All of those in the Sophomore and Fresh- 
 man classes who were engaged signed the acknowledgment, when 
 the refractory Juniors, finding themselves without support in the 
 other classes, came forward and offered to sign. Their offer was 
 accepted and they were restored. 
 
 Darling, of the Sophomore class, was dismissed, for the additional 
 offence of singing a doggerel song, written to ridicule the attempt to 
 
COLLEGE LIFE. 37 
 
 put down " treating," in which several names, including Kendall's, 
 were freely used. Having much sympathy for him, in the belief 
 that he had acted under the influence of worse young men, Ken- 
 dall had a free conversation with him, during which Darling con- 
 fessed his error and folly, exhibited the song, but disavowed all 
 knowledge of the author, and said the disturbance did not origi- 
 nate in the Sophomore class, and tendered all the reparation in his 
 power. 
 
 On account of the steady determination with which Kendall had 
 acted in this affair he had become very odious to the " treating " 
 party, some of whom vented their spite by writing his name on the 
 college walls, in the chapel, and in the recitation-room, connected 
 with curses, denunciations, and nicknames. Of this he made no 
 complaint and took no notice. 
 
 Some time after Bradford left Kendall received an anonymous 
 letter postmarked at Bradford's place of residence, containing noth- 
 ing but a repetition of such vulgar insults as had been inscribed 
 upon the college walls. Not doubting that Bradford was the 
 author, Kendall concluded to lay it aside until Bradford became 
 a preacher of the gospel, — that being the profession which it was 
 known he intended to adopt. Hearing in 1818 that he had be- 
 come a settled minister in an interior town in Massachusetts, Mr. 
 Kendall wrote in Bradford's letter the following words, addressed 
 it to him, paid the postage, and sent it by mail : — 
 
 " G-ROTON, November 16, 1813. 
 " Rev. Sir, — T return to you the only memorial of your former folly 
 and meanness in my possession. That I never injured you is known to 
 my God, yom* God, and my own conscience. I am sufficiently revenged. 
 That you are reformed, and that you may be useful and finally happy, 
 is the sincere hope of Amos Kendall." 
 
 It was believed that if Mr. Bradford had become a better man 
 this note would elicit an apology from him; but no reply was ever 
 received ; nor did Bradford ever attend a class-meeting, though 
 several were held while he was yet living. 
 
 The frolic of shutting up the cows in the college cellar had 
 been frequently repeated with no incident worthy of note. On the 
 night of the 14th of July, however, they were again shut up under 
 circumstances which threatened serious consequences. It was 
 given out that they should not be released until the people 
 
38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 of the village would agree to yard them at night. This was 
 not of itself an unreasonable demand, for their presence every 
 night on the common was an intolerable nuisance. No attempt 
 was made to release them during the day ; but as night approached 
 there were rumors that the inhabitants were preparing to take 
 them out by force. JSTot much attention was paid to this rumor, 
 until one of the students, in taking a walk, was assaulted by a half- 
 drunken negro. Immediately all the college was in an uproar. 
 Kendall had taken no part in the affair, as his room was at a dis- 
 tance ; but hearing of the threatened attack, he repaired to the main 
 college building, and prepared to join in the defence. It was soon 
 ascertained that the inhabitants had collected in large numbers, 
 that some of them were armed with muskets alleged to be charged 
 with balls, and that an assault on the coUege was meditated for 
 the purpose of compelling the students to let the cattle out. 
 Nothing daunted by this information, the young men collected all 
 the arms they could find in the college, consisting of one musket 
 and a few pistols, some of which they, too, loaded with baU. 
 They also collected in the passages of the main college building 
 quantities of stones and brickbats, to be used in repelling the 
 threatened attack. The excitement increased as the evening pro- 
 gressed, and several reports of firearms, discharged in defiance, took 
 place both from the college and the crowd. These demonstrations 
 alarmed the faculty and the peaceable citizens, who interfered and 
 secured a parley. The students on the one hand, and the citizens 
 on the other, appointed committees who met in conference. All 
 the students demanded was, that the citizens should yard their 
 cattle at night, and thus prevent a serious nuisance. This de- 
 mand was acceded to, and a formal treaty concluded, which for 
 a short time only was complied with by the citizens. 
 
 Among the amusements of this period was the institution of a 
 new society, denominated Ine Heber, and also of a court to try 
 offences against the rules of the class. The Ine Hehcr originated 
 as follows : A large number of students met on a walk, when it 
 was suddenly proposed that the ugliest man in the company, to be 
 designated by a vote of the majority, should " treat." The pro- 
 posal was acceded to with alacrity and the victim selected. As it 
 was rather unreasonable to require one to treat so large a company, 
 the next ughest and the next were selected until they num- 
 bered about half a dozen, including Kendall. When the cere- 
 
DANCING. 39 
 
 mony of " treating " was over, the select few separated from the 
 crowd, and, setting up claims to superior merit, organized them- 
 selves into a society with a Hebrew name, which was understood to 
 mean the " Ugly Club." They had their ofdcers, — whose superior 
 merit consisted in superior ugliness, — their regulations and weekly 
 meetings. Their exercises consisted of mock heroics and fun of 
 all sorts. The meetings were not very orderly, and in the midst 
 of the confusion one evening it was proposed to elect a despot to 
 whom every member should yield implicit, prompt, and silent 
 obedience, on pain of expulsion, — an admirable plan to jDreserve 
 order, which has since been imitated by the French nation. But 
 alas for the perversity of human nature ! so numerous were the 
 expulsions from the Ine Heber for questioning the wisdom of the 
 despot that it soon ceased to exist. 
 
 The parents of Amos Kendall were conscientiously opposed to 
 the amusement of dancing, and would not allow their older child- 
 ren to go to any ball or party where it was indulged in. As the 
 younger ones grew up they became less intolerant on this subject, 
 not from any change of opinion as to the sinfulness of the amuse- 
 ment, but evidently from a conviction that the severe restraint 
 imposed on their older children was producing unhappy results. 
 For proliibition, therefore, were substituted advice and admonition. 
 Dancing had now become a general amusement at private parties 
 in New England, and Kendall met with it constantly while en- 
 gaged in keeping school. Though much disposed to participate, 
 he was deterred by the fear of appearing ignorant or awkward to 
 his pupils, many of whom Avere nearly of his own age. Having 
 an opportunity at college in the summer of 1809, he determined 
 to take lessons in dancing for a single quarter, without the knowl- 
 edge of his parents. While practising one day in the dancing- 
 hall, which was over a store, a messenger from below amiounced to 
 him that a gentleman in the store wished to see him. It turned 
 out to be a cousin of his father living about two miles distant. 
 His visitor inquired what tliey were doing up stairs, and young 
 Kendall, perceiving by the question that he did not understand the 
 true state of the case, replied they were going through some of 
 their college exercises. That quarter he practised the most rigid 
 economy, and in the bill of expenses rendered to his father placed 
 his dancing bills under the head of miscellaneous expenses, 
 which, not being very heavy, passed without inquiry. Thus it was 
 
40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 that he escaped detection, and that his parents escaped the afflic- 
 tion of knowing that he had been to a dancing-school. It was the 
 only time that Amos Kendall deceived his parents, and although 
 he did it to save them unhappiness, and felt justified, he could not 
 recommend the practice to others. 
 
 On the 16th of August, 1809, the members of the Sophomore 
 class were examined and admitted to the Junior standing. On 
 the 23d was Commencement, on which occasion Levi Woodbury 
 delivered the salutatory oration, then considered the first appoint- 
 ment and the highest honor. 
 
 On the 25th Mr. Kendall travelled on foot to West Windsor, 
 and spent several days at the residence of his uncles, Cummings 
 and Wilkin s, whose wives were his father's sisters, and in making 
 sundry excursions therefrom. At a ball in West Windsor he 
 committed a ludicrous blunder, which was a source of momentary 
 mortification to him and of merriment to his cousins. During a 
 long contra-dance he sat on a bench which ran along the side of 
 the hall and fell into a '* brown study," to which he was very little 
 addicted. A part of the figure was a chassSc from side to side, in 
 which the partners joined hands with extended arms. Suddenly 
 he was awakened from his revery by a pocket-handkerchief in the 
 hand of a lady being thrust almost into his face, which he seized 
 with a snatch. The lady stared at him as she chasseed away, and 
 on her return he handed it back with a bow. She evidently did 
 not understand the meaning of so strange an act, and her eyes 
 were fixed upon him with a look of wonder during the rest of the 
 evening. 
 
 On the 5th of September his father and mother joined him on 
 a visit to liis sisters, then living in Vermont. One of the sisters 
 lived at Fairfax, on Lamoille Paver, about forty miles from the 
 Canada line; and in an intermediate township called Underbill 
 also lived their oldest son Zebedee and their only daughter Molly, 
 who had married a man named Fletcher. The father and mother 
 had come from home in a chaise, and Amos hired a horse to ac- 
 company them on the remainder of their journey. On the morning 
 of the 9th they went over to Woodstock, where the father had 
 some distant relations of his own name. It was Sunday, and in 
 the evening they attended a meeting of a new religious sect call- 
 ing themselves Christians (pronounced with the "i" long). They 
 had no minister, and their services consisted of zealous conversa- 
 
JOURNEY TO VERMONT. 41 
 
 tion, singing, and praying, in which the women took a very active 
 part. 
 
 On the next and three succeeding days the party pursued their 
 journey through Eandolph and Montpelier, etc., to Underhill. 
 Here they saw how people live who settle on poor land upon a 
 wooded frontier. Zebedee Kendall and Amos Fletcher had each 
 purchased on credit a tract of wild land, built small log-cabins, and 
 made clearings. Their accommodations and fare were of the rudest 
 description, though the food was wholesome, and they appeared to 
 be contented. Their mother, however, was much affected at the 
 sight of their poverty and destitution of home comforts. In one 
 respect the women presented a striking contrast with the ladies of 
 polished society. One of them had an infant but a week old, and 
 yet, without physician, nurse, or any other assistance than that 
 of her husband, she had even during that week performed her 
 household duties, and then appeared to be in her usual health. 
 
 This was a sad visit for Amos Kendall, not so much on account 
 of the manner in which his brothers and their families lived, as of 
 the conviction that they could never meet the payments for their 
 land, and were making improvements upon it for the benefit of 
 others. Such was the actual result. In the winter of 1813 his 
 brother Zebedee abandoned his place, giving up all his im23rove- 
 ments, and returned to his father's with little else than a wife and 
 five children. In August of the same year his sister, having also 
 five children, arrived at her father's under the following circum- 
 stances. Her husband, finding himself in painful pecuniary straits, 
 enlisted in the army of the United States, and left her. She was 
 destitute of the necessaries of life, and could not obtain them. A 
 state of pregnancy added to the distress of her situation. She wrote 
 to her father, and he was preparing to send for her when she arrived. 
 She had sold her furniture, bought a horse and cart, taken in her 
 five children, and, with no other companions, started on a journey 
 of two hundred miles. Her oldest child was but twelve years old. 
 Within forty miles of her father's she was taken in labor, but was 
 received into a family and treated kindly. She lost her child, and 
 in one fortnight thereafter reached her father's house. 
 
 After spending about three days at these log-cabins the party 
 took an affectionate leave of their occupants, and went over to 
 Fairfax on a visit to Mr. Wilkins and family, — Mrs. Wilkins being 
 a sister of Amos Kendall's father. He owned valuable mills on 
 
42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Lamoille Eiver, and had several children living in the neighbor- 
 hood. After spending about four days in visiting and various 
 amusements, the party set out on their return to Windsor by way 
 of Burlington, Vergennes, Middlebury, and Eutland. They were 
 disappointed in the appearance of the college at Burlington, a 
 portion of which was unpainted and the grounds very indifferently 
 improved. The situation, however, was beautiful, commanding a 
 fine view of Lake Champlain which was reached by a gradual 
 descent from the building. The city of Burlington was then but 
 a small village. The scenery from points along the eastern shore 
 of Lake Champlain is exceeded in beauty by that of few places 
 in America. The lake is but a few miles wide, and is studded with 
 islands. The western shore exhibits a broken country, dotted with 
 improvements, and rising as it recedes into hills and mountains. 
 
 Spending the night in Vergennes, the party passed on through 
 Middlebury to Eutland, and the next day crossed the mountains 
 to Cavendish. There they separated, the father and mother con- 
 tinuing their journey towards home, and the son returning to 
 Windsor. 
 
 On the 25th of September Amos Kendall returned to Hanover, 
 and remained with his class until about the 15th of November, 
 when the necessity of replenishing his funds by keeping school 
 compelled him to ask leave of absence. Three other students, 
 Andrews and Wheeler of the Junior class, and Eastman of the 
 Sophomore, were about leaving at the same time in the same direc- 
 tion, and the four determined to make the journey home on foot, 
 more for a frolic than from any necessity. Early in the morning 
 they started in fine spirits and travelled about six miles before 
 breakfast. As they progressed, however, the unaccustomed use of 
 their limbs in such long walks began to be sensibly felt, and falhng 
 in with an empty wagon travelling in the same direction they 
 obtained permission to ride, and were thus carried forward about 
 six miles. It was still a few miles to a tavern, which was reached 
 with much difficulty. Eastman fairly gave out, and had to be 
 assisted for the last mile or two. Tlie whole distance made during 
 the day was about thirty miles. Wheeler had left the party at 
 Nswport. 
 
 The good people of Goshen were holding a school-meeting at 
 the tavern that evening, and the young students were not too 
 much fatigued to be diverted by the speeches made by the plain 
 countrymen on that interesting occasion. 
 
"COLD FRIDAY." 43 
 
 On consulting their legs the next morning, the young men 
 deemed it imprudent to trust them for another day's tramp, and 
 hired horses to take them out to the stage-road, about ten miles 
 distant. No stage was to pass until the evening, and they walked 
 about three miles to the residence of Andrews, during which East- 
 man again required assistance. Having rested there until about 
 sunset, they went down to Pierce's tavern, on the stage-road to Hills- 
 borough. This house was kept by General Pierce of Eevolutionary 
 celebrity, one of whose sons was a late President of the United 
 States. The evening passed agreeably in conversation with the 
 General's daughters, to one of whom Mr. Kendall had been intro- 
 duced at Hanover. The stage arrived about half past nine o'clock, 
 when Kendall and Eastman bade adieu to Andxews, and reached 
 Gibson's tavern, in Francestown, about midnight. Eesuming their 
 journey about 3 a. m., they arrived at their respective homes in 
 Dunstable and Hollis in the afternoon. 
 
 Before Mr. Kendall left the college his father had engaged for 
 him the school in New Ipswich which he had taught the preced- 
 ing winter. After spending a few days at home and in visiting 
 his friends in Groton, he repaired to the field of his winter's labors 
 and commenced his school on the 4th of December. For him 
 the winter was a remarkably happy one. His scholars were uni- 
 formly obedient and respectful, and most of them very studious. 
 Their parents were, without exception, kind and confiding. The 
 neighborhood was exceedingly social, and about half of the evenings 
 there were small parties, to all of which the schoolmaster was 
 invited. 
 
 On the 19th of January, 1810, occurred what was long remem- 
 bered as the " Cold Friday." There had been a warm rain, and the 
 snow, still perhaps eighteen inches deep, was saturated with water. 
 Suddenly on Thursday night the wind changed to the northwest, 
 and blew with the utmost fury. The snow on Friday morning was 
 congealed into a hard mass. The school-house was about half a 
 mile nearly west from Mr. Kendall's lodgings. Starting almost in 
 the face of the wind on the hard snow, and walking rapidly, he 
 soon found himseK so exhausted from breathing the condensed 
 atmosphere that he found it necessary to take shelter behind a 
 high stump. He had on woollen mittens, but his ears were un- 
 covered. He soon perceived that to remain there would be to 
 freeze, and again started onward. By the constant use of his mit- 
 
44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 tened hands he saved his ears and reached the school-house with- 
 out being frozen. But few children came, and some of these with 
 frozen fingers and toes. One red-cheeked boy about twelve years 
 old had, as he entered, a white spot on one cheek about as big as 
 a half-dollar ; but by the application of a rag wet with snow-water 
 the frost was extracted without leaving even a soreness. The 
 wind raged all through Friday and half of Saturday, and though 
 there was scarcely a cloud to be seen, there was no sensible 
 moderation of temperature. Many houses were wholly or par- 
 tially unroofed, among wliich was the meeting-house at New 
 Ipswich. Much timber was destroyed, and in some pieces of 
 woodland few trees were left standing. They were not torn up by 
 the roots, but broken off at different heights from the ground. 
 The power of the wind may be appreciated from the fact that 
 large trees, perfectly sound and destitute of foliage, were broken 
 entirely off within a few feet from the ground. 
 
 On the 2 2d of February the school was inspected in the pres- 
 ence of a large portion of the people of the district, who expressed 
 the highest satisfaction with the improvement of the cliildren. 
 On the 24th of February the school was closed for the season. 
 While the members of a class of little girls from ten to thirteen 
 years old were standing up to read, for the last time, some of them 
 began to sob, when the whole class caught the infection, and being 
 unable to proceed were remanded to their seats. The next older 
 class were called on, and for the same reason were directed to 
 resume their seats. There was a small class of girls and boys not 
 much younger than their teacher, who were summoned to recite, 
 but they also broke down. The teacher, therefore, with much 
 emotion, made a short address to the children and dismissed 
 them. In his journal he recorded that after he had dismissed the 
 children he shed tears himself, and that he had never before been 
 more attached to a circle of friends or parted from one with so 
 much reluctance. But though pressed to say lie would teach the 
 school the next winter, he declined doing so, not kno^Ying what 
 might then be his interest or duty. For this winter's services he 
 received forty-eight dollars. 
 
 After Mr. Kendall left college the preceding fall, great excite- 
 ment had prevailed at the college and in the surrounding country, 
 Avhich had not entirely subsided on his return. A young man had 
 been directed to go to Boston, it was said, to procure a subject for 
 
" BODY-SNATCHERS." 45 
 
 the dissecting-room. Searching in the burial-ground of an adjacent 
 town, he discovered a newly-made grave, and opening it, took out 
 the body of a young boy and carried it to the college. The grave 
 had been so imperfectly closed as to attract attention, and on ex- 
 amination a pocket-book was found near it, evidently dropped by 
 the resurrectionist, which had his name in it. The grave was re- 
 opened. In what direction the missing body had been taken ad- 
 mitted of no doubt. The first knowledge of the discovery which 
 the authorities of the college had, was the appearance at the door 
 of the lecture-room of an officer and several stout attendants, armed 
 with a search-warrant and demanding admittance. The room was 
 searched, and nothing found ; but as the party were about retiring, 
 one of them discovered a loose plank in the floor among the seats. 
 On removing it there were the remains of a boy so far dissected 
 and so mangled as to leave nothing of face or form by which he 
 could be recognized. From the size and other circumstances the 
 father had no doubt that the remains were those of his son, and 
 they were taken away for reinterment. This shocking develop- 
 ment threw the surrounding country into a state of terror and 
 excitement. People ceased for a time to bury their dead in the 
 pubhc burying-grounds. Town-meetings were held and violent 
 resolutions adopted. Dr. Smith, the head of the anatomical depart- 
 ment, rode out to attend one of the meetings, in the hope of allaying 
 the excitement by timely explanations. But the people not only 
 refused to hear him, but thrust him violently out of the meeting- 
 house, and he mounted his horse and fled to escape further out- 
 rage. Threats to burn the college buildings were freely uttered, 
 and indeed they were in imminent danger. The young man who 
 had been the immediate cause of this outbreak fled upon its first 
 demonstrations, and although vengeance was denounced against 
 him if to be found on earth, and attempts were made to discover 
 the place of his retreat, he escaped unpunished, though it is not 
 known that he ever again appeared in that neighborhood. In pro- 
 cess of time the excitement subsided ; but it had the salutary 
 effect of preventing for many years the indiscriminate violation of 
 graves in that region of country for the purpose of procuring sub- 
 jects for dissection. 
 
 On the night of the 19th of April the college and village were 
 alarmed by the cry of fire. Suddenly aroused from sleep, Kendall 
 saw a bright dow on the buildings in front of his window, and sup- 
 
46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 posed the fire was in the roof of the large building in which his 
 room was situated. In a few minutes he was dressed and had 
 all his effects ready for removal. On further inspection, the fire 
 was discovered to be in a barn belonging to Dr. Smith, which, 
 with two adjacent houses, was entirely destroyed. Dr. Smith 
 was that night in attendance upon a patient in the country. 
 Alarmed at the serious face of the messenger sent to announce 
 the disaster, who presented himself in the morning, he suddenly 
 asked, " What is the matter ? Is anybody dead ? " The messenger 
 answered " No ; but your barn is burned, with two of your horses." 
 Eelieved from his more serious apprehensions, Dr. Smith replied, 
 " Well, it will make a good watermelon-patch." Dr. Smith was 
 an amiable man, of strong sympathies, but much self-control. He 
 had, perhaps, at that day, no superior as a skilful surgeon, and it 
 was reported of him that he would perform the most agonizing 
 operations with the utmost coolness, and when aU was over go 
 a^^^ay and cry like a child. 
 
 In April of this year Mr. Kendall, on invitation, joined a liter- 
 ary society called the PMloi Uuphradias, composed of students 
 selected, on account of their supposed superior scholarship, from 
 the societies of Social Friends and United Fraternity. 
 
 To the great disgust of those who had encountered so much 
 odium in putting down the practice of " treating " on Sophomore 
 quarter-day, it was resumed again this year without any interfer- 
 ence of the authorities either before or after the fact. Another 
 affair occurred not long afterwards, which further evinced the 
 lack of discretion in the college faculty in the government of 
 young men. A few wild fellows had amused themselves one night 
 by collecting the cattle on the common and shutting them up in 
 the college cellar. It was not an uncommon occurrence, and the 
 faculty had not generally taken any notice of it. On this occa- 
 sion they ordered the young men occupying the rooms above the 
 entrance into the cellar to remove the obstructions and let the 
 cattle out. They were among the most orderly students in college, 
 some of them members of churches, and all young men who never 
 participated in nightly frolics. They obeyed the order ; but their 
 natural indignation at being required in open day to undo the 
 nightly mischief of others was soon inflamed, as well by their own 
 reflections as by the comments of their friends and the derision of 
 their less orderly feUow-stu dents. The result was a general deter- 
 
IN ORDER OF BATTLE. 47 
 
 mination to put the cattle into the cellar again, to come out as 
 they might. 
 
 Kendall was not one of the young men on whom the indignity 
 had been put ; but they were his associates, and he fully sympa- 
 thized with their resentment. On the evening of the 19th of June 
 he had gone to bed early, having an attack of sick-headache. Be- 
 tween nine and ten o'clock his chum came in, and told him they 
 had resolved to turn out that night. He got up, dressed himself, 
 and with his chum sallied out to take part in the fray. It was 
 not ten o'clock, and the moon was shining brightly. Now, that 
 even the church-members were engaged, the lovers of frolic turned 
 out in force, and soon more than a hundred young men, most of 
 them somewhat disguised, were perambulating in squads the com- 
 mon and roads adjacent, and driving cattle and horses towards the 
 college. Some of the animals had been driven into the cellar, 
 when President Wheelock, unobserved, approached the entrance. 
 Seizing one of the young men by the arm, he spoke, and being 
 recognized, was tripped up and fell upon the ground. He was not 
 further molested, but deemed it prudent to make a hasty retreat. 
 About a score of live stock had been driven into the cellar, and a 
 party were engaged in carrying and rolling stones, taken from a 
 fence just at hand, with which the entrance had been so far filled 
 as to be impassable, when another party appeared with a horse and 
 a number of cattle. The question was. Shall the obstructions be 
 removed and this additional lot driven in ? It was known that 
 the faculty had assembled at the President's house, and their ap- 
 pearance on the ground was momentarily expected. Nevertheless, 
 it was determined that these new recruits should go in at all haz- 
 ards. Probably more than sixty young men were on the spot ; 
 and about half of them were assigned to prevent the interfer- 
 ence of the faculty, while the residue removed the obstructions, 
 drove in the cattle, and filled up the entrance. Amos Kendall 
 was one of the party assigned to the duty of defending the work- 
 ing-party. 
 
 The cellar- way was' under the rear of the main college building, 
 and in full view of the rear of the President's house ; but a board- 
 fence intervened, in which was a gate, and through that gate the 
 faculty were expected to approach should they venture to interfere. 
 The defensive party of students stationed themselves, armed with 
 stones and brickbats, a few rods from this fence, with the under- 
 
48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 standing that in case the faculty made their appearance, advancing 
 from the rear of the President's house, they should hurl their 
 missiles against the board-fence, which demonstration it was 
 believed would deter them from advancing. 
 
 The party at the cellar-way had removed the obstructions so 
 that the entrance was passable, and were in the act of driving 
 in the reinforcements of stock, when the two tutors made their 
 appearance from the rear of the President's house, advancing to- 
 ward the gate. Stones and brickbats rattled against the fence, but 
 the brave men kept on, passed through the gate, and were rapidly 
 approaching the array of students. At this crisis, more than half 
 of the defensive party took to their heels, but the residue, knowing 
 that the entire object of the movement would be defeated should 
 they prove recreant, aimed their missiles directly at the tutors, 
 who immediately ran behind the chapel, which was just at hand. 
 No violence was offered them after they turned their backs, though 
 Kendall and a few others followed them as a corps of observation. 
 After a short consultation the tutors retired, evidently in despair 
 of stopping the disturbance. 
 
 Kendall had been quite sick all the evening, and now, perhaps 
 not altogether satisfied with the extremes to which the affair had 
 been carried, retired to his room and went to bed. The next morn- 
 ing there was a mound of stones covered with earth over the 
 cellar-way, and, near by a large stack of newly mown hay, brought 
 from an adjacent meadow. Under the windows, at the end of the 
 passage in the building above, were piles of small stones. These 
 were significant indications not only that the students did not in- 
 tend to let the cattle out themselves, but might resist their uncon- 
 ditional surrender by others. 
 
 The morning exercises and recitations passed off in customary 
 quietude. About eleven o'clock there was a visible movement 
 among the citizens of the village, and a rumor circulated that they 
 were preparing to release their imprisoned live stock by force. 
 Nearly all the students in college collected in the main building, 
 and, barricading the doors, were ready for defence. The faculty 
 appeared in a body, and walking around the building, accosted the 
 students standing in the windows, requesting some, and command- 
 ing others, to open the doors. Tlie general answer from those 
 addressed was, that it would not be safe for them to attempt it. 
 At length all the faculty i;etired, and soon afterwards Professor 
 
THE INVESTIGATION*. 49 
 
 Hubbard, a most amiable man much beloved by the students, ap- 
 proached one of the end doors with an axe in his hand, and, unre- 
 sisted, knocked out the panels. He then crawled in through the 
 breach he had made, removed the fastening, and opened the door. 
 The rest of the faculty then joined him, and, treating the students 
 with the utmost courtesy, they took possession of the passages and 
 sent word to the citizens that they might come and dig their cattle 
 out. No aid was asked of the students in this operation. 
 
 The faculty were greatly excited by these events, and showed 
 signs of a disposition to inflict condign punishment upon the 
 leaders therein. But their tone soon changed. Calling ujd a 
 young man of irregular habits who had been recognized on the 
 ground by one of the faculty, they required him to state the 
 names of others who were present. In the hope of saving him- 
 self, he named several of the most orderly young men in college, 
 some of whom were brethren in the church with the President 
 and professors. As soon as it was known that the inquisition was 
 on foot, a meeting of students was held and a committee appointed, 
 of whom Mr. Kendall was one, to prepare and send to the faculty 
 a memorial setting forth the extenuating circumstances. This duty 
 was performed. But the most effective step was, doubtless, the 
 concerted determination of the orderly young men engaged in the 
 affair to admit their participation and frankly state their reasons. 
 The following is substantially the result of the examination of a 
 church-member, one of those who had been required to undo the 
 mischief of others, viz. : — 
 
 President. Your name has been furnished us as one of those who 
 took part in the recent riot. Is the charge true % 
 
 Student. It is. 
 
 Pres. What could have induced you to take part in such a scanda- 
 lous affair? 
 
 Stu. Your own injustice. I had always obeyed the regulations of 
 the college, took no part in any of the mischievous frolics of other 
 students, was punctual at recitation and studious to preserve the charac- 
 ter of an upright and religious man. Notwithstanding all this, you 
 put upon me and others like me the indignity of undoing the mischief 
 of others, and subjected me to their taunts and sneers. Our friends 
 sympathized with us in our natural indignation, and proposed, as the most 
 appropriate mode of making known our resentment, to aid us in putting 
 the cattle back again, and it was done. 
 
50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Pres. What apology have you to make for your participation in 
 this affair? 
 
 Stu. None whatever. 
 
 Having been answered in this style by three or four of their 
 most worthy students, the faculty made no further inquiry. They 
 dismissed the young man first called up, and another who was 
 seen to carry into the college building a plank with which one of 
 the doors had been barricaded, imposing upon the others summoned 
 a fine to pay for damages done to some of the cattle and to a stone 
 fence, a rod or two of which had been used for filling up the cellar- 
 way. A general contribution of about twenty-five cents by each 
 student paid the fine, and thus the affair ended. It was a lesson 
 to the faculty by which they doubtless profited in their subsequent 
 conduct towards their more orderly pupils. 
 
 About the same time a political excitement arose in the college, 
 in which young Kendall participated. The party names of that 
 day were Federal and Eepublican, the latter being then sometimes 
 called Democratic. More than three fourths of the students 
 belonged to the Federal party; but Kendall was a Eepublican. 
 It was proposed to have a no-party celebration on the 4th of July, 
 and a meeting was held to elect an orator and a poet. One of the 
 most violent Federalists was chosen as orator, and Mr. Kendall as 
 poet. The latter, satisfied that with such an orator it would not 
 be a no-party celebration, declined to serve, and resolved to have 
 nothing more to do with the matter. But some of the Repub- 
 licans determined to get up a separate celebration, and finally made 
 arrangements to have it in Norwich, Yt., a Republican town op- 
 posite Hanover on the west side of the Connecticut River. To 
 furnish themselves with cannon for the occasion, a party from 
 Norwich one night carried off the old iron gun which had long 
 been a pet of the students, though they did not know to whom it 
 belonged. The Federal students, as soon as they discovered the 
 loss, became much excited, and determined to recover it, — not be- 
 cause they needed it, there being mounted pieces in the village at 
 their service, but to deprive the other party of its use. They 
 traced it into Vermont, and as they thought to a house not far 
 from the village of Norwich. At their request the owner suffered 
 them to search his house ; but they found nothing, and returned to 
 Hanover. Still believing that the gun was concealed in that 
 
THE STOLEN GUN. 51 
 
 house, a large party the next day started for Norwich. Kendall 
 had been bathing in the river, and on his way back to the 
 college met the party near the bridge. Upon the invitation of 
 their leader he turned and went with them to see the sport. As 
 they approached the house in which the gun was supposed to be 
 concealed, the owner met them and inquired what was their object. 
 They replied that they desired to make further search in his house 
 for the missing cannon. He said he had allowed them to search his 
 house once, but could not have it ransacked by them every day, and 
 he forbade them to enter or approach it. They then sent back to 
 Hanover, and with the aid of a lawyer procured the issue of a 
 search-warrant; but neither sheriff nor constable could be found 
 in Norwich to execute it, — being Eepublicans, they had all dis- 
 appeared. The day passed away with no other result than creat- 
 ing an excitement among the people of Norwich. In the evening 
 they collected in considerable numbers, and finding that several 
 students had been left behind as spies, they chased some of them 
 over the bridge, and making prisoners of others, lodged them in 
 the garret of the suspected house, and placed a guard over them. 
 Before morning, however, they were suffered to escape. 
 
 The next day the excitement at Hanover was higher than ever, 
 and more than a hundred men,' including many citizens, gathered 
 for the purpose of recovering the old gun. Their plan of action, 
 by the advice of some considerate citizens, was changed. They 
 sent a delegation to the Lieutenant-Governor of Vermont, living in 
 Norwich, representing that the gun belonged to the State of New 
 Hampshire, and asking him to interpose his influence to produce 
 its peaceful surrender. Upon his declaring his readiness to com- 
 ply with their request, if they would satisfy him of the justice of 
 their claim, they submitted their evidence, which he deemed satis- 
 factory. In a short speech he stated the case to the people of 
 Norwich, and advised them no longer to insist on keeping a piece 
 of property which belonged to the neighboring State. 
 
 The gun had been concealed in the 'house which had been 
 searched by the students on the first day of the excitement, but 
 on the night of the second day it had been removed, rammed full of 
 rotten stone, and buried in a turnip-patch which had been sown 
 and harrowed over early the next morning. In compliance with 
 the advice of the Lieutenant-Governor, the Norwich people showed 
 the Hanoverians the gi-ave of the gun, but declined giving any aid 
 in its disinterment. 
 
52 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KKNDALL. 
 
 While one party went to work in digging up the gun, another 
 went back to Hanover and procured ropes with which to drag 
 it home, and powder for the purpose of firing it by way of 
 triumph as soon as they should get it across the State line. 
 But they found it impracticable speedily to remove the rotten 
 stone with which it was charged ; and, not to be cheated out of their 
 noisy triumph, they sent to the village for one of the mounted 
 pieces. With their ropes they dragged the old gun along the 
 ground and over the bridge, when they halted, fired several rounds, 
 and shouted in the highest excitement. While every one at the 
 college was listening to the distant uproar, the bell over their heads 
 began to ring a merry peal. The Eepublicans said to each other, 
 " Is it possible that our faculty are taking sides in this party 
 row ? " They immediately inquired by what authority the bell 
 was ringing, and was told it was by order of the Treasurer of the 
 Corporation. Most of them, including Kendall, had so far looked 
 on with unconcern, having considered the theft of the cannon as 
 a not very reputable transaction. 
 
 But this interference of the college authorities at once excited 
 in every Eepublican bosom an universal feeling of indignant 
 resentment. To show it in the only way obvious to them, they 
 provided themselves with goose-quill squealers, reeds of wind in- 
 struments, and anything at hand with which they could make a 
 disagreeable noise, and went out upon the common in squads for 
 mutual protection. 
 
 It was now dark, and the Federalists were dragging their gun 
 along the road from the bridge to the common, shouting as 
 they marched. As soon as they entered upon the common they 
 were saluted by a chorus of squeals and other noises as formidable 
 as could well be made by thirty or forty young men whose hearts 
 were in the cause. To drown their noise, the Federalists sent for 
 a drum. Advancing to the centre of the common, they halted and 
 gave out several toasts of a violent party character. Mr. Kendall 
 has X)reserved one of them in his journal, with the name of the 
 author. Let the name be forgotten ; the toast is as follows : — 
 
 " May Democracy throughout the Union lurk in obscurity as on the 
 Plain of Hanover." 
 
 All were silent to hear the toast ; but as soon as each was given, 
 one party shouted and drummed and the other squealed. Finally, 
 
COLLEGE HONORS. 53 
 
 the Federalists moved across tlie common and deposited the gun in 
 a cellar, shouting, yelling, and calling the Democrats opprobrious 
 names, while the latter hung about with responsive squeals ; and 
 these noises, with the ringing of the bell and the beating of the 
 drum were enough to rouse the echoes from the Granite Hills and 
 the Green Mountains. 
 
 The more moderate Eepublican students had not intended to 
 join the Norwich celebration ; but the course pursued by the col- 
 lege authorities converted them into active supporters of the 
 movement. A cannon was procured from a neighboring town, and 
 the party had their oration, dinner, and toasts. Their hilarity, 
 however, was suddenly changed to sadness by a serious accident 
 to their gunner. The piece was fired before he had entirely with- 
 drawn the ramrod, by which means he lost a finger and suffered 
 serious laceration of his hand, arm, and face. 
 
 Mr. Kendall characterized the oration on this occasion as " not 
 fit to be spoken by an American," being " too Frenchified " ; but 
 the toasts prepared by a committee consisting of Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor Brigham and his classmates, Carter and Willard, he pro- 
 nounced excellent. 
 
 Without any effort on his part, Kendall had now acquired a 
 high degree of popularity among the students. It was exhibited 
 in his selection to deliver a quarterly oration before the Social 
 Friends, three fourths of whom were bitterly arrayed against him 
 one year before. He was also one of the number selected from 
 his class as members of the Phi Beta Ka'p'pa. 
 
 On the 11th of August died the Hon. John Hubbard, Professor 
 of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Dartmouth College. 
 Though not a man of brilliant talents, he was universally beloved 
 and respected for his gentle disposition, his faithfulness as an in- 
 structor, and his unimpeachable integrity. He left a widow and 
 four children, two of whom were then members of the Freshman 
 class. The property left by him was insufdcient to support his 
 family, who were objects of universal sympathy. The Junior 
 class presented a mourning suit to the widow, which she received 
 with uncontrollable emotion. 
 
 On the 15th of August the members of the Junior class were 
 examined and admitted to the Senior standing. On the 22d was 
 Commencement, and on the same evening Kendall started for 
 home on horseback in company with his classmates, Howe and 
 
54 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Ainswoi'th. The next day they reached Howe's residence in 
 Jaffrey. Here, upon the invitation of his friend Howe, he 
 intended to remain over the 24th for the purpose of ascendinr; 
 Monadnock mountain; but being deterred from that enterprise 
 by clouds hanging around the head of the old monarch, he 
 passed on to New Ipswich, where he was received by his friends 
 with the most flattering cordiality. He was earnestly pressed to 
 take charge of their school for the third season ;. but he declined 
 committing himself, in the hope of obtaining a more lucrative 
 situation. Having spent several days with his relatives and 
 friends in New Ipswich and Mason, he reached home on the 31st 
 of August, where he was pained to find his mother very low with 
 dropsy, from which there were but faint hopes of her recovery. 
 
 On the 12th of September he attended a meeting of the Mid- 
 dlesex Musical Society, at Townsend, and joined in their perform 
 ances. This society and the Handel Society of Dartmouth College 
 were making a concerted effort to change the character of the 
 music then used in the churches of New England, and to that end 
 had arranged to have a public exhibition at Concord, N. H., on 
 the 19th day of that month. The reform proposed, was to sub- 
 stitute the old-fashioned slow and solemn music for the hght, 
 jangling fugues which were in general use, and it was hoped to 
 effect a change in the popular taste by the public performance of 
 the best psalm-tunes and other pieces written by the most cele- 
 brated composers. At this meeting in Townsend information was 
 received that a long-established Musical Society at Amherst, K H., 
 called the Handelian, had fallen into the ranks of the reformers. 
 
 Several days were spent by Kendall in visiting his friends in 
 Groton and Dunstable, and in collecting money for his father, after 
 which he started for the college by way of Concord, N. H., spend- 
 ing a day there to take part in the musical celebration. About 
 forty performers were present, and though the day was rainy there 
 was a large audience. An excellent oration on the object of the 
 societies was delivered by the Eev. Samuel Worcester, of Salem, 
 and his tribute to the memory of Professor Hubbard, who at the time 
 of his death was President of the Handel Society and had pro- 
 jected that meeting, drew tears from a large portion of the au- 
 dience. The music was of a very high order, though not so perfect 
 as the separate performances of the Handel Society. Although 
 the societies had practised the same tunes preparatory to this ex- 
 
MUSICAL CELEBRATION. 55 
 
 hibition, and each was very perfect in its way, yet, when they 
 came to sing together, slight variances developed themselves, 
 which, in a moderate degree, impaired the general effect. The ex- 
 hibition, however, passed off with much applause. Of the male 
 performers, Jonathan Curtis, and of the female, Miss Mary and 
 Miss Annette Woodward, all members of the Handel Society, at- 
 tracted particular attention and applause. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 On fhe 20th of October Mr. Kendall returned to college in 
 company with his classmate, Jonathan Curtis, and the next day 
 engaged a room and board in a private house kept by a widow 
 lady named Davis. 
 
 On the 2d of November the appointments for Senior quarter- 
 day were given out. According to custom, this was done by the 
 class voting by ballot. Kendall was surprised to find himseK 
 elected to the first appointment, apparently by an unanimous vote. 
 He was equally surprised at the elections to the second and some of 
 the succeeding appointments, which fell upon young men deemed by 
 him undeserving of the positions in the class thus assigned to them. 
 Observing a cluster of students in a corner of the room, he ap- 
 proached and found them looking over an entire list of appoint- 
 ments already made out, and that the elections thus far were in 
 accordance with the list. The thought at once flashed upon his 
 mind, that there was a concerted scheme, well matured, to place 
 certain young men in positions to which their merits did not en- 
 title them, and that his name had, without consulting him, been 
 placed at the head of the list as a cover of the meditated injus- 
 tice to others. At his request the list was handed to him, and 
 mounting a bench and inviting the attention of the assembly, 
 he remarked, in a jocular manner, that somebody, it appeared, had 
 already performed the service for which the class was called to- 
 gether, and as they had thus far ratified the arrangement prepared 
 to their hands, it seemed unnecessary to waste time in voting upon 
 each case separately. He therefore moved that the entire list be 
 adopted just as arranged. Though the managers looked blank 
 and raised a feeble opposition, the motion was carried by acclama- 
 tion and a committee appointed to communicate the result to the 
 faculty. Kendall immediately called on the President and in- 
 formed him of the whole matter, stating that he did not consider 
 it any honor to receive the appointment assigned to him by caucus 
 
THE BOY MATHEMATICIAN. 
 
 57 
 
 management and expressing the hope that the entire proceedings 
 would be set aside and the class directed to go into a new election. 
 The -faculty, however, recognized as legitimate the appointments 
 which had been assigned by separate votes, and directed the class 
 to reassemble and fiH up the list in the same way. But few at- 
 tended the second meeting, and the caucus managers voted them- 
 selves, without exception, into the places which had been assigned 
 them in the original list. Kendall had accomplished his object in 
 satisfying every one that he had no hand in the caucus arrange- 
 ment which placed him at the head of his class. But he exclaims 
 in his journal : " Who, said I to myself, thought, Sophomore year, 
 that these fellows would ever give the first appointment to * Giles 
 Scroggins ' ? " This was one of the nicknames applied to him dur- 
 ing the " treating " excitement of 1809. He adds, " College popu- 
 larity is variable as the wind." 
 
 On the 3d of November the father of Zerah Colburn, the cele- 
 brated boy mathematician, called with his son at Kendall's board- 
 ing-house. In his journal Mr. Kendall says of this prodigy : 
 " His father gives the following account of him. He was born six 
 years ago the first day of last September. He appeared to know 
 even less than common children when one year old. Last spring 
 he was observed to be talking of figures with the other children, 
 when he appeared to answer questions in the multiplication-table 
 much more readily than his elders. He, however, attracted no 
 particular notice until last August, when his father observing his 
 readiness in figures, began to question him, and soon found that he 
 was better acquainted with the multiplication -table than himself. 
 The affair soon spread, and the boy was taken to Montpelier and 
 Burlington and examined. Being poor, the father had determined 
 to take his child to some of the larger towns and cities of the 
 country in the hope of raising money to give him an education. 
 
 " Professors Adams and Shurtleff examined the boy in private and 
 afterwards in public. They were confounded. Professor Adams, 
 himself an eminent mathematician, said he had never seen, heard, 
 or read of anything like it. He could multiply together any two 
 numbers under a hundred in less than a minute. He could tell, 
 apparently without thought, how many days there are in any num- 
 ber of years less than thirty, and in any number over thirty and up 
 to a hundred upon a minute's reflection. After being told the 
 denominations of weights and measures, he would reduce one to 
 
58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 another with the greatest readiness. He answered correctly the 
 question, ' How many gills are there in three barrels ? ' The ques- 
 tion, ' How many are 25 x 25 + 35 x 35 -|- 45 x 45 ? ' he answered cor- 
 rectly with little hesitation. He readily multiplied any number 
 over a hundred by any number less. In less than a minute he an- 
 swered correctly the question, ' How many days are there in seventy- 
 three years ? ' What rendered his performances more wonderful was, 
 that he did not know a figure when written, and could not count 
 more than fifty. How he knew the names of larger numbers was 
 a mystery, and he was sometimes embarrassed in making his an- 
 swers understood. After he had stated correctly the number of 
 days in a given number of years, he was asked how many hours 
 there were. He said he did not know the number of hours in a 
 day. On being told it was twenty-four he immediately gave a 
 correct answer. 
 
 " He was of the ordinary size, had a large head, red hair, blue 
 eyes, a florid, healthy complexion, somewhat freckled, had five 
 fingers (exclusive of thumbs) and was always in motion, even 
 when calculating. On other subjects than numbers his remarks 
 were sensible for a child of his age." 
 
 It Avas understood that the faculty offered to take the boy and 
 give him an education gratuitously ; but the father, without declin- 
 ing the proposition, wished to exhibit his son in the large cities. 
 
 On returning to college the next spring, Kendall fell in with 
 Zerah Colburn and his father, in the stage between Windsor and 
 Hanover, returning home from a very successful money-making 
 tour to Boston and more southern cities. Zerah and his father 
 (who was a ^-ery ignorant man) had become entirely spoilt by the 
 attentions and money which had been bestowed upon them, and 
 by their impertinence and vanity made themselves very obnoxious 
 to the other jiassengers. The desire of the father to have his son 
 educated had been superseded by " the cursed lust for gold," to be 
 accumulated by the exhibition of his son's wonderful talent, and 
 in furtherance of this object he was then meditating a trip to 
 Europe. Mr. Kendall never again fell in with Zerah or his father. 
 It was understood, however, that the contemplated trip to Europe 
 was performed and was highly successful ; but that Zerah's peculiar 
 talent did not improve in proportion to his advance in years, and 
 that when he became a man he was not pre-eminent for his mathe- 
 matical genius. 
 
SCHOOL-TEACHING. 59 
 
 It was the custom of tlie Society of Social Friends to select one 
 of the Senior class to deliver an oration on the Monday or Tues- 
 day preceding Commencement, and another to prepare a dialogue 
 to be recited on the same occasion. The oration was considered 
 the most honorable appointment. From indications hardly to be 
 mistaken, Kendall believed he could have his choice of these ap- 
 pointments ; but having at the time some poetical ambition, he 
 preferred the second honor to the first, and though pressed to be a 
 candidate for the oration with assurances of his election, he per- 
 emptorily declined. The second appointment was assigned to him 
 with entire unanimity. 
 
 The 28th of November was Senior quarter-day, when Kendall 
 performed the part which had been assigned to him by his class. 
 Having undertaken to teach a school in Weston, Mass., which 
 began on the 3d of December, he obtained leave of absence, and 
 on the 30th of November left for home, which, after a rough 
 stage-ride over frozen ground, he reached the next day. Eesting 
 one day, he rode to Weston on the 3d of December, and found 
 that his school had met that day and dispersed. 
 
 This school he taught four months, commencing on the 4th of 
 December. The entire number of children who attended during 
 the winter was 85, and the average number in attendance exceeded 
 60. Of the 85, 63 were learning to write, 21 were studying 
 arithmetic, 19 English grammar, 9 geography, 2 Latin, and 1 
 Greek. Often, also, little children were sent in who did not know 
 their letters. It is very obvious that no man without an assistant 
 could teach very thoroughly such a number of children in such 
 diversified studies. The school had been very loosely governed, 
 and at first was quite disorderly. At Mr. Kendall's request the 
 school committee of the district visited the school, and in the 
 presence of the children enjoined upon him the duty of exact- 
 ing obedience and preserving order. Thus sustained, he soon 
 succeeded, without the infliction of any severe punishments, 
 in bringing the school under good discipline. A single instance 
 of abstinence from punishment had a remarkable effect. A boy 
 had committed some oftence which excited his teacher, who called 
 him up and reproved him in severe terms. He had taken hold of 
 the boy's hand and raised his ruler for the purpose of ferrulmg 
 him when he suddenly threw the hand from him, saying : " Go to 
 you^ seat, I am too angiy to strike you." The children, most of 
 
60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 whom had probably never been corrected except in anger, stared 
 in wonder. 
 
 It was only by classification that so large a number of children 
 could be taught at all. There were four classes in reading and 
 spelling, two in arithmetic, two in English grammar, and two in 
 geography. The time allotted to teaching was six hours, three in 
 the forenoon and three in the afternoon, with a short intermission 
 at twelve o'clock. A recess of a few minutes, first of the girls and 
 then of the boys, was allowed in the middle of the forenoon and 
 again in the middle of the afternoon. To make and mend pens 
 (steel pens being then unknown), set copies for the writers, and 
 hear all these classes twice a day, was no small labor. The Latin 
 and Greek scholars recited in the evening after the school was dis- 
 missed. 
 
 On the 29th of March, 1811, the school was examined by the 
 clergyman of the town and the school committee, in the presence 
 of a considerable number of the inhabitants. The teacher had 
 kept in tabular form, and laid before them, a statement showing 
 the names and ages of all the children who had attended the school 
 during the winter, the number of days each was absent, the pro- 
 gress made by each in writing, arithmetic, geography, English 
 grammar, and the languages ; in the first class, the number of words 
 missed in spelling, and in the second, third, and fourth classes, the 
 number of times each had been at the head. The examination 
 was highly satisfactory, and the committee solicited Mr. Kendall 
 to take charge of their school the next winter ; but having other 
 views, he declined making any engagement. Though he fell ten 
 days short of the stipulated time, the committee paid him for 
 seventeen full weeks, — his wages amounting to eighty-five dollars. 
 
 Though the winter in other respects had passed very agreeably, 
 there was not that cordiality between the teacher and the people 
 which existed at New Ipswich, nor the same degree of affection 
 between him and his scliolars. Among his new acquaintances 
 was the Rev. J. Kendall, D. D., the clergyman of the town, with 
 whom he endeavored in vain to trace a relationship, though they 
 did not doubt that they had descended from the same English an- 
 cestor. While Mr. Kendal] was describing Zerah Colburn to Dr. 
 Kendall, on mentioning his five fingers, — " "VMiy," exclaimed the 
 latter, " he is our cousin ! " He proceeded to say that he had never 
 met with a person favored with such a superfluity of digits, whose 
 
FIRST HONORS. g^ 
 
 kinship to the Kendall family could not be established, and he re- 
 quested his young friend to inquire what was the fact in this case. 
 "When he, Kendall, met Zerah and his father in the stage on his 
 return to college the next spring, he made the inquiry and was 
 informed that Zerah's grandmother was a Kendall. She married 
 a Green, her daughter married a Colburn, who was the gi-andfather 
 of Zerah, and thence he derived his five fingers. 
 
 On the 30th of March Mr. Kendall returned home, and after 
 spending about two weeks among his friends, reached Dartmouth 
 College on the evening of the 13th of April. 
 
 On the 24th of May the Senior appointments were given out, 
 and Mr. Kendall had the unexpected pleasure of finding himself 
 placed at the head of his class. The second honor in rank was 
 assigned to Joseph Perry, the third to Daniel Poor, the fourth to 
 
 Nathaniel H. Carter, the fifth to Fairfield, the sixth to 
 
 Nathaniel Wright, the seventh to Jonathan Curtis, the eighth 
 to Joseph Curtis, the ninth (a dialogue) to Samuel Woodbury and 
 
 Crowell, the tenth (a dialogue) to Bean and Ether 
 
 Shepley, the eleventh (forensic) to Bezaleel Cushman and 
 
 Whipple, the twelfth (poem) to Morse. 
 
 Had the duty of giving out the appointments devolved on Mr. 
 Kendall himself, he would have assigned the first to Daniel Poor, 
 and preferred several others to himself. It seemed to him impos- 
 sible; that, laboring under so many disadvantages, he could entitle 
 himself to the first rank in . his class. Want of means had com- 
 pelled him to be absent two whole terms and parts of several more. 
 He had, indeed, entered college ^ve times, four of them in con- 
 sequence of forfeiting his connections by absence every year. 
 Several branches of study he had pursued in winter evenings 
 without a teacher, while keeping school. Though he thought he 
 appeared well in every branch of study, he was yet conscious of 
 superiority in none, and of inferiority in some. On the whole, he 
 concluded that the faculty, in assigning the first rank to him, had 
 made liberal allowances for the disadvantages under which he had 
 labored. But his highest gratification arose from the congratula- 
 tions of his classmates, all of whom seemed to concede that he 
 merited the honor which he had received. 
 
 This year the faculty took efficient steps to prevent, and did 
 prevent, the practice of " treating " on Sophomore quarter-day, and 
 the " Temperance men " of that day had the satisfaction of reflect- 
 
62 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 ing that the indignities to which two years before they had been 
 exposed in the cause, had not been encountered in vain. 
 
 There were two affairs in this portion of his college life from 
 which Mr. Kendall deduced lessons for his future guidance in the 
 outer world. One of them was a formidable conspiracy defeated 
 by promptitude and firmness. The Society called the Philoi 
 Euphradias was composed of young men selected from the Social 
 Friends and United Fraternity, and was an object of envy and 
 hatred to a majority of the members of those two societies, who 
 had been passed over in making the selections. A conspiracy was 
 formed, extending through both of those societies, whose object 
 was the destruction of the Philoi Euphradias. The means by 
 which it was proposed to accomplish this end was the adoption of 
 a fundamental regulation prohibiting the members of the Friends 
 and Fraternity from joining the Philoi, on the ground that the lat- 
 ter was incompatible with the interests of the former. The scheme 
 was thoroughly matured, and preparations made to broach it in the 
 Social Friends, which then embraced about two thirds of the 
 students. 
 
 There was an unusually full meeting, and Mr. Kendall sat won- 
 dering what could have occasioned so general an attendance, many 
 young men being present who seldom appeared, and who took 
 little interest in the society or its exercises. At length his old 
 chum, T. C. Gardner, arose, made a short speech, and submitted a 
 proposition prohibiting members of the Friends from joining the 
 Philoi. He had said but a few words when Mr. Kendall compre- 
 hended the cause of the full attendance, and perceived that there 
 was a matured conspiracy, of which Gardner was the organ. He 
 therefore promptly replied to Gardner's argument, denying the 
 alleged incompatibility of interest and denouncing the proposition 
 as an implied imputation upon the fidelity of those who were already 
 members of the Philoi. He was followed by others of the Philoi and 
 the conspirators ; but it was soon evident that the adoption of Gard- 
 ner's proposition was a foregone conclusion. The vote Avas about 
 to be taken, when Mr. Shepley, who was a Philoi, asked Mr. Ken- 
 dall to step out with him. As soon as tliey were out of the room, 
 Shepley asked, "What do you intend to do?" "Leave the 
 society," was the prompt reply. "So will I," said Shepley. 
 When they returned to the hall the vote had been taken, and 
 Daniel Poor, the President of the society, and a Philoi, was makin<7 
 
WRITES A TRAGEDY. g3 
 
 a speecli, which he concluded by asking a dismission. He was 
 foUowed in the same request by KendaU, Shepley, and several 
 others. Poor directed the Secretary to put the vote on his applica- 
 tion for dismission. He did so, but there was no affirmative re- 
 sponse. Poor then rose and said he would not remain in the society 
 under the imputation which their proceedings cast upon him, and 
 if they would not dismiss him he would dismiss himself, where- 
 upon he left the chair, took his hat, and walked out of the hall. 
 Much confusion ensued. The members generally were much at- 
 tached to the society, and the decisive course adopted by the 
 Philois had not entered into the calculation of the conspirators. 
 Many members flocked around Kendall and his friends, some of 
 them shedding tears, disavowing any intention to impeach their 
 fidelity, and begging them to remain in the society. They were 
 inflexible. Finally a President 'pro tem, was elected, and Kendall 
 stated that the only thing which would induce him to remain in 
 the society, — and he believed every Philoi felt as he did, — was the 
 rescinding of the resolution they had adopted. A motion to that 
 effect was made and carried almost unanimously. A committee 
 was then appointed to invite Mr. Poor to return into the hall and 
 resume the chair. The ceremony was duly performed, and there 
 the affair ended. 
 
 In truth, the Philois were the flower of the society, embracing 
 most of its officers, and most of those who infused talent into its 
 performances and gave it character in the estimation of the com- 
 munity. 
 
 In pursuance of his appointment by the Social Friends, Mr. 
 Kendall wrote a long tragedy, entitled " Palafox, or the Siege of 
 Saragossa," the subject of which was the desperate defence of that 
 city by the Spaniards against the armies of Napoleon. It was 
 read to the society and apjDroved. 
 
 Nathaniel Wright, who had been appointed for a similar pur- 
 pose by the United Fraternity, had also written a long tragedy. 
 As both could not be performed the same evening, a dispute arose 
 bat ween the two societies as to which should occupy the evening 
 before Commencement, being Tuesday. That evening was gTeatly 
 preferred to Monday, as many more strangers from abroad were 
 likely to be in attendance. The Fraternity claimed Tuesday even- 
 incf by right of prescription ; the Friends denied the claim, and 
 urf^ed the principle of alternation, the Fraternity having had Tues- 
 
64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 day evening on the last similar occasion. The dispute grew so warm 
 that the faculty, fearing a disturbance, gave notice that unless 
 the two societies could adjust the matter between themselves, both 
 plays would be suppressed. With the consent of the authors, the 
 societies agreed that only the best of the two should be performed, 
 and appointed a joint committee to e:j^amine them and make the 
 selection ; but the committee divided, each branch deciding in 
 favor of the work which represented their own society. Each of 
 the authors then submitted his production to the criticism of his 
 competitor in the hope (not very reasonable, perhaps) that one 
 might concede the superiority to the other ; but each very naturally 
 preferred his own production. Wright's zealous defence of his 
 own, and his extravagant criticism of Kendall's, suggested to the 
 latter a mode of settling the controversy. Not doubting that his 
 rival would sooner yield the point than have his play suppressed, 
 he recommended to the Social Friends to pass, and send to the 
 Fraternity, a resolution asserting their right to Tuesday evening, 
 and their determination not to yield it, though the consequences 
 should be the suppression of both plays ; his suggestion was adopt- 
 ed, and the result vindicated his sagacity. 
 
 This question being settled, KendaU proceeded to select perform- 
 ers for the different parts of his tragedy, and provide their cos- 
 tumes. He had never been in a theatre, and knew nothing about 
 modern acting. His knowledge on the subject was derived alto- 
 gether from books. His play, therefore, was on the ancient model, 
 very long, with a prologue and epilogue. It was a work of much 
 labor ; but at that period of liis life he loved labor. 
 
 During the 26th and 27th of August the several societies had 
 their annual performances, which were not marked by any unusual 
 incidents, except that when the Philoi Euphradias entered the 
 meeting-house they were saluted by the baffled conspirators with 
 the blowing of horns, yells, and the ringing of the bell. On mo- 
 tion of Mr. Kendall, the members of the society wore their medals 
 during the day and evening in token of defiance. 
 
 On the evening of the 25th the tragedy of the United Fraternity 
 was performed. The manner in which it was received and the 
 criticisms upon it had a depressing effect upon Kendall, filling him 
 with apprehensions as to the fate of his own production. 
 
 The dreaded evening of the 26th arrived. Mr. Kendall's ac- 
 count of the performance, written at the time, is as follows : — 
 
COMMENCEMENT. 65 
 
 " The prologue was well spoken. The performance commenced ; but 
 the performers spoke so low as not to be heard throughout the house. 
 Intelligence soon came from different parts of the audience, and the 
 performers raised their voices. The play proceeded, not without laughter 
 and tears from many of the audience. The music was appropriate, hav- 
 ing been previously selected. Then followed the epilogue. It was per- 
 formed to admiration by Heywood and Miltimore, and received with 
 repeated bursts of applause. I myself performed the third part, and 
 had the vain momentary satisfaction of a general clapping when I 
 left the stage. I soon likewise had the satisfaction to learn that the 
 audience placed it much before the play of last evening. Fatigued, and 
 I can likewise add satisfied, with the transactions of the day and even- 
 ing, I speedily retired." 
 
 The next day was Commencement. The salutatory oration by 
 Mr. Kendall, being in Latin, was unintelligible to most of the au- 
 dience, and was not considered by himself as possessing any pecu- 
 liar merit. With two or three exceptions, the other performances 
 were very indifferent. Bean refused to make any preparation to 
 perform the part assigned him, apparently thinking he had been 
 underrated in the distribution of the appointments. Jonathan 
 Fairfield, for the same reason, resolved to disgrace the Commence- 
 ment by disgracing himself. He appeared on the stage with his 
 stockings about his heels, and his whole dress in a most slovenly 
 condition. He took no notice of the President or Trustees, and 
 spoke so low as hardly to be heard ten feet from the stage. His 
 oration was on the " Liberty of the Press," and was made up of 
 extracts from Junius, awkwardly put together. Once he puUed a 
 paper from his pocket, and for some time read from it in a most 
 monotonous tone. The consequence of the conduct of Bean and 
 Fairfield was, that both lost their degrees. As soon as the per- 
 formances were over Mr. KendaU betook hims-elf to his bed, being 
 entirely exhausted by the business of the week. 
 
 Thus ended Amos Kendall's college life. It was one of disap- 
 pointments ; but his disappointments were honors. His honors 
 were not the result of management, but came upon him unsought. 
 He performed no act and concealed no opinion with the view of 
 gaining any personal advantage. Always truthful and punctual 
 in every college duty, he became popular without seeking popu- 
 larity. Never was he absent from recitation without a sufficient 
 excuse, and never but once from the services in the chapel. On 
 
 6 
 
55 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 that occasion the tutor had seen him in company with some ladies 
 after the hour for evening prayer had passed, and when asked what 
 excuse he had, he replied, '' None at all, sir." The tutor smiled, 
 and passed to the next delinquent. 
 
 The following is a review of Mr. Kendall's college life, written 
 by him in his journal at its close, and in it may be found the key 
 to his entire subsequent career : — 
 
 "At this era the mind naturally reviews the incidents which have 
 checkered my college course. I at first entered upon my collegiate 
 studies with much diffidence in my own powers, but with an ambition to 
 appear among the foremost. I soon found that popularity and excellence 
 of scholarship are seldom connected, and that decision and firmness 
 would best secure a person fi:om the interruptions of the fools of dissi- 
 pation. My first chamber-mate was too fond of company. I soon per- 
 ceived that his associates were not suitable companions for one really 
 desirous of acquiring knowledge. Though at first, from my ignorance 
 of a college life, I had engaged in one or two trifling foolish .adventures, 
 I was soon freed from farther vexation by a fixed and declared deter- 
 mination to take no part in these heroic achievements. The consequence 
 was, that my popularity, which at first was great, began to decline, and 
 I was looked upon with an eye of suspicion. About the same time I 
 had an invitation to join a secret club, afterwards called the Gumnasion 
 Adelphon^ instituted for the promotion of friendship and mutual im- 
 provement. This society, which comprised the best part of the class 
 both in morals and knowledge, had a wonderful effect in uniting all its 
 members in all the succeeding difficulties. In fact, it formed a phalanx 
 which not all the sons of dissipation were able to break or terrify. Not- 
 withstanding it consisted of fifteen or more members, and met weekly, 
 even its existence was never known in college. Its efiects were seen, 
 but the cause was hidden. 
 
 " At the beginning of Sophomore year my popularity had considera- 
 bly declined. In the spring of that year commenced our attack upon 
 the detestable habit of ' treating.' The open and decided part which I 
 took in this quarrel gave a finishing blow to my popularity. I was 
 stigmatized as an informer, nicknamed 'Giles Scroggius's ghost,' from my 
 paleness of countenance, and had the mortification of seeing all these 
 things written in fifty places on the college walls, and even in the chapel. 
 But the efifect was contrary to expectation. I afiected to take no no- 
 tice of it, and by treating every one with civility, soon had the satisfac- 
 tion of seeing my enemies at my feet. Every one of them who had 
 any sense of honor or propriety heartily detested the thing, and person- 
 
REVIEW OF COLLEGE LIFE. 
 
 67 
 
 ally conversed with me, acknowledging themselves in fault. To the in- 
 veteracy of my enemies I attributed my not being elected into the Philoi 
 Euphradias at the first election, and I expected the same cause would 
 close the avenues of the Phi Beta Kappa. But in the Junior year the tide 
 changed, and I was elected into both of those societies. My friends or 
 flatterers informed me that many considered me the first scholar in the 
 class. This, I must confess, though contrary to my own opinion, some- 
 what raised my vanit3\ The truth is, that at a university of this 
 kind, a few glowing pieces of composition, with one or two public decla- 
 mations, written and spoken with spirit, have more effect in raising the 
 reputation of a student than the reasoning of a Locke, the application 
 of a Newton, or the wisdom of a Solomon. Upon this tinsel foundation 
 was my reputation in a great degree established. Not that I had paid 
 no attention to the classics ; I had always made them my first object. 
 But I am conscious of being excelled in that kind of knowledge by more 
 than one of my classmates. Yet the class first, and afterwards the 
 government, have honored me with the first appointments. The society 
 of Social Friends assigned to me the writing of a tragedy, which was my 
 desire in preference to any other honor at the disposal of the society. 
 The activity and versatility of my mind and the vivacity of my imagi- 
 nation have been mistaken for knowledge, and my reserve in not con- 
 necting myself with any of the officers of government has carried an 
 appearance of independence, and these causes, combined with the good 
 opinion of most of the students, have enabled me to bear the palm from 
 those more studious and more knowing than myself. Besides the knowl- 
 edge of books, I have gained much by my residence at college. I have 
 seen the maxim, ' Self-love, the spring of action, moves the soul,* 
 exemplified in almost innumerable instances. I have seen that man's 
 opinion of right is generally founded upon his interest ; that to make 
 a man your friend, you must promote his interest ; that difference of 
 opinion, inflamed by continual dispute, begets coldness and suspicion ; 
 that honors often depend on popularity, and popularity on accommoda- 
 tion and acquiescence ; but that the most stable kind of popularity — 
 that which insures respect and lasting esteem— is founded upon decision 
 of character. Yet this decision must be based on reason, and exercised 
 with prudence. The man of decision is alone independent. It is re- 
 markable to observe the effect of this quality. A word with him is as an 
 action ; a promise, as a performance. The mass revere him, and never 
 press beyond a denial. This I have seen completely exemplified in 
 many of my classmates. Their characters are established, and their 
 opinions, once expressed, are considered as deciding the course of their 
 actions. They are never asked a second time, never urged. I have also 
 seen the ill effects of the contrary disposition exemi^lified in numerous in- 
 
68 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 stances. They refuse, are asked again ; • begin to question, are urged ; 
 waver, are besought for God's sake ; yield, and thus expose themselves 
 to the importunities of every needy vagabond and cunning intriguer. 
 Their reward is only contempt." 
 
 These were Mr. Kendall's opinions of himself and of mankind 
 in general when he left college. He did not take a diploma, part- 
 ly because he was indifferent to the bauble, and partly because he 
 disliked the President of the college. On the 30th of August he 
 left Hanover, and passing through Jaffrey, New Ipswich, and 
 Groton, reached home on the 1st of September. 
 
 On a settlement with his father, it appeared that the entire cost 
 of his education in fitting for, and going through college, exclusive 
 of clothing, was a little over five hundred and seventy dollars, of 
 which his father had advanced a little over three hundred. The 
 residue was paid out of moneys received by him for keeping 
 school. 
 
 The subject of a profession had occasionally occupied his 
 thoughts during his college career. His parents were anxious that 
 he should fit himself for the gospel ministry ; but he did not feel 
 conscious of those inward qualifications deemed essential in that 
 work. To medicine and surgery he had an invincible antipathy. 
 The only remaining profession was the law, for which he had little 
 inclination. His tastes would have led him to devote his life to 
 philosophical studies and practical mechanics, embracing a wide 
 field of experiments. But from that course he was deterred by 
 the necessity of earning his bread by some productive occupation. 
 His father had announced that he could render him no further aid ; 
 and a return to teaching seemed to be the only practicable course, 
 as a means of present support and to enable him to study law. 
 Understanding that the preceptorship of the Academy in Groton, 
 Massachusetts, was vacant, he had, before Commencement, visited 
 that place with the view of securing the situation. To obtain his 
 aid and influence, he called on William Merchant Eichardson, Esq., 
 then a practising lawyer in Groton, who had done business for his 
 father, and broached the subject. Mr. Eichardson advised him to 
 enter upon the study of law at once, remarking that to teach, as a 
 temporary expedient, was to throw away a portion of one's life. 
 He said he had a student in his office and boarding in his family 
 whom he had agreed to trust for his tuition and board until ho 
 should be able to pay him, and also allowed him certain perquisites 
 
BECOMES A STUDENT OF LAW. 
 
 69 
 
 which enabled him to pay for his clothing ; that the time of this 
 young man would be out in a few months ; that he would then 
 receive Mr. Kendall into his office and family on the same terms ; 
 and that if, in the mean time, Mr. Kendall could procure board 
 elsewhere, he might enter his ofi&ce at once. This generous offer 
 Mr. Kendall decided to accept. 
 
 Having some money left of his last winter's earnings, and from 
 the sale of a number of books for which he had no further use, he 
 made an arrangement with his former preceptor, Caleb Butler, for 
 board in his family, and on the 4th of September, 1811, entered 
 Mr. Eichardson's office as a student of law. On this occasion 
 he says in his journal: "A new field now opens to my view, 
 indeed boundless. Who can look upon so many volumes of 
 commentaries, institutes, digests, and reports, without discourage- 
 ment ? " 
 
 Mr. Kendall's classmate and friend, Samuel Woodbury, having 
 taken charge of Groton Academy, became his fellow-boarder and 
 bed-fellow at Mr. Butler's. 
 
 On the 25th of September there was an exhibition of the music- 
 reform societies at Amherst, N. H., then consisting of the Middle- 
 sex, the Handel, the Handelian of Amherst, and another from 
 Concord, IST. H. The day was rainy ; but, nevertheless, the audi- 
 ence was numerous and brilliant. The principal pieces performed 
 after a prayer and oration, were the anthem Lord God of Israel, 
 Old Hundred, Wantage, Melton, Moivhray, and the Chorus of the 
 Grand Hallelvjali. Though somewhat ill, from the effect of vacci- 
 nation about ten days before, Mr. Kendall took part in this exhibi- 
 tion, which passed off with much eclat. His arm becoming much 
 swollen and inflamed, producing frequent recurrence of violent sick- 
 headache, he returned to his father's house three days after the ex- 
 hibition, where he remained for two weeks. The time was spent 
 chiefly in remodelling his tragedy and introducing female charac- 
 ters, none then being allowed upon the stage at Dartmoutli College. 
 His friends professed to think very highly of this tragedy, as well 
 before it was remodelled as afterwards, and some of them advised 
 him to offer it to the managers of the Boston Theatre. This excited 
 a hope that he might, by that expedient, raise money enough to en- 
 able him to study law without accepting the perquisites offered him 
 by Mr. Pdchardson, and he determined to try the experiment. Hav- 
 ino- dif^ested his plan, he visited Boston, sent his play to one of the 
 
70 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 managers of the theatre by the hands of a servant, with an anony- 
 mous note requesting him, if the play was approved, to make pro- 
 posals within a week in a manner pointed out, and if not, to hold 
 it until called for. Nearly two weeks passed, and nothing came 
 from the manager, when Mr. Kendall wrote to his old chum, Jona- 
 than Fowle, who lived in Boston, requesting him to call and ascer- 
 tain the fate of his play. The following is Mr. Kendall's account 
 of the result : — 
 
 " November 29th. Received for answer from Fowle that he had ob- 
 tained the copy j that Mr. Powell (the manager) said they had a num- 
 ber of new plays for this season ; that mine was too long by one third ; 
 that he objected to the too frequent repetition of pa, ma, grandpa, etc., 
 as childish, and said that the whole character of ' Little Boy ' was too 
 trifling for tragedy ; that a certain something was wanting to produce 
 stage effect ; that he advised me to lay it before some judge of theatri- 
 cals ; and he concluded by observing that, with such alterations as my 
 judgment would suggest, it might b.e brought forward next winter. I 
 was somewhat disappointed ; but soon took my resolution to do nothing 
 more about it for the present. But if I should hereafter be disposed, I 
 may once more attempt to please these gentlemen. From my inexper- 
 ience, any attempt at first ajDpeared like presumption, and though my 
 friends were sanguine, I could never assure myself of final success. 
 But I wanted money, and acted upon this proverb *: * Nothing venture, 
 nothing have.' The result may be of advantage to me in confining my 
 mind more to my studies." 
 
 Though Mr. Kendall afterwards 'v\Tote another tragedy, entitled 
 '^ The Fall of Switzerland," he never again offered any production 
 of his to a theatrical manager. 
 
 For want of money to pay for his board, Mr. Kendall spent the 
 winter of 1811-12 at home, seeing very little company and devot- 
 ing himself to his studies. The law books which engaged his 
 attention were Blackstone's Commentaries, Coke on Littleton, and 
 Bacon's Abridgment. He says in his journal : *' My common 
 lesson is eighty pages, thirty in the forenoon, thirty in the after- 
 noon, and twenty in the evening. Too much, I am sensible ; but 
 I have scarcely anything else to do. I cut wood about three quar- 
 ters of an hour, read a few propositions of Euclid and a few pages 
 of Stewart's Philosophy." He also amused himself with noting 
 down projects of literaiy works and plays as they occurred to 
 him, which he called his Air -Castles. 
 
WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 7^^ 
 
 At tliis period political feeling ran very high. On receiving a 
 letter from his friend Shepley, advising him to enter upon the 
 business of an editor, Mr. Kendall noted down the followinix 
 observations : — 
 
 " Though this business is not altogether agreeable to my ambition, 
 his suggestions have led me to consider the practicability of a coalition 
 between the reasonable men of both parties in the State. Party spirit 
 has indeed arisen to a most alarming height. Nothing will satisfy our 
 flaming demagogues but the prostitution of every establishment in 
 which the opposite party have property or influence. I scarcely know 
 how to choose. Although my principles as well as interests incline me to 
 the Democratic or Republican side, I am not yet prepared to sacrifice 
 my conscience and every principle of moral honesty to the unhallowed 
 zeal of any party. Happily, I am not yet to enter on the theatre of 
 public life, and though my ambition leads me to the active scenes of 
 the legislature, my first design is to make myself a lawyer." 
 
 About this time were published the letters of John Henry, a 
 British spy, who visited Boston in the time of the embargo of 
 Jefferson's administration, for the purpose of promoting a dissolu- 
 tion of the Union and the establishment of a Northern Confeder- 
 acy. Having read them, Mr. Kendall remarked in his journal, 
 " They are a proof of the desperate designs which then actuated 
 the leading Eederalists." 
 
 It was not until the 25th of March, 1812, that Mr. Kendall 
 resumed his residence in Groton, and he was enabled to do so then 
 only by the liberality of Mr. Richardson, who lent him money 
 without security to pay for his board. 
 
 Mr. Richardson was then a member of Congress from the Mid- 
 dlesex district of Massachusetts, elected by the Democratic party. 
 He was an honest and upright man, and in talents above medioc- 
 rity. He was opposed to the embargo and other restrictive meas- 
 ures of Jefferson's administration, though they were supported by 
 his party in general. His allegiance to his party, like that of 
 many other democrats of that day, was secured by the violent and 
 unpatriotic language and acts of the Federal leaders. 
 
 June 23d, 1812, Mr. Kendall records: — 
 
 " This day arrived in town the declaration of war by the United 
 States against Great Britain. It was issued on the 18th inst. At 
 length we are forced into the mighty conflict which has so long desolated 
 Europe. The event, God only knows. Had it been consistent with our 
 
72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 honor and the preservation of our rights to have sided with Great Brit- 
 ain, it would have been much more consonant to the feehngs of every 
 friend of liberty. But her infatuated cabinet seem bent on destruction. 
 May the God of peace avert from us civil commotion, lead our armies 
 to victory, and soon restore our nation to honorable tranquillity." 
 
 On the 26th he writes : — 
 
 " The Repertory of this day (a Boston Federal newspaper) plainly 
 advises Massachusetts to withdraw from the Union rather than engage 
 in the war. The House of Representatives (of Massachusetts) have 
 taken some measures which bear an appearance hostile to the general 
 government, and are now debating an address to the people. It can 
 hardly be conjectured to what lengths their madness will carry the 
 Federal party, but I am inclined to think their rage will soon subside. 
 Were their leaders sure of being seconded by the people, a separation 
 of the Union would be but the work of a day. But cursed be the man 
 who lifts his hand for this nefarious purpose." 
 
 On the 20th of July there was a !N'ational Fast, proclaimed by 
 the President upon the recommendation of Congress. Mr. Ken- 
 dall's anticipations as to the services of that day were recorded as 
 follows : — 
 
 *' One cannot reflect without pain on the mockery which must this 
 day be offered to the Almighty by a large portion of the clergy of New 
 England. These deluded men seem to have abandoned all the rules 
 of common prudence, and seem to believe that on a man's politics 
 depends not only his honesty, but the eternal salvation of his soul. 
 They forget the maxims of charity inculcated by our religion, and treat 
 a large part of their fellow-citizens as outcasts and ministers of Satan. 
 Did the consequences extend no further than their political influence, 
 their acrimony would be comparatively innocuous. But a man will not 
 tamely be called a villain, even by his minister, nor will he ever put 
 confidence in him, who he believes makes his discourse the vehicle of 
 lies and sedition. The sacred desk should be unpolluted by party rage ; 
 the mouth that pours forth the sweet promises of salvation and incul- 
 cates Christian charity and meekness, should never be defiled with the 
 epithets of party scurrility or violent anathemas against national rulers. 
 But this is not confined to one party. The delusion is general. The 
 Federalists, to be sure, are most numerous, and at present most violent. 
 The late State Fast has left many lasting specimens of their folly. If 
 the people were united, it might be more excusabl!', Jput as it is, a portion 
 of the congregation first disbeheve, then hate, and at length desert their 
 
POLITICAL PREACHERS. 
 
 73 
 
 religious instructor. It is a serious truth, that men's political prejudices 
 are stronger than their religious opinions. Doubtless many of the clergy 
 sincerely believe that while they are hurling anathemas on their fellow- 
 citizens, they are engaged in the service of God. The event will prob- 
 ably try their sincerity. It cannot be supposed that the Democratic 
 party, should they again hold the reins (in Massachusetts) will be dis- 
 posed to patronize a body of men from whom they receive only exe- 
 cration." 
 
 Mr. Kendall's anticipations were fully realized. Denunciations 
 of the President and Congress took the place, in many a New 
 England pulpit, of humble petitions for the safety of the country 
 and the success of its arms. The sermon in Groton was a rank 
 specimen. Mr. Eichardson, who had in Congress voted for the 
 war, though not a member of the church, was a constant attendant 
 upon public worship, and by presents, as well as by cheerful pay- 
 ment of his tax, contributed liberally towards the support of the 
 clergyman. He was at meeting on the National Fast Day. The 
 clergyman's text was, " Ye are of your father, the Devil ; and the 
 works of your father ye will do." The theme of his discourse was 
 a comparison of the President of the United States to Beelzebub, 
 the Prince of Devils, and the members of Congress who voted for 
 the war, to the subordinate devils who do his bidding. Mr. Rich- 
 ardson heard him through ; but when out of the meeting-house, 
 though not a profane man, he turned and swore that he would 
 never enter its doors again until the clergyman atoned for that 
 discourse. 
 
 This clergyman and many others taught their families and 
 friends to believe that all Democrats were irreligious profligates, 
 and it was amusing for Mr. Kendall and Mr. Woodbury to hear 
 from ladies whom they visited the cautions conveyed from that 
 quarter about associating with them because they were Democrats, 
 though Woodbury was a member of the church. 
 
 The result of the rabid interference of the Congregational 
 clergy with politics, in Massachusetts, was the abolition of the 
 constitutional and legal provision for their support by a general tax, 
 and it was one of the principal agencies in building up societies 
 of other denominations and sowing rehgious discord where all had 
 
 been of one faith. 
 
 In October, 1812, Mr. Kendall, for the first time in his life, 
 mustered twice with a militia company; but on both occasions 
 
74 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 was SO completely exhausted that he gave up all idea of encoun- 
 tering the fatigue of a regimental muster which was to follow. 
 The incidents on that occasion, as far as he was concerned, he thus 
 records : — 
 
 " Instead of doing mihtary duty this day, I became gallant, and in 
 the afternoon conducted two ladies to the field in a chaise. Soon after 
 our arrival a sham-fight commenced, and was continued for some time 
 with spirit. Suddenly the firing ceased, and there was a cry that a 
 man had been shot. I had retired to a road in full view of the field, 
 and was seated in the chaise with the young ladies. The wounded 
 man was borne past us so near as to touch the chaise. The very idea 
 had such an effect upon me, that though I turned my head when he 
 came near, and did not even see him, I almost fainted. I endeavored to 
 conceal my weakness, but believe it was observed by every one present. 
 We were much shocked, and soon set out on our return. My sensations 
 at the sight, or even the idea of blood, are altogether surprising. Even 
 when a child I always ran and hid when a hog, a cow, or even a heu 
 was killed. Since I became a man, although I am conscious of no 
 dread, the sight of blood, and sometimes the idea of it, diffuses a mist 
 over my eyes. I sweat profusely, and. become helpless as an infant. 
 The field of battle is no place for me. If I cannot carry a gun half a 
 day, or see a wounded man without fainting, farewell to the tented field." 
 
 The wounded man on this occasion had the calf of one of his 
 legs badly shattered by a ramrod, carelessly fired by one of the 
 opposite party. 
 
 What active mind has not perplexed itself with the fascinating 
 idea of " perpetual motion " ? Amos Kendall's was not an except 
 tion. He invented and actually constructed a machine which he 
 was quite sure would accomplish the great desideratum. It was 
 based on the idea that if weights operating on a wheel could be 
 made to ascend nearer the centre than they should descend, there 
 would be a gain of power. By his machine, a weight was made to 
 ascend within one inch of the centre and to descend six inches 
 from that point. It was finished, and equal weights applied, one to 
 ascend within an inch of the centre, and the other to descend on the 
 opposite side six inches therefrom, which ought to have produced 
 rapid motion, — ought it not? But it would not move at all- 
 in a moment the fallacy of the device stood confessed. Though 
 the weights were in fact at different distances from the centre, 
 their bearings were practically at the same distance. He at once 
 
"GERRYMANDERING." 75 
 
 threw away his machine, wondering that his mind could have 
 been so easily deluded. 
 
 In January, 1813, Mr. Kendall spent several days in Boston on 
 a visit to Jonathan Fowle, his college chum. The following are 
 some of his recorded reminiscences of that visit : — 
 
 ^''January 27th. This day the Legislature met. There was a 
 quorum, and the Governor's message was delivered. It was short, and 
 that was perhaps its principal good quality. I could not see much 
 majesty in the collected dignity of the State. They looked much as if 
 some blind angel had thrust down his hand, and by the sense of feeling 
 picked up a man here and another there, just as his hand happened to 
 touch them, and, tossing all into the State House together, said to the 
 people, Xo, your rulers ! Above the Speaker stands the bust of Washing- 
 ton, which I could but look upon with reverential awe. Ah, thought I, 
 how he would shake his head could he but hear many of the resolutions 
 which have been adopted in this House. Opposite to him, on the other 
 side, hangs a great codfish ! I was generally pleased with the emble- 
 matical ornaments of the House ; but this contrast of a codfish with 
 Washington struck me as ludicrous in the extreme. The Senate Cham- 
 ber is a beautiful room ; but I could not help reflecting on the political 
 villany by which many of the Senators have obtained their seats." 
 
 The " political villany " here alluded to was an act of Mr. Ken- 
 dall's own party, by which they attempted to secure a majority in 
 the Senate, though a large popular majority might be against them. 
 Having had a majority in both houses of the Legislature, and 
 apprehending that the power of the State, if wielded by Federal 
 hands, would, in the impending war, be exerted to embarrass the 
 o-eneral government, they rearranged the Senatorial districts, and 
 by giving them most awkward shapes, and assigning to many towns 
 the most unnatural connections, threw those having heavy Federal 
 majorities into the same districts, and distributed those having 
 Democratic majorities so as to make the latter most effective. In 
 this manner they enabled about a third of the people to elect a 
 
 majority of the Senate. 
 
 Mr. Kendall was one of the many Democrats who did not think 
 the end justified the means, and utterly condemned this piece of 
 management as not only wrong in itself, but calculated by its 
 palpable injustice to alienate honest men and increase the bitter- 
 ness and power of the party it was designed to hold in check. 
 The Federal party made the most of this great Democratic error. 
 
76 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Among other means, they got up and inserted in their newspapers 
 a cut containing a tolerably fair representation of one of the dis- 
 tricts, somewhat in the shape of a crane, encircling with a narrow 
 neck another district from the sea on one side to the sea on the 
 other, and this they called a " Gerrymander," Gerry being the name 
 of the Democratic governor. The result was, that at the next elec- 
 tion the Federal party carried the election of the Governor and a 
 large majority of the House of Eepresentatives, and at the second 
 election a majority of the Senate also. It was the intermediate 
 session of the Legislature to which Mr. Kendall's journal has 
 reference. 
 
 On a subsequent day Mr. Kendall listened with great interest 
 to a debate in the Senate upon a question, whether officers in the 
 army of the United States could rightfully hold seats in that body. 
 Two of the Democratic Senators, Tuttle and Eipley, had been ap- 
 pointed colonels in the regular army, one of whom had taken his 
 seat in the Senate. There was at that time nothing in the Con- 
 stitution of Massachusetts or of the United States which rendered 
 a seat in the Senate and an appointment in the United States army 
 incompatible, and the argument rested entirely upon the incon- 
 gruity of the two relations. The lobby of the Senate was crowded. 
 The speech of Harrison Gray Otis was a superb display of elo- 
 quence, but full of bitterness and sarcasm. A plain Democratic 
 member, named Stetson, alluding to the rumor then afloat, that 
 Otis had been too intimate with John Henry, said in his reply, 
 that he thought those who were ready to fight the battles of their 
 country were quite as much entitled to seats in that body as those 
 who had been closeted with British spies. Otis sprang to his feet 
 and said that any man who charged him with having been closeted 
 with a British spy was a scoundrel. He sat down amidst the ap- 
 plause of the spectators and cries of order. Of this debate Mr. 
 Kendall says in his journal : " The speech of Mr. Otis was superior 
 in manner to any I ever heard ; but he displayed too much illib- 
 erality and contempt for his opponents. The young Mr. Lincoln 
 made a truly Republican speech which did honor to his principles 
 as a man and a patriot." 
 
 By the entire Federal and a portion of the Eepublican vote, led 
 by Mr. Lincoln, the seats of Colonels Tuttle and Eipley were de- 
 clared vacated. 
 
 For the first time in his life Amos Kendall, during this visit to 
 Boston, saw the inside of a theatre. He says : — 
 
FIRST VISIT TO A THEATRE. 
 
 77 
 
 '' On entering the building I was for a moment lost. Everything was 
 new and brilliant. But as soon as I listened to the actors the illusion 
 vanished. I saw nothing but the fiction, and sank into disgust. The 
 tragedy was ' Alexander, or the Rival Queens.' Mr. Holman in 'Alexan- 
 der/ his daughter in ' Statira.' In judging of such things, I am the sim- 
 ple child of nature, and therefore should not perhaps be allowed to criti- 
 cise. I cannot conceive what gives reputation to Mr. Holman as an 
 actor. His voice is harsh, his articulation indistinct, and sometimes he 
 speaks excessively loud. His gestures are not strikingly expressive, 
 and he has a heaving of the bosom which, to me, appears unnatural and 
 painful. He did tolerably well in a few instances ; but I could not 
 forget that it was Mr. Holman and not Alexander. Miss Holman, in 
 one or two scenes, totally absorbed me. Perhaps my eyes were wet. 
 The scenes were tender, an,d love was the subject. With these excep- 
 tions, my disgust was far greater than my pleasure. I was much better 
 pleased with the afterpiece, which was the * Forty Thieves.' The scenery 
 was brilliant and many of the characters well supported." 
 
 " In the intervals of the play I took some notice of the architecture 
 and ornaments of the building. There is one thing which, though far 
 different, put me in mind of the codfish at the State House. In front 
 of the stage, on the arch above, is the motto, * To hold the mirror up 
 to nature.' This is well enough ; but directly beneath it is a little 
 angel sitting on a cloud, holding a looking-glass in one hand and pointing 
 at it with the other. As the motto is a figurative expression, as broad 
 in its significance as nature itself, this diminutive attempt to illustrate 
 it struck me as very ludicrous." 
 
 The churches of Boston also commanded a share of Mr. Ken- 
 dall's attention during this visit. He heard Mr. Kirkland, Presi- 
 dent of Harvard College, Mr. Channing, Dr. Griffin, Mr. Holley, 
 and a Catholic bishop. In relation to the three latter he says : — 
 
 *'In the forenoon I attended the Roman Catholic meeting. The 
 house was ornamented as at Christmas. On entering, I felt a pleasing 
 emotion ; but there was nothing in it like devotion or reverence. Those 
 evergreens, though they cast a pleasing gloom around, would better 
 become a hall of revels than the church of God. The sermon was ex- 
 cellent ; but the music was harsh and unintelligible, the ceremonies 
 ridiculous, and to me almost a profanation. I should have no objection 
 to their pictures ; they appear to me to be well calculated to inspire 
 devotion. I know that an ignorant people might degenerate into a 
 worship of the pictures themselves ; but of this I think there is at 
 present little danger. 
 
78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " In the afternoon T went to Mr Holley's church. Church ! it might 
 as well be called a forum ; for it bears nothing of Christianity but the 
 name. His subject was ' The Passions' and he made a very good oration. 
 He appears to be a mere speculator, with much eloquence, considerable 
 talents, and no religion. The young and dissipated attend his preach- 
 ing because he preaches such liberal doctrines. In the evening I heard 
 D. D. Griffin. What a contrast ! Nearly equal in eloquence, their prin- 
 ciples are as opposite as black and white. The latter would be my 
 minister in preference to any other in Boston." 
 
 This D. D. Grififin was, in his day, the champion of the old Puri- 
 tan faith against the inroads of Unitarianism, and Mr. Holley was 
 one of the most latitudinarian professors of the latter creed. He 
 afterwards figured awhile as President of, the Transylvania Uni- 
 versity in Kentucky, where Mr. Kendall came in contact with 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Fowle was a widower ; his family consisted of himself, his 
 son Jonathan, and three daughters. The latter's treatment of Mr. 
 Kendall was most cordial, and the conversation on both sides most 
 frank. He freely criticised their beaux, some of whom appeared 
 to his plain country perceptions to be very deficient both in brains 
 and in dignity of manners. They said two thirds of their beaux 
 were of that character. Then said he, "I pity the ladies." 
 " Truly," said they, " the ladies are to be pitied ; for these fellows 
 think themselves agreeable." 
 
 On the 5th of February Mr. Kendall returned to Groton. 
 While in Boston, he had read a historv of Switzerland, and con- 
 ceived the idea of a tragedy, based on the conquest of that country 
 by the French during their revolution. After his return from 
 Boston he digested a plan and wrote a tragedy of three acts, which 
 he called " The Fall of Switzerland " ; but he was so little satisfied 
 with it that he concluded his genius did not lie in that line, and 
 never made another effort. 
 
 During the residue of the year 1813 Mr. Kendall's studies were 
 much interrupted by the business of the office, which devolved ou 
 him as the oldest student. He had charge of the post-office; 
 received, made up, and despatched the mails, delivered the letters 
 and papers, and made out the accounts. He was frequently sent 
 on business to the neighboring towns, and employed in collectiag 
 office dues. 4 
 
 His first vote was given in March, 1813, and it was an illegal 
 
HIS FIRST VOTE AN ILLEGAL ONE. 79 
 
 one. The election was for Governor. The Constitution of Massa- 
 chusetts then contained a moderate property qualification for 
 voters, and Mr. Kendall had no property whatever. There was a 
 Federal student in the office who was equally poor. Both of their 
 names had been entered on the list of voters, by what authority 
 Mr. Kendall never knew. The Federal student went up to vote, 
 when Mr. Eichardson proposed to Mr. Kendall to go up and " kiU 
 his vote." He objected that he was not a voter. Said Mr. Rich- 
 ardson, " I will make you a voter," and handed him a sufficient 
 sum of money, telling him to show it if his right should be ques- 
 tioned. He voted without being challenged, and returned the 
 money. Of this transaction he says in his journal, '^ If I had had 
 time for reflection, I know not what I should have 'done under the 
 circumstances ; but I am satisfied I ought to have declined." 
 
 In May an epidemic called the lung-fever prevailed extensively 
 in Groton. Mr. Eichardson was seized with it while making prep- 
 arations for a journey to Washington. He was taken ill on the 
 10th, and on the 21st Mr. Kendall writes as follows : — 
 
 " Mr. Richardson continues dangerously sick. He is himself impressed 
 with the idea that he shall never recover. Mr. Woodbury and I called on 
 him to-day, when he faintly said he did not know that he could say any- 
 thing that would do us any good, and was silent. He lay hke a dying 
 man. I have seldom experienced more painful emotions. He was a 
 man whom I ardently esteemed. His wife leaned over him in tender 
 compassion, her eyes glistening with the starting tear. I rose and left 
 the room, — and left it, too, with the full conviction that he would soon 
 be no more. His wife is one of the best of women. Not an angel 
 could be more tenderly careful. She loves him as her own life, and 
 should he die 
 
 "To a feeling man, at such a time, it must afford a pleasure next to 
 the joys of heaven to see one whom he tenderly loves so kind, so 
 attentive, and so much interested in his safety. 0, I would have a wife, 
 if not to make my well hours more happy, at least to soothe me on the 
 bed of sickness." 
 
 On the night of the 22d, however, Mr. Richardson's disease took 
 a favorable turn, and he slowly recovered. 
 
 Mr. Kendall had for several nights watched mth Mr. Richardson 
 and others, and had been much in the atmosphere of the epidemic. 
 On the evening of the 2d of June he felt an unusual depression 
 and weakness, which he attributed to having taken cold. Simple 
 
80 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 remedies were resorted to, but with no effect. The next morning, 
 after putting the office in order, he was standing at a desk, with a 
 book before him, when he began to feel faint. Supposing it was 
 the effect of standing, after considerable exercise before breakfast, 
 he sat down at a table. The faintness increased, and, repairing to 
 Mr. Eichardson's house, he sent for a physician, who said he was 
 threatened with the fever, and attempted to break it up by an emetic. 
 Three doses were required to move his stomach, and then the vio- 
 lent retching caused the blood to gush from both his nostrils. He 
 then felt better, but his strength was gone. That his bed might be 
 made up, he rose, walked a few steps to a chair, and almost as soon 
 as seated fainted away. He was soon restored by the efforts of 
 Mrs. Kichardson and her daughter, and helped to the bed. It was 
 indeed the lung-fever, but not of the severest type. For a couple 
 of days he had some headache, but after that, though as weak 
 as an infant, he felt no pain. Any considerable noise, however, 
 agitated him in a most extraordinary manner. The following are 
 extracts from his journal, brought up from memory after he 
 became able to write : — 
 
 '■^ June 7th, Was this day visited by the Rev. Mr. Chaphn, minister 
 of this place. He sat down in my chamber and conversed with Mr. 
 Richardson, until I was very much exhausted by their noise. I called 
 my mother, and told her I could not bear it. She spoke to Mr. Richard- 
 son, and he attempted to draw off the old gentleman. But he, not un- 
 derstanding my situation, sat down by the bedside and gave me much 
 good advice, but much to the injury, at least, of my body. Nor can I 
 think it did much good to my soul ; for being in a quiver of nervous 
 excitement, I could not help wishing every word the last 
 
 " Here I cannot help remarking that incalculable injury is often done 
 to sick persons by the mistaken kindness of friends. They sympathize 
 in their friends' distress, and think they can be useful only in crowding 
 around their bedside. 
 
 " That night and the next day were hardly sufficient to allay the 
 disturbance caused in my nervous system by the mere noise of Mr. 
 Chaplin's conversation. 
 
 *' I could not help feeling gratified at the interest which the people 
 of this place in general showed in my welfare. They suspended ringing 
 the bell on my account, and if any noise happened to arise in the street, 
 it was immediately stilled on information of its injurious effects. Many 
 called to see me on the first days ; but these calls were also suspended 
 for my benefit." 
 
EXTRACTS FROM HIS JOURNAL. —SICKNESS. gi 
 
 Mr. Kendall's mother had been sent for on the second day of his 
 illness, and nursed him most tenderly throughout. On the 13th he 
 was able to sit up a few minutes, and thenceforward gained rapidly 
 until the 19th, when, with his father and mother, he returned to the 
 paternal roof. He was now well, though very weak, and his mouth 
 was sore from excessive salivation. Though he returned to Groton 
 after five days' rambling about in Dunstable in pursuit of renewed 
 strength, it was not until the 4th of July that he felt himself com- 
 petent to resume his ordinary studies and labors. The following 
 is his hasty review of the incidents and reflections attendant upon 
 his sickness and recovery : — 
 
 " I am under great obhgations to Mr. and Mrs. Richardson, though 
 the former started for Washington at the end of the second week of my 
 sickness, and the latter was taken ill the third day, and continued 
 almost as sick as myself until I left Groton. Her illness was probably 
 brought on by her too careful attention to her husband and myself. 
 
 " Although I always believed I should recover, I often thought it not 
 improbable that death was near, and contemplated it accordingly. It 
 had no terrors, and sometimes I could almost have wished it. The 
 affliction of my friends and the debts which I owe my benefactors were 
 the principal things which gave me pain. Without any fixed, unwaver- 
 ing faith, I could have tnisted myself to my Creator and calmly 
 plunged into that eternity which generally appears so dreadful. I 
 know nothing worth living for. No particular tie binds me to the 
 world. My hopes of domestic happiness, which are the dearest pleasure 
 of life, had left me ; fame appeared too uncertain and too unsatisfactory 
 to be worth my pursuit ; and as for riches, I never thought of them. 
 Yet was I unaccountably cheerful, especially when sickest, and some- 
 times even inclined to be merry. With reviving life my hopes revived, 
 and I am now the same bustling animal as before. 
 
 " To my parents my obligations can never be requited. Never shall 
 I forget the pleasure with which my father grasped my hand on finding 
 me better. Joy sparkled beneath his gray locks ; it showed his love and 
 the concern he had felt. When leaving home on my return to Groton, 
 I told my mother I did not know how I should repay her for the care 
 she had taken of me ; her eyes filled with tears, and she could only bid 
 me adieu." 
 
 Wliile convalescent Mr. Kendall indulged somewhat in his poetic 
 vein. The " Port Folio " published at Philadelphia, had offered 
 a premium of one hundred dollars for the two best naval songs. 
 With little hope of success he determined to compete for this pre- 
 
 6 
 
82 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 mium. He wrote several pieces which were much praised by his 
 friends, Kichardson and Woodbury, and sent two of them and some 
 other scraps to the " Port Folio," but he never heard from them. 
 When the prize poems made their appearance, Mr. Kendall wrote : 
 " I am not disappointed, though I was not without hopes.'' Of the 
 successful song, called " The Pillar of Glory," he said, " it has too 
 much of that unintelligible swell so common in Paine's poetry, and 
 is not so good as another song of the same author, also set to 
 music and published in the same number." Of the other piece he 
 said : " The ode to which the other prize is assigned, notwithstand- 
 ing the very warm commendations of the editors, I must pro- 
 nounce, in my opinion, a tissue of bombastic nonsense. Some parts 
 of it are, indeed, tolerable ; but as I am certain it will almost 
 instantly fall into oblivion, I shall preserve four lines as a speci- 
 men, though hardly a fair one, as they are the worst in the whole 
 piece. 
 
 •TO THE OCEAN. 
 
 * Power to whose hundred hands is given, 
 To toss their foam against the face of Heaven ! 
 And ere insulted Heaven its wrath can show, 
 Retreats in safety to the abyss below.' 
 
 I have only to say that if poetry like this shall carry off the prize, 
 I shall never have that honor." 
 
 In consequence of the state of his health, Mr. Kendall had been 
 exonerated, by means of a surgeon's certificate, from militia duty ; 
 but having in a measure recovered, he consented to form one of a 
 party of Indians in a sham-fight, to come off at a battalion muster 
 on the 20th of October. This was his only military achievement, 
 and it is described in his journal in the following words : — 
 
 ** Arrived on the parade, three miles from Groton, about twelve 
 o'clock. Only from twenty to thirty Indians collected. We went into 
 the woods, made a fire, dressed, painted, and prepared for war. We 
 were soon disturbed by unruly boys, who were fired upon and chased, 
 when they began to throw stones into our encampment. We were 
 holding a council, and sent a white man to tell them to desist, or the 
 Indians would load with balls, and we were no more disturbed. An 
 embassy, consisting of two chiefs and an attendant, was sent to the 
 white men. While they were gone, a party, of which I was leader, re- 
 connoitred the whole army of white men, and returned undiscovered, 
 after having travelled nearly two miles. 
 
INDIAN SHAM-FIGHT. g3 
 
 " Our chiefs now returned, and announced war. We were directed to 
 leave our encampment, and ambush a road about half a mile distant, 
 where we were to act with a retreating party of whites, and fall upon 
 the flanks and rear of their pursuers. Here we were again disturbed 
 by boys, — left our coverts, made foui' or five prisoners, tied one of them 
 to a tree, and the rest disappeared. 
 
 '' We had strict orders not to fire until friends and foes had complete- 
 ly passed us. A company of old men, with the dress and arms of 75, 
 appeared marching along the road through the Indian ambuscade. They 
 wheeled, and had almost repassed us, when some one fired. The firing 
 became general, until some one cried out 'Friends ! ' when it ceased. We 
 afterwards discovered that they were really enemies. 
 
 *' The contending parties of whites now approached, and passed part 
 way through the ambuscade, when the enemy began to retreat. The 
 war-whoop was given, and we sprang for the rear, now front, of the re- 
 treating party. I was about eight rods ahead of my comrades, and met 
 a squad who had left the road, contrary to the order of the fight, and 
 come into the woods to fight the Indians. I fired, and they fired ; 
 I ran, and seven or eight of them ran after me. Meeting several of my 
 brothers, we turned upon them and had a smart skirmish, which ended 
 in the defeat of the white men, with the loss of four or five taken pris- 
 oners. Two of them I helped take, and had my right hand slightly 
 wounded by a bayonet. 
 
 *' I now set out to gain the front of the retreating party. I was 
 again prevented by the '75's, who pursued me a short distance and 
 desisted. I now crossed over to the right flank, where most of my 
 brothers were ; was chased by a number of white men of our own party, 
 escaped, flanked the enemy, fired several rounds and returned to the 
 left. Soon came upon the flank of the enemy, shot one who had left 
 the ranks to make water, and, being alone, retreated. Found an enemy 
 behind the fence making cartridges, fired upon him, and, another Indian 
 coming up, made him prisoner. At last, with several of my brothers, 
 I gained the front of the enemy, and like a true Indian was attracted by 
 the sight of a neighboring booth filled with all manner of good things, 
 got as much occupee (rum) as I could drink gratis, and on returning 
 with increased spirit found the enemy had surrendered. Joined heartily 
 in a war-dance with my brothers, who were ordered to form with the • 
 battalion. This done, we gave a war-whoop and dance to Colonel Has- 
 tinsfs, who commanded our friends, fired several rounds were marched 
 in front of the tavern, fired again, and were dismissed. Retired to our 
 camp, agreed to go home in Indian dress, and returned to the tavern. 
 I was here standing, with my clothes in my left hand tied up in a pocket- 
 handkerchief, in company with two others, when a soldier passed us, 
 
84 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 turned, and fired. My bundle dropped from my band on fire, and my 
 hand was covered with blood. There was a charge in my gun, and I 
 was on the point of discharging it at his head, but a whisper of pru- 
 dence forbade me. I followed the soldier, whom I recognized, showed 
 my hand, told him I had a charge in my gun which I could put into his 
 face, but that I should speak to him another day. I went into the 
 house, washed my hand, found it well peppered, gave my beads to a 
 nymph I do not know, took a merry supper with six of my companions, 
 and returned to Groton. I fired at the door, gave the war-whoop, 
 and entered Mr. Richardson's house tomahawk in hand. The little 
 girls screamed j the older people laughed. Thus ends my bulletin" 
 
 At some points the s^am-fight was a real battle. The soldiers 
 could not apparently have been more vindictive if they had been 
 fighting real Indians. Many of them left their ranks and went 
 into the woods to fight the Indians, in violation of the order of 
 battle. Without scruple, they fired their powder into the arms 
 and faces of the red men, and in some instances attempted to use 
 their bayonets. There were not half a dozen of the Indians who 
 were not more or less hurt, though none of them seriously ; but 
 they contented themselves with capturing and disarming their 
 disorderly adversaries, and in the course of the fight took prob- 
 ably more than a dozen prisoners by main force. 
 
 On the 21st Mr. Kendall wrote : — 
 
 " My hand has suppurated considerably, and the latter part of the 
 night was very painful. This afternoon attempted to pick out the pow- 
 der with a needle, grew faint, attempted to go to the house, got as far 
 as Wheeler's store, growing fainter, stopped there, and had barely reached 
 a chair when I fainted quite away. I was brought to life by the exer- 
 tions of those present. When half alive, seeing a drunken man pres- 
 ent, I coidd not help bidding them give the smelling-bottle to him, as he 
 too seemed fainting. 
 
 " This made me weak and stupid the rest of the day, and though at- 
 tempts were made by others to take out the powder, I grew faint again 
 and could not endure it." 
 
 Most of it came off, however, with the lacerated skin ; but his 
 left hand never entirely lost the marks of that day's sport. The 
 soldier who had done the mischief voluntarily called, apologized, 
 paid damages, and was forgiven. 
 
 On the 29th of October Mr. Kendall wrote : — 
 
 " I have lately been examining my collegiate productions, and copy- 
 ing whatever I thought worthy of preservation into a book. Many 
 
JOURNAL EXTRACTS. 35 
 
 famous morsels have been committed to tlie flames, and many others pre- 
 served more for the sake of circumstances than on account of any merit 
 of their own. I have nearly fifty pages of poetry and ninety of prose." 
 
 This fall Mr. Eichardson, for reasons never fully explained, sud- 
 denly made up his mind to remove from Groton to Portsmouth, N". 
 H. Of this resolution he informed Mr. Kendall, stating that by 
 an understanding with Mr. Moore, to whom he had sold his house 
 and business, his (Kendall's) position in the office was to remain 
 unchanged, and that he had made an arrangement with James 
 Brazer, Esq., for board, on the same conditions as theretofore 
 in his own family. This was sad news to Mr. Kendall. He looked 
 upon Mr. Moore as in all respects Mr. Eichardson's inferior, 
 and he had a positive dislike of Mr. Brazer. His opinion of that 
 man's character stands thus recorded under date of December 9th, 
 1813: — 
 
 " Mr. Eichardson has informed me that he has engaged me a board- 
 ing-place with James Brazer, Esq. He will let me board in his family, 
 and wait for payment until I am able to make it from my practice. 
 This is called a generous offer. It may be so ; but I have contracted 
 such a hearty contempt for that man that I can put no confidence in his 
 generosity. He seems to be generous from no other motive than to 
 have some meritorious action of which he may boast. There is a 
 nephew of his whom he has assisted, and I have often sickened at hear- 
 ing the old man recount the instances of his bounty. Ought I to curse 
 the man and still make use of his bounty 1 I know not what else I can 
 do. I can expect no other provision from Mr. Eichardson ; I ought not 
 to expect it. It is probable I shall accept this offer. He is a man of 
 property, a member of the church, does not get drunk, though he some- 
 times staggers, and, in his dealings, according to a modem expression, 
 ' suits himself to the times.' " 
 
 Mr. Kendall boarded a few weeks with Mr. Brazer ; owed him, 
 on settlement, fourteen dollars ; at his request procured a brother to 
 sign with him a note for the money, and had been but a short 
 time in the Western country when that brother was sued for the 
 money ! Yet, no doubt, Mr. Brazer never ceased to boast of his 
 liberality to Mr. Kendall. 
 
 On the 19th of December Mr. Kendall had a settlement with 
 Mr. Eichardson, of which he wrote as follows : — 
 
 " He was generous to me beyond my expectations or even hopes. He 
 charged me nothing for the expenses of my sickness, gave me several 
 
86 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 small sums in the course of the settlement, and I calculate his gratuities 
 to me amount to about fifty dollars. But the instance of his generosity, 
 of most importance, was discovered in his taking my note without the 
 least security, not only for my board and tuition, but for one hundred 
 and twenty-eight dollars which he has actually advanced in cash for me. 
 My whole debt to him was three hundred and ninety-two dollars. 
 
 "After settlement, he gave me a certificate expressed in terms for 
 which my gratitude was too strong for utterance. If ever a tear of 
 acknowledgment was in my eye, it was then. I had been wrought up 
 by the preceding instances of his bounty, and so warm a recommenda- 
 tion from such a man was too much. I could not thank him." 
 
 Of the note given on this occasion Mr. Eichardson never even 
 requested payment, nor was the whole of it, with interest, paid, 
 until after Mr. Kendall's removal to Washington in 1829. 
 
 The depression of business in New England caused by the war 
 with Great Britain, and the absence of any rich or influential 
 family connections who could aid in his advancement, had abeady 
 induced Mr. Kendall to think of emigrating to the South or West, 
 where there was a wider and clearer field for individual exertion. 
 The unpleasant change in his position occasioned by Mr. Eichard- 
 son's withdrawal from the ofi&ce, fixed his resolution, and the hope 
 that his kind patron, having still one session to serve in Congress, 
 mif ht aid liim with Southern and Western men, hastened its exe- 
 cution. He therefore determined to visit Washington at the next 
 session of Congress, intending to be governed, in making a plan of 
 settlement, by the information he might there obtain. But there 
 was a serious obstacle in the want of funds. He could not ask 
 ]Mr. Eichardson for further assistance, though that gentleman ap- 
 proved of his resolution. His own father, though not rich, could, 
 by his credit, always command money. To him an appeal was 
 made, and though he did not approve of the movement, he con- 
 sented to furnish, as a loan, two hundred dollars, which was the 
 sum required. 
 
 A large portion of Mr. Kendall's time during the months of 
 November and December, 1813, and January and February, 1814, 
 was spent in journeys to adjacent towns, partly on the business of 
 ]\lessrs. Eichardson and Moore, and partly in visiting connections 
 and friends preparatory to his departure. 
 
 Not the least interesting incidents of Mr. Kendall's residence in 
 Groton have thus far been touched upon in this biography. He 
 
IN LOVE. 
 
 87 
 
 was, when he began the study of the law, twenty-two years old, 
 and had never been in love, — perhaps because he had been too busy. 
 There was in Groton a family of three very charming young ladies, 
 with two of whom, the oldest and the youngest, the third being 
 absent, Mr. Kendall and Mr. Woodbury became acquainted soon 
 after their establishment there. Mr. Woodbury had engaged him- 
 self to a country girl before he entered college ; but the superior 
 beauty and education of the elder of his new acquaintances caused 
 him to regret his early entanglement. Being an honest man, the 
 conflict between his sense of duty and a new-born attachment was 
 very painful to him. What might have been the issue, had it 
 depended entirely upon himself, may be considered problematical ; 
 but he was most happily relieved by his iwstic fiancee. Hearing 
 that he was paying attention to another lady, she received the ad- 
 dresses of a new lover, and married him. Being now free, Mr. 
 Woodbury offered himself to the present object of his admiration, 
 and was accepted. 
 
 In the mean time Mr. Kendall had become much interested in 
 the youngest of the three sisters. Her youth, and his poverty and 
 prospects, forbade anything like a matrimonial engagement, and for 
 some months he had no distinct purpose in his frequent visits with 
 his friend Woodbury but to pass an agreeable hour with lovely and 
 intelligent young ladies. But, as often happens in such cases, a 
 warm friendship assumed a character somewhat warmer, and per- 
 haps with a vanity by no means peculiar to himself, he imagined 
 that the lady's passion was no less ardent than his own. In this 
 conviction he finally made up his mind to address her. But at this 
 stage of the affair she left home and was absent some weeks. On 
 her return he met her with ardor and was marked in his atten- 
 tions. Her manner was not so cordial as he expected ; but whether 
 her apparent reserve was the result of a change in her feelings to- 
 wards him, or was the expression of female modesty natural under 
 circumstances which indicated that affairs between them were 
 speedily approaching a crisis, he was unable to determine. To 
 satisfy his own mind he resolved to find or make an opportunity 
 for an explanation. She evidently understood his object, and 
 thwarted his intentions. Fmally, without ever broaching the sub- 
 ject to her, he became satisfied that he had eutirely mistaken her 
 feelings; that the acts and language which he had accepted as 
 evidences of attachment to him were but the ebuUitions of an art- 
 
gg AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 less, romantic nature ; and that the change in her manner was due 
 to her discovery that they had produced an effect upon him which 
 she had never contemplated. 
 
 It would not be true to say that this discovery gave Mr. Ken- 
 dall no pain ; but it pointed out the path of duty. He at once 
 resolved to dismiss her from his heart, to treat her as he did other 
 female friends, and never thereafter, by word or act, to indicate 
 that he had ever entertained a partiality for her. Though there 
 was occasionally a heart-rebellion against this resolution, it was 
 faithfully kept, and in a short time her presence excited no pecu- 
 liar emotion. For a time she maintained a studied reserve towards 
 him ; but tliis was soon overcome by his prudent conduct, and they 
 remained as good friends as if Cupid had never maliciously amused 
 himself with their mistakes. 
 
 In the mean time Mr. Kendall had become acquainted with the 
 other sister, whom he found to be worthy of his highest regard. 
 The incidents which had occurred did not break off his visits to 
 the family, by whom he was always received with the utmost cor- 
 diality. It was perhaps natural that he should, under the circum- 
 stances, be inclined to transfer his affections from one sister, by 
 whom they were not reciprocated, to another who miglit provg 
 more appreciative. In this new attachment there was not that 
 degree of romance which marked the former; but, perhaps for 
 that very reason, it was more satisfactory. The object of it was 
 older and better acquainted with the world, and possessed of all 
 the qualities of head and heart necessary to make a man happy. 
 Mr. Kendall had made up his mind to leave New England, and 
 had no thought of marrying until he should be established in busi- 
 ness, with an income adequate to the support of a family. Yet, 
 having found that these affairs of the heart interfered very much 
 with his studies and impaired his capacity for business, he became 
 desirous to put an end to their distracting influence by an engage- 
 ment which should settle the question of his future domestic rela- 
 tions, and leave his mind to pursue other objects undisturbed by 
 restless passions. Entertaining these views, and satisfied that he 
 should never find one better calculated to encourage and aid him 
 in the rugged paths of life, he broached the subject to her, and was 
 made quite happy by her reply. He told her frankly, that seeing 
 no prospect of advancement in his profession in ISTew England, he 
 expected to settle somewhere in the South or West, and she 
 
MATRIMONIAL PROJECTS. 
 
 89 
 
 thoTigtit it would make no difference to her. Thus this interesting 
 affair seemed to have reached a satisfactory adjustment. 
 
 But, alas! "the course of true love never did run smooth." 
 While he was preparing for his journey to Washington the lady 
 left home on a visit to her friends in Boston. He wrote to her 
 there, and it seemed to him a long time before an answer came. 
 And when it arrived at last, it announced her indisposition to en- 
 gage herseK to a young man who was about to leave for a distant 
 land, where he must necessarily form new associations and perhaps 
 new attachments. An animated correspondence ensued, in which 
 both parties were equally inflexible. Avowing her partiality for him 
 and her readiness to marry him if he would remain in New Eng- 
 land, the lady firmly persisted in declining an engagement if he 
 would not. On the other hand, he as firmly refused, for her sake, 
 to remain in New England, where he could have but the faintest 
 hopes of advancement. The affair ended in the exchange of tokens 
 of friendship and mutual promises of correspondence, the bargain 
 being sealed with a kiss, which was the first and the last. 
 
 Eomantic youngsters may think the love was not very ardent on 
 either side, when neither would, for the sake of the other, give up 
 the point of difficulty. Theirs was not an unreasoning love. The 
 lady's decision was justified by prudence. Though his would 
 doubtless have been the same had lie known that the separation 
 was final, he had a strong hope that when he had established him- 
 self in business, no matter where, she would, if still single, be will- 
 ing to marry him. Nor did he give up this hope until after he 
 had begun business, when, at his request, his friend Woodbury put 
 the question as if to satisfy his own curiosity, whether in case 
 Kendall returned and addressed her, she would go with him to 
 Kentucky, and received in reply a decisive " No ! " 
 
 Time passed, and Mr. Woodbury was on the point of being mar- 
 ried to the eldest of the three sisters, when she sickened and died. 
 To him the shock was terrible. After several months Mr. Kendall 
 advised him to turn his thoughts to the second sister, as one 
 well calculated to fill the void in his heart occasioned by the 
 loss of the elder. Though in his reply Woodbury scouted the 
 idea of his ever marrying any one, not a year passed before he had 
 acted upon Kendall's advice. In a few years, however, he died of 
 
 consumption. 
 
 Mr. Kendall also married, and after five years was left a widower. 
 
90 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 His thoughts reverted to the girl he left behind him, now the 
 widow of his friend Woodbury, and in a letter he indicated his 
 disposition to renew the relations which once existed between 
 them. Perceiving his drift, she at once put an end to all hope by- 
 replying that she would never leave her aged mother, then under 
 her care, and hinting that she had no desire again to euter the 
 matrimonial state. And she died a widow, at an advanced age. 
 
 Another singular incident may be mentioned in this connection. 
 Mr. Kendall had an only son, and the third sister to whom he was 
 once so enthusiastically attached had an only daughter. They 
 casually met, contracted a mutual attachment for each other, and 
 were married. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 On the 7th of February, 1814, there was a family meeting 
 De 
 it: — 
 
 at Deacon Kendall's. The following is Mr. Kendall's account of 
 
 " This day, for the first and probably the last time, all my father's 
 children dined together. The youngest was bom since the oldest left 
 home. Several incidents rendered the scene highly interesting. My 
 three older brothers had their wives with them ; my next younger, the 
 girl whom he expects to marry j and, of all the near connections, my sis- 
 ter's husband alone was absent. While we were preparing drink, each 
 for his partner, my mother observed to my sister, that as she had now 
 no husband she must depend on me. My sister was so stung by the 
 reflection, that she went away and wept bitterly. I, too, thought of 
 another, but hushed my thoughts as well as I could. 
 
 " After dinner, our father addressed us. His voice was inteiTupted by 
 the agitation of his feelings. Our mother attempted to speak; but 
 tears choked her utterance. Our father continued. He advised us to 
 cherish affection for one another, said we should probably never meet 
 again in this world, and besought us to prepare for an interview in a 
 better. Turning to me, he said they would probably see me no more, 
 and bade me follow honesty in my profession, and, above all, seek for 
 salvation through a Saviour. 
 
 " We were all drowned in tears. It was more like a scene of death 
 than a meeting of joy. After some observations from my brother John, 
 we sang together, and our father prayed with us. I was too much 
 affected to be able to utter a word." 
 
 On the 18th he took leave of his father's family. On this oc- 
 casion he says, "The parting was consecrated by abundance of 
 tears ; but we were too much affected to say anything more than 
 
 ' farewell.' " 
 
 His mother was in such feeble health that there was little 
 probability of his ever seeing her again. His father took him to 
 Groton, and there they exchanged farewells. The same evening he 
 
92 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 visited the family in which, during his residence in Groton, he had 
 spent so many happy hours, and bade his friends there a painful 
 adieu. 
 
 The next day he took leave of his other friends in Groton, and 
 went to Boston, where he remained until the 21st, making parting 
 calls and taking leave of his friends, among whom were Jonathan 
 Fowle and his sisters, and the lady whom he still hoped to make 
 his wife. The 20th was Sunday, in the record of which day he 
 states that he attended church, and that " The young Mr. Everett 
 was the clergyman, — a youth of great promise, lately ordained over 
 the church in Brattle Square." This was Edward Everett, who 
 afterwards became distinguished as a lecturer and statesman. 
 
 Extracts from Mr. Kendall's journal, with explanatory remarks, 
 will best describe his journey. 
 
 " 181^, February 21st. About nine o'clock set out from Boston. 
 The stage was full, and I therefore took a seat with the driver. This I 
 found the most pleasant seat. With the towns in the neighborhood of 
 Boston, on the western road, I was disappointed. The soil generally is 
 poor, with a mixed growth of hemlock, white-pine, and some hardwood. 
 The effects of a late storm were apparent in the multitude of broken 
 boughs strewed through the forests. 
 
 *' On entering the stage I found my companions to be three speculat- 
 ing merchants, whose conversation related to their own business, two 
 little girls lately from the West Indies, and one or two others. 
 
 *' 22d. It was one o'clock in the morning when we arrived at Ashford. 
 I was sick with riding in the stage, and retired to bed. We were called 
 about five o'clock, and, although not completely relieved, I set out with 
 the rest. I had the precaution to take a seat with the driver, where I 
 had a chance of viewing the country. The soil, as we advanced, grew 
 better. We passed through Hartford, Wethersfield, etc., to New Haven, 
 where we arrived about 11 P. M. No particular curiosity was ob- 
 served to-day, excepting the rock down which the brave Putnam pre- 
 cipitated himself when pursued by the British. A road is now cut 
 through the rock, a little to the left of the spot. 
 
 " After attempting in vain to get our baggage carried to the packet, 
 we retired to bed. 
 
 " 2od. Set out about six o'clock, and arrived at Rye, within twenty- 
 six miles of New York. In consequence of horrible roads we could pro- 
 ceed no farther, and put up for the night. I was very much fatigued, 
 and retired immediately to bed. 
 
 ^^24th. Started about seven o'clock, and with great exertion arrived 
 
STAGE KIDE. — PHILADELPHIA TO WASHINGTON. 93 
 
 in New York about four. Entered my name on book for Philadelphia, 
 in the Commercial, to-morrow at seven o'clock ; put up at a villanous 
 tavern near the stage-house, where I had dinner, which was served 
 without a single vegetable except pickles ; wrote a letter to Mr. Moore, 
 and then roved out. New York has many beauties, but I have not 
 seen enough of it to give a description. 
 
 ^^25th. Started from the tavern about seven o'clock, crossed the 
 ferry to Paul's Hook in the steamboat. The wind was high, and the 
 waves several times dashed over the deck of the boat. The prospect on 
 this passage is very pleasant, and in the spring must be delightful. 
 Great imposition is here practised by the servants who carry trunks, etc., 
 to and from the boat. A York shilling is their price, however short the 
 distance, and often they ask two. We were long detained before our 
 team was ready, and about nine o'clock were under way. The face 
 of the country in New Jersey is too level to be romantic, but 
 it is very beautiful and productive. We passed through Newark 
 and E'lizabethtown, — two very fine places. In the latter we saw many 
 soldiers of the United States, and were told that recruiting now pro- 
 gi'essed rapidly. The road this day was worse than I have ever before 
 seen. I and others of the passengers walked many miles. We had seven 
 passengers, most of whom were by birth Yankees, and, in principles, 
 Democratic. We arrived at New Brunswick about 8 p. m., where we 
 met passengers who had been nearly two days in coming from Philadel- 
 phia. They represent the road as indescribably dreadful. 
 
 " 26th. Set out' from New Brunswick soon after daylight, and in 
 consequence of the badness of the roads several of us proceeded on foot. 
 The mud was a little frozen, so that it would bear a man, but not a 
 horse. Through the swamp, so called, every passenger walked twelve 
 miles, except one, and he walked eight. So much faster than the horses 
 did we get along, that we called for a breakfast and ate it before we were 
 overtaken. 
 
 " Being considerably fatigued with our walk, the day passed rather 
 gloomily, and we arrived in Philadelphia between 10 and 11 p. m. 
 It was my inclination to take the packet from this place ; but on learn- 
 ing that its course was very uncertain, I entered my name for to-morrow 
 
 morning's stage. 
 
 '' 27th. Started from Philadelphia between five and six ; but in con- 
 sequence of bad roads and a poor driver, we made little progress. This 
 day, for the first time, my stage companions excited peculiar interest. We 
 had on board a Baltimore pilot, a citizen of Havre de Grace, a Phila- 
 delphia lawyer, turned horse-racer, and three medical students, two 
 from Virginia and one from South Carolina. 
 
 " The Baltimore pilot was a clever, honest, moral fellow, who had, as he 
 
94 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 said, been somewhat dissipated in his youth, and caught a bad disease 
 which induced him to reform. The racer was a man of no morals, 
 who boasted of his profligacies, and was possessed of excessive vanity. 
 He had beaten all America, and could beat all the world. 
 
 " The three medical students were very dissolute, told of their amours 
 and irregularities with as little ceremony as a Northern man would tell 
 a story. Yet they had agreeable manners and many of the qualities of 
 gentlemen. When we arrived at Elkton, the opinion of the majority 
 was that we should lodge there on account of the badness of the roads. 
 Two of the students wished to go to Havre. A dispute arose, and the 
 horse-racer swore we should not go, for he would prevent it. This was 
 said at supper, and although my opinion was the same as his, I was 
 vexed at his arrogance, and said that no gentleman ought to make his 
 opinion the law of the company. One of the students thinking I meant 
 him, dropped his knife and fork, and said he had as much pretensions 
 to that character as others. I replied I did not refer to him, when he 
 asked me a thousand pardons, and, after we rose, took my hand and 
 again asked my pardon. 
 
 ^^28th. Started from Elkton about five o'clock, and travelled on 
 foot considerable of the way to Havre de Grace. We passed the spot 
 where the British burned a bridge and iron-works at the same time that 
 they burned Havre. 
 
 " The iron-works are again in operation, but the bridge is not yet re- 
 built. The day was extremely cold, and the Susquehanna, when we 
 passed it, was full of thin ice. I did not find Havre, as I expected, all 
 in ashes. Only a few of the best houses were burned, and there is yet a 
 considerable village. This day's passage was not very agreeable, on ac- 
 count of the soiu*ness among the passengers. But I had the good for- 
 tune to keep my temper with them all. As we approached Baltimore, I 
 could hardly believe such a city so near, when the surrounding country 
 was so dreary. Only once in several miles would we meet a decent house. 
 The intervals had either no houses at all, or a few miserable huts, the 
 habitations of slaves. The wood has been mostly cut off, and the soil is 
 covered with a small growth. Arrived in Baltimore by moonlight, and 
 was agi'eeably disappointed at finding the place so beautiful. 
 
 " March 1st. Started from Baltimore about 7 P. M. It is lament- 
 able that a place of so much beauty should have been so disgraced by 
 its inhabitants. The idea that it is so disorderly will intrude itself and 
 mar every pleasant emotion. 
 
 '' We here took in three more medical students on their way from 
 Philadelphia to the South. Our time passed merrily away, excepting 
 awhile which was spent in political dispute. Among the students were 
 three Federalists, two from Virginia and one from South Carolina. In the 
 
THE METROPOLIS. 
 
 course of conversation one of them avowed himself an atheist This 
 raised a universal horror, and those who were proud to tell of their 
 immoralities were loudest in protesting their abhorrence, and in applaud- 
 ing the doctrines of a Supreme Being and of Christianity. I was some- 
 what surprised, for I could not conceive how men avowedly so dissolute 
 could believe m doctrines so diametrically opposed to the whole course 
 and object of their lives. 
 
 " It was after dark when we arrived in Washington. The first object 
 which presented itself was the Capitol, which, in the dusk of evening 
 made a very gloomy appearance. I could not get entertainment at the 
 tavern, and therefore called at the boarding-house of Mr. Richardson. 
 Here I met him and General Varnum, and engaged board with them 
 while I remain in town. 
 
 ''2d. This morning went to see a picture called the ^ Dance of 
 Wertmuller; I never before saw anything which gave me any idea of 
 the power of painting. 
 
 " I cannot describe the appearance of the picture ; but the admira- 
 tion which it excited I shall never forget. Passed from this to the 
 Capitol. Its appearance was much better by day than by night. 
 Only the two wings are built, and they are composed of huge piles of 
 freestone. 
 
 " In the evening went with Mr. Varnum to the President's levee. 
 
 *' I was introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Madison. I felt no awe, although 
 Mrs. Madison is a noble, dignified person, apparently more able to 
 manage the affairs of the nation than her husband. His personal 
 appearance is very inferior. Many great men of the nation were 
 present, and many fine ladies. I was, however, not much instructed, 
 though considerably entertained. There were, I presume, nearly 
 three hundred present, who did not form in clusters, but filled the 
 whole drawing-room. In the course of the evening I obtained an in- 
 troduction to Mr. Grundy, not with a design to converse with him on 
 my own affairs, but to inquire of him conceniing Henry Bullard, an 
 officer of Toledo, according to the request of his father. I asked my 
 questions, went away, and sat down. He soon came and sat down by 
 my side, and asked if I was the gentleman who wrote him a letter. 
 I answered ' yes ' ; when a conversation commenced which ended in 
 his asking me to call on him as soon as convenient, which I promised. 
 I saw few ladies with whom I was at all pleased. Indeed, I took 
 very little notice of them. The elegance of the apartments or the dress 
 and beauty of the ladies did not raise one emotion above the common 
 course, and I had rather give the girl I love one kiss than attend a 
 thousand such parties. A little past nine I retired, better pleased with 
 the novelty of the scene than anything else. 
 
96 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 '\3d. This morning was taken into the Senate Chamber by General 
 Varnum, where he introduced me to a Senator from Ohio, one from 
 Lo\iisiana, and Mr. Bledsoe of Lexington, Kentucky. 
 
 " Ohio, I am told, is already crowded with lawyers. Kentucky is not 
 so full as Ohio, but even in that State there are enough. On my ob- 
 serving that 1 thought my best plan would be to introduce myself as an 
 instructor in some family, Mr. Bledsoe said he thought it would, and 
 that he wanted a man in his family in that capacity. I caught at the 
 expression, but he was soon called away, observing as he went, that on 
 further conversation we might probably make some arrangement. Gen- 
 eral Varuum promised to converse with him, and thus we left it. 
 
 " The Senate Chamber is much more elegant than that of the House, 
 but I am not able to describe it. I should not think there was here so 
 much talent as in the House, and the President is a satire on all legis- 
 lation. 
 
 " General Varnum informs me that he has conversed with Bledsoe, 
 who has four children, the youngest of whom is six years old ; but he 
 does not know on what terms he will receive me. He has referred him 
 to Mr. Richardson. 
 
 " j^th. Called on Mr. Grundy according to promise. His colleague 
 was present, and several places were mentioned where prospects were 
 good. If his house is finished, and he will know in a day or two, he 
 will make an arrangement to admit me into his family. 
 
 '* This forenoon I wandered to the Navy Yard and through the south- 
 em part of the city. It exhibits melancholy evidence of the folly of 
 attempting to force a place beyond its natural growth. Whole blocks 
 of brick buildings, which were never finished, are now in ruins. Yet 
 the city increases rapidly, but the buildings are generally erected on 
 the spots which nature has made most unpleasant. If the country 
 flourish, this city must become great, for the site is beautiful. 
 
 " 6th. This day Mr. Richardson conversed with Mr. Bledsoe, who 
 will take me into his family ; but the particular terms are not yet 
 specified, 
 
 '' 6th. This day attended meeting in the Capitol. The preacher, it is 
 said, is a Baptist, and is a chaplain in the army. His name is Jones. He 
 told us he is seventy-seven years old, and has preached fifty-five years. 
 His sermon might do for an army, but to an enlightened audience it was 
 a piece of ridiculous rant. The burden of his discourse was, eternal hos- 
 tility to England. His invectives against Federalists were severe, and 
 such as by a preacher ought never to be used. In fine, I consider the 
 whole scene a profanation of Christian worship, and should, had I not 
 been ignorant of the preacher, not consider myself justified in attending 
 his preaching. Many Federalists went out, and with just reason. The 
 
STAGE TRAVEL. Cj^ 
 
 President was present. In the afternoon heard a Presbyterian, who 
 preached an excellent sermon. 
 
 " 7th. This morning called on Mr. Bledsoe. He will admit me 
 into his family, and if I will assist him in the instruction of his chil- 
 dren, will give me the use of his books, my board, and $100 per year. 
 I have closed with his proposal, and intend setting out day after to- 
 morrow for Kentucky. I shall go to Pittsburg, thence down the river 
 to Maysville (Limestone), thence by land to Lexington. 
 
 " Went into the Supreme Court to-day and heard an eloquent argu- 
 ment from Mr. Pinckney. 
 
 ''8th. Went into the Patent-Office. There found a multitude of 
 inventions, most of which are as unintelligible as they are useless. 
 
 " This evening bade adieu to my benefactor, Mr. Kichardson, and Mr. 
 Varnum's family, and rode in a hack to Georgetown. I had a melan- 
 choly ride ; for the idea of bidding adieu to my last friend impressed 
 me with sensations more enduring than I had before felt. 
 
 " 9th. Started from Georgetown about seven o'clock. The day 
 was rainy and very unpleasant. This was in some measure compen- 
 sated by the agreeableness of my company. Those whose conversation 
 was most interesting and instructive were Governor Cass and Major 
 Trimble. 
 
 " Cass seems to be possessed of the genuine feelings of a Republican 
 as to his politics, but has a contempt for religion and religious men. 
 His opinion of Pinckney, the present Attorney-General, arose from a 
 slight specimen of his vanity when he first saw him. It was at the 
 levee, where Pinckney appeared with his hat under his arm. This raised 
 Cass's contempt, and he cannot since see or hear him with the least 
 patience. Though himself a Yankee, he has a great contempt for them, 
 which is no great argument in favor of his heart or his judgment. 
 
 " Trimble is a native of Kentucky, and represents Bledsoe as one of 
 the first lawyers in the State, and says his wife is an excellent woman. 
 We arrived this night at Fredericktown, which, through the dusk of 
 evening, seemed to be a considerable village. 
 
 ''10th. Passed on through Hagerstown, and several other places 
 called towns, to a considerable place called Ch amber sburg, beyond the 
 Blue Mountains. We were informed that the land on the road, this 
 day, sells generally from $100 to $120 per acre. By the appearance of 
 the houses and villages compared with those in New England, one 
 would not imagine there could be such a difference in the value of the 
 land. In the latter country many farmers' houses may be seen scattered 
 over the country, equal and even superior in elegance and size to al- 
 most any in these towns ; yet land there will not average more than 
 20 per acre. The inference is, that the Northerners have much 
 
 7 
 
98 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 better taste than the Southerners. Their modes of living I am not yet 
 able to compare. 
 
 *' 11th. Started from Chambersburg about three o'clock, a. m., and 
 about nine arrived at the foot of the Cove Mountains, a branch of the 
 Alleghanies. Here we had the misfortune to break our carriage. Con- 
 sequently, all the passengers, except a lady, walked over the moun- 
 tain about six miles to McConnell's town. It was eleven o'clock, and we 
 had just arrived at our place for breakfast. But before we had pro- 
 ceeded a mile farther I became excessively sick, and found it absolutely 
 necessary to stop and retire to bed. 
 
 *' 12th. Arose this morning nearly well, but very weak. As I found 
 myself in a wagoner's tavern, without conveniences, I determined to 
 return to McConnell's town, and wait there for Monday's stage. Ac- 
 cordingly I put my baggage into a wagon, and walked back to the house 
 whence I last started. The roads in this country are extremely rough, 
 and I am told much worse before than behind me. If I once get safely 
 through, I doubt whether I will soon be caught on this road in the stage 
 again. Wrote a letter to Woodbury, and afterward, being impatient, 
 went in to the family, and found there three fine girls with whom I spent 
 a pleasant evening. 
 
 " 13th. By the aid of reading and writing, made shift to pass away 
 this day. At night, about three hundred militia from Adams County, Pa., 
 entered the place on their way to Erie. They were without order, and 
 apparently without officers, — mean, dirty, ugly, and in every respect con- 
 temptible. 
 
 " 14-th. Started in the stage at foiu* o'clock. My companions were 
 a native of Ireland, naturalized, about fifty years of age, coarse, but 
 very intelligent, and a native of Germany, amiable, polite, and merry. 
 We passed over ' Scrub Ridge,' * Sideling Hill,' and through the gaps 
 of two other ridges of mountains which rise in huge broken cliffs on the 
 sides of the Juniata River. Met several of this State's militia who had 
 deserted, and it is said many more will follow their example, on account 
 of scarcity of provisions. Near the last-mentioned hills is a brook 
 called ' Bloody Run,' where a battle was once fought with the Indians. 
 
 *' 15th. We spent last night in a place called Bedford. Started 
 about four o'clock, with the same companions as yesterday. For the 
 young German I have conceived a considerable friendship. Passed the 
 Alleghany Ridge to-day, where we found considerable quantities of snow. 
 Put up at a place called Somerset. 
 
 '' 16th. We left our Irish companion at Somerset, and proceeded 
 with only two passengers. My companion, whom I may now call my 
 friend, gave me a sketch of some of the principal incidents of his life. 
 I find it, in some respects, like my own, but checkered with much. more 
 
PITTSBURG, — SITUATION, ETC. 99 
 
 variety. In return, I gave him some of the most interesting incidents 
 which have befallen myself, and, on condition of my staying in Pitts- 
 burg a week, he has promised to accompany me to Kentucky. 
 
 " We passed this day over Laurel Mountain and Chestnat Ridge, the 
 last of the Alleghanies. Between these two ridges is a wide and dreary 
 valley, almost in its native wildness. We stopped for the night at 
 Greensburgh. I was again sick, and a gentleman named Smith offered 
 to let me have his horse to-morrow, and, in exchange, take my seat in 
 the stage. 
 
 " 17th. Near 7 a. m., I arose and set out. I was tolerably well, 
 but weak. Passed over a good, but hilly country, and at Turtle 
 Creek had a delightful view. It is a small stream, which winds along 
 through a very deep valley. The road on each side is bad, steep, 
 and almost impassable. As I arrived on the top of the hill on one side, 
 I saw a dozen wagons winding up the hill on the other, and heard the 
 echo of bugle-horns. The creek was hid from me, but as I approached 
 the bottom a meandering, romantic stream presented itself, with a house 
 on its banks encompassed with five hundred fine soldiers. 
 
 " They were firing at a target, and just as I passed them the bugle 
 sounded and they began their marching. 
 
 " Nothing else occurred worthy of notice until I arrived in the valley 
 down which the Alleghany Eiver winds to Pittsburg. Here a delightful 
 scene struck my sight. The river runs between mountains, and at the 
 end of the vale Pittsburg presents itself enveloped in smoke and dust. 
 My sensations are not to be expressed. I said, * Here is my country,' 
 and almost resolved at any rate to go no farther. With these feelings 
 I entered the place and found it a very blacksmith's shop, full of dust 
 and noise. My friend did not enter it with the same pleasure as my- 
 self ; for he came another road, and met the smoke at the distance of 
 two miles. He was even rather disgusted, and became desirous of being 
 away. We walked out together and took a hasty view of some part 
 of the place, but, being much fatigued, returned to the tavern, and at 
 an early hour retired to bed." 
 
 The portion of Mr. Kendall's journal which covered his stay at 
 Pittsburg is unfortunately lost, and the incidents occurring there 
 are narrated from memory. 
 
 The next morning after their arrival he and his friend rose early 
 and ascended Grant's Hill, behind the city, for the purpose of 
 enjoying the views. The hill had not then been occupied by 
 buildings, and between it and the improvements of the city were 
 small ponds of water, formed by excavations of clay for brick- 
 
 making. 
 
100 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The city itself, then comparatively a mere village, was all within 
 a half-mile of the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela 
 Eivers, chiefly skirting those streams. The present site of Alle- 
 ghany City was in part covered by farms and in part thinly 
 wooded. Beneath the cliffs on the east side of the Monongahela 
 there were considerable improvements, including two glass-houses. 
 The two rivers uniting below the city, the rivers beyond the Alle- 
 ghany and the cliffs of the Monongahela constituted a display of 
 natural scenery seldom equalled in beauty. The whole, however, 
 was marred by coal-dust which filled the air. The glass-houses 
 beyond the Monongahela, and numerous furnaces within the city, 
 some of them burning night and day, sent up columns of black 
 smoke, which settled upon and disfigured every terrestrial object. 
 
 Being in no haste to reach Kentucky before the arrival of Mr. 
 Bledsoe, who had not yet reached Pittsburg, Mr. Kendall readily 
 assented to the proposition of his friend to spend a few days in 
 the city. He had a letter of introduction to the Hon. William 
 Willvins, who treated him with marked kindness. 
 
 The business of Pittsburg had been stimulated into unprece- 
 dented activity by the pending war with Great Britain. It was an 
 entrepot for military stores for both the Northwestern and South- 
 western frontiers, many of which were manufactured there. While 
 our travellers remained there, troops arrived on their way to Lake 
 Erie, among whom was a fine company of volunteers from Peters- 
 burg, Va. They left in a snow-storm, and Mr. Kendall and his 
 friend went out to see them cross the Alleghany Eiver. The ferry- 
 boats had to make several turns, during which the men gathered in 
 clusters on the bank and sang patriotic songs, while the snow fell 
 thick and fast around them. Many of the Petersburg volunteers 
 never returned, the company being terribly cut up in a subsequent 
 battle on the Niagara frontier. 
 
 At his boarding-house ]\Ir. Kendall became acquainted with a 
 Frenchman who had begun the publication of a periodical at Pitts- 
 burg, called the " Western Gleaner." At the Frenchman's request 
 he agreed to furnish him some of his poetic effusions for the young 
 magazine, which, with the magazine itself, soon passed into ob- 
 livion. 
 
 The two emigrants were soon sated with their experience of 
 Pittsburg, which seemed to them little better than a coal-hole for 
 cleanliness. Steamboats had not then come into general use on 
 
VOYAGE DOWN THE OHIO. Iq;!^ 
 
 the Western rivers. Two had been built, of rude model, and not 
 comparable in speed or comfort with the steamboats of the present 
 day ; but both of them were below on the I\Jississippi Pdver. There 
 was no stage or other public conveyance west of Pittsburg, and the 
 ordinary route of travel westward was down the Ohio in flat-boats, 
 keel-boats, or barges. But our young emigrants, being somewhat 
 romantic and adventurous, determined to make the voyage from 
 Pittsburg to Cincinnati in their own boat. So they bought a skiff, 
 a buffalo-robe, and a quantity of such stores as they would not be 
 likely to find along the river, intending to travel only by day, and 
 put up with such lodgings at night as they might find near the 
 banks. 
 
 Their preparations were complete, when they fell in at the land- 
 ing with Major William T. Barry, of Lexington, Ky, who, with his 
 wife, servants, horses, and carriage, was preparing to descend the 
 river to Maysville, Ky. Informed of their plan, and having no 
 skiff for the use of his boat, he proposed that they should put their 
 stores into a common stock, come on board his boat, and tie their 
 skiff alongside, to which they readily assented. 
 
 Major Barry's boat was over thirty feet long, and embraced three 
 apartments. In the stern was a stable containing two horses. The 
 centre apartment was occupied by Major Barry and his wife as a 
 sitting-room and bed-room. In the bows was the kitchen, dining- 
 room, and sleeping room (all in one) of the other passengers and 
 servants. The stable, centre room, and half of the bow was cov- 
 ered by an arched roof of bent plank. Between Mrs. Barry's room 
 and the bow w^as a chimney, with a small fireplace on each side. 
 Turning on a pin upon the stern of the boat, there was a steering- 
 oar about thirty feet long, and on each side, about a third of the 
 way from the bow to the stern, was a side oar also turning on 
 a pin. The body of the boat was a rectangular box, consisting 
 of timbers, horizontal and perpendicular, mortised together and 
 covered with plank made water-tight. 
 
 In this clumsy craft our travellers left Pittsburg on the 25th of 
 March, 1814, and began the descent of the beautiful Ohio. Their 
 motive power was the current of the river, the oars being used 
 only to keep the boat in position and in the channel, as well as to 
 effect landings. The bed of our emigrants was straw, in the bow 
 of the boat, and their covering a buffalo-robe. The first night the 
 straw did not sufiace to protect their ribs against the ribs of the 
 
 / 
 
102 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 boat ; but this inconvenience was obviated thereafter by an in- 
 crease in the quantity. 
 
 The subsequent portion of the journey is thus described in Mr. 
 Kendall's journal : — 
 
 " March 26th. Started this morning half an hour before sunrise, and 
 passed through a country affording at this season very little variety of 
 scenery, about thirty-two miles to Faucettstown. This, with several other 
 places which the legislatures of the different States have named towns, is 
 a miserable village, consisting of a few houses built of logs and mortar. 
 I am disappointed in the banks of this river ; for I supposed them to 
 be covered with fields. Instead of that they are a hilly wilderness, 
 much of which is not susceptible of cultivation. When clothed in the 
 dress of spring, it must, however, afiford much beautiful scenery, espe- 
 cially the small islands which fill the river. We hauled up about sun- 
 down, because we were unacquainted with the stream. 
 
 " 27th. Pushed off about day. This morning I felt much better 
 than yesterday, because I had much better sleep. Our bed is a little 
 straw beneath and a buffalo-skin above, and our manner of eating, 
 soldier-like. Our cooks are the black servants of Mr. Barry. In the 
 forenoon, put off with my friend in our skiff, and visited a coal-mine 
 lately opened on the bank. We found one of the two young men who had 
 done the work. They bought as much as they could put in a boat for 
 $10. The boat costs $100. Their labor may be that of a month. 
 They will then descend to Cincinnati and sell their coal, 1500 bushels, 
 for 37^ cents per bushel. Their freight will bring nearly the first cost 
 of the boat ; so that the business must be profitable. 
 
 *' About two o'clock passed Steubenville on the right bank, — a town 
 containing some elegant buildings. Before we an-ived at this place we 
 saw a boat setting out for New Orleans. It was a beautiful day and 
 the whole neighborhood, male and female, were collected to bid their 
 friends adieu. Some of them went on board and landed again at Steu- 
 benville. Opposite the town the bank rises in a high hill with frequent 
 cliffs, aroimd which were flying a number of black buzzards. We were 
 told that they build their nests in these cliffs. Multitudes of ducks of a 
 speckled and black color are seen along the river, and near by, in the 
 swamps, are heard millions of peeping frogs. 
 
 ** A little before night we passed Charlestown, a considerable village 
 on the Virginia side. My friend having left us in the skiff, and not 
 coming in sight before dark, we hauled to land to wait for him and col- 
 lect wood. After his arrival, we passed on a little below Wheeling. 
 Being very unwell, I had lain down, and did not see this place. With 
 the exception of a few beautiful houses, the buildings which I have yet 
 seen on the river look like the abodes of poverty. 
 
BLAKNERHASSET'S ISLAND. 103 
 
 " 28th. When we arrived within five miles of Little Grave Creek, 
 ray friend and myself went forward in the skiff to view the ciu-iosities 
 in the neighborhood. The principal is a mound of earth evidently 
 raised by human labor as a grave for heroes, or to perpetuate some 
 great victory gained on the spot. It is an astonishing pile, and seems 
 almost too great for human labor. There are many smaller ones in the 
 neighborhood of the same construction, in which have been found human 
 bones, and, our guide said, golden beads. About half a mile distant 
 there is a regular fortification. Time would not permit us to view it, 
 and our guide could give but a faint description. These things could 
 not be the work of uncivilized Indians, and must, therefore, have 
 risen under the hand of a more cultivated people. Our scenery 
 this day was very much as yesterday, nor did we pass any considerable 
 town. We observed one boat landing horses and cattle. It appeared 
 to be a family boat, bound down with the owner's whole fortune on 
 board. There are many of this kind annually carrying families to the 
 different branches of the Ohio. A slave, whom we had on board, won- 
 dered what he (the poor emigTant) had done with all the property he 
 had made, as he appeared to be an old man and had always been free, 
 but observed, ' the devil a bit the better on't is he.' 
 
 ^^29th, Last night I guided the boat from eight till eleven. The 
 evening was delightful. Several fires on the hills, the barking and 
 howHng of dogs, and the sound of violins which issued from the encamp- 
 ments of two boats' crews on the shore, made the evening singularly 
 romantic. After this, I retired to my straw, and nothing occurred 
 through the night except once running upon the point of an island, 
 from which we easily swung. In the morning we passed Marietta, on 
 the mouth of the Muskingum. It is a beautiful situation ; but the 
 lowness of the bank so exposes it to inundation, that it can never be- 
 come great. It is settled by New-England ers, and contains many hand- 
 some houses. We now find ourselves in a more level country. When 
 within a few miles of Blannerhasset's Island, three of us went forward 
 in our skiff to take a view of it. We found this once beautiful spot 
 covered with ruins. His house was reduced to ashes, soon after the 
 owner left it, in consequence of his engagement in Burr's conspiracy. It 
 was a crescent, the body in the centre, with piazzas continued to the 
 wings, where were two small buildings thus connected with the main 
 body.' The chimneys are yet standing; but every enclosure is destroyed, 
 and barely a trace of them remains. His walks are obstructed by the 
 trees which have been thrown down by the freshets of the Ohio, and 
 the ruins of a summer-house are still seen among the uncultured 
 shrubbery. Part of the garden-fence is still standing, and a young 
 orchard shows the premature destruction of the owner's fortune. The 
 
104 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 whole is a melancholy evidence of the folly of Blannerh asset, and 
 I could not help wishing that the house of every man who would 
 sell his country may become as desolate as the habitation of Blanner- 
 hasset. 
 
 " 30th. Set out about day, and, as usual, I arose at that time and 
 went on deck. The morning was cloudy, but the clouds soon blew over 
 and presented us a fine sky. A Captain Swearingen, my friend, and 
 myself, landed and walked about six miles to examine a place called the 
 'Devil's Hole.' It is a place in the side of a hill where a run descends, 
 and the rocks have fallen from below in consequence of inundation by 
 the descending water, and left the rocks overhanging above. There is 
 nothing in it very curious or remarkable. At night the wind was so 
 violent that we pulled ashore immediately, and there soon arose a thun- 
 der-storm. The thunder was not heavy, but the flash of the lightning 
 and the echoes of the thunder from the hills and banks were romantic 
 and sublime. 
 
 ^^Slst. Started as soon as daylight would allow, and were soon at 
 Letart's falls. I should not have known it but for the name, for the 
 water is not so swift as in many other places. The river, however, is 
 rather high, as it has risen rapidly for a few days past. Here I saw a 
 floating mill. It is a small building built on a boat, which is moored to 
 some immovable object in the current, the rapidity of which cames the 
 wheel, which lies over on one side. 
 
 " This afternoon the wind was very high ahead. We made progress for 
 a while, but were finally obliged to stop. Myself, with one other, went 
 out in the skiff" for amusement. We were sometimes a little spattered, 
 but persevered until we were tired of the amusement. I had much 
 delight in it, although it was dangerous sport. The wind becoming 
 more mild, we resolved to ride through the night. 
 
 '' April 1st We passed Gallipolis and the Great Kanawha in my 
 sleep. Soon after three I was called to the oar, where I remained until 
 after daylight. This day we entered Kentucky. 
 
 " i?(/. Travelled again through the night, and I again held the oar 
 from two till four. Soon after four we arrived at Portsmouth, where 
 we landed Captain Swearingen, of Chillicothe, and a private soldier 
 named Bruff', of Kentucky, who was taken sick while in Fort Niagara, 
 and escaped from the British while his sentinels were drunk and asleep. 
 The Captain was a very pleasant man, and very sociable. His only fail- 
 ing, which I observed, was a degree of that almost universal quality 
 called egotism. 
 
 " Sd. Although I found myself in a very good bed in Maysville 
 last night, I slept very little. I was not half so easy as on my straw. 
 We parted to-day with Mr. and Mrs. Barry, who set out for Lexington. 
 
EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. — 1814. 105 
 
 He appears to be a very good man, but not a great man. For our pas- 
 sage he charged nothing, and in every respect treated us like a gentle- 
 man. His lady seems to be a woman of a good disposition, but not 
 well educated. They are, I think, a well-matched pair, and appear to be 
 very happy. Different were their characters from that of a Captain 
 Keshing, a passenger, who was affected in his language, and contracted 
 in his disposition. Toward all the articles of provision which we 
 purchased coming from Pittsburg he paid ninepence, and half of that 
 he took from a negro fellow on board while making change, and as was 
 thought, intentionally. We had one other companion, a Dr. Wilson, of 
 Kentucky, whose physiognomy did not promise much ; but we were dis- 
 appointed ; we found him pleasant and well educated. To all these we 
 bid adieu, resolving to stay in Limestone till to-morrow. 
 
 " At Limestone. — We were surprised to see boys rowino- our 
 skiff away without ceremony, and we were told that it would certainly 
 be stolen in the night unless we could put it in some boat or lock it. 
 We, however, walked out to see the town, and came to a Methodist 
 church, where a preacher was bawling, after the manner of his sect. Not 
 being much edified, and having taken considerable alarm for the safety 
 of our skiff, we returned to the shore. Here I watched it while my 
 friend went and procured some articles of provision. ' Once three great 
 women had loaded themselves into it, and a young fellow was just ready 
 to row them off. I, however, spoiled their fun. After taking dinner, 
 at two o'clock, we left the place. Limestone, or more properly Mays- 
 ville, lies on a high bank on the left side of the river, and commands not 
 an extensive, but a beautiful prospect. The town has some fine houses, 
 but partakes much of the dirt and negligence which characterize all 
 the towns I have seen on this river. 
 
 " We had proceeded but about six miles, in excellent spirits, when we 
 were met by a violent wind, which was soon accompanied with rain. The 
 river became so rough that our boat was in danger, and we landed at a 
 house which the man called ' a kind of a tavern,' Observing a plant- 
 er's house near, we walked towards it, and, although unwilling, to satisfy 
 my friend I consented to call. We found an old gentleman and lady 
 named Mitchell, who, after some conversation, grew fond of us and in- 
 vited us to take supper and spend the night. We took supper, but de- 
 clined staying, under pretence that we must visit oiu' skiff, but really 
 because we did not wish to lay ourselves under the obligation. We re- 
 turned to our tavern, and found it ' a kind of a tavern,' as the man had 
 said. We were put into a bed the sheets of which were, I believe, bag- 
 ging, or something as coarse. 
 
 '* 4th. We made shift to sleep badly, and rising about seven were 
 surprised to find the ground covered with snow. Again the old planter 
 
106 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 sent his son and urged us to go and take breakfast with him and spend 
 the day. We dechned, and the young gentleman sat down and took 
 breakfast with us. We, however, called as we passed, and made the 
 planter drink a bottle of porter with us. He then gave us a hearty 
 hand-shake, as did his wife, and invited us to call, should we again pass, 
 which we promised to do. Peace be under his hospitable roof ! We had 
 just put off, when we observed two keel-boats floating together. My 
 friend wished to go on board, but I said, ' No, they will only blackguard 
 us.' I yielded, however; and as we approached we found on board a 
 Mr. Lambert, who had boarded with us at Pittsburg. (I write while my 
 friend is rowing, and he spatters so that I can write no more.) Towards 
 night we again went on board the keels, which are two beautiful barges 
 bound to New Orleans, named Mary and Eliza. The names brought to 
 mind the tender scenes which had passed, and I sighed at the remem- 
 brance. 
 
 " We continued on board till ten o'clock, when we went ashore and 
 took lodgings in the house of an Ohio squire. The family were all 
 grannies. 
 
 ** 5th. Set out after breakfast. This forenoon we tied for a while 
 alongside of a flatboat which had overtaken us, but thinking our com- 
 pany not very acceptable, I rowed away, and arrived at Cincinnati before 
 it. This place appeared the most beautiful of any I have seen on the 
 Ohio. 
 
 " We took lodgings at Edson & Carlton's tavern, and wandered out to 
 see the place. We went through all the principal streets, and visited 
 the brewery. A gentleman interested had the politeness to lead us 
 through the building and vaults. It was new to me and very gratifying. 
 It has been in operation but three years, and, considering its age, is very 
 extensive. 
 
 *' The scenery around this town is beautiful, especially on the opposite 
 bank, where stands Newport ; which contains many beautiful houses, an 
 arsenal, fields and orchards now putting on their gayest attire. In the 
 evening was introduced to a Yankee named Bayley, from Massachusetts, 
 and had considerable conversation. 
 
 ** 6th. This morning, walked again, and visited some of the most 
 beautiful situations in the town, after which I went into the court, now 
 sitting here. It is held in a small dwelling-house in consequence of the 
 burning of the court-house, which happened a few weeks since. With 
 my friend I then visited a stupendous building on the river-bank, pre- 
 pared for a steam-mill and other machinery. It is six stories high to- 
 ward the river, and I believe four towards the land. We then visited a 
 cotton-factory, the machinery of which is moved by a horse. 
 
 " In the afternoon we crossed the river, rambled over Newport, took 
 
EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. — 18U. io7 
 
 a view of the beautiful plantation of General James Taylor, entered the 
 arsenal yard, in a separate part of which are about six hundred British 
 prisoners, part of Proctor's army, and then returned. I then called 
 with my friend on two countrymen of his, and was introduced to them 
 and another gentleman named Hopkins, with whom my friend had a 
 prospect of getting employment. 
 
 " 7th. My friend will stay in Cincinnati with Mr. Hopkins, as clerk 
 in a store soon to be opened by him. In consequence of this, I resolved 
 to dispose of our joint property and set out immediately for Lexington. 
 Accordingly, we sold our things for one half their value, and divided the 
 -money. In endeavoring to sell our skiff, we found a Spaniard who had 
 fled from the ruins of Saragossa with a wife, two sisters, a grandfather, 
 and I believe some other relatives. He wished to buy a skiff to descend 
 the river and find a place to live. On his relating his misfortunes to 
 my friend in Spanish, he proposed to me to give him our skiff, and I 
 consented. Having adjusted everything, I took leave of my friend 
 with mutual promises of correspondence, crossed the river, and left my 
 trunk and great coat with a Mr. Kennedy, to be sent on by the first 
 conveyance. I left Cincinnati with strong impressions in its favor ; for 
 it is a beautiful and growing place, and the people appear civil and 
 friendly. It is said now to contain about 600 houses, and the number 
 is fast increasing. There is little doubt that it will be the first place 
 in Ohio. 
 
 " I walked through a fertile country, but possessed by a people evident- 
 ly poor, and living in miserable log habitations. A little after dark I 
 rapped at a house and inquired how far to a tavern. A woman within 
 answered about half a mile. I thanked her, but found in the event that 
 I had little reason, for I went nearly seven miles through woods before 
 I found a single house which was inhabited. The people were in bed, 
 but I gained admittance, and permission to sleep on the floor. The man 
 furnished me with a coverlet, with which I lay down upon a chair. I 
 now inquired if there was any danger in passing through the woods in 
 the niffht. The man said there was no danger, but that the woods were 
 full of wolves. He beheved there were few bears, and no panthers. 
 
 " 8th. My bed was so uncomfortable that I did not sleep much, 
 and therefore rose early, thanked my host, and departed. In about three 
 miles I found a very decent tavern, kept by a Mr. Gaines, where I took 
 breakfast. I then walked on about twelve miles to a Mr. Brumback's, a 
 queer old Jerseyman. In conversation with his wife, I understood her 
 to say that she was one of the old Virginia w s, but was told after- 
 wards that she must have said hoes (Tankahoes). I do not know what 
 the latter expression can mean, except by conjecture. When I said I 
 came from Massachusetts, — ' Lord,' said she, ' how people does travel 
 
108 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 about.' After having diverted myself thus awhile, I lay down and took 
 a nap, and then walked nine miles farther to Mr. Arnold's. 
 
 " I am told the farms on this road are small, from four to forty acres, 
 and was somewhat surprised to find very few slaves. Once to-day I 
 overtook a number of children going home from school. I found at 
 Mr. Arnold's two gentlemen travelling towards Lexington yn horseback. 
 After some conversation one of them informed me he lived in Spring- 
 field, Ohio, where is an excellent opening for a lawyer. From his de- 
 scription, I am much of the same opinion, and felt some inclination to 
 turn my face thither. But I finally concluded it was best to go to Lex- 
 ington and continue there for a time, where I shall again see this gentle- 
 man, whose name is Fisher. The other gentleman was' from Massachu- 
 setts, named Hill, and knew many people who were known to me. 
 
 " It is very sickly in Lexington, with what I suppose was, in the North, 
 called the spotted fever. It is said that from seven to fourteen are 
 buried daily. The disease has likewise prevailed in some places in the 
 country, and a son-in-law of our landlord is now sick within a few rods 
 of this place. 
 
 " I am so lame in the knees this evening, that it is very doubtful 
 whether I move to-morrow. 
 
 ^' 9th. Mr. Fisher had the goodness to offer me a horse, if I could 
 procure a saddle. I attempted it, but was unable. He bid adieu to me, 
 promising to see me in Lexington. Feeling restless, I set out past eight 
 o'clock, and with considerable fatigue walked fifteen miles to Mr. Nel- 
 son's. The country was generally hilly, but the soil good. I was told 
 that land sold in this part for $ 1.00 to $ 7.00 per acre, according to its 
 situation and improvements. There are very few slaves on this road, 
 except the white people, who are slaves to themselves and whiskey. 
 
 ^^ 10th. In consequence of the imfavorable appearance of the day, 
 the muddiness of the roads, and my own fatigue, I did not set out this 
 day. I found the landlord and his lady pleasant company, and a daugh- 
 ter of theirs, who had been out, returned home in the afternoon, which 
 added somewhat to the pleasure of the day. I also found the 'Journal 
 of the Expedition of Captains Clarke and Lewis,' which I read to their 
 arrival at the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 " 11th. Last night was rainy, and the moraing cloudy. However, 
 I set out about eight o'clock and went six miles to a Mr. Hunter's. As 
 he was about to start for Georgetown with a lead-horse, he offered her to 
 me if I would ride on a blanket. I accepted, and rode so about three 
 miles, when I got a saddle, and we arrived in Georgetown about sunset. 
 The old gentleman gave me some advice with regard to my behavior 
 here, and, among the rest, to be sure and keep my finances under my 
 own control. 
 
THEN AND NOW. 109 
 
 " At Georgetown lie introduced me to a house which was not the best. 
 The man appeared as if he loved whiskey, and the woman her ease. In 
 the evening I went to hear a Methodist preacher, and found him a well- 
 informed but noisy man. He had much flower, and some bombast. On 
 the whole I was well entertained. 
 
 " 12th. Bid adieu to my friend Mr. Hunter, and set out for Lexing- 
 ton, through a fine country covered with beautiful plantations. About 
 twelve I arrived in sight of Lexington. The neighborhood is one of 
 the most beautiful spots I ever beheld. It is not hilly nor level, but 
 gently waving, with an exuberance of verdure, many orchards in bloom, 
 and many gardens laid out with taste. 
 
 *' The town appeared pleasant, but of that I cannot now give a de- 
 scription. I am excessively lame in my left knee, and fear it will con- 
 tinue some days." 
 
 Thus it will be seen that Mr. Kendall left Boston on the 21st 
 of February, and after spending eight days in Washington, eight 
 in Pittsburg, and three in Cincinnati, he reached Lexington, Ky., 
 
 on the 12th of April 
 
 Four days were occupied in travelling from Boston to New York, 
 a journey which now (in 1871) occupies about eight hours. 
 
 From New York to Philadelphia was then two days ; now about 
 four hours. And there is the same difference between Philadel- 
 phia and Baltimore. From Baltimore to Washington was one 
 day's hard travel ; now it is an easy journey of an hour and a half. 
 
 Washington was then nine days distant from Pittsburg ; now the 
 journey is made in about as many hours. 
 
 Then there was no public conveyance beyond Pittsburg. The 
 only modes of travel, west of that point, were riding on horseback 
 or boating on the rivers. Though two steamboats had been built, 
 they were slow and unsafe. The travel from West to East was on 
 foot or on horseback, and from East to West by flatboats down 
 the river, and from the river to the right and left on horse- 
 back or on foot. Now rapid steamers traverse all the navigable 
 Western rivers, railroads intersect vast regions then a howling 
 wilderness, and the railroad-cars run to the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Then the ordinary mail from Washington to Lexington occu- 
 pied about twelve days in its transit, while an express mail carry- 
 ing only letters made the trip in eight days. Now railroads convey 
 letters and newspapers in less than three days, and the telegraph 
 flashes intelligence ahead of time. 
 
110 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Then all transportation of merchandise and baggage other than 
 such as could be conveyed on horseback from the Eastern cities to 
 the Ohio river, and thence into the interior, was by means of slow- 
 moving covered wagons. Now the swift railroad engine, with its 
 train of heavily laden cars, ascends the mountains, threads the val- 
 leys, and darts across the prairies. 
 
 But why should we attempt here to depict the wonderful ad- 
 vancement of our country between 1814 and 1871 ? 
 
 When Mr. Kendall passed through New York, the frigate " John 
 Adams," with John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and the other 
 commissioners who afterward negotiated the treaty of peace with 
 Great Britain, was lying below waiting for a fair wind. Little 
 did he then think of living in Mr. Clay's family, or of the political 
 relations which should afterwards exist between him and Mr. Clay. 
 
 Mr. Grundy, to whom, at Mr. Eichardson's instance, he had writ- 
 ten before he left Groton, he many years afterwards met at Wash- 
 ington, a Senator in Congress, and was finally with him in Mr. 
 Van Buren's cabinet. 
 
 Governor Cass, who was a fellow-passenger in the stage from 
 Georgetown, he long afterwards met in public life at Washington, 
 and was associated with him in General Jackson's cabinet. 
 
 Mr. Wilkins, to whom he delivered a letter of introduction, and 
 by whom he was most kindly treated at Pittsburg, he encountered 
 as a member of the United States Senate in General Jackson's ad- 
 ministration, and knew him afterwards as Secretary of War under 
 John Tyler. 
 
 Major Barry, with whom he descended the Ohio Eiver, became 
 for years his personal and political friend and associate in Ken- 
 tucky, and in 1829 was at the same time with himself appointed by 
 General Jackson to an office in Washington. 
 
 And, subsequently, he received from Mr. Flligel, the German 
 friend whom he had first met in the stage at McConnellstown, and 
 with whom he crossed the mountains and descended the Ohio 
 Eiver, a letter dated in Leipsic, Germany, where the writer then 
 resided, soliciting the appointment of United States Consul at that 
 place, which, at Mr. Kendall's instance, was bestowed upon him. 
 
 At Maysville, Ky., Mr. Flligel, while Mr. Kendall watched their 
 skiff to prevent its being stolen, went up into the town to procure 
 some change, and came back with a handful of cut money. Never 
 having before seen or heard of that kind of currency, Mr. KendaU 
 
CUT MONEY AND SHINPLASTERS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 at first thought an imposition had been practised upon his friend ; 
 but he was mistaken. The banks of the West were then in a 
 state of suspension, and the small change of the country consisted 
 of the fragments of silver coins cut into two or more parts. Thus, 
 a dollar cut into four parts made four quarter dollars, and cut into 
 eight parts, so many twelve and a half cent pieces. Halves and 
 quarters were also cut to make smaller change ; but anything less 
 than six and a quarter cents was wholly unknown. The cut 
 money, however, was nearly all fraudulent. Five quarters, or nine 
 twelve and a half cent pieces were sometimes made out of a dollar ; 
 but the more general practice was to cut a slip out of the centre of 
 the dollar, and make halves and quarters out of the balance. The 
 smaller coins were treated in the same way, and doubtless some 
 parties made considerable sums out of these clippings. They did 
 not, however, at all interfere with the currency of these mutilated 
 fragments, which constituted the small change of the country until, 
 plipped as they were, they became more valuable than the bank- 
 notes, when they disappeared, and their place was supplied by 
 small tickets, issued by corporations and individuals, called " shin- 
 ^lastersy Of these Mr. Kendall afterwards devised a form for 
 the corporation of Georgetown, Ky., where he resided, having in 
 the centre, stamped with leaden dies set with ordinary type, the 
 form of the cut half and quarter dollar, etc., enabling the negroes 
 and others who could not read to recognize their value upon in- 
 spection. 
 
 These tickets obtained a very wide circulation. When the 
 banks resumed specie payments, the change tickets disappeared ; 
 but the cut money never returned. 
 
 As Mr. Kendall and his friend floated down the river between 
 Maysville and Cincinnati, they observed that the heavy drift-wood 
 progressed faster than their skiff. They therefore tied their skiff 
 to the roots of a large floating tree nearly buried in the water, and 
 were thus towed many miles. The solution of this problem is, 
 that the current of the river is more rapid beneath than at the sur- 
 face. A loaded boat will, consequently, float faster than an empty 
 
 one. 
 
 On Mr. Kendall's arrival in Lexington he found that Mr. Bled- 
 soe, instead of living in Lexington as he supposed, resided about 
 thirty miles distant ; but that he had rented a house in town, and 
 was expected to move into it soon after his return from Washing- 
 
112 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 ton, then daily expected. He therefore remained quietly at Postle- 
 thwaite's tavern, where he had no acquaintances, not even having 
 registered his name, and waited for Mr. Bledsoe. The lameness in 
 his knee, produced by his journey on foot from Cincinnati, kept 
 him very much confined for some days ; but as soon as he could 
 move with comfort he spent a large portion of his time in roaming 
 about the town and neighborhood, exhilarated by the purity of the 
 atmosphere and the luxuriance of the vegetation. The wood pas- 
 tures, so called, were particularly novel and interesting. Origi- 
 nally, the site of Lexington and the surrounding country were cov- 
 ered with heavy timber, under which was a thick growth of cane so 
 intertwined with pea- vine as to be almost impenetrable to man and 
 beast. The leaf of the cane very much resembled that of Indian- 
 corn, and constituted the favorite food as well of the buffalo as of 
 domestic cattle. As soon as the latter became numerous, they fed 
 the cane so closely as to kill it as well as the pea- vine, lea\dng the 
 forests without any undergrowth. The cane and vine were soon 
 replaced by a thick and luxuriant growth of blue-grass ; affording, 
 perhaps, the richest pastures in the world, — as beautiful to look 
 upon and wander over as pleasure-grounds kept in order by in- 
 cessant labor in other regions. But the thought would intrude, 
 that even the beauties of these natural parks are transitory, for 
 there is no young growth to take the place of the trees that are 
 destroyed by the axe or by time, and that at no distant day the 
 forest must entirely disappear. 
 
 On the 18th of April Mr. Kendall met Mr. Bledsoe in the 
 street, who said his family would be settled in town in abo«t a 
 week, when he would be ready to carry into effect the arrangement 
 made in Washington, But he suggested at the same ti'me that 
 Mr. Kendall might do better by becoming an assistant teacher in 
 a neighboring academy. Connected with other circumstances, this 
 suggestion raised a doubt as to Mr. Bledsoe's desire to fulfil the 
 agreement. This doubt was strengthened by his failure to call, for 
 further conversation, as he had promised, and leaving town without 
 any explanation. Mr. Kendall's pride was touched, and he needed 
 only to be satisfied that Mr. Bledsoe did not want him, to banish 
 at once the thought of ever residing in his family. 
 
 Thus far, he was without other acquaintances in Lexington than 
 Major Barry and his lady, who were very polite, but neither they 
 nor Mr. Bledsoe had introduced him to any other person. 
 
MORTIFICATION. II3 
 
 A short distance from Lexington, in a beautiful piece of woods, 
 was a ropewalk, then used as barracks for soldiers recruited in 
 that region. Some of the officers stationed there boarded at Postle- 
 thwaite's hotel, where Mr. Kendall had formed a speaking acquaint- 
 ance with them. In one of his walks, on the 27th of April, while 
 passing through the grove near the barracks, he observed a number 
 of gentlemen sitting on the grass in the shade of the trees, enjoy- 
 ing themselves with conversation and liquor. Among them were 
 some of his tavern acquaintances, whose names he did not know. 
 As he was passing within a few rods, some of them beckoned to 
 him, and he approached. After inviting him to drink, one of them 
 took him aside and asked his name, and then introduced him to 
 the rest of the company. 
 
 Among them were several young men of Lexington, with whom 
 he had considerable conversation. One of them, named Watkins, 
 a half-brother of Henry Clay, then a law student, invited him to 
 call at his room. 
 
 The following is Mr. Kendall's record for the 30th day of April, 
 1814: — 
 
 " This day I have suffered more mortification than ever at any period 
 of my life. While walking the street, I saw Mr. Bledsoe in a crowd, 
 and he appeared to see me, but turned his head away. I crossed the 
 street, and went to make my observations upon a company of troops 
 which was parading at the market-house. When I returned, I passed 
 him again, but, as he was reading a letter, 1 suppose he did not observe 
 me. I went to the tavern, and after some time, on entering the bar- 
 room, I saw him sitting in conversation with several gentlemen, and as 
 I approached he put on his hat and pulled it down as if to avoid seeing 
 me. I advanced, however, and, as I thought, catching his eye, went 
 up with the intention of shaking hands and called him by name. The 
 other gentlemen looked towards me, but he kept his head down as if he 
 neither saw nor heard. Mortified and provoked, I turned aside to a 
 window, stood a minute, and then, with no very pleasant emotions, went 
 into another room and sat down alone. In a few minutes Mr. Bledsoe 
 came into the room with Colonel Owens for some private conversation. 
 On entering the room he stepped behind the Colonel, and seemed studi- 
 ously to maintain that position until they finished their conversation, 
 when they left the room. That he saw me, both now and before, I had 
 no doubt. What were my feelings ! Here was intentional neglect and 
 unnecessary mortification. To be thus treated ^by the man on whose 
 promise I had come to this country is too much." 
 
 8 
 
114 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Mr. Kendall at once resolved that he would have nothing more 
 to do with Mr. Bledsoe if he could avoid it, and began to inquire 
 after employment in other directions. He saw nothing more of 
 Bledsoe, who in fact never removed his family to Lexington. He 
 was afterwards assured that he was mistaken in supposing that 
 Mr. Bledsoe intentionally neglected and slighted him ; that he was 
 so short-sighted that he could not recognize any one across the 
 room ; that he was very eccentric, and that he^ had spoken in high 
 terms of him (Kendall) among his friends, suggesting plans for his 
 advantage. When they met months afterwards, Mr. Bledsoe ex- 
 pressed his regret that the arrangement between them had not been 
 carried out, and remained very friendly to him in after years. 
 
 Mr. Bledsoe was a man sui generis. He was endowed with 
 splendid talents, and, with the exception of Henry Clay, was the 
 most eloquent man in Kentucky. His manner was slow and 
 deliberate, his language beautiful, his gestures gTaceful, and his 
 thoughts communicated with the utmost clearness. But his 
 talents were marred by excessive vanity, and finally destroyed by 
 drink. 
 
 In consequence of Mr. Bledsoe's treatment, Mr. Kendall made 
 known to his new acquaintances his desire to find employment as 
 a teacher. As invited, he called on young Watkins, who informed 
 him that Mrs. Hart, with whom he boarded, desired to obtain a 
 teacher for her two daughters, and afterwards, at her request, Mr. 
 Kendall called and took tea with her. She seemed at once to take 
 a lively interest in him, and of her own accord proposed to get up 
 a school composed of the children of the first families in Lexing- 
 ton, which would give him an income of a thousand dollars. She 
 asked no testimonials from him of character or qualifications ; but 
 he felt it due to her generous confidence to put into her hands the 
 certificate voluntarily furnished him by Mr. Eichardson, and an- 
 other from the Treasurer of Dartmouth College, showing that he 
 had graduated at that institution. These papers were never asked 
 for or returned, and Mr. Kendall was left without any written evi- 
 dence in relation to his character and education. 
 
 Mrs. Hart failed to get up the proposed school, for various rea- 
 sons, — one of which was, that Mrs. Clay, who had five children of a 
 teachable age, lived so far from town that it would be inconvenient 
 for them to attend. She then said that if Mr. Kendall would live, 
 with her and teach her daughters, she would give him his board,, 
 
ENGAGES AS TEACHER IN HENRY CLAY'S FAMILY. II5 
 
 two hundred dollars a year, and the use of her late husband's 
 library ; but she continued, " Mrs. Clay will do more for you, and 
 wishes to see you at my house, between ten and eleven o'clock to- 
 morrow." 
 
 Mrs. Hart was the widow of one of Mrs. Clay's brothers. Mrs. 
 Clay had recently returned from Washington, after a residence 
 there of two or three years, and had collected her children around 
 her, two of the eldeslr, Theodore and Thomas, having, during her 
 absence, been at a very ill-regulated school in Jessamine County. 
 
 The next day, the 5th of May, Mr. Kendall met Mrs. Clay at 
 Mrs. Hart's. She offered to give him his board, the use of Mr. 
 Clay's library, and three hundred dollars a year, if he would teach 
 her five children. Her offer was accepted, with the condition that 
 he should be at liberty after six months to surrender his trust on 
 furnishing a substitute as well qualified to teach as himself. The 
 same day his trunk, which had been left at Cincinnati to be for- 
 warded by a wagon, and which, he feared, had been lost, came 
 safely to hand. 
 
 One of the principal inducements for accepting Mrs. Clay's offer 
 was the hope of profiting by Mr. Clay's friendship and advice on 
 his return from Europe, then expected within a few months. 
 
 On the 10th of May Mr. Kendall left Postlethwaite's tavern, and 
 became an inmate of Mr. Clay's family. He then had, of $ 216 
 with which he left home, $ 17.75. He had sent back to his father 
 a ten-dollar note pronounced counterfeit, and had expended about 
 $ 30 for clothing. His expenses were much increased by taking an 
 indirect route, and stopping unnecessarily at Washington and 
 Pittsburg. His estimate was that he could have made the jour- 
 ney by the direct route, without stopping, for $ 100. 
 
 The family at Ashland then consisted of Mrs. Clay and seven 
 children, the oldest of whom was about thirteen years. Five of 
 thesg, two boys and three girls, constituted Mr. Kendall's charge. 
 The two boys, respectively about twelve and thirteen years old, 
 had, in the absence of their father and mother, been left at a school 
 in a neighboring county, where there was no regular government, 
 either in school or at their lodgings. The consequence was that 
 they profited very little by their lessons, and became ungovernable 
 in their tempers. All the children, except the oldest, were en- 
 dowed with fine minds, and in that respect, the younger boy had 
 few equals. At first Mr. KendaU was much discouraged at the 
 
115 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALIi. 
 
 prospect before him ; but by a mild firmness, and the countenance 
 and support of Mrs. Clay, he by -degrees reduced his refractory 
 pupils to order and secured their respect. The boys would listen 
 to him attentively, and he took every proper occasion to represent 
 to them how essential it was, if they desired to acquire the char- 
 acter of gentlemen, that they should not only be attentive to their 
 studies, but learn to govern their tempers. It was not long before 
 the improvement of the children, especially in their temper and 
 manners, was very marked and most gratifying. Through Mrs. 
 Clay, Mr. Kendall became acquainted with her relatives and 
 friends, who treated him with the utmost kindness, and his time 
 passed pleasantly, not only in his little school, but in the social 
 circle. 
 
 Mr. Kendall's manner of life, his observations, speculations, and 
 troubles, during his residence in the family of Henry Clay, and for 
 some time afterwards, are best illustrated by extracts from his 
 journal : — 
 
 '' 1814i May ISth, My two boys, I perceive, have not been very 
 well taught, and know almost nothing either of Latin or English gram- 
 mar. They have begun in Caesar's Commentaries, and after having re- 
 cited, I make them write out a translation of the whole, which I intend 
 they shall copy into a book. This is with the design, not only of im- 
 pressing it more strongly upon the memory, but of improving them in 
 writing and in English grammar. 
 
 " The oldest little girl reads and writes, and bids fair to make an ex- 
 cellent scholar. The second knows little of reading, and seems to bean 
 idle, although a fine little girl. The third is yet in her Abs. The 
 whole of them are passionate, and have never been governed at all. 
 But they are by no means unmanageable. 
 
 '■^ IJfih. Thomas refused this forenoon to go to his lesson; but, on 
 being carried into the room, he yielded. 
 
 '* 17 tK. This evening a number of ladies called, and, for the first 
 time in Lexington, I was merry with them. 
 
 " 20ih. I find the children, especially the boys under my care, 
 have been indulged till they are almost ungovernable. The oldest, 
 Theodore, has the most amiable disposition, but Thomas is the smartest 
 boy. They have been accustomed to fight each other, so that, at the 
 school which they lately attended, they could not be boarded at the 
 same place. Their father is almost always absent, and their mother has 
 been so for nearly two years past, and they have been left to their own 
 management. Their mother attempts to assert her authority over 
 
TEACHING m THE FAMILY OF HENRY CLAY. II7 
 
 them; but it is not supported with a steady hand. This evening 
 Thomas began to whine and growl after his usual manner, when I looked 
 towards him with an eye which, no doubt, expressed my feelings. Mrs. 
 Clay, observing me, said to him, that he must take care, for Mr. Kendall 
 was just ready to speak. And then said to me with perfect good-nature, 
 that she had many times seen me nearly out of patience ; for she could 
 tell. I blushed at perceiving my feelings were known, and made some 
 indirect answer, which no doubt confirmed her opinion. However, I 
 was not in reality ashamed of it ; for often have I been provoked to ask 
 her to deliver the boys over to me. Thomas, however, grew worse and 
 worse, until she was obliged to take him into a room, and, giving him a 
 severe whipping, she actually conquered him. I congi-atulated her with 
 real pleasure. 
 
 ^'25th. In conversation this evening, Mrs. Clay bade me ask her 
 if I wanted money. I told her I would, and said I had short of twenty 
 dollars, when she told me she would give me one hundred to-morrow ; 
 I was affected by her generosity, and begged to be excused from taking 
 it, for I was in no need at present. The true reason is, I cannot think 
 of making myself so dependent. 
 
 " 27th. In the evening I had a long contest with three ladies on 
 the impropriety of sending word to visitors that you are not at home. 
 I sturdily maintained an adherence to truth, and was opposed on the 
 plea of necessity. I often have such contests with Mrs. Clay, who is 
 of the polite world. But I have as yet found no difficulty in adhering 
 to my principles, and think I shall not yet quit them. 
 
 ^^ 28th. We have news to-day that Paris is in possession of the 
 allies. I lament it, as I would anything which would tend to destroy 
 the power of France. 
 
 ^^ 29th. Yesterday, Mrs. Clay being absent, Thomas got into a 
 mighty rage with some of the negroes, and threatened and exerted all 
 his little power to kill them. I took him into the office and held him 
 until he was cool, and then let him go. Notwithstanding Mrs. Clay had 
 told me to do this on such occasions, I perceived by her conversation 
 to-day that she did not feel exactly right about it. I was surprised, but 
 am resolved to interfere no more unless it be to save life. 
 
 " June 9th. This evening there was a large party of ladies with 
 several gentlemen at Mrs. Clay's. I was not very sociable, but silently 
 made my observations. I find the company already have a butt, so if 
 I am rather unsocial for a while, I shall have a good chance to escape 
 unobserved. This evening Thomas got into a great rage after the depart- 
 ure of the company, and at Mrs. Clay's request I dragged him, not 
 very tenderly, into the office. He fought me like a tiger, and cursed 
 me with all his might. ' You damned Yankee rascal,' cried he, *you 
 
118 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 have been trying to make yourself of great consequence among the 
 ladies this evening.' This he kept up for some time. At first I was 
 provoked, and cuffed him once or twice, but not feeling myself author- 
 ized to whip him, I let him bawl. Finally, I went out and asked his 
 mother what I should do. She ordered him to bed, and he readily, 
 though unexpectedly, complied. 
 
 ^^ 10th, The sequel of last night's adventure exhibits a striking 
 characteristic of that singular boy. He would not get up until I had 
 gone to breakfast, nor even show himself at the table. Afterwards, 
 when alone with his mother, he burst into tears. On being asked what 
 was the matter, he said it was because he treated me so ill last night. 
 He then mentioned an anecdote which is told of General Washington, — 
 how that good man having in anger abused an ofi&cer, afterwards asked 
 his pardon. He wished to ask pardon of me, but feared the other chil- 
 dren would laugh at him. He, however, came up with his mother, who 
 asked pardon for him, which was readily and heartily granted. Not- 
 withstanding his foibles, he is an admirable boy. 
 
 " 13th. Mrs. Clay this day once more offered me fifty dollars, but 
 I declined accepting it. 
 
 " 15th. This day I lent to Mrs. Anne Hart, widow of Captain 
 Hart, who is living here, a selection from my poetry containing all my 
 best pieces. I will not deny that a wish to have my talent known was 
 my strongest motive, and at first I intended to give it her, hoping she 
 would show it to others. In this I was restrained by a diffidence which 
 is eternally at war with my pride. After school, I offered to read my 
 last play to her and Mrs. Clay. This same diffidence again rose upon 
 me, and I thought for a while I should be obliged to desist, for want of 
 a voice. But I was finally victorious. 
 
 " 17th. Arrived the news of the dethronement and abdication of 
 Bonaparte. If this news be correct it is the greatest act in that great 
 mans life. I call him a great man because his talents are great, not 
 that I have any respect for his character. The most important view of 
 this subject is as it respects ourselves. We are now left to contend sin- 
 gle-handed against the whole power of Great Britain. I have lost 
 every expectation of peace, for I do not believe that haughty nation 
 will lose so good an opportunity to humble the rival of her com- 
 merce. 
 
 " Destroy everything which floats in our waters she certainly can, and 
 if she does not lay waste our sea-coast, it will be because such would 
 not be her interest. But we must breast the shock, and pray God to 
 unite us and bring us off with honor. Young men are already talking 
 here of going into the army, but it will be my last resort. 
 
 ** 19th. After this I returned home, and was obliged to listen to a 
 
TEACHING IN THE FAMILY OF HENRY CLAY. ng 
 
 long talk in ridicule of religion or religious men. The parties concerned 
 
 were Mr. and Mrs. Mentelle, professed deists, Mrs. , and Mrs. , 
 
 who is, I believe, a deist in heart. To attempt reasoning, I find, does 
 no good, and therefore I generally find it best to preserve a prudent 
 silence. 
 
 " 21st. I was surprised to-day by a call from Mr. James Dana, with 
 whom I had a partial acquaintance in Boston and Groton. He has been 
 to New Orleans, and returned through the wilderness. He will stay a 
 few days in town, and then return to Boston. I shall load him with 
 letters. 
 
 ^' 2Sth, This day I went with others to give in an invoice of my 
 rateable property/, and attend a Kentucky training. One rateable poll 
 is the amount of my whole fortune, and even that not without encum- 
 brances. I suppose about two .thirds of the company appeared, some 
 without muskets, some with muskets without locks, and some with use- 
 less pieces, — all without bayonets, uniform, or cartridge-boxes. The 
 business seemed to be. electioneering as much as training. After calling 
 the roll, the captain drew up his men in a hollow square, for the accom- 
 modation of a Mr. McKinley, who addressed them, offering himself as a 
 candidate for election to the next General Assembly. 
 
 *^ He gave a considerable dissertation on the subject of banking, and 
 drew some conclusions which to me seemed incorrect. He was in favor 
 of an extension of the system to an unlimited degree. He then took 
 notice of the Kentucky revenue law, which it seems is rather unpopu- 
 lar, and promised to attempt its repeal. National politics he carefully 
 kept out of view, for it seems he is a Federalist. After he had finished, 
 the company resumed their order, and marched to the whiskey-table 
 under a tree, where, several more candidates arriving, they were dis- 
 missed for a short time. I expected more public harangues ; but as 
 there were now five or six candidates present, I suppose they had some 
 reluctance to speak in the presence of each other. 
 
 " Private talk was the only means now used, and after some time 
 most of them departed. The company again paraded and manoeuvred 
 till about six o'clock, when they were dismissed. It was dull business, 
 for they had neither fife, drum, nor whistling. This was the first stump 
 oration I had ever heard. I • was not so unpleasantly impressed as I 
 expected. Although a good orator may often mislead the people, the 
 system certainly has a tendency to give them much useful information. 
 It seems to be a sort of primary assembly, where future subjects of 
 legislation are discussed, which are afterwards, in a measure, decided by 
 the choice which the people shall make of their representative. But 
 there seemed to be an indelicacy in a man's saying all this to promote 
 his own election that I could not forgive. It seemed to me that I could 
 
120 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 have spoken there for a friend, but never for myself. Time may recon- 
 cile me to it. 
 
 " July 1st. Received a letter from my old friend Fowle. He seems 
 to labor under a great barrenness of ideas, if that can be called 
 a burden. Though an excellent fellow, he is not blessed with a very 
 capacious intellect, and, I am afraid, is too indolent to give it the arti- 
 ficial aid of extensive knowledge. There was a postscript from Rock- 
 wood, in so cold a style that I fear he thinks I have neglected him. I 
 am sensible that in his situation I should have expected more ; but I am 
 equally sensible that much more is expected from a friend, when in a 
 distant place, than he is able to perform. We seem to think the 
 whole country where he is spread beneath his eye, so that he has 
 nothing to do but look and write us the result. However, I hope my 
 last letter will set everything right. Fowle infoi'med me that a Mr. 
 Hunt was coming out from Boston, and Mr. J. Prentiss, of this town, 
 told me that Hunt would come into his family, and that D. Rockwood 
 was coming with him. 
 
 " 4^h. Heard a common oration from a Mr. Breckenridge. The 
 day was excessively rainy from about ten o'clock till the afternoon. Con- 
 sequently I did not go to the dinner. 
 
 ** 10th. Received a letter from Woodbury. He informs me that 
 his Susan has made a profession of religion, and that Mary and Eliza 
 are much engaged. Maiy is teaching school in Shirley. This short 
 article interested me more than all the rest of the letter. I am sure 
 that my reason at least will never cease to prefer her to all with whom I 
 am yet acquainted. 
 
 ^^ 17th. This morning. Miss E. P. and some others being at Mr. 
 Clay's, Mrs. Clay ralUed her upon marrying a certain gentleman in town, 
 when I blushed excessively. I know not whether any one observed it, 
 but I know I felt like a fool. And a fool I am to let that lady so much 
 interest me, when I know her so ill qualified to make a poor man happy. 
 Except in beauty and amiableness of disposition, she will not bear a 
 comparison with Mary. 
 
 " 20th. Went to the circus. Tt is temporary, and supplied by an 
 itinerant company. I was considerably diverted, but there was too 
 much buffoonery intermingled. It appears little business to see men so 
 employed, but there is much more satisfaction in seeing the arts which 
 have been taught their horses. 
 
 ^^22(1. A requisition is made on this State for 5,500 militia, to be 
 held in readiness to march at a moment's warning. It 'is said they are 
 destined for New Orleans. If they have enrolled me, as was their duty, 
 I shall be liable to a draft, and I care but little if the lot should fall 
 upon me. If I should manage well and return safe, it would give me a 
 reputation which would be usefuL 
 
TEACHING IN THE FAMILY OF HENRY CLAY. 121 
 
 '* 26th. I had long been desirous to hear a more particular account 
 of Mrs. Price and her daughters, — for what reason I could hardly satisfy 
 myself. In conversing of the family, I took occasion to ask if Mr. Price 
 had left his wife any property. The answer led to a history of the 
 family, which concluded with the remark that the girls would not prob- 
 ably be married, as gentlemen did not like to marry where there is no 
 fortune. I derived considerable satisfaction from this conversation, and 
 I believe, because it seemed to destroy the difference between E. and 
 myself ! 
 
 " 30th. I was at Mrs. Hart's, Sr., this evening, when John and N. 
 Watkins coming from the circus, the former proposed going to the thea- 
 tre, where it was advertised there would be a concert by an Italian. For 
 fifty cents each, we were admitted. He sang two or three Italian songs, 
 accompanied by his Italian guitar, as he called it, and after giving one 
 in French, he apologized, saying that he was so unwell he could 
 play no more. After much urging, how^ever, he played part of a tune 
 on a clarionet, and broke off crying * Hurra, America,' to raise the 
 spirits of his audience. He is no doubt an impostor, who thus imposes 
 on the public to pay his expenses. After leaving him, my companions 
 proposed that I should celebrate the performance in poetry, which I 
 promised to do. 
 
 " Slst. John Hart, with E. and A. P., called at Mrs. Clay's this 
 evening, and when I had read the rough draft of my Pauvre Italien to 
 him, he insisted that I should read it to the ladies. I declined, but he 
 took it from me and carried it into the room, and as it was so much in- 
 terlined that he could not read it, they all insisted that I should do it. 
 I was never more embarrassed. I hesitated, declined, felt and looked 
 and acted like a fool, and at last read it. 
 
 " August 1st. Had a letter two days ago from my long-lost friend, 
 E. Shipley, and one this day from , Esq., both of whom have be- 
 come Democrats. The former is practising law in Saco, Me. For 
 
 's reasons we need not look beyond interest, but Shipley's is 
 
 because the Federalists are attempting to divide the Union. 
 
 " 6th. Mrs. Clay had a small party this evening, and I must needs 
 be again requested to show my silly poetry. I put it into John Hart's 
 hands, and went out. Having, as I thought, given time sufficient 
 for the reading, I returned, and found a young man murdering it at a 
 mournful rate. So provoked was I, that I took and finished it myself. 
 Of the poetry I am actually ashamed, it is so silly. 
 
 ''12th. Spent some time this evening with the Misses Price and 
 Miss Hart, more to my satisfaction than at any time since I have been in 
 Lexington. J. Hart returned to me a manuscript of my poetry which I 
 had lent him some days since. 
 
122 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " 13th, I have read of law, since I have been here, most of the gen- 
 eral laws of Kentucky and the first volume of Blackstone. A multi- 
 tude of miscellaneous books I have read, and have now begun the 
 ' History of Russia,' by Tooke. 
 
 '•^ 14th. Attended church in the forenoon, and spent the afternoon 
 at home, where were Mrs. Shelby, daughter of Doctor Pindell, an ami- 
 able woman, and Doctor Pindell himself Inquiries rose where Ghent 
 was situated. I took the Atlas, and in tiimbling it over, found a piece 
 of paper written in my hand. I crushed it up and was securing it. 
 This raised the curiosity of Mrs. Clay, who said it was some of my love- 
 letters. I told her no, and that she might see. She took it, but as it 
 was carelessly written, she could make no progress, so I took it from 
 her hand, saying that I would read it. It purported to be from an In- 
 dian to his brother, giving an account of the persons and manners of the 
 Kentuckians. It raised some laughter, and Mrs. Clay took it from my 
 hands, and said she would keep it to bear witness against me, as I had 
 made very free with some of their notions. Now, the fact was, I was 
 desirous to have it seen, and had put it there for that purpose, but had 
 entirely forgotten it, and should then have destroyed it had she let me 
 alone. However, in this thing I was actuated more by vanity than any 
 honorable motive. 
 
 " 15th. Wrote to my old classmate, J. Danforth, and half an hour 
 before sunset went to the post-office. I returned, and passing through 
 my room, sat with Mrs. Clay till about nine o'clock. I had left my 
 watch hanging on a nail, as usual, and, as I entered the room, looked to 
 see the time, and lo, it was gone. A counterpane was likewise taken 
 from the boy's bed. A negro girl in the house was seen in the room, 
 and therefore suspected. She had stolen before, and on being severely 
 whipped, said she had taken them, and named several places, one after 
 another, where she had put them, but they were not to be found. Al- 
 though she at the outset denied having been in the room, I was finally 
 convinced that she had not taken the things, and desired she might be 
 whipped no more on my account. Indeed, I could hardly justify my- 
 self for permitting her to be whipped at all, for it is more like torture 
 than justice. 
 
 " 16th. (His birthday.) This year of my life is ushered in with 
 several attentions from the good people here not at all to my taste, — 
 my watch stolen, notice this morning to attend a company of militia 
 to-morrow to stand a draft, and in the afternoon a warrant to one regi- 
 mental and two company musters. No news of the watch. I went this 
 evening and left descriptions of it at all the silversmiths ; but I have 
 no expectations of ever finding it. All these things have very little 
 effect on my spirits, although Mrs. Clay says it is otherwise. Indeed, 
 
TEACHING IN THE FAMILY OF HENRY CLAY. 123 
 
 I had almost as lief be drafted as not. I ^ant to see what soldiers 
 suffer. 
 
 " 17th. When I came upon the muster-ground to-day, and saw by 
 what men I was surrounded, and heard all speaking of the draft with 
 so much dread, my heart failed, and I earnestly wished myself clear of it. 
 Our company consisted of fifty-eight men fit for duty, out of which twelve 
 were to be taken. I drew into the third class, which, of course, con- 
 tained five. I offered twenty or even thirty dollars, to enable the one 
 who should be drafted to hire a substitute, but none of the class would 
 give more than ten, and two nothing at all. I now gave up, and deter- 
 mined to go if drafted ; for I had not money to hire a substitute, and I 
 would not borrow. Three of us finally agreed to give to either of us 
 who should be drafted five dollars each, but it fell upon one of those 
 who would give nothing. I was considerably relieved, and we went 
 away and drank together. I was astonished at so great an aversion to 
 the service in the patriotic State of Kentucky. $150 is given for sub- 
 stitutes, and they do not know that they will be obliged to march. 
 
 " About three o'clock I set out for home, after having drank con- 
 siderable whiskey, eaten watermelons, etc., and was stupid as a dunce 
 through the evening. 
 
 ^^ 18th. Read Lord Byron's * Corsair.' The measure does not flow 
 so easy as the eight syllable, and sometimes his lines appear stretched. 
 Where words may be left out without injury to the sense, the language 
 is weaker than it should be. 
 
 ^^ 19th. One of those mortifying little incidents, which may be 
 called the miseries of human life, happened to me. There was a dia- 
 logue in the Boston ' Patriot,' which now comes to me, in which Mr. 
 Clay is introduced with King George, and the Emperors, Kings, etc., etc., 
 now in England. The object is to ridicule their Majesties, and bring to 
 view their real motives. I was about to read it to Mrs. Clay, and read- 
 ing over the names, observed that they had put Mr. Clay into bad com- 
 pany. At this she took such dislike, that I had scarcely begun when she 
 inteiTupted me by ' That 's silly, that 's silly.' I got off as well as I 
 could by reading detached pieces of it, but could hardly conceal my 
 mortification. 
 
 " 22d. Received a letter from my friend Fliigel. Either he is an 
 arrant, flattering hypocrite, or his heart is much warmer than mine. 
 The affection which he expresses I am sure I can never feel except for a 
 woman. 
 
 ** 23d. Mrs. Clay being gone, the care of the boys devolved in a 
 great measure upon me. Hearing a great noise in the kitchen, I went 
 in, and found Theodore swearing in great rage, with a knife drawn in 
 attitude to stab one of the big negroes. I did not wait to inquire the 
 
124 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 cause, but seized him by the collar, took the knife away, and very ex- 
 peditiously had him in the house. If he were my boy I would break 
 him of such tricks if it cost blood. 
 
 " 27th. Attended a temporary muster. The soldiers are under no 
 more restraint than a herd of swine. Reasoning, remonstrating, threat- 
 ening, and ridiculing their officers show their sense of equality and 
 their total want of subordination. The officers are, I presume, clever 
 men, but ignorant and without energy. An attempt is here making to 
 raise a rifle company, and I consented that my name should be put to 
 it, but as my stay here will be temporary, declared I could not equip. 
 From this they promised to excuse me. The day being rainy, I returned 
 home, wet, muddy, and disgusted. 
 
 " 28th. This day I received a letter from my friend Carter, who 
 previous to the receipt of my letter had engaged himself for another 
 year in his academy. The consequence is that he will not be able to 
 take my place next winter, and I must either find another to do it, or 
 remain a year myself. I am inclined to think I shall do the latter, 
 however contrary to my inclination. The forenoon previous to the re- 
 ceipt of this I had written to Mr. Richardson, giving a statement of 
 circumstances, and asking his advice whether I should remain in Lex- 
 ington. Carter strongly advises me to stay. I have finished reading a 
 new novel by Miss Edgeworth, entitled, * Patronage.' Good, but too 
 long. 
 
 " September 2d. It is reported to-day that the city of "Washington 
 is taken and burnt. I shall not be surprised to hear the news con- 
 firmed. Finished the History of Russia, by Tooke. A wretched per- 
 formance without thought or arrangement. 
 
 " 3d. Set out with a view of calling at Mr. James Prentiss's, but 
 met Thomas at the gate, who informed me they were just going to the 
 circus. He told me that he had conversed with two gentlemen of Rus- 
 selville, that the place is well supplied with lawyers, but that there is 
 a school in the place for which they want an instructor, and will give 
 any price. If I should have any inclination to engage, he bid me call 
 on Mr. Crittenden, of Lexington, who had a brother there. The idea 
 of engaging in a school at any price is not agreeable to me, but I think 
 I shall call and converse with Mr. Crittenden. Afterwards I called on 
 the Misses Price. I am not at home there. Ease in conversation is 
 the greatest charm in a family, but here it seems to be far otherwise. 
 It is by continual exertion only, and suggesting every new idea myself, 
 that anything is said. I have heard them complain of imsociable gen- 
 tlemen, but I am sure the fault is more their own. 
 
 " 4th. In the morning had a conversation with Mr. Crittenden, and 
 learned that the salary of the school at Russelville has been about $750, 
 
TEACHING IN THE FAMILY OF HENRY CLAY. 125 
 
 and that, their wish is probably to obtain a permanent preceptor. I 
 told him $ 1,000 would induce me to engage for one year, but as I 
 learned that there was little chance of the terms being acceptable, and 
 even less that I could then settle there with any prospect of success, I 
 bade him trouble himself no more about it. I think it very likely if 
 one would engage for several years, they would give $1,000, and I may 
 repent that I did not pursue the matter further. But the business of 
 teaching is so inconsistent with my ambition and inclination, that I 
 cannot think of it. 
 
 " 5th. The loss of Washington and destruction of public buildings 
 is confirmed. It seems to have been taken on the evening of the 24th 
 ult., after considerable fighting, in which American militia could not 
 stand against British regulars. We have not yet received authentic 
 particulars. The impression on the resources of the country will not 
 be materially felt, but I fear the final consequence will be a change of 
 the seat of government. Personal, and in some respects, public con- 
 venience, has long since called it to Philadelphia ; but thus to make 
 the United States Congress dependent on any particular State would be, 
 in my opinion, a most unfortunate event. ♦ 
 
 " 6th. A sort of air-castle came into my head. John Hart, brother 
 to Mrs. Clay, has lost nearly half his fortune by a partner in business, 
 and although it becomes necessary to go into business himself, he has 
 an unconquerable aversion to its drudgery. My air-castle was this, — 
 to propose to him to vest a given capital and commit the drudgery to 
 me, under conditions. Afterwards, Mrs. Clay told me that she had al- 
 most persuaded John to adopt the very plan which my fancy had laid, 
 excepting what regards myself. This put me upon thinking seriously on 
 the subject. The question for my decision is, whether I shall make 
 such a proposal ] The changing one's whole course of life requires too 
 much thought for one day. 
 
 " 7th. This day I have been one hour a liberal-minded merchant 
 calculating gains, promoting science and literature, and extending my 
 connections for trade and knowledge to every part of the country ; the 
 next, an eloquent lawyer defending the cause of innocence, basking in the 
 sunshine of popularity, getting rich, and then thundering with Cicero- 
 nian eloquence in the Congress of the United States. On the whole, I 
 think the latter course most brilliant, and best adapted to my knowledge, 
 talents, and ambition. Not that I shall ever realize all the enchanting- 
 prospects of fancy, but they will keep my mind alive, and give a spring 
 to every exertion. With these thoughts is connected a half-formed 
 resolution to settle in Lexington. However, I shall not form the other 
 half at present. Still, I may introduce the subject of turning merchant 
 to John Hart, should a proper opportunity offer in conversation. 
 
126 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " 10th. John Watkins, half-brother to Mr. Clay, had been attempt- 
 ing to raise a rifle company, and this was the day appointed for a choice 
 of officers, etc. But it appeared that they had all mistaken the law, 
 which requires every company to consist of sixty-four privates, and for- 
 bids any militia company being reduced below that number by the rais- 
 ing of independent companies. I had consented that my name should 
 go with the rest, more to promote a thing which I should consider use- 
 ful, than expecting to derive any benefit. But we concluded to quit on 
 the spot, for the foregoing very good reason, as we had but about thirty 
 men. So the afternoon was spent in drinking whiskey and pitching dol- 
 lars, till I was entirely out of patience. I stayed more than two hours 
 longer than I wished, for the sake of my company, who seemed to think 
 I was too soon tired with them. 
 
 " I have, I think, learnt the way to be popular in Kentucky, but do 
 not as yet put it in practice. Drink whiskey and talk loud, with the 
 fullest confidence, and you will hardly fail of being called a clever 
 fellow. 
 
 *' 15th. This evening I received a useful check from Mrs. Clay, al- 
 though given in* severer terms than the occasion required. N. Watkins 
 was present, and in conversation I observed that I believed there was 
 very little literary taste in Lexington. She bid me take care, I must 
 not say that, and went on to compare Western men with Northern men, 
 to the disadvantage of the latter. I defended my countrymen. My 
 principal points were, that the people were not only better, but better 
 informed. She said I was too much prejudiced in favor of my own 
 country, and knew very little of this. 1 observed, I believed I knew as 
 much of this as the Kentuckians did of that. Her eyes sparkled, but 
 the remark was as just as it was cutting. However, she quit the argu- 
 ment, and said I ought not to say so much ; that it was disgusting to 
 hear one always praising their own country. I told her I knew precise- 
 ly to what feeling my observations were addressed. She said I ought 
 not to say all I thought. Said I, with a smile, I do not say all I think, 
 which, although it did not mend the matter, caused a pause in the dis- 
 pute. Watkins had supported her, but after a short silence, whether 
 she thought she had gone too far, or thought my feelings injured, she 
 said to Watkins that she should like to become acquainted with the 
 literary men of Lexington, and went on to support almost precisely the 
 same opinions I had advanced. After he was gone, she resumed her 
 remarks, but I neither seconded nor disputed. Thus I have often found 
 it the case, that she will dispute with me at the time, and afterwards 
 adopt my opinion. However, although I think I was perfectly correct 
 in all I said, it taught me in practice what I before knew in theory, 
 and will put me on my guard for the future. 
 
TEACHING IN THE FAMILY OF HENRY CLAY. 127 
 
 " %Ut, Did duty in the militia. We had a barbecue in the field, 
 of which I partook, not because I was pleased with the principle on 
 which it was provided, but because I was hungry. It seems it was a 
 proposal of the Captain to remunerate Mr. Picket, who had been fined 
 for selling whiskey to his company without license. 
 
 ''26tli. I have finished a little story of Kotzebue*s, called ' Zaida,' 
 with a short dramatic piece called the ' Beautiful Unknown.' Also, this 
 evening finished the History of Massachusetts. I have gained some 
 knowledge from it ; but it has been tedious to me and my hearers. 
 
 ''30th, This morning was awakened by a firing of musketry, at 
 first scattered, then frequent and continued. It was a little after day, 
 and going to the door, I distinctly saw the flashes of the muskets a little 
 more than half a mile distant. The morning was clear and still, and 
 the echo sounded like a roll of thunder. I supposed it a sham-fight of 
 the soldiers, but learnt that it was a drill-muster of militia officers. 
 
 " About seven o'clock the mail arrived with the news of McDonough's 
 victory on Lake Champlain, and the repulse of the enemy at Plattsburg. 
 A firing of cannon and small arms commenced, and continued about an 
 hour. In the evening a large part of the town was illuminated. 
 
 " October 1st. This day I wrote to Hon. J. B. Varnum, according to 
 his request. I was almost resolved to apply for a commission in the 
 army, should more troops be raised, but have deferred it for the present. 
 
 " This day arrived the news of Jackson's victory at Mobile. Twenty 
 guns announced it to the public, and in the evening almost every house 
 in town was filled with lights. I had been to town, and returned, not 
 knowing of the intended illumination ; but on seeing the white cloud 
 of light slowly brightening over the houses, I resolved to be present. I 
 started, but on my way was arrested by the appearance of a thousand 
 lights in the woods on my left. I turned aside and found the barracks 
 most romantically illuminated by rows of candles on the tops of the 
 buildings, and others perched among the boughs and in the tops of the 
 trees. With feelings highly electrified, I proceeded to the town. Many 
 a hovel, which had scarce a pane of glass to admit the light of heaven, 
 was lined in front with candles. Through the glaring windows, as I 
 passed along, many faces of wrinkled age and blooming youth appeared 
 beaming with joy. The pleasure of the ignorant laborer, whose bosom is, 
 notwithstanding, warmed by patriotism, is perhaps, on such occcasions, 
 greater than that of a more cultivated mind. However, I passed into 
 the town, and was highly delighted, until a procession, headed by drum 
 and fife, paraded the street with a thousand candles, and began to break 
 dark windows. Strongly as any one, do I despise the man who would 
 not light a candle to participate in his fellow-citizens' joy : but I would 
 leave him to the darkness of his own bosom. Few were broken, except 
 
128 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 in shops. The procession was often saluted by muskets, to which they 
 responded by continual cheers. Pictures and emblems were displayed 
 in different places, and the streets were filled with men and ladies. I 
 walked almost over the town alone, though I had called at Mrs. Hart's 
 with hopes of finding the young ladies ; but they were already gone. 
 About nine o'clock I returned home fatigued, but much pleased with 
 the evening. 
 
 " 4.th. This evening was at a party at Mrs. Nelly Hart's, given by 
 Thomas to Colonel Croghan, the hero of Sandusky. Before breakfast I 
 wrote an ode, before dinner copied it, and it was handed round in the 
 evening. I thought myself it was not contemptible, and my vanity was 
 gratified by the praises bestowed upon it. It was shown to the Colonel, 
 immediately after which he was introduced to me ; but from a diffidence 
 not very common between the flatterer and flattered, not a word more 
 was said. This conduct very much raised my opinion of the man, al- 
 though a conversation would have been very agreeable. His counte- 
 nance pleased me much better than when I saw him on Sunday, and on 
 the whole, he is an intelligent, pleasant-looking man. 
 
 "Of the gentlemen at this party little can be said. They were gen- 
 erally unsocial, and paid little attention to the ladies, excepting the 
 Colonel and one or two other officers. I was told that wine was not 
 put on the side-board, lest some of the young men should get tipsy. Of 
 ladies, I suppose there were about forty, of all sorts of faces. The most 
 beautiful I saw was Eliza P. There are very few who are beautiful. 
 With their dress, especially that of the more fashionable class, I find the 
 same fault as with the ladies of Washington, — they have monstrous 
 bosoms behind. The shoulders are so bound back with corsets, that 
 the skin is wrinkled, and a huge valley appears between them, far from 
 lovely or agreeable. 
 
 " 7th. Had a letter from Mr. Richardson. It contains some ex- 
 cellent advice, which, if T will follow, he bets his life that I will succeed 
 in Lexington. I shall preserve it as my practical creed." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 *^18H, October 10th. I have determined to go to Frankfort day after 
 to-morrow, and apply for license to the Court of Appeals, — the highest 
 court in the State. My object is to have a license which will carry the 
 greatest weight with it, should I leave the State. 
 
 " 12tli. Having waited in town from past seven to nine for Major 
 Barry, on whom I relied to introduce me to the judges at Frankfort, I 
 set out for that place alone. I found the country similar to that around 
 Lexington, until I approached the capital, where it becomes hilly. On 
 all the road, but a small part of the land is cleared. 
 
 " All at once the capital of Kentucky opens upon the view on the 
 right, on a little spot of flat ground almost under you, and surrounded 
 by hills. The Kentucky River, now a small and dirty stream, winds 
 along among these, and so deep and crooked is its channel, that it 
 scarcely makes an opening. The town is not at all pleasant, except to 
 those who look down upon it from the hills. 
 
 " It was about two o'clock, and Barry had not arrived. I dined, and 
 wandered over the town and banks of the river until about four, when, 
 learning that he had not yet arrived, I began to think of some other 
 method of being introduced. 
 
 " Understanding that Mr. WickliiFe, a lawyer of Lexington, to whom 
 I had been introduced, was in town, I sought for him, but in vain. I 
 then adopted the only remaining alternative ; inquired the names of the 
 judges, and introduced myself. They asked me some questions relative 
 to my education, and bade me call after supper. I called, and was 
 questioned for about an hour, and made several blunders. The ques- 
 tions were more particular than I had been led to expect. Some per- 
 son came in to do business, and I was told to call again after breakfast, 
 to-morrow, and they would consider my case. I went away with the 
 idea that their impressions were favorable. 
 
 " ISth. I called again, and, contrary to my expectation, they proceeded 
 to examine me further. This continued for nearly half an hour, and 
 though for most of the questions an answer was on my tongue, I blun- 
 dered in one, and in another I could not answer at all. The Chief Jus- 
 tice asked the others if they had any questions to ask, to which they 
 
 9 
 
130 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 answered, • no.' He then asked what they thought of it. One of them, 
 a suspicious-looking fellow, who seemed thoughtful, asked me if Mr. 
 Barry had arrived. I answered them in the negative, when another 
 of them said that he had. I rejoined that I would ask him in, if they 
 wished to ask him any questions concerning me. ' No, no,' they said, 
 and the suspicious-looking man asked if an answer before noon would 
 do. I said * yes,' and retired, not with the most pleasant feelings. In 
 answer to what had been my course of reading, I had enumerated most 
 of the books that I had read. I had blundered on some questions which 
 one who has read so much ought to answer. I had told them I had 
 depended on Major Barry to introduce me, and no Barry appeared, and 
 when he did come I did not know it ; these circumstances led me to 
 suspect they doubted my whole story. Nothing opposed this impression 
 except my certificate from the county court. I now trembled for the 
 event. What must be my mortification ! Can I return to Lexington 1 
 With these feelings, I called on Barry and told him the judges seemed 
 desirous of seeing some person who was acquainted with me. He 
 promised to call. At ten o'clock I went into the court. Barry was 
 there ; I asked him if he had seen the judges, — ' no ' ; but he would at 
 dinner. Here I sat listening in torment to the proceedings till half 
 past one. I often caught the judge's eyes, and fancied they gave me a 
 look of respect. Here conversation with Wicklifife and Barry showed 
 them that I was not a stranger. The former showed me much atten- 
 tion, and when the court adjourned, invited me to his room. I remained 
 in this suspense till after dinner, contriving expedients in case of a 
 refusal. I thought one moment T would give a true statement of my 
 education, and beg another examination ; the next, that I would apply 
 to the next circuit court, and, by my exertions, make their honors blush 
 for their refusal. I could not, however, for a moment hesitate to admit 
 the justice of their apparent suspicions. 
 
 " After dinner I again called, and was told by the Chief Justice that 
 they had concluded to give me a license, but I must procure the form. 
 I attributed much in this decision to Mr. Barry ; but what was my sur- 
 prise when, soon after, Barry passing by, asked if the judges were now 
 in their room, saying that he would now call and see them ! Thus I 
 learned that my license was procured without a word from any mortal 
 who had been before acquainted with me ! Although I could not help 
 severely blaming him for negligence in a matter in which I was so 
 deeply interested, I was heartily glad he had not called, — there is 
 something so pleasant in owing everything to ourselves. 
 
 " I could not now help feeling that my fears had far underrated my 
 appearance on examination, and I am still convinced that such was the 
 fact. I was told I must procure a form of license, and having done this, 
 
TEACHING IN THE FAMILY OF HENRY CLAY. 13 ^ 
 
 I called, but the judges were gone out. I waited nearly an hour, and 
 then, as it was near four o'clock, left it with Major Barry, and set out 
 for Lexington. 
 
 " I know not whether I shall stay in Lexington, but every week makes 
 it more likely. The advice of Mr. Richardson and my other friends, 
 with the character of all the young lawyers here, afford me strong hopes 
 of success. My friends have become more and more interested in my 
 favor, and this, joined with my ot\ti inclination, will very likely decide 
 
 me. 
 
 17th. This day I. received my license, — so, as J. Hart told me, 
 I want nothing but clients to make me a lawyer. 
 
 " 18th. This day attended a regimental muster. The militia here are 
 but an ill-armed, undisciplined rabble. There were many without guns, 
 and I do not recollect to have seen a cartouch-box or bayonet in the 
 whole regiment. We formed, marched half a mile to a field, after one 
 drum and fife, our only music, formed in echelon three times, marched 
 back again, and were dismissed. I was much fatigued, for we were a 
 great while performing these manoeuvers, as both officers and men had to 
 learn them. 
 
 ^^ 30th. In conversation with Mrs. Clay, an observation was made 
 characteristic of herself, and as it regarded myself, not without founda- 
 tion. The conversation was on bows, and I said I did not know what 
 sort of a bow I was accustomed to make, for it was a long time since I 
 had thought on the subject. She answered she knew, and imitated it, 
 continuing, that I always looked as if I was ashamed when I came into 
 a room. I blushed at the remark, and the more as I was conscious it 
 was just. But I am glad it was made, for it will be a stimulus to make 
 me attempt assuming a little more confidence and dignity. I feel that 
 it is possible, and it shall be done. 
 
 " November 1st. John Hart, with some of the ladies, walked out. 
 He informed me that he was about to vest five or six thousand dollars 
 in the grocery business, and wished to know if I could recommend any 
 person who would come out and manage it for him. I recommended 
 my friend Brazer, Jr., but observed, that, were I five years younger, I 
 would engage in it myself. He said he wished he could make it an ob- 
 ject for me, and observed he would gladly put all his property under my 
 care. I thanked him, and little more was said, but I concluded to write 
 to Brazer. However, this set me thinking, and attempting to contrive 
 ways in which it should be mutually advantageous. 
 
 " 2d. With several plans in my head I called on J. Hart, but before 
 I had time to divulge them he made me a proposal It was to vest in 
 business five or six thousand dollars, of which I should take the care, 
 and receive one third of the profits, or should that fall short of $ 500 
 
132 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 per annnm, he would insure me that sum. He wished me to vest what 
 money I could obtain, from time to time, in the business, and finally 
 make the business my own ; but he was averse to every plan like part- 
 nership. 
 
 " To change the whole object of one's life I thought too serious a 
 matter to decide hastily, and therefore resolved to take a day or two 
 to consider it. The inducements to accept are the certainty of an im- 
 mediate support, the prospect of riches, the doubtful nature and bad 
 prospects of my profession, which are daily darkened by the clouds of 
 war, and the swarms of New-Englanders flocking to this country. 
 
 " On the other hand, my ignorance of the business, the long term 
 spent in the study of law, my ambition, and the supposed opinion of 
 my absent friends, throw me into a state of doubt and perplexity. I 
 returned to the tavern, walked out to Mr. Wickliffi&'s with R., spent a 
 social hour, and again returned to the tavern, where were four of us 
 Yankee emigrant lawyers, and we made ourselves merry with brandy 
 and our ill prospects. I proposed my case, and asked their opinion, and 
 found them unanimous that I should accept Mr. Hart's offer. My own 
 inclination is to the same opinion, although I am not perfectly pleased 
 with the arrangement. Should I do it, Breck will probably take my 
 place at Mr. Clay's. Would to God that Mr. Clay was at home ! for I 
 should probably be decided by his opinion. 
 
 " 3d. Thought made me restless. I dreamed that I had resolved 
 to pursue the business of law, and was likely to be successful. When 
 awake I returned to the same state of doubt, from which I was relieved 
 in the afternoon by a call from Mr. Hart, who informed me the goods 
 were not to be procured, and he had concluded to abandon or defer the 
 business to a more favorable opportunity. Thus are all my mercantile 
 hopes blasted, and I am again a lawyer. I am almost resolved to make 
 a solemn promise that I will follow the profession through thick and 
 thin, betide me weal, betide me woe. At the present time I need such 
 a resolution. 
 
 ^^5th. Breck dined with me and spent the afternoon. I am some- 
 times almost resolved to quit my place, and go immediately into practice ; 
 but I cannot but have hopes that by delaying I shall derive advantage 
 from the friendship of Mr. Clay. 
 
 " 6tk. Two more law students arrived in town from Worcester 
 County, Massachusetts. They come with strong hopes, and will there- 
 fore be more disappointed. Yesterday I had a letter from Fowle, who 
 says he must quit Boston, for business is at a dead stand. He has 
 joined an infantry company, and done duty one week in the forts. 
 
 " 13th. Wrote to Fowle. I now recollect an anecdote of last even-* 
 ing, which serves to illustrate what is the impression of the slaves hei'e 
 
TEACHING IN THE FAMILY OF HENRY CLAY. 133 
 
 concerning the British. It was after dark, when I was walking from 
 town, when two negro boys passed me on the other side of the road, 
 driving some cattle. There was a large fire of shavings in town'. 
 \ There,' said one, ' that looks like the fire of a house.' ' Yes ; what 
 if we should find the British in town when we get back t ' ' They would 
 n't hurt us, would theyT 'No.' 'Then I would have this horse, 
 would n't you have that 1 ' Thus they spoke until they had passed out 
 of hearing. 
 
 " 14th. Called on the Misses P. Mary H. was present. I confess I 
 could not help blushing for my friend who was with me ; although, per- 
 haps, I had more reason to blush for myself. Even with ladies, I can- 
 not use any conversation which I myself think silly. Nor can I think 
 that a gentlemen can ever in that way recommend himself to the 
 esteem of those with whom he converses. I had rather be esteemed 
 unsocial than silly. Received a letter from Hough, at Louisville. Like 
 the rest of the Yankees he does not know where to put himself. 
 
 '^ 18th. I was this evening in company with a young gentleman, 
 named Guilford, from Massachusetts, with whom I have been much 
 pleased. The conversation now confirmed my good opinion. It turned 
 on matrimony, when he said he should never marry. On my appearing 
 surprised, he said he had always been the dupe of love. I then told 
 him he was a foolish dupe if he had taken such a resolution. He 
 blushed, and said we did not know his reasons. As we did not seem 
 satisfied, he proceeded to say that he had a mother, and several brothers 
 and sisters, who had been in affluent circumstances, but that his father 
 had died insolvent, and left them to labor for a sustenance. That he 
 believed it would give him more pleasure to relieve them, should it ever 
 be in his power, than to marry. We could not help approving his prin- 
 ciples and admiring his resolution. I resolved on the spot to solicit his 
 correspondence, for his is the heart which I love. 
 
 " 21st. By my Boston paper I find something hke an account of 
 the designs of the Federalists there, which has for the first time given 
 me a desu-e to return. If I am eligible, and the people of my native 
 town would choose me to the next legislature, I would fly back in a 
 
 moment. 
 
 " 22d. Wrote a long letter to Parson Heywood, intimating what were 
 yesterday my thoughts, so that if my friends there have any such inclin- 
 ation, and find the objections surmountable, they may know my senti- 
 ments. But I do not expect anything. 
 
 '' 2Sd. After school I walked into town, and took from the post- 
 office a letter from Woodbury. He had not received my last, and by his 
 expressions I am left to suppose that he had written me, but that 
 the letter has miscarried. He gives me quite a sermon, which I 
 
134 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 am afraid, is wasted ; but I must do justice to his good intentions. He 
 spent the evening at the Deacon's, and Mary sends me something, — 
 he does not remember what. That girl is, after all, the best in the 
 world ! And this evening, too, I have called on the amiable, the beau- 
 tiful . Did I think she loved me, perhaps I should think her the 
 
 best in the world. What a labyrinth is the human heart 1 
 
 ^^ 27th. In the fluctuations of my mind with regard to settling, I 
 have nearly come to the conclusion to quit Lexington, and go into some 
 of the neighboring counties, where I can try my talents, and if I find 
 them equal to the competition, return, and finally settle in Lexington. 
 But the distracted situation in which the country is likely to be placed 
 precludes the possibility of calculating upon any plan with certainty. 
 Should revolution prevail in the North, it will not be very likely to stop 
 until these Western States will be separated, not only from the Northern, 
 but the Southern. If they cannot all remain united, this will doubtless 
 be the interest of the West, which, under a strong but liberal govern- 
 ment, may increase with an unparalleled rapidity. But God forbid the 
 necessity of resorting to this dilemma. Better sacrifice one hundred 
 thousand men and preserve the Union. 
 
 ^^ 28th, Went to a party this morning at Mr. Thomas Pindell's. 
 The evening passed pleasantly. Out of patience at sitting as a mere 
 spectator, I undertook to dance, and blundering several times in the 
 figures of cotillons, with which I was unacquainted, I sat down quite 
 satisfied, and thought I should dance no more. But while they were 
 dancing reels, I took a partner, but when I came upon the floor the 
 party wished to turn it to a cotillon. As they were nearly unanimous 
 against me, I yielded, and succeeded admirably. By another evening I 
 shall be able to dance almost any of their figures. 
 
 " 29th. Having returned home about one o'clock, I was very dull 
 to-day, and especially in the evening. Yet was my imagination on the 
 wing, and I began a piece of poetry on an incident which happened last 
 evening. 
 
 ^^ December 2d. Called at Thomas Prentiss's with Rockwood and 
 others, and getting into a game of cards, it was two o'clock before we 
 departed. It was not my fault, but that of my companions, for I had 
 never been there before. At any rate, I am resolved to avoid such a 
 shameful hour in future. 
 
 " From a Boston ' Patriot,' received to-day, I learn the death of the 
 Rev. J. Heywood, of Dunstable, to whom I had lately written. It hke- 
 wise announces the unanimous resolve of the Vermont legislature that it 
 is inexpedient to choose delegates to meet the New England convention. 
 
 *' 12th. To-day further news was received from our commissioners 
 at Ghent, by which it appears there are still some hopes of peace. But 
 
A LAND SCHEME. I35 
 
 such delays are interposed by the British that the business will not be 
 concluded in time to allow the commissioners to return before spring. 
 Thus I shall probably be disappointed in all the advantages which I had 
 hoped from an acquaintance with Mr. Clay. 
 
 *' This evening my friend Rockwood came out, and I spent with him 
 and the young ladies the most merry hours I have seen in Kentucky. 
 I said many foolish things, and some for which I was sorry ; but this is 
 the natural consequence of much talking. Messrs. Hart and Watkins 
 went out to hunt opossums, but returned without success. 
 
 " 1815, January 1st. The New Year finds me at Winchester, Ky., 
 ready to bid a long adieu to a friend. During the last year I have seen 
 much, and felt much. It has indeed been an eventful year to me and 
 the world. "What the present may have in store, God only knows. It 
 is ushered in by doubt, fear, and dismay. Heaven grant that its even- 
 ing may be as propitious to me and my country as the beginning is 
 gloomy and portentous ! 
 
 ^^ Fehruarif ISth. Things have gone forward in a uniform train 
 with me for some days, excepting that I received a letter from Shipley. 
 But this day an incident occurred which bids fair to change the whole 
 color of my life. Mr. Sawyer, Mr. Hunt, and Mr. Whiting, three New- 
 Englanders, caUed on me and proposed a scheme which had been sug- 
 gested to them, by which they think we may make our fortunes. The 
 plan is to take up a considerable tract in the Indiana Territory, and form 
 on it a settlement exclusively of New-Englanders. It is contemplated to 
 petition Congress for some indulgences in the payment for public lands, 
 and if they should be granted, to commence on a gTand scale. But 
 should the application be unsuccessful, there are several moneyed men 
 who will assist us to take up perhaps 50,000 acres on the usual terms. 
 The young men of the company, from five to ten in number, are to do 
 aU the business, settle on the land themselves, and procure emigrants. 
 It is contemplated to take up some central place, with such conveniences 
 and communications as to render it the seat of government for the fu- 
 ture State of Indiana. The plan struck me as a feasible one, and I 
 said I would think of it. I accordingly thought of it, and resolved to 
 join the company, although I perceive some obstacles which may defeat 
 - the scheme. In the first place. Congress will not grant the petition. 
 In the next, the place must be near the frontiers, and liable to be 
 harassed by the Indians. But, on the whole, I can lose nothing by it, ex- 
 cept time, and wear and tear of body and clothing. On the other 
 hand, should the plan be successful I shall, in ten years, make a for- 
 tune. 
 
 " 14.th. This day was spent in preparing a petition to Congress, and 
 writing letters. We petition for leave to take up 150,000 acres of land 
 
136 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 in the Indiana or Mississippi Territory, and pray that each payment may 
 be delayed five years from its usual time, and engage in six years to 
 have on the ground fifteen inhabitants for every thousand acres, provid- 
 ed the three last years be clear from Indian hostilities. But it will 
 arrive at so late a day of the session, that it is doubtful whether Con- 
 gress receives it. It was signed by Benjamin Sawyer, G. W. Hunt,, 
 Amos Kendall, Amos Whiting, for themselves and associates, — for we 
 intend to associate a considerable number more. In the mean time, it is 
 intended that several of us shall set out immediately to investigate the 
 country. But we were all, but one, engaged in business which we could 
 not leave. I offered to go if some person could be found to take my 
 place. It was mentioned that there was a young man at Cincinnati ; and 
 Mr. Whiting, who was acquainted with him, wrote to him on the spot. 
 If he can come, in little more than a week I shall be on my way to 
 Indiana. I fear I shall suffer from fatigue, but I will make the at- 
 tempt. It was past twelve o'clock when our papers were completed, 
 and I took lodging again in town. 
 
 '^ 16th. Mentioned my probable journey to Mrs. Clay. She will 
 accept my substitute, and even tells me to go if he does not come, if I 
 find it for my advantage. But I am not resolved on that. 
 
 " 18th. Wishing to engage Mr. Thorn as one of the active men in 
 our speculation, we sent Mr. Whiting for him, who made him come 
 with him on his return. We called on Mr. J. Prentiss in the evening, 
 in order to determine on the principles and means of executing our 
 projected scheme. We were a long time provoked with the whiffling, 
 prevaricating temper of the man, and at length surmised that his in- 
 tention was to use us more as servants than partners. It was a long 
 while before he could be brought to anything definite, and he finally 
 thought we ought to be satisfied with one twentieth of the profits. 
 To this he endeavored to reconcile us by extravagant calculations of 
 gain, which had no effect but to show his own duplicity. Unluckily for 
 him, he had told us that since he had been in this country it has been 
 his practice to make use of men according to his own views, without re- 
 gard to their character or principles. Were no petition sent, we should 
 probably have abandoned the business on the spot, but we remembered 
 his own confession, and determined to await the event of that. Should 
 it be granted, we shall have the staff in our own hands, and om- terms 
 must be accepted, or we shall apply elsewhere. Our terms are, that the 
 inactive partners shall advance $10,000 each, which, with interest, shall 
 be refunded from the first profits, and the remainder shall be equally 
 divided among the whole, after deducting all the expenses. On the 
 whole, it was agreed that Mr. Thorn, Mr. Whiting, and myself should 
 set out as soon as practicable to explore the country, and that our ex- 
 
NEWS OF PEACE. 
 
 137 
 
 penses should be borne by the rest of the associates, provided the 
 scheme shall not succeed. 
 
 **But unless the young gentleman from Cincinnati should consent to 
 take my place I shall not^go. Indeed, I grow very indifferent about it ; 
 for I believe the scheme can never.be effected with Mr. P. for a leader. 
 I could not help feeling a sovereign contempt, and never had a stronger 
 inclination to quiz a man in my life. 
 
 ** 22d. This being Washington's birthday, was set apart by the trus- 
 tees of the town for thanksgiving for the boon of such a hero, and more 
 particularly for the late success of our arms under General Jackson. 
 
 " Services were held at the Methodist, EpiscopaHan, and Presbyterian 
 churches. About 4 p. m. was a discourse at the ■ court-house by Mr. 
 Shannon, which was attended by a crowd of both sexes. In the even- 
 ing there was a general illumination, but the heavens were lighted 
 up with such a plump and brilliant moon, that the little candles* 
 beams were lost in her mellow flood of light. The people did not enter 
 into the business with the spirit which the importance of the occasion 
 would seem to demand. It is so long since they received the news, that 
 the enthusiasm has had time to cool, and it seemed more like constrained 
 approbation than animated joy. 
 
 " 23d. This day the news of the signing of preliminaries of peace 
 between this country and Great Britain, arrived at Lexington. To many 
 it was a messenger of joy, but others shook their heads. They say it 
 would be dishonorable to make a peace on the terms offered by our own 
 government. For myself, I was elevated with a sober, heartfelt joy, 
 which I cannot describe. In the continuance of the war I see no ad- 
 vantage to be gained, except a possibility of glory, — a glory stained with 
 the blood of our citizens, and half obscured by the flames of our towns 
 and villages. 
 
 *' There was no illumination at Lexington, nor do I believe there will 
 be in case of a full confirmation. What ! Shall a people light their 
 windows at the prospect of blood, and not put each pane in a blaze at 
 the news of that which saves their country *? But they fear it is dis- 
 honorable. 
 
 ''24.th. Called at Mr. J. Prentiss's to see him with regard to my in- 
 tended expedition to Indiana. He had company, and asked me to walk 
 in and spend the evening. 
 
 " After the company retired, I asked Mr. Prentiss to furnish me with 
 a horse, money, and instructions, for the intended expedition, — all of 
 
 which he promised- 
 
 " 26th. Mr. Hunt having forgotten to send the billet which I wrote 
 to Mr. Hough, I took a horse and rode out. I wished him to promise 
 decisively that he would come if K. should fail, but that he would 
 
138 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 not do. He feels under no obligations to remain where he is, and some 
 circumstances make his situation rather unpleasant; but he, notwith- 
 standing, feels a delicacy at leaving and going again into the same 
 business. On telling the result to Mrs. Clay, she strongly intimated an 
 unwillingness to have me go, and, alluding to Mr. Hough, said she 
 should be very angry if any person were to induce a teacher to leave 
 her house, or were so ungenerous as to attempt it. I felt injured, but 
 repressed my feelings, for it never entered my heart that I was acting an 
 ungenerous part by accepting the services of Mr. Hough, in compliance 
 with his own inclination first expressed to me. I was, however, afraid 
 to say I would remain here if it was her desire, for I had resolved to go. 
 I went to town in expectation of meeting Mr. Thorn, but was dis- 
 appointed. Our departm-e must of course be delayed till Tuesday. 
 
 " This day an express brought an account of the ratification of the 
 treaty of peace with Great Britain, which took place on the 15th inst. 
 The transaction has been so sudden, prompt, and unexpected, that peo- 
 ple can hardly realize the transition. English papers find great fault 
 with the treaty, which predisposes the people of this country to be satis- 
 fied. It seems that something has transpired at the Congress at Vienna 
 which has given a spur to the British government. On this occasion I 
 cannot help feeling gTateful to God, and congratulating my country. 
 My reflections on the prospect before us were, a few days ago, extremely 
 gloomy. Civil war and the destruction of our government were by no 
 means improbable events. Credit was gone, our army was weak, the 
 States were assuming their own defence, and instead of a hydra who 
 should turn its heads on an external enemy, we were likely to become 
 a nest of serpents, equally fatal to ourselves and others. But now the 
 prospect changes. Our government will rise more strong from the con- 
 test, opportunity will be aff'orded for necessary improvements of the Fed- 
 eral system, and, under the fostering influences of freedom and a liberal 
 policy, the Noilh and the South, the East and the West, will rejoice to- 
 gether. Perhaps I am too sanguine ; but it appears to me the war has 
 cured us of those fatal mistakes which have hitherto rendered our gov- 
 ernment so weak. Our navy has burst into favor in a blaze of glory, 
 commerce is felt to be necessary for a revenue, all parts of the Union 
 have learned that they are mutually dependent, and will draw closer the 
 bond which unites them. 
 
 " 27th. My expedition to Indiana is deferred. We have received in- 
 formation that many murders have lately been committed in that 
 territory by the Indians, and it will not be safe to proceed. Peace has 
 likewise somewhat changed our prospects, and, unless Congress grant us 
 some faciUties, it is doubtful whether our plan can succeed. 
 
 *' 28th. I went in town this morning, and it was agreed to wait the 
 
A MURDER TRIAL. 239 
 
 event of our petition before we proceed. Should there be a prospect of 
 obtaining it by the next Congress, we shall wait ; bat should no such 
 hopes be entertained, the event will depend on the moneyed men who can 
 be induced to engage. 
 
 " Lexington men will not illuminate for the peace 1 ' I believe the 
 majority sincerely rejoice, but a few discontented men throw a damp on 
 every ardent feeling. They say the peace is dishonorable. It must 
 arise from ignorance in the assertors, or this is to be made a hobby on 
 w^hich other men are to ride into office. He who understands the situa- 
 tion of the country, and would prefer the continuance of war to such a 
 peace, must be a madman. 
 
 • *' March 1st. A recommendation was this morning issued in a hand- 
 bill for an illumination this evening. In the afternoon appeared a coun- 
 ter handbill, and some violent young men threatened to break every 
 window which should be lighted. However, about a third part of the 
 houses were illuminated, some of them brilliantly, and no outrage was 
 committed. Many were glad of peace, but would not illuminate be- 
 cause nothing has been gained by the war. 
 
 " Sth. According to previous agreement, or rather on an invitation 
 from Mr. Famham, who lives in the family, I rode with Mr. Hunt to the 
 house of Mr. Alexander, thirteen miles from Lexington, towards Frank- 
 fort. That family had been represented to me as one of the most 
 pleasant in the country, and I was not disappointed. 
 
 '' 6tk. Rode with Mr. F., Mr. H., and two Mr. Alexanders to see 
 some young ladies named Lee, but finding they were gone to church we 
 followed. Here we were put out of patience by wretched music and a 
 tedious sermon, left the house, and before service was over started for 
 Mr. Alexander's. After dinner we bade adieu to this hospitable family 
 and returned to Lexington. 
 
 " 12th. A storm prevented Mr. Hunt and myself from going to visit 
 Mr. Hough yesterday, as we had previously agreed. This day I wrote 
 to my friend FlUgel, and gave him a short piece of poetry in congratu- 
 lation of his late marriage. I likewise desired him to write me imme- 
 diately and inform me what prospect that neighborhood offers for a 
 
 lawyer. 
 
 " 13th. Attended court this day in order to observe the manner of 
 doing business here, but was greatly fatigued, with very little profit. 
 Their manner of conducting business is extremely dilatory. When they 
 are ready to try a cause, a jury must be picked up in the highways and 
 hedo-es • for there is nobody summoned beforehand, as in Massachusetts, 
 because that would make expense. Of course much time is lost, and 
 the juries often consist of men as httle fitted for jurors as they are for 
 governors. This causes a delay of nearly an hour. Well, this is not 
 
140 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 all. The witnesses are now to be called and hunted out, which takes 
 up almost an hour more. Thus by delays and foolish speeches the day 
 is frittered away and very little is done. At least that was the case 
 to-day, for but one case was tried. 
 
 '■'15th. This day was assigned for the trial of Mr. Payne for the 
 murder of his wife ; but on the request of his counsel, Mr. Pope, time 
 was given till to-morrow for him to make preparation for contesting the 
 point whether he ought to be tried or not in his present state of health. 
 I had gone to court to hear the trial, but on this delay to consider the 
 question of postponement I returned home in disgust. 
 
 ^^ 16th. Monday the 27th inst. is assigned for the trial of Payne. 
 On our petition to Congress nothing has been done, and we presume it 
 has not been presented. 
 
 ^^ 21st. Went into court, and on motion of Mr. Wickliffe took the 
 oath required by law to practise as an attorney. According to the best 
 of my recollection, it amounted to an oath that I would observe and 
 support the Constitution of the State, demean myself honestly in my 
 practice, and that I had not given, accepted, or been the bearer of a 
 challenge for a duel since April, 1812, and that I would not give, accept, 
 or bear one hereafter, in this State or elsewhere. 
 
 " 27th» This day being assigned for the trial of young Payne for the 
 murder of his wife, I went to the court-house after school, and saw the 
 prisoner arraigned. On being asked whether he was guilty, he answered, 
 " I am not guilty, but I wish I was, and I would tell you so." The 
 whole conduct of the man was made up of impudence and indifference. 
 Nearly sixty were called before a jury was obtained, and then the evi- 
 dence was as coDclusive to his guilt as circumstances could make it. 
 The court adjourned a little after dark. 
 
 " 28th. This day was spent in the examination of testimony. 
 
 " 29th. The testimony was closed, and the arguments were opened 
 by Mr. Breckenridge, appointed by the court to assist Mr. Shannon, on 
 the part of the commonwealth. The beginning of his argument was 
 good and eloquent, but it became more feeble as he proceeded, and was 
 continued to the unreasonable length of four hours. Mr. Pope, in be- 
 half of the prisoner, then commenced in a very eloquent strain, ad- 
 dressed to the feelings of the jury. He summed up the evidence very 
 handsomely, but was led from his subject by many irrelevant ideas 
 which seemed to strike him on the occasion, and at length made his 
 discourse tedious. I left the court just at night, but was told he con- 
 tinued his argument till nearly ten, and, though he had spoken six hours, 
 did not finish ! He seems to have no doubt of the fact, but hopes to 
 save him on the plea of insanity ; but he is no madman, and if he should 
 be saved justice will mourn. 
 
SOCIAL LIFE IN LEXINGTON. 
 
 141 
 
 *' 30th. Through darkness, mud, and torrents of rain I rode into 
 town, and attended a ball at Postlethwait's. I did not dance, but spent 
 the evening very pleasantly in conversation with the ladies and gentlemen.- 
 
 " April 1st. This afternoon I attended court, and heard sentence 
 pronounced on Payne. A motion was made for a new trial, but over- 
 ruled by the court. I sat at some distance, but had a fair view of 
 his face, and could not discover the least change. The second Tuesday 
 in April is appointed for his execution. 
 
 " 5th. made a proposal to me last evening, at which I was 
 
 somewhat surprised. He expects to deliver a 4th of July oration, 
 and he wishes me to write it, because, he says, I can write much better 
 than he. I sincerely doubt the fact ; but though I am sure I would 
 never depend for my reputation on the talents or exertions of another, 
 I consented to wi'ite, with this proviso, — that I should deliver it myself 
 if opportunity offers. 
 
 '' I attended the ball this evening again, but not without qualms. 
 From the ari'angement of the parties, or from some other cause, they 
 would not let me pay last week. They are, I believe, subscription balls, 
 and those only pay who have subscribed for the whole number, which 
 was eight, if I rightly remember ; but not having any wish to amuse 
 myself at the expense of others, I should not have gone at all had not 
 Mrs. Clay and her daughters been there. 
 
 " 6th. We had a considerable party of ladies and gentlemen, and 
 nothing would satisfy them but the reading of my poem. It is the last 
 time I will read it when any of the same persons shall be present. 
 
 " 9th. It being Sunday, and Mrs. Clay being absent, I spent the day 
 at home in writing an argument fi'om my recollection of the evidence 
 in the case of Commonwealth vs. Payne. It was against the prisoner, 
 and I found the subject a prolific one. I spent the day in writing and 
 did not finish. 
 
 ^^ 10th. Concluded my argument, and I found I had written about 
 sixteen quarto pages of common writing-paper. To-day I proposed 
 to Mrs. Clay to hear the boys recite separately, on account of the 
 striking superiority of Thomas, the younger. The difference was con- 
 spicuous this afternoon, for Thomas recited sixty lines, and Theodore 
 
 only twenty. 
 
 " 15th. Mr. J. Hart and Mr. Smith came out this morning, and spent 
 most of the afternoon. On speaking of the Tammany Society in Lex- 
 ino-ton, I observed I believed I would join it, and write a poem or some- 
 thing for their celebration, on the 4th of July, when Hart said I had 
 better, and bid me write a petition to the Grand Sachem. This was a 
 formality I was unacquainted with, but nevertheless wrote it, and de- 
 spatched it by him. 
 
142 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 "My principal object is to make myself known, and get an oppor- 
 tunity of displaying such talents as I may possess. 
 
 ''18th. Went this afternoon to Mr. Alexander's, in Woodford, to a 
 party. To me the fore part of the day was full of little vexations : I 
 suspected Mrs. Clay did not wish me to go ; the gardener went away 
 with my horse and did not return until, being out of patience, I walked 
 into town and hired a horse from a stable. Here I met with more 
 vexations : I found myself on a miserable, hard-trotting animal, and 
 withal had on a new pair of shoes, so tight that they actually blistered 
 my feet. However, the party was small, and the evening passed pleas- 
 antly in dancing, wherein I also took part. It was just two o'clock when 
 the ladies retired. 
 
 " 19th. Rose a little after sunrise. After breakfast the party recom- 
 menced dancing, but Mr. Hunt and myself took ' French leave ' and re- 
 turned to Lexington. I was pinched and shaken almost to a mummy. 
 However, as I had petitioned the Tammany Society for admission as a 
 member, and hoped to be admitted this evening, I walked into town. 
 Finding Mrs. A. Hart and the Misses P.'s at Mrs. T. Hart's, I had a pleas- 
 ant walk and very agreeable conversation with them, and was afterwards 
 ushered into the Society. The principles of the Society are liberal, and 
 its object noble. 
 
 ''25th. This day arrived Mr. Kilpatrick from Cincinnati. I am 
 very much pleased with his appearance, and shall next week resign. My 
 first steps will be to visit a number of the counties, and learn, if possi- 
 ble, which promises most. 
 
 "29th. Resigned my sceptre to Mr. Kilpatrick. Though the behav- 
 ior of Mr, Clay's children out of school has not been very agreeable, 
 yet their attention to study and their good hearts, and uniformly re- 
 spectful conduct towards me, have attached me considerably to them, and 
 I cannot leave them without regret. Yet, I cannot but feel a glow of 
 joy that my pedagogical labors are closed, and ardently hope I shall 
 never be under the necessity of resuming them. 
 
 " In the aftenioon I went to town, and there met Mr. Famham, who 
 invited me to ride to Richmond with him. On a moment's thought I 
 resolved to go, if possible, and return to Nicholasville. I accordingly 
 procured a letter to Mr. Woodson, clerk of the court in the latter place, 
 from Major Bany, and invited Mr. Farnham home with me to spend 
 the night. 
 
 " 30th. Set out after breakfast, and had a pleasant, though moderate 
 ride, to Jack's Creek Ferry, on the Kentucky. The contrast is so strik- 
 ing between the uniformly uneven ground near Lexington, and the stu- 
 pendous cliffs and hills on the river, that I was filled with delight. The 
 soft tints of spring added much to their beauty. After taking dinner, 
 
LOOKS ABOUT FOR A PLACE OF SETTLEMENT. 143 
 
 and being entertained by our host with many anecdotes not at all to 
 the credit of his neighbor, General Green Clay, we crossed the river. 
 We had not proceeded a mile before a cloud arose, thunder rolled, and 
 threatened instant rain. We accordingly took shelter in the first house 
 that offered, which was Clay's, and, for myself, I was glad of the 
 shower, as I hoped it would afford me an opportunity of seeing his 
 daughter. Unfortunately she was not at home. The father treated us 
 with great complaisance, gave us peach-brandy, invited us to dinner, 
 and pressed us to remain through the night. All, excepting the first, 
 we declined. This old man is said to be worth a million ; but there is 
 no happiness in his look, which beams a cold hospitality. We had not 
 proceeded far when it again began raining, and we called at a tavern. 
 Again it ceased, and we started, and had proceeded a few rods when my 
 companion's horse slipped down and threw him into the mud, but with 
 no other injury than daubing his clothes. But it soon began to rain 
 once more, and, resolving not to stop, we arrived in Richmond, well 
 drenched, about dark. We found our friends, Wheelwright and Breck, 
 in good business, and contented. 
 
 May 1st. It was county court day, and a very great multitude of 
 people were collected, apparently with no other motive but curiosity. 
 They were, generally, decently dressed, and had agreeable, intelligent 
 countenances. Having said all we had to say, and seen all we could see, 
 we set out directly after dinner for Nicholasville. Before we arrived at 
 the Kentucky our road was bad, being for miles nothing else than the 
 bed of a creek. The scenery about its mouth compensated for every 
 difficulty, for it was remarkably gi'and and beautiful. After passing the 
 river, we once missed our road for a few rods, and, meeting with a wo- 
 man, we inquired the way to Nicholasville. ' Why,' said she, ' I never 
 was there.' This was within three miles. But the woman, who had a 
 charming air of benevolence and simplicity in her countenance, said she 
 had come from Virginia a year ago. However, she knew enough to put 
 us right, and we arrived at Nicholasville after dark. We found this a 
 small village, though larger than I expected. 
 
 " 2d. Presented my letter to Mr. Woodson, and procured such in- 
 formation as led me to believe that Nicholasville is not a place for me 
 to settle. About nine o'clock I set out for Lexington. Here my com- 
 panion, Mr. Farnham, left me for Woodford. He seems a young gen- 
 tleman of merit, and I am much more pleased with him than on first 
 acquaintance. He gives me a description of the family he is in, which 
 makes it almost angelic, and much increases my esteem of his fair pupd 
 Mary Ann. Again I had proceeded not more than two miles when it 
 began to rain. Having been somewhat wetted before I an'ived at a 
 tavern I concluded not to stop. But I repented my determination, not 
 
144 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 in sackcloth and ashes, but in gusts of wind and torrents of rain. At 
 length I was obliged to stop, for even my horse could scarcely face the' 
 storm. But it soon abated, and taking a hearty draught of whiskey, I 
 proceeded, dripping, through mud and water to Lexington. I arrived at 
 Mr. Clay's about twelve. I have returned with a resolution, unless 
 something more promising shall offer, to try my fortune in Lexing- 
 ton. 
 
 " 4th. Visited Georgetown, in Scott County. I took a letter to Mr. 
 Hemdon, a trader, who was very polite, said he would do anything for 
 me he could, and offered to board me until I could suit myself better, if 
 I would come to that place. The representations which I derived from 
 him and others led me to believe that county the most favorable in the 
 neighborhood. There are five lawyers living in the county, but only 
 one lives in town, and he talks of removing. I went thence to Mr. 
 Alexander's. Mr. Farnham expected soon to go to Natchez, but I 
 brought him a letter, which determined him not to go. He was glad of 
 the disappointment, and is almost resolved to settle in Versailles. I 
 spent the evening very agreeably in this charming family, — a considera- 
 ble part of it in playing at checkers, or draughts, with Miss Alexander. 
 
 ^' 5th. Mr. Farnham showed me a piece of poetry written by Miss 
 Alexander, which does honor to her talents, her heart, and her educa- 
 tion. Mr. Farnham set out with me this morning for Versailles. "We 
 called at Mr. N. Hart's to see Mr. Euggles. There I was introduced to 
 several young ladies, and among the rest to one named Preston, twelve 
 years old, whom from her size and appearance I judged to be eighteen. 
 I saw here a number of little negroes almost naked, — a disgusting spec- 
 tacle, which at once prepossessed me against their master. Porter Clay, 
 on whom I depended for an introduction to the clerk of the court, was 
 not at home. We saw several of his children at the door of a miserable 
 cabin, which at present forms his house. We therefore rode out to Mr. 
 Watkins's, two miles and a half from town. Here we took dinner, and 
 Nathaniel W. had the politeness to accompany us to town, and intro- 
 duce us to persons in the clerk's office, from whom we derived the 
 necessary information. This place does not, I think, offer advantages 
 equal to Georgetown. Besides, as F. has nearly formed a resolution to 
 settle here, I would not willingly interfere with his plans. After a short 
 conversation, bade adieu to ray friend and rode to Lexington. 
 
 " 6th. As I considered myself deficient in the legal forms necessary 
 for practice, I this day put myself on inquiries to obtain them. But L 
 find the practice here is almost without form. Eveiy writing, if under- 
 stood, is equivalent to a bond duly executed. 
 
 *' 8th. Purchased what books were absolutely necessary for practice, 
 and made other preparations. 
 
SETTLED AT GEORGETOWI^. ^^^rj 
 
 " 9th. Was not able to go to Georgetown to-day for want of a horse, 
 but shall go to-morrow. 
 
 " 10th. It was almost eleven o'clock when I started. Called at sev- 
 eral places in town, and, among the rest, at Mrs. Hart's. I arrived in 
 Georgetown about two o'clock ; despatched a boy, who came with me, back 
 with the horses, and took up my abode in the family of Mr. Herndon. 
 His house is small and crowded, so that I repented having accepted his 
 offer, but knew no remedy. 
 
 " 11th. Made some inquiries for a room, but was unable to procure 
 one. Went fishing in Elkhorn Creek, but found it miserable sport. 
 The fish of this country are small and mean. 
 
 ^^ 12th. Made further inquiries for a room, and found a fine one, 
 which I shall probably be able to obtain next week. I shall be glad 
 when the time arrives, for accommodations in this family are extremely 
 bad. Was to-day introduced to Mr. Henry, the only lawyer here ; who 
 seems to be a very pleasant man, and gives me much encouragement. 
 I have likewise been introduced to a few others, but Mr. Herndon, 
 though a clever man, is not one who will take much pains to introduce 
 me, a stranger. He is not a man of the world, or as some would say, 
 not extremely polite. 
 
 " 13th. Began reading the Statutes of Kentucky, particularly such as 
 regard the county courts and their jurisdiction. This evening a party 
 played cards till nearly midnight. I had previously told Mr. H. and 
 others that it was my principle never to bet. Of course I am not 
 troubled on that score. Mr. H. and Mr. Craig bet only ninepence on 
 the game. 
 
 " l^th. Attended preaching in the court-house, forenoon and after- 
 noon. The preachers were Baptists. But after the exercises closed in 
 the afternoon, a man without education, but with excellent natural 
 talents, gave us a long discourse in explanation of a new principle, which 
 he pretends to derive from Scripture. The principal tenet is, that the 
 wicked shall be destroyed, soul and body, after the judgment, but the 
 spirit, which he says is not the soul, will survive and be reunited to 
 God. The details were long and not wholly intelligible, but generally 
 he explained himself very lucidly. 
 
 ^^ 16th. Engaged board at Mr. Theobald's tavern, and, as I can there 
 have a room in which but one other man sleeps, I shall not rent an 
 office at all. In the evening had my things moved, and took up my 
 abode in this house. 
 
 " Mr. Herndon would take nothing for the time I have spent in his 
 family. Mrs. Herndon had the numbers of the * Western Gleaner' 
 which contain the pieces of poetry written by me ; I pointed them out 
 to her, and she thought some of them pretty. 
 
 10 
 
146 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " I should not mention these trifles, were it not my intention to relate 
 everything, now that I have started in the world, which may give a 
 color to my reputation. In conformity to this resolution, I mention the 
 following trifle which took place, I believe, this day. Mr. Craig put to 
 me this mathematical question : * Two men were travelling and stopped 
 to take dinner ; one produced five loaves, the other three. A third man 
 came up and took dinner with them, for which he paid eight pieces of 
 money ; how should those eight pieces be divided 1 ' After a little thought 
 I answered, * Seven and one.' He said he never heard anybody answer it 
 aright before ; that it had been proposed to the whole bar here in time 
 of court, not one of whom could answer it. Trifling as this is, it will 
 leave an impression, and of such impressions on the minds of others are 
 our reputations made up. 
 
 " 17th. Set about reading statute law, and as I find the judiciary- 
 system of Kentucky very complicated as it stands in the statute-books, 
 on account of numerous alterations, I determined to write it out. I 
 accordingly began with justices of the peace. 
 
 " 18th. Continued my labors, but find the business more difficult, 
 and likely to take more time than I expected. 
 
 " 19th. This day being cold and wet, I could not sit in my room, 
 and consequently did nothing. Towards night my spirits fell into such 
 a state of depression, and I felt so strongly the want of a friend, that I 
 resolved to set off as soon as convenient and visit my friend Fliigel. I 
 thought I should be much more happy, and perhaps succeed much bet- 
 ter in my profession if I could live with him. I made some attempts 
 to obtain a horse ; but one I would not take because the owner would 
 charge nothing, and another because he charged too much. 
 
 " 20th. After a night's consideration, I resolved not to go until after 
 July court, when I could better judge whethel* I should succeed in this 
 place. Accordingly I again sat down to my books. I feel that I must 
 resist this desponding inclination, as well as this desire for change, or I 
 shall not only be always poor, but also unhappy. 
 
 '* On an invitation from Mr. Thomas Theobald, who seems very 
 friendly to me, I rode a short distance. This neighborhood is much 
 more pleasant than that of Lexington, on account of the variety of 
 water prospects. 
 
 " ^o(L On the invitation of Mr. G. Miller, rode out ten miles to a 
 battalion muster. I was in much better spirits than yesterday, and 
 made considerable talk with the people. I was made acquainted with 
 several gentlemen, and the time passed merrily away. When we set out 
 for home, the company consisted of from fifteen to thirty, half of whom 
 were a little tipsy. We came on in high spirits, and stopped at almost 
 every tavern ; but I had kept myself perfectly sober, and came home as 
 
A NEWSPAPER SCHEME. ^47 
 
 cool and almost as lively as when I started. All the candidates made 
 speeches, and old Captain Hunter, the man who was so good to 
 me when I was on my way to Lexington, appeared among the num- 
 ber. 
 
 ''2J,.th. Spent the day in writing a piece of composition for a club, 
 to which I have a promise of being introduced on Saturday next. It 
 contains many of the most respectable men of the county, and its only 
 object is composition. 
 
 *' 25th. It came into my head again to go and see my friend Fliigel 
 after the next county court. I am hardly satisfied to settle myself down 
 here in a place made to my hand, but not made such as I would wish it. 
 My ambition leads me to some new country, where I can have a part in 
 forming new societies and institutions. Many are the visions of my fancy, 
 but alas ! the realities would probably be but a series of disappointments. 
 I made some inquiries for a horse, and found I could hire one at almost 
 any time at seventy-five cents per day. 
 
 *' Jmie 3d. Went out to the Great Crossings, was introduced to the 
 club, and read a piece of composition prepared for the purpose. Many 
 pieces were read, which were purely political, and of the most violent 
 kind. I was not much delighted, but console myself with the idea that 
 I am able to out-write, if not out-speak, all of them. 
 
 " 8th. This forenoon Mr. Henderson sent for me, and when I came 
 to his store I found Colonel R M. Johnson and Mr. Chambers present. 
 They proposed to me to buy the printing establishment here, and under- 
 take the editorial part of the ' Minerva.' They said they doubted not 
 I would find it profitable, and if I would purchase, I should have it 
 on such terms that, on a reasonable calculation, I might pay for it from 
 the proceeds. The proposal was new to me, and I resolved to take time 
 for thought and inquiry. In the evening I mentioned it to my friend, 
 Mr. Rankins, who seemed to recommend the purchase. Afterwards I 
 mentioned it to my friend, Mr. T. Theobald, who bid me at once to wash 
 my hands of it. He said it had ruined two men, and one of two things 
 was certain, I must either become the tool of the Johnsons, or suffer 
 for my independence. He had no doubt it was a trick of the Johnson 
 family to lay me under some obligations, that I might be hereafter 
 bound to support them. At any rate he advised me to inquire, and 
 think well before I engaged. I thanked him for his freedom, and was 
 much inclined to be of his opinion. I shall, however, inform myself 
 perfectly on the subject, and shall, at least, avoid any obligation. Could 
 I do it with independence, I should be pleased with editing the paper 
 for a while, but not with owning the property. The reputation of the 
 paper is now very low, for its management is contemptible. 
 
 ^^9th. From representations made to me, and an aversion to own 
 
148 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 any property of the kind, I have almost determined not to purchase the 
 printing establishment, but will perhaps edit the paper for a fixed price. 
 I had a long talk with Mr. H. to-day, wherein I suggested the idea, 
 which seemed not disagreeable. But neither of us made any fixed pro- 
 posal. There were races in this vicinity to-day, which I attended. But 
 disputes arose, which deferred them for so long a time that, before the 
 principal race, I had retired sick and disgusted. The field is a scene 
 of iniquity. Gamesters and prostitutes walk in open day, nor seem to 
 excite one emotion of public indignation. 
 
 " 10th. I had retired to bed before dark last night, but here new 
 afflictions awaited me. A party of gamblers kept the house in an up- 
 roar all night, and prevented my getting but a few short naps. I felt 
 some indignation, but to no useful purpose. There were races again 
 to-day, and I walked down, but did not enter the field. The race was 
 a fine one, except that one of the horses flew the track, jumped a fence, 
 and threw his rider. This evening there was a play in the court-house 
 by a strolling company of players. With the play I was rather dis- 
 gusted than pleased. 
 
 " 11th, Rode to Lexington. Attended the Episcopalian Church, 
 dined at Mr. Clay's, attended church in the afternoon, and commenced 
 boarding at Mr. Allen's. 
 
 " 12th. Attended court to-day, but very little was done. 
 
 " July 15th. This day I returned to Georgetown, after a violent sick- 
 ness, which has to this time detained me in Lexington. I have no 
 recollection of many things that passed during the first two weeks, but 
 so far as I do recollect I will proceed to minute them. 
 
 ** June 13th. I ate a little breakfast, but soon found myself getting 
 sick, and sent for Dr. Find ell. 
 
 *' For several days continued to take medicine, suffered excruciating 
 pain a considerable part of the time, and finally was relieved by a blister. 
 I received very little attention from Mr. Allen's family, was in a very hot 
 room, and, on the whole, very uncomfortably situated. Mrs. Clay had 
 invited me to come out to her house, and this day sent in her carriage 
 for me. I was as glad as if I had escaped from prison. There is 
 nothing more painful to a sick man than to see those around him look 
 on with indifference. To Messrs. Dana and Hunt I am under great 
 obligations. Had they not been boarding in the house, I beUeve I should 
 have suffered for want of attendance. 
 
 '' July 1st. I gained strength very slowly, and this day was able to sit 
 up very little. Soon after I came here I sent in town, by the carriage- 
 driver, for some wine, but Mrs. Clay finding it out from him, forbade 
 him to buy it, and ordered him to return the money to me, saying that 
 she had wine enough in the house to which I was quite welcome. A 
 
A LONG ILLNESS. 
 
 149 
 
 few days after this, a circumstance happened, which mortified me very 
 much. I had no appetite, and ate very httle. Beef was the only kind 
 of meat that I pretended to eat. Though I had requested that it might 
 be left very rare, it invariably came to me too much cooked. I wished 
 the Doctor to speak to them about it, and mentioned it to Mr. Dana, 
 in the presence of a servant, who reported it to his mistress. Contrary 
 to my knowledge or even suspicion, she had attended to the cooking of 
 the beef herself. She was angry. She came into the chamber with a 
 very angry look, and said she was sorry she could not please me, and 
 seemed to think me very ungi-ateful. I was extremely agitated, but 
 said that nothing was further from my heart than ingratitude, acknowl- 
 edged my obligations to her, told her I might have spoken imprudently, 
 but meant no ill, and asked her if she had ever seen anything like 
 ingratitude in my character. She said ' No,' and was appeased in a 
 moment. I said I would be more prudent in future, and hoped she 
 would forget what was passed. She answered, ' It is all over now ; I 
 shall remember nothing,' and turned the conversation upon my medicine. 
 What made her most angry was the servant's report that I said to Dana 
 they did not know how to cook a beefsteak. It is possible I might have 
 said so ; but according to the best of my remembrance, I simply said 
 my beef was cooked too much, and he made answer that they did not 
 know how to cook a beefsteak in Kentucky, for he has not met with one 
 at the boarding-house fit to be eaten. After this, no more beef came 
 for two or three days, when a piece came with other meat, cooked as I 
 wished. I ate it all without tasting the other meat, and after that had 
 beef very well cooked. It is very likely, however, that my squeamish- 
 ness before arose princij)ally from want of appetite. There were cele- 
 brations of the 4th of July in Lexington, but I was unable to sit up 
 more than a few minutes at a time. Mrs. Clay has her carriage brought 
 out for me to ride every fine day. 
 
 *' 15th. I have thought myself able for two or three days to ride to 
 Georgetown, but was prevented by rain, which has fallen every day, 
 more or less, for about ten days past. As this day was fair, I deter- 
 mined to improve it. In bidding adieu to Mrs. Clay, a sense of the 
 obligation under which I have been laid by her so affected me, that I 
 could not make those acknowledgments which I intended. She has 
 done everything for me in her power, and I reflect on it with gratitude. 
 Yet, I could not help remembering the difference between her best 
 endeavors ■ and those of my mother, — that good, affectionate woman 
 
 and excellent nurse. 
 
 '' I was received with great cordiality at Georgetown, where it was not 
 known for three weeks that I was sick. There has been considerable 
 merriment here since I have been gone, but that I do not regret. I 
 
150 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 regret the term of the circuit court, which I have entirely missed. But 
 we must submit with resignation to the will of Providence. 
 
 " When at Lexington, Mr. Woosely offered me my board and a room 
 for an office, if I would select and write for the * Reporter ' when he 
 could not attend to it. But I know very well if I were to undertake on 
 these conditions, the whole management of the paper would fall on me. 
 For this the compensation is not adequate. If he had added $ 100, 
 I think I would have accepted it. But, as it is, I think I could do 
 better with the paper at Georgetown. 
 
 " 16th. I am still stronger to-day, and walked out in the evening to 
 Mr. Ward's, more than a mile. Dr. Henry was my companion. 
 
 " 18th My strength continues daily to mend, and I have a voracious 
 appetite. I have been again bantering concerning the editing of this 
 paper. This day Mr. Miller, the postmaster, wished me to become his 
 deputy, and offered half the profits, which would amount to $ 200 per 
 year. I had calculated that they would give me $400 for edit- 
 ing the paper, and by undertaking both these I thought I should ob- 
 tain a handsome income. I applied to Mr. Henderson and made my 
 offer, but having sold one half of the office to Mr. Reid during my ab- 
 sence, he was obliged to consult him. Reid was unwilling to hire me. 
 Here, then, the business ends. Yet many here are anxious to have me 
 undertake the paper, and Mr. Henderson wishes much to have me buy 
 the other half of the office. On consideration, I resolved to have 
 nothing to do with the post-office. So I am again left to sink or swim 
 by my profession. 
 
 *' 19th. A man called on me for advice, which is the first business I 
 have had in Georgetown. 
 
 " 21st. So much is said to me of buying the half of the printing- 
 office, that I think I shall offer to buy, on condition that I may, if not 
 satisfied, return it within a year. 
 
 " 23d. This day was again applied to in the business of my pro- 
 fession, so I have obtained the privilege of clmrging two fees, $ 2.50 
 each, during this week. 
 
 '* 27th. Being extremely weak, and unable to attend to any business, 
 I rode to Sander's Well, — a medicinal well, about twelve miles from 
 Georgetown. There was a dance at the house of entertainment this 
 evening, and being invited into the hall, I spent a short time in looking 
 at the company and chatting with some girls of my acquaintance. 
 There were present people of all descriptions, — from those very respect- 
 able to gamblers and prostitutes, or something little better. About ten 
 o'clock I retired, but found myself in a room adjoining the ball, with an 
 open doorway, which could not be entered without stooping, and so 
 many holes between the timbers that every wind of heaven could pass 
 
THE NEWSPAPER BARGAIN CLOSED. 151 
 
 over me. On examining my bed, I found on it but one sheet and one 
 counterpane. I lay down without undressing, but got little sleep until 
 the party broke up, which was about 1 a. m. 
 
 " 28th. The day passed in rather a dull manner, as I had not yet 
 formed acquaintances. I drank plentifully of the water, which produced 
 a slight medicinal effect. 
 
 " August 2d. After breakfast started for Georgetown. I think I 
 have derived much benefit from the waters, for my appetite and strength 
 have increased astonishingly within a week. I attended a ball this 
 evening and danced three times, but found my strength unequal to much 
 exertion. I made some blunders in dancing Kentucky reels, and on the 
 whole was rather sober during the evening. 
 
 *' 4.th. Yesterday Mr. Henderson was again bantering me on under- 
 taking the paper here, and at length I offered to take one half the 
 office, and give him twenty per cent on the net profits by way of rent. 
 This day he said he would accept my offer, and wished me to draw up 
 articles of agreement. But as I have not yet heard whether we shall 
 be able to prosecute the Indiana speculation, I declined closing until I 
 should have time to hear from Lexington. 
 
 " 6th. Having learned some circumstances concerning the office, of 
 which Mr. Henderson did not inform me, I became dissatisfied and 
 resolved not to fulfil my agreement. In this I considered myself per- 
 fectly justifiable, on account of the concealment of material circum- 
 stances. Borrowed a horse and rode out to the' Great Crossings to 
 meeting, principally with an intent to have a conversation with Colonel 
 Johnson. Had an invitation to dine with Colonel J. Johnson, which I 
 accepted. Colonel R. M. Johnson seemed very desirous that I should 
 undertake the paper, and was sure some agreement might be made. 
 
 " 8th. Colonel R. M. Johnson brought Mr. Henderson and myself 
 together, and by his intervention we came to an agreement, which was 
 sketched in writing, but not completed. 
 
 "I agree to undertake the editorial duties of the paper, the reading 
 of proof-sheets, keeping a copy of accounts and drafting them for col- 
 lection, collecting such of them as should come within the range of 
 my business or travels, and laboring in the office one hour each day, 
 unless otherwise engaged or absent, in folding papers, etc. 
 
 « As I mentioned that I could, if I pleased, have the post-office m my 
 hands, I was advised to take it. I therefore applied to Mr. Miller, post- 
 master, and inquired if he still wanted a deputy. After some banter- 
 ing he off-ered to make me postmaster, on condition that I should 
 resign in his favor at any time when he wished it, and pay him a cer- 
 tain sum yearly for five years. Now I should like the office, but do not 
 like the conditions. 
 
152 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " Nothing has been completed, and from my observation of Mr. Hen- 
 derson I conclude he has some inclination to be off from the bargain. I 
 have no wish to bind him to it contrary to his inclination. 
 
 " Last evening Mr. Arnold, the schoolmaster here, offered me my 
 board if I would come and help him when he should find difficulties in 
 his studies. 
 
 ^^ 10th. Agreed to board with Mr. Arnold. He gives me my board 
 in consideration of some little instruction. I have the promise of six 
 weeks certain, and more if we shall be mutually pleased. This evening 
 had a letter from my friend, G. W. Hunt, informing me of the return 
 of Mr. J. Prentiss, but not giving me any definite information with re- 
 gard to our Indiana business. Resolved to go to Lexington to-morrow. 
 
 ^^ 11th. Went to Lexington, but could not obtain any correct infor- 
 mation in the above business. Called on Thomas Prentiss to see if he 
 had transmitted money due to Mr. Williams cf Boston. For this busi- 
 ness I shall probably obtain a fee of two dollars. 
 
 " 12th. This morning a man by the name of Brashears was brought 
 to town for examination before a magistrate for killing his father-in-law, 
 a Mr. Joseph Snell. I went to the court-house, and for ten dollars, and 
 the probability of being employed in the final trial, I appeared in his 
 behalf But he is poor and without money, so that my present fee as 
 well as my final appearance in his behalf depend upon his father, who was 
 not in town. My only object was that the prisoner might be admitted 
 to bail, but this indulgence I was unable to obtain. The magistrates 
 could not at first agree, but, finally, mutually consented that he be com- 
 mitted for murder according to the information. 
 
 " A little while after this determination the father of the prisoner 
 arrived, and went to make an aj)plication to Judge Johnson, the event 
 of which I have not yet learned. The circumstances of the killing seem 
 to be these : The parties had been together during the day on some 
 business. All was good humor. They drank cider together in com- 
 pany with two others, until the whole of them were somewhat inebri- 
 ated, when they all came to town and there completed their intoxication 
 by drinking whiskey. A quarrel arose between Brashear and Snell, in 
 which the former made use of harsh expressions. They went to Snell's 
 house, where more cider was taken, the quarrel was renewed, in which 
 Brashear either knocked or pushed Snell out of the door, who fell on 
 some stones, which caused his immediate death. It was, as I thought, 
 so evidently manslaughter that I did not exert myself as I otherwise 
 should. 
 
 " I was astonished, and somewhat mortified, to hear that the majris- 
 trates disagreed. I became much interested in the prisoner, and hoped 
 he would be admitted to bail. 
 
IS MADE POSTMASTER. 
 
 153 
 
 '' 13th. The application to Judge Jolmson has, as yet, been of no 
 effect. He could only give an opinion, as one of the magistrates was 
 absent. On my visiting the prisoner, he inquired for how much I would 
 engage in his behalf, I answered, that if through my assistance he was 
 cleared of the crime of murder, I would do it for $75, including the $10 
 which he has already promised me. He seemed inclined to engage me, 
 and said he would send his father to see me when he again came up. If 
 I am not feed, and can volunteer with a good grace, I shall certainly do so. 
 
 " This day I closed a bargain with Mr. Miller, the postmaster, on the 
 conditions which I had before offered. In consideration of his procur- 
 ing me to be made his successor immediately, and the use of the small 
 building called the shop, back of his house, I engage to give him $ 180 
 for four years, or so long as I shall hold the office, and to resign in his 
 favor if he shall want the office again for his own use within six years. 
 These terms I am convinced would be regarded as degrading, and we 
 mutually agreed that they should be kept secret. I, however, feel con- 
 scious of no moral wrong, and see a prospect of some profit and many 
 conveniences, counterbalanced, perhaps, by the inconveniences attending 
 it. But if dissatisfied, I can resign when I please, and he wiU be at 
 liberty to make conditions with any other person. 
 
 " l^tli. Removed my board to Arnold's, and my books into the post- 
 office. 
 
 " 17th. Learned to my sorrow that Mr. Henry was feed for the pris- 
 oner for whom I the other day appeared. It was done by the father, 
 without consulting his son, and before he knew me. 
 
 ^^ 18th. Being determined to have something to say in the case, I 
 offered my services to the prisoner without fee. 
 
 " 22d. This day the prisoner was brought by habeas corpus before 
 the circuit judge, in order, if possible, to procure bail. A question 
 arose concerning the jurisdiction of the judge, but this was overruled. 
 Before this happened, however, I was obliged to retire in consequence 
 of a severe pain in my right knee. 
 
 " 23d. Can hardly walk. The discussion on Brashear's case con- 
 tinued \mtil this day, when he was recommitted. 
 
 *' 25th. Knee better, but not well. Began to write a speech for the 
 trial of Brashear. 
 
 ''28th. My knee nearly well. I am still writing on the speech, 
 investigating miscellaneous points of law, and taking care of the post- 
 office. 
 
 " 31st. My health never was better. But I abuse the blessing I 
 enjoy by too much indulgence of a most voracious appetite. I never 
 ate so much in my life, either of food or fruit, and find it impossible to 
 satisfy myself. 
 
154 AUTOBIOGRAPHY O'F AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " September 11th. This morning received a letter from Mr. Sawyer, 
 one of the associates for forming an emigration company, informing me 
 that he was in Lexington, that a constitution was forming, that the 
 thing would now go into effect, and requesting my presence there this 
 day. After considerable trouble, I obtained a horse, and rode there. 
 I found the business not perfected, and that I should be under the 
 necessity of stopping three or four days. 
 
 " 12th. I procured the constitution of the before-mentioned society, 
 drawn up by Major Stackpole of Boston. There were many blanks in 
 it, and some of the provisions are not satisfactory. Amendments were 
 suggested, and it was given over to the further consideration of the 
 moneyed men now in Lexington, who contemplate engaging in the busi- 
 ness. 
 
 " 13th. This evening we who have been forming a company for emi- 
 gration, or rather for making our fortunes, had a conference. We are 
 divided into two classes, called residents and non-residents. The non- 
 residents are to purchase $ 190,000 worth of Georgia scrip from the 
 owners of it in New England, and advance $ 61,000 for the purchase 
 and improvement of land. 
 
 *' There will be a board of directors chosen from the non-residents, in 
 the choice or proceedings of whom the residents have no voice. 
 
 " With this scrip, and the necessary money, the directors are to pur- 
 chase of the United States 100,000 acres of land, to be located, if Con- 
 gress will permit, in the Indiana Territory. The scrip is to be pur- 
 chased on a credit of ten years at six per cent interest, and the whole 
 land is to be conveyed to three trustees, in trust, as security for the 
 payment of interest and principal. Whenever three dollars per acre 
 has been paid into the hands of the trustees, they, in conjunction with 
 the directors, have power to give deeds in fee simple to purchasers. 
 This money, instead of the land, will constitute a trust fund for the 
 payment of the before-mentioned company's debts. It is, in the mean 
 time, to be vested in bank or six per cent United States stock, and 
 if, on the dissolution of the company, any surplus remain, it is to be 
 divided like the other company property. The residents are entitled 
 to equal shares of company stock, in consideration of which they settle 
 on the company lands, procure settlers, and devote their whole attention 
 to the business of the company. For their support they are each al- 
 lowed $ 200 a year, or if they marry, $ 300, with the rent jointly of a 
 house worth $ 6,000. They choose a chairman, and have a secretary, 
 clerks, and a treasurer, the latter of whom is to be appointed by the 
 board of directors. They are to enter into no private speculations, 
 and are to take oath not to speculate on the company. By their con- 
 sent and that of the board of directors all sales are to be made. 
 
BECOMES EDITOR. 
 
 155 
 
 Residents and non-residents have the liberty to take up 200 acres of 
 land for a farm, and one lot each in town. These are to be selected by 
 the residents, and distributed by lot. The shares of the non-residents are 
 transferable, but not of the non-residents, except by last will or testa- 
 ment, or by operation of law consequent on death. 
 
 " Any resident may be expelled for misconduct, with the consent of 
 two thirds of the proprietors in value ; but is, at the dissolution of the 
 partnership, to receive an amount of the profits in proportion to the 
 time he was a member. 
 
 " The company is to continue ten years, unless sooner dissolved by 
 the consent of two thirds in value of the proprietors. At the dissolu- 
 tion, after paying the company's debts, the overplus is to be equally 
 divided among the shares. The company will consist of twenty ; ten 
 of each sort. 
 
 " By act of Congress the Georgia scrip can be located only in the 
 Mississippi Territory. The principal men in the company will petition 
 for leave to locate in Indiana, and we are assured by some members that 
 the petition will be granted. If not, there will be a location in the Missis- 
 sippi Territory, where I have promised to go. Some of the company are 
 very sanguine, and think we shall make fifty or sixty thousand doUars 
 each, but I do not anticipate more than half that sum. 
 
 *' To-morrow I shall return to Georgetown, and throw all my pro- 
 fessional prospects to the wind. I consider it fortunate that I have 
 made no arrangements to fix me here permanently. I expect to be em- 
 ployed in a few days on a journey to explore the Indiana Territory. 
 
 " IJfth. Returned to Georgetown determined to make arrangements 
 to quit the profession of law, as I think prospects authorize it. Ac- 
 cordingly I sold the ' Laws of Kentucky ' and Story's * Pleadings ' to Mr. 
 S. Penn for $ 23, and desired Mr. Miller to free me from the arrange- 
 ment I had made with him. 
 
 " It is, however, my intention, if I should be here the next court, to 
 speak for Brashear, just to show the people that I can make a speech, 
 and do not quit the profession for want of spouting talents. As I shall 
 not be constantly employed in my new business until January or Feb- 
 ruaiy next, I intend to employ the interim on the poem which I began 
 at Mrs. Clay's. But not being able to find the few hundred lines which 
 I wrote when there, I shall be under the necessity of writing them over 
 again. I shall likewise remain at present in the post-office, and give 
 time to Mr. Miller to make further arrangements. It is doubtful 
 whether I resume practice, even if this business should fail. I was 
 never pleased with it, and but partial success, with the means for ob- 
 taining speedily the good graces of the people fills me with disgust. 
 
 "• Perhaps I shall, if I obtain the post-office, purchase the printing- 
 
156 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 office and try my fortune as an editor. I should then have it in my 
 power, free of expense, to obtain news earlier than any other editor in 
 Kentucky. 
 
 " 20th. I have labored continually for two days in reviewing and copy- 
 ing a speech for the trial of Brashear. I have now brought it into a 
 form to suit me tolerably well. 
 
 " 21st. Received a letter from Mr. Sawyer, at Lexington, informing 
 me that they were ready for completing the instrument of our associa- 
 tion. 
 
 " 22d. Rode to Lexington. Did not find the instrument completed, 
 but it is thought it will be ready to-morrow. Rode out to Mr. Clay's. 
 
 " 23d. Returned to town. Read over the constitution and found 
 most of my objections removed ; but am not, on the whole, satisfied with 
 it. We residents are made too much the slaves of non-residents. 
 However, some other alterations were made, which rendered it less ex- 
 ceptionable, but still the objectionable parts of the instrument, with the 
 uncertainty of procuring the indulgence of locating in Indiana Terri- 
 tory, makes me doubtful of the propriety of engaging in it at all. On 
 the whole, I returned to Georgetown, resolved to withdraw from the 
 company within sixty days, the time granted to the residents to con- 
 sider the subject, provided I can make an arrangement in Georgetown. 
 
 *' The plan is to endeavor to induce Mr. Miller to suiTender me the 
 post-office, without my promise of resignation on request ; then 
 to wait on Colonel Johnson, make my appointment to the post-office 
 certain, and then purchase the printing-office. I should thus have an 
 opportunity to open a correspondence with all the cities, and not be in 
 danger of interruption by this request from Miller. 
 
 " After my arrival in Georgetown, I proposed the thing to Mr. Miller, 
 who said he could not agree. I at length offered, if he would con- 
 sent to my remaining postmaster, to permit him to find a deputy, take 
 all the profits, and would even pay the postage of all letters he should 
 send and receive. Nothing could apparently be more liberal ; yet he 
 said he could not assent, but would think of it till to-moiTow. 
 
 *' 25th. Miller and I have finally made an arrangement. I am to 
 resign in his favor, if requested, after four years; and within six, provided 
 he shall become interested in the printing-office, if I shall then be the 
 owner of it and request him. For four years I give him $ 180, for a 
 building valued at $ 60 per year and the office. We have agreed to 
 reveal the arrangement to Colonel R. M. Johnson, and ask him to rec- 
 ommend me. 
 
 *' 26th. I received a letter from W, G. Hunt, in Lexington, informing 
 me that the constitution of the migration society would this evening be 
 ready for signature, and requested me to come up. But I am tired of 
 
NEWSPAPER NEGOTIATIONS. I57 
 
 obeying such summonses, and intend, even if I should not make an ar- 
 rangement here, not to go imtil they are actually ready. 
 
 ^' 27th. Called on Colonel Johnson, who promised me I should have 
 his influence for the post-office if I would buy Henderson's half of the 
 printing-office, but said he had better delay till he goes on to Washington. 
 In the mean time, that I had better make a conditional bargain with 
 Henderson, and undertake the paper immediately. I shall probably 
 follow his advice, if I can make a bargain with Henderson. 
 
 " 28th. Called on Henderson this morning. He thought he could 
 not sell for less than $ 1,200, and I offered $800. I was, however, re- 
 solved to offer more, but as he seemed very indiff'erent to the business I 
 left him with very little hope of being able to agi^ee at all. However, 
 I again called and made this proposal in writing, which I told him was 
 an ultimatum. I offer $ 1,000 for his half of the office, payable in one, 
 two, and three years ; one half in work of the office. He at first said 
 he would not do it ; but finally said he would think of it till noon, and 
 then submit to me his ultimate proposal. But as he did not call on 
 me, I again visited him. He said he had not had sufficient time to think 
 of it, and was immediately going out to Colonel R. M. Johnson's. I 
 wished to see Colonel James, and off'ered to ride out thus fjir with him. 
 On the way he told me he was not anxious to sell at present, and un- 
 folded his reasons. They were plans which he thinks would conduce to 
 increase the profits of the office. He wished I had purchased Read's 
 half, for he said he had long wished to engage with himself, in the estab- 
 lishment, some person of good education, and thought I would exactly 
 meet his wishes. Believing his plan one which would conduce to mutual 
 benefit, I proposed attempting to induce Mr. Read to relinquish his bar- 
 gain, and off'ered the same for Read's half that I had offered him for his 
 own. He seconded my proposal, and finding that Colonel James was 
 not at home, I returned and visited Mr. Read. He was very willing to 
 relinquish his bargain, and -I now considered my fate as fixed. But 
 some good or evil spirit which seems determined to thwart every plan 
 of mine, because, I suppose, they are not for the best, led Read to 
 examine his books and make some estimates as delusive as flattering, 
 which induced him to change his mind. Henderson, Read, and myself 
 had a long talk this evening, but he could not be persuaded to alter his 
 resolution. 
 
 " On departure, Mr. Henderson told me that Read had hitherto never 
 paid a cent of the expenses, but that unless he would relinquish, he 
 should now bear his proportional part. He said Colonel R. M. Johnson 
 could in a moment induce Read to relinquish, and said he would ride 
 out and see h''m to-morrow. To this I assented. 
 
 '' 29th. Talked with Mr. Read to-day, and received from him pro- 
 
158 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 posals for relinquishing his bargain, on which I think we shall a^ee. 
 Met him and Henderson in the evening and struck a bargain. 
 
 *' 30th. All the papers in our bargain before mentioned were execut- 
 ed, I give five notes to Mr. Henderson of $ 200 each, payable in one, 
 two, three, four, and five years. The die is now cast, and I am fixed to 
 Georgetown. God grant that I may not repent my bargain. 
 
 " October 2d. This day I came in possession of one half of the print- 
 ing-office. It was a verbal agreement with Mr. Read that he should 
 have the hands as boarders. This evening he complained to me that 
 they would not come when his breakfast was ready, and seemed to 
 attribute it to Mr. Henderson. I talked with Mr. H. and the hands, 
 and found they had objections to boarding with Mr. Read at any rate. 
 From what I could learn I believed their objections reasonable, and told 
 them there should be no compulsion, and that we would satisfy Read as 
 well as we could. 
 
 " This day commences the circuit court here. The grand jury found 
 an indictment against Brashear a true bill ; but as they had rejected the 
 one laid before them by the Commonwealth, and drawn up one of their 
 own, the attorney would not accept it. So they will have to begin 
 again to-morrow. 
 
 ** 3d. Talked with Read, who did not want the boys to board with 
 him if they were imwilling, but seemed to think he ought to receive 
 some damages. I said if any damage resulted, I was willing to pay a 
 proportional part, and so we sepai-ated. 
 
 " I composed a short address to the public, which was printed in the 
 form of subscription papers. 
 
 *' The court to-day proceeded to make up a jury, and spent the whole 
 day. The number, twelve, was at length completed. 
 
 " Jfth. Spent the whole day in examining witnesses, and did not finish. 
 I cannot but have some apprehensions for Brashear, there are so many 
 black expressions attending the deed. 
 
 " 6th. Completed the examination of evidence about noon. The 
 case was then opened by Mr. Breckenridge. He spoke for about three 
 hours, and was answered by myself I spoke for about an hour and 
 then sat down, more dissatisfied with my performance than I ever was 
 before in my life. Yet I was soon after complimented for my ex- 
 cellent speech, and told that I made many cry. In the evenino- I was 
 even told that it was said so great an orator had never spoken in 
 Georgetown. But the fact was, I had not a perfect command of myself 
 until I was more than half through, and absolutely forgot one third I 
 intended to say. I was followed by Mr. Henry, who was interrupted 
 by adjournment. 
 
 " 6th. Mr. Henry finished, and was followed by Mr. Floumoy ; these 
 
MAIDEN SPEECH AT THE BAK. I59 
 
 two and myself were for the prisoner. Mr. Shannon then began, but 
 was interrupted by adjournment at night. 
 
 " 7th. Mr. Shannon conchided at dinner-time ; the jury retired, and 
 after dinner brought in a verdict of voluntary manslaughter. Ten 
 years in the penitentiary. 
 
 " 8th. Have received many flattering compliments concerning my 
 speech. Floiirnoy said to some one that he was never in his life more 
 disappointed and surprised. This evening, too, I was much mortified ; 
 for being at Mr. T. Herndon's, I was asked whether I had spoken for or 
 against the prisoner. ' Zounds,' thought I, * has not Fame told you ] ' 
 But I was even obliged to tell them myself, for the partial jade had not 
 put her head within those windows. But a little mortification is whole- 
 some, for otherwise the human mind would run mad. Vanity, vanity, 
 the foe of improvement, the enemy of talent ! In the evening after I had 
 spoken I was walking the street and heard some one say, ' There was 
 a great speech made in the court-house to-day.'* ^ That 's mine,' said 
 vanity, and I stretched my ears to hear the next words, but, unfortu- 
 nately, the person spoke so low I could not catch them. 
 
 " Well, one number of the ' Minerva Press ' has come out in my 
 name, and what say the public % Why the public says or cares very 
 little about it. I have already repented of one article there inserted. 
 I do not know whether I am censured for it, but it contains some obser- 
 vations concerning General Adair which I do not approve. 
 
 " Mr. Miller and I this day signed an agreement, and his resignation 
 will this night be sent to the General Post-Ofiice. I feel some of the 
 terms as too degrading, but the bargain is for my interest. It will be kept 
 secret. He resigns and rents me his shop. If I succeed him I agi-ee 
 to give $180 per year for four years, and after that resign if he 
 shall wish to be reappointed within six. He agrees, if I shall own the 
 printing-office, and request it, to become interested on my resignation, 
 and conduct the correspondence. If I resign within four years, I leave 
 to him the nomination of my successor ; and if I approve, recommend 
 
 him. 
 
 "11th. I have attended court but little this week, nor do I 
 think the flattering reception I have met with will induce me to con- 
 tinue the practice of law. I observe with much satisfaction that I am 
 now treated with much more deference than formerly. I have now in 
 my head the plan of a religious publication, which I think will be at- 
 tempted by Mr. Henderson and myself, if we can procure a sufficient 
 number of subscribers. 
 
 " 17th. I find myself now considerably occupied. I have formed an 
 agreement with John Miller to come and hve with me in the post-office. 
 I give him his board, and instruct him in any branch he may be inclined 
 
160 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 to study, for which I receive $80 per year, — $ 70 from George and $10 
 from himself, and his services in the post-office, when I shall be absent 
 or necessarily engaged. I have been much pleased with him, and think 
 we shall agree perfectly. He comes this evening, and stays for no 
 limited time. 
 
 " A man applied to me to-day to bring a suit against another, and the 
 temptation was so strong to make a little money, that I concluded, for 
 the time being, to practice law. Perhaps I shall put out a sign, and 
 continue practice at least till I know whether the printing-office wiU 
 afford me employment. 
 
 " 18th. This day issued proposals for a religious journal, to be pub- 
 lished once in two months, and be called ' The Religious Intelligencer.* 
 Its object is to subserve the interests of the Christian religion in gen- 
 eral. Moved the post-office into the shop. 
 
 '^ 26th. Affairs have gone on in a uniform train since the 18th. I, 
 however, plainly perceive that the printing-office will cause me some embar- 
 rassment for the want of funds. However, after a year, I think, with 
 proper management it will not- only become a profitable business, but 
 tolerably pleasant. Our foreman, Read, is an unpleasant fellow, ill- 
 tempered, and sometimes drunk ; we bear with him as weU as we can, 
 but do not think he will remain long with us. 
 
 " This day came on my appointment as postmaster. But I fear I 
 cannot exercise its privileges until I get a commission. This is incon- 
 venient to me, as I am anxious to enlarge my correspondence and circu- 
 late subscription papers for my paper and religious work. 
 
 *' 28th. Last evening a man was killed in an affray not far from town. 
 It seems the parties were nearly all drunk, and who gave the fatal blow 
 is a question which nobody can answer. Three or fom- have been taken 
 and brought to town. Such are the miserable effects of drunkenness. 
 Brashear has obtained a rule for a new trial, and is now out of prison 
 on bail. 
 
 ^^ December 2d. So it seems here is a hiatus of nearly a month. 
 Close engagement in business has prevented my thinking of my journal 
 
 " The men mentioned above had an examination of nearly a week's 
 continuance, and were admitted to bail. 
 
 " About two weeks ago I became so dissatisfied with Mr. Read, our 
 foreman, that, in conjunction with Mr. Henderson, I resolved to get rid 
 of him. We accordingly had a conversation with him, in which we all 
 kept our temper very well, and finished by concluding to separate. He 
 said but one hard thing, which was, that he thought Mr. Lyle, one of 
 the hands in the office, was put in as a spy on his conduct. But on my 
 saying that what he said was false, and as base as it was false, he re- 
 canted and said he did not mean what he said. He had not followed 
 
IS APPOINTED POSTMASTER AT GEORGETOWN. 16i 
 
 my directions, had violated my instructions in selecting matter for the 
 paper, and had inserted pieces without ever bringing them to me. Ten 
 dollars a week is something to save, for it does not come in hand every 
 day. 
 
 " About the same time another trouble came upon me. I was invited 
 out to Mr. Ward's, who, I found, wished to know everything I could 
 tell him about Mr. Henderson's affairs. I discovered in the sequel that 
 he owes Ward about $ 2, GOO ; as security for which he has made over to 
 him one half of the printing-office, and other chattels and accounts, by 
 an instrument bearing date only two days after my purchase. I was at 
 first startled, because I thought it was prior. He had likewise told 
 Ward that he had transferred my notes to Colonel J. Johnson. As Ward 
 will doubtless be obliged to take and sell the ofl&ce, I wished to have some 
 voice in the business as I am so intimately concerned, and mentioned to 
 him Mr. Lyle, a hand in the office, as a proper person to purchase. I had 
 before expressed a wish to Lyle to this effect, who I think would be glad 
 of the opportunity. The next day I talked with Mr. Shellers, now our 
 foreman, and found that Mr. Henderson owed him about $ 200, which 
 he began to fear he should never get. He wished me to find out if my 
 notes were transferred to Colonel Johnson, and if not, and it were possi- 
 ble, that I would get one of them for him. I promised, and the next day 
 spoke to Mr. Henderson, and learned that but one of my notes had been 
 transferred to Colonel Johnson, and he was willing that Shellers should 
 have another. But learning that he was so much involved, and had 
 not always told the truth, I began to be alarmed for myself. At first I 
 resolved to come to a crisis, and have his half of the office sold at once ; 
 but on second thought, as his services will be essential in procuring sub- 
 scribers to the religious work I have in contemplation, I concluded to 
 keep myself in his debt as much as possible, and let the matter go on 
 for a time ; but I doubt not he must relinquish within a year, so great 
 are his debts and so little his ability to pay them. Indeed, perhaps it 
 will be the better for me the sooner it be closed. These embarrassments 
 are almost intolerable. 
 
 " I have received my commission as postmaster, and on Monday, 27th 
 ult,, began to board at Thomas Theobald's. I give him $ 100 each for 
 Miller and myself, and $ 18 per year for mine, and $ 15 for his washing. 
 Thus my expenses to him will be $ 233, and $ 110 I pay to G. W. Mil- 
 ler, make $343, — somewhat more than the estimated profits of the 
 post-office. Add to this $ 150 for other expenses, and it will cost me 
 $493, say $500 per year to live. 
 
 " Some time in November I paid a visit to Mr. Alexander's, in Wood- 
 ford. I take a lively interest in that family, for, from my own acquaint- 
 ance, and the representations of some of my Yankee friends who 
 
 u 
 
162 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 have lived in the family, they are one of the most happy circles in the 
 ■world. 
 
 " A few days ago I was much gratified with receiving a letter from 
 Mr. Clay's two sons, enclosing me two dollars for a paper, one year. I 
 wrote them an answer, and have since written to their father. This I^ 
 considered myself bound to do, because I had not called on him when 
 he was at home. I have also received a letter from my friend Fliigel, 
 likewise subscribing to the paper. 
 
 " A growing subscription seems to be making for my ' Religious In- 
 telligencer,' and I am considerably occupied in the business which re- 
 gards it. The plan which I have adopted has been to write to most of 
 the postmasters in the State and other places, thus obtaining the names 
 of the preachers, and then addressing them personally. Mr. Hender- 
 son is so much occupied with other business that he cannot attend to 
 this. 
 
 '* 10th. I have gotten rid of half my troubles by dismissing Read, 
 and I believe 1 should be rid of half the rest were I free from Mr. 
 Henderson. He is very much in debt, and nothing but his usefulness 
 to the office at the present time induces me to remain in partnership 
 with him a moment. Indeed, if he does no more for the office this trip 
 than he did the last, I think we shall break at once. I took away Lon- 
 don, the negro, from his house, because he was not well-treated, and 
 since then I have had complaints from all the other hands. Though the 
 dismissal of Read has lessened the expenses of the office nearly one 
 third, I think they may be lessened still more. My present plan is, 
 that Mr. Lyle, a very careful and economical hand in the office, should 
 buy Henderson's half, and then, with the aid of three or four good 
 apprentices, we could do all the work without any journeymen at all. 
 This would save about $ 500 more a year, and reduce the expenses to 
 $600 or $700. 
 
 " 15th. Read went away to Frankfort, and left his wife and family 
 in a room adjoining the office, which we had rented of Mr. Davis, the 
 present owner, for its use. I procured a room for her, and removed her 
 at my own expense, and it was well I did, for that very night she was 
 taken ill, and brought forth a boy. I wrote to Read a serious letter on 
 his conduct towards his family." 
 
CHAPTEE YI. 
 
 " 1816^ January 1st, This year finds me involved in perplexity and 
 vexation. My business at present is, I believe, the most uncomfortable 
 in the world, and I am engaged in it with those who afford me little 
 pleasure or prospect of gain. Mr. Henderson is gone, and some even 
 express doubts whether he will return. His situation is indeed embar- 
 rassed, and, what is very singular, he never gave me the least hint 
 of it. I have stopped all accounts which were opened in our names, 
 and am determined on having a new arrangement the moment he 
 returns. 
 
 " There was a ball here at Christmas, which I attended. On the 
 evening of the ball I had an application to attend to a land claim in 
 this county, on which a man by the name of Bullock wished to bring 
 suit. The next morning I went out about eight miles with him, and 
 spent the day in carrying the chain. 
 
 " In the evening I returned to Georgetown to superintend the pub- 
 lication of the paper. In the morning I again went out, spent the day 
 in making out and serving ejectments, and at night was completely ex- 
 hausted and sick. 
 
 " This claim covers upwards of eight hundred acres; one fourth part 
 of which Bullock agrees to give me, should he recover, as a com- 
 pensation for my services. If it be lost through my fault, I pay the 
 cost ; if through defect of title, he pays it. The prospect is good for 
 recovering it. 
 
 *' 10th. After my agreement with Bullock, I began to revolve in my 
 mind my future prospects, and eventually concluded that I had better 
 release myself from the printing-office, except so far as relates to the 
 editing of the paper, and accordingly laid a plan, by which the office 
 was to be sold to Shellers and Lyle, while I should remain editor, and 
 continue the practice of law. 
 
 "Accordingly, I proposed this plan, and at first it seemed quite 
 likely to be effected. But on making a calculation from the past, Shel- 
 lers was not satisfied, and suggested to me that I was probably sinking 
 money every day. I sat down and made a balance of accounts, which 
 likewise convinced me of the fact. The paper, the advertising, and the 
 
164 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 job-work will not support the office. Just at this time, too, I received 
 a letter from Colonel E. M. Johnson, in answer to one I had written, 
 informing me that Colonel James had a mortgage upon the office even 
 before I bought. This put me in great trepidation. I began to look 
 around for security, and lay hold of everything which I could rightfully 
 take into my possession. Mr. Henderson, however, returned four days 
 ago. I went to see him, and brought him to my office that very even- 
 ing. Here a conversation took place not very agreeable to either of us, 
 which ended in an agreement that I should relinquish my purchase to 
 him, and give him all the labor I have bestowed, on condition he should 
 put accounts into my hands sufficient to secure me against my notes 
 and every account which has arisen since I became interested. 
 
 " I had all the accounts for subscriptions to the paper made over on 
 the spot, and an agreement to that effect lodged in the hands of T. S. 
 Theobald. The estimated amount of these is more than $ 2,000. 
 
 " I declined having anything more to do with the paper, excepting as 
 an editor, in which capacity I would continue to act until the return of 
 Colonel J. Johnson. The hands, however, refused to work unless he 
 would make them secure, which he did, by giving me liberty to collect 
 accounts sufficient to pay them. But, after some deliberation, it was 
 concluded to stop the paper at the next number. 
 
 " 16tK The report of the intended stoppage of the paper raised a 
 considerable ferment, and many advised me to proceed, but in vain. To- 
 day, three days from its proper time, has been issued the last number 
 of the * Minei'va Press.' During last week I carried out the subscrip- 
 tion accounts, but find a considerable amount of them belongs to 
 Chambers, and that four of my notes, instead of two, as I had been 
 told, have been transferred to J. Johnson. I have not given up the 
 office, nor shall I until I know myself entirely secure. I have now to 
 go to work and collect accounts. Mr. Henderson allows me fifteen per 
 cent on all moneys collected, and Chambers twenty on all out of the 
 county belonging to him. 
 
 " I shall set out in a few days and make a business of it. I have 
 made out the post-office returns for the last quarter, and find the com- 
 mission much smaller than I expected. After paying Miller according 
 to agi'eement, it will not leave me more than $ 60 per year. 
 
 " 18th. Induced by the solicitations of the people here, I have this 
 day, in conjunction with Shellers and Lyle, issued proposals for a new 
 paper to be published here, which wiU be called the 'Georgetown 
 Patriot.' Our determination is that we will not begin unless we have 
 five hundred subscribers. Whether that number can be procured is at 
 least doubtful. I am, myself, very indifferent about it, as I am certain 
 it will be more for my final interest to continue the practice of law. I 
 
COLONEL R. M. JOHNSON. jg 
 
 
 
 have learnt by experience how vexatious is the business of an editor, or 
 rather of an owner of a newspaper establishment. 
 
 " 21st. I received a letter this morning from Colonel R. M. Johnson, 
 who seemed, as I thought, to be a little displeased with a letter I wrote 
 him some days ago, in answer to the one from him which infonned me 
 that Colonel James had a mortgage on the office. Suspecting that he had 
 written more. fully, and probably more freely, to Mr. Ward on the subject, 
 I asked Mr. AVard. He told me that the Colonel supposed I must think 
 he and his brother had acted very dishonorably with me ia respect to the 
 purchase of the office ; that I seemed to think I was in bad hands, and 
 that James was coming home soon, when he would probably release me, 
 etc., etc. I felt very much hurt, as I had never harbored a thought 
 that there had been anything dishonorable in them, although a suspicion, 
 or rather a possibility of the thing sometimes flashed across my mind 
 before I had an explanation fi*om Henderson. I sat down and wrote to 
 him, disclaiming in warm terms all ideas of the kind and making a 
 statement of the facts in which I had been deceived by Henderson, and 
 likewise requested Mr. Ward to write on the subject, who promised. I 
 have no doubt he will be satisfied, but care little whether he is or not. 
 
 " 2M. On hearing that a young lady in town had said some fine 
 things of me, I had a curiosity to see her. She is a sister of Mrs. Tay- 
 lor, named Payne, in high repute. I called at her brother's, but did 
 not fall in love, though I was pleased. 
 
 " 29th. I intended to have gone on collecting business ere this, but 
 could get nobody to stay in the post-office. I have written to Mr. 
 Houo'h now in Lexinj^ton, who I think will come. Should he not, Mr. 
 Shellers will stay, and I shall set out on Wednesday or Thursday. It 
 is a disagreeable job, and I wish it was done. Our subscription goes on 
 tolerably well, but T still doubt of success. 
 
 " February 1st. Had a letter from Colonel James Johnson, in which 
 he expresses much surprise at the sensitiveness which I displayed in my 
 letters to his brother, and seems to be offended at one expression therein 
 contained. It was that I would not hold property so subject to the 
 control of any man, as by any possibility to influence the opinions which 
 I must necessarily express. He seems to apply it to himself, but I in- 
 tended no such application. It was intended to be a general idea, and 
 I particularly excepted him. It gave me considerable pain ; but I am 
 resolved to maintain the opinion as well as the practice, though I may 
 hazard the indignation of all the world. He says I likewise spoke 
 roughly of Mr. Henderson. It is true that I did speak more roughly 
 than facts would justify, but I was then under a mistake, I thought he 
 had sold me property which was not his own. But the Colonel confirms 
 Mr Henderson's account that the mortgage has been redeemed, and 
 
 , as 
 
166 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 he thinks, given up. Thus all this misunderstanding has arisen from 
 Mr. Henderson's not communicating to me the real situation of the 
 business. But sometimes I am careless whether the Johnsons are my 
 friends or not ; for if they were enemies, I should have an object for 
 competition. At any rate, if they, in the present situation of affairs, 
 become hostile to me, I shall be convinced that all they want of me is 
 to make me a tool. But I flatter myself, if such be their plan, they 
 will not find me so smooth to their hands as they could wish. But ex- 
 cepting only the offence which seems to be taken at that letter, I have 
 no cause to suspect them. 
 
 " 3d. The Colonel, it is said, will be at home in a day or two, and I 
 intend to call on him immediately for an explanation. As I must fortify 
 myself in some measure at the expense of Mr. Henderson, I have invited 
 him to accompany me. 
 
 " The Colonel seems to be willing to take the office, and I think it best 
 for me to give it up and quit the paper entirely. 
 
 "4^A. Rode out to the Great Crossings with Mr. Henderson to see 
 Colonel J. Johnson ; but he had not come home. After my return, I 
 sat down and wrote him a statement of the case, which I shall request 
 Mr. Henderson to hand to him. 
 
 ^^ 5th. Mr. Hough, who will remain in my office during my absence, 
 arrived to-day. 
 
 " 7th. Set out on my journey. Dined at Berry's, and stopped for 
 the night at Captain Eli Short's. Got eighty-five cents to-day. 
 
 " 8th. Proceeded on to Nelson's. Went several miles in a circuit 
 through the woods and hills ; saw one deer, which was the first wild one 
 I ever saw, and returned to Nelson's. 
 
 *' 9th. Went down upon the Crooked Creek road and settled with 
 the subscribers there. This evening was excessively cold, and I was 
 almost frozen before I reached Clarke's, on the road. 
 
 ^^ 10th. Though very cold, I started out before breakfast this morn- 
 ing, and visited two subscribers at some distance from the road. Before 
 I reached the house of the first my whiskers and the lappels of my 
 great coat were covered with frost. Here, for the first time, I got angry, 
 and promised to warrant a man. 
 
 " Breakfasted at Arnold's, and then went on to Theobald's. Here was 
 a collection of people paying the direct tax ; and here I first became 
 acquainted with Joseph Glenn, the deputy collector. 
 
 " 11th. Having left a number of accounts with G. P. Theobald for 
 collection, I went forward to Gain's. Here again there was a consider- 
 able collection on a trial, and among them several subscribers. 
 
 " There were several packets of papers left at Gain's, which Mr. Hen- 
 derson had agreed should be left in other neighborhoods. Most of these 
 
A COLLECTING TOUR. I57 
 
 f 
 
 men should have received their papers in those packets. They declared 
 to me they had never taken the paper from Gain's, and therefore would 
 not pay. I proposed that they should pay for what papers they had re- 
 ceived. To this they agreed, and supported each other in saying they 
 had received but about twelve papers. For this number I settled with 
 four of them, but discovered that they had imposed upon me. They 
 had taken the papers from Gain's, and had received more than twelve 
 papers. One of the men was high sheriff of Boone County, named 
 Wigginton. 
 
 " 12th. This day I went down into Mr. Wigginton's neighborhood to 
 Ben Stevens's and Will Stevens's, satisfied myself that these men had 
 imposed upon me, and returned to Gain's. 
 
 " 13th. Drew out accounts against those with whom I had settled, 
 and put those with all others which I had in this neighborhood into the 
 hands of a constable, ordering him to warrant Mr. Wigginton without 
 delay. Rode down to Boone court-house. Found there a Yankee by 
 the name of Boson, a lawyer. 
 
 " Having learnt by experience how much confidence is to be placed in 
 the people of this quarter, I put all my accounts into the hands of a 
 constable. I shall pursue this plan for the future. 
 
 ^^ 16th. Having some business with Squire Grant, I steered for his 
 house. He lives in a bend of Licking. You pass along two miles on a 
 stupendous ridge, with the river at its foot both on your right and left. 
 At lengi:h you pass off its end into a bottom of considerable size, and 
 here lives Squire Grant. With improvements, the place might be made 
 singularly romantic. 
 
 " I had a demand on this man for $ 30, from Daniel Bradford, of 
 Georgetown. He had not the money, but said he would meet me the 
 next day at Elijah Grant's, and pay the money. I pushed on to Elijah 
 Grant's, where I again met with Glenn, collecting taxes. 
 
 " 17th. Grant met me here to-day, but instead of making any ar- 
 rangement, slipped away without my knowledge. I shall send a con- 
 stable after him. This evening went on with Glenn to Grant's Lick. 
 
 " 18th. This morning enclosed to a constable all my accounts in this 
 neighborhood, and rode to Falmouth with Mr. Glenn. On the road saw 
 two beautiful deer. 
 
 " Falmouth is a mean place, surrounded by poor land. The only 
 favorable circumstance which attends it is the commerce of Licking. 
 Poor land has, on account of the intercourse with Cincinnati through 
 this channel, obtained a value superior to that of better land in other 
 
 quarters. 
 
 " 19th. Spent the day at Captain Smith's, it being impossible to pass 
 
 the creeks, on account of the height of the waters. 
 
158 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " 2Ut. Arrived in Georgetown. I have been uncommonly healthy 
 during this expedition, notwithstanding the unpleasantness of the 
 weather. Not many things worthy of remark have come under my ob- 
 servation, excepting the management of the newspaper. Ever since its 
 commencement it seems to have been edited, printed, and carried in 
 a way which would damn any paper. Mr. Henderson had procured a 
 large number of subscribers on the ridge and on Licking. He sent a 
 boy to carry a private mail, who was not only too young, but incon- 
 ceivably careless. He received money and gave no credit. At the end 
 of ten months the United States mail began to go over the ridge, and 
 the private mail was discontinued. On Licking, most people had paid 
 in advance. Many on the ridge had paid at the end of the year, and 
 directed their papers to be discontinued. These circumstances made 
 the whole business one tissue of vexation. Most of the accounts pre- 
 sented had been paid in advance, or the persons had directed discon- 
 tinuances. It is not surprising that the. paper lost its credit, and happy 
 it was I quit when I did. Nearly a hundred of the papers should have 
 been discontinued long ago. When I arrived here I found letters from 
 various quarters making the same statements. If out of the $ 2,300 on 
 the accounts I collect $ 1,000, I shall do more than I expect. 
 
 '* The land through most of the counties where I have travelled is 
 miserably poor compared with the land about Lexington ; and so are the 
 people. It would, however, make a fine grazing country, but unfortu- 
 nately none of the inhabitants know how to make cheese. Even their 
 butter is poor. Boone has some fine land, and so has Harrison. There 
 are in this region a considerable number of deer and wolves, but no 
 bears. I saw an old man of eighty out with his hounds, whose whole 
 delight was the music of their voices. Attended a ball this evening, in 
 honor of the Father of his Country. I have never been so merry since I 
 have been in Kentucky. 
 
 '■'•23d. Rode to Lexington to procure papers in the land suit in which 
 I am engaged, but was unsuccessful. Called at Mr. Clay's. Rode to 
 AVoodford, and spent the night at Mr. Alexander's. 
 
 " 2J4h. Went to Versailles, on a visit to Mr. Famham. Found bim 
 well and in much better spirits than heretofore. I suggested to him 
 that I would gladly have him come to Georgetown and become a partner 
 with me, but he did not seem to approve the idea. Returned with Mr. 
 Guilford to Mr. Alexander's. After considerable persuasion. Miss Mari- 
 anne and Miss Victoria Campbell were persuaded to let me see some of 
 their poetry. I had seen a piece of Miss Alexander's before, and was 
 not surprised to find it excellent, but Miss Campbell's absolutely aston- 
 ished me. I have seldom seen a poem of more genuine pathos. • Mr. 
 Guilford likewise showed me some of Miss Alexander's prose composition, 
 
BECOMES EDITOR OF THE GEOUGETOWN PATRIOT. Igg 
 
 which would do honor to a professor. He likewise told me that Mari- 
 anne had written a piece in answer to one I wrote and sent to him, in 
 which the last line of every stanza was 'Fair Marianne,' making her 
 last lines end ' Fair Amos.' The idea made me laugh, but it changed 
 almost in a moment my feelings towards her, as it completely explained 
 the nature of hers. They seem to be of that playful, unmeaning 
 nature which characterized Eliza Lawrence, though not so perfectly 
 developed. There was, too, a shadow of ridicule about it, which Love 
 cannot bear. Not that I loved her, but that I had something of that 
 feeling which is often matured into passion. 
 
 " 26th. Rode out to see Major Herndon, who was present in the sur- 
 vey of Bullock's land. Could not obtain much satisfaction. Captain 
 Branham was likewise present, but could remember nothing. On my 
 return, I called on Colonel J. Johnson. I forgot to observe that on my 
 return from my tour in the lower counties, I received a letter from 
 Richard Miller, and a line from James, both stating that they were per- 
 fectly satisfied. James now wished to know what were my intentions. 
 I told him that I wished to relinquish the office to him, and take in my 
 notes. He consented to take it off my hands. 
 
 *' 28th. On calculating to-day how many subscribers we have, we 
 found the number within our knowledge 270. There must be nearly 
 400, which is more than I expected. 
 
 " March 19th. Little has happened for some days worthy of remark. 
 Feeling relieved from business, and being considerably confined to the 
 office, my mind has been uncommonly restless. Sometimes I am study- 
 ing law and investigating cases ; sometimes thinking of poetry and form- 
 ing plans for novels ; sometimes trying experiments in mechanics, and 
 endeavoring to discover the perpetual motion. I have, in my fancy, 
 constructed many machines, but soon discovered the folly of them. 
 
 " 22d. This day Mr. Regis Alexander and Mr. Guilford called on me. 
 The latter has acceded to my proposition of entering into a partnership, 
 and will be here for that purpose about the first of June. I hope our 
 success may answer my warmest wishes. We will make one great effort, 
 and if we fail, will fail like men. 
 
 *' April 1st. This day is the first of our circuit court term. Mr. 
 Guilford came over for the purpose of spending a week with me. I 
 appeared in court and entered the action of ejectment which I had com- 
 menced in favor of Robert and Edward Bullock. The latter gentleman 
 arrived here during the course of the day. 
 
 ^^ 2d. Bullock had considerable conversation with some of the 
 tenants concerning a compromise, but they could come to no conclu- 
 sion: In the evening I made proposals to Bullock, and offered to go 
 down with him the next day and attempt a compromise. 
 
170 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " 3d. We rode down to the land, and, after spending most of the 
 day, a compromise was effected with nine of the tenants, on the grounds 
 which I had proposed. They w^ere that the land should be surveyed 
 and valued according to law, and then the tenants should pay five sixths 
 of the valuation of the land, or give it up and receive pay for their im- 
 provements. One fourth of the benefit hence resulting will accrue to me. 
 
 *' 8th. Mr. Guilford has left me again, and will return by the first 
 of June, or sooner. We have talked much concerning building a dis- 
 tillery, but have come to no determination. 
 
 " ISth. Cabell Breckenridge asked me, for his mother and sister, to 
 ride out to their house. Being very desirous to visit there, I hunted up 
 a horse and went with him. 
 
 " 14-ih. Returned again to Georgetown, after one of the most agree- 
 able visits I have ever made. I found Mrs. Grayson, a young widow, 
 sister to C. Breckenridge, one of the most social and pleasant ladies I 
 have ever met with. She is now beautiful, and must once have been a 
 picture. I believe that Colonel Nichols, a widower, who called with me 
 only to spend a few minutes, was even more entertained than myseK; 
 for by some means he did not get away until near 4 p. m. to-day. 
 
 " 20th. This day the first number of the Georgetown ' Patriot ' was 
 published, of which I am editor. The arrangement is this, — Mr. Wood 
 owns one half of the office and Colonel James Johnson the other. The 
 latter gentleman becomes responsible for the whole expense of the busi- 
 ness, and pays me $ 150 a year for editing the paper. It is not gen- 
 erally known what is the arrangement, as all the business is transacted 
 under the name of Kendall, Shellers, and Lyle. I feel my situation 
 somewhat delicate, but not half so much so as when I owned one half of 
 the office ; for if I now find that my com'se cannot be an independent 
 one, I will quit. 
 
 " 23d. Started off" to the wedding of Samuel Theobald, about fifteen 
 miles from this, in Fayette County. The evening was rather dull, as 
 we had no amusement but cards. 
 
 " 2Jf.th. Our amusement was the same as last evening. A little be- 
 fore night Dr. Henry and myself rode out to escort home some ladies, 
 and after we had performed our task, concluded we would not return 
 that night. So we started off to Mr. Robert Harrison's, but finally con- 
 cluded we had rather go to Mrs. Breckenridge's. But we got lost in the 
 woods, and did not amve there until 8 p. m. 
 
 " 25th. After breakfast, we set out on our return to Mr. Warfi eld's, 
 the father of the bride. Having called on a very interesting lady on 
 the way, a Miss Thomson, we arrived just as the company was ready to 
 start for Mr. Theobald's father's, at Sander's Well. When we came to 
 the Georgetown road we left the company and rode to Georgetown. 
 
TENDER SENTIMENTS. 
 
 171 
 
 " 26th. Bode down to the Well, where there was a party ; but we 
 had little pleasure, on account of the sickness of Mrs. Theobald's sister. 
 Miss Warfield. 
 
 " 27th. Returned to Georgetown quite restored to health by my dis- 
 sipation. 
 
 " 28th. I went to meeting this day, in town, not so much for the 
 sake of hearing a sermon as for seeing a fine lady, with whom I had 
 b.een in company yesterday. But lo ! when I had come there, in came 
 another young lady, a Miss A. Payne, who took full possession of my 
 feelings. Now this is a confession not much to my honor j but nothing 
 but truth shall appear in this journal. Well, I walked with Miss Payne 
 to her brother's, in town, and spent the evening with her. I am ex- 
 tremely well pleased with this lady, and, in the blunt language of the 
 clown, I would have her if she would have me. But I do not perceive 
 any ground to hope that she would marry me, plain, poor, and a Yan- 
 kee as I am. 
 
 " 29th. A dance was proposed for this evening, and we succeeded in 
 collecting a brilliant little party at Mr. George's. Miss Payne again at- 
 tracted much of my attention, and I gave her a piece of poetry which 
 was caused by the chat of a ball-room some time ago. I had, however, 
 added one stanza, which contained a pun upon her name, — 
 
 * The victim sighed for Pain half mad, 
 
 His blood ran through him boiUng hot ; 
 'T was not for any pain he had, 
 But for a Pain which he had not.* 
 
 But I could not tell whether she was pleased or not. 
 
 " 30th. My newspaper is extremely popular so far, and we have re- 
 ceived an accession of more than fifty subscribers since we started. The 
 people seem to be extremely well pleased with my editorial address. 
 
 *' May 10th. I am again considerably occupied in the duties of my 
 various business. This day I was employed on a warrant-trying, and 
 came off with success, though opposed by R. P. Henry. This is the 
 third trial on which I have been engaged, and every time have been 
 successful. 
 
 ^* 15th. Went out this evening to Colonel J. Johnson's to consult 
 him on our business. I proposed that in the approaching electioneering 
 campaign I would insert the writings of neither side, but print them in 
 handbills, if the parties wished it, and circulate them with the paper. 
 The plan met his approbation, and he said he would suggest it to R. M. 
 Johnson. My wish is to steer as clear as possible of censure on either 
 side ; for I wish not to give offence for another's benefit. 
 
 ''18th. Rode over to Mr. Alexander's on a visit to Guilford, accom- 
 panied by Mr. Clarke, a Yankee resident in Georgetown. I found them 
 
172 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 all well, and Miss Marianne more interesting than ever. She has much 
 improved her singing and playing upon the piano. 
 
 " 19th. Visited a fine romantic place in the neighborhood of Alex- 
 andria, as this place is called, which Guilford has named Lovedale. In 
 the midst of a beautiful amphitheatre of rocks rises a charming stream, 
 which flows a few rods and again sinks beneath a wild precipice. It is a 
 fit emblem of birth and death. At its rise everything is regular and 
 beautiful ; at its end all is broken aud gloomy. But had the fair Mari- 
 anne been with me it would have been doubly beautiful, doubly enchant- 
 ing. After some time spent in this pleasant retreat, we returned to the 
 house. Were I to live there but a short time, I should be enthusiasti- 
 cally in love. Every time I see that charming girl she makes an im- 
 pression which it takes days to wear away. What added much to the 
 impression of this visit was the delight she expressed (but not to me) 
 on reading some of my poetry. I had lent to Guilford a little select 
 manuscript of it when he was last at Georgetown, which she had been 
 reading. * She kissed the pieces, and said I was a charming poet.' Half 
 enraptured, I returned to Georgetown. 
 
 ^^ 23d. Bought of Colonel J. Johnson 12,000 copies of the Almanac 
 which we are printing, for $ 200. It is my intention to make a business 
 for a while of selling them, and I hope to make at least $ 100. 
 
 " 27th. Mr. Guilford came over, and we adj usted our matters and 
 commenced business in partnership. 
 
 *' 29th. Rode to Lexington and visited Mr. H. Clay. I found him a 
 very agreeable man, and was familiarly acquainted with him in half an 
 hour. It seems a great ferment is raised in Fayette as well as in Scott 
 County with regard to the Compensation Bill, and Mr. Clay is likely to 
 have a competitor. 
 
 ^^ 30th. Left Mr. Clay^s and took dinner at Mrs. Breckenridge's. 
 After spending three or four hours with the charming widow, returned 
 to Georgetown. 
 
 '' June Jfth. There were long speeches in town to-day by the Con- 
 gressional candidates. They spoke, in succession, upwards of seven 
 hours. Very different opinions exist among the people ; some will sup- 
 port one, some the other, and some neither. I have the most difficult 
 task as editor. There has been much grumbling by one and another ; 
 but none are decisively angry. I shall endeavor to keep them in this 
 state of half mad and half pleased. 
 
 " 5th. We had clients to-day for the first time since our partnership. 
 One man engaged us on a justice suit, and gave us two court actions ia 
 Franklin, and another gave us one suit in the circuit court of Scott. 
 To-morrow I shall set out on a journey to Indiana, whence I shall not 
 return under nearly a fortnight. 
 
A SWISS SETTLEMENT. I73 
 
 " 6th. Set out on my journey, and rode as far as Snelson's tavern 
 towards Vevay, thirty-eight miles. The road was very lonesome, there 
 not being more than one house in the distance of twenty-two miles. The 
 land is very poor in this direction, and can never support a dense popu- 
 lation. 
 
 " 7th. Passed on to New Fredericksburg, a town ten miles above 
 Yevay on the Ohio, laid out lately by the Johnsons, — a sheer specula- 
 tion. Went thence down the river to Ghent, a new town of the same 
 kind of origin, opposite Vevay. My business on this route was to leave 
 appointments for several postmasters, prepare for a mail, and leave sub- 
 scription papers for the ' Patriot.' Passed over the river to Vevay, 
 where I met my Saxon friend Fliigel, who received me with great 
 cordiality. He has a charming little wife, who is considerably out 
 of health. 
 
 " 8th. Visited several of the Swiss and their vineyards, and drank 
 American wine. The flavor is not so agreeable as that of the imported, 
 but it has more spirit. It makes excellent sangaree. They sell it for 
 $ 1.50 per gallon, whereas in Switzerland they used to get about thirty- 
 three cents. They are evidently growing rich, as may be seen in 
 the improvement of their houses and plantations. We saw on one of 
 the plantations, a pleasant old Frenchman, nearly fifty years old, who 
 had been obliged to fly from France with his family, on the last abdica- 
 tion of Napoleon. He was formerly a professor of mathematics, in 
 good circumstances; but now, poor and an exile, with his spade and 
 his rake he was making a garden on the banks of the Ohio. I was in- 
 troduced to him, but not being able to speak French, or he English, we 
 could have no conversation. As we approached, he came out to meet 
 us, and as we departed he^ accompanied us away. Notwithstanding his 
 situation, he seemed to be happy, and I left him with feelings of pity, 
 admiration, and esteem. 
 
 " 9th. Crossed to the Kentucky side, and walked up the river three 
 miles on a visit to Mr. Agniel, a Frenchman, who married the sister of my 
 friend's wife. They could all speak English, and the time passed pleas- 
 antly. After dinner, the ladies visited another French family, likewise 
 fugitives from the tyranny of Louis. It was that of M. Lakenal, lately 
 a member of the National Institute, from which he has been removed 
 by a decree of Louis. He has with him a wife and two 'young daugh- 
 ters, who returned with the ladies to Mr. Agniel's. They were all ani- 
 mation, but here again I wanted a language. It is surprising how these 
 girls, in almost a wilderness, seem to be as lively, and accommodate 
 themselves as well to their situation, as in the palaces of Paris. My 
 friend confided to me his situation in business, which is not the most 
 pleasant, though he has considerable property. There is no sale for it 
 
174 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 now, and he is much in debt. If his creditors were to come upon him 
 he must inevitably break. On his asking my advice, I counselled him 
 first to attempt to induce his creditors to take his property at a fair 
 price, and if the}'^ would not, and he could not possibly raise the money, 
 that he should secure it from being sacrificed under execution the best 
 way he could. He had a beautiful lot on the second bank, which he 
 said he had purchased for me, and wished me to come and live in 
 Vevay, and take it of him at the same price he gave for it. I was so 
 well pleased with its situation, and with the situation of the town, that 
 I resolved to go there if I should leave Georgetown. I therefore bought 
 the lot, with the privilege of relinquishing in six months. 
 
 " 10th. Bade adieu to my friends, and left Vevay. Fliigel, with a 
 sister of his wife, whom he once wrote me was reserved for me, accom- 
 panied me out of town about three miles. She is a very innocent, good 
 girl, but without education or beauty. Through a poor country and 
 dreary road, I went on to Madison, twenty-two miles. 
 
 " 11th. Left Madison and went to New London, — a new place laid out 
 by one of that gang of villains who composed the Lexington Indiana 
 Banking Company. He is now gone, and has left the people without 
 titles to their lots, and they curse him soundly. In the neighborhood 
 of this place, found a man whose evidence I wanted in the land case 
 which I have to manage in Scott County, and agreed with him to come 
 over. He was on the original survey. Went on thence to New Lex- 
 ington, and thence to Charlestown, where I arrived about 9 p. m., hav- 
 ing missed my way and found it again by mere accident. 
 
 *' 12th. Passed on through JefFersonville to Louisville. The conven- 
 tion for forming a State government in Indiana is now in session, but it 
 is doubtful what course they will take. 
 
 " 15th. Went through Versailles to Alexandria. Mr. Famham ac- 
 companied me to the latter place, unwilling, and yet willing. My 
 admiration of the family there has been somewhat lessened by the du- 
 plicity and want of propriety which have sometimes been used towards 
 both Famham and Guilford, who are both enthusiastically in love with 
 Marianne. In fact, I was tempted not to call at all, after hearing a 
 tale by Famham, and was consequently under much constraint while 
 there. Indeed, his conversation, joined with a trifling indisposition, 
 agitated me so much, that I was quite sick when I arrived, and was 
 almost immediately obliged to go to bed. 
 
 " 17th. Left Alexandria and returned to Georgetown. I have lost 
 the pleasure I formerly received in visiting that charming family, and 
 though I have always been received with cordiality and treated with 
 politeness, I shall not often find myself there. 
 
 " July 23d. Multiplicity of business and some vexations have almost 
 
POLITICS WAXING AVARM. 
 
 175 
 
 made me forget that I kept a journal. The politics of the day are the 
 most prominent matters of discussion, and excite considerable warmth. 
 Having a newspaper under my control, I have had much difficulty, and 
 once almost quarrelled with the Johnsons, to keep it clear of personal 
 abuse. A piece was sent for publication which I refused to insert ; but 
 the matter passed off without any difficulty. Yet I am accused of sub- 
 serviency to the Johnsons ! I shall give Kichard my vote, and feel per- 
 fectly inclined to be his friend, but not his tool. Though I disapprove 
 of the Compensation Bill, I think it not a sufficient reason for rejecting 
 him altogether. Little has been said in town until yesterday, when the 
 people seemed almost universally inclined to talk, and some warmth 
 arose. I came near having a quarrel with one man, and, had I been as 
 warm as he, might have had a fight without any difficulty. I will not 
 fight, but suspect I must prepare myself, as the man seemed very much 
 inclined to insult me. 
 
 ** There was but little business done at the last Circuit Court, and we 
 had but a small share of that. About a week ago a fellow was com- 
 mitted here for horse stealing, and has employed us. I rode to Nelson 
 County for him, to find a brother, but was unsuccessful. 
 
 *' On my way I called and spent a night at Alexandria, the most agree- 
 able that I ever spent there. I spent a night with Farnham on my re- 
 turn, who told me the whole story of his loves. He despises Guilford, 
 who, by his account, has by his real or pretended sensibility often 
 made himself ridiculous. Bat it is a fault which may easily be cured. 
 They both love Marianne ; but Farnham has the best chance for suc- 
 cess. On the 4th of July Guilford delivered an oration here, and I 
 a poem. They were received with gi'eat applause, especially the oration. 
 They have both been published. The day passed away in great har- 
 mony, without any drunkenness or fighting. There was a ball in the 
 evenins:, but I did not attend it on account of a headache. 
 
 " About two months ago my friend Flugel visited me, and persuaded 
 me to lend him ninety dollars, which I could ill spare, and which I do 
 not expect to get again without taking property. I was surprised that 
 he should urge me so much when he knew my circumstances. 
 
 " 30th. Politics have waxed very warm within a few days. There are 
 several young men here who are very overbearing, and seem to be seeking 
 occasion to quarrel with me. A few days ago I remarked an unusual 
 degree of insolence, and was told by a friend that I should very likely 
 get a fight upon my hands in consequence of some observation made by 
 me about soldiers. It was a long time before I could recollect any- 
 thino- ; but at length I remembered to have said once, in a conversation 
 about the Compensation Bill, when sneeringly told that a representative 
 might live as a soldier, that I presumed that no gentleman present 
 
176 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 would be willing to live on the fare of a regular soldier. From this it 
 had been circulated that I said, ' I hoped no gentleman present would 
 condescend to associate with soldiers,' and gentlemen had threatened to 
 insult me. I consequently thought proper to arm, and borrowed a dirk, 
 with the resolution to insult no man, but if insulted to resent it, and 
 if attacked, defend myself. I told my friends to contradict the story, 
 and have heard nothing of it since. But to-day comes a new accusa- 
 tion, namely, that, after having said that I would publish no more con- 
 cerning the Compensation Bill, I have inserted pieces in favor of it, 
 thereby evincing that my object was to prevent communications in favor 
 of the bill. This is entirely false. I did, however, say that I did not 
 intend to publish any more, and requested my correspondents to turn 
 their attention to other objects. But I never made an absolute promise 
 in public or private that I would publish no communication ; my ob- 
 ject was to avoid receiving them from both sides. But R. P. Henry 
 declined standing a poll, and in the piece which announced it took up the 
 Compensation Bill. I could not refuse to insert that, and when I had 
 inserted that, I could not deny a place to an answer. By this circum- 
 stance our paper has been again opened upon the subject. Some gen- 
 tlemen have even gone so far as to threaten to discontinue ; but I be- 
 lieve they will think better of it, and change their minds. 
 
 " We had a fight in town this morning, as a commencement of the 
 election, between Dr. J. F. Henry and Samuel Theobalds. The public 
 excitement is very great. 
 
 " August 30th. I have become very irregular in my journal, in con- 
 sequence of having considerable business, but shall endeavor to give a 
 sketch of passing events. 
 
 " The election passed away without any further trouble in town. Some 
 gentlemen who seem resolved that I shall take a decided part in politics, 
 and either defend or condemn the Johnsons in toto, still keep finding 
 fault, and Drs. Ewing and Henry have discontinued their newspaper. 
 Let them go, and every other man who will quarrel with an editor if he 
 be honest. 
 
 *' I commenced an attack on the 'Western Monitor' some time ago, 
 and Mr. Hunt has since answered it, and we now have it regularly. But 
 having great respect for each other, we find ourselves veiy much re- 
 stricted. 
 
 " September 1st. I have for some time had a degree of partiality for 
 Miss Anne Payne, and lately, when she was in this neighborhood, took 
 considerable pains to get into her company. After her return home, 
 Mr. Ford invited me to take a ride to her father's w^ith him. I did so, 
 and on the way learned with some surprise that he was very much at- 
 tached to her, and was going with the express object of making a decla- 
 
CLOSE OF THE JOURNAL. I77 
 
 ration. I instantly resolved to stand aside and give him every oppor- 
 tunity, as he had committed so much to my honor. I therefore never 
 hinted to him my own feelings, but cautiously endeavored to conceal 
 them and promote his views. We stayed over night and most of the 
 next day. In the evening no opportunity was offered ; but in the fore- 
 noon of the next day Anne proposed a walk of a mile or more. But 
 Anne Johnson, daughter of Colonel James, happening to be there, kept 
 close by Anne Payne, both going and returning. They ran, jumped, 
 and pulled Mr. Ford about (who is quite fleshy), evidently with the 
 design of fatiguing him, and behaved so that T was disgusted, and 
 thought they were making fun of him. But just as they got back, an 
 opportunity was given him to say barely a word, and a word in answer, 
 though entirely vague, has given him the strongest hopes. I, however, 
 was so displeased with her conduct, that I left the place with very dif- 
 ferent sensations from those I had when I arrived there. Good by, 
 Anne ; I '11 think no more of you. 
 
 " This day, on an invitation from Mr. Alfred Tarlton, I rode down to 
 the Roman settlement in this county, and paid a visit to his cousins. I 
 do not know the history of this settlement, but here are a number of 
 Roman Catholic families settled together, who form a very respectable 
 church. We attended meeting, but saw or heard very little but foolish 
 mummery. It seems strange that people of this enlightened age can 
 be pleased with such absurdity and nonsense. I paid all possible at- 
 tention to the priest, but gained very little instruction or edification. 
 We returned and dined with the ladies. I found I had entirely mis- 
 taken the disposition of Cecilia, the eldest of these ladies. I had seen 
 her last winter at Mr. Jenkins's, in town, and almost fallen in love ; but 
 on being introduced to her at a ball, and attempting to converse, I was 
 much disappointed." 
 
 From this time forward Mr. Kendall ceased to keep a regular 
 journal, owing in part to indolence, and in part to the engrossment 
 of his time by his various occupations. The little newspaper 
 which he edited needed the support of all parties in the county 
 to keep it in existence, and his policy was not to identify it with 
 either of them. Congress had passed an act changing the com- 
 pensation of the members from a per diem of eight dollars during 
 the session to an annual salary of fifteen hundred dollars, with a 
 retroactive provision, by means of which each member received a 
 considerable sum beyond the lawful rate of compensation when 
 the services were rendered. Colonel Richard M. Johnson had in- 
 troduced the bill, and it had been voted for by the entire Kentucky 
 
 12 
 
178 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 delegation, with perhaps one exception. This act was seized hold 
 of by political aspirants as a lever with which to operate against 
 the sitting members, and its retroactive feature made it a powerful 
 instrument. There was at once a general uprising of the popular 
 mind against this measure, and Kentucky was in a ferment before 
 the members reached home. Colonel E. M. Johnson called on Mr. 
 Kendall soon after his return, and inquired what was his opinion 
 and the opinion of the people. He was told that the opinion of 
 the people and Mr. Kendall's opinion were against the retrospec- 
 tive features of the act, and that the only safety of the members 
 who voted for it was in promising to sustain its repeal. Colonel 
 Johnson took the stump and made a resolute effort to justify the 
 measure ; but he soon found it was all in vain. It was amusing 
 to hear the Colonel, who was not an eloquent man, make a pas- 
 sionate speech in favor of the measure, and conclude by promising 
 to vote for its repeal, because such was the will of the people. 
 While Mr. Kendall maintained a position of neutrality in the 
 paper he edited, and disapproved of the Compensation Bill, he 
 openly declared his purpose to vote for Colonel Johnson, on the 
 ground that a man of his patriotism and usefulness ought not to 
 be thrust out of public life for a single error. 
 
 Every member of Congress from Kentucky who had voted for 
 the Compensation Bill, except Colonel Johnson and Henry Clay, 
 was defeated in this election, and these two were spared only upon 
 their promises to vote for the repeal of the obnoxious measure. 
 On the first day of the next session of Congress Colonel Johnson 
 obtained leave to bring in a bill to repeal the act in question, and 
 it passed with little or no discussion. 
 
 What a contrast between the excitement of 1816 and the quiet of 
 1856, after the passage of an act fixing the compensation of members 
 of Congress at three thousand, instead of fifteen hundred dollars 
 per annum, which also contained a retrospective provision precisely 
 like that in the act of 1816. The former act produced a storm 
 which revolutionized Congress ; the latter, though identical in 
 principle, and involving double the amount voted by the members 
 to themselves, did not produce a ripple upon the ocean of public 
 opinion. Tlie secret of this popular inconsistency may prob- 
 ably be found in the fact that in 1816 the finances of the country 
 were low, and no other existing question disturbed the public 
 mind; while in 1856 the government had abundant means, and 
 
REMOVES TO FRANKFORT. I79 
 
 the attention of the people was engrossed by the slavery question 
 in connection with a Presidential election. And it is not to be 
 disguised that the disposition of the manufacturing and other in- 
 terests of the country, which profited by the mode in which the 
 public revenue was raised, was to deplete an overflowing treasury 
 by extravagant and reckless expenditures, thus introducing abuses 
 and corruptions into the public service, and blunting the sensibili- 
 ties of the people, who, scarcely knowing that they were taxed at 
 all, became indifferent as to the manner in which the public moneys 
 were expended. 
 
 During the war with Great Britain, from 1812 to 1815, all the 
 banks in the South and West had suspended payment, and in aid 
 of the government had issued a very large amount of their notes. 
 After the close of the war they appeared to be in no haste to re- 
 sume payment. The feature in Mr. Kendall's editorial career in 
 Georo-etown w^hich attracted most attention was a series of articles 
 in which he discussed the questions of currency, and called on the 
 banks to resume specie payments. These articles won the ap- 
 proval not only of the public generally, but also of the officers of 
 the Bank of Kentucky, who were gentlemen of the highest in- 
 tegrity and honor. 
 
 In September, 1816, Mr. Kendall had occasion to visit Frank- 
 fort, where he had some business with William Gerard, one of the 
 editors of the State paper, called the '' Argus of Western America." 
 In their first interview, Mr. Gerard proposed to him to buy out his 
 partner and undertake the editorial duties of the paper. He re- 
 plied to this unexpected proposal by stating that he had no means 
 of making the purchase. Mr. Gerard said that he was a director 
 in the Bank of Kentuclry, and would insure a loan or loans from 
 the bank, which would enable him (Kendall) to meet the payments, 
 which would not in all exceed two thousand dollars. Upon this 
 proposal Mr. Kendall deliberated through a sleepless night, without 
 coming to a conclusion. 
 
 It was in effect a proposal to abandon all his plans of life and 
 adopt a purely literary and political career. Political strife had no 
 charms for him ; but just then party spirit had died away, and the 
 time was called " the era of good feelings." The prospect therefore 
 was, that he would be allowed to discuss principles and measures, 
 and' indulge his literary taste, without encountering the personality 
 and asperity which had for many years characterized newspaper 
 
180 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 discussions. On the other hand, he had never liked the practice of 
 the law, and experience thus far had not commended it to his favor. 
 His leading principle was, not to undertake a case where right was 
 not on the side of his client ; yet, through, the representations of a 
 lying thief, he once found himself engaged in successfully screen- 
 ing him from payment for the goods he had stolen. He had 
 learned that in the higher courts j ustice is often sacrificed to prece- 
 dent and forms of pleading, and that the lawyers' work is rather 
 a struggle for forensic triumph than an effort to protect the inno- 
 cent and enforce the right. In the land suit which he had under- 
 taken, and pressed to judgment in the Circuit Court, the law itself 
 seemed to him a violation of moral right. The land had been 
 entered by a man in Virginia who had surveyed it ; but he had 
 not taken out a grant or improved it, and when he died bequeathed 
 it to his sons. In the mean time it had been covered by a grant 
 based upon a more recent entry, and the grantee, being probably 
 aware of the older entry, had sold it out in small tracts at a very 
 low price to actual settlers, giving them quit-claim deeds. On the 
 eight hundred acres of land there were about eight settlers, who 
 had built log-cabins, cut down portions of the forest, and brought 
 considerable tracts into cultivation. Not more than half of them 
 could read ; but in concert with others in their neighborhood they 
 had erected a school-house, and were trying to give their children 
 an education. It was the labor of these men which had given 
 the land its only value, and it seemed like robbery to take it from 
 them. Yet the inexorable decree of the law did this. The hard- 
 ships of the case, however, were somewhat mitigated by a compro- 
 mise which Mr. Kendall advised. 
 
 These considerations inclined him to accept Mr. Gerard's propo- 
 sition ; but he did not then give a definitive answer. He consulted 
 his partner and friends, and all of them, except Colonels James 
 and Kichard M. Johnson, advised him to accept the proposal. The 
 Johnsons made a resolute effort to dissuade him from the purchase ; 
 but their known motive rendered their representations of little 
 weight. They had quarrelled with Mr. Gerard, and were engaged 
 in an attempt to break down his paper. They had thrown all tbeir 
 influence in favor of another newspaper in Frankfort, called " The 
 Palladium," and had even obtained a promise from Mr. Kendall 
 to write for it, before he was aware of their motives. Though he 
 was the friend of the Johnsons, who had served their country 
 
THE ARGUS OF WESTERN AMERICA. ^gl 
 
 bravely in war, and were public-spirited in peace, he had main- 
 tained his own independence, and had not sympathized with 
 their personal antipathies. He therefore listened respectfully to 
 all they had to say, and. then concluded to make the purchase. 
 
 On the 30th of September, 1816, he visited Frankfort and closed 
 the bargain, agreeing to give $2,000 for half of the establishment, 
 the amount being payable, one thousand on the first day of the 
 succeeding November, and one thousand in one year thereafter. 
 
 Eeturning to Georgetown, he dissolved his partnership with Mr. 
 Guilford, who determined to remove to Cincinnati. Mr. Miller, 
 in whose favor he was bound to resign the post-office, if he 
 resigned at all within a certain period, was dead, leaving a widow. 
 Though he was under no obligation to do so, Mr. Kendall, having 
 resigned in favor of another party for a consideration, paid the 
 widow the amount he had agreed to pay her husband if he retained 
 the office. The new postmaster, who had agreed to give two hun- 
 dred dollars for the office, sold it not long afterwards to another 
 person for five hundred. Though Mr. Kendall did not acquire the 
 office for any purpose of speculation, intending to hold it per- 
 manently, he was never satisfied with himself for his participation 
 in these transactions, and made up his mind that, if not corrupt, 
 they constituted an abuse which the government ought not to toler- 
 ate. Yet these transfers of the post-office in Georgetown were 
 effected through the agency of Colonel E. M. Johnson, then a 
 member of Congress, who well knew their character. 
 
 The administration of the Post- Office Department at that time 
 was extremely lax. Mr. Kendall found that no way-bills came to 
 his office charging him with postage on any newspapers printed in 
 Kentucky. Mentioning the fact to the former postmaster, he was 
 told that bills would come embracing the whole quarter, at its 
 close ', but none came. Mr. Kendall then made out his account 
 charging himself with the newspaper postage as accurately as he 
 could, and wrote to the Postmaster-General stating the facts. ISTo 
 answer was received, and no remedy applied, and it is believed that 
 very little of the newspaper postage collected in Kentucky at that 
 time was ever accounted for. 
 
 After Mr. Kendall resigned, he forwarded an account showing the 
 amount due from him to the Department, which was drawn for and 
 paid. Long afterwards there came another draft upon him for the 
 same amount, which was protested with an explanation, and thus 
 the matter ended. 
 
182 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Mr. Kendall parted with his friend and partner, Nathan Guil- 
 ford, with much regret. He was a man of very respectable 
 talents, great kindness of heart, and marked simplicity of manners 
 and language. Yet he was an inveterate deist, and appeared to 
 entertain a perfect hatred of Christianity. On that subject there 
 was no congeniality between the partners. Failing to make any 
 impression upon Guilford by demanding what substitute he could 
 furnish for human hope to rest upon, and warning him of the evil 
 consequences to himself which would assuredly follow the public 
 avowal of his opinions, Mr. Kendall begged and secured his silence 
 on that topic. In after life, however, Mr. Guilford's prudence for- 
 sook him, and he paid the penalty of his folly. He took up the 
 subject of common schools in Ohio, was elected to the legislature 
 from Cincinnati, and procured the passage of an act embodying 
 the original school system of that State. He was placed at the 
 head of the Cincinnati schools, and a question arising as to the 
 reading of the Bible therein, he gave free expression to his infidel 
 opinions, which indiscretion not only deprived him of his office, 
 but permanently impaired his influence and usefulness. 
 
 Mr. Guilford's marriage is directly traceable to his benevolence, 
 which was one of his striking characteristics. He heard that there 
 was a flatboat at the landing, on which was a family of emigrants 
 sick with fever. He visited them, procured lodging for them in the 
 city, and carefully attended upon them until their recovery. One 
 of the sick was a beautiful young girl, who became his wife. And 
 she was not unworthy of his love. When disappointments and mis- 
 fortunes, operating upon a disposition naturally gloomy and a mind 
 unsustained by any religious hope, had discouraged and reduced him 
 almost to imbecility, she maintained her firmness and discharged 
 her duties with admirable cheerfulness through all vicissitudes. 
 
 The following are extracts from a narrative written by Mr. Ken- 
 dall soon after the occurrence of the events which it records : — 
 
 " About the middle of October I left Georgetown and came to Frank- 
 fort. Previous to this event, George Madison, who had been unani- 
 mously elected governor of this State, died, and the administration had 
 devolved on Gabriel Slaughter, the lieutenant-governor. As I was 
 on my way there, I amused myself by imagining what a peaceable 
 and happy time I should have in Frankfort. There was little party 
 spirit in the State ; all was quiet and harmonious. I had anonymously 
 in the * Argus ' commenced an attack on the editor of the ' Western 
 
EDITORIAL D^BtJT. I33 
 
 Monitor,' which I intended to continue, as well for amusement as in 
 support of the Republican party, which had suffered much in this State 
 by the course which their leaders had taken with respect to the ' Com- 
 pensation Bill.' Indulging in these reveries, I met Ben Taylor on the 
 top of the hill above Frankfort, who told me the acting governor had 
 appointed John Pope as his secretary. I was thunderstruck. I consid- 
 ered Pope the leader of the Federalists, and instantly foresaw a struggle 
 between the parties which must end in the exaltation of the FederaUsts, 
 or in the prostration of themselves and their leader. At that time I 
 had not a thought of the course which affairs have since taken, but ex- 
 pected the contest would last for four years. I knew that much was 
 expected from me by the Republicans, and both my interest and inclina- 
 tion gave me an instant resolution to take a decided stand against this 
 act of the acting governor. As soon as T came into town, Mr. Gerard 
 wished to know what course I thought we ought to pursue. I told him 
 we had only one course to take, which must be anti-administration. 
 After conversing with Mr. Bibb, we determined to publish whatever 
 should be offered on both sides, and as soon as communications were 
 offered in defence of the appointment, to express our own opinion. The 
 lieutenant-governor was extremely anxious to prevent the papers in 
 Frankfort from discussing the subject, and for that purpose held several 
 private conversations with Mr. Gerard and the editor of the ' Palla- 
 dium ' ; but it was in vain. They were inflexible. This act of the old 
 man gave me a great contempt for him at the start. It was in itself 
 mean and improper, and beneath the dignity of his office. 
 
 " On the 1st of November, 1816, I came out in a public address as 
 co-editor of the 'Argus.' All parties were pleased with my address, 
 and extolled me extravagantly. I received much attention from John 
 J. Marshall and John Pope ; but I thought it interested and felt under 
 no obligations. Because a quarrel was then existing between Mr. Gerard 
 and the Johnsons, and because I had disapproved of the Compensation 
 Bill, it was thought and asserted, that we would support Mr. Pope. I 
 could not help smiling to see men who ought to know better, expect that 
 we would yield our political principles to a little personal dispute. 
 Those men soon found their civilities useless, and entirely discontinued 
 
 them. 
 
 " Before I came to Frankfort, as I have before mentioned, a contro- 
 versy had arisen between Colonel James Johnson and Mr. Gerard, on 
 account of some expressions of Gerard with respect to Richard M. John- 
 son, both in conversation and in the ' Argus.' Gerard was the personal 
 friend of Ben Taylor (who had run against Colonel R. M. Johnson for 
 Congress), and though he intended voting for Johnson at the commence- 
 ment of the electioneering contest, yet on hearing Johnson abuse Tay- 
 
184 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 lor, as he thought improperly, changed his mind and voted for neither. 
 The controversy was carried on in the * Palladium ' and ' Argus,' and with 
 some warmth. The original of the first piece was written by myself at 
 the request of Johnson, who suggested to me all the ideas ; but when 
 published it was in a shape which I entirely disowned. When I became 
 an editor of the * Argus,' I made the parties mutually agree that this 
 controversy should cease. However, one piece appeared from Colonel 
 Johnson which irritated Gerard and offended me. Gerard was eager 
 for answering, but I dissuaded him ffom it, representing that it was 
 giving our enemies an advantage at our expense, and that, as Republi- 
 cans of the same principles, we ought by all means to put an end to the 
 controversy. I could not, however, persuade him to forego the satis- 
 faction of answering until I promised, if the attack were repeated, to 
 take up the pen myself and endeavor to make them smart for it. 
 Happily, however, nothing further was eaid on the subject. The ' Re- 
 porter,' at Lexington, which had all the feelings of Johnson, compli- 
 mented me at the expense of Gerard, by expressing a hope that the 
 * Argus ' would now retrieve itself from its doubtful character. I, how- 
 ever, answered that I did not receive the compliment with any pleasure, 
 on account of the pitiful slander it contained against my brother editor. 
 The writer of the compliment made an angry reply, and there it ended. 
 
 " The appointment of secretary was so generally disapproved by the 
 people, that it was thought the Senate might be induced to reject it. 
 On expressing some inclination to write on the subject, Mr. Gerard sug- 
 gested to me that several numbers addressed to the Senators might 
 probably have considerable effect. I accordingly commenced and wrote 
 several numbers signed ' Cato,' which were quoted into many of the 
 Kentucky papers. George Adams was at the same time writing articles 
 over the signature of ' Montgomery,' addressed to the lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor. I did not approve of the violence of his pieces, but would not 
 object to their publication. They were answered by a writer under the 
 name of ' Atticus,' and Adams replied in communications signed ' Snolus 
 Bolus,' which I mostly wrote over, and in which I made some altera- 
 tions. These pieces were vulgar, but contained some wit. 
 
 " If the nomination had been laid before the Senate when they first 
 met, it is believed that body would have been divided more equally or 
 have rejected it altogether. But it was delayed for several weeks, until 
 Mr. Hunt could have time to electioneer and explain his conduct, so that 
 every weak head (and there were many of them in the Senate) might 
 be influenced to support him. It has since been ascertained that he 
 wrote letters to gentlemen in the various counties, urging them to use 
 their influence with the people to make his appointment popular, and 
 with the Senators to procure a confirmation. Much pains was taken to 
 
POLITICAL CONTROVERSIES. I35 
 
 represent the appointment as popular, and many of the Senators were 
 doubtless deceived even with respect to their own districts. The ap- 
 pointment was confirmed, twenty-two to eleven. 
 
 " Before I came to Frankfort, I had addressed to Hunt, the editor of 
 the 'Western Monitor,' an anonymous letter in the 'Argus,' signed 
 * Derius.' He suspected me, as was apparent in his answer, and in my 
 reply I gave him leave to publish my name. He did so, and we can-ied 
 on a controversy in our own proper names, until it ended, as such con- 
 troversies generally do, in personal invective. We had been very 
 friendly ; but this broke our friendship, and though we have since met, 
 it has been without cordiality. Yet many suspicious persons believed, 
 or afi'ected to believe, that we perfectly understood each other, ai:d 
 were quarrelling just for amusement ! Unluckily, we were both Yankees, 
 who are in this country a suspected people, and have to suffer for the 
 follies of much worse men. In the contest with Hunt, I was accused 
 of violence ; but I was more guilty of vanity. The Federalists thought 
 that Hunt could write me down ; but, I believe, it was generally 
 agreed that I had the best of the fight. 
 
 " The next editor with whom I came in contact was Doctor Anthony 
 Hunn of Harrodsburg. He is a man of some talent, little education, 
 and a great deal of vanity. He assailed me by a letter directed to me 
 personally in his paper. I made some inquiries concerning him, and 
 findins: that he was more of a villain than a writer, I turned an anecdote 
 concerning him into poetry, to the tune of * Yankee Doodle,' which 
 raised a great laugh upon him, and silenced him for a time. 
 
 " My next controversy was with a paper which was established last 
 winter in Frankfort. As soon as it was found that neither the ' Argus ' 
 nor ' Palladium ' was friendly to Mr. Pope, a third paper was established 
 here under the name of the * Commentator,' by Moses 0. Bledsoe. 
 This man had been a partner of Mr. Gerard for a short time, was after- 
 wards married to a lady of some fortune, dissipated it all, and now, 
 under the auspices and by the assistance of Mr. Pope and his friends, 
 established this paper, in conducting which he took the message of the 
 lieutenant-governor to the last legislature for his creed. We well knew 
 that the great object of this establishment was our injury. Neverthe- 
 less, it was a considerable time before we took any notice of it. They 
 procured Mann Butler, from Louisville, to write for it, and affected a 
 character for conciliation and moderation. Soon after Butler came into 
 the establishment he made an attack on the ' Argus,' and we retaliated 
 by giving an account of the origin of the paper and the views of its 
 friends, called it a hireling press, and Butler a hired writer. The con- 
 sequence was an attack by Bledsoe on Mr. Gerard with a stick. No 
 mischief was done, and as they gave no satisfactory answer, we repeated 
 
186 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the charge, and kept up our fire. Butler's name did not appear in the 
 paper ; but as we knew he was a man unable to bear it, from extreme 
 sensitiveness, all our observations were aimed at him by name. As we 
 anticipated, he could not bear it ; his friends were dissatisfied with him, 
 and he with them, so that he concluded to quit the paper. He has 
 since changed sides entirely ; told me that he found there was more 
 rancor in the no-party men than in us, and that he had reason to believe 
 that what we had said of the ' Commentator ' was true. He, however, 
 declared with respect to himself, that he knew only Bledsoe in the bar- 
 gain which he had made, and I believe he told the truth. He is a man 
 of the best intentions, but easily deceived. 
 
 *' At the commencement of the session of the general assembly last 
 winter, I asked leave to take a seat in the House and report the speeches 
 and proceedings. Leave was readily granted, and I continued to do it 
 throughout the session. With the exception of two or three members, 
 whose speeches, it was said, were much better as reported by me than as 
 spoken by themselves, all the members of the House were not only satis- 
 fied, but pleased. It was not only gratifying to the members themselves, 
 because it flattered them, but was very acceptable to the people. It gave 
 an importance to our paper which brought it many subscribers, and made 
 the representatives in some measure dependent on me. We were elected 
 public printers without opposition, and with the exception of the attack 
 by Bledsoe on Gerard, the winter passed away in tolerable quiet. 
 
 ^' Soon after I came to Frankfort a question arose whether or not the 
 Constitution of the State required or authorized an election of governor 
 to supply the place of George Madison. If I remember right it was 
 mentioned to me first by Colonel Charles S. Todd, the secretary of 
 Madison, who had been displaced by Slaughter to make room for Pope. 
 He gave no opinion, but asked mine. The question then presented was, 
 whether at the next annual election in August, another governor should 
 be chosen to remain in office for the balance of the term for which Madi- 
 son had been elected. I turned to the Constitution, and gave my 
 opinion decidedly in the negative. I, however, drew up a list of reasons, 
 both for and against a new election, and published them in the 'Argus,* 
 without giving to the public any opinion. Little more was said on the 
 subject until about the middle of the session of the general assembly, 
 when Matthew Lyon, a man without political principle or honesty, ad- 
 dressed a few essays to the people on the subject. He is said to have 
 been induced to this measure by some of his acquaintances in Lexing- 
 ton who told him he had been suspected of being a Federalist, and 
 must redeem his character. These essays excited conversation, and 
 some time after their publication, Mr. Mills introduced a resolution 
 into the House of Representatives, providing for the raising of a com- 
 
A NOTABLE DEBATE. 
 
 187 
 
 mittee for the purpose of inquiring into the constitutionality of a 
 new elec||ion. This resolution was lost by a majority of only six. 
 The friends of a new election were surprised at so great a vote 
 in favor of it, and resolved to try their strength in a more formal 
 manner. The people of Lexington were generally in favor of a new 
 election; but their most efficient representative, Joseph C. Brecken- 
 ridge, was opposed to it. Some of them, however, made him a visit, 
 and he consented to bring the measure forward again. I had fre- 
 quently heard him express an opposite opinion, and was astonished at 
 his course, as I saw no reason for a change of sentiment. How he over- , 
 came his scruples I know not ; but he asked leave to bring in a bill to 
 provide for a new election of governor, and made a considerable display 
 of learning, if not of eloquence, in its defence. The debate continued 
 for the best part of three days. Breckenridge and Crittenden (John J.) 
 were the principal advocates of the measure. Mills, to the astonish- 
 ment of everybody, was in opposition, and said his only motive for in- 
 troducing the subject before was to get an able report against it, which 
 should go to the people and put down essays from abroad. The motive 
 was an unworthy one, and the apparent duplicity of Mr. Mills's conduct 
 on this occasion has effectually ruined his political influence. Thus by 
 one imprudent step is the popularity founded on years of faithful ser- 
 vices swept away in a moment. It now appeared that an immense 
 majority were against a new election; the vote stood twenty-six to 
 sixty-one, and the Senate immediately concurred without debate, three 
 to twenty-one. My opinion coincided with that of the majority, but 
 my feelings were all with the minority, among whom were my best per- 
 sonal friends. I reported the debate, and soon after the close of the 
 session commenced its publication, with the intention of taking no part 
 in the controversy. Gerard was in favor of the measure, and wished to 
 come out on that side of it ; but was restrained by me. At length, the 
 decision of the same question by the legislature of New York, in a case 
 precisely similar was received, which led me to an investigation. They 
 provided for a new election both of governor and lieutenant-governor 
 for a new term of four years. On examining the two Constitutions, I 
 was surprised at the coincidence between them with respect to the 
 executive department. About this time Mr. Bibb gave his opinion with 
 his reasons, and directed my attention to the Constitution and a law of 
 the United States by which a new election had been authorized on no 
 better authority than was given in our Constitution. I now determined 
 to write out the arguments, pro and con, and compare them together. 
 I beo-an with the pros, and when I came to the cons I could not think 
 of any which would balance the weight of the pros. The latter, there- 
 fore, preponderated, and I formed an opinion in favor of an election of 
 
188 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 governor and lientenant-govemor for a new term of four years. What 
 influence dislike for Pope and Slaughter may have had on my mind I 
 cannot tell ; but I am sure that if it had any it was unconsciously. 
 The question now was, What shall be done 1 A large majority of the 
 State were doubtless of a different opinion. They might attribute our 
 course to a dislike for men. Should we come out and strenuously advo- 
 cate a new election, we would attack the decision of the legislature, and 
 run the risk of losing not only the public work, but the support of the 
 people. We did not, however, long hesitate; but determined to risk 
 everything. I took up my pen and wrote a long argument before we 
 commenced the publication. I took measures, by writing to several in- 
 dividuals, to have my articles republished throughout the State ; for 
 to us the contest was neck or nothing. On the 11th of April we began 
 the publication, and continued it in five successive numbers. It drew to 
 our paper several subscribers, but seemed at first to make but little 
 noise. It was not long, however, before I heard that the friends of a 
 new election throughout the country were taking that ground. The 
 * Commentator ' here, which had abused and insulted us for our hypoc- 
 risy in not coming out on this question, found itself utterly unable to 
 support the contest. The ' Western Monitor ' said but little. My arti- 
 cles were republished in several papers, and generally read. Seeing no 
 answer, doubting the event, and having nothing more to say, I was 
 about to drop the discussion, when a writer in the * Commentator,' under 
 the name of * Plain Truth,' undertook to answer my articles. I copied 
 his articles into the 'Argus,' and immediately after each article sub- 
 joined a reply under the name of ' Plainer Truth.' This was happily 
 managed, and produced considerable effect. I began now to hear of 
 some agitation in various counties, and of candidates coming out upon 
 this question. Mr. Bibb came out publicly and harangued the people 
 of Franklin ; Jesse Bledsoe addressed a letter to the public, and became 
 a candidate ; the papers at Lexington assumed the same ground that I 
 had taken, and William T. Barry came out in that county as a candidate 
 for the Senate. The adherents of the lieutenant-governor, finding the 
 proposed measure rapidly gaining ground throughout the State, re- 
 doubled their exertions, and published a pamphlet called * The Consti- 
 tutionalist,' signed * A Kentuckian,' and written by George Robinson, 
 Esq., afterwards a representative in Congress. My original plan for 
 managing the controversy was, that after we had published two num- 
 bers, Mr. Bibb should come out in the ' Argus,' signing his own proper 
 name, which was always his custom, and that after the conclusion the 
 whole should be printed in a pamphlet. My object was to attract atten- 
 tion, by the weight of his name, before the publication of my third arti- 
 cle, which was much the most important, and to follow up the effect of 
 
POLITICAL TRIUMPH. 189 
 
 newspaper writing with a pamphlet circulated liberally throughout all 
 the counties in the State. But Mr. Bibb, though he had promised, was 
 too indolent to write, and there was nobody to pay the expense of the 
 pamphlets. But as soon as ' The Constitutionalist ' appeared, the 
 Democrats were eager to have a pamphlet in reply, and gave assurances 
 of a liberal contribution. I therefore took up the pen. Many new 
 ideas having been suggested in the discussion, I abandoned the track of 
 my first argument and struck out a new course. In three days I pro- 
 duced a pamphlet of thirty-nine pages, which, at the suggestion of 
 Colonel C. S. Todd, I called ' Free Suffrage.' The rough draft, with a 
 little correction, without writing over, except about two pages at the end 
 of the 'conclusion,' was sent to the press, and in a few days we struck 
 off five thousand copies. This was a timely measure. The influence 
 of ' The Constitutionalist ' was considerable, and the current of public 
 opinion in some counties evidently changing. But ' Free Suffrage,' 
 which I took good care myself to distribute in every direction, soon 
 changed the current and made it set more strongly than ever in favor 
 of a new election. The contest was still maintained in the papers, and 
 ' Plainer Truth ' being too much for ' Plain Truth,' another writer came 
 out in the 'Commentator' under the name of 'Truth.' This was 
 Humphrey Marshall, famous in the politics of Kentucky, and a masterly 
 hand at misrepresentation and abuse. His article contained only these 
 two qualities, and was aimed at me too plainly to be misunderstood. 
 He called me everything, and among the rest a knave or a fool. I then 
 answered him under the name of ' A Fool,' pointed out who he was, etc., 
 etc. He then gave a ludicrous description of me, which was laughable 
 for its absurdity, to which I never replied. 
 
 '' Everything was going on in a favorable train, but as if Heaven had 
 really made mad those whom it intended to destroy, Mr. Pope under- 
 took the writing of letters to various individuals to ' save the Constitu- 
 tion,' as he called it, or, in other words, to save himself Among the 
 rest he wrote to Charles H. Allen, a candidate in Henry County, wishing 
 him to decline if Edward George of that county would offer, pronoun- 
 cing the new election scheme ' wicked,' inviting him to patronize the 
 * Commentator,' which he called 'a very good paper,' telling him he 
 'would have no reason to regret it,' and conchiding with the statement 
 that he might ' be assured of his good will.' But the secretary mistook 
 his man. Mr. Allen, though at first opposed to a new election, had 
 changed his mind. Being questioned with respect to this letter, he 
 showed it, and sent it to me for publication. I accompanied it with 
 severe remarks, calculated to rouse the people, and show them the con- 
 sequences of executive interference in their elections. The secretary 
 was in a rage, and immediately replied by a hand-bill. In this he prom- 
 
190 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 ised to address the people again before the election, and after that event 
 to give them some account of his political conduct. This was a hasty 
 and passionate piece of composition, in which he exposed himself to 
 ridicule, which was so liberally bestowed in the next ' Argus ' that he 
 has been silent ever since. This man has effected much by private 
 letters ; but now he was caught in his own snare. His hand-bill was 
 received with general indignation. His enemies pronounced it corrupt, 
 and his friends imprudent. Scarcely anybody justified him except the 
 newspapers which were in his interest. 
 
 " Notwithstanding all this, I had some fears with respect to the event. 
 Accounts from the Green River section were contradictory ; but the 
 general impression was that a majority was opposed to the new election. 
 In the middle section, a majority was on that side beyond a doubt. On 
 the north side of the Kentucky, we were sure of a considerable majority. 
 For myself, I was afraid that the majority in the House of Representa- 
 tives would be too small to be overwhelming ; that the Senate would 
 oppose, and the question be lost. In that event, I should have regretted 
 that I had ever taken it up. In Franklin County our prospect was 
 rather doubtful. Mr. Bibb and C. S. Todd were our candidates. They 
 were opposed by John J. Marshall and Richard Taylor. Marshall's 
 friends were sanguine for him, but had no hopes of Taylor's election. 
 Thinking their favorite strong enough to out-poll anybody, and pre- 
 ferring Colonel Todd to Mr. Bibb, because he has less talents and iu- 
 fluence, they electioneered for Marshall and Todd. They did not see 
 their error till it was too late to retreat. After a warm struggle during 
 the three days of election, we beat them by a considerable majority, and 
 triumphantly elected Bibb and Todd. On the evening of the close of 
 the election, a multitude of our friends collected at Mrs. Price's, where 
 they raised Bibb, Todd, and a number of others, among whom was my- 
 self, on their shoulders, and carried us around the room. 
 
 " We soon heard that the new election candidates had succeeded in 
 every county except one on the north side of the Kentucky, in several 
 of the middle counties, and almost universally in the Green River 
 country, insuring to our party an overwhelming majority in the next 
 House of Representatives. In April Mr. Gerard, either from fear of 
 the event of the controversy in which we were engaged, or because he 
 really wished to quit printing, proposed to sell out his part of the 
 * Argus ' office and retire to the country." 
 
 It is natural that men born in the same country, though per- 
 fect strangers to each other, meeting in a distant land, should be 
 predisposed to become friends. It was thus that Mr. Kendall had 
 become the friend of John H. Farnham, wliile the one lived in the 
 
A VINDICTIVE CONTROVERSY. 
 
 191 
 
 family of Mr. Clay, and the other in the family of Mr. Alexander. 
 About the time that Mr. Kendall settled in Georgetown, Mr Farn- 
 ham began the practice of the law in Versailles. After the former 
 removed to Frankfort Farnham visited him, and stated that, seeing 
 no prospect of gettijig a living by his profession, he was desirous 
 of getting a school for the present. Mr. Kendall then boarded 
 with his partner, Mr. Gerard, in whose house he occupied a room. 
 He entered warmly into Mr. Farnham's views, and offered, if he 
 w^ould come to Frankfort, to share his room and bed with him, and 
 to get his partner to board him, and take in payment the instruc- 
 tion of his children. Under this arrangement Farnham came to 
 Frankfort, and established a respectable school. 
 
 Farnham was a Federalist in politics, and sympathized with Mr. 
 Pope and the lieutenant-governor. These circumstances would 
 have been disregarded had he confined himself to the business of 
 his school, or uttered his opinions with deference to those of 
 others. But his manner was loud and confident ; he indulged 
 freely in sarcasm, and had a broad, meaning laugh, which was very 
 irritating. Worse than all, he would spend long evenings with Mr. 
 Pope, and without seeming to feel that there was any breach of 
 honor in it, would detail to the editors of the " Argus " his private 
 political conversations. Believing that a man who would fetch 
 would carry also, especially as his avowed sympathies were with 
 their adversaries, Mr. Gerard and Mr. Kendall became very re- 
 served in their conversation with him. Finally, Mr. Gerard be- 
 came so disgusted with his rude and ungentlemanly manners that 
 he requested him to find board elsewhere. Though Mr. Kendall 
 had found him a most disagreeable room-mate, who seemed to have 
 no care for anybody's comfort but his own, he never had any alter- 
 cation with him, and apparently they parted friends. Not long 
 afterwards, a rumor was in circulation that Mr. Farnham was to 
 become the editor of the " Commentator." This was more than 
 confirmed by letters from the Green Eiver country, where he was 
 making a political tour, detailing his conversations, the leading 
 feature of which was, that on his return to Frankfort he would 
 become editor of the " Commentator," and " hieio enough about Mr. 
 Kendall to ivrlte him down." Thus forewarned, Mr. Kendall, know- 
 ing that a vindictive controversy with his old friend was impend- 
 ing, determined to bring it to an issue as soon as possible. 
 
 In his first article Mr. Farnham assailed the ''Argus," charging 
 
192 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 it with malignity and falsehood in its course toward the " Com- 
 mentator." The "Argus" retorted by giving the history of the 
 " Commentator," alleged that it was established to promote objects 
 of personal ambition ; that Mr. Farnham's politics were of the 
 Federal stamp, and that he was an hireling editor who had sold his 
 talents to the ambitious men who had established tliat paper. In 
 his reply, he said all this " came with an ill grace from one who 
 was hired to write for the ' Minerva Press ' and Georgetown ' Pa- 
 triot,' and had now sold his pen to a printer in this town (Frank- 
 fort) for a fixed salary." Farnham very well knew that Mr. Ken- 
 dall was a CQ-proprietor of the "Minerva Press" and the "Argus," 
 and in the case of the latter Farnham was one of those who had 
 advised the purchase. The "Argus" and "Commentator" were 
 both weekly papers, published on the same day ; but the issue of 
 the latter containing these allegations was circulated before the 
 former was ready for the press. To bring the matter to an issue at 
 once, Mr. KendaU inserted a paragraph in the " Argus " declaring 
 the first and last points made in Mr. Farnham's article " base and 
 wilful falsehoods." This blunt and decisive contradiction, circulated 
 within an hour or two after the publication of his own paper, en- 
 raged Mr. Farnham, who publicly announced his purpose to de- 
 mand personal satisfaction. Mr. Kendall was soon advised of the 
 threat, and being far Mr. Farnham's inferior in size and strength, 
 he procured a dirk and placed it in his bosom. His office opened 
 upon the street, and he was sitting at a table directing newspapers, 
 when Mr. Farnham entered. He rose as Farnham approached, 
 when the latter invited him to go into the street, saying that he 
 desired some conversation with him. There were two journeymen 
 at work in the office, and Mr. Kendall replied that he preferred 
 that there should be witnesses to their conversation, bidding him 
 to proceed with what he had to say. Farnham then said he wished 
 Kendall to go out of his own premises, and invited him to go into 
 a bookstore a few rods distant. To this proposition Kendall as- 
 sented, and they left together for the bookstore. On their way 
 Mr. Kendall observed Bledsoe and others of Farnham's partisans 
 near at hand, their presence indicating a conspiracy to beat him, 
 and repented that he had left his own office ; but he deemed it 
 inexpedient to retreat. In the bookstore Mr. Farnham began 
 to interrogate Mr. Kendall, who answered somewhat at length, 
 to gain time for the arrival of his friends, who had now begun to 
 
A PERSONAL ENCOUNTER. 3^93 
 
 flock in. At length Farnham came to a pause, evidently showing 
 that he had the worst of the conversation, and began to falter in 
 his purpose. Suddenly, however, he exclaimed that he had been 
 charged with falsehood, and would not stand it, at the same time 
 striking at Mr. Kendall with his fist. There was an instant rush 
 upon them, which nearly threw them down. As he rose, Mr. Ken- 
 dall drew the dirk from his bosom, but had no chance to use it. 
 Farnham, when the rush was made, had sprung upon the counter, 
 with the view of escaping into the counting-room ; but Mr. Gerard, 
 seizing his coat-tail, drew him violently back upon the floor and 
 sprung upon him. Bledsoe, attempting to interfere, was taken in 
 hand by the keeper of the bookstore, so that two fights were going 
 on while Mr. Kendall, the cause of all the turmoil, was lookinor 
 on with a dirk in his right hand. The melee lasted but a moment. 
 Gerard had taken a large dirk from Farnham's bosom, and he . 
 raised it as if intending to thrust it through his body, when Ken- 
 dall rushed forward and wrenched the weapon away, cutting his 
 own fingers in the operation. He then had a dirk in each hand, 
 but made no use of them. 
 
 The combatants having separated, it appeared that nobody was 
 seriously injured except Mr. Farnham. One of his shoulders was 
 dislocated by his fall from the counter, and his eyes were badly 
 gouged by Mr. Gerard. The only hurt received by Mr. KendaU 
 was a slight scratch in the face. 
 
 In his next paper Mr. Farnham repeated his false statements, 
 and pretended to have evidence of their truth in Mr. Kendall's 
 private letters. Mr. Kendall asked leave to take copies of those 
 letters, which was refused. He then announced the refusal, de- 
 clared there could be no such evidence in the letters, as no such 
 facts ever existed, and challenged Farnham to publish them. The 
 latter published a few extracts torn from their context, and put 
 upon them false constructions, which were dissipated by a few words 
 of explanation. He was denounced for using private letters, written 
 in the freedom and confidence of youthful friendship, and at the 
 same time defied to publish them entire, as the best refutation of 
 his own charges. 
 
 At length he announced in the " Commentator " that any person 
 could see the letters by caUing at his room. Though Mr. Kendall 
 knew what he had not said in the letters touching the matters under 
 discussion, he did not remember what he had said about other mat- 
 
 13 
 
194 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 ters. At his request a friend of tis called and read the whole 
 series, and reported that they contained nothing which could do 
 the writer any harm, while they did contain that which would 
 subject Farnham to universal contempt. He had made Mr. Ken- 
 dall a confidant in his love affair with Miss Alexander, and that 
 was one of the subjects treated of in this correspondence in the 
 lightest and freest manner. 
 
 In the mean time Farnham continued to abuse Mr. Kendall in 
 the " Commentator," in language which the latter did not care to 
 employ in his own columns ; but finding that the continued attacks 
 were producing some effect upon a certain class of readers, he re- 
 sorted to the expedient of retorting in letters addressed to his 
 assailant by name, printed in handbills, and enclosed with their 
 papers to all the subscribers of the " Argus." These letters were 
 marvellous specimens of ridicule and blackguardism ; but they had 
 their effect. The upshot was, that Mr. Farnham incurred the con- 
 tempt of his own political friends as well as enemies ; was expelled 
 from the Masonic lodge of which he was a member, compelled to 
 abandon his editorial position, and, in effect, was driven from the 
 State of Kentucky. 
 
 It is not often that men can be found so utterly destitute of 
 gratitude, delicacy, and honor as was John H. Farnham. After 
 the battle was over, and he had fled to Indiana, Mr. Kendall being 
 at Cincinnati, was offered by his friend Guilford a letter from 
 Farnham to him, in which the latter had asked him for any facts 
 within his knowledge which he could use to Kendall's detriment. 
 Mr. Kendall declined to accept the letter, or even to read it. In 
 after years he had become a Mason, and twice Masons came to 
 him, probably at Farnham's instance, and proposed a reconciliation. 
 His answer was, in substance, that when a man had wronged him 
 through misinformation, mistake, or in a passion, he could forgive 
 him and become his friend ; but the deliberate attack of this man 
 upon his intimate friend, and the means resorted to by him pend- 
 ing the controversy, proved him to be rotten at the heart. He had 
 no feeling which would induce him to pursue the fugitive beyond 
 the Ohio for the purpose of doing him an injury, but no friendly 
 relation could ever exist between them. 
 
 In July, 1817, a concerted effort was made to injure the 
 " Argus," on account of the course it was pursuing in relation to 
 Mr, Pope and a new election, by inducing its subscribers to dis- 
 
BLEDSOE'S ATTACK, AND ITS RESULT. ' 195 
 
 continue their papers. A batcli of twenty in Shelby County dis- 
 continued at the same time. Mr. Kendall wrote to some of his 
 friends in Lexington informing them what was going on and in- 
 voking their active support. His letter appeared to be misunder- 
 stood ; for the gentleman to whom it was addressed called a few 
 days afterwards and offered him five hundred dollars in cash, which 
 offer he at once declined, stating that the only assistance he could 
 accept was through a ho7id fide increase of his subscription-list. 
 He knew not how the money was to be raised, or who was to con- 
 tribute it ; but his object in rejecting it was the maintenance of his 
 entire independence of all pecuniary obligations in his editorial 
 career. As soon as the concerted movement against his paper 
 became generally known, he received four or five new subscribers 
 for every one lost. 
 
 In reviewing the contest in 1817, after the election, the " Argus " 
 spoke of the " Commentator " as " a corrupt Federal press, estab- 
 lished for our destruction," etc. Soon after that number of the 
 "Argus" which contained these words was issued Mr. Kendall 
 was passing from his lodgings to his office, which were but a few 
 yards apart, bareheaded, with an inkstand in his hand, when he 
 met Bledsoe, who, without saying a word, knocked or pushed him 
 down, and when he attempted to rise repeated the operation 
 several times before he was arrested. Mr. Kendall was unarmed, 
 and his assailant possessed twice his physical strength. It was 
 remarkable that, with the exception of a slight soreness in the 
 chest from a blow, the former was not hurt in the least. 
 
 A few days afterward, being on a visit to Scott County, he men- 
 tioned to Colonel James Johnson Bledsoe's attack and its result. 
 The Colonel remarked that Bledsoe was not satisfied, and would 
 certanily repeat the attack. On learning that Mr. Kendall did not 
 carry arms, he induced him to accept a small pocket pistol, then 
 out of order and having no flint in it, with the view of having it 
 repaired and carrying it in his pocket. On Mr. Kendall's return, 
 about three miles from Frankfort, in a lonely part of the road, he 
 saw Bledsoe with a friend, both mounted, coming to meet him. As 
 they approached he saw Bledsoe change positions with his friend, 
 for the evident purpose of coming witliin striking distance ; but 
 affected to take no notice of the movement. The horses were so 
 near each other that their necks lapped, when both parties raised 
 their whips, Bledsoe exclaiming " Don't you deserve a damned 
 
196 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 whipping, you infernal rascal," and both struck Startled by the 
 noise of the whips, the horses shot by each other, and Mr. Kendall, 
 looking back, saw that Bledsoe was wheeling his horse for the evi- 
 dent purpose of renewing the attack, when thrusting one hand in 
 his pocket, by a sudden jerk with the other he wheeled his own 
 horse, exclaiming, " I will give you a damned shooting, you infernal 
 rascal." Bledsoe sheered off, and rode on. 
 
 The thought that a man of twice his strength, accompanied by 
 another bully, should thus attempt to intercept and beat him on 
 the highway, so exasperated Mr. Kendall, that for half a mile he 
 was resolved that as soon as he got to town he would put his pis- 
 tol in order and shoot Bledsoe on his return. But it then occurred 
 to him that it would be a more satisfactory revenge to tell the story 
 immediately on his arrival, showing his weapon, and thus prepar- 
 ing everybody to laugh at Bledsoe for running away from a dis- 
 abled and empty pistol. The cowardly attack and the inglorious 
 flight went far to destroy whatever respect the public had for 
 Moses 0. Bledsoe, and finally he also abandoned the " Commenta- 
 tor " and left the State. 
 
 The following is Mr. Kendall's opinion of himself, as deduced 
 from these personal rencounters, and written down soon after- 
 wards : — 
 
 *' So far as these affairs have enabled me to know myself, my opinion 
 is that I have not so much of the daring in me as some men, but that I 
 have nothing of cowardice. I have not felt intimidated at the time of 
 the attacks nor lost my presence of mind, and the most I fear from a 
 repetition of them is the necessity of killing him. I would rather dis- 
 arm and take a whipping, if that were safe or would be esteemed honor- 
 able." 
 
 The rules of conduct Mr. Kendall had prescribed to himself as 
 an editor were, that he would never knowingly assert an untruth 
 about men, measures, or things ; that if betrayed into one by mis- 
 information or mistake, he would, as soon as correctly informed, 
 retract it, whether requested by an injured party to do so or not; 
 that no threats or violence should induce him to retract any state- 
 ment which he believed to be true ; that if insulted, he woidd re- 
 turn the insult in kind ; that if assaulted, he would defend himself 
 by any means at hand, if necessary by taking the life of his as- 
 sailant, but would sooner take a whipping than run when attacked. 
 As to duelling, he would not say that nothing could induce him to 
 
A VISIT TO GOVERNOR SHELBY. I97 
 
 fight a duel, but lie would state his conviction that anything which 
 could justify him to himself in attempting to take the life of a man 
 in a duel, would justify him in deliberately shooting down his 
 adversary in the street. Guided by these rules, he was never chal- 
 lenged or insulted, except in newspaper paragraphs, for which he 
 was able to retaliate in kind. 
 
 Mr. Kendall's first political campaign had ended in an over- 
 whelming victory. 
 
 The House of Eepresentatives, at the preceding session, had by 
 a vote of sixty-one to twenty-six decided against a new election 
 for a fractional term, and had thus, in a degree, prejudiced the pub- 
 lic mind against the measure in any shape. He changed the issue 
 to an election of a governor and lieutenant-governor for a full term, 
 thus displacing the acting-governor ; and it was interestiag to see 
 with what facility the original supporters of a new election aban- 
 doned their own project and adopted his. In achieving this result, 
 however, he had been essentially aided by the known opinions of 
 George M. Bibb, then a lawyer of high standing, though the labor 
 of the controversy was originally all his own. As it progressed, 
 however, W. T. Barry, Jesse Bledsoe, and many other prominent 
 men fell into the ranks and swelled the victorious host. 
 
 It was at first thought that so decisive a demonstration of public 
 opinion would settle the question ; but doubts soon arose whether 
 the Senate, but one fourth of whose members were elected annu- 
 ally, would yield to the popular will. In the hope of operating on 
 that body, Mr. Kendall wrote and published a series of articles, 
 entitled, " The Federalism of Kentucky," the object of which was 
 to satisfy the members that it was their duty to obey or resign. 
 
 During the summer and faU of 1817 Mr. Kendall travelled but 
 little, his presence being required at headquarters. On one of his 
 brief excursions he made a visit to the venerable Isaac Shelby, one 
 of the heroes of King's Mountain, in the Eevolutionary War, who 
 had been Governor of Kentucky, and then lived on a plantation in 
 Lincoln County. The old man was stiU vigorous in body and 
 mind, and was possessed of a fund of interesting facts touching 
 the early history of Kentucky. Not far from his house was the 
 Knob Lick, which was of itself a great curiosity. The Lick was 
 an extensive excavation in the side of a hill, dug by the tongues 
 of buffalo. The earth of which the hilL was composed was im- 
 pregnated with alum and salt. Thousands of buffalo had for ages 
 
198 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 come there to lick, until they had dug away one side of the hill. 
 Governor Shelby said that for some time after his settlement in 
 Lincoln County he procured most of his meat in this spot. His 
 practice was to hide behind a tree upon the brow of the excava- 
 tion, rifle in hand, and from the hundreds, and sometimes thou- 
 sands, of animals collected below, select a young fat buffalo and 
 shoot him down. Sometimes he would take this position for 
 amusement, and, when multitudes had collected, would suddenly 
 show himself and throw a club among them, when the whole herd 
 would take to flight through the forest with a sound like distant 
 thunder, which could be heard for miles. When not in a panic, 
 the buffalo travelled slowly, in broad, beaten paths and in a direct 
 line, departed from only when they met insurmountable obstacles. 
 Though at this time not a buffalo was to be found in Kentucky, 
 one of their roads was still to be seen passing over the very sum- 
 mit of an adjacent knob ; for, like many human road-makers, they 
 had not learned that it is often less laborious to go round a hill than 
 over it. 
 
 At the session of the legislature commencing in December, 1817, 
 the House of Eepresentatives passed, by a vote of fifty-six to thirty, 
 an act providing for an election of a governor and lieutenant- 
 governor at the next general election, to be held in August, 1818 ; 
 but, as had been expected, the Senate refused to concur. Some of 
 the most ardent advocates of a new election proposed to hold one 
 without the sanction of the legislature, on the ground that it was 
 only the exercise of a constitutional right ; but the more moderate 
 of the party, including Mr. Kendall, thought that course too 
 hazardous to be adopted, and recommended that a further attempt 
 be made at tlie next election to secure a majority of the Senate. 
 Their counsels prevailed, and it was resolved again to submit the 
 issue to the people. 
 
 Mr. Kendall reported the proceedings of the legislature, includ- 
 ing sketches of the leading speeches, and the editors of the " Argus " 
 were elected public printers. 
 
 During the spring and summer of 1818 the new election con- 
 troversy was still carried on, but with less bitterness than in the 
 preceding year. The Democratic, or 'Rew Election Party, again 
 carried the House of Eepresentatives by a large majority, but still 
 failed to secure a majority in the Senate. 
 
CHAPTER YII. 
 
 In the mean time a new question had arisen, which began to 
 engross the attention of the people. In 1811 Congress had re- 
 fused to renew the charter of the Bank of the United States then 
 existing, on the ground that such an institution was incompatible 
 with the Constitution. The financial difficulties of the govern- 
 ment, during the war of 1812 with Great Britain, and the sus- 
 pension of specie payments by most of the State banks, induced 
 many patriotic men, originally opposed to a Bank of the United 
 States, to think such an institution necessary to regulate the cur- 
 rency and internal exchanges, and give additional financial and po- 
 litical strength to the government. 
 
 There were in 1812-14 other causes of the weakness of the 
 government than the want of such an institution. The restric- 
 tive policy of Jefferson's and Madison's administrations, adopted 
 and persisted in to prevent the United States from becoming in- 
 volved in the war growing out of the French Eevolution, had 
 crippled tlie trade of the country and alienated the commercial 
 interest which then held most of its available wealth. Had a 
 National Bank then existed, it would have been under the control 
 of men whose feelings and interests were averse to the war, and 
 instead of strengthening the government it might have added 
 greatly to its embarrassments. Experience has shown how falla- 
 cious is the idea of regulating the currency by means of a National 
 Bank. Indeed, the scheme of sustaining a paper currency of uni- 
 form value throughout a country so commercial and extensive as 
 the United States, is an absurdity. If there be a paper currency 
 equivalent to gold and silver at the commercial centres, as at New 
 York, it will be worth more than gold and silver at distant points, 
 as at Chicago and St. Louis. The obvious reason is, that the dif- 
 ference of exchange between distant points and New York is al- 
 most always in favor of that city, and bank-notes equal in value 
 there to specie can be transmitted more cheaply than gold and sil- 
 
200 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 ver. They in fact answer the purpose of bills of exchange, and 
 will as naturally flow towards those points whence the merchants 
 derive their supplies of goods, as water runs to the ocean. In an 
 extensive commercial community, therefore, a paper currency of 
 equal value everywhere is impracticable. Most absurd is the at- 
 tempt to establish such a currency in a country full of local banks, 
 whose notes, though equal to gold and silver in their own imme- 
 diate neighborhood, are below the par of specie at the commercial 
 centres, and cannot be used as bills of exchange. It is a general 
 law of currency, that when two kinds of bank-notes, or any other 
 medium, exist together in the same community, the least valuable 
 is the most current. If a man have notes of several banks, which 
 he esteems of different values, he will first part with those which he 
 thinks least valuable ; and as every man acts upon the same prin- 
 ciple, it happens that the less valuable currency has the greater 
 circulation. This law accounts for the fact that so little gold and 
 silver circulates in company with ordinary bank-notes. But let 
 bank-notes be issued in the interior which are everywhere equal to 
 specie, and they will at once disappear from circulation, because, 
 being available as exchange, they are in that locality worth more 
 than the local bank-notes or specie itself, and are hoarded for sale 
 or remittance. The result would be the same if there were no 
 local bank-notes in existence. 
 
 But not only was the country led to expect a paper currency 
 everywhere of equal value from a Bank of the United States, but 
 this institution was expected also to equalize the domestic ex- 
 changes, a process almost as difficult, if not so absurd. It would 
 involve the necessity of an organization with offices in every con- 
 siderable city and town in the United States, with authority in 
 each to draw bills on every other office, and transmit specie to 
 meet constantly accruing balances. Could all the trade between 
 the different sections of the country be carried on both ways by 
 bills of exchange, there would be no necessity for any considerable 
 transportation of specie under ordinary circumstances. There is a 
 visible flow of funds in large volumes from the West to the East 
 for the purchase of commodities for Western consumption ; yet the 
 West is not drained. The funds return, not in so grand a volume, 
 but still with certainty, to keep up the ever-running stream to- 
 wards the East. The process may be compared to the perpetual 
 flow of the Mississippi Eiver, ever draining the great West, which 
 
THE UNITED STATES BANK OF 1816, 201 
 
 yet is never drained, because that which we see departing in mighty- 
 floods returns in dews, snowflakes, and raindrops. So the volume 
 of funds, which perpetually flows from the West to the East, is 
 fed by funds carried from the East to the West by emigration and 
 by the trade in horses, hogs, cattle, hemp, grain, and other 
 products. No doubt an organization is practicable which shall ap- 
 proximate an equalization of the exchanges between different sec- 
 tions of the country, requiring, under ordinary circumstances, very 
 little transportation of specie ; but how are its expenses to be paid, 
 and who is to guarantee the fidelity of such an army of officers 
 and agents as it would require ? 
 
 In April, 1816, an act of Congress was passed establishing a 
 Bank of the United States. The arguments in favor of such an 
 institution were as follows: — 
 
 1. That it would greatly facilitate the fiscal operations of the 
 Treasury of the United States. 
 
 2. That it would regulate the currency by compelling the State 
 banks to resume and continue specie-payment. 
 
 3. That it would equalize exchanges. 
 
 4. That it would furnish, in its notes, a currency everywhere in 
 the United States of uniform value, 
 
 In every one of these objects, except the first, the United States 
 Bank of 1816 was a total failure. 
 
 As the failure was perhaps more signal in Kentucky than any- 
 where else, its operations in that State, intimately connected as they 
 are with this narrative, will illustrate its operations elsewhere with 
 sufficient precision. 
 
 It not only failed in Kentucky as it did elsewhere " to regulate 
 the currency by compelling the State banks to resume and con- 
 tinue specie-payments," but it compelled the State banks to sus- 
 pend specie-payments after they had resumed. 
 
 After the close of the war of 1812 with Great Britain, the Bank 
 of Kentucky went to work, honestly and earnestly, in curtailing 
 its issues, and in the spring of 1817 resumed the payment of 
 
 specie. 
 
 About the same time a branch of the Bank of the United States 
 began operations in Lexington, and subsequently another was lo- 
 cated at Louisville. They issued very few notes, and such as they 
 did issue, instead of entering into general circulation, were snatched 
 up and sent East to pay for goods, the branches receiving the notes 
 
202 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 of the Bank of Kentucky for exchange ; in all their transactions 
 they soon accumulated heavy balances, which that bank, not being 
 able to obtain the notes of the branches, found it impossible to pay 
 otherwise than with its specie. The withdrawal of its notes from 
 circulation, first to enable it to resume specie-payments, and then 
 to sustain it in that ability under the adverse operation of the 
 United States branch banks, began to operate disastrously on the 
 prices of property and the means of debtors to pay their debts, 
 and a cry for relief went up to the legislature. It was answered 
 at the session of 1817-18, by the establishment of forty- three in- 
 dependent banks, scattered over the whole State. Their aggregate 
 capital was fixed at $ 5,670,000, to be composed of specie or the 
 notes of the Bank of Kentucky. During the year 1818 about half 
 of these banks went into operation, and threw out their notes. 
 For the moment this measure gave an impulse to speculation, 
 though it greatly aggravated the trouble which ensued. Men 
 reasoned that the establishment of banks would enhance the value 
 of property in the towns where they were located, and they made 
 extensive purchases of town property, borrowing notes from the 
 banks to make the first payment, and relying on sales at advanced 
 prices to meet the subsequent ones, and to yield them a profit. 
 The operation ended in the ruin of most of those who had em- 
 barked in it. The United States branch banks received tlie notes 
 of such of the new banks as were convenient to them and were 
 supposed to be prudently managed, thus restricting their issues as 
 well as those of the Bank of Kentucky ; while the unchecked inde- 
 pendent banks threw out their notes in profusion, filling the State 
 with a depreciated currency. The failure of the Bank of the 
 United States to " regulate the currency " was now conspicuous. 
 It checked banks which needed no check, forced them to take in 
 their notes, and furnished no substitute, thus leaving the field of 
 circulation to the inferior banks at home and in other States. 
 
 The Bank of the United States at first made an attempt to fur- 
 nish a currency everywhere of uniform value, which was one of 
 the principal objects of its creation. It received everywhere in 
 deposits and payments the notes of the principal bank and all its 
 branches. The consequence was that the notes of the Western 
 branches, being remitted Eastward as exchange, accumulated in 
 the principal bank and Eastern branches, raising balances against 
 the Western branches which at that time they had no means cf 
 
DISCUSSIOiT OF UNITED STATES BANK. 203 
 
 discharging otherwise than by the transportation of specie. About 
 $ 20,000,000 of the capital of the bank consisted of United States 
 five and six per cent stocks, and upwards of eight millions of stock 
 notes fraudulently received by the bank in lieu of the payment of 
 specie upon original subscriptions to the stock required by the 
 charter. Its specie capital was, therefore, very small, though aug- 
 mented by specie imported from abroad, to the amount of about 
 $ 7,300,000 ; and having lost credit by fraudulent management, 
 it became necessary to the preservation of its existence to call on 
 the Western branches for payment of their balances. 
 
 In April, 1817, after the resumption of specie payments, the 
 notes of the Bank of Kentucky in circulation, exclusive of its 
 branches, amounted to S 417,000. In November, 1818, its notes 
 in circulation had been reduced to $195,000. At the latter date 
 the Bank of Kentucky and branches were indebted to the United 
 States branch banks $409,000. To maintain specie payments, 
 the Bank of Kentucky had in 1817 imported from the East and 
 from New Orleans $ 240,000 in specie. As this bank was unable 
 to meet the balances accruing against it in the United States 
 branch banks, with unexpected rapidity, they had been suffered to 
 accumulate on payment of interest ; but in November, 1819, the 
 branches received peremptory instructions from Philadelphia to 
 stop the interest account and collect the sums due without delay. 
 It followed that the Bank of Kentucky suspended specie pay- 
 ments. But upon an agreement of the United States branch 
 banks to receive payment in instalments of ten per cent every 
 sixty days, one half in specie and the other in Eastern exchange, 
 with interest on the amounts due, the Kentucky Bank resumed 
 payment, having been in a state of suspension but a few days. 
 
 Soon afterwards, the directors of the Bank of the United States 
 ordered their Western branches to receive in their business no cur- 
 rency but gold and silver and their own notes ; and about the same 
 time ceased receiving their OAvn notes from their private customers 
 except at the offices whence they had been issued. 
 
 This course would have reduced the notes of the branches to a 
 level with those of the specie-paying State banks in their vicinity, 
 but for the fact that they were everywhere receivable for public 
 dues, which gave them universal credit and rendered them still 
 available as exchange. Of course, the notes of the branches still 
 disappeared as fast as issued, and added nothing to the local cur- 
 
204 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 rency of tlie country. Nor did the order not to receive the notes 
 of the local specie-paying banks afford them any sensible relief. 
 It merely compelled the customers of the branch banks to draw 
 the specie from the State banks themselves for the purpose of pay- 
 ing balances and purchasing exchange, instead of using the local 
 currency for these purposes, so that the drain of specie from the 
 State banks continued as heavy as before. The Bank of Kentucky 
 struggled manfully against this adverse current, but in vain. The 
 immense diminution of the circulating medium had acted disas- 
 trously on the prices of property and on every department of trade, 
 so that the banks found it impossible to collect the debts due them 
 with sufficient expedition to meet their rapidly returning circula- 
 tion, and general panic pervaded the public mind. 
 
 The United States branch banks in the West had been ordered 
 to retrench their line of discounts twenty-five per cent ; but it 
 was impossible to execute the order except to a very moderate 
 extent. The Bank of the United States itself, owing to misman- 
 agement and abuse, was on the brink of ruin, and was pressing 
 its "Western branches for remittances in specie, and while those 
 branches were wagoning specie to the East, the Bank of Kentucky 
 was wagoning it to the West to fortify its position. On one occa- 
 sion it was said that wagons thus freighted passed each other on 
 the Alleghany mountains. 
 
 At a meeting of the stockholders of the Bank of Kentucky, held 
 on the 4th of May, 1820, a poll was opened in favor of and against 
 the suspension of specie payments, and the question was decided 
 in the affirmative by a large majority. On the same evening the 
 directors voted unanimously to carry the resolution into effect, 
 and the vaults of the bank were closed to the public, never again 
 to be opened. 
 
 It was thus that the Bank of the United States checked the 
 State bank and regulated the currency of Kentucky! It found 
 there a sound local currency, issued by a bank managed with signal 
 caution, ability, and skill. It was mainly instrumental in driving 
 that currency out of circulation without furnishing a substitute, 
 and compelling the bank which issued it to stop payment. Its 
 branches continued to exist in Kentucky ; but with no more power 
 to control the local banks and restore a sound currency than 
 stranded whales have to control the motions of the little fishes 
 which swim around them, 
 
STATE VERSUS NATION. 205 
 
 The Legislature of Kentucky, influenced, as most legislatures 
 are upon such subjects, by men who wish to borrow money, had 
 invited the Bank of the United States to locate branches in that 
 State ; but like the jDoor frogs, at whose request Jupiter sent them 
 a king in the shape of a serpent, the people soon began to repent 
 the rash act of their servants. The first movement in any way 
 hostile to the bank was an act of the legislature, passed at the ses- 
 sion of 1817-18, imposing an annual tax of $8,000 each on the 
 United States branch banks, estimated to be equal in proportion 
 to the capital employed to that imposed on the Bank of Kentucky. 
 This act imposed heavy penalties on the officers of the branches in 
 case they refused to pay the tax. Their refusal was a matter of 
 course, and the State commenced suit in its own courts for the 
 recovery of the penalties. 
 
 In January, 1819, the Legislature of Kentucky passed an act 
 imposing a tax of $ 60,000 each on the United States branch banks 
 in that State, and requiring the sergeant of the Court of Appeals 
 to collect it in a summary manner. The avowed object was to 
 drive them out of the State. The banks, however, obtained from 
 the judges of the United States Circuit Court an injunction to re- 
 strain the sergeant from executing the act of the legislature. In 
 this condition was the controversy with the Bank of the United 
 States in Kentucky when the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 in the case of McCulloch m. The State of Maryland, decided that 
 the bank was constitutional, and that the States had no right to 
 tax it. 
 
 In the mean time the suits commenced by the State for the re- 
 covery of the penalties imposed by the tax law of 1817-18 had 
 been taken up to the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, where they 
 were argued in the latter part of May, 1819. In December, 1819, 
 the court, consisting of Judges John Boyle, William Owsley, and 
 John Ptowan, announced their decision, which was to the following 
 
 effect : — 
 
 The judges were unanimous in the opinion that the Bank of the 
 United States was unconstitutional, and on that account the State 
 had a right to tax it and enforce the collection of the tax. Judges 
 Owsley and Kowan were of the opinion that if the bank were con- 
 stitutional the States would still have a right to tax it, from which 
 opinion Judge Boyle dissented. 
 
 Judn-es Boyle and Owsley were of the opinion that the decision 
 
206 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 of the United States Supreme Court, in the case of McCulloch -yj. 
 The State of Maryland, afiEirming the constitutionality of the bank 
 and denying the right of the States to tax it, was conclusive upon 
 the State courts; from which opinion Judge Eowan dissented, 
 maintaining that it was the duty of the court to sustain the State 
 in the exercise of its admitted right, in order that the subject 
 might be again carried up to the Supreme Court, thus giving that 
 tribunal an opportunity to reconsider the whole subject. 
 
 Thus ended the efforts of Kentucky to enforce her taxing power 
 upon the branches of the United States Bank located within her 
 borders. 
 
 In the mean time, the State of Ohio had laid a tax of $100,000 
 on the branches of the Bank of the United States in that State, 
 which, in September, 1819, was summarily collected. The bank 
 commenced a suit or suits against the officers of the State in the 
 United States Court, the result of which was that the United 
 States Marshal, under the authority of the court, entered the 
 treasury of the State, seized the money, and replaced it in the 
 United States branch bank at Chillicothe, whence it had been 
 taken. 
 
 Although the people of the West with almost entire unanimity 
 believed the bank unconstitutional, and that the power of the 
 States to tax its business, its stock, its income, and all its property 
 was clearly within the reservations of the Constitution, yet they 
 were not prepared to resist the United States tribunals by force, 
 and concluded to await the peaceful remedies provided by our 
 institutions. 
 
 The opposition of Mr. Kendall to the Bank of the United States 
 began in 1818, when it was not yet two years old, and ceased only 
 with its prostration under the giant blows of President Jackson, 
 aided by its own corruptions. The complaints made by himself 
 and many others about the management of the bank were met by 
 an illiberal reply and defence of that management in the " Ken- 
 tucky Eeporter," published in Lexington, over the signature of 
 " Sertorius." To his strictures Mr. Kendall began a rejoinder in 
 the "Argus" of the 13th of November, 1818, over the signature 
 of " Cato.'' These articles brought down upon him fierce denun- 
 ciations from the newspapers which sustained the cause of the 
 bank. He was called "a political incendiary," attempting "to 
 produce civil commotion," guilty of " a base and open endeavor to 
 
REVIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION. 097 
 
 excite actual warfare between the State of Kentucky and the Gov- 
 ernment of the United States," etc., etc. 
 
 In his paper of the 12th of March Mr. Kendall indignantly 
 repelled this charge. 
 
 In his next issue was announced the " momentous decision of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States affirming the constitu- 
 tionality of the Bank of the United States, and denying the right 
 of the States to tax it." 
 
 In his paper of the 7th of May Mr. Kendall commenced a re- 
 view of this decision in a series of eleven articles, showing what 
 were then and ever have been his views in regard to the relative 
 rights and powers of the several States and the United States, as 
 well as the importance of preserving them as adjusted in the 
 Constitution. 
 
 In No. 2 Mr. Kendall contests the argument of the Supreme 
 Court deduced from the fact that a national bank had been estab- 
 lished early in the history of the government, and that the prin- 
 ciple had been recognized by many successive legislatures and 
 acted upon in the judicial department in cases of peculiar deli- 
 cacy " as a law of undoubted obligation." The force of this argu- 
 ment was denied, as well as its applicability to a popular govern- 
 ment, where it is the province of popular opinion, operating through 
 the right of suffrage, to reverse precedents set by their rulers, cor- 
 rect their abuses, and put a stop to their usurpations. It is some- 
 times a slow remedy, as in the case of the old Bank of the United 
 States, in which it was many years before the popular voice could 
 reach the subject through Congress, and when it did, justice to the 
 stockholders of the bank who had, under the faith of the govern- 
 ment, vested their funds in it, required that it should be permitted 
 to live out its corporate term of existence. But by the refusal of 
 Congress, on constitutional grounds, to re-charter the bank, the 
 precedent set by its original incorporation was reversed, and its 
 authoritative character destroyed. 
 
 He then shows that a proposed grant of power to Congress to 
 establish corporations was directly negatived by the convention 
 which framed the Constitution, and that in the discussions which 
 preceded its adoption in the press and in the. State conventions, 
 the idea was never broached by its bitterest enemies or most ardent 
 friends, that the new government would have power to establish 
 banks or any other corporations. These facts were deemed con- 
 
208 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 elusive evidence that neither the framers of the Constitution nor 
 the people who adopted it ever imagined that Congress would 
 possess any such power, and its assumption was ascribed to the 
 disposition evinced by the leaders of the Federal party to en- 
 large the powers of the general government and restrict those of 
 the States by implication. 
 
 No. 3 combats a position assumed by the Supreme Court, that 
 the Constitution derived its authority from the people of the 
 United States in mass, and shows that it was adopted by " each 
 State or the people of each State, acting for themselves onlyy It is 
 shown that although an immense majority of the people inhabiting 
 the United States had voted in favor of the Constitution, it could 
 never have been binding on anybody until ratified " by the con- 
 ventions of nine States," not by a majority of the aggregate people 
 of nine States, and that if ratified by the unanimous vote of the 
 whole people in all the States, except Ehode Island, it would not 
 have acquired the least authority over the people of that State 
 without their separate consent. The phrase, " We, the people of 
 the United States," with which the Constitution commences, does 
 not refer to the people of the United States previously existing, but 
 to the people of the United States then proposed to he formed ; and 
 had only nine States ratified the Constitution, it would have in- 
 cluded only the people of those nine States. 
 
 Its application was prospective, not retrospective : the people 
 adopting it were not " people of the United States " until nine 
 States had concurred, and had it not been ratified by that number 
 of States, there would never have been a " people of the United 
 States " within its true meaning. That the Constitution derives 
 its authority from the States, and not from a majority of the peo- 
 ple of the United States, is illustrated by the progressive manner 
 in which it was adopted, by the mode of admission of new States, 
 and by the process through which amendments are adopted, in all 
 of which the people act by States, and not by a majority of the 
 whole mass. 
 
 Nor is our government one of a popular majority of " the peo- 
 ple of the United States " as created by the Constitution. While 
 the House of Representatives approximates a representation of 
 a majority of the people, the Senate is a representation of the 
 States, in which the smallest has the same power as the largest, 
 and no act of legislation can pass without the concurrence of a 
 
REVIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION 209 
 
 majority of both. Nor is the President elected by a popular 
 majority in which all the people of the United States have an equal 
 voice ; for, as the number of electors of President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent assigned to each State is equal to its representation in both 
 Houses of Congress, it results that, everything else being equal, 
 the voter in the smallest State has more than double the weight in 
 electing the President and Vice-President of a voter in the largest 
 State. 
 
 Neither in its origin nor in practice, therefore, is the government 
 of the United States the government of a popular majority. In 
 its origin the Constitution was a compact between States in their 
 sovereign capacity, each agreeing with the rest to vest a portion 
 of their powers in a common government. The very nature of the 
 transaction required that the powers of this government should be 
 accurately defined, for it was necessary that the United States 
 should know what powers they possessed, and that the States 
 should know what powers they had left. 
 
 No. 4 adverts to the inconsistency of the court in declaring that 
 " the government is acknowledged by all to be one of enumerated 
 powers," and admitting that " among the enumerated powers we do 
 not find that of establishing a bank or establishing a corporation," 
 and yet maintaining that such an act is constitutional. 
 
 It treats the provision in the Constitution authorizing Congress 
 to pass all laws necessary and proper to carry into effect the enu- 
 merated powers, as unnecessary, if construed as an enlargement 
 of their powers, being a grant of incidental powers. 
 
 The words, " all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested 
 in a Congress of the United States," are quoted, and it is argued, 
 that they necessarily imply a definite description of the powers 
 granted, as such description is an essential part of every grant. 
 The idea is illustrated by reference to grants of land described in 
 deeds, and to powers in a letter of attorney. There must be a 
 grantor and a grantee and a thing granted. The grantor must 
 design to part with the thing granted, and the grantee must be 
 willing to accept it. There can, therefore, be no such thing as im- 
 plied powers in a constitution based exclusively on granted powers. 
 
 Attention is called to the argument of the court based on the 
 omission of the word " expressly " before the word " delegated " in 
 the tenth amendment to the Constitution, which declares that 
 " the powers not delegated to the United States by this Constitu- 
 
 14 
 
210 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 tion, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States 
 respectively, or to the people," and it is maintained that the avowed 
 object of this amendment (which was more effectually to confine 
 Congress to the granted powers), as well as the relation which the 
 word " delegated " occupies in reference to the reserved powers of 
 the States or the people, gives it precisely the same meaning as if 
 it had been preceded by the word " expressly." How else can the 
 reserved powers of the States or the people be ascertained ? To 
 know what is reserved we must know what is delegated, and how 
 can we know what is delegated unless we can find it expressly 
 granted in the Constitution ? 
 
 The plan of the Constitution which divides the powers of gov- 
 ernment into two classes, the " granted " and the " reserved," is 
 wholly incompatible with the idea of implied powers among the 
 granted, and if by the omission of the word " expressly '' in the 
 tenth amendment it was intended to leave the way open for Con- 
 gress to assume implied powers, and thus encroach upon the 
 reserved powers of the States or the people, it was an imposition 
 and a fraud. 
 
 No. 5 quotes the objections to the Constitution by Patrick 
 Henry in the Virginia Convention, based on the prohibitions con- 
 tained in the ninth section, which, he maintained, might be con- 
 strued to authorize the exercise by Congxess of all powers not ex- 
 pressly prohibited, and although this construction was repelled by 
 its friends, it is now revived by Chief Justice Marshall, himself 
 one of those friends, in the argument which he deduces from that 
 section. This number concluded as follows : — 
 
 " Let us guard against the doctrine of implied powers, — guard 
 against this opinion of the Supreme Court. The establishment of a 
 national bank is as nothing compared with the powers which may be 
 exercised under the protecting wing of this decision. The mind is lost 
 in the confused multitude of implications passing before it, — mere phan- 
 toms in the opinions of good, easy politicians, but which may hereafter 
 assume a form and substance as terrible to the government of the States 
 as they are now unexpected in the minds of the people. 
 
 '' The principle is determined, the foundation is laid, and unless the 
 people resist, nothing is wanting to complete the work but a bold, ener- 
 getic, skilful, and persevering master." 
 
 No. 6 is devoted to the examination of the argument of the 
 Court, that the word " necessary," in the grant of power to Congress 
 
REVIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION. 211 
 
 to pass all laws " necessary and proper " to carry into effect the 
 enumerated powers, does not mean " absolutely necessary," but only 
 convenient, useful, or conducive to the end. 
 
 The word, says the court, " admits of all degrees of comparison " : 
 " a thing may be necessary, very necessary, absolutely or indispen- 
 sably necessary." 
 
 To illustrate their argument they say : — 
 
 '* It is, we think, impossible to compare the sentence which prohibits 
 the laying of imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may 
 be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws, with that which 
 authorizes Congress to pass all laws necessary and proper for carrying 
 into execution the powers of the general government, without feeling a 
 conviction that the convention understood itself to change materially 
 the meaning of the word necessary by prefixing the word absolutely.'' 
 
 The reviewer proceeds to show that the difference is one of form 
 rather than substance. It is not " absolutely necessary " to the 
 execution of their inspection laws that the States should lay any 
 duties at all on imports or exports ; for they might pay the expen- 
 ses out of their ordinary revenues. If, therefore, this be a case of. 
 the superlative degree of necessity, as represented by the court, 
 the States have no power to lay any such duties at all ; for they 
 are not indispensable to the execution of the inspection laws. It 
 follows that " absolutely necessary " does not mean indispensable, 
 but only " convenient " in the same sense which the court attaches 
 to the word "necessary" in its most mitigated sense. In this 
 case, however, the phrase " absolutely necessary " has reference only 
 to the amount of money to be raised to pay the expenses of in- 
 spection ; and whether the word " necessary " be used with or with- 
 out the prefix " absolutely," the meaning is precisely the same, its 
 only effect being to express it more emphatically. 
 
 The court furnished a list of what they called the exercise of. 
 implied powers, not indispensably necessary, exercised by Congress 
 under the grant to pass aU laws " necessary and proper," etc. 
 
 The court says : — 
 
 ** The power to establish post-offices and post-roads is executed by the 
 single act of making the establishment. But from this has been in- 
 ferred the power and duty of carrying the mail along the post-road from 
 one post-office to another. And from the implied power has again been 
 inferred the right to punish those who steal letters from the post-office 
 
212 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 or rob the maU. It may be said, witb some plausibility, that the right 
 to carry the mail, and to punish those who rob it, is not indispensably 
 necessary to the existence of a post-office or a post-road. This right is 
 indeed essential to the beneficial exercise of the power, but not indis- 
 pensably necessary to its existence." 
 
 This example given by the court is most replete with soph- 
 istry, and most unfortunate for their argument. They say, " The 
 power to carry the mail along the post-roads from one post-of6ce 
 to another is a power implied from the express power to establish 
 post-offices and post-roads." Wonderful ingenuity ! Miraculous 
 skill in dividing tilings which are indivisible, — in splitting things 
 which are unsplitable ! Never till this elaborate opinion met the 
 eyes of a wondering world, did the humble citizens of this Eepub- 
 lic for one moment imagine that a quality could exist without svh- 
 stancc, — that a 'post-road could exist without a post. As well 
 might we attempt to make a man tailor without a man, a veteran 
 army without veterans, a winged animal without wings, a wheeled 
 carriage without wheels, a steamboat without steam, a stone- wall 
 without stones, or a wise judge without wisdom ! True, the gov- 
 ernment may designate a road and call it a post-road. So they 
 may pass an act to raise an army and call it an army. But, never- 
 theless, the one is not a post-road until the post travels upon it, 
 nor is the other an army until the men are enlisted. The road and 
 the 2^08^ make up the post-road. There might be a post-road with- 
 out a road as well as without a post The two ideas are inseparable. 
 A grant of power to send a post would include the power to send 
 it along the roads of a country ; so, on the other hand, the gi'ant 
 of a power to establish a j^ost-road includes the power to send the 
 post along it. The same argument will apply to post-offices. With- 
 out a post there can be no post-office. 
 
 •No. 7 criticises the positions of the court in maintaining, first, 
 that without the constitutional grant to Congress of the power to 
 pass all laws " necessary and proper " to carry into effect the enu- 
 merated powers, the power of Congress in the selection of means 
 to that end would have been unlimited ; sccondhj, that its terms 
 purport to enlarge, not to diminish, the powers vested in the gov- 
 ernment ; and, third! f/, that if it do not enlarge it cannot be 
 construed to restrain the powers of Congress, all of which, taken 
 together, it is maintained, leads to the logical conclusion that this 
 provision in the Constitution means nothing at all ! 
 
REVIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION. 213 
 
 After further strictures on the positions of the court/ the re- 
 viewer proceeds to state what are his own views touching the mean- 
 ing of the word " necessary " in this connection, as follows : — 
 
 *' From the preceding remarks it is evident that the word 'necessary/ 
 as applied to Congress in the passage of laws, must restrict them to the 
 passage of those only which shall necessarily and exclusively tend to the 
 execution of some power vested in that body. They have under this 
 word a choice of meaws j but the means chosen must conduce to the 
 execution of their delegated powers, exclusively and entirely. They can- 
 not rightfully pass a law which only in part tends to the execution of 
 their powers ; the part which might not have this tendency would be 
 unconstitutional and void. They have no right to pass laws which 
 shall only incidentally aod not necessarily tend to their object. They 
 cannot rightfully use as means anything which has no necessary con- 
 nection with the end ; much less can they bring under the denomina- 
 tion of means those things which may exist in the same shape, and 
 operate on the community entirely independent of the end, and after it 
 has been accomplished. 
 
 " The word ' proper' means that the laws which Congress may right- 
 fully pass, in carrying into effect their delegated powers, must be such as 
 do not violate the rights of any State or individual. 
 
 " The phrase ' necessary and proper ' means that the laws passed must 
 necessarily and exclusively conduce to the execution of a delegated power, 
 and at the same time not violate the rights of any State or individual. It 
 was used to restrict Congress in the choice of means, and prevent the as- 
 sumption of new powers under the pretence of using them as the means 
 of executing those which were actually delegated. This clause illustrates 
 in the most powerful manner the intention of the parties to the national 
 compact ; it tells us that Congress is not only limited in its powers, but 
 also in the means of carrying them into execution. Nothing was left 
 to implication, — the incidental powers as well as the principal, the means 
 as well as the ends, are expressly granted, carefully restricted, and accu- 
 rately defined in the expressions of the Constitution." 
 
 The reviewer then shows that the court appeared to attach no 
 significance to the word " proper," with which " necessary " stands 
 connected, and proceeds to give his own view of its meaning in the 
 following words : — 
 
 " However ' necessary ' a law might be, yet if it violated any State or 
 individual rights it would not be 'proper,' and Congress would have no 
 right to pass it. This is the obvious meaning of the word as used in 
 the Constitution. If it meant merely appropriate, it would be super- 
 
214 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 £uous ; for that idea is contained in the word 'necessary/ whether it 
 means convenient or something more. That a convention used the 
 word without any meaning at all, or without intending that it should 
 have some effect in defining the character of the laws which Congress 
 might pass, is a supposition not admissible. To add a word without 
 any meaning at all, or to take away the meaning of another, would in- 
 deed be an ^ extraordinary departiire from the usual course of the human 
 mind as exhibited in composition,' especially when the latter word is 
 coupled with the former and made a part of the same definition. The 
 laws which Congress j)ass must not only be ' necessary ' but ' proper ' 
 also. However 'necessary' a law maybe, yet, if it be not 'proper,* 
 Congress has no right to pass it. They must seek other means to exe- 
 cute the delegated powers, and pass laws which are both necessary and 
 proper^ or if no such law can be framed, then the delegated power 
 cannot be executed. The word ' proper,' then, instead of enlarging 
 the power granted by the word 'necessary,' actually restricts it, and 
 confines Congress to still narrower limits. 
 
 " For example, Congress has a right to lay taxes on land, and the 
 States have the same right. Both might exercise that power, and it 
 might become absolutely necessary for the collection of the national tax 
 that Congress should pass a law abrogating the State tax ; but such a 
 law would not be ' proper,' because it would violate the rights of the 
 State. 
 
 " It might be absolutely necessary for the ' common defence ' that a 
 fort should be built on some spot of ground within a State ; but Con- 
 gress cannot purchase land for that purpose without the consent of the 
 State. However urgent the necessity, if the State should refuse its 
 consent. Congress could pass no law authorizing the land to be pur- 
 chased and the fort to be built, because the act would violate a right 
 reserved to the State ; it would not be ' proper.' " 
 
 No. 8 contains an application of the principles developed in 
 the preceding numbers to the case of the Bank of the United 
 States. 
 
 It is not denied that Congress has a choice of means in the 
 exercise of their enumerated powers; but tliose means must be 
 "necessary and proper." That is to say, they must tend neces- 
 sarily and exclusively to the execution of the delegated power, 
 and at the same time must not infringe upon any right " reserved 
 to the States or the people." 
 
 The argument in support of the constitutionality of the Bank 
 of the United States is, that it is a necessary auxiliary of the 
 treasury in managing the finances of the government. 
 
REVIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION. 215 
 
 The reviewer proceeds to show that the hank had no agency in 
 assessing or collecting the revenues of the United States, whether 
 from direct taxes, excises, or imposts. The only duty as an aux- 
 iUary to the treasury is specified in its charter, by which it is 
 bound, when required by the Secretary of the Treasury, "to give 
 the necessary facilities for transferring the public funds from place 
 to place within the United States and the Territories thereof, and 
 for distributing the same in payment of the public creditors, with- 
 out charging commission or claiming allowance on account of dif- 
 ference of exchange, and shall also do and perform the several and 
 respective duties of Commissioners of Loans for the several States, 
 or any one or more of them, whenever required by law." These are 
 all the acts wliich the bank is bound to perform as an auxiliary to 
 the Treasury, and even these are contingent. If they shall not be 
 required by the Secretary of the Treasury, or by law, the bank 
 stands as disconnected from the government as any State bank. 
 That government must, in the exercise of its powers, act through 
 agents, is admitted; but it cannot therefore clothe its agents with 
 powers wholly outside of the legitimate ends proposed to be ac- 
 complished. It may employ State banks or individuals to transfer 
 the public funds ; but it does not follow that they can enlarge the 
 power of the State banks employed by it, or confer powers of 
 banking on individuals. The government might make with an in- 
 dividual the same arranoement for the transfer and distribution of 
 
 o 
 
 its funds as it made with the Bank of the United States, without 
 its being " necessary " or " proper " to clothe him with power to 
 issue his notes, build banking-houses, discount paper, buy and sell 
 real estate, etc., etc. But if they could not constitutionally confer 
 these extensive powers on an individual, whence the authority to 
 confer them on any number of individuals associated for the same 
 purpose ? 
 
 The reviewer enumerates the powers conferred on the bank by 
 its charter, and maintains that not one of them is "necessary" 
 to the transfer of the public funds or the discharge of the duties 
 of Commissioner of Loans. They all look to other objects having 
 none, or if any, the most remote bearing on the business of the 
 
 government. 
 
 The position of the court is, that the bank is the " necessary and 
 proper " means of the government for executing the powers dele- 
 gated to it by the Constitution. If this be true, it presents the 
 
216 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 anomaly of a government raising a revenue by taxing its own 
 means I At the start, it exacted a bonus from the bank of a mil- 
 lio7i and a half of dollars. What was this for ? Was it for ser- 
 vices rendered by the bank to the government, or for favors 
 extended by the government to the bank ? If the former, it pre- 
 sents the anomaly of a government taxing its agents for the 
 privilege of serving it ; if the latter, it is conclusive evidence that 
 Congress, in conferring such enormous powers upon the bank, had 
 something in view besides the service of the government. 
 
 Though the power of Congress to create a corporation for any 
 purpose, except in the District of Columbia, is denied, the reviewer 
 assumes, for the sake of argument, that Congress may give corporate 
 powers to its own agents or employees. Yet he maintains that 
 they cannot, by such an expedient, enlarge the powers of the gov- 
 ernment. The corporate powers must be such only as an individual 
 would possess if employed for the same purpose. 
 
 To illustrate : If Congress should deem it " necessary and 
 proper " to create a corporation as means of executing the power 
 " to establish post-offi.ces and post-roads," they could not confer on 
 such corporations powers which they do not themselves possess. 
 The aggTegate powers of the postmaster-general, deputy postmas- 
 ters, and contractors might be vested in the corporate body ; but 
 does it follow that because they iise roads, Congress could clothe 
 them with power to make roads ? Or because they use leather, 
 they may make money by buying and selling leather ? Or because 
 horses, wagons, and stages are used by them, they confer on them 
 power to make and sell them for profit ? Or because they use 
 blanks, they may establish and publish a newspaper ? Or because 
 they collect and transfer post-office funds, they may exercise all 
 tlie powers vested in the Bank of the United States ? The idea is 
 preposterous. If corporations are to be used as means of executing 
 the granted powers of Congress, they must, like other means, be 
 " necessary and proper," tending exdusivehj to the end sought to be 
 accomplished. 
 
 In No. 9 the reviewer undertakes to show particular cases in 
 wliicli the act establishing the bank is unconstitutional. 
 
 First. Congress has conferred on the bank powers which it does 
 not itself possess. By the Constitution, Congress cannot purchase 
 land within the States, for any purpose, without their consent, and, 
 even with their consent, only " for the erection of forts, magazines, 
 
REVIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION. 217 
 
 arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings." Now the 
 seventh section of the bank charter authorizes that institution, 
 without the consent of the States, to purchase and sell "lands, 
 rents, tenements, hereditaments," and the seventh clause of the 
 eleventh section declares that the " lands, tenements, and heredita- 
 ments " which it may lawfully hold sliall be only such as may be 
 necessary for the convenient transaction of its business, or such as 
 may be acquired in payment of debts. The bank, therefore, 
 whether considered as the agent of the government or not, is au- 
 thorized to purchase lands, not only without the consent of the 
 States, but for other purposes than those only for which the gov- 
 ernment may make such purchases. 
 
 Secondly. If the opinion of the court be correct, Congress has 
 bartered away a portion of its constitutional powers. If one 
 bank be a " necessary and proper " means of executing its dele- 
 gated powers, circumstances might make it equally " necessary and 
 proper " to establish one or more additional banks. But the twen- 
 tieth section of the charter requires the bank to pay the govern- 
 ment a million and a half of dollars as a bonus, and the twenty- 
 first pledges the faith of the United States that " no other bank 
 shall be established by any future law of the United States duriug 
 the continuance of the corporation hereby created." These pro- 
 visions imply that Congress had power to establish other banks, 
 but sold that power to the corporation then created. If, therefore, 
 banks are " necessary and proper '' means of executing the powers 
 delegated to Congress, that body has sold a portion of its constitu- 
 tional power to the Bank of the United States. 
 
 Thirdly. If the opinion of the court be correct, the act of Con- 
 gress establishing the bank withdraws from the States a legitimate 
 object of State taxation. The elucidation of this point is, how- 
 ever, deferred to the next number. 
 
 No. 10. The argument in this number may be summed up as 
 follows : — 
 
 The States, before the adoption of the Constitution, enjoyed an 
 unlimited power of taxation over persons, property, business, in- 
 come, and every conceivable object from which a revenue can be 
 collected. 
 
 Banking is a business, the right to pursue which is not ori.crinally 
 derived from the laws, but belongs to every man in the community 
 who chooses to pursue it. Until the law stepped in, and, from 
 
218 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 motives of public policy, took away the right, any man or associa- 
 tion of men might establish a bank, and use their credit in the 
 circulation of their notes as a currency as widely as their fellow- 
 citizens chose to receive them. 
 
 Bank charters are, in their nature, but the restoration and regu- 
 lation of the exercise of the right which had been previously taken 
 away. 
 
 Before the adoption of the Constitution, the entire control of 
 the banking business, with an unlimited power to tax it, belonged 
 to the States,. Did they give up the power to regulate or tax it 
 by the adoption of the Constitution ? Or if (as is denied) the 
 power to regvdate it in its bearings on the powers expressly granted 
 to Congress is incidentally delegated, can the United States con- 
 stitutionally exempt it from State taxation ? 
 
 In adopting the Constitution, the States reserved to themselves 
 or the people every power not by that instrument delegated to the 
 United States. It follows, that the right to tax the business of 
 banking carried on within their borders is reserved to the States 
 in the most unlimited manner. Nor can it be taken away or in- 
 fringed by means of the incidental power vested in Congress to 
 pass all laws which may be " necessary and proper " to carry into 
 effect their delegated powers ; for however " necessary " it might 
 be considered, it would not be " proper," because it would infringe 
 upon the reserved powers of the States. To maintain that the 
 reserved powers of the States can be swallowed up as a means of 
 executing the powers granted to Congress, is not a whit sounder 
 reasoning than to say that the States, in the exercise of their re- 
 served powers, can nulhfy a power expressly granted to Congress. 
 The one is just as sacred as the other, and not more so. 
 
 It is admitted that the States cannot tax the agents or the 
 operations of the general government in their public character. 
 They cannot tax a postmaster or a custom-house officer as such ; 
 but they may tax his poll as a citizen, and his business if a banker. 
 Nor can Congress relieve the one or the other from State taxation 
 because the party may be employed by the United States to per- 
 form certain public duties which cannot be taxed. Apply this 
 principle to the bank. Admit that in its capacity as agent of the 
 government for the transfer of its funds, and performing the duties 
 of commissioners of loans, it cannot be taxed by the States, does it 
 follow that they cannot tax it as a hank ? If they cannot tax the 
 
REYIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION. 219 
 
 bank's public business, does it follow that they cannot tax its 
 private business ? 
 
 The reviewer contests the conclusion of the Supreme Court 
 deduced from the provision of the Constitution, which declares 
 that the laws of Congress and the treaties passed or negotiated in 
 pursuance of that instrument, shall be " the supreme laws of the 
 land," maintaining that this supremacy attaches not to every act 
 which Congress may think fit to pass, but only to such as may in 
 their application be confined exclusively to the execution of their 
 own delegated powers, and do not infringe upon the reserved rights 
 of the States or the people. He also contests the application 
 which the court makes of this general principle to the case before 
 them, which is in effect, that, when a laiv of amy State imposing a tax 
 so operates as to defeat the operation of any law of Congress, snch State 
 law is null and void. He shows that this position is not correct 
 as a general proposition, even where both laws are constitutional, 
 because on some subjects the powers of the States and of the 
 United States are coneurrent and coequal. The article concludes 
 as follows : — 
 
 " The truth is, that the States have rights as well as the nation. Both 
 are supreme to the extent of their powers. The national government 
 is supreme over all the powers granted to it in the Constitution, and the 
 necessary and proper means of carrying them into execution, subject, 
 however, to any modifications and limitations therein prescribed. The 
 States are supreme over all the powers reserved by them when they 
 adopted the Constitution, and over the means of carrying them into 
 execution ; subject, however, to any modifications which may be pre- 
 scribed in that instrument. Each has distinct powers, over which the 
 other has no control. Each is supreme over its peculiar powers, and an 
 attempt to control it in their exercise is an usurpation. There are some 
 cases of concurrent powers. With respect to these the powers are equal. 
 Neither is supreme over the other. Neither can control the other. Both 
 are supreme over the object on which their powers are exercised ; both 
 have the right to dispose of it according to their will ; but neither has 
 the right to wrest it from the hands of the other. They may take it 
 from any other hands, but not from the hands of an equal. During 
 war, the several States have a right to raise and support armies, and so 
 has the nation. These are concurrent and coequal powers. The States 
 cannot prohibit the nation from executing this power, nor the nation the 
 States. Both of them are supreme over the materials of which armies 
 are composed, but neither of them are supreme over the other ; and 
 
220 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALI.. 
 
 when the materials are appropriated to the use of the one, they are not 
 subject to the powers of the other, but become a part of the government 
 or sovereignty which uses them. By this process, and no other, are 
 these materials withdrawn from the supremacy of either party. Over 
 the remainder, the State or national sovereignty remains unimpaired ; 
 or, if there be no remainder, no army can be raised, and the power can- 
 not be executed. Such is the idea always entertained by the warmest 
 advocates and supporters of our national Constitution. 
 
 '' Among the concurrent and coequal powers of the State and national 
 government is that of taxation. To the concurrency and coequality of 
 this power there is but one exception, — the States cannot tax imports, 
 and the nation can. Exports can be taxed by neither. Every other 
 object of taxation is common to both parties. The power to lay and 
 collect taxes over every other object is supreme and uncontrollable in 
 both governments. If both tax, and the collection of its tax by one 
 party absorb the property, it is as if it had been destroyed by fire. If 
 anything remain, the other party may collect their tax ; if not, they 
 must lose it. They have no more power to wrest the property from the 
 hands of each other than from fire, storms, and earthquakes. It is an 
 authority above their control, beyond their reach, independent and 
 supreme. 
 
 " Hence it follows that the States are just as supreme in levying and 
 collecting taxes from all objects which they have reserved the right of 
 taxing, as the national government itself." 
 
 This conclusion, so plainly deducible from the nature and ex- 
 pressions of the Constitution, was long since ably defended by 
 Alexander Hamilton, in the " Federalist." To show the opinion of 
 that rigidly Federal statesman, we subjoin the following extracts 
 from his writings : — 
 
 "I affirm," says he, "that (with the sole exception of duties on im- 
 ports and exports) they (the States) would, under the plan of the con- 
 vention, retain that aiithority in the most ahsolnte and unqualified sense ; 
 and that an attempt on the part of the national government to abridge 
 them in the exercise <»f it, would he a violent assumption of poiver univar- 
 ranted by any article or clause of the Constitution. Though a law levying 
 a tax for the use of the United States would be supreme in its nature, 
 and could not legally be opposed or controlled, yet a law abrogating or 
 preventing the collection of a tax laid by the authority of a State (un- 
 less upon imports and exports), would not be the supreme law of the 
 land, but an usurpation of a power not granted by the Constitution. 
 
 " The inference from the whole is, that the individual States would, 
 
EEVIEW OF THE SUPREME COURT DECISION. 221 
 
 under the proposed Constitution, retain an independent and uncontrollahle 
 authority to raise revenue, to any extent of which they may stand in 
 need, by every hind of taxation, except duties on imports and exports. 
 
 " The particular States under the proposed Constitution would have 
 coequal authority with the Union in the article of revenue, except as to 
 duties on imports. 
 
 '' There is no power on either side to annul the acts of the other." 
 
 These quotations are sufficient to show that Hamilton's opinion 
 on this subject was variant from that of the Supreme Court. If 
 Hamilton was wrong, the people were deceived into the adoption 
 of a Constitution which they did not understand. 
 
 From what has been said, we think it sufficiently evident that, 
 with respect to taxation, the States possess a power as independent 
 and as supreme over the objects which they have reserved the right 
 of taxing as that possessed by the national government. Bank- 
 ing being one of these objects, it follows that they have, in the 
 language of Hamilton, ''An absolute and imqiialified, an indejMndent 
 and uncontrollahle authority " to tax banking by " every kind of tax- 
 ation]' and " that an attemidt on the 'part of the national government 
 to abridge them in the exercise of it]' is a " violent usurpaMon of pov:er, 
 unwarranted hy any article or clause in the Constitution!' 
 
 No. 11, and last, is chieflv confined to illustration of the arou- 
 ments advanced in the preceding numbers. The following passages 
 are quoted : — 
 
 " To conclude. Instead of turning bankers, let Congress confine 
 themselves to the powers delegated in the Constitution, and the means 
 which tend exclusively to their execution. Let them not attempt to 
 protect, under the wing of national supremacy, the business, the property, 
 or the stock of our citizens from State taxation. 
 
 ** The States reserved the right to tax that business when they adopted 
 the Constitution. They cannot rightfully be deprived of it without an 
 amendment to that instrument. But as the attempt by Congress has 
 been sanctioned by judicial authority, w^e now have no remedy but a 
 peaceful acquiescence and a speedy amendment to the Constitution. 
 Take from Congress the assumed power of establishing a bank. 
 It will deprive the national government of no power, of no means which 
 they rightfully possess ; but will wrest from their grasp a new p)oioer, a 
 private business, which they have assumed the right of protectiug under 
 the pretence of its being the ' necessary and proper ' means for the exe- 
 cution of their powers. It will put the two sovereignties on their 
 
222 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 original footing, and confine them to their legitimate powers and proper 
 means. 
 
 " Should the broad principles advanced by the court hereafter be made 
 the foundation of other usurpations, the States will be awake to a vin- 
 dication of their rights.'* 
 
 We are now done. 
 
 It is not on account of the particular question which then agi- 
 tated the country that so much attention has been bestowed on 
 Mr. Kendall's review of the decision of the Supreme Court. The 
 object is to show, first, the views then entertained by him in rela- 
 tion to the nature of our government, and the only safe and just 
 rule of constitutional construction ; secondly, his devotion to the 
 Union, which he would not even hazard by anything looking to- 
 wards forcible resistance to what he considered a most dangerous 
 usurpation of the general government, subversive of a clearly re- 
 served and most important right of the States, upon a principle 
 which placed all their reserved rights at the mercy of Congress ; 
 and, thirdly, that his opposition to the Bank of the United States, 
 which many years afterwards became somewhat effective, originated 
 in motives higher than party spirit, self-interest, or personal am- 
 bition. No immediate effect was known to be produced by these 
 articles, and none was expected. They probably had some influ- 
 ence upon the minds of the judges of the Kentucky Court of 
 Appeals, who subsequently, notwithstanding the argument of the 
 United States Supreme Court, were unanimous in th-e opinion that 
 the bank was unconstitutional, though a majority of them deemed 
 the decision of that court binding upon them. In this part of the 
 opinion Mr. Kendall did not agree. His opinion was, that when 
 the two governments. State and national, come to an issue involv- 
 ing the delegated powers on the one side and the reserved powers 
 on the other, the Constitution has provided no common arbiter, 
 and the question assumes the character of a dispute between two 
 sovereigns or independent nations, having no necessary political 
 connection with each otlier ; yet, that tlie States ought not, except 
 in a most extreme case, to resort to force for the vindication of 
 their reserved rights, because they have the means of redress 
 through patience, perseverance, and the ballot-box. To this remedy 
 he looked forward in this case, and, though long delayed, it came 
 at last. 
 
 Wliile the discussions touching the Bank of the United States 
 
'•CHANGE YOUR TONE OR CHANGE YOUR COAT." 223 
 
 were in progress, the circulating medium of Kentucky was under- 
 going a rapid diminution, which occasioned general embarrassment 
 and individual distress. The condition of affairs was accurately- 
 described in an article headed " Alarming Times," published in the 
 "Argus" of the 16th of April, 1819. In this the writer, Mr. 
 Kendall, said: — 
 
 *' Never within the recollection of our oldest citizens has the aspect 
 of the times, as it respects property and money, been so alarming. Al- 
 ready has property been sacrificed in considerable quantities in this and 
 neighboring counties for less than half its value. We have but little 
 money in circulation, and that little is daily diminishing by the uni- 
 versal calls of the banks. 
 
 ^' What shall be done ■? Cannot the banks relieve us 1 If they can, 
 they will not. Is not this a state of things which requires the inter- 
 position of the supreme power] 
 
 " Fellow-citizens, let us bury our private animosities and commune 
 together on the means most likely to alleviate present distresses, and 
 avert the calamities which threaten to cover our once happy State with 
 bankrupts and beggars." 
 
 On the 13th of May, 1819, an imposing public meeting was held-" 
 in Frankfort, which adopted with great unanimity a series of reso- 
 lutions setting forth the distressed condition of the country, re- 
 questing the banks to suspend specie payments, cease for the pres- 
 ent calling on their debtors, and make moderate issues of their 
 notes ; and recommending an early call of the legislature for the 
 purpose of legalizing and regulating these measures, and devising 
 other means of relief. A committee of correspondence was ap- 
 pointed, and entered zealously upon the duty assigned them, and 
 in a few days meetings in several other counties responded to the 
 proceedings at Frankfort. 
 
 So strong was the tide of public opinion in favor of relief, and 
 so fearful was Mr. Kendall that some wild project among the many 
 suggested by interested parties would be adopted, that he felt it 
 incumbent on him to advise moderation. 
 
 But a spirit of opposition to the measures proposed sprung up, 
 which exhibited itself through counter meetings, and in his paper 
 of the 11th of June Mr. Kendall spoke as follows : — 
 
 " We have prated long enough about the encouragement of domestic 
 manufactures ; it is time to act. What is more ridiculous than to see 
 men clothed from head to foot in the drapery of England, declaimmg 
 
224 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 most pathetically upon the necessity of encouraging the manufactures 
 of America ! Let the people say to them, Change your tone or change 
 your coat ; too long have we been insulted by useless cant, — give us a 
 little practice, — set us an example of ivhat you preach. American manu- 
 factures would soon become generally used were they made fashionable. 
 Great and influential men should set the example, — the rest will soon 
 follow. Let them not seek for domestic cloth worth twelve or fifteen 
 dollars per yard, but use a kind which our manufacturers can easily make, 
 and any citizen readily procure. But if our great men will not do this, 
 the object can be effected by the people themselves. Associations 
 might be formed, extended over the whole country, the great object of 
 which should be the wearing of domestic manufactures. Were the 
 people true to themselves, they might soon create a market for their 
 produce in their own neighborhood, relieve the country from its burdens, 
 and make a British coat as infamous as British principles.'^' 
 
 During the months of June, July, and August the Tennessee 
 banks, the Cincinnati banks, and several of the Kentucky inde- 
 pendent banks, stopped payment. In his paper of the 10th of 
 September Mr. Kendall gave expression to his views touching 
 banks in general, and the independent banks of Kentucky in par- 
 ticular, which will be sufficiently understood from the following 
 extracts : — 
 
 " With respect to banks we would say a few words. Though the very 
 thought of these institutions is disgusting, yet it becomes our duty to 
 endure the disgust for the purpose of extricating ourselves from their 
 toils or rendering them harmless. Could an amendment be effected to 
 the Constitution of the United States which should prohibit any bank 
 charter from being hereafter gi'anted or renewed, either by Congress or 
 the State, and thus gradually destroy the whole paper system, we should 
 say, Amen. But we have no hope of so effectual a remedy. The inter- 
 est of banks is too deeply rooted, prejudice in their favor has taken too 
 deadly a hold to be unhanded even by the tremendous convulsions into 
 which they have thrown the whole commiinity. All declare the system 
 a public curse, but few can think of destroying it. 
 
 '' How shall they be rendered less injurious ? How shall they be di- 
 verted, from their usual course of favoritism and individual aggrandize- 
 ment, to the public good % 
 
 " We have intimated that we did not think the step best calculated 
 to restore the currency of the State would be the repeal of all the 
 charters of the independent banks. There are several in the commercial 
 places which might, under the present state of things, continue to exist 
 
COMMON SCHOOLS. 225 
 
 with advantage to the State. But their charters require amendment. 
 They have not at present sufficient responsibihty. The pubhc have not 
 a sufficient assurance that they can obtain value for their notes. We 
 think the following plan, communicated by ' Sceevola,' a good one : Let 
 the banks give security in the county courts for the payment of their 
 paper when presented. In case of non-payment, the holder of the notes 
 could bring suit on the bond, and recover their amount from the securi- 
 ties. This plan would be more advantageous than the responsibility of 
 stockholders, because it would afford a more obvious and less tedious 
 remedy. A course of this kind, we are satisfied, would afford more 
 relief, and probably be of more service to the community, than an indis- 
 criminate repeal of all the independent bank charters. But should the 
 legislature prefer the latter course, or should they even abolish the 
 whole system of banking on private capital, and make it entirely a 
 public concern on public capital, we shall not view their course with 
 much repugnance." 
 
 After the State elections in August, 1819, there was a lull in Ken- 
 tucky politics. There was an occasional county meeting recom- 
 mending relief, and a general understanding that something would 
 be done by the legislature to mitigate the pubHc distresses ; but no 
 particular measure had been so prominently recommended as to 
 have become a topic of general discussion. Mr. Kendall took this 
 opportunity to press on the legislature and people of Kentucky the 
 importance of a system of conmion schools, in a series of six num- 
 bers, entitled " Sketches on Education for the Consideration of the 
 People of Kentucky, and particularly the Members of the next 
 General Assembly." No. 1 was intended to show that a republic 
 cannot be well governed unless all or a majority of the people are 
 capable of governing. Will natural genius fit a man for a repre- 
 sentative or governor ? No. Genius may excite public admira- 
 tion, but it cannot inspire public confidence. Genius must be en- 
 lightened before it can be trusted with the reins of government. 
 Of this fact the people are well apprised ; and however brilliant may 
 be the mind of him who offers himself for their suffrages, it is useful 
 and solid intelligence alone which can inspire their permanent con- 
 fidence. Why have we so many lawyers in our general assembly 
 and in Congress ? Is it because they possess greater talents than 
 farmers, mechanics, and merchants ? No ; but it is because the 
 business of their profession requires them to study, and thus they 
 become more intelligent. Intelligence, not talents, gives them a 
 
 15 
 
226 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 superiority over every other class of society. Knowledge, when 
 confined to a few, creates an aristocracy as marked and as effectual 
 as distinctions of rank. The difference is, that the superiority 
 wliich knowledge gives is real, and the people willingly acknowl- 
 edge it; but the superiority which rank gives is fictitious, and the 
 people acknowledge it by compulsion. Yet for all practical pur- 
 poses there are lords and commons in the one case as well as in 
 the other. 
 
 Let us produce equality, not by rendering anybody ignorant, 
 but by rendering everybody intelligent. We would not put down 
 the few, but would exalt the many. We would have no commons, 
 but all should be lords. The man who has as much intelligence 
 as his neighbor cannot be influenced by the authority of his 
 opinions ; they are equal ; they feel themselves equal, and this is 
 democracy. 
 
 Let us not be understood as advocating the destruction of our 
 university or seminaries. They are essential parts in a perfect sys- 
 tem of education, but in real usefulness they bear no comparison 
 with the primary schools, which convey the elements of knowl- 
 edge to all classes of our citizens. It is much more important 
 that all should be well-informed than that a few should obtain 
 an elegant education. Both these ends are desirable, and both 
 may be attained. Free schools would convey to all that de- 
 gree of knowledge wliich would fit men for the ordinary busi- 
 ness of life, and arouse the genius of all those who are endowed 
 by Nature with a capacity to excel in learning or shine in superior 
 situations. 
 
 While the attention of the legislature is turned to the preserva- 
 tion of our seminaries and university, let their principal effort be 
 directed to the creation of a system of free schools which will con- 
 fer upon the people infinitely greater benefit than all other literary 
 institutions put together. 
 
 Next to providing for the bodily comforts of its citizens, there 
 is nothing to which a government should so ardently aspire as 
 enlightening their minds. It is not so much the conferring of a 
 single benefit as it is the construction of a fountain from which 
 flow iunumerable blessings. Man will take more delight in the 
 society of man, and the pains and burdens of the body will be 
 half destroyed by the pleasures of the mind. We shall see better 
 sons, better husbands, better fathers, and better men. Beauty, 
 
COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 -227 
 
 too, will be doubly charming. Enlightened by intelligence, women 
 will rise in importance, and instead of whining sensualists, with 
 more of weakness than virtue in their love and in their temper, 
 we shall see dignified wives, uniting with the character of mothers 
 the usefulness of instructors. How great, how glorious the object ! 
 How extensive and how efficient the means ! Nothinoj is wanting 
 but to give the means a direction to this great end. 
 
 ISTos. 4 and 5 show that Kentucky had the means of establishing 
 a large and productive school fund, the proceeds of which might 
 be apportioned among the several counties, and disbursed under the 
 supervision of the county courts, which might be authorized to lay 
 a tax on their respective counties in aid of their portion of the pub- 
 lic fund, divide the counties into school districts, appoint agents in 
 each district, etc., etc. 
 
 No. 6 is devoted to the Transylvania University at Lexington, 
 which is strongly commended to the liberality of the legisla- 
 ture. 
 
 On the 6th of December, 1819, the legislature of Kentucky met 
 at Frankfort. The acting governor in his message earnestly recom- 
 mended the establishment of a school-fund and common schools, 
 and devoted a large portion of the document to the Bank of the 
 United States, denouncing it as unconstitutional and dangerous, 
 and contesting the principles laid down by the Supreme Court ; 
 and concluded by proposing a correspondence with the other States, 
 to the end of securing amendments to the Constitution. On the 
 third day of that month the Court of Appeals had given their de- 
 cision, so that in December, 1819, the executive, judicial, and legis- 
 lative departments of Kentucky concurred with almost perfect 
 unanimity in the opinion that the bank was unconstitutional, and 
 its establishment a dangerous usurpation. 
 
 But the legislative mind was engrossed by a subject of more 
 immediate interest. The cry for relief had now become overwhelm- 
 ino- ■ but there was great diversity of views as to the mode in 
 which relief should be given. The legislature began by passing, 
 on the 15th of December, an act suspending for sixty days all sales 
 under executions issued on judgments, decrees, and replevin bonds, 
 on the defendant's giving bond to have the property which might 
 have been levied upon forthcoming at the end of that term. This 
 act was vetoed by the acting governor, on the ground that it was a 
 violation of that provision of the Constitution of Kentucky which 
 
228 ' AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 declared that " right and justice shall be administered without sale, 
 denial, or delay." Also, that it was inequitable and unjust in de- 
 claring that securities in existing replevin and forthcoming bonds 
 should not be released by this interposition. It was, however, 
 passed over his veto by the constitutional majority of all the mem- 
 bers elected to each house of the General Assembly. 
 
 The independent banks, established two years before, had become 
 unpopular, owing to the general impression, no doubt to some ex- 
 tent just, that by fostering speculation they had increased, instead 
 of alleviating the pecuniary embarrassments of the country, and 
 the legislature, by a single act, swept the whole pestiferous brood 
 out of existence. Some of them were well-managed, and judicious 
 men desired that such should be preserved, not doubting that a 
 general sweep, making it necessary that all should take in their 
 notes and collect their dues, would add greatly to existing 
 troubles. 
 
 The legislature spent several weeks in attempting to devise some 
 general measure for the relief of debtors, and finally adopted one 
 to the following effect. They passed an act granting an absolute 
 replevy of one year upon all executions issued, not only on origi- 
 nal judgments and decrees, but also upon replevin bonds and forth- 
 coming bonds already in existence, which delay should be extended 
 to two years unless the creditors would agree to receive in payment 
 the notes of the Bank of Kentucky. That bank had suspended 
 specie payments on the 5th of January, 1820, and its notes soon 
 fell to a discount of about fifteen per cent. 
 
 By another act, passed at this session of the legislature, deeds 
 of trust were put on the same footing as mortgages, so that sale 
 could be made under them without a decree in chancery, thus sub- 
 jecting them to all the provisions of the replevin laws. 
 
 A resolute though unsuccessful effort was made to procure the 
 passage of a property law so framed as practically to postpone in- 
 definitely the sale of property under execution, and thus prevent 
 the collection of debts. 
 
 At this session of the legislature Mr. Eobert Wickliffe, from 
 the committee to which much of the acting governor's message had 
 been referred, reported bills providing for the annual payment of 
 certain sums of money out of the dividends arising from stock held 
 by the State in the Bank of Kentucky, to the Transylvania Uni- 
 versity and the county seminaries ; also further to endow those in- 
 
VALUE AND A STANDARD OF VALUE. 
 
 229 
 
 stitutions ; and also to appropriate for a school-fund all fines and 
 forfeitures which were due, or might become due, to the State. Al- 
 though Mr. Kendall did not like these measures in the aggregate, 
 because they seemed designed to devote the public means, readily 
 available, to the higher seminaries, leaving common schools to de- 
 pend on a meagre and precarious resource, which could be made 
 available only in the distant future, yet he advocated the passage 
 of the school-bill in some shape. His language was, " It is no in- 
 superable objection that no public funds are appropriated to this 
 purpose. That object can be accomplished separately, or at a future 
 session. Let us have a beginning ; the benefits which will accrue 
 to the community will insure the improvement and perfection of 
 the system." 
 
 Two acts having relation to education were passed, one of them 
 entitled " An Act to endow the Medical Department of the Transyl- 
 vania University," and the other " An Act to appropriate Fines and 
 Forfeitures' to the Purpose of promoting Education." 
 
 The leaders of the Eelief Party in Kentucky were not satisfied 
 with the measures adopted by the legislature at the session of 
 1819-20, and continued to agitate the subject of a Property Law, 
 in the hope of procuring its passage at the next session. Though 
 Mr. Kendall was in favor of some degree of relief through a modi- 
 fication of the remedial laws and a temporary augmentation of the 
 currency, he believed the legislature had already violated the Con- 
 stitution of the United States and of Kentucky by interfering with 
 sales under deeds of trust, and he feared more mischief still to the 
 community from the passage of the proposed Property Law. Under 
 these impressions he felt it his duty to avert the evil if possible, 
 and entered upon a discussion of the whole question, — the source 
 of value, the nature of money, a standard of value, the effects of 
 a paper currency, and the operation of property laws. Denying 
 that "labor" is the source of value, and treating "demand" as an 
 effect rather than the cause, he looks into the human mind for the 
 oimn of value. The following is an extract from his first article 
 on the subject, published in the "Argus" of the 27th of April, 
 1820: — 
 
 "VALUE AND A STANDARD OF VALUE. 
 
 "What constitutes value is not generally understood, and has been 
 the subject of much controversy among men of learning and talents. 
 Some say it is the labor which is spent in the production of an article j 
 
230 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 some that it is the demand for it ; while the people in general think it is 
 the sum of money for which it will sell. All these notions are erroneous. 
 Things have value, not because they are produced by labor, nor because 
 they are in general demand, nor because they will sell or exchange for 
 a certain number of dollars, hut simply because men desire to possess 
 them. Desirableness is value. In exact proportion that a thing is desir- 
 able it is valuable. Things which everybody possesses nobody desires, 
 and of course they have no value. Hence there is no value in air, none 
 in light, very little in water, although these articles are as essential to 
 our existence as food. Were meat and bread as common as air and 
 light they would possess no more value ; they would not create desire. 
 When Adam left the garden of Eden land had no value. The richest 
 spots, or those most pleasantly situated or best cultivated, first as- 
 sumed value because of the larger amount of sustenance they produced, 
 or on account of the greater pleasure they afforded they became the objects 
 of desire. Why are mountains of granite without value 1 Because they 
 are not objects of desire. Place one of them near a large city and it 
 immediately becomes immensely valuable. A sandy plain has no value ; 
 but let a city be built upon it, let the lots become desirable, and it im- 
 mediately becomes a thousand times more valuable than the most fertile 
 fields. 
 
 " With regard to the produce of labor, value is generally antecedent 
 to the labor of production. It springs from our desire to possess that 
 which labor may produce. Were labor to fix value upon its products, 
 everything on which much labor has been spent would be very valu- 
 able. This notoriously is not the fact. A Danish captain once, with 
 great labor, loaded his ship in Greenland with a bright sand which he 
 thought contained gold. On his arrival at Copenhagen it was found to 
 be mere sand and thrown into the sea. If labor fixes value, this sand 
 would have been as valuable as gold. But labor could not make a thing 
 valuable which was not desirable. Labor may be wasted. It may be 
 applied to the production of that which nobody desires, which has no 
 value. A man might spend years in setting out and cultivating an 
 orchard of buckeyes, but he could not make them valuable, because no- 
 body desires either the fruit or the wood of that tree. Yet the same 
 labor might raise up an orchard of apple-trees which would be immense- 
 ly valuable. Things do not become valuable because men spend their 
 labor upon them, but men spend their labor upon them because they 
 are valuable. As the desire for an article diminishes, its value decreases. 
 Should a man set up a manufactory of hoops for ladies' petticoats, 
 what success would attend him 1 His labor would not render the hoops 
 valuable ; they would be worth nothing, because nobody desires them. 
 
 [The reader mil remembei' this was written in 1820.] 
 
WHAT IS A STANDARD OF VALUE? 231 
 
 " From a desire to possess a particular article arises a demand for it. 
 If the desire be general, so will be the demand, and they will rise and 
 fall together. But the desire to possess an article, and, consequently, 
 its value, are anterior in their origin to the demand for it. Demand is 
 not, therefore, the cause of value. It is true, that demand and value 
 generally increase or diminish with equal step ; not because the one pro- 
 duces the other, but because they are both produced by desire, although 
 value is the first born. A thing becomes desirable or valuable before 
 there is a demand for it. The demand follows. If the thing be difficult 
 of attainment, the desire for its possession usually increases, and the 
 demand increases. But when the desire to possess it ceases, it has 
 value no longer, and is no longer in demand. Writers who have said 
 that demand created value, have mistaken the effect for the cause. 
 What standard can be invented for the desires of men % Can the neces- 
 sities, the comforts, the pleasures, the fashions, the opinions, and the 
 caprices of man be reduced to any standard 1 Are they not ever 
 changing like the winds of heaven^ Measure never varies. A yard 
 is always equal to the length with which it is compared. An acre is 
 always equal to the surface with which it is compared. A quart is 
 always equal to the quantity with which it is compared. These lengths, 
 surfaces, and quantities never vary or change. Therefore they may be 
 reduced to a standard which shall be uniform and last forever. But 
 does value never vaiy ^ Will that which is now worth a dollar always 
 be worth just the same sum*? A yard, an acre, and a quart are always 
 the same. But is it so with value 1 Is a spot on the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains as valuable as a spot in Philadelphia 1 A yard, an acre, and a 
 quart are the same fifty years ago and now, in Philadelphia and on the 
 top of the Alleghanies. To reduce anything to a standard it must be 
 made uniform. How can value, which depends upon the ever-varying 
 conditions, tastes, and fashions of men, be made uniform 1 Measure 
 and weight do not vary with the varying mind of man. No whim of 
 ours can make a yard less than a yard, or a pound less than a po\md. 
 Not so with value. Assume a dollar as our standard for a gallon of 
 whiskey, and will whiskey always sell for a dollar a gallon 1 No, be- 
 cause its value may change, and then our standard will not apply, — it 
 ceases to be a standard. The desire for whiskey may diminish, a gallon 
 may become no more desirable than half a dollar ; or if the use of it 
 were entirely to cease, the desire for it would also cease, and it w^ould 
 have no value whatever. To make a standard of value you must first 
 make every acre of ground, every bushel of wheat, and any given quan- 
 tity of any other article, at all times, in all situations and under all cir- 
 cumstanpes, sell for precisely the same amount. There miist be no such 
 thing as profit or loss, or buying or selling. 
 
232 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " We have said enough to show the utter impossibility of a standard 
 of value, and that to talk seriously of any such thing is simply ridicu- 
 lous. We may as well talk of a standard of hunger, thirst, opinion, 
 fashion, caprice, and all those wants of the body and operations of the 
 mind which make things desirable." 
 
 His second article, which treats of trade, the origin of money, 
 and a standard of value, is as follows : — 
 
 "MONEY. 
 " Trade is carried on merely by the exchange of one desirable article 
 for another. One man has meat and another bread. To the man who 
 has meat, a portion of bread is more desirable than a portion of his meat. 
 To the man who has bread, a portion of meat is more desirable than a 
 portion of his bread. To gratify the desire which is thus excited in both, 
 the one exchanges with the other a portion of meat for a portion of 
 bread. Both make a good bargain, because they both get that which is 
 more desirable than that with which they parted. This is the most 
 simple operation of trade. Each obtains what contributes immediately 
 to his own comfort. But most of its operations are more complicated. 
 Two men have an equal abundance of wheat, and one of them has an 
 abundance both of meat and bread. He exchanges a portion of his bread 
 for a portion of his neighbor's wheat, not because he wants it for his own 
 use, but because he can exchange it with a third person for clothing. 
 Here we have the first glimpse of the principle whence originated money. 
 The wheat in this instance is equivalent to money to the individual who 
 exchanged his bread for it, not because he wished it himself or because 
 it was desirable to him on its own account, but merely because he could 
 exchange it for another article which he could use, or which was desirable. 
 Yet it is the desire of the third person which gave value to the wheat, 
 and induced the second person to take it of the first ; and the second 
 person desired to possess it because he could exchange it with the third. 
 Whatever is received by one man for the purpose of exchanging it for 
 something else, partakes of the nature of money. The more generally 
 an article is exchangeable the nearer it approaches to money, and if it 
 be miiversiilly exchangeable, that is, if every person will receive it for 
 anything he has to spare, it is money to all intents and purposes. Money, 
 then, is anything- which is universally exchangeable. Government can- 
 not make an article e-rchnngeahle, but it can reduce such an article to 
 a fixed weight and measure, and thereby much increase the convenience 
 of the exchange. Gold and silver derive their value from the universal 
 source of value, — the desire of mankind to possess them. They were 
 first used in the formation of utensils and ornaments. From their 
 beauty and durability the articles made of these metals, and conse- 
 
WHY GOLD AND SILVER ARE CONSIDERED MONEY. 233 
 
 quently the metals themselves, became highly and universally desirable, 
 — more so than any other article of the same weight and bulk. Hence 
 they contained more value in the same bulk, and were in more universal 
 demand, than any other article, and hence they became universally ex- 
 changeable, and assumed the character of money. 
 
 " Government did not give them this exchangeable quality ; but find- 
 ing they already possessed it, government took and divided them into 
 pieces of different weights and sizes, putting on them certain stamps to 
 designate their true weights and their real fineness. This saved the 
 trouble of weighing these metals whenever they were exchanged for any- 
 thing else, and guarded the community against counterfeit gold and 
 silver. But these metals evidently did not derive their value from these 
 stamps ; but these stamps merely designated the value which they had 
 before, and rendered it visible to everybody at the first view. Each 
 nation affixes stamps of its own, which are not, generally, regarded by 
 any other nation. English, French, Dutch, and the coins of all other 
 nations pass among us only by their weight and fineness. When these 
 are well known, they are received for a certain sum in om* own money, 
 to which their value is equal ; but when they are not well known, w^e 
 resort to the weight and fineness as ascertained by actual weighing and 
 examination to ascertain their value. 
 
 " Hence it is evident that gold and silver have become money, not 
 because government has put particular stamps or marks upon them, but 
 because they are universally exchangeable, and contain more value in 
 the same bulk than any other article. These metals have been stamped 
 to gratify the pride of princes, by presenting their likenesses to their 
 subjects and teaching them a lesson of reverence for their king on every 
 piece of money they receive ; but chiefly to designate the value of the 
 metal which every particular piece contains. Other articles might be 
 used for the same purpose, but with less convenience. The Spartans 
 had iron money. To contain much value their coins were made of 
 enormous size and weight. This article was not universally exchange- 
 able, and of course they could not carry on trade in their own money. 
 It was the object of their lawgiver to prevent trade. But it well may 
 be doubted whether this provision alone would have produced so great 
 an effect. In Mexico, before its conquest by the Spaniards, gold and 
 silver were too abundant to contain great value in a small bulk. They 
 were valuable, but not more so than would have been iron could the 
 people have obtained it. Gold and silver were not coined by the govern- 
 ment into money ; but there was a valuable nut which was used among 
 the people to a considerable extent as money. Among them it was 
 universally exchangeable. Copper is used in many countries, and to a 
 considerable extent in the United States, as money. 
 
234 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " From these principles it results that gold and silver, whether coined 
 or uncoined, contain nearly the same amount of value, and the only 
 advantage which they possess over every other article is that they con- 
 tain more value in the same bulk and are universally exchangeable. 
 Gold and silver are not the representatives of property, but they are 
 property itself as much as iron, brass, houses, or lands. A silver bowl is 
 as much property as an axe, and the silver out of which the bowl could be 
 made is as much property as the iron out of which an axe could be made. 
 
 '* When we exchange the produce of our farms or of our manufactories 
 for eagles and dollars, we merely exchange one value for another. A 
 dollar is as much property and more useful than a barrel of corn or a 
 ham of bacon which we can never eat, because we can at any time ex- 
 change the dollar for something else. Property is evidently not con- 
 fined to that which we can eat, drink, or w^ear, but extends to every- 
 thing we possess which has value. 
 
 " Money is but a name for a particular species of property, — land, of 
 another, — wheat, of another, etc., etc. Because these articles have dif- 
 ferent names they do not cease to be 'property. 
 
 ** We have already said that the advantage which money has over 
 every other species of property is, that it contains more value in the 
 same bulk and is universally exchangeable. 
 
 " Any of the other species of property can always be had for money, 
 but money cannot always be had for any other particular species of 
 property. 
 
 " Money is constantly represented as a standard of value. Nothing 
 can be more erroneous. The value of gold and silver is less variable 
 and less fluctuating than that of any other article; but it is by no 
 means uniform. Before the discovery of America the quantity of gold 
 and silver circulating in the world was much less than it is at present, 
 and its value was proportionally greater. But on the conquest of 
 Mexico and South America by the Spaniards the immense quantities 
 of the precious metals derived from that source in some degree 
 diminished the demand, and, until lately, a diminution in the de- 
 mand, and a reduction in the value of those articles has been, ever 
 since, gradually progressing. This variation, although small in one 
 year or ten years, has been considerable in four hundred years. Hence 
 it appears that the standard of value, as it has been called, is it- 
 self fluctuating. There is less value in a dollar now than there was 
 one hundred years ago. The idea of a standard precludes variation. 
 AVhat should we think of a yard which was longer one day than it was 
 the preceding? What of a gallon that would hold more one day than 
 it would the next 1 These standards, as well as that of weight, can be 
 made forever unchangeable. They are made up of divisions and quali- 
 
PAPER CURRENCY. 
 
 235 
 
 ties of matter, not of operations of the mind. There is a difference 
 between them and value similar to that between matter and mind. 
 The former you can divide and mark by lines and bounds ; but the 
 latter is invisible, intangible, and not subject to human control. Until 
 the operations of mind and the various causes which put them in action 
 are reduced to fixed rules, value can never be measured or reduced to 
 a standard.'' 
 
 From Mr. Kendall's third article, treating of a paper currency, 
 we make the following extract : — 
 
 ''Of paper currency, as it is generally understood, there are two 
 kinds, — bank-notes and government paper. Bank-notes are the written 
 promises of certain corporations. When men borrow bank-notes, they 
 merely exchange their promise for the promise of the bank. AVhen 1 
 borrow one hundred dollars, I give my written promise to pay that 
 value of gold or silver, and receive from the bank the written promise of 
 the corporation to pay to me, or anybody who may be the bearer, that 
 value in gold or silver. 
 
 " The advantage which I gain is, that the credit of the bank being 
 much better established and more generally known than mine, the com- 
 munity will more readily confide in the due performance of its promises. 
 The advantage which the bank gains is, that it receives interest on the 
 value which I have promised to pay while its own promises made on 
 the same transaction are not performed, or, in other words, before the 
 notes issued to me return upon the bank and draw out the gold and 
 silver. 
 
 *' The other kind of paper currency is government paper. This is but 
 an extension of the same principle. In whatever shape it may be issued 
 it is but the mere promise of the government. It has no value in itself, 
 it derives none from the stamp put upon it by government, but is a 
 promise to pay the holder a certain value on demand or at some future 
 period. If government makes more promises than it can perform, they 
 become useless, and its currency depreciates. Within the memory of 
 many men living, there have been two striking instances of abortive at- 
 tempts to make the promises of government a circulating medium. The 
 first was the continental mo7iey of our Revolution, and the second the 
 assignats of the French. Why did our continental money depreciate and 
 become useless % Because the paper dollars had no intrinsic value, and 
 it was evident the government had promised what it could not perform. 
 Laws w^ere made to sustain it, but in vain. Had all the governmental 
 money been made of gold and silver, would it have depreciated and be- 
 come useless 1 We all know it would not. And why ] Because the 
 gold and silver are intrinsically valuable, but paper is not. When the 
 
236 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 government gives the peojDle a silver dollar it gives them something 
 really valuable, but when it gives them a paper dollar it gives them a 
 promise to give real value. If these metals and the paper derived their 
 value only from being declared money by the government, a paper dollar 
 would at all times be as valuable as a silver dollar. They would always 
 remain a standard of value. But reason teaches that a promise is not 
 so valuable as the thing promised, whether it be made by an individual, 
 a bank, or a government. Not all the power of all the governments on 
 earth can make a bit of paper as large as a man's hand as valuable in 
 itself as the silver contained in a dollar. They may declare that it shall 
 be a dollar, it may pass by that name, but it will have no more value 
 than a linen rag. 
 
 " From these facts arid principles we infer that it is as impossible for 
 government to furnish to a country a circulating medium which has no 
 intrinsic value as it is to give the same value to a scrap of paper which 
 there is in a silver dollar. Every attempt at it will end in public em- 
 barrassment and loss." 
 
 Mr. Kendall was diverted from his purpose to discuss the sub- 
 ject of property laws on general principles, by the turn which was 
 given to the discussion by other writers. He had in a very brief 
 article corrected some erroneous notions commonly entertained in 
 relation to the execution laws of the other States, derived from 
 speeches made in the legislature. The accuracy of his statements 
 was called in question in a communication signed " A friend to 
 Relief," which he published, with the reply, in the " Argus " of 
 May 18th, 1820. To this article "A friend to Relief" replied in 
 tlie " Commentator," giving a personal turn to the controversy. In 
 the "Argus" of June 8th, 1820, Mr. Kendall responded. 
 
 This ''Friend to Relief" was, and continued to be to the day of 
 his death, Mr. Kendall's personal friend ; but at that time he was 
 hopelessly involved in debt, though the owner of much real prop- 
 erty. He was finally entirely ruined ; and nine years after this 
 controversy Mr. Kendall, satisfied of his integrity, appointed him, 
 unsolicited, to a clerkship in Washington, which he held to the day 
 of his death. 
 
CHAPTEK VIII. 
 
 * 
 
 While Mr. Kendall was thus wielding his vigorous pen in the 
 support of measures he deemed so essential to the prosperity of his 
 adopted State, he mingled freely in society, evidently seeking one 
 whom he could love, and whose love in return would satisfy the 
 natural longing of his heart. The same discrimination and sound 
 sense characterized his conduct in this as in other affairs. Fond of 
 female society, in which his genial temperament and amiahle 
 manners made him a favorite, ready to mingle in the dance and 
 contribute to the pleasure of others, he yet looked for more solid 
 accomplishments in the woman who should be his wife. These he 
 happily found in the person of Miss Mary B. Woolfolk, who, with 
 her parents, resided at a small village in Jefferson County. 
 
 In October, 1818, they were married at her father's house. 
 
 The following have been selected from many letters written about 
 this time : — 
 
 FROM MISS MARY B. WOOLFOLK. 
 
 Mr. Kendall, — I have perused the contents of your paper, and hope 
 you will forgive me for having the boldness to write to you. But I 
 write because I know what I have to relate I could not deliver verbally. 
 
 Before I proceed any further, I must tell you that I have an unfor- 
 tunate brother and sister, — but you have heard of them, no doubt, — 
 not capable of taking care of themselves, and it is designed by my 
 father and mother for me to take them under my care at their death, 
 if they should survive their parents. I feel it my duty, and never 
 could be happy to see them anywhere else but under my protection 
 after the decease of my parents. 
 
 I wish not to keep you in suspense, therefore, if you think you can 
 grant me the privilege of taking care of my unfortunate brother and 
 sister, and also give them your protection, and if my parents approve 
 of our attachment, I do not blush to say that in spending the remainder 
 of my life with you my happiness would be as gi'eat as I could expect 
 
 in this world. 
 
 My father will provide for these children more liberally than the rest 
 
 of us. I shall only have to take care of them. 
 
 MARY B. WOOLFOLK. 
 
238 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO MISS MARY B. WOOLFOLK. 
 
 Frankfort, "Wednesday Night, July 8, 1818. 
 
 Dear Mart, — As John Russell will set out for home to-morrow, I 
 cannot deny myself the pleasure of addressing to you a few lines. Per- 
 haps you will think it improper for me to write you at this time ; but I 
 cannot believe that it will be wholly unacceptable to you. Determined 
 to enjoy the pleasure of the moment, I leave the question of propriety 
 to be settled by those who would sacrifice to etiquette all the tenderest 
 endearments of life. 
 
 My ride from your house to Major Russell's was lonely, but so com- 
 pletely had I left my thoughts behind, that when I arrived there I 
 could scarcely believe my own eyes ; for I supposed I had not travelled 
 half the distance. The next day I visited Newcastle, and yesterday 
 morning arrived in this place, having ridden fifteen miles before break- 
 fast. I found all well here excepting Bourbon, whom I did not find at 
 all ; for he was gone to Woodford. He has, however, returned in bad 
 health and worse spirits, and is now walking the room sighing and groan- 
 ing. Is it not singular that so many of us double the miseries of life 
 by sad reflections and gloomy anticipations, when by a little exertion 
 the present moment might be made to flit before us on golden wings 1 
 As much as we complain of the delusions of fancy, and the sad disap- 
 pointments of dull reality, I sincerely believe that imagination creates 
 for some persons more images of pain than of pleasure. We talk of 
 air-castles which delight and deceive, but we might with the same pro- 
 priety talk of fire-castlesy which delude and torment. But of all the 
 castles which fancy builds, those which yield us misery are the most 
 useless and ridiculous. A reasonable being could not have any great 
 objection to being deceived, when that deception gives him pleasure ; 
 but there certainly can be no more striking example of human folly 
 than the man who makes himself miserable by fancying misfortunes 
 which he never felt. The true philosophy of human life — that which I 
 have long endeavored to learn and will always teach — is to maJce ilie best 
 of everything^ laugh at misfortune, think of the pleasures of life, and 
 forget its miseries. The person who can practise this in perfection may, 
 with propriety, be called happy. But though perhaps as cheerful as 
 most men, I find I cannot perfectly practise the philosophy which I 
 teach, and caught myself sighing as I penned the preceding sentence. 
 Do not, I pray you, apply all the foregoing lecture to my friend Bour- 
 bon ; for though his present temper has led to these reflections, he is 
 generally far from being an unhappy man. 
 
 I called on Lucinda yesterday evening, and found her quite disap- 
 pointed at not receiving a letter from you. She said she was very 
 
MATRIMONIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 239 
 
 angry, and would scold you severely in a letter which I suppose will 
 accompany this. She would not be pacified by my telling her that it 
 was my fault ; that I had returned to your father's much sooner than 
 you expected ; and that you had not time to write. However, I expect 
 her wrath came from no lower region than the tongue, and that her heart 
 
 all the time beat as warmly and affectionately for you as ever 
 
 My dear Mary, I shall wait with great impatience the answer of your 
 parents. It is not so much that I have any serious apprehei^ions that 
 their answer will be an unfavorable one, as that I may see you again 
 and hasten an event which daily becomes more near to my heart, and 
 more essential to my happiness. I will not say that I enjoy no pleasure 
 when deprived of your society, for it would not be true ; but I can say 
 with truth that in no other situation am I so truly and exquisitely 
 happy. All other society has lost more than half its charms, and the 
 scenes of our walks now want your presence to make them lovely. I 
 do not exaggerate, — these are the words of truth, if not of soberness. 
 You cannot, then, think it unreasonable in me to wish to hasten the time 
 when I can spend with you every moment of leisure. Blessed with your 
 love, with smiles and approbation of your parents, and above all with a 
 pure conscience, I shall be too' happy ! But I may expect too much ; 
 Death's cruel hand may dash the cup of bliss from my lips, or mingle 
 with it a drop of bitterness. I will not think so, — it cannot be possi- 
 ble. If I know myself, the man does not live who can justly accuse me 
 of a single vice, and I am sure the world can say nothing of you which 
 can change my feelings. It is not possible, then, that we can be sep- 
 arated ; but in a few days I shall see you, with permission to love you 
 as much as I please. That this day may not be far distant is my most 
 fervent prayer, and I feel a pleasure in believing that its approach is not 
 a matter of indifference to you. I intended to write only a few lines 
 when I began, and lo ! I have filled a sheet. Give my best regards to 
 your mother, brothers, and sisters. 
 
 Yours, with affection, 
 
 A. KENDALL. 
 
 Miss Mary B. Woolfolk, 
 
 Jefferson County, Ky. 
 
 By Mr. Russell. 
 
 TO MISS MARY B. WOOLFOLK. 
 
 Frankfort, July 12, 1818. 
 My dear Mary, — .... I thought of you every minute, and be- 
 lieved that I should have been half cured if I could have had so dear 
 and affectionate a nurse. Still I had no cause to complain, for Bour- 
 bon, who is in excellent health himself, was as attentive to me as a 
 brother. But there was something still wanting, some person whose 
 
240 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 eyes would seem to catch and share my pain, whose tender solicitude 
 would make me forget my sufferings in a feeling of love and gratitude 
 to her who would soothe it. Were you ever sick far from home, where 
 nothing but the hand of cold civility administered to your comfort 1 If 
 so, you know my feelings since I have been in Kentucky, by sad experi- 
 ence. If not, I leave the picture to be completed by your imagination. 
 With the election and with sickness my time has been so much occu- 
 pied thiit you will believe I have had time for little else. Yet I have 
 examined the town from end to end for a suitable house, but have not 
 been so fortunate as to procure one. There are two or three which can 
 be had ; but they are inconvenient for me, and I fear would be not only 
 inconvenient to you, but disagreeable. I fear nothing is left me but a 
 choice of evils, so few are the houses in this place to be rented. Before 
 this time I never felt the want of property ; but you have made me 
 absolutely avaricious. 1 feel so anxious not only to satisfy you, but to 
 place you in a situation superior to your most ardent hopes, that I 
 would at this moment do anything which was not mean, dishonorable, 
 or wicked, to become rich. But as Heaven has doomed me to tem- 
 porary and perhaps lasting poverty, I must try to make up, in affection 
 and kindness, what is wanting in wealth and splendor. Your desires 
 are not enlarged, and, possessing you, I shall wish for nothing but to 
 see you placed beyond the reach of want. Let God but give us a com- 
 petency of the good things of this life, — all the rest of happiness de- 
 pends on ourselves. " From our own selves our joys must flow." I 
 scarcely need assure you, that the few days which I spent at your 
 house were the happiest of my life. I never before felt in its full lux- 
 uriance the i^leasure of loving and being beloved. Never shall I forget 
 the moment when, on speaking of leaving your sister, you burst into 
 tears. Dear Mary, those were precious tears, and sealed with drops 
 more indelible than blood the obligation under which I feel myself to 
 treat you always with Ihe utmost tenderness. No, indeed, you shall 
 not regret leaving the dearest, warmest friend and relation you have on 
 earth, if the loss can be compensated by one at least as warm, whose 
 happiness is irretrievably interwoven with your own. Yet I confess 
 that woman risks much, very much, when in obedience to the impulse 
 of affection she leaves those whose affections are interwoven with hers 
 by natural ties for the uncertainty of a stronger and durable love in 
 the bosom of a stranger. Many have wept that act of their lives in 
 tears of bitterness. Many would prefer the once dreaded state of 
 "single blessedness" to the miseries of a husband cruel, capricious, and 
 improvident. I will not say I may be such towards you ; for 1 feel that 
 it is not within the bounds of moral possibilities. But I may be unfor- 
 tunate, — can you smile upon adversity and meet even want with calm- 
 ness 1 If so, 1 shall never be unhappy. 
 
CORRESPO:^TDENCE. 241 
 
 July IS. My health is completely restored, and my strength fast 
 returning. When I shall see you I cannot now determine, but it shall be 
 as soon as my business will permit. For our man-iage I would propose 
 the week beginning the 13th of September. Should any other time be 
 more agreeable to you, I will cheerfully coincide if it be not much later. 
 I should prefer an earlier period to a later one, for I have no doubt that, 
 before that time, I shall be able to make all necessary arrangements. 
 The day of the week I leave entirely and exclusively to you 
 
 Yours, with aiFection, 
 
 A. KENDALL. 
 
 N. B. Should you think proper to write me, it will be received with 
 the warmest pleasure. 
 
 TO MISS MARY B. WOOLFOLK. 
 
 Harrodsburg, September 9, 1818. 
 
 Dear Mart, — I am now in the court-house in this place reporting 
 the trial of Samuel W. Daviess for the murder of Henry P. Smith. But 
 little progress has been made in it, and I fear that I shall be detained 
 here until some time next week 
 
 I count the days and am eager for the arrival of October. It is 
 seldom that I ever wished the hours ''more swift," but now I do not 
 care how speedily they wing their flight. I have been building a thou- 
 sand air-castles for future life, contriving the plans of houses, yards, 
 groves, and all the parts of a terrestrial paradise, in which I may live 
 with an Eve who I am sure will not tempt me to sin. For the tree 
 of knowledge of good and evil we will have the tree of love not for- 
 bidden, but always free, always delightful, always refreshing. But 
 I know " the ills which life is heir to," and how soon Providence or 
 misfortune may kill the warmest heart and darken the brightest hope. 
 Yet I am sure that whatever ills are reserved for us will be our mis- 
 fortune and not our fault. I have not time for more. You may ex- 
 pect to see me as soon as Monday evening the 28th instant. Until 
 
 then, farewell. 
 
 Yours, with affection, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Sunday Eve, Frankfort, March 7, 1819. 
 
 My dear Wife, I never before was half so sensible of the truth of 
 
 the old saying, that we never know the value of a good thing until de- 
 prived of it. Would you beheve it % since my retm-n home I have been 
 one of the most uneasy, discontented men in creation. I attempt to 
 read, but cannot confine my attention to my book ; I sit down to write, 
 
 16 
 
242 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 but in a few minutes become restless and impatient, get up, take my hat 
 and walk out to find somebody to talk with. Though, as Guilford says, 
 you sometimes trouble me a little with your questions, I had rather suf- 
 fer — all, were it ten times worse, than my own feelings in your ab- 
 sence. In addition to this, the negroes vex me. The coffee is not made 
 in time, the dinner is cooked badly, the cow is not milked, the house is 
 not kept clean, or something is continually going wrong and conspiring 
 to trouble me. I have been more peevish these few days than since I 
 was a pedagogue. Like old Darby, most heartily do I wish my Joan 
 back again, and, if possible, shall be more ready than ever to excuse her, 
 if she sometimes gets out of patience with the negroes. I never felt 
 more inclined to write a very loving love letter in my life, but that would, 
 I suppose, be a very vulgar^ absurd, and unfashionable thing in a hus- 
 band writing to his wife. Indeed, I believe it is considered by most 
 husbands very vulgar or very unfashionable to love their wives, or at 
 least to let anybody know it. Though I would avoid a childish expres- 
 sion of passion or affection, yet I should feel it a sin not to love so good 
 a wife as Heaven in its abundant mercy has given me, and I should feel 
 myself a hypocrite not to own it. Ought I not, Mary, to be the hap- 
 piest of men 1 God has " kept me from temptation and delivered me 
 from evil." If mortal man can accuse me of an immoral act, I do 
 not know it. He has prospered me beyond hope in the a£fairs of this 
 world, and, above all, he has given me for a bosom companion one 
 whose breast is purer than my own. I do indeed thank the giver 
 of all good for these mercies, and could I enjoy no better heaven 
 than I now feel, I would consent to be immortal. Do you not join 
 me in this feeling 1 Yes, I know you do. I know your purity, your 
 goodness of heart, and your sympathy with all my feelings. Malice 
 could not keep us asunder, and I am sure that friends cannot make us 
 unhappy 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Frankfort, September 9, 1820. 
 My dear Wipe, — You will see by the date of this letter that I am 
 in Frankfort much sooner than was anticipated. The two letters which 
 accompany this will inform you of my progress before I left Cincinnati. 
 On Sunday evening last I crossed over to Covington for the purpose of 
 riding a few miles that day, but had to wait for a gentleman whom it 
 was necessary I should see. On Monday morning I started before sun- 
 rise. Licking River divides Covington from Newport. The innkeeper 
 told me this river was fordable, but did not give me any description of 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 243 
 river 
 
 the ford, nor did I know that any was necessary. I put into the 
 with my horse, and had arrived within two rods of the Newport shore 
 when he sunk down, so that the water came over his hack. He phmged 
 forward, striking the bottom with his hind feet, and reached the shore, 
 which was so abrupt that in attempting to ascend it he fell upon his 
 side, throwing me and my saddle-bags into the mud and water. I 
 scratched out, and helped my horse out, but he, like an ungrateful dog 
 as he was, as soon as I let go the bridle to pull the saddle-bags out of 
 the river, took to his heels and made off. I followed him, with my saddle- 
 bags full of water on my arm, crying, '' Whoa ! whoa ! " most piteously. 
 But it did no good. I then made across a point to head him ; but when 
 I arrived where I expected to meet him he w^as nowhere to be seen. I 
 inquired of some men working near, but they had not seen him. The 
 morning was cold, and I shivered. I thought it best to seek for a 
 tavern, a dram, and a comfortable fire, so I poured the water out of my 
 saddle-bags and set out for a tavern. I looked into one, which was too 
 dirty for me, wet and shivering as I was. On my way to another I 
 heard of my horse, which had been caught by a negro, without a saddle 
 on. Another negro was despatched after the saddle, which he found in 
 about half an hour, entirely wet and bearing sundry marks of bad 
 usage. I at length took refuge in a tolerable tavern, took a stiff dram, 
 found every thread of clothes I had drenched with muddy water, bor- 
 rowed a pair of pantaloons, and had my clothes washed, dried, and 
 ironed. My papers I dried myself In about three hours I was again 
 mounted and under way. Nothing in particular happened that day 
 and the next, except that my horse appeared a little lame, got his back 
 a little hurt, and I felt a little of the rheumatism lurking in my legs. 
 
 Your letter I got after I had written, and just as I was starting. It 
 almost made me cry ; but then I thought your apprehensions were wrong. 
 There are troubles enough in reality ; let us make none by the imagi- 
 nation. 
 
 Your ever affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Frankfort, May 11, 1822. 
 My dear Wife, — I received your short epistle this morning, and was 
 glad to hear that you continue to mend. God grant that you may be 
 speedily restored to perfect health. To go down for you next Saturday 
 will doubtless subject me to considerable inconvenience. However, I 
 will endeavor to do it. Have everything ready to start on Sunday, and 
 let us come a part of the way on that day, and finish our journey on 
 Monday morning. I shall not bring down any horse but the one I ride, 
 
244 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 and the boys must hire one or two, if necessary, in the neighborhood. 
 Let them have all ready on Saturday night. 
 
 You have heard all about the weddings before this time. Mr. John- 
 ston got home this morning, and Sally Branham, with Thomas Smith, 
 arrived this evening, — all well. 
 
 Several of the members have already arrived, and by to-morrow even- 
 ing the town will be swarming. 
 
 I get more and more impatient of your absence, insomuch that I have 
 become quite poetic. Were it of any use, I would apostrophize the 
 
 sun as follows : — 
 
 Roll on, thou glorious orb of day, 
 
 Bid time more swiftly move, 
 
 Chase pain x^ath healing beams away, 
 
 And give me back my love. 
 
 My prattlers, too, with rosy cheek, 
 
 Smiling around my knee 
 So sweet, and Anne so meek, — 
 
 Give, give them back to me. 
 
 Truly on earth there is a bliss. 
 
 Painless, without alloy, — 
 Hearts that are pure may find in this 
 
 A holy, heavenly joy. 
 • • • • • 
 
 Sunday Morn^ May 12th. A comfortable night's sleep has done me 
 good, nor do I remember a single dream wherewith to amuse you. 
 There is certainly a pleasure in the forgetfuluess which sleep brings 
 upon us, and I have often thought if death only brought the same 
 sweet oblivion, it would not be so very terrible a thing to die. But 
 probably the chief pleasure of sleep is the relief from fatigue and 
 trouble which we feel while our senses are sinking into drowsiness, and 
 the refreshment of which we are conscious when we awake. As to 
 mere senseless oblivion, in which we neither think nor feel, surely there 
 can be no pleasure in that. Hence death, considered merely in relation 
 to our bodily sensations, cannot be a source of pain or of enjoyment. 
 But there is another reason why mankind do not die with the same 
 satisfaction as they go to sleep. There are A^ery few who are sure that 
 by a change of worlds they will be gainers. When we go to sleep we 
 are sure, or at least think we are, that we shall again awake ; but when 
 we die we plunge into that dark and fearful gulf of which we can know 
 neither the nature nor the bottom. Doubt or ten-or seizes the mind as 
 it is about to take the fearful plunge, and it clings to life because it 
 knows not the consequence of losing it. Now is the moment when 
 those who are sincerely religious soar above the rest of mankind, and 
 feel a full reward for the sufferings and contempt which they have suf- 
 
A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT. 245 
 
 fered from the world. Beggars become greater than princes, and the 
 
 happy peasant in his cottage is elevated abov§ the splendid monarch, 
 
 whose pomp and glory but render him the more completely miserable. 
 
 A right good sermon, on my word. I kiss your lips. Love to you 
 
 and all. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Mr. Kendall's comprehensive mind, always active and energetic, 
 seemed determined to leave no branch of human knowledge imex- 
 plored. From the investigation of every subject he would deduce 
 practical truths, inculcating important lessons of virtue and 
 morality. 
 
 The following articles from his pen appeared from time to time 
 in the " Argus " : — 
 
 FtoWj the Argus of Western America^ of July 5, 1821. 
 
 .... With regard to the future character and principles of this 
 paper, the past is the best and truest criterion by which they can be 
 judged. In some points we may have been mistaken ; but we have 
 never advocated anything which we did not think right, nor censured 
 anything which we did not believe wrong. Though it is our study to 
 pay due respect to the opinions, character, and feelings of all men, it is 
 our pride that we are controlled by none. Our friends Icnow this, and 
 our enemies believe it. With regard to general politics, it is necessary to 
 say but little. The old lines of party distinction are obliterated. Un- 
 fortunately for State rights and the principles of '98, many of their 
 warmest and ablest advocates have gone over to the enemy. The 
 national government, particularly the judiciary, are making encroach- 
 ments which are lightly censured or passed over in silence. The ex- 
 penses of the nation, particularly in the civil department, have increased 
 beyond example and without reason. The public funds hav.e been 
 wasted by being put into the hands of army contractors and paymasters 
 without sufficient caution or security. Our foreign policy has too much 
 regard to the objects and principles of the Holy Alliance to do justice 
 to neighboring republics which have attained their independence and are 
 struggling to preserve it. Manufactures are left prostrate, and agi'icul- 
 ture suffers by fostering foreign commerce. Indeed, there is enough 
 wrong in the national government to excite anew the spirit of '98, were 
 not the people distracted with local disputes and borne down with in- 
 dividual distress. 
 
 Could we reheve the people from debt, enable them to hve comfort- 
 ably in single blessedness or enjoy the bliss of mutual affection in the 
 bosom of a happy family, put their names to the subscription-list of the 
 
246 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 printer, and pay him with cheerfulness and punctuality, we would cry 
 relief, relief with the zeal of Stentor, if not his lungs ; our goose-quill 
 should work by night and by day, guiding many an arrow through the 
 flinty heart which could resist a work so benevolent ; every quarter of 
 the State should echo our voice, and ten thousand honest, happy 
 mortals sing our praises. Alas ! we know the futility of such efforts 
 and the wickedness of exciting hopes which must be disappointed. We 
 might as well cry silence to the thunder, and bid the tempest cease. 
 Things will take their course in the moral as well as in the natural world. 
 When men raise their feeble arms and build their weak barriers, the 
 flood is stayed but to accumulate a greater force and whelm them the 
 deeper in the furious waves. To parry, to palliate, is all that man can 
 do. So it is with the legislature. They may delay, may give facilities, 
 but they cannot relieve. The people must pay their own debts at last. 
 This truth should be impressed upon them, their eyes should be turned 
 from banks and the legislature to themselves, — their own power and 
 resources. Few need despair. Industry never died with hunger. 
 Economy never went without its reward. The legislature can do little, 
 — the people can do much. Let both do what they can, and our 
 country will soon be easy and tranquil, if not prosperous and con- 
 tented. 
 
 Some are lost beyond redemption. They can be relieved only by a 
 general bankrupt law, the passage of which rests with the national 
 Congress, not with our legislature. Once we were bitterly opposed to 
 this measure, but we have changed our opinions. Every week we see 
 so many good and useful men lost to society and to their families, a 
 burden to their country and themselves on account of irretrievable em- 
 ban'assments, that we cannot resist the impulses of humanity which 
 advise that they should again be restored to life and hope. How can a 
 man be placed in a more gloomy and dreadful situation as to the afi'airs 
 of this* world than when, through folly or misfortune, he has involved 
 himself in debts which a life of labor and suffering would not be suffi- 
 cient to pay. Wife, children, and friends, the three blessings which 
 God in mercy sends to man for the purpose of cheering his gloomy pil- 
 grimage, become a source of the most acute distress. How can he see 
 her suffer in penury and want, who, with unbounded affection has trusted 
 herself and her fortunes to his guidance, and is chiefly dependent on 
 him for the rank which she holds in public estimation 1 How can he 
 see those little innocents, whom he has brought into being, grow up 
 without the means of comfort or instruction ] How can he see those 
 friends who have lent their names or their money for his benefit, strug- 
 gling with the tide of misfortune in which their confidence in his honor 
 has overwhelmed them % If he be a man who feels, his misery must be 
 
EDITORIAL SCRAPS. 247 
 
 most poignant. The most distressing feature in his case is, its hopeless- 
 ness. Give him hope, restore him to his family, to himself, to his coun- 
 try, let him start the race of life once more ; perhaps he may profit hy 
 sad experience, make his family happy, and cause society to rejoice for 
 the returning prodigal. 
 
 This is the only effectual relief. Let the State support her banking 
 institutions, thereby giving facilities to those who by a struggle can 
 extricate themselves from their embarrassments, and call on Congress 
 for a general bankrupt law, — no half-way measure peculiar to mer- 
 chants and traders, but extending through society and comprehending 
 every hopeless case of pecuniary distress. The burden of debt will soon 
 be lightened or thrown from our shoulders ; the business and legislation 
 of the country will return to their wonted channels, and all will unite in 
 supporting and executing the laws, maintaining honesty and fair dealing, 
 suppressing fraud and fraudulent transfers of property, while public 
 naorality and private virtue will meet with due encouragement and 
 reward. 
 
 These are our present opinions and the course of policy which we 
 advocate. 
 
 From tlie Argus of Western America^ August 30, 1821. 
 
 HABIT IS SECOND NATURE. 
 
 Penn says we promised some " personal remarks against " him. This 
 is not so. Such remarks were prepared ; but his own course rendered 
 them unnecessary. They were omitted ; a statement of which fact is 
 the only groand on which he predicates our promise. Towards us he 
 used the lowest Billingsgate, the language of drunkards in their cups ; 
 and, shameless as he is, in a more sober moment he became ashamed of 
 himself and apologized to his readers. We could not sink the man 
 lower than he sinks himself. Before we acknowledge him " worthy of 
 our serious attention " he must show himself so by preserving his own 
 dignity and regarding that of others. Till then, his javelin will but 
 poison the hand that throws it ; and we shall treat him as we would a 
 snarlinfy brute, — provoke him merely that we may laugh at the folly 
 of his self-destroying spite. 
 
 From the Argus of Western America, Sex>temher 6, 1821. 
 
 Our last hit has provoked Shadrach to the utmost. Forgetting his 
 promise to avoid personaHties, he raves worse tlian ever. We begin to 
 
 relent indeed we do. Perhaps it would be useful to take serioits 
 
 notice' of him. Such an example might scare naughty children from 
 vicious habits. A short history of his life would be a pretty little book. 
 Perhaps we will undertake to write it. If so, the following may consti- 
 tute a part of the 
 
248 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Penn's birth and parentage. — Why he was called Shadrach. — His mother's 
 dreams bode no good. — Becomes a smart lad. — An apprentice. — Taste 
 
 for sports of various kinds. — Residence at R . — Adventures with 
 
 Mrs. . — Deserves a horse-whipping, but don't get it. — Becomes an 
 
 editor, first at G-eorgetown, then at Lexington. — Disputes. — Their re- 
 sult. — His wonderful courage. — Gambles. — Singular adventures one 
 rainy night in Georgetown. — Turns merchant. — Breaks up his father-in- 
 law, and causes an amiable family to be turned out of doors. — Adven- 
 tures at Pittsburgh, Erie, Buffalo, and Detroit. — Is charged with attempt- 
 ing to defraud the revenue. — Thrown into prison. — Returns to Kentucky. 
 — Is in a fit situation to become a dependant. — Establishes a well-fur- 
 nished printing-office in Louisville. — How the means were obtained.-^ 
 Returns to wallowing in the mire. — Meets a leaden gentleman one night 
 in a by-place, who knocks out sundry of his teeth, and convinces him that 
 it is not always safe to meddle too far, even with a woman.* — Like Shad- 
 racily Meshech, and Ahednego of old, he is cast into a burning, fiery fur- 
 nace, not of real fire, but of whiskey, brandy, etc., in which, not like them, 
 he is burnt up. — His epitaph : — 
 
 This stone, though new, no news can tell 
 Of him who haunts this mansion drear, 
 Where'er he was, the world knows well, 
 'T was always true that Penn Lies Here. 
 
 From the Argtis of Western America^ September 13, 1821. 
 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 .... What has Kentucky done to elevate the moral character of 
 her population and promote true equality 1 With a laudable ambition 
 to further the progress of knowledge among her citizens, she has given 
 lands to her county seminaries and lands and money to her university. 
 From the miserable organization of the former, her bounty has been 
 almost useless, and the latter has just begun to be useful. But what 
 would have been effected had these institutions produced all the benefits 
 which the legislature could desire ? The blessings of education would 
 have been extended to a large portion of our population, but an im- 
 mense majority would have remained in the same condition as at present. 
 Most of the farmers and mechanics have not the means of supporting 
 their children in the towns, for the purpose of studying at academies 
 or universities, and consequently they are effectually shut out from all 
 the advantages which their more wealthy neighbors may receive from 
 the public bounty. Did these classes of our citizens realize the wrongs 
 
 * He was less fortunate than the editor to whom he alludes, who was driven from 
 his horse-whipping purpose by an empty pistol. But Penn takes the purpose for the 
 deed. This is as near the truth as could be expected from him. 
 
EDUCATION, c)jri 
 
 they suffer in this respect, their voice would soon be heard in the legis- 
 lative hall asserting their superior claim to the munificence of the 
 public. 
 
 What is it to them that our university and seminaries are liberally 
 endowed'? It only widens the distance between them and the more 
 opulent citizens. It adds the aristocracy of learning to that of wealth, 
 and increases the influence of the few over the minds of the many! 
 Can such an appropriation of public funds, in a country where equality 
 is the basis on which the government is built, be either just or politic] 
 But we do not complain that the legislature ''have done ivhat they ovght 
 not to have done;' but that they have " left undone that which thnj ought 
 to have done?' Instead of detracting anything from the universities and 
 seminaries, we would add to their funds and their usefulness ; but at 
 the same time we would take measures to raise the great mass of the 
 people as nearly as possible to the favored sons of the rich, who enjoy 
 the benefits of the public liberality in the higher seminaries. In short, 
 we would establish a system of free schools, coextensive with the State, which 
 shoidd he open to the poor as well as the rich, and dispense the blessings of 
 at least a common education to every citizen. 
 
 It is in vain to say the State is unable to accomplish so extensive a 
 project. The experience of other States shows that such assertions are 
 not founded on fact. Massachusetts has a system which is supported 
 tvholly by taxation. New Hampshire has a similar 23lan. Connecticut 
 has a school fund of more than a million of dollars, derived from her 
 Western lands. New York has a system supported almost entirely 
 by public funds. Compared with her population, Kentucky has more 
 extensive means for introducing and perfecting a general system of 
 free schools than any other State in the Union. To show her abil- 
 ity to accomplish this benign purpose, let us compare her resources 
 which are applicable to this object with those already applied by New 
 York. 
 
 New York has a white population amounting to about 1,300,000 
 souls ; the white population of Kentucky is about 430,000. The white 
 population of New York is about three times as large as that of 
 Kentucky, and the children to be educated are consequently about 
 three times as numerous. The annual expenditure on this object 
 in New York is now $146,000; by the aid of which 6,332 schools are 
 kept in operation during a part of the year; in 5,489 of which there 
 were taught, during the last year, 304,559 children. Our white popula- 
 tion being but one third as numerous as that of New York, an appro- 
 priation equal to one third of the funds there devoted to that object 
 ought to produce the same effect in the State of Kentucky. Upon this 
 estimate, $49,000 would set in operation and support, at least for a 
 
250 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 portion of the year, 2, 1 1 1 schools, in which, according to the same ratio, 
 there should be taught 101,520 children. There are in Kentucky sixty- 
 eight counties, and this number would give thirty-one to a county. It 
 is believed that on an average twenty would be sufficient for all useful 
 purposes in this State. 
 
 But Kentucky may do more than New York. In the commencement 
 of this article it was shown that this State will derive a revenue of at 
 least $100,000 yearly from the new bank. Instead of $49,000, let 
 $ 70,000 of this sum be appropriated exclusively for the support of com- 
 mon schools. An average of twenty schools in a county would give 1,360 
 schools in the State ; and $ 70,000 divided among this number of schools 
 would average $ 51 to each. In the Northern States, where this system 
 prevails, competent teachers may be hired at $15 per month, exclusive 
 of their board. At this rate, $51 would support a school nearly three 
 months in each year, a period found sufficient by the experience of those 
 States to give every child, the poor as well as the rich, a competent 
 knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic, and, to the more studious, 
 English grammar and geography. 
 
 Is not this an oljject worthy the attention of wise legislators 1 Can 
 the profits of the new bank be more justly or more usefully appro- 
 priated 1 If the friends of an institution which has already saved many 
 of our citizens from impending ruin will now complete their work of 
 benevolence by using its profits for the extension of light and knowledge 
 to the poor and indigent, they will render their fame as perpetual as 
 their motives are pure. And how can its enemies better compensate 
 the community for the evils which they apprehend from this novel 
 experiment than by appropriating its profits to the advancement of 
 knowledge ] Let us unite in this great and philanthropic object. 
 Should the bank fail, it wiU do no harm ; should it succeed, the mind 
 cannot grasp the innumerable and lasting benefits which it will shower 
 down upon this community of free men. 
 
 From tJie Argus of Scptcmher 20, 1821. 
 
 Shadrach Penn, after a week's deliberation, has replied to our " Table 
 of Contents " in a long article. We have perused it very attentively, 
 and see only the following sentence which throws any light on the subject. 
 In relation to his mother's dreams he says, "Suppose he (the editor of 
 the ' Argus ') had declared that during the night the monkey was watch- 
 ing the wood-pilcy and our mother dreamed the aforesaid monkey took 
 from the above-mentioned wood-pile a small twig of hickory, and basted 
 her son (himself) unmercifully." 
 
 Now this is very probable, and we will put it in the book. Hast any 
 more materials for the work, Shadrach 1 
 
**AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER'- REVIEWED. 251 
 
 Froni tJie Argus of Western America, October 4, 1821. 
 
 AN ENGLISH TRAVELLER.— SCHOOLS. 
 
 We have read with great pleasure a new publication, "Views of So- 
 ciety and Manners in America," etc., "by an English Woman." So 
 many illiberal slanderers from the " fast-anchored isle " have visited this 
 country but to abuse it, that it is consolatory to our feelings to find one 
 who has visited it but to joraise it The American reader will recognize 
 in this book the features of a society and manners with which he is 
 familiar ; but except a few errors in immaterial facts, the chief fault in 
 it is, that it eulogizes us too indiscriminately. It is our intention in this 
 notice not to give a general review of the work, but merely to quote a 
 few passages in relation to general education. It was an American ship 
 in which she crossed the Atlantic, and, of the crew, she says : — 
 
 " It is worthy of remark that every man of the crew, from the old veteran 
 to the young sailor-boy, could read and write, and, I believe I might almost say, 
 every man could converse with you upon the history of his country, its laws, 
 its present condition, and its future prospects." 
 
 Again, speaking of Americans, she says : — 
 
 " But there is yet a more important consideration, — they are their own 
 teachers ; not only can none shut the book of knowledge, but, by an impera- 
 tive law, it is laid open before them. Every child is as fairly entitled to a 
 plain but efficient education as is every man to a voice in the choice of his 
 rulers. In his minority he is, in a manner, the ward of the ruling generation ; 
 his education is not left to chance ; schools are everywhere opened for him, at 
 the public expense, where he may learn to study those rights which he is 
 afterwards called upon to exercise. In this union of knowledge with Hberty 
 lies the strength of America." 
 
 Here is praise too indiscriminate. What the writer says is true of 
 New York and the more northerly States ; but we regret to say that 
 Kentucky is not entitled to one word of it. "A plain but efficient 
 education," "schools everywhere open at the public expense," have 
 engaged no part of the attention of our rulers. The education of the 
 young and poor children is "left to chance," and is often totally neg- 
 lected. Why will not our legislators, when it is so completely within 
 their power, merit the encomiums which are thus liberally bestowed on 
 our country'? The following extract is of the same character as the 
 preceding : — 
 
 " The State of Connecticut has appropriated a fund of a million and a half 
 of dollars to the support of public schools. In Vermont a certain portion of 
 land has been laid off in every township, whose proceeds are devoted to the 
 same purpose. In the other States every township taxes itself to such amount 
 as is necessary to defray the expense of schools, which teach reading, writing, 
 
252 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL, 
 
 and arithmetic to the whole population. In larger towns these schools teach 
 geography and the rudiments of Latin. These establishments, supported at 
 the public expense, are open to the whole youth, male and female, of the 
 country.'' 
 
 None of this general eulogium on our country belongs to Kentucky. 
 We have no lands, no taxes, no public funds, whose proceeds are applied 
 to the support of schools " open to the whole youth of the country." 
 Equally great is the error of this liberal traveller, in relation to our 
 young but rich State, when she says : — 
 
 " The child of every citizen, male or female, white or black, is entitled by 
 right to a plain education ; and funds sufficient to defray the expense of his 
 instruction are raised either from public lands appropriated to the purpose, or 
 by taxes, sometimes imposed by the legislature and sometimes by the diilerent 
 townships." 
 
 So far from having provided for the education of black children, we 
 have done nothing for the white. In the following extract the writer 
 has herself discriminated between dififerent portions of our country : — 
 
 " In the education of women, New England seems hitherto to have been 
 peculiarly liberal. The ladies of the Eastern States are frequently possessed 
 of the most solid acquirements, the modern and even the dead languages, and 
 a wide scope of reading; the consequence is, that their manners have the 
 character of being more composed than those of my gay young friends in this 
 quarter (New York)." 
 
 We will not undertake to say whether the preferences thus given to 
 the women of New England, in point of education, be correct or not ; but 
 if the State of Kentucky shall hereafter be outdone by any State in the 
 Union, either in the education of males or females, her legislators will 
 be deficient in the duties which they owe to a liberal, rich, and growing 
 community. 
 
 From the Argtcs^ dated October 11, 1821. 
 
 OHIO AND THE FEDERAL COURT. 
 
 Our expression of satisfaction, in a former paper, relative to the 
 manner in which the United States Bank had recovered the money col- 
 lected from her by the State of Ohio as a tax, must not be understood 
 as approving the decision of the court, but merely the peaceable manner 
 in which its decrees were executed. 
 
 We are not ready to admit that the United States can rightfully, for 
 any cause or under any pretence, by the authority of the President, of 
 Congress, or the Federal Court, seize the keys of the State treasuries, 
 enter their vaults, and take therefrom money which has been collected 
 as a State tax, rightfully or wrongfully. The outrage is as great as if 
 
HOW TO RESIST CONSOLIDATION. 253 
 
 State officers were to seize the keys of the National treasury and take 
 therefrom, under the authority of any State, money which had been col- 
 lected of its citizens as a national tax. According to our understanding 
 of the Constitution, the States are as independent and uncontrollable in 
 their power of taxation, both as to its objects and amounts, as the 
 nation itself, excepting only in relation to imports. The nation has put 
 her hand into the treasury of Ohio, and taken thence money collected 
 by that State as taxes. We admire the calm and prudent temper of 
 the people which could suffer the outrage in peace. It redounds to 
 their eternal honor. The States can vindicate their rights without 
 violence. The national government is their creature ; they made and 
 can mould it to suit their will. If the President, Congress, or the 
 judiciary transcend their powers, they can be hurled from office, or the 
 Constitution can be amended. He, therefore, who would use violence 
 in opposition to the national authorities, is guilty of a crime worse than 
 the usurpation he would resist. Violence would destroy the system 
 which usurpation only impairs. 
 
 How shall the States resist the consolidating tendency of our national 
 government, which the decisions of the Federal courts are annually 
 making more apparent 1 Shall they permit the centre to attract and 
 consume those glorious orbs which it was destined to enlighten and 
 cherish 1 Few doubt the integrity of the Federal judges. But they 
 are men. Did they not lean towards the source whence they derive 
 power and receive support, they w^ould not be human. Experience has 
 shown that, however honest, they are not the proper tribunal to decide, 
 where national and State powers come in conflict. They are one party. 
 How can one party in a suit be an impartial judge % 
 
 When the President or Congress violate State rights, the people can 
 turn them out. But how can they correct the national judiciary] 
 That department is beyond their controlling hand. Even its errors are 
 sacred. Nothing but corruption can expose their ermine to the vulgar 
 touch. The public voice may cause them to pause for a while, but it 
 cannot disarm them. The only mode for effectually correcting an 
 errino" judiciary is by amending the Constitution. But the fabric raised 
 by Washington, Franklin, and their associates should be touched with 
 reverence, and amended with caution. Derangement in its well-adjusted 
 parts might produce greater evils than those which w^e now dread. But 
 there seems to be one thing wanting, — a tribunal with acknowledged 
 power to determine in the last resort on the line which separates 
 national and State authority. Might not a tribunal be established, to 
 constitute which each State should appoint and pay one judge, the sole 
 province of which should be to decide on appeals from the Federal or 
 State courts where the question involved the constitutional rights of 
 either government in relation to the other i 
 
254 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 From (he Argus of Febritary 14, 1822. 
 
 We congratulate the editors of the '^ National Intelligencer " on the 
 abatement of those gloomy forebodings which had given such a " sooty '* 
 appearance to the columns of their journal. To them the relief must 
 be doubly welcome, as, by the indisposition of the members of Congress 
 to make a nomination for the next Presidency, their own fears are en- 
 tirely dissipated, and the people are rescued from that dangerous ex- 
 pedient which they had recommended. We are now told that there will 
 be no caucus at Washington. This is well. We send men to Washing- 
 ton, not to make Presidents, but to make laws. 
 
 By some of the Eastern papers, favorable to the usual succession, 
 hopes are expressed that the discussion in relation to the Presidency 
 may still be suppressed. Mr. Walsh, editor of the " National Gazette," 
 suggests that the printers ought to do it by refusing to publish articles 
 on this subject. Indeed ! Shall the printers conspire to suppress the 
 discussion of a subject so important to the people? We caution our 
 brethren of the type against being deluded by these lords of tlie press. 
 There is a design in their efforts. They wish a President elected with- 
 out discussion. They do not wish to see a lively interest excited in the 
 country, by which they have much to lose and nothing to gain. To us 
 a discussion appears necessary, even now. The minds of the people should 
 be led to consider a Secretary of State as having no greater pretensions 
 to the ofi&ce of President than any other citizen. The charm of suc- 
 cession should give way to the right of unbiased election. No man 
 should be considered a candidate by virtue of the office which he holds, 
 but all should stand upon the level of equality. Is it so now ] Do we 
 not look upon the Secretary of State as a candidate for the Presidency 
 from the moment of his appointment 1 Does not this appointment give 
 him an advantage over every other candidate 1 Does not the impres- 
 sion that the present Secretary is to be the next President gain strength 
 at everj'^ term ? Where will it end 1 If not impaired by discussion and 
 competition, will it not result in the uniform choice of the Secretary of 
 State to the Presidency, without opposition, by which means each Presi- 
 dent will appoint his successor. 
 
 Every person acquainted with history, or the mind of man, will see 
 the danger to which the silence of the press must inevitably expose us. 
 Originally, a man ought not to have been elected to the Presidency or 
 rejected because he was Secretary of State. But at this time, when 
 this principle of succession has taken so strong a hold, the friend of our 
 institutions will rather oppose than support the man who fills that 
 office. Of the present Secretary we can only say, that we have always 
 viewed him as a mild Federalist, who ought sooner to be trusted than 
 
COMMON' SCHOOLS. 255 
 
 some apostate Republicans. That he would not go with Otis and Co 
 m efforts to destroy his country, is an argument in favor of his honesty 
 but not of his correct principles. His father, John Adams, was as true 
 a patriot as the Revolution produced ; but was he a good President 1 
 To his son we have no enmity ; but among those spoken of at present 
 he IS not our choice, and the station he holds does not lessen our ob- 
 jections. 
 
 With these views, it seems to us important that there should be a 
 discussion in relation to the next Presidency, even now. It is not too 
 early for the people to consider whether they will permit the custom 
 of elevating the Secretary of State to the Presidency to become a 
 laiv ; whether all the Presidents ought to be elected from the North 
 or the South, from Virginia or Massachusetts, or whether this honor 
 shall sometimes be conferred upon the Middle or the West, upon 
 New York, Pennsylvania, Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, or even Kentucky. 
 In fine, every topic connected with this election, except, perhaps, the 
 personal merits or demerits of the supposed candidates, are proper 
 subjects for present discussion. Whatever, therefore, may be the 
 course adopted by Messrs. Gales and Seaton, or by Mr. Walsh, our 
 paper, even though it expose us to the charge of singularity, will re- 
 main open to this discussion. 
 
 From the Argus of March 21, 1822. 
 
 COMMON SCHOOLS. 
 
 The following circular has been prepared by the commissioners ap- 
 pointed by the last legislature to collect information and digest a system 
 of schools. It is to be addressed to individuals in the various counties, 
 and is published by request of the commissioners, with an earnest solici- 
 tation on their part that all persons throughout the State who feel in- 
 terested in this important subject, will join in communicating to them 
 the desired information, without a more particular application. 
 
 CIRCULAR. 
 
 Sir, — You are already apprised of the proceedings of our legislature at 
 their last session, on the subject of education. We are appointed commis- 
 sioners to collect information and digest a system for carrying into effect the 
 benevolent purposes and munificent appropriations of the representatives of 
 the people in relation to this important class of our common interests. Be- 
 lieving^ you to be friendly to the object, and willing to contribute whatever 
 may be in your power to its accomplishment, we take the liberty of address- 
 ing to you this circular, and of calling to your attention the questions that are 
 subjoined. Any information that you may be able to give will be gratefully 
 received and faithfully employed. Letters may be directed to the commis- 
 
256 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 sioner living within your district. We ask as early communications upon 
 
 this subject as your conveuience will permit. With great regard, we are, sir, 
 
 yours, 
 
 W. T. BARRY, Chairman. 
 
 D. R. MURRAY, 
 JOHN POPE, 
 D. WHITE, 
 
 J. R. WITHERSPOON, 
 W. R. ROPER. 
 Majch, 1822. 
 
 QUESTIONS. 
 
 1. Has any county seminary been established in your county ? 
 
 2. If so, what endowments has it received, and what is the present situation 
 of its funds and buildings ? 
 
 3. Is any teacher employed therein under the control or superintendence of 
 the trustees ? * 
 
 4. What number of students are taught thereat, and at what price for each 
 branch of knowledge ? 
 
 5. Are there any academies in your county, established by law or otherwise, 
 and what are their endowments? 
 
 6. Have they buildings ? 
 
 7. What teachers are employed therein ; what number of pupils are taught, 
 and at what price for each branch of knowledge ? 
 
 8. What number of common schools are now or usually taught in your 
 county ? 
 
 9. What number of children are taught therein, and what is the price of 
 tuition ? 
 
 10. What is the probable number of children who are growing up in your 
 county without being sent to school ? 
 
 11. What is the probable number of those whose parents are unable to give 
 them a common-school education ? 
 
 12. What is the size of the school districts into which your county has been 
 laid off by the county court ? 
 
 13. If a school were placed near the centre of each district, would it be 
 practicable for all the children to attend it? 
 
 14. If not, how many would be excluded ? 
 
 15. Could your county be otherwise districted so as better to accommodate 
 those who would be sent to school? 
 
 16. Calculating from the usual number of children taught in the seminary, 
 academies, and common schools, and the known prices of tuition, what is the 
 probable sum paid annually in your county for the education of children ? 
 
 To facilitate the collection of information, the State has been divided 
 by the commissioners into five districts, and all letters should be directed 
 to the commissioner residing in the district where the letter is written. 
 
 Any information, whether in relation to the condition of this State 
 or the systems which have been adopted in other States, may also be 
 communicated to Wm. T. Barry, Esq., Chairman of the Board, at 
 Lexington. 
 
_ COMMON SCHOOLS. 257 
 
 As this is a subject of the utmost consequence, and as the accom- 
 plishment of the benevolent views of the last legislature will create an 
 era in the history of Kentucky, not to be equalled in true glory by the 
 most splendid military achievement, we earnestly hope that every citi- 
 zen will feel interested in collecting the desired information, and will 
 contribute his mite to the mass of intelligence which is essential to the 
 framing of a system which shall realize the expectations of the legis- 
 lature and the hopes of the country. The more minute the information, 
 the less liable will the commissioners be to adopt erroneous principles 
 and make false calculations. 
 
 To show what may be effected in the collection of information, we 
 shall endeavor to procure and publish all the particulars on which the 
 commissioners desire to be informed, so far as respects the county of 
 Franklin. 
 
CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 From the Argus of January 30, 1823. 
 TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 The undersigned have become sole proprietors of the " Argus '' print- 
 ing establishment, and this paper will be henceforth published by Ken- 
 dall and Meriwether. 
 
 In relation to the principles which will govern our future course, it is 
 not necessary to say much, because our political opinions are well known. 
 The only charge we have lately heard against the " Argus " is, that it is 
 too democratic. If we err at all, we prefer erring on that side, because 
 it is the safest. The people had better have too much power than too 
 little, because it is very easy to delegate power to our rulers, but not so 
 easy to resume it. In all contests for power, therefore, where there is 
 reasonable ground to doubt, we always have been, now are, and doubt 
 not always shall be, in favor of leaving the contested power with the 
 people. Nor shall we be deterred by any temporary loss or inconven- 
 ience from discussing principles freely and boldly; because we are 
 satisfied that in the end " Honesty is the best policy." 
 
 But we have been editors so long to little purpose if we have learned 
 nothing from experience. We are convinced that mere personal vituper- 
 ation not only does no good, but degrades the press and lessens its 
 beneficial influence on the community. Human nature is so prone to 
 return abuse for abuse, with interest too, that it requires great com- 
 mand of one's temper to restrain it. But we are determined to make 
 the effort, and, if possible, to preserve perfect decorum of language, 
 whatever may be the provocation or whoever may offer it. Let it not 
 be understood, however, that we shall suffer ourselves to be abused in 
 silence. To repel the blackguard, it is not necessary to descend to his 
 level. 
 
 As our individual attention will be bestowed upon this estabhshment, 
 
THE BIBLE. 
 
 259 
 
 we shall give a greater variety to our articles, both original and selected, 
 than they have heretofore possessed. Not only politics, but agriculture, 
 manufactures, commerce, education, literature, anecdote, poetry, moral- 
 ity, and religion will claim a considerable share of our attention. The 
 longer we live, the stronger becomes our conviction that society cannot 
 exist in a civilized state unless it be deeply imbued with the principles 
 of religion. The promotion of that which constitutes the basis of all our 
 social enjoyments, even by means of a common newspaper, cannot be 
 wrong or impolitic. 
 
 We have some enemies. Our errors have been magnified into crimes, 
 and our mistakes into wilful falsehoods. This is to be expected when- 
 ever we chance to run athwart the course of ambitious men. In the 
 heat of controversy, however, we have been carried further than was 
 justified by prudence or propriety. Like other men we cannot divest 
 ourselves of human passions, and therefore we dare not promise that we 
 will not hereafter be led astray. But, whenever convinced that we have, 
 through misinformation, passion, or prejudice wronged any man, we 
 shall not hesitate to do him justice, whatever may be thought or said 
 by men who think it more honorable to stick to an error than to acknowl- 
 edge it. Some of those who have shown themselves our enemies, we 
 esteem, in the main, as honest men, and capable of being serviceable to 
 the public; and whenever a proper opportunity offers, we shall show 
 that we are not actuated by such feelings as they are. Though we can- 
 not hope, so long as we are obliged to mingle in political contests, to live 
 in peace with all mankind, yet we shall always endeavor to give no 
 reasonable cause of offence. With this view, we are determined to 
 avoid, as far as practicable, all interference between individual candi- 
 dates, farther than their interests may be affected by the discussion of 
 general principles. 
 
 With heartfelt gratitude we acknowledge the favors already received 
 from the people and legislature of Kentucky ; and so long as we remain 
 honest and faithful we have no fears of losing their confidence and 
 
 support. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL, 
 
 A. G. MERIWETHER. 
 
 * 
 
 From the Argiis of Fehrivary 26, 1823. 
 SUNDAY REFLECTIONS. 
 The Bible. — The institution of a Bible Society in Franklin County 
 naturally calls our attention to this ancient and venerable book. There 
 is no man, whatever may be his religious opinions, to whom the con- 
 tents of this volume are not highly interesting. It purports to give a 
 history of the origin of our race, of the destruction of mankind by an 
 
260 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 universal deluge, of the patriarchal and pastoral manners of the early- 
 ages ; gives us the system of laws, civil and religious, delivered to the 
 Jews through the medium of Moses ; contains the history of that people 
 from a single ancestor almost to the dispersion of the nation ; and relates 
 to us the origin and progress of the Christian religion in its earliest 
 stages. Merely as a history, it is therefore of great importance, and 
 should be read with the utmost attention by every one who wishes to 
 become acquainted with the events of antiquity. 
 
 To the admirers of morality and singleness of character it is also 
 invaluable. From beginning to end it inculcates the existence of one 
 God, the Creator of all things, and represents him as dehghting in the 
 devotion of his creatures to his service, their kindness towards each 
 other, and their honesty and sincerity in all their dealings. Humility 
 and self-abasement are everywhere represented as among the first of 
 virtues, and man is called upon to bring his passions and appetites into 
 complete subjection by giving up those possessions and pleasures which 
 are dearest to his heart. Under the ancient religion, he who could, 
 with perfect resignation, see the firstlings of his flock and the most 
 precious fruits of his labor offered up as sacrifices to his Maker must 
 have acquired a considerable control over the passions of his bosom. In 
 Christianity, too, men have to make these sacrifices, — not of their 
 flocks or their fruits, but of their pleasures and follies. Nor are these 
 sacrifices less painful to the human heart than the firstlings and first- 
 fruits of the old dispensation. Perhaps it requires even a greater effort, 
 a more perfect control over one's desires and passions, to deny ourselves 
 the gratification of our propensities than to surrender the most precious 
 articles of our property. Infidels as well as Christians accord to the 
 New Testament that it exhibits a system of more perfect morality than 
 was ever taught by any other book. He who uniformly practises the 
 rules there prescribed for the regulation of our conduct towards each 
 other, will not only escape the censures of mankind, but the reproaches 
 of his own conscience. " Do unto others as ye would have them do 
 unto you." Language cannot convey the sum of all morality in a more 
 brief, simple, and forcible manner. For its pure morality, therefore, 
 independent of religion, the Bible, and more paKticularly the New Testa- 
 ment, ought to be possessed and read by every man who seeks to be 
 honest, or admires that virtue in others. 
 
 But the Bible has still higher claims to the attention and perusal of 
 man. It is the source of the Christian religion, which changes the 
 heart and renders men moral and good by purifying the source whence 
 all their actions spring. Rehgion produces pure morality as naturally 
 as a pure fountain emits a pure stream. The Old Testament gives us 
 an account of man's fall from that state of innocence in which he was 
 
THE BIBLE. 261 
 
 created, with many allusions to the future redemption of his race. The 
 New Testament gives us a history of that redemption, and promises to 
 man, in a future world, the happiness which he has lost in this. Almost 
 every man who reads much and thinks much is religious, in theory at 
 least. Some, indeed, disbelieve all religion, because they cannot under- 
 stand its mysteries. As well might they disbelieve the existence of 
 the most familiar objects in nature. Creation is full of mysteries, — 
 by day and night mysteries innumerable roll before us, — we are mys- 
 teries ourselves. Whence came man "i Who formed his beautiful limbs, 
 and breathed into him the breath of life 1 Who gave form and variety 
 to his senses, organized his brain, and set in motion his palpitating 
 heart 1 Wilt thou say, it was God 1 If so, tell us in what manner the 
 Great Supreme formed the first of human beings, and for what end ] Is 
 he capricious, and did he make man for nothing'} Thou who refusest to 
 believe in mysteries, art thyself the greatest mystery which thine eyes 
 behold or thy thoughts embrace. Why not disbelieve thine own exist- 
 ence, and disbelieve even thy own disbelief, and think that thou dost not 
 think, but that thou art all a delusion ! There are few who deny that 
 there is a Supreme Being, and that he created man ; for to deny this 
 would be to ascribe to man self-creation, which is not only a mystery, 
 but a contradiction. If, therefore, God created man, he must, in the 
 act of his creation, have exercised both upon his body and mind a 
 direct and supernatural power. The very act of man's creation — an act 
 which is proved by his existence — was a greater miracle than is ascribed 
 to our Saviour in the New Testament, or to any of the prophets in the 
 Old. Yet this miracle, the most extraordinary which the Bible records, 
 is almost universally admitted to be true, even by those who reject re- 
 ligion on account of its mysteries. 
 
 For what end was man created 1 Merely to grow to manhood, play a 
 few pranks before high Heaven, decay and die 1 A God influenced by 
 such motives as the creation of an inferior being, would indeed be a 
 mystery deeper and darker than that which shrouds the foundation of 
 our religion. But this was not the design of man's Creator ; the world 
 was peopled for some higher and nobler purpose. What was that pur- 
 pose 1 It is man's felicity, both in this and a future world, — it was 
 religion and the reward of religion. 
 
 But some will not believe that God ever spoke to man, or held com- 
 munion with his mind. Is there more mystery in communicating a 
 thought to the mind than in creating that mind 1 He who made the 
 mind could surely inspire it with a thought, and if the latter is too 
 great a mystery to be believed, surely the former is also. Hence, he 
 who believes that God created the mind ought not to think inspiration 
 unreasonable, or reject religion because it purports to be a communica- 
 
262 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 tion from God to man. Why should not the rules for the government 
 of a moral agent come from the being who created him 1 Nothing is 
 more reasonable or would seem to be more natural. God is a mystery, 
 the universe is a mystery, the creation of man is a mystery, inspiration 
 is a mystery ; but the last is the least mystery of them all. Its mys- 
 teriousness is not, therefore, an argument against religion, nor against 
 its emanation from the Divine mind. 
 
 These remarks are hastily thrown together for the purpose of exciting 
 new thoughts in some of our readers, and calling their attention to an 
 Old Book which is too much neglected. If the religion of our country- 
 be true, it is a matter of the highest importance for every one of us ; 
 and if it be false, it is the most moral and useful fable ever palmed 
 upon mankind. To believe it can do no harm, and to disbelieve it may 
 lead us to unimagined mischiefs. Let him who admits the existence of 
 a God and the creation of man reflect, that he already assents to as 
 great mysteries as religion presents, and that he can no longer, on that 
 ground, refuse his credence to the whole system. But let him also reflect, 
 that its beauties do not consist in its masteries, but in its influence over 
 the hearts and manners of men. If, on account of its mysteries, there is 
 no gi'ound to disbelieve it, there surely may be found in the beneficial 
 effects which it produces the most forcible reasons to believe it a real 
 emanation from the Great First Cause for the direction and benefit of 
 the creatures of his power. 
 
 From the Argus of February 6, 1823. 
 
 OMINOUS. 
 
 The late news from England informs us that a considerable squadron 
 of ships of war is fitting out in one of the ports of that country for a 
 Secret Expedition. In the present state of the world, and with the neu- 
 tral professions of the British government, what can be the object of 
 this armament 1 There have been intimations in the English papers 
 that Great Britain would not interfere with the affairs of Spain, that she 
 would use her influence, if not her arms, to prevent the interference of 
 others, and that Spain was to give her some equivalent for her friend- 
 ship. What if this equivalent should be the island of Cuba, and what 
 if to take possession thereof should be the ultimate destination of this 
 secret expedition 1 It has always been the policy of the British govern- 
 ment to secure all the commanding points in the commercial world, for 
 the purpose of securing to herself the dominion of the ocean and con- 
 trolling the trade of all nations. Next to Gibraltar, there is no point 
 of the globe whose attitude is so commanding over the commerce of 
 other countries as the island of Cuba. Look at the valley of the Mis- 
 
SUNDAY REFLECTIONS. 263 
 
 sissippi and the empire of Mexico, whose chief outlet to the ocean and 
 avenue to the commercial world is almost in sight of the Havana. The 
 growing importance of the countries, and their vast resources, will 
 render the commerce of the Gulf of Mexico, at some future period, not 
 less important than that of the Mediterranean. The possession of a 
 point which will subject all this commerce to the control of the British 
 navy, and, in the event of war, enable them to destroy it, cannot but be 
 a matter of the deepest interest to the British government. It is much 
 more important to our government, and they should spare no means to 
 prevent the possession of that island by the British. They would 
 doubtless render it impregnable, so far as that end can be effected by 
 the art of man, and for centuries it would remain a thorn in our side, 
 controlling the commerce of more than half the Union. It would be 
 better for us that it were sunk in the depths of the ocean, or that it 
 were possessed by the Algerines, or pirates ; for them we could conquer 
 or expel. We have no desire to see this island annexed to the United 
 States ; for that would give reasonable cause for jealousy to our Mexi- 
 can neighbors. It seems to us the wiser and the safer course to pro- 
 mote its independence, with a government confined to the island itself 
 In that case it would never be sufficiently powerful to endanger our 
 commerce, and would be forever delivered from the grasp of Great 
 Britain. In fine, its possession by that power ought to be prevented at 
 aU hazards ; for it would be almost as fatal to the Western country as 
 the occupation by her of the mouth of the Mississippi. 
 
 If, therefore, there be any ground to fear this event, we have a right 
 to expect that measures will be taken to prevent it. 
 
 From the Argus of February 10, 1823. 
 
 SUNDAY REFLECTIONS. 
 
 Religion. — A belief in the existence of a Supreme Being is the basis 
 of all religion. This belief may spring from either of three sources, or 
 from all of them combined. 
 
 It is not reasonable to suppose that the first of men had no personal 
 knowledge of the Being who created him. If he neither saw, nor heard, 
 nor felt the Divine hand that formed his limbs and clothed his features 
 in beauty, yet, when the senses first received the impression of external 
 objects, and the mind awoke to intelligence, the new created being must 
 have been conscious of the presence of that great Power which had thus 
 raised him from the dust. That God would, after forming an intelligent 
 being, leave him without a knowledge of the object of his creation, is 
 not consistent with the plainest deductions of human reason. In this 
 respect, therefore, our own reason entirely corresponds with the accounts 
 
264 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 given in the Bible. Our reason teaches, that God would hold commu- 
 nication with man for the purpose of apprising him by what means and 
 for what end he was brought into existence, and the Bible informs us 
 that such was the fact. The first of men, therefore, had a personal 
 knowledge of Deity, and could not but believe in his existence. 
 
 The second source whence a belief in the existence of God may be 
 derived is the universe. Whence came the world and all it contains, 
 the sun, moon, planets, and stars ? Did they form themselves, or spring 
 into existence by chance ] Our little earth affords innumerable won- 
 ders, which nothing but Deity could frame ; but what is earth compared 
 with the universe 1 Many of the planets which wheel around our globe 
 exceed it many times in magnitude, and the sun is immensely larger 
 than them all combined. But the sun itself is but an unit among 
 millions, but as a grain of sand compared with the universe. Look to 
 the heavens full of dazzling spots which seem so small they are but 
 a glimmer of light. What are they i The knowledge of man has not 
 enabled him to ascertain. The most improved telescope — which presents 
 the moon almost at our doors, gives the apparent size of that luminary 
 to all the planets, and exhibits the sun as an almost unbounded field of 
 fire whose unextinguishable flame is only broken by a few dark spots — 
 is not sufiScient to give magnitude to these twinklings of other worlds, 
 so vast, so unmeasurable is their distance. All that these instruments 
 can do is to aid the scattered glimmerings of other and countless lumi- 
 naries, whose light the unassisted eye never caught and whose existence 
 the mind of man never imagined, to concentrate and announce to him 
 that there are wonders in creation which all his learning can never un- 
 fold, and which even his imagination could not grasp. What are these 
 lamps of night which, to the eye of ignorance, are but spangles to orna- 
 ment a seeming canopy of blue which surrounds this earth 1 Learned 
 men suppose they are suns, illuminating other planets to us invisible. 
 If this be so, how vast is creation ! Suns innumerable, all have their 
 planets wheeling around them, and all of those planets, perhaps even 
 the suns themselves, are filled with innumerable existences. Who built 
 and supports this stupendous system 1 
 
 Who prevents world rushing upon world, and sun upon sun, filling 
 the universe with confusion and fire 1 Who guides the comets in their 
 fiery course, and prevents their driving from their orbits and whelming 
 in ruin some of those innumerable globes between which they hold their 
 harmless and unmolested way? He who can contemplate all this and 
 not mentally, at least, shout a God / a God ! must have shut his mind 
 not only to the impressions of religion, but to the plainest deductions 
 of reason. 
 
 The third source whence a belief in the existence of a Deity may be 
 
THE DEATH OF HIS WIFE. 265 
 
 derived, is the authority of others. Adam informed his posterity that 
 there was a God who had made him, the world, and all it contains. The 
 prophets and philosophers of old repeated to mankind the same infor- 
 mation, all which is embodied in the Bible and handed down for the in- 
 struction of all future generations. If we have confidence in those who 
 have spoken, if we believe them to be good men, we must believe that 
 they have told the truth, and that there is a God who has held commu- 
 nication with them and made known his will to the children of his 
 creation. 
 
 At this age of the world we do not witness instances of direct reve- 
 lation from God to man. But to assert that they are not possible, and 
 may not happen, is to strip Deity of his almighty power. The evidences 
 we have of his existence are so conclusive, that a direct revelation is not 
 necessary ; for he who will not believe them, could not be convinced by 
 a voice from Heaven. Indeed, there is not one man in ten thousand 
 who does not believe in the existence of God, and thereby give his assent 
 to the first principles of religion. 
 
 In the midst of his arduous labors Mr. Kendall was suddenly 
 overtaken by domestic affliction in the death of his cherished and 
 devoted wife. 
 
 rive years of nearly unalloyed happiness had been theirs. Death 
 had cast no shadow over their peaceful household. Happy in the 
 present, they cherished fond anticipations of future joys. The 
 blow was sudden ; scarcely did the stricken husband realize the 
 sorrow in store for him before it fell with crushing force. 
 
 In the " Argus " of October 22, 1823, is the following : — 
 
 OBITUARY. 
 
 Died, at the residence of her husband, in Frankfort, on Monday night, the 
 13th instant, Mrs. Mary Bullard Kendall, wife of Mr. Amos Kendall, one 
 of the editors of this paper. 
 
 In relation to her husband, three infant children, an affectionate 
 mother, sister, brothers, relations, and friends, this dispensation of 
 Providence is a cause of the most poignant gi'ief ; but in relation to 
 herself her confident hopes in a blissful immortality make it a cause of 
 gratulation and joy. It is not easy for her surviving husband to por- 
 tray her virtues, her feelings, and her hopes. He cannot even find 
 language to express with adequate force the feelings of grief, admira- 
 tion, and even joyful confidence which agitate his own bosom. Were he 
 to say he has lost one of the best of wives, the praise would be famt. 
 She did indeed arrive as near perfection as is generally granted to the 
 lot of mortals. 
 
266 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Mrs. Kendall was the daughter of Mr. William Woolfolk, of Jeflfer- 
 son County, a plain, honest farmer, and was wholly raised in the countiy, 
 far from the fashions and follies of towns. Though her opportunities 
 were small, she had made considerable progress in most of the branches 
 of a useful as well as polite education. When introduced into another 
 and what is generally considered a more fashionable grade of society 
 she readily accommodated herself to its manners without acquiring any 
 of its vices. In relation to fashion, she was only desirous not to appear 
 singular, — to excel in dress she had not the least ambition. She de- 
 lighted in no company except where there was an unrestrained com- 
 munication of kind thoughts and friendly feelings. Speaking disrespect- 
 fully of one's associates, neighbors, and acquaintances is a habit in which 
 she never indulged, and when such was the tenor of conversation she 
 sat in mute disgust. Her feehngs on those occasions were known only 
 to her husband, to whom alone she unbosomed her whole heart. Could 
 the tale-bearers, the retailers of scandal, the creatures who remark with 
 bitter envy on the superior dress, furniture, or equipage of their neigh- 
 bors, know with what feelings this good woman was sometimes obliged 
 to listen to their conversation, they would learn a useful lesson. 
 
 No wife ever entered more freely and fully into all the feelings, the 
 plans, and opinions of her husband. If she had a foible in this respect, 
 it was too strong an antipathy to those who had injured or spoken evil 
 of him. Much sooner would she forgive and forget any wrong done to 
 herself. In the management of her household she was industrious and 
 economical. She regulated all her expenses by the ability of her hus- 
 band, and was more than content to live humbly, that something might 
 be accumulated for the education of her children and the comfort of 
 old age. 
 
 In the management of her children she might be a pattern for many 
 mothers. It was not her opinion that their manners, their minds, and 
 their passions should be left to run wild until good sense or the eifects 
 of vice should teach them politeness and virtue ; but she thought that 
 restraint upon the passions and desires should be coeval with the dawn 
 of reason, inculcated by precept, example, and even correction, until it 
 should have grown into a principle and a habit. What her children 
 might have been under the management of such a mother may be 
 imagined from what they already are. In relation to their education, 
 it was her determination not to send them to school while she could 
 teach them anything at home ; for she thought that as much is lost in 
 our schools through want of discipline in the range given to the pas- 
 sions, and in the contraction of bad habits, bad thoughts, and bad 
 language, as is gained by the increase of knowledge. It was also her 
 intention that domestic labor and economy should form an essential part 
 
THE DEATH OF HIS WIFE. ^gy 
 
 of the education of her daughters, and that they should be taught all 
 kinds of household labor, from knitting and sewing to spinning, if not 
 weaving; for, said she, if they should be poor, the knowledge of these 
 things will be necessary to their sustenance, and if they should be rich 
 so far from doing them harm it will enable them to know when their 
 work is well done by others. 
 
 Both she and her husband looked forward with fond and eager hopes 
 to the time when he would be able to retire from active hfe and political 
 turmoil upon a small farm, where, in the enjoyment of a competency 
 they might rear their children, receive their friends with hearts light as 
 the buoyant morning and brows unbent with care. Alas ! how are as 
 bright prospects as perhaps ever dawned upon mutual admiration and 
 love forever overclouded ! 
 
 On the 3d of October she complained of headache, although she 
 appeared to be not materially indisposed. On that night she had con- 
 siderable fever, but the next day and night her disease had not appar- 
 ently increased, and no apprehensions were entertained that she was 
 seized with the prevailing fever. On Saturday she became seriously in- 
 disposed; and on Sunday the disease had assumed a dangerous aspect. 
 
 Medicine afforded her but a temporary and delusive relief, and she 
 continued sinking gradually until her dissolution, a little past nine o'clock 
 on the night of Monday, the 13th instant. In the first part of her sick- 
 ness she said it would end in death ; but as the disease advanced she 
 drew new hopes from what gave despair to her friends, and expressed a 
 belief that she should live. For many months before her sickness she 
 had become thoughtful on the subject of religion, and, soon after she 
 was taken, sent for Mr. Holman, the Methodist preacher in this town, 
 and invited him to read the Bible, sing, and pray with her. She told 
 him she had not sent for him through any fear of the result of her sick- 
 ness, but because, whether living or dying, she wished to possess the 
 pearl of great price. She earnestly begged him and others to pray for 
 her, and although she did not then profess to have been converted, no 
 one could witness the earnestness which she exhibited without believino- 
 that the gates of heaven would be opened to her. When visited by her 
 sister and one of her brothers, she told them among her consolations 
 that she was near possessing " the brightest pearl that ever blazed." 
 Subsequently she expressed a full confidence that she was prepared to 
 die, and a perfect willingness to undertake the dreadful journey. During 
 most of her sickness there appeared to be a kind of wildness in her 
 mind and manner, giving rise at some times to the most good-humored 
 remarks, and at others to expressions connected with death and im- 
 mortality of astonishing force and sublimity. It seemed sometimes as 
 if the spirit were bursting its cerement of clay, and giving expression, 
 
268 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 by a mortal tongue, to its rapturous emotions as it ascended through 
 the ethereal blue to the abode of eternal bliss. There, it is firmly be- 
 lieved, she has found an everlasting rest in the bosom of her God, where 
 she will feel no more sorrow, no more pain, where the only thought that 
 made death bitter — that of her children — is turned into joy by be- 
 holding how completely they are in the hands of that Being who does 
 no wrong, and bereaves and afflicts his poor creatures for some good and 
 benevolent end. 
 
 Her mortal remains were carried to Jefferson County, where they 
 were buried beside her dear father, whom, in her sickness, she once said 
 she should "see shortly." Before her interment, an excellent discourse 
 by the Bev. Mr. Holman had spread comfort in the hearts of her re- 
 lations and friends. 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 The light in Mr, Kendall's household had gone out. A dark 
 shadow clouded the bright visions of his youth and opening man- 
 hood. A widower with four small children, he deliberately fore- 
 casts the future. Self-reliant, resolute, and always hopeful, he 
 determines to devote himself more assiduously than ever to his 
 editorial duties. 
 
 National and State politics, education, morality, and religion 
 constituted fields in which his mind delighted to range. His lucid 
 and terse style, his cogent reasoning, and his exhaustive arguments, 
 attracted attention, and soon won for their author a national repu- 
 tation. Few journalists have so suddenly become famous. His 
 appeals were to the intellect ; he sought to convince men by force 
 of argument. He always had a powerful ally in the consciousness 
 that he was laboring in the cause of truth and right. Kesting on 
 high moral principle, incapable of suppressing the truth, fearless 
 in the exposure of duphcity or falsehood, he was able to do valiant 
 service in whatever cause he engaged in. Earely descending to the 
 use of blackguardism in his paper, he employed ridicule and satire 
 as frequent weapons, but handled them with wise discrimination. 
 
 Engaged as he often was in acrimonious controversy, — for in 
 those days Kentucky politics were of an aggressive and personal 
 nature, — compelled to pass most of his time in his editorial sanc- 
 tum, annoyed with pecuniary claims, physically weak, and anxious 
 for the education of his children, he felt keenly the want of that 
 sympathy and domestic happiness which for five years had been 
 
 his. 
 
 Mr. Kendall's second marriage took place on the 5th of January, 
 1826, when he led to the altar Miss Jane Kyle, a lady twenty 
 
270 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 years his junior, whose parents then resided in Georgetown, 
 Kentucky. 
 
 The sun again shone upon his household. However boisterous 
 the outer world might be, at his hearthstone all was peace. No 
 important change occurred in his domestic affairs till after the elec- 
 tion of General Jackson in 1828. 
 
 As a correspondent, Mr. Kendall had few equals. Frank and 
 honest in expression, mindful of the minutest details, choice in the 
 use of words, he invested his epistolary style with grace and vigor 
 hardly surpassed by the most eminent classical writers. It is 
 doubtful if finer specimens of letter writing adorn the pages of 
 English literature, even in its golden age, than the products of his 
 ready pen. 
 
 Subjoined are a few letters written to his second wife : — 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Cleveland, Ohio, October 25, 1827. 
 
 My dear Wife, — I am here weather-bound. We have had rain 
 more or less for five days successively. Last Sunday was the first of it. 
 That day I rode twenty-nine miles ; on Monday came twenty-two ; 
 on Tuesday, twelve ; yesterday I travelled forty. I have been wet sev- 
 eral times, though not very much. Yet I have taken no cold, and am in 
 excellent health. 
 
 The distance I had to travel is much greater than T supposed. Ac- 
 cording to my memorandum of distances, I have travelled three hun- 
 dred and seventy-three miles, and it is upwards of six hundred from this 
 place to my father's. The whole distance is not less than one thousand 
 miles. Of course the time taken to travel it is much greater than I 
 calculated. I have now been from home nearly two weeks, and it will 
 take about three more to reach my father's. This will cany me to the 
 middle of November. Then, if I stay with my parents two weeks, it 
 will be the last week of November before I shall start back. Then, if I 
 spend a week in Washington, it will be about Christmas before I can 
 see you. The time I have been from you seems long already ; but what 
 will it be before I get back 1 I am sorry I took the children to their 
 grandmother to stay until I come back, for I did not wish to trouble 
 her so long with the care of them ; I wish they were with you. 
 
 Be sure to write to me and let me know all about yourself. Do not 
 distress yourself about me at all, for travelling makes me more healthy 
 than the still life I lead at home. Since the second day after I started, 
 I have not been the least unwell, and I think I look much better. I 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 271 
 
 have been looking at the lake this morning. It has been so rough for 
 five days that no steamboat or anything else runs upon it. The^'wind 
 blew almost a hurricane last night. It has much fallen ; but the waves 
 are nearly as high as ever. I went to the top of a hill, just at the 
 -water's edge, whence I could see, I suppose, thirty or forty miles up and 
 down and directly in front, and there the lake seemed to meet the 
 clouds. The whole was covered with foaming waves, tossing and roar- 
 ing like a terrible storm in the woods. Below where I stood there was 
 a beach of sand upon which the waves dashed up two or three rods. 
 Some distance above, the shore appears to be perpendicular, and as the 
 waves strike it they throw their foam ten or fifteen feet high. I then 
 went down to the water's edge and amused myself with looking at the 
 billows dashing up to my very feet. By to-morrow the lake will doubt- 
 less be calm, and then I shall start in a few hours for Buffalo. 
 
 Give my love to your mother and Elizabeth. You shall hear from 
 me again as soon as I reach my father's, if not before. Probably T may 
 write you again from Albany. I hope on this trip to do something 
 which will be very beneficial to me hereafter. I cannot bear to be em- 
 barrassed in money matters, and if I can by any honest means extricate 
 myself I shall not fail to do it. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Troy, N. Y., November 7, 1827. 
 Dear Jane, — You will perceive by this letter that I am yet in the 
 land of the living, though not at the end of my journey. I wrote to 
 you from Cleveland, Ohio, and I wrote to Mr. Johnston from Rochester, 
 in this State, so that you already know that I came safely down the 
 lake. I know not what day my letter to you was dated ; but it was 
 about ten o'clock on Sunday, the 27th October, that I went on board 
 the schooner '* Eclipse" for Buffalo, having been detained in Cleveland 
 almost three days. The weather was still stormy, but the wind was 
 fair, and we sailed, during the rest of that day, at the rate of ten miles 
 an hour. The night was extremely dark, and the wind blew hard, with 
 occasional rain, so that we were obliged to take in a part of our sail lest 
 we should run upon some island coast in the darkness. In the morn- 
 ing there was an island right ahead, not far from the Canada shore. 
 The wind blew harder than ever, and our vessel tossed up and down 
 ten or fifteen feet upon every wave. I should have been alarmed, but 
 I watched the captain and crew, and not perceiving that they were in the 
 least moved I concluded there was no danger. They tacked ship and 
 
272 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 stood out into the lake. It now tegan to rain so hard that I was obliged 
 to quit the deck, where I had remained most of the time during daylight 
 to avoid being sea-sick. I had not been long in the cabin when I began 
 to get sick. As the day advanced the weather became more calm, and 
 we landed at Buffalo about two o'clock on Monday, having sailed up- 
 wards of two hundred miles in little more than a day. 
 
 From Buffalo it was about twenty miles to the Falls of Niagara, and 
 I intended to take the stage and visit them ; but my sea-sickness had 
 made me feel so disagreeably, and the weather was still so bad, that I 
 determined to go on board the canal-boat and make the best of my way 
 to Albany. I left Buffalo about dark on Monday the 28th of October, 
 and arrived at AJbany, a distance of three hundred and sixty-three miles, 
 on Monday night last the 5th of November. This is the most com- 
 fortable way of travelling in the world. There is in the boats a small 
 cabin with windows, benches, and chairs, in which about twenty persons 
 may sit very comfortably, warmed in cold weather by a small stove. 
 They sleep at night in berths hung up by the sides of the cabin, which 
 will contain twelve persons. If there be more passengers, they sleep on 
 the floor. The berths are hard and not very comfortable. The boat 
 moves so gently that you cannot tell, as you sit or lie in the cabin, that 
 it moves at all, unless you look out. We travelled about fifty miles in 
 twenty-four hours ; but the packet-boats, which carry nothing but pas- 
 sengers, travel seventy miles. I had pleasant company and a most 
 agreeable passage, except that I had a terrible sick-headache one day, 
 of which I was well the next. 
 
 On inquiry yesterday, I was told that my brother George had re- 
 moved from Greenbush to Troy, which is six miles above Albany, and I 
 came here in the staga But on inquiry here I am told he has removed 
 to CatskiU, which is forty miles below Albany. If I were sure of find- 
 ing him there I would go down ; but my information is somewhat un- 
 certain. I am in this difficulty by not finding any letter from my 
 father in Albany. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Dunstable, November 15, 1827. 
 
 My dear Jane, — At last I have reached my father's house in health 
 and safety. I have found my father and mother, brothers, and other 
 relatives all well, but so altered by time that there are few of them 
 whom I should now have known. 
 
 I wrote you, I believe, from Troy, N. Y. From that place I went to 
 Albany, and after a day spent there went on board a steamboat for the 
 city of New York. I arrived there, a distance of one hundred and fifty 
 miles, in twelve hours. I found there an old classmate, and a gentle- 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 273 
 
 man to whom I had letters. I spent one clay there, and then embarked 
 in a steamboat for Providence, a distance of two hundred and ten miles, 
 which we passed over in twenty-two hours. A stage received me there 
 and carried me to Boston, forty-five miles. There I had to stay a day 
 before I found a stage coming in this direction ; but the day before 
 yesterday I again started, and was set down by the stage about two 
 o'clock at Tyngsboro, four miles from my father's. This distance I 
 walked, and got here before four o'clock. 
 
 I have had terrible weather for most of my journey. When I was in 
 Troy and Albany the snow fell near a foot deep. The earth was covered 
 until I came within fifty miles of New York, when it disappeared. I 
 saw no more of it until I approached Providence, where the whole coun- 
 try was robed in white. As we approached Boston it again disappeared, 
 and the day I spent in Boston there was a tremendous rain, which ex- 
 tended through the country, and left snow only in a few spots. The 
 mornins: I left Boston the wind blew from the north almost a hur- 
 ricane. The water dashed up on the wharves, and the sea was all in a 
 foam. The wind was right ahead of the stage, and was so violent some- 
 times when we passed over hills exposed to the north that it almost 
 stopped the stage. Many trees and some buildings were overturned. 
 At length it began to snow, and when I reached Tyngsboro it was 
 almost enough to blind one who faced it. For the first mile that I 
 walked I could hardly get along, was often obliged to turn my back to 
 the wind to get my breath, and thought I should have to turn into 
 some house and give up my walk. But after I had gone a mile I came 
 where the wind was less violent on account of the woods, and finally 
 reached home without much fatigue. I saw my father and mother 
 looking out at the window before I got near the house. My mother 
 knew me as soon as she saw me ; but my father's sight is dim, and he 
 did not recognize me until my mother had said, "It is Amos." There 
 were a few tears of joy at the meeting, but they soon passed away. My 
 father is much broken. In addition to the dimness of his eyes he is so 
 decrepit that he can move about but little. He is a little deaf, and his 
 memory seems impaired. My mother is scarcely altered since I saw 
 her last. She looks young and healthy. She cooks, washes, and does 
 all the housework for my father and herself, and for such an old woman 
 is remarkably active. My father and she live in two rooms of their 
 house, the rest being occupied by my brother Timothy. I do not think 
 my father can live many years longer ; but my mother looks as if she 
 might last many years. My father is seventy-three, and my mother 
 
 seventy. 
 
 My dear wife, I hope never to be under the necessity of being so loug 
 separated again from you and my children. I should be quite happy 
 
 18 
 
274 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 here, if I had you all with me ; but now I feel very anxious to be back. In 
 travelling here I have come nearly fourteen hundred miles, and occupied 
 within two days of five weeks. My journey back will be much shorter 
 and more rapid. I suppose the distance through Washington city to 
 Frankfort is near one thousand miles ; but I shall travel it in the swift- 
 est steamboats and stages. When you get this, write to me at Wash- 
 ington. There will, I think, be time enough then for me to get it. I 
 cannot hear from you too often. 
 
 I have had the worst cold since I left Albany that I have had these 
 ten years. I caught it by staying on the deck of the steamboats to see 
 the country as we passed. It has not made me sick, except that two 
 or three nights I have had a little headache when I went to bed. It is 
 now wearing away, and in a few days I hope to be clear of it. With 
 this exception, and one spell of sick-headache in the canal-boat, I have 
 enjoyed excellent health. God bless you. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KESTDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, December 15, 1827. 
 
 My dear Jane, — I arrived here yesterday in perfect health, and this 
 day took your letter out of the post-ofiBce. You request me to write to 
 you when I start for home, but as I intend to travel as fast as a letter 
 would go, I concluded I would send one on ahead. 
 
 A week ago last Monday morning I left my father's, and went to my 
 brother Samuel's, who lives at Medford, five miles from Boston, I in* 
 tended to take the stage for Albany on Tuesday morning, but had a fit 
 of sick-headache on Monday night and was unable to start. On Wed- 
 nesday night I went to Boston, and after going to bed and attempting 
 to sleep, in which I did not succeed well, so great was the noise in the 
 tavern, I was called up, and got into the stage before twelve o'clock. 
 About a quarter past eleven the next night we arrived at Northampton, 
 a distance of one hundred miles. The tavern-keeper told me I might 
 sleep until one o'clock, and I paid him for my lodging and went to bed. 
 But in half an hour, before I had got soundly to sleep, I was called up 
 and again got into the stage. I had been stage-sick the evening before, 
 and the loss of two nights' sleep had now worn me down very much. I 
 was quite sick occasionally all day, but kept on, and arrived at Albany, 
 or rather Greenbush, on the other side of the river, about nine o'clock 
 on Friday night. There I met my brother John, who had come on two 
 days before, and on Saturday morning we took the steamboat and went 
 down to see my brother George, who lives forty miles below, at Catskill. 
 I should hardly have known him, and he did not at first recognize me. 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 275 
 
 With him I spent the Sabbath, and on Monday again took the steam- 
 boat and went down to New York. Finding no conveyance to the 
 South until Tuesday noon, I went to my sister's, who is living in the 
 city. At noon I went on board a steamboat for Philadelphia, landed at 
 Brunswick, and rode across to Trenton, twenty-five miles by land. 
 
 By daylight on Wednesday we started in a steamboat down the 
 Delaware River, and arrived in Philadelphia about ten o'clock. My col- 
 lege room-mate lives in this city, and I stopped on purpose to see him. 
 It was not until Thursday morning that I found him, and after spend- 
 ing a couple of hours most agreeably with him I took passage at noon 
 in a steamboat for Baltimore. We landed at Newcastle, rode sixteen 
 miles across the country to Frenchtown, took a steamboat again, and 
 were in Baltimore about one o'clock at night. At five o'clock I took 
 the stage, and landed here about ten yesterday. I have met here with 
 a reception warm beyond my most sanguine expectations. Many men 
 whom I never saw before appear to be my warmest friends, if it be 
 possible that any could be warmer than many of those who know me. 
 I have dined to-day with a Senator from New Hampshire, who was in 
 college with me, and to-morrow I am invited to dine with the Speaker 
 of the House of Representatives. I hope I shall be much benefited 
 by my visit here. 
 
 When I shall set out for home I cannot tell, but it will be some day 
 next week. I intend to travel as fast as stages and steamboats will 
 carry me. When I arrived here I had hopes of getting away in two or 
 three days ; but I think now I shall find it for my interest to stay 
 lono-er. In my business here I am likely to succeed as well as I could 
 
 reasonably expect. 
 
 Sunday morning, December 16th. I was interrupted last night by 
 the visit of several gentlemen, who remained with me till a late hoiu*. 
 
 My friends here say that I look better than they have ever seen me, 
 and I think myself my health is much improved. I am glad to hear 
 that you are so well and cheerful. 
 
 I trust I shall have the means, on my return or very shortly after, to 
 place my aff'airs in a more agreeable situation than they have been for 
 
 some time past. 
 
 I am concerned about the children, — not because I have any fears that 
 Madison and his lady will not take good care of them, but because I do 
 not wish them to be troubled with them. But it will be too late when 
 you get this to do anything about it, if nothing has been done, and I 
 hope you will let the matter rest. 
 
 To be with my dear wife and little ones is now the strongest of my 
 desires. Whatever may be our troubles abroad, if we are prudent and 
 discreet towards each other we may always be happy at home, which is 
 
276 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the most valuable kind of happiness. It is better to have storms and 
 misfortunes without doors and fair weather within than storms within 
 and fair weather without. Nothing would delight me more than to be 
 able to retire from the angry contentions of politics into the bosom of 
 my own family, having little to do with the rest of the world. But I 
 fear no such good fortune is in reserve for me. Give my love to your 
 father and mother, to Sister Elizabeth, Alexander, and James. God 
 
 bless and protect you. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Wheeling, December 26, 1828. 
 
 My dear Jane, — You see I am safe on land, notwithstanding I have 
 come more than four hundred miles in a steamboat. 
 
 Armistead will have informed you that we reached Covington, oppo- 
 site Cincinnati, on the second night after I left you, about nine o'clock. 
 Understanding that a steamboat was advertised to start for Pittsburg 
 at nine o'clock the next morning, I got up and hurried over the river. 
 The boat, however, did not start until past 3 p. m., and I had an 
 abundance of time to write you, but Armistead was on the other side 
 of the river. I went to see my friend Guilford, and we walked up to 
 the canal. It had frozen over the preceding night, and no business was 
 doing. Nearly three hundred houses have been put up in that city this 
 year, and they now suppose it contains twenty thousand inhabitants. 
 
 At length we got under way. We had a mixed, but on the whole an 
 agi'eeable company. There was an old lady who has lived about three 
 years in Cincinnati, and is returning to Baltimore, who appears to be a 
 Methodist, but I have not yet found out her name. There was another 
 lady, about thirty-five, tolerably agreeable, who is going on to Baltimore 
 with the old lady. Her name is Mrs. Jones. There were' two young 
 Virginians who have been travelling through the northern frontier coun- 
 ties and visiting some of the Indian tribes. There was a Dr. Dougherty, 
 who lives at or near Steubenville, Ohio, but formerly resided in Ken- 
 tucky. He was a very vain man, but very simple, always serious even 
 about the merest trifles, and seemed not to be entirel}^ in his right mind. 
 I was told he had once attempted to drown himself There was an old 
 Frenchman, by the name of St. Leger La Harpe, with whom I became 
 partially acquainted at Pittsburg in 1814, who appears to be a man of 
 great learning and much good sense. We had also three or four other 
 plain men in the cabin, and a dozen deck passengers. We read some, 
 talked some, and played cards some for our amusement. 
 
LETTEES TO HIS WIFE. 277 
 
 Night before last our old Frenchman was very sick, and we thouo-ht 
 for a short time he would die. It was discovered that he had a box of 
 opium in his pocket, of which he had been taking liberally, and our 
 doctor declared he was attempting to take his own life. On inquiry, 
 however, I found he was in the habit of taking it every day, and became 
 satisfied that he needed nothing 'but sleep to relieve him. But our 
 doctor declared he would soon be a corpse, and kept hauling up the old 
 man's arms to feel his pulse, feeling of his feet, and disturbing him in 
 every way, until some of the passengers insisted that he should let him 
 alone and go to bed. The old man's box of opium was given to the 
 captain. In the latter part of the night I heard somebody up, and 
 drawing aside the curtains of my berth, there was the old Frenchman 
 with a jar of opium before him on the table, cutting some of it up into 
 small lumps for the purpose of swallowing. I begged him not to take 
 any more of it ; but he said he would take no more than he usually 
 took. After taking a large quantity he again went to bed. In the 
 morning he was tolerably well. He told me that trouble in his fam- 
 ily had induced him to commence the use of it; that he cannot 
 now live without it, and that he takes regularly eighty-four grains a 
 day. 
 
 In the morning he alleged that he had lost his pocket-book, with 
 about I 70 in it. We had a search, but nothing was found. 
 
 Yesterday our doctor set out the table for cards again, but our old 
 lady insisted that cards should not be played on Christmas. Finally, 
 the young men made her a Christmas gift of their cards, and the old 
 lady gave the doctor, who was the most forward, a very severe lecture. 
 The balance of the day, until our amval here, passed off in conversa- 
 tion upon religious and other subjects. 
 
 I am at a tavern kept by Mrs. Beck, a widow lady. The stage starts 
 
 between twelve and one o'clock to-day, and reaches Washington in three 
 
 days and a half. The river is full of ice this morning, and probably not 
 
 another steamboat will come up. Kiss little Jane for me, and tell all 
 
 the children their father thinks of them, and they must be good. You 
 
 shall hear from me at Washington as soon as I get there. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington City, January 4, 1829. 
 My dear Jane, — I wrote to you a few lines, two days ago, to in- 
 form you that I had arrived safely in this city. I have now had 
 time to look around me a little," and form some opinion as to my future 
 course. 
 
278 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 You may prepare your mind for removing to this city in the spring. 
 There is no doubt that such an office will be offered to me here as I 
 cannot in justice to myself and family refuse to accept. I do not yet 
 know precisely what it will be, or what will be the salary attached to it. 
 The only doubt of my friend is, whether it will be a principal clerk- 
 ship with a salary of $2,000, or an auditorship with $3,000. Of 
 course I prefer the latter, and it is the opinion of my friends that I can 
 get it, provided I will remain here until the arrangements of the new 
 administration are completed. Although I dislike extremely to remain 
 from you and my children so long, yet the prospect of securing $ 1,000 
 a year by it, for at least four years, ought not to be thrown away. I 
 must therefore bear the privation of being separated from you until 
 March, or at least until this thing can be made certain. I have pro- 
 cured employment here for the intei'vening time, which will, I hope, 
 yield me at least $ 300, and I have a prospect of obtaining business on 
 my way out, which will yield me something like $ 200 more. My com- 
 pensation for bringing the vote is $ 269, which is $ 100 more than I ex- 
 pected, so that on the whole I hope I shall mak^ $ 300 or $ 400 by this 
 trip, besides paying my expenses. 
 
 Upon the advice of my friends, I have determined not to have any 
 interest in a printing-office here. There are many good reasons why I 
 ought neither to have any partnership with General Green, nor in and 
 way come in competition with him. But it is probable that T can get 
 him to give me $ 1,000 a year for writing for his paper. On the whole, 
 I am quite confident of receiving an income here of at least $ 3,000 a 
 year, and probably $ 4,000. This will at once place us in more com- 
 fortable circumstances. But, my dear wife, let us not think of being 
 proud or extravagant. My first object will be to discharge my debts. 
 That I hope to do by selling my Kentucky property. Our children are 
 to be educated, and I am determined that shall be well done. This may 
 all be accomplished, and yet we may enjoy all the comforts of life and 
 all its pleasures that are worth enjoying. This city is the centre of ex- 
 travagance. Many of the clerks and others, with an income sufficient 
 to satisfy reasonable men, keep themselves poor by attempting to ape 
 foreign ministers and the high officers of the government in their enter- 
 tainments and parties. You may be sure I shall imitate none of this. 
 I could show as handsome a wife as any of them, but it would give me 
 no pleasure, and I am sure it would give you none, to make you a show 
 at parties. So let us resolve to enjoy the comforts which this change of 
 fortune is likely to bring us in private content and domestic happiness, 
 without coveting or envying the parade with which we shall be sur- 
 rounded. 
 
 Do not show this letter or speak of it out of the family, for all these 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 279 
 
 expectations may possibly yet be disappointed. Tell Mary Ann, Adela 
 and William that they must be good children, and learn their books 
 well, until their father comes home, when he will bring them a present. 
 Kiss little Jane for me. I hope to see her running about and beginning 
 to talk when I get home. 
 
 Enclosed you have $ 20, Use it in any way you may think proper. 
 Give my love to your father and mother, to Elizabeth, Alexander, and 
 James. I must hear from you ] write me immediately, and enclose your 
 letter to Colonel R. M. Johnson. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS ke:n'dall. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, January 15, 1829. 
 My dear Jane, — Not one word have I heard from you and my little 
 ones, directly or indirectly, since my arrival in this city. You know 
 not how anxious I am to hear from you. I trust a letter from you is 
 on the way, and I must content myself, until it comes, with writing you 
 another. 
 
 I am becoming quite impatient to be with you. I do not believe I 
 can content myself to remain here until the 4:th of March ; and indeed 
 since the news of Mrs. Jackson's death, I have less inclination. That 
 melancholy event will cast a gloom over everything, and prevent that 
 display which otherwise would have taken place. It is supposed that 
 the General is now on his way to this place, and will be here about the 
 1st of February. I now think that as soon as some of my friends can 
 converse with him, and ascertain precisely what he intends shall be 
 offered me here, I shall set out for Kentucky. Should he get here by 
 the 1st of February, I shall be with you, unless I change my mind 
 again, about the middle of that month. 
 
 On Tuesday night last I was at the wedding of a Miss Reynolds. 
 There was quite a squeeze, but many more ladies than gentlemen, or else 
 I looked at them more. I saw but one whom I thought pretty among 
 them, and, thinks I to myself, my Jane would be prettier than she if 
 she were only dressed as fine. So you may well suppose I did not fall 
 in love with any of them. Indeed, I was introduced to but three, and 
 they, I believe, were all married ladies. Except a few words, my con- 
 versation was with the gentlemen, several of whom I had before seen. 
 Among my new acquaintances was Major-General Macomb, Commander- 
 in-Chief of the Army. He is very sociable, and I was surprised to find 
 him a Jackson man. He promised to call and see me, and I hope to 
 find him a valuable acquaintance. 
 
280 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 There is a great show here in the dress of the ladies, and great ex- 
 travagance in entertain ments. I do not like the ladies' dresses, how- 
 ever. They lace up too tight and expose their shoulders too much. 
 Then their bonnets are too large, and apparently too heavy. They look 
 as if they were not easy. In their countenances there is wanting that 
 appearance of good health which so much adds to beauty. 
 
 I was invited to a party to-night at Dr. Cochrane's, in Georgetown, 
 but I thought I had rather write to you than go. I am invited to an- 
 other wedding on next Thursday night, at Mr. McLean's, the Post- 
 master-General. One of his daughters is to be married. If I am well 
 I shall go. 
 
 Colonel Johnson is gone to dinner at Mr. Clay's. My old friend has 
 not thought proper to send me an invitation. If he had, it would have 
 been all the same. 
 
 This is about 7 p. m., and the dinner, I presume, is not yet over. 
 You must know that the "big bugs" here pay no attention to the sun 
 or the time of day in regulating their meals. They are above that. 
 They invite you to dine with them at five o'clock, and the company 
 gets together about six. They then sit down, and it is eight, nine, 
 or ten before dinner is over. At the 8th of January dinner, which 
 I was at, the company did not all leave the table until eleven o'clock, 
 and then many of them could scarcely leave it at all. About one hun- 
 dred and twenty persons drank two hundred bottles of wine, and the 
 dinner cost us only five dollars apiece ! 
 
 On the whole, if there is more extravagance, folly, and corruption 
 anywhere in the world than in this city I do not wish to see that place. 
 People of moderate income attempt to imitate foreign ministers, the 
 President, and secretaries, and thus keep themselves poor, when by pru- 
 dence and economy they might make ample provision for their families. 
 There is great room for reform here in almost every respect, and I hope 
 Jackson and his friends will introduce it. 
 
 Give my love to our little ones, — make them all good, so that when 
 
 I get home none of them will know how to cry. I wish I could fold 
 
 myself up in this letter, and be with you as soon as it will. But I must 
 
 be patient, and so must you. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington City, January 23, 1829. 
 My dear Jane, — I have not heard a word from you, except that 
 Mr. Sanders, in a letter received yesterday, says my family is well. If 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 281 
 
 you have not written, write immediately when this reaches you, and en- 
 close it to Colonel R. M. Johnson, Senator, etc. Our present news is, 
 that General Jackson would leave home about the 20th of the present 
 month, and as he will travel but slowly he will not be here until 
 the 10th of February, or thereabouts. Should I leave for home as 
 soon as I see and confer with him, still T cannot start until the 12th 
 or 15th of February, so that your letter will have plenty of time to 
 reach me. 
 
 Within a few days some of General Jackson's principal friends have 
 started a project for running me and General Green together for the 
 printing of Congress, with the understanding that we are to divide that 
 and the patronage of the executive office between us. On account of 
 the General's friendship for me last winter I refused to suffer anything 
 of the kind to be done, unless with his entire approbation. I do not 
 know whether any of them have conversed with him, and the result is 
 doubtful. Green is a noble fellow in many respects, but he is perfectly 
 wild in pecuniary matters, and imprudent in the management of his 
 paper. I would not on any account have any partnership with him in 
 money matters or in editing a newspaper. He would ruin me, as he 
 certainly will himself, and we should never agree. But if the object 
 now in view can be effected, I will take one half of the printing, and 
 start a new paper myself. It is very uncertain, and I am very careless 
 about it, for it would lead me a much more laborious life than an office 
 with a salary, which I am sure to obtain if I will have it. Yet I should 
 probably make more by one half of the printing than by any office, and 
 for that reason I am willing to labor hard for a few years more, that you 
 and my little ones may never be exposed to want. 
 
 Last night I was at a wedding-party at the Postmaster-General's. 
 The concourse of people was very great. There were three hundred or 
 four hundred, about one half of whom were ladies. It comprised nearly 
 all the fashion of the city. But the crowd was such that there was 
 very little enjoyment. The whole house, up stairs and down, at least 
 eight rooms of tolerable size, was full to overflowing. At one time the 
 whole stairway and the passages above were so blocked up that most of 
 them could not get one way or the other. For my part, I did not ven- 
 ture up stairs, lest I should be caught between two or more of those 
 very fine ladies and drifted — the Lord knows where. The ladies were 
 splendidly dressed, to be sure ; but I could give you but a poor account 
 of their dresses, were I to try. There was no sitting down. The ladies 
 walked, or were rather pushed about, hanging upon the arms of the 
 gentlemen. I was not so unfortunate as to have one of them upon my 
 arm, but I thought it would have given me some pleasure to have had 
 you upon it, dressed with but half the elegance of many a beauty^ so 
 
282 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 called, who was there. I do not know that you could match them in 
 talking nonsense, and as for sense, it seldom ventures into such assem- 
 blies, and more seldom ventures oiit when it happens to be there. I 
 snatched a cup of coffee and some cake from a waiter which, in the 
 hands of a negro, was knocking to and fro in the crowd, and there was 
 plenty of wine and spirits on the sideboard, if a body could only get 
 to it. These squeezes generally last until eleven or twelve o'clock, but 
 I came away a little after nine, and wrote a letter to my father after I 
 got home. Are all the children good '^ Write me, that I may know 
 whether I shall bring them anything. Give my love to all. 
 
 Affectionately, your husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, February 10, 1829. 
 
 My dear Jane, — Your letter of the 29th January was received yes- 
 terday. It gives me great pleasure to hear that you and my little ones 
 are all well. 
 
 Last night I dined at the house of the Postmaster-General. I say 
 night, because they have here adopted the ridiculous English custom of 
 liaving dinner after dark. We were invited at five o'clock, went a little 
 before six, and sat down about seven. The party consisted of Mr. 
 Calhoun, Vice-President, General Scott, and Colonel Neale of the army, 
 Mr. Ingram, Colonel Johnson, and four or five others, with half a dozen 
 ladies. The table was highly ornamented and loaded with every kind 
 of luxury. There was ham, beef cooked in various ways, mutton, tur- 
 key with bones and without, pork, chicken, partridges, canvas-back ducks, ^ 
 jellies, puddings, olives, grapes, raisins, custards, apples, and half a 
 dozen things I know no name for ; Madeira wine, sherry, champagne, 
 and two kinds the names of which I do not recollect. Of course we 
 could not dispose of all these good things, nor of a small portion of 
 each of them, without spending an hour and a half at the table. Mr. 
 McLean, who gave this entertainment, I suppose you know is a 
 Methodist. 
 
 You seem to fear that if I go to such dinners and parties I shall 
 have to give them. Not at all. These are given by very rich men or 
 public officers who have % 6,000 salary, and although many living on 
 humbler incomes foolishly attempt to imitate all this style, it is not 
 required or expected of them. I am told that these heads of depart- 
 ments do not even expect, when they invite those of less income, that 
 their civilities will be returned. But it is otherwise among the humbler 
 class, who throw away their living in this manner. If you go to their 
 parties, having a family living here, you are expected to return them. 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 283 
 
 But I am a sort of single man now, and I can go where I please, I 
 
 mean to what parties I please, and nothing is expected of me in 
 return. 
 
 I am glad you feel as I do in relation to this foolery of giving splendid 
 parties. I should like once in a while to have a few friends to take tea 
 and spend a social hour, without much expense or ceremony ; but these 
 great entertainments would suit my means as little as they would my 
 taste. 
 
 I do not dislike your ambition to " look fine.'' The more attention 
 you pay to your person, the more I shall always love you. I do not 
 believe any man of any taste can love a woman long who is not cleanly 
 and neat in her person and dress. While I have the means, you shall 
 be just as "fine " as your own taste desires. 
 
 With a "fine" face, "fine" clothes, and a "fine" mind well stored 
 with " fine " things, you would be well fitted for any station into which 
 fortune may throw you ; and especially, to be always a beloved wife and 
 a good mother. 
 
 If you can't persuade Eliza to be a little more moderate, I believe I 
 had better not go home ; for if I did, I should have to run away again, 
 because I should be unable to pay her. 
 
 As the little girls claim only a doll, and William a horse, I shall have 
 no difficulty on that score, even although James, Susan, and Peggy be 
 added to the number. 
 
 Do ask Eliza whether she will not be satisfied with a man ? 
 
 I still remain remarkably well, and my friends say I am gaining in 
 
 flesh. God bless you, my dear wife. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 P. S. Tell your father that General Green has been elected printer 
 to the House of Representatives to-day, by a majority of twelve votes 
 over Gales and Seaton. There were for Green one hundred and seven. 
 Gales and Seaton ninety-five, and six scattering, one of which was for 
 your husband. 
 
 General Jackson is expected here to-morrow or the next day. I can- 
 not tell whether I shall start from here before the 4th of March or not, 
 until after his arrival. I will write to you as soon as I know myself. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, February 14, 1829. 
 My dear Wife, — I have had a private interview with General Jack- 
 son this morning, and he has assured me that I may rely on receiving 
 a principal clerkship, with a salary of | 2,000, or an auditorship with a 
 
284 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 salary of $ 3,000. He would have no hesitancy in promising me the 
 latter, did he not think it possible that some of those offices may be 
 abolished, in which case I might be thrown out. He expressed his re- 
 gard for me, and his disposition to serve me, in strong terms. I think 
 I shall prefer the office with $ 3,000, and run the risk of its abolition. 
 
 I am advised to stay until I actually receive the appointment, which 
 cannot be until the 4th of jSIarch or after. My friends advise me also 
 to borrow a sum of money here sufficient to pay off most of my debts 
 in Kentucky, that I may be able to sell my property there on better 
 terms. It is probable I may do so. 
 
 I am inclined to think that I shall look out for a house in George- 
 town. Rent is lower there, the people are said to be more agreeable, 
 and the means of living somewhat cheaper. The distance from the 
 public offices is only such as to afford me good exercise, and for most 
 of the way there are now good side pavements. 
 
 I was at a small party in Georgetown night before last, at a Mr. 
 Cochran's, who is an old man, and I believe an old resident. There was 
 not so much parade as there is generally in the city, and the evening 
 passed very pleasantly. Abraham Bradle}"" was there, whom your father 
 doubtless knows. The wife of one of Mr. Cochran's sons, about your 
 age, I found to be the most agreeable lady I have met with since I have 
 been here. If I had not had a wife and she a husband, I might have 
 fallen in love with her. As it was, I thought only how much you would 
 be pleased with her company. 
 
 Last night I was at another party in this city, where there was a 
 plenty of sti/le. It was given by a Mr. Dickens, who is, I believe, a 
 $ 2,000 clerk in the Treasury Department, and I was told it was the 
 second he had given within two weeks. But if I had known as much 
 about him yesterday as I do to-day, I should not have gone. It is said 
 he now wants some valuable office, and as a means of getting it, I sup- 
 pose, he is wasting in extravagant parties all his salary in his present 
 office. When I get to be a clerk I shall do no such foolish thing. 
 Mind that, wife ! 
 
 We have had about as cold weather here for three days as I ever felt 
 for so long a time anywhere. It is not yet at all moderated. The 
 river is frozen up for several miles below here. All my friends say I 
 have much improved in appearance since I have been here, and I think 
 I am some pounds heavier. I do not know what has improved me 
 unless that I have worked a little less and lived a little better since I 
 have been here than I did at home. 
 
 But I had rather work harder and live more roughly to be with you 
 and my children than to live in this way. I hope our fortune will be 
 so good for the balance of our lives that we shall not be again sepa- 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 285 
 
 rated. Tell the little girls and William that they must continue to be 
 good, if I do not come home so soon as I expected. They must learn 
 their books and mind their mother. When they come here to live, 
 they shall go to the best schools I can find. Little Jane cannot under- 
 stand what I say to her ; but kiss her anyhow, and tell her it is her 
 father. I have not written to your father. Always when I sit down to 
 write home I think chiefly of you, so that my pen will write that way. 
 You may read him as much of my letters as you choose. Let me see, 
 how many are there to send love to] — little Jane, AVilham, Adela, 
 Mary Ann, your mother, your father, Elizabeth, Alexander, James, 
 Susan, Peggy. Is there anybody else? If there is, give my love to 
 them too. I kiss you, my dear wife. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KEXDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, February 25, 1829. 
 
 Dear Jane, — I have been so closely engaged in writing circulars for 
 members of Congress, for a week past, that I have had no time to write 
 letters. I expect to get about ^ 50 for my week's work. 
 
 The other flay I had a long conversation with General Jackson. At 
 the close of it, after saying many flattering things of my capacity, char- 
 acter, etc., he observed, " I told one of my friends that you were fit for 
 the head of a department, and I shall put you as near the head as pos- 
 sible.'' I understood him to mean that I should have an auditor's office, 
 which he has said to others he intended to give me. The salary of the 
 office is 8 3,000. I think I can discharge its duties and make $ 1,000 
 more per year by my pen. Unless it shall be necessary that I should 
 remain here a few days after the 4th of March, to take possession of 
 the office and arrange matters, I think I shall start for home before that 
 day. It is fortunate that I came and have remained here, for it will 
 make a difference of 8 1,000 per year, I have little doubt. If I had not 
 come, I should probably have been offered only a chief clerkship, with 
 $ 2,000. I have no news to write you. The weather here has been 
 exceedingly cold for two weeks. The Potomac is frozen up ; the stock 
 of wood in the city is exhausted, and it is selling from eight to twelve 
 dollars a cord. The poor have suffered very much. On the 23d, Con- 
 gress gave them fifty cords out of their stock, and I am told the same 
 quantity was distributed from the Treasury Department. The weather 
 has moderated, and the snow is thawing. If I start for home next 
 week I shall probably not write again. Tell our babies I shall not 
 forget the dolls and the horse. There is a fair here to-morrow, and I 
 intend to buy something for all the children, and for James, Susan, and 
 
286 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Peggy. If there is a inan for sale, I will buy one for Elizabeth, which 
 
 I hope will pay all the debt she says I owe her. Alexander can get a 
 
 girl for himself. Give my love to your father and mother. I believe I 
 
 sent $ 20 in a letter, and forgot to mention it. I suppose you liked that 
 
 better than to mention it and forget to send it. 
 
 God protect you. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, March 10, 1829. 
 
 Mr DEAR Jane, — I received your last letter on yesterday. I had 
 before thought of tryhig to get some place for your father, but cannot 
 do anything until I am myself appointed. I hope in a year or two, and 
 perhaps sooner, to find some situation that will enable him to live near 
 us, and comfortably. My regard for him would induce me to do it, 
 but my love for you, and my desire in eveiy possible way to promote 
 your happiness, will make me much more anxious to accomplish it. 
 After I get more acquainted here I shall know better what there is of 
 which he is capable. 
 
 Since I commenced writing this letter I have seen Mr. Pickett, who 
 intends starting to-morrow for Kentucky, and will visit Frankfort. He 
 has kindly offered to carry such letters and other small matters as I 
 may wish to send. You will therefore receive herewith a bundle con- 
 taining the following articles as presents : namely, a reticule for Eliz- 
 abeth ; a small feathered reticule for Susan ; two fashionable dolls for 
 Mary Ann and Adela, of which Mary Ann is to have her choice ; a 
 small doll for Peggy ; a horse, etc., for William ; a man-tumbler for 
 James. The doll with the curled hair shows the fashionable mode for 
 putting up the hair in this city at this time, and both of them have 
 fashionable dresses on. If you want to be in the fashion, therefore, you 
 must take pattern from the dolls. 
 
 In the ends of the boxes of the boys' presents you will see the end of 
 a wire, which turns around, and the horse will caper and the man will 
 tumble, to music. 
 
 Besides these, you will find a cape for yourself, a cap for your mother, 
 a rattle for Jane, and some other trinkets for yourself and the little 
 girls. I am sorry I cannot send Elizabeth a man just now. There are 
 plenty for sale, but neither she nor I have money enough to buy. If 
 she had % 20,000 she could take her choice out of the whole assortment, 
 and if she had % 5,000 she might buy a decent fellow ; but as it is, I 
 am afraid she will have to go without. It is a great misfortune, but I 
 do not know that there is any help for it. 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 287 
 
 My year at Markley's house is up on the 1st of April. I do not wish 
 to pay rent for nothing, and as I shall not probably be at home by that 
 time, I wish you to have measures taken to clear the house and deliver 
 it up to him. I think the best way will be to take out to your father's 
 whatever you wish to preserve, and deliver up the balance to Ben Hick- 
 man to be sold. He has a judgment against me, I believe, in favor of 
 somebody ; to satisfy that, it must be sold on three months' credit, and 
 I shall have no trouble in collecting it ; and if there shall be more than 
 enough to pay it, he can sell the whole and collect the money for me 
 when due. The things which I do not wish sold are the shellwork boxes, 
 the tea-caddies, the dressing-table, the bureau, and all those articles 
 which my first wife left, including the pictures. In relation to all the 
 rest of the articles you may do as you please, — and if there be anything 
 among them which your father wants, let him have them. Let all my 
 papers and newspapers be carefully preserved, but let all the books be 
 sold, excepting the Bible. In fine, let everything be sold at once which 
 will have to be sold at all, so that I may have no further trouble on that 
 score. I will write to Ben Hickman on the subject. 
 
 I have not yet received my appointment, and do not expect it until 
 the Senate adjourns, which will be in a day or two. In the course of a 
 week I shall doubtless be in office. I shall make all possible haste to 
 have its affairs arranged so that I may leave it, but shall not start until 
 I hear from you. Do not, therefore, lose a day in writing to me. God 
 bless you and my little ones. 
 
 Ever your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 p. S. Mr. Pickett had told me he should start at eleven o'clock to- 
 morrow, but has just called and told me (ten o'clock at night) that he 
 must start at seven in the morning. I intended to have got you some- 
 thing more elegant than the cape, but have no time now. So I send 
 you that, with another kiss. There is a kiss on the piece of gold, — I 
 have just put it there. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, March 22, 1829. 
 Mt deab Jane, — I received my commission as fourth auditor last 
 evening, and shall enter upon the discharge of the duties to-morrow. 
 The salary is $ 3,000 a year. If now I had my affairs in Kentucky 
 settled, and had my dear wife and little ones with me, I should be a 
 happy man. I cannot say that I am very unhappi/ now, for my health 
 continues excellent. I meet with nobody but friends, and am situated 
 
 in a very agreeable family. r i ^? 
 
 I do not recollect that I have given you any account of the family ot 
 
288 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the Rev. 0. B. Brown, where I board. Mr. Brown, though a Baptist 
 preacher, is a cheerful, jolly man, who loves good eating and drinking 
 and delights in a joke. He is scarcely ever serious except at prayers 
 and in the pulpit. He is a clerk in the General Post-Office, and gets a 
 salary of $ 1,400. Mrs. Brown is not an interesting woman either in her 
 person or conversation ; but she is religious and very charitable to the 
 poor, to whom she devotes much of her time and labor. They have an 
 interesting, well-educated daughter of about eighteen years old, who is 
 very sociable and entirely amiable in her disposition. A Mrs. Jackson, 
 wife of Dr. Jackson, of the army, who is a son of Mrs. Brown by a 
 former husband, has been residing with us, with her two children, for 
 several weeks. She is quite handsome, and a very agreeable, sociable 
 woman. Mr. Brown's three sons make up the family group. Having 
 little to do, I have spent many hours with these ladies of late. Mary- 
 Brown has an album, in which she insisted that I should write some 
 poetry. I wrote two or three pieces, the best of which is as follows : — 
 
 THE WILD-FLOWER. 
 
 On the white clifts of Elkhora, with cedars o'erspread, 
 
 Where beauty and wildness in silence repose, 
 A gay little wild-flower raised up its head, 
 
 By ze^diers caressed as in sweetness it rose. 
 
 Its beauties no culture could ever impart, 
 
 No garden nor meadow can boast such a gem ; 
 
 All native it blossomed ; for never had art 
 Transplanted its root or enamelkd its stem. 
 
 I saw it and loved it ; and now on my breast 
 
 It breathes out its fragi-ance, its beauty displays ; 
 
 My heart leaps to meet it, in ecstasy blest, 
 
 The dream of my nights and the charm of my days. 
 
 And 0, thought of rapture ! not like other flower 
 Does it droop on the air, life and loveliness flinging ; 
 
 But its charms and its fi'agrance increase every hour, 
 And sweet little buds all around it are springing. 
 
 Did you ever see this wild-flower 1 I wish I had it here, and my 
 little buds with it. It would be sweeter than all the city flowei'S. I am 
 afraid I have praised you too much to these ladies. Perhaps yon can- 
 not come up to their expectations. But jou must excuse me, for what 
 I cannot enjoy in seeing you I must make up as well as I can by talking 
 about you. 
 
 Until I hear from you in relation to your own wishes, I shall do noth- 
 ing about going to Kentucky or procuring and furnishing a house here. 
 I hope, before this time, you have got my letter by Mr. Pickett, with the 
 dolls, etc., and have written to me in reply. I do not like the idea of 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 289 
 
 being separated from you and the children until the end of the summer, 
 but I must abide by your decision. 
 
 About three inches of snow fell here last night, and we have this 
 morning a keen northwester. There is not yet the slightest appearance 
 of spring. 
 
 I have no news. Give my love to all. Can little Jane talk or walk 
 
 yetl 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, April 6, 1829. 
 
 My dear Jane, —Your letter of the 23d of March was handed to me 
 by Mr. Pickett last night, and I should have written an answer then, 
 had he not sat with me until after eleven o'clock. 
 
 I shall offer Mr. Johnston a clerkship here, and he has agreed to 
 accept it. In a few days I expect to write him to come on. I am very 
 anxious that Mary Ann and Adela shall be going to school, and 1 have 
 been thinking of getting him to take charge of them and bring them on 
 here. They will be pleasantly situated in Mr. Brown's family, and may 
 be going forward with their education. Besides it will be very incon- 
 venient to have so many children together when you come on, — there 
 will be five of them. William, Jane, and the one that is to be, will be as 
 many as we can well attend to on the road. Again, if I have to remain 
 here sometime yet before I can go out, which is very probable, it is but 
 fair that you should divide the children with me. It would be a great 
 comfort and pleasure to have the little girls with me until I go out, and 
 then I would leave them in safe hands here. I think I shall send Mr. 
 Johnston to talk with you about it, and you will do just as you think 
 proper. 
 
 Tell Elizabeth I don't believe a word about her man. But if she has 
 made a bargain for one, I advise her not to wait my return before she 
 has the bill of sale signed, sealed, and delivered. These men are a sort 
 of wild animal, and when you have once caught them you had better 
 tie them until they get tamed. If she don't secure this fellow soon, I 
 expect to hear nothing of him when I get out. " Stril^e while the iron 
 is hot,'' "Make hay 'while the sun shines," "A bird in the hand is worth 
 two in the bush," *' There 's many a slip between the cup and the lip," 
 " Delays are dangerous," *^ Procrastination is the thief of love," etc., etc., 
 etc. No, no, do not wait for me. *' Never put off till to-morrow what 
 you can do to-day." Then it will be such hot weather shortly. Who 
 can this man be 1 How delightful it would be if she could bay up old 
 Bob Johnston and come on here with us ! 
 
290 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL, 
 
 I have been in office two weeks. I have applied myself closely to 
 understand my duties. The labor is very light, and, when I am master 
 of the laws under which I act, will consist of little more than looking at 
 accounts and signing my name. Some days I spend five or six hours 
 in disposing of the business before me, and on others it hardly takes 
 one. If I had my affairs in Kentucky settled up, and my family aroimd 
 me, it seems to me I should be the happiest man in the world. I am 
 more lively than I was when constantly poring over political matters, and 
 I know I am in much better health. I am quite popular, too, among the 
 ladies, and have made you popular by the fine things I have said of you. 
 You will find a number of friends here, who never saw you. 
 
 I shall send you money to pay your father for all his expense and 
 trouble of having my family with him, and to buy everything you want. 
 
 My dear Jane, you know not how much I desire again to clasp you in 
 my arms. In the midst of all my enjoyments here, I still sigh for your 
 society which nothing can replace. Well, when we get together again, I 
 hope we shall love each other better, and never be again so loug parted. 
 
 Give my love to your father and mother, Elizabeth and Alexander, 
 Susan and Peggy, and all our babies. I should be delighted to see 
 little Jane walking about. Kiss her for me. Give my best respects to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Fenwick, and to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, April 22, 1829. 
 Mt dear Wife, — I have been so busily employed for some days in 
 ferreting out some of the villanous transactions of my predecessor and 
 others formerly in office here, that I have had little time for anything 
 else. Nor have I yet got through with it ; but I have snatched a mo- 
 ment to let you know that I am alive and well. 
 
 Enclosed you will receive $50. You have not acknowledged the 
 receipt of any money I have sent you, not even my golden kisses. I 
 should like to know whether all got safe to your hands. 
 
 God knows when T shall get away from here. These investigations 
 into the conduct of the men lately in office are so important that they 
 must be made and completed as soon as possible, that the government 
 may recover the money out of which it has been cheated. I have dis- 
 covered frauds in Dr. Watkins, who went before me in this office, to the 
 amount of more than $ 7,000, and how much more will come to light I 
 know not. Write me every two days and tell me everything. 
 In haste, your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 9g^ 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, May 1, 1829. 
 My dear Jane, — I have this moment received yours of the 18th 
 April, which is postmarked at Frankfort on the 22d. In relation to the 
 little girls, I gave up the idea of their coming on without you in a day 
 or two after I wrote to you, and never wrote to Mr. Johnston anything 
 about it. 
 
 The President has sent out instructions to have my predecessor 
 arrested for frauds committed upon the government in this office. In 
 a short time he will probably be brought to the city for examination. 
 This circumstance has made it impossible for me to leave here as yet, 
 and will detain me I know not how long. Indeed, I am learning things! 
 from day to day, which make it very doubtful in my mind whether I do 
 not owe it to my country and government not to leave this office during 
 the present summer at all. If it shall so turn out, I shall make arrange- 
 ments to have you and the children brought on with some safe attend- 
 ant, — probably Mr. Johnston, — as soon as you are able to travel with 
 entire comfort. I feel beyond description the privation of being sepa- 
 rated so long from you and the children, and nothing but a sense of im- 
 perative duty would induce me to submit to it. 
 
 I sent you a few days ago $ 50. Enclosed you have $ 50 more. I 
 have enclosed to you money several times, to be used by you or given to 
 your father. Use this as you think proper. In none of your letters 
 have you acknowledged the receipt of any money from me, and as you 
 speak of borrowing money to fit out the children, I fear that you have 
 not received it. I think I sent you once $ 20, at another time |30, and 
 recently $50, besides two golden kisses (quarter eagles) worth $2.50 
 each. I hope you have received them. 
 
 In study and writing I make my office quite laborious of late. I spend 
 about two hours in the office before breakfast ; upwards of six more be- 
 fore dinner, which is about four o'clock, and sometimes I go up after 
 dinner. But most of the time after dinner I spend in walking. Last 
 evening I spent with Mrs. Decatur, the lady of the late Commodore 
 Decatur. I found her an interesting woman, but not beautiful. But it 
 is but little of my time that I spend at anything else than work. 
 
 I expect I shall have sold the printing-office before this reaches you. 
 I wish I could sell the mill also. Give my love to all the babies, — to 
 father, mother, sister, brothers, Susan, Peggy, not forgetting James. 
 
 God preserve you. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
292 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, Juue 1, 1829. 
 Dear Jane, — I have been anxiously expecting to hear from you for 
 a whole week, but in vain. 
 
 I was sick a whole day last week, but have got over it entirely. 
 The weather has been for some days remarkably hot. Within two days 
 we have had a great deal of thunder, and the air is now cooler. 
 
 The case of Mr. Watkins is not yet disposed of Everybody admits 
 him to be guilty, but there is a motion to quash the indictments, on the 
 ground that there is no law to punish a fraud on the United States. 
 The question will probably be decided to-day. If I can, I shall be out 
 as soon as I hear you are in a fair way to be able to travel. 
 
 I turned out six clerks on Satxu-day. Several of them have families, 
 and are poor. It was the most painful thing I ever did ; but I could 
 not well get along without it. Among them is a poor old man with a 
 young wife and several children. I shall help to raise a contribution to 
 get him back to Ohio, where he came from, and intend to give him $ 50 
 myself I shall send you more money in a few days, or carry it myself 
 If I go, I shall hire a private carriage to go out with me and bring my 
 whole brood of little ones. Bless their sweet faces. I long to see them. 
 Give them my love as well as to all the rest. 
 With unchanging affection, 
 
 Your husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Washington, June 8, 1829. 
 
 My dear Jane, — After waiting almost three weeks to hear from you, 
 I received your kind letter dated June, but without the day. I was 
 sure that you had been sick and could not write, and I was becoming 
 quite angry with Elizabeth and your father for not writing me something 
 about it. 
 
 So you cannot come without me. Well, you shall not come without 
 me. As soon as the case of Watkins is disposed of, I intend to go to 
 Kentucky. The grand jury is adjourned over to the 21st, and if there 
 should be a trial at this court it will take nearly to the 1st of July. I 
 cannot, therefore, hope to start earlier than the first of next month. But 
 be with you I ivill, if I am alive and well. 
 
 I am sorry your father has been so hard pressed for money. If I 
 could have known it at the time, I would have sent you more than I 
 have. In this letter I expect you will find $ 50 more. Probably I will 
 bring the next myself. If your father could get the post-ofl5ce to take 
 his paper, where could he get the capital to carry on a miU if he were 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 293 
 
 to rent one'? Such a thing ought not to be undertaken without $ 1,500 
 or $ 2,000, which he cannot raise. I am in hopes I shall find some- 
 thing for him to do here yet, but I do not perceive anything about the 
 office of which he is capable. He would not do for a clerk, and he is 
 too old to be appointed a messenger. I hope I shall find him some su- 
 perintending about the public grounds or buildings which he can fill with 
 usefulness to the public. In the mean time he had better not think of 
 renting mills, but live where he is until something can be done for him. 
 
 If Alexander will take pains to improve himself in writing, arithmetic, 
 and in general reading, he may probably get a place as clerk in some of 
 the offices, and be able to support his father and mother in advanced life. 
 Your father or him, or both, I shall be ready to assist to anything which 
 they can do with honor to themselves and advantage to the public. 
 
 So you don't think you are any better off, now "Jackson 's elected ! " 
 Well, I confess you have not yet enjoyed much pleasure or advantage 
 therefrom. But you have ^prospect. $ 3,000 a year sure income is a 
 little more comfortable to look upon than the subscriptions to the 
 " Argus." We will live comfortably and genteelly, but economically, 
 especially until my debts are paid off. 
 
 I cannot get boarding for my army for much less than $1,200, and I 
 have determined to keep house. I can rent a good house in George- 
 town for $ 1 75, and I must furnish it as well as I can. If I have not 
 money to do it at once, I can hire furniture. So you may set your 
 thoughts on keeping house in Georgetown. We shall be somewhat out 
 of the way of the great parties in this city, and can live there more 
 comfortably and cheaper. The society there is more plain and more 
 agi-eeable. The house that I contemplate taking is in a charming 
 neighborhood, on First Street, near Cox's Row. Perhaps your father 
 will know something of the neighborhood. My lady friends in this city 
 are bitterly opposed to my going to Georgetown to live, but those in 
 Georgetown are quite delighted with it, or seem to be. You will see 
 that my acquaintance with the ladies is quite extensive. 
 
 I am glad my sweet little ones are learning so well. Mary Ann ought 
 to write me a letter, if it be not a very long one. Adela, I hope, will 
 soon be able to write me also. How does the " old gentleman " come 
 on] Little Jane, too, — I long to see her, and hear her say "Chick, 
 chick," etc. Tell Mary Ann I remember something more about her 
 than her " nose." To Elizabeth I am under great obligations for her 
 attention to my children. 
 
 Give my love to your father and mother and the whole catalogue of 
 the family. G5d preserve and bless you all. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
294 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 "White Sulphttr Springs, Va., August 7, 1829. 
 
 My dear Jane, — I reached this place on my way to Kentucky last 
 evening. I have determined to remain here for the purpose of drinking 
 the sulphur water until Tuesday next, which will be the 11th, and then 
 make my way to you as fast as I can. 
 
 The water of this spring is very strong of sulphur, and it operates 
 freely. There are about one hundred and forty persons here, but ex- 
 cept a gentleman with whom I rode two days in the stage, not one whose 
 face I ever saw before, so far as I know. 
 
 Night before last I stayed at the Warm Springs. Nearly water 
 enough to carry a mill boils up out of the ground, which is just about 
 warm enough to bathe in. They have a fine bath prepared by clearing 
 out the principal spring and building a wall around it. It is as big as 
 a very large room, and about five feet deep. I went into it and re- 
 mained in about ten minutes. It is delightful. 
 
 This whole country is nothing but mountains, with small spots of 
 tillable ground between them. Yet by winding round in the valleys 
 the . road is not very mountainous. Indeed, it passes over the top of 
 hut one high ridge since we reached the moimtains, and from that there 
 is one of the most magnificent views I ever beheld. Back towards 
 Washington the eye ranges over nothing but mountains, the most dis- 
 tant of which is the Blue Bidge, just visible in the horizon. To the 
 most distant point visible it must be at least seventy miles. Scarcely a 
 cleared spot, and I believe not a single house, is to be seen in all the 
 vast prospect. Yet there are many farms and houses concealed in the 
 deep valleys. 
 
 My health is pretty good, but I have not got entirely free from boils. 
 It is to carry these oflf and purify my blood that I stop to drink this 
 water. I hope five days will be sufficient for that. At any rate I can 
 stay no longer. I have lost three days on the road already, two at L^p- 
 perville and one at Winchester. When I start on Tuesday I shall go 
 but ten miles that evening. It will take me three days then to reach 
 the Ohio Biver. It may be a day or two before I can get passage down 
 to ]\Iaysville. It will then take a day to go down and a day and a half 
 to get from Maysville to Franklin Mills. It will therefore be about the 
 18th of the month that I shall see vou, with Heaven's blessine:. I did 
 not expect to be so long on the road, but the distance is greater on this 
 route than I supposed. It cannot be much short of six hundred and 
 fifty miles. * 
 
 As the mail does not go to the West until to-morrow evening, I shall 
 not close my letter to-day. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 295 
 
 August 8th. The water of this spring has a very favorable effect on 
 me, and I think I shall derive much benefit from it. I have alreadv 
 formed several acquaintances, whose conversation enables me to pass an 
 idle hour very agreeably. But a small portion whom I see are invalids. 
 Most of themi visit the springs rather for sport than health. There are 
 some sick husbands with well wives, but more well husbands without 
 their wives. The Virginians are very much in the habit of visiting the 
 springs for weeks, themselves, and leaving their wives and daughters at 
 home. 
 
 I do not know that I can write you anything more that would be 
 
 interesting. In a very few days after this reaches you I hope to see 
 
 you myself. Give my love to your father and mother and Elizabeth. I 
 
 have forgotten her prize at last ! Shall I not have to pay it myself? 
 
 Give my love also to Alexander, Susan, and Peggy, and especially to 
 
 my own little brood, Mary Ann, Adela, William, Jane, and all the rest. 
 
 With unabated affection, 
 
 Your husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 Extract from Mr. Kendall's review of the condition of the gov- 
 ernment during the first three years of General Jackson's term : — 
 
 " Delegated by the Republican Party in the several States to meet in 
 convention and adopt such measures as, upon consultation, might be 
 found necessary to concentrate their support upon a single candidate for 
 the Vice-Presidency, we deem it our duty to review the condition of our 
 government and country, and submit to our constituents the reasons 
 which have induced our decision. 
 
 "All remember that in February, 1825, John Quincy Adams was 
 elected President by the House of Representatives, through a coalition 
 with Henry Clay, whom he immediately appointed Secretary of State. 
 It was charged, that in this election Mr. Clay was induced to support 
 Mr. Adams, in opposition to the will of the people, by a previous under- 
 standing that, in consideration of that support, Mr. Adams was to give 
 him the first place in his cabinet, as a means of securing to him the 
 succession. Upon this charge an issue was made up before the Amer- 
 ican people, who, after full discussion and consideration, pronounced a 
 verdict of guilty, and consigned the delinquent to private life. 
 
 " General Jackson came into power by an overwhelming majority of 
 popular and electoral votes. Of 1,150,508 popular votes given, he re- 
 ceived a majority of 135,684. Of 261 electoral votes, he received a 
 majority of 95. The people had a right to expect a cheerful acquies- 
 cence in their decision. They had a right to expect that no factious 
 opposition, without just cause or legitimate object, would be got up 
 against the man of their choice, and the administration of their creation. 
 These just expectations were soon disappointed. The first act of Gen- 
 eral Jackson in the administration of the government had not been 
 done, the acclamations of a delighted people, and the thunder of our 
 country's cannon, which welcomed him to power, had not ceased to 
 echo around the Capitol, when Mr. Clay, amidst a chosen band of hardy 
 followers, proclaimed uncompromising war, and gave the signal to his 
 distant clans. On his retreat to the West, and in his perambulations 
 through the States of Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, be sounded the 
 tocsin of alarm, and called his legions to the field. 
 
REVIEW OF JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 297 
 
 " In the mean time General Jackson entered upon the duties of the 
 high station to which he had been elevated by a grateful people. A 
 few individuals of doubtful integrity or dissolute habits were removed 
 from office, aud their places supplied with political friends. It was 
 soon rumored that frauds and coiTuptions had been detected in the late 
 incumbents, verifying the worst suspicions of those who had opposed the 
 last administration. 
 
 ** A new energy was inspired into all the public offices. The business 
 which was in arrears for years was promptly brought up, and the re- 
 ceivers of public moneys, as well as disbursing officers of the depart- 
 ments, in all parts of the country and in distant seas, vied with each 
 other in the promptitude with which their accounts were rendered. It 
 is confidently believed that at no period in our government have public 
 accounts been more faithfully rendered or more promptly settled than 
 within the last three years. 
 
 "The new impulse immediately reached other portions of the public 
 administration. Our foreign relations were found in a disordered state. 
 A misunderstanding was pending with Brazil. This was speedily ad- 
 justed. Colombian cruisers had depredated upon our commerce, op- 
 pressive duties were levied in the ports of that Republic on the cargoes 
 of American vessels, and circumstances had rendered our minister there 
 powerless to do good. A successor was sent out 3 indemnities were 
 granted ; the duties were reduced ; and at length our vessels have been 
 put on the same footing as those of Colombia in Colombian ports. With 
 Mexico we had a suspended treaty. It has been ratified and confirmed 
 with new and importaut stipulations. With Turkey we had no treaty, 
 and the Black Sea was closed to our commerce. A treaty has been 
 formed, which admits our vessels into Turkish ports on the terms 
 granted to the most favored nation, and enables them to reach many 
 Russian and Persian ports before closed to them. With Austria we 
 had no diplomatic relations. A treaty has been formed extending to 
 our commerce many advantages in her ports. Upon Denmark we had 
 claims for spoliations of long standing. They have been recovered to 
 the amount of more than $ 750,000. The last administration had lost 
 a valuable trade with the British West Indies, and had sought to regain 
 it zealously, but in vain. A new minister was sent out, and it was re- 
 covered. Vor twenty years our government had fruitlessly urged our 
 claims on France. A new minister was sent out, and they are secured 
 to the amount of $ 5,000,000, while the claim of that nation to exclu- 
 sive privileges in our Louisiana ports is extinguished forever. France 
 was obliged^o send a fleet to enforce reparation for injuries done her 
 commerce by the cruisers of Portugal. To us similar reparation, to the 
 extent of about $ 112,000, has been accorded on demand. 
 
298 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The consequence of this improvement in our foreign relations is a 
 commercial activity scarcely equalled in our history. The value of ship- 
 ping, of wharves, of warehouses, of everything connected with com- 
 merce, has greatly increased. The shipyards are filled with new struc- 
 tures, and laborers find full employment and high wages. The farmer, 
 the manufacturer, the mechanic, every class of society directly or indi- 
 rectly participate in the advantages. At Boston alone, it is said, fifteen 
 vessels were fitting out for the trade of the Black Sea ; the British 
 West India trade has employed 36,914 tons of shipping; the exports 
 have been $1,441,700, and the imports $1,284,678; while our trade 
 with other parts of the globe, relieved from a portion of the competition, 
 is carried on with more spirit and better profit. 
 
 " The same energetic spirit entered the Treasury Department, and 
 prepared it to realize all the benefits of our foreign relations in their 
 improved condition. Among the custom-house officers and other re- 
 ceivers of public moneys, numerous peculators were discovered and 
 hm'led from office. The depredations of those who were removed within 
 the first eighteen months of General Jackson's administration, in this 
 department of the public service, were at least $ 280,000. The unre- 
 strained power of the Treasurer over the public funds, by which they 
 could be drawn upon his individual check, was taken away by a new 
 regulation. Frauds in payment of fishing bounties were stopped, and 
 two collectors, believed to have been engaged in them, removed from 
 office ; in consequence of which there was a saving, in the first yeai' of 
 the administration in that branch of expenditure, of $51,271.41. 
 
 " A new and more efficient system of regulations for the revenue-cutter 
 service has been introduced. 
 
 *'From the improved condition of our foreign relations, and the 
 energetic administration of the Treasury Department, the annual rev- 
 enues of the nation have been increased about four millions of dollars, 
 while the duties on coffee, tea, etc., have been taken off to the extent 
 of about four millions. The receipts of 1832 will undoubtedly exceed 
 those of ] 828 by at least six millions. 
 
 " The War Department has long been completely organized, so far as 
 it regards the army. That branch of its duties has been conducted ac- 
 cording to the laws without material improvement. It is in its Indian 
 affairs that the vigor of the administration has been most signally dis- 
 played. The idea of colonizing the Indians beyond the Mississippi was 
 suggested by Mr. Jefferson soon after the acquisition of Louisiana. Mr. 
 Monroe made it the topic of a special message to Congress, and from 
 that time it became the settled policy of the government. Mr. Adams 
 continued the same policy, adverted to it in his messages, and repelled 
 the idea of Cherokee independence. Immediately after his accession to 
 
REVIEW OF JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 299 
 
 power, General Jackson took hold of the subject with his characteristic 
 energy. He changed the policy only so far as related to the mode of 
 execution. It had before been confined to the removal of individuals ; 
 he devised the plan of removing by tribes. Half a million of dollars 
 were granted by Congress to aid in the undertaking. By a treaty with 
 the Sacs, Foxes, and others, he acquired a tract of territory estimated 
 at 16,860,800 acres for the use of the emigrating Indians. Treaties of 
 emigration and change of lands have been made with the Delawares, 
 Choctaws, Chickasaws, Senecas, Shawnees, Ottawas, Wyandots, and 
 Creeks. The land acquired from these several tribes and bands is 
 estimated at over 33,000,000 acres. 
 
 ^ " The territories thus acquired are greater in extent than the States of 
 New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
 New Jersey, and Delaware. They would make seven such States as 
 Massachusetts, twenty-four equal to Delaware, and thirty-two larger 
 than Rliode Island. General Jackson found more than half of Missis- 
 sippi in the occupancy of savages j he will leave it entirely free. A 
 large part of Alabama he conquered in war, another part he has acquired 
 by treaty, and the remnant will soon be emancipated. Entire bands 
 are removing from Ohio. In Illinois and Michigan large tracts of 
 country have been freed. If our venerable Chief be properly sustained 
 in this energetic and humane policy, it is probable that in a few years, 
 except in the cold and sterile region beyond Lake Superior, an Indian 
 foot will not tread on this side of the Mississippi. We justly honor him 
 for the preservation of Louisiana and the acquisition of Alabama amidst 
 the teiTors of bloody war. Shall we refuse him the meed of admiration 
 and support for his peaceful achievements, for expelling an enemy from 
 the bosom of the Republic, not by conquest and extermination, but by 
 gentle persuasion, and advancing the interest of the savages as well as 
 our own 1 
 
 " The Navy Department has felt beneficially the hand of reform. An 
 end has been put to many abuses, frauds, and corruptions, which consumed 
 its means and cankered the morals and honor of our navy. By these means 
 a saving of more than half a million a year, or more than a million and 
 a half in three years of General Jackson's administration, compared with 
 the last three years of Mr. Adams's, has been effected without impairing 
 the efficiency of the establishment. On the contrary, the number of 
 officers, excepting midshipmen, has been increased, the force in commis- 
 sion has been as great, the public works in connection with our naval 
 strength have been pushed with equal, if not greater effect. Energetic 
 measures have been pursued in the examination and protection of live- 
 oak timber; the stores on hand have been largely increased, means 
 have been adopted for their preservation, and greater care has been 
 
300 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 taken to preserve from decay our vessels in port. The cruising grounds 
 of our squadrons abroad have been extended to the coast of Africa, the 
 Islands of the South Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Wherever an outrage 
 is committed on our commerce, our national flag is soon seen. At the 
 Falkland Islands our fishermen were seized and plundered ; our govern- 
 ment promptly despatched a public ship to their rescue, and the aggres- 
 sors have been punished. 
 
 " The Malays of Sumatra seized one of our trading vessels and mur- 
 dered a part of her crew ; a frigate has gone to obtain reparation or 
 avenge the outrage. Wherever our commerce seems to be in danger, 
 some of our cruisers soon appear. The recent insurrections at Vera 
 Cruz and Tampico had scarcely occun-ed before an American armed ship 
 made her appearance to protect American citizens and their property. 
 
 " The present administration found the affairs of that department in 
 a most deplorable condition. Negligeuce and credulity, to say the least, 
 had possessed the head of the department, while corruption and fraud 
 revelled in the principal accounting office. A fourth auditor was com- 
 mitting frequent frauds, directly applying the public money to his own 
 use, and making unauthorized and extravagant allow^ances, that he 
 might share the proceeds with those whom he favored. In one case 
 upwards of $ 11,000 were allowed, when the original claim was less 
 than $ 3,500, and had been repeatedly declared to be wholly unfounded, 
 $ 1,000 of which were lent to the auditor and never repaid. In another 
 case more than $ 30,000 were fraudulently allowed, and although the 
 claimant was, after that allowance, $ 9,000 in debt, and had been two 
 years out of office, $ 30,000 more were advanced to him out of the 
 Treasury. Just before he was removed from office, the fourth auditor 
 passed to his credit about $80,000 more ; but this settlement was 
 arrested ; and in that single account the difference between the present 
 and late auditor's settlement is about 07ie hundred and twenty thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 " On a review of the acts of our government since General Jackson 
 came into power, it is difficult to perceive how it could have been better 
 administered. In the management of our foreign relations, a success 
 wholly unexpected and brilliant beyond example, has attended his 
 efforts. His action at home, through the Treasury Department, is pro- 
 ducing results in the extinguishment of our public debt which excite the 
 admiration of the world and cheer on the friends of liberty in the East- 
 ern hemisphere. Through the War Department he not only protects 
 our frontiers, but removes from the bosoms of our States whole tribes 
 and nations of ignorant savages and replaces them with a civilized popu- 
 lation. Through the Navy Department, he protects our commerce in 
 every sea. Through our Post-Office Department, he sends out light and 
 
REVIEW OF JACJiSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 301 
 
 intelligence to all our people, like the swift rays of the glorious sun. It 
 is difficult to imagine what more he could do than he has done, or how 
 lie could better do it. 
 
 " The opposition which was commenced against General Jackson be- 
 fore he had done a single official act has been continued with increasing 
 bitterness, notwithstanding the signal success of his administration. He 
 is charged with having turned out of office all who were opposed to him, 
 when a majority of the office-holders at Washington are known to be in 
 favor of his rivals. In that city the removals have been but one seventh 
 of those in office, and most of them for bad conduct and character. 
 In the Post-Office Department, towards which have been directed the 
 heaviest complaints, the removals have been only about one sixteenth. 
 In the whole government they have been only one eleventh. 
 
 " It is sometimes made a ground of attack that the President dis- 
 solved his first cabinet. Yet it is conceded by all that its materials 
 were too discordant to do good, and that the existing cabinet is far its 
 superior in talents and qualifications, as well as in harmony of feeling 
 and concert of action. 
 
 " For want of better objections, it is often asserted that the President 
 is in his dotage, — that he has lost the original vigor of his • character 
 and become the mere instrument of those around him. Many of us, 
 within a few days past, have visited him, have witnessed his firm step, 
 grasped the strong hand, looked into the undimmed eye, and heard the 
 nervous language of him who, seventeen years ago, by the energies of 
 his mighty mind and the valor of his fearless heart, repelled the storm 
 of invasion and saved New Orleans. His bodily vigor is gi^eater than 
 it was then, and his mind retains its powers in their original vigor. He 
 is destined yet to live, and with his firm grasp manage the helm of 
 state until the storms at present raging shall be overblown. 
 
 *' The means taken to annoy the President and break down his admin- 
 istration are most extraordinary. At the first session of Congress, after 
 bis inauguration, the Senate rejected on frivolous grounds many of his 
 best nominations. It was with difficulty that the Indian Bill was got 
 through. The President's recommendations were generally neglected. 
 Nothing would Congress do to facilitate business in the public offices. 
 The spirit of reform, wherever it appeared, was rebuked by them, and 
 they legalized many of the frauds and corruptions which the vigilance 
 of the executive had detected. 
 
 *' At the next session, things were in the same condition. The Senate 
 would permit the President to send only a charge cVaffaires to Turkey, 
 when he desired to send a Minister, although they knew the apparent 
 contempt of the Grand Seignior put in jeopardy our excellent treaty 
 which had yet to be ratified. There was the same indifference as at the 
 
302 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 former session to the recommendations of the President and heads of 
 departments. At the present session even a worse spirit seems to per- 
 vade a large portion of both Houses. They object to his arrangement 
 with Great Britain, to his treaty with France, to his Indian treaties ; 
 they refuse or delay the necessary appropriations, recall his Minister to 
 England, deny him the means of maintaining the mission in France, at- 
 tempt to cripple the Post-Office Department, get up charges of fraud 
 against his friends, never committed or thought of, and by some far- 
 fetched reasoning, endeavor to implicate him ; go into endless and need- 
 less investigations, assert that the President encourages bullies to attack 
 Ihem, send spies to talk with him and misrepresent what he says, offer 
 resolutions proposing to inquire into his private conversations, and by 
 intemperate language and direct insult, excite as much personal feeling 
 as possible, fill the land with feuds, charge to the administration the 
 affrays which naturally spring out of their own violence, with the ap- 
 parent design of giving employment in private altercation to those 
 talents which ought to be devoted to the exposure of their designs and 
 a vindication of the administration. The interests of the country are 
 neglected or converted into electioneering engines ; arrangements are 
 made to throw into controversy as many exciting subjects as possible 
 with the desperate hope of injury to the President from the part he may 
 take ; and almost half of Congress, instead of devoting themselves to 
 such measures as may redound to the prosperity and honor of the coun- 
 try, appear to be altogether employed in schemes to put out one Presi- 
 dent and put in another ; to prevent an election either of President or 
 Vice-President by the people, that they may promote their personal 
 views by corrupt elections in Congress. Thus do many members spend 
 theii" time who were elected by the people and sent to Washington 
 solely because they were expected cordially to sustain the President and 
 his measures. 
 
 " His re-election by an expression of the public will, which shall 
 frown into silence factious opposition, is deemed by us essential to the 
 interests of our country, if not to the existence of the union. In the 
 triumph of either of the three branches of the opposition, we perceive 
 nothing but disaster to our institutions. The followers of Mr. Clay, by 
 their injustice and insults to the South, if with their leader brought 
 into power, would at once endanger the Union and probably dissolve it. 
 The triumph of nullification would be disunion itself. In the spirit 
 and principles of antimasonry our country cannot expect prosperity or 
 repose. United as the three now are in opposition to the President, 
 they would, if successful, produce an administration of the government 
 without principle, without concord, without the power to do good, if not 
 without the disposition. To sustain General Jackson, therefore, to give 
 
HIS ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE. 393 
 
 him an evidence of increased public confidence and affection, to strengthen 
 his administration and enable him to adjust the conflicting interests of 
 our country to its altered condition, is, in our opinion, the duty of every 
 patriot. 
 
 "A party, like a nation, to be strong, must be just. It must sustain 
 its true men. When the attack is most fierce upon them, the more 
 firmly must we rally to their support. When each man confides in those 
 to his right and left, and when he knows that if the enemy's columns 
 be concentrated upon him, thousands will instantly rush to his rescue, 
 he marches on regardless of consequences to himself, and thinks only 
 of achieving a common victory. A party thus united and resolute, 
 always just to its friends and true to the country, is more irresistible 
 than any army of veterans. 
 
 " At this moment, in our opinion, justice and true policy both require 
 that the friends of Andrew Jackson shall sustain Mr. Van Buren for the 
 Vice-Presidency. Victory is as certain as that the people are just. 
 But if it were doubtful our decision would be the same. We had 
 rather fall in an effort to do justice, than rise hy a cowardly cdjandonment 
 of those who are exposed to danger only because they are our leaders.^' 
 
 History of Amos Kendall's connection with the government of 
 the United States, written by himself : — 
 
 "Soon after the presidential election in 1828, a young man named 
 Overton, living in Lexington, Ky., called upon me and stated that he 
 had just returned from a visit to General Jackson, at the Hermitage, 
 and was authorized by him to inform me that it was his purpose to offer 
 me an appointment at Washington. Not doubting that it would be an 
 honorable one, I at once made up my mind to accept it ; but I commu- 
 nicated the fact only to my wife and my partner in the ' Argus ' oflfice, 
 and to them confidentially. There were two preliminary objects which 
 I wished to accomplish, for the purpose mainly of neutralizing the asper- 
 sions cast upon my motives and character by Mr. Clay and his adher-^ 
 ents pending the preceding contest. One of these objects was, to be \ 
 made the bearer to Washington of the electoral vote of Kentucky for 
 General Jackson, sealing my triumph over all my maligners and Mr. 
 Clay in particular. The other was, to get reinstated by the legislature 
 of Kentucky in the office of public printer, which I had lost in the pre- 
 vious local contests. 
 
 " The electors readily conceded to me the appointment of messenger, 
 and in December, 1828, I repaired to Washington bearing the vote of 
 Kentucky. My purpose was to deliver the package, and return with 
 the view of securing the position of public printer ; but my friends in- 
 sisted that my presence was not necessary to the attainment of that 
 
304 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 object, and persuaded me to remain in Washington until the inaugura- 
 tion of the new administration. 
 
 " Prior to the election of a printer by Congress, Major John H. Eaton, 
 then in the Senate, proposed to me to become a candidate for the print- 
 ing of that body, assuring me that Duff Green, editor of the ' Telegraph,' 
 was unreliable and unpopular, and that I could certainly be elected. I 
 declined the honor, unless Mr. Green, on being consulted, should con- 
 sent to the arrangement. Although the printing of the Executive De- 
 partments, and the House of Representatives, which he was sure to 
 receive, seemed enough to satisfy the desires of any reasonable man, 
 yet as Green had fought the battle bravely in the very lion's den, I 
 thought his desires ought to be gratified though somewhat too grasping. 
 I dechned even to confer with him on the subject, lest he should im- 
 agine that the idea of dividing the printing had originated with me ; 
 but I avowed my readiness, if, on being consulted expressly without 
 authority from me, he should freely assent to such an arrangement. 
 Major Eaton afterwards informed me that Mr, Green had been con- 
 sulted, and refused to give up his claim to the printing of the Senate. 
 Again the Major assured me that if I would consent to run I would be 
 elected. Green's wishes and opposition notwithstanding. I, however, 
 peremptorily declined. 
 
 " At that time I knew nothing of the management which was in pro- 
 gress touching prospective cabinet an'angements, and their bearings on 
 aspirants to the Presidency, having in view myself nothing beyond the 
 success of General Jackson's administration, and the permanent ascen- 
 dency of Democratic principles. I was not consulted, and did not seek 
 to know the reasons which controlled the selection of the new Cabinet 
 Ministers. In only one instance was I in any way made acquainted 
 with th(»se reasons. John ^IcLcan, who was Postmaster-General under 
 Mr. Adams, was a political friend of General Jackson, who gave him the 
 option of remaining at the head of the Post-Office Department, or 
 accepting a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court then vacant. He 
 di'cidc(l to remain in the Department, but was soon induced to change 
 his mind Ity tlie management of Duff Green. Green was extremely pro- 
 scriptive, and many postmasters were very obnoxious to him, some of 
 them deservedly so. He presented certain cases to jMr. McLean, and 
 asked whether he would remove them, and was answered in the negative. 
 He presented the same cases to General Jackson, inquiring whether they 
 ought not to be removed, and was answered in the affirmative. Mr. 
 McLean was an aspirant to the Presidency, and very popular with the 
 postmasters ; and when he found that he should probably not be able 
 to protect them from removal without losing the favor of the President 
 and his friends, he changed his mind and signified that upon reflection 
 
ANNE BOYAL. 
 
 305 
 
 he preferred the judgeship. He considered the position, however, merely 
 as a temporary withdrawal from the political theatre ; for when, in con- 
 versation, I mentioned it as a very comfortable provision for one dis- 
 posed to retire from political life, he promptly replied that he l\ad no 
 such intention, but should always hold himself at the disposition of his 
 friends. 
 
 " General Jackson reached the City of Washington in February, 1829. 
 I saw him but once before his inauguration, and then it was in the com- 
 pany of several editors of newspapers. I said nothing to him in relation 
 to an appointment. He did, indeed, ask how I should like to live in 
 Washington, to which I replied that I thought I should like it very 
 well. 
 
 " In the mean time, the Jackson members of the Kentucky delegation 
 in Congress, of their own accord, sent me a recommendation to the Pre- 
 sident for an auditorship or chief clerkship expressed in too strong 
 terms for me to present in person. I erased the chief clerkship and 
 returned it to them, with my reasons for declining to present it. 
 
 "There was living in Washington at that time a singular woman, 
 named Anne Royal, the widow of a Captain Royal, of the United States 
 Army. She was homely in person, careless in dress, poor in purse, and 
 vulgar in manners. But she had a tolerable education, much shrewd- 
 ness, and respectable talents. She procured her subsistence by pub- 
 lishing books, in which she praised extravagantly those who bought her 
 books or gave her money, and abused without measure those who re- 
 fused, or had in any way incurred her displeasure. Some through love 
 of flattery, and more through fear of abuse, contributed to her support. 
 
 " I was one day sitting with a friend in the gallery of the Hguse of 
 Representatives, when Mrs. Royal entered and seemed to be approach- 
 ing us. My friend inquired whether I would like to be introduced to 
 her, and I answered in the negative. She seated herself on the oppo- 
 site side of my friend, and, after a pause, said to him, ' Why don't you 
 introduce me to that gentleman 1 ' He gave me an inquiring look, and 
 I nodded assent. After another pause, she said to me, 'You are a 
 Presbyterian preacher.' 
 
 " I replied, * No, I have not that honor.' 
 
 " * Well,' said she, ' You are a Baptist or Methodist, — a preacher of 
 
 some sort.' 
 
 " I answered, ' No, I am not even a professor of religion. ' 
 . " My friend now interposed and said, ' Mr. Kendall is the editor of the 
 Kentucky "Argus."' 
 
 " She replied, ' I love the editors.' 
 
 " Observing a new book in her lap, I inquired, ' Mrs. Royal, is that 
 
 your last publication "i ' 
 
 20 
 
306 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 "'Yes.' 
 
 ** ' What is your price 1 
 
 " ' I make members of Congress pay me a dollar, but I sell it to other 
 gentlemen for seventy-five cents.' 
 
 " I handed her the money and took the book. 
 
 " She soon after gave me a kind look and said, ' I begin to think you 
 a clever fellow.' 
 
 " Thus cheaply I purchased my way into the good graces of Anne 
 Royal. 
 
 " She subsequently commenced the publication of a weekly news- 
 paper, called ' The Huntress,' at two dollars per annum, devoted chiefly 
 to flattery and abuse. Of the former I for a time enjoyed my fiilj 
 share ; but alas ! for the mutability of human affairs, I fell from my 
 high estate in the afiections of this amiable lady, and became her anti- 
 patliy in a very high degree. It was in this wise : I had become an 
 auditor of the Treasury Department, with an annual salary of three 
 thousand dollars. One day her 'Secretary,' so called, being a thin, 
 spare, good-natured old maid, named Sally, who lived with her in the 
 triple capacity of companion, servant, and messenger, called at my office 
 to inform me that Mrs. Royal was sick and suffering for the necessaries 
 of life ; that although she had a little food on hand she had no means of 
 cooking it, being entirely out of wood. I gave her a note to the wood- 
 seller with whom I dealt, requesting him to send Mrs. Royal a load of 
 wood. A few days afterwards she came into my office in an unusually 
 brusque and excited manner, when the following dialogue in substance 
 ensued : — 
 
 " ' Ayell, Mr. Kendall, you sent me a load of wood, did you V 
 
 '" ' I gave Sally an order for a load.' 
 
 " ' It was very mean in you, Mr. Kendall' 
 
 " ' Mea?i, Mrs. Royal 1 ' 
 
 " ' Yes, mean, — you ought to have sent me a cord.' 
 
 " ' Well, I thought I was doing a charitable act ; perhaps I was mis- 
 taken ; perhaps I should have sent you a cord or half a dozen, but I 
 only thought of enabling Sally to cook your food and relieve you from 
 present suffering. You should judge the act, not by the quantity given, 
 but by the motive of the giver.' 
 
 " Yet she was not to be appeased by anything I could say, and con- 
 tinued for some time to ring the changes upon the meanness of sending 
 her a load of wood instead of a cord. I knew that she might be ap- 
 peased by a moderate gratuity, but the spirit in which she had received 
 this small favor awakened me to the evil of encouraging this kind of 
 beggars and petty swindlers by any sort of countenance. Thus far I 
 had in relation to Mrs. Royal been influenced more by thoughtless 
 
MR. KENDALL'S CONNECTION WITH THE GOVERNMENT. 307 
 
 amusement than any other motive ; but now I discontinued taking her 
 paper and took no notice of her abuse, which, indeed, I never heard of 
 except through the thankless kindness of officious friends. 
 
 " It was during my residence with Colonel R. M. Johnson that he 
 made his celebrated report against putting a stop to the transportation 
 of the mails on the Sabbath. Its authorship was erroneously attributed 
 to me. After it was drawn up it was submitted to me, and my entire 
 agency consisted in altering one or two words. Its composition in the 
 main was doubtless attributable to the Rev. Obadiah Brown, the Bap- 
 tist minister, in whose house the Colonel boarded. It was written with 
 great simplicity and power, and had great effect on the popular mind, 
 virtually settling the question for many years thereafter. 
 
 " My pecuniary means were at that time very limited, and I obtained 
 . . temporary employment from the Postmaster-General in making out a 
 list of post-offices by counties, for which I received an adequate com- 
 pensation. 
 
 " It was quite surprising to me to meet so many men who claimed 
 the merit of producing General Jackson's election to the Presidency, 
 and had come to Washington to receive the appropriate reward. Among 
 them was a small, spare man from Pennsylvania, who, at a Fair one 
 evening, attached himself to me and entertained me with a long story 
 of his achievements and his complaints. The former consisted chiefly 
 in his having been, he said, the first man in Pennsylvania who had pro- 
 posed General Jackson for the Presidency, and thus ' put the ball in 
 motion.' The latter consisted in the fact that the importance of his 
 services did not seem to be appreciated, and he feared that in the dis- 
 tribution of the offices he should be entirely overlooked. His reasoning 
 
 was of this sort : — 
 
 " ' General Jackson could not have been elected if he had not been 
 proposed. I first proposed General Jackson. Therefore I caused his 
 
 election.' 
 
 ^'Thus, perhaps for an hour, walking to and fro, he entertained 
 me, while I did not even know his name. Being anxious to know who 
 it was to whom the country was so deeply indebted, I pointed him 
 out after he left me to every person in the room whom I knew, and 
 not one of them could tell me who he was. Meeting him m the same 
 place on a subsequent evening, I continued my inquiries, and at length 
 fell upon a man who was able to gratify my curiosity by tellmg me hia 
 
 name. . 
 
 -A fine contrast was presented by a friend of mine from Kentucky, 
 who had contributed by his pen and other means to the grand result. 
 He had come to Washington for the purpose of securmg an appoint- 
 ment in Kentucky. As we were walking along Pennsylvania Avenue, 
 
308 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 he said to me, * Mr. Kendall, I am ashamed of myself, for I feel as if 
 every man I meet knew what I came for.' I replied, ' Don't distress 
 yourself, for every man you meet is on the same business.' An exag- 
 geration, but conveying a sad truth. 
 
 " The new administration was auspiciously inaugurated on the 4th of 
 March, 1829. It was not creditable to the manliness of Mr. Adams 
 and his cabinet, that none of them remained at their posts to receive 
 i^Jixeir successors. They all fled as if an enemy was in hot pursuit. A 
 beautiful contrast was exhibited by Mr. Van Buren and his friends 
 twelve years afterwards. Mr. Van Buren, on General Harrison's arrival 
 in the city, invited him to the White House, made him acquainted with 
 its inmates, and entertained him as his guest until the inauguration. 
 The members of his cabinet remained in their several offices until their 
 successors made their appearance, received them courteously, and intro- 
 duced them to their subordinates. Thus should it always be in a gov- 
 ernment like ours, in which changes are effected by the constitutional 
 routine of regular suffrage, rather than the vicissitudes of civil war and 
 its attendant bitterness. 
 
 " Nearly two weeks passed away after the inauguration, and I heard 
 nothing of the expected appointment. AVas there some mistake about 
 the alleged promise of the President, or had he changed his mind 1 At 
 length a rumor reached me that the second and fourth auditorships were 
 to be given to Major William B. Lewis and myself, but that the allot- 
 ment had not been made. I called on Major Lewis and inquired which 
 office he preferred. He replied, ' That in which there is the least 
 work,' which he understood was the Second Auditor's. I said I pre- 
 ferred that in which there was the most work. The two offices were as- 
 signed to us accordingly. Nor was there in my expressed preference 
 any affectation. Calling on the President to thank him for the appoint- 
 ment, I said to him in the course of the conversation, ' I suppose you 
 will hold me responsible for the faithful performance of the duties of 
 the office 1 ' He replied, * Certainly.' Then said I, ' I ought to have 
 the selection of my own clerks.' ' You shall have it,' was his prompt 
 reply. Thanking him for the concession, I assured him of my purpose 
 to manage the office on the same legal and moral principles that I man- 
 aged my private affiiirs, and if ever satisfied that such a rule was im- 
 practicable in administering a public office, I would resign and go into 
 private life. And while I remained in the Fourth Auditor's office I 
 had the selection of my own clerks as effectually as if I had been the 
 head of a department. 
 
 "By the Constitution and laws of the United States, all clerks in the 
 Comptroller's, Auditors', and other subordinate offices are to be appointed 
 by the heads of the departments to which they belong, producing this 
 
MB. KENDALL'S CONNECTION WITH THE GOVERNMENT. 309 
 
 incongruity that the heads of bureaus, deriving their own appointments 
 from the President and Senate, removable only by the President, and 
 held responsible for the faithful performance of the duties of their 
 offices, are dependent on others, who have no rightful control over them, 
 for their clerical force. And it has become one of the glaring abuses in 
 our government, that clerks are often thrust in and thrust out of the 
 bureau offices without consulting their responsible heads, and without 
 due regard to the merits and qualifications of those put out or in. 
 
 " At length, on the 21st of March, 1829, I found myself installedTn 
 the Fourth Auditor's office, in which were then sixteen clerks, only one 
 of whom was what was then called ' a Jackson man.' 
 
 " My predecessor, who had been one of the principal writers in favor 
 of the late administration, did not wait to receive me. 
 
 " The fitst thing that struck me as being amiss in the office was the 
 great number of letters for private citizens which came under cover to 
 the Fourth Auditor, as means of avoiding the payment of post.nge. 
 With the exception of a few special cases, in which I paid the postage 
 myself, all such letters were returned to the post-office. That such an 
 abuse existed, I well knew, but I knew little of its extent. On ex- 
 amining the law, I found there was a penalty of ten dollars attached to 
 each illegal frank, and made up my mind under no circumstances to 
 commit the offence. This resolution was sacredly adhered to during 
 the eleven years I was connected with the government and possessed 
 the franking privilege. Though one of my predecessors in the Post- 
 Office Department had decided that a man having the jjrivilege might 
 frank his wife's letters, I found nothing in the law to warrant it, and 
 rejected the precedent. Sometimes my associates in the government 
 would allude with a sort of sarcastic pleasantry to my scrupulousness 
 on that subject, and my uniform reply was in substance that I did not 
 set myself up as a censor or judge of other men's conduct or con- 
 sciences in the exercise of their special privileges; but for myself I 
 deemed it the safest rule to keep within the limits of the law. But I 
 had few imitators in the Executive or in Congress. 
 
 '' Within the first week of my official life, one of my clerks applied 
 to me for a requisition on the Navy Department for money, stating that 
 he was a disbursing agent for that department, for the purpose of pay- 
 ing small claims, and especially those originating at the Washington 
 Navy Yard. It struck me as singular and incongruous that the Navy 
 Department should have a disbursing agent in the office where its 
 accounts were settled, and I asked the clerk under what law he acted. 
 He replied he did not -know, but that he had acted in that capacity for 
 many years. I then stated that I must know his authority before I 
 could take any fui'ther action. 
 
310 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 • 
 " The result was, that there was not only no authority for the ar- 
 rangement, but in some respects it was in direct violation of law. There 
 was on the statute-book, unrepealed, an act of Congress requiring the 
 Captain in command of the Navy Yard at Washington to perform the 
 duties of Navy Agent at that station. So far as disbursements were con- 
 cerned, that act had been long disregarded, and th^ duty transferred to 
 a clerk in the Foiuth Auditor's office. In addition to that duty, he 
 paid small claims against the Navy Department upon the certificate of 
 the Auditor, a practice introduced to avoid the labor and delay of run- 
 ning each of those claims separately through all the ridiculous forms of 
 the Treasury and Navy Departments. A commission was allowed him 
 on his disbursements, sometimes exceeding a thousand dollars a year. 
 At the same time he was receiving one of the best salaries in the Fourth 
 Auditor's office. His account was settled in the same office virtually by 
 himself Yet there was an act of Congress prohibiting, clerks from re- 
 ceiving compensation for any extra service whatsoever. 
 
 " Having ascertained these facts, I informed the clerk that his opera- 
 tions must cease, and he must close up his accounts. His commissions 
 were disallowed on the double ground that the whole arrangement was 
 in violation of law, and that the allowance of compensation was pro- 
 hibited by an act of Congress. The state of the case was reported to 
 the Secretary of the Navy, who required the Captain of the Navy Yard 
 to perform the duties of Navy Agent, until Congress should provide a 
 regular agent. 
 
 " There was at that time a Navy Pension Fund of several hundred 
 thousand dollars, the management of which was intrusted to the same 
 clerk. His duties were to keep the accounts, invest the money, and 
 reinvest it when refunded, and he was allowed a commission for this 
 service also. Soon after my accession to office, the Hon. Michael Hoff- 
 man, who had been Chairman of the Naval Committee in the next pre- 
 ceding House of Representatives, called on me and invited my particular 
 attention to that fund, stating that he had attempted in vain to ascer- 
 tain what was its true condition during the two preceding sessions, the 
 reports made in pursuance of his calls being unintelligible. Turning 
 my attention to the subject, I called on the clerk for a report made out 
 according to a form described by myself After considerable delay, he 
 made an unintelligible statement, which I returned, directing him to 
 comply with the form I had prescribed. Without refusing to do so, he 
 showed so much reluctance and made so little progress that I was sure 
 there were circumstances connected with it which he did not wish to 
 disclose. On the 1st of June he was removed from office, and his suc- 
 cessor was instructed among his first duties to report the condition of 
 the Navy Pension account. He found no difficulty in making out a 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MR. KENDALL'S JOURNAL. 311 
 
 -plain, intelligible statement. There had been no apparent embezzle- 
 ment of the fund ; but large amounts, after being refunded, had re- 
 mained apparently to the credit of the agent in bank, some of them for 
 more than a year, before they were reinvested, by which means the fund 
 had lost many thousand dollars of interest. Whether the agent profited 
 by the use of the money in any way, or whether it was a piece of gross 
 neglect, was never ascertained. 
 
 " When I entered the Fourth Auditor's Office, I was totally ignorant 
 of the process by which the Navy accounts were settled. To obviate 
 this difficulty, I required successively a clerk in each branch of duty to 
 meet me at the office before office hours, and go through the process of 
 settling an account. I thus soon acquired a general knowledge of all 
 the duties of the office." 
 
 The following fragment, from a journal kept by Mr. Kendall at 
 this time, illustrates the assiduity with which he discharged his 
 of&cial duties : — • 
 
 *' JOURNAL. 
 
 *' Fourth Atjditor's Office, Marcli 23, 1829. 
 
 *' Having qualified, taken possession of my office, and been introduced 
 to my clerks, I took up the correspondence lying on the table. I found 
 in enclosures directed to Tobias Watkins, Fourth Auditor, the following 
 letters to other persons, viz : One to Gwynn Harris, from Philadelphia ; 
 one to Jos. H. Handy, from Portsmouth, N. H. ; one to W. P. Zant- 
 zinger, from New York ; one to E. McDaniel, from New York ; one to 
 J. Weed, from Boston ; one to R. B. Maury, from New York ; one to 
 Eliza C. Porter of Alexandria, from Watertown, Mass. ; one to J. I. 
 Boyle, from New York; and four pamphlets to Dr. Cox, Dr. Huntt, 
 Chas.-Hay, and Tobias Watkins. All these I retiu-ned to the post- 
 office, with a note to the postmaster, stating that I sent them to be 
 disposed of according to law. 
 
 " My office appeared more hke an editor's than an auditor's. Sixteen 
 newspapers had arrived, and were on the table, since my predecessor 
 had left the office on the 21st. I resolved to take no papers at the 
 public charge which should not be useful to me in the performance of 
 my official duties, and took a list of them for the purpose of ordering 
 their discontinuance. 
 
 " A number of claims came in of midshipmen who have been attending 
 at New York for examination, charging fifteen cents per mile for travel- 
 ling from their place of residence, and $ 1.50 per day for remaining in 
 New York, for which some of them charged ninety-two days. I in- 
 quired what law there was for allowing these accounts, and was told 
 there was none. I inquired what regulation there was, printed or 
 
312 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 written, and was told there was none. Mr. Gilliss, my chief clerk, in- 
 formed me that it had been the custom to allow them for several past 
 years. I laid them aside and consulted the Secretary of the Navy. He 
 was not prepared to give an opinion, but instructed me to stop every- 
 thing that I had any doubt about. 
 
 ''After dinner, I called at the office with the chief clerk, and re- 
 mained until night examining into the regulations of the office and the 
 laws relative to the Navy. I instructed my messenger to have me a 
 fire by half-past six in the morning. 
 
 ** March 2J/ih, I was at the office a little before half-past six, but 
 the messenger had not arrived. I walked, and on returning found him 
 making a fire. I prepared a circular and sent it to the editors of six- 
 teen papers, — 'Baltimore Gazette and Daily Advertiser,' 'Constitu- 
 tional Whig,' ' Political Arena,' ' Albion,' ' Free-Trade Advocate,' ' New 
 York Morning Herald,' ' Atlas,' ' American and Commercial Daily 
 Advertiser,' ' Richmond Enquirer,' ' Baltimore Patriot and Mercantile 
 Advertiser,' * Democratic Press,' ' Commercial Chronicle and Daily Mary- 
 lander,' 'Evening Bulletin,' 'Phenix Gazette,' 'National Journal,' and 
 ' National Intelligencer.' I added a note to the letter to the ' Eich- 
 mond Enquirer,' requesting to be considered a subscriber. 
 
 " The following enclosures were received to-day. A letter to Jos. H. 
 Handy, supposed from Charlestown, Mass. ; one to Joseph L. Hughn, 
 from Portsmouth, Va. ; one to George Bealle, Esq., supposed from Car- 
 lisle, Pa. ', and one to Gwynn Harris, from New York, all which were 
 returned to the post-office. 
 
 " Mr. Hughn, who is Paymaster of the Marine Corps, came to remon- 
 strate with me in relation to returning his letters, alleging that they 
 were on public business, and were sent to the Fourth Auditor in pur- 
 suance of express directions to avoid a post-office account. I toM him, 
 that the law made it my imperative duty to return to the post-office all 
 letters received under cover to me, and that as they were sealed I could 
 not know that they were upon the business of the department. I told 
 him I should abide strictly by the law, and if that were found to pro- 
 duce inconveniences, resort must be had to Congress to change it. He 
 acquiesced by saying it would only delay public business one day. I 
 replied that the law and not the auditor was responsible for that. 
 
 " George McDauiel, one of my clerks, called with a requisition signed 
 by me yesterday, payable to Hutton, clerk, requesting me to ex- 
 punge the name of the clerk and insert tliat of a messenger. On my 
 inquiring why this change was requested, he informed me that there 
 was a rule in the public offices, that no clerk should act as agent to 
 settle accounts and draw money for any citizen ; that the rule had not 
 been enforced for some time past; that it had been revived at the 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MR. KENDALL'S JOURNAL. 31^3 
 
 Treasury ; that Hutton was drawing this money as agent for certain 
 citizens who l^^d assigned their account to him ; that it could not be 
 paid to him at the Treasury ; and for the purpose of getting it, he had 
 further assigned it to the messenger. After some examination and in- 
 quiry, I told him that the object appeared to be to evade a very whole- 
 some rule, and that I could neither aid in nor countenance any evasions 
 in this office. 
 
 " On investigating the case of the midshipmen, I found that the first 
 payment of such claims was in 1820, for attendance at an examination 
 in 1819, and that, by the decision of the Secretary of the Navy, the 
 allowance extended only to travelling expenses, and that an allowance 
 of a per diem was expressly prohibited. No further regulation, either 
 of law or office rule, appears; but in 1825 accounts were first passed 
 for the fifteen cents per mile and the $ 1.50 per diem. I submitted the 
 case to the Secretary of the Navy. 
 
 " March 25th. Keturned to the post-office one letter to Josiah Col- 
 ston, from Pensacola ; one to John McDaniel, from St. Michaels, Md. ; 
 one to John McBee, from St. Michaels, Md. ; and one to G. Gilliss, from 
 . Baltimore. 
 
 '*A claim was presented to-day for fuel by the Paymaster of the 
 Marine Corps, charging twenty-four cords on his own account and 
 twelve cords on account of his office, at seven dollars per cord, for the 
 year 1828. On inquiry, I learned that the wood allowed to officers was 
 originally paid in kind, and they were required to produce receipts 
 to enable the department to fix the price ; that the officers at Norfolk 
 had agreed to commute for $ 3.50 per cord; that subsequently a com- 
 mutation of $ 6 per cord had been allowed ; that recently it had been 
 extended to $ 7 a cord throughout the Union, and that the officers at 
 Norfolk now claim and are paid the same sum as all the rest. Seven 
 dollars is the average price in New York, where wood is highest, and 
 this commutation only increases unlawfully the pay of the officers at 
 the expense of the people. The subject must be examined. 
 
 ^^ March 26th. Was sick to-day. Opened my letters in bed. Ee- 
 turned to the office a letter to R. Getty, from Philadelphia, and one to 
 E. Fitzgerald, post-mark illegible. Eeceived an insolent letter from 
 Isaac Monroe, editor of the Baltimore ' Patriot,' in consequence of the 
 terms in which I discontinued his paper. 
 
 ^^ March 27th. Returned to the post-office two letters to Gwynn 
 Harris, from Boston and Norfolk. Discontinued the ' Independent 
 Citizen ' and the ' Village Record,' which, with the ' Frederick Exam- 
 iner' and the 'Scioto Gazette,' heretofore discontinued, make up twenty 
 newspapers which I have discontinued. 
 
 " Had a conversation with the Secretary of the Navy. Found him 
 
314 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 much vexed with his clerks, and determined to change some of them. 
 He expresses a full determination to reform his departjaent, and fully 
 believes that great abuses exist in the disbursement of public money 
 under the rules or customs heretofore introduced. 
 
 " A gentleman long conversant with the public offices promised me 
 a list of cases in which decisions had been given and public money paid 
 from motives of favoritism, if not corruption. 
 
 " March 28th. Returned to the post-office a letter to J. N. Hamble- 
 ton, from Pensacola ; one to G. W. HoUins, from New York ; one to E. 
 McDaniel, from Norfolk ; and one to George McDaniel, from New Ber- 
 lin, N. Y. 
 
 " March 30th. Returned to the post-office a letter from Gloucester, 
 Va., to A. K. Long, of Baltimore j also one to J. J. Boyle and J. M. 
 Watson. 
 
 " Lieutenant Ross, of the Marine Corps, called and laid in a claim for 
 transportation from New York. He had been attached to the ship 
 ' Natchez,' and had come to Washington upon a permit of the com- 
 mander, but without orders. He stated that he had presented hia claim 
 to Dr. Watkins, who refused to allow it, on the ground that he had no 
 orders, but said he had since ascertained that he had allowed an ac- 
 count of his own son, also an officer of the Marine Corps, who had come 
 to Washington under similar circmnstances. I requested him to put his 
 claim in writing, which he did. 
 
 " March 31st. Returned to the post-office a letter to E. McDaniel, 
 from Norfolk, and one to Thomas H. Gilliss, post-mark illegible. 
 
 " I requested my chief clerk to inform me what allowance had been 
 made to young Watkins for transportation, and under what circum- 
 stances. He examined, and reported to me that no such account had 
 passed the office. 
 
 " George McDaniel informed me that money had been placed in his 
 hands to pay the salaries in the office, and requested to know whether 
 he was to proceed as heretofore. I told him to do so until further 
 orders. 
 
 " April 1st. Returned to the post-office a letter from Pensacola to 
 J. M. Hambleton, St. Michaels, Md. 
 
 " April 3d. Returned to the post-office a letter to George Bealle, from 
 New York. I heard a day or two ago that this man was abusing me at 
 Brown's Hotel, as ' a pretty auditor, indeed,' on account of my stopping 
 the newspapers and sending back the letters. On turning to my memo- 
 randum, I find that I have heretofore returned to the office one letter 
 to him. He does not like to pay postage, I suppose. 
 
 *' George McDaniel stated to me that he had been employed for sev- 
 eral years by the head of the Navy Department as a special agent to 
 
EXTRACTS FROM MR. KENDALL'S JOURNAL. 315 
 
 pay off small claims accruing against the department; that a sum of 
 money was pla,ced in his hands at the oommencemetit of each quarter 
 for that purpose ; that he had received one per cent on the amount dis- 
 bursed, as his compensation ; and he desired to know whether he should 
 continue to act in that capacity. On inquiry, I found that this was a 
 scheme which had been invented to prevent the trouble of passing small 
 accounts through all the departments, but it seemed to me wholly un- 
 authorized by law. I conversed with the Secretary of the Navy on the 
 subject, but he was not prepared to give any opinion. 
 
 "■ Soon after McDaniel left me. Lieutenant Ross of the Marines called, 
 and I told him the account of Lieutenant Watkins had never passed 
 the office. He said -Watkins had told him he was paid. I then stated 
 that I would go and examine his account myself. He observed that he 
 believed a Mr. McDaniel had paid it. It then occurred to me that it 
 had been paid without having passed through the office. I called in 
 McDaniel, and learned that he had paid it under the direction of Dr. 
 Watkins, who was Lieutenant Watkins's father. He brought me the 
 papers, from which it appeared that Lieutenant Watkins had come 
 from the Mediterranean upon the permission of Commander Craue, on 
 account of ill health, and that he had been paid for his passage from 
 Smyrna to Boston and for his travelling expenses from Boston to Wash- 
 ington. No sick-ticket was produced, and I do not believe there ever 
 was any. His transaction had been covered from my inquiries hereto- 
 fore by this sub-system of paying accounts through a special agent, to 
 whom the amount of the whole has been allowed in lump. 
 
 " Went up to the office after dinner, and with Captain Bennett, one 
 of my clerks, went through the whole process of settling a purser's ac- 
 count. In the conversation which arose upon it, he informed me that 
 a letter had been written by Captain Morris, commanding at Charles- 
 town, in the Auditor's office, adopted by the Auditor, recorded and sent, 
 directing the purser there to pay the officers money and take their, re- 
 ceipts for wood. I requested him to show it to me^ to-morrow. 
 
 '' April Jfth. Captain Bennett showed me the letter referred to yes- 
 terday. It instructed the officer commanding at Charlestown to direct 
 the purser to pay money to the officers in lieu of wood, at the usual 
 market price, to take receipts for wood and not for money, and to for- 
 ward on a certificate of the usual market price of wood in Boston. 
 Though written by Captain Morris at Washington, it was directed to 
 Captain Morris at Charlestown. Certainly this was a scheme to intro- 
 duce false vouchers for the passage of accounts, upon the suggestion 
 and with the aid of an officer interested. 
 
 "■ Discharged my assistant messenger. I did not know I had one 
 until the 1st inst., when he presented an account as laborer for three 
 
316 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 months' services. He said Dr. Watkins had employed him for some 
 time and paid him in that way. 1 conversed with his brother, my mes- 
 senger, and told him that he was safe, unless I in future should see 
 cause to remove him, but that I did not feel myself authorized to em- 
 ploy his brother, nor did I think it necessary. 
 
 " April 5th. Called this evening and had a conversation of some 
 length with the President. He approved the course I had pursued, 
 recommended the utmost strictness in the passage of accounts, and 
 thanked me for a variety of suggestions. 
 
 *' April 6th. Sent to the post-ofl&ce five letters, enclosed by officers, 
 etc., at Smyrna to Dr. Watkins, to be forwarded to their wives, etc. 
 There was an open note to the Doctor from one of them, named Hun- 
 ter, requesting him to frank the two letters enclosed to his wife. 
 
 " One of my clerks, John McDaniel, presented me with an account 
 of George Bealle, purser at Carlisle, with a note of my predecessor 
 wafered at the bottom, stating that the Secretary of the Navy had de- 
 cided that the purser at Carlisle was to receive the same compensation 
 or allowances as the purser at Philadelphia. I inquired of McDaniel 
 whether these allowances were the same, and he said they were. I 
 then passed the account. Soon after Mr. Gilliss, my chief clerk, pre- 
 sented me with the account of the purser at Philadelphia, which con- 
 tained an item of $ 2,200, I think, for paying mechanics and laborers. 
 Mr. Gilliss stated that such a charge had been made for many years, but 
 had never been allowed by the Auditor or Secretary of the Navy until 
 last year, and that he thought the allowance not authorized by law, 
 because there was no appropriation to pay it. I was clear in the opinion 
 that it ought not to be allowed. He then told me he understood I had 
 passed an account of the purser at Carlisle with a similar item in it. I 
 was confident there was no such item in it, but remarked that there 
 was one for clerk hire. He observed that I would probably find that 
 to be in effect the same thing. I then sent for John McDaniel, and re- 
 quested him to bring the account I had passed. He did so, and it con- 
 tained an item of $ 600 for clerk hire. I inquired whether the purser 
 hired any clerk. He replied in the negative. I inquired whether this 
 charge was meant to coiTespond with the charge from Philadelphia for 
 paying laborers and mechanics. He replied in the affirmative. I in- 
 quired whether there were any laborers or mechanics at Carlisle to pay. 
 He answered in the negative. I then observed with some sharpness 
 that it was a most broad and dishonest construction of the decision of 
 the Secretary to maintain that it went to pay the purser at Carlisle for 
 no services the same which was paid to the purser at Philadelphia for 
 actual services, and that he ought before to have put me in possession 
 of these facts. I took my pen and excepted the $ 600 from the allow- 
 
HIS OFFICIAL RULES. 3^y 
 
 ance. In a few minutes the purser, George Bealle, came in, and rather 
 rudely claimed the allowance as a matter of right under the decision of 
 the Secretary. I had some difficulty in keeping my temper, but re- 
 strained myself, and drew from him admissions that he neither hired 
 clerks nor paid mechanics and laborers. I asked him what justice there 
 was, then, in making such a charge. He pleaded that he had incurred 
 other expenses. I told him to present a true account, then, and if the 
 law authorized its payment it should be paid. He said he should have 
 had no difficulty if he had presented it six weeks ago. I told him it 
 was not my business to inquire what my predecessor would have done, 
 but what it was right for me to do. He left me in no very good- 
 humor. 
 
 "What is this but a direct attempt to cheat by a false account? 
 I fear this system has been carried to a great length; but I shall 
 check it." 
 
 "CIRCULAR. 
 
 " Having completed the contemplated arrangements in the office, the Fourth 
 Auditor takes this occasion to apprise his official corps of the principles by 
 which he expects them to be governed. 
 
 " Every man who receives a salary from the Treasury ought to consider him- 
 self hired by his fellow-citizens to labor in their service. Office in this country 
 is not property. It is rather a contract between the people and the officer, by 
 which the former promise to give a Salary, and the latter to earn it. The dura- 
 tion of the contract, with all clerks, depends on the will of those to whom the 
 people have given the power to appoint and remove. Clerks in this office hold 
 their offices at the will of the Auditor and the Secretary of the Treasury. la- 
 dependent of that will they have no right to their places. When that will 
 decides on their removal, their rights cease. The present Auditor hopes that 
 with him the painful business of making removals is at an end. Yet he wishes 
 it distinctly understood that the continuance in office of each one of his clerks 
 depends solely on the industry and fidelity with which he discharges his pub- 
 lic duties. Determined to devote every energy of his body and mind to the 
 service of that country by which he is employed and paid, the Fourth Auditor 
 is resolved that no favor or affection, no personal consideration on earth, shall 
 induce him to retain one about him who habitually violates the rules of the 
 office and is negligent of his duties. The salaries of the office are competent 
 to purchase the services of men of first-rate attainments and industry, and with 
 such the office must be filled. 
 
 " Generally, a close devotion of only six hours each day to the business of 
 the office will be required. He who devotes himself intently to calculation 
 of figures or writing, will have the balance of his time for relaxation, exercise, 
 family concerns, and rest. But surely, for the salaries paid, a rigid application 
 of six hours a day to pubhc duties is not unreasonable. The Auditor does not 
 intend to limit himself to that number of hours or any other ; he will be at 
 labor whenever the duties of the office require it. But as he does not intend 
 
318 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 to be absent from the office during office hours, except upon public business, 
 so neither wOl he tolerate absence and neglect in his clerks. It will give the 
 office a bad name if those who are paid to be at work are seen traversing the 
 city or country during office hours in pursuit of business or pleasure. Besides, 
 urgent business may come into the office during their absence requiring special 
 attention. But they must be at their posts during the six hours, whether they 
 have anything to do or not, and they must be ready and willing to labor, be- 
 fore or after office hours, whenever the public interest may require it. In 
 cases of sickness or family distress, the Auditor will not be backward to grant 
 them every needful indulgence. 
 
 " At present the business of the office is somewhat in arrears, and no man 
 need eat the bread of idleness. The Auditor is anxious that all arrearages shall 
 be brought up, so that every account which is presented may receive instant 
 attention. 
 
 " When the clerks enter the office they must lay aside all thought of every- 
 thing but their official duties. They must not spend the hours of business in 
 reading newspapers, or books, or writing private letters, or in any private con- 
 cerns. For all those things, the public allows them sufficient time, morning 
 and evening. Nor must they bring into the office loungers or idlers, or employ 
 their time in conversing with friends or strangers upon other topics than their 
 own current business. By suffering no intrusion to interrupt them, they will 
 soon be rid of all intruders. 
 
 " It is natural for those engaged in public service to think lightly of public 
 property. Without compunction they apply to their own use that which be- 
 longs to the people, when they would scorn to be guilty of a like act in rela- 
 tion to their neighbor. Yet it is in principle the same crime. He who applies 
 to his own use the books or stationery of the pubHc, is just as guilty in the 
 eye of morality as he who takes his neighbor's property without leave and 
 applies it to his own use. A public officer would be as justifiable in taking 
 money from the Treasury, and bestowing it upon his family and neighbor, as 
 he is in giving them a quire of paper from the public stock. It is by httle and 
 httle that the moral sense is blunted and destroyed. It may be said there 
 is no harm in taking, for our own use or giving to a friend, a few quills or a 
 little paper which belongs to the public, because nobody will feel it. The 
 transition is perfectly natural to a few cents, and a few dollars, and a few hun- 
 dreds, until the Treasury is assailed and plundered of its thousands. It is im- 
 portant to guard against the slightest violation of principle. If we never suf- 
 fer ourselves to do wrong in small things, we shall not be in danger of doing 
 wrong in great things. Let me enjoin it upon the clerks of this office, in the 
 use of the stationery, or whatever else belongs to the public, to be as rigidly 
 just as they would he in the use of that which belongs to their neighbor. They 
 will then not only never be guilty of extensive frauds, but they will never be 
 tempted. 
 
 " Not only the public interest, but the reputation of our government and 
 country require the practice of rigid morality by those engaged in public 
 business. Gambling, intemperance, and extravagance ought not to be toler- 
 ated in the agents of the people. An habitual gambler can scarcely be a man 
 of integrity. He who takes from his fellow-citizen thousands of dollars, re- 
 
HIS OFFICIAL RULES. 3X9 
 
 ducing his wife and children to beggary upon a fortunate deal of cards, would 
 not long hesitate to take thousands from the government, if he thought he 
 could do it without detection or responsibility. Such a man ought not to be 
 trusted in pubhc office. The intemperate man, if not led into other vices by his 
 indulgencies, is no better than a lunatic. A madman ought as soon to be 
 trusted in office. Extravagant habits of any kind, leading to expenditures 
 beyond our income, ought not to be tolerated in a public officer. One whose 
 income is fixed and certain has no excuse for exceeding it in his expenditures. 
 Vain show and foolish aping of men of wealth in public agents, ought not to 
 be encouraged. Much less ought government, by continuing salaries to vain 
 and improvident men, give them credit in society and enable them to swindle 
 farmers, mechanics, and merchants out of their produce, labor, and goods. 
 
 " As the Fourth Auditor will not knowingly appoint a gambler, drunkard, 
 or grossly immoral man to any place in his office, so he should consider it his 
 duty to remove any clerk who might contract such habits. He is proud to 
 believe that the character of his office now stands unimpeachable on those 
 points, and it shall be his pride, as it is his duty, to keep it so. 
 
 " In everything except the business of the office it will give pleasure to the 
 auditor to treat his clerks as equals. He recognizes no superiority in one good 
 man over another, further than a due discharge of public duties requires. 
 While, therefore, he exacts a strict performance of every official duty from 
 every clerk under his control, he shall consider himself no more than their 
 equal as a man and a citizen, ever ready, by all just means, to promote their 
 comfort, comply with their wishes, and increase their happiness. 
 
 " 1. Every clerk will be in his room, ready to commence business, at nine 
 o'clock, A. M., and will apply himself with diligence to the pubHc service until 
 three o'clock, p. m. 
 
 " 2. Every clerk will hold himself in readiness to discharge any duty which 
 may be required of him in office hours or out, and in no case where by labor- 
 ing a short time after office hours an account can be closed or a citizen released 
 from attendance at this city, must he refrain from continuing his labors after 
 
 three o'clock. 
 
 " 3. Newspapers or books must not be read in the office unless connected 
 directly with the business in hand, nor must conversation be held with visitors 
 or loungers except upon business which they may have with the office. 
 
 " 4. Gambling, drunkenness, and irregular and immoral habits will subject 
 
 any clerk to instant removal. 
 
 " 5 The acceptance of any present or gratuity by any clerk from any person 
 who has business, with the office, or suffering such acceptance by any member 
 of his famUy, will subject any clerk to instant removal. 
 
 " 6 The disclosure to any person out of the office of any investigation going 
 on, or any facts ascertained in the office, affecting the reputation of any citizen, 
 is strictly prohibited without leave of the Auditor. 
 
 " 7. No person will be employed as a clerk in this office who is engaged in 
 other business. Except the attention which the families of clerks require, it 
 is expected that aU their time, thoughts, and energies will be devoted to the 
 
 public service. 
 
 " 8. Strict economy wiU be requu-ed in the use of the public stationery or 
 
320 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 otTier property. No clerk will take paper, quills, or anything else belonging 
 to the government from the office for the use of himself, family, or friends. 
 
 " Although it is necessary in transacting the business of the office that there 
 should be implicit obedience to all just requisitions, and entire subordination of 
 the clerks to the head, yet it will give the Auditor pleasure on all occasions to 
 treat his clerks and their famihes as equals and friends. Forgetting every dif- 
 ference of opinion, he hopes and expects that all will be actuated by one spirit 
 in the service of that country which protects all in their rights of property 
 and conscience. He doubts not that he will find in them a prompt and effi- 
 cient co-operation in every investigation and measure tending to expose delin- 
 quents, reform abuses, enforce the laws, and introduce rigid and just principles 
 into the settlement of public accounts. It is thus only that we shall gain the 
 lasting regard of good men, and, by restoring the purity, contribute to the last- 
 ing duration of the best government which Heaven ever gave, or man ever 
 enjoyed." 
 
CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 The fidelity with which Mr. Kendall, for five years, conducted 
 the business of the Fourth Auditor's ofhce, educing order from con- 
 fusion, exacting strict accountability, and correcting abuses Iioary 
 with age, elicited numerous commendations from friends, and even 
 for a time silenced the clamor of his enemies who practically 
 adopted the maxim that the Jackson administration could do 
 nothing right. 
 
 The following letter is a sample of many found among Mr. 
 Kendall's papers : — 
 
 Shelby CoTTNTT, Ky., September 4, 1829. 
 A. Kendall, Esq., 
 
 Sir, — Your friends and fellow-citizens of Shelby County have seen 
 with great satisfaction the bold, prompt, and decisive manner in which 
 you have employed the opportunities of your place in the present admin- 
 istration to crush the corruption which had raised such a fearful head at 
 Washington. During past years that city has been signalized by offi- 
 cial indulgences, political intrigues, and the venal application of the 
 public patronage. You have honestly redeemed the pledges which your 
 uniform course as editor, in vindicating the popular rights and the 
 principles of democracy, gave to the public. You have given the ex- 
 ample of an officer abolishing the aristocratic privileges which former 
 incumbents had introduced into your station, by declining to use the 
 public purse at once to administer to your personal indulgence, and to 
 corrupt the organs of public information by refusing the franking privi- 
 lege through the medium of your office, which had been previously 
 allowed to all who desired it, and by cutting off the corrupt influence 
 of executive legislation, which, under the name of construction, gave to 
 a single department of the public service many thousands of dollars 
 more of the nation's money than was authorized by law. But the ex- 
 ample you have set in the case of Dr. Watkins is of the highest use to 
 your country. It is calculated to bring back the public functionaries 
 to a strictness in the conduct of their offices which will secure future 
 accountability, and it is to be hoped will check the growth of fraud and 
 
 21 
 
322 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 peculation in our government, which seems to have struck so deep a 
 root. Your honest vigilance in detecting, and boldness in denouncing 
 and bringing to justice fraudulent defaulters and peculators, have brought 
 down on you the vengeance of the aristocracy. You are charged with 
 monstrous crimes which we disdain to mention in connection with your 
 name, and you are invited to sue in Lexington for these libels on your 
 character. Sir, your reputation belongs to your country, a country which 
 will never suffer it to become a prey to the artifices of the bad men 
 whose dangerous policy and violated faitlj it has fallen to your lot to 
 expose. We trust you will scorn to submit your honest standing to the * 
 tricks of the bar and a jury of your enemies. The men who are arrayed 
 against you have already given an evidence of the success with which 
 they can suborn witnesses and influence a judicial tribunal. They can- 
 not, however, control public opinion, by which they stand condemned, 
 and by which you will be forever protected against their malicious in- 
 vective." 
 
 Mr. Atwater threatens, and receives the following reply : — 
 
 Washington, July 15, 183L 
 
 Sir, — Your letter of the 11th instant is just received. Although I 
 had not time to answer all your previous letters, I urged forward your 
 business as much as I properly could. But for the last paragraph in 
 your letter, I should have rejoiced at the information I have just re- 
 ceived, that your account has been adjusted and a balance found due 
 and forwarded to you. That paragraph is as follows : " Unless I hear 
 immediately from you my book will contain several pages I had hoped 
 to have withheld. Human nature can only bear a certain amount of 
 suffering." 
 
 I fear the receipt of this money will have the effect to suppress these 
 "several pages"; and had not your account been adjusted, I should 
 certainly have advised its delay until the appearance of your " book." 
 
 To be plain, sir, I understand this paragi'aph as a threat that, unless 
 your claims be allowed, you will publish something derogatory to the 
 administration. I hope I do not understand you correctly ; but if I do, 
 I beg leave to inform you that when you again advance such arguments 
 in support of pecuniary claims against the government, you must find 
 some other advocate to present them. 
 
 With due respect. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Caleb Atwater, Esq. AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Mr. Kendall's early fondness for the study of Natural Philosophy 
 and Mechanics lasted throughout his life, and the subject of per* 
 
PERPETUAL MOTION". o 
 
 23 
 
 petual motion seems to have almost constantly haunted his mind. 
 He insisted that such motion was contrary to mechanical prin- 
 ciples, impossible, if not absurd; yet some new project would occa- 
 sionally prove that he had not ceased to ponder on the q^uestion, 
 impracticable as it seemed. 
 
 The device referred to in the letter below was manufactured to 
 his order, but before it was finished he discovered its impracti- 
 cableness. Many other projects in the same direction occasionally 
 diverted his mind, always with similar results. 
 
 PERPETUAL MOTIOI^. 
 
 Washington, September — , 1831. 
 Dear Sir, — When I was in New England I mentioned to you that I 
 might wish to procure certain machinery with a view of trying some 
 experiments on the laws of motion. So much has been said in relation 
 to perpetual motion, and so many have deceived themselves with the 
 notion that they had discovered it, that every one who speculates and 
 tries experiments with a view to that result, is laughed at as a visionary. 
 I do not join in that laugh. Although, iipon mediaiiical principles, per- 
 petual motion is an absurdity, and therefore impossible, I do not reject 
 the idea that it is possible on other principles. Indeed, I know that it 
 is possible, for we all witness it every day. The motion of the earth, 
 moon, and planets is a perpetual motion. Astronomy taught me that 
 this motion is maintained by the centripetal and centrifugal tendencies 
 of these bodies. That is to say, — in relation to the earth for instance, 
 — it has a tendency from its gravity or weight to fall into the sun : 
 but, having a motion, and all motion being, if left uncontrolled, in 
 straight lines, it also has a tendency to fly off" from the sun ; and these 
 tendencies are so nicely balanced as to keep it revolving round the sun 
 
 in a circle. 
 
 We have both these principles on the face of the earth. Every sub- 
 stance has gravity or weight, and tends to fall towards the centre. 
 Here it is the centripetal power. Every wheel in motion affords a cen- 
 trifugal power. The motion of wheels may be, and often is, so rapid as 
 to throw upwards heavy substances from their peripheries in spite of 
 their weight, thus overcoming the gravitating or centripetal power. 
 The water flying upward from the top of a grindstone in rapid motion 
 
 is familiar to every boy. 
 
 Now, can this centrifugal power be produced to such an extent as to 
 more than counterbalance the gravitating power that produces if? It 
 has seemed to me tuiit it might be. I have not been so confident as 
 
324 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 to induce me to take much trouble or incur much cost for the purpose 
 of ascertaining, but I have for many years been anxious to make ex- 
 periments with that view. You know that by high gearing a small 
 weight descending very slowly may be made to give rapid motion to 
 a heavy balance-wheel. May not a machine be so constructed that a 
 heavy balance-wheel thus put in motion shall come in contact with the 
 small weight, and raise it back to the point whence it has descended in 
 producing the motion 1 
 
 I am somewhat sanguine that this result can be produced, and would 
 like to try various experiments to ascertain ; but here I have no oppor- 
 tunity, because the necessary apparatus is not at hand and cannot be 
 readily procured. If you will obtain the apparatus and try the experi- 
 ments, I will pay the expense if you will take the time and trouble ; 
 and if anything comes of it, j'^ou shall share alike with me. I am not 
 very confident, but so important would be the discovery and so valuable 
 withal to those who make it, that I am willing to pay something for the 
 experiment. 
 
 Enclosed I send you the drawing of a machine by which these experi- 
 ments may be tried, not very accurately executed, but perhaps sufficient 
 to direct you. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 About the same time, despite the engrossing cares of his office, 
 he invented what he called a " Cylinder Steamboat," the principles 
 of which are stated in the following letter. The results of this 
 invention were not equal to his expectations : — 
 
 CYLINDER STEAMBOAT. 
 
 Washington, December 24, 1832. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Continued indisposition and a press of official business 
 have prevented an earlier answer to your letter of the 1 st inst. 
 
 The plan of my boat is exceedingly simple. Its basis is two or more 
 hollow cylinders of large dimensions, with paddles on the exterior sur- 
 face, which are to be rolled over upon the water by steam or other 
 power. The whole structure for supporting the machinery, passengers, 
 and freight, rests upon the ends of the axes of these cylinders, the room 
 for their accommodation being between and above them from near the 
 surfjice of the water upwards. I have no paddle-wheels or hull, the 
 cylinders supplying the place of both, and the only parts of the boat 
 which will touch the water are the cylinders and the rudder. The pro- 
 gressive motion is obtained on the same principle as that of a steam 
 carriage, the cylinders supplying the place of wheels. 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 325 
 
 I trust this description will enable you to understand it without the 
 aid of drawings, which could not be furnished without expense. 
 
 Another patentee claims the 'principle of my invention, but he has in 
 fact no solid foundation for his claim, and has become anxious to com- 
 promise with me. Making the inquiries necessary in that controversy, 
 I came to a knowledge of your patent, which, in some points, bears some 
 analogy to mine. It seemed to me that the union of the three would 
 secure all that has ever been patented on the subject, and would con- 
 stitute the safest basis of proceeding, and probably the most profitable 
 for all of us. In my opinion, neither your patent nor the other I desire 
 to procure are in themselves of any value, nor can I imagine that mine 
 will be of any great value ; but I can have its value tested, provided I 
 can show to those who have the funds and the disposition to embark in 
 it that there is no danger from other quarters. Hence, although I do 
 not think either of the patents alluded to can injure mine in laiv, yet 
 they do injure it in practice^ and therefore it is that I wish to concen- 
 trate them. 
 
 I will therefore give you a nominal consideration for your patent, with 
 an agreement that you shall have a small proportion of the net profits 
 arising from mine, or from the united patents, should any accrue from 
 them, without trouble or risk to yourself. And if you desire it, I will 
 further agree to reconvey yours back again to yourself, if the matter shall 
 not be tested by me in a reasonable time. 
 
 I beg to hear from you as soon as will suit your convenience, and the 
 
 more definitely the better, as I dislike long negotiations. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Mr. W. W. Van Loan, Catskill, N. Y. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Catskill, May 7, 1833. 
 
 My dear Jane, — I am safely at my brother's, after a rapid and un- 
 pleasant journey. You recollect that I left you at ten o'clock on Satur- 
 day night. We arrived at Baltimore about four o'clock. The steam- 
 boat started at six. The morning was cold, with a raw easterly wind, 
 and there was no fire on board which I could get at. We passed the 
 railroad from Frenchtown to the Delaware, a distance of sixteen miles 
 and a half, in about fifty-six minutes, going at the rate of seventeen 
 miles per hour. At the Delaware we again took a steamboat, and were 
 in Philadelphia at twenty minutes past two. Here I saw a few friends 
 and walked out to the water-works, about two miles. At 6 a. m., on 
 Monday, we were again in a steamboat. From Bordentown to Amboy 
 
326 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 there is now a railroad, but the cars are drawn by horses, which travel 
 about eight miles an hour. At Amboy we again took a steamboat, and 
 were in New York about 3 p. m. There we stayed until seven o'clock 
 this morning, and arrived here about 3 p. m. The distance from Wash- 
 ington to this place is over three hundred miles, and we have been 
 travelling but little over thirty-one hours. 
 
 I took an additional cold on Sunday morning, and on Monday was 
 very hoarse. But it has almost entirely left me. I have felt very well 
 all the way, have eaten heartily, and slept soundly. I intend to ride 
 every good day several miles, and have no doubt I shall find great bene- 
 fit from it. 
 
 Give my love to the children and to cousin, to your father and 
 mother, Alexander, and the rest of the family. Tell Mary Ann and 
 Adela that they must each write me a letter next Saturday. Tell Wil- 
 liam I shall inquire how he has behaved when I get home. I intended 
 to direct him to go to Mr. Wheat's school, but 1 forgot it. 
 
 Affectionately, your husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Catskill, N. Y., May 17, 1833. 
 
 My dear Jane, — I have not had a line from you since I have been 
 here, nor a word from the family since Mary Ann's letter of the 11th, 
 although the mail now comes from Washington here in a little more 
 than two days. 
 
 This»is Friday. On Tuesday evening last my brother and myself 
 went up to Troy in a steamboat, where we visited an uncle and aunt 
 and cousins. Aunt Wilson is sister to my mother, and, though a smaller 
 woman, resembles her very much. Though once comfortable in the 
 world, Uncle Wilson, by a series of misfortunes and accidents, has been 
 reduced to poverty. The day and night preceding our visit he had lost 
 about five hxmdred dollars in moulded brick, by an uncommon flood in 
 the Hudson River. Yet both the old gentleman and lady, especially the 
 latter, appeared to be perfectly cheerful under their misfortune, and re- 
 signed to their lot. 
 
 On Wednesday I went down to Albany and spent the night with 
 Mr. Croswell, editor of the Albany "Argus." With him I also break- 
 fasted and dined yesterday, meeting at dinner a number of warm- 
 hearted friends. At 5 p. m., my brother and myself went on board a 
 steamboat, and arrived here, a distance of about thirty-five miles, about 
 dark. 
 
 We have not had a fair day here for a week. The quantity of rain 
 which has fallen is prodigious, and the damage done by the rising of 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 327 
 
 the streams very great. We found all the wharves in Albany and Troy 
 under water, the houses on the lowest grounds flooded up to the second 
 stories, and boats passing through the streets. Immense masses of 
 lumber were on the wharves, a large portion of which has been swept 
 away. The low lands all along the river are covered, and you may see 
 numerous houses apparently standing on the water, with rows of trees, 
 orchards, and forests growing out of it. The most melancholy part of 
 the story is, that seven or eight lives have been lost, about or near Al- 
 bany and Troy, in attempting to save floating property. 
 
 My friends at Washington write me that they regret my absence at 
 this time ; but perhaps it was well for me that I have been away. I 
 should have given some explanation of Randolph's accounts had I been 
 there, which might have exasperated him the more against me ; but now 
 it has been done by others. Some other matters have occurred also, 
 which make me quite satisfied that I am here at this moment. Yet I 
 have a strong desire to be with my dear wife and little flock, and noth- 
 ing but Providence shall prevent my speedy return. 
 
 They all tell me here that I am very much improved. I feel nearly 
 as stout as usual, and had the weather been good, so that I could have 
 ridden on horseback every day, I have no doubt I should have been in 
 more than my usual health. The cough I had is gone, but two days 
 ago I took a little cold again, which I have not yet got rid of But I 
 have not taken a particle of medicine since I left home. Give my love 
 to your father and mother and all the rest, " too numerous to be men- 
 tioned in a short advertisement." 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Baltimore, June 6, 1833. 
 
 Dear Jane, — I suppose you think I have forgotten you, because I 
 have not written twice a day since my return to this city. Will you 
 take any excuse 1 I will tell you the truth at any rate. Well, then, 
 the truth is, I have had more writing to do since I have been here 
 than I could accomplish with comfort to myself, and have postponed 
 everything I could. Yesterday and to-day I have written over eleven 
 sheets, and am not done yet. Will you forgive me now % If not, I will 
 make it up some way when I get home. With the exception of one 
 evening, I have been very well. As to the suit, we are just where we 
 were a^'week ago. The lawyers talk of having it transfen-ed to Wash- 
 ington, and making no further attempt with it here. If they go on, 
 God only knows when I shall get home. 
 
 Enclose me Mrs. Moore's letters. I shall see the Major here. Do it 
 
328 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 by to-morrow night's mail, or as soon as you read this. You have my 
 love. Give a little of it to the children and the rest. 
 
 Ever your affectionate, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Baltimore, August 3, 1833. 
 
 My dear Jane, — I have just received Adela's letter of yesterday, in 
 which she says, ''Mother is not well pleased at all at your not writing- 
 to her,'' and the sauce-box adds, " I think that it is too bad myself." So 
 to prevent a fair outbreak in my absence, I have snatched up my pen 
 just to let you know that I place some value on your good-hamor. 
 Really, if it would add to yom- happiness, — and no lady out of humor 
 can be happy, — I would write every day, " I am well. How do you 
 do 1 Your affectionate," etc. 
 
 I have succeeded here in my business quite as well as I expected, and 
 go on in high spirits. 
 
 How come on my potatoes, the calf, cow, chickens, pigs, etc. 1 I think 
 I was promised a letter once a day from one of the little girls, and have 
 but one in a week ! I am not " well pleased " myself, and you may tell 
 Adela " I think it is too bad." Kiss John for me, and give my love to 
 all the rest, and to your father and mother and family. Write me at 
 
 New York. 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Philadelphia, August 6, 1833. 
 
 My dear Jane, — It has just occurred to me that it is no small 
 part of my duty to keep you in a good-humor, and as I am left by 
 myself a few minutes, I will spend them with you, — that is as nearly 
 as I can. 
 
 In the first place, I am very well ; in the next, I am in good spirits ; 
 in the next, I wish you were with me, — at least until to-morrow. I 
 occupy a large parlor and a bedroom, with two doors, two windows, and 
 a double bed, and eat by myself, unless a friend happens to be present 
 when meals are ready. 
 
 Who do you think has just left me 1 No other than Robert J. Ward, 
 of Kentucky. He tells me that he had a violent attack of cholera, but 
 now he looks quite well. 
 
 Almost my whole time is taken up in receiving and talking "with 
 friends and men of business. This evening I am to meet a committee 
 of a bank, — to-morrow morning another, and so on. 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 329 
 
 So you must excuse me if my letters are short. But what shall I 
 say of you and the young ladies "i It is their holiday now, and certainly 
 one of them can take care of John while you write, or can write while 
 you take care of liim. 
 
 I send you a bushel of love, — measure out a quart apiece to the 
 children, and keep the rest yourself. 
 
 With enduring affection, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. : 
 
 Philadelphia, August 9, 1833. 
 
 My dear Jane, — To-moiTow I expect to leave this city for New York. 
 I had promised to dine out yesterday, but did not want to go, and a 
 little bit of sick-headache came along very opportunely to furnish me 
 with an excuse, I confess I should have liked a good dinner better. 
 Three hours' sleep and a cup of tea put me on my legs again, and I 
 am tolerably well to-day. But I am engaged for dinner again, and 
 don't know what the wine may do for me. 
 
 I have been more successful here than I expected, and shall go on my 
 way rejoicing, although the bank people abuse me in their newspapers 
 most wickedly. 
 
 Have you got my turnip crop in 1 How come on the potatoes, etc "i 
 I got Mary Ann's letter to New York, and Adela's to this place, yester- 
 day. They don't tell me half the news. '' We are well, — hope you 
 are so," is about all they say. Now, make them write me every par- 
 ticular, — or do it yourself, which would be better. 
 
 The women I have seen here are very ugly, but I have two pictures 
 of beautiful girls hanging in my parlor. Looking at them, I have been 
 more than half persuaded to have yours taken when I get back, for I 
 think it would now be as pretty as they are, and if you should get so 
 old and wrinkled that I can't love your beauty, I will look at the picture 
 
 for your outside. Love to all. 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 New York, August 13, 1833. 
 
 My dear Jane, — I have just received your kind letter, and give 
 you a thousand thanks for it. I dearly cherish a letter from you, 
 because it comes in the language of a heart which I verily believe 
 all devoted to me. It is also a good heart, which means no ill to any 
 one, and although, like all of human mould, it has its foibles, they are 
 less than those which belong to thousands and tens of thousands. We 
 have seen adversity, and you have not been depressed ; we are now in 
 
330 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 prosperity, and you are not elated. The same virtues of self-denial 
 and economy we now practise will, at no distant day, make as inde- 
 pendent of the world ; and surely we shall not be so unwise as to spend 
 the evening of our lives, after toiling through the day, otherwise than 
 serenely and happily. The scenes you speak of in relation to some of 
 our friends w^ill never occur between us ; and yet they should be a les- 
 son to us and all married people to bear and forbear with one another. 
 Let us never speak an unkind word to each other, and if one should 
 escape from either in a moment of unguarded excitement, let the other 
 not return it. 
 
 Poor Mrs. Riley ! and I may say, poor Mr. Riley ! See what a little 
 adversity does for some people. It puts them out of heart and out of 
 temper. Why should we, poor short-sighted creatures, when the storm 
 is raging without, quarrel and make ourselves miserable within? A 
 man on whom the world frowns ought to smile upon his little family 
 flock and make them happy, by showing that he is not miserable. Gen- 
 erally, the husband who carries a smile home will find smiles to meet 
 him, and that which he might make a hell he can make a heaven upon 
 earth. 
 
 But I sincerely hope the picture is exaggerated. Discontented maids 
 and nurses are not always the most faithful retailers of facts, and should 
 be listened to with great allowances. I hope you will not take Mary, 
 for I am sure Mrs. Riley will think hard of it, whatever she may say. 
 But if you have taken her, I have nothing more to say, and hope 
 she will please you. 
 
 To-moiTow I shall start for Boston. I intend so to aiTange matters as 
 to spend Sunday with my good old father. Soon afterwards, I shall be 
 on my way back, but as I shall have to spend probably two days here, 
 one day in Philadelphia, and one, or part of one, in Baltimore, I cannot 
 be at home before the 25th or 26th of the month. Although I succeed 
 rather better than I expected, the business is much more laborious. I 
 wrote yesterday with my own hand eleven letters, seven of one page and 
 four of two. Besides this, I am overwhelmed with civilities, most of 
 which I am obliged to decline. You will readily see, therefore, that I 
 have not much time to write letters of affection or amusement. 
 
 I have met here Mr. Van Buren, Mr. Livingston, and Mr. McLane. 
 Mrs. Livingston was very sociable, and inquired after you. She told a 
 story very flattering to me, which, although it was not in its circum- 
 stances true, I was too polite to contradict. 
 
 Said she, " I saw a lady to-day who has a kind remembrance of 
 you." 
 
 Said I, *' I am very happy to be kindly remembered by a lady." 
 
 She then said she had met with Mrs. Bache, of Philadelphia, and her 
 
APPOINTED POSTMASTER-GENERAL. 33^ 
 
 little daughter, who had come on in the steamboat with me from Phil- 
 adelphia, and Mrs. Bache told her that I had found her in the boat 
 without attendant or protector, and had kindly attended to herself and 
 baggage, and provided a conveyance for her to her lodgings. 
 
 This being told before a considerable company, I heard It with all due 
 modesty, saying to myself, - Either Mrs. Livingston or Mrs. Bache fibs 
 most confoundedly." 
 
 The truth was this : Mr. Whitney came on board to see me as I 
 started, and seeing Mrs. Bache there without an attendant, asked me if 
 I would take charge of her, to which I answered " most certainly," and 
 he introduced me to her. So I chatted with her occasionally on the 
 way, and at her request got a hack for her at New York, handed her 
 into it, she went one way and I another, and that is the last I have seen 
 of her. 
 
 But, as T said before, Mrs. Livingston or Mrs. Bache represented the 
 matter much more favorably than it was, and as I could not tell the 
 truth without charging one of them with fibbing, I concluded to let it 
 pass. 
 
 This is the sum total of my adventures with the ladies since I left 
 Washington. 
 
 Well, I have given you a long letter. 
 
 With unabated aflfection, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The great^ industry and ability displayed by Mr. Kendall in his 
 office proved him to be qualified for still higher and more respon- 
 sible duties. 
 
 The condition of the Post-Office Department had become a 
 source of deep anxiety to the President. With astonishment he 
 learned that its revenues were insufficient to meet pecuniary en- 
 gagements ; contractors were pressing their claims, the credit of 
 the department was in jeopardy, and its affairs in inextricable 
 confusion. 
 
 Annoyed and embarrassed, the President turned to Mr. Kendall 
 and urged upon him the task of rectifying these abuses, and of 
 trying to bring order out of the chaos which reigned in this impor- 
 tant branch of the government. Though the appeal was a forcible 
 one, ]yir. Kendall at first hesitated, but when urged upon personal 
 grounds, he yielded. 
 
 To aid in the success of the administration which he firmly be- 
 lieved to be the triumph of true republican principles, he shrank 
 from no sacrifice, thought no undertaking too arduous. He regarded 
 
332 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the President as the embodiment of truth and honor. The more 
 others abused and slandered him, the brighter did his virtues shine 
 in the eyes of Mr. Kendall. His admiration of the " old hero/' as 
 he delighted to call him, increased with time, and, to the day of his 
 death, he could not listen to a reproach upon his character with- 
 out repelling the slander with a vehemence which astonished and 
 silenced the traducer. 
 
 Gigantic as were the difficulties anticipated by Mr. Kendall in 
 assuming the direction of the Post-Office Department, the reality 
 exceeded his worst fears. 
 
 Though his official conduct was as pure, honest, and faithful to 
 the interests of the public as the highest standard of integrity 
 could demand, he did not escape calumny and persecution. His 
 former experiences had prepared him for the worst his enemies 
 could do. 
 
 Any change in the cabinet was a sweet morsel for the opposition 
 press, which pretended to see in it presages of new calamities to 
 the administration and the country; but that the friends of the 
 government were justified in anticipating from this change most 
 favorable results, the event abundantly proved. 
 
 On Mr.' Kendall's retirement from the Fourth Auditor's office, 
 he received a communication handsomely engrossed, signed by 
 each clerk, and expressive of gratitude for his uniform courtesy, 
 and bearing cheerful testimony to the fidelity and promptness with 
 which he had discharged his duties ; to his untiring industry which 
 led him to exact less service from his subordinates than he was 
 ready to render himself ; and to his great ability and unblemished 
 private character. 
 
 This voluntary expression of good-will was highly gratifying to 
 Mr. Kendall, who carefully preserved the testimonial among his 
 valuable papers. 
 
 The following extracts are taken from prominent papers at this 
 time : — 
 
 " POSTMASTER- GENERAL. 
 
 '' The rumor is quite rife that Major Barry is going to Spain as Min- 
 ister Plenipotentiary, and that Amos Kendall is to succeed him as Post- 
 master-General. Mr. Kendall's pre-eminent talents and vigorous business 
 habits give an assurance that the public interest will be faithfully as 
 well as ably served should he assume that post. But the very fact that 
 he is honest and intelligent will be the bitterest part of the potion to 
 
THE PRESS ON THE APPOINTMENT. 333 
 
 the opposition. Apprehensive that he will deprive them even of a pre- 
 text for assailing that Department, the opposition press will open upon 
 him with that virulence and abuse which is so characteristic of the 
 party. Mr. Kendall may rest assured that his capability and honesty 
 are sufficiently known, to leave him without a friend in the ranks of the 
 opposition, and to cause him to be viewed as the worst of appointments 
 for their purposes." 
 
 "THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 " The opposition papers have announced the probable resignation of 
 the present Postmaster-General, and the appointment of Mr. Amos Ken- 
 dall to succeed him, and thereupon have commenced an indiscriminate 
 and unlimited abuse of Mr. Kendall. It is well known that the incon- 
 siderable difficulties which a disposition to accommodate the public has 
 caused to grow up in the General Post-Office Department, furnish the 
 last key for the cuckoo song of corruption by the opposition against the 
 administration, and they are now afraid that if Mr. Kendall is appointed, 
 that the last 'pretext for opposition will be swept from them. They know 
 that his indefatigable industry, his honesty, his business habits, his 
 acknowledged talents, and his knowledge of mankind will leave nothing 
 undone which human ingenuity can effect to place the Department on that 
 high and elevated ground which will disarm malignity of its opposition 
 and leave nothing for its friends to wish for. We know nothing about 
 a change, nor do we for a moment doubt the ability of Major Barry to 
 place the department upon an invulnerable ground ; but we have no 
 hesitation in believing that if the reported change is made, it will meet 
 the approbation of the Democracy of the Union." 
 
 "AMOS KENDALL, ESQ. 
 
 " Letters from Washington state in positive terms that Amos Kendall 
 is to take charge of the Post-Office Department as successor to Major 
 Barry, whose delicate and declining health requires a change of climate 
 and a less laborious station. 
 
 " We most heartily concur in the sentiments expressed by the editor 
 of the Baltimore ' Republican ' in the following article upon this sub- 
 ject. Mr. Kendall is certainly one of the ablest men of the day, and 
 under his skilful direction and management, the affairs of the Post- 
 Office Department would be well conducted and wisely administered. 
 It is a matter of serious regret to us that circumstances should render 
 a release from the cares and responsibilities of this arduous station desir- 
 able to Major Barry, whose virtues as a man, and whose merits as a 
 public officer have rendered him the object of general esteem and re- 
 
334 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 gard ; but whilst we lament the necessity which compels us to antici- 
 pate the retirement of an officer so faithful to his duties, and so univer- 
 sally esteemed by the people, it affords good grounds for congratulation 
 to know that the place will probably be supplied by one so well qualified 
 in every particular, to give general satisfaction, as the gentleman whose 
 name heads this article. The editor of the ' Republican ' says : ' The 
 opposition press is groaning in advance at the bare idea of the appoint- 
 ment of Mr. Kendall to the Post-Office Department. If the anticipation 
 is so afflicting, what will be the effect of the event"? That such an 
 event may happen is not improbable, if there be any truth in the mourn- 
 ful predictions of our adversaries. It may be that Major Barry's ill 
 health, aggravated by the persecutions of vindictive enemies, may ren- 
 der it agreeable to devote his acknowledged talents to the service of the 
 country in a sphere less laborious and equally respectable. It may be 
 that he may consent, at his own good time and convenience, to go on a 
 mission to Spain. It is known that he enjoys the undiminished confi- 
 dence and friendship of the President, and that he will not be removed 
 or transferred but by his own choice. If he should retire, what is there 
 in the duties of the Post-Office Department to which the habits and 
 talents of Amos Kendall are not suited and adequate 1 Does it require 
 untiring industry]^ — he is known to possess it; does it require talents 
 to rectify any malarrangemenf or to reform abuses which may have 
 sprung from defective organization of the Department? — who has quick- 
 er penetration to discover or greater firmness to apply the correctives 1 
 What more does the opposition require *? Thfey would fain paralyze his 
 exertions by denunciations beforehand, and then complain of want of 
 success to which they themselves had contributed. But their effi)rts 
 will be vain. His success in the post of Fourth Auditor in overcoming 
 the prejudices that had been excited against him, is but an augury of 
 like success in the Post-Office Department, should he be appointed to its 
 administration. Amongst officers of the navy there is now an universal 
 admission of his capacity, his promptness, and his inflexible impartiality. 
 We challenge the opposition to mark our predictions and to note the 
 
 result.' 
 
 " The Albany ' Argus,' in alluding to the rumor that Mr. Kendall is 
 to be appointed Postmaster-General, makes the following remarks : 
 * We have no knowledge of the alleged intended change in the Post- 
 Office Department ; but we say with entire truth, that if Major Barry 
 should at any time retire from it, we know of no man to whom its duties 
 and responsibilities may be committed with greater propriety, and with 
 higher regard to the public interests, than to Mr. Kendall. He pos- 
 sesses certainly, in an eminent degree, every requisite qualification for 
 the trust. Indeed, upon this subject, if we had not the strongest affir- 
 
MR. KENDALL'S ACCOUNT OF HIS APPOINTMENT. 335 
 
 mative evidence, the relentless spirit in which he had been pursued by 
 the harpies of faction and by the creatures of the bank, would afford of 
 itself sufficient proof of the purity of his character and the force of his 
 talents.' We agree with the editor of the ' Argus,' that in case there is 
 a change, no person is better qualified than Mr. Kendall to assume the 
 responsible duties devolving on the head of the Post-Office Depart- 
 ment." 
 
 The following narrative, ^vritten by himself, contains an account 
 of Mr. Kendall's connection with the Post-Office Department : — 
 
 "During the short session of Congress, in the winter of 1834-35, 
 President Jackson said to me that a change was necessary in the head 
 of the Post-Office Department, and asked me whether I would accept 
 that position. Nothing could have been more unexpected than such a 
 proposition. No intimation had been given by me that any official pro- 
 motion would be acceptable, and I am quite sure no one had recom- 
 mended this arrangement to the President. Thanking him for his 
 kindness to me, I stated that there were, as I thought, conclusive rea- 
 sons why such an appointment should not be made. Politically, I had 
 not occupied any of those prominent positions which the practice of the 
 government had made prerequisites for cabinet appointments ; that the 
 Whig Party, having the ascendency in the Senate, would certainly re- 
 ject my nomination ; that my appointment would be looked upon with 
 jealousy by his own political friends in Congress ; and finally that I was 
 poor, with a large family, and being satisfied that I could never pro- 
 vide for them in public life, I had made arrangements to resign the 
 office I then held and go into private business. The interview was 
 closed by his requesting me to think of the matter a few days and call 
 
 agam. 
 
 " In a second interview, I stated that my reflections had confirmed 
 my first impressions, and that my appointment was one which ought 
 not to be made, either on his own account or mine, and recapitulated 
 the objections to it previously raised. I added that as to myself, if 
 nominated to the Senate at once, I should be at once rejected, and if ap- 
 pointed after the close of the session, the prospect before me would be 
 the relinquishment of the favorable chance I then had of going into pri- 
 vate business, a year's hard work in the Department, and being at its close 
 turned adrift by the Senate without property or income. But after 
 urging all these considerations, I concluded by saying that I would make 
 the sacrifice and take the office if it would give him any personal relief. 
 His reply was, * There are many men who would be glad to accept the 
 Department, and I suppose would put everything right there ; but / 
 Icnow you wilV What could I say more ] Believing that I could rely 
 
336 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 more, to sustain myself, on what I could do in the Department, than upon 
 any existing claims to the position, I requested that the change should 
 be made as soon after the close of the short session of Congress as con- 
 venient, and my nomination delayed to near the close of the next long 
 session, to which the President readily assented. It was also under- 
 stood that the arrangement should not be disclosed until after the 
 adjournment of Congress. There was a general understanding, how- 
 ever, that a change was to take place, and there was no lack of candi- 
 dates for the position. One of them who aspired to it, and wanted my 
 recommendation, opened the subject by proposing to me to become a 
 candidate myself and offering to recommend me. Well understanding 
 that he expected me to decline and would thereupon ask me to assist 
 him, I affected to believe him in earnest, and he consented to call on 
 the President and urge my appointment, which, I afterwards learned 
 from the President, he never did. 
 
 " Soon after the adjournment of Congress it was arranged between the 
 President and Major Barry that the latter should resign the Post-Office 
 Department on the first of the succeeding May, and accept the mission 
 to Russia. It soon became known that I was to be his successor. The 
 1st of May arrived, and he did not resign. Certain parties, who had 
 reasons for not liking the proposed change, had persuaded him that the 
 mission to Russia was but a banishment, and that it would be degra- 
 dation to accept it by making way for the promotion of one having so 
 little pretension as myself. The President, however, found means to 
 obviate the difficulty, and on the 1st of June, 1835, the proposed ar- 
 rangement took effect. 
 
 "After it was understood between the President and Major Barry 
 that the latter was to resign, he wrote to the former a letter charging 
 his two assistants, S. R. Hobbie and C. K. Gardner, with being the 
 authors of all his official troubles, and asking leave to dismiss them. 
 No very specific charge was made against Major Hobbie, but Colonel 
 Gardner, who kept the books containing the accounts of the contractors 
 for carrjnng the mails, was directly charged with gross delinquency. 
 The President sent the letter to me, asking my views on the subject. 
 The chief clerk of the Department, whom Congress and the public had 
 fixed upon as the main cause of the mismanagement of the Department, 
 had resigned to avoid dismissal by order of the President, and I could only 
 look upon this movement against Hobbie and Gardner as instigated for 
 the purpose of transferring the stigma from the guilty to the innocent. 
 As such I denounced it to the President, who refused his consent to the 
 removal. Subsequent discoveries confirmed my impression. It was 
 true that Gardner's books had not shown the true state of the con- 
 tractors' accounts, but it was only because the means of making them 
 
MR. KENDALL'S ACCOUNT OF HIS APPOINTMENT. 337 
 
 accurate had been withheld from him, and as for Major Hobbie, he had 
 opposed even in writing some of the illegal if not corrupt allowances 
 which had been made to contractors. 
 
 " The Post-Office Department was then heavily in debt, as well to 
 contractors for carrying the mails, as to banks for money borrowed, and 
 was without credit. Its management had, at the two preceding ses- 
 sions of Congress, been the subject of investigation by committees, and 
 by the members opposed to the administration severely condemned, 
 while by those in its favor it was but feebly defended. The general im- 
 pression was that it had been reckless, and many denounced it as cor- 
 rupt. Perhaps none believed that the head of the Department had 
 been corrupt, and his best friends who knew his amiable disposition and 
 his want of business habits, could readily comprehend how he mio-ht 
 have been misled by corrupt men about him. 
 
 *' I retained Major Hobbie and Colonel Gardner in their places, and 
 took with me from the Fourth Auditor's Office two of my best clerks, 
 Robert Johnson and Joseph Perry, placing Johnson in charge of the 
 accounts. Preston S. Loughborough, a man of superior talents, whom I 
 had known from boyhood, and already a clerk in the Department, I 
 made my chief clerk. , 
 
 " One of my first objects was to make myself acquainted with the 
 officers and clerks of the Department, and their several duties. For 
 this purpose I visited their rooms, examined their books, and asked all 
 needful explanations. While I was on this round, one of the prominent 
 clerks who had been suspected of being a secret agent of certain mail 
 contractors, after many professions of a disposition to serve me, sug- 
 gested that he had the control of funds, and should be happy to accom- 
 modate me with loans. He received for answer, * I never make myself de- 
 pendent on those whom it is my duty to control.' ^ A very coirect prin- 
 ciple,' he hun-iedly replied. His assent to the principle came too late, 
 the prior offer being deemed proof of coiTuption, and as soon as con- 
 venient his services were dispensed with. 
 
 " The impression soon became irresistible that a few powerful mail 
 contractors, through favors to the officers and more influential clerks, 
 had really controlled the Department, and for their own selfish ends had 
 been the cause of all its embarrassments. To put an end to this source 
 of corruption, I announced to my subordinates that the acceptance of 
 any present of value from any mail contractor, or a free ride in stage 
 lines, steamboats, or railroad cars carrying the mails, would be cause for 
 instant dismissal, and that the rule prescribed to them I adopted for my 
 own guidance. 
 
 "In pursuance of this regulation, when presents and free tickets were 
 sent me, I returned them with polite letters, stating that they gave me 
 
 22 
 
338 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 no offence, because I knew such things had been customary, but as I 
 had prohibited their acceptance by my subordinates, I deemed it ex- 
 pedient to dechne them myself. Once only there was an attempt to 
 cheat me into a free stage ride. I had occasion to visit the West. 
 There was a stage line from Washington to Frederick City, where it 
 connected with the line from Baltimore to the West. Arriving at Fred- 
 erick, I went to the stage-office to pay my fare to Wheeling. The agent 
 told me I was to pay at Cumberland. There the agent told me he was 
 instructed to receive nothing from me. Arriving at Wheeling, I en- 
 closed the ordinary fare to Richard Stockton, the leading contractor, 
 living at Baltimore. To avoid a similar difficulty farther West, I went 
 to the stage-office immediately on arrival and paid the fare. In the 
 course of the evening, one of the contractors who lived there brought 
 to me at my hotel the money paid, which I politely declined to 
 receive. 
 
 *' Extensive curtailments of mail service had been recently ordered by 
 the President, for the purpose of bringing the expenses of the Depart- 
 ment within its income, and one of my first objects was to ascertain 
 whether enough had been done to insure that end. The result was 
 affirmative. Under these circumstances, it appeared to me easy to 
 restore the credit of the Department. For that piu"pose I announced 
 that at the end of the current, and every subsequent quarter, the 
 amount due to contractors for that quarter would be punctually paid, 
 and that pre-existing debts would be paid as fast as the Department 
 should acquire the means. To ascertain whether anything could be 
 done to hasten that result, my attention was turned to the mode in 
 which its revenues were collected and disbursed. There were then 
 about thirteen thousand post-offices in the United States. Those in 
 the cities and the larger offices near them, not more than about a thou- 
 sand in all, deposited their net receipts in the banks to the credit of the 
 Department, whence they were drawn by its checks chiefly to pay con- 
 tractors for carrying the mails. The other twelve thousand retained 
 their receipts until drawn upon, and this was not done until their quar- 
 terly accounts were settled and the balance due ascertained at the De- 
 partment. The practical effect of the system was not only to render 
 the revenues derived from these offices in any one quarter unavailable 
 for the whole or a large portion of the next quarter, but to allow the 
 income of the small offices to accumulate on hand for several quarters 
 before the Department deemed the amount worth drawing for. Inas- 
 much as on a vast majority of the mail routes the quarterly receipts 
 were insufficient to pay for carrying the mail on those routes, it seemed 
 to me practicable and desirable that the postmasters should pay over to 
 the mail contractors on their respective routes the net income of their 
 
MR. KENDALL'S POST-OFFICE REFORMS. 339 
 
 offices at the end of each quarter. I made the suggestion to assistants 
 and others of my most intelligent and experienced subordinates in the 
 Department, all of whom pronounced such an arrangement impracticable. 
 It did not seem so to me, and after mature reflection I determined to 
 adopt it. As it was to be introduced on my sole responsibility, I re- 
 solved to arrange all the details myself The books of the Department 
 enabled me to ascertain precisely what was the amount required to pay 
 for the transportation of the mails on each route, and, by reference to 
 previous receipts, to estimate with sufficient accuracy the revenue ac- 
 cruing on that route. My purpose was to examine every mail route in 
 the United States, and designate the offices which should pay directly 
 to the mail contractors ; also such as should retain their receipts until 
 drawn upon ; and also such as should be required to deposit them in 
 banks. These details were all arranged by me in twenty out of the 
 twenty-four States then in the Union, and in the other four by an 
 intelligent clerk, whose aid I found necessary to get the new system 
 in operation in the fall of 1835. The three classes of offices were 
 called respectively ' collection offices,' ' draft offices,' and ' deposit 
 offices.' 
 
 " Prior to the close of each quarter, every mail contractor was fur- 
 nished with a list of the collection offices on his route, and he was re- 
 quired to call upon each postmaster, in person or by his agent, within 
 two weeks after the close of the quarter, and demand his net income for 
 that quarter, as shown by his own account current. Having made the 
 demand at every collection office on his route, the contractor was re- 
 quired, after giving duplicate receipts to each paying postmaster, to re- 
 turn the list sent him, called an acknowledgment, noting on it the 
 amount received from each office, and if any postmaster had failed to 
 pay, give the reason for his delinquency. The adjustment was upon 
 the principle that the contractors should not receive more than seventy- 
 five per cent of their quarter's pay from the collection offices, and to 
 secure their fidelity in making the demand, they were informed that 
 the balance would not be paid until they satisfied the Department that 
 they had called on every office and had reported the result truly. A 
 circular was sent to the postmasters at all the collection offices, requiring 
 them to close up their quarterly accounts immediately after the end of 
 each quarter, and to pay over to the contractor on demand the entire 
 amount which was admitted by his account current to be due to the De- 
 partment, taking duplicate receipts. One of these constituted a voucher 
 
 in his accounts. 
 
 " The deposit offices were required to make deposits more or less 
 frequently, according to the estimated amount of their current receipts, 
 the purpose being to prevent the accumulation of sums in their hands. 
 
340 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Each deposit, it was required, should be reported when made, and the 
 certificate of deposit forwarded to the Department. 
 
 " The draft offices were only those reserved on routes wherever the 
 post-office revenue exceeded seventy-five per cent of the contractor's 
 quarterly pay, which were so situated that they could not conveniently 
 be made deposit offices. Their proceeds were always drawn upon to pay 
 contractors in their vicinity, in preference to checking upon funds in 
 bank. 
 
 *' The new system went into operation in October, 1835. Nothing 
 could have been more satisfactory. It rendered the entire income of the 
 preceding quarter available for payment of the quarter's expenses. Al- 
 though the order to postmasters was expressly limited to the payment 
 of the income of the preceding quarter, some of them paid over all the 
 accumulations of all preceding quarters then on hand, so that a few 
 contractors were overpaid. But no loss was incurred, the overpayments 
 being set off against their next quarterly dues. 
 
 '' Finding, in October and November, that the means of the Depart- 
 ment would far exceed the demands upon it for the preceding quarter's 
 service, I commenced paying the old debts, and thenceforward paid them 
 whenever presented. A large portion of the debt was due to banks 
 which did not press for payment; but during the winter of 1835-36, 
 and early in the spring of 1836, the amounts due to them were all paid 
 off. 
 
 '' After I had acquired a partial view of the conditiou of the Depart- 
 ment, in the summer of 1835 I told the President he must be satisfied 
 if it were freed from debt before his retirement from office, on the 4th 
 of March, 1837. About the 1st of April, 1836, I had the satisfaction 
 of reporting to him that the Department was fi'ee from debt. This re- 
 sult was attained not only by rendering the current receipts promptly 
 available, but by collecting the old balances in the hands of postmasters, 
 generally small, but considerable in the aggregate, largely aided by an 
 increase of revenue, and somewhat by suspension of payments to a few 
 contractors who appeared to be overpaid. 
 
 " In the outset, I superintended the operations of the system myself, 
 and carried on a large portion of the correspondence. Years afterwards 
 I met with a man who had been a postmaster in the interior of Penn- 
 sylvania, and had on the first call of the contractor been in default. 
 He informed me that he was surprised at receiving a letter in my own 
 handwriting asking why he had not paid, and on replying that he was 
 not at home when the contractor called, received another letter from me 
 informing him that such an excuse, though accepted for the occasion, 
 would not be deemed sufficient thereafter, because it was easy for him, 
 if called away, to leave with his family, or whoever might have charge 
 
ME. KENDALL'S POST-OFFICE REFORMS. 34^ 
 
 of his office, the amount payable to the contractor. This case is men- 
 tioned as an illustration. 
 
 " It was one of the merits of the system that it brought all the col- 
 lection offices under the direct supervision of the Department every 
 quarter, and rendered defaults, without its knowledge, impossible. A 
 leading principle adopted by me in its administration was to make post- 
 masters and contractors feel that its eye was constantly upon them, not 
 only collectively, but individually, so that no abuse could be practised 
 and no neglect indulged in without its immediate knowledge. To that 
 end it was made the duty of a special clerk to watch over the pecuniary 
 concerns of the post-offices, to promptly require explanations of all 
 postmasters reported in default by contractors, to see that the deposit 
 offices made regular deposits as required, and in every case of neglect 
 to demand an explanation, and to watch the accumulation of funds in 
 the draft offices, and see that they promptly paid when drawn upon. 
 He was required to report all delinquencies, as soon as ascertained, to the 
 Postmaster-General. 
 
 ** Under this system, the revenues of the Department, then over four 
 millions of dollars annually, were collected and disbursed without any 
 expense to itself. 
 
 " There had been many complaints about the irregular transportation 
 of the mails in various sections of the country, and it was deemed my 
 duty to inquire into the cause, and, if practicable, apply the remedy. 
 The main cause was found to be unwarranted lenity towards the con- 
 tractors. In all the mail contracts the Department stipulated for the 
 power to fine the contractors for failures to arrive within the prescribed 
 time, and other defaults, and although fines had been frequently im- 
 posed, they had been almost uniformly afterwards remitted, and thus 
 the power was rendered practically nugatory. It was also soon per- 
 ceived that on the principal mail routes the postmasters whose duty it 
 was to report failures and their causes, were generally inclined to find 
 excuses for the contractors, and were not in this respect a safe reliance 
 for the Department. To insure efficiency in the transportation of the 
 mails, it seemed necessary to introduce some system which should make 
 the contractors feel that they were always under the direct supervision 
 of the Department. For that purpose a new bureau was established, 
 called * The Inspection Office,' in which books were kept showing the 
 time fixed in the contracts for the departure and arrival of the mails at 
 the termini of every mail route in the United States. The postmasters 
 at all these points were required to report periodically and without com- 
 ment the exact time of the departure and arrival of every mail by fill- 
 ing up and returning blanks furnished them for that purpose. The con- 
 tractors were informed that, in cases of failure, the Department would 
 
342 AUTOBIOGRAFHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 wait a reasonable time for their excuses, and if none were given would 
 proceed to impose an appropriate fine, and that unless it were shown 
 that the postmaster's report was inaccurate, or that the Department had 
 made a mistake, no fine would be remitted, even though a good excuse 
 might afterwards be given. This was necessary to insure punctuality 
 and produce despatch in the business of the Department. A competent 
 number of clerks were employed in examining the reports of postmasters, 
 and entering all failures upon books which were first examined by the 
 head of the bureau, and by him presented to the Postmaster-General, 
 with his opinion as to the justice or propriety of fining the contractor. 
 Every fine was at once charged up against the contractor, who was noti- 
 fied by letter. 
 
 " AVhen I entered the Department there were two Assistant Postmas- 
 ter-Generals, between whom the United States was divided, each having 
 charge of the post-ofl&ces, mail contracts, and their execution, in his 
 division. This arrangement, by burdening the assistants' minds with 
 duties entirely dissimilar in their nature, did not seem to me conducive 
 to promptitude or uniformity in the administration of the Department. 
 I therefore separated the duties as follows : — 
 
 *'A11 that pertained to the establishment, supervision, and discon- 
 tinuance of post-ofl&ces was assigned to the first assistant, whose office 
 was called * The Appointment Office.' 
 
 " All that pertained to mail routes and the performance of contracts 
 for carrying the mails, was assigned to the second assistant, whose office 
 was called ' The Contract Office.' 
 
 " All that pertained to the performance of mail service under con- 
 tracts, was assigned to the third assistant, whose office was called ' The 
 Inspection Office.' 
 
 " Financial affairs, mail depredations, and miscellaneous matters were 
 under the supervision of the Postmaster-General himself, through his 
 chief clerk. 
 
 " I had long been led to dislike, from moral considerations as well as 
 public policy, the use of fiction in law proceedings and the business of 
 the government, and had, as far as I had the power, made them to con- 
 form to the truth. In the commissions of postmasters was found one 
 of those fictions, which was not only false in fact, but involved a legal 
 doubt, which might some day be solved to the disadvantage of the Depart- 
 ment. The process in the appointment of postmasters was as follows : 
 The appointment was by letter ; but the appointee was not recognized 
 as in office, and entitled to enter upon its duties, until he had executed 
 and returned to the Department a bond for the faithful performance of 
 its duties, with acceptable securities. Having done this, a commission 
 was sent to him bearing the date of his letter of appointment. The 
 
MR. KENDALL'S POST-OFFICE REFORMS. 343 
 
 commission was false, in the fact that it represented him to be postmas- 
 ter from the date of his appointment, when he was not postmaster until 
 the acceptance of his bond. I therefore changed the form of the com- 
 mission so as to recite the preliminary proceedings in a preamble, and 
 give it the date of its actual issue. 
 
 "An analogous evil existed in the omission of dates and the absence 
 of reg-ular records. Decisions of the Postmaster-General, involvino^ 
 thousands of dollars, had been recorded only on slips of paper, having 
 no dates, and in one instance the only clue to $ 25,000 of Department 
 acceptances was a list of them without date on a half-sheet of cap 
 paper, with the initials of the gentleman to whom they had been 
 handed. The practice of omitting dates, and sometimes giving false 
 dates, pervaded all branches of the Department, making it extremely 
 difl&cult to investigate satisfactorily some of its most important trans- 
 actions. To put an end to this practice, I directed my subordinates to 
 annex the true date to all their official transactions. I adopted the 
 same practice myself In the appointment office a journal was kept, 
 which showed the decisions of each day. So did the books of the con- 
 tract office. In special cases, the decisions, with the dates, were entered 
 on the papers and immediately communicated to the parties interested, 
 orally if present, and by letter if absent. 
 
 " It seemed to me remarkable, inasmuch as the law required the De- 
 partment to accept the lowest responsible bidder, that for many years 
 the most impoilant mail contracts had been, at every letting, secured by 
 the same sets of men. Prior to the first letting under my administra- 
 tion, one of those men called on me at my residence and inquired of me 
 whether I intended to secure the contracts to the old and faithful con- 
 tractors, as my predecessors had done. I replied that I should be very 
 glad to retain them in the service, but as the law required me to acce23t 
 the lowest responsible bid, I did not see how I could do anything to 
 secure the contracts to them if they were underbid. He said it had 
 been done through private understandings, prior to the lettings, between 
 the contractors and the Department. He was told there could be no 
 private understandings with me, and that the contracts would be given 
 to the lowest responsible bidders, as required by law. He lost his 
 
 contracts. 
 
 " There were two modes by which contracts had been secured to old 
 contractors. One was by bidding so low that no man could afford to 
 carry the mails for that price, with the understanding that the service 
 was to be ' improved,' as it was called, by additional trips or increased 
 speed, or under some other pretence, so as to make the contract a profit- 
 able one. By this process a bid of a few thousands sometimes became 
 a contract of many thousands. The other mode of retaining ' old and 
 
344 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 faithful contractors ' was by means of what were called ' straw bids.' 
 The contractors would themselves put in a bid which, if accepted, would 
 give them a very liberal compensation. But as they could really afford 
 to render the service for much less, they would engage irresponsible 
 persons to put in a series of lower bids, the lowest being for the very 
 lowest price they were willing to carry the mail. If there was no hona 
 fide bid below their own, then all the lower bidders turned out to be 
 vagabonds, who could give no security, and the contract was awarded 
 to the old contractors upon their own bid. But if there was a h(ma fide 
 bid below their own, then all the ' straw-bidders ' disappeared, except the 
 one next below the competing hona fide bidder who was found to be able 
 to give security; but his contract was soon assigned to the old con* 
 tractors. 
 
 *'By one or the other of these processes, 'the old and faithful con- 
 tractors' had been kept in service, and all real competition on their 
 routes effectually prevented. 
 
 " The law was already sufficiently explicit in requiring the acceptance 
 of the lowest bid, and also in regulating allowances for hona fide im- 
 proved service, and in those respects there appeared to be little chance 
 of improving existing safeguards against abuses. The only effective pre- 
 ventive appeared to consist in honesty and sound judgment in the 
 administration of the Department. It was otherwise with the ' straw 
 bids.' The Department could not effectually defend itself against that 
 abuse without additional regulation. The most effective preventive 
 of this abuse, it appeared to me, was to be looked for in attaching ad- 
 ditional responsibilities to bidders. This was effected by requiring all 
 bidders to file with their bids the guaranty of two responsible citizens, 
 whose competency should be abundantly certified, that the bidder 
 should enter into contract with good securities for the performance of 
 the service. Thenceforward all * straw-bidding ' ceased. 
 
 " Up to this time the post-office had not been organized as an inde- 
 pendent Department of the government, though the Postmaster-General 
 had, for some years, been recognized as a member of the cabinet. Nomi- 
 nally the Postmaster-General was in law a responsible agent of the 
 government, receiving and disbursing the postage revenues, and account- 
 ing therefor to the Treasury Department. The settlement of his ac- 
 counts, however, had become a mere form, and in effect he was in that 
 respect wholly irresponsible. Here was a large revenue expended with- 
 out appropriation by Congress, and without even nominally going into 
 the Treasury. 
 
 "The Post-Office Law of 1835, drawn under my supervision, and 
 passed with very slight changes, put an end to these anomalies. It 
 organized the Post-Office as a separate and independent Department 
 
MR. KENDALL'S POST-OFFICE REFORMS. 345 
 
 It provided an Auditor in the Treasury Department for the settlement 
 of its accounts. It provided that its revenues should theoretically, if 
 not actually, go into the Treasury, and be expended in pursuance of 
 appropriations. It took from the Postmaster-General all control over 
 accounts, except in cases arising out of unforeseen contingencies. It 
 legalized all changes made by me in the Department which required the 
 sanction of law. But there were some important differences between 
 this organization and that of the other Departments, suggested by my 
 experience and observation as Fourth Auditor of the Treasury. 
 
 " ' Specific appropriations ' constituted one of the boasted reforms in- 
 troduced into the government by President Jefferson. In the Navy 
 Department, for example, the Secretary was required to estimate how 
 much money he would require each year for pay, for provisions, for 
 repairs, etc., and these sums were appropriated separately. By general 
 laws the Secretary and his disbursing officers were forbidden to expend 
 the money appropriated for one purpose on any other object, whatever 
 might be the emergency. But in case the appropriation under any one 
 head became exhausted, the Secretary never hesitated to draw upon 
 some other head to supply the deficiency. To such an extent had this 
 been done, that the Fourth Auditor's books showed that millions of 
 dollars had been thus expended in violation of law, though perhaps 
 every dollar was honestly devoted to the public service. In the settle- 
 ment of the disbursing officer's accounts, they were charged under the 
 head of the appropriation from which the money had been drawn, and 
 credited under the head under which it had been expended, so that 
 nothing was necessarily due from them, although their accounts could 
 not be closed. There was nothing in the reports of the public expendi- 
 tures made to Congress showing these facts. Those reports are not true 
 reports of the actual expenditures, but only of money drawn from the 
 Treasury, In this respect they are true. But there are always thou- 
 sands if not millions of money remaining in the hands of disbursing 
 officers unexpended, which are thus reported as expended. Thus it is 
 that the object of specific appropriations is defeated, and the practical 
 operation of the system concealed from Congress. 
 
 *' The truth is, the system, especially in relation to the Navy Depart- 
 ment, is absurd and cannot be strictly enforced without great detriment 
 to the public service. A public ship is dismasted in the China seas ; the 
 purser has plenty of money under the head of 'Pay' or 'Provisions,' 
 but httle or none under the head of 'Repairs.' The law must be 
 violated, or the repairs cannot be made until he has sent to the Navy 
 Department at Washington and received money under the head of 
 'Repairs.' Though this is an extreme case, it illustrates the absurdity 
 of the system, — a system which does not accomplish the object for 
 
346 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 which it was introduced, and often makes it the duty of the public offi- 
 cer to disregard the law. The object of the system is to secure respon- 
 sibility in the public expenditures. It fails in that, because the actual 
 expenditures are never reported, and instead of facilitating the public 
 service, when it affects it at aU, it is as an obstruction. In this view of 
 the subject, I came to the conclusion that although specific appropria- 
 tions in certain cases, such as salaries, the erection of public buildings, 
 and all similar objects are proper, they are not useful or desirable in 
 reference to the current expenditures of the Departments. Specific ap- 
 propriations cannot be of any use without specific accountahility. My 
 object was to secure the latter in the Post-Office Department without 
 incurring the inconvenience of the former. 
 
 ''The Act of 1836, therefore, directed the Postmaster-General to esti- 
 mate the amounts which would be required for the service of the 
 Department under certain specific heads, such as mail transportation, 
 compensation of postmasters, mail-bags, etc., etc., the aggregate to be 
 appropriated under the general head * For the service of the Post-Office 
 Department,' but to be accounted for under the specific heads of the 
 estimate. By this plan specific accountability was secured, the possible 
 necessity of violating the law by transfers avoided, a prompt settlement 
 of accounts made necessary, the actual expenditures truly reported, and 
 Congress enabled to compare them with the estimates; — a process im- 
 possible under the system of the other Departments. The appropria- 
 tions were thus made for two or three years, and the accountability was 
 as perfect as human ingenuity could make it ; but so deep was the preju- 
 dice in favor of specific appropriations under all circumstances, that it 
 always met with opposition in the Committee of Ways and Means, and 
 finally its chairman, Mr. Cambreling of New York, insisted on making 
 a separate appropriation for each head of estimated expenditure. No 
 possible good and not much possible evil could flow from the change 
 in the Post-Office Department ; but it was hoped that the example of 
 that Department would lead to the adoption of the principle of specific 
 accountability in the other Departments. To this day (1867) they re- 
 tain the old system, reporting to Congress as expended all sums drawn 
 from the Treasury, though milHons may remain unexpended in the 
 hands of public agents, and although other millions may remain un- 
 accounted for in consequence of the non-rendition or non-settlement of 
 their accounts. But of all this, under their system, Congress remains 
 profoundly ignorant. 
 
 " Another important difference between the Post-Office as organized in 
 1836 and the other Departments consisted in the machinery for settling 
 its accounts and obtaining payment of sums found due. In them the 
 machinery for settling accounts consisted of auditors and comptrollers. 
 
MR. KENDALL'S POST-OFFICE REFORMS. ^^^j 
 
 Accounts were first examined in the Auditors' offices and theoretically 
 re-examined and revised in the Comptrollers' offices. Practically an 
 effective revision was impracticable for want of a sufficient number of 
 clerks in the Comptrollers' offices. For instance, — the Fourth Audi- 
 tor's office contained sixteen clerks when I held it, and the Second 
 Comptroller's contained eight to revise their work, and of these eio-ht, 
 three were employed in keeping books, balancing an equal number so 
 employed in the Auditor's office. Practically, here were five clerks to 
 revise the work of thirteen. Of course the re-examination was extremely 
 superficial, and in many cases was entirely pretermitted, as I had 
 abundant evidences. Instead of being an effective check upon the 
 Auditor's office, the Comptroller's was more a shield to cover its errors 
 and lessen its sense of responsibility. 
 
 " In the organization of the Post-Office, therefore, the revision of the 
 settlements is dispensed with, and the action of the Auditor's office 
 rendered' final unless the claimant or the Postmaster-General shall be 
 dissatisfied, in which event an appeal may be taken to the First Comp- 
 troller of the Treasury. The Postmaster-General himself has no other 
 rightful control over accounts except in cases of a contingent nature not 
 defined by law, regulation, or contract, — the Auditor beiug wholly 
 independent of him. 
 
 " When the Fourth Auditor has passed an account he sends it with 
 the vouchers to the Second Comptroller. When he has passed upon it, 
 if anything be due, it is reported to the Secretary of the Navy. The 
 Secretary issues a requisition for the amount on the Secretary of the 
 Treasury. This goes back through the Second Comptroller's and 
 Fourth Auditor's offices, where it is charged to the claimant and to the 
 
 * 
 
 proper appropriation. It then goes to the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 who issues his warrant on the Treasury for the amount. This has to 
 pass through the First Comptroller's and the Register's offices before it 
 can reach the Treasurer. The claimant has to go to seven different 
 offices, and to two of them twice, before he can get his money. If the 
 chiefs of all the offices are at their posts, and there be no unusual 
 obstruction, it is still a hard day's work to get an unquestioned Navy 
 or Army claim through the Treasury. In the Post-Office, such a Post- 
 Office claim may be passed in half an hour. The Auditor reports it to 
 the Postmaster-General, who draws his warrant on the Treasurer, which 
 goes back to the Auditor's office, where it is charged to the claimant 
 and to the appropriation, and thence it goes directly to the Treasurer. 
 Thus a tedious and unnecessary circumlocution is avoided, and both 
 time and money saved to the government and the claimant." 
 
CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 " When I entered the Department its accounts with some of the prin- 
 cipal contractors were in a most confused state, as well as those of some 
 postmasters, particularly those of James Reeside, Stockton and Stokes, 
 and Samuel L. Governeur, postmaster in the city of New York. Not 
 only did these contractors appear to be overpaid, but they had received 
 large sums in acceptances which had been negotiated in various banks. 
 I doubted the legality of these acceptances, and had no doubt of their 
 impropriety. But as I felt bound not to pay these contractors any- 
 thing until their current quarterly compensation should have cancelled 
 the overpayments in their accounts, the means of paying the discounted 
 acceptances all at once would be cut off ; they would, unless some indul- 
 gence were extended, be discredited, and would probably be unable to 
 continue the service. Under these circumstances I consented to fur- 
 nish them with new acceptances, to be used only for the purpose of 
 taking up those ah-eady discounted, upon their pledge of honor to apply 
 them solely to that object, and ultimately take them up. Not believing 
 that I had lawful authority to bind the government or the Department 
 to pay out of its funds when nothing was due, the acceptances were 
 made on the express condition of payment only in the event that the 
 amount should be due when they came to maturity. Stockton and 
 Stokes honorably redeemed their pledges ; but Reeside suffered the 
 acceptances to be protested, and withdrew from the service of the De- 
 partment, though already indebted to it, as appeared by its books, 
 many thousand dollars. This balance he did not contest. Yet, some 
 years afterwards, in the trial of a suit against him in a Philadelphia 
 court to recover judgment for it, he obtained a certificate from the jury 
 that the Department was indebted to him about three hundred thou- 
 sand dollars ! And this amount was afterwards allowed by Congress 
 with interest. 
 
 " By what means the decision of the jury or of Congress was obtained 
 I never knew. In neither case was I called upon to testify. All I 
 know is that no such claims were ever presented to me, and that Mr. 
 Reeside did not, at the time, question the correctness of the settlement. 
 
 " The account of Samuel L. Governeur, postmaster at New York, had 
 
POSTMASTER GOYERNEUR'S CASE. 
 
 349 
 
 not been settled for several years. Circumstances had led to suspicions 
 of his fidelity. But though I had serious thoughts of removing him, 
 occurrences, after I became Postmaster-General, determined me to retain 
 him. I so informed him, at the same time stating that it was abso- 
 lutely necessary for him to close up his accounts. His evasions and 
 delays excited new suspicions. There was an item on the debit side of 
 his account which he declared belonged to the account of James Ree- 
 side, the mail contractor, but had been put to his debit to conceal the 
 true condition of Reeside's account from the investigating committees 
 of Congress. He presented no evidence of the truth of the assertion, 
 but it seemed from the nature of the item that it had no appropriate 
 place in a postmaster's account ; yet it was incredible that it should 
 have been placed there without some reason. While the item was 
 under consideration, the accountant of the Department brought me a 
 half-sheet of cap paper on which was a list of acceptances amounting 
 to $ 25,000, having at the foot the initials J. A. H., and my chief clerk 
 stated that he had heard vague rumors indicating that the Department 
 had had pecuniary transactions with James A. Hamilton, Esq., of New 
 York. Upon the basis of these indications, I wrote to Mr. Hamilton. 
 He promptly replied, that at some time in the administration of my 
 predecessor, he was in Washington, and learning that the Post-Office 
 Department wanted a temporary loan, he tendered his services to aid in 
 the operation, that acceptances to the amount of $ 25,000 were placed 
 in his hands for the purpose of raising money by getting them dis- 
 counted in the banks ; that he was unable to get them discounted, but 
 that he raised $ 25,000 on his own credit and handed it to Mr. Cover- 
 neur ; that it was afterwards repaid by Mr. Govemeur ; that he had under- 
 taken to raise the money on condition that his name should not appear on 
 the books of the Department ; and that the acceptances were still in his 
 possession. This explained the mystery. Mr. Govemeur had not charged 
 himself with the $ 25,000 received from Mr. Hamilton, but in lieu 
 thereof, had charged himself with sums advanced by him to refund that 
 loan, thus converting an apparent credit into a debit. So wrong did 
 this appear to be, that I had promised him to strike out the item 
 unless the Department should be able to show why it was so entered. 
 Mr. Hamilton's letter afforded the explanation. The account was recti- 
 fied by transferring this debit to the credit side of his account, and 
 charo-ing him with the $25,000 received from Mr. Hamilton. But 
 what could be said of Mr. Governeur'? He had in this matter palpably 
 attempted to cheat the government out of $ 25,000, by insisting on hav- 
 ing this charge struck out, and conceahng the fact that he had received 
 that sum, not otherwise accounted for, in whole or in part. He was dis- 
 missed, and was found to be a defaulter in a large sum. 
 
350 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " But the case which illustrates more strikingly than any other in 
 that Department the power of corruption in a government, and the fate 
 of an honest man who endeavors to put a stop to it, is that of Stockton 
 and Stokes. They had long carried the mails in post-coaches between 
 Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and between Baltimore and 
 Wheeling. They were of that class of ' old and faithful contractors ' 
 who procured a continuance of their contracts by ' private understand- 
 ings between them and the Department,' had before the lettings, and by 
 means of very low bids, afterwards ' improved.' They transported in 
 their coaches, free of charge, prominent members of Congress, members 
 of the Executive, judges, influential citizens, and not only the Postmas- 
 ter-General, but all of his subordinates in the Department who were sup- 
 posed to have influence there. When General Jackson went on to Washing- 
 ton in the winter of 1828-29, to enter upon the office of President, they 
 refused to receive the usual fare from him, and not to feel under obliga- 
 tions to them, he sent to Mrs. Stockton a present of greater value than the 
 fare. His private secretary, Major Donaldson, refused to enter an extra 
 coach, gratuitously off'ered to convey him and his party from Frederick 
 City to Washington, until they had paid the ordinary fare. It was these 
 men who attempted to cheat me into a free passage from Frederick 
 City to Wheeling, through instruction to their agents. Few, however, 
 declined the tendered freedom of their coaches, and thus it was that 
 the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of the government 
 were in a great measure filled with men whose money they had saved 
 by this apparent liberality. If this was not corruption, there is a moral 
 difference between giving a man money for his influence or saving his 
 money by a valuable service, the object being the same. 
 
 " Soon after I took charge of the Department, I learned that a large 
 sum had been recently earned to the credit of Stockton and Stokes, ap- 
 parently in consideration of services for which, if there was any truth 
 in the reports of the committees of Congress, they had previous^ been 
 overpaid. This discovery was very alarming in two aspects. First, it 
 apparently added that sum to the responsibilities of the Department, 
 already overwhelmed with debt. Secondly, if the reports of the com- 
 mittee on this case were to any extent true, here was a considerable 
 amount, unknown to them, added to the allowances they had condemned, 
 and presenting the question as to what was my own duty in the premises. 
 It was my desire, as far as consistent with duty, to avoid conflict with 
 the decisions of my predecessor, and at the same time to do my duty, 
 whatever might be the consequences. I consulted the President, who 
 remitted the matter to my discretion. As I was uninformed of the basis 
 on which this allowance rested, and only knew that it was in conflict 
 with the opinions of the committee, and therefore prima facie wrong, I 
 
THE STOCKTON AKD STOKES CASE. 351 
 
 ordered its suspension from the credit of the contractors until a more 
 mature knowledge of the affairs of the Department should enable me 
 better to understand it. My predecessor was still in Washington, and 
 on hearing of this decision was much excited, and meeting my chief 
 clerk declared in his own words that * Mr. Kendall shall not make a 
 Toby Watkins of me.' I sent for him, and assured him that while I 
 should do my duty in the Department, I should do it in a spirit of the 
 utmost kindness towards him ; that if he did not make himself the 
 partisan of the contractors, but left them to rely on his official acts as 
 shown in the Department, there would be no quarrel between him and 
 me ; that my action in this case was not definitive ; that as soon as I was 
 able I should investigate the whole matter, and restore the credit if I 
 found I could do so consistently with my duty to the public. As to the 
 allowance, the only defence he set up for it was, that without it the con- 
 tractors would be ruined, so great were their losses in attempting to 
 expedite the mails. He left me in a good humor, promising to refer 
 all parties who might question him as to his official acts to the records 
 and files of the Post-Office Department. 
 
 "As soon as I conveniently could, I entered upon the promised in- 
 vestigation. I found that this was not a recent allowance, though lately 
 entered on the books ; that it had been made on a loose slip of paper 
 some time before ; that the slip was retained in the Postmaster-Gen- 
 eral's drawer until the committees of Congress were supposed to have 
 finished their investigations ; that it was never seen by them ; and that 
 the money was paid over to the contractors soon after the allowance 
 was ordered, producing in whole or in part the apparent overpayment 
 in their accounts on the books of the Department. This obviated the 
 impression that it had added its amount to the debts of the Depftrtment, 
 but it did not show that it had any basis in law or in services rendered. 
 In short, the investigation conclusively showed that the entire allowance 
 was nothing more nor less than a gratuity to the contractors, which 
 might or might not have been necessary to save them from ruin. 
 
 "While this question was still undecided, a circumstance occurred 
 which certainly did not aid the cause of the contractors. Major Eaton, 
 General Jackson's first Secretary of War, and his wife were warm friends 
 of Richard Stockton, the leading member of the firm of Stockton and 
 Stokes. While I was investigating this affair, Mrs. Eaton called on 
 Mrs. Kendall and told her that if she would induce her husband to 
 allow this claim, Mrs. Stockton would give her a carriage and pair of 
 
 horses. 
 
 " The investigation ended in making the suspension permanent, on 
 the ground that the credit was an error, having neither law nor equity 
 to sustain it. 
 
352 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " Prima facie it was impossible for me to conceive that the condem- 
 nation of the Department for its allowances to these men was sheer 
 hypocrisy, designed merely for political effect, much less that Congress 
 would in any way give countenance to the addition of one hundred and 
 twenty thousand dollars to the hundred and odd thousand already al- 
 lowed them, as the committee alleged, contrary to law. But I was mis- 
 taken. Stockton and Stokes petitioned Congress for relief, and that 
 body, without calling on the Department for information or explanation, 
 passed an act vesting the power to settle the claim in the Solicitor of 
 the Treasury, a friend of the contractors, from the State of Maryland. 
 Those who had denounced the Department for its illegal allowances were 
 now dumb, and I did not think it my duty to volunteer information, al- 
 though I had afterwards cause to regret that 1 did not then take steps 
 to have a call made. 
 
 " The Solicitor of the Treasury, without calling upon me for any evi- 
 dence contained in the books and files of the Department, or information 
 of any sort, sent me an award allowing not only the entire amount 
 originally claimed by Stockton and Stokes, but about forty thousand 
 dollars in addition thereto, based upon claims which had never been 
 heard of in the Department ! To say that I was shocked by the de- 
 cision, is but a faint description of my sensations. I thought it my 
 duty, if I could by any lawful means, to prevent the consummation of 
 such an outrage on the Department. I therefore addressed a letter to 
 the Solicitor, assuring him that the Department contained abundant 
 evidence that nothing of this large sum was due to the claimants in law 
 or equity, and asking him to withdraw his award, and allow me to pre- 
 sent those evidences before him. To this he assented, and I furnished 
 him with what seemed to me conclusive proofs that not a particle of 
 service had been rendered the Department for the hundred and sixty 
 thousand dollars which he proposed to allow. Nevertheless, he returned 
 the award without any material alteration, except in one small item 
 which in his haste he had allowed twice over. As there was no ques- 
 tion of his legal power to allow all of the claims which had formed the 
 basis of the legislation of Congress, I proceeded to pay those claims in 
 full ; but 1 refused to pay the amount added by the solicitor upon new 
 claims which had never been presented to the Department or Congress, 
 had never been a subject of dispute, and of course did not come under 
 his jurisdiction. 
 
 " Stockton and Stokes applied to Congress for the passage of an ex- 
 planatory act or resolution to enable them to realize the balance of the 
 award. No effective action took place in the House of Representatives. 
 In the Senate it was referred to the Post-Office Committee, of which 
 Mr. Felix Grundy was chairman. He called on me, as I at first sup- 
 
THE STOCKTON AND STOKES CASE. 353 
 
 posed, to obtain information ; but it soon appeared that his real object 
 was to prevent my giving information, and induce me silently to acquiesce 
 in the passage of a resolution directing the payment of the residue of 
 the award. I reminded him that Congress had passed the original act 
 implying that there might be something ^vrong in recharging the con- 
 tractors with the sums in controversy without giving me an opportunity 
 to defend my official action, which implication was strengthened by the 
 action of the Solicitor, and now it was proposed to take another step 
 implying that I had failed to obey a law, without giving me an oppor- 
 tunity to defend myself; that it was due to me and the public interest 
 that the committee or the Senate should call upon me to state why I 
 had not executed 'the award in full. Upon his evincing a disposition not 
 to do so, I became excited, and told him the time had come when / 
 would he heard ; that I would no longer submit in silence to the impu- 
 tations upon myself, and virtual plundering of the Department over 
 which 1 presided, and if his committee did not call upon me for an ex- 
 planation, I would send one direct to the Senate. He left me, himself 
 greatly excited, and went to the President, Mr. Van Buren. What 
 passed between them I never knew ; but the President sent for me, and 
 suggested that it was unusual for the head of a Department, without 
 being called on, to address the Houses of Congress, and proposed that 
 I should make report of the case to him, and he would send it to the 
 Senate. This course was finally adopted ; but Mr. Grundy found means 
 to defeat my object. The report was referred to the Post-Office Com- 
 mittee without being read or printed, and of course went into the hands 
 of Mr. Grundy. Years afterwards, when the merits of the controversy 
 had become generally known, one of the members of that committee 
 informed me that my report was not read in the committee ; that Mr. 
 Grundy represented that it contained nothing which ought to prevent 
 their favorable action on the claim ; and this member stated that had 
 the truth been known, the result would probably have been very dif- 
 ferent. Upon the report of the committee, the Senate passed a resolu- 
 tion declaring, in effect, that the balance of the award ought to be paid. 
 Had it been a joint resolution passed by both Houses and approved by 
 the President, it would have had the authority of law, and the money 
 would have been paid. Being a resolution of the Senate only, it left me 
 in the same legal position as before, with the moral weight of the Senate 
 against me. An attempt was made by Mr. Buchanan, afterwards Pres- 
 ident, and others, to induce Mr. Van Buren to order the payment of the 
 money, probably with the view of forcing me to resign. Such would 
 have been the effect of their successful effort, though I made no attempt 
 
 to defeat them. 
 
 " Why no effort was made then or afterwards to pass a joint resolution 
 
 23 
 
354 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 I do not know. I could not but attribute it to the conviction of the 
 managers that so much light had already broken in upon the subject 
 that it could not be gotten through the House of Representatives. Be 
 that as it may, all further efforts in that direction were abandoned, and 
 the claimants turned to the judiciary. I received a summons from the 
 Circuit Court of the District of Columbia to appear before that court 
 and show cause why a mandamus should not issue to compel me to 
 execute the solicitor's award. This involved the question how far the 
 head of a Department is amenable to the courts for his official action or 
 refusal to act. The subject was taken as a cabinet question, and the 
 defence assigned to Benjamin F. Butler, Attorney-General, and Francis 
 S. Key, United States District Attorney. Under their' direction, a plea 
 to the jurisdiction of the court was put in. This, after long argument, 
 the court overruled. Then, by a legal fiction and falsehood borrowed 
 from the English courts, it was assumed that by the plea to the juris- 
 diction I had admitted the wrong, and had no defence upon the merits 
 (though in my response I had claimed exemption on the merits), judg- 
 ment was given against me, and a peremptory mandamus directed to be 
 issued. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, which confirmed 
 the decision of the court below, and then the balance of the award was 
 paid. 
 
 " Thus it was, that by the manoeuvering of corrupt men in Congress, 
 and the false assumption of the courts, I was placed in the attitude of 
 one who admitted himself to be a violator of the law, without an op- 
 portunity to show that from first to last I had acted in conformity with 
 law and in obedience to my sworn obligations to the public. Thus, in 
 spite of all my efforts, these corrupt men had secured payment of the 
 whole one hundred and sixty thousand dollars awarded them by the 
 Solicitor, not one cent of which I aver now (1867), as I did then, was 
 due to them in law or equity. But they were not satisfied. They now 
 commenced a suit against me in my private capacity, laying their dam- 
 ages at twelve thousand dollars, for my delays in payment of the award. 
 I was rather gratified with this movement, because, I said to myself, I 
 shall now have an opportunity to show that from first to last I have but 
 done my duty. But when I offered to defend myself on that ground, 
 the judges said, No ; you acknowledged that you violated the law in your 
 plea to our jurisdiction in the mandamus case, and we cannot allow you 
 now to take back that admission by showing that you did not violate 
 the law. You are an admitted law-breaker, and the only defence left 
 you is to show that you were not governed by a malicious design to 
 injure the plaintiffs. It availed me nothing to prove, as I did by the 
 officers and clerks of the Department, that no services had been ren- 
 dered for the hundred and sixty thousand dollars awarded them by the 
 
THE STOCKTON AND STOKES CASE. 355 
 
 Solicitor, and that in nothing outside of this case had I shown any hos- 
 tihty to the claimants. 
 
 " The trial took place soon after the close of the embittered political 
 campaign which ended in the election of General Harrison to the Presi- 
 dency, in which I had taken a very active part. The jury was com- 
 posed of eleven Whigs and one Democrat. They chose to infer malice 
 without a particle of evidence, and found a verdict against me for about 
 twelve thousand dollars. My counsel moved for a new trial, on the ground 
 that the verdict was contrary to evidence, there being no proof of malice 
 in the case. A new trial was readily granted, a strong impression hav- 
 ing evidently been made upon the judges by the evidence, to such an 
 extent indeed that one of them was heard to say that Mr. Kendall was 
 the most persecuted man living. 
 
 " On the second trial, all pretext of malice was driven out of the case 
 by proofs of acts of kindness and indulgence on my part towards the 
 claimants. Indeed, it was proved that all the malice was on the other 
 side, one of them having declared that the suit was brought, not to get 
 money, but * to punish the damned rascal,' and whatever they recovered 
 would be given to the church. He was an Episcopalian. I was now 
 very sure of a verdict in my favor ', but alas for the uncertainty of the 
 law ! After the former trial. Judge Baldwin had decided, in the United 
 States Court in Philadelphia, that a public officer was responsible in 
 damages for any injury done or loss sustained by a private citizen 
 through a violation of the law, whether it was malicious or not, and the 
 judges in the District of Columbia considered themselves bound by this 
 precedent, and so instructed the jury ! This left me without any de- 
 fence. I could not show in this private suit that I had violated no law, 
 because as a public officer, and with the concurrence of the President 
 and Cabinet, I had had the audacity to question the jurisdiction of the 
 court in the mandamus case, and now I was to be held responsible for 
 this imputed violation of the law, whether I was right or wrong, honest 
 or dishonest. Of course the jury had no alternative but to find a ver- 
 dict against me for such damages as the plaintiffs might prove. And in 
 doing this they were allowed an extraordinary latitude, and by means 
 of counsel fees, hotel expenses, etc., rolled up an amount of alleged dam- 
 ages exceeding eleven thousand dollars, for which the jury gave a verdict. 
 °" So I was convicted of honesty and fined for it. Prior to the first 
 trial, I had made arrangements to remove to New York, and commence 
 there the publication of a newspaper ; but the unexpected verdict on 
 that occasion determined me to remain in the District of Columbia. 
 Having no income from any source, I resorted to the publication of a 
 small newspaper, called ' Kendall's Expositor,' by a hired printer, as 
 means of subsistence for myself and family. This was so well patronized 
 
356 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AlIOS KENDALL. 
 
 that I was encouraged to purchase on credit the place adjoining the city 
 of Washington, on which I have since resided, with the view of making 
 it my permanent home. When the second verdict was rendered, I had 
 paid nothing of the $ 9,000 purchase-money, and had no other property 
 except household stuff and some unproductive and unsaleable Western 
 lands on which the State taxes were about $ 150 a year. When the 
 second verdict was rendered, I had learned so much of the uncertainty 
 of the law, and my future was so dark, that I did not feel at liberty to 
 ask any friend to become my security in an appeal bond, but resolved 
 to take the case up to the Supreme Court by writ of error, which re- 
 quired no security, though it left my property exposed to execution from 
 men whose only avowed motive was vengeance. I, however, wrote them 
 a letter declaring my purpose, and proposing, in case of a stay of execu- 
 tion, to put all the property I had in the world in trust, first, for the 
 payment of my other just debts, and secondly for the satisfaction of any 
 judgment they might obtain against me in pursuance of the final de- 
 cision of the Supreme Court. As my property was beyond their reach 
 by execution, I had some hopes that they would accede to this proposi- 
 tion ; but the only reply I received was an arrest by the marshal, and 
 committal to the prison limits of the district, then embracing the whole 
 county of Washington. As the law then was, a judgment debtor was 
 allowed to live one year within the limits, at the end of which he was 
 required to surrender his property to be sold for the satisfaction of the 
 judgment, on the penalty of going to close jail. Doubtless my per- 
 secutors anticipated the satisfaction of compelling me to sacrifice all my 
 property by a forced sale at Washington, or of shutting me up in jail 
 with men who were guilty of other crimes than being honest ; but they 
 were doomed to disappointment. 
 
 " My newspaper subscription had fallen off after the first year, so that 
 it afforded me an income scarcely equal to the support of my family. I 
 had some debts, but not to a large amount. To avoid contracting more, 
 with so poor prospects of being able to pay, I retired into a small un- 
 finished frame house which I had caused to be erected on the place I 
 had purchased in the country. There we lived very happily, though 
 somewhat straitened for the comforts to which we had been accus- 
 tomed. I had declared my purpose to go to close jail rather than sur- 
 render my Western lands to be sacrificed for the satisfaction of this un- 
 just and cruel judg-ment, and my wife, with that cheerful acquiescence 
 in all the vicissitudes of fortune which distinguished her whole life, de- 
 clared her purpose to live with me there. Our anticipated residence in 
 'the Blue House' (blue being the color of the jail), so called in con- 
 trast with * the White House ' (the residence of the President), became 
 the subject of many a family pleasantry. 
 
THE STOCKTON AND STOKES CASE. 
 
 35.7 
 
 " Such was the state of things when Congress met. The case had 
 now attracted the serious attention of the country. Without any in- 
 stigation from me, many petitions were sent to Congress in my behalf, 
 and some of the State legislatures forwarded to that body resolutions 
 recommending measures for my relief. The House of Kepresentatives 
 passed, without opposition, a bill providing for the payment of the judg- 
 ment out of the United States Treasury, and it was sent to the Senate. 
 There it was referred to the Post-Office Committee, of which Silas Wriaht 
 was then chairman. He sent for me, and stated that the case was one 
 in which I ought at once to be relieved, but that it involved principles 
 on which the committee thought it important to have the decision of 
 the Supreme Court ; that while they were ready to recommend the pas- 
 sage of the bill if I desired it, they would much prefer, with my con- 
 sent, to recommend such a change in the law as would obviate the 
 necessity of giving up my property, and allow me to remain in my then 
 present condition until the Supreme Court should decide upon my case. 
 To' this course I assented, and instead of recommending the passage of 
 the bill from the House, the committee reported, and both Houses 
 passed, without opposition, a bill altering the general law so as to allow 
 me and all persons similarly situated the privilege of the prison limits 
 until the final decision of the Supreme Court, and one year thereafter. 
 
 " Thus my persecutors were thwarted in their design of forcing me 
 into either insolvency or close jail. 
 
 " At the next session of Congress an act was passed abolishing im- 
 prisonment for debt in the District of Columbia altogether ; but having 
 imderstood that one of the Judges of the Circuit Court had expressed a 
 doubt whether it embraced cases wherein the debt or obligation was in- 
 curred before its passage, I deemed it prudent not to afford another 
 opportunity for further acts of vengeance, and for this purpose took care 
 not to pass the former prison limits. 
 
 " At length the Supreme Court announced their decision, which was 
 in my favor. It was read by Chief Justice Taney, and only Justice 
 McLean dissented. Thus were the authors of this malicious suit not 
 only defeated in their designs, but virtually punished. Instead of send- 
 ing me to prison or robbing me of % 12,000, or any smaller sum, to give 
 to the church, they had to pay all the costs of this long and relentless 
 persecution, and see me triumphant at last. 
 
 "Nor did my triumph stop here. I now petitioned Congress for pay- 
 ment of my counsel's fees and all other costs and expenses which had 
 been brought upon me by the honest performance of my public duties 
 in my official relations with these parties. Both Houses, without a dis- 
 senting voice, passed an act for my relief 
 
 " It was impossible for me to make out a detailed account of my ex- 
 
358 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 penses occasioned by this suit ; but I estimated them as accurately as I 
 could, and sent my claims to the Treasury with a short explanation. 
 They were passed without hesitation, and both the Auditor and Comp- 
 troller afterwards assured me that had I charged a few thousands more 
 it would have been allowed with equal promptitude. For the apparently 
 universal conviction that I had but done my duty in this affair, I was 
 undoubtedly indebted in a great measure to honest men among my 
 political opponents. Most prominent among them was Elisha Whittle- 
 sey, many years a prominent member from Ohio. He was a man of 
 strong prejudices but honest intentions. He was on the committee 
 which investigated the affairs of the Department under my predecessor, 
 and made a separate report, in which he charged that Stockton and 
 Stokes had been paid over $ 100,000 more than they were entitled to 
 by law. While the bill for their relief was before the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, he offered several provisos prohibiting the allowance of cer- 
 tain items, not one of which was embraced in the contested account. 
 Upon the election of General Handson to the Presidency, he was ap- 
 pointed Sixth Auditor of the Treasury, in whose office the accounts of 
 "the Post-Ofl&ce Department were settled. There he was brought in con- 
 tact with those who were familiar with my administration in all its 
 details, and especially with Peter G. Washington, chief clerk, one of the 
 most faithful and efficient of public servants, who had been chief clerk 
 of that office ever since its organization. From what he there learned, 
 Mr. Whittlesey did not hesitate to acknowledge that he had entirely 
 misunderstood the motives of my official conduct, and gave me full 
 credit for integrity of purpose without regard to political considerations. 
 He volunteered an explanation to me in person of his motives in offering 
 the nugatory provisos in the bill for the relief of Stockton and Stokes, 
 stating that not knowing or suspecting the true state of the case, he 
 supposed I had recharged the illegal allowances exposed in his report, 
 and his object was to prevent their restoration by the Solicitor. I ex- 
 pressed my gratification at this explanation; for, supposing he knew 
 that the allowances suspended by me were not those condemned in his 
 report, but were all in addition thereto, I could only consider his pro- 
 visos as intended to keep up a show of consistency while he was in 
 fact willing that Stockton and Stokes should not only retain the hun- 
 dred thousand condemned by him, but should add thereto an hundred 
 and twenty thousand more. Mutual respect was the effect of these 
 explanations. The last time I ever saw that honest man and faithful 
 public servant, he held the office of First Comptroller, and was lament- 
 ing in deep despondency the corruptions of the times. As I shook 
 hands with him I said, ' Your palm and mine have never been stained 
 by a bribe.' And it was without doubt his representations and those 
 
THE STOCKTON AND STOKES CASE. 359 
 
 of others who had been equally deceived that overcame the political 
 prejudices of the Whig Party, and secured for me acquittal and indem- 
 nity by the unanimous assent of Congress. 
 
 "But what a lesson it is against legislating in the dark ! And does it 
 not illustrate the outrage of that rule of the courts, — I do not say of 
 law, — vfhich. adjudges a party to be guilty of the matter charged who 
 pleads to their jurisdiction? What is it but a judicial contrivance to 
 punish those who dare to question their authority'? I had violated 
 no law, as I was advised by lawyers quite as learned as the court ; yet, 
 because I allowed myself under the advice of the President, to be made 
 the instrument of ascertaining the line which separates the judicial and 
 executive powers of the government, I was not permitted to show that I 
 was not guilty of the offence charged, not even when, divested of their 
 public interest, the proceedings assumed the character of vindictive per- 
 secution. Virtually, the Judges said to me, ' You dared to question our 
 jurisdiction in the public case, and now, whether guilty or innocent, we. 
 tui'n you over without trial to the tender mercies of the plaintiffs in the 
 private case.' 
 
 ** Though in its progress this affair was most annoying, its consequences, 
 under the direction of Providence, were most consoling. It established 
 my reputation as an honest man, and a pure, faithful, and inflexible pub- 
 lic ofl&cer. 
 
 *' It probably saved my life. I had an invitation from Commodore 
 Stockton for myself and family to the excursion of the Princeton, which 
 was made awfully memorable by the explosion of his big gun. Two 
 members of my family went, and I was prevented only by confinement 
 in the prison limits. Had I been there, I should, without doubt, have 
 been near the gun when it exploded. The Solicitor of the Treasury, 
 whose action had led to my confinement, was one of the slain. 
 
 " By defeating my purpose of connecting myself with the press in 
 New York, and confining me in Washington^ it led me into connection 
 with Professor Morse and his telegraph, to which I am indebted for 
 three fourths of all I possess, and a release in my old age from all the 
 cares of business. 
 
 " The private suit against me was defended with great ability by J. 
 Hatch Dent and General Walter Jones, both of whom were confident 
 of my acquittal had I been allowed to show that the Solicitor had ex- 
 ceeded his authority in allowing the new claims which were never known 
 
 to the Department. 
 
 " Their fees of $ 2,000 were allowed and paid under the act of Con- 
 gress for my relief. 
 
 '' One of the prosecuting counsel was Major Eaton, whose wife had 
 offered the bribe of a carriage and horses for the allowance of the origi- 
 
360 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 nal claim. When he rose to address the jury I rose to leave the court- 
 room, stating that I feared I should be guilty of some outrage if I 
 remained to hear him. Mr. Dent told me to sit down and look him in 
 the face, which I did throughout his speech. The offered bribe was not 
 the only or the principal ground of my excitement. Years before, when 
 he had been vindictively assailed in his private and family and public 
 relations, I had been his steadfast friend, and had, at the request of one 
 of his family connections, without thought of fee or reward, revised and 
 mainly re-written a pamphlet prepared by him in vindication of his 
 honor, thereby establishing, as I thought, a claim upon his gratitude, 
 though prior to that date disclosures not fit for record had satisfied me 
 that my confidence had been misplaced. For some years after this, I 
 passed him without speaking ; but finally he took pains to confront me 
 on the street, and say that it was professionally and not in personal 
 hostility that he had appeared against me. I replied that there were 
 . relations which forbade one gentleman to appear against another pro- 
 fessionally, and that I had supposed such relations existed between us. 
 In reply to the expression of his hopes that the affair might be over- 
 looked and forgotten, I assured him that all bitterness of feeling had 
 passed away, though it was impossible for me to think or feel that he 
 had done right." 
 
 In July, 1843, Mr. Kendall thus referred to his celebration of 
 the birthday of the nation : — 
 
 "FOURTH OF JULY. 
 
 " We celebrated it in the prison limits of Washington, rejoicing in the 
 liberty it gave our neighbors to go where they please." 
 
 In June, 1844, Mr. Kendall exults in his emancipation as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " FREE ! ! 
 
 " Sickness prevented our getting out a paper last week, or witnessing 
 the closing scenes of Congress. Upon recovery, however, we find our- 
 self released from the prison limits by an Act of Congress which effec- 
 tually abolishes imprisonment for debt in the District of Columbia. 
 
 *' We rejoice in our own emancipation, and more in the progress of a 
 great principle. To all the guards which the law can throw around the 
 rights of creditors, without touching the liberty of the debtor or bring- 
 ing instant destitution or want upon the family of the debtor, we have 
 no objection ; V)ut this putting of his body into prison or the prison 
 limits because he cannot pay or will not pay, is a relic of ancient slavery 
 as detestable as selling him to pay his debts. Let every species of 
 
TRIBUTE FROM HIS ASSOCIATES. 
 
 381 
 
 property and vested interest, excepting only such as is essential to the 
 immediate comfort of the debtor's family, be subjected to execution for 
 debt ; but let man, created in the form of his Maker, be permitted to 
 walk forth in his native liberty, until the safety of others requires his 
 restraint. 
 
 " With the friends of liberty we cannot now but look back with grati- 
 tude and thanks to the persevering efforts of Colonel R. M. Johnson 
 when in Congress, to effect this great reform. Though not successful, 
 he sowed the seeds of that harvest which we this day enjoy." 
 
 When Mr. Kendall left the Department, the gentlemen who had 
 been associated with him in office spontaneously addressed him the 
 following letter : — 
 
 Post-Office Depautment, May 25, 1840. 
 To THE Hon. Amos Kendall. 
 
 Sir, — Your retirement from the head of this Department is an 
 event that we regard with peculiar sensibility. It closes an official 
 career eminent for ability and success, and terminates relations and 
 intercourse which we have long enjoyed and highly valued. Our feel- 
 ings will not allow the occasion to pass without the expression of our 
 regret for its occurrence, our sympathies for its cause, and our ardent 
 wishes for your future welfare. 
 
 The whole Union has felt the benefit of your official labors ; but we 
 alone have been the daily witnesses of the zeal, vigilance, assiduity, and 
 skill with which those labors have been conducted. We have seen how 
 successfully each emergency has been met by ample resources of mind ; 
 how much. has been achieved, and how much preserved by that impul- 
 sive energy and supervisory scrutiny so rarely united in the same indi- 
 vidual. Your reorganization of the Department established order, 
 supervision, coercion, and efficiency. Your scheme of speedy returns 
 and prompt collections largely augmented its revenues, enabling you to 
 discharge an onerous debt, add millions of miles to the annual transpor- 
 tation of the mails, and accelerate their movements through the prin- 
 cipal channels of communication. Your express mails anticipated rail- 
 roads, and gave, with the despatch and regularity of steam, the extraor- 
 dinaiy expedition demanded by the great commercial communities, at a 
 period of intense activity in business. And yom- foresight and firmness, 
 by denying the numberless importunities for mail improvements and 
 extensions, and by timely retrenchments, warded off from your Depart- 
 ment the disastrous effects of that great convulsion in monetary and 
 commercial affairs, that has so deeply disturbed all the pecuniary inter- 
 ests of the country. It is gratifying to know that whilst so many 
 interests afloat, like those under your charge, yielded to the fury of the 
 
362 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 storm, the deep-freighted bark at whose helm you stood was held steadily 
 to her course, and guided in safety over the troubled waters. 
 
 We have also beheld, in their full array and proportions, the ob- 
 stacles and difficidties you had to encounter, even from the outset of 
 yoiu- career, where you found them thick sown in a previous season of 
 derangement, like the dragon's teeth of the fable, springing up in every 
 shape of resistance and hostility, armed w4th the artillery of the press, 
 and the terrors of litigation, yet unable to divert you ft'om the establish- 
 ment of those reforms, and the maintenance of those principles of 
 economy in expenditure and fidelity to engagements that form the dis- 
 tinctive traits of your administration. Vain were the demoralizing 
 efforts of the day to make your Department paHiceps criminis with 
 defaulting institutions, in imposing on the public creditor a depreciated 
 and illegal currency ; ineffectual the attempts at extortion, made through 
 crafty combinations, or in the bolder exactions of licensed monopolies ; 
 unavailing the influence of friends, of party, or of station, to procure an 
 act unapproved by a faithful sense of right in reference to principle or 
 policy ; and impotent the hand of sickness, though prostrating the phy- 
 sical energies, to repress the successful efforts of the untiring spirit in 
 its devotion to the public service. 
 
 AVe separate from you under a grateful sense of the uniform kindness 
 you have extended to us, and with sentiments of friendship for the man, 
 won by the purity and simplicity of character, so happily united with 
 the energy of mind and conduct, that commands admiration for the pub- 
 lic officer. 
 
 May relaxation from toil give speedy restoration to health, and your 
 future lot in life be as honorable and happy as your past career has been 
 distinguished and useful. 
 
 We are, sir, most respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient servants. 
 
 This commimication was signed by every gentleman then in 
 the Department except six, who addressed him a private letter of 
 the same import. 
 
 The following is a copy of the notice issued to postmasters : — 
 
 NOTICE TO POSTMASTERS. 
 
 Post-Office Department, October 11, 1839. 
 The officers of this Department, from the highest to the lowest, are 
 but agents to execute the laws. As executive officei-s, we have no right 
 to consider the expediency of any existing law, our only duty being to 
 obey. In addition to the duty of the private citizen to obey the laws, a 
 dut}^ next in binding force to moral obligations, we have taken an oath 
 
INSTRUCTIONS TO POSTMASTERS, 3Q3 
 
 faithfully to discharge the duties of our respective stations according to 
 law, and to defend the Constitution of tlie United States. 
 
 The only currency which, by the Constitution and laws, is a tender 
 for postages or in payment to contractors and others in the service of 
 the Department, is composed of the gold and silver coins of the United 
 States, and such foreign coins as Congress may from time to time pre- 
 scribe by law. 
 
 The law permits postmasters to receive bank-notes of a certain char- 
 acter, not less in amount than twenty dollars ; but if they receive such 
 notes, they are yet bound to pay in gold and silver if demanded. 
 
 The law forbids the reception or payment of any bank-notes what- 
 ever of a less denomination than twenty dollars. 
 
 It forbids the reception of the notes of any bank which does not 
 pay them on demand in gold or silver coin. 
 
 It forbids the payment on public account of any bank-note which is 
 not equivalent to specie at the place where paid out. 
 
 It forbids the reception of the notes of any bank which, since the 
 1st day of October, 1838, shall have issued, reissued, or paid out any 
 bill or note of a less denomination than five dollars. 
 
 These are the commands of the law. It is the duty of every post- 
 master, truly, faithfully, and without evasion, to obey them. 
 
 I deem it my duty, therefore, under present circumstances, to en- 
 join upon you strict obedience to the Constitution and laws in this re- 
 spect, and to inform you that you cannot avoid your obligations with- 
 out a disregard of your duty and your oath. 
 
 If a postmaster, therefore, receive or pay out any bank-note of a 
 less denomination than twenty dollars ; if he receive or pay out the 
 notes of any bank which does not pay them on demand in gold or silver 
 coin ; if he receive or pay out the notes of any bank which, since the 
 1st of October, 1838, has issued, reissued, or paid out any note of a 
 less denomination than five dollars ; if he pay out any bank-note, though 
 greater than twenty dollars, which is not equivalent to specie at the 
 place where paid, — such postmaster is guilty of a dereliction of duty 
 and a violation of his oath. 
 
 Your position, your oath, and your duty make you the standard- 
 bearers of the Constitution and the laws in the several neighborhoods 
 where you reside, and an example of rigid, fearless, and unhesitating 
 obedience is expected from you, which shall not only prove your own 
 uncompromising fidelity, but afford bright examples which shall incul- 
 cate respect for the laws of your country in all who surround you. 
 It is but a step from the violation of the law to the disregard of moral 
 obligation, and the latter often treads closely on the heels of the 
 former. 
 
364 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 While at the head of the Post-Office, Mr. Kendall prepared the 
 following bill to facilitate the transmission of money by that De- 
 partment, similar to the Money-Order Bureau afterwards so suc- 
 cessfully introduced, but failed to procure its passage by Con- 
 gress : — 
 
 Form of Bill to Facilitate Exchanges by the Post- Office Department. 
 
 Be it enacted, etc., That the Postmaster-General be authorized to 
 cause to be received by postmasters at such conveiiient points as he may 
 designate, any sum of money not exceeding twenty dollars, to be sent 
 by mail, and shall be permitted to charge therefor a commission not ex- 
 ceeding one per cent for one hundred and fifty miles or under, of two 
 per cent for three hundred miles and over one hundred and fifty, of 
 three per cent for six hundred miles and over three hundred, and of 
 five per cent for over six hundred miles : Provided^ that so far as it can 
 be done without deranging the business of the Department, the sums 
 received for transportation may be retained where received, and paid out 
 at the places to which they are requested to be sent : Provided also, 
 that all additional expenses of this operation shall be paid out of the 
 commissions on funds received fur transportation. Provided further, 
 that if the commissions shall be more than sufficient to pay reasonable 
 expenses, the Postmaster-General is required to reduce and graduate 
 them to that standard. 
 
 REPLY TO INVITATION. 
 
 Gentlemen, — I have just received your letter on behalf of " the 
 Democratic Citizens of Pittsburg and Alleghany County," inviting me to 
 unite with them in celebrating the " centenary birthday of the author of 
 the Declaration of Independence," on the 13th instant. 
 
 I am not a freeman in this " land of the free." I have not, like the 
 negro slave, a kind master to give me " a pass." For attempting, when 
 in a high station, to check extravagance and baffle corruption, for reject- 
 ing the favors of the powerful and meting out to them the same justice 
 which is awarded to the weak, I have been amerced in the sum of 
 $12,000, and not being able to pay it, am now confined to the jail 
 limits of the county of Washington. The court said there was no 
 evidence of evil intention on my part ; the jury said my motives were 
 not only pure but praiseworthy ; a Whig Committee of CongTCSs have 
 declared that my conduct merited applause rather than censure ; not a 
 voice was raised in either House against the passage of an act to pre- 
 vent my masters confining me in close jail ; yet here I am confined to 
 the jail limits, my interests abroad grievously suffering for w^ant of my 
 
COMMENDATORY LETTERS. 355 
 
 personal attention, my credit destroyed, and myself subjected to heavy 
 expenses in defending the case before the Supreme Court. 
 
 The utmost that is alleged against me is, that in my zeal to serve 
 the public, I violated the law. Yet, strange as it may seem in a land 
 of justice, the question whether I did violate the law has never been de- 
 cided or tried. The courts have a rule that any one who calls in ques- 
 tion their jurisdiction as to a matter in controversy, shall be treated as 
 admitting that he has no other defence. When in this case I was pro- 
 ceeded against by mandamus, and, under the advice of the President 
 and Attorney-General, resisted the claim to jurisdiction in the Circuit 
 Court as an attack on the rights of the Executive, I was treated as ad- 
 mitting that the law and the facts were against me, contrary to my own 
 belief and express declaration. And when sued for $ 100,000 out of my 
 own purse (if so much should ever get into it) for this alleged violation 
 of the law, the assumed admission in the mandamus case was taken as 
 precluding me from showing that I had not violated the law, and honesty 
 of purpose being also ruled out, I was left without defence, condemned 
 without a hearing, fined for being honest, and imprisoned because I could 
 not pay it. 
 
 You perceive why I cannot join you in honoring the memory of 
 Liberty's Apostle, Nevertheless, I congratulate you that his doctrines 
 have made great progress, and are still progressing. And if, as one of 
 his disciples, I may be instrumental, by suffering persecution, in extend- 
 ing the range of their practical application, I shall exult in imprisonment. 
 
 With thankfulness for your remembrance of me on such an occasion, 
 
 I annex a sentiment, and remain 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Jefferson s creed of government : " To punish rogues and protect honest 
 
 men." 
 
 FROM HON. WILLIAM SMITH. 
 
 Culpepper Court-House, ViRGiNfA, July 6, 1837. 
 
 Dear Sir, I have noticed with much interest the extraordinary 
 
 ground taken by the Circuit Court for the District in issuing a man- 
 damus against you in your official character, and I have scanned with 
 profound satisfaction your conclusive and unanswerable reply. The 
 ground taken by the court would not only destroy that beautiful trinity, 
 into which all power to be controlled must divide, but if maintained 
 would indeed *' make the judiciary the despotic branch." 
 
 You refer in support of your argument to only one of Mr. Jeffer- 
 son's letters, that to Mr. Hay; but the same opinions are expressed in 
 two letters to Mr. Adams, to be found in the fourth volume of his cor- 
 respondence, pages twenty-two and twenty-six. In the latter letter the 
 
366 ■ AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 position is stated with great distinctness and simplicity, and therefore 
 with peculiar power, decidedly more impressive than in his somewhat 
 labored letter to Mr. Hay. I almost regret that you should have taken 
 your last position, to wit, that you could not make the credit, because 
 the books were not in your possession. This will enable the court to 
 escape from the difficulty, and yet have the weight of judicial authority 
 in favor of their decision. 
 
 I noticed also your scathing reply to WicklifFe. Can he be silent ] 
 If so, he ought to be doomed to everlasting shame. Let your enemies 
 assail you, and do you maintain the same power in your replies, and it 
 requires no seer to predict the consequences, — defeat, overwhelming 
 defeat for your foes, — triumph glorious and transcendent for yourself. 
 That you may be able to roll back (and I doubt it not) that torrent 
 with which your persecutors have sought to overwhelm you, is the ear- 
 nest wish of, 
 
 In haste, most truly yours, 
 
 WILLIAM SMITH. 
 
 Amos Kendall, Esq., Postmaster- General. 
 
 EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM MR. VAN BUREN. 
 
 KiNDERHOOK, December 15, 1842. 
 My dear Sir, — Accept my unfeigned thanks for the friendly sug- 
 gestions contained in your letter. They shall not be unheeded. I am 
 gi'ieved to hear of the troubles you have to encounter, and particularly 
 in the affair of Stockton and Stokes. Certainly there cannot be found 
 in the history of our government so wicked or so naked an act of injus- 
 tice and oppression as that you have experienced in this matter. From 
 beginning to end it has been an affair of wrong, and I should feel 
 melancholy in believing that it is to continue so. The court will, I 
 hope, do you justice, and if they do not, I should be sorry to think that 
 
 Consress will not 
 
 Very sincerely, your friend, 
 
 Very sincerely, vour friend, 
 
 M. VAN BUREN. 
 
 The following testimony to the marked ability and success of 
 Mr. Kendall's administration of the Post-Office Department is 
 from a leading journal : — 
 
 THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL'S REPORT. 
 
 The report of the Postmaster-General, which was published in the 
 '* Advocate " of Saturday last, is a very concise and important document. 
 It exhibits the admirable condition of the Post-Office Department in a 
 strong light, which will not be easily perverted or darkened by the mis- 
 representations of the opposition press. There is, perhaps, no individual 
 
LETTER TO HIS WIFE. 357 
 
 connected with the present administration, who has received more abuse 
 from the opposition, than the one now at the head of the Post-Office 
 Department. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the blackguardisms and falsehoods that have 
 been reiterated again and again by a corrupt and profligate press, that 
 gentleman has kept along on " the even tenor of his way " in the dis- 
 charge of his official duties, and his last report of the condition of the 
 Department is a noble justification of his course, and a severe rebuke 
 upon his calumniators. 
 
 " In 1835," sajs the report, "the Department was laboring under an 
 extraordinary debt of $ 600,000 ; in 1837, it has a surplus of $ 800,000." 
 Making a difference in favor of the Department of fourteen hundred thou- 
 sand dollars. And this has been accomplished in the short space of 
 about two years ! During this time the number of routes and post- 
 offices has also been much increased, and the speed in the transportation 
 of the mail on the principal routes greatly augmented. 
 
 The number of post-offices in 1835 was 10,770 ; in 1837, 11,009. 
 
 The number of miles of mail routes under contract in 1835 was 
 112,774; in 1837, 142,877. 
 
 The firmness and promptitude manifested by the Postmaster-Gen- 
 eral at the time of the suspension of the banks, and the carrying on of 
 the financial operations of the Department from that time to the present 
 according to law, and in the legal currency of the country, entitle him 
 to the highest praise ; and he has already received from an intelligent 
 people the appellation of '' Well done, good and faithful servant ! " while 
 he has silenced a bitter opposition. 
 
 On the 1st instant, the Department had bank funds to the 
 
 amount of $430,045.57 
 
 Specie in post-offices reported subject to draft . . 410.662.81 
 
 Making the amount of funds on hand . . . . . $ 841,308.38 
 
 The able manner in which the Post-Office Department has been con- 
 ducted should open the eyes and ears of every candid mind of whatever 
 party. Are there not those who are opposed to the present adminis- 
 tration who are willing to let facts like those which have been stated 
 have an influence upon their minds in favor of the administration, rather 
 than to suffer themselves to be misled by the misrepresentations of de- 
 signing and coiTupt men 1 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Hermitage, Tenn., October 20, 1838. 
 My dear Wife, — I left Nashville after breakfast yesterday, and 
 reached this place about eleven o'clock. The good old chief was at his 
 gate, about as far from his house as our gate, waiting for the mail-car- 
 
368 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 rier who brings his letters and papers. Although it was a i-aw cold day, 
 he had on no overcoat, and his face was colored by the keen air. He 
 received me with the utmost kindness, and inquired particularly after 
 you and the children, expressing many regrets that you had not come 
 with me. In these he was joined by Mrs. Jackson, who, with her hus- 
 band and children, appears to be in good health, though the children, 
 excepting a boy sixteen months old, look puny and pale. Major Donel- 
 son called to see me, last evening, in excellent health, and he also in- 
 quired particularly after you. 
 
 The General's house is a palace ; but I am not prepared to describe 
 it. In the passages below and above, is the identical scene from Telem- 
 achus which ornamented the lower passage of DeKraft's House, though 
 much more developed. I have a chamber assigned to me larger than 
 any in that house, and most tastefully furnished. I am told to make 
 myself entirely at home, and already begin to feel so. 
 
 Poor Earle died without knowing that he was seriously ill. He had 
 but little pain, and a day or two before he died none at all. It was but 
 a day before his death that any one supposed him to be in danger. He 
 had had a steady, slow fever for some days, with a little pain occasionally 
 in his limbs, back, or head. His medicine operated well, and it was 
 thought his disease was slight. The pains left him, and he said he was 
 well, excepting debility; but from that time he became lethargic, although 
 he could be roused without dijfi&culty, and constantly said he was better. 
 At length his fingers began to get cold, then his hands, then his arms, 
 and all efforts to restore circulation in them were fruitless. He was 
 unconscious of this coldness, and when the General and Mrs. Jackson 
 attempted to restore the vital heat, he said his hands were warm 
 enough. At length the coldness spread over his breast, and gradually 
 his heart ceased to beat, and he died evidently without the least pain, 
 and without any consciousness that his end was approaching. 
 
 Mrs. Jackson tells me that he had as many portraits of the General 
 bespoken as he could have executed for years ; but that he had deter- 
 mined to take mine upon this visit, and often spoke of his anxiety to re- 
 store the beautiful little Andrew. 
 
 Mrs. Jackson's tomb is in a corner of the garden, about as far from 
 the house as the gate of our garden is from ours. It is on the plan of 
 General Van Ness's, near the Oi'pban Asylum in Washington, but has an 
 obelisk upon the centre of the floor. . It is all built of stone. 
 
 This is Saturday. Next Monday I propose to go to work. So many 
 people are anxious to see me, and invite me to their houses, that I shall 
 find it difficult to command my time without giving offence. But offence 
 or not, I do not intend to miss the principal object which has brought 
 me here. 
 
DEATH OF MR. KENDALL'S FATHER. 359 
 
 I hope to find time to-morrow to write to Alva, and he may expect to 
 hear from me in two days after you get this. 
 
 The " Globe " has been received here to the 8th October ; but I have 
 as yet nothing from home later that Adela's letter of 30th September. 
 I have no doubt an army of letters will soon overtake me. I rest in 
 hope that all is well with you. 
 
 My love to our own and to your father's family. 
 
 All your own, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Mrs. Jane Kendall. 
 
 The following letter is inserted as a just tribute to Hon. Horatio 
 King, who, in 1839, was appointed a clerk in the Post-Office De- 
 partment, and who for many years discharged with ability and 
 fidelity the duties of Postmaster-General : — 
 
 To THE Postmaster-General of the United States : — 
 
 If you want as a clerk in your office a gentleman of talent, integrity, 
 and exemplary morals, of unwearied and persevering industry, of regu- 
 lar and economical habits, a good penman and correct draughtsman, a 
 man in whom you may place the most implicit confidence in all situa- 
 tions and under all circumstances, and a Democrat to the core, sound, 
 radical, ardent, and persevering, the undersigned most respectfully pre- 
 sent and earnestly recommend as such an individual, Horatio King, Esq., 
 of Maine. 
 
 In whatever situation he may be placed, you may rely that his ser- 
 vices will be most invaluable. 
 
 ALBERT SMITH, 
 
 VIRGIL D. PARRIS, 
 R. WILLIAMS, 
 H. J. ANDERSON, 
 THOMAS DAVIS. 
 Washington, January 30, 1839. 
 
 In August, 1839, Mr. Kendall was summoned to the sick-bed of 
 his venerable father, in Dunstable, Mass. Though unable to con- 
 verse, his father recognized him, and died, apparently without pain, 
 on the 12th of that month, aged eighty-four years. 
 
 He was a man of vigorous intellect, well informed, of positive 
 character, for many years a deacon in the Congregational Church, 
 above reproach in ail relations of life, and conscientious in all his 
 dealinas. His piety was of that sturdy kind which rendered and 
 exacted strict honesty. Incapable of conscious wrong to others, 
 he plainly and unhesitatingly rebuked any deviations from the 
 severest requirements of his religion. 
 
 24 
 
CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 THE ORICm OF THE ** GLOBE" NEWSPAPER. 
 
 Even before the organization of General Jackson's administra- 
 tion, General Duff Green, the editor of the " United States Tele- 
 graph," had lost, if ever he enjoyed, the confidence of many of the 
 General's supporters. A majority of them in the Senate, at the 
 session of 1828-29, were supposed to be averse to electing him 
 their printer. Mr. Amos Kendall, being then in Washington, was 
 informed by Major Eaton that he could have the printing of that 
 body if he would consent to take it. He replied that he would 
 consent only on condition that General Green should be consulted, 
 and should give his assent ; but he declined to consult Green him- 
 self, and requested that what had passed as far as he was concerned 
 should not be communicated to that gentleman. 
 
 On a subsequent occasion, Major Eaton reported that Green had 
 been consulted, and refused his assent ; but it was proposed to elect 
 Mr. Kendall notwithstanding, when the latter peremptorily refused 
 to let his name be used. This refusal arose, not from any repug- 
 nance to the appointment in itself, but from an indisposition to 
 interfere in any way with Green's expectations, however extrava- 
 gant ; for it could not be denied that he had established himself at 
 Washington, risking everything in a doubtful contest, and there 
 would be a seeming unfairness in depriving him of the anticipated 
 reward of his labors, though his views might be grasping »and un- 
 reasonable. Such an act, it seemed to Mr. Kendall, would sow 
 the seeds of discord at the very outset of General Jackson's ad- 
 ministration, to which he did not then doubt General Green's 
 fidelity. \ 
 
 At the first session of Congress after General Jackson's admin- 
 istration was inaugurated, a combination was formed in the Senate 
 to reject the editors of newspapers whom the President had ap- 
 pointed to ofhce, and among the rejected was Isaac Hill, of New 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE "GLOBE" NEWSPAPER. 371 
 
 Hampshire, who had been appointed Second Comptroller of the 
 Treasury. General Green called on him after his rejection, and 
 strenuously endeavored to convince him that he had been rejected 
 by what he called the " Eaton and Van Buren influence." This let 
 new light into Mr. Kendall's mind. He had never before heard of 
 such an influence. He knew that Green was the particular friend 
 of Mr. Calhoun, and it seemed that the editors were to be rejected 
 and sent back to their posts in the several States, under the im- 
 pression that they owed their rejection to an interest adverse to 
 Calhoun. As to Mr. Kendall himself. Green remarked that if re- 
 jected by the Senate for the Fourth Auditorship of the Treasury, 
 to which he had been appointed, he might return to Kentucky and 
 resume his editorial profession. When told that Mr. Kendall did 
 not intend in that event to return to Kentucky, a new idea seemed 
 to strike him, and it was singular that, when the vote was taken 
 on his nomination, the Senate was equally divided, and he was 
 confirmed by the casting vote of Mr. Calhoun, then Vice-Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 These incidents, and more of like tendency, created an impres- 
 sion among the friends of General Jackson that General Green 
 was more the friend of Mr. Calhoun than of the President, and 
 was already embarrassing the administration by intrigues looking 
 toward the succession. It was their desire that General Jackson 
 should be elected for another term, that he might establish the 
 policy in relation to the Bank of the United States, and other 
 subjects which he had initiated, and they apprehended that in 
 this important measure they would not have the support of the 
 " United States Telegraph." It seemed to them important, there- 
 fore, that another paper should be established at Washington, de- 
 voted exclusively to the support of the administration and its 
 leading measures, without regard to the succession. It was not 
 their object or desire to supersede the "Telegraph" as an ofacial 
 paper, or to deprive General Green of the printing of Congress, 
 should he remain faithful, but to furnish an auxiliary paper, pub- 
 lished semi-weekly, and sustained by its subscriptions, advertising, 
 
 and job work. 
 
 When the project was broached to General Jackson, he entirely 
 disapproved of it. He still had faith in the fidelity of the " Tele- 
 graph," and he feared collision between the papers should another 
 be established. It was not long, however, before he began to 
 
372 AtTTOBIOGKAPHY Of AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 reaKze the necessity of such a paper as was proposed, and finally 
 gave the project his tacit approval. 
 
 The several public offices were visited for the purpose of ascer- 
 taining whether they would give such a paper a portion of their 
 printing. The responses were generally favorable ; but Mr. Van 
 Buren, then Secretary of State, replied that he not only would not 
 promise, but would not give the paper a dollar's worth of printing 
 should it be established. The reason he gave was, that were such a 
 paper established its origin would be attributed to him, and he was 
 resolved to be able to say truly that he had nothing to do with it. 
 
 In a consultation on the subject, Major "W. T. Barry, then Post- 
 master-General, named Francis P. Blair, who was then writing for 
 Mr. Kendall's paper in Frankfort, Kentucky, as a suitable person 
 for editor, and Mr. Kendall undertook to correspond with him on 
 the subject. Mr. Blair hesitated, and was induced to accede only 
 by Mr. Kendall's assurance that he would bear an equal share in the 
 responsibilities, upon the condition that he should at any time have 
 the privilege of resigning the office he then held and becoming an 
 equal partner in the new establishment. 
 
 This assurance was given, not because Mr. Kendall had any in- 
 clination to avail himself of the privilege, but only to overcome 
 the hesitation of Mr. Blair, who thereupon determined to assume 
 the position, writing Mr, Kendall that he should hold him respon- 
 sible for the result. 
 
 Neither Mr. Blair nor Mr. Kendall had any capital to invest in 
 such an undertaking. One condition insisted upon by Mr. Blair 
 was that no publicity should be given to the project until he could 
 have an opportunity to compound with his creditors, and par- 
 ticularly the Bank of the United States, to which he was heavily- 
 indebted. Under these circumstances, it was essential to make 
 the new paper self-sustaining from the start. Its terms of sub- 
 scription required payment in advance, and a printer was hired to 
 print it. All the arrangements were made by Mr. Kendall before 
 Mr. Blair's arrival, and he had only to ratify and execute what 
 had already been planned. Only the name of the paper and its 
 motto remained to be fixed upon. Mr. Kendall and Mr. Blair 
 concurred in the name and in the sentiment embraced in the 
 motto, " The world is governed too much " ; but the phrase in 
 which it is so briefly expressed was the work of Mr. Kendall. 
 
 Mr. Blair communicated franldy to General Green the objects 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE "GLOBE" NEWSPAPER. 373 
 
 of his location at Washington, so far as they had reference to the 
 public printing and the official position of the " Telegraph," and he 
 was advised studiously to avoid any expression to which General 
 Green could justly take exception. But the latter evidently had 
 no faith in Mr. Blair's professions, and looked upon the new paper 
 as intended to supersede his establishment and promote the eleva- 
 tion of Mr. Van Buren to the Presidency in opposition to his own 
 favorite, Mr. Calhoun. 
 
 The first number of the " Globe " appeared on the 7th of Decem- 
 ber, 1830. Little notice was taken of it by the "Telegraph" until 
 February, 1831, when General Green was elected printer to both 
 Houses of Congress. Upon that event the " Globe " congratulated 
 the friends of the administration on the disappointment of its 
 enemies, who had anticipated divisions from the establishment of 
 a new Jackson press at Washington. But the prospect of har- 
 mony, if there really was one, was of short duration. No sooner 
 had the printing of Congress been secured, than the " Telegraph " 
 began to throw out innuendos against the " Globe," of which the i 
 latter, however, took no notice. In a few days after the election ; 
 of printer, Mr. Calhoun committed the fatal error of bringing be- \ 
 fore the public, both in pamphlet and through the " Telegraph," his J 
 correspondence with General Jackson touching the events of the 
 Seminole war. On the 19th of February, 1831, the " Globe " came 
 out with an article exposing Mr. Calhoun and vindicating the 
 President. The "Telegraph" had already ranged itself on Mr. 
 Calhoun's side. A sharp controversy ensued, which in a sliort 
 time led to the repudiation of the " Telegraph," and the adoption 
 of the " Globe " as the organ of the administration. 
 
 The " Globe " was still a semi- weekly paper, printed by contract. 
 The position to which it had now attained required that it should 
 be placed on an independent footing and published daily ; but Mr. 
 Blair had not the means to purchase the necessary materials. To 
 raise the funds, he called on the friends of the President in Wash- 
 ington and elsewhere, who subscribed and paid in advance for six 
 hundred copies of the " Daily Globe," at ten dollars per annum, 
 and by this aid the " Globe " was made a daily paper. Thus, first 
 and last, the " Globe " was established without a dollar of capital 
 furnished by its proprietor, and, as Mr. Blair used to say, hke the 
 great globe we inhabit, was created out of nothing. 
 
 Mr. Benton is entirely mistaken in attributing the origin of the 
 
374 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " Globe " to General Jackson. General Green is equally in error 
 in attributing it to Mr. Van Buren or his friends. It originated 
 with those friends of General Jackson who regarded measures 
 more than men, and desired his re-election for another four years, 
 not so much for his own sake as to effect reforms in the govern- 
 ment which no other man was capable of bringing about ; chief 
 of these was its severance from the banking power organized 
 and exercised under the charter of the Bank of the United States. 
 The " Globe's " subsequent support of Mr. Van Buren was occa- 
 sioned by later events, which seemed to indicate that his adminis- 
 tration would, so far as measures were concerned, be in effect a 
 continuation of that of General Jackson. 
 
 P M ^ 31 REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 
 
 It is a significant fact that during General Jackson's controversy 
 with the Bank of the United States, the Bank always carried a 
 majority of Congress on every question which did not involve a 
 direct issue between the members and the President. The latter's 
 opposition to the Bank was well known ; yet the act to recharter 
 it wa3 passed by a vote of twenty-eight to twenty in the Senate, 
 and one hundred and seven to eighty -five in the House of Eepre- 
 sentatives. Although at the session of Congress in 1832-33, it 
 was well understood that the General believed the Bank to be 
 thoroughly corrupt and an unsafe depository of the pubhc moneys, 
 yet for the obvious purpose of deterring him from any measures 
 for their transfer during the recess of Congress, the friends of the 
 Bank procured the passage of a resolution declaring, by a vote of 
 one hundred and ten to forty-six, that in their opinion the pubhc 
 moneys were safe in the Bank of the United States. 
 
 The politicians who had been accustomed to look upon Congress 
 as the exponent of public opinion, believed this resolution to be 
 conclusive aj^ainst any further agitation on the subject of removal 
 Not so General Jackson and those friends of his who looked upon 
 the destruction of the Bank as essential to the preservation of a 
 purely republican government. They regarded the passage of the 
 resolution in the face of abundant evidence of the corruption and 
 abuses of the Bank, as only another exhibition of its dangerous 
 power. The policy of the Bank was to them perfectly evident. 
 So far from having, after the vote upon its recharter, adopted a sys- 
 tem of gradual curtailment preparatory to winding up its affairs in 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 375 
 
 1836, when its charier expired, it had proceeded to add about 
 twenty-eight millions of dollars to its discounts, thereby largely 
 increasing its army of debtors and dependents. The year 1836, 
 when the charter expired, was also the year of the presidential 
 election, and the policy of the Bank was to keep quiet and 
 strengthen itself, with the purpose of throwing its whole power 
 into the canvass, and by its curtailments in the midst of the con- 
 test, under the plea of necessity in winding up its affairs, producing 
 a degree of public embarrassment and alarm which would decide 
 the presidential and congressional elections, and make sure its re- 
 charter. 
 
 The more intelligent adversaries of the Bank said that there was 
 yet to be a desperate struggle with that institution ; that their only 
 hope of success therein lay in making it a direct issue between the 
 Bank and President Jackson, backed by his invincible popularity ; 
 that this could be effected only by organizing a new system of 
 public deposits, and depriving the Bank of the pubHc moneys be- 
 fore the next presidential canvass began ; and it was argued, if the 
 Bank quietly submits to the change it will die in peace ; if it 
 makes battle, it will be conquered under the leadership of the hero 
 of New Orleans, — in either event the question would be disposed 
 of before the next political campaign. 
 
 For these reasons the removal of the government deposits from 
 the Bank of the United States to the State banks was persistently 
 urged by the writers for the Globe, Francis P. Blair the editor, and 
 Amos Kendall, then Fourth Auditor of the Treasury, both of whom 
 had been opposed to the Bank from 1817 downwards. 
 
 Louis McLane was then Secretary of the Treasury. Soon after 
 the adjournment of Congress, in 1833, he sent for Mr. Kendall, and 
 giving him the credit of understanding the subject better than any 
 other man, said he wished to gain a full knowledge of the grounds 
 on which a change of depositories was pressed. A discussion en- 
 sued which lasted more than an hour. It ended with a declara- 
 tion on the Secretary's part, that his impressions were still against 
 the measure, but that if the President made up his mind that it^ 
 ought to be executed he would do it. Encouraged by this decla- 
 ration, and anxious that Mr. McLane should enter upon the work 
 with liis whole heart, Mr. Kendall sent him his opinion written out 
 at length, and placed a copy of the paper in the hands of the 
 President. 
 
376 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Not long afterwards Martin Van Buren, then Vice-President, 
 visited Washington, and was a guest at the President's House. 
 He also sent for Mr. Kendall and warmly remonstrated against 
 the continued agitation of the subject after the emphatic resolution 
 adopted by the House of Eepresentatives. This led to a discus- 
 sion, in which Mr. Kendall presented to him all his views, financial 
 and political, as to the effects of further forbearance upon the next 
 presidential election. Still Mr. Van Buren maintained his oppo- 
 sition, until Mr. Kendall, becoming excited, rose from his seat say- 
 ing that so certain to his mind was the success of the Whig Party 
 in the next presidential election, and the consequent recharter of 
 the Bank, that unless the latter were now stripped of the power 
 which the possession and management of the public money gave 
 it, he should consider further opposition useless and would lay 
 down his pen, leaving to others this question and all that pertains 
 to the politics of the country, adding, " I can live under a corrupt 
 despotism, as well as any other man, by keeping out of its way, 
 which I shall certainly do." Thus the parties separated, both 
 somewhat excited. 
 
 A few weeks afterwards Mr. Kendall met Mr. Van Buren, when 
 the latter at once said in substance, " I had never thought seriously 
 upon the deposit question until after my conversation with you; I 
 am now satisfied that you were right and I was wrong," and thence- 
 forward he was one of the most steadfast friends of the measure. 
 
 Efforts were made to operate on the mind of General Jackson 
 by telling him that if he did cause the deposits to be removed 
 from the Bank, Congress, having resolved that they were safe 
 there, would require them to be restored. On one occasion he 
 mentioned this argument to Mr. Kendall, when the latter replied 
 in substance, " If it were certain that Congress would direct them 
 to be restored, still they ought to be removed, and any order by 
 Congress for their restoration disregarded ; for it is the only means 
 by which this embodiment of power wliich aims to govern Con- 
 gress and the country can be destroyed." " But," said he, " Con- 
 t^ress will not undertake to overrule you if the measure be well- 
 timed and prudently managed. Let the removal take place so 
 early as to give us several months to defend the measure in the 
 ' Globe,' and we will bring up the people to sustain you with a 
 power which Congress dare not resist." 
 
 The discussion was vigorously carried on in the " Globe." Mr. 
 
EEMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 
 
 Q^ 
 
 77 
 
 Mcl^ane was transferred to the State Department and William J. 
 Duane was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. He had always 
 been opposed to the Bank on constitutional grounds, and General 
 Jackson, without consulting him on the subject, counted on his 
 ready co-operation in the great measure impending. A sagacious 
 Philadelphian sometime afterwards asked Mr. Kendall by whose 
 influence Mr. Duane was appointed, and upon being answered, " I 
 do not know," rejoined, "I can tell you, — it was Mr. McLane's, 
 who supposed he would thus control two departments." The re- 
 sults justified this surmise. 
 
 Mr. Kendall was not personally acquainted with Mr. Duane, and 
 only knew him as a writer of more industry than talent in the 
 canvass which led to General Jackson's election. At the request 
 of an ardent anti-Bank friend, he called on the new Secretary soon 
 after his arrival in Washington, without intending to mention the 
 Bank. His companion, however, introduced the subject, and per- 
 ceiving that the topic was not a welcome one, Mr, Kendall turned 
 the conversation and soon took his leave. He was, however, 
 inclined to attribute Mr. Duane's unwillingness to talk on the 
 subject to the indelicacy of his friend in touching at a first in- 
 troduction on a serious matter which might involve his official 
 action. 
 
 Not long afterwards, General Jackson left Washington on a trip 
 to the North. While on his journey, he wrote Mr. Kendall a letter 
 requesting him to ascertain what were Mr. Duane's views touching 
 the removal of the deposits. This was a delicate service for an 
 auditor of the Treasury Department, and would have been required 
 only by one who never sympathized with that numerous class 
 who, "dressed in a little brief authority," regard suggestions from 
 anv one of inferior station, touchinoj their official duties, an insult 
 to their dignity. Mr. Kendall, however, proceeded to comply with 
 the request of the President. Having some official business with 
 the new Secretary, he made that the pretext for a call, and after 
 despatching it, entered into a general conversation, which he led to 
 the subject of the Bank. Mr. Duane at once turned it upon some 
 other topic. Without seeming to notice the diversion, Mr. Kendall 
 followed his lead, but by degrees again came round to the Bank ; 
 again Mr. Duane evaded the point. The prospect was not very 
 encouraging, but Mr. Kendall determined to try once more, and 
 again following Mr. Duane's lead, for the third time approached 
 
378 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the delicate topic; but with no better success than before. He 
 now gave up the chase and reported the facts to the President. 
 
 At length the President called upon his Cabinet for their writ- 
 ten opinions on the subject. Mr. McLane, then Secretary of 
 State, submitted a strong argument against the contemplated 
 measure, maintaining that the law had vested the control of the 
 public deposits exclusively in the Secretary of the Treasury, and 
 that the President had no right to direct or overrule him in the 
 performance of his duties. In short, his opinion embraced nearly 
 all the arguments against the measure which were afterwards urged 
 in Congress. And yet, while he was Secretary of the Treasury, he 
 had repeatedly declared that he would himself remove the deposits 
 if the President made up his mind that it ought to be done. 
 
 Mr. Duane's opinion concurred with Mr. McLane's, though he 
 assured the President that if in the end he found that he could 
 not comply with his chief's wishes, he would resign his office. 
 
 Governor Cass, Secretary of "War, excused himseK from giving 
 an opinion, on the plea that he did not understand the subject. 
 
 Mr. Woodbury, Secretary of the Navy, favored the measure, but 
 gave no definite opinion as to the proper time for its execution. 
 
 Mr. Barry, Postmaster-General, was in favor of the removal. 
 
 The most decisive opinion in favor was that of Mr. Taney, the 
 Attorney-General. 
 
 Thus the matter stood when the President, in conversation with 
 Mr. Kendall, said, " They " — meaning, as it was supposed, Messrs. 
 McLane and Duane — " tell me the State banks, through fear of 
 the United States Bank, which can crush them at will, cannot 
 be induced to take the public deposits and do the business of the 
 government." 
 
 " Send me to ask them, and I will settle that argument," was Mr. 
 Kendall's reply. 
 
 '' You shall go," said the President instantly. 
 
 ]\Ir. Kendall had a short time before spent several days in Balti- 
 more, where he had been called on by the presidents of some of 
 the banks who had evinced something more than a mere willing- 
 ness to serve the government as keepers of its funds. The posses- 
 sion of six to ten millions of public deposits to bank upon, was no 
 small temptation to the State banks, and it was believed that many 
 of them would rejoice to be relieved from the power of the United 
 States Bank, which was often capriciously exercised. 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 
 
 379 
 
 In pursuance of this understanding, tlie President proposed to 
 Mr. Duane to suspend all further discussion of the subject until 
 it could be ascertained whether a competent number of the State 
 banks would receive the public deposits and do the business of the 
 government appertaining thereto ; if so, on what terms ; adding 
 that he should send Mr. Kendall as agent of the Treasury to nego- 
 tiate with them. To this course Mr. Duane assented, and prepared 
 a draft of instructions, which he sent to the President, who trans- 
 mitted it to Mr. Kendall. These instructions were calculated to 
 defeat the object the President had in view, by asking the opinion 
 of the banks upon the financial topics then under discussion, in 
 relation to which the banking interest generally was well known 
 to be hostile to the administration. Mr. Kendall waited on the 
 President, and told him he could not go under those instructions ; 
 that if he did, he would return loaded with documents full of 
 party bias, and virtually in opposition to the measure the Presi- 
 dent wished to adopt ; that the President did not want the opinions 
 of hostile bank managers ; all he wanted was to know whether 
 they would receive the public money on deposit, and on what 
 terms they would pay out or transfer it. The President replied, 
 '' Take the paper and modify it to suit your own views." 
 
 Mr. Kendall, retaining as much of Mr. Duane's draft as he 
 could consistently with the main object of his mission, prepared 
 amendments, confining his inquiries strictly to the ascertainment 
 of the requisite facts, and handed them to the President. They 
 were copied by his private secretary, and sent to Mr. Duane as his 
 own emendations. Of course they were adopted, and Mr. Kendall 
 departed, virtually self-instructed. He had two objects to accom- 
 plish. First, to remove a difficulty in the President's mind by 
 showing that the State banks were neither afraid nor unwilling to 
 become bankers for the government. Secondly, to ascertain the 
 terms on which they were willing to become the financial agents 
 of the government. In pursuance of the first object exclusively, 
 he prepared a circular to be addressed to each bank, inquiring 
 whether they were desirous of performing the service now ren- 
 dered by the United States Bank to the government, should it be 
 deemed necessary or expedient to employ another agent. 
 
 In pursuance of the second object, he prepared another circular 
 to be addressed to such banks as should return a favorable answer 
 to his first inquiry. It stated the conditions on which it was pro- 
 
380 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 posed that the banks should receive the public deposits and do the 
 incidental business of the government, corresponding in the main 
 with those on which the Bank of the United States performed the 
 same services. 
 
 Thus prepared, Mr. Kendall started on his delicate and impor- 
 tant mission. At Baltimore he sent his first circular simultaneously 
 to every bank in the city, and promptly received an affirmative 
 reply from them all but one or two. He then sent to them his 
 second circular, and, without waiting for a reply, reported progress 
 and pushed on to Philadelphia. 
 
 There, also, nearly all the banks gave a prompt affirmative reply 
 to his first circular. As at Baltimore, he then sent out his second 
 circular, again reported progress, and proceeded to New York, where 
 he received like encouragement. 
 
 Before he reached Boston his first circular was printed in the 
 "National Gazette," which was the organ of the United States 
 Bank in Philadelphia, together with editorial comments thereon. 
 The editor called attention to the fact that the circular was wholly 
 non-committal ; that it gave no assurance to the banks of a pm*- 
 pose to employ them, whatever might be their answers ; that it 
 would seem soon enough for the banks to say whether they would 
 serve the government or not when the government had made up 
 its own mind to require their services ; and that no direct answer 
 to the inquiry contained in the circular seemed to be called for by 
 the circumstances of the case. It cannot be denied that this was 
 a reasonable criticism when addressed to those who did not know 
 that the circular meant more tlian met the eye. But it came too 
 late. The real object was accomplished by the responses of the 
 banks in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, and the last 
 difficulty in the mind of President Jackson was already overcome. 
 
 Of the Boston banks, about thirty in number, only two gave an 
 affirmative answer to the first circular. The rest either did not 
 answer at all or gave indirect and evasive replies. AVith one of 
 the former Mr. Kendall negotiated a conditional arrangement for 
 the custody of the public moneys, reported progress, and turned 
 back to New York. 
 
 There IMr. Kendall had much difficulty in making satisfactory 
 arrangements with some of the principal banks, owing chiefly to 
 their limited knowledge of the domestic exchauges. In that city 
 were three banks, each with a capital of two millions of dollars, — 
 
KEMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 33]^ 
 
 the Bank of America, the Mechanics' Bank, and the Manhattan 
 Company, — all of which it was desirable to secure. Every direc- 
 tor of the Bank of America was a Whig, and opposed to General 
 Jackson's administration, while a majority of the boards of the 
 other two banks were Jackson men ; yet the Bank of America was 
 foremost in yielding its support to the proposed measure of the 
 government. The president, George Newbold, was a gentleman of 
 comprehensive views, who did not accept the dogma of his party 
 that a national bank was a necessary financial agent of the gov- 
 ernment, and he fully appreciated the wrong done to New York 
 in depriving her of her natural advantages by the legislation of 
 Congress, which undertook to make Philadelphia the financial 
 centre of the Union. He also was sagacious enough to see that 
 tlie gratuitous transfer of the public moneys, which was a bug- 
 bear to other banks, could be made a source of profit instead of 
 loss. Little difficulty, therefore, was experienced in making ac- 
 ceptable terms with his bank. 
 
 The President of the Mechanics' Bank called at Mr. Kendall's 
 room and delivered to him a written reply to his second circular. 
 He was in the act of retiring, when he was invited to be seated 
 until the document could be examined, as its perusal might sug- 
 gest some useful remarks. The reply was found to be a refusal to 
 serve the government on the terms proposed, for reasons which 
 had little or no foundation. After finishing the perusal, Mr. Ken- 
 dall expressed his regret that a bank on which the administration 
 had relied in this emergency as one controlled by its friends, should 
 reject the benefits to be derived from the government agency, par- 
 ticularly as the Bank of America had already acceded to the terms 
 proposed. He then took up the objections urged in the document, 
 showed that in all essential points they were without foundation, 
 and concluded by appealing to the president to take back the com- 
 munication, call his board together, and reconsider the subject. 
 That official did so, and twenty-four hours afterwards handed in 
 another document acceding fully to the terms proposed. 
 
 The Manhattan Company, which had thus far held back, now 
 came forward and accepted in full the proposed terms. 
 
 No difficulty was then experienced in making acceptable ar- 
 rangements with banks in Philadelphia and Baltimore, and having 
 accomplished his object in a most satisfactory manner, Mr. Ken- 
 dall returned to Washington and made his final report. 
 
382 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Some incidents worthy of note attended this mission. At Phil- 
 adelphia, two men were frequent visitors to Mr. Kendall's room, 
 who seemed specially anxious to ascertain the real intentions of 
 the administration. One of them had a public appointment, which 
 was virtually a sinecure, and he did little beyond watching for 
 opportunities for private speculation. This gentleman frequently 
 called on Mr. Kendall in New York also. While walking down 
 Broadway one day he said to Mr. Kendall, " A good deal of money 
 could be made out of this business." The prompt reply was, " I 
 did not go into this business to make money, but to put down that 
 infernal institution." Neither from the same nor any quarter did 
 there come to Mr. Kendall any other suggestions which savored of 
 speculation or corruption, though he was uncharitable enough to 
 believe that a fortune was within his grasp had he been base 
 enough to betray his trust and his country by disclosing to the 
 bank managers the real purpose of his mission, and undertaking 
 to defeat the object of the President. Certain it is, that for a few 
 days he held in his hands the threads of destiny, so far as the 
 Bank was concerned. 
 
 The other person who was so attentive to him in Philadelphia 
 was James Gordon Bennett, afterwards editor and proprietor of the 
 New York "Herald." He had been previously associated with 
 Mordecai M. Noah and James Watson Webb in the management 
 of the New York " Courier and Enquirer," and when his associates, 
 after obtaining accommodations to the extent of $ 52,000, went 
 over to the Bank, he professed to remain loyal to the administra- 
 tion, and became editor of the " Pennsylvanian," a leading Demo- 
 cratic newspaper in Philadelphia. By his professions of loyalty, 
 he drew Mr. Kendall into a private correspondence with himself 
 on the Bank question, and sought to obtain all the information he 
 could in personal intercourse. But soon after Mr. Kendall's return 
 to Washington, Bennett began to throw out in the " Pennsylvanian," 
 mysterious hints that a great conspiracy was on foot, of which he 
 held the proofs. After attempting to work up the public curiosity 
 in successive issues of his paper, he came out with a charge that 
 the conspiracy was against the Bank of the United States ; that 
 the chief conspirator was Amos Kendall ; and finally he published 
 Mr. Kendall's private letters to him as proofs of his allegations. 
 
 No notice was taken of the charge or the proofs, for, although 
 the letters showed a determined hostility to the Bank and a strono^ 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 
 
 383 
 
 desire for its destruction, they showed also that the motives of the 
 writer were patriotic and disinterested. While Mr. Kendall re- 
 garded the publication of these letters, without his consent, as con- 
 clusive testimony to the purity of his motives, yet the act was in 
 itself so mean and dishonorable, that he never spoke to or recog- 
 nized Mr. Bennett afterwards. What advantage, if any, the pub- 
 lication secured to Bennett himself, was never made known to the 
 pablic. It doubtless had something to do with his secession from 
 the " Pennsylvanian," whose patrons were generally Democrats, 
 and his return to New York, where he established the New York 
 " Herald," and by his successful profligacy has done more to corrupt 
 the American press and the public morals than all the other prof- 
 ligate editors in the United States. 
 
 One morning, while Mr. Kendall was at New York on his out- 
 ward trip, he was surprised to meet at the breakfast table of his 
 hotel Louis McLane, Secretary of State, and Martin Van Buren, 
 Vice-President. They sought an interview with him after break- 
 fast, and suggested that an order should be given for a change in 
 the government depositaries, to take effect on the first of the next 
 January. He could not but suspect that Mr. McLane, finding that 
 his argument based on the fears of the State banks had been 
 utterly overthi-own, had devised this scheme in the hope that Con- 
 gress on meeting would interpose to prevent the execution of the 
 order, and had induced Mr. Van Buren to aid him in carrying it 
 out. But the strongest assurances were given that the real object 
 of the project was more effectually to unite the friends of the ad- 
 ministration in support of the measure, and it was urged that the 
 postponement to the day named would prevent it from being re- 
 garded as taken in defiance of Congress. President Jackson was 
 then at the Eip Eaps, and it was proposed that I\Ir. Kendall should 
 join them in writing to him in favor of this new scheme. His 
 judgment did not approve of it ; but deeming it desirable to main- 
 tain union and harmony in the administration, and believing it 
 possible to sustain the measure in Congress, if the Cabinet and the 
 friends of the President at Washington would give it their cordial 
 and united support, he so far yielded as to write to the President 
 in favor of the project, on condition that he could feel assured of 
 such support. What the otlier gentlemen wrote to tlie President, 
 if anything, he never knew. Whatever it was, their action had no 
 effect in postponing the measure. 
 
384 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Learning from Mr. Kendall's reports that the State banks were 
 not only not afraid to receive the public deposits, but would render 
 to the government the same services, on substantially the same 
 terms, as the Bank of the United States had done, the President 
 determined that the change should be made before Congress met, 
 and that he would " take the responsibility." His determination 
 was announced in a paper giving his reasons for it, which was 
 read to his Cabinet on the 18th of September, 1833. 
 
 The following is a summary of the reasons given by the Presi- 
 dent, which, in his opinion, justified and required a change in the 
 depositaries of the public funds : — 
 
 That the Bank by asking for a new charter, knowing that he 
 was opposed to it, made the question an issue in his second elec- 
 tion, and he considered that event the verdict of the people against 
 an extension of the Bank's existence. 
 
 That there was no reasonable ground for believing that any sub- 
 stitute would be provided by Congress, and it became the duty of 
 the Executive to consider what should be done with the public 
 moneys under existing laws, when the present charter of the Bank 
 should expire. 
 
 That by the charter of the Bank, the Secretary of the Treasury 
 was the only agent by whom the public deposits could be taken 
 from it ; that his power over them is unqualified, and has been so 
 claimed and exercised from its origin, without dispute. 
 
 That it is obviously necessary to adopt some new system before 
 the actual expiration of the Bank charter, and regard being had to 
 the public interest and convenience, it was not too soon to act 
 upon that necessity. 
 
 That, therefore, there were sufficient reasons for the proposed 
 measure without regard to the conduct of the Bank, and that one 
 of its effects would be to enable Congress to legislate on the sub- 
 ject before tlie expiration of the Bank charter. 
 
 But in the conduct of the Bank there were abundant reasons 
 why it should be deprived of the use of the public money. 
 
 In the extension of its loans in sixteen montlis, ending in May, 
 1832, more than twenty-eight millions of dollars, when it knew 
 the government intended to apply its heavy deposits then on hand 
 to the payment of the public debt, and its secret arrangements 
 with the holders of tliat debt to prevent the presentation of their 
 claims, thus thwarting the policy of the government that it might 
 retain the use of the public money. 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. *^o- 
 
 In the fact that the Bank supports and controls, if it does not 
 own, sundry leading presses of the country by means of extrava- 
 gant loans on unusual terms and nominal security. 
 
 In its attempts through those presses to injure the credit of the 
 Treasury by representing that the Bank sustained it, when it had 
 millions of the public money in its vaults. 
 
 In its claiming over $ 150,000 damages on a protested govern- 
 ment bill, when no such damages had been incurred. 
 
 In the violation of its charter by transferring its discount busi- 
 ness from the board of directors to committees, systematically ex- 
 cluding the government directors from those committees, and thus 
 attempting to withhold all knowledge of its transactions from the 
 government. 
 
 And, finally, in applying its funds to the publication and circu- 
 lation of political speeches and other matter intended to operate 
 on the elections, and vesting in the President of the Bank un- 
 limited power and discretion to use those funds for such purposes 
 without accountability, under pretence of defending the Bank and 
 enlightening the people as to its merits. 
 
 This important paper then sets forth in a vivid light President 
 Jackson's own conclusions and his readiness to incur any needful 
 responsibility. 
 
 The document underwent the severest criticism ; but the facts 
 stated in it were undeniable. The President's declaration that he 
 did not desire that " any member of the Cabinet should do any act 
 which he believes unlawful or in his conscience condemns," was 
 specially denounced as insincere, in view of his subsequent re- 
 moval of Mr. Duane because he refused to perform such an act ; 
 but it must be recollected that Mr. Duane had previously pledged 
 himself to resign if, in the end, he could not concur with the Presi- 
 dent on this subject. This language, therefore, so far as Mr. Duane 
 was concerned, merely implied that, if as the President most ar- 
 dently desired, he, Mr. Duane, could not conscientiously perform 
 the act, it was expected that he would, like a man of honor, redeem 
 his pledge. The President did not expect or desire the Secretary 
 to violate his conscience ; but he did expect him to keep his word. 
 In this expectation he was disappointed. 
 
 When the time for action arrived, Mr. Duane refused to act or 
 resign. He had made up his mind to defeat the object of the Pre- 
 sident or become a martyr and claim "a martyr's crown." Though 
 
 25 
 
386 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 not a man of large mental calibre, he could not but be aware, that 
 in dealing with such a man as General Jackson, especially after 
 proving false to his voluntary pledge, nothing short of martyrdom 
 was his certain doom. And it is strange that he had not sagacity 
 enough to perceive, that neither power nor fame was to be acquired 
 by intei'posing himself with his broken pledges to protect a cor- 
 rupt institution against the honest old patriot whose only object 
 was to rescue his country from its demoralizing influences. 
 
 The President had no motive to disgrace Mr. Duane, and desired 
 to part with him on friendly terms, but the latter preferred mar- 
 tyrdom. He was accordingly dismissed, and the Treasury Depart- 
 ment was offered to Eoger B. Taney, then Attorney General. 
 Hearing of this offer, and fearing that Mr. Taney would not accept 
 it, Mr. Kendall called upon him for the purpose of urging him to 
 do so. As soon as Mr. Taney understood the object, he interposed 
 and said in substance, " I have, as one of the President's constitu- 
 tional counsellors, advised him to cause the public deposits to be 
 removed from the Bank of the United States, and he proposes to 
 act in accordance with my advice ; I, therefore, feel bound in honor 
 to aid and sustain him in any position which he may think proper 
 to assign to me." " But," said he, raising his hands and eyes to- 
 wards Heaven, " in doing so, I give up the most cherished object 
 of my life. I am not a politician, and have never sought political 
 office ; the summit of my ambition has been a seat on the bench 
 of the United States Supreme Court, and that desire I surrender in 
 accepting the Treasury Department now." In this case, behold 
 the result of honorable self-sacrifice ! He accepted the Treasury 
 Department, and was rejected by the Senate ; Chief Justice Marshall 
 died, and General Jackson nominated Mr. Taney to fill his place, 
 and he was confirmed by the Senate. Thus the act which he con- 
 sidered a surrender of his hopes of attaining to a seat on the bench 
 of the Supreme Court, led directly to his elevation to its highest 
 place. 
 
 During all these discussions, Mr. Kendall but once made a sug- 
 gestion to the President which had reference to the character of 
 his Cabinet. This exception was when the latter informed him in 
 a private conversation that he had made up his mind. " Then," 
 said Mr. Kendall, " it is all important that your Cabinet should cor- 
 dially sustain the measure." " They have all promised to do so," 
 replied the President. This was a damper to Mr. Kendall, not 
 
REMOVAL OE THE DEPOSITS. 
 
 387 
 
 because he had the least thought of obtaining a place in the Cabi- 
 net, but because he did not believe some of its members would or 
 could give the measure their cordial support. He had fully ex- 
 pected at least one resignation ; for he could not see how a man 
 who had virtually taken the ground that the President had in this 
 matter committed a gross usurpation, could honestly promise to 
 support him in it, or could honorably remain in the Cabinet. But^ 
 so strong was the old hero in his consciousness of right, and his 
 confidence in public support, that he seemed to care little for the 
 opinions of those around him when he announced, " / take the re- 
 sjponsihility." 
 
 At last the machinery of the government was ready for action, 
 and Mr. Kendall was summoned to a Cabinet meeting, called for 
 the purpose of selecting the State banks to be employed, and 
 arranging the details of the proposed operation. No objections 
 were made to any of the banks with which he had made arrange- 
 ments, except the Bank of America. To that some opposition was 
 shown on political grounds ; but it was promptly withdrawn when 
 he stated the particulars of his negotiation in New York. The 
 general plan advisable for carrying out the plan of the President, 
 with the least possible derangement of the business of the country, 
 had been discussed between Mr. Kendall and the more intelligent 
 and discreet managers of the local banks, and was communicated 
 in writing to the President and Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 This communication shows not only the plan adopted, but the 
 determination of the Treasury Department to adhere to it, not- 
 withstanding some pressure from the State banks, who desired to 
 have at once the possession of all the public deposits then in the 
 Bank of the United States. The public deposits in that Bank and 
 its branches amounted to millions of dollars, and it was reason- 
 ably calculated that any curtailment of accommodations in that 
 quarter could be replaced by the State banks, strengthened as they 
 would be by accumulating public deposits. But as soon as the 
 Bank of the United States had discovered that the government 
 w^as in earnest, it had begun to curtail its accommodations, and 
 had already brought the State banks in debt to an amount which 
 some of them would find it inconvenient to pay on a sudden call. 
 As a precaution against any sudden hostile movement on this 
 ground, it was deemed prudent to place in the possession of some 
 of the State banks, confidentially, a considerable amount of trans- 
 
388 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 fer warrants, with instructions to use them only in case of a 
 menacing demonstration on the part of the Bank of the United 
 States. 
 
 Another precaution was deemed advisable. Some of the State 
 banks, in their intercourse with Mr. Kendall, had set up claims to 
 a preference, on the ground of having accommodated the Post- 
 Office Department, which was then embarrassed in its finances 
 and under charges of gross mismanagement. Lest it should be 
 charged that the government moneys were placed in the State 
 banks for the purpose of bringing them within reach of the Post- 
 Office Department, it v^as thought prudent, not only not to employ 
 those banks, with one exception, but to require a pledge that the 
 Department should not ask accommodations from any of those 
 employed. Such a pledge was given by the Postmaster-General 
 himself, both to Mr. Kendall and the President. Thus was this 
 measure consummated, so far as the action of the President and the 
 Secretary of the Treasury was concerned. Never was an impor- 
 tant step taken with purer or more patriotic motives than those 
 which actuated these functionaries and Mr. Kendall and the editor 
 of the " Globe " ; and never were details more carefully arranged 
 to prevent public injury from a great change of policy. And it 
 cannot now be doubted that the whole aff'air would have passed 
 off with scarcely any perceptible effect upon the financial and 
 concimercial affairs of the country, had it not been seized upon as 
 a pretext for an attempt to overthrow the party in power, and 
 ultimately to procure the recharter of the Bank. 
 
 The change went into effect on the 1st of October, 1833. The 
 Bank of the United States made no public demonstration of hos- 
 tility. It was too completely within th€ power of the Treasury 
 Department, through the large public deposits it retained, all of 
 which were payable on demand, to venture on any open act of 
 opposition. 
 
 It was Mr. Taney's desire that Mr. Kendall should become presi- 
 dent of the Bank of the Metropolis, the deposit bank in Washing- 
 ton, and act as superintendent of the new system through that 
 bank as its nominal head ; but the latter did not share this desire. 
 As the president of that bank had promised Mr. Taney to make 
 any change which might be required to further the views of the 
 government, he was requested, through Mr. Kendall, to employ 
 Mr. Eeuben M. Whitney in the capacity of correspondent and 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 359 
 
 ■ * 
 
 general agent of the deposit banks, with his head-quarters at the 
 Bank of the Metropolis; the object being to promote harmony of 
 action throughout the new system. The president of the bank 
 not only refused to admit Mr. Whitney into his bank, but denied 
 his promise to the Secretary, maintaining that he was himself 
 competent to conduct all necessary correspondence with the other 
 deposit banks. Of course the idea of making his bank the head 
 of the system was abandoned. Mr. Whitney was employed by 
 most of the other banks as their agent at Washington, and most 
 faithfully did he discharge his duties. Had his counsels been 
 heeded, it is believed the deposit banks would not have stopped 
 payment in 1837, and thereby compelled the government to estab- 
 lish the independent treasury. 
 
 In a few days after the new system went into operation, it was 
 announced that the Union Bank of Maryland, to whose president 
 Mr. Taney had confidentially intrusted two transfer drafts on the 
 Bank of the United States, for one hundred thousand dollars each, 
 had presented a.nd cashed one of those drafts. Before the Secre- 
 tary had time to procure an explanation, the same disposition was 
 made of the other. Not receiying any satisfactory response to his 
 letter of inquiry, Mr. Taney requested Mr. Ellicott, the president 
 of the bank, to come to Washington. Mr. Kendall was in Mr. 
 Taney's private office in the evening when Mr. Ellicott arrived. 
 Mr. Taney told him he had sent for him for the purpose of ascer- 
 taining why he had used the transfer drafts confidentially placed 
 in his hands, when the contingency upon which alone he was 
 authorized to use them had not occurred. Mr. Ellicott made a 
 stammering, incoherent statement about transactions in connection 
 with a bank in Tennessee, and upon his conclusion Mr. Kendall 
 said, " If I understand you, Mr. Ellicott, you have used tliose gov- 
 ernment funds to sustain a stock speculation." To this statement 
 of the case Ellicott virtually assented. 
 
 Mr. Taney was excessively annoyed by this instance of bad faith. 
 It exposed him and the President to charges of insincerity in the 
 announcement that no government funds would be transferred 
 from the Bank of the United States to the State banks ; but what 
 made the matter more vexatious was the fact that Mr. Elhcott was 
 his friend and special adviser in financial matters. Under other 
 circumstances the offender would have been at once exposed and 
 denounced. But such a measure at that time would have put a 
 
390 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 powerful weapon into the hands of the enemy. The mischief 
 caused by the transfers was already done, and could not be re- 
 trieved by the disclosure of Ellicott's motives. On the contrary, 
 such exposure would have been pointed out as proof that the 
 entire movement had originated in similar motives, as had indeed 
 been charged. The immediate consequence, therefore, was the dis- 
 missal of Mr. Ellicott with a reprimand. In the panic scenes 
 which followed, he importuned Mr. Taney for more public money, 
 imder threats of stopping payment, until infonned that he would 
 get no more, whether he stopped or not. The ultimate conse- 
 quence was that he was driven from the presidency of the 
 bank. 
 
 Soon another source of disquietude was developed. ^N'otwith- 
 standing the pledge of the Postmaster-General, it appeared by the 
 returns of the banks that the Post-Office debt in the Manhattan 
 Bank, JSTew York, had been increased from $ 50,000 to $ 100,000, 
 and that the Department had procured a large loan from the de- 
 posit bank in Boston. On inquiry, it was ascertained that an agent 
 of the Post-Of&ce Department had represented to those banks that 
 it was the desire of the Secretary of the Treasury that they should 
 accommodate that Department. " What shaR we do ? " said Mr. 
 Taney to Mr. Kendall. " If worst comes to worst," was the lat- 
 ter 's reply, " teU the truth, and let every tub stand on its own 
 bottom." 
 
 To guard against further injury, the deposit banks were quietly 
 informed that it was the desire of the Secretary of the Treasury 
 that they should not, under any representations, loan money to the 
 Post-Office Department, and no other step was taken. To have 
 even asked an explanation from the Postmaster-General could 
 have done no good, and might have produced a quarrel and invited 
 attack. The Secretary of the Treasury was in the presence, not of 
 a liberal adversary who was ready to give credit for honesty of 
 purpose, but of a watchful enemy prompt to avail himself of every 
 opportunity to attack without regard to justice or truth. Yet no 
 very serious assault was made on account of these particular Post- 
 Office loans, though one was expected and dreaded, because it would 
 necessarily lead to an exposure of the Post-Office Department and 
 an explosion in the Cabinet. 
 
 The grumblings of the coming storm were soon heard in the 
 distance. The United States Bank had already made extensive 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 39I 
 
 curtailments, and measurably discontinued its operations in domes- 
 tic exchange, of which it practically had a monopoly. The news- 
 papers devoted to the Bank made the most out of the transfer 
 warrants dishonestly used, and attempted to fill the country witli 
 alarms by predicting trouble. But one of the most significant 
 signs was an announcement of Henry Clay, then on an eastern 
 tour, in a letter dated at Philadelphia, October 14, 1833, being a 
 reply to a complimentary letter from some of his political friends. 
 Alluding to the removal of the deposits, he said : " But the time 
 has arrived which I long ago apprehended, when our greatest ex- 
 ertions are necessary to maintain the free institutions inherited 
 from our ancestors. Yes, gentlemen, disguise is useless ; the time 
 is come when we must decide whether the Constitution, the laws, 
 and the checks which they have respectively provided, shall pre- 
 vail, or the will of one man have uncontrolled sway. In the 
 settlement of that question I shall be found where I have ever 
 been." 
 
 This was the tocsin to rally the Whig Party for a desperate con- 
 test. Mr. Clay continued his progress eastward as far as Boston, 
 going through Providence, visiting the principal towns around 
 Boston, and returning by way of Springfield, Troy, and Albany. 
 His partisans and those of the Bank rallied around him with a 
 reawakened zeal which naturally inspired him with a belief that 
 the day of his triumph over the " military chieftain " was at hand, 
 and that the goal of his ambition, the highest office in the govern- 
 ment, was at last within his reach. 
 
 The tone of the nullification organs showed that Mr. Calhoun 
 was also mustering his shattered forces to array them with the 
 followers of Mr. Clay on the side of the Bank. Elements, lately 
 discordant and even antagonistic, were now combining for a last 
 desperate assault on the man whose incorruptible integrity, in- 
 flexible will, and invincible popularity had overthrown all their 
 schemes of personal ambition, consolidation, and revolution. Backed 
 by the money and power of the Bank, this was a most formidable 
 combination. To resist it the President stood almost alone. With 
 one exception, his Cabinet were less than a " unit." 
 
 The semi-nuUifiers, represented by the " Ptichmond Enquirer," 
 were giving " aid and comfort to the enemy " by their doubts and 
 carpings. The ambitious politicians who still surrounded General 
 Jackson trembled in their knees, and were ready to fly. Almost 
 
392 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the only fearless and determined supporters he had around him 
 were Mr. Taney, the editor of the " Globe," and its few contribu- 
 tors. They were a Spartan band, actuated by Spartan courage. 
 
 Congress met on the 2d day of December, 1833. On the 3d 
 the President's Message was delivered, and on the 4th the Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury submitted his reasons for removing the de- 
 posits. The President in his message fully presented the Bank issue. 
 
 Contemporaneously with the publication of the President's Mes- 
 sage and the Secretary's reasons appeared a manifesto from the 
 Bank, purporting to be a report of a committee, in which the paper 
 read to the Cabinet on the 18th of the preceding September was 
 reviewed with great severity. This manifesto began with an at- 
 tempt to show that the President's hostility to the Bank was wholly 
 attributable to the refusal of the Bank to allow itself to be used 
 for political purposes. It asserted that " soon after the accession 
 to power of the present Executive the purpose was distinctly re- 
 vealed, that other duties than those to the country were required, 
 and that it was necessary for the Bank in administering its affairs 
 to consult the political views of those who had now obtained the 
 ascendancy in the Executive. It is understood that soon after 
 that event a meeting was held in Washington of the principal 
 chiefs, to consider the means of perpetuating their own authority, 
 and the possession of the Bank was among the most prominent 
 objects of the parties assembled." All this is pure fiction. No 
 such meeting was ever held, and the whole story was manufac- 
 tured out of the most meagre materials. Having argued that the 
 possession of the public deposits was a matter of right under their 
 charter, the committee say, " In this case they are deprived of it 
 by the unlawful interference of the President, who ' assumes the 
 responsibility,' Avhich being interpreted means, 7csurps the power 
 of tlie Secretary." 
 
 Tims the Bank of the United States arraigned the chosen chief 
 magistrate of the people before Congress and the world ! It was, 
 however, condescending enough to say, " The committee willingly 
 leave to the Congress of the United States the assertion of their 
 own constitutional power, and the vindication of the principles of 
 our government against the most violent assault they have ever 
 yet encountered ; " which, being interpreted, means that the Bank 
 has convicted President Jackson of outrage and usurpation, and is 
 " willing " that Congress shall be his executioner ! 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. €>qo 
 
 In other respects tlie document was explanatory and argumenta- 
 tive, calculated to gloss over the wrongs charged by the President, 
 except the application of the funds of the Bank to the publication 
 and circulation of political documents ; this was boldly defended 
 as a measure of self-defence. Nobody had proposed to take from 
 the Bank its charter, and up to the removal of the deposits no act 
 had been done depriving it of any right claimed by it. The ques- 
 tion was not whether the Bank should be permitted to live out the 
 term of existence allotted to it by law, but whether it should have 
 a new lease of life, — virtually, whether its existence should be per- 
 petual. This was a question of constitutionality and high pubHc 
 policy with which the Bank had no right to interfere. It was not 
 defending its present existence, which nobody attacked ; but it 
 threw its gold into the scale of parties for the purpose of so con- 
 trolling the elections as to procure a prolongation of that existence. 
 
 On the 10th of December Mr. Clay led off in the Senate in 
 opposition to the removal of the deposits, by proposing caUs for 
 information, and also a call for a copy of the paper read by the 
 President to his Cabinet on the 18th of September preceding; 
 accompanying his demand by condemnatory remarks. On the 
 same day, Mr. McDuffie broke ground on the same side in the 
 House of Eepresentatives. On the 11th, Mr. Clay's resolution 
 calling for a copy of the paper of 18tli of September was adopted, 
 and the next day a message was received from the President declin- 
 ing to comply with its request. His reasons were as follows : — 
 
 " The Executive is a co-ordinate and independent branch of the gov- 
 ernment, equally with the Senate, and I have yet to learn under what 
 constitutional authority that branch of the legislature has a right to re- 
 quire of me an account of any communication, either verbal or in writ- 
 ing, made to the heads of Departments acting as a Cabinet council. As 
 well might I be required to detail to the Senate the free and private 
 conversations I have held with those officers on any subjects relating to 
 their duties and my ow^n. 
 
 " Feeling my responsibility to the American people, I am willing upon 
 all occasions to explain to them the grounds of my conduct, and I am 
 willing upon all proper occasions to give to either branch of the legisla- 
 ture any information in my possession that can be useful in the execu- 
 tion of the appropriate duties confided to them. 
 
 " Knowing the constitutional rights of the Senate, I shall be the last 
 man under any circumstances to interfere with them. Knowing those 
 
394 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 of the Executive, I shall at all times endeavor to maintain them agree- 
 ably to the provisions of the Constitution, and the solemn oath I have 
 taken to support and defend it.'' 
 
 As the paper had been published throughout the country, and 
 had been made the subject of general comment, it is difficult to 
 conceive what motive could have influenced the Senate in calling 
 for it, other than the hope of making party capital out of the 
 President's reply. Mr. Clay attempted to defend the call on the 
 ground of established usage ; but this is believed to be the only 
 instance during the history of the government in which either 
 House of Congress has called for a copy of any communication 
 which had passed between the President and his Cabinet or any 
 member thereof, oral or written. The motive of the call was made 
 sufficiently a]3parent a few days afterwards, when ]Mr. Mangum 
 gravely treated the President's response as an indignity to the 
 Senate and an infringement of their constitutional rights, and 
 moved its reference to a special committee, which was ordered, as 
 a matter of course. 
 
 On the 18th of December Mr. Clay offered resolutions calling 
 for copies of certain letters of Mr. Crawford, former Secretary, from 
 which Mr. Taney had taken extracts in his reasons for removing 
 the deposits ; and copies of the correspondence of the agent of the 
 Treasury with the State banks, relative to the government deposits, 
 the preceding summer, and of his report, if he made one. The 
 next day these resolutions were adopted, after a speech of con- 
 siderable length from Mr. Clay, who denounced the reasons given 
 by the Secretary of the Treasury for the removal of the deposits. 
 This denunciation was repeated a few days afterwards, when Mr. 
 Taney's reply to these resolutions was received. 
 
 On the 26th December, Mr. Clay offered the following resolu- 
 tions, viz. : — 
 
 " 1. Resolved, That by dismissing the late Secretary of the Treasury 
 because he would not, contrary to his own sense of duty, remove the 
 money of the United States in deposit with the Bank of the United 
 States, and its branches in conformity with the President's opinion, and 
 by appointing his successor to effect such removal, which has been done, 
 the President has assumed the exercise of a power over the Treasury of 
 the United States not granted to him by the Constitution and laws, and 
 dangerous to the liberties of the people. 
 
 " 2. Besolvedj That the reasons assigned by the Secretary of the 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 395 
 
 Treasury for the removal of the money of the United States deposited 
 in the Bank of the United States and its branches, communicated to 
 Congress on the 3d day of December, 1833, are unsatisfactory and in- 
 sufiBcient." 
 
 Mr. Clay advocated these resolutions in a speech which occupies 
 near twelve pages of small type in " Niles's Eegister." The temper 
 and general character of the speech may be understood from the 
 following extracts. He began thus : — 
 
 **We are in the midst of a revolution, hitherto bloodless, but rapidly 
 tending towards a total change of the pure republican character of our 
 government, and to the concentration of all power in the hands of one 
 man. 
 
 "By the 3d of March, 1837, if the progress of innovation continue, 
 there will be scarcely a vestige remaining of the government and its 
 policy as it existed prior to the 3d of March, 1820. In a term of 
 eight years, a little more than that which was required to establish our 
 liberties, the government will have been transformed into an elective 
 monarchy, — the worst of all forms of government. 
 
 " Sir, I trust that the hopes and confidence of the country will revive. 
 There is much occasion for manly independence and patriotic vigor, but 
 none for despair. Thank God, we are yet free ; and if we put on the 
 chains which are forging for us, it will be because we deserve to wear 
 them. We should never despair of the Repubhc. If our ancestors had 
 been capable of surrendering themselves to such ignoble sentiments, our 
 independence and our liberties would never have been achieved." 
 
 Having denounced the President's vetoes on various subjects, 
 as well as his policy generally, and undertaken to show that he 
 was fTuilty of usurpation and a violation of the Constitution and 
 laws in the measures taken by him to effect a removal of the pub- 
 lic deposits from the Bank of the United States, Mr. Clay con- 
 cluded that portion of his argument as follows : — 
 
 " In that extraordinary paper he (the President) has proclaimed that 
 the measure is his own ; that he has taken upon himself the responsi- 
 bility of it. In plain English he has proclaimed an open, palpable, and 
 
 daring usurpation. 
 
 *'For more than fifteen years, Mr. President, I have been struggling 
 to avoid this state of things ; — I thought I perceived in some proceed- 
 ings, during the conduct of the Seminole war, a spirit of defiance to the 
 Co'nstitution and all law ; — with what sincerity and truth, with wliat 
 • earnestness and devotion to civil liberty, the Searcher of all human 
 
396 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 hearts best knows ; with what fortune, the bleeding Constitution of 
 my country now fatally attests. 
 
 " I have nevertheless persevered ; and under every discouragement, 
 during the short time I expect to remain in the public coimcils, I will 
 persevere. And if a bountiful Providence would allow an unworthy 
 sinner to approach the Throne of Grace, I would beseech him as the 
 greatest favor he could grant to me here below, that he would spare me 
 until I live to behold the people rising in their majesty, with a peaceful 
 and constitutional exercise of their J^ower, to expel the Goths from 
 Kome ; to rescue the public Treasury from pillage ; to preserve the Con- 
 stitution of the United States ; to uphold the Union against the danger 
 of the concentration and consolidation of all power in the hands of the 
 Executive ; and to sustain the liberties of the people against the immi- 
 nent perils to which they now stand exposed." 
 
 Mr. Clay then entered into an examination of the reasons given 
 by the Secretary of the Treasury for the removal of the deposits, 
 condemning them throughout, pronouncing some of them false, and, 
 in all cases wherein they were admitted to be true, justifying the 
 conduct of the Bank, or treating them as frivolous pretexts. This 
 portion of his speech he closed as follows : — 
 
 " The eyes and the hopes of the American people are anxiously 
 turned to Congi*ess. They feel that they have been deceived and in- 
 sulted ; their confidence abused, their interests betrayed, and their 
 liberties in danger. They see a rapid concentration of all power in one 
 man's hands. They see that by the exercise of the positive authority 
 of the Executive, and his negative power exerted over Congress, the 
 will of one man alone prevails and governs the Republic. The question 
 is no longer what laws Congress will pass, but what will the Executive 
 not veto. The President and not Congress is addressed for legislative 
 action. We have seen a corporation charged with the execution of a 
 great national work dismiss an experienced, faithful, and zealous Presi- 
 dent, afterwards testify to his ability by a voluntary resolution, and 
 reward his extraordinary services by a large gratuity, and appoint in his 
 place an executive favorite, totally inexperienced and incompetent, to 
 propitiate the President. We behold the usual incidents of approaching 
 tyranny. The land is filled with spies and informers ; and detraction 
 and denunciation are the orders of the day. People, especially official 
 incumbents in this place, no longer dare speak in the fearless tones of 
 manly freemen, but in the cautious whispers of trembling slaves. The 
 premonitory symptoms of despotism are upon us ; and if Congress do 
 not apply an instantaneous and effective remedy, the fatal collapse will 
 
KEMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 
 
 397 
 
 soon come on and we shall die, — ignobly die, base, mean and abject 
 slaves, — the scorn and contempt of mankind, unpitied, unwept, un- 
 mourned." 
 
 During the delivery of this speech, Mr. Clay was frequently in- 
 terrupted by applause in the galleries, and upon its conclusion he 
 was greeted with repeated cheers and clapping of hands. 
 
 These severe denunciations from a political leader of great emi- 
 nence and popularity, were well calculated to alarm a large portion 
 of the community. Those who had faith in Mr. Clay must have 
 believed that President Jackson had laid violent hands on the 
 money in the Treasury, and was meditating the subversion of the 
 Constitution and the destruction of his country's liberties. These 
 demonstrations from the leader of the Whig party were echoed by 
 the leading ISTullifiers, Mr. Calhoun in the Senate and Mr. McDuf&e 
 in the House of Eepresentatives, and were repeated with aggrava- 
 tion by the Whig and nullification presses throughout the Union. 
 
 The policy of the consolidated Bank party was to rush headlong 
 into the discussion of the subject in both Houses of Congress, and 
 attempt to carry resolutions of condemnation by a storm of denun- 
 ciation. Their majority in the Senate enabled them to do as they 
 pleased in that body ; but obstacles were encountered in the House 
 of Eepresentatives. Before the policy of the Bank party was under- 
 stood, the papers relating to the subject in the House were referred 
 to the Committee of the Whole ; but after a severe struggle the vote 
 was reconsidered and they were sent to the Committee of W^ays 
 and Means, a majority of which was understood to be in favor of 
 the administration. 
 
 After this demonstration in that body, it became evident that 
 the action of the Executive would be sustained unless means could 
 be found to overawe the members. With that view a plan was 
 adopted to create a panic in the country, to exaggerate the embar- 
 rassment already to some extent produced by the curtailments of 
 the Bank, to attribute it all to the removal of the deposits, and 
 stimulate the people to hold public meetings, and send memorials 
 to Congress and the President demanding their restoration to tlie 
 Bank of the United States as the only measure which would give 
 
 relief. 
 
 A retrospect at this point of the course of the Wliig and Bank 
 press will more clearly explain the aims and the motives of their 
 leading politicians. 
 
398 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Early in September, 1833, there were general complaints that 
 money had become scarce and business was somewhat hampered. 
 Mr. Niles, in his " Eegister " of the 7th of that month, announced 
 that " a good many of the Eastern cotton factories have shut down 
 their gates, .... whereby many persons are thrown out of em- 
 ployment and business generally is embarrassed." In the same 
 paper he stated that " money is scarce," and he attributes it to the 
 policy of the United States Bank in discontinuing its exchange 
 operations in the West, and collecting into its vaults eleven mil- 
 lions out of the twenty-one millions of specie then estimated to be 
 the specie circulation in the country, besides having five millions 
 in Europe, while its balances against the State banks were heavier 
 than usual ; but he apologizes for this course on the part of the 
 Bank on the ground that it might be suddenly called upon to pay 
 over at once the entire public deposits. At that time no order for 
 the removal of the deposits had been issued, and Mr. Niles knew 
 nothing of the manner of the contemplated removal. 
 
 The " Globe '' of the 20th of September announced that the pub- 
 lic deposits would, " after the 1st of October, be made in the State 
 banks, but that it is contemplated not to remove at once the whole 
 of the public money now on deposit in the Bank of the United 
 States, but to suffer it to remain there until it shall be gradually 
 withdrawn by the usual operations of the government." And it was 
 added, " This plan is adopted in order to prevent any necessity on 
 the part of the Bank of the United States for pressing upon the 
 commercial community ; and to enable it to afford, if it think 
 proper, the usual facilities to the merchants. It is believed, that 
 by this means, the change need not produce any inconvenience to 
 the commercial community, and that circumstances will not re- 
 quire a sudden and heavy call on the Bank of the United States 
 so as to cause embarrassment to the institution or the public." 
 
 The Bank thenceforward knew that if its own policy should be 
 pacific it had nothing to fear from any unusual call from the gov- 
 ernment ; yet with specie enough in its vaults to pay the entire 
 public deposit at once, it maintained its stringency under the pre- 
 text that it must be prepared for vindictive attacks from the 
 Treasury Department. That Department might indeed have forced 
 the Bank or some of its branches to stop payment momentarily by 
 a sudden call for all its deposits in specie ; but to pursue such a 
 course would have been inexcusable and suicidal. To effect the 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 
 
 399 
 
 change with as little disturbance in monetary affairs as possible, 
 W£is as much the interest as it was the duty of the administration. 
 It was the Bank and its political adherents only who had any- 
 thing to hope from pecuniary embarrassment and unwarranted 
 panic among the people. Of course the politicians whose triumph 
 was identified with that of the Bank, its army of debtors who 
 dreaded the approach of pay day, and the dependent as well as 
 the deluded presses united in a virtual conspiracy, first, to predict 
 an increase of the moderate embarrassment already produced by 
 the action of the Bank, then to augment and exaggerate it by all 
 the means in their power, to attribute it altogether to the removal 
 of the deposits, and finally to excite Congress and the country to a 
 phrensy of panic in the hope of thus breaking down the President 
 and his supporters, and by a change of administration procuring a 
 recharter of the Bank. To all other motives was added personal 
 hatred of the President, by the leaders of nullification and of the 
 so-called "American system," who availed themselves of this last 
 opportunity to gratify their revenge. , 
 
 ISTo adequate idea of the scenes that followed the removal of the 
 deposits can be conveyed by any description. Perhaps the most 
 satisfactory account of them will be a chronological narrative pre- 
 senting the contemporaneous proceedings of Congress, the Bank, 
 the press, and public meetings. " Niles's Eegister," though an im- 
 perfect and partisan record, serves us as principal authority for 
 facts and documents. 
 
 It has been seen that as early as the 7th of September, about 
 two weeks before the intention to remove the deposits was an- 
 nounced, Mr. Niles recorded the fact that there was pecuniary 
 embarrassment in the country, which he attributed to the pre- 
 cautionary measures of the Bank of the United States. In his 
 paper of the 12th of October he anticipates that the removal would 
 " soon engross the attention of Congress and probably produce one 
 of the most earnest debates which has ever ensued," and he adds, 
 " The effect anticipated is gathering fresh force in a most severe 
 pressure for money, which, if not soon relieved, must produce a 
 paralysis in business. New enterprises are entered upon with 
 extreme caution, and many mercantile and manufacturing opera- 
 tions are suddenly checked." 
 
 It was on the 18th of that montli that Mr. Clay sounded the 
 tocsin in Philadelphia. 
 
400 AUTOBIOGRArHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 On the 2cl of November, Mr. Files announced that the Bank had 
 given instructions to wind up the affairs of its branch at Fayette- 
 ville, N. C, requiring its debtors to pay in instalments of one 
 fourth every ninety days, and added, " Much pecuniary distress is 
 apprehended on account of this proceeding, though as moderate on 
 the part of the Bank as could be expected under the condition 
 in which it is violently placed." And, ostensibly to create alarm in 
 other quarters, he concluded by saying, '' Similar orders have no 
 doubt been issued, or will issue to other offices." 
 
 The same number contained an editorial announcing that " The 
 money market is at this time in a very depressed state," which is 
 attributed to the action of the government towards the Bank of 
 the United States. 
 
 The number of November 23d contained a long editorial lauda- 
 tory of the Bank of the United States, and depreciatory of the 
 State banks, in which it is asserted that " there is an excessive 
 pressure for money, and it will become heavier and heavier," etc. 
 
 On the 26th of December Mr. Clay delivered his great philippic, 
 which has been already noticed. The spirit of that performance 
 had already infused itself into the universal Whig, Bank, and Nul- 
 lification presses, which now opened their batteries with a fury 
 which indicated a determination that Mr. Clay's revolution should 
 not continue " bloodless," unless the old hero would surrender at 
 discretion. 
 
 Eichmond, Va., seems to have been selected as the most promis- 
 ing field in which to open the campaign by public meetings. The 
 jealousy of Executive power which had been engendered in Vir- 
 ginia during the administration of the elder Adams, had descended 
 from father to son, and become a sentiment with the Democratic 
 party of that State. It was only necessary to utter the words 
 "Executive usurpation" to excite their lively apprehensions. 
 Their organ, the " Eichmond Enquirer," so far from approving, 
 had faintly condemned the removal of the deposits, and carried 
 with it nearly all of the leading Democrats of that State. It was, 
 therefore, reasonable for the Whig leaders to hope for decided 
 advantages from a resolute attack on that centre of the Democratic 
 line which already seemed to waver. Accordingly, on the very 
 day that Mr. Clay made his revolutionary speech in the Senate, 
 a public meeting was held in Eichmond which adopted a series of 
 resolutions surcharged with the venom which the leader of the 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 4q2 
 
 Wliig party was simultaneously pouring forth at Washington. 
 They denounced the removal of the deposits from the Bank of' the 
 United States as " a palpable breach of the pubhc faith, solemnly 
 plighted to the institution by its charter," — " as an exercise of 
 executive power in defiance of the legislative will, and of the con- 
 tract made with the institution, plainly expressed in the act of in- 
 corporation,"— and they denounced the President for the dismissal 
 of Mr. Duane, and the appointment of Mr. Taney, under the cir- 
 cumstances ; charging him with having " perverted and abused his 
 constitutional power of appointment and dismission of officers, and 
 assuming to himself an illegal, unconstitutional, and most danger- 
 ous prerogative " ; as " an assumption by the President of full and 
 absolute power over the public purse," having " a direct tendency 
 to concentrate all the powers of government in his hands, and to 
 convert our free, happy republican institutions into a simple mon- 
 archy." They resolved that '' the pressure and distress which even 
 thus early embarrass and endanger all the commercial interests 
 and business of this great country, already so sensibly and so gen- 
 erally felt, must soon, in the apprehension of this meeting, be 
 aggravated to an incalculable degree of mischief, and pervade every 
 interest in the community " ; that " no effective corrective of the 
 evil can be devised, save only a removal of the cause that has pro- 
 duced it," — meaning the re-employment of the Bank of the United 
 States as the only deposit bank ; and that " no corrective which 
 Congress can devise can be effectual unless it be speedily applied." 
 They also resolved " that our fellow-citizens generally be requested 
 to meet in their respective towns and counties, and to express 
 their opinions upon the important subject of this meeting." 
 
 These resolutions were directed to be sent to all the Virginia 
 members of Congress in both Houses, " in the hope that Congress 
 will promptly devise means to correct the evils already experienced 
 from the unhappy, illegal, and arbitrary measures of the Executive, 
 and to prevent the yet greater evils that are to be but too certainly 
 apprehended," etc., etc. 
 
 While Mr. Clay was holding forth at Washington, and his Whig 
 partisans were speech-making and resolving at Eichmond, the 
 banks at Philadelphia were holding a meeting by their Presidents, 
 and concocting a memorial to Congress requesting that the Bank 
 of the United States might be reinstated in its former position as 
 the fiscal agent of the government. This memorial was highly 
 
 26 
 
402 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 laudatory of the Bank of the United States, attributing to it in a 
 very high degree the prosperity of the country, while it maintained 
 that existing embarrassments and apprehensions were due solely 
 to the action of the Executive in depriving it of the public deposits. 
 It called that act " the disorganization of the whole moneyed sys- 
 tem, and the whole revenue system of the country." Of course, 
 the remedy which it proposed was a restoration of the deposits. 
 
 This memorial was presented to the House of Eepresentatives 
 on the 30th, and to the Senate on the 31st of December, the day 
 on which Mr. Clay concluded the speech commenced by him on 
 the 26th. 
 
 " Niles's Eegister" of the 28th of December spoke of " the present 
 state and future prospects of the currency " as " solemn enough, 
 dark and gloomy, and covered with an impenetrable veil that must 
 soon be lifted, no matter what may be concealed ; for the present 
 state of things cannot last long. We have arrived at a ' momentous 
 crisis ' ; we wish it was only one of the assortment of ten thousand 
 which Mr. Eitchie used to manufacture on demand, or as conven- 
 ience served ; but we fear that it is a real one, when men must 
 ' screw up ' their courage to bear or forbear, as the case may be." 
 The article then proceeded to record sundry mischievous rumors, 
 and to state circumstances with a gloss calculated to aid in pro- 
 ducing alarm and panic throughout the country. 
 
 On the 4th of January, 1834, it was announced that " The New 
 York Board of Trade have petitioned Congress that the deposits 
 may be restored to the Bank of the United States, and there was 
 a mighty meeting of the people of Philadelphia, of all parties, on 
 Tuesday last, at which resolutions concerning the pressure for 
 money were passed." 
 
 The proceedings of the Philadelphia meeting were presented to 
 the Senate on the 6th of January, and those of the New York 
 Board of Trade on the 7th. 
 
 The meeting at Eichmond, Ya., was followed by meetings at Nor- 
 folk, Petersburg, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, Leesburg, Staunton, 
 Wheeling, Manchester, Falmouth, King and Queen County, and 
 many other places ; all telling the same tale about public embar- 
 rassments, denouncing the removal of the deposits, attributing 
 the alleged distresses of the country to that act, anticipating still 
 greater evils, and resolving that the remedy was to be looked for 
 only in the restoration of the public money to the Bank of the 
 United States. 
 
KEMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 4Q3 
 
 AvaUing themselves of tlie advantage derived from the defection 
 upon this issue of the "Eichmond Enquirer," and the peculiar 
 class of politicians whose organ it was, the Whigs and Nullifiers 
 made a resolute effort to array the Legislature of Virginia against 
 the administration. They were so far successful as to procure the 
 passage of resolutions condemning the removal of the deposits, 
 on the President's responsibility, as " a dangerous and alarming 
 assumption of power," and instructing their Senators and request- 
 ing their Eepresentatives in Congress to use all legitimate means 
 for their restoration ; hut the practical effect of those resolutions 
 was neutralized by another, declaring that the Bank of the United 
 States was unconstitutional, and that it ought not to be rechar- 
 tered. 
 
 On the 11th of January a large meeting was held in Fanueil 
 Hall, Boston, which echoed the proceedings of meetings in Phila- 
 delphia and elsewhere, asserting the existence of a pressure for 
 money, and great public embarrassment, which could be relieved 
 only by a restoration of the relations which had existed between 
 the government and the Bank of the United States. 
 
 In New York, the grievances of the Bank party found expres- 
 sion in a memorial to Congress, which was signed by about six 
 thousand citizens, and then presented to and adopted by a large 
 public meeting held on the 2 2d of January. This memorial at- 
 tributed the financial difficulties of the country to the removal 
 of the deposits, and prayed for their restoration. 
 
 A new means of agitation was devised in connection with this 
 memorial. It was the appointment of a numerous delegation, 
 purporting to represent all the mercantile, manufacturing, and 
 mechanical interests of New York, "to proceed to Washington 
 to present and enforce the objects of the memorial." This dele- 
 gation visited Washington, exerted their influence with the mem- 
 bers of Congress, made their representations to the President, Vice- 
 President, and Secretary of the Treasury, and, returning to New 
 York, reported to a public meeting caUed at the Merchants' Ex- 
 change for the purpose. Of the President they said, that he made 
 " the most unqualified declarations that in no event would he ever 
 consent to restore the deposits or to recharter the Bank of the 
 United States ; that he was determined to make the experiment 
 of carrying on the fiscal concerns of the nation through the State 
 banks, until the expiration of the United States Bank charter ; 
 
404 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 and if the experiment failed, some scheme might be devised of 
 collecting and depositing the revenue without the intervention of 
 any moneyed institution." They then stated that these views were 
 confirmed by the Vice-President and the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Taney, and concluded as follows : " Your 
 delegation regret to say that it is their sincere conviction that 
 nothing is intended to be done by the government for the preseni ; 
 that no plan is under consideration for the future in respect to a 
 national bank; that the administration is determined not to re- 
 charter the present United States Bank under any possible modifi- 
 • cations, nor to propose any new bank ; and, instead thereof, to rely 
 upon State institutions until hard money can be made to supersede 
 the actual paper currency of the country." 
 
 Except so far as relates to " hard money " these representations 
 were undoubtedly correct. Information to the same effect had 
 been previously received from the delegation, which gave rise to 
 an excited meeting in the Park, the number present being esti- 
 mated at 15,000 to 20,000. This meeting adopted the following 
 resolutions : — 
 
 " Hesolvedy That in the opinion of this meeting, a national bank is 
 indispensable to the prosperity of the trading community. 
 
 " Resolved^ That we believe the only remedy for the existing distress 
 is to recharter the Bank of the United States, with such modifications 
 and restrictions as Congress in their wisdom may deem expedient." 
 
 At a meeting in the Exchange, a very large " Union Committee," 
 so called, was raised, " with power to appoint delegates to proceed 
 to Washington, Albany, and other cities, if thought advisable, to 
 further the objects of their appointment ; and, generally, to adopt 
 such measures as may be deemed expedient " in this crisis of tlie 
 public good." 
 
 Contemporaneously with these proceedings in the large cities, 
 meetings were organized wherever the influence of the allied Whig 
 and Nullification parties, constituting the Bank party, extended ; 
 and resolutions and memorials came pouring into both Houses of 
 Congress, — nearly all of them of the same general tenor, asserting 
 the existence of great public distress, attributing it to the removal 
 of the deposits, and praying for their restoration to the Bank of 
 the United States. Some of them went further, and petitioned for 
 the recharter of the Bank ; but the more adroit leaders confined 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 495 
 
 themselves to the deposit question, knowing they were stronger 
 ■upon that than upon the question of recharter, and that the re- 
 charter must follow a restoration of the deposits. Nearly every 
 morning for several weeks in the Senate, as these resolutions and 
 memorials were presented, and on every practicable occasion in the 
 House of Eepresentativ^s, one or more of the Bank advocates would 
 take occasion to expatiate upon the distresses of the people, echo- 
 ing the allegations touching the cause and the remedy, and pre- 
 dicting still further calamities ; and these lucubrations were daily 
 reported and sent forth to the country to produce and aggravate 
 the evils they predicted. To illustrate more clearly this course of 
 proceeding we may recur to the proceedings of Congress. 
 
 On the 18th of December was presented the memorial of the 
 Bank of the United States, complaining of a violation of its charter 
 by the removal of the deposits, and asking redress. 
 
 On the 31st of December, a memorial from the Banks in Phila- 
 delphia, asking for a restoration of the public deposits to the Bank 
 of the United States. 
 
 On the 6th of January, memorials of the Farmer's Bank of Lan- 
 caster, Pa., of the Board of Trade of the city of New York, and 
 of the Board of Trade of Philadelphia. Mr. Selden of New York 
 and Mr. Binney of Philadelphia made short speeches, intended to 
 enforce the representations of their respective boards of trade. 
 
 On the 21st of January, the memorial of the Bank of Chambers- 
 burg ; on the 2 2d, the proceedings of a numerous meeting in Cin- 
 cinnati, and a memorial of many citizens of North Carolina. 
 
 On the 24th, Mr. Webster presented the proceedings of a meet- 
 ing in New Bedford, and accompanied the presentation by a speech 
 in which he depicted, in vivid colors, the alleged embarrassments 
 throughout the country, declared that they were increasing, and 
 called on the friends of the administration to say whether they 
 had any plan of relief to propose ? 
 
 On the 27th, Mr. Frelinghuysen presented the proceedings of a 
 meeting at Newark, New Jersey, and dilated upon them in a speech 
 of considerable length. 
 
 On the 29th, Mr. Frelinghuysen presented an additional memo- 
 rial from Newark ; and Mr. Wilkins presented one from Pittsburg, 
 — to the allegations of which, in regard to the extent of public 
 distress, he did not assent. This called up Mr. Webster, who 
 defended the representations of the memorialists. 
 
406 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 • On the SOth, Mr. Wright presented to the Senate the resolutions 
 of the Legislature of New York, approving of the removal of the 
 deposits, and explained his own views on the subject. The follow- 
 ing extracts will show what those views were, and may be taken 
 as a truthful statement of the intentions of the President and his 
 supporters at that period of the contest : — 
 
 " As to the fact of an existing pressure upon the money market, I 
 believe that the recent extensive and sudden curtailment by the Bank 
 of the United States in the facilities for credit which had before been 
 lavished upon the community, has caused very considerable embarrass- 
 ment to those in oui* commercial cities who had extended widely their 
 moneyed operations, and who had made themselves dependent on these 
 facilities ; but at the same time, I believe that these inconveniences have 
 been in an unimportant degree, either directly or consequentially, ex- 
 tended to other classes of citizens. I therefore believe, further, that 
 the extent of the pressure has been greatly exaggerated, and that the 
 motives for that exaggeration are to be found, primarily, in the belief 
 that the present administration may be brought into disfavor with the 
 people, and may be overthrown through the agency of the panic which 
 is attempted to be gotten up ; and, secondarily, in the hope that the same 
 panic, if successfidly produced, may subserve the interest of the insti- 
 tution by which it has been and is to be raised." 
 
 After declaring his unalterable purpose never to vote for the re- 
 chartering of a Bank of the United States, because he believed 
 such an institution not only dangerous, but unconstitutional, and 
 depicting the firmness and perseverance with which our fathers 
 had resisted the moneyed power of Great Britain, Mr. Wright 
 asked : — 
 
 "And have we, their immediate descendants, so soon lost their noble 
 spirit 1 Are we to fold our arms and obey the dictates of a moneyed 
 power, not removed from our soil and wielded by stranger hands, but 
 taking root among us ; a power spoken into existence by our breath, and 
 dependent on that breath for life and being ] Are our fears, our ava- 
 rice, our selfish and base passions to be appealed to, and to compel us to 
 recreate this power, when we are told that the circulation of the country 
 is in its hands'? — that the institutions of all the independent States of 
 the confederacy are subject to its control, and exist only by its clem- 
 ency 1 — when we see it setting itself up against the government, and 
 vaunting its power ; throwing from its door our representatives placed 
 at its board, and pronouncing them unskilful, ungenteel, or incorrigible 1 
 Nay, Mr. President, when it lays on our tables, in this chamber, its 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. ^q>j 
 
 annunciation to the public, classing the President of the United States 
 with counterfeiters and felons, and declaring, that, as kindred sub- 
 jects, both should receive like treatment at its hands ; I say, sir, are 
 we to be driven by our fears to recharter such an institution, with such 
 evidence of its power lying before us, authenticated by the Bank itself? 
 Are we to do this after the question has been referred to the people of 
 the country, fully argued before them, and their decision pronounced 
 against the Bank and in favor of the President by a majority such as 
 has never before in this government marked the result of a contest at 
 •the ballot-boxes 1 
 
 " Gentlemen talk of revolutions in progress : when this action shall 
 take place in the American Congress, then indeed will a revolution have 
 been accomplished, and your legislature be the sic volo, sic juheo of a 
 bank. But, Mr. President, I do not distress myself with any such fore- 
 bodings. I know the crisis will be trying, and I know too that the 
 spirit and patriotism of the people will be equal to the trial. 
 
 " The country, Mr. President, has approved the course of the Execu- 
 tive in his attempts to relieve us fi'om the corrupt and corrupting power 
 and influence of a national bank, and it will sustain him in the attempt 
 now making to substitute the State institutions for such a hscal agent. 
 I have full confidence in the ultimate and complete success of the trial ', 
 but should it not prove satisfactory to the country, it will then be time 
 enough to resort to the conceded powers of Congress, or to ask from the 
 people what, until every other experiment be fairly and fully tried, they 
 will never grant, — the power to establish a national bank." 
 
 This speech of Mr. Wright was justly thought to indicate the 
 inflexible determination of the President and his supporters not 
 to restore the public deposits to the Bank of the United States, 
 and to oj^pose, at every hazard, the recharter of that institution as 
 well as the establishment of any other of like character. And 
 coming from one of the purest and ablest men who ever adorned 
 the halls of Congress, it could not fail to have a powerful influence 
 on the popular mind. 
 
 Mr Webster replied to Mr. Wright, basing his remarks on the 
 assumption that the latter spoke the language of the adminis- 
 tration, and predicting increased embarrassment and distress in all 
 sections from the persistence of the government in its hostility to 
 the Bank. 
 
 The zeal and exertions of the Bank orators, presses, and adher- 
 ents now seemed to be redoubled throughout the country. 
 
 On the 3d of February, Mr. Shepley, who himself sustained the 
 
408 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 administration, presented the proceedings of a meeting in Portland, 
 Maine, repeating the cry of public distress, and praying for the 
 restoration of the deposits. On the same day, Mr. McKean pre- 
 sented similar proceedings of a meeting at Pittsburg. 
 
 On the 4th of February Mr. Wright presented the memorial 
 signed and adopted in New York on and about the 2 2d of January, 
 which had been conveyed to Washington by an imposing delega- 
 tion. He bore testimony to the respectability of the members of 
 the delegation, and " considered that an expression of opinion com- 
 ing from such a body was entitled to great weight." 
 
 Mr. Webster took this occasion further to intensify the panic 
 which was spreading through the country, in a speech from which 
 the following is an extract : — 
 
 " In the course of twenty years in Congress he had seen no such 
 memorial. He had his doubts if in the whole history of our govern- 
 ment any memorial had ever been presented in which such pains had 
 been taken to give a respectful and emphatic expression of the deep, 
 wide-spread, and earnest conviction of pubhc suflfering, as were exhibited 
 in this memorial," 
 
 On the same day, on motion of Mr. Webster, the report of the 
 Secretary of the Treasury giving his reasons for the removal of the 
 deposits, and Mr. Clay's resolution declaring them unsatisfactory 
 and insufficient, were referred to the Committee on Finance, of 
 which Mr. Webster was chairman ; and on the next day he made 
 a voluminous report, which had been prepared with great labor 
 and ingenuity. Its main features, however, were in accordance 
 with the memorial of the Bank, presented near the beginning of 
 the session, and it closed with recommending the adoption of Mr. 
 Clay's resolutions. An extra number of this report was ordered 
 to be printed. 
 
 On the 7th of February was presented an additional memorial, 
 alleged to be " signed by a large and respectable number of the 
 mechanics, manufacturers, laborers, and others of the second ward 
 of the city of New York, without distinction of party, exhibiting 
 the great state of embarrassment and distress under which they 
 are suffering, ascribing it to the removal of the deposits from the 
 Bank of the United States, and the only remedy for which, they 
 consider, is the speedy restoration of the deposits, and the recharter 
 of the Bank," etc. 
 
 Mr. Clay said, " the paper just read spoke a voice he was very 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. • 40 9 
 
 glad to hear, — it spoke the voice of freemen ; of the laboring por- 
 tion of the freemen of the country; and one that ought to be 
 heard at Washington, and when heard will produce a proper 
 effect." 
 
 This whole day was consumed in an excited discussion of vari- 
 ous propositions bearing on the deposit question. 
 
 On the 10th, Mr. Southard presented a memorial of sundry 
 citizens of Morris and Burlington Counties, New Jersey, of the 
 same general tenor with those in favor of the Bank from other 
 quarters, and followed the presentation by a speech of like im- 
 port. 
 
 On the 11th, Mr. McKean presented a memorial of similar pur- 
 port, brought by a delegation from Philadelphia. 
 
 Mr. Clay proposed that it should be printed with the names; 
 and Mr. Webster, after making some remarks on the reality of the 
 public distress, urged upon the Senate the necessity of action, and 
 called upon those who had become sponsors for the administration 
 to take the matter into their serious consideration, beheving that 
 they had power to save the country. 
 
 Mr. Mangum presented a similar memorial from Burke County, 
 North Carolina. 
 
 On the 12th, Mr. Chambers presented a memorial, brought by a 
 delegation from Baltimore, of the same general tenor as those from 
 New York and Philadelphia. 
 
 On the 14th, were presented like memorials, as follows : One 
 said to be signed by two or three thousand mechanics and artisans 
 of the City of New York ; one from a " great meeting " in Spring 
 Garden, in the County of Philadelphia ; one of a very numerous 
 meeting in the Northern Liberties, Philadelphia; one of more 
 than one hundred citizens of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania ; one of over 
 eleven hundred citizens of Southwark and Moyamensing ; and 
 several hundred additional signatures to the Philadelphia me- 
 morial, presented some days ago, containing over ten thousand 
 
 names. 
 
 The memorial presented by Mr. Mangum being taken up, a long 
 discussion ensued, in which Mr. Forsythe, Mr. Clay, and Mr. 
 Webster bore a conspicuous part. The last-named gentleman con- 
 cluded his remarks as follows : — 
 
 " The present is a moment of spasm and agony. The whole social 
 and political system is violently convulsed. This, if no relief come, 
 
410 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 must be succeeded by a lethargy which will strike dead the commerce, 
 manufactures, and labors of the community. This, sir, I think, is the 
 real prospect before us." 
 
 Memorials and resolutions of the character heretofore described 
 now came pouring in, in increased volume. 
 
 Mr. Clay, presenting a memorial, concluded a speech as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " If I have deviated from the beaten track of debate in the Senate, 
 my apology must be found in the anxious solicitude I feel for the con- 
 dition of the country. And, sir, if I shall have been successful in 
 touching your heart and exciting in you a glow of patriotism, I shall be 
 most happy. You can prevail on the President to abandon his ruinous 
 course, and if you will exert the influence which you possess, you will 
 command the thanks and the plaudits of a grateful people." 
 
 This speech contained a good specimen of the staple out of 
 which the speeches of the Bank advocates in both Houses of Con- 
 gTess were at that time manufactured. Heated harangues, in wliich 
 all possible changes were rung on " embarrassment," " distress," 
 " executive usurpation," " revolution," and " fearful forebodings for 
 the future," were daily sent out from the Capitol to alarm the 
 people, and they found an echo in memorials and petitions signed 
 by hundreds and thousands, nearly all pitched upon the same key. 
 These again produced a new set of speeches, which went forth 
 designed to increase the panic, produce new batches of excited 
 memorials, overawe the House of Representatives, compel the 
 President to recede from his position, and secure the recharter of 
 the Bank. 
 
 On the 10th of March certain resolutions of the Legislature of 
 Massachusetts were presented, drawn up in accordance with the 
 current model, which were made the basis of an excited discussion, 
 occupying most of the day's session. 
 
 On the 25th, a memorial was presented from Wilkesboro', and 
 another from Halifax, N. C. ; also, certain resolutions of a large 
 public meeting of silversmiths, watch-makers, and jewellers of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 On the 26th, the proceedings of a meeting of 5,000 young men 
 of Philadelphia, and another of 4,627 young men of the same 
 city. 
 
 On the 27th, the memorial of 400 citizens of Augusta, Ga. ; also 
 a memorial of over 1,200 of the citizens of Lexington and Payette 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. ^n 
 
 County, Ky. ; also the proceedings and resolutions of a meeting of 
 the citizens of Beaver town and county, Pennsylvania ; and, on the 
 28th, the memorial of about 2,800 citizens of Albany, K Y. 
 
 While these memorials were being presented, a debate had been 
 in progress on Mr. Clay's resolutions, in which a large number of 
 Senators participated ; the principal champions on one side being 
 Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, and on the other John Forsythe 
 and Thomas H. Benton. 
 
 The example set by New York for the purpose of influencing 
 the action of Congress, and if possible the President, by delegations 
 sent to Washington bearing memorials numerously signed, had 
 been imitated in other cities. Mingling with the members of both 
 Houses of Congress, exaggerating the public distress, and predict- 
 ing ruin to the country and political perdition to themselves, they 
 zealously strove to induce the Democratic members to vote for the 
 restoration of the deposits to the Bank of the United States. It 
 was also a part of their programme to call on the President and 
 verbally communicate to him the grievances of their constituents, 
 and urge a restoration of the deposits and the recharter of the 
 Bank. He received them courteously, and at first discussed with 
 them the subjects of their complaint ; uniformly declaring his iixed 
 purpose never to consent to the restoration of the deposits or to 
 the recharter of the Bank, or the incorporation of any similar 
 Bank of the United States. These delegations undertook to report 
 to public meetings, on their return, the results of their proceedings 
 at Washington ; and although all of them in the main truly repre- 
 sented the President's inflexible purpose as declared by himself, 
 most of them did it with a coloring which indicated that their 
 only object in seeking these interviews was to elicit something out 
 of which they could make political capital. Under this convic- 
 tion, the President resolved in future to receive such delegations 
 courteously, hear them patiently, and dismiss them without dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 But once afterwards did he deviate from this determination. A 
 delegation from Philadelphia was ushered into his room. He re- 
 ceived them in that urbane manner for which he was distinguished, 
 and bade them be seated. One after another they began to tell their 
 doleful tales of public distress, and to utter their forebodings of 
 awful disasters unless the public deposits were restored to the 
 Bank of the United States ; when one of them ventured to hint to 
 
412 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the President that if he persisted in his policy the people might 
 seek redress by force. Tliis roused the old lion. 
 
 " If that be your game," he exclaimed, *' come on with your 
 armed Bank mercenaries, and, by the Eternal! I will hang you 
 around the Capitol on gallows higher than Haman's." 
 
 They felt that it was not " in vain " that he used the name of 
 the Eternal, and were glad to escape from his presence. Years 
 afterwards, one of that delegation passing along Chestnut Street, 
 Philadelphia, saw the flag of the United States hoisted over the 
 United States Bank building, which had been purchased for a 
 custom-house ; he stopped and exclaimed, " That is the greatest 
 triumph ever achieved by mortal man ! " 
 
 During this period the Whig and Nullification presses were 
 actively at work attempting to fan the public excitement into an 
 overwhelming panic, not only by circulating the daily outpourings 
 of the Bank advocates in Congress, but by newspaper articles and 
 the publication of memorials, preambles, and resolutions denounc- 
 ing the President and the removal of the deposits ; many of these 
 latter being couched in most violent language, and some of them 
 threatening the employment of force if the President could not 
 peaceably be induced to abandon his pohcy. 
 
 The " Boston Courier " of the 20th January, says : — 
 
 " Saturday was the most tempestuous day on 'change we have yet had. 
 The gloom was absolutely frightful. The intelligence of a large failure 
 at Gloucester, involving the connections of the firm in this city to 
 a large amount, was received on Friday evening, and followed, upon 
 Saturday morning, by the failure of an old established house in Boston. 
 Where is this to end but in general bankruptcy and ruin 1 . . , . Truly 
 we see no reason to anticipate anything but a general closing up of all 
 business at once." 
 
 The " Ptegister " of the 8th of February contains many notices 
 of panic meetings, discharge of laborers, reduction of prices, private 
 bankruptcies, etc., etc., all tending to increase the public excite- 
 ment. 
 
 Of similar character were the " Ptegisters " of the 15th and 22d 
 of February, the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22d, and 29th March, and the 6th 
 of April. All sorts of facts and rumors calculated to excite and 
 alarm the public mind were duly registered ; accompanied by heavy 
 documents and speeches vindicating the management and purity 
 of the Bank, asserting its necessity as a means of maintaining a 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 4I3 
 
 sound currency, charging the President with a dangerous usurpa- 
 tion of power, and imputing to those who counselled and sustained 
 him the most corrupt and mercenary motives. Nor were Mr. JSTiles 
 and the other editorial advocates of the Bank content with exag- 
 gerating facts and circulating the most aggravated falsehoods, but 
 they exerted themselves to the utmost to persuade the people that 
 not only their pecuniary but their political salvation depended on 
 a restoration of the public deposits to the Bank of the United 
 States ! 
 
 The " Eegister " of the 2 2d February contained an article from 
 the " Lowell Journal," which says : — 
 
 " We learn with regi-et almost approaching to horror, that many of 
 the Directors and Stockholders of the factories in this town are upon 
 the point of deciding to stop the mills, etc." 
 
 The '^ Eegister " of the 1st March says : — 
 
 " We have fresh accounts of the proceedings of perhaps one hundred 
 meetings, for the restoration of the deposits, in the current week. At 
 some of those held in Virginia lately very strong language was used." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 ** A great effort is making in Pennsylvania by petitioning the legisla- 
 ture, praying for its action, that the public deposits may be restored to 
 the Bank of the United States." 
 
 The " Register " of the 8th March says : — 
 
 " That the distress which has not, as we fear, reached its extent on 
 the sea-board, will reach the interior, must be expected. One thing is 
 certain, the present state of things caniiot endure much longer. ^^ 
 
 Even William J. Duane, always professedly opposed to the Bank 
 of the United States, was induced to cast his feather into the Bank 
 scale in a series of articles addressed to the people ; apparently un- 
 conscious that by refusing to redeem his voluntary pledge to resign, 
 if he could not conscientiously comply with the wishes of the 
 great friend who had placed him in office, he had lost all influence 
 over the popular mind, and was regarded with a sentiment stronger 
 
 than dislike. 
 
 The organs of the Bank and of its political allies, during this 
 period, continually gave out that the Bank was strong and invul- 
 nerable, having curtailed its discounts very little since the 1st of 
 October, 1833, and having on hand about ten millions of dollars in 
 
414 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 specie. Care was generally taken not to state the amount of cur- 
 tailments prior to the 1st of October, in anticipation of the course 
 of the government, which had brought the State banks largely in 
 debt, and induced the wise precaution of placing in their possession 
 two and a half millions of dollars, in transfer drafts on the Bank 
 of the United States, to be used only in case of a hostile demon- 
 stration on its part. Though the existence of the drafts would 
 probably never have been publicly known but for the bad faith of 
 the President of the Union Bank of Maryland, and although after 
 he had used those placed in his hands, the real object of their issue 
 was explained, and all parties knew they were precautionary, and 
 intended for use only in case the Bank of the United States should 
 attempt to break the State Banks, yet their issue was treated as a 
 direct attack upon that institution. And when the question was, 
 " Why does not the Bank, if strong as is pretended, relieve the pub- 
 lic distresses of which there is so much complaint ? " the answer 
 was, that it was compelled to husband its means as a resource 
 against other possible assaults on the part of the government, 
 whose obvious interest and object it really was to let it die in 
 peace. 
 
 These drafts were made to figure not only as weapons of attack 
 on the Bank, but also as violations of the Constitution, which de- 
 clares that no money shall be drawn from the Treasury except in 
 pursuance of appropriations made by law. As such drafts had 
 been used from the organization of the government, for the pur- 
 pose of transferring the public moneys from one depository to 
 another, it was a new idea that this operation was drawing them 
 from the Treasury, and untenable unless the Bank of the United 
 States was the Treasury of the United States, — a position which 
 some of the Bank advocates actually assumed ! 
 
 Indeed, every subject which could, by any exercise of ingenuity, 
 be used to feed excitement and disparage the President, was pressed 
 into the service of the opposition. At the preceding session of 
 Congress an act had been passed, under the lead of Mr. Clay, for 
 the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands among the 
 several States, etc. ; which, having been sent to the President less 
 than ten days before the adjournment, had been retained by him, 
 and sent in at the commencement of this session with his veto. 
 Thereupon Mr. Clay " commented in strong terms upon the con- 
 duct of the President in keeping back the land bill during the 
 
REMOYAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 4I5 
 
 whole recess, — a course which he considered as without precedent 
 or justification, and calculated to rouse the country, if any thin o* 
 could provoke it, to denounce the present state of things." And 
 this was made the text for numberless denunciations of the Pres- 
 ident for his repeated exercise of the veto power. 
 
 One of the duties imposed upon the Bank of the United States 
 by its charter was to pay the public pensioners, and the State 
 banks employed as depositories had agreed to render the same 
 service without compensation. On the ground that the Executive 
 had acted illegally in transferring this agency from the Bank of 
 the United States to certain State banks, the former refused to 
 hand over the pension books, papers, and funds, in its possession. 
 General Jackson presented the case to Congress, in a special mes- 
 sage, in which he said : — 
 
 " It (the Bank) places its refusal upon the extraordinary ground that 
 the corporation has a right to sit in judgment upon the legality of the 
 acts of the constituted authorities in a matter in which the stockholders 
 are admitted to have no interest, and it impedes and defeats, as far as 
 its power will permit, the execution of a measure of the administration, 
 because the opinion of the corporation, upon the construction of an 
 act of Congress, differs from that of the proper officers of the United 
 States." 
 
 And he added : — 
 
 " The claim of this corporation thus to usurp the functions of the 
 judicial power, and to prescribe to the Executive Department the man- 
 ner in which it shall execute the trust confided to it by law, is without 
 example in the history of our country. If the acts of the public serv- 
 ants, who are responsible to the people for the manner in which they 
 execute their duty, may thus be checked and controlled by an irresj^on- 
 sible money corporation, then indeed the whole frame of our government 
 is changed, and we have established a power in the Bank of the United 
 States above what we derive from the public." 
 
 After the reading of the message in the Senate, Mr. Clay 
 said : — 
 
 '* It was his opinion that this agency had been confided to the Bank 
 of the United States by law, and the Executive had no right to take it 
 away from the institution, and that the doing so could only be regarded 
 as a continuance of that career of assumption and usurpation which had 
 been commenced during the last year against the Bank. He was glad 
 the Bank had now resisted." 
 
416 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 And this was added to the imputed crimes for which the Presi- 
 dent was denounced. 
 
 It would have been wonderful if all this agitation had produced 
 no effect upon Congress or the country. There was no hope that 
 the Senate, in which the Whig party, coalescing for the occasion 
 with the ISTullifiers, had a decided majority under their gi^eat 
 leaders. Clay, Webster, and Calhoun, would sustain or even fail 
 to denounce the measures of the Executive ; but it was confidently 
 believed that a majority of the House of Representatives would 
 not be found recreant, because, if they had no better reason, they 
 would fear to encounter General Jackson's popularity among their 
 constituents. Yet at one stage of the discussion, some of the 
 truest members seemed on the point of yielding. One of the 
 most devoted friends of the administration said to Mr. Kendall, 
 " We cannot resist this tremendous pressure ; we shall be obhged 
 to yield." " What ! " said Mr. Kendall, " are you prepared to give 
 up the Eepublic ? This is a struggle to maintain a government of 
 the people against the most heartless of all aristocracies, that of 
 money. Yield now, and the Bank of the United States will hence- 
 forth be the governing power whatever may be the form of our 
 institutions." The member remained true to the last. Indeed 
 the President had a strong guarantee of the support of the lead- 
 ing Democrats, in the fact that the success of all their aspirations 
 for future preferment depended on defeating the coalition which 
 then rallied around the Bank. 
 
 The effect of the agitation upon the country was to impair credit, 
 prevent the usual bank accommodations, compel many manufactur- 
 ing establishments to curtail their business or suspend operations, 
 paralyze trade, force a few banks to stop payment, and produce 
 numerous bankruptcies. Strong efforts were made to prevent State 
 banks from undertaking the business of the government, and to 
 compel those already employed to surrender their contracts. The 
 banks of South Carolina, at Charleston, refused to receive the 
 public moneys on deposit ; the Branch Bank of Virginia, at Nor- 
 folk, wlaich had undertaken the public business, was directed by 
 the State and other stockholders to relinquish it ; and a majority 
 of the stockholders of the Girard Bank, in Philadelphia, being 
 waited upon individually, signed a paper requesting their board 
 of directors to surrender their contract with the government. 
 
 On the 28th of March, 1834, Mr. Clay closed the debate in the 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. ^i^ 
 
 Senate on tlie removal of the deposits, when his resolutions were 
 adopted in the following form : — 
 
 " Besolved, That the reasons assigned by the Secretary of the Treasury 
 for the removal of the money of the United States deposited in the 
 Bank of the United States and its branches, communicated to Conoress 
 on the 4th of December, 1833, are unsatisfactory and insufficient. 
 
 ^^ Resolved, That the President, in the late executive proceedings in 
 relation to the pubhc revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and 
 power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in derogation of 
 both." 
 
 The first resolution was adopted by a vote of 28 to 18 ; the 
 second by 26 to 20. 
 
 The resolution condemnatory of the President, it will be ob- 
 served, specifies no particular act done by him in derogation of 
 the Constitution and laws. Indeed, it was not easy to find such 
 an act in all his proceedings. His only act was to remove one 
 Secretary and appoint another. His constitutional power to do 
 that could not be successfully called in question. Nor was the 
 motive unconstitutional or illegal. It was to cause to be done an 
 act which the Secretary of the Treasury could lawfully do ; an act 
 which the President deemed necessary for the safety of the public 
 moneys, and the preservation of a pure republican government. 
 The first resolution does not, as it could not, denounce the act of 
 the Secretary as unlawful ; and as there was nothing illegal in the 
 means employed by the President, or in the end attained, it is 
 obvious that there was nothing in the case which could be alleged 
 as just ground for this imputation of crimes, or which, if susceptible 
 of specification, would have formed just grounds for impeachment. 
 This resolution, therefore, went upon the records of the Senate as 
 a naked, causeless denunciation, the more inexcusable because it 
 prejudged a case in which the President, had he been guilty of 
 the crimes imputed, might have been and ought to have been put 
 on his trial before the Senate as a court of impeachment. 
 
 This resolution called from the President a long and able pro- 
 test, in which he denied the constitutional right of the Senate to 
 sit in judgment upon his acts, otherwise than as a court of im- 
 peachment acting upon charges presented by the House of Repre- 
 sentatives ; vindicated the right of the President to remove his 
 subordinates for whose acts he is responsible ; claimed that his re- 
 cent exercise of that power had become a duty, being necessary to 
 
 27 
 
418 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the faithful execution of the laws ; and charged that the tendency 
 •of the act of the Senate was to break down the independence of 
 the Executive and disturb that apportionment of powers to the 
 several departments so wisely adjusted in the Constitution. In 
 its facts and arguments this paper was unanswerable ; yet it was 
 violently assailed in the Senate, and gave rise to a discussion 
 which ran through several weeks, ending in the adoption, by the 
 coalition majority, of resolutions to the effect that the protest " as- 
 serts powers as belonging to the President which are inconsistent 
 with the just authority of the two Houses of Congress, and incon- 
 sistent with the Constitution of the United States " ; that the 
 President has no right to protest against the acts of the Senate 
 and request them to put his protest upon their records ; " that the 
 protest was a breach of the privileges of the Senate, and that it be 
 not entered on the journal." 
 
 Here again there was no specification of the powers inconsistent 
 with the Constitution and the rights of Congress claimed by the 
 President, and partisan orators were thus left to attach this con- 
 demnation to any of his acts or to any imaginary doings which it 
 might suit their fancy or their malignity to invent. 
 
 On the 4th of April, 1834, the discussion was brought to a close 
 in the House of Kepresentatives by the adoption of the following 
 resolutions, viz. : — 
 
 "1. Resolved, That the Bank of the United States ought not to be re- 
 chartered." Yeas 132, nays 82. 
 
 " 2. Resolvedj That the pubHc deposits ought not to be restored to the 
 Bank of the United States." Yeas 113, nays 103. 
 
 " 3. Resolvedj That the State banks ought to be continued as the 
 places of deposit of the pubHc money, and that it is expedient for Con- 
 gress to make further provision by law, prescribing the mode of selection, 
 the securities to be taken, and the manner and terms on which they are 
 to be employed." Yeas 117, nays 105. 
 
 A fourth resolution was adopted by a vote of 171 to 42, pro- 
 viding for a committee to examine and report upon the alleged 
 charges of abuse and corruption in the management of the Bank, 
 with power to send for persons and papers, and to visit the Bank 
 and its branches for the purpose of inspecting their books. 
 
 The adversaries of the Bank now felt that the battle had been 
 fought and the victory won. Though these resolutions did not in 
 terms approve of the removal of the deposits, they registered an 
 
KEMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 41 9 
 
 emphatic opposition to the recharter of the Bank, which was, in 
 fact, the practical issue. The opposition complained that the reso- 
 lutions did not take issue upon the sufficiency of the reasons given 
 by the Secretary of the Treasury for the removal of the deposits. 
 Practical results were the objects aimed at by those who prepared 
 them. Some of those relied upon to sustain the administration by 
 voting at the preceding session that the public deposits were safe 
 in the Bank of the United States, stood measurably committed 
 against their removal. In view of their position, it was deemed 
 wise to take issue on the restoration rather than the removal. 
 The Bank and its advocates had distinctly admitted that the real 
 issue involved was the recharter of the Bank, and in this aspect 
 of the case members opposed to that measure, though they thought 
 the reasons for the removal insufficient, might still think there 
 were sufficient reasons since accruing why they should not be re- 
 stored. Yet the practical effect of approving their removal or 
 disapproving their restoration was precisely the same. At the 
 instance of Mr. Clay, the Senate subsequently adopted and sent to 
 the House of Eepresentatives two joint resolutions, one declaring 
 the reasons of the Secretary insufficient, and the other providing 
 that all public moneys received after the 1st of July, 1834, should 
 be deposited in the Bank of the United States and its branches ; 
 but they were laid on the table in the House by a vote of 114 to 
 101. 
 
 Thus ended tlie direct action of the two Houses of Congress on 
 the deposit question. For political effect, however, the agitation 
 was kept up both in Congress and the country. 
 
 The Senate rejected the nomination of Mr. Taney, as Secretary 
 of the Treasury, by a strict party vote. 
 
 The nominations of the four government directors of the Bank, 
 John F. Sullivan, Henry D. Gilpin, Peter Wager, and Hugh 
 McEldery, were rejected; and being again presented were again 
 rejected. These gentlemen had committed the unpardonable of- 
 fence of opposing- irregularities and abuses in the administration 
 of the Bank, and of reporting them to the President, from whom 
 they derived their appointment. 
 
 The adversaries of the Bank confidently expected crushing devel- 
 opments in the investigation into the management of the Bank by 
 the committee of the House of Eepresentatives. It was known 
 that after the in\'esti<,^ation of 1832, large accommodations had 
 
420 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 been granted upon nominal or insufficient security to political 
 editors and members of Congress ; some of whom, being enemies 
 of the Bank, had suddenly become its friends ; and, in one instance, 
 a member of the committee was furnished the pages of the books 
 which would show that a debt of a man then high in office had 
 been charged to profit and loss. In short, it was believed that not 
 only all that had been charged by the President and government 
 Directors would be confirmed, but that other abuses and corrupt 
 practices would be disclosed sufficient to settle forever the ques- 
 tion of a national bank of a similar character. These expectations 
 were not realized. The managers of the Bank refused to submit 
 their books and papers to a thorough examination of the com- 
 mittee, imposing conditions which could not be complied with 
 compatibly with the rights and dignity of the House of Eepresen- 
 tatives. Having visited Philadelphia, and exhausted in vain the 
 means at their disposal to carry out the orders of the House, the 
 committee returned to Washington and reported their proceedings, 
 recommending among other things that the managers of the Bank 
 be arrested and brought before the House for contempt. No action 
 was had beyond an order for printing the Eeport, together with a 
 minority Eeport made at the same time. 
 
 Although the deposit question, as well as the question of re- 
 chartering the Bank, was settled by the decisive action of the 
 House of Eepresentatives on the 4th of April, the public excite- 
 ment seemed for a time rather to increase than diminish. This 
 was attributable to two causes. -The leading cause was, that the 
 panic machinery was in full operation throughout the coimtry 
 when the vote in the House was taken, manufacturing cries of 
 distress in meetings, memorials, and resolutions without number, 
 etc., etc. These came pouring into Congress from day to day for 
 several weeks, and their presentation was frequently attended by 
 remarks designed to keep up the excitement. Men were hired to 
 get signers to memorials, and in some instances copied names by 
 the dozen from tombstones in the graveyards. In Baltimore some 
 excited men held a meeting preparatory to organizing, with the 
 avowed purpose of compelling the President to change his policy. 
 Their object became known, and while the conspirators were hold- 
 ing a second meeting, a band of resolute men rushed in upon them, 
 and they were glad to escape through the windows. 
 
 But the main object of the Whig leaders in keeping up the 
 
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 421 
 
 excitement was now entirely political. Their Bank was doomed 
 beyond hope ; but they were not without hope that by means of 
 the panic, and with the assistance of their Southern allies, they 
 could carry the elections of 1834, and secure the ascendency of the 
 Whig party. To give as much influence as possible to the panic 
 documents sent to Congress, the Senate directed their Secretary to 
 count and report the number of names attached to the memorials 
 and petitions sent to that body in favor of and against the measures 
 of the administration. 
 
 He reported the number of opponents of all classes to be 151,365, 
 while those petitioning against restoring the deposits and rechar- 
 tering the Bank were only 17,027. 
 
 It would have been remarkable indeed if these tremendous efforts 
 had not produced some effect on the elections ; but the gains of the 
 Whig party in the various cities and States during the year did 
 not at all alarm the President and his supporters. They knew 
 that in the natural course of events, such violent and unscrupulous 
 efforts must be followed by a reaction which would seal the fate of 
 the Bank, and probably consign to private life its leading advocates. 
 
 Congress adjourned on the last day of June. A few days after- 
 wards a correspondence took place between certain mercantile gen- 
 tlemen of New York and the President of the Bank, in which it 
 was virtually admitted that the restrictive measures of the Bank 
 had been persisted in for no other purpose than to influence the 
 action of Congress. The Bank at once put a stop to all curtail- 
 ments theretofore ordered, and assented to the proposed policy of 
 increasing its loans, giving as a reason " the adjournment of Con- 
 gress without adopting any measures either of redress to the Bank 
 or of relief to the community." Credit returned, business resumed 
 its wonted channels, and the anticipated political reaction took 
 place. But the country was strewn with wrecks of fortunes sacri- 
 ficed to enable the Bank of the United States to control the gov- 
 ernment. Many a man has gone to the block and the halter for 
 crimes less injurious to his country than that committed by the 
 coalition leaders on this occasion. Their only apology must be 
 looked for in the possible but strange conviction that the object 
 sought to be attained was worth to the country all the distress, 
 turmoil, and bankruptcy they were wantonly inflicting upon it. 
 
 So far as the political consequences of this contest were con- 
 cerned, they may be summed up as follows : — 
 
422 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 It made Mr. Van Buren President. 
 
 It made Mr. Taney Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court. 
 
 It made Col. K. M. Johnson Vice-President. 
 
 It made Mr. Forsythe Secretary of State. 
 
 It made Mr. Grundy Attorney-General. 
 
 It made Mr. Kendall Postmaster-Geqeral. 
 
 It extinguished the last hope of Mr. Clay to be President of the 
 United States. 
 
 In conjunction with nullification, it separated Mr. Calhoun for- 
 ever from the Democratic and every other patriotic party, and left 
 him to rest his fame on the inculcation of doctrines which pro- 
 duced their bloody fruits in 1861. 
 
 Despairing of a recharter from Congress, the Bank purchased an 
 act of incorporation from the Pennsylvania Legislature, and still 
 carried on its operations under the name of the Bank of the United 
 States. In common with the other State banks it stopped pay- 
 ment in 1837, and never resumed. Though declaring its entire 
 individual ability, it discouraged a general return to specie pay- 
 ments to the last, and when the other banks could no longer be 
 restrained it threw off the mask and exposed its insolvency. Its 
 entire capital of thirty -five millions of dollars was dissipated and 
 lost. Such a record as its books exhibited of loans to insolvent 
 political men, evidently without expectation of repayment, of 
 debts due by that class of men charged to profit and loss, of loans 
 to editors and reckless speculators, and of expenditures for political 
 electioneering and corrupt purposes, was never before exhibited in 
 a Christian land. The ambitious author of all this ruin, who had 
 aspired with the aid of his political allies to govern the govern- 
 ment of the United States, and through his cotton speculations 
 control the exchanges of the commercial world, and had been car- 
 ried on men's shoulders as a sort of demi-god, had resigned the 
 Presidency of the Bank and retired to private life, where he died 
 miserably with the disease which consumed Herod of old. 
 
 So signal and awful was the destruction of the Bank and its 
 ambitious President, so impressive was the lesson which it taught, 
 that scarcely a voice has since been raised in favor of a national 
 bank, and almost with one voice the country has borne testimony 
 not only to the purity and firmness of the hero President, but to 
 his wisdom and sagacity. 
 
CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 TO HENRY A. WISE. 
 
 Washington, February 20, 1837. 
 Hon. Henry A. Wise, Chairman, etc., etc. : — 
 
 Sir, — You will remember that while I was under examiDation before 
 your committee, an anonymous letter was produced and made the basis 
 of a question which the committee refused to let me answer, although 
 expressly requested. Of that refusal I do not complain ; but I com- 
 plain that the anonymous letter was permitted to be put on your jour- 
 nals. 
 
 That letter, sir, is an atrocious libel on the President of the United 
 States and on myself, and in all its essential parts is utterly false. I 
 never made such a bargain as is therein described, nor has the Presi- 
 dent under such circumstances, or under any others, so far as I know 
 or believe, confirmed the sales of any Indian lands purchased^y -n com- 
 pany in Boston. 
 
 This infamous libel has been placed upgn-ytrur journal ; it is presiimed 
 it will be reported to the House, and will thus be published. And where 
 is my remedy? By the Constitution and laws of my country I am 
 authorized to seek protection for my character, as well as my person, 
 from the attacks of private citizens, in the courts of justice ; but in this 
 case members of Congress, around whom the Constitution spreads the 
 shield of privilege, become the publishers, and the name of the libeller 
 is withheld from me. Of this, I complain. By me the immunity of a 
 member of Congress in the perforaiance of his public duties will ever be 
 held sacred. But I deny his right to extend the like immunity to every 
 villain who has mahce enough to stab, but not courage enough to meet 
 the responsibility. I deny his right to receive and publish under his 
 privilege any anonymous libel in any shape. It is, to say the least, an 
 abuse of a constitutional immunity which was granted for purposes more 
 
 noble and more just. 
 
 I ask, therefore, that the name of the libeller in this case may be ascer- 
 tained and communicated to me. After placing the libel upon their 
 journal, the committee, I respectfully conceive, cannot in justice do 
 
424 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 less than place me in an attitude where I may avail myself of the pro- 
 tection and redress which the Constitution and laws promise in like 
 cases to every citizen. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO THOMAS RITCHIE. 
 
 Washington, Sept. 9th, 1837. 
 Thomas Ritchie, Esq. : — 
 
 Sir, — In the "Richmond Enquirer " of yesterday, I find the follow- 
 ing remarks, viz.: "The Postmaster-General may report, that 'this 
 Department has been successfully conducted since May last upon the 
 principle of dealing only in the legal currency of the United States ' ; 
 but if Mr. Kendall means by this, that it has received and paid away 
 only hard money, we take leave to differ from him. A committee of 
 Congress has only to summon various postmasters before them to show 
 the contrai-y." 
 
 I am sure it was not your intention to charge Mr. Kendall with re- 
 porting a falsehood to the President, and to invite a committee of Con- 
 gress to convict him of it; yet such is the uncharitable construction 
 which many have put upon this passage. Whatever may have been 
 your meaning or motive, Mr. Kendall's report is too plain to be mis- 
 understood, and the declaration of the President is literally true. It 
 is not asserted, that no subordinate agent of the Department has, with- 
 out the knowledge or direction of the Postmaster-General, received or 
 paid nothing but ''hard money." Doubtless there have been cases 
 where contractors have voluntarily received paper from postmasters, 
 and where postmasters have received it from the public ; but it has 
 been done without the sanction of the Department, and the fact does 
 not militate against the declaration of the President. The principle 
 upon which the Department 1ms been managed is precisely as he de- 
 clares. The deviations from that principle, it is believed, are too few 
 in number to affect in any way the force of the example, or enable 
 the opponents of the hard money system in the affairs of government, 
 to base an argument upon them. All this I am sure you will readily 
 concede, and give full weight to the argument which may be deduced 
 from it. 
 
 I am one who has always given you credit for perfect honesty in your 
 political opinions, and a strict adherence to the Constitution, according 
 to its obvious meaning and intention. Yet, I cannot comprehend the 
 chain of reasoning by which you are led to some of the conclusions 
 which you are now pressing upon the community. 
 
 You admit that gold and silver are, by the Constitution, the only 
 
LETTER TO THOMAS RITCHIE. 425 
 
 legal tender in this country, and that every contract to pay money, 
 public or private, is a contract to pay gold and silver. Upon these 
 admitted principles, I do not comprehend the chain of reasoning by 
 which you amve at the conclusion that it is honest to force on the pub- 
 lic creditors anything else. Yet you insist that the government ought 
 to receive and pay to its creditors a depreciated paper, and you speak 
 of them as favored because they are not compelled to receive less than 
 their legal dues ! Is this fair reasoning or a just conclusion'? Instead 
 of the public creditors being favored, do they not receive their just dues 
 and no more ; and are not the people vrronged out of a portion of their 
 just dues by being compelled to receive a depreciated currency 1 And 
 when a ^part are wronged by the course of the banks, is it a just ground 
 for honest complaint that all are not wi'onged in an equal degree'? 
 Honest complaint, it would seem, should seek to repair the wrong in- 
 stead of giving it a wider range. It would aim at securing the inviola- 
 bility of contracts guaranteed in the Constitution, rather than at reducing 
 all to the same level of wrong in violation of its most sacred principles. 
 Restore their rights, their constitutional rights, to an outraged people, 
 and public and private creditors will stand on the same level. Do not 
 deprive the public creditors of their rights, but restore to the people 
 theirs. Compel your banks to fulfil their obligations to the country, 
 and away with your relief laws. The people^ the great mass, the honest 
 planters, farmers, mechanics, and traders, who are not in debt, and have 
 nothing to do with banks and speculation, would be relieved in a day, 
 and you would find no ground to complain that public creditors are 
 honestly paid according to their contracts, and thus have an advantage 
 over private citizens. 
 
 There is another point on which, in all seriousness, I beg leave to ask 
 you a few questions. 
 
 Do you believe " the hard money men," who formed our Constitution, 
 ever contemplated the employment of banks, State or national, as keepers 
 of the moneys in the Treasury % 
 
 If not, in what manner did they intend that the public moneys should 
 be kept % 
 
 What did they mean when they declared that " no money shall be 
 drawn from the Treasury, except in pursuance of appropriations made 
 
 by law " % 
 
 Can this prohibition, without a violation of its plain letter and spirit, 
 be construed to mean anything else than that the public money should 
 go into the Treasury and there remain untouched and inviolate, until 
 drawn out to pay the expenditures of the government in pursuance of 
 appropriations % 
 
 Can it possibly mean that it may be handed over to banks or other 
 
426 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 corporations, or individuals, to be loaned out for gain or applied to their 
 own use until wanted to meet appropriations ] Or, if such be its mean- 
 ing, of what possible use is the restriction 1 
 
 Is the general government indeed such an imperfect body politic that 
 it cannot safely keep its own money ] Must it hand its purse over to 
 strangers over whom it has little authority or control, suffer them to 
 use its money for their own gain, and be subject in all its operations 
 to be impeded and baffled by their mismanagement, indiscretion, or 
 knavery? Is it not in the power of Congress to make the national 
 Treasury as safe a place of custody as the legislatures of the States 
 can make their banks'? If, indeed, the general government has not 
 under the Constitution powers and faculties adequate to the safe-keep- 
 ing of its own money, the framers of that instrument sadly mistook the 
 character of their own work, and have left a government, which they in- 
 tended should be independent to the extent of its delegated powers, 
 entirely dependent, not on the States as under the confederation, but 
 on the creatures of the States, a set of soulless creatures actuated entirely 
 by the love of gain, — to which honor, honesty, patriotism, all that is 
 holy and sacred among men, wiU, as all experience teaches, be some- 
 times sacrificed. 
 
 It was not, sir, my intention to go into the general subject ; but I 
 have suffered myself to be carried thus far by the interest I feel in the 
 prevalence of sound principles. A short time will satisfy you that your 
 own separation from the Republican party, on the pending questions, 
 does but strengthen the hands of our great enemy, a national bank; 
 and that in fact there is no middle ground between depositing the pub- 
 lic funds in " the Treasury," or in the vaults of our "legitimate sover- 
 eign," to whose restoration, through your secession and that of your 
 friends, the friends of " the Bourbons " so confidently look. 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 *' BABBLING POLITICIANS." 
 
 Washington, May 18, 1839. 
 
 Sir, — Your letter of the 13th inst., postmarked 15th, I received on 
 the 16th. 
 
 You enclose a printed slip containing a letter purporting to be from 
 me to "a friend in Kentucky,'' dated April 28th, 1833, and another pur- 
 porting to be from me to "J. Monroe,'' dated March 24th, 1829; and 
 you ask, *' will you have the kindness to inform me if the letters here- 
 with sent are correct copies eiitire of those written by you V 
 
 Although I do not know the object of this inquiry, I have no objec- 
 tion to answer it. 
 
<i 
 
 BABBLING POLITICIANS." 
 
 427 
 
 The letter of 1829 is but a part of a letter addressed by me to Mr. 
 Monroe, aud whether that part be correctly printed I have not at hand 
 the means of ascertaining. 
 
 Whether the letter of 1833 is a correct copy or not 1 cannot telL 
 About the time it bears date, I wrote a few private letters to friends in 
 Kentucky, enclosing a prospectus for an extra " Globe." One of those 
 friends had removed from the county where he had resided, and my 
 letter to him, as I understood, was taken out of the post-office by some 
 honest anti-Jackson man who had a curiosity to ascertain its contents, 
 and by him sent to a newspaper editor for publication. The accom- 
 plices of this thief have put the letter through many editions since ; but 
 whether it has been " enlarged and improved " or not, I cannot tell, for 
 I preserved no copy. 
 
 The object is to show an inconsistency between my professions and 
 practice ; but properly considered, the letters as printed show no such 
 thing. The Auditor's Office was "filled with men of business." No 
 man who came there to do business was annoyed by " babbling politi- 
 cians." No " partisan feelings " entered there ; but all men of all par- 
 ties were treated alike in all their official intercourse with the office. 
 The duties were discharged " in the spirit of reform which made Gen- 
 eral Jackson President." The same spirit I have endeavored to main- 
 tain in the Post-Office Department. 
 
 But, sir, could any man of sense understand me as meaning that I 
 would not think of politics ; that I would have no opinion upon political 
 questions ; that I would not speak those opinions among my friends ; that 
 I would not write a word about politics in my private letters ? Did any 
 one understand me as meaning that I would fetter the pens, gag the 
 mouths, and crush the thoughts of my subordinates upon subjects in rela- 
 tion to which every freeman should have an opinion, and on proper occa- 
 sions be at liberty to express it 1 I meant no such thing, as every 
 reflecting man knows. I meant that ^^ partisan feelings " should not in- 
 fluence the action of the office ; that the clerks should not waste the 
 time which belonged to the public, and annoy those who visited the 
 office by " hahhling politics " ; and that the public business should be 
 promptly and impartially performed, uninfluenced by party considera- 
 tions. 
 
 If a thief steals my private letters, or an eavesdropper catches my private 
 conversations, and gives them to the public, showing that I have political 
 opinions and sometimes express them, is it any evidence that my office 
 is filled with " babbling politicians " ; that its acts are influenced by 
 partisan feelings, " or that its duties are not discharged in the spirit of 
 reform ] " 
 
 That a portion of my enemies should pervert the stolen letter into 
 
428 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 evidence of inconsistency, is not surprising ; but that it should make an 
 
 impression of that sort on honest and considerate men of any party, is 
 
 *' passing strange.'' I recognize the right of no man or set of men on 
 
 earth to gag me in my private intercourse, and I would reject with 
 
 scorn any office on earth if to be held on such terms. That which I 
 
 would not submit to myself, I shall never attempt to impose on my 
 
 official subordinates. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO W. J. GRAVES. 
 
 Washington, January 31, 1840. 
 Hon. W. J. Graves, H. R., Present : — 
 
 Sir, — I received this morning your letter of yesterday, alluding to 
 certain remarks implicating my official conduct, made by you in the 
 House on the preceding day. In that letter you say, " I propose to 
 write out and publish my remarks ; but before I do so, I have thought 
 it but just to you to afford you an opportunity to answer whether all or 
 any portion of my information be correct, so that if injustice has been 
 done you, I may set the matter right in my written remarks." 
 
 You then inform me that you had reference to the case of E. W. 
 Robinson, Esq., supposed to be a clerk in the Post-Office Department, 
 who, it is said, is about to commence the publication of a newspaper at 
 Frankfort, Ky., and you put to me several specific interrogatories touch- 
 ing that matter to which you request my reply with as little delay as 
 my engagements will allow. 
 
 Now, sir, although I do not question the right of a member of Con- 
 gress to become the retailer on the floor of the House of Representatives 
 of the false and malignant gossip which taints the atmosphere of this 
 city, I do deny his right to call on the party so slandered to aid him in 
 escaping the responsibility of reducing those slanders to libels in a writ- 
 ten speech. I very much regret that the idea of doing justice to me 
 did not occur to you before you made your attack in the House. You 
 admit it to be "just" that I shall have an opportunity to make the 
 truth known before your speech be written, was it less just that such an 
 opportunity should be afforded me before it was spoken 1 If before 
 holding me up as delinquent in duty by remarks publicly uttered to be 
 noted by reporters and scattered by letter writers over the whole 
 Union, on no better authority than the second-hand information of a 
 ''highly respectable gentleman," you had done me the justice to inquire 
 into their truth, I could have had no objection to putting you in pos- 
 session of all the facts of the case within my knowledge. As it is, I 
 deem it but justice to myself to decline affording you any assistance in 
 
LETTER TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 429 
 
 making up for the public a speech different from that you uttered on 
 the floor of the House. 
 
 Very respectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Cincinnati, November 13, 1840. 
 
 My dear Wife, —I left Wheeling about noon on the 11th, and 
 whether I go on to-morrow morning will depend on the state of my 
 health. 
 
 Wheeling, where I remained over night, is one of the hottest Whig 
 holes in the country ; and in the night they saluted me by firing a can- 
 non under the windows of the room where I slept ', but offered me no 
 other indignity. 
 
 In the steamboat about half the passengers were Democrats ; but 
 among the Whigs was Leslie Combs of Kentucky, and Baer, " the Buck- 
 eye Blacksmith," came on board at Portsmouth, Ohio. I had some 
 jokes with Combs, and Baer once tried to get into conversation with 
 me, but I did not encourage him. On the whole, the company was 
 agreeable enough. 
 
 I have spent most of this evening at the house of my old friend, 
 Nathan Guilford, who is one of the leading Whigs here ; yet, a band 
 of "Tip's" musicians collected before his house and sang several of their 
 songs, winding up with divers groans, I suppose for my special amuse- 
 ment. The evening, however, passed off very agreeably, and I found 
 the street clear when I returned to the boarding-house where I have 
 taken lodgings. 
 
 I hope to get away to-morrow at 10 o'clock in the mail-boat, which 
 will take me to Westport about 9 or 10 o'clock to-morrow night; but I 
 shall not go unless I feel very well. 
 
 Give my love to the children ; and if Fanny has been a good girl, tell 
 her that her father sends her a kiss, and give it to her. The same to 
 Mary Ann, and Mr. Gold, and to your father, mother, Alexander, and 
 
 James. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 In a political address, written in 1832, Mr. Kendall gives utter- 
 ance to the following patriotic sentiments, foreshadowing the evils 
 of secession: — 
 
 1. " Oitr Federal Union must he preserved.'*^ 
 
 Men are beginning to think too lightly of the Union of these States. 
 Some maintain that its value to the South is overbalanced by the evils 
 
430 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 of the present protecting system. Others insist if that system be aban- 
 doned it is of no vahie to the North. Both are wrong. If the evils 
 of that system be as great on the one hand, or its benefits on the other, 
 as the wildest enthusiasts on either side depict, there are yet advantages 
 in Union which transcend them all. It preserves peace between twenty- 
 four rival republics, covering a large space on this globe. It secures 
 between them ready intercourse and free trade. It provides for the 
 transmission and diffusion of intelligence with a safety and speed un- 
 equalled on earth. It maintains the pervading influence of certain great 
 principles, useful alike to all ranks and conditions of men ; such as the 
 inviolability of contracts, an uniform tender in the payment of debts, 
 and prospective legislation upon crimes and punishments. The dissolu- 
 tion of the Union would lead to frequent if not perpetual wars, — deso- 
 lating our fruitful fields, exposing our peaceful cities to fire and sword, 
 and deluging our country with fraternal blood. In addition to the 
 devastations of war, taxes tenfold more heavy than the protecting 
 system imposes would be required to support armies and navies, ex- 
 tended civil establishments and pensioners. Custom-houses would be 
 multiplied on the borders of each State, as well as in the maritime 
 ports ; free trade at home would be lost without securing it abroad ; all 
 safe, expeditious, and cheap transmission of intelligence would be cut 
 off; all fundamental principles violated in general anarchy; and our 
 people reduced, like those of Europe, to labor -only for the support of 
 their rulers and those costly establishments which constant danger 
 would make it necessary for each State to maintain. 
 
 Our people must not be reduced to this condition, " our Federal 
 Union must be preserved." It is the only shield of the people. Its 
 dissolution will soon be followed by the loss of all that is valuable in 
 liberty. It will multiply beyond measure those who live upon the 
 people's industry ; and it will bring nothing in return but ages of tax- 
 ation, misery, and blood. Our remedies for all abuses are therefore 
 within the Union. To seek relief from existing evils in a dissolution of 
 the Union is to rush through the flames of anarchy into the arms of 
 slavery. With us, therefore, the Union is sacred. Its preservation is 
 the only means of preserving our civil liberty. We look upon the 
 enemies of the LTnion as the enemies of liberty. 
 
 2. " The Constitution of the United States is a delegation of powers.^^ 
 To this general principle all assent. Differences arise, however, in 
 determining what is delegated. We are advocates of a strict construc- 
 tion. When doubts arise, the question with us is not whether a power 
 be necessary, but whether it has been delegated. If it be necessary and 
 not delef/ated, it cannot be exercised. To authorize its exercise, resort 
 must be had to an amendment of the Constitution. Nor can a power 
 
PRINCIPLES OF TRUE GOVERNMENT. 43;^ 
 
 which conflicts with any provision of the Constitution, or violates any- 
 right of the States, be assumed and exercised as a means of executing 
 clearly delegated powers. The general government cannot, in the use 
 of means, enlarge its own powers, nor curtail those reserved to the 
 States. 
 
 3. " The State constitutioiis are limitations of power. ^^ 
 
 Were the people of the States to abolish their constitutions, as well 
 as the Constitution of the United States, and elect legislatures untram- 
 melled by instructions, the legislative bodies thus constituted would 
 possess all political power, and be as omnipotent as the British Parlia- 
 ment. The State constitutions are, in their general character, standing 
 instructions from the people to their representatives, forbidding the exer- 
 cise of certain powers. In some instances they direct the performance 
 of specific acts ; but these provisions confer no power. They merely 
 make it the duty of the legislatures to exercise certain powers which 
 would have existed in just as full a manner if they had not been in- 
 serted ; but would have remained undistinguished in the mass of legis- 
 lative discretion. 
 
 4. " The perfection of civil liberty is the power to do as we j^lease^ with- 
 out infringing the rights of others.^'' 
 
 Perfect men would need no government. Each one knowing his own 
 rights and the rights of others, would content himself with quietly 
 enjoying that which belonged to him, without molesting his neighbor. 
 Neither life, liberty, nor property would be in danger from human 
 violence, and therefore no laws would be necessary for their protection. 
 In such a state, government would be unnecessary and unknown. Men 
 would not choose legislators ; for they would need no laws. They would 
 not be taxed to support armies and navies, for there would be no enemy 
 to encounter. They would not pay their money to build prisons and 
 support the officers of the law, for none would commit violence upon 
 their persons or depredations on their property. Each would be his 
 own ruler, perfectly free and perfectly just. 
 
 It should be the object of government to place the honest and upright 
 man, as nearly as possible, in this condition. It cannot make him more 
 free than it finds him. Its only legitimate object is to 2^rotect him in 
 the enjoyment of his freedom. He does not ask government to take the 
 property of others and give it to him, or to subject their persons to his 
 control. All he asks is that it shall protect him in the enjoyment of 
 his property, and shield his character and person from the assaults of 
 bad men. He is justly taxed and cheerfully pays a sum sufficient to 
 support an adequate number of officers to perform these duties. He 
 aska for no advantage over others ; he only demands that others shall 
 have no advantage over him. Men thus governed could enjoy ''the 
 
432 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 highest degree of liberty and equality of which mankind is susceptible 
 in the social state." 
 
 The only use of government is to keep off evil. We do not want its 
 -assistance in seeking after good. Providence protects us, and leaves us 
 to our own will. If Infinite Wisdom has deemed it inexpedient to in- 
 fringe upon human liberty, even to promote human happiness, shall this 
 prerogative be assumed by a fallible government] He is as much a 
 slave who is forced to his own good, as he who is unwillingly plunged 
 into evil. That government is as much a tyranny which forces the 
 Laplander, contrary to his will, into the genial climes of the South, as 
 that which drives the unhappy Pole to the frozen deserts of Siberia. 
 Violation of human will is the violation of human liberty, and when it 
 is not necessary to the protection of the rights of others it is tyranny 
 and oppression, whether exercised for good or for evil. 
 
 Men do not complain of government for compelling the payment of 
 just debts ; for protecting their reputation, restraining the trespasser, 
 punishing the thief, executing the murderer, and shielding them from 
 the ravages of a foreign enemy. It is not for acts like these that dis- 
 contents arise, rebellions are engendered, and revolutions break forth. 
 These occur only when government departs from its legitimate objects, 
 — " when the laws undertake to add to natural and just advantages 
 artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, 
 to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful." A government 
 perfectly just is not to be expected ; because that very imperfection of 
 our nature which makes it indispensable, necessarily mingles in its 
 administration. But the more deeply impressed the people and public 
 officers are with the legitimate objects of government, the nearer will it 
 approach to perfection, less cause will be given for discontent, and less 
 frequent will be rebellions and revolutions. 
 
 5. " We consider ability^ integrity, and fidelity to the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of our republican institutions necessary qualifications for every office 
 of honor or trust in our repuhlic.^^ 
 
 All concede the necessity of ability and integrity as qualifications for 
 office ; but in selections for executive and judicial offices, too little re- 
 gard is generally paid to correct political principles. Perhaps it is 
 unfortunate in a free government that office carries with it some degree 
 of political influence. The respect of some, the interest of others, and 
 his commanding position give to the opinions of a public officer more 
 weight with the people than generally attends those of a private citizen. 
 It is important, therefore, that public offices shall be held by men of 
 correct political principles. The people do not hesitate to put men in 
 office or out according to the principles which they profess and practise. 
 It is the only process by which their own principles can be made to pre- 
 
REMOVALS FROM OFFICE. 
 
 433 
 
 vail in the administration of their government. The same reason exists 
 why other officers, not chosen by the people, should accord with them 
 in their views of government and its administration. On this ground 
 it may be maintained that it is the duty of those intrusted with the 
 administration of the government, to fill all offices in their gift with 
 those who have proved by profession and practice their devotion to the 
 fundamental principles of our institutions. Would the Emperor of 
 Austria or the Autocrat of Russia fill his cabinet, his bureaus, or his 
 clerkships with known republicans in principle ? They understand too 
 well the effect of excluding their friends, and giving place and influence 
 to the enemies of their despotic principles, to be guilty of such suicidal 
 acts. Should republicans be less regardful of the principles which form 
 the basis of their institutions and the means to give them practical 
 effect 1 Should they place the offices of the republic in the hands of 
 those who would desti'oy it ^ If monarchs are so true to themselves, should 
 not republican magistrates be true to the people ? Is it not their duty 
 to fill the offices in their gift with men who have proved themselves 
 devoted to popular rights ? 
 
 Offices in our government are created for the good of the people, and 
 not to provide places for the personal favorites of the chief magistrate 
 or any other man or men. For the people are they established, and at 
 the expense of the people are they maintained. They should be limited 
 in number to the actual exigencies of the public service, and filled with 
 men of talents, integrity, industry, and pure republican principles. No 
 man has a property in the office he holds. It is a trust for the people, 
 and whenever the people, or those whom they have selected to superin- 
 tend that portion of their public service, think proper to place the trust 
 in other hands, no personal ivrong is done to him who is displaced. As 
 a matter of expediency and humanity, individual inconvenience or dis- 
 tress should not be produced without cause ; but in no case can the dis- 
 placed officer complain that he is deprived of any personal right. 
 
 Dishonesty, indolence, imbecility, immorality, and anti-republican 
 principles constitute, respectively, reasons which make it the duty of 
 those having the power to change the incumbents of public offices. 
 Not the convenience or interests of office-holders or their friends, but 
 the public good should be the supreme law in all appointments and 
 removals. 
 
 REMOVALS FROM OFFICE. 
 
 The following extract from a circular to postmasters designates 
 the principles governing Mr. Kendall with reference to the re- 
 moval of postmasters and clerks : — 
 
 " I have set out upon the principle of not suffering any party or other 
 
 28 
 
434 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 movement to procure the removal of good, faithful, and quiet men, what- 
 ever may be their political opinions, and I mean to persist in it. Brawl- 
 ers of any party, who make politics instead of attention to their official 
 duties their constant occupation, I mean to cut adrift from the public 
 service, if I cannot otherwise conquer that propensity. All the support 
 I ask for the administration from postmasters is a faithful, polite, and 
 obliging performance of their duties, contenting themselves with the 
 exercise of their own rights without attempting to proselyte others." 
 
 These are the principles upon which he steadfastly acted, and 
 upon which, as he always maintained, every public officer of the 
 government should act. 
 
 In more than one instance, when obliged to remove clerks for 
 inefficiency, causing apparent hardship and distress, he made con- 
 tributions for their relief from his slender private purse, having 
 them conveyed indirectly to the parties, who never knew or sus- 
 pected their benefactor. 
 
 RETIREMENT FROM THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Mr. Kendall was often admonished by attacks of indisposition 
 that the arduous labor and constant demands of a faithful admin- 
 istration of the Post-Office Department involved a too severe strain 
 upon his delicate though elastic physical organization. 
 
 In 1838 he intimated to the President his fears upon the sub- 
 ject, and in response received a letter dated August 6th of that 
 year, in which Mr. Van Buren wrote : — 
 
 " I have read the account of the state of your health with great pain. 
 Your retirement from a post for which you are so eminently qualified 
 would be a positive and great detriment to the public service, and to be 
 regretted on every account. Should your anticipations, however, be 
 realized, we must make the best of it, and it would, I assure you, give 
 me great pleasure to confer on you the mission to Spain if the retire- 
 ment of the present incumbent puts it in my power to do so. This, 
 we have strong reasons for believing, will be the case, as Mr. Gaston 
 has declared his intention to return soon.'' 
 
 Finding, soon after this, his health somewhat improved, Mr. 
 Kendall yielded to the wishes of others and continued to per- 
 form the duties of his office until May, 1840, when, greatly 
 enfeebled by frequent attacks of sickness, he resigned his office 
 and retired forever from public service. The following is his 
 letter of resignation : — 
 
ME. KENDALL'S RESIGNATION. 435 
 
 Post-Office Department, May 9, 1840. 
 M. Van Buren, President of the United States : — 
 
 SiE, — Impelled by a painful sense of responsibility for duties which 
 feeble health renders it impossible for me to perform, I tender you my 
 resignation of the office of Postmaster-General, to take effect as soon as 
 my successor can be appointed. 
 
 For some months I have had this step in contemplation ; but desiring 
 to promote some beneficial changes in the Post-Office establishment, I 
 lived in hope that the mild air of spring would bring with it a renovated 
 health which would enable me to devote myself to these objects until 
 the approach of another winter. In this flattering hope I have been 
 disappointed. 
 
 Although I find no cause of regret in surrendering a high and honor- 
 able trust, and retiring to a private station, it is not without reluctance 
 that I separate from the administration at a time when it is most vio- 
 lently and unjustly assailed ; when, with vigorous health, I might do 
 something more at the head of a great Department to exemplify the 
 purity of its principles ; and when the motives of the step I now take 
 may be misunderstood by some and misrepresented by others. And 
 this feeling is strengthened by severing my official relations with your- 
 self and the gentlemen of your cabinet, from whom I have received so 
 many evidences of confidence and kindness. 
 
 To correct any erroneous impressions, I shall omit no proper occasion 
 to make known to my countrymen, that so far from being actuated by 
 any dissatisfaction with you or your administration, I leave you with a 
 respect and regard which have increased from the commencement of our 
 official association, and with an abiding faith that the principles you 
 maintain are the only ones which can preserve to the people of the 
 United States the blessings of freedom and just government. 
 
 With enduring gratitude for the kindness I have uniformly received 
 at your hands, I remain, personally and politically, 
 
 Your devoted friend, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Perhaps no man ever laid down his honors with a prouder 
 consciousness of having done his duty faithfuUy and fearlessly, 
 unmoved by threats or calumny, undeterred from what he con- 
 ceived to be the line of strict honesty by the favor of friends 
 
 or the fear of enemies. 
 
 The " American Cyclopedia " does him but simple justice when 
 
 it says : — 
 
 '' He was also one of the earliest friends of common schools in Ken- 
 
436 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 tucky, and succeeded in procuring the passing of an act to district 
 the State, and to set apart one half of the profits of the Bank of the 
 Commonwealth to constitute a school fund." While Postmaster-General, 
 he " in one year succeeded in reorganizing the financial system of the 
 Department, and in freeing it from the debt with which it had been 
 embarrassed. In 1836 he procured from Congress a reorganization of 
 the Department, on a plan suggested by himself, which has undergone 
 no essential alteration since." 
 
 In reply to his letter of resignation Mr. Kendall received the 
 following from President Van Buren : — 
 
 "Washington, May 15, 1840. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — I received your letter tendering your resignation of 
 the office of Postmaster-General, to take effect as soon as your successor 
 can be appointed. 
 
 Though in some measure prepared for this event by previous intima- 
 tions on your part, and from frequent observation of the eff'ects produced 
 by an unremitting assiduity in the performance of your high and re- 
 sponsible duties, yet this neither diminishes my sense of the loss which 
 both the public and myself will sustain by your withdrawal, nor my 
 regret at the occasion which renders it necessary. 
 
 To say that the manner in which you have performed those duties has 
 met ray entire approbation, is, I am sure, unnecessary, after an official 
 intercourse in every respect so satisfactory. Still, I cannot in justice 
 to my own feelings refrain from assuring you that the high opinion 
 of your talents and integrity which I entertained when you became a 
 member of my cabinet, has been steadily and uniformly augmented by 
 a daily observance of the capacity, firmness, zeal, and disinterestedness 
 with which you have uniformly administered the affairs of the Depart- 
 ment over which you presided with so much honor to yourself and 
 benefit to your country. 
 
 Be assured that I cordially reciprocate your expressions of personal 
 regard, that I shall anxiously look for your early restoration to health, 
 and will never cease to take a deep interest in your happiness and wel- 
 fare. 
 
 I am, dear sir, very respectfully, your sincere friend, 
 
 MARTIN VAN BUREN. 
 To Amos Kendall, Esq. 
 
 Eecruited and refreshed by a few months' rest, in February, 
 1841, Mr. Kendall began at Washington the publication of a small 
 sheet, issued bi-weekly, called " Kendall's Expositor." 
 
WHAT IS DEMOCRACY. ^3^ 
 
 In Lis inaugural he thus sets forth the principles upon which he 
 proposes to conduct his " little paper " : — 
 
 WHAT IS DEMOCRACY. 
 
 The Democracy we advocate is justice between man and man, be- 
 tween state and state, and between nation and nation. It is morality. 
 It is "giving to every man his due." It is "doing unto others as we 
 would have them do unto us." It advocates the banishment of false- 
 hood, fraud, and violence from the affairs of men. It is the moral code 
 of all true philosophy ; it is a fundamental doctrine of " Him who spake 
 as never man spake " ; it is the perfection of reason and the law of 
 God. 
 
 Some teach that Democracy is incompatible with peace and justice. 
 On the contrary, peace and justice are its natural fruits, and it is only 
 in the degree that its principles are recognized in government that they 
 are enjoyed by mankind. The first law of the universe is order ; yet 
 storms desolate the globe and earthquakes rend it. These appear to be 
 violations of the universal law, and, in our limited view, they might so 
 mingle earth and ocean as to destroy mankind, as they once did all but 
 one family, and now do individuals, families, and cities. Why these 
 evils exist, is known only to the Omniscient Mind ; man cannot control 
 them or mitigate their fury ; all he can do is to ward them off" by frail 
 and temporary expedients. 
 
 By passion, en-or, and wickedness, storms are also generated in the 
 moral and political world, which violate the law of order, break over the 
 barriers of right and reason, and make man the victim of violence and 
 rapacity. Why these wrongs are permitted, is known only to the 
 Almighty Ruler; but man himself has power not alone to avoid or 
 mitigate their eff^ects, but in a measure to dry up their fountains. 
 
 In the physical world, he cannot ascend to the clouds and assuage 
 the storm ere it reaches the earth ; he can only build him a house, and 
 resort to other expedients to shield himself from the rain, the wind, and 
 the snow. In the moral world, he can do more ; he can ascend to the 
 sources of the evil ; he can instruct the mind and improve the heart, 
 not only his own but those of his fellow-men. 
 
 We should think a man mad who would refuse to build a house be- 
 cause he could not prevent the recurrence of storms ; and is he less a 
 madman who will refuse to take those equally essential and more effec- 
 tive steps to guard against storms in the moral and political world to 
 which he finds himself exposed] When his buildings and fences are 
 prostrated by a tornado, or swept away by an inundation, he proceeds 
 to rebuild them in gi'eater strength than before ; and shall he have less 
 
438 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 courage and perseverance in his labors to secure himself and his chil- 
 dren against those mischiefs which spring from his own passions and 
 ignorance, or the passions, ignorance, and wickedness of his fellow-men 1 
 If he cannot exterminate the evil, is it wise not to take the steps within 
 his power to mitigate its force and avert its calamities ] Sad would be 
 the condition of man if he were to make no exertion, bodily or mental, 
 because he cannot do the work of Omnipotence. Despair is no part of 
 the character of a Christian, a philosopher, or a democrat. He knows 
 that perpetual resistance to evil is the duty and labor of his hfe. He 
 knows that the physical condition of man can be ameliorated ; for to 
 that fact he has the concurrent testimony of history, observation, and 
 experience. He knows that his moral condition may be improved ; for 
 he witnesses an advancement in virtue and knowledge, not only in indi- 
 viduals but in nations. He feels that he can aid in this progress both 
 by precept and example. He can improve himself, he can contribute 
 to the improvement of others, and he knows not to what degree of per- 
 fection his race is capable of advancing. In what he sees and knows, 
 there is ground for glorious hope and unceasing exertion. 
 
 ■ It is with a determination to emulate this spirit that we enter upon 
 our duties as editor of this paper. Individually, perhaps, no man has 
 more grounds for discouragement than the writer of this article. 
 Though endeavoring to live a life of unsullied morality, and to do his 
 duty in public stations without favor or fear, he has been hunted and 
 pursued by a thousand presses, and ten thousand tongues, as if he 
 was a robber and an outlaw. Without knowing why, thousands 
 of honest men have been made to believe, by countless libels and 
 slanders which it was as impossible to meet and refiite as it is to catch 
 in a bucket all the raindrops of a storm, that he is one of the worst of 
 the human race. His life has been threatened, and his assassination 
 publicly spoken of as a desirable thing. Men who profess rehgion, iu 
 this city, have used in relation to him expressions ill becoming the 
 gospel creed, such as that " he ought to have his throat cut, and his 
 house burned over his head." Recently, in Cincinnati, some of his friends 
 were told that if they dared to give him a public dinner he should 
 never leave that city alive. Threats, accompanied by shocking impre- 
 cations, are still occasionally uttered against his person. For acts when 
 in office, as conscientious as ever flowed from the heart of man, he is 
 pursued with a private suit, claiming $ 100,000 in damages, and a jury 
 have been induced (honestly, he trusts, yet with a want of charity with 
 which he hopes they may never be judged here or hereafter) to punish 
 him with a penalty of $ 12,000, to be taken out of his private fortune, 
 if so much he has. 
 
 All this comes upon him for resisting wrong, and attempting to do 
 
WHAT IS DEMOCRACY. 439 
 
 right in office and out. If he had indulged in the profligate habits 
 which prevail too extensively in this city ; if he had wasted his sub- 
 stance and destroyed his health in intemperate eating and drinking, 
 instead of devoting body and mind to the public service ; if he had 
 accepted the favors of powerful mail contractors, and paid them by 
 extra allowances instead of resisting their exorbitant demands, and 
 treating alike the humble and the high, he would not now, with broken 
 constitution and in private life, be subjected to these persecutions. 
 
 But what of that 1 Shall we give up that consciousness of right which 
 dwells within us, and become the advocate of bad principles and the 
 associate of bad men to avoid the mischiefs which they bring upon us 1 
 What should we think of the man who, because an invading foe had 
 plundered and burned his house, should join them in plundering and 
 burning the houses of his neighbors 1 He is not less a traitor to his 
 country than the man who abandons sound principles and good morals 
 to escape the responsibility of being honest. Such a traitor we shall 
 never be, though beggary and assassination be our lot. 
 
 No ; we shall endeavor more strenuously than ever to prove, by precept 
 and example, that moral rectitude is the basis of society and the surest 
 guarantee of happiness. 
 
 That honesty in politics and in office is, if possible, more the duty of 
 every good citizen than honesty in his private dealings. 
 
 That to cheat men out of their suffrages by wilful falsehoods, or out 
 of their choice of rulers by illegal votes, is a worse treason than that 
 for which men in some countries are hanged, drawn, and quartered. 
 
 That no law or institution is safe for individuals, communities, or 
 nations which is not based oa equal justice. 
 
 That, while violent changes are to be avoided, it is the interest of the 
 people, and their right, gradually to bring back their laws and institu- 
 tions to the standard of moral principle, wherever they have departed 
 
 from it. 
 
 That to protect man in the possession of personal liberty, and the 
 exercise of equal political power, is the first duty of government, and 
 to protect him in the unmolested enjoyment of the honest fruits of his 
 own labor and skill is its second. 
 
 That no man, state, or nation, has a right to interfere with or control 
 the conduct of another, except in defence of his own rights and powers, 
 or in fulfilment of his obligations as a member of society. 
 
 That in the assumption of men, states, and nations, to judge for 
 others, instead of confining themselves to self-protection and the per- 
 formance of their civil and social duties, leaving others " to their own 
 master, to stand or fall," is found the source of much of that blood- 
 shed, degradation, and slavery, which overspread the earth. 
 
440 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Aspiring to no office, neither having nor intending to have business 
 connections with the government, and relying for our only income and 
 support on the subscriptions of the people for our little paper, we feel 
 as free as we are determined to expose the abuses of government in all 
 its branches, while it is our firm purpose to avoid abuse altogether, and 
 to deal in denunciation only when imperious duty shall require it at our 
 hands. 
 
 In the fall of 1841, finding that in consequence of the pro- 
 ceeding against him by Stockton and Stokes he would be obliged 
 to remain in the District for some considerable time, he negotiated 
 for the purchase of a tract of about one hundred acres of land ad- 
 joining the city limits on the northeast, for a permanent home- 
 stead. He immediately began to build a frame dwelling, twenty- 
 six feet square, intending it for a temporary habitation until he 
 could erect a better. 
 
 In February, 1842, he moved into the house, then unfinished and 
 scarcely comfortable. 
 
 The income from the " Expositor " having materially diminished, 
 the idea of building a new house was abandoned for the time, and 
 2/[x. Kendall found serious difficulty in meeting his payments on 
 the place. At one time he utterly despaired of fulfilling these 
 pressing obligations, and sought relief by proposing to surrender 
 the whole property to the party of whom he purchased, and be- 
 come his tenant, expressing a willingness to sacrifice one half of 
 his improvements. The proposition was declined in hopes of a 
 better ! Though he paid all he could, offered to restore the title 
 of the property to the original owner and become his tenant, or 
 to let him dispose of it if he could, the return for all this was the 
 service of an injunction upon him, restraining him from cutting 
 the wood. 
 
 There was every prospect of losing the farm, payments, improve- 
 ments, and all ; but the timely loan of $ 2,000 saved the place, and 
 gave grateful relief to Mr. Kendall and family. 
 
 Having thus driven the wolf from the door, Mr. Kendall ad- 
 dressed himself assiduously to farming and editing. Kendall 
 Green (the name by which he called his place) and "Kendall's 
 Expositor " kept him fully occupied. 
 
 The possession of a piece of land he could call his own, and 
 manage according to the dictates of his fancy, had long been with 
 him a cherished dream. It was realized at last, though the real 
 
A SHORT SERMON. ^^-^ 
 
 Arcadia differed somewhat from the ideal. The difference was 
 caused by the ghostly creditor whose unwelcome shadow too 
 frequently darkened this coveted retirement. 
 
 Mr. Kendall was blessed with a wife who accommodated herself 
 to her husband's circumstances, maintained a cheerful disposition, 
 and practised the true philosophy of making the best of every- 
 thing. Often has she remarked to the writer that she never en- 
 joyed more real happiness than when living in the small, unfinished 
 frame-house at Kendall Green. Their circle of friends was small, 
 but the quality very choice. 
 
 In this situation the editor of the "Expositor" supplied his 
 readers, at regular periods, with strong meat, calculated to develop 
 the strength and muscle of the democracy. 
 
 His articles were noted for their simplicity, perspicuity, and 
 vigor. Discarding learned phrases, he selected for the most part 
 the pure Saxon. The little paper wielded an influence vainly 
 sought by its contemporaries of larger pretensions, and won for 
 its editor a reputation as a political writer attained by few if any 
 in modern times. We subjoin a few extracts : — 
 
 A SHORT SERMON. 
 Text. — "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work." — Exodus xx. 9. 
 
 My Fellow-Men : — This is the command of God ! It is a part of 
 the fourth commandment in the moral code given by God through 
 Moses. In the Bible the whole commandment reads thus : — 
 
 " Verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 
 
 "9. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work ; 
 
 "10. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God ; in it thou shalt 
 not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy 
 maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates ; 
 
 " 11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in 
 them is^ and rested the seventh day ; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, 
 and hallowed it." 
 
 By the preaching you generally hear, you may have been led to sup- 
 pose that this commandment makes but a single requisition upon you, 
 and that is, to "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." But a 
 little attention to the language of the commandment must satisfy you 
 that in effect it is a double commandment. It commands you to work 
 six days, just as imperatively as to rest on the seventh. Look at it : 
 *' Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." "Six days shalt thou 
 labor, and do all thy work." 
 
 How can a command be given in more plain and imperative language 1 
 
442 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 *' Six days shalt thou labor," not six days may est thou labor ; not six 
 days mayest thou spend in idleness and waste thy time in unproductive 
 folly. Six days shalt thou labor for the good of thyself, thy family, thy 
 country, and thy race ; I exact from thee only one day out of seven ; 
 but I command thee to labor the other six for the subsistence, the com- 
 fort, and the happiness of mankind. 
 
 That this is the meaning of the text is clear, not only from its lan- 
 guage, but from its history. God himself worked six days before he 
 rested one. " For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the 
 sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day." The com- 
 mandment is founded on this example set by the Creator himself. The 
 first part of that example is six days' labor j the rest on the seventh 
 was but a consequence. He commands man, therefore, to do precisely 
 what he did himself, — work six days and rest on the seventh. 
 
 Long before this commandment was given, man was doomed to labor 
 as a part of the penalty for his first transgression. " In the sweat of 
 thy face shalt thou eat bread," said God to Adam, Genesis iii. 19, ''till 
 thou return unto the ground." And St. Paul said, long afterwards, 
 2 Thessalonians iii. 10, "This we commanded you, that if any would 
 not work, neither should he eat.'' 
 
 Thus we find that man was doomed to work ; that he was com- 
 manded to work ; and that he ought to have nothing to eat if he will 
 not work. " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," said God to 
 Adam. " Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work," said God to 
 Moses. ** He that will not work, neither should he eat," said Paul to the 
 Thessalonians. 
 
 Our country is not wanting in preachers of rest ; but where are our 
 preachers of work 1 How many sermons have we upon man's duty to 
 rest on the seventh day, but how few upon his duty to work the other 
 six ! Yet, it may well be doubted, whether more moral evils do not 
 flow from breaches of the working part of this commandment than of the 
 resting part. Nay, do not gospel preachers themselves promote disobe- 
 dience when they lead off men and women, during the six days, from 
 their ordinary occupations, before they have done all their work*? 
 " Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work." There can be no 
 escape from this command until all the work be done ; and he who ad- 
 vises man or woman to leave his work undone, even for purposes most 
 praiseworthy under other circumstances, counsels him to disobey a 
 direct command of the Almighty. 
 
 But the evils arising from a breach of the commandment under such 
 circumstances are but an atom compared with those which spring from 
 the efforts of men to live without work. 
 
 Man is doomed and commanded to work. The world is filled with 
 
A SHORT SERMON. 
 
 443 
 
 misery, violence, and crime by perpetual efforts to escape his doom, in 
 defiance of the command ! Would every man be content to labor six 
 days in seven, how much better would be his health, how much more 
 happy his family, how much more prosperous his country! For at- 
 tempting to escape his doom, and for bidding defiance to the command 
 of the Almighty, he is cursed in his health, cursed in his family, and 
 cursed in the troubles of his country. Did the evils fall upon the indi- 
 vidual transgressor only, they would not be so much to be deplored ; 
 but it is necessary for those who live without work to get their sub- 
 sistence out of the labor of others. Humble and honest men, who, 
 cheerfully submitting to the doom of their race, and obeying the com- 
 mand, are content to work in their various avocations upon the land 
 and the sea six days in the week, are grievously taxed to feed the rebels 
 against God's authority who refuse to work. Grievous impositions are 
 practised upon the true and obedient children of the Almighty, in as 
 many ways as the first great Kebel can invent. One puts a crown on 
 his head and tells them he is authorized by God to dispose of their 
 property, labor, and lives according to his own will. He takes their 
 substance to feed and clothe himself and family, his officers and armies ; 
 he compels them to sacrifice their lives in the conquest or plunder of 
 other countries, for the gratification of his vengeance, ambition, or 
 avarice. Others deck their heads with tiaras, coronets, and stars, and 
 make the people work to keep them bright, and feed and enrich the 
 haughty wearers. As the mass of mankind advance in knowledge, it 
 becomes necessary to disguise under ingenious contrivances the process 
 by which the products of their labor are taken from them for the sup- 
 port and emolument of those who refuse to work. The blasphemy of 
 claiming a right to govern '' by the grace of God " is no longer heard ; 
 but still the world has monarchs who '' can do no wrong." One of these 
 goes to war; the public "honor" and " safety " require that he shall 
 have money to carry it on. Perhaps, not being able or willing to raise 
 enough by taxation, he borrows a thousand millions of dollars, and then 
 the "public faith" requires that the interest and principal shall be 
 paid. If he borrow so much that payment of the principal becomes 
 hopeless, yet "public faith," taking the place of the "divine right of 
 kings," from generation to generation starves the families of those who 
 obey Heaven's command to work six days in the seven, for the support 
 of those who will not work at all ! ! 
 
 We will not follow this chain of reasoning, lest we should seem to 
 tread on what may be considered "holy ground." But we beg our 
 readers to consider how much better would have been the condition of 
 our own country if all our people had been content to obey the command, 
 " Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work," instead of resorting to 
 
444 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 so many expedients to live without work. How many have lost all they 
 had, and made themselves and families miserable through life, by specu- 
 lations entered into for the purpose of enabling them to live in idleness *? 
 What but this has caused the public distress of which we hear so much 1 
 What else has almost banished punctuality and moral honesty from the 
 transactions of individuals and corporations'? What else has created 
 such bitter strife between man and man, and generated the agitation, 
 profligacy, and crime which now stalk abroad in the land 1 
 
 Does any one suppose that human legislation can cure the evils pro- 
 duced by a violation of God's commands 1 Vain expectation ! If suc- 
 cessful in putting bread into the mouths of those who will not work, 
 human law-makers can effect it only by taking it out of the mouths of 
 those who do. It would be relieving those who set at naught the laws 
 of nature and of God, at the expense of the hiunble and honest men 
 who yield them a practical obedience. There is a better and more just 
 mode of relief It is future obedience to God's commands. Let every 
 man hereafter, instead of applying to the legislature of his State or to 
 Congress for relief, labor six days in the week, and do all his work. 
 Misery will vanish like the mists of the morning, and complaint will no 
 more be heard in the land. 
 
 Let the legislatures and Congress, when asked to put bread in the 
 mouth of idleness, say to the petitioners as St. Paul did to the Thessa- 
 lonians, first epistle, iii. 11, 12 : ** And that ye study to be quiet, and 
 to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we com- 
 manded you ; that ye may walk honestly towards them that are with- 
 out, and that ye may have lack of nothing." And again, in his second 
 epistle, iii. 10, 11 : "For even when we were with you, this we com- 
 manded you, that if any would not work, neither should be eat. For 
 we hear that there are some which w^alk among you disorderly, wording 
 not at all, but are busybodies.'' And let the preachers of the gospel 
 be advised to give more attention in their preaching to the doctrine of 
 work. They may be assured that one of the best ways to persuade men 
 to rest on the seventh day, is to induce them to work on the other six. 
 Let them impress upon their hearers their obligation to keep the com- 
 mandment as a whole. It is a double cord, and they cannot divide it 
 without weakening its binding power and salutary efl'ects. 
 
 DEATH OF PRESIDENT HARRISON. 
 
 This melancholy event occurred on Sunday morning, the 4th day of 
 April, 1841. 
 
 Just one month from his inauguration, has General Harrison been 
 summoned to the presence of the Almighty Ruler. He is no longer 
 
A FABLE. 
 
 445 
 
 responsible to the sons of men for his acts, and let the grave cover his 
 foibles and his errors. 
 
 Upon his family this bereavement comes with peculiar force. What 
 high anticipations are in a moment blasted ! They have not enjoyed 
 the elevation of their place long enough to find out how vain, and hol- 
 low, and delusive are the promises of happiness with which high station 
 dazzles poor mortals. The rainbow of hope is made to vanish before 
 they know how unsubstantial are its brilliant colors, and this it is, added 
 to the pang which attends the severance of domestic ties, which makes 
 them objects deserving universal commiseration. 
 
 Upon our country the eflfect of this dispensation cannot be at once 
 perceived. Would to God the surviving leaders of the Whig party 
 would mark the last words of their dying chief and let them sink deep 
 into their hearts ! As if half chiding an erring friend, perhaps with 
 the dim and delirious recollection of some real scene which had passed 
 in his cabinet, he said, " Sir, I wish you to imderstand the true prin- 
 ciples of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing 
 
 more." 
 
 If his successor, throwing aside every other consideration, will obey 
 this dying injunction, and carry out "the true principles of the gov- 
 ernment," our country, though she may mourn the loss of an honored 
 son, may realize in the change more than she had a right to expect 
 from his hands. 
 
 A FABLE. 
 Uncle Sam and his Dogs. 
 
 Uncle Sam had two dogs, Cesar and Pompey. Having but a single 
 bone one day after dinner, he gave it to Pompey, and lay down to 
 take a nap. He was scarcely asleep before Cesar began to quarrel with 
 Pompey, who was quietly gnawing his bone in the corner. Cesar growled 
 at Pompey, and Pompey growled back at Cesar. Cesar showed his teeth 
 and bristled up his hair, and so did Pompey. Cesar put his paws on 
 Pompey, and Pompey knocked them off with his paws. Cesar tried to 
 bite Pompey, and Pompey tried to bite Cesar. In short, they got into 
 a fierce fight for the bone, Cesar to get it and Pompey to keep it. 
 
 In the midst of the fight, one of Uncle Sam's sons came in. '' Pom- 
 pey," says he, " what are you quarrelling about T' 
 
 *' Cesar wants my bone, and I am trying to keep it," said Pompey. 
 
 "You vile dog," says Daniel, "how dare you to fight for your bone? 
 Father gave it to you to gnaw, and not to fight about ! Here, Cesar, 
 take the bone," and so saying he kicked Pompey out of doors. 
 
 By this time the noise had awakened the old gentleman, who came oat 
 to see what was the matter. 
 
446 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 *'Dan," says he, *' what is this fuss about 1" 
 
 " The rascal, Pompey," says Dan, " has been fighting for his bone, and 
 knowing you did not give it him to fight about I gave it to Cesar, and 
 kicked him out of doors." 
 
 " How came he to fight for his bone 1 " 
 
 " Cesar attempted to take it away from him/' 
 
 " So Cesar began the fight 1 " 
 
 *' Yes, sir.'* 
 
 "Ah, my son," said the old gentleman with a sigh, "you have done 
 very wrong. Pompey would not have fought for his bone if Cesar had 
 not tried to take it away from him ; so that Cgsar is the worse dog of 
 the two. Indeed, Pompey was only defending the bone I gave him, and 
 yet you punish him and reward his assailant. If you want to prevent 
 quarrelling among the dogs about the bones I give them, you must first 
 kick out of doors those who fight to get them ; if those to whom I have 
 given them then make a disturbance, kick them out too ; but I seldom 
 knew a dog quarrelsome so long as he was permitted to gnaw his bone 
 in peace. 
 
 " Take a lesson from this, my son, and if you ever get to be President, 
 and wish to prevent contention about the offices, first kick out of doors 
 the office-seekers, and then kick after them every dog of an office-holder 
 who will not gnaw his bone in peace." 
 
 ANOTHER SERMON. 
 
 Text. — " It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer ; but ye have 
 made it a den of thieves." — Matthew xxi. 13. 
 
 This was the exclamation of Jesus, the Saviour, when he cast out of 
 the temple at Jerusalem " them that sold and bought, and overthrew the 
 tables of the money-changers.'' Trade and brokerage, with all their 
 arts and falsehoods, had obtruded themselves into the temple of God, 
 into the sanctuary where the Most High was wont to hold intercourse 
 with the children of men, and the first effort of the great reformer was 
 to drive them back to their appropriate haunts. 
 
 The great creation was God's first temple. His presence is in the 
 sun, moon, and stars ; in the earth, air, and sea. The mountains are 
 his altars, and the ocean his laver. Incense ascends to him from all 
 that is flowering and green ; the day resounds with songs and praise ; 
 the night is mute with devotion and adoration. His voice is in the 
 thunder ; the lightnings are the twinklings of his eye. His power is 
 exhibited in the raging wind, the rushing waters, the consuming fire, 
 and the heaving earthquake ; his goodness in the gentle breeze, the re- 
 freshing shower, the genial sun, and the earth glowing with beauty and 
 teeming with comforts and delights. 
 
ANOTHER SERMON. ^^y 
 
 In the midst of this temple man was placed, to adore the builder and 
 enjoy perpetual bhss. God wanted no other house; and men needed 
 no other place of worship. It was all that the Creator or created could 
 want or desire. But what has man done 1 He has marred the building 
 and converted it into "a den of thieves." 
 
 We shall attempt to point out briejay how this desecration has been 
 effected, and then glance at the remedy. 
 
 1. The first step towards desecrating God's temple was the introduction 
 of trade. There was no bargaining in Paradise until the Devil entered. 
 The first bargain ever struck was between the woman and her tempter, 
 in which she sold the happiness and immortality of herself, her husband, 
 and her posterity for a promise as false and delusive as a modern bank- 
 note. This bargain made men a bargaining race; and as the Devil 
 cheated Eve, so have her sons and daughters been cheated unto this 
 day. Scarcely a trade is attempted where a devil is not present whis- 
 pering some kind of misrepresentation or concealment, to enable one 
 party or both to circumvent their neighbor, and in nine tenths of the 
 stores and shops which abound in cities and villages, the spirits of evil 
 swarm like bees in a summer's day. Among clerks, he who can induce 
 the daughters of Eve to make the most purchases by the arts which 
 deceived their mother, gets the highest wages, being considered the best 
 "salesman." And men who give a premium for the best imitation of 
 the Devil's arts, and profit six days in the week by an incessant stream 
 of falsehood, go to meeting on the seventh and affect to worship the 
 God of truth that they may with the more effect serve themselves and 
 their real master during the coming six ! 
 
 Yet trade in itself is not immoral. Exchanges of property among 
 men, effected by frankness and truth, conduce to their comforts, their 
 intelligence, and their virtue. The mischief lies in the falsehood and 
 concealment which the desire to make many and good bargains tempts 
 60 many to commit. 
 
 2. The second step by which God's temple has been converted into 
 "a den of thieves " is the invention of money. When money was first 
 introduced among men, neither revelation nor history informs us. It 
 was not of God's creation ; the coining of money was no part of the first 
 six days' work ; nor did it constitute any portion of Adam's occupation 
 in Paradise. We are told that, before the flood, the son of Cain was 
 ''the father of such as wrought in iron and brass" ; but nothing is said 
 of gold and silver or of money. How Noah paid the builders of the 
 ark, or his descendants the workingmen upon the tower of Babel, has 
 not been recorded. The first account we have of money in the Scrip- 
 tures may be found in the twenty-third chapter of Genesis, where it is 
 stated that Abraham bought the field of Macbpelah for ''four hundred 
 
448 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 shekels of silver," verse 16 : "And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; 
 and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the 
 audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current 
 money with the merchant." 
 
 In chapter xxxiii., verse 19, we are told that Jacob ''bought a parcel 
 of a field where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of 
 Hamor, Shechem's father, for an hundred pieces of money." 
 
 Abraham weighed out the silver, and Jacob counted out the money, 
 showing that in Jacob's time, if not in Abraham's, money passed by the 
 count just as it does to this day. 
 
 The invention of money introduced no new principle into trade, but 
 merely facilitated its operations. Gold and silver were always valuable" 
 in all trading nations, whether cgined into money or not, and from the 
 earliest ages could be readily exchanged for other property. Coining 
 them is nothing more than dividing them into parcels of a definite and 
 uniform weight, after being reduced to the same standard of fineness, 
 so that, in being exchanged for other articles, they require neither 
 weighing nor examination. They did not derive their value from being 
 coined ; but they were coined because they were intrinsically valuable, 
 and of more uniform and more general value among mankind than any 
 other article. Because they were valuable, and because their quality 
 and weight when coined into money were defined by public authority, 
 they became at an early age the most desirable property among man- 
 kind. The universal scramble was for that kind of property called 
 money ; the temple of God was desecrated, not only by buyers and 
 sellers, but by money-changers ; and to such excesses did the accursed 
 lust for gold carry men, that an inspired Apostle said, "the love of 
 money is the root of all evil." 
 
 Yet money in itself is no gi-eater evil than any other article of mer- 
 chandise. Honestly obtained, and prudently applied, it is a valuable 
 auxiliary to human comfort and happiness, a powerful instrument in 
 spreading the blessings of civilization and the light of truth. It is by 
 the " love " of it, by the bad uses to which it has been applied, the 
 gratification of man's vicious appetites and passions, the buying of men 
 and women over to vice by its tempting lure, the hiring of assassins 
 and armies to scatter death and desolation through families and nations, 
 that money has been a tremendous engine in desecrating the original 
 temple of God. 
 
 3. But the most effective cause of the downward career of human vir- 
 tue now operating in the world, and especially in our own country, is the 
 introduction of paper-money, and more particularly the notes of banks, 
 companies, or individuals, to bo used as a substitute for money. There 
 were no banks or paper-money in Paradise. Men could be happy there 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. —DIALOGUE. 449 
 
 without them. For thousands and thousands of years, there were no 
 bank-notes among mankind ; all their business was managed very well 
 without them. Although one might think from the importance now 
 attached to banks and paper-money, that man cannot be happy without 
 them, there is no trace of any such contrivance in the Old Testament 
 or the New, among the prophets or the saints, or even among the 
 moralists, philosophers, or lawgivers of Greece or Rome, of Egypt or 
 Persia, of India or China. Neither Moses nor Jesus, Brahma nor Ma- 
 homet, Confucius nor Socrates ever taught or appear to have conceived 
 such a method to make a people happy or a country prosperous. 
 
 It would seem that the arch-enemy of man became dissatisfied with 
 the money of Abraham and Jacob, of the Greeks and Romans, of the 
 Jews and Gentiles. It had too much of truth in it ! The man who 
 exchanged his lands, his produce, or his goods for it, received value for 
 value. No failing individual, breaking bank, or tumbling government 
 could in a moment reduce him and his family to poverty and want. 
 His country might flame with revolution, invading armies might burn 
 his house and desolate his fields, here is a kind of property which, 
 buried in the earth until the storm has passed, may be dug from its 
 hiding-place, unimpaired in its value, which will at once procure him the 
 means of subsistence, or enable him to reach another land. This com- 
 fort and security to the humble man, limited and inadequate as it was, 
 still left him with something of good. To deprive him of this resource, 
 and provide means for inflicting new wrongs and tortures, the spirit of 
 evil appears to have devoted the utmost exertion of his inventive powers, 
 and the result was — paper money. 
 
 How this new invention operates to convert the temple of God into a 
 den of thieves, we shall show hereafter. 
 
 In September, 1841, " encouraged by improved health, and stim- 
 ulated by a desire to participate more largely in the discussion of 
 the great questions which engrossed the attention of the country," 
 Mr. Kendall issued his prospectus for the weekly publication of 
 the " Union Democrat," " devoted to the preservation of the Union 
 and the support of democracy." 
 
 TARIFF TAXATION. 
 Dialogue hetiveen tivo Farmers. 
 
 Farmer Smith. Neighbor Jones, you are always talking about the 
 tax that Congress has imposed on us by the bill increasing the duties on 
 goods brought from foreign parts. I am sure I pay no tax to the gov- 
 ernment at Washington. 
 
 29 
 
450 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Farmer Jones. You don't ! Don't you use salt in your family, and 
 give it to your cattle ? 
 
 Far. S. Certainly ; but I don't pay any tax on that. 
 
 Far. J. You do indeed ; the government takes from you one bushel 
 out of every six, or makes you pay for five bushels as much money as 
 would buy six if there was no tariff, and a little more. 
 
 Far. S. I don't understand that ; please to explain. 
 
 Far. J. The tariff imposes a tax of twenty per cent on all the salt 
 brought into the country, which the government makes the merchant 
 pay to its collectors in the cities. On every five bushels he lands from 
 the ships, the government makes him pay as much as one bushel is 
 worth. That increases the cost to him one fifth. When he goes to sell 
 it to the farmers, he adds what he pays the government to the price, 
 and so makes the farmers pay it back to him. Do you understand it ] 
 
 Far. S. I think I do. If the merchant pays a dollar for two bushels, 
 the government makes him pay twenty cents to the collector, and when 
 he comes to sell it to us he makes us pay him a dollar and twenty cents 
 for the two bushels. 
 
 Far. J. Exactly ', that is the principle ; but the practical effect is 
 worse than that. The merchant, you know, must have his profit on 
 all the money he pays out for the salt, whether to the maker, the im- 
 porter, or to the government. He adds the same rate of profit to the 
 twenty cents paid for duty as he does to the one dollar paid for the 
 salt. If his profit be twenty per cent, it amounts to four cents on the 
 duty, so that for every twenty cents the merchant pays the government, 
 the farmer pays twenty-four cents to the merchant. 
 
 Far. S. Yes, yes ; I see it now. But much of the salt we buy is 
 made in this country, and they don't tax us on that. 
 
 Far. J. It is all the same thing. The same tax" which compels the 
 importing merchant to raise the price of the salt, that comes from 
 abroad, twenty-four cents on every dollar's worth, enables the maker 
 of salt at home to increase the price of his salt twenty-four cents on 
 the dollar's worth also. 
 
 Far. S. I see that ; but it don't go to the government. 
 
 Far. J. Whom does it go to % 
 
 t'AR. S. To the salt-maker, I suppose. 
 
 Far. J. Exactly so ; and in that way the tariff makes the farmer pay 
 to the salt-maker twenty-four per cent more on every dollar's worth of 
 salt bought of him than he would have to pay if there was no tariff 
 at all. 
 
 Far. S. Mr. Clay says this is to protect home industry. 
 
 Far. J. Does that law protect your industry or mine, or that of any 
 other farmer, mechanic, or day laborer, which compels us to give twenty- 
 
TAEIFF TAXATION.— SECOND DIALOGUE. 451 
 
 four per cent, more for our salt than we would have to give if there was 
 no tariff at all 1 
 
 Far. S. Well, well, I never thought of this thing before ; I will go 
 home and think about it, and then talk with you again. 
 
 TARIFF TAXATION. 
 Second Dialogue between two Farmers. 
 
 Farmer Jones. Well, I have been thinking about the tax on salt, 
 and have had a talk with Tom Twist, our Whig candidate for the legis- 
 lature. 
 
 Farmer Smith. What says Mr. Twist 1 
 
 Far. J. He says, if the tariff did n't make us pay more than we 
 should otherwise have to pay for our salt, the salt-makers could n't buy 
 so much of our corn and meat, so that the tariff tax on salt improves 
 our market. 
 
 Far. S. Do you believe him 1 
 
 Far. J. Why it seems reasonable. 
 
 Far. S. If a fellow should steal five dollars out of your pocket, and 
 then buy your corn with it, would it do you any good 1 
 
 Far. J. Do me good to buy my com with my own money ! Non- 
 sense. 
 
 Far. S. Yet it would improve your market more than the tariff. The 
 thief improves your market one hundred per cent upon the amount he 
 takes from you, whereas the salt-maker, with the aid of the tariff, only 
 improves it twenty-four per cent. 
 
 Far. J. I'll tell Tom Twist about it. 
 
 Far. S. No, no ; think for yourself It is because we farmers pin 
 our faith too much on other men's sleeves that we are so much cheated 
 and taxed. 
 
 Far. J. Well, well, I did n't exactly understand you. 
 
 Far. S. Tom Twist says, the money the tariff takes from us improves 
 our market by enabling the salt-makers to buy more of our com. Well, 
 for the sake of argument, admit that Tom is right. The tariff now 
 takes twenty-four per cent, which, we will say, improves our market for 
 corn twenty-four per cent. 
 
 Far. J. Yes. 
 
 Far. S. Well, if it took fifty per cent, it would, on the same prin- 
 ciple, improve our market fifty per cent, would it noti 
 
 Far. J. Yes ; it seems so. 
 
 Far. S. And if it took eighty per cent, it would improve our market 
 
 eighty per cent ? 
 Far. J. Yes. 
 
452 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Far. S. And if it took one hundred per cent, it would make our 
 market just as good again, would it 1 
 
 Far. J. Why, that would be the same thing as stealing my own money 
 to buy my corn with ! 
 
 Far. S, Pretty much. You see now what Tom Twist's argument 
 amounts to. If a small tarifif improves our market a little, a large one 
 will improve it much more, so that the higher the tax the better for the 
 farmers taxed. What excellent markets we shall have when taxed to 
 the amount of all we can earn and a little more ! 
 
 Far. J. It is strange what different conclusions men will come to. 
 You and Mr. Twist, how different you make things look. 
 
 Far. S. Look here, brother farmer, would n't you like to get a better 
 price for your corn, in order that you may buy more salt than you do 
 now, to give to your cattle 1 
 
 Far. J. Certainly, if I could get it honestly. 
 
 Far. S. Well, if making us farmers pay twenty four per cent more 
 for salt improves our market for corn, by the same rule, making the 
 salt-maker pay twenty-four per cent more for com would improve his 
 market for salt, would it not 1 
 
 Far. J. I suppose it would ; " it is a poor rule that won't work both 
 ways.'' 
 
 Far. S. Well, the next time you see Tom Twist, do you ask him if it 
 would not be a good thing to improve the mai'ket for salt ; he will say 
 yes ; then tell him you have a plan founded on established principles, 
 by which that object can be effected, and that is, that when he gets 
 into the legislature he shall get a law passed making the salt-maket 
 pay twenty-four per cent more for our com, and then we can buy more 
 of his salt. 
 
 Far. J. Excellent ! I '11 put him up to it. Why should n't the law 
 make the salt-maker pay more for our corn, if it makes us pay more for 
 his salt ? And why should n't taxing him improve his market, if taxing 
 us improves our market 'i 
 
 Far. S. Just so ; let me know what turn Tom Twist will take to get 
 out of that difficulty, will you 1 
 
 Far. J. That I will 
 
 PARTY NAMES. 
 
 It is but fair to let every party select its own name. In the onginal 
 division of parties in this country, one took the name of " Federalists," 
 which then meant "Friends of the Union" ; and the other, though not 
 less friends of the Union, were content to take that of " Republicans." 
 It was not long before the Federal party began to call themselves " Fed- 
 eral Republicans," and then the old Republican party began to take the 
 name of '' Democratic Republicans." 
 
PAUTY NAMES; 
 
 453 
 
 The conduct of the Federal party during the last war rendered the 
 originally honorable appellation of Federalist so odious to the people, 
 that those who had gloried in it sought to cast it ofif, and began to call 
 themselves " National RepubHcans." This name, however, did not ren- 
 der them more acceptable to the people ; their former principles and con- 
 duct were remembered ; and they remained aliens to the confidence and 
 honors of the country. 
 
 In the mean time a large portion of the old Republican leaders had 
 become Federalists in principle, and the old lines ceased to be drawn, in 
 Congress and out, although vast numbers of individuals still maintained 
 their original faith in all its purity. This was the state of things when 
 John Quincy Adams was elected President of the United States. 
 
 In the contest which ensued, original principles had less to do than 
 the peculiar character of the election. The great mass of the old Fed- 
 eralists, with many Republicans, adhered to Mr. Adams ; but there were 
 not a few of the Federal party who supported General Jackson. There 
 was at that time a general confusion of old parties, although the ultra 
 Federalism indicated in some of Mr. Adams' measures and declarations 
 began to excite alarm. 
 
 General Jackson's administration had not progressed far before that 
 general shaking commenced which was destined, after a long agon}^, to 
 separate parties on original principles, much better defined and under- 
 stood than they were even in the days of Jeff'erson. The leading ques- 
 tion tending to this result, related to a renewal of the United States 
 Bank charter ; and connected with this wei'e internal improvements and 
 the tariff". The Bank, possessing " the sinews of war," and a disposition 
 to use them, was the only formidable adversary reviving Republicanism 
 had to encounter. Its corruptions in attempting to arrest the gi*and 
 reformation, are now recorded as a part of its history, and may every- 
 where be traced among its ruins. 
 
 In the mean time the Republicans began to call themselves Democrats. 
 In former times there had been objections to this term, on the ground 
 that our government is not technically a democracy ; but that feeling 
 had passed away. Every thing in our forms of government had been 
 becoming more democratic from the adoption of our Federal Constitu- 
 tion. Scarcely a State constitution had been formed which did not bring 
 the officers of government nearer to the people ; and the general gov- 
 ernment, though not altered in form, had, particularly in the election of 
 the President, and in the practice of the Senate, become more popular 
 than was anticipated by those who framed it. That distrust of the 
 people which prevailed to a great extent after the close of the revolu- 
 tionary war had measurably ceased, and the principles and name of 
 Democracy had become universally popular. 
 
454 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 It became necessary that the party arraying itself against this new 
 movement to introduce pure principles and practices into the General 
 Government, should have a distinctive appellation. "Federal" would 
 not do, and for some time they seemed at a loss. At length one of the 
 Bank-bought organs in New York suggested the name of " Whig.'' This 
 also was a popular name long borne by the friends of liberty in England, 
 and, in contrast with Tory, favorably remembered in connection with our 
 revolutionary history. The suggestion was well received by the enemies 
 of Democracy, and they soon called themselves Whigs throughout the 
 Union. 
 
 Who does not remember the language of the lamented Forsyth in 
 the Senate, when this name became current in that body 1 While he 
 admitted that his political adversaries had a right to choose a name for 
 their party, he regretted that they had selected the term Whig, " for," 
 said he, '' it is an old and honored name, and I am sure they will dis- 
 grace it." He spoke the language of most Democrats. They were 
 willing their adversaries should select the name by which they should 
 be called ; they conceded to them the title of " Whigs," though not 
 without regret, knowing that their principles would soon become as 
 well understood under that name as any other. 
 
 But while we concede to our opponents a right to select their own 
 party name, we protest against their robbing us of ours, or forcing a 
 new one upon us. The Democratic Republican party of this country 
 have never disgraced their name. As the Federalists sought to obtain 
 confidence by calling themselves Federal Republicans, so the Whigs are 
 attempting to gild their already tarnished name by calling themselves 
 Democratic Whigs. Indeed in some places, we believe, they drop the 
 name Whig altogether, and claim to be Democrats ! And while doing 
 this, their organs are engaged in attempting to fix the term "Loco 
 Foco " on the Democratic party ! Some of them, among whom is the 
 " National Intelligencer," uniformly class the parties as ** Whigs " and 
 *' Loco Focos." This is not fair, gentlemen. Change your own name, 
 if you please, as often as you disgrace it ; but do not interfere with ours. 
 Do not claim the right to name both parties, to put a new name upon 
 us as often as detection dictates the necessity of taking a new one for 
 yourselves, to rob us of a name we have honored to be disgraced by a 
 party which dishonors all names. Take any other name but " Demo- 
 crat," — we will call you by any you will stick to for a twelvemonth ; 
 the term "Democrat" is ours; except that, and you may disgrace every 
 word in the dictionary, but you shall not, without opposition, reduce 
 " Democrat " to the level of " Federalist " or " Whig." 
 
 Some Democrats, we perceive, are accommodating enough to adopt the 
 name "Loco-Foco" prescribed by their adversaries. To the term itself 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 455 
 
 there is no peculiar objection ; and if there were, the principles of 
 Democracy would soon render it honorable. We object to it because 
 " Democrat " is the most appropriate name, and already honored. It 
 is not right that we should consent to honor a new name as often as our 
 adversaries dishonor an old one. It takes the people some little time 
 to understand the meaning and application of new names ; and it is 
 enough to concede to our adversaries the right to rid themselves of 
 names which the people do understand, without suffering them to sub- 
 ject us to the disadvantage of names which the people do not under- 
 stand. Much less should we suffer them to appropriate to themselves 
 our honored name in place of their dishonored name. No, no ; let us 
 resist this insolence and stick to the name "Democrat." 
 
 Our general custom is to call one party Democrats and the other 
 Whigs ; and this we shall continue until the latter agree on some new 
 alias other than " Democrat," under which to fight their future battles. 
 The name of Democrat and the principles it indicates we will never 
 surrender. 
 
 TARIFF TAXATION. 
 Third Dialogue. Farmer Jones, Farmer Smith, and Lawyer Tivist. 
 
 Farmer Smith. Brother Jones, I have brought our candidate along 
 to hear an argument between you and him about the tariff tax on salt 
 and the price of com. 
 
 Farmer Jones. Well, I will say what I think, but can scarcely hope 
 to hold an argument with so good a lawyer. 
 
 Lawyer Twist. Thank you, farmer, for your compliment. Neighbor 
 Smith says you want me to pledge myself, if elected, to get a law passed 
 if I can to make the salt-maker pay twenty-four per cent more than the 
 usual price for all the corn he buys. Did I understand him right] 
 
 Far. J. Yes. 
 
 Twist. Why, you are not so unreasonable as to want such a law 
 
 passed. 
 
 Far. J. Why not 1 The farmer is taxed for the benefit of the salt- 
 maker twenty-four per cent on all the salt he buys, and why should not 
 the salt-maker be taxed for the benefit of the farmer twenty-four per 
 cent on all the com and other products of the earth he buys 1 But the 
 chief object of the protective tariff, you know, is to " improve the home 
 market." And we want you to tax the salt-maker twenty-four per cent 
 on all the corn he buys, for the purpose of improving his market for salt. 
 
 Twist. A curious way that to improve a man's market 1 
 
 Far. J. Why curious, Mr. Twist % 
 
 Twist. Why, is any one simple enough not to see that if you make 
 the salt-maker pay me twenty-four per cent more than he does now, it 
 
456 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KE:^DALL. 
 
 will lessen his profits and perhaps ruin his business ] Improve his mar- 
 ket, indeed ! 
 
 Far. J. Mj dear sir, don't you perceive that if you make the salt- 
 maker pay me twenty-four per cent more than he does now for my 
 corn, I shall have more money to buy his salt with, whereby his market 
 will be improved, and he will sell more salt 1 
 
 Twist. And what good would it do him, pray, to sell more salt, if he 
 has to furnish you with money to buy it, by giving you a higher price 
 for your corn 1 
 
 Far. J. My notion exactly. But I want you to tell me now, what 
 advantage it is to the farmers to sell more corn to the salt-makers and 
 manufacturers, if they have, through a tariff tax, to furnish the money 
 to buy it with ] 
 
 Twist. The tariff tax don't go to the manufacturer, but to the gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Far. J. The object of a protective tariff tax is to raise the price of 
 foreign goods, and enable our manufacturers to sell theirs at higher 
 prices. The tariff tax on foreign goods goes to the government ; but 
 this increased price or tariff tax on goods made at home, goes to the 
 manufacturer, salt-maker, etc., and we farmers pay it. We give twenty- 
 four per cent more for goods made in the country than we would have 
 to give if there was no tax on the foreign goods. In this way the 
 farmers are made to furnish the manufacturers, salt-makers, etc., with 
 money to buy their own corn. This is the way the tariff improves the 
 farmer's market. It taxes him twenty-four per cent on all the goods 
 he buys, and does not confer on him a benefit of ten per cent in re- 
 turn, either in the gi-eater quantity of produce sold or in its advanced 
 price. 
 
 Twist. It is very important, you know, that our country should be 
 independent of foreigners, and that we should foster our own industry 
 rather than that of other countries. 
 
 Far. J. "Foster our own industry." That 's exactly my notion 
 again ; but lot me ask you one question on that point : Do foreigners 
 pay any part of our tariff tax ? 
 
 Twist. No ; it is all paid by our own citizens. 
 
 Far. J. Very well. Then we tax our own citizens for the benefit of 
 our own citizens, and what advantage is it to them to be taxed for their 
 own benefit] 
 
 Twist. Why, it is not altogether so. All are not taxed alike, nor do 
 all profit alike by the tax. The tariff taxes all who buy foreign goods or 
 products, or domestic goods of the same kinds, and by a moderate tax 
 on all, enables our salt-makers and manufacturers to sustain their busi- 
 ness and get rich. 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 457 
 
 Fab. J. Exactly so ; to get rich by imposing on me, on Farmer Smith, 
 and on every other farmer, mechanic, laborer, and professional man in 
 the nation, a tax of twenty-four per cent on all we buy. This, you see, 
 is taxing the many to enrich the few. A thousand are taxed to make 
 one rich. 
 
 Twist. Well, are not important advantages gained by it 1 Do we not 
 make our country independent, and enrich our own people, instead of 
 giving our money to foreign manufacturers 1 
 
 Far. J. I '11 tell you what I think about that ; but must first ask 
 a question or two. Our country produces no silver, you know, and 
 but little gold. Now, how does gold and silver money get into this 
 
 country 1 
 
 Twist. Why, our merchants bring it in for our products or manufac- 
 tures, sold for it in other countries. 
 
 Far. J. How do British goods, French and Spanish goods and wines, 
 and the manufactures and produce of all foreign lands get into this 
 country ] 
 
 Twist. By the merchants, in the same way. 
 
 Far. J. Then we sell something abroad for everything we buy from 
 
 abroad 1 
 
 Twist. As a general principle we do ; for we have no other way to 
 
 pay for foreign articles. 
 
 Far. J. You say, that when we buy foreign products and manufac- 
 tures we encourage foreign labor, do you 1 
 
 Twist. Certainly. 
 
 Far. J. Well, on the same principle, when foreigners buy our pro- 
 ducts and manufactures, they encourage our labor, do they not 1 
 
 Twist. Undoubtedly. 
 
 Far. J. And is it not by our buying their products and manufac- 
 tures that they get the means to buy ours] 
 
 Twist. I suppose it is. 
 
 Far. J. Then if we encourage their industry they encourage ours. 
 The more they sell to us, the more they can buy from us ; the benefit 
 is reciprocal, and if governments would but allow free-trade we could 
 exchange a great deal more than we do now. I hold that a perfectly 
 free trade is the best protection for our labor. If the financial con- 
 dition of the government would permit, I would abolish the tariff 
 
 altogether. . r r • 
 
 Twist How no restriction at all upon the importation ot foreign 
 articles is to protect American labor, I think it will be diflicult for you 
 
 to show. . 
 
 Far J. Not at all. We pay a tax, say of twenty-five per cent, in- 
 cluding merchant's profit ou the duty and charges, on all articles im- 
 
458 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 ported from foreign countries. I want to buy clothing for my children, 
 and the merchant has cloth which, were it not for the tariff tax, he 
 would sell at one dollar a yard ; but that tax raises the price to a dollar 
 and a quarter. I take five bushels of wheat to market for the purpose 
 of getting money to buy the cloth with, and sell it at a dollar a bushel, 
 making five dollars. With this five dollars I could buy five yards of 
 cloth but for the tariff tax ; as it is, I can get but four for it. Now, 
 which system protects my labor best, that which gives me five yards of 
 cloth for five bushels of wheat, or that which gives me only four yards 
 for five bushels t 
 
 Twist. I never carried my thoughts so far. 
 
 Far. J. I beg you to run your thoughts over the system, and con- 
 sider its bearings on every branch of American labor. To my mind the 
 following principle is clear, viz. : — 
 
 The labor of a country is best protected when it is most free to ex- 
 change its products with the labor of all other countries. Every tariff 
 tax imposed on exports or imports lessens the profits of labor, often in 
 both countries, by lessening the amount which can be obtained in ex- 
 change for their products. 
 
 CRAWFORD'S STATUE OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 **De gustibus non est disputandum" (there is no disputing about 
 tastes), says an old Roman maxim. If our statue of Washington were 
 merely a matter of taste, we should have nothing to say about it ; but 
 looking upon it in a very different light, we feel called upon to enlarge 
 somewhat upon the views heretofore expressed. 
 
 We protest against the ground assumed by many of our contempo- 
 raries, that in the statue of Washington, or any other work of the sort, 
 the artist is at liberty to sport his fancy or indulge his genius at the 
 expense of historical truth. Nor do we believe that such a license ever 
 entered into the principles or practice of ancient sculptors. The exact 
 imitation of nature was by them considered the perfection of the arts. 
 Who that has read the history of the arts in Greece, does not remember 
 the admiration expressed at the skill of the painter who represented 
 grapes so true to nature on his canvas that the birds pecked at them, 
 mistaking them for real grapes 1 If a Greek sculptor had been set to 
 produce a statue of Themistocles, would he have considered himself at 
 liberty to present to his countrymen the body and costume of an Indian 
 Brahmin, surmounted with the head of the Athenian hero*? If a Roman 
 sculptor had been employed to make a statue of Cicero, would he have 
 considered himself at liberty to place the head of the Roman orator 
 upon the body of an Egyptian god I 
 
CRAWFORD'S STATUE OF WASHINGTON. 459 
 
 The error of our contemporaries seems to us to have arisen from the 
 fact, that many of the subjects of sculpture in ancient times were them- 
 selves wholly imaginary. Such was their Jupiter, their Hercules, their 
 Venus ; the whole race of gods and goddesses, their palaces and the 
 regions they inhabited. Here the sculptor or the painter might give 
 full scope to his imagination, and he who could infuse into his work the 
 most of majesty, of strength, of beauty, or whatever other attribute the 
 imaginations or superstitions of men ascribed to the particular object as 
 its predominating characteristic, was justly considered the most eminent 
 artist. Even here, however, the excellence consisted in the nearest ap- 
 proximation to ideal truth. The license which ancient artists justly 
 exercised in delineating imaginary or invisible beings, our modern critics 
 are inclined to permit in works purely historical. Do not antiquaries 
 consider a statue of any distinguished man, now found among ancient 
 ruins, as one of their greatest treasures, simply because it is presumed 
 to resemble the original 1 Do they not attach a high value to every 
 newly discovered delineation upon canvas or stone of ancient costume, 
 utensils, instruments, or manners ? Why is this, if it be conceded that 
 ancient artists were at liberty to indulge their fancy at the expense of 
 reality and truth 1 
 
 If our statue of Washington had been found in the ruins of Hercu- 
 laneum, it would have been considered the representative of some Roman 
 hero, statesman, or god, so completely do the dress, the sword, the 
 sandals, and all that appertains to the main work, belong to the Roman 
 age. True, we have an ornament to the chair, mixed up with antiquity, 
 the representation of an American Indian ; but this would be taken 
 rather as an evidence that the Romans were not ignorant of America 
 than that the work belonged to modern times. Indeed, every beholder 
 ignorant of the history of this work, and of the peculiarities of Wash- 
 ington's face, would take this statue to be, either a relic of antiquity 
 or a modern imitation of ancient works of art. He would undoubtedly 
 wonder by what rule of art or taste the American Indian was introduced 
 into the company of the old Roman ; but he could have no conception 
 that the subject of the work was exclusively American. And we ask 
 the admirers of this work, or rather of its plan, whether, except the 
 face of Washington and the Indian upon the back of the chair, there is 
 the least circumstance about it to identify it as belonging to this age or 
 this continent ? 
 
 They see our beloved Washington, most admired when delineated pre- 
 cisely as he was, converted into a Roman and thrown back almost two 
 thousand years before he lived. They see him, not as he was, a man 
 and an American, surrounded by the incidents of his country and his 
 age, but in the dimensions of a giant, denationalized, banished, sent 
 
460 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 back to antiquity as if his own character and feats were not " beyond 
 all Greek, all Roman fame." Nor are the fictions with which he is sur- 
 rounded the productions of modern genius or imagination, but mere 
 copies from the works of the ancients ! 
 
 Were there no passages in Washington's life worthy of the artist's 
 genius ] What of a devout cast can be conceived more imposing than 
 Washington on his knees in the woods, pouring forth the whole of his 
 mighty soul in earnest supplications to Heaven for the rescue and sal- 
 vation of his country? What of a moral sublime could exceed the 
 scene at the battle of Monmouth, when, on the approach of General 
 Lee who marred the anticipated triumph of the day by an untimely 
 retreat, Washington raised his voice in anger, and as his aid General 
 Scott said, it seemed as if the leaves of the old oak under which they 
 stood trembled with awe*? Is there no room for genius in depicting 
 the mingled joy, triumph, and gratitude to Heaven which must have 
 illuminated the noble features of Washington when he saw the inde- 
 pendence of his country secured by the capture of Lord Cornwallis and 
 his army 1 And were there no incidents in the battles of the Revolution 
 more worthy to adorn our hero's chair than fanciful scenes borrowed 
 from a heathen mythology 1 
 
 Statuary, when it pretends to present realities, should be as true as 
 history. It should so present sensible objects that a thousand years 
 hence they will convey, as far as they go, the exact truth in reference 
 to the age in which they existed. The incidents and ornaments which 
 surround the men whom it delineates iu stone may be selected and 
 arranged according to the taste and genius of the artist ; but even 
 these should have strict reference to the current age. If artists choose 
 to indulge in works of fancy, let them do so ; let them make as many 
 Jupiters and Herculeses and Venuses and Titans and Neptunes as they 
 please, and dress them as they like ; but let them not put upon the 
 bodies of these profane gods the heads of modern statesmen or heroes. 
 Greece and Rome had their statuary, which was Greek and Roman ; why 
 should not we have a statuary all American] True genius will display 
 itself, not in servile imitations of ancient art, but in making the new 
 objects and combinations of modeni times appear like realit}'^ itself 
 upon the canvass and in marble. We do not despair of seeing a work 
 of art which will make even the buff-faced coat and the cocked hat of 
 the Revolution admired in a statue, so true to the reality shall be the 
 work of the artist. In forming new combinations of real objects and 
 adding to real scenes the enchantments of art, is the true, the broad, 
 the almost uncultivated field of modern genius. American artists ! this 
 is your true field of glory. Study the excellencies of ancient art in 
 Italy or Greece, or wherever you find them ; but do not forget that 
 
CRAWFORD'S STATUE OF WASHINGTON. 4(31 
 
 their chief excellence, at last, consists in their conformity to truth, real 
 or ideal, — real when they profess to represent visible objects, ideal when 
 the main subject is imaginary. But do not bring together those objects 
 which are incongruous in nature or far separated in history. Do not, 
 in historical works which pertain to modern times, put the bust of a 
 man upon the body of a horse, or the head of a general upon the body 
 of a Hercules. Do not borrow robes from the Romans to cover the 
 nakedness of Americans, or substitute the sword of Rome, which en- 
 slaved the world, for the glorious weapon raised by our revolutionary 
 fathers, whose gleamings are lighting mankind on the path of liberty. 
 If you have not genius enough to make modern realities interesting, 
 confine yourselves to works of mere fancy or to imitations of Greek and 
 Roman originals. 
 
 It may be, that for these remarks we shall be considered barbarian in 
 taste ourselves. One thing is certain, we shall never affect an admira- 
 tion we do not feel, for the purpose of being considered a man of taste. 
 Our taste, whatever name it may merit, cannot endure a figure which 
 presents the head of a man upon the body of a beast, or the head of a 
 beast upon the body of a man, the dress of an American on the body 
 of a Roman, or the dress of a Roman on the body of an American. 
 Such combinations, we think, belong either to the first or the last 
 stages of the art ; to the first, before its true objects and principles are 
 properly understood, or to the last, when taste is vitiated and genius 
 extinguished in vice and coiTuption, and not to that glorious middle 
 age when practical virtue and cultivated mind teach men to recognize 
 as beautiful only that which is true. 
 
 Upon the statue of Washington we look with mingled emotions of 
 reverence and disgust. Who can but feel reverence on looking at those 
 venerated features 1 But when the eye falls upon the body and its inci- 
 dents, deep in our bosom is the feeling of son'ow and disgust that a 
 head so sacred should be made to surmount objects so profane. But 
 for the head, we should say, Remove it, put it out of sight, out of mem- 
 ory. As it is, we say to Congress, Do what you please. 
 
 In justice to the artist, we feel it our duty to add the tribute of our 
 admiration for the manner in which the work is executed. On this 
 point, we believe there is no difference of opinion. It is the design, and 
 not the execution, which meets with extensive condemnation. And if 
 what we have said shall wound the feelings of the artist, with whom we 
 are not acquainted, we shall sincerely regret it. Our object is not to 
 wound the feelings of any one, but simply to protest against, aud pre- 
 vent if we can, the introduction of what we call a barbarian taste into 
 our works of art. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 OUR OWK AFFAIRS. 
 To the Democracy and to Practical Printers. 
 
 The " Union Democrat " has been published six months, and numbers 
 less than 1,200 subscribers. Of nearly 11,000 who took the first volume 
 of " Kendall's Expositor," less than 1,600 have subscribed for the second. 
 The entire subscription to both will barely pay expenses, and our cur- 
 rent receipts are not sufficient to pay our printer. Our pecuniary ar- 
 rangements were based on the confident expectation of receiving and 
 retaining to both papers 8,000 to 10,000 subscribers. Of course they 
 are all deranged, and we find our finances very much in the condition 
 of those of the government. 
 
 Our friends attribute it to the hardness of the times, and we get kind 
 letters from retiring subscribers ; but " good words butter no parsnips." 
 Our family must be supported, and creditors must be paid. For the 
 means, we have no resource immediately available but our personal 
 exertions. Lands we have, which we do not mean to give away, like 
 our Whig economists ; but it takes time to sell them, and they cannot 
 be sold at this time without great sacrifice. Yet, unless better sup- 
 ported in our present business, we shall be obliged to abandon it, to sell 
 property at whatever sacrifice, pay debts, and at the age of fifty-three 
 begin the world again. To this turn of fortune, if it must come, we 
 shall most cheerfully submit, though produced by responsibilities not 
 originally our own, and by law expenses and damages imposed upon us 
 in consequence of having been honest in office. 
 
 Could we give our time to it, we doubt not the number of our 
 subscribers might readily be doubled. But our health, w^hich has 
 been greatly improved by manual labor, requires that at least half 
 of each day shall be so devoted, and the other half is not too much 
 for that reading and writing necessary to make a paper interesting 
 and instructive. 
 
 In May, 1842, after an existence of nine months, the publication 
 of the " Union Democrat " ceased for want of adequate patronage. 
 
PRESENTS TO PUBLIC MEN. 
 
 463 
 
 PRESENTS TO PUBLIC MEN. 
 
 There is a mode of operating upon public men, common in this coun- 
 try, so nearly akin to con-uption as to make the difference practically 
 unimportant. The good will and kind feelings of the officers of govern- 
 ment — inclining them to lean, perhaps unconsciously, to the interests 
 of individuals, and sometimes producing the mischievous effects of direct 
 bribes — are secured by presents, personal favors, and pecuniary obliga- 
 tions. 
 
 On taking charge of the Fourth Auditor's Office, we learned that 
 some of the pursers of the navy and navy agents were in the habit of 
 making valuable presents to the clerks who examined their accounts, 
 thereby creating advocates in the office. We forbade the clerks receiv- 
 ing any present of value from those whose accounts they had to settle, 
 on pain of instant removal. 
 
 A similar practice prevailed to a greater and more mischievous extent 
 in the Post-Office Department. We were scarcely warm in our seat 
 there, before presents from contractors began to come in upon us. On 
 one occasion a whole deer, just killed, came down from the mountains 
 and made its appearance one morning in the passage of the Post-Office 
 Department. By a letter on our table, we learned that it was a present 
 from a mail contractor. Said we to ourself, "An application for an 
 extra allowance is not far behind." 
 
 The contractor, in his letter, requested us to send a piece to his old 
 friend. Parson B. Availing ourselves of this request, we sent for the 
 Parson, and delivered him the whole animal, not caring to eat meat for 
 which we expected to be called on to pay out of the funds of the Post- 
 Office Department. Sure enough, in a few days, here came the con- 
 tractor with a project for an improvement in his mail service, which 
 would increase his pay, and in other respects greatly promote his private 
 interests. We were as little inclined to swallow his project as his 
 present. 
 
 We were not two weeks in the Department before a clerk spontane- 
 ously offered to lend us money ! In our heart we pronounced him a 
 corrupt man, and took the first convenient opportunity to get rid of 
 him. We have since ascertained that he was an agent and a spy of cer- 
 tain powerful contractors in the Department. 
 
 The subject of the tariff is usually considered a dry one, suited 
 only for the consideration of legislators and politicians. 
 
 The luminous pen of Mr. Kendall invests this theme with so 
 much light, clearing it of mystery, and bringing it within the com- 
 prehension of minds capable of reasoning upon any subject, that 
 
464 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 we have deemed his articles worthy of insertion in full The most 
 of them were written in the spring of 1843. 
 
 TARIFF TAXATION. 
 
 The Principles and Effects of Duties on Imported Produce and Merchan- 
 dise, whether for Revenue, Protection, or Retaliation, clearly illustrated 
 hy fact and argument. 
 
 A tariff is a duty or tax levied upon produce or merchandise trans- 
 ported from one country to another. 
 
 In most commercial countries, both exports and imports are thus 
 taxed ; but the Constitution of the United States forbids a tax on exports. 
 
 A tariff is a tax upon the surplus products of human labor, falling 
 directly upon the domestic consumer, and indirectly on the foreign pro- 
 ducer. It increases the prices of all the articles on which it is levied. 
 If it be 33 J per cent on the value of the article taxed, the importer 
 pays 33J per cent more for it than he otherwise would. He gives four 
 dollars for that which would otherwise cost him but three. Of that four 
 dollars, three go to the foreign merchant or producer, and one to his 
 own government. 
 
 But the amount of the tax does not ultimately come out of the im- 
 porter. With him it is a part of the price of the goods, and in selling 
 them to the merchant he charges it as such and adds his profit upon the 
 whole. With the wholesale merchant the original cost, the government 
 tax, and the importer's profit constitute the cost, and upon the aggre- 
 gate of all three he calculates his profit. With the retail dealer, the 
 original cost, the government tax, the importer's profit, and the whole- 
 sale merchant's profit constitute the cost, and he puts his profit upon 
 all four. Finally, to the farmers, mechanics, and others, who purchase 
 for consumption, the cost is made up of the original price, the govern- 
 ment tax, the importer's profit, the wholesale merchant's profit, and the 
 retail dealer's profit, all of which they refund out of the fruits of their 
 own labor or the proceeds of their income. Thus : — 
 
 The cost of three yards of cloth imported into New York is three 
 
 dollars $3.00 
 
 The government tax is 33-J per cent, or one dollar . . . 1.00 
 
 Cost to importer 4.00 
 
 Importer's profit, say 5 per cent 20 
 
 Cost to wholesale merchant 4.20 
 
 Wholesale merchant's profit, say 10 per cent 42 
 
 Cost to retail dealer 4.62 
 
 Retail dealer's profit, say 20 per cent 92^'*^ 
 
 Cost to the farmer and other consumer 5.54:j4jj. 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 435 
 
 If the goods pass through more hands, the cost to the consumer is 
 still further increased. To the frontier settler who receives his foreign 
 goods from the petty dealers in his vicinity, they undoubtedly cost on 
 an average three times their original price. 
 
 The amount of the government tax is of course increased in the same 
 ratio. In the foregoing case the government tax paid by the im- 
 porter is $ 1.00 
 
 Importer's profit, 5 per cent 5 
 
 Grovernment tax as paid by wholesale merchant 1.05 
 
 Wholesale merchant's profit, 10 per cent lOJ 
 
 Grovernment tax as paid by retail merchant 1.15 J 
 
 Retail dealer's profit, 20 per cent '^'^xt 
 
 Government tax as paid by the farmer and other consumer . . 1.38j-^ 
 
 Thus the farmer and other consumers pay one dollar thirty-eight cents 
 for every dollar raised for government by a tariff tax of 33 J per cent. 
 If the tax be less, the consumers pay less for the article itself; if it be 
 more, they pay more ; but whatever the amount of the original tax may 
 be, they pay the same rate of increase upon it arising from merchant's 
 profit. Over our whole country, that increase cannot fall short of 33 J 
 per cent on an average. It may be less in the Atlantic cities where the 
 goods have passed through few hands ; it is much more in the distant 
 interior, where dealers' profits have been multiplied. 
 
 For every $ 100, therefore, raised by a tariff tax, the people pay $ 133 J ; 
 for every $1,000, $1,333^; $1,333,333^ for every $1,000,000. If 
 the government raise $ 20,000,000 by a tariff tax, the people pay no 
 less than $ 26,666,666§, and that when the tdir'iE i^ purely for revenue. 
 
 Cost of Collection, etc. 
 
 Cheapness of collection is sometimes alleged to be one of the advan- 
 tages of a tariff tax. The preceding facts show a cost to the people 
 exceeding that which attaches to the collection of any other description 
 of tax known among communities or nations. Yet it does not include 
 the salaries and fees of those employed in the collection which come out 
 of the amount of the original tax. Those expenses are probably 8 to 
 10 per cent more, and bring the cost to the people of collecting a tariff 
 tax up to about 45 per cent upon the amount which actually goes into 
 
 the Treasury. 
 
 The commission for collecting the United States direct taxes was, we 
 believe, five per cent, and there are probably few taxes laid by States or 
 corporations upon which the commission for collecting exceeds that 
 
 rate. 
 
 Nor are its comparative advantages greater in reference to the num- 
 
 30 
 
466 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 ber of persons employed in the process. The collectors at custom- 
 houses, with their corps of officers, clerks, porters, and draymen, and the 
 officers and crews of revenue cutters, are but a small portion of the 
 number engaged in collecting a tariff tax. This kind of tax converts 
 every importer of merchandise, every wholesale merchant, and every 
 retail dealer in city and country, down to the pedler who sells pins and 
 needles, into a collector of taxes for the government. Each is paid for 
 his services by that portion of his profits which is based on the original 
 government tax and forms a part of the price of the articles he sells, 
 and the whole comes out of the farmers and other consumers at last. 
 Our tariff revenue for the current year is estimated at $18,000,000. 
 To get this into the Treasury the people pay to revenue officers, import- 
 ers, merchants, and dealers of all sorts, at least 45 per cent, or about 
 $ 8,100,000, making the whole amount paid by them $ 26,100,000. 
 
 Who Pays the Tax, etc. 
 
 Every man in the nation who purchases foi* consumption or use a 
 single article embraced in the tariff, pays a portion of the tax and of the 
 cost of collection. It encroaches upon the salary of the clergyman, of 
 the public officer, and of the whole salaried corps in church and state. 
 It breaks in upon the income of the clerk, the lawyer, the marshal, the 
 sheriff, the justice, the constable, and all those who live by fees. These 
 classes are remunerated, however, when the burden on their income is 
 made too heavy, by laws and arrangements increasing their income. 
 The importer if he resides in this country, the merchant, and dealer are 
 themselves taxed in proportion to the amount of taxed articles they 
 consume by themselves or their families. But when they feel the bur- 
 den too heavily, they remunerate themselves by increasing the rate of 
 profits on their merchandise. 
 
 Weight on Producing Classes. 
 
 Upon the producing classes, the farmers, planters, mechanics and 
 laborers, the burden falls, not only without a possibility of remunera- 
 tion, but aggravated by the increased salaries, fees, and profits it com- 
 pels other classes to demand and exact. 
 
 Here is a farmer whose surplus profit for the year consists of three 
 hundred bushels of wheat, worth one dollar a bushel, or $300 in cash. 
 This is the amount he has to buy clothing and other comforts for his 
 family, and farming utensils for his next year's operations. Suppose 
 there is a tariff tax of 33 J per cent on articles of clothing, on iron, and 
 in fact on every thing he wishes to buy. The importer's, merchant's, 
 and dealer's profits and collectors' pay make it amount, by the time the 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 4()^ 
 
 goods reacli him, to 45 per cent. Of every $ 145 he pays for the goods, 
 " 45 is government tax and costs of collection. Of $ 290 spent by him' 
 
 90 is tariff tax. And, on his whole $ 300, he is taxed not less than 
 
 94.50. Thus almost one third of his entire income is swept away by 
 the government tax. 
 
 Precisely the same is its operation on the mechanic and laborer. In 
 every $14.50 they spend for tariff-taxed articles, $4.50, or almost one 
 third, goes to pay the government tax and the costs of collection. Their 
 income is but their labor converted into money, so that the government 
 thus converts their labor to its own use to the extent of near one third 
 of what is expended in earning the money thus laid out. 
 
 To the farmer it is the same thing as if, there being no tariff, a gov- 
 ernment collector were to stand at his gate and take out of his wagon 
 forty-five bushels of wheat of every hundred and forty-five he sends to 
 market ; or, in lieu of that, should stand at the door of the store and 
 grocery, and as he came out with his purchases take from him four and 
 a half of every ten yards of cloth, four and a half of everj ten pounds 
 of sugar, salt, nails, or iron of any description, and a like proportion of 
 every other article purchased for the use of his family. It is as if a 
 government collector took from the mechanic and laborer $ 4.50 out of 
 every $14.50 earned by him, and intended for the purchase of foreign 
 goods, or stood at the store doors and took from him four and a half out 
 of every fourteen and a half yards or pounds they might purchase. The 
 man standing inside, behind the counter, now, in effect, does the same 
 thing. 
 
 Producing Classes without Remedy. 
 
 Nor have these classes any remedy in the legislation of the country, 
 or an increased charge for their produce or their labor. No government 
 can directly by law, in this country, raise the price of the farmer's pro- 
 duce, or the rate of the mechanic's or laborer's wages. So superabundant 
 are the products of agriculture, that any effort to raise their prices above 
 the natural level, directly or indirectly, is as vain as to attempt lifting 
 the Alleghany Mountains from their base ; and it is scarcely less impos- 
 sible to raise the wages of mechanics and laborers in general. If a 
 momentary or local rise can be produced in their case by legislative 
 acts, those acts produce an effect analogous to that of intoxicating 
 liquors upon the human system, exciting and elevating but to leave 
 them in greater depression. While, therefore, the legislatures may and 
 do, by an increase of salaries and fees, shield the officers of government 
 from the disastrous effects of an oppressive tariff tax, and the agents 
 of corporations and other salaried individuals are shielded by similar 
 means, the tax falls with unmitigated weight on the producing classes. 
 Nay, its weight is made more ponderous and crushing by the increase 
 
468 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 of taxes or charges in other shapes, necessary to reinstate the income 
 of the merchants and all those who live by profits, salaries, and fees in- 
 stead of labor. 
 
 The general practical result is, that a tariff tax is a tax upon the pro- 
 ductive labor of the country. It takes from the farmer a portion of his 
 surplus grain, cattle, or other marketable commodity ; and in the same 
 way extracts from the mechanic and laborer a portion of the products 
 of his labor, whether it be in money or in other manufactured articles 
 intended for market. In taking the proceeds of their labor, it deprives 
 their families of a large portion of those necessaries or comforts they 
 might otherwise enjoy. 
 
 A Blow at Trade. 
 
 A tariff, not of protection, enriches nobody. It lessens the trade of 
 the country by diminishing the ability of the people to buy. We have 
 seen that a tariff of 33^^ per cent diminishes the means of the farmer 
 to buy, to the extent of $ 45 in eveiy $ 145. When there is no tariff 
 he can purchase as many goods with $ 100 as he can with $ 145 under 
 its operation. Abolish the tariff, and he can purchase the same goods 
 for $ 100, and have $45 left to buy more goods with. So it is with 
 mechanics, laborers, and every class of society. Of course, if the people 
 can bui/ less, the merchants and dealers can sell less, and the importers 
 can import less. The effect is a decrease in the trade of the country, 
 corresponding with the diminution of purchases made by the people. 
 Under a tariff of 33 J per cent, that diminution is not much short of 
 one third. The merchant sells only 100 yards of cloth, bushels of salt, 
 pounds of ironware, etc., where, if there were no tariff, he would sell 
 145. Probably the diminution of his sales is in fact much greater, for^ 
 in consequence of the increased prices, there are some who will abandon 
 the use of the taxed articles altogether, or manufacture them at home. 
 
 Thus a tariff tax is a blow at the trade of the country, as well as at 
 the comforts of the people ; and, of course, is a blow at the business of 
 the merchant. His sales are cut off by the inability or unwillingness 
 of some to purchase at the enhanced prices, and by the reduction of 
 purchases by others ; while his profits on the sales made are broken in 
 upon by the government tax on articles consumed in his own family. 
 If he attempt to reimburse himself by increasing the charges on his 
 goods, that operation of itself still further reduces the amount sold, and 
 diminishes his general business. Gradually, the less wealthy of the com- 
 mercial class feel themselves sinking, they know not why, and either be- 
 come bankrupt or wind up and go into other business. 
 
 Merchants and dealers in general are not aware how intimately their 
 interests are interwoven with those of the producing classes, and espe- 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. ^gg 
 
 cially the farmers and planters. Any measure which increases the prices 
 of what those classes have to buy, diminishes the amount which the 
 merchants can sell, and dries up their profits at their source. The 
 merchant who supports a policy which increases the cost of the farmers' 
 comforts or luxuries as well as his own, thinking to make it up to him- 
 self by increasing his rate of profits on goods sold, is like the fabled 
 simpleton who " killed the goose that laid him golden eggs " that he 
 might anticipate the treasure, instead of feeding, and nourishing, and 
 making more productive his profitable bird. If our merchants under- 
 stood their own interests, they would oppose all tariff" taxation, and all 
 unnecessary taxation of any sort upon farmers and planters, and all who 
 live by labor. The more the government takes of their income, the less 
 there will be for the merchant. 
 
 Effect on Foreign Producer. 
 
 The reflecting reader will have anticipated the effect which tariff" tax- 
 ation in one country has on the productive industry of other countries 
 with which it has commercial intercourse. If the ability of our people 
 to purchase foreign articles be reduced one third by a tariff" tax, it fol- 
 lows that the foreign producers lose one third of their market in this 
 country. The necessary consequence is, a reduction of their profits, 
 followed by a reduction of their business in adapting itself to the re- 
 duced market. The extent of this reduction depends upon the propor- 
 tion which their market in this country bears to their market in other 
 countries. If we furnish their whole market, and by a tariff" tax cut 
 off" one third of it, then their business must be reduced one third. If 
 they find half their market here, then they lose one half of the whole. 
 So of all other proportions. The consequence is, that laborers are 
 thrown out of employment, establishments broken up, and inconveni- 
 ence, often amounting to distress, is extensively felt. The cajDital and 
 labor thrust out of one employment by foreign legislation, forces its way 
 into others, disturbing them also, and it is some years before the great 
 ocean of public labor settles down into regular channels and its wonted 
 calm. 
 
 Reaction of Tariff Taxation. 
 
 But the mischief does not end here. There is a reaction back upon 
 the country which imposes the tariff". All nations with whom we trade 
 pay us in the products of their labor or the money for which those pro- 
 ducts have been sold in other nations. The ability of their people to 
 buy of us is diminished by the inability of our people to buy of them. 
 England buys our grain and meat, and pays us in manufactured goods. 
 If we refuse to take her goods, which are the fruits of her people's labor, 
 they are no longer able to buy our meat and grain, but must turn to 
 
470 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 other countries who are willing to make the exchange which we refuse. 
 Every dollar added to the tariff tax may be properly considered as 
 diminishing our foreign market nearly a dollar and a half^ by taking 
 from both our own people and foreigners the means to buy of each other. 
 Thus does tariff taxation act and react upon the nations of the earth. 
 One cannot resort to it without disturbing the trade and industry of 
 others who are connected with it by commercial ties. The blow falls 
 most heavily on its own, but is felt around the globe. All the civilized 
 world has become, as it were, one community in reference to industry 
 and trade, and one of its members cannot be seriously wounded in those 
 interests without affecting the whole. Every tariff tax is a blow at the 
 industry of mankind, at their commerce, at their shipping, at their wealth, 
 at liberty^ and at civilization. What but that intercourse which attends 
 the mutual exchange of the products of nations, is humanizing the 
 savage, civilizing the barbarian, throwing the beams of intelligence into 
 the remotest corners of the earth, and preparing mankind to live to- 
 gether in peace, as one family, realizing the blissful state which good 
 men desire and the prophets have foretold ] 
 
 WJiy preferred ? 
 
 Why is a species of tax, expensive in collection above all others, bur- 
 densome to industry, disturbing to trade, anti-commercial, anti-philan- 
 thropic, and anti-liberal, so popular among the rulers of mankind % How 
 is it that the people unite with their rulers in giving it a preference over 
 others that would take from them less of their earnings, and leave the 
 currents of trade undisturbed ? It taxes the people almost without their 
 knowing it. Rulers like it for that reason. When the people are re- 
 quired to pay money directly, they are apt to ask their rulers what they 
 want it for, and whether a smaller quantity cannot be made to meet all 
 necessary demands against the public. By approaching them stealthily, 
 and taking money out of their pockets without their knowing it, the 
 rulers avoid this annoying interference, and readily raise sums they 
 would not dare to ask if each constituent knew, as he paid it, the 
 amount exacted from him. The people like it, because they do not 
 understand it. No man knows how much he pays, and multitudes 
 never reflect that they are taxed at all. The tax is confounded with 
 the price of the goods purchased, and in the merchant's bills is concealed 
 under that disguise. If those bills could be made to tell the whole truth, 
 public opinion would be very likely to change. For instance, if they 
 read somewhat in this form, viz. : — 
 
 To one yard of woollen cloth $ 1.00 
 
 To government tax thereon 45 
 
 $1.45 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 4^^. 
 
 ■ Or if a government collector stood at the gate and took out of the 
 farmer's wagon or cart, for public use, a third part of all the grain he 
 sends to market, or every third horse, hog, or sheep, and whatever else 
 he proposes to sell for the purpose of getting money to buy comforts 
 for his family, or if the tax-gatherer stood by him in market and took 
 from him 45 cents out of every $ 1.45 he received for them, his eyes 
 would be opened to the effect of this tax. Or if the tax-gatherer were 
 to take his stand at every store and grocery and take from every farmer 
 and other purchaser, as they come out, one fourth, one third, or one half 
 of all the cotton and woollen goods, of all the nails and ironware of every 
 description, of all the salt and sugar, and numerous other articles neces- 
 sary to his business operations and the comfort of his family, he would 
 be aroused to the truth on this abstruse subject. Yet there is now a 
 tax-gatherer inside of every store and grocery, standing behind the counter, 
 who performs this very office of taking for the use of government from 
 every purchaser nearly one third of all the money paid by him for taxed 
 articles ; which, to the farmer, is the same thing as taking the same 
 proportion of his grain or other produce sold to raise it. In the 
 same manner, it takes for public account the same proportion of the 
 mechanic's and laborer's toil, and of the income of every other class 
 of society. 
 
 Our object, thus far, is to explain and illustrate the general effect of 
 every species of tariff taxation, whatever ma}'' be the motive, for levying 
 the tax. There are circumstances which modify this general effect ; but, 
 being the result of general principles inherent in the structure of so- 
 ciety, they cannot be in the main averted. We sometimes have snow- 
 storms in summer and warm weather in winter ; but they do not change 
 the general character and effects of the seasons, flowing as they do from 
 the fixed and unalterable laws of nature and of nature's God. Of some 
 of the causes which modify the effects of tariff taxation we shall have 
 occasion to speak hereafter. 
 
 A Protective Tariff, 
 
 Mankind, in all civilized countries, may be divided into two classes, 
 those who work and those who do not. The workers constitute the great 
 mass of the people ; the idlers are but few. The latter employ them- 
 selves in devising schemes to appropriate to their own use the toil of 
 the laboring millions, and in enjoying themselves upon the proceeds. 
 Their modes of operation have been various. Bandits live by open 
 plunder, and many ancient communities were little better. But an 
 alliance with government has been the most ready and safe means by 
 which the idlers have accomplished their object. War is one of their 
 means. It enables them to plunder two countries at once, — their own 
 
472 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 by taxation to feed, clothe, and pay their instruments, and furnish them 
 with arms and munition, and the enemy's which they ravage and despoil. 
 Nobody is enriched by this process but the chiefs ; for it is but little of 
 the plunder or prize-money that goes to the common soldier or sailor. 
 
 But war " kills the goose that lays the golden eggs." A few lions and 
 tigers only can subsist upon the deserts it produces, leaving nothing for 
 those more cowardly beasts, the jackals, the wolves, and the foxes. The 
 idlers long since found that their true interest consisted in guarding 
 mankind measurably from war's desolation, as the farmer does his sheep 
 from beasts of prey, that he may profit more by their fleeces. From a 
 few military chiefs, they became nobles, appropriating to themselves the 
 lands of the country, with the labor of the cultivators, under the names 
 of serfs or tenants. Nobilities have found allies in established churches, 
 whose dignitaries, not content with the contributions, salaries, perqui- 
 sites, and legacies they are able to extract from a willing people through 
 their piety, superstition, and pride, surround the government also, and 
 avail themselves of its laws to amass property and tax labor. A new 
 order of spoilers has risen in modern times, in the holders of stocks 
 representing the debt of nations, states, and corporations, the interest 
 on which is exacted, directly and indirectly, from the sons of toil. With 
 this order, "public faith" is much more sacred than "moral obliga- 
 tion " ; and while they see private debts abrogated by thousands with 
 perfect composure, they are shocked beyond expression at public " re- 
 pudiation." 
 
 We have not room to follow these foxes through all the doublings and 
 devices by which they approach and seize upon the fruits of other men's 
 labor ; but must come at once to the point in hand. 
 
 A Partnership. 
 
 Tariff taxation^ in its deceptive and stealthy character, is well adapted 
 to the genius and designs of the few who live without work. It is a 
 ready means through which, by an alliance with government, they may 
 extract from the people a goodly portion of their earnings. The govern- 
 ment wants money, and so does the idler, or capitalist. The latter 
 throws his weight and influence upon the former, and induces it to sup- 
 ply itself by means which fill his own pockets at the same time. Thus, 
 a partnership is formed, the object of which is to get as much money as 
 possible out of the people in the easiest xoay. It is like the partnership of 
 church and state or king and nobility in other countries ; and, so far as 
 the labor of the people is concerned, quite as unjust and oppressive. 
 
 Government wants more money, and the question is, how shall it be 
 raised % There are perhaps a thousand men out of five millions who 
 employ their money (not their hands) in the manufacture of woollen 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 
 
 473 
 
 cloth. The J say to the government, '' You may now help yourself and 
 help us. Just lay a tariff tax of 40 per cent ad valorem on imported 
 woollen cloths ; and hy thus raising the price of those imported you will 
 raise the price of our goods, put money into your treasury atid i?ito our 
 pockets at the same time.'' Congress yields to the suggestion. 
 
 ITow it operates. 
 
 Our present tariff on " all manufactures of wool or of which wool is a 
 component part, not otherwise specified," including broadcloths, is 40 
 per cent ad valorem. That is to say, for every dollar the importer pays 
 for the goods, he pays forty cents to the government. Let us see how 
 this operates. In the first place, it raises the price of imported broad- 
 cloths in the following manner, viz. : — 
 
 Cost of cloth per yard, say 1 1.00 
 
 Grovernment tax or duty | 0.40 
 
 Importer's profit on duty, say five per cent ... 2 
 
 Wholesale merchant's profit on forty- two cents, the duty and 
 
 importer's profit thereon, 10 per cent 4A- 
 
 Retail dealer's profit on 46-^^^ cents, (being the duty, and im- 
 porter's and wholesale merchant's profits thereon,) say 20 
 
 per cent 9^^ 
 
 Increase of cost to farmer or other consumer in consequence 
 
 of duty 55^^ 
 
 Whole cost to farmer or other consumer ..... $ l.SS^^ 
 
 Hence it appears that the purchasers of foreign woollens pay, under 
 our present tariff, more than 50 per cent over what those goods would 
 cost them if trade were free. For every two dollars they pay for the 
 goods, they pay a dollar and ten cents on account of government tax, 
 only eighty cents of which go into the treasury ; the other thirty being 
 cost of collection or merchant's profit. 
 
 Of course, the effect of raising the price of imported woollens, is to 
 raise in a like degree the price of those manufactured in the United 
 States. That is the only object for which the manufacturers ask a pro- 
 tective tariff. Who gets the increase in this case] The manufacturer 
 gets the same share as the government gets in the other case ; that is, 
 the manufacturer gets forty cents for every dollar's worth of his goods, 
 and eighty cents for every two dollars' worth, more than he could if 
 trade were free ; and the consumers, by the same process, pay the same 
 high commission for its collection. Perhaps the amount of importer's 
 profit should also be added to the manufacturer's gain. 
 
 Thus the whole people are taxed upon all the woollen cloth they 
 purchase, for the joint benefit of the government and manufacturers. 
 This tax is enormous upon the people's purchases. Suppose those pin-- 
 
474 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 chases, at the natural price, amount to $ 4,000,000, the duty of 40 per 
 cent is $1,600,000, and the cost of collection, 33^ per cent, is over 
 $500,000 more, making the enormous exaction of $2,100,000 from 
 the people's labor. 
 
 How much of this sum goes to each partner (the government and capi- 
 talist) depends on the proportion which the goods imported bear to those 
 manufactured at home. If a quarter part be manufactured at home, 
 then the manufacturer gets $400,000 and the government $ 1,200,000. 
 If half be manufactured at home, then each partner gets $ 800,000. If 
 a quarter only be imported, then the government gets but $ 400,000, 
 and the manufacturer $ 1,200,000. Just in proportion as the tariff be- 
 comes efficient in promoting the home manufacture, in the same ratio 
 does the share of the government in the profits of this partnership 
 operation diminish ; and if it succeed so far in protection as to exclude 
 the foreign article entirely, the whole tax, be it 40 per cent or 100, goes 
 into the pockets of the manufacturer. 
 
 Sugar. — Illustration. 
 
 There are perhaps six hundred persons in the United States whose 
 capital is employed in raising the sugar-cane and manufacturing sugar. 
 The price of brown sugar in New Orleans, without any tariff, would not 
 exceed three and a half cents per pound, and the price of imported sugar 
 of the same quality in all the principal cities would be about the same. 
 Our present tariff imposes a duty on the imported sugar of two and a 
 half cents per pound, which at once raises its cost to six cents. Fortu- 
 nately, we have data in the Treasury Reports and census to illus- 
 trate, with an approach to accuracy, the extent of this tax upon the 
 people. 
 
 The amount of sugar imported into the United States in 1840, and not 
 re-exported, was 101,108,633 pounds, and the amount produced by our 
 own sugar planters was 155,110,909 pounds; making in all 256,219.542 
 pounds for the consumption of our people. The sugar-planters are one 
 branch of the partnership with the government in taxing the people ; 
 and let us now see what is about their share of the proceeds under the 
 present tariff. On every pound they make they get two and a half cents 
 by this tax, that being the increase of price in consequence of the gov- 
 ernment tax on the imported article. 
 
 155,110,909 pounds produced at home, at 2J cents tax, gives $ 3,877,770.22 
 101,108,633 pounds imported, at 2J cents tax, gives . . 2,527,715.82 
 
 $ 6,405,486.04 
 
 Thus, of near six and a half millions of dollars exacted from the people, 
 .near four millions go to the sugar-planters, and about two and a half 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. ^^^ 
 
 . millions to the government. The planters' share divided among them 
 gives over six thousand dollars to each ! 
 
 But this is not the entire exaction from the people. The cost of col- 
 lecting the planters' share of the tax in the shape of merchants' profit, 
 is as much as the cost of collecting the government's share, or at least 
 33^ per cent, amounting to $ 1,292,490, and the cost of .collecting the 
 government's share at the same rate is $ 942,571, 
 
 Making in all $2,135,161 
 
 Add tax as above 6,405,486 
 
 Whole amount paid by the people $ 8,540,647 
 
 Thus the people pay eight and a half millions of dollars to get two and 
 a half into the treasury, the balance of six millions being a contribution 
 for the support and emolument of the six hundred sugar-planters. 
 The price of sugar is nearly doubled by this tax. 
 
 The original cost per pound is about 3 1 cents. 
 
 Add importer's and merchant's profits, 33 J per cent at least \\ " 
 
 Making the cost to consumer 4f " 
 
 Add the tariff tax to the original cost, and it makes the price 6 ^' 
 Add merchant's profit, etc 2 '^ 
 
 Making the cost to consumer 8 " 
 
 Is there reason or good policy in such a tax 1 Is it reasonable that all 
 our millions should be taxed to furnish an income to six hundred ? Is 
 it politic to pay eight and a half millions to get two and a half into the 
 treasury ] 
 
 Salt. 
 
 We have another apt illustration in the article of salt. In 1840 we 
 imported 8,183,203 bushels, and manufactured 6,169,174. Our tariff 
 tax is eight cents on the bushel of fifty-six pounds, the cost of which 
 abroad does not average over eight cents. In public documents the 
 price is stated somewhat higher ; but the foreign bushel is eighty pounds, 
 instead of our tariff bushel of fifty-six. 
 
 In this case the partners (consisting of the government and the salt- 
 makers) divide between them $1,148,990, of which $654,656 goes to 
 the government, and $ 494,333 to the salt-makers. But in addition to 
 that sum, the people pay in merchants' profit or cost of collection 
 at least 33J per cent more, making the whole exaction from them 
 $1,531,986, to get a little more than the third of the sum into the 
 
 treasury. 
 
 Salt is an article of prime necessity, entering into the consumption 
 of the poor equally with the rich, constituting an ingredient in the food 
 of beast as well as man, and being the indispensable preservative of all 
 
476 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 meats as well for market as for consumption. What reason is there in 
 making our farmers pay 133 per cent tax on this article, merely to 
 enrich or sustain a few hundred manufacturers 1 
 
 For Protection, - — For Revenue. 
 
 We have data at hand to illustrate with equal clearness the differ- 
 ence in effect upon the people between a tariff for jprotection and a tariff 
 for revenue. 
 
 By a duty of 2 J cents per pound on sugar the people are taxed 
 
 about $8,540,647 
 
 By a duty of 8 cents a bushel on salt they are taxed . . 1,531,983 
 
 Tax paid on the two articles $ 10,072,630 
 
 Of this, however, there goes into the treasury from 
 
 sugar, only $2,527,715 
 
 And from salt, only 654,656 
 
 Making in all "i T~ 3,182,371 
 
 Does not go into the treasury $ 6,890,259 
 
 Deduct merchants' profit or cost of collection .... 1.722,564 
 Leaving amount paid for the support and emolument of sugar 
 
 planters and salt-makers $5,167,695 
 
 That is, for every dollar that goes into the treasury, the people pay 
 over a dollar and a half more for the benefit of sugar-planters and salt- 
 makers. 
 
 Cannot this double and triple taxation be avoided without resorting 
 to a direct tax? Let us see. 
 
 The articles of coffee and tea are not produced in the United States. 
 A tariff tax on them would operate as a revenue tax merely, having no 
 effect to protect or increase the prices of any species of home product. 
 The imports of tea in 1840 were 19,703,620 pounds, and of coffee 
 94,996,095 pounds. A duty of eight cents a pound on tea and two 
 cents on coffee would produce the following results, viz. : — 
 
 19,703,620 pounds of tea at eight rents $ 1,596,289 
 
 94,996,095 pounds of coffee at two cents 1,899,921 
 
 Total brought into the treasury 3,496,200 
 
 Add for cost of collection or importers' and merchants' profit, 33J 
 
 percent 1,165,400 
 
 Whole amount paid by the people $4,661,600 
 
 Hence, to get $3,182,371 into the treasury by the present duties on 
 sugar aud salt, the people actually pay $10,072,630; while duties on tea 
 and coffee bringing into the treasury $ 3,496,200, would take from the 
 pockets of the people only $4,661,600. By shifting the duties from 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. ^^fj 
 
 sugar and salt to tea and coffee, the people would save more than half they 
 now pay. This saving would be more than sufficient to pay for all the 
 sugar and salt they now use. It would be much more than enough to 
 huy at a fair price all the salt and sugar made in the United States ! 
 
 A tariff, not of protection, takes from the people at least % 4,000,000 
 for every $ 3,000,000 that goes into the treasury. 
 
 A tariff for protection takes a larger amount from the people in pro- 
 portion to the extent of actual protection, and upon sugar and salt, our 
 present tariff takes from them about $ 10,000,000 for every % 3,000,000 
 that goes into the treasury. True, over $3,000,000 goes to the pro- 
 tected sugar-planters and salt-makers, but that only makes the matter 
 worse. 
 
 What would our farmers think of it, if tax gatherers were sent by 
 l^esident Tyler to meet them in the road on their return from the store, 
 and take away from them one pound out of two of all the sugar and salt 
 purchased by them for their families and farms 1 What would they 
 think of it, if he should hand half of it back to the sugar-planter to be 
 sold over again, while the other half should be sold for the benefit of 
 the government % However willing to give a fourth of his purchase for 
 the use of government, would he think it quite right to give back an- 
 other fourth to the sugar-planter % Is the farmer and planter of the 
 North or South, the mechanic, the laborer, the merchant, or any other 
 class bound by any moral obligation or constitutional compact, to give 
 one fourth of their purchases of sugar back to the planters % 
 
 This, in effect, they now do, but by a different process. The first 
 purchaser from the planter pays him, under the operation of the law 
 of Congress, nearly twice as much for his sugar as it would otherwise 
 be worth. By the time it reaches the farmer, the price is more than 
 doubled. The same is the case with imported sugar, which constitutes 
 one half, or thereabouts, of the farmers' purchases. The increase of 
 price upon that half, or so much as constitutes the duty, goes into 
 the treasury, and that upon the domestic half goes back to the sugar- 
 planters. Without a tariff, sugar would cost the farmer five cents, and 
 with it ten. Now, what is the difference to the farmer, whether, letting 
 sugar come in free, you enable him. to buy two pounds with ten cents, 
 and then take one pound away from him, or raise the price to ten cents so 
 that he can buy but one pound at first % In either event he has but one 
 pound left for his ten cents. It is therefore a fair view of the present 
 tariff tax on sugar, to represent it as taking from the farmer and q^iqx^ 
 other purchaser one half of all they huy, a fourth for the use of the 
 United States and a fourth to be returned to the sugar-planter to be 
 sold a second time, after he has once sold and been paid for it at its full 
 value. As the home product furnishes but half the quantity consumed, 
 
478 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the handing back to the sugar-planter one fourth of all purchases for 
 consumption is, in effect, handing back to him half of his crop. 
 
 The same principle applies to salt and salt-makers. Fully half of 
 their products are virtually handed back to them after being purchased 
 by the farmers, to be sold over again. They are enabled by the opera- 
 tion of the tariff to sell in the first instance at a double price, which 
 amounts to the same thing, except that it is less trouble. 
 
 Arguments Answered. 
 
 Having illustrated the general nature and effect of a protective tariff, 
 we proceed to answer the arguments of its advocates, after which we 
 intend to dissect the most important parts of our present tariff, for the 
 purpose of enabling each American citizen to ascertain how much he 
 pays to support and enrich our young nobility. 
 
 It cheapens Manufactures. 
 
 So say a portion of the tariff advocates. Now, the avowed object of 
 a protective tariff is to iiicrease prices, so that the manufacturers may 
 give good wages to their workingmen and yet make money themselves. 
 The complaint is, that without a protective tariff to increase prices, the 
 products of European " pauper labor " will undersell the products of 
 American labor, thus throwing our laborers out of employment or re- 
 ducing them to the level of foreign paupers. If the effect of a pro- 
 tective tariff is to reduce prices, it produces the very state of things 
 it is designed to prevent, and those who wish to keep up prices ought to 
 petition for its repeal. Who ever heard of the protectionists seeking to 
 accomplish their object by reducing the tariff'? When they petition 
 Congress to protect American labor hy abolishing a tariff for protection, 
 we shall give them credit for sincerity in resorting to an argument so 
 inconsistent and absurd. 
 
 There is now going the rounds of the Whig papers, a statement from 
 Mr. Samuel Lawrence, a Lowell manufacturer, that cotton goods have 
 fallen ten per cent in price since the passage of the late tariff law. 
 Mr. Lawrence does not assert that this effect has been produced by 
 that act ; but others do. 
 
 Prices in general were sinking rapidly when that act passed. If cot- 
 ton goods have fallen ten per cent, the farmer's produce and the laborer's 
 wages have fallen twenty, thirty, or forty per cent. The Lowell manu- 
 facturers themselves have reduced the wages of their operatives twenty 
 per cent. It is just as reasonable to ascribe to the tariff the universal 
 reduction of wages and of prices as it is to ascribe to that cause the 
 cheapening of cotton goods. 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. ^^g 
 
 The truth undoubtedly is, that cotton goods have fallen in spite of 
 the tariff, and would have fallen much more if it had not passed. The 
 cause is the same which has cheapened almost everything else, viz. a 
 reduced demand. The people do not use as many goods of any kind as 
 they formerly did, because they cannot procure the means to purchase. 
 Credit is nearly annihilated, and most men buy no more than they can 
 pay for, cash in hand ; and their means of raising cash are greatly re- 
 duced by the reduction in the prices of their produce, caused as well by 
 a less consumption as by an increase in the value of the currency. The 
 active circulating medium of the United States is not half as great as 
 it was in 1837 ; and the necessary consequence is, that prices and wages 
 have sunk, comparatively, in a degree somewhat corresponding. In 
 many portions of the Union, about a fourth part of the currency has 
 been withdrawn within the year 1842. But for existing debts this 
 process would not be severely felt, because, all prices being reduced in 
 an equal degree, the same labor though nominally at lower wages would 
 purchase the same amount of necessaries, comforts^ and any kind of prop- 
 erty. But debts do not depreciate with the depreciation of property 
 and labor under a currency improving in value, but are virtually in- 
 creased. Under the operations of the last few years they have been 
 doubled, — not by doubling the number of dollars due, but doubling 
 the value of each dollar. That is to say, it takes twice the labor and 
 tivice tJie produce^ or thereabouts, to command a dollar now that it did 
 five years ago. The labor of the debtors, therefore, (and " they are 
 legion,") is chiefly consumed in acquiring means to pay debts, leaving 
 little surplus to purchase luxuries or even comforts. Thus the amount 
 consumed by the people is diminished, the demand for goods is re- 
 duced, the amount manufactured accumulates, and the prices fall. To 
 break the fall of prices as to them, the manufacturers procured the pas- 
 sage of the present tariff, not only leaving the rest of the community 
 to feel the operation in its full weight, but taxing them in addition to 
 relieve the favored few from their share in the general calamity. While 
 their manufactures fall only ten per cent under the operation of causes 
 which reduce almost everything else twenty or thirty, they endeavor 
 to escape entirely by reducing the wages of their workmen twenty per 
 cent, and thus put into their coffers as many dollars as they did when 
 dollars were worth but half as much as they are now. 
 
 But most of those who maintain that a protective tariff cheapens 
 manufacture, speak of it not as an immediate but as an ultimate result. 
 They say, that temporary protection will enable our manufacturers to 
 establish themselves, so that in a few years they will bs able to dispense 
 with protection and enter into competition with foreign manufacturers 
 in the markets of other nations. 
 
480 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OP AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Do those who are influenced by this argument reflect what must be 
 the condition of this country if this result should be brought about ] 
 The wages of English operatives in the manufactories are now barely 
 sufficient to keep soul and body together. Yet they are in general as 
 high as the manufacturers can afford to pay and make anything by their 
 business. To undersell them in foreign markets or in our own without 
 protection, our manufacturers must find means to manufacture cheaper 
 than the British do. American operatives must work at wages still 
 lower than the " pauper " wages of Europe. This cannot be, until the 
 wages of every species of labor in this country are reduced nearly to 
 the starving point ; for laborers will not work in factories if they can 
 get better paid elsewhere. The state of things which the tariffites 
 promise us by way of inducement cannot exist, therefore, except as the 
 consequence of poverty, privation, and suffering among our countrymen 
 at least equal to that w^hich now shocks us in details from the manufac- 
 turing districts of England. If a protective tariff dooms our country 
 to this condition, who is there that will not look upon its promised 
 benefits with repugnance and horror ] 
 
 But, happily, centuries will pass away before the wages of labor can 
 be so reduced in oin: new countiy. It is not at this time in the power 
 of bad legislation to produce it, although the foundations of a system 
 may be now laid from which such results may be seen through the vista 
 of centuries to come. For centuries must labor, in all its departments, 
 consent to be taxed by protective tariffs and other expedients before it 
 will have sunk itself to the level of English operatives of the present 
 day ; for centuries must our farmers, mechanics, and every other class 
 contribute their means to sustain an unnatural, hot-house competition 
 before they will realize the blessing of starving j^anpers manufacturing 
 cheap goods to compete with the same kind of goods manufactured in 
 Europe by men equally abject. Is it not better to have cheap goods 
 without the paupers ? Is it not better to employ our own labor in rais- 
 ing food to feed the foreign paupers and take the goods manufactured 
 by them in return, thus increasing their comforts and our ownl Js not 
 such a course more consonant with our mterests, our true policy as a 
 nation, with the benign principles of philanthropy and religion ] Is it 
 our interest to pay double prices for what we buy ] Is it our true policy 
 as a nation to heap vast wealth upon o^fevj^ and reduce millions to pov- 
 erty] Is there philanthropy or religion in augmenting the want and 
 w^retchedness of foreign paupers by raising a class of paupers at home] 
 
 Although the general principle is sound, that a protective tariff in- 
 creases the prices of manufactured articles to an extent greater than the 
 duty, there are circumstances operating on particular articles which pre- 
 vent this result ; such as custom-house frauds, smuggling, and a rate of 
 duty high enough to be prohibitory. 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 
 
 481 
 
 Custom-House Frauds. 
 
 In many countries custom-house officers are proverbially venal. For 
 a bribe they admit goods with payment of none or but a small portion 
 of the duties imposed by law, and the consequence is, that the importer 
 sells at a lower price than if the duty had been rigidly exacted. In this 
 country it is not alleged or imagined that the custom-houses are gen- 
 erally corrupt ; but many facts have been developed tending to show 
 that the custom-house at New York has not always been free from taint. 
 When merchants pay fees or gratuities to custom-house officers or clerks 
 under any pretence ; when, baffled in attempted frauds at Boston and 
 elsewhere, they order their ships to New York ; and when the foreign 
 trade accumulates and concentrates at that point with unnatural speed, 
 as was the case a few years ago, there is ground for something stronger 
 than suspicion. We firmly believe that one cause of the great concen- 
 tration of our foreign trade at that point, when in its most flourishing 
 condition, was attributable to enormous custom-house frauds, which kept 
 down the prices of many highly taxed articles below what they would 
 have been had the laws been faithfully executed, and yet gave to the 
 importers enormous profits. For that belief we have reasons conclusive 
 to our own mind. 
 
 Smuggling. 
 
 This is a kindred mode of keeping down prices and defeating the 
 natural effects of a high tariff. With such a coast and such a frontier 
 as surround our republic, it is impossible, when the temptation is strong, 
 to prevent smuggling. Though a boy at the time of the embargo and 
 non-intercourse, and living over two hundred miles from the Canada 
 frontier, we well remember that some of the neighbors were notoriously 
 engaged in carrying American produce into Canada and bringing British 
 goods out, in violation of those laws. There were then not only custom- 
 house officers but troops on the lines ; but the country people with their 
 sleighs and sleds laughed them all to scorn. They went and came in 
 large parties, provided with axes, and if the old roads were guarded, they 
 cut new ones in an incredibly short time, accomplished their object and 
 dispersed before the government officers were apprised of their approach. 
 Almost the universal feeling being against the government, it was not 
 easy for its agents to obtain accurate information, and not always safe to 
 act upon it when they had it. True, the Democratic party generally 
 declared in favor of sustaining the laws ; but it was with a feeling that 
 the laws themselves were oppressive and unjust. Such at least was the 
 impression of the country farmers from whom at that time all our infor- 
 mation was derived. 
 
 During our high tariff, subsequent to the war, the same end was 
 
 31 
 
482 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 accomplished by different means. In addition to the ordinary process 
 of smuggling, the Canada tailors sent their agents through New England^ 
 offering to furnish ready-made clothing at perhaps one half what it would 
 cost to buy the cloth from an American store and get it made up by an 
 American tailor. They took the measure of such as agreed to purchase 
 of them, and delivered the clothes at their houses. How many would 
 be patriotic enough to refuse contracts so much to the advantage of 
 their pockets, when all the risks fell upon the Canada tailors, every man 
 must judge for himself; but it is an undoubted fact, that many a loud 
 tariff advocate was clothed in a Canada-made coat, willing enough to 
 relieve his own pocket from the tax he was willing to impose on his 
 uninitiated neighbor. 
 
 These operations were carried on in heavy articles, the profit being so 
 great in consequence of the increase of prices through our protective 
 tariff as to justify the risk for even a third or fourth of that increase. 
 But in light articles, such as silk and jewelry, smuggling particularly 
 delights ; and when the tariff is extravagantly high, it is as impossible 
 to prevent our merchants from being supplied by illicit means as it is 
 to make all men honest, or induce purchasers to believe it is not right to 
 purchase at the lowest prices. So effectual is smuggling even in Eng- 
 land, surrounded with *' wooden bulwarks " and planted with bayonets 
 as she is, in counteracting a high tariff, that the prime minister. Sir 
 Robert Peel, lately declared in Parliament, that it was the natural check 
 on this kind of legislation, and that in general 20 per cent was the 
 highest rate of duties which could be imposed without bringing it into 
 action. If such be the fact in England, (and coming from such a source, 
 who can doubt it T) how can American Statesmen believe that a tariff 
 of 30, 50, or 100 per cent can be maintained against this natural check 
 in the United States, whose means of withstanding it are so incompar- 
 ably less? 
 
 "Lead us not into temptation" is the best prayer ever taught to 
 erring man. It is infinitely easier to keep men out of temptation than 
 to deliver them from evils into which they may have been tempted. 
 Legislators should remember this solemn truth when making laws for 
 their fellow-men. If by law they increase exorbitantly the prices of 
 goods, they tempt the importer to evade the law for the purpose of in- 
 creasing his profits, and tempt the people to wink at or aid in it to save 
 their money. There is a pervading sense running through the whole 
 community that the law is unjust, and losing thus its moral force, it 
 relies on terror only for its execution. To be respected and obeyed in 
 a free country, laws should conform strictly and palpably to Tnoral 
 principle. An habitual departure from this standard by the govern- 
 ment, confounds men's notions of moral right, depraves the citizen and 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 
 
 483 
 
 saps the foundations of human society. And it is a sad reflection, but 
 still a truth engraved upon the tablet of history in every age, that 
 governments generally make men worse instead of making them better. 
 If men improve under them, it is on account of the protection they give 
 to persons and property, not in following their moral examples. It 
 ought not to be so, and would not be so, if our legislators took for their 
 uniform guide the moral standard which all recognize as man's only 
 true guide in dealing with his fellow-man. Far, far from this as the 
 poles are asunder is a system of laws which takes from one portion of 
 the people a part of their earnings for the purpose of enriching another. 
 And the system becomes a moral plague when its exactions are carried 
 so far as to make men feel justified or even excusable in committing or 
 conniving at constant infractions of the laws. When legal restraints 
 are set at nought, moral restraints lose their binding force ; for as they 
 ought to go together, the common mind does not readily separate the 
 one from the other. 
 
 A Prohibitory Tariff. 
 
 When the duties are raised So high as to prevent the importation of 
 an article, its price does not rise in proportion to the duty. On many 
 articles our present tariff is prohibitory. Cheap cottons which do not 
 cost six cents a yard, are required to be valued at twenty cents, and a 
 duty of 30 per cent is imposed on this valuation. This, under the guise 
 of a 30 per cent duty, is in fact a duty of more than 150 per cent, and 
 entirely puts an end to importations. The price does not rise 150 per 
 cent ; for, independently of custom-house frauds and smuggling, the 
 goods can be manufactured in the United States, not so cheaply perhaps 
 as in England, but far below the actual duty imposed on their importa- 
 tion. The purchaser, therefore, instead of having three or four prices 
 to pay, according to the general law of protective tariffs, only pays a 
 double price, or a price much enhanced by the exclusion of foreign com- 
 petition. 
 
 The same effect is produced by what are called specific duties, being 
 duties levied upon the pound, the yard, the bushel, or other given quan- 
 tity without regard to value. On iron wire, the duty is five cents a 
 pound, which is about equal to its cost, or 100 per cent upon the value, 
 effecting a prohibition. Wire will not rise in proportion to the duty, 
 because it can be made in the country at a lower price, and yet with 
 
 great profit. 
 
 When a duty is imposed on an article which is not imported at all, it 
 produces no effect on the price. Our present tariff imposes a duty 
 of three cents a pound on raw cotton ; but it does not raise the price 
 of cotton the fraction of a cent. And why ] The home supply is more 
 
484 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 than sufi&cient for the market, and none is imported. The same may be 
 said of the duty of seventy cents per hundred weight upon flour, twenty- 
 five cents a bushel on wheat, ten cents a bushel on oats, ten cents a 
 bushel on corn, and nearly all the duties on agricultural products. They 
 do not raise the prices a cent to the farmer, because the country yields 
 more of those products than it can possibly consume. To put them into 
 the tariff at all is a mockery or a fraud. 
 
 Specific duties and duties based on fictitious valuations, not originally 
 prohibitory, may become so by a reduction in the value of the article, 
 the effect being to increase the proportion which the duty bears to its 
 original cost. If the cost of wire be five cents a pound and the duty 
 five, it is a duty of 100 per cent upon the value ; but if the cost be re- 
 duced to two and a half cents, it becomes, without any new action of 
 Congress, a duty of 200 per cent. So if the actual cost of cotton cloth, 
 arbitrarily valued by the tariff at twenty cents a yard, with a duty of 
 30 per cent superadded, be twelve cents, the duty will be 50 per cent 
 upon the value ; but if the cost fall to six cents, it becomes, without 
 further legislation, a duty of 100 per cent. It is plain, that although a 
 duty of 50 per cent, enormous as it is, may not operate as an absolute 
 prohibition, a duty of 100 per cent would do so. 
 
 In all cases where the tariff is so framed as to be or become absolutely 
 prohibitory, although prices are not kept up to the level of the cost and 
 duty united, they are kept above their natural level just as long as the 
 duties imposed continue to be protective. If home production be car- 
 ried so far as to supply our own markets, as it now does with wheat, 
 com, and potatoes, cheaper than they can be brought from other coun- 
 tries, then and not till then the duty ceases to increase prices, ceases to 
 be protective, and becomes a dead letter on the statute-book. That 
 such a result never can be produced in this country until the wages of 
 manufacturing labor sink to a level with the European standard, accom- 
 panied by the same state of poverty, suffering, and want, is as plain to 
 the eye of reason as the most palpable demonstration of mathematical 
 truth. 
 
 National Independence. 
 
 One of the most common and imposing arguments used by the tariff 
 advocates is that it promotes our indej^endence of foreign nations. 
 
 Political independence is a cherished object with every true patriot ; 
 but commercial independence is a very different thing. Miitual depen- 
 dence runs through all society from individuals up to nations. ''It is 
 not good that the man should he alone,'' said the great Creator. To make 
 him happy, it was necessary that he should have a ''help meetj' and she 
 was created for that purpose. From that day to this the man has been 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. ^g^ 
 
 dependent on the woman, and the woman upon the man, while the chil- 
 dren are dependent on both. This is the condition of man even in the 
 savage state. As civilization advances, the bonds of dependence in- 
 crease and strengthen. Family becomes dependent upon family, town 
 upon town, state upon state, and nation upon nation. The farmer be- 
 comes dependent upon the mechanic, the mechanic upon the farmer, 
 and both upon the merchant and the manufacturer. In fine, it is this 
 state of dependence, by and through which all occupations exist, except 
 hunting, fishing, and agriculture, and these are advanced by it. Make 
 men independent and you make them savages. 
 
 Mutual interest is the basis of this dependence. The farmer does not 
 build his own house, make his own hats, shoes, furniture, and farming 
 utensils, because he can buy them with the produce of his farm cheaper 
 than he can learn the various trades and make them himself The same 
 principle applies to all the occupations of society. Experience has 
 taught mankind that their comfort and happiness are best promoted by 
 a division of labor, assigning different portions to separate classes. It 
 is this which has brought society to its present state, and is rapidly 
 advancing the human family to its highest destiny. Yet it is, through- 
 out, by a state of dependence that this great good has been effected, 
 and every step in human progress makes that dependence wider and 
 
 stronger. 
 
 Farmers are even dependent on each other. One's land is adapted to 
 raising grain ; another's is best suited for pasturage. By exchanging 
 grain and meat, both are enabled to obtain twice as much of those neces- 
 saries of life as if each raised both cattle and grain. Would any man 
 think them wise in refusing to exchange, and putting their families on 
 short allowance, merely that they might be independent of each other 1 
 The various climates of the earth are adapted to different products, but 
 all conducive to the sustenance, comfort, or pleasure of man. Shall the 
 farmer in one climate refuse to enjoy these necessaries, comforts, or 
 pleasures, merely because in exchanging his own productions for them, 
 he creates a state of mutual dependence 1 This is not the order of 
 nature or of nature's God. He has stretched his continents from north 
 to south and thrown oceans between them, that man may exchange prod- 
 ucts with man in every latitude, and enjoy in the highest degi'ee the 
 blessings which Providence showers upon the earth. Through his bene- 
 ficent arrangement, he has put it in the power of man in every region, 
 from the ice-bound poles to the burning line, to procure and enjoy the 
 products of every clime, and shall he repel the blessing lest it should 
 make him dependent ? Shall not the Northern man exchange the fruits 
 of his labor for the sugar, the tea, the coffee, or the fruits of the South, 
 because it will make him dependent on their producers % Shall he not 
 
486 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 use fabrics of cotton in his clothing or furniture, because the plant 
 which produces it does not grow on his own mountains and hills 1 The 
 notion is preposterous ; such independence is ridiculous. 
 
 Those who employ this argument seem to forget that while political 
 dependence is always one-sided, commercial dependence is always mutital. 
 Being but an exchange of commodities, commerce always exacts an 
 equivalent. Other countries buy of us as much as we buy of them ; 
 and if we cease to buy of them, they of necessity cease to buy of us. 
 If the balance be against us with one nation, it is in our favor with 
 another, so that the result is a general equation. Our condition in 
 that respect is the condition of every other nation, so that on the whole 
 all are alike dependent. 
 
 Is this kind of national dependence a thing to be deplored? We 
 think not. On the contrary, it is a source of great individual profit 
 and of innumerable enjoyments to the human family. It is also one 
 of the strongest guarantees of peace among the nations. If nation 
 could not wai' with nation without certain destruction to both, wai's 
 would cease. Just as near as the certain injuries of war approximate 
 that result, in the same degree are the motives to avoid it increased, 
 and to a like extent wars will be less frequent. What man, however 
 malignant, will set his neighbor's house on fire when he knows that his 
 own will be consumed in the same flame 1 
 
 The United States are the last nation on earth which should fear a 
 state of commercial dependence ; for there is none which would suffer 
 less from a suspension of commercial intercourse. We make, under all 
 circumstances, our own bread and meat ; and, with but slight inconveni- 
 ence, we can make our own clothing. The destruction of commerce 
 would make our labor less profitable and curtail our comforts ; but, 
 with the exception of a small portion of our population located on the 
 seaboard, it would produce no actual distress. But let us suppose 
 that the manufacturers of England obtained most of their bread and 
 meat, as well as the cotton in which they operate, from the farmers 
 and planters of the United States in exchange for their manufactured 
 articles, and that these supplies should be suddenly cut off by war between 
 the two countries, — what would be their situation 1 Having no lands 
 like our farmers and planters, they could not ameliorate their condition 
 by giving at once a different direction to their labor ; but losing at the 
 same time the market for their products which gave them wages and 
 the supplies of cheap food which that market returned them, they would 
 be cast out by tens of thousands to idleness and starvation. Dependent 
 on us for her bread and meat, while we should be dependent on her only 
 for articles of dress which in case of necessity we could make ourselves, 
 it would be impossible that Great Britain could go to war with us with- 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 
 
 487 
 
 out endangering the existence of her government. There is no danger 
 of our going to war with her so long as she does us anything like just- 
 ice ; and we may be sure of justice when it is her interest to be just. 
 Our interest, therefore, lies in increasing the commercial dependence 
 of the two countries, instead of diminishing it. Let our farmers and 
 planters feed her laboring millions and take the products of their labor 
 in return. Her almost entire exclusion from continental Europe is open- 
 ing the eyes of her statesmen to the fact that if she would have markets 
 she must give markets ; and that to find vent for her manufactures in 
 agricultural countries, she must receive in return the products of their 
 agriculture. The misery and starvation of her people are forcing upon 
 them the great practical truth that her artificial system of industry, 
 built up by legislation in violation of the laws of trade, cannot be longer 
 maintained by an exclusive policy ; and that a return to the principles 
 of free-trade is the only mode of saving her political system from bloody 
 convulsions. The millions whom her protective system has led or forced 
 into manufactories and workshops must be employed and fed at every 
 hazard, and this can be done only by consenting to receive the surplus 
 provisions of other countries in payment for the labor of their hands. 
 Hence the advances which that country is making towards receiving the 
 gi'ain, the pork, and other agricultural productions of the United States. 
 And shall not our farmers and planters be permitted to accept the 
 market thus tendered to them ] With surpluses of produce on hand, 
 shall they not be permitted to feed the laboring paupers of England, 
 and obtain their cheap goods in return 1 Shall they be debarred from a 
 market by their own government, and at the same time compelled to 
 pa,y double prices for what they buy 1 Is not this too heavy a tax to 
 pay for the commercial independence of the Republic, which, after all, 
 would be a curse rather than a blessing 1 
 
 No, no ; the interest of our farmers and planters, the leading interest 
 of our country, with the prosperity of which that of every other interest 
 which ought to be encouraged is inseparably connected, will be best pro- 
 moted by the freest possible commercial intercourse with all the nations 
 of the earth. Our national wealth, strength, peace, security, happiness, 
 and pohtical independence, will be advanced just in proportion as our 
 agricultural products find their way into foreign markets. To obstruct 
 the flow of trade inward or outward, under pretence of maintaining 
 national independence, is as suicidal as for a farmer to refuse to buy of 
 his neio-hbor or sell to him, under the idea of maintaining his individual 
 independence. Yet how many plain and honest men are made to be- 
 lieve that to pay additional prices for what they buy is patriotic and 
 praiseworthy, being necessary to maintain the independence of their 
 beloved country] 
 
488 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The only country which for ages has maintained her commercial 
 independence is China, and what is her condition] With fifty mil- 
 lions of men capable of bearing arms, we have just seen her whipped 
 into submission by less than twenty thousand British and India troops 1 
 Shutting her people up within her own limits, admitting contact with 
 foreigners only at a single port, she has for ages stood still in her soli- 
 tude, while the rest of the world has been advancing. The British met 
 at Canton, Ningpo, and Nankin the men of twenty-five ages past, and 
 it should not create so much surprise that they slaughtered and dis- 
 persed the gathering myriads of China in 1843, as it does that Alex- 
 ander with his 30,000 Greeks overthrew the myriads of Persia before 
 the Christian era. 
 
 A protective tariff, by lessening or cutting off commerce with foreign 
 nations, is a step in the road of Chinese policy. If it operated on all 
 articles of import as it does upon some, it would make us another China, 
 and secure all the blessings of commercial independence. 
 
 A Retaliatory Tariff. 
 
 We are often told that Congress ought to impose high duties on the 
 products and manufactures of other countries, because they impose high 
 duties on our products and manufactures. 
 
 That is to say, we ought to make our people pay an extravagant 
 price for foreign products and manufactures, because other nations 
 make their people pay an extravagant price for our products and manu- 
 factures. 
 
 Or, if the duties be made so high as to put an end to importations, 
 it is saying to our own people, you shall not buy and consume the products 
 of another country, because its people cannot or will not buy and consume 
 your products. 
 
 The first and heaviest blow of retaliatory tariffs, in most if not all 
 instances, falls upon the country which resorts to them. It is felt in 
 the increased prices of what they buy, or in depriving their people alto- 
 gether of a portion of their accustomed enjoyments. It is a certain tax 
 upon their pockets or their comforts. Its effect upon the country at 
 which it is aimed is secondary and uncertain. In any event, it can 
 scarcely inflict a greater injury than first falls on the countrj^ which 
 imposes it, because the one is the cause of the other. It affects the 
 foreigner only by making our people too poor to buy of him. If a 
 tariff does not increase prices, as some of its advocates sagely assert, 
 a retaliatory tariff cannot affect in the least the one party or the other. 
 But if it do increase prices, that increase falls on our own people, and 
 the injury to the foreign producer can only be commensurate with the 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 
 
 489 
 
 inability of our people to buy, produced by that increase. If they find 
 their entire market in this country, the injury to them may be serious • 
 but if all the world be open to them, it will scarcely be felt. 
 
 But there is a reaction in this matter which ought not to be over- 
 looked. How do we pay for the foreign products which we buy 1 In 
 our own products, directly or indirectly. We send our products to other 
 countries and take theirs in payment, or we sell for money in one 
 country and with that money buy in another. Our trade with China 
 produces a balance against us of eight or ten millions annually; but 
 this is met by an equivalent balance in our favor with other countries. 
 With Great Britain the balance is largely in our favor ; we sell there 
 more than we buy, and take the balance in specie or bills of exchange, 
 and with them pay for teas in China. The result is the same as if all 
 the rest of the world were one nation. As a general principle, the bal- 
 ance of trade is always practically equal ; for if it be against us one 
 year it is in our favor the next, by which the equilibrium is restored. 
 
 From these facts and principles it follows, that we cannot injure the 
 market of foreigners among us w^ithout in an equal degree injuring our 
 market among them. Just so far, therefore, as a retaliatory tariff in- 
 jures the market of the foreigner, it injures our own market. By cut- 
 ting off the trade of any nation with us, we cut off our own trade with 
 that or other nations to the same extent. That which is called retali- 
 ation falls, firstj on our own people, by increasing prices and lessening 
 their comforts ; secondly^ on the nation aimed at, by injuring their 
 market; and, thirdly, reacts on our own country and injures our market 
 in an equal degree. 
 
 Can such legislation be wise ? On the contrary, is it not, under or- 
 dinary circumstances, suicidal and ridiculous % I want pork, and my 
 neighbor has it to sell ; but I insist he shall take corn for it, which he 
 does not want. He says to me, " Sell your corn to those who want it, 
 and I will sell you my pork for the money, cheaper than you can get it 
 anywhere else." I reply, " No, if you won't take my corn, I won't take 
 your pork.'' To retaliate upon him, I exchange my corn with another 
 neighbor for pork, getting hut half as much pork for it as I should have 
 done if I had converted it into money and then bought the cheap porh of 
 my first neighbor. This is exactly the effect of retaliatory tariffs in gen- 
 eral. And what difference would it make, so far as my interest is con- 
 cerned, whether my first neighbor refused to take my corn because he 
 did not want it or out of mere spite % If my neighbor will not do me 
 2i favor, shall I therefore do myself an injury? 
 
 Retaliatory tariffs are a legislative ivar, and can be justified on no other 
 principle than a war of arms. It is a struggle of two nations to do each 
 other harm. The nation which commences it is sure of injury itself, 
 
490 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 and finds its only just excuse in the prospect of compelling its neighbor 
 to be more liberal and just. If there be none or but faint hope of such 
 a result, it is a war of folly and madness. Every blow struck in it is a 
 blow at the dearest interests of the human race, — at the value of labor, 
 at the comforts of man, at the spread of intelligence, at liberty itself. 
 Neithei' government can reach its adversary but through the bosoms of 
 its own people, and every blow struck by either is echoed in the groans 
 and lamentations of the citizens or subjects of both. 
 
 Whj do we not retaliate upon China, which annually sells us teas to 
 the extent of many millions of dollars, and takes almost nothing of our 
 products or manufactures in return 1 It is the strongest case on the 
 face of the globe ; yet where is the statesman that thinks of attacking 
 her by a retaliatory tariff] Where is the man who thinks it would be 
 wise to make our people pay a double price for tea, because his Celestial 
 majesty will not admit our corn, pork, and tobacco into his dominions? 
 Why is this tradej the balance of which is so heavy against us, left un- 
 molested 1 It is because on this matter reason is left to its natural 
 conclusions without the bias of interest. The farmer, when he sips his 
 tea, knows that his produce has paid for it. He does not see the whole 
 train of operations through which he is enabled, with his wheat and his 
 beef, to purchase the products of China ; but he knows that such is the 
 result. To him and to his country it makes no difference whether they 
 go directly to China in exchange for the grateful beverage, or are ex- 
 changed for goods or money in England or elsewhere, and the proceeds, 
 passing through a score of hands and as many nations, undergoing a 
 new metamorphosis at every step, reach the tea-grower at last. If one 
 half or the whole of the tea now consumed in the United States were 
 excluded by a retaliatory tariff, does any one suppose it would have no 
 effect upon our foreign markets ? If so, it is a great error. Unless our 
 other imports were increased, it would cut off our market abroad to an 
 extent equal to the cost of the tea imported ; for, to that extent, it would 
 diminish the means of foreigners to purchase of us. While we see an 
 enormous injury to ourselves certainly to spring from a retaliatory tai'iff 
 on the great staple of China, we cannot perceive the extent of injury 
 which would accrue to that Empire. No man, therefore, has the folly 
 to propose such a measure. 
 
 It is only in reference to European nations with whom our trade pre- 
 sents a more favorable balance, that we hear the cry of retaliation. Is 
 not protection^ so called, at the bottom of it 1 Were there no rival in- 
 terests in this country to be fostered at the expense of the working mil- 
 lions on both sides of the Atlantic, we apprehend that we should hear 
 little of retaliation. Be the motive what it may, the result of every re- 
 taliatory duty is a tax upon every class of our own community, and a 
 blow at our markets abroad. 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 49^^ 
 
 What Tariffs are like. 
 
 In a dispassionate view of the subject, all sorts of tariffs, as well on 
 exports as imports, are like natural obstructions to trade. Tliey increase 
 the cost of exchanging commodities between man and man, between 
 nation and nation. That cost, left to the operations of free-trade, would 
 consist of the expense of transportation and a reasonable commission or 
 profit to those employed. A tariff seizes the product or manufacture in 
 midway between the producer and consumer, and compels the carrier to 
 pay to the government a tax sometimes exceeding its value. This, with 
 a profit upon it, he embraces in the price he fixes on the article when 
 he sells to the consumer. The effect is the same, as if the cost of trans- 
 portation were increased to the same extent by obstructions to harbors, 
 rivers, or roads. Ought not causes which produce the same effect, to be 
 considered of equal merit ] Congress imposes a duty, for the purpose 
 of increasing prices and lessening importations. Would it not be just 
 as well to obstruct the navigation of our harbors, bays, and rivers, make 
 breaches in our canals and break up our railroads, making foreign goods 
 cost more to our people through a more expensive transportation, and 
 thereby fostering manufactures in each section of the country^ It 
 would be precisely the same sort of protection to "American industry." 
 
 A foreign nation has the folly to throw obstructions into her own har- 
 bors and rivers, and forthwith it is demanded by one class of sagacious 
 statesmen that we shall retaliate bt/ throwing obstructions into ours ! This 
 is a retaliatory tariff. 
 
 Why should we not consider human obstructions to trade with other 
 nations precisely as we do natural obstructions'? To some countries 
 nature has denied good ports and navigable rivers, making trade with 
 them difficult and expensive, — shall we, for that reason, refuse to trade 
 with them as far as we can profit by it "? To refuse to do so, would 
 strike every man as ridiculous. And supremely ridiculous would it be 
 to throw sand-bars into the mouths of our rivers because the rivei-s of 
 other countries with which we wish to trade have sand-bars in them. 
 Common sense teaches men to trade wherever they can make a profit. 
 It teaches them to remove obstructions where they can, and submit to 
 them where they cannot. If bad harbors and rapid streams will not 
 allow much trade, they are content with little. 
 
 Why should not legislative obstructions to trade be treated in the 
 same way 1 Is it not equally the dictate of common sense that we 
 shall trade wherever we can make a profit, be it much or little 1 If 
 foreign nations by legislative obstructions reduce our trade and their 
 own, shall we reduce it still more by similar obstructions on our part ? 
 If Great Britain throw obstructions into the Thames, shall we throw 
 
492 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 them into the Hudson 1 If she reject an advantageous trade with us 
 in one article, shall we reject an advantageous trade with her in another 
 article 1 Such is not the dictate of common sense. 
 
 A tariff is like a tax-gatherer standing in the highway to take from 
 the farmer's wagon a fifth, a third, or half of the produce he sends to 
 market, or a fifth, a third, or a half of the money or goods he gets in 
 return. To make those goods cost him a fifth, a third, or a half more 
 than they otherwise would, amounts to precisely the same thing ; and 
 such is the effect of a tarifif. In case the tariff be protective, the agent 
 of the manufacturer stands with the tax-gatherer, and they divide the 
 proceeds between them. 
 
 A farmer sends out his com to exchange with his neighbor for pork ; 
 but at each gate stands a tax-gatherer and takes a third of the com and 
 the pork for the use of the government and its partners, the manufac- 
 turers. Like this is the effect of a protective tariff. 
 
 The farmer has sold his produce and goes into a store to buy sugar 
 and cloth for the use of his family. A tax-gatherer stands at the door, 
 and as he comes out, takes from him every third pound of sugar and 
 every third yard of cloth he has bought, and divides it between the 
 government on the one hand and the sugar-planter and manufacturer 
 on the other. Like this is the effect of a protective tariff. 
 
 The farmers of the land have their bams filled and granaries over- 
 flowing, when a prophet comes along and tells them that they will make 
 money by burning a third of their crops. Would they believe him ] Yet, 
 what is the difference between burning a third of the crop, and adding 
 fifty per cent to the prices of everything they buy with it 1 Without 
 a tariff, two thirds of the crop would buy as much as the whole with a 
 tariff. 
 
 Deceptions of the System. 
 
 Of a Revenue Tariff. — The whole system of tariff taxation is de- 
 ceptive. 
 
 It is deceptive in this : It deceives the people as to the amount of 
 taxes actually paid by them as well as the costs of collection. What 
 farm.er when he makes his purchases, is aware how much is paid by him 
 in consequence of the tariff, over the natural price, on his axes, ploughs, 
 hoes, scythes, sickles, chains, crowbars, harrow teeth, cart irons, horse- 
 shoes, nails, spades, shovels, tongs, hinges, latches, knives, forks, ovens, 
 pots, kettles, and every article of iron, steel, brass, pewter, tin, and 
 copper that is used in building his barn, his house, and his out-build- 
 ings, in furnishing them, and in carrying on his business ; on his coats, 
 pantaloons, waistcoats, shirts, flannel, hats, shoes, socks, cravats and 
 pocket handkerchiefs ; on the dresses, shawls, bonnets, gloves, shoes, 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 
 
 493 
 
 hose, and other articles worn by his wife and daughters ; on his sheets, 
 blankets, counterpanes, comforts, beds, pillows, and pillow-cases ; and on 
 his sugar, salt, pepper, ginger, and the numerous condiments which 
 make his food wholesome and palatable *? If he would escape taxation 
 on his drinks he must be a cold-water drinker ; and even then he is 
 taxed on the glass which brings the limpid beverage to his lips. But 
 does he know hoiv much tax he pays on his tumblers, his pitchers, his 
 bottles, or on the windows which let the light of heaven into his dwell- 
 ing while they exclude the cold of earth % 
 
 Does the carpenter know how much he pays on his planes and chisels, 
 his augers and gimblets, his squares and compasses, his adzes and axes, 
 or any or all the tools necessary to his trade ] Does the blacksmith 
 know the amount of tax he pays on his anvils and sledges, hammers 
 and tongs, vices and files, any tool he uses or any species of iron or steel 
 in which he works ] Does the shoemaker know how much he pays on 
 his awls and his hammers, his knives and his lasts, his wax and his 
 thread, or on the leather he manufactures ] 
 
 In fine, is there any man of any class or occupation who can tell how 
 much tax he annually pays through his business or trade, his house and 
 furniture, his food and raiment, his comforts and pleasures, under a 
 system of tariff taxation. The most intelligent and reflecting are baffled 
 in the attempt, and there are multitudes who seldom or never reflect 
 that they are taxed at all. They pay the price charged by the mer- 
 chant without knowing or recollecting that a fourth, a tliird, or a 
 half of it is composed of a tax to the government and costs of 
 collection. 
 
 Aside from all questions of protection, retaliation, and costs of col- 
 lection, is that system of taxation a good one for a free people w^hich 
 conceals from them what they actually pay ? Will any man who merits 
 having a voice in his own government prefer having his pocket picked, 
 as it were, for the support of the public institutions and authorities, to 
 placing the amount openly and directly in the hands of the collector 1 
 Is there not, in this stealthy mode of collecting a revenue, an example 
 of indirectness approaching to immorality, which a government desirous 
 of promoting open dealing and sound principle ought not to set ? Has 
 not this system been the parent of all the real extravagance which has 
 at any time prevailed in the administration of our government '? When 
 men do not know when or how their money leaves them, it cannot be 
 expected that they will give much thought as to what becomes of it. 
 But when asked for their money directly, they are very apt to ask in 
 return what it is wanted for. AVhen they see it go, — when they take it 
 out of their pockets and put it into the collectors' hands, thus knowing 
 to a cent how much they pay, — they will inquire for what this demand 
 
494 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 is made upon them, and insist that the exaction shall be confined to the 
 necessities of the government. 
 
 Yet the indirect and stealthy manner in which a revenue tariff 
 approaches the pockets of the people, is with modem statesmen the 
 chief reason for preferring it to other systems of taxation. It enables 
 them to take the people's money without being questioned about it, and 
 that they consider a most excellent contrivance ! Ought the tax-payers 
 to think so 1 
 
 Of a Protective Tariff. — Taking the money of the people without 
 their knowing it, for the bona fide support of the government^ may admit 
 of some apology or excuse. But what can be said in defence of an indi- 
 vidual, who, with his own hand or with the assistance of others, takes 
 money out of his neighbor's pocket and applies it to his ovm use 1 What 
 less than this does the manufacturer who gets Congress to pass an act 
 raising the price of his goods, directly or indirectly, for the purpose of 
 increasing his profit ? Suppose the price of broadcloth to be a dollar a 
 yard ; Congress by law raises the price to a dollar and a half ; the farmer 
 buys two yards for three dollars which he could have bought for two if 
 Congress had not interfered ; thus one dollar of the farmer's money has 
 been extracted from his pocket and put into that of the manufacturer. 
 He is not conscious of it, however. The merchaut tells him broadcloths 
 have risen; and without knowing or understanding why, he pays his 
 money and is content. 
 
 Is it believed that the system would last be3^ond a single Congress if 
 the people universally understood precisely how it operates upon them 1 
 If each farmer, mechanic, laborer, lawyer, doctor, divine, and merchant 
 distinctly perceived that this system takes from them large portions of 
 their crops, earnings, salaries, fees, and profits, and hands them over to 
 the manufacturers, iron-masters, sugar-planters, and salt-makers, not in 
 bona fide remuneration for their goods and products, but merely to enrich 
 them or make their business profitable, would they not all rise up against 
 it with one voice ? Would they not say to their rulers, " This is worse 
 than the agrarianism which has been so strongly condemned % That 
 takes the property of the rich and divides it among the poor ; this takes 
 the property of the poor and gives it to the rich. That divides the 
 wealth of the country equally among the people ; this puts the wealth 
 of the country into the hands of a few. Both are violations of moral 
 principle, differing only in policy and degrees of turpitude." 
 
 But the protective system does not content itself with clandestinely 
 taking one man's money and giving it to another. It has various crafty 
 devices to make its exactions effectual. One of them is the ufc of what 
 are called minimums, which mean nothing short of false valvatwns, — 
 false by reqidrement of law ! The present tariff imposes a duty of 30 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 
 
 495 
 
 per cent ad valorem on certain cotton goods, and then provides that if 
 they cost less than twenty cents a yard, they shall nevertheless be valued 
 at twenty cents, and that the duty shall be 30 per cent on this false 
 valuation. There are descriptions of cotton goods embraced in this pro- 
 vision which, we presume, do not cost in England four cents a yard, on 
 which a real ad valorem duty of 30 per cent would be but little over 
 one cent ; yet, by means of this false valuation, it is raised to six cents, 
 or one hundred and fifty per cent upon their cost. The consequence is, 
 that all cheap foreign cottons are driven from our market, and the cun- 
 ning manufacturers have it all to themselves without competition. It 
 is as complete a prohibition as if Congress forbade their importation on 
 pain of death. Following up the falsehood which the tariff law thus 
 practises, many advocates of the system call it a revenue tariff. A tariff 
 which from some articles cuts off all revenuej the people are told is a 
 tariff to raise a revenue ! 
 
 Specific duties is another mode, though less aggravated, of concealing 
 the amount of the tariff tax. These are duties imposed upon the pound, 
 the gallon, the bushel, the yard, or the article, or any given quantity 
 of it, without regard to its value. The relative amount of this tax can- 
 not be ascertained without first knowing the price of the article. If the 
 tax be three cents a pound and the cost three, then it is a tax of 100 
 per cent ; if the cost be six cents, then it is 50 per cent ; if it be ten 
 cents, then it is 30 per cent ; but what it really amounts to upon the 
 value is a sealed book to the people generally. When told that the tax 
 is 30 per cent upon the cost of an article, they can form some estimate 
 of its amount without an accurate knowledge of its cost ; but when told 
 that it is two, three, or more cents a pound, bushel, or yard, etc., they 
 can form no idea as to what proportion of the price is made up of tax. 
 
 This point will be further illustrated when we come to dissect the 
 present tariff. 
 
 Free-Trade. 
 
 What is free-trade ? Many writers ridicule and sneer at the doctrine 
 of free-trade ; let us consider what it is. 
 
 I have corn and I want pork ; my neighbor has pork and wants com ; 
 we exchange. That is free-trade. That is the thing which the tariff 
 advocates sneer at and ridicule. They tell me, ''Mr. K., your free-trade 
 is a very had thing for you ; do you just pay the government a third of the 
 price of the porh you get from your neighbor X., and let him pay a third 
 of the price of the coim he gets of you, and it will he much hetter for both 
 of you ./" That is the tariff policy. Which is best for farmers^ The 
 shoemaker makes shoes for his neighbors, and takes their grain, meat, 
 and potatoes in payment. That is free-trade. Would it be better fur 
 
496 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 him and his customers to make him pay the government the value of 
 one third of all he gets in exchange for his labor ] That is the tariff 
 policy. So it is with all other classes of society. Free-trade permits 
 everybody to sell what they have for the best price they can get, and buy 
 what they want as cheap as they can. 
 
 A farmer drives his wagon to market, gets the best price he can for 
 his load, buys what he wants, and is on his return home. It is free- 
 trade thus far ; but at the boundary of his county or his town there is 
 a little toll-house^ the keeper of which makes him pay to the government 
 a sum of money equal to one third of the value of all he has in his 
 wagon. Is this better than free-trade ? better than carrying home the 
 money he has left ? Would it be a good thing to have these toll-houses 
 at the lines of all our towns, counties, and cities to take a third of all 
 that comes in, or its value in money, from the farmers, planters, me- 
 chanics, and manufacturers who are always carrying the products of 
 their industiy to and fro for a market ] Would it be better than free- 
 trade ? 
 
 Our Constitution establishes free-trade between the States. Would 
 it be better for our farmers if toll-houses or custom-houses were erected 
 on every road, river, or canal where it crosses a State line, to take from 
 every passing cart, wagon, car, or boat, for the use of the government, 
 one third of all the produce and goods transported in them, or their 
 value in money] Would it have been wiser in Washington and his 
 associates to have given us such a system instead of the free-trade they 
 established 1 Few there are who will maintain that it would be a good 
 thing for farmers to be taxed on the road to their neighbors, or at the 
 town, county, city, or State lines, going or coming, with the products of 
 their farms or the goods or other produce they have purchased by their 
 sales. 
 
 What difference does it make whether the farmers or mechanics who 
 exchange products, live on opposite sides of a stone fence or of the Atlantic 
 Ocean ? What difference does it make whether the articles coming in 
 exchange for the farmers' products are taxed at the gate as they enter 
 his yard, or at the Neiv York custom-house where they enter his country 1 
 Is it not the same thing to him 1 Is it better for him that they should 
 be taxed at either than that they should not be taxed at all 1 Is it better 
 that the tariff should dehver them, taking from the farmer one third of 
 their value at the same time, or that free-trade should deliver them 
 without taking from him anything] 
 
 There is no mystery in free-trade. It is the simplest thing in the 
 world. You may see it throughout the country, and nowhere more 
 fully illustrated than in the village and city market-houses. Would the 
 system there prevailing be bettered, if a tax-gatherer were standing by 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 
 
 497 
 
 and were to take from purchasers five cents for every ten or fifteen they 
 spend for marketing 1 Or were to take from them every third or fourth 
 pound of meal, bushel of meal, peck of potatoes, and every other article 
 they purchase, which would amount to the same thing ? And would it 
 be better for the countryman, after he has sold out his marketing to the 
 town-people, to have a tax-gatherer following him to the groceries and 
 stores and taking from him five cents for every ten or fifteen he spends 
 for family comforts'! Is this interference between buyer and seller, 
 taking from the former a third or half his money, better than free-trade, 
 which would allow him to spend it all for his own benefit 1 
 
 The principles of free-trade are the same between nations as between 
 individuals. You may see them illustrated in every bargain between 
 two women in the market-house. One sells as high as she can ; the 
 other buys as low as she can. In fact, trade between nations is at last 
 nothing but trade between individuals. The parties are farther apart, 
 and employ agents under the name of merchants to transact the busi- 
 ness ; but the principles which govern it are the same as if the parties 
 lived in the same house. It matters not a fig whether the articles 
 which pass from one to another are taxed in the' hands of the agent or 
 merchant, or in those of the final purchaser. Upon him falls the tax 
 at last. 
 
 To talk of benefiting the farmer or any other class (excepting the 
 protected) by obstructing trade through a tariff tax, is as absurd as to 
 talk of doing him good by stationing a fellow on the road to knock a 
 spoke out of his wagon-wheel every time he passes. What is the dif- 
 ference to him whether he pays a dollar for mending his wagon or as a 
 tax on the goods he buys 1 Both are the reverse of free-trade ; both are 
 tariff policy. 
 
 If free-trade be a bad thing, what nonsense it is to clear out harbors, 
 dig canals, make railroads, or good roads of any sort ! Upon the anti- 
 free-trade theory, sand-bars, rocks, and snags in the Western rivers, are 
 very good things ; they obstruct trade, render it less free, and tax it like 
 the best of tariffs I Instead of petitioning Congress to clear them out, the 
 anti-free-trade men of the West ought to petition them to throiv more in, 
 ^ to fill the Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri with snags and sawyers, 
 rocks and sand-bars. By such means, foreign goods could be kejjt out, 
 and the products of the country kept in, quite as effectually as by a 
 tariff. 
 
 There is another plan to tax trade and " protect industry " equally 
 effectual. It is to encourage pirates and highwaymen. Whether a third 
 of the imports of the country are taken from their owners by pirates 
 on the high seas or by the government and manufacturers through the 
 custom-houses is quite immaterial so far as regards the interests of the 
 
 32 
 
498 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 people individually. Both would make goods cost more, would interfere 
 with free-trade^ would be equal to a protective tariff. And to " protect 
 the industry " of each section of the country against interference from 
 other sections, gangs of highwaymen on the roads to plunder wagons 
 and rob merchants would be a most effectual expedient. All these 
 things but increase the prices of imported goods, and what hut that is 
 the effect of a protective tariff? 
 
 Throw revenue out of the question, and what are the exactions of a 
 protective tariff better than those of the bandit % Some Bluebeard or 
 Captain Kidd stations himself off Boston harbor, in an armed vessel, 
 and compels every ship that comes in to give up or pay him the value 
 of one third of her cargo. How is this morally different from the Lowell 
 manufacturer, through his agent in the custom-house, compelling every 
 ship to pay for or surrender a third of her cargo for his benefit on her 
 arrival at the wharf] Is not the effect the same ? Is not the wrong 
 just as great ? But say you, ^^ one has law for it, while the other violates 
 law J' Admitted ; but why should one have law for it more than the 
 other % Is it not just as right for Congress to authorize plunder at sea as 
 to authorize it on shore ? It is the principle and the practical effect to 
 which we wish to call the attention of the country. Looking upon pro- 
 tective tariffs as the modern device to cheat the workers into the support 
 of the idlers J and sustain unnatural and unjust distinctions in society, 
 taking the place of the direct plunderings, the vassahxge, the tithes, and 
 other contrivances of ancient times, now too well understood to be toler- 
 ated by the laboring millions, we desire to enable our countrymen to 
 understand them in all their bearings. 
 
 Practical Exposition. 
 
 In a Report of the Committee of Ways and Means, made on the 23d 
 February, 1843, in the House of Representatives, we find the following 
 passage, viz. : — 
 
 " It also appears from a statement furnished by the Treasury Depart- 
 ment that the average amount of duties on dutiable articles imported 
 during the last quarter of 1842, is a little more than 35 per cent on 
 their ad valorem value; and, at that rate, an importation of $ 40,000,000 
 of dutiable articles during the year 1843 must produce a gross revenue 
 of $ 14,000,000, which will yield a net revenue of nearly $ 13,000,000, 
 the amount estimated by the Secretary." 
 
 Hence it appears that the tariff tax on all imported articles now sub- 
 ject to duty, averages over 35 per cent upon their value, and that of 
 $ 14,000,000 estimated as their product, less than $ 13,000,000 will be 
 net revenue, the custom-house expenses being over one million out of 
 the fourteen. 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 499 
 
 From the practical results here exhibited let us see what is the 
 amount which our people actually pay under the existing system. 
 
 Imports valued at $ 40,000,000 produce a gross revenue of . $ 14,000,000 
 Add one-third, or 33J per cent, for importers' and merchants' 
 
 profits on the duties advanced by them .... 4,666,666?- 
 Whole ^ amount of tax paid by the people on their im- 
 ports . $18,666,666f 
 
 Yet, after deducting custom-house expenses, there comes into 
 
 the Treasury only 1 13,000,000 
 
 Actual cost of collection $ 5,666,666J 
 
 This is over 44 per cent, but one per cent less than our estimate under 
 the head of " Cost of Collection^ etc.'''' [See page 465.1 
 
 In this result the revenue feature only of our tariff is taken into con- 
 sideration. If there were no " protection " in it, our people would pay 
 five and two-thirds millions for the collection of thirteen millions. Is not 
 this a monstrous commission ? 
 
 But when we come to add the amount paid, under the protective fea- 
 tures of the present tariff, upon articles grown or manufactured at home, 
 the result is almost appalling. The precise amount of home manufactures 
 purchased by our people, corresponding in character with those subject 
 to duty imported from other countries, cannot be ascertained ; but we 
 think it safe to say that they are at least equal to the imports, or, at 
 their natural price, worth per annum % 40,000,000. As the price of 
 the imports is increased 35 per cent by the tariff, so the price of similar 
 articles manufactured at home will be increased 35 percent, which, upon 
 $40,000,000, gives $ 14,000,000, equal to the entire gross revenue. Not 
 a dollar of this goes into the treasury, but every dollar of it to the sugar- 
 planters, salt-makers, iron-masters, manufacturers, and a few minuter in- 
 terests. 
 
 But this also comes to the farmers, planters, mechanics, and other 
 consumers, increased by merchants' profits equal to 33 J per cent, or 
 $4,666,666f. 
 
 Here then we have the materials to form a satisfactory estimate show- 
 ing how much the American people pay to get $ 13,000,000 of net 
 revenue into their treasury, viz. : — 
 
 Custom-House expenses ....••••$ 1,000,000 
 Cost of collecting the revenue tariff tax ... • 4,666,666f 
 
 The protective tariff tax 14,000,000 
 
 Cost of collecting the protective tariff tax . . . . 4,666,666| 
 
 $ 24,333,333 
 Add net revenue 13,000,000 
 
 $ 37,333,333 
 
 Thus it appears that out of thirty-seven millions of dollars paid by 
 
500 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the people under the existing system only thirteen millions get into their 
 treasury 1 Of the balance fourteen millions is money transferred hy 
 legislative legerdemain from the pockets of the whole people to the pockets 
 of a few sugar-planters, salt-makers, iron-miasters, manufacturers, etc., four 
 millions and two thirds is the cost of this operation, while four mil- 
 lions AND TWO thirds is the cost of collecting the revenue tariff tax, and 
 ONE million the custom-house expenses. 
 
 Could any system of revenue be more expensive, more unjust, more 
 iniquitous % 
 
 Let us see what would be the result of a direct tax on carriages, on 
 watches, on silver-plate, and, if you please, on lands : — 
 
 Suppose the net revenue to be $ 13,000,000 
 
 Commission to collectors 5 per cent .... $ 650,000 
 Allow for losses 5 per cent more ..... 650,000 
 
 1,300,000 
 
 Whole amount paid by the people % 14,300,000 
 
 Thus, to get thirteen millions of dollars into the treasury by any kind 
 of direct tax, the people would be required to pay not over $ 14,300,000, 
 whereas to produce that result under the present system they pay over 
 137,000,000! 
 
 We do not recommend a direct tax ; we merely present what we be- 
 lieve to be facts for the consideration of the people. 
 
 A Home Market. 
 
 One of the delusive arguments of the tariff advocates is, that it pro- 
 duces a home market. The meaning of this is, that it increases the 
 number of consumers of produce in comparison with the number of 
 growers. 
 
 Does it necessarily follow that the increase of consumers is a good 
 thing "J If it be, why may not Congress pass an act to protect from 
 destruction crows and blackbirds, wolves and squirrels, rats and mice? 
 They are very considerable consumer's without being producers. If con- 
 sumption be a good thing, here is a way to obtain it without covering 
 "the body politic" with "sores " in the shape of manufacturing cities. 
 
 But, say the tariff advocates, "the manufacturing operatives give- us 
 something in return.^' Yes, at double prices. I have ten bushels of 
 wheat which I wish to exchange for articles of clothing ; what boots 
 it to me whether the rats eat up half of it, or it be taken from me by a 
 tax on cotton, linen, and woollen goods'? Are not the rats just as good 
 consumers as the manufacturers when they give me just as good a 
 return *? 
 
 But if the government ought to legislate with a view to increase the 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. 
 
 501 
 
 proportion of consumers, there is a more effectual mode : force the 
 manufacturers to break in pieces all their machinery of modern invention 
 and resort to tlie primitive modes of spinning and weaving. They would 
 then require five hands, probably ten, for every one now employed, and 
 thus make a most important addition to the number of consumers. But 
 says the tariff advocate, "that would greatly increase the price of goods'' 
 Very well ; is not that the very end at which you aim by a protective 
 tariff] "Aye; but it would increase the cost of manufacturing them:' 
 Ah, that explains yom- real motive. You want to increase the p>rice of 
 goods without increasing the cost of manufacturing them and thereby add 
 to your profits. While you talk of giving employment to laborers, in- 
 creasing the number of consumers, making a home market for farmers, 
 etc., etc., you are constantly introducing machines of iron, brass, and 
 wood, which neither eat nor drink, to perform the work of men and women 
 who do, and sending back your operatives to the occupations whence 
 they came, or, as in England, turning them out to steal or stai^ve I Yet 
 you call on the farmers and others to pay an enormous tax to raise 
 prices and make your machine labor profitable, to *' protect " things 
 of iron, brass, and wood from competition with the " pauper labor " of 
 Europe ! 
 
 What is the fact ? Has the building up of Lowell or Nashua in- 
 creased the prices of the farmer's wheat or corn in Ohio, Indiana, or 
 Illinois 1 Every man knows better. Has it increased the prices of the 
 farmer's com and rye raised in their very neighborhood ? Every farmer 
 fifty years old, who lives there, knows better. He knows that their 
 prices, thirty or forty years ago, were higher than they are now. South- 
 ern and Western corn and flour have been brought, by means of these 
 very manufacturing establishments, into competition with those of the 
 New England farmer, at his own door, reducing prices there loitliout in- 
 creasing them in the regions whence the new supplies come. These are 
 notorious facts, — the strongest of arguments. To think of increasing 
 the prices of Western produce by building up manufactures and thus in- 
 creasing the number of domestic consumers, is ^s idle as to think of 
 affecting the volume of the Mississippi above or below by throwing the 
 water over the levee at New Orleans with a bucket. The production 
 of that teeming region is too vast to be affected by an operation so 
 minute. The Mississippi must have an ocean to receive the waters 
 of its innumerable fountains, and its valley must have a world for a 
 market. To create a home market for its productions in New England 
 or elsewhere by legislation, is just about as ludicrous an operation as 
 digging a home reservoir to receive the waters of its mighty rivers. 
 
 As a man of the West we say to the general government, clear oid our 
 rivers, protect us from piracy and war on the ocean, and give us the world 
 
502 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 f(yr a market. Do this, and in half a century we will show you results 
 never surpassed in earthly beauty and productiveness since God planted 
 the first garden among the four rivers of Eden. 
 
 Not a Sectional Question. 
 
 In the former discussions of the tariff, it was generally treated as ex- 
 clusively injurious to the South and beneficial to the North. This was 
 a mischievous error. That the system is more injurious to the North 
 than the South will be obvious on a moment's reflection. 
 
 The amount of tax paid by the people of every section is in propor- 
 tion to their consumption of the taxed articles. Of these, the laborers 
 of the South, being chiefly negro slaves, consume very little compared 
 with the laborers of the North, who are chiefly white fi'eemen. The 
 consumption of those who are called the higher classes in the North and 
 South, is probably about equal. But taking the whole population to- 
 gether, there can be little doubt that the consumption of the North, com- 
 pared with the whole number of souls, is at least three times as great 
 as that of the South. Upon the small farmer who tills the ground he 
 owns, it falls with manifold heavier weight in proportion to his means 
 than it does upon the Southern planter with his hundred slaves. In- 
 deed, its practical tendency is to throw the property of the North into 
 the hands of a few, as that of the South now is, and make the mass of 
 the white population work for them with as little practical benefit to 
 themselves as the black slaves receive from their masters. There are 
 some features in Southern slaveiy which are humanity itself compared 
 with the factory system carried to its perfection as in England. The 
 master is obliged to provide for and support his slaves in sickness and 
 old age, and under all other circumstances, whether their labor be valu- 
 able or not. The factory laborers, after working for a mere subsistence 
 when in health, are uniformly turned adrift to provide for themselves 
 when sick and old, as well as when their labor is no longer profitable to 
 their masters. The tendency of the protective system in this country 
 is to make the whole population contribute to the wealth of the factory 
 owners, — a portion of them by laboring in the factories, and another por- 
 tion by tilling the soil and carrj'ing on other business out of the factories, 
 the profits of which are taken from them by protective tariffs and other 
 taxes. 
 
 The difference between the North and the South is, that the re- 
 cipients of these taxes, with some exceptions, live in the North. It is, 
 therefore, to some extent, the transfer of wealth from one section to an- 
 other. But is it any relief to the taxed farmer or mechanic of the 
 North to see his income, in common with that of the Southern planter, 
 
TARIFF TAXATION. ' 593 
 
 taken from him to build up an aristocracy of which he is practically to 
 be made the slave ] 
 
 The farmers and other classes in the Middle and Western States are 
 affected by this system in the same manner as in the North. Upon the 
 farmers of the West, however, it falls with additional weight. The far- 
 ther imported goods are carried from the place of importation, the more 
 hands they pass through, as a general rule, and the more is the tariff 
 tax increased by the merchants' and dealers* profits thus accumulating. 
 
 With these arguments and facts, enabling every reader, we trust, to 
 understand the subject of tariff taxation, and form some opinion of the 
 amount he pays under the existing system, we must close this article. 
 In *' Kendall's Expositor" we shall give further illustrations of the effect 
 of the tariff, from time to time, as we can obtain the information neces- 
 sary to unravel its intricacies. 
 
CHAPTEE XYIL 
 
 The first number of the " Expositor " in 1843 appeared with a 
 new heading, containing a picture of a pair of scales so nearly bal- 
 anced as to require careful scrutiny to detect any deviation. 
 
 The following extract is from the leading article on 
 
 NEW THINGS. 
 
 Oiir new head presents itself to the reader. The scales are emble- 
 matic of Justice. We adopt them as indicating our intentions towards all 
 our fellow-men. By making them a little one-sided, our artist may have 
 meant to intimate that the human mind is incapable of being perfectly 
 just under all circumstances. If our bias shall be no greater than he 
 has given to our emblem, we shall come nearer to the eternal rule of 
 right than falls to the lot of most men, however pure their intentions. 
 
 We omit the sword of Justice. To hold the balance is the utmost 
 of our ambition ; execution we leave to others. We purpose weighing 
 arguments with all practicable impartiality, and then submitting each case 
 to the people, whose province it is to give judgment and order execution. 
 Justice is Truth, and Democracy is Truth and Justice. To this cause 
 we devote ourselves, believing it to be the cause of our country and our 
 kind. 
 
 Our new volume opens with this number. The principles which will 
 be recorded in it our readers already know. The arguments and facts 
 by which we shall defend them remain to be developed. Our utmost 
 talent and zeal are pledged to make our discussions instructive and in- 
 teresting. What old Time may have to disclose for this year's record 
 rests in the Almighty Mind. We have faith that whatever may happen 
 to men or nations, the cause of human intelligence, human rights, and 
 human virtues will be permitted to advance with accelerated speed. 
 
 The new year is already in progress. It is not too late, however, to 
 wish our subscribers all sorts of happiness. 
 
 If Congress will be content to let currency and private business alone, 
 modify the tariff so as to make it just, reduce the public expenditures, 
 and take care to place the public credit beyond hazard or doubt, dismiss- 
 ing all thought of establishing banks, exchequers, or any other institu- 
 
LIEE OF GENERAL JACKSON. 595 
 
 tion with the view of giving an unnatural expansion to the circulating 
 medium, the people may hope for good times at no distant day. Indus- 
 try and economy they have already learned, and the surplus products of 
 their labor will soon bring them a wholesome currency in abundance, if 
 Congress or the State legislatures do not corrupt it by their tampering. 
 Their most earnest petition, prayer, and protestation to their rulers 
 should be to let them alone in that respect, to preserve the public peace 
 and the public faith, to protect them by general laws against violence 
 and fraud, leaving them to their own means to accumulate wealth and 
 raise themselves and families in the estimation of their fellow-men. 
 
 On the whole, the year 1843 opens upon us under favorable auspices. 
 Rapidly advancing in the knowledge that government cannot make the 
 people rich, but may make them poor, our countrymen are beginning in 
 every section to demand that their governments shall content themselves 
 with protecting their persons and property, leaving them to direct their 
 labor and capital as they please, within the moral law ; getting rich or 
 remaining poor as may result from their own management or fortune, 
 under the dispensations of Him who controls the destinies of men and 
 nations. Be it ours to inculcate reliance on themselves for relief and 
 prosperity, and not on legislative acts which, in matters of general 
 policy, can relieve one only at the expense of another, and can be gen- 
 erous only by being unjust. Confined to the prison bounds as we are, 
 and to the prison walls as we may be, we shall rejoice in the advance- 
 ment of our countrymen without, not only in their private fortunes, but 
 in right modes of thinking; which will, in process of time, put an end to 
 such wrongs as we suffer, and most others that flow from human 
 government. 
 
 In February, 1843, Mr. Kendall announced his intention to pub- 
 lish the Life of General Jackson, as follows : — 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 Amos Kendall proposes to publish, in fifteen or more numbers, a Life 
 of General Andrew Jackson, embracing the substance of all that has 
 heretofore appeared in connection with the services of this distinguished 
 man, together with many interesting incidents not noticed by his former 
 biographers, and a complete history of his administration, concluding 
 with an account of the manner in which, retired from the bustle of the 
 world, he is quietly preparing to bid adieu to the scene of his glory. 
 
 This task has been undertaken with the approbation of General Jack- 
 son himself, who has kindly put into the author's hands his books and 
 papers, public and private, and on obscure points favored him with his 
 own recollections. With these materials, with the works already pub- 
 
506 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 lished, and with the contribution of facts and papers by many of the 
 General's associates in civil and military life, aided by his own knowledge 
 of events occurring within the last twenty years, the author hopes to 
 produce a work worthy of the confidence and patronage of the Ameri- 
 can people. 
 
 The first number will embrace the General's early life, and a variety 
 of revolutionary adventures and incidents not heretofore published. It 
 will be illustrated by a first-rate likeness of the General, engraved on 
 steel, and a print exhibiting him, when a stripling, saving from massacre 
 a small party of men and boys, himself included, by attacking a band 
 of about one hundred Tories who were rushing upon them in the night. 
 
 From his writings on political and general subjects we continue 
 our extracts : — 
 
 MR. WISE. 
 
 This gentleman is now placed in a situation well calculated to excite 
 reflection. In the violence and uncharitableness of party feelings, no 
 man has in his charges done more injustice to others, and now the pois- 
 oned chalice is returned to his own lips. 
 
 We were told that while the Post-Ofi&ce building was in flames in 
 1836, he wished that Amos Kendall was in their midst, and said that 
 Amos had escaped him by a day, intimating that we had set the build- 
 ing on fire to destroy the evidences of some villany which he was about 
 to elicit ! At the moment these monstrous imputations were thrown 
 out, the said Amos Kendall, having risen from a sick bed, was exerting 
 every faculty of body and mind for the preservation of the books and 
 papers he was charged with intent to destroy, and happily succeeded. 
 But no exposure was made by Mr. Wise, and none attempted. What 
 might have been charged under the Whig moral code of 1840, had the 
 books and papers not been preserved, it is impossible to conceive. Per- 
 haps we were as uncharitable as Mr. Wise ; for we then thought that 
 men hke him and Stanly, who could so far forget their obligations to a 
 fellow-man as to charge him with a flagrant crime without the least 
 cause, were not too good to commit the same crime themselves, or by 
 their instruments, and the exposed condition of the books and papers in 
 a very combustible building was a source of great anxiety. One un- 
 successful attempt was made to burn the building by setting fire to 
 papers on the mantel-piece of the Postmaster-General's own room, thus 
 bringing it home to us as near as possible ; but the fire almost miracu- 
 lously went out after burning to cinders a pile of loose letters and papers^ 
 Mr. Niles's apprehensions were so strong that he doubled the guard ; and 
 happy were we when we saw the whole safely transferred into the hands 
 of the Whigs. 
 
THE END OF THE COMET. 
 
 507 
 
 What villanies have they been able, with two years* possession, to 
 bring to light 1 So far from finding anything corrupt in our administra- 
 tion of the Department, we believe the most violent are now ready to 
 admit that our errors were on the other side, and that we were obsti- 
 nately honest. 
 
 We know not whether Mr. Wise entertains this opinion; but we 
 suspect he has not the least suspicion now that Amos Kendall burned the 
 Post-Ofl&ce building to conceal his villanies ; and if he reflects upon the 
 past as a good man ought, he will look upon recent events as but a provi- 
 dential infliction for his own injustice. If he view it in that light, they 
 will do him no harm, but become the starting-point of a new and more 
 honorable career. 
 
 In March, 1843, Mr. Kendall, amid the labors of editing the 
 ''Expositor," collecting material for and writing the Life of Jackson, 
 and superintending the management of his farm, was so embarrassed 
 with pecuniary claims that, to extricate himself, he formed a part- 
 nership with his nephew, John E. Kendall, in a general agency 
 for the prosecution of claims against the government, procuring 
 patents, settlement of accounts, purchase and sale of real prop- 
 erty, etc. 
 
 This business was to him always irksome and repugnant to his 
 feelings. Necessity alone reconciled him to it. 
 
 THE END OF THE COMET. 
 
 The comet is gone without setting the world in flames. It seems 
 even to have carried off" a portion of the heat which warms the earth, 
 and poor sinners are freezing to death instead of being burned up. The 
 earthquakes appear to have exhausted themselves in shaking to pieces a 
 few little islands instead of rending continents and breaking up the 
 great globe itself Within a few days, the weather has given decisive 
 indications that "seed time" is returning, and doubtless ''harvest" will 
 follow. " The end is not yet," the calculations and predictions of the 
 Millerites notwithstanding. 
 
 The idea that the great Architect is about to destroy this young 
 world is an imputation upon his wisdom. It is not yet half peopled. 
 It is just beginning to be useful. True, in the great deserts of Africa 
 and Arabia, there is something like a bald head ; but look at America 
 and the isles of the ocean which seem to be creations of yesterday. 
 Even Europe has scarcely arrived at manhood ; and in most of Asia 
 and Africa there are no signs of decay. The evident design of the 
 earth's builder is not half accomplished. Civilization is to spread over 
 
508 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. ' 
 
 it ; millions of intelligent human beings are to live where savages and 
 wild beasts now roam ; the principles of Christianity and the lights of 
 science are to ameliorate the hearts and the conditions of men, and 
 everything on earth be carried far towards perfection. When the globe 
 becomes peopled to its utmost capacity ; when improvement is no longer 
 possible; when its fertile fields in every latitude begin to be covered with 
 driving sands or perpetual snow ; when mankind, from natural causes, 
 disappear from its mountains and plains, — then may we expect the 
 regenerating fire. Then will the material of our earth need working over 
 to be made fit for some useful purpose in the economy of the universe. 
 
 Such is the revelation of nature, the dictate of reason, and the faith 
 of that religion which believes there is nothing capricious in the charac- 
 ter or acts of Him who rules all worlds. Nor is there anything incon- 
 sistent with it in the Book whence all sects of Christians deduce their 
 creeds. 
 
 Let ancient women, womanish men, and timid children dismiss their 
 fears. The world will roll on for the next six thousand years very much 
 as it has done for the last six, with the difference that the human family 
 will multiply faster and attain to a much higher rank in the scale of 
 animate existences. The present preachings to the contrary are partly 
 delusion, and partly fraud. In effect, they are another of those hum- 
 bugs by which the artful and dishonest contrive to live in idleness upon 
 the labor of their deluded followers. What trembling believer in the 
 faith of Miller will not give food, raiment, and money to the herald 
 that brings these startling tidings, and the more freely because all, all, is 
 to be burned up within one short year! Millerism has the advantage of 
 Mormonism in one particular : it fleeces the flock much quicker, and 
 then turns it over to be roasted ; but on the other hand, ^Mormonism 
 pens and cherishes the flock, that it may be fleeced from year to year. 
 Each plan is effectual in its way, and it is melancholy to behold rational 
 beings who claim to be intelligent duped into supporting by their labor 
 a set of idle knaves who become teachers of lies that they may live by 
 the vocation. 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The true functions of government are as yet but partially understood 
 by the mass of mankind. It no longer rules by '* right divine," and the 
 principle is generall}^ conceded that its proper object is the happiness of 
 the people. But it has still too much of pageantry with it ; people are 
 in the habit of looking up to its functionaries as a superior class, of 
 treating them with a deference not shown to merit in any other con- 
 dition, and of conceding to them an extravagance of living and a liber- 
 ality of compensation not approved or accorded in private life. 
 
GOVERNMENT. 
 
 509 
 
 This is all wrong. The officers of the government are but agents 
 of others to do business which they cannot do in person. They are 
 entitled to the same respect as other agents, but no more. Their 
 business is but a part of the business of society ; more important than 
 that of individuals, yet of the same general character. It is made up 
 of transactions for men and with men, for the profit and advantage of 
 men. The only difference is, that a greater number are interested in it, 
 and more depends on its faithful performance. 
 
 The world will not be governed as it ought to be, until government 
 shall be stripped of the majesty with which the arts and errors of ages 
 have clothed it, and come to be considered as a part of the ordinary 
 business of society ; nor until those who administer it can travel abroad 
 without other attentions than those bestowed on respectable gentlemen 
 engaged in other concerns. Once, princes were made fools by being 
 treated as gods and demi-gods ; and the time has not passed away when 
 presidents and secretaries may have their heads turned by parade and 
 adulation. 
 
 The vanity inspired by such means would be of little consideration 
 were it not for the consequences to which it leads. On one side, it 
 makes the ruler feel as if he were superior to his fellow-men, and on the 
 other it leads the people to concede to him a superiority. He ceases to 
 feel or be regarded as the mere agent of the people, authorized only to 
 transact certain things which they cannot do in person, and begins to 
 exercise independent power, consulting only his own will. And the 
 false majesty which is thrown around him dazzles the people into 
 acquiescence, and thus the agent becomes the master. This is the most 
 prolific source of misgovernment even in our own country. 
 
 We do not make these remarks in special reference to the present 
 administration. They are the expression of convictions long settled, 
 and never have we formed part of any pageantry to do honor to men in 
 office. AVhen President Monroe made his Western tour, in town meet- 
 ing, at Frankfort, Ky., we opposed his reception under triumphal arches, 
 with parades and speeches, and proposed that he should be welcomed 
 only as we welcome other distinguished travellers. Being outnumbered, 
 however, we became a mere spectator of the scenes which followed, de- 
 clining, though strongly pressed, to be introduced to the President, 
 although he was then accompanied by General Jackson, with whom we 
 were most anxious to become acquainted. To do honor to him, we 
 would have united in any public demonstration ; for this repugnance 
 does not extend to public benefactors not forming part of the govern- 
 ment. ' 
 
 Much harm also arises from a misconstruction of the admitted maxim, 
 that the proper object of government is to promote the happiness of the 
 
510 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 people. This idea, like many others, is not well expressed ; th6 true 
 meaning would be better conveyed by the following collocation of words, 
 namely: ^^ The true object of government is to enable the people .to promote 
 their own happiness.'' It is to protect them from foreign and domestic 
 violence, to render them secure in person, in property, in character, and 
 in their respective pursuits ; imposing no other restraints than are neces- 
 sary to maintain the rights of others, and leaving them, under the be- 
 nign influence of such laws only as are necessary to these ends, to work 
 out their own happiness. 
 
 The proper functions of human government may be understood by 
 considering those actually performed by the government of Heaven, 
 That spreads the same sky over all. It presents the earth to the in- 
 dustry of man. It fans all with the same breezes, and " sendeth the 
 rain on the evil and the good." Each man, under the protection of its 
 general laws, is left to choose his home and occupation, to work or be 
 idle, to accumulate wealth or live in poverty, without any special inter- 
 position to aid or prevent him. 
 
 Thus it should be with human government. To man himself Heaven 
 seems to have left the regulation of all which man can manage. His 
 laws should begin where Heaven's end, and be so formed as to carry out 
 the same general principle. Their sole object should be to enable men 
 to work out their own happiness unmolested by their fellow-men. It 
 should be to protect men in their several pursuits, and render them 
 secure in the enjoyment of their earnings. When it goes further, it be- 
 comes the source of those very evils it ought to prevent. 
 
 Most of the misgovemment on earth springs either from wilful wrong 
 or a misconstruction of its legitimate functions. In the most liberal 
 governments, even in our own, the agents of the people think it their 
 duty to judge for the people as to the means which they shall adopt to 
 advance their own prosperity. They imdertake to think for the people 
 in relation to their private affairs, to guide and direct them, as a father 
 does his family, organizing their pursuits and directing their industry. 
 It is vainly imagined that they can be made rich, prosperous, and happy 
 by legislation. While a God of infinite wisdom deems it inexpedient to 
 govern by special providence, his weak, erring, and presumptuous creat- 
 ures deem themselves wise enough to govern by special laws. What 
 Omniscience refrains from doing, they assume to do, and what is the 
 result] Princes and paupers, masters and slaves, vice wallowing in 
 wealth and virtue perishing in destitution, idleness taking the bread 
 from the mouth of labor, the separation of society into classes and 
 grades, grinding taxation and intolerable oppression, vice, envy, hatred, 
 revenge, general demoralization, discontent, rebellion, and bloody revo- 
 lution. 
 
GOVERNMENT. ^^-^ 
 
 These are the results of attempting to promote the happiness of the 
 people by interfering with the private pursuits of men. 
 
 The principles of our creed in relation to the duties of government 
 are exceedingly simple. They are those of the moral code. To main- 
 tain a pure morality in the conduct of men is, in fact, the chief if not 
 the only function of government. To prevent, by adequate punishments, 
 violence, theft, calumny, and every act of man which injures a fellow- 
 man, directly or indirectly, this is the proper province of human govern- 
 ment. Mischief, and nothing but mischief, ensues from every attempt 
 to direct or influence by law the honest pursuits of the people, to give 
 advantages to a few not conceded to all, to establish or produce orders 
 and classes, whether called kings, princes, nobles, and commons, or 
 merely the rich and the poor. Distinctions of wealth are perhaps more 
 mischievous than those of mere title, and, if they flow from the laws, 
 just as wrongful to the mass of mankind. Wealth accumulated by fair 
 competition, in honest pursuits, is the right of every man ; but that 
 which is derived from advantages which the law gives one man over 
 another, is legalized plunder. The one is useful because it is the 
 reward and stimulus of human industry; the other is injurious, because 
 it encourages idleness and tricks on one side, and discontent and de- 
 moralization on the other. We shall pursue the subject. 
 
 GOVERNMENT (continued). 
 
 In our former remarks on government we endeavored to show that 
 great and mischievous errors pervade the minds of men in relation to its 
 dignity and its functions. We attempted to convince our readers, that 
 it would be incomparably better for mankind if government were stripped 
 of what is now called its majesty and dignity, and considered as it really 
 is, a mere business matter, and its officers but ordinary agents to do for 
 others what they cannot do for themselves. Inveterate habit makes the 
 human race look upon government, even in this enlightened age, as 
 something superhuman ; and those in authority on the Eastern conti- 
 nent know how to avail themselves of that weakness to dazzle and de- 
 ceive a thoughtless multitude. In France, particularly, as formerly in 
 degenerate Rome, public shows and entertainments constitute a part of 
 the government machinery. 
 
 The prophets and holy men of old looked forward to a time when 
 there shall be little or no government among men. They characterize 
 it as a period in the history of our race, when swords shall be beaten 
 into ploughshares, and spears into pruning-hooks ; when nation shall 
 no longer rise up against nation nor learn war any more ; when every 
 man shall sit under his own vine and fig-tree, having none to molest or 
 make him afraid. 
 
512 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KEISTDALL. 
 
 It is universally admitted that nothing but the vicious propensities 
 of men makes government necessary or desirable. If man never had 
 the disposition to injure man, or nation to wrong nation, it is apparent 
 that armies and navies, judges and sheriflFs, jails, penitentiaries, and the 
 gallows, would be of no utility. Whether mankind shall ever reach 
 that happy state, we know not ; but we do know that every improve- 
 ment in the minds and morals of man is an advance towards it. 
 
 None but madmen or blind enthusiasts maintain that man can now 
 exist in a state of society without government ; but as it is the neces- 
 sity of the case only which makes it his interest to be governed at all, it 
 follows that the powers he should permit to be exercised over him should 
 only be commensurate with the evils he designs to prevent. Whatever 
 goes beyond that is a positive evil. 
 
 There is an axiom in relation to government which has misled many 
 a mind. It is as old as the Romans, and was expressed by them in the 
 words, " non imperium in im,jjerio^'' meaning that there cannot be a gov- 
 ernment within a government. Adopting the same maxim, modem 
 writers have maintained that sovereignty cannot be divided. The con- 
 venience of mankind has led them to expedients which have practically 
 overthrown this ancient dogma and proved that there may be many 
 governments within a government. No civilized society exists at this 
 day under any other circumstances. In the United States we have : 
 I. The general government ; 2. The State governments ; 3. The county 
 governments ; 4. The city and town governments ; 5. Parish govern- 
 ments j 6. Corporation governments, other than those of cities and towns. 
 
 Nor is it absurd to say, that sovereignty can be divided, whether we 
 consider government or the people as the sovereign. In our country it 
 is divided. One parcel of power is vested in the general government 
 and another in the State governments, each exercising sovereign power 
 over the same territory but over different objects. Within the States, 
 there is a further subdivision, the State authorities, the county authori- 
 ties, etc., etc., exercising jurisdiction over the same territory and people. 
 
 If it be said that all the local magistrates are dependent on the State, 
 and not therefore sovereign or the representatives of sovereignty, it is 
 answered, that this dependence, though a matter of fact, is not essential 
 to their existence nor necessary to the exercise of the powers with which 
 they are invested. AVhence the impracticability of making the corpora- 
 tion of the city of New York, in the creation of its magistracy and the 
 exercise of their powers as they now exist, wholly independent of the 
 State, while the State should continue to exercise over it the same au- 
 thority in other respects that it does now ] 
 
 That state of things actually exists in regard to the State and na- 
 tional governments. Each has its powers independent of the other, 
 
GOVERNMENT. 5][3 
 
 though exercised over the same territory and upon the same people. In 
 the independent exercise of those powers, the one has no right to inter- 
 fere with or control the other. If one commit an usurpation upon the 
 other, there is constitutionally no common arbiter, and if one party do 
 not yield, or there be no compromise, it becomes as much a question of 
 peace and war as if the two governments occupied separate territories. 
 
 There may be more than two governments exercising independent 
 authority over the same people and territory, provided their powers re- 
 late to objects entirely distinct. In one may be vested the power to 
 make war and peace, and impose taxes adequate to sustain its opera- 
 tions ; in another may be invested the power to regulate commerce ; in 
 a third, the power to make roads and canals ; in a fourth, the organiza- 
 tion and control of the internal police. In fine, there may be just as 
 many governments over the same people and territory as there are separ- 
 ate functions to be performed by an agency of that sort. 
 
 If mankind would strip government of the factitious glare which gives 
 it a mischievous influence over the public mind, let its powers first be 
 reduced to the lowest degree that the present condition of society will 
 admit, and the residue divided and parcelled out among as many juris- 
 'dictions as practicable consistent with the general interest. The power 
 of peace and war is the most imposing, and most to be dreaded. It must 
 of necessity be vested in one government ; but that government need 
 not be strengthened by an accumulation of other powers. They may be 
 vested in other and independent authorities, thus lessening the influence 
 of that most dangerous organization. Our general government was 
 organized to a great extent on this principle ; and if kept within its 
 proper limits by a strict construction of the Constitution, would not be 
 much to be feared. There is a perpetual struggle by one party in our 
 country. to enlarge its powers by a liberal construction of the Constitu- 
 tion, and the other does not always appreciate, as it ought, the impor- 
 tance of confining it to the strict letter of its power of attorney. 
 
 The State governments are susceptible of many salutary restraints 
 not now imposed upon them. Their legislatures are considered om- 
 nipotent, except so far as they are specifically restricted by their own 
 constitutions and that of the United States. Would it not be safer for 
 the people to reverse the general principle, and, inserting in their consti- 
 tutions a provision that they shall exercise no powers not specially 
 granted, proceed to confer on them such powers, and no others, as the 
 security of persons, property, and reputation may absolutely require. 
 
 One advantage of such a plan, and it would be no small one, would 
 be to brino- up each power for discussion and consideration by the people, 
 and nothing could be granterd without their express consent. We are 
 quite sure that if this principle were adopted, many abuses by our State 
 
 33 
 
514 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 governments would be avoided, and the people would be much more 
 secure from wrong and oppressive treatment. 
 
 The following is an account of the bursting of the gun on board 
 the Princeton on the 28th of Tebruary, 1844. 
 
 AWFUL YISITATION. 
 
 Our readers will doubtless have heard of the explosion of the steamer 
 Princeton's big gun, by which six human beings were in a moment hur- 
 ried into eternity, and several others wounded. 
 
 It was on the 28th ultimo Captain Stockton had invited the ladies of 
 the public officers, members of Congress, and many other citizens, to 
 visit his noble ship and enjoy his hospitality. The day had passed in 
 the highest enjoyment ; all were gratified and delighted as well with the 
 beauty of the ship as the good order of all and everything on board, 
 and the cordiality of the Captain. The big gun had been twice fired, 
 and notice was given that it would be fired no more. The ship was on 
 her return from an excursion down the river, and had approached near 
 her anchorage at Alexandria. The guests had devoured a sumptuous 
 dmner, and while yet at the table, it was unfortunately proposed to have 
 another gun. Without giving a general notice of the design, the Secre- 
 taries and Captain Stockton rose from their places and went upon deck 
 for that purpose. The President rose to follow them, but was detained 
 by a favorite song which was struck up by some of those still at the 
 table. Mr. Upshur, Mr. Wilkins, Mr. Gilmer, Captain Kennon, Captain 
 Stockton, Mr. Benton, Mr. Phelps, Mr. Maxcy, and many others, stood 
 around the gun as it was being loaded. While the gunner was preparing 
 the lock, Mr. Wilkins remarked, if he was Secretary of War he was afraid 
 of that gun, and stepped back several yards from the position he had 
 occupied. The next moment the gun exploded. The massive breech 
 split into two parts, one of which killed Mr. Upshur, Mr. Gilmer, Cap- 
 tain Kennon, Mr. Maxcy, and Mr. Gardner, falling upon some of the 
 bodies, and the other swept away a portion of the bulwarks of the ship 
 and went into the river. One of the President's servants was also killed. 
 Several small fragments of iron were thrown in different directions, one 
 of which passed through the hat of Mr. Tyson, Second Assistant P. M. G., 
 just over the top of his head. Captain Stockton, Mr. Benton, Mr. 
 Phelps, and several others, were prostrated, but not seriously injured. 
 Seventeen of the crew were wounded, some of them seriously. 
 
 The consternation and distress which ensued it is impossible to de- 
 scribe. The eagerness of the ladies to ascertain whether their fathers, 
 brothers, and friends were among the victims, was almost frightful; 
 and mournful was the condition of those in whose bosoms apprehension 
 
THE SUB-TREASURY, — WHAT IS IT? ^i 
 
 became certainty. Their affliction and despair drew tears from the 
 most firm. 
 
 The bodies remained on board during the night, and the next day 
 were brought up to the city in coffins and deposited in the east room 
 of the President's house. 
 
 Congress, the next morning, on receiving a message from the Presi- 
 dent in relation to the disaster, adjourned over to Monday, and all busi- 
 ness in the public offices was suspended. 
 
 On Saturday the bodies, with the exception of Mr. Maxcy who was 
 taken to his farm in Maryland for interment, were committed to the tomb 
 in the Congress burying-ground, amidst an imposing military parade and 
 a vast concourse of people. 
 
 Three of our own family were on board, and we should have been 
 there had not the ship been out of the county of Washington, which 
 constitutes our prison. While we, by being thus restrained of our liberty, 
 were kept out of danger, the man whose action led to our restraint was 
 among the slain. In this singular combination of events we find no 
 gratification ; but it tends to reconcile us to the ways of Providence, 
 though men be his instruments. 
 
 CAPTAIN STOCKTON. 
 
 When this gallant officer became sensible of the destruction the burst- 
 ing of his gun had produced, he exclaimed, in substance, ^' Would to God 
 I had been the only victim." We can imagine the distress of a gener- 
 ous spirit which may reflect upon itself as the cause which has made so 
 many widows and orphans. But we believe public opinion unanimously 
 acquits Captain Stockton of all blame. The generous and the just sym- 
 pathize with him most sincerely in his affliction. We trust and believe 
 that he will rise manfully above it, and not be deterred by this calamity, 
 great as it is, from still giving his country the benefit of his genius, 
 only chastened and made cautious by so fearful a lesson. 
 
 THE SUB-TREASURY, — WHAT IS IT? 
 
 A treasuiy is a place where treasure is kept. The Constitution of the 
 United States says, that " No money shall be drawn from the Treasury 
 but in consequence of appropriations made by law ; and a regular state- 
 ment and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money 
 shall be published from time to time." 
 
 The obvious meaning of this provision is, that the " receipts," or money 
 received shall go into the Treasury and remain there until drawn out by 
 authority of law, when it becomes an "expenditure"; and the object of 
 the published " regular statement " is^ to enable the people to understand 
 
516 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 how much has been received, how much has been expended, and how 
 much remains in the Treasury. 
 
 The object was, that the public money should be kept for pubHc uses 
 legaUzed by Congress, and not apphed to private or unauthorized uses. 
 
 When the government was organized under the Constitution, a Treas- 
 urer was appointed to receive the public money, carefully to keep it, and 
 to pay it out only " in consequence of appropriations made by law.'' 
 He gave bonds and entered upon the discharge of his duties. The collect- 
 ors, who also gave bonds, were a sort of sub-treasurers. Neither they 
 nor the Treasurer paid out public money except in pursuance of appro- 
 priation and Treasury warrants. 
 
 But there was a class of men who desired to obtain the public money 
 for private uses. They did not like this system, which kept the money 
 in the Treasury for the public only ; and they set themselves at work 
 to overthrow it. An ingenious plan was hit upon to abolish the Treas- 
 ury, make the Treasurer a book-keeper only, and take the money which 
 should be in the Treasury for the use of merchants, speculators, and 
 other borrowers. 
 
 The plan was to hand over the public money to banks, not to be Icept, 
 but to be lent. It was called a deposit in bank ; and the Treasurer's 
 books showed heavy sums in the bank, when in fact there w^as not a 
 dollar there, the whole having been loaned out, just as if it were bank 
 capital. The nominal amounts in bank were called moneys in the Treas- 
 ury. Thus the people were amused with the idea of a full Treasury, 
 when, in fact, their money was all out in the hands of traders and specu- 
 lators. Bank stockholders pocketed the interest, and the Constitution 
 became in this respect a dead letter. 
 
 To perfect the scheme, a Bank of the United States was created, 
 being the most convenient instrument through which the public money 
 could be applied to private purposes. 
 
 For many years, the nation in fact had no Treasury at all. All its 
 moneys went into banks, and were loaned out by them ; and the bal- 
 ances reported to be in the Treasury were only the amounts which those 
 corporations owed the United States. 
 
 In 1837 the balance thus reported to be in the Treasury was many 
 millions ; yet, the banks having puspended payment, the Treasurer could 
 not command a dollar. It was all out of the Treasury, but not in con- 
 sequence of appropriations made by law. When the appropriations 
 came, the money was already gone. 
 
 This led those in the administration of the government to consider 
 how it was that so many millions had gone out of the Treasury without 
 appropriations or Treasury warrants. They soon perceived that not only 
 the money was gone but the Treasury itself V/e had a Treasurer but 
 
THE SUB-TREASUHY, — WHAT IS IT? ^ij 
 
 no Treasury. Our Treasurer even, instead of keeping our treasure 
 when we had any, had been metamorphosed into a mere book-keeper. 
 Instead of being a keeper of treasure as the Constitution intended, he 
 had become a keeper of books. 
 
 The remedy was obvious. It was to be found in a return to the 
 Constitution and the establishment of a Treasury, in which the treas- 
 ure of the country should be placed, not to be drawn out "but in 
 consequence of appropriations made by law." It was, to make the 
 Treasurer a keeper of treasure, as was originally intended, and as his 
 official name implies, with such assistant keepers as the extent of our 
 country and the business of the government rendered '' necessary and 
 proper." 
 
 Accordingly, to restore the Constitution, prevent the public money 
 from being loaned out for private uses, and for the profit of bank stock- 
 holders, or " drawn from the Treasury except in consequence of appro- 
 priations made by law," Congress passed the Act of July 4th, 1840, 
 entitled '' An Act to provide for the collection, safekeeping, transfer and 
 disbursement of the public revenue." The first section established a 
 Treasury, that is to say, it provided a place where the public treasure 
 should be kept, in the following words : — 
 
 " JBe it enacted, Sc. That there shall be prepared and provided, with- 
 in the new Treasury building now erecting at the seat of government, 
 suitable and convenient rooms for the use of the Treasurer of the 
 United States, his assistants and clerks ; and sufficient and secure fire- 
 proof vaults and safes, for the keeping of the public moneys in the 
 possession and under the immediate control of the said Treasurer ; 
 which said rooms, vaults and safes, are hereby constituted and declared 
 to be, the Treasury of the United States. And the Treasurer of the 
 United States shall keep all the public moneys which shall come to his 
 hand in the Treasury of the United States as hereby constituted, until 
 the same are drawn therefrom according to law.'' 
 
 Inasmuch as most of the public moneys were received and disbursed 
 at points distant from Washington, places of deposit were provided in 
 the mints of Philadelphia and New Orleans, in the custom-houses at 
 New York and Boston, and in rooms provided for the purpose at Charles- 
 ton, S. C, and St. Louis, Mo., where the funds were to be received and 
 kept under the charge of public officers bonded and sworn, for the 
 purpose of being remitted to the Treasury at Washington, transferred 
 to other depositories, or disbursed in payment of .public dues, upon the 
 order of the Treasurer and Treasury warrants issued according to law. 
 
 So far from allowing the keepers of the public money to use or lend 
 it for their own profit or that of others, the seventeenth section of this 
 Act provides as follows : " If any one of said officers, or of those 
 
518 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 connected with the Post-Office Department, shall convert to his own use 
 in any way whatever, or shall use by way of investment in any kind of 
 property or merchandise, or shall loan, with or without interest, any 
 portion of the public moneys intrusted to him for safekeeping, disburse- 
 ment, transfer, or for any other purpose, every such act shall be deemed 
 and adjudged to be an embezzlement of so much of the said moneys as 
 shall thus be taken, converted, invested, used, or loaned, which is hereby 
 declared to be a felony ; and any officer or agent of the United States, 
 and all persons advising or participating in such act, being convicted 
 thereof before any court of the United States of competent jurisdic- 
 tion, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than six 
 months or more than five years, and to a fine equal to the amount of 
 the money embezzled." 
 
 Such was the measure of the Democratic party, which the Whigs 
 nicknamed the " Sub-Treasury." 
 
 It was a plan to keep the public money for public uses, in compliance 
 with the direct, positive, and unequivocal command of the Constitution. 
 
 It deprived do man of his rights, but prevented certain classes of 
 men from using money which did not belong to them. 
 
 One of the first acts of Whiggism, when it came into power in 1841, 
 was to abolish the Treasury. 
 
 They repealed the act passed by the Democrats to restore the Consti- 
 tution and preserve the public money for the use of the public, virtually 
 directing it to be placed in banks and loaned out by them for the profit 
 of the stockholders and the use of the borrowers. 
 
 The difference between the two parties is here illustrated. 
 
 The Democrats obey the Constitution. 
 
 The Whigs disregard it. 
 
 The Democrats wish to preserve the public money exclusively for 
 public purposes. 
 
 The Whigs wish to use it for their own purposes. 
 
 Little mischief has heretofore arisen from abolishing the Treasury in 
 1841, because the Whigs have spent the public money as fast as they 
 could raise or borrow it. But we are told that the public deposits now 
 begin to accumulate in the New York banks, and that speculation, 
 vivified by the increased loans of the deposit banks, has again com- 
 menced its ignis fatuus career. We only want now a Bank of the 
 United States to convert the Whig bankrupts, under the law of the 
 extra session, into paper-money potentates and millionaire bankers. 
 
 OURSELF. 
 
 Our thanks are due to our friends in the Alabama legislature, and 
 particularly to William L. Yancey, Esq., for their vindication of our 
 
KOT A SERMON. g-^g 
 
 public and private character, and their sympathy for the condition in 
 which fidelity to the pubHc has placed us. In reading Mr. Yancey's 
 speech, however, we find that he has been deceived by a new Whig lie, 
 which we never before heard of It is that on some occasion we^'had 
 brought an action against somebody for a libel, and obtained but one 
 dollar damages. We never brought an action for libel or slander in our 
 life. Actions of that sort, when connected with political life, are like 
 following a hornet which has stung you to his nest, for the purpose of 
 making him individually responsible ; you but provoke the stings of 
 hundreds. We have always thought it most judicious, in such cases, to 
 bide oui' time and destroy the nest. In 1828, we had some agency in 
 destroying the nest; and, as it was rebuilt in 1840, we hope to be useful 
 in destroying it again in 1844. In the mean time the insects may dab 
 at us as they like, with stings blunted by former use ; we shall aim di- 
 rectly at the nest. 
 
 But we shall be happy at all times to satisfy friends as to any pas- 
 sage in our life which to them may seem obscure. If a man lives who 
 can justly charge us with ever doing a wilful wrong to our fellow-man, 
 public or private, we have not understood our own motive in the act. 
 Wrongs we have done, as every erring mortal must, who has been called 
 upon to do as much as we have ; and wrongs we may again do without 
 intending it. But to Mr. Clay we have done no wrong ; he has not re- 
 ceived full justice at our hands, and he never will. We intend, how- 
 ever, to approach the standard, and in what we say adhere most sacredly 
 to the truth. Mark it, Democrats and Whigs; and when we depart 
 from it reproach us. 
 
 NOT A SERMON; 
 
 But some Serious Reflections ii'pon the Effects ivhich the Moral Delinquencies 
 of Man have upon the Creation around him. 
 
 A stranger might infer from the articles appearing in one portion of 
 our newspaper press, that the people of the United States have not only 
 abjured the Christian religion, but deny the existence of any Supreme 
 Being who regards this world, or concerns himself with the affairs of 
 nations or the conduct of men. Nothing in their estimation is so hypo- 
 critical as to profess a belief in God and providence ; nothing so malig- 
 nant as to point to events as governed by his general laws, or directed 
 by his interposition ; nothing so false as to impute the calamities of the 
 country to the wickedness of its rulers. 
 
 We cannot conceive that any considerable portion of our countrymen 
 concur in this opinion or are actuated by this feeling. They are not 
 prepared to reject, not only the teachings of inspiration, but the evi- 
 dences within and all around them, that there is a Being infinitely supe- 
 
520 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 rior to ourselves, who has moulded and balanced the globes of the uni- 
 verse, opened the fountains of life, filled immensity with the wonders of 
 his hand, and sustains the whole by his presence and his power. 
 
 Without conning over the lessons which nature teaches, let us turn to 
 that book whence the Christian and civilized world draw their religion, 
 and whose sublime precepts form the moral code, without some regard 
 to which society cannot exist. 
 
 The very first principle presented by the Bible as the foundation of the 
 Jewish and Christian religions is, that all the disorder and confusion, 
 privation and pain, misery and death, which make this world a hospital, 
 rocked with storms and resounding with groans, are attributable to 
 man's transgi'essions. To Adam's violation of his Maker's command is 
 ascribed not only all the corporeal suffering and mental agony which has 
 fallen or may fall upon him and his race, until flames envelope the 
 earth, but the pain and death of the entire brute creation, and even all 
 the disorders of the physical world. Yes, the first principle of the Bible 
 is, that one man's transgression of the moral law not only brought suf- 
 fering and death upon the myriads of unofl'ending innocents which have 
 sprung from his loins, but upon the beast of the field, the fowl of the 
 air, the fish of the sea, the creeping thing however minute, the stalking 
 monster however gigantic, on all the elements of creation, and on Nature 
 herself. 
 
 It is now considered monstrous, by a portion of our press, to speak 
 of the death of unoffending individuals as a Providential dispensation, 
 connected in some inscrutable way with the moral conduct of others. 
 To such we put the question in all seriousness, what have Adam's de- 
 scendants of this day to do with his original transgi'ession ? Why 
 should the gentle dove and innocent lamb suffer and die because Adam 
 sinned 1 Why should man's moral conduct bring the eagle from his 
 heights, or leviathan from his depths, a decaying carcass upon the plain 
 or on the shore 1 Why should the depravation and derangement of 
 man's moral faculties change the zephyr into a tornado, charge the 
 clouds with thunder and let loose the lightning to shatter and kill, 
 breathe malaria through the air and mix poison in the food of man and 
 beast, cover the heavens with blackness and shake the earth in all its 
 caverns, lift up the ocean and fling down the mountains 1 Can ye an- 
 swer this, ye arrogant men, who charge your neighbor with malignity, 
 hypocrisy, and falsehood, because he tells you that your own moral 
 delinquencies and the sins of a nation may have spread warning signs 
 around you, and brought disappointment, suff"ering, and death upon 
 those who were innocent of your crimes 1 
 
 But let us look forward in the good book and trace this principle in 
 the dealings of God with men. 
 
NOT A SERMON. 
 
 521 
 
 Read in Genesis vi. 11, 12, 13, and 17 ; and also chapter vii. 20, 21, 
 22, and 23. What had the cattle, or the beasts, or the fowls of heaven, 
 or the creeping things to do with the corruption and violence which 
 induced the Ruler of the Universe to destroy everything " in whose 
 nostrils was the breath of life"] What offence had the millions of 
 drowning infants committed who were not yet old enough to breathe a 
 prayer or lisp a curse ? Yet, in consequence of man's corruptions and 
 violence, "the fountains of the great deep were broken up," and the 
 innocent and the guilty, "every living substance" on earth's broad sur- 
 face, perished in the overwhelming flood. Christian, is it not so 1 
 
 We have another signal illustration of the order of Providence in 
 this world's affairs, connected with the history of ancient Egypt. In 
 Exodus iv. 22 and 23, it is thus recorded : " And thou shalt say unto 
 Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn; 
 and I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me ; and if thou 
 refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn." 
 Here. death to the son is threatened for the disobedience of the father. 
 
 Chapter v. 1 and 2. "And afterwards Moses and Aaron went in, and 
 told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that 
 they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, 
 Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go 1 I know 
 not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." 
 
 To satisfy Pharaoh who the Lord was, Moses was instructed to show 
 him a sign, or a portent, or a miracle exhibiting supernatural power. 
 Chapter vii. 8 and 9. "And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron 
 saying, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying. Shew a miracle for 
 you ; then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before 
 Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent." 
 
 But Pharaoh was not induced by any signs or omens to take heed to 
 himself and obey the command of his Maker ; and as a further warning 
 to him, the river was turned into blood. Verse 21. "And the fish that 
 was in the river died ; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not 
 drink of the water of the river ; and there was blood throughout the 
 land of Egypt." Here we are taught that the disobedience of the King 
 of Egypt brought death upon the fish in the river and gave all his 
 people blood to drink. 
 
 But the hardened monarch was not moved even by this sign ; and 
 others followed in rapid succession. Chapter viii. 3. "And the river 
 shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into 
 thine house, and into thy bed-chamber, and upon thy bed, and into the 
 house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and 
 into thy kneading-troughs." 
 
 Upon the apparent submission of Pharaoh and the prayer of Moses, 
 
522 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the frogs after being brought up from the river, were suddenly all de- 
 stroyed. Verses 13 and 14. "And the Lord did according to the word 
 of Moses ; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and 
 out of the fields. And they gathered them together upon heaps ; and 
 the land stank." What myriads of the reptile creation are here de- 
 stroyed not for any offence of their own. 
 
 Again the king became obdurate, and the rod of Aaron called into 
 existence myriads of " lice upon man and upon beast." There next came 
 " grievous swarms of flies into his servants' houses, and into all the land 
 of Egypt ; the land was corrupted by reason of the swarms of flies." 
 
 Still did the obdurate monarch fail to take warning from these extra- 
 ordinary occurrences, and it became necessary to bring upon him severer 
 calamities. Chapter ix. 3 and 6. *' Behold the hand of the Lord is upon 
 thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon 
 the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep ; there shall be a very 
 
 grievous murrain And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, 
 
 and all the cattle of Egypt died." Thus for the disobedience of Pharaoh 
 alone, not only did the cattle of Egypt suffer death, but his people were 
 deprived of a portion of their property. 
 
 The next sign was the sprinkling of ashes towards heaven by Moses, 
 which became "small dust," and produced "boils, breaking forthwith 
 blains upon man and upon beast." 
 
 Read chapter ix, 14, 15, 18, 23, 24, and 25. Still these threatenings 
 of divine wrath, and this display of almighty power, did not subdue the 
 rebeUious heart of thi& proud monarch. 
 
 Next came devouring locusts upon his land; " before them were no 
 locusts such as they, neither after them shall be such," which " covered 
 the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened ; and they 
 did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the 
 hail had left, and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in 
 the herbs of the field, throughout all the land of Egypt." 
 
 Next " there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three 
 days ; they saw not one another, neither rose any one from his place for 
 three days." 
 
 But something more heart-rending and awful than all these plagues 
 was necessary to extort obedience from the tyrant of Egypt. Chapter xi, 
 4, 5, and 6. "And Moses said, thus saith the Lord, about midnight 
 will I go out into the midst of Egypt. And aU the firstborn in the 
 land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon 
 his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind 
 the mill ; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great 
 cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, 
 nor shall be like it any more." Chapter xii. 29 and 30. "And it came 
 
NOT A SERMON. 
 
 523 
 
 to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firsthorn in the land 
 of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto 
 the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon, and the firstborn 
 of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, 
 and all the Egyptians ; and there was a great cry in Egypt ; for there 
 was not a house where there was not one dead." What had " the maid 
 behind the mill," " the captive in the dungeon," the new-bom infant, 
 or the mother that bore it, to do with Pharaoh's transgression which 
 brought on them this awful calamity*? Nothing whatever. It is all 
 directly imputed to the disobedience and obduracy of the ruler of the 
 nation. His moral delinquencies operating through the will or law 
 of God, upon the material world around him, turned the river into 
 blood, made it vomit forth frogs, changed dust into lice, bred swarms 
 of flies and clouds of locusts. Pharaoh's heart was corrupt, and it cor- 
 rupted nature around . him. His depravity affected the elements, and 
 produced thunderings and lightnings, fire and hail. It brought destruc- 
 tion and death upon herb and tree, reptile and fish, man and beast; 
 nor did the effects of one man's crimes cease until "there was not a 
 house in which there was not one dead." 
 
 We have further illustrations of this great principle in the case of 
 King David. How was he punished for his conduct towards Uriah and 
 his wife] 2 Samuel xii. 14. The Prophet Nathan tells him, *'Howbeit, 
 because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of 
 the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee, shall 
 surely die." Here the innocent infant suffers and dies, to punish his 
 criminal father. 
 
 1 Chronicles xxi. 11, 12, 13, and 14. We are told that David, in 
 his pride, was tempted to number the children of Israel, which was 
 offensive to Heaven. Thus, in three days, seventy thousand men were 
 sent from time to eternity, for the crime of one man, while that man 
 was permitted to live ! 
 
 The Decalogue tells us that "the sins of the fathers" are visited 
 " upon the children unto the third and fourth generation " ; and the 
 book is full of instances in which families were punished for the sins of 
 their head, and nations for those of their rulers. 
 
 In fine, it is an essential item in the creed of every Christian, not that 
 the myriads of Adam's race alone die for his sin, but that it also pro- 
 duced the death of God himself in human form upon the cross, on which 
 occasion, darkness covered the land, earth quaked, and the rocks were 
 
 rent. 
 
 Does not the same telation exist between God and man now that did 
 in the ages of Pharaoh and of David ? Do not man's transgressions 
 now have the same effect that they did then on earth, air, and sea, 
 
524 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 beast, fish, and fowl, the fate of families and the destiny of nations 'i 
 We have no prophets like Moses, or Nathan, or Gad, to point out the 
 precise connection between cause and effect, between the moral conduct 
 of man and the sign that warns him to reform, or the catastrophe that 
 falls on him as a punishment. But the history of the past, reason, and 
 experience should be a prophet to us. When we find extraordinary- 
 deviations from the regularity of nature's laws, always or frequently fol- 
 lowing extraordinary violations of the moral law, we ought to see a con- 
 nection between them as clearly as if pointed out by the voice of inspi- 
 ration. 
 
 PRIVATE CHARACTER. — POLITICS. 
 
 There are many men who maintain that in our political controversies 
 the private character of candidates for ofhce ought not to be brought in 
 question. Is this sound doctrine ] 
 
 Is it safe to trust a man in public life who pays no regard to his moral 
 or legal obligations in private life 1 Every man will answ^er in the nega- 
 tive. How are the people to know whether a candidate is regardful of 
 those obligations in private life without a discussion of his private char- 
 acter. There is a sense in which we admit the soundness of the prin- 
 ciple. It is where nothing but mere faith is concerned, nothing which 
 can influence or affect the public conduct of the candidate in its bearing 
 upon the rights and privileges of his fellow-men. Such are abstract 
 opinions and articles of religious faith, which have no bearing upon legis- 
 lation or the administration of the laws. To call in question points of 
 that sort is to infringe on the liberty of thought, and hold out induce- 
 ments to hypocrisy. 
 
 But where in private life men disavow and deny the existence of all 
 moral obligations, or where in practice they openly set it at defiance, it 
 is absurd to say their private character in. that respect is not a proper 
 subject for discussion when they seek high places in society. 
 
 In like manner, if in private life a candidate for oflfice be a notorious 
 law-breaker, whatever may be his professions, his character in that re- 
 spect is a proper subject for inquiry and discussion ; for the more elevated 
 his position the more extensive is likely to be his practice, and the more 
 fatiil his example. 
 
 Indeed, it is infinitely more important that public officers should be 
 moral and law-abiding men than that private citizens should. The whole 
 community have a vital interest in the matter, and in those respects 
 they have a right to know and discuss the private character of those 
 who aspire to office. 
 
 Undoubtedly this practice is often carried too far, and made to em- 
 brace matters with which others have nothing to do. For instance, it 
 
TO SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 525 
 
 is nobody's concern what may be a candidate's religious faith, or to what 
 sect he may belong. That is a matter between man and his God. 
 Sometimes, indeed, when faith degenerates into fanaticism, and attempts 
 to propagate itself by the aid of the civil power, it becomes a proper 
 subject for discussion in electioneering contests, not in reference to its 
 intrinsic truth or falsehood, but to its interference with the liberty and 
 just rights of other creeds. 
 
 In fine, morality has much to do with politics; but religion, separated 
 from morality, nothing. It is only when religion ceases to be morality, 
 and its professors attempt to encroach on the just rights of others, that 
 it becomes a proper topic for political discussion, and then only in its 
 abuses. 
 
 But the first question which ought to be asked when a man becomes 
 a candidate and seeks an office of trust or power should be, is he a moral 
 man 1 This is but to ask. Is he not a murderer 1 Is he not a peace- 
 breaker ] Does he in private life respect the Constitution and laws of 
 his country 1 Does he take from others their property and rights with- 
 out an equivalent ] Is he a thief, a swindler, or a gambler 1 Does he 
 pay due respect to those domestic relations which constitute the foun- 
 dation of society and of human happiness *? All questions which relate 
 to man's moral conduct are appropriate ; for the elevation of bad 
 men not only endangers society by their direct power over its laws 
 and institutions, but by their example, which is often quite as de- 
 structive. 
 
 Such are our opinions ; and when we hear men maintaining that the 
 private character of candidates is not a proper topic for discussion, we 
 always suspect that selfishness lies at the bottom of- it, and that they 
 know their own would not stand the scrutiny. 
 
 In October, 1844, Mr. Kendall announces the close of his edito- 
 rial labors, in the last number of the " Expositor." 
 
 TO SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Another number of the " Expositor " will complete the fourth volume. 
 As that number will be delayed until we can give the details of the ap- 
 proaching presidential election, it is proper to announce now, that the 
 publication of this paper will cease with the present volume. This de- 
 termination on our part does not depend on the event of the election, 
 but is produced chiefly by the consideration that it yields us but a meagre 
 mcome, not half sufficient for the support of our family, and we have 
 no right to expect a better patronage in years to come than we have re- 
 ceived in years past. We have nobody to reproach for our disappoint- 
 ment in that respect, and in private life shall continue to support De- 
 
526 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 mocracy with as much cheerfulness as if it had made us rich, although 
 we caunot give so much time to its hallowed cause. 
 
 Our purpose is to devote ourself constantly and faithfully to the 
 agency business in this city, — to the procuring of contracts, settlement 
 of accounts, procuring of pensions and patents, and advocating just 
 claims before the Executive Departments and Congress, and attending 
 to any business here of a public or private nature with which our friends 
 and countrymen may think proper to entrust us. 
 
 If our friends abroad will do us the favor to recommend us to those 
 who have business in Washington, they will lay us under obligations 
 which we shall be happy to repay. So far in life, we have served our 
 friends and the public much more faithfully than we have ourself; and 
 as the approach of old age admonishes us that we shall not be able to 
 serve anybody much longer, may we not hope that our friends and the 
 public will not only excuse us for giving a different direction to our 
 labors, but aid us to make those labors conducive to the comfort and 
 happiness of ourself and family 1 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 CONNECTION WITH THE TELEGRAPH. 
 
 While Mr. Kendall was employed in the prosecution of claims, 
 lie fell in with Professor Morse, who was endeavoring, with little 
 prospect of success, to get an appropriation from Congress to extend 
 a line of his telegraph from Baltimore to New York; it bein^^ 
 already in operation between Washington and Baltimore. Finding 
 the Professor much discouraged, he inquired whether he had no 
 project to render his telegraph profitable as a private enterprise, if 
 he should fail in obtaining further aid from the government. On 
 being answered in the negative, he rejoined that if the appropria- 
 tion failed he would be glad to talk further on the subject. It 
 failed, and Professor Morse asked Mr. Kendall for a proposition to 
 take charge of his telegraph business. 
 
 The result was, in March, 1845, a contract between the proprietors 
 of three fourths of Morse's patents and Mr. Kendall, by which the 
 latter was to receive a commission of ten per cent on the iirst 
 hundred thousand dollars which might be realized from the sale 
 of their interest, and a commission of fifty per cent on all sums 
 which might be thus realized over one hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 This agreement vested Mr. Kendall with full power to manage 
 and dispose of Morse's interest in his patent-right, according to his 
 discretion. 
 
 The contracting parties with Mr. Kendall were Professor Morse, 
 who owned nine sixteenths, Alfred Vail of New Jersey, who owned 
 two sixteenths, and Professor L. D. Gale of Washington, the pro- 
 prietor of one sixteenth of the patent, the remaining fourth having 
 been previously conveyed by Professor Morse to Hon. F. 0. J. 
 Smith of Maine. 
 
 A field worthy of Mr. Kendall's distinguished talents, and con-- 
 genial to his taste, now stretches out before him. 
 
 From the discovery of electricity by Thales six hundred years 
 
528 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 «r 
 
 before the Cliristiaii era, to the moment when the idea of using 
 it as a vehicle of intelligence occurred to Professor Morse on 
 board the packet-ship " Sully," Wm. W. Pell, captain, on his 
 return from Europe in 1832, but little had been done towards its 
 practical application to the service of man. 
 
 Though tliis agent dozed through all these ages, scarcely recog- 
 nized and not at all understood by mankind, at last it suddenly 
 asserted itself as the swiftest and one of the most valuable ser- 
 vants of man. 
 
 Its marvels are innumerable, its magic incomprehensible. Tamed 
 and harnessed by Professor Morse, it traverses with equal speed 
 and certainty the depths of ocean, the snows of the mountain, and 
 the burning sands of the desert. It outstrips the wildest fancy, 
 passes Time himself in the race, and makes a circuit round the 
 globe with the velocity of thought. It never tires, never grows 
 old, has few bad habits, is perfectly docile, makes no mistakes, and, 
 in fine, offers itself to man as his most faithful and obedient 
 slave. 
 
 > 
 
 Much as we already know of its power and properties, he would 
 be presumptuous who should venture to limit its triumphs to what 
 has already been accomplished. 
 
 For a mind like Mr. Kendall's, this subject had a peculiar fasci- 
 nation independent of the pecuniary advantages which he con- 
 fidently believed would follow its judicious management. 
 
 It is unnecessary to go into the details of his administration of 
 these important interests. They called him frequently from home, 
 involved him as agent in numerous law-suits, called into requisi- 
 tion his best executive ability in the formation and administra- 
 tion of new telegrapli companies, and terminated in 1860. He 
 could contemplate as their direct results, Professor INIorse estab- 
 lished in a condition of pecuniary independence, the other owners 
 of the patent profited in the same proportion, and an ample for- 
 tune secured to himself and family. 
 
 The acquaintance formed with Professor Morse soon ripened 
 into warm friendship, wliich knew no abatement or interruption. 
 For twenty-five years their 'relations were not only intimate but 
 often involved questions of the utmost delicacy touching closely 
 the interests of both; but no jealousy, no distrust, no feeling 
 tending to impair the most implicit confidence of each in the 
 other's integrity ever occurred. 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 529 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 New York, May 30, 1845. 
 
 My dear Wife, — I do not know when I shall be with you again. 
 The people with whom we have to deal here move so very slowly that 
 there seems to be no end to our negotiation. We have no reason, other 
 than this tardiness and an evident desire to make as much money out 
 of the telegraph as they can, to doubt that we shall in the end accom- 
 plish all we desire. 
 
 Mr. Butterfield has been with us to-day, and with some of his friends 
 proposes to build a line of telegraph from Buffalo to Springfield, Massa- 
 chusetts, there to connect with the line from New York to Boston, which 
 also he is disposed to undertake if we do not make other arrangements. 
 If this arrangement is consummated I shall consider our fortunes as 
 almost made ; but as " there is many a slip between the cup and the 
 lip," it will not do to consider ourselves rich as yet. Mr. B. leaves for 
 Washington this evening, and I shall ask him to take charge of this 
 letter. 
 
 I remain very well, — remarhahly well ; but I do not like living from 
 home. I must next time, if I can afford it, bring a part of home with 
 me, yourself or Jane. 
 
 I send oceans of love to yourself and our dear children, including 
 
 Edward and not forgetting Henrietta. 
 
 Your devoted husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 New York, June 6, 1845. 
 
 Mt dear Wipe, — Heigh ho ! I do not know when I shall see you 
 again. We have just 'finished a long conference with the Executive 
 Committee of the Amboy (Old Boy X) Railroad Company. They have 
 just begun to find out something about the magnetic telegraph, simple 
 
 souk ! 
 
 I find I have a little more patience than I once had ; else I should 
 curse and quit these New Jersey corporations. But it is so much our in- 
 terest to get along their roads that I repress my feelings ; and the more 
 readily because I am quite sure they will come to us'in the end. When 
 that end will come, I know not. Probably I can tell yt)u more about it 
 to-morrow, when we are promised a further interview. In haste, 
 
 Your devoted 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Mrs. Jane Kendall. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 New York, August 16, 1845'. 
 
 My dear Wife,— Jane's letter of the Uth, with your sweet post- 
 script, came to hand last evening. Take care to preserve yourself as 
 
 34 
 
530 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 well as the peaches, or the latter will "lose all their sweetness to 
 
 me." 
 
 My cold did not leave me so kindly as I hoped. Thursday and Friday 
 I was kept in my room, not very sick, but good for nothing. My nurs- 
 ing was none of the best, and I wished myself at home. 
 
 Nothing detains me here now but waiting for the caps for our tele- 
 graph posts, which were shipped from Portland two weeks ago, and are 
 expected every hour. If nothing new occurs, I shall be' dff as soon as 
 they come, but shall be detained a day or more in Philadelphia. 
 
 I should grudge the time more had I not with me a supply of Gen- 
 eral Jackson's papers, which enable me to progress with my book. I 
 have worked at therh to-day until I am wearied ; so you must excuse 
 my brevity. 
 
 Jane does not send your love because postage is charged by weight 1 
 
 A good idea. But she forgets that the god of love himself is outweighed 
 
 by a feather. Send it along. Herein please receive more than all the 
 
 heathen gods ever knew, and deal it out in universefids. 
 
 Most affectionately, 
 
 Alios KENDALL. 
 
 DEATH OF HIS SON. 
 
 Two days after wxitiDg this last letter, Mr. Kendall was startled 
 
 by the receipt of the following : — 
 
 Baltimore, August 18, 1845. 
 
 Mr. Kendall, — It is my melancholy duty to inform you of the fol- 
 lowing, received by telegraph a moment ago, announcing the death of 
 
 your son William. 
 
 *'6 o'clock 30 minutes, p. M. 
 
 " Mr. William Kendall, son of Hon. Amos Kendall, was, a few 
 minutes ago, met and shot dead by Rufus Elliot, brother-in-law of John 
 C. Rives." 
 
 Veiy respectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 HENRY J. EOGERS. 
 
 He hastened to Washington and found the distressing intelligence 
 only too true. 
 
 An altercation of words with a friend, begun in jest, had resulted 
 in a fearful tragedy. 
 
 William, then twenty-two years of age, the only surviving son 
 by his first wife, the loved companion of a large circle of friends, 
 of generous impulses and irreproachable character, having left his 
 father's house a little before, full of life and vigor, is shot down in 
 the street and carried home a corpse. r 
 
DOMESTIC AFFLICTIONS. croi 
 
 In this overwhelming affliction Mr. Kendall had the heartfelt 
 sympathy of friends throughout the country. 
 
 Though the fondest hopes were in a moment blasted, he meekly 
 bowed his head and received the stroke with true Christian forti- 
 tude and resignation, deeply chastened but not repining. 
 
 In the month of November following, another calamity fell upon 
 his family , in the death of his wife's mother and brother, under 
 most distressing circumstances. 
 
 The following extract from a letter addressed to his nephew 
 conveys the sad intelligence : — 
 
 " MoNTiCELLO, Mo,, November 23, 1845. 
 
 " Yesterday, Saturday, about twelve o'clock, the wind blowing furi- 
 ously from the northwest, a thick cloud of smoke was seen to rise by 
 your grandmother and uncle on the outskirts of their farm. They hast- 
 ened there to save the fence and stacks of grain, which they had hardly 
 reached when the fire, coming in a perfect tornado, overtook and com- 
 pletely enveloped them. Their clothes took fire and burned entirely 
 off, burning their bodies in a most shocking manner. 
 
 Your grandmother was found to be lifeless ; Alexander lived until a 
 quarter past ten that night." 
 
 They were buried in one grave, on the following Monday. 
 On receipt of the tidings at Washington, Mr. Kendall addressed 
 the afflicted husband and father the following letter : — 
 
 Washington, December 12, 1845. 
 
 Mt very dear Sir, — This morning we received the first news of the 
 awful calamity which has befallen you, and to-mon-ow morning your be- 
 loved James leaves us for the purpose of accompanying you to this city. 
 Your remaining daughter, with the cordial and affectionate concurrence 
 of her husband, invites you to come and live with us, and we both 
 promise to do all in our power to make you comfortable and happy. 
 The hand of Providence has been laid heavily upon us this year, but we 
 have many ties of apection and many sources of enjoyment still left ; 
 and, though we do not see how, all that has happened is designed for 
 some good. 
 
 Jane has been much distressed during the day, but has become calm 
 this evening. 
 
 Jane and the children unite in sending love to you. 
 
 Most affectionately your son, etc., 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Mr. Alex, Kyle, Clark Co., Missouri. 
 
532 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The invitation was accepted. The old gentleman constituted 
 one of Mr. Kendall's family till 1852, when, in the 82d year of his 
 age, he calmly yielded up his spirit with a full assurance of a 
 blessed immortality. 
 
 The following letters, written in the fullest and most unre- 
 strained confidence, illustrate better than any description the 
 writer could give, the genial disposition, kindness of heart, and 
 habitual trains of thought which were characteristic of Mr. Ken- 
 dall's life. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 New York, November 7, 1846, 3.30 p. m. 
 
 My dear Wife, — I have never come so near being homesick since I 
 became a husband ; yet I cannot leave here before the evening of the 
 11th (Wednesday next), without the danger of being compelled to re- 
 turn in a few days. 
 
 In this state of the case I enclose you sixty dollars ($ 60) of the 
 eighty which I owe you, instead of delivering the whole in person as I 
 expected. 
 
 Expecting to hear the gong for dinner every minute, and having 
 
 barely time to get this into the mail after dinner, I must conclude by 
 
 enclosing more love for you and the family than I do money. 
 
 Yours devotedly, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Mrs. Jane Kendall. 
 
 TO HIS DAUGHTER. 
 
 Nashville, Tenn., January 4, 1848. 
 
 My dear Jane, — On the 1st inst. I wrote to your mother, giving 
 some account of my journey here, and I hope my letter will have come 
 to hand before this reaches you. 
 
 I have met with many old acquaintances here, among whom is Mr. 
 Mcintosh, whom your mother will remember as jailor at Frankfort at 
 the time of Beauchamp's execution. He is now keeper of the peniten- 
 tiary here. He invited me to attend church with him on Sunday, where 
 I heard an instructive and amusing New Year's discourse, — instructive 
 for its religious statistics, and amusing for the plainness with which the 
 pastor lectiu'ed his flock. By his statistics it appears that the Baptist 
 church, to which he belongs, has largely increased within the past year 
 in the South and diminished very considerably in the North. He at- 
 tributed this diminution to the fact, that a large portion of their preach- 
 ers in the North employ themselves in preaching abolitionism instead of 
 the gospel. 
 
 This city is \iieY^\j founded on a rock. A bank composed of strata 
 
LETTER TO HIS DAUGHTER. 533 
 
 of hard -blue limestone rises up on the southerly bank of the Cumber- 
 land River to the height of about 80 or 90 feet at its highest point 
 from low watermark, and running back in a broad ridge about half a 
 mile, there rises into a conical hill about 150 feet higher. A deep and 
 broad valley surrounds this eminence, extending, in a circuit of about 
 two miles, from the river above to the river below. The top of the rock 
 is crowned with a grove of cedars, in the midst of which a new State 
 h^use, which bids fair to be a magnificent building, is in progress of 
 erection. It is built of hard blue and variegated limestone, or marble, 
 quarried in the neighborhood and prepared in the penitentiary. Its 
 foundations are as high as the tops of the church steeples in the city 
 below, and it overlooks the surrounding country on every side to a con- 
 siderable distance. 
 
 The best part of the city is on the broad ridge between the river and 
 the hill ; but humbler dwellings have been erected in the valley, whence 
 their poor tenants were driven by the late flood. The powder magazine 
 which some time since blew up with such terrific consequences, was in 
 the valley west of the city, where a portion of the ruins are yet to be 
 seen. 
 
 I am located in the City Hotel, in a room with a Whig member of the 
 legislature, with whom I get along quite cozily. He is a Taylor man, 
 and does not believe Clay can be elected. 
 
 The stairway by which I approach my room bears marks of the scenes 
 which sometimes occur in this region. There are a dozen bullet-holes 
 in the plastering from the bottom of the stairs to the third story. The 
 tale goes, that a husband suspected a gallant of being too well acquainted 
 with his wife, and attacked him in the street with knife and pistol. 
 The gallant shot the husband dead in the encounter, and fled to this 
 house, pursued by a furious mob. As he ran up stairs, some twenty-five 
 pistol shots were fired at him, none of which took effect. From the 
 third story he fell or was thrown down between the winding stairways 
 to the lower floor, about thirty feet, without serious injury ; whence the 
 mob dragged him into the street for the purpose of hanging him to a 
 lamp-post. Some of the cooler citizens interfered, and he finally es- 
 caped. 
 
 January 5. At this point in my letter, the carriage of A. N. Brown, 
 late Governor of Tennessee, arrived for the purpose of taking me out to 
 his residence, about three miles distant, where I spent the night. He 
 has a splendid residence, and an agreeable wife, who invited me to visit 
 them with your mother, and make their house our home, etc. 
 
 I hojye to finish my business here this day or to-morrow morning, so as 
 to return to Louisville by the next boat. There have recently been two 
 explosions of those floating volcanoes, of which you have doubtless 
 
534 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 heard. These make engineers, etc., careful for a time, and travellers are 
 
 more safe now than if they had not occurred. 
 
 Give my love to your mother, gi-andfather, brother, sisters, and cousins. 
 
 ** Home ! home, sweet, sweet home ! 
 There 's no place like home ! " 
 
 Your affectionate father, 
 
 AMOS KEI^TDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Steamer Isaac Shelby, Kentucky Eiyer, February 4, 1848. 
 
 My dear Wife, — I feel like a young spark who has just set out on 
 a trip to visit his sweetheart. To those sensations is added the antici- 
 pated pleasure of again being cheered with the smiles and greetings of 
 beloved children and dear friends. On the whole, I am happier than 
 the young spark ; for there is a charming variety in my anticipations, 
 while he has but one source of delight. 
 
 I write you because I cannot travel as fast as the lightning or even as 
 Uncle Sam's mail. Early to-mori'ow morning I expect to reach Cincin- 
 nati, where I have two or three hours' business. That I hope to de- 
 spatch and embark for Pittsburg before noon. There also, I must' stop a 
 few hours. The roads over the mountains, I am told, are in a shocking 
 condition and may delay me. In counting up the days and hours which 
 separate us, I cannot hope to see you in less than six days, and it is 
 very likely to be seven or eight. 
 
 I met many old friends in Frankfort, and have been treated very- 
 kindly by old political enemies. It is very remarkable that Mr. Clay's 
 old political friends in Kentucky, almost to a man, are opposed to his 
 being a candidate for the Presidency again, believing that he cannot be 
 elected, and doubting whether they can caiTy Kentucky for him. They 
 are exceedingly anxious that he shall decline and let them all unite on 
 General Taylor. This state of things, with some local quarrels among 
 themselves, tends to make them kind towards the old sinners of the 
 Democratic party. The members of the legislature are well disposed 
 towards our telegraph, and I think will pass the necessary acts without 
 opposition. Our work is going on bravely ; we will have the telegraph 
 in operation at Frankfort in ten days, and in less than three weeks will 
 have up more than three hundred and fifty miles of posts, and one 
 hundred and fifty wired. The O'Reillyites tried to get the Tennessee 
 law repealed, but failed. Finding themselves in a sinking condition, 
 they are letting loose the flood-gates of their wrath upon me in the 
 fiercest manner. I think their reign is drawing to a close ; but I wish 
 I could be in this region to follow them up. 
 
 Benjamin Johnson has lost a beautiful daughter, about sixteen, and 
 the whole of his family has been sick, chiefly with scarlet fever. I called 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 535 
 
 twice to see Mrs. Devine, but she was with Benjamin Johnson's sick 
 family. Doctor, I hear, has been sick for two months, but is slowly 
 recovering. I did not get out to Mount Pleasant, but saw Mr. Sted- 
 man. The late flood washed away his dam. 
 
 I learned from their son-in-law, Cox, whom I met in Frankfort, that 
 Mr. and Mrs. Fenwick are well. I dined at Judge Monroe's, took tea 
 successively at Tanner's, Russell's, and J. L. Moore's, and called upon 
 Mr. and Mrs. Theobald, now keeping the Weisiger House, with whom 
 I boarded at Georgetown, Ky., when I first commenced business in 1815. 
 And on board this boat I find an old Lexington acquaintance of 1814. 
 What an age has passed since I saw those faces, and how rapidly the 
 sight of them sends the mind back over its varied and thrilling scenes ! 
 To me life seems to have been long, very long. Most men say it seems 
 short to them. Does it seem long to me because I have experienced 
 more changes, acted in more scenes, or had more thoughts % I do not 
 know. 
 
 This morning was beautiful, mild, and sunny. Night approaches, and 
 it is dark, cold, and snowing. how comfortless is this little stateroom 
 in which I write ; how desolate and lonely is that narrow berth in which 
 I must sleep ! The boat shakes so I can scarcely write. 
 
 Take of my love all the heart can hold, and deal it out to father, chil- 
 dren, cousins, and friends. Fear not that you will exhaust the store. 
 It is like the widow's handful of meal and cruise of oil. 
 
 This boat seems to have gotten into a spiteful mood, — it is all jerk, 
 jerk, jerk, — as if it were saying, *' Good^ sir, — stop noiv ; Good, sir, — 
 
 stop now " ; and so on. 
 
 Your devoted 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Ohio River, February 5. 
 ' Last night was so dark and stormy that our captain thought it pru- 
 dent to stop. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Relay House, August 12, 1848, 9 p. m. 
 My dear Wife, — I am in a most fitting condition to give good 
 advice. Let me advise you then, when you think of starting for the 
 West some afternoon, just to inquire before you start whether "any 
 Western train of cars connects at this place with the evening train 
 from Washington. If you do not, you may chance to find when you 
 get here, that the evening train for the West went up at four o'clock, 
 and that you will have to stay here until eight o'clock the next morn- 
 ing, when you might just as well be at home until six! Remember 
 this piece of advice, and teach it to our children. It is an excellent 
 
536 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 way to avoid feeling foolish after you have stopped here and find that 
 you can neither progress on your journey, nor get back to Washington, 
 nor forward to Baltimore. 
 
 The evening, however, is not without interest. The wind comes feel- 
 ing around the house as if desirous of taking up lodgings here, every 
 now and then dashing down a shower of raindrops, then, as it were, 
 stopping to listen for the purpose of ascertaining what we inside think 
 of it. Then about a thousand tree-frogs, with all sorts of tones, aided 
 by crickets and grasshoppers out of doors and an accordion within, are 
 giving us a most harmonious concert. Decidedly, this is more pleasant 
 than chasing a locomotive all night through the hills and valleys of 
 Maryland and Virginia, leaping the creeks, and threading the sinuosities 
 of the Potomac. There is comfort in this, is there not ? Then again, 
 if I had not come down this evening, I should not have written you this 
 letter, and who knows but the cars may run off the track to-morrow 
 morning, and somebody sitting exactly in my seat may get his neck 
 broken 1 
 
 Doubtless it is best as it is, but do not forget my advice. 
 
 Give my love and advice to father and the children, not forgetting 
 ** inquiring friends." 
 
 Don't dream about my being thrown off the track to-night, for I ain't 
 
 there. 
 
 Most affectionately, your husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 Steamer Nominee, Ohio River, Sunday, 8 p. m., October 7, 1849. 
 
 My dear Wife, — We left Wheeling about 9 a. m., yesterday, with 
 a rise of six feet of water and a prospect of a rapid trip to Ken- 
 tuckv. But as the water runs less than four miles an hour, and our boat 
 about ten miles, we found ourselves to-day getting ahead of the rise, and 
 Tinder the necessity of waiting for the water just above the mouth of the 
 Guyandotte Creek, about 200 miles below Wheeling and 100 above Mays- 
 ville. Here we found three boats, and have since been joined by an- 
 other ; and still another, attempting to cross a bar below, grounded in 
 sight of us, so that here are seven steamers in a similar predicament. AVe 
 shall probably be joined by several more to-night, or soon to-moiTow, so 
 that we can array a formidable fleet. I have hopes that we shall have 
 water enough to progress to-morrow ; but there is some uncertainty 
 about it, and at the best, travelling all night from Maysville, I cannot 
 expect to reach Frankfort before Wednesday morning. 
 
 I had as pleasant a journey as could be expected over the mountains, 
 and reached Wheeling in thirty-six hours from Washington. The night 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 53^ 
 
 was cloudy and cold, and although I was abundantly warm, I took a 
 slight cold, the effects of which have not entirely left me. 
 
 We were in the mail stage, and brought along news of the Maryland 
 election to the little post-offices, which produced some funny scenes. 
 The Upper or Cumberland district was represented by a Whig in the last 
 Congress, but has now elected a Democrat. The Whig candidate's name 
 was McKaig ; the Democrat's Hamilton. The following dialogue took 
 place at one of Mr. Collamer's post-offices in the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains : — 
 
 Postmaster. Which party has carried the election, the Whigs or the 
 Locos 1 
 
 Stage-driver. The Democrats have carried every thing. 
 
 P. M. What, isn't McKaig elected] 
 
 Driver. No. 
 
 P. M. Nor Calhoun (for the legislature) 1 
 
 Driver. No, he is beat worse than McKaig. 
 
 P. M. Well, / do7i't care if the ivorld comes to an end to-morrow. What 
 is the Loco majority ] 
 
 Driver. I don't know exactly, — Hamilton has one or two hundred, 
 and the Democratic State ticket still more. 
 
 P. M. I went to the election just to vote for McKaig and Calhoun, 
 and if I had n't supposed they would have been elected I would n't have 
 gone a step. They ain't both beat 1 
 
 Driver. Indeed they are badly beat. 
 
 P. M. Yoic need n't leave no more mails here. (A general laugh. ) Stop 
 and make my coffin when you come hach, — / canH live a day longer. 
 
 I suppose this man was one of Mr. Collamer's new appointments. 
 
 In a few miles we arrived at another little post-office. As the post- 
 master came out for the mail, he asked, " Who is elected in this dis- 
 trict V The driver answered, "Hamilton." ""^ Glory enough for one 
 day I " exclaimed the " spared monument " of Whig mercy. Although 
 it was near midnight, we saw several persons approaching the post-office, 
 and as we left a hearty cheer came through the darkness, which was re- 
 peated until we were out of hearing. 
 
 This is not a first-rate boat; but I have a good state-room with a wide 
 berth, and we have a very good table. A multitude of strange men 
 and a few homely women constitute our company. There is not a face 
 which I recognized; but one of the passengers says he has seen me at 
 Washington. We have a Virginia judge on board, whom I took to be a 
 crazy man. He walks hy himself and talks to himself while the tobacco 
 juice drips from his chin. Finally, however, I got into conversation 
 with him, and found much good sense and intelligence under his slovenly 
 exterior. 
 
538 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 October 8. I was awakened this morning by the cheering sounds of 
 preparation to start, a sure indication that the rise in the water had 
 overtaken us. About sunrise we were under way, the rise in the night 
 having been about seventeen inches. We are already running ahead of it 
 again, having come about twenty-five miles, and expect to be obliged to 
 wait again to-night. In hopes of reaching Portsmouth, Ohio, however, 
 I shall close this letter with the view of mailing it there. The prospect 
 is good for reaching Maysville to-morrow, in time for the stage which will 
 take me to Frankfort on Wednesday morning. 
 
 The river is quite lively to-day. Two more boats came down last 
 night, making nine in company or near each other, and as many as three 
 or four have been in sight all the morning, passing and repassing each 
 other, and we have met two or three going up. 
 
 A train of reflections occurred to me yesterday which I briefly noted 
 down, and enclose the notes for your edification. Perhaps they were as 
 useful as many sermons in church. Although everything was orderly 
 in the boat yesterday, we had few signs of religion. The only ones I 
 observed were a Quaker lady and the steward reading the Bible. 
 
 T trust that everything is progressing agreeably at home. What 
 with the mechanics and our hired men, however, I cannot but have 
 some concern for you. I know Joseph will do all he can to make things 
 work smoothly, and I trust you will have no trouble with Mr. Kichard- 
 son. 
 
 Give my love to father, Jane, Fanny, Marion, Adela, and the doctor, 
 James and Anna, and remember me kindly to Mary, Catharine, and 
 Joseph, by no means forgetting Aunt Chloe. 
 
 Your devoted husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 REASONS WHY MEN SHOULD NOT LIVE ALWAYS. 
 
 Men may be divided into three classes, namely : — 
 
 1. The bad in principle and profligate in habits. 
 
 2. The bad in principle and steady in habiuS. 
 
 3. The good. 
 
 The first ck\ss are their own enemies and the enemies of their race. 
 Their habits in a few years disqualify them for physical enjoyments, and 
 their destitution of principle cuts them off* from mental enjoyment. 
 Arrived at that state, earth becomes to them a place of constant tor- 
 ment -^ and if they were immortal, their torments would be eternal. It 
 is better for mankind, and no worse for them, that they should be sepa- 
 rated from the rest of their race and transferred to another world. It 
 is but substituting one place of torment for another, while it prevents 
 their interference with the happiness of others. 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 539 
 
 If the bad in principle but steady in habits were permitted to hve al- 
 ways, increase of years would bat increase their capacity for mischief. 
 The Devil himself is represented to be a sober, steady being, never im- 
 pairing his capacity for mischief by in-egular habits. Analogous to him 
 are sober and steady men without principle. And as they grow older, 
 and gain knowledge by experience, reading, and observation, the more 
 like him do they become ; and if they were immortal, a large portion of 
 earth's population would become little better than devils, keeping their 
 fellow-beings in a state of constant annoyance and distress by their tricks 
 and their crimes. And, in process of time, their own conduct becomes a 
 source of torment to themselves without producing amendment. It is 
 well that this class also should be separated from the rest before they 
 know too much, and sent to associate with beings like themselves. 
 
 The good have no motive to desire immortality on earth. In addition 
 to those physical sufferings to which all are subject, they are here asso- 
 ciated with dissolute and unprincipled men, and necessarily suffer from 
 their irregularities and crimes. Death is, therefore, a relief to them, 
 rather to be sought than deprecated. It is a separation from the bad, a 
 relief from physical suffering, and a transfer to a state of unalloyed hap- 
 piness in congenial society, where the brawling profligate and the cloaked 
 hypocrite never enter. 
 
 The economy of nature which limits the life of man is, therefore, wise. 
 It does no harm to the bad, and is conducive to the happiness of the 
 good. And if the bad- go to a place of eternal torment, what reason 
 have they to complain ^ If made immortal, just as they are, and suf- 
 fered to live on the earth, their passions, habits, and crimes would make 
 it a place of eternal torment to themselves, and in some degree to the 
 better portion of their race. Is it unreasonable in a Superior Being to 
 let them have just such an immortality as they choose 1 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Brownsville, Pa., December 4, 1849, 9 a, m. 
 Mt dear Wife, — We arrived here about nine o'clock last evening, 
 after a series of ill luck, without any personal injury. At Frostburg, 
 nine miles from Cumberland, a trace chain broke when we were ten or 
 fifteen rods from the hotel, surrounded by a lake of mud, and the driver 
 took out his team and left, not telling us what he intended to do. After 
 sitting about an hour, some of the passengers went back to the hotel, and 
 found him 2^ui up for the night, swearing that he would not, for all New 
 York, drive such a team on such a night. It was dark and stormy, and 
 the horses had shown a reluctance to proceed as well as the driver. In 
 an hour more, however, we had found another driver, and went on 
 through the night as comfortably as seven men, one wonicm, and three 
 
540 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 children inside the coach would permit. In the morning, however, our 
 forward axle-tree suddenly broke, and down went the right band front 
 corner of the carriage into the mud. Fortunately we were going at a 
 slow gait, and the horses were instantly stopped. We crawled out upon 
 the upper side of the wreck, and with a part of the passengers I walked 
 on to the next village and got some breakfast. In about two hours our 
 carriage made its appearance, supported in front by two wagon-wheels. 
 It was yet a mile to Smithfield, where there were extra carriages. Just 
 as we were entering that village a linch-pin of one of our wagon-wheels 
 flew out, but it was fortunately observed by a passenger before we were 
 again dumped down. Again we took to the mud and made our way to 
 the tavern. In due time our relief carriage made its appearance, and 
 there appeared on its side the letters and word *' L. W, Stockton^'' — a 
 name of ill omen to me, said I to myself But it turned out other- 
 wise ; for that same carriage landed us safely in this worthy city, which 
 is neither upon a hill nor in a valley, but up and down a steep ascent. 
 Within two hours we expect to embark -for Pittsburg, and hope to be 
 upon the Ohio the coming night. 
 
 About half the night, after leaving Cumberland, I was not at all well. 
 The symptoms of illness then passed away, and I have been very well 
 ever since. 
 
 The lady with three children lives in New Albany, and has been to 
 Providence to visit her kindred. She is now returning without protector 
 or attendant. She appears to be respectable and intelligent, and her 
 children are evidently smart and as well raised as is common among 
 good families in the West. But a woman who travels thus, except in 
 cases of extreme necessity, is inexcusable. She is not only subject to 
 perpetual annoyance, but herself and children are a continual annoyance 
 to all around her. 
 
 You need not expect to hear from me again until I reach Cincinnati. 
 
 With abundance of love to yourself and the family, I remain, most 
 
 truly, 
 
 Your devoted husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 P. S. — Send to the post-office to-morrow evening at 8.30 o'clock and 
 you will get this letter. 
 
 In May, 1851, Mr. Kendall was summoned to Louisville, Ky., to 
 the death-bed of Adela, the youngest of his two daughters by his 
 first wife, who in 1839 had married Dr. F. B. Culver of Kentucky. 
 
 In this journey he was accompanied by his eldest and then only 
 surviving daughter of his first wife, Mrs. Mary A. Gold, whose 
 husband had died in Washinoton in 1847. 
 
LETTER TO HIS WIFE. 5^^ 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 LoFisviLLE, May 25, 1851. 
 
 My dear Wife, — Mary Ann will write you the particulars of Adela's 
 illness and death. It is very consolatory to learn that she was conscious 
 of her danger from the first, met the emergency with admirable firmness, 
 and died at peace with all the world and with her Maker. Indeed, she 
 conversed with such self-possession and calmness that persons visiting 
 her would not believe that she was in any immediate danger. 
 
 Adela's chief concern seems to have been for her children, and it was 
 specially in reference to them that she was so very anxious to see you, 
 Mary Ann, and myself. 
 
 The day we started, Mary was somewhat sick in the cars, but felt 
 pretty well after taking tea at Cumberland. But almost immediately 
 after starting in the stages she became very sick, and before we reached 
 Frostburg was so much worse that I was afraid to proceed. Besides, 
 though I was better than when I left home, I began to feel fatigued and 
 had misgivings about my own ability to stand a night ride over that 
 terrible road. We accordingly stopped for the night, intending to take 
 the morning line. In the morning, however, the stages were all full to 
 overflowing, and we were obliged to remain until the next night. I took 
 an empty stage coming from the West and returned to Cumberland, for 
 the double purpose of ascertaining whether any message has passed 
 from Louisville and securing seats in the stages. We had that night 
 and the next day a rapid, rough, but on the whole a pleasant, ride to 
 Wheeling, where we arrived about 8 p. m. on AVednesday. The Pitts- 
 burg packet of that day was already at the landing, and before 9 o'clock 
 we were steaming down the Ohio at a rapid rate. On Friday morning 
 about 5 o'clock, we found ourselves in Cincinnati, having made the run 
 from Wheeling in thirty-two hours. We immediately transferred our- 
 selves and baggage to the "Telegraph number Two," which started about 
 11 A. M., and landed us in Louisville at 10 p. m. ; having made the run 
 in eleven hours. Our real travelling time from Washington to Louisville 
 was but three days and nine hours ; and, including an entire day lost at 
 Frostburg and six hours at Cincinnati, it was but four days and fifteen 
 hours. 
 
 I shall be obliged to remain here certainly until the 30th inst., and 
 probably until, the 31st., but as soon thereafter as possible we shall 
 hasten home by the Pennsylvania route. Having some preparations to 
 make for the children, Mary Ann has not yet decided whether she will 
 visit Frankfort or not. 
 
 Mr. W. C. Culver had a servant waiting at the landing, to invite us 
 to his house, where Mary is now staying. I am at the doctor's. Mary 
 Culver is one of the most kind-hearted little girls I ever knew. While 
 
542 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Adela was sick she could hardly be made to leave the house, and no 
 
 sister could be more distressed. She is particularly devoted to Willie, 
 
 and would be with him constantly if permitted. The poor little fellow 
 
 is getting well very slowly ; but I think will be benefitted by the 
 
 journey. Eddy is as well as I ever saw him, and the doctor seems to 
 
 be very well. 
 
 Give my love to father and the whole family. 
 
 Your devoted husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The following characteristic letter was written to a defaulting 
 
 telegraph operator : — 
 
 Washington, June 26, 1851. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I received yesterday your letter of the 23d inst., and 
 read it with great interest. 
 
 Early in life it would have been impossible for me to comprehend the 
 degree of infatuation which it describes ; but I have seen so much of 
 poor human nature that no folly or crime now staggers my credulity. 
 Although I never lost or won a hundred dollars by lotteries, games of 
 chance, or bets of any kind, my little experience in early life taught 
 me that my only safety consisted in abjuring such practices altogether ; 
 and although I never made vows which only expose men to double 
 crime, I have, since the age of twenty-six years, declined playing for the 
 value of a cent, or bettiug otherwise than in sport and for mere trifles. 
 With the same steadiness I have, under all vicissitudes, refrained from 
 all other habits and vices which con'upt the heart, exhaust the means, 
 and shorten the lives of so many erring mortals. I do not mention 
 these things boastingly, for I am sensible of most of those frailties which 
 lead others astray, but my object is simply to show you, by my example, 
 that the human will can be made by steady exertion to master our 
 appetites and passions, and save us from the ruin which their unre- 
 strained indulgence never fails to produce. 
 
 Your letter of itself is conclusive that you are not yet entirehj lost. I 
 believe you sincere in your repentance, and that you would now repair 
 all the wrong you have done if you could. I trust it will not be like a 
 sick-bed repentance, forgotten as soon as the God of mercy restores the 
 blessiug of health. Be that as it may, man cannot err in an humble 
 imitation of his Maker, particularly as he cannot foresee the result of 
 his mercies to his fellow-men. 
 
 You are undoubtedly exposed to a criminal prosecution as well as a 
 civil action. It may be policy in the company to adopt the former 
 course, by way of example, and I hear the president of the company has 
 threatened it. He will be here in a few days, and I shall endeavor to 
 
A CHARACTERISTIC LETTER. 
 
 543 
 
 dissuade him from that course, and give you an opportunity to redeem 
 yourself. I doubt, however, whether in justice to the company he can 
 place you in another office. It is almost impossible that those doing 
 business in the office can remain in ignorance of the facts, and the pub- 
 lic, having neither the knowledge nor the charity which would induce it 
 to look with forbearance on the past, might distrust the office on account 
 of your presence in it. This loss of confidence is a part of the penalty 
 you have to pay, and the company cannot be expected to assume it. 
 
 I have no doubt that all idea of proceeding against you in any shape 
 will be abandoned if you can give acceptable security for the payment 
 of arrears, even at a day somewhat distant. To this end your first 
 efforts should be directed, and I shall urge on the president the policy 
 of giving you full scope to make the attempt, and will promptly apprise 
 you of the result. If this were satisftxctorily arranged, you could again 
 go boldly forth in search of employment. 
 
 The president, in a letter to me, mentioned an intimation of your 
 purpose, in a certain event, to commit suicide ! If any thing could de- 
 stroy all faith in your good resolutions it would be the conviction that 
 you deliberately entertained such a purpose in any event. If one event 
 could produce such a catastrophe, another might, and how can we trust 
 to the promises of one whose rash hand may at any moment put an 
 end to his life and his promises by the same act % I doubt not the 
 expression was used without any settled purpose in your heart, but the 
 thought is often father to the deed, and always indicates in a less degree 
 the same desperation. This world is on the whole a good world and a 
 beautiful. It is full of pleasures to him who does not suffer a grain of 
 disappointment or pain to outweigh a pound of hope and enjoyment. 
 If it sometimes becomes a hell, it is the man himself who makes it such, 
 and then to relieve himself he aggravates his folly by rushing into a 
 worse one ! He leaves one which his own wdll may convert into a com- 
 parative Paradise, and rushes into one over which he has no power ! 
 Dismiss all such thoughts, consider life as a thing over which you have 
 no power, and make the best of it. Rise superior to your difficulties, 
 which imagination magnifies into mountains. They are but mole-hills 
 which a resolute will and steady effort may in one month demolish. 
 Your talents, your business capacity, and prepossessing manners are by 
 all conceded, and, notwithstanding the past, the future depends on your 
 own will, — not a fitful changeable will, driven to and fro by every breeze 
 of passion, appetite, or disappointment, but a firm, resolute, and per- 
 severing will, leading you steadily on in the paths of virtue, industry, 
 and self-denial. In such a course it will be my pleasure to aid and 
 cheer you on, as far as paramount duties will allow. 
 
 I remain your friend, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
544 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Philadelphia, September 12, 1851, 8 p.m. 
 
 My dear Wife, — Can you keep cool 1 It is more than anybody can 
 do in these parts. The thermometer is at 88° now, and has been at 98° 
 to-day, so it is said. As I write, perspiration breaks out all over me, and 
 even the hand with which I hold my pen glitters as with morning dew ! 
 There ! the drops come trickling down my face as if sundry small foun- 
 tains had broken out under my hair. for home, among the cool 
 shades of Kendall Green ! The judges here think our trial will last five 
 weeks ! What do you think of that ] And I have had the weakness to 
 be persuaded to make a speech in the case ! I hope we may finish it in 
 two weeks ; but I fear it will take not less than three. 
 
 I hope Mark has not worked his horses too hard these hot days. He 
 should begin early, and about eleven o'clock stop until about four. Nor 
 can men do much with safety in the sun for two or three hours after 
 twelve o'clock noon. 
 
 Please let me know how the men come on, that I may give instruc- 
 tions if necessary. 
 
 I have not a word from the girls. Do you hear from them ] 
 
 I am very well, though the heat and musquitoes have much disturbed 
 my slumbers. 
 
 Give my love to Father Kyle, to Mary Ann and her four little gentle- 
 men, to Marion and the servants. I hope you get along quietly and 
 happily ; and tell the boys that I shall inquire particularly when I get 
 home which has been the best boy. 
 
 Your devoted husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Wheeling, November 15, 1851. 
 My dear Wife, — We reached Cumberland at 5 p.m. on the 13th, and 
 in half an hour, with two others, I found myself wedged in upon the 
 back seat of an old mail-coach, the front part of which was crammed 
 full of mail-bags, on my way to Wheeling over the plank road. On the 
 whole, it was the most uncomfortable night I ever spent in a coach. 
 The coach seemed to have no more spring than a wagon ; the seat was 
 a bad one ; it was very cold ; and any relief by changing position out of 
 the question. Yet we had some incidents to enliven us. One of the 
 coach-doors came open, and one of my fellow-passengers put his head 
 out to shut it and lost his cap. He did not think of calling upon the 
 driver to stop until we had gone a considerable distance, and then he 
 returned after a fruitless search, asking the driver to wait until he could 
 find it, saying he could not lose it, for it cost him $15. The driver re- 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 545 
 
 fused and drove on, leaving him in the midst of an extensive forest on 
 a dark and rainy night. We hoped for more room now ; but it was not 
 long before an outside passenger, to get out of the rain, wedged himself 
 in alongside of us. 
 
 I had deposited my hat upon the mail-bags and put on my nightcap. 
 In a few miles the other coach-door flew open and out went my hat. 
 Happening to have my eyes in that direction I saw it, and shouted 
 lustily to the driver to hold on, which he did, muttering curses. I re- 
 covered my hat by a run of some two hundred yards, which was quite a 
 relief to me. 
 
 The night was exceedingly cold, and in the mountains there were 
 bunches of snow beside the road. In the morning we found ourselves 
 in a better coach and milder climate, and had a pleasant ride to this 
 city. 
 
 None but the smaller boats are running, and I have not yet deter- 
 mined whether I will wait for one leaving Pittsburg to-day or go on in 
 the stages. Nothing but fear of a second night without sleep prevented 
 my going on last night. 
 
 Lest they should make some mistake, I think the men had better not 
 undertake the fence until T get back, though they may make preparations. 
 
 My love to all the family. 
 
 Your devoted husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Mrs. Jane Kendall. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 Louisville, Ky. May 14, 1852. 
 
 My dear Wife, — Having a short respite from business, I seize the 
 opportunity and a broken sheet of paper (having no other at hand) to 
 give some account of myself since I left Philadelphia. , 
 
 The first day's journey brought us to the foot of the Alleghany 
 Mountains near Hollidaysburg, where we slept, there being no night 
 line over the inclined planes. No incident occurred worthy of note, 
 except that at Lewiston a young lady with a very amiable and fun- 
 loving face, was observed to enter the car and take a seat behind a 
 young bachelor, whom I observed to become so interested that he could 
 scarcely look ahead. 
 
 The next morning it so happened that she and I found ourselves in 
 the same seat, and we soon became very good friends. A meiTy journey 
 we had of it. The smitten doctor (for such he was) got into the car 
 next ahead, and for some time he was upon the platform at every stop, 
 looking in upon my companion. On one occasion the young lady, 
 excited by a remark of mine, burst into a violent laugh just as lie 
 looked in upon her, and for an hour or so we saw no more of him. I 
 
 35 
 
546 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 did not fail to lecture her on her indiscretion in scaring Cupid by so 
 broad a laugh, and she promised to be more cautious in future. After 
 a while the doctor again made his appearance, and when we stopped for 
 dinner he endeavored to play the agreeable. We had twenty-eight miles 
 of stage riding after dinner, and the doctor got into the same stage 
 with the young lady and myself, where we found another bachelor, and 
 1 contrived to keep them amused with themselves during several hours, 
 over a very dusty road, at the end of which we were all clad in gray. 
 Twelve miles of railroad took us into Pittsburg, where we arrived a 
 little after dark. The first object of interest which presented itself 
 was a large frame building all in flames from top to bottom and from 
 end to end. About 9 p. M. we were located for the night. 
 
 Now, don't be jealous. This young lady had never crossed the 
 mountains before, and was destined for a place called Kittaning, some 
 distance up the Alleghany River, on a visit to an uncle's. A cousin who 
 lives in the West attended her, but as he did not propose to return, she 
 hinted she should be very glad to put herself under my protection back 
 over the mountains. Nothing could have been more agreeable, of 
 course ; but as she proposed a visit of a month's duration, I remarked that 
 ray early return would deprive me of the pleasure. And what do you 
 think she said ? It is perhaps not prudent to tell ; but she said she 
 would cut short her visit, for the purpose of returning with me, if I would 
 let her know when I should return to Pittsburg that she might meet 
 me there. Of course, you know, / could not help promising to give her 
 that information by letter. What will come of it, there 's no knowing ! 
 
 Whom should I meet on board the steamer but Mr. and Mrs. Mc- 
 Kinley. They contributed to make the trip agreeable down the river ; 
 but it was barren of incident. The river bottonis and hills are now 
 exceedingly beautiful, being dressed in fresh green of various hues, 
 spangled with blossoms of white, red, and pink. 
 
 Our company have been three days in session, and have finished their 
 business, except the election of officers, and for that purpose they will 
 meet again at 9 a.m., to-morrow. The. Western Smith had taken much 
 pains and had published a pamphlet to make mischief; but though he 
 had made some impression on the stockholders, T had no difficulty in 
 baffling him at every point. Mr. Tanner will certainly be elected in his 
 place, and then we shall have peace. 
 
 I shall have to remain here several days, perhaps a week, on impor- 
 tant telegraph business, and shall remain a month, if need be, to put 
 things on such a footing as to remove all necessity for my crossing the 
 mountains ai^ain very shortly. 
 
 The company have reduced the treasurer's salary from $ 1,200 to 
 
 5U0, and Dr. Culver is not a candidate for re-election. 
 
A BIRTHDAY LETTER TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 547 
 
 Friday Morning, May 5th, You see I have procured some whole 
 sheets of paper. The weather here is hot and showery, with thunder 
 and lightning. It has put me a little out of sorts ; but I do not think 
 I shall have a sick spell. 
 
 I have received Mary's excellent letter of the 7th. Tell her not to 
 
 be in a hurry to go North. Probably the weather is pretty well settled ; 
 
 but there may be another cold spell in a few days. If there should be, 
 
 she may safely go as soon as it is over. Give my love to her, to father, 
 
 Fanny, Marion ; and remember me to the hands and the servants. 
 
 Your devoted husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 In behalf of a warm personal and political friend Mr. Kendall 
 
 wrote the following : — 
 
 Washington, April 26, 1853. 
 To THE President op the United States : — 
 
 Dear Sir, — Though I have the utmost repugnance to troubling you 
 in any matter which relates to appointments, justice to an old friend 
 and most deserving man makes it my duty to overcome it. 
 
 I allude to Mr. John M. McCalla. If there be any one who is 
 entitled to the sympathy and support of a Democratic administration, 
 he is the man. Of extensive acquirements, fine talents, unspotted 
 character, and sincerely religious, he has for about thirty years, without 
 regard to his own interest, fought the battles of Democracy, most of 
 the time on a field where the fight was most ferocious and victory least 
 to be expected. 
 
 When men deify a mortal, it is sacrilege to expose his vices. This 
 was General McCalla's crime. He spoke the truth of the Whig idol, 
 and will never be forgiven. Even some Democrats, with a consciousness 
 that their own moral conduct will not bear the light, join in denouncing 
 him who dares to expose vices which render men unsafe for public 
 trusts, — that a common veil may conceal from the people the moral 
 deformities of themselves and their adversaries. 
 
 With such men as General McCalla, any administration will be safe. 
 If disparaging representations have been made to you, be assured they 
 are slanders. To proscribe him is to proscribe fidelity and virtue ; to 
 sustain him is to promote them ; and, as the admirer of both, I hope and 
 trust this persecuted man may be provided for by this administration. 
 With confidence and respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 SprJNGFiELD, III., August 16, 1853. 
 
 My dear Wife, — I wrote you from Chicago on the 14th inst., and 
 
 telegraphed you this morning on our arrival here. 
 
548 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 We left Chicago at 8 a. m. yesterday, and travelled by railroad to La 
 Salle on the Illinois River, and thence about sixty miles, almost all 
 prairie, to Bloomington. For over forty miles there are but two houses 
 near the road, and much of the distance not a tree was visible to the right 
 or the left. All was one apparently interminable meadow of gi'ass and 
 weeds, in some places with an undulating surface, but generally quite 
 flat, and ornamented with flowers, mostly of yellow and blue colors. 
 Except an occasional team wending its way along the distant horizon, 
 the whirring of a prairie hen scared from her covert in the grass, or a 
 clumsy blue crane rising from the wet slues which intersect these im- 
 mense pastures, there were for many miles no signs of animal life except 
 the managers of the steam monster, and the living freight he seemed to 
 be conveying from the regions of civilization to some unknown land 
 beyond the horizon. It seemed, indeed, as if the cars had lost their 
 way, and were plunging onward recklessly, without purpose or destina- 
 tion. 
 
 At length, about 2 p. m., we reached Bloomington, a scattered village 
 on an oasis of woodland in a waste of grass. Hence to Springfield is 
 about sixty-five miles, and this distance was to be travelled before eight 
 o'clock this morning. There was no alternative, for no day line is run. 
 There were but two post-coaches, and they were barely sufficient to ac- 
 commodate the ladies and their attendants. Alvah and myself, with 
 five others, were stowed in a covered wagon, whose springs were stiff'ened 
 by age and compressed by a weight of baggage. We soon took the 
 lead of the coaches, and such a ride ! The jolting was unsurpassed. 
 Alvah, who is no chicken in weight or dimensions, sat between me and 
 another man on the hind seat, and returning from one of his most ex- 
 alted saltations he cracked the seat. It soon began to settle down 
 in the centre, causing his companions to the right and left to slide down 
 towards him into a most affectionate proximity. We, however, con- 
 trived to prop it up with a valise, so that it answered the purposes of a 
 seat. We had but three teams in the sixty-five miles, and one team 
 attached to a heavily laden stage-coach was driven thirty-five miles. 
 The drivers were shockingly profane, and in some instances out of place, 
 losing much time. There were many passengers desirous of reaching 
 here in time to take an 8 a. m. train of cars to St. Louis, and they tried 
 the effect of money upon the drivers. The upshot was, that our wagon 
 got in about ten minutes before the cars started ; but the post-coaches 
 fell a long way behind time, and all their passengers are detained here 
 an entire day. 
 
 I was very glad you were not along. My bones are tied together by 
 pretty strong sinews ; but your flesh ! it would have been like the 
 Arab's milk in his leathern bag, churned to butter by the trotting of his 
 
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE. 549 
 
 camel ; or it would have been scattered along the road from Blooming- 
 ton to Springfield ! 
 
 But it was a gorgeous night. The moon was out in all her glory, 
 clothing the broad prairies and clustering groves with mild and radiant 
 beauty. Fleeting clouds tinged with silver light moved over the firma- 
 ment, and summer lightning twinkled along the horizon. Alas, thought 
 I, that such a Pai-adise should have such roads ! This is a beautiful 
 country, — rich and beautiful alm/ost beyond expression. Its beauty and 
 richness, however, did not prevent our being made sore by our last 
 night's jolting. A little cleaning up and a nap have made us almost 
 '"' as good as new," except that Alvah is troubled with the " summer 
 complaint,'' for which he is nursing himself to-day preparatory to visit- 
 ing some of my lands to-morrow. 
 
 I cannot visit my Vermillion lands without taking a stage ride of 
 about one hundred and fifty miles, to which my recent experience no 
 way inclines me. The probability now is that after spending four or 
 five days here I shall hasten home with all convenient despatch. 
 
 This is my birthday, — threescore and four years old. With what 
 fearful rapidity is that never-stopping locomotive, Old Time, hurrying 
 me on to that depot where I must rest until Gabriel's trumpet calls me 
 up to take a longer journey. Do the loved ones at home think of me 
 to-day ] And if so, is it with pleasure or with pain, or with something 
 of both"? So it is with me. Has not life been happy with us] There 
 is pleasure in the thought. But there must be an end of it, — we must 
 separate. There is pain in that thought. Yet hope whispers it will 
 not be forever ; and Faith, what does she say % She says it shall not 
 be forever. Let us believe her, and cheerfully submit to the temporary 
 separation imposed upon us by death, as we do to the distance which 
 the necessities of life now cast between us. 
 Alvah sends his love to you and the family. 
 
 And believe me, age instead of cooling seems to increase the affec- 
 tion I entertain for you and my dear good children, one and all. Give 
 my love also to all my Httle grandsons, including Willie Stickney. You 
 
 know how to do it. 
 
 Your husband, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Mrs. Jane Kendall. 
 
 TO HIS WIFE. 
 
 New York, September 3, 1854. 
 
 My dear Wife, — I appropriate a few minutes to give you a brief ac- 
 count of my adventures since I left home. 
 
 I arrived in Philadelphia a little after midnight, feeling stronger than 
 when I left home. The next morning I breakfasted at six o'clock, and 
 
550 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 left at seven, in the earliest train, hoping to arrive at New York in time 
 to take a twelve o'clock noon train up the Hudson River, and reach 
 Utica early in the evening ; but it was about half past twelve when I 
 reached this city, and there was no other up-river train until about a 
 quarter before 4 o'clock p. m. Here I found a message from Professor 
 Morse, urging me to come on by the night line, apprehending that mis- 
 chief might be done at the meeting called at 11a. m., the next day, unless 
 
 I were present. I took dinner at a restaurant about 1 p. m., and took 
 the evening train, expecting to sup at Albany. The cars were late at 
 that place, allowing no time for supper, and I proceeded on, hoping to 
 find some refreshments on the way ; but in this I was disappointed. 
 The consequence was, that on arriving at Utica, at 3 a. m., I was 
 thoroughly exhausted. A moderate meal produced no reaction, and 
 the next morning I was scarcely able to sit up. The meeting was ad- 
 journed, though not on my account, from 11 a. m., to 3 p. m. My 
 room adjoined that in which the meeting was held, with folding-doors 
 between, and finding myself unable to sit up without danger of be- 
 coming wholly disabled, I opened the doors and lay down on my bed, 
 where I could hear what passed. When it became necessary for me to 
 say something in reply to Mr. Buttei'field, I got up, scarcely able to 
 stand, and went into the meeting. The chairman asked me to be seated 
 as I spoke, and I had not proceeded five minutes before I felt decidedly 
 better, and continued to improve as I spoke. The upshot of the meet- 
 ing was, that we voted down Mr. Butterfield's project by a vote of 2,600 
 to something over 600. 
 
 By invitation, I removed from the hotel to a Mr. Walker's, who 
 manned a cousin of Professor Morse, where I spent a pleasant evening 
 and quiet night, feeling quite as well on Friday morning as when 1 left 
 home. Not inclined to take another railroad run of such length and 
 rapidity, I took an afternoon train, which delivered me in Albany at 
 7 p. M., when I went immediately on board the steamboat Hendrick 
 Hudson, ready to start. There, through the kindness of Mr. Palmer, 
 Superintendent of the Telegraph Line, I found my passage already paid 
 for, and a very comfortable state-room secured. I ate a moderate sup- 
 per, rested well, and landed in New York at about 6 a. m. yesterday. 
 
 There were on the boat about three hundred and fifty passengers, 
 among whom I did not recognize a single face as ever before seen by me, 
 and I do not think there was one person who knew me. 
 
 I met here Mr. Swain and Mr. Hyde, and, after a session from about 
 
 II a. M. to 11 p. M., closed my business with them very satisfactorily. 
 Until I ascertain to-morrow what more I can do here, I can form no 
 
 opinion when I can get home. 
 
 I have written much more than I intended. Give my love to Mary 
 
LETTER TO WILLIAM STICKNEY, 55^ 
 
 Ann and tell her I much regret the necessity of being absent during her 
 visit. Give my love also to children and grandchildren, and take to 
 your share as much as all the rest. 
 
 Your husband, 
 Mrs. Jane Kendall. AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The following reference to his health is extracted from a letter 
 to Professor Morse, November 1st, 1854 : — 
 
 "There is but a hope of receiving enough on your account to pay the 
 drafts I have accepted, and make you a partner in the new company, 
 from Louisville to New Orleans, before the first of February. Yet hav- 
 ing done all we can, let us have faith that the Great Patron of the faith- 
 ful and the true will not permit you or me to be reduced to the necessity 
 of ' selling out at auction.' But for my Western lands I should have 
 been on several occasions within the past year in very unpleasant pre- 
 dicaments myself In every case, as the crisis approached, remittances 
 came from my agents to meet it, sometimes wholly unexpected. 
 
 " But I think I have felt within the past year a sensible decay of my 
 physical powers. Two serious attacks, altogether different from my ordi- 
 nary sick speUs, have admonished me that I hold life by a very precari- 
 ous tenure. An ankle not yet recovered from a sprain given it last 
 winter, has, in a great measure, cut me off from the exercise of walking. 
 I can scarcely write an hour at a time without feeling exhausted in body, 
 though, excepting memory, my mental powers seem to myself to remain 
 unimpaired. However, I shall work on with cheerfulness and zeal, doing 
 what I can to protect your interest and my own, trusting that a kind 
 Providence will supply all my deficiencies and secure to you that triumph 
 over all your enemies which your virtues and your merits so richly deserve. 
 
 *• My family join me in kind regards to you and yours. We all hope to 
 see you in Congress, 'Bashaw of three tails' as you are,* and I doubt 
 not you will be as ready to join the Catholics and Episcopalians in de- 
 fence of religious liberty as the Turk is in defence of his territorial 
 
 right and sovereignty. 
 
 "■ Truly your friend, 
 
 '*AMOS KENDALL." 
 
 TO WILLIAM STICKNEY. 
 
 Louisville, June 1, 1855. 
 My dear Stickney, — I received yesterday your kind letter of the 
 25th ult., and mark what you say touching my not answering your let- 
 ters. Be assured it arises from no indisposition to answer them ; but 
 
 * Reference is here made to the testimonials Professor Morse had received from 
 foreign governments m honor of his invention. 
 
552 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 from the " engagements " of which you speak, and from the slowness and 
 difficulty with which I now write, owing to a trembling hand and decay- 
 ing physical vigor ; that which was once a pleasure to me has become 
 a labor, and hence I shrink from any correspondence which is not im- 
 posed upon me by some duty. 
 
 Fanny and myself had a very agreeable journey out ; and both had 
 excellent health until yesterday, when both were unwell, though not 
 seriously, daring the day. This morning both of us were in pretty good 
 condition, so good that I saw her in the cars for Frankfort before 6 
 A.M. For a more particular account of her travels and adventures, I 
 must refer you to Fanny herself. 
 
 I have had conferences with the lessees here, and have to-day submit- 
 ted a proposition. I think we shall come to terms ; but it is a little 
 uncertain. They are hard business men, who recognize no principle in 
 their transactions but strict le^al rights, whether resting on moral right 
 or not. I expect to close the negotiation this evening or to-morrow, and 
 to join Fanny at Frankfort to-morrow evening or on Monday morning. 
 Thence I propose travelling through Lexington to Cincinnati, by a rail- 
 road recently opened ; thence by railroad to Wheeling ; and thence by 
 the B. and 0. Railroad home ; arriving about the end of next week. 
 
 This is likely to be a year of great abundance in the West. The fruit 
 trees are loaded beyond precedent, and the growing crops never gave 
 brighter promise. It has been somewhat dry ; but within a few days 
 past copious rains have put the wheat beyond the reach of drought. 
 
 The North Alabamiaus continue to cut down the telegraph almost 
 every day. At first it was under the pretext that it produced the dry 
 weather ; but as they have had abundant rains, it seems now to be the 
 mere spirit of mischief or ambition to carry a point. It is said they 
 were encouraged by a preacher who proclaimed from the pulpit that 
 God had sent the dry weather to punish the world because man had 
 got to be " too smart " in reducing his lightning to human uses. Give 
 my love to Jeannie and Willie, to your mother, sisters, and brother, not 
 forgetting Willie Gold and Mrs. Eddy. 
 
 Affectionately, your father, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO REV. G. W. SAMPSON, ON ''PREDESTINATION." 
 
 Washington, October 15, 1856. 
 Rev. G. W. Sampson : — 
 
 My dear Sir, — Will you excuse a few plain observations from a 
 hearer who is generally instructed and edified by your preaching 1 How- 
 ever they may strike you, they are conceived in a spirit which, I trust, 
 is truly Christian. 
 
ON PREDESTINATION. 553 
 
 It is perhaps my own fault that your sermon of to-day,. and I may say 
 of last Sunday also, did me harm instead of good. My mind and heart 
 revolt at every attempt to penetrate the counsels of God in cases pal- 
 pably beyond the reach of human intellect. It always strikes me pain- 
 fully, as a sort of sacrilege, — an attempt to penetrate God's secrets; to 
 eat the forbidden' fruit over again. 
 
 There are apparent contradictions in the Book of Revelatiou, as well 
 as the Book of Nature, which it is worse than idle to attempt to recon- 
 cile. God is almighty. He could prevent evil in the world if he would. 
 Why does he not prevent it ? Can human reason give a satisfactory an- 
 swer % Why should an almighty, all-wise, and all-good God make a world 
 to be filled with sin, suffering, sorrow, and pain 1 Can reason tell us 
 why] Why, instead of making everything mm?i^a&^y good, did he make 
 man fallible, and permit him to fall when he could have prevented it, 
 and thus make it necessary to sacrifice his Son for man's redemption ? 
 To our limited reason, all this seems capricious and cruel. 
 
 To say that a thing existed or took place from eternity^ is to human 
 reason the same as to say that it never came into existence at all. We 
 cannot conceive an act done which is not done in time. We cannot think 
 of decrees of foreordination or of foreknowledge without connecting 
 them with time. Nor is the connection obviated when told that these 
 things existed " from eternity " ; for of eternity itself we have no con- 
 ception as a thing to be separated from time. Our hearts beat in time^ 
 our minds think in time^ and all our acts are done in time. We cannot 
 penetrate the future or the past without measuring by time the flight of 
 our imaginations. And of course our minds cannot conceive how God 
 can have plans or designs which had no beginning. 
 
 You truly say, the foreknowledge of God finds a place in heathen 
 philosophy and human reason as well as the Bible. I do not complain 
 of implicit faith in that doctrine. What I complain of is, all attempts 
 to reconcile the doctrine and its necessary premises, foreordination with 
 human accountability. Human reason deduces from it the conclusion 
 that most of mankind were created to be damned without a possibility 
 of salvation, while a smaller portion are born to be saved without a pos- 
 sibility of going to perdition. Nor is it a satisfactory explanation to say 
 that their will was free ; for the doctrine presupposes that all the mo- 
 tives- which were to influence their wills, and the act of the will itself, 
 were inevitably fixed and foreknown long before man had an exist- 
 ence. 
 
 Nor have I ever heard an illustration from you, or any one else, which 
 was sufficient to reconcile predestination with human accountability. Take 
 the one used by you to-day. You presented the case of a city afflicted by 
 a destroying pestilence, to whom a deliverer appears and offers to remove 
 
554 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the whole population to a place of safety ; but while a few only accepted 
 the offer, the majority chose to remain and perish, and you asked whether 
 their perdition is his fault or their own ? To make the case parallel with 
 that of the human family, we must suppose that the deliverer himself 
 had foreordained the pestilence, and had also foreordained the refusal 
 of the people to fly to a place of safety ; so arranging events and motives, 
 even before they were born, as to make it impossible for them to decide 
 otherwise. Could human reason, in such a case, comprehend the justice 
 of the deliverer, to say nothing of his mercy for the perishing multi- 
 tude 1 
 
 The decree of God is stronger than a tyrant's chain. Suppose a tyrant 
 has cast into prison and bound in chains a multitude of his subjects. 
 Predetermined that the doors shall not be opened nor their chains 
 knocked off, he sets fire to the prison, and calls upon them to fly for 
 their lives. Such, in the eye of human reason^ is the gospel to that 
 portion of mankind which was ordained to perdition before the world 
 was created. 
 
 Shall we therefore reject it % Not at all. We are to take for granted 
 the attributes of God as disclosed in Nature and Revelation, and take 
 also for granted that there is something unrevealed which would recon- 
 cile God's supremacy with man's accountability. Our consciousness of 
 freedom and responsibility is enough for us, without attempting to pene- 
 trate into God's secrets. 
 
 Now, my dear sir, would it not be better to give this turn to the 
 whole subject instead of bewildering the minds of hearers with disqui- 
 sitions upon points which must be assented to on faith alone^ and afford- 
 ing to cavillers the poor excuse that their sins are inevitable, having been 
 ordained by God himself The whole Christian system, worship, prayer, 
 every inculcated duty of man to man and man to God, is based on hu- 
 man liberty and accountability ; and, it seems to me, it may well be left 
 to God in his own good time, if he should ever deem it expedient, to ex- 
 plain how the consciousness he has implanted within us is consistent 
 with his foreknowledge. That it is so, we are bound to believe ; but 
 hoiv it is so, is known only to the eternal mind. There let the secret 
 rest. 
 
 Your liberality will excuse the liberty I have taken. I did not feel 
 quite so good when I left the church to-day as when I entered it, and I 
 concluded to tell you why, not for your guidance, but for my relief and 
 your consideration. Perhaps I am mistaken in supposing that preach- 
 ing on these incomprehensible subjects is as unprofitable to others as it 
 is to myself 
 
 Most sincerely your friend, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 FOUNDING THE COLUMBIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. 
 
 The existence of this institution, organized in 1857, and which 
 has already "become one of the brightest jewels in the coronet of 
 the Kepnblic/' is due to the liberality of Mr. Kendall. With a 
 heart full of sympathy for the unfortunate, he always carried 
 a hand ready to relieve their wants and improve their condition, 
 as far as his means would permit. 
 
 The gift of a house and two acres of ground adjoining the city, 
 in October, 1856, valued at that time at about ten thousand dol- 
 lars, was the nucleus of the hundred acres of ground and the noble 
 group of buildings which Congress, in its apj)reciation of this great 
 charity, has provided for the education of the deaf and dumb of 
 our country. The origin and progress of the institution may be 
 seen from the following address of Mr. Kendall at the first com- 
 mencement of the National Deaf-Mute College, held in Washington, 
 June 23, 1869: — 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — 
 
 This occasion brings to me a train of interesting memories. About 
 fifteen years ago an adventurer brought to this city five partially edu- 
 cated deaf-mute children, whom he had picked up in the State of New 
 York, and commenced exhibiting them to our citizens in their houses 
 and places of business. He professed a desire to get up an institution 
 for the education of unfortunates of that class in the District of Colum- 
 bia, raised considerable sums of money, and gathered a school of about 
 sixteen pupils. Apparently to give respectability and permanency to 
 his school, he sought and obtained the consent of some of our leading 
 citizens to become its trustees. It soon appeared, however, that he had 
 no idea of accountability to them, and only wanted their names to aid 
 him in collecting money to be used at his discretion. On being informed 
 by the trustees that such an irresponsible system was inadmissible, he 
 repudiated them altogether. 
 
 In the mean time, an impression had gone abroad that he maltreated 
 
556 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the children, and it led to an investigation in court, ending in the chil- 
 dren being taken from him and restored to their parents, except the five 
 from abroad, who were bound to him who now addresses you as their 
 next friend. 
 
 The trustees then had a meeting to determine whether they would 
 abandon the enterprise or go forward. Having in the mean time under- 
 stood that there were from twenty to thirty of their fellow human beings 
 in the District who, from deafness or blindness, were cut off from all 
 means of education in the ordinary schools, they determined to go for- 
 ward. They adopted a constitution, raised contributions, hired teach- 
 ers, and opened a school in a house set apart for that purpose at Kendall 
 Green. 
 
 At the session of Congress, in the winter of 1856-57, they procured 
 an act of incorporation, containing a provision for the instruction of the 
 indigent deaf and dumb and blind in the District at the expense of the 
 United States. This act, by allowing the institution to receive pupils 
 from all the States and Territories, and leaving all details as to the 
 objects of study, the arrangement of classes, the length of time the 
 pupils should be taught, to the discretion of the directors, enabled it to 
 expand, should it ever become practicable and desirable, into a great 
 national institution, in which all the higher branches of science, litera- 
 ture, and art should be taught. 
 
 The institution was organized under its charter in Februaiy, 1857. 
 In May of that year the board of directors was so fortunate as to 
 secure the services of E. M. Gallaudet, Esq., under whose energetic and 
 prudent management, first as superintendent and then as president, the 
 institution rapidly advanced to the front rank of similar institutions, 
 not onl}" in our own country, but throughout the world. 
 
 At his instance an act of .Congress was passed in April, 1864, author- 
 izing the institution to confer degrees and issue diplomas. The time 
 seemed now to have arrived for carrying into effect a project vaguely 
 entertained from the origin of the institution. The State institutions 
 taught little else than those branches of knowledge taught in the com- 
 mon schools. The deaf and dumb in the various States, desirous of at- 
 taining or able to attain to a higher degree of culture, were not numerous 
 enough to justify the maintenance of a college in each State for their 
 instruction ; but it was believed there were enough of that class in all 
 the States to sustain one such institution. And where could that be so 
 appropriately located as at the seat of the general government "l Influ- 
 enced by these considerations, and in the belief that there were enough 
 deaf-mutes partially educated who panted for higher attainments, and 
 would find means to pay for them, the directors, in the summer of 1864, 
 organized a new department in their institution, denominated the 
 
ADDRESS ON THE EDUCATION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB. 557 
 
 " National Deaf-Mute College." In the mean time they had been re- 
 lieved by Congress of the charge of the blind, and authorized to take 
 the deaf-mute children of soldiers and sailors. 
 
 Thus has our institution been matured ; the progress of the college 
 has been most encouraging, and buildings for the accommodation of all 
 its departments are springing up on the confines of your city, an orna- 
 ment to your surroundings, and a testimony to the benevolence of our 
 people and our government. 
 
 In ancient times it required the exertion of Divine power to enable 
 the dumb to speak and the blind to see. The restoration of sight and 
 hearing was the subject of miracles in the time of Christ. It was a 
 part of his holy mission to cause the deaf to hear. We do not claim 
 that there is anything supernatural in the teaching of the dumb in this 
 our day ; but is it not the fruit of that love to our neighbor which 
 Christ taught his disciples, and that use of those faculties of the mind 
 which God gave to man from the beginning 1 
 
 What more noble invention has Christian civilization brought to man 
 than the means devised to teach the blind and the deaf to read and write 'i 
 And what more godlike charity can there be than in furnishing the 
 means to enable these unfortunate children of darkness and of silence 
 to receive the lights of knowledge and religion, virtually to enable the 
 blind to see and the deaf to hear ? And where shall our benevolence 
 stop 1 Shall we be content to merely fit them for the animal drudgeries 
 of life, or shall we enable those who have aspiring minds to soar into the 
 heights of science and art, to solve the problems of nature and admire 
 the wisdom of God 1 
 
 But the subject is not merely one of benevolence ; it is also one of 
 public policy. How many hands are made permanently useful to society, 
 and how many minds are awakened to aid in the progress of our age, 
 by the deaf and dumb institutions 1 
 
 It is an accepted proposition that, the brain being unimpaired, the 
 destruction of one of the senses renders the rest more acute. If the 
 sight be lost, the hearing becomes more distinct ; if the hearing be lost, 
 the eye becomes more clear and piercing. Why then may it not be, 
 that persons deprived of hearing are more fitted to excel in some 
 branches of learning than those in the full possession of all their senses 1 
 Silence and seclusion are conducive to study and meditation. In the 
 silence of the night the astronomer can best study the heavens. In 
 the silence of the desert and cave the hermit can best meditate on the 
 vanities of life and the attributes of God. And is it unreasonable to 
 hope that men whose atmosphere through life is silence, may, if allowed 
 the benefit of a superior education, become prominent in all those 
 branches of learning to the acquisition of which silence is conducive 1 
 
558 AUTOBIOGTRAPHY 0:F AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Why may we not expect to find among them our most profound mathe- 
 maticians and astronomers, our most clear thinkers and chaste writers, 
 our most upright men and devoted Christians ] 
 
 My dear young friends of the graduating class, although you have 
 been well taught, not only in books, but in your duties to God and man, 
 I desire to say a few words to you at parting. 
 
 There is an old book, seemingly considered almost obsolete in some 
 of our colleges and seminaries of learning, and yet it contains the 
 earliest record of the principles and precepts on which are based all 
 order, all law, and all religion that deserves the name or is useful to 
 man. That old book is the Bible. I beg you to read and study it, not 
 merely as religionists, but as men seeking after truth. You will find in 
 it, as you doubtless have found, much that you cannot understand*, and 
 some things that may stagger your faith ; but you will find this great 
 principle running through it from beginning to end, that obedience — 
 obedience to the law and rightful authority — is the only guarantee of 
 human happiness, national and individual, here and hereafter. The 
 lesson is first taught in the story of Eve and the apple, — whether fact 
 or allegory it matters not, the teaching is the same. It is repeated 
 throughout the book, from Genesis to Revelation, in narratives, in 
 parables, in promises, in threatenings, in songs, in prayers, in prophe- 
 cies, in famines, in pestilences, in wars, desolations, and captivities. 
 All, all are represented as flowing from disobedience to lawful authority. 
 And is not this book (in some parts the first of all books) worthy of 
 profound study, if it were only to see whence came that principle on 
 which all order, law, and just governments are based, and to trace it 
 through the ages down to our own day. 
 
 I know not what your religious opinions are. You go out into the 
 world at an era when society is shaken as by an earthquake. So won- 
 derful have been the inventions and discoveries of modern times that 
 men's faith in everything old seems to be shaken. Strange and absurd 
 theories, reversing the order of God and nature, are broached and find 
 believers. 
 
 Eemember, young men, that whatever else may change, the moral 
 principles inculcated in the Old Book are unchangeable, and if its re- 
 ligion be called in question, tell the caviller to hold his peace until he is 
 prepared to off'er a better. Sweet is the Christian's hope, and none but 
 a devil incarnate would seek to destroy it." 
 
 To the day of his death, Mr. Kendall did not cease to feel a deep 
 interest in the snocess of this institution ; which he often visited, 
 and where he loved to take by the hand those children of silence 
 whose eyes looked the gratitude they could not speak. These 
 
FEARS OF POLITICAL TROUBLES. 
 
 559 
 
 occasions always filled his warm heart with tender emotion, mani- 
 fested by the falling tear and the quivering lip. Had he done 
 nothing else, his name would be cherished in grateful remembrance 
 by hundreds of deaf-mutes, the darkness of whose minds has been 
 dispelled by the lights of knowledge, and who have been elevated 
 from ignorance and dependence to positions of influence and re- 
 sponsibility. 
 
 The only deaf-mute college in the world, its success has been 
 fully established, reflecting honor not only upon its founder but 
 upon the country which has so generously contributed to its sup- 
 port and development. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Kendall relinquished the Presidency of the Insti- 
 tution to Edward M. Gallaudet, then Superintendent, to whose 
 talents and energy it is largely indebted for its great prosperity 
 and present distinguished position. 
 
 The original board of directors consisted of the following gentle- 
 men, who contributed to the support of the Institution : Amos 
 Kendall, President; William Stickney, Secretary; George W. 
 Eiggs, Treasurer ; Wm. H. Edes, Judson Mitchell, J. C. McGuire, 
 D. A. Hall, and Byron Sunderland, Directors. Of these Messrs. 
 Stickney, Riggs, McGuire, and Sunderland alone survive. 
 
 Though Mr. Kendall had retired from the stormy sea of politics 
 into a haven of domestic retirement, he was a careful observer of 
 public events, and was among the first to hear the mutterings of 
 that storm which was so soon to burst with all its fury upon the 
 good ship of state. 
 
 In feeble health and heavily burdened with the cares of the 
 telegraph, he yet considered the interests of his country para- 
 mount to all others, and was ever ready to resume his pen, if by 
 so doins^ he could contribute in the least to avert or diminish the 
 threatened evil. 
 
 The following extract of a letter, written at this time, forcibly 
 sets forth his apprehensions of coming events : — 
 
 ■Washington, August 19, 1856. 
 
 Gentlemen", — I received yesterday your letter of the 16th inst., 
 inviting me to address the " Grand Mass Ratification Meeting " to be 
 held at Tammany Hall, on Thursday evening, the 21st inst. 
 
 Would that I were able to address that meeting in a voice which 
 should reach, not only every man within the precincts of Tammany Hall, 
 
560 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 but also every true American, native bom and naturalized, from Canada 
 to Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
 
 Say what we will about the impossibility of a dissolution of this glori- 
 ous Union of States, such a catastrophe is possible, and events are fast 
 hurrying us to the precipice. The union of some of the churches, whose 
 ties ought, if possible, to be more sacred than our political bonds, is 
 already dissolved ; in others the breach is becoming year by year wider 
 and wider, and all religious and benevolent institutions are threatened 
 with disruption. Mutual defiances are passing between men at the 
 North and men at the South, attended occasionally by scenes of violence 
 between individ\ials, which need only an accession of numbers to each 
 side to become a most embittered and bloody civil war ! And Congress 
 has just adjourned without making appropriations for the support of 
 the army, when every man of them knows that nothing but its presence 
 in Kansas prevents that territory from becoming the seat of an extermi- 
 nating civil war, which would almost certainly extend through the centre 
 of the Union to the Atlantic coast. Is the country ripe for this 1 Are 
 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia willing to become fron- 
 tier States of two empires, whose people shall be embittered against 
 each other with an intense hatred arising out of mutual injuries 1 Are 
 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky prepared to see the Ohio River, 
 now the channel of peaceful commerce, converted into a river of blood, 
 whose fertile shores and thriving cities shall be alternately ravaged 
 by fire and sword ] Are the people of all these confederate States, 
 North and South, prepared to see their sons dragged from their fruit- 
 ful fields and smiling hearths, to be slaughtered in intestine war, 
 and all the fruits of their labor taken from them to support standing 
 armies] 
 
 Let no man shut his eyes to the danger, or imagine that the conse- 
 quences are exaggerated. The signs of the times are, as it were, written 
 upon the heavens, and should this Union ever be dissolved in conse- 
 quence of the question which now agitates it, it will be as possible to 
 unite fire and water in harmonious action within the same furnace as 
 to preserve peace between our dissevered communities. Thrust asunder 
 by one grand explosion, the shattered fragments would dash against each 
 other on a sea of anarchy, and finally sink and be lost beneath the calm 
 of despotism. 
 
 In December of the same year he addressed the following earnest 
 appeal to James Buchanan, then President elect : — 
 
 Washington, December 7, 1856. 
 Dear Sir, — Permit me to congratulate you most sincerely on your 
 election as President of the United States. Though fortunate enough 
 
IMPORTANT LETTER TO JAMES BUCHANAN. 55 ^ 
 
 not tQ need or desire any personal favor at the hands of my government 
 I have never before felt so deep an interest in a presidential election, 
 because never before, since the adoption of the Federal Constitution, has 
 our government been in such imminent danger. 
 
 The interest I have felt in your election is now transferred to your 
 administration, because I believe it to be in your power to give such a 
 turn to political opinion and action as will avert all danger to our glori- 
 ous Union for many future years. 
 
 In addressing one of so much observation and experience on a subject 
 which has necessarily commanded his most serious attention, I feel that 
 I expose myself to the charge of presumption, but I console myself with 
 the reflection that if, as is most likely, I shall not advance an idea which 
 is new to you, this letter can do no harm, while it will in some measure 
 allay my own anxiety for the future in the possibility that it may do 
 some good. 
 
 We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that there has been in the South, 
 ever since the days of nullification, a small disunion party. Their policy 
 has been, both as to measures and men, so to shape their course as to 
 produce alienation between the North and the South, in the hope and 
 with the design that the disruption of the Union would be the result. 
 This party has generally acted with the Democracy, while they have 
 sought to break down that party by proscribing leading Democrats of 
 the North. It was this course w^hich originally gave strength to Free- 
 soilism in the North; some Northern politicians having thrown them- 
 selves upon that measure through resentment and for revenge. 
 
 In the late contest this party supported you, not, as I verily believe, 
 with any desire to secure your election. Certain it is, that they were 
 the only party which jeopardized your election. Their defence of 
 Brooks's attack upon Sumner, their justification of Missouri outrages in 
 ■Kansas, their ultra pro-slavery doctrines, their annunciations in favor 
 of a renewal of the African slave-trade, and constant threats of dis- 
 union, were all calculated, and I believe designed, to exasperate the 
 Northern mind and produce the election of Colonel Fremont. And by 
 taking the ground that if Fremont should be elected, the Union would 
 at once be rightfully dissolved, they prepared the public mind for the 
 catastrophe they hoped to witness. 
 
 The conduct of these men operated against your election in another 
 way. For obvious reasons, no States are more devoted to the Union 
 than Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Louisiana. The 
 conduct of your disunion supporters in the South enabled artful men m 
 these States to represent you as a sectional candidate, whose fidelity to 
 the Union was doubtful, and the vote for Fillmore sprung from the 
 thorough-going Union sentiments of those States. In fine, it is my firm 
 
 36 
 
562 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 conviction, that but for the attack on Sumner, the outrages in Kansas, 
 and the justification of those acts in the South, there would not have 
 been a serious contest in the late election. 
 
 On the other hand, there is a small but growing disunion party in 
 the North, and nothing can be more dangerous than the principles 
 upon which the self-styled Republican party is organized, and noth- 
 ing more unprincipled than the means adopted by them to gain power. 
 Few of them are in favor of a dissolution of the Union ; but they are 
 sapping its foundations and casting firebrands amidst its drapery. Let 
 them succeed in arraying a coijsolidated ^orth against a consolidated 
 South, and maintain that array of parties through a succession of elec- 
 tions, and the end aimed at by Southern disunionists will be attained. 
 
 We have already premonitory indications of the game designed to be 
 played by these extreme parties during your administration. 
 
 Governor Adams of South Carolina, and various disunion newspapers 
 are out in favor of a renewal of the- African slave-trade, thereby furnish- 
 ing materials for Northern agitators, while the Kansas question is re- 
 newed in the House of Representatives, to prevent the disbandment of 
 the Republican party. 
 
 Now, the safety of the Republic requires that these parties shall be 
 deprived of the power to excite their respective sections of the Union 
 against each other. But how is it to be done 1 To my own mind the 
 way seems clear. Let your administration, as the head of the Demo- 
 cratic party, assume and inflexibly maintain two positions, namely : — 
 
 First. The Federal Union shall be preserved, as organized by the 
 Constitution, in its letter and spirit. 
 
 Second, Inflexible opposition to any further agitation of the subject 
 of slavery in the Territories or elsewhere. 
 
 Let it be understood that no man who^«/^ about a dissolution of 
 the Union, or maintains political relations with disunionists South or 
 agitators North, is to be considered a friend of the administration or a 
 member of the Democratic party. In short, let the Union sentiment, 
 in the spirit of the Constitution, be embodied as the leading element in 
 the administration and in that party. 
 
 Many a patriotic man has been pained and disgusted by the continual 
 harping about the dissolution of the Union by some of the Democratic 
 papers, and even those in Washington. Let all this be made to cease ; 
 let the public mind be led to have faith in procuring remedies of all 
 existing evils within the Union and not out of it. Particularly let any 
 newspaper which may be supposed to speak the sentiments of the ad- 
 ministration, be an example of unwavering faith in the perpetuity of 
 the Union, while it advocates the rights of the States with no less 
 firmness and zeaL 
 
GENERAL JACKSON AS AN ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER. 553 
 
 The slavery question now rests where the Constitution left it. Whether 
 it was wise to repeal the Missouri Compromise, it is unnecessary to 
 decide. I always thought it a violation of the spirit of the Constitu- 
 tion, which presupposes that a State has been organized by the people 
 composing it, before Congress has anything to do with it as a State, and 
 that for Congress to interfere before admission, with a view of shapino- 
 its institutions, is as inadmissible as their interference to alter them 
 after admission. The true principle has been restored by the Kansas- 
 Nebraska act, and there is no difficulty in defending it in the North as 
 well as in the South, if it be carried into effect in good faith, and the 
 Northern mind be not excited by the taunts, violence, and extreme 
 opinions divulged by Southern disunionists. 
 
 I have thus very hastily, but I hope intelligibly, sketched out the 
 views I entertain in relation to the present and future political condition 
 of the country. I have no apology for obtruding them upon you but 
 the desire to see my country maintain its unity, and my government its 
 purity, through my few remaining years, and die in the hope that my 
 children's children may enjoy the same political blessings which have 
 been my invaluable inheritance. 
 
 Hoping and believing that your administration may be an honor and 
 glory to yourself, and a blessing to our expanding country and its in- 
 creasing millions, 
 
 I remain, with the highest respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Hon, James Buchanan. 
 
 GENERAL JACKS.ON. 
 
 Washington, June 2, 185,8. 
 Hon. a. p. Hatne, United States Senate : — 
 
 My dear Sir, — You ask me for my opinion of General Jackson as an 
 administrative officer of this government, which I cheerfully give. 
 
 No man ever excelled General Jackson in integrity and patriotism. 
 To save his country by honest means was the height of his ambition. 
 On every subject which required his official action, he sought for infor- 
 mation in any and every quarter from which it could be obtained, and 
 listened with attention to every opinion. Upon facts and opinions thus 
 collected, or circumstances within his own knowledge, no mind was ever 
 more prompt in arriving at correct and safe conclusions. He never 
 stopped to calculate political consequences. 
 
 He took it for granted that in doing right his country would sustain 
 him, and how gloriously have results justified that faith ! 
 
 Yours very tnily, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
564 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 In May, 1860, Mr. Kendall was invited by many friends in 
 Washington to deliver a lecture before the Young Men's Christian 
 Association in that place. Accordingly, on the 15th of May, he 
 complied with the request, and gave the following lecture in the 
 Smithsonian Institution, upon 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND ITS LEGITIMATE INFLUENCE UPON HUMAN 
 
 SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The theme selected for this occasion is Christianity and its legitimate 
 influence upon human society and government. 
 
 It is not designed to attempt a development of the mysteries of 
 Christianity, which lie beyond the scope of finite mind, and claim man's 
 assent by Divine authority alone. Suffice it to say, that because man 
 cannot understand is not a conclusive reason why he should not believe. 
 If men's faith were limited to their comprehension, they would dis- 
 believe all existence, material and spiritual, even their own. "Who can 
 comprehend how this globe and all the heavenly bodies came into exist- 
 ence 1 Who can comprehend how matter can be created or annihilated, 
 or how it can exist from eternity to eternity ] Who can comprehend 
 how it is made to appear in the ten thousand forms of herb and flower, 
 shrub and tree, fish and fowl, insect and reptile, beast and man, and 
 how through death and resurrection in a new form of life it is made to 
 pass in an unceasing round through various forms of mineral, vegetable, 
 and animal existence ? Who knows by what principle the flower shoots 
 up its slender stem' and the tree its mighty trunk towards heaven, con- 
 trary to the laws of gravitation ] If you believe man to be altogether 
 a material being, can you comprehend how matter can be made to 
 think] If you believe him to be partly material and partly spiritual, 
 can you comprehend how the two natures are so combined as to enable 
 the spirit to think and speak and act through the bodyl 
 
 Mystery is not peculiar to the Christian religion ; and instead of solv- 
 ing mysteries, infidelity multiplies them. If the existence, nature, and 
 attributes of matter and of spirit be mysterious, to deny the existence 
 of the one or the other plunges us into deeper mysteries. 
 
 Some have denied the existence of matter, thus rejecting the evidence 
 of their own senses. Does that relieve all nature from mystery? A 
 greater number have denied the existence of spirit, even of God him- 
 self Does that relieve our minds from mystery? If the first man was 
 not created by Divine power, how did he come into existence? Did one 
 mass of matter organize itself into a man, and another into a woman, 
 without a pre-existing, intelligent, plastic power to mould the form and 
 inspire the brain ? Until we see human forms in the maturity of man- 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND ITS LEGITIMATE INFLUENCE. 555 
 
 hood rising out of the earth around as, with power to think and speak 
 and act, or at least witness some advance in animal life from the reptile 
 through the insect towards the monkey and the man, we cannot but 
 suppose there is less mystery in the belief of a Creator God than in the 
 theory of accidental or self creation. And when we look beyond man 
 to the grand universe, composed of the sun, planets, moons, and stars, ex- 
 tending through inconceivable distances, but all constituting one vast 
 machine in harmonious action, is it possible to conceive that it is the 
 creation of chance 1 Surely, there is less mystery in believing that it is 
 the work of a mind more vast than itself, which gave it form and motion, 
 and prescribed the laws by which it is governed. 
 
 A belief in the mystery of a God is the first article in the Christian 
 creed, and who can reject it without involving himself in theories a 
 thousand times more mysterious 1 
 
 In the dealings of God with man, according to the Christian system, 
 there are also mysteries fequally beyond the comprehension of the hu- 
 man intellect. Human reason asks in vain why God should create man 
 in innocence and permit him to fall ; why he should suffer sin and pain 
 and death to invade his creation ; why it was necessary for him to be- 
 come incarnate and suffer a human death for man's redemption ; why he 
 should hold man responsible at all for acts of transgression which he 
 foresaw and foreordained as an essential part of the world's drama. 
 Vain is every effort of human reason to reconcile man's responsibility 
 with God's omniscience, omnipotence, wisdom, and .goodness. Such 
 attempts only bewilder the minds of teachers and hearers, and tend to 
 shake men's faith in the justice of their Maker. Better tell them to 
 have faith in their God, and not attempt by their glow-worm intellect 
 to penetrate the recesses of earth and heaven, which only the sun of 
 Omniscience can reach and illumine. Tell them to have faith that God's 
 justice and wisdom are compatible with their free agency, and thus turn 
 their thoughts upon their practical duties as accountable beings. 
 
 That we are free agents is proved by our consciousness. We know 
 that we can talk or be silent, that we can stand or sit, lie down or walk ; 
 that we can choose between good and evil, and that every sin and every 
 crime is our voluntary act, for which something within admonishes us 
 t*hat we are responsible. On this point, human reason and Christianity 
 are in perfect accord. ' If man cannot understand its mysteries, he can 
 understand why he should be held responsible for his own voluntary 
 acts. And on this basis Christianity rests, as an institution for the 
 benefit of man during his residence on earth. In its mysteries it rests 
 upon faith ; as a practical institution it Tests upon works. It is in the 
 latter aspect that we now propose particularly to consider it. 
 
 It cannot be denied that Christianity prescribes rules of conduct. 
 
566 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 which, if universally obsei^ed in their true spirit, would insure to the 
 human family here on earth the highest degree of development and 
 happiness of which man is capable. 
 
 They begin with the family relations. They teach us that "every 
 man should have his own wife, and every woman her own husband." 
 They command wives to submit themselves to their husbands, and hus- 
 bands to love their wives. They declare, " So ought men to love their 
 wives as their own body.'' Perfect fidelity to the conjugal relation is 
 urgently inculcated ; and so sacred did the author of the religion con- 
 sider this relation, that he declared it could not be dissolved by human 
 authority, except for infidelity. " What God. hath joined together," said 
 he, " let not man put asunder.'' 
 
 Reason, philosophy, and the experience of mankind concur with 
 Christianity in the principle that the union and fidelity of one man and 
 one woman in the married state is the domestic arrangement most con- 
 ducive to the physical and mental vigor, the virtue and advancement of 
 th6 human race. It is indeed the only safe foundation of civilized society. 
 
 The duties of children to parents, and of parents to children, are also 
 prescribed. " Honor thy father and thy mother " is an injunction ac- 
 companied with the suggestion of long life as a reward. '' Children, 
 obey your parents in all things " is a repeated command, and this they 
 are told " is well pleasing unto the Lord." 
 
 " Fathers, provoke not your children to anger lest they be discouraged ; 
 but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." In 
 other words, " Be kind to your children, and instruct them in aU their 
 duties toward their Maker and their fellow-men." 
 
 The duties of servants to masters, and masters to servants, are incul- 
 cated by precept, in language too plain to be misunderstood. 
 
 But Christianity does not stop here. It teaches man to consider his 
 fellow-man his brother, no matter what may be their relative positions 
 in human society. " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," is en- 
 joined upon him as his highest duty, except the love and worship of his 
 God. By the story of the Samaritan who fell among thieves, the author 
 of Christianity himself teaches us that by the term neighbor, in this 
 commandment, we are to understand every human being. The com- 
 mand is, therefore, to love every human being as we love ourselves. 
 And lest there should be left room to make an exception, men are re- 
 quired even to "love their enemies." *'I say unto you, Love your ene- 
 mies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and 
 pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you." And where- 
 fore does Jesus thus command his followers 1 " That," says he, " ye may 
 be the children of your Father which is in heaven,'* — in other words, 
 that ye may be true Christians. 
 
CHKISTIANITY AND ITS LEGITIMATE INFLUENCE. 557 
 
 In this injunction to love our neighbors as ourselves, is condensed the 
 essence of true Christianity in its human aspect. But, lest the duties 
 comprehended under this general precept should not be fully under- 
 stood, many of them are specified in detail. That violence ought not 
 to be retaliated by violence, or wrong by wrong, we are admonished not 
 to resist evil, and are told " whosoever shall smite thee on the right 
 cheek, turn to him the other also," and " if any man sue thee at the 
 law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." We are also 
 instructed that we should have unbounded charity for the faults of 
 others; that we should not judge others; that we should not be re- 
 vengeful, but forgive injuries, and return good for evil ; that we should 
 be merciful as God is merciful ; that we should be humble, preferring 
 others to ourselves ; that we should visit the sick, feed the hungry, and 
 clothe the naked ; that we should curb the tongue, not returning railing 
 for railing, nor speak evil of any man ; that we should improve our tal- 
 ents, be industrious in our business, provide for our families, deal justly 
 with all men, avoid envy, hatred, and jealousy, not covet our neighbor's 
 possessions, be content with our lot whatever it may be, avoid even the 
 appearance of evil, — and in all things do unto others as upon a reversal 
 of our relative positions we would have others do unto us. 
 
 How beautiful the picture of a society, all of whose members should 
 be governed by these precepts ! 
 
 There is another Christian duty emphatically enjoined by the Book, 
 which ought to be the Christian's creed ; it is obedience to government, 
 and submission to its laws. This injunction has no reference to any 
 particular form of government, nor to the character of its laws. It 
 applies alike to despotisms, monarchies, and republics ; to the decisions 
 of a despot, the decrees of a monarch, and the laws of a republic, how- 
 ever oppressive and unjust. Paul, in his directions to Titus as to what 
 he was to teach, says : " Put them in mind to be subject to principalities 
 and powers, to obey magistrates." In his Epistle to the Romans, he 
 enjoins upon them submission to the powers of the existing government, 
 denouncing resistance as punishable with damnation in the world to 
 come. 
 
 Christianity is not a civil or political institution. Its faithful ministers 
 are not politicians. Jesus himself could not be tempted into the expres- 
 sion of a political opinion. All its early teachers, both by precept and 
 example, inculcated obedience to the laws as an essential Christian duty ; 
 and when those laws required them to violate their duty to their God, 
 instead of resorting to resistance and rebellion, they made a merit of 
 meekly accepting the penalty, though it were death itself 
 
 This injunction becomes more emphatic from the consideration that 
 the governments of the world were then in pagan hands, and the author 
 
568 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 and teachers of the new religion were members of a community w^hich 
 had but recently passed under the yoke of the Romans. It was, there- 
 fore, a foreign and pagan government to which the Jewish Christians 
 were commanded to be obedient, and it is believed not one of them took 
 part in the subsequent insurrection, ending in the destruction of Jerusa- 
 lem, though the object was to recover the independence of their coun- 
 try. It was in accordance with their own doctrine that the author and 
 early teachers of Christianity, in submission to unjust laws, unresistingly 
 and uncomplainingly laid down their lives. How incomparably less 
 effective would have been their precepts in all future time had they 
 perished in rebellion, or had they overthrown by violence the govern- 
 ment by which they were persecuted ! 
 
 Nor does Christianity denounce any institution which it finds among 
 men. It addresses, individually, husband and wife, pai'ent and child, 
 master and servant, citizen and stranger, ruler and subject, and teaches 
 them their duties in the positions where Providence has placed them. 
 Far from enjoining or even recommending a change in existing relations, 
 it emphatically urges every one to be content with his lot, and cheerfully 
 render all the services appertaining thereto which are required by human 
 society. It teaches us that in the sight of God all men are equal, and 
 that existing inequalities in the relations which men bear to each other 
 on earth are but transient in their character, and that cheerful subuiis- 
 siou to them is an essential part of preparation for that eternal eqnality 
 which we may all so soon enjoy. 
 
 True Christianity, therefore, is an institution, even in its human 
 aspect, entirely distinct from all other institutions. It proposes to change 
 men and not institutions ; to make men happy under all institutions, 
 — happy when earth and all it contains shaU be remembered as a long 
 past vision. 
 
 So long as Christianity was kept entirely separate from government ; 
 so loni;- as its ministers and professors had nothing to do with making or 
 execuj^iugthe laws ; so long as they preached and practised non-intervention 
 in, and implicit submission to, the regulations of society, meekly bore 
 persecution, and, when necessary, sealed their doctrines with their blood; 
 so lon.LT, in short, as they considered themselves ministers of " a kingdom 
 not of this world," whose only function was to fit men for the heavenly 
 kingdom, leaving all earthly reforms to flow from that fitness, — the new 
 religion was fast fulfilling its mission of peace and universal brotherhood 
 among men. No worldly interest was then to be subserved by hypocrisy, 
 and the palpable sincerity of Christians, attested by their sufferings and 
 their resignation, was rapidly extending their faith throughout the known 
 world. But when Christianity allied itself with government, all was 
 changed. Then the commands of human law were substituted for the 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND ITS LEGITIMATE INFLUENCE. 5^9 
 
 precepts of the gospel as means of converting men to Christianity; 
 then the peaceful missionary was substituted by the ferocious warrior ; 
 then the cross, theretofore the emblem of peace and universal brother- 
 hood, became the fiery ensign of war, under which man went forth to 
 slaughter his fellow-man. What atrocities were committed for a series 
 of ages in the abused name of Christianity ! Not only were the heathen 
 required to become Christians under penalty of death, but Christian 
 pursued Christian with confiscation, imprisonment, and torture for the 
 purpose of enforcing uniformity of faith and practice.' 
 
 The general mind of modern Christendom revolts at these atrocities, 
 so repugnant to every precept of Bible Christianity. But has this 
 enormous abuse oeen wholly eradicated 1 Is not Christianity still con- 
 nected with government throughout most of the civilized world] Does 
 it not, almost everywhere, lean upon the civil power for support "J Is 
 net hypocrisy encouraged by religious tests as quahfications for public 
 office 1 Are not worldly ends sought to be accomplished by its denunci- 
 ations and anathemas] Do its ministers everywhere content them- 
 selves with endeavoring to fit men for heaven 1 We boast of the 
 advancement of our own land over all others in its separation of the 
 civil from the religious elements of society ; but are we free from the 
 taint which has corrupted Christianity through all ages since the days 
 of Constantino 1 Do its ministers with us keep themselves entirely 
 aloof from politics and the civil power] Do we never see them in 
 public offices, in State legislatures or in Congress ] Do they without 
 exceptions teach obedience to servants and submission to the laws ] Do 
 they, like the author and early teachers of Christianity, enjoin upon 
 every one not to judge or envy others, to be content with his own lot, 
 to render all service required of him with alacrity and cheerfulness, to 
 endure wrong, and even submit to undeserved chastisement without 
 resistance or complaint, and all this as an imperative Christian duty ] 
 In short, do they content theinselves with endeavoring to fit men for heaven ? 
 
 Does it follow that bad institutions and laws shall remain unchanged, 
 or that the teachers of Christianity shall h-.ve no agency in effecting a 
 reformation ] Far 'from it. Every faithfid Christian teacher is an 
 apostle of reform in all the relations of life. But his only legitimate 
 means are the example and precepts of the early teachers of his religion. 
 He is restricted to the reformation of the individual, the husband and 
 the wife, the parent and the child, the master and the servant, the ruler 
 and the ruled, —to the individual man in all his relations with his fel- 
 low-man, thus fitting him for heaven. He thus fertilizes the soil and 
 cherishes the root ; a glorious fohage and abundant fruit are the neces- 
 sary but noiseless result. Silent, eff"ectual, but irresistible, when wielded 
 by men imbued with their spirit, are the truly Christian weapons of 
 
570 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 reforiiL It is the wisdom, the glory, and the beauty of the Christian 
 system that, by means perfectly unexceptionable even to antichi'istian 
 minds, it aims to improve society through its elements, and government 
 through its constituents. In fitting men for heaven, it fits them to 
 become the instruments as well as the subjects of all needful reforms in 
 society and government. 
 
 Let the Christian teacher strictly follow the path which is laid out 
 before him. Let him strive to prepare the individuals around him for 
 heaven, by the quiet and inoffensive means prescribed in the Book where- 
 in he seeks instruction and learns wisdom, — the Book which he pro- 
 fesses to receive as the word of God. If he cannot make men perfect, 
 he may make them better. If he cannot by such means make human 
 institutions perfect, he may aid in improving them. By faith and perse- 
 Terance he may do something towards advancing mankind in the path 
 towards that millennial perfection to which the Christian aspires. As 
 the tiny insect labors from age to age in piling atom upon atom on the 
 bright coral column, until his wonderful structure rises from the ocean's 
 gloomy depths to the light and heat of a tropical sun, and forms an 
 island radiant with foliage, fruit, and flower, so let the Christian teacher 
 labor on from age to age and from generation to generation in the cer- 
 tainty that he is advancing the true interests of his fellow-man, and in 
 the faith that he is instrumental in building up a glorious moral struc- 
 ture for the habitation of man, which the waves of time shall never 
 sweep away. 
 
 Shall man do nothing because he cannot do everything 1 Shall he 
 despise all knowledge because he cannot make himself omniscient *? 
 Shall he not teach men honesty, industry, fidelity, benevolence, and 
 every virtue because he cannot make all men honest, industriousj 
 faithful, benevolent, and virtuous 1 Progress is the motto of the age. 
 Let this progress not be confined to discovery, invention, science, and 
 art. Let it be seen also in morals, in the love of man for man, in more 
 general conformity with Christian precepts. In them there is no room 
 for reform, — they are unchangeable. 
 
 Here is something fixed amidst the convulsions of a changing world. 
 They are the rock in the ocean on which the weary bird of passage may 
 rest above the reach of the raging surge. Their principles are the basis 
 of all useful reforms in society and government, whether men think so 
 or not. Take these precepts as your guide, young men of the Christian 
 Association, and you may safely shout Ej:c€lsior ! and with alacrity and 
 zeal join in the glorious race of human progress. 
 
 In 1860 he sets forth the then deplorable condition of the coun- 
 try, in a letter to Colonel Orr, of South Carolina, which not only 
 
 « • « 
 
LETTER TO COLONEL ORR. ^^. 
 
 breathes the loftiest patriotism, but anticipates with almost pro- 
 phetic vision the impending calamity. 
 
 MR, KENDALL'S LETTER TO COLONEL ORR. 
 Honorable James L. Orr : - WAsnmaTON, SeptemW 10, 1860. 
 
 My dear Sir, —Your letter of the 15th ult. reached Washington 
 while I was absent in the North. 
 
 Though I did not contemplate, when I wrote you on the 9th ult., any- 
 thing beyond a limited private correspondence, yet, having no opinion 
 on the portentous condition of public affairs which I have a motive to 
 conceal, or am ashamed to avow, I cheerfully comply with your sugges- 
 tions. 
 
 You quote from my former letter the declaration that " my mind is 
 equally clear that the South has long had a peaceful remedy within her 
 reach, and has it still, though impaired by the recent conduct of some 
 of her sons," and you ask of me a full explanation of my opinions on 
 that point, as well as "the remedy to be resorted to by us (the South) 
 should the government in November pass into the hands of a party 
 whose declared purpose is to destroy our property, amounting in value 
 at the present time to three billions one hundred and fifty millions of 
 dollars." You ask, '' Can it be prudent, safe, or manly in the South to 
 submit to the domination of a party whose declared purpose is to de- 
 stroy such an amount of property, and subvert our whole social and in- 
 dustrial policy 1 " 
 
 In a subsequent part of your letter you call my attention to certain 
 grievances endured by the South, and conclude your commentary there- 
 on as follows : — 
 
 " Is it wise, if we do not intend to submit to such conpequences, to allow a 
 Black Republican President to be inaugurated, and put him in possession of 
 the army, the navy, the treasury, the armories and arsenals, the public prop- 
 erty, in fact the whole machinery of the government, with its appendants and 
 appurtenances ? If the South should think upon this subject as I do, no Black 
 Republican President should ever execute any law within her borders, unless 
 at the point of the bayonet and over the dead bodies of her slain sons." 
 
 I shudder at such sentiments coming from one whose sincerity I can- 
 not doubt. The time was when 150,000 men tendered their services to 
 the President to aid him if necessary in executing the laws of the United 
 States ; the time will be when 200,000 will volunteer for a like purpose, 
 should resistance be made to his legitimate authority, no matter by what 
 party he may be elected. 
 
 There seems to me to be in the course recommended to the South, in 
 the event of Mr. Lincoln's election to the Presidency, a fatuity httle 
 
572 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 short of madness. Would you pull down the canopy of heaven because 
 wrong and crime exist beneath it "? Would you break up the earth on 
 which we tread because earthquakes sometimes heave it and pestilence 
 walks its surface 1 The Union, sir, is too precious to the people it pro- 
 tects, North and South, East and West, to be broken up, even should a 
 Black Republican be elected President next November. Should the at- 
 tempt be made, an united North and three fourths of a divided South 
 would spring to the I'escue. No, no, the remedy for the evils of which 
 you justly complain are to be found within the Union, and not among 
 its bloody ruins. 
 
 I admit that the grievances which you enumerate are hard to bo 
 borne ; but a few Southern men are not without responsibility for their 
 existence. The general sentiment of the country. North and South, at 
 the close of the Revolutionary war was antislavery. It has changed in 
 the South, but remained unchanged in the North. There, however, it 
 has been roused to unwonted activity by the preachings of fanatics and 
 the denunciations of political demagogues, aided not a little by the art, 
 the language, and the violence of Southern disunionists. 
 
 It is needless to give in detail all the causes which have brought the 
 politics of the country to their present deplorable condition. Suffice it 
 to Bay, that you have long had in the South a small party of able men 
 whose aim has been to destroy the Union ; that, as a preliminary to 
 their main design, they have sought to break up the Democratic party ; 
 that their means for accomplishing this end were to act with it, and 
 force upon it every possible issue obnoxious to the general sentiment 
 of the North ; that they have dragged after them the true Union men 
 of the South, partly through their fears of being considered laggard in 
 their devotion to Southern interests, and partly through ambition for 
 political distinction ; to make the Democratic party as odious as possible 
 at the North, they became the advocates of slavery on principle, justified 
 the African slave-trade, and denounced the laws prohibiting it. By 
 these acts and frequent threats of dissolution, they enabled the enemies 
 of Democracy in the North to denounce them as pro-slavery men, and 
 to all this, they added occasional taunts that they were no more to be 
 relied upon for the protection of Southern rights than their opponents. 
 By these means the Democratic party was reduced, before the last presi- 
 dential election, to a minoritv in most of the Northern States, and, in the 
 residue, had the utmost difficulty in maintaining their ascendancy. In 
 the mean time the Union men in the vSouth had measurably ceased to 
 consider the Democratic party as friendly to the Union ; and the Union 
 sentiment, particularly in the border slave States, whose interest in its 
 preservation is pre-eminent, sou<^^ht expression through the American 
 party. To such an extent had the Democratic party been weakened by 
 
LETTER TO COLONEL ORR. g^,o 
 
 the insidious policy of their disunion allies, that they had the utmost 
 difficulty m electing an old practical statesman over a young man who 
 had nothmg to recommend him beyond a few successful explorations of 
 our wilderness territory. 
 
 There were those who foresaw that longer affiliation with Southern 
 disunionists would inevitably destroy the ascendancy of the Democratic 
 party, and a feeble and fruitless effort was made to induce the President 
 to lay the foundation of his administration on the rock of the Union, 
 and cut loose from those who were seeking to destroy it. For reasons' 
 no doubt patriotic, but to me inexplicable, the reverse of that policy 
 was pursued. The support of the Lecompton constitution, which the 
 country generally believed to be a fraud, was made the test of Democ- 
 racy ; one leading Democrat after another was proscribed because he 
 would not submit to the test, and as if to deprive Northern Democrats 
 of the last hope of successfully vindicating the rights of the South, an 
 act was passed for the admission of Kansas into the Union at once, pro- 
 vided she would consent to become a slaveholding State, but postponing 
 her admission indefinitely if she refused. 
 
 In your published letter, you justly condemn the seceders from the 
 Charleston Convention, who, you think, ought to have remained and 
 prevented the nomination of a candidate who is obnoxious to the South. 
 Do you not perceive, sir, that the secession was a part of the programme 
 for breaking up the Democratic party 1 And is it not palpable that 
 after absolutely vacating their seats at Charleston, they went to Balti- 
 more for the mere purpose of more effectually completing the work of 
 destruction by drawing off another detachment 1 I, sir, entertain no 
 doubt that the secession was the result most desired by the disunionists ; 
 that the object of the new issue then gotten up was merely to form a 
 pretext for secession, and that its adoption was the last thing they de- 
 sired or designed. 
 
 Glance a moment at a few facts : Alabama, led by an open disunionist, 
 went to Cincinnati in 1856, under instructions to secede unless the 
 equal rights of all the States in the Territories should be conceded and 
 incorporated into the platform of the Democratic party. The conces- 
 sion was made, and they had no opportunity to secede. 
 
 They came to Charleston under the same leader, again instructed to 
 secede unless the convention would put into the platform a new plank, 
 the effect of which, if adopted, would be further to disgust and alienate 
 the Northern Democracy. In this instance the si7ie qua non was not 
 complied with, and the disunionists floated off on the rejected plank 
 into an unknown sea, unfortunately carrying with them a large number 
 of good and true Union men. 
 
 And what is this principle, the non-recognition of which has rived 
 
574 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 asunder the Democratic party, and apparently threatens the dissolution 
 of the Union 1 It is, that it is the right and duty of Congress to legislate 
 for the protection of. slave property in the Territories. 
 
 Now, I take it upon me to say that a more latitudinarian and dan- 
 gerous claim of power in'Congress never was advanced by Federalists of 
 the Hamilton school. Look at it in a constitutional and practical light ; 
 if Congress have the right to legislate for the protection of slavery in 
 the Territories, they have a right to legislate for the protection of all 
 other property ; and if they have a right to legislate for the protection 
 of property, they have a right to legislate for the protection of persons. 
 The assumption that they can legislate for the protection of slave prop- 
 erty leads, logically and inevitably, to the conclusion that they have 
 the power to legislate for the Territories in all cases whatsoever. If 
 you can put your finger on the grant of this power in the Constitution, 
 please put it also on its limitations, if any can be found. 
 
 Upon this principle, Congress may acquire an empire outside of the 
 organized States, over which it may exercise unlimited power, governing 
 it as the Roman Senate did their conquered provinces. And this under 
 a Constitution which jealously restricts the exclusive power of legisla- 
 tion by Congress to a few spots of land purchased, with the consent of 
 the States, for special objects, and grants no power of general legisla- 
 tion over a Territory whatsoever. 
 
 To verify these positions, we need only advert to the Constitution. 
 Among the grants of power to Congress is the following : — 
 
 " To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases whatsoever, over such district 
 (not exceeding ten miles square) as may by cession of particular States, and 
 the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United 
 States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent 
 of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of 
 fort«, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings.'' 
 
 Mark the jealousy with which this power is restricted. For the pro- 
 tection of the government, even, it is limited to a territory not exceed- 
 ing ten miles square, and it cannot be exercised over " the forts, maga- 
 zines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings,'' situated within 
 the States, unless the lands on which they may be located shall be first 
 purchased with " the consent of the legislatures " of those States, Is 
 it conceivable that the wise men who restricted the exclusive power of 
 legislation in Congress to a territory not exceeding ten miles square, 
 did, by any indirection, grant that power broadly enough to cover the 
 whole continent outside of the organized States, should it be annexed 
 by purchase or conquest 1 
 
 The following provision is the only one in the Constitution which has 
 been chiefly, if not exclusively, relied upon to sustain the position that 
 
LETTER TO COLONEL ORR. ^^^ 
 
 Congress has any power whatsoever to legislate over the Territories 
 namely : — 
 
 " The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules 
 and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonffino- to the 
 United States." "^ 
 
 The word ''territory" used in this provision obviously means land, 
 and nothing else. The United States, at the time when the Constitu- 
 tion was adopted, owned an immense amount of land north of the Ohio 
 River, and these lands Congress was authorized to " dispose of." That 
 the word " territory " means property, is conclusively shown by its con- 
 nection with the words " and other property," — " temtory and other 
 property." The territory spoken of, therefore, is property in lands. 
 
 " Kules and regulations " are a grade of legislation somewhat below 
 the dignity of laws ; but admitting them in this case to have the same 
 effect, on what are they to operate 1 Simply on the property of the 
 United States, not on any other property, nor on persons, except so far 
 as they may be connected with the public property. To this extent, 
 and no further, is the power of Congress to legislate over a Territory- 
 granted to Congress, and whenever all the lands and other property 
 are disposed of, the "rules and regulations" become obsolete, and the 
 power of legislation granted in this clause is thenceforth in abeyance. 
 
 Moreover, this grant of power extends as well to property within a 
 * State as within a Territory. In a State the general power of legislation 
 is in the State legislature; yet the power of Congress to make "rules 
 and regulations " respecting public property, is the same in a State as 
 in a Territory. The scope of the grant can, of course, be no greater in 
 a Territory than in a State, and it necessarily follows that this clause 
 of the Constitution confers on Congress no general power of legislation, 
 either within States or Territories. 
 
 It is not a satisfactory reply to this argument to say that such a 
 power has, to some extent, been exercised. Is it better to acquiesce in 
 and Qxtend the usurpation than to put a stop to it, as in the case of the 
 United States Bank, by bringing the government back to the constitu- 
 tional test ] Which is safest to the South, the constitutional principle 
 that Congress shall not legislate for the Territories at all, or the adop- 
 tion of a principle linknown to the Constitution, which, in its general 
 application, woiild not only defeat the object it is advanced to promote, 
 but would enable the free State majority to surround the slaveholding 
 States and encircle the Union with an empire outside of the organized 
 States, over which that majority should exercise the power of unlimited 
 and exclusive legislation^ If such an idea be chimerical, the appre- 
 hension is not chimerical, that the Black Republicans, should they 
 acquire the control of all branches of the government, will use the claim 
 
576 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 now set up for Congressional legislation over one species of property in 
 the Territories, as an apology for assuming the power of general legis- 
 lation, involving the power to destroy as well as to protect. 
 
 It by no means follows that the people who may occupy a territory 
 of the United States constitute an independent community, with all the 
 attributes of sovereignty. Though the Constitution of the United States 
 does not apply to them, they live under another constitution of powers, 
 perhaps more limited. I mean the paramount law of necessity. They 
 are in the condition of bands of hunters or miners located in the wilder- 
 ness, who may adopt such rules and regulations as may be absolutely 
 necessary for the protection of person and property, until Congress 
 acknowledges their independence by admitting them into the Union on 
 the same footing with the original States. At that moment, and not 
 before, the powers of a limited sovereignty accrue to them, and may be 
 exercised to protect or destroy local institutions which may have grown 
 up while the legislative power was limited to the absolute necessities of 
 the occasion. If it be said that the law of necessity may be trans- 
 cended, and regulations adopted to destroy some kinds of property 
 instead of protecting it, I answer that such regulations would be an 
 assumption of power not justified by the law of necessity, analogous to 
 usurpations of power in organized communities, remediless, perhaps, but 
 for that reason none the less unjust. 
 
 If this be not the true theory in relation to our Territories, when 
 does sovereignty therein begin 1 Is the first settler a sovereign 1 Does 
 sovereignty accrue when there are ten, or one hundred, or one thou- 
 sand, or ten thousand settlers 1 Where shall we draw the line and pro- 
 nounce that on this side the settlers live imder the law of necessity, and 
 on that they become rightfully sovereign ] 
 
 The Constitution of the United States was not made for Territories 
 but for States, as its name implies. It has, by strict rules of construc- 
 tion, nothing to do with Territories outside of the States united, beyond 
 the protection and disposition of the common property therein. It 
 seems to contemphxte that the Territories shall be left to themselves 
 until they shall have a population adequate to the formation of a re- 
 spectable community, when their independence should be acknowledged, 
 and their admission into the Union granted, on the*sole condition that 
 they adopt a republican government. 
 
 But if there be a doubt as to the power of Congress to legislate for 
 the Territories, is it not safer and more consistent with Democratic 
 principles to deny the power than to assume it ? Some of the original 
 States, when admitted into the Union, had not the population of a 
 third-rate city of the present day, and no harm would be likely to 
 arise by leaving the Territories to themselves until they have double 
 
LETTER TO COLONEL ORR. 
 
 577 
 
 the population of Delaware or Rhode Island in 1789. But would it 
 not be incomparably better to admit them into the Union as States, 
 with a much less population, than to leave them to be a bone of con- 
 tention among demagogues and disunionists, disturbing every essential 
 interest of the country and jeopardizing the Union of the existing 
 States 1 
 
 Let us briefly consider the practical workings of the remedy for, 
 Southern wrongs which you suggest, in case a Black Republican is 
 elected to the Presidency. You ask, "Is it wise, if we do not intend 
 to submit to such consequences, to allow a Black Republican President 
 to be inaugurated," etc., and you say, "if the South should think upon 
 this subject as I do, no Black Republican should ever execute any law 
 within her borders, unless at the point of the bayonet and over the dead 
 bodies of her slain sons." 
 
 I know there are men in the South who would sacrifice their lives 
 and endanger the communities in which they live, upon a point of 
 honor, and that snch men often fire up with unwonted fierceness if 
 reminded of the probable consequences of their own rashness. But 
 the time has come when consequences should be looked in the face, not 
 for the purposes of defiance, but that we may consider whether the 
 policy which would lead to them is required by Southern interests or 
 honor. 
 
 How do you propose to prevent the inauguration of a Black Republican 
 President should such an one be unfortunately elected 1 Will you come 
 to this city with an armed force and attempt to prevent an inauguration 
 by violence ] In that event, force would be met by force, and there would 
 be instant civil war, in which the country and the world would declare 
 the South to be the aggressor. 
 
 He would be inaugurated here or elsewhere in spite of you. Well, 
 suppose you then attempt to secede from the Union, and resist the ex- 
 ecution of the laws 1 Every lawyer in the South knows that every citi- 
 zen of every State is as much bound by the laws of the United States 
 constitutionally enacted as by the laws of his own State, and that it is 
 as impossible for the State to relieve its citizens from allegiance to the 
 United States as it is for the latter to relieve them from allegiance to ' 
 their own State. And it is the sworn duty of the President to take care 
 that the laws of the United States shall be faithfully executed upon 
 every citizen of every State, and, as long as we have a faithful President, 
 they will be so executed, if the courts, the marshals, the army, and the 
 navy remain faithful to their respective trusts. 
 
 I know that much has been said in the South about reserved rights of 
 nullification, secession, and not coercing a sovereign State, etc., when in 
 fact the conventions representing the people of the several States which 
 
 37 
 
578 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 adopted the Constitution made no such reservations, but bound their 
 constituents, one and all, to allegiance to the Constitution of the United 
 States, as firmly as similar conventions bound them to the State consti- 
 tutions. And although the general government cannot, technically, 
 coerce a State, it can rightfully coerce all the citizens of a State into 
 obedience to its constitutional laws. The pretended reserved rights of 
 nullification and secession, therefore, are in effect nothing more nor less 
 than an outspoken rebellion when wrong and oppression become intoler- 
 able. But when the crisis comes, there are two parties who must neces- 
 rarily decide, each for itself, whether circumstances justify the act, — the 
 seceders and the government of the United States. And do you con- 
 ceive that the mere election of a President entertaining obnoxious opin- 
 ions, or even entertaining hostile designs against the institutions of the 
 South, checked, as he must necessarily be, by the Senate and judiciary, 
 if not by a House of Representatives, without one overt act, can justify 
 any portion of the South even to their own consciences in an act of re- 
 bellion ] 
 
 There is one notable feature in the attitude of the South. The cry 
 of disunion comes, not from those who sulBfer most from Northern out- 
 rage, but from those who suffer least. It comes from South Carolina, 
 and Georgia, and Alabama, and Mississippi, whose slave property is ren- 
 dered comparatively secure by the intervention of other slaveholding 
 States between them and the free States, and not from Delaware, and 
 Maryland, and Virginia, and Kentucky, and Tennessee, and Missouri, 
 which lose a hundred slaves, by abolition thieves, where the first-named 
 States lose one. Why are not the States that suffer most, loudest in 
 their cry for disunion 1 It is because their position enables them to see 
 more distinctly than you do, at a distance, the fatal and instant effects 
 of such a step. 
 
 As imperfect as the protection which the Constitution and laws give 
 to their property undoubtedly is, it is better than none. They do not 
 think it wise to place themselves in a position to have the John Browns 
 of the North let loose upon them, with no other restraints than the laws 
 of war between independent nations, construed by reckless fanatics. 
 They prefer to fight the Abolitionists, if fight they must, within the 
 Union, where their adversaries are somewhat restrained by constitutional 
 and Icgid obligations. No, sir ; Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, do 
 not intend to become the theatre of desolating wars between the North 
 and the South ; Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri do not intend that 
 their peaceful channels of commerce shall become rivers of blood to 
 gratify the ambition of South Carolina and Alabama, who, at a remote 
 distance from the present danger, cry out disunion. 
 
 I have said that the South has all along had a peaceful remedy, and 
 
LETTER TO COLONEL ORE. 579 
 
 has it still. The Union sentiment is overwhelming in all the Middle and 
 Western States, constituting two thirds of the Republic. Pennsylvania, 
 Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois are as little inclined to become frontier States 
 as Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. Had the present Administration 
 cut loose from the disunionists, instead of virtually ministering to their 
 designs, 'and planted itself firmly on Union ground, the secessions at 
 Charleston and Baltimore would never have occurred, the " Constitu- 
 tional Union Party " would have been an impossibility, the Democracy 
 would have recovered its ascendancy in the North, and an united party, 
 embracing two thirds of the North and of the South, would now have 
 been marching to certain victory next November. 
 
 What ought to have been the preventive must now be the remedy. 
 Should Lincoln in November next secure a majority of the electors, 
 patriotic men, North and South, without waiting for his inauguration, 
 irrespective of party lines, must band together for the triple purpose of 
 preventing any attempt to break up the Union, checking the Republican 
 party while in the ascendant, and expelling them from power at the next 
 election. Let the toast of General Jackson, " The Federal Union^ it micst 
 he preserved,^' become the motto of the party ; while strict construction 
 of the Constitution and a jealous regard for the rights of the States shall 
 be its distinguishing principle and unwavering practice. Let the consti- 
 tutional principle be adopted, of no legislation by Congress over the Ter- 
 ritories ; or throw aside altogether the mischievous issues in relation to 
 them, of no practical utility, gotten up by demagogues and disunionists, 
 as means of accomplishing their own selfish ends. Let them inflexibly re- 
 fuse to support, for any Federal or State offices, any man who talks of 
 disunion on the one hand or " irrepressible conflict between freedom and 
 slavery " on the other. Throw aside all party leaders except such as 
 " keep step to the music of the Union," and are prepared to battle for 
 State rights under its banner. 
 
 Be this your " platform " ; let the South rally upon it as one man, and 
 I would pledge all but my life that at least one half of the North will 
 join you in driving from power the reckless assailants of your rights and 
 institutions. But whether the South come up to the rescue or not, I 
 foresee that, in the natural progress of events, the Central States, from 
 the Atlantic to the far West, will band together on this ground, leaving 
 the Abolitionists of New England and the disunionists of the South to 
 the harmless pastime of belching fire and fury at each other at a safe 
 distance, protected by the patriotism and good sense of nine tenths of 
 their countrymen, against the evils they would bring on themselves. 
 
 Can you doubt the success of such a reunion 1 Not an advocate of 
 disunion, under any probable circumstances, can be found among the 
 candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. 
 
580 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KEISBALL. 
 
 The supporters of Bell to a man, the supporters of Douglas to a man, 
 and more than three fourths of the supporters of Breckinridge, are staunch 
 supporters of the Union, and staunch adversaries to Northern interfer- 
 ence with Southern institutions. When convinced of the folly and 
 madness of their warfare on each other, as they will be after the election, 
 if not before, they band together in a common cause, and that cause the 
 preservation of our glorious Union and its invaluable Constitution with 
 their attendant blessings, will they not be irresistible ? 
 
 How much more hopeful and cheering is a prospect like this than the 
 contemplation of standing armies, grinding taxes, ruined agriculture, 
 prostrate commerce, bloody battles, ravaged countries, and sacked 
 cities. This Continent, like the Eastern world, is destined to have its 
 " Northern hive.'' Shall its swarms be repressed by the strong hand of 
 the States united, or are they, by a dissolution of the Union, to be let 
 loose upon our South, like the Goths and Vandals upon Southern Europe ] 
 True, their blood might, in that event, fertilize your desolated fields, but 
 your institutions, like those of the Roman Empire, would sink to rise 
 no more. 
 
 These are the thoughts of an old man whose only political aspirations 
 
 are, that when he dies he may leave his country united, happy, and free. 
 
 With sincere regard, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The following letter "was addressed to the editor of the " Consti- 
 tution," the administration organ at that time in Washington, but 
 he refusing to print it, it was published in the " Evening Star." 
 
 Washington, October 2, 1860. 
 To THE Editor op the Constitution, — Your paper for a few days 
 past has forcibly reminded me of the days of President Jackson, when 
 Ainos Kendall was the theme of a thousand scribblers. Circumstances, 
 however, have somewhat changed. Then he was abused by the enemies 
 of the old hero and his administration ; now, by the organ of an admin- 
 istration which claims to be his friend. Who has changed 1 Is it Amos 
 Kendall, who has not uttered a sentiment which is not an echo of those 
 avowed and acted upon by that purest of patriots ? Or, is it certain 
 men who claim his mantle while they repudiate his most dearly cher- 
 ished principles'? When he heard disunion foreshadowed in dinner- 
 table speeches, he rebuked it in his celebrated toast, "The Federal 
 Union, it must be preserved " ; and when he saw the sentiment about to 
 be reduced to practice, by his eloquent and patriotic appeal he called 
 into existence one hundred and fifty thousand volunteers to preserve it. 
 Because I alluded to that fact, and expressed the opinion that, should a 
 similar emergency arise, two hundred thousand would respond to a 
 
LETTER ON SECESSION. 53]^ 
 
 similar c^ll, you denounce me as a bloody monster ready to slaughter 
 " women and children ! " Yet, no eulogy is too strong for you to bestow 
 on General Jackson. 
 
 You are right in the caption with which you head your comments 
 upon my letter to Colonel Orr : " Threats luill never hring peaces For 
 months past, the papers controlled by the enemies of the Union in the 
 South have teemed with threats of disunion in the event of Mr. Lin- 
 coln's election, and my letter was in response to a startling threat of 
 that description. There will not be peace until these threats cease, or 
 until Southern Union men cut loose from the enemies of the Union and 
 cordially unite with the friends of the Constitution in the North to put 
 down Black Republicanism on the one hand and disunion on the other. 
 I made no threat ; you have misapplied the sentiment of your caption. 
 Your strictures upon myself need no reply. If I have not, during a 
 life of seventy-one years, a large portion of which has been spent in 
 public positions, established a private and political character which no 
 name you can give me can mai:, and no association in which you can 
 place me can taint, it is useless for me to care for the future. It is a 
 higher aim than self-defence or self-distinction which induces me to re- 
 sume my pen. 
 
 Sir, it is a sad sight to see the organ of a Democratic administration 
 attempting to establish the doctrine that it would in any event be a 
 crime in the President to defend the Constitution and enforce the laws 
 of the United States constitutionally enacted. Disguise it as you will, 
 your doctrine amounts to this and nothing less. Already the peculiar 
 organ of nullification in the South is recommending secession while Mr. 
 Buchanan is still in office, upon the assumption that he may not enforce 
 the laws and defend the Constitution, which by his official oath he is 
 bound to do. Doubtless the assumption is unwarranted, though justi- 
 fied by the tone of his acknowledged organ. 
 
 But '.let it be remembered, that the question is not now what the 
 South ought to do in case of an actual and irremediable outrage upon 
 her rights and institutions. The threat is to secede if Mr. Lincoln slmll 
 he elected. Will his mere election absolve the people of the South from 
 their allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the United States, or re- 
 lieve the President from the duty of defending the one and executing 
 the other ] This is the real question under discussion. You talk about 
 coercing States. States are not the subjects upon which the Constitution 
 and laws of the United States operate. They cannot commit treason 
 nor be hanged as traitors. But neither can they, by any act of theirs, 
 absolve their citizens from their allegiance to the United States. 
 The Constitution contains the following provisions : — 
 " This ConstitutioD, and the laws of the United States which shaU be made 
 
582 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 in pursuance thereof, .... shall he the supreme Jaw of the land; and the judges 
 in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution and laws of 
 any State to the contrary notwithstanding" 
 
 The same Constitution declares, that " Treason against the United 
 States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to 
 their enemies, giving them aid and comfort." 
 
 It also declares, that the President " shall take care that the laws be 
 faithfully executed," and prescribes to him the following oath : — 
 
 " I do solemnly swear {or affirni)^ that I wiU faithfully execute the office of Presi- 
 dent of the United States^ and will^ to the best of my ability ^ preserve^ protect^ and 
 defend the Constitution of the United States." 
 
 Now, suppose Lincoln were elected, and a citizen of Charleston, act- 
 ing with or without the sanction of the State authorities, having a cargo 
 of sugar entering the port, should refuse to pay the legal duties, and 
 with an armed party should resist the officers attempting to collect 
 them, thus levying war against the United States, do you think the 
 President would be faithful to his duty and true to his oath if he did 
 not, if necessary, use the militia, the army and navy, in " taking care 
 that the laivs he faithfully executed j^' and in preserving ^ protecting^ and de- 
 fending the Constitution of the United States ? Could he, without official 
 perjury and becoming a traitor himself, fold his arms and say this would 
 he coercing a State, and under such a plea suffer the Constitution and 
 laws to be subverted? If bloodshed ensued, who would be responsible, 
 the President who would be, " to the best of his ability,''' attempting to 
 perform his sworn duty, or the traitors who were attempting to subvert 
 the government ? 
 
 Your doctrine T suppose is, that the State authorities or a State con- 
 vention may declare a State out of the Union, and thus absolve all its 
 citizens from allegiance to the United States. 
 
 Now, each State, by a convention elected by the people, agreed with 
 every other State, by the adoption of the Constitution, that kU its 
 provisions and the laws passed in pursuance thereof, should be ^'the 
 supreme law of tlie land." They all agreed to take a portion of the 
 powers theretofore possessed by their respective State governments and 
 vest them in a common government, (based on precisely the same author- 
 ity as their State governments), whose Constitution, and the laws passed 
 in pursuance thereof, should be above the reach of all State authority. 
 How then can any act of a State absolve its citizens from obedience to 
 this " supreme law of the land," declared by its highest authority, a con- 
 vention selected by the people, to be binding, ''anything in the constitu- 
 tion and laivs of any State to the contrary notioithstanding " ? To me it 
 is a wonder that any man can entertain an idea, to my mind, so absurd. 
 The theory of our government obviously is, that the citizen owes alle- 
 
LETTER ON SECESSION. 
 
 583 
 
 giance to his State government to the extent of its reserved powers, and to 
 the general government to the extent of its granted powers, and that no 
 act of the general government can relieve him from allegiance to his 
 State, and no act of his State can relieve him from his allegiance to the 
 United States. 
 
 Let me not be misunderstood. I do not deny the right of rebellion 
 in the people of any State when unconstitutional outrages shall be com- 
 mitted on their rights and institutions, and all liope for redress by peace- 
 ful means has vanished. But I deny that the language of aspiring 
 demagogues, or the election of one of them to the Presidency, would 
 constitute such an outrage, though a just cause for alarm. I also deny, 
 that in such an event, the South would be without hope of redress. It 
 is not to be found, however, in personal denunciations of eminent Demo- 
 crats, in attempting to force on the Democratic Party new and useless 
 issues, or in threats of disunion. Let all this cease now and forever. 
 Be just to the Northern Democracy ; in devotion to the Union emulate 
 Washington and Jackson, and you will rally an irresistible force, who, 
 by the aid of the ballot-box only, will rescue your institutions from 
 danger, and firmly maintain every constitutional right. 
 
 You say that Southern men are " demanding only their constitutional 
 right." Do you think they have a " constitutional right " to destroy the 
 Constitution ? Such indeed is the claim of a right to secede from the 
 Union, if based on any other ground than a right of rebellion for gross 
 and irremediable wrongs. 
 
 You say that the South Carolinians " will even suspect that he (mean- 
 ing me) is governed by disappointment and the revenge consequent 
 thereon," and that ''under other circumstances he entertained another 
 sort of sentiments." 
 
 I plead guilty to the charge of disappointment, though it has filled 
 me with sorrow rather than revenge. My disappointment was in the 
 apparent fact that the present administration had not the sagacity to 
 perceive that their policy would inevitably destroy the Democratic party, 
 and minister to the designs of those whose ultimate object is the de- 
 struction of the Union. 
 
 As evidence of my inconsistency you quote certain sayings of Senator 
 Douglas ! I might with propriety demur to this testimony ; but I adopt 
 those quotations as in the main my sentiments then and now, unchanged 
 and unchangeable. I believe that fidelity to the Constitution in the 
 North and in the South is the only means by which the Union can be 
 long preserved. I do not doubt that when the theory of Senator Sew- 
 ard, false in fact and treasonable in efi'ect, that slave labor and free 
 labor cannot exist in the same community, becomes the settled rule of 
 action in the general government, the Union will come to an end. But 
 
584 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 my faith is equally strong, that it is in the power of the friends of the 
 Constitution in the South, by a cordial union with its friends in the 
 North, to avert this catastrophe and all its consequent calamities. 
 
 In further response to the charges of disappointment and inconsist- 
 ency, coming from the organ of the administration, I send you for pub- 
 lication with this letter a communication addressed by me to Mr. Bu- 
 chanan before his inauguration. 
 
 I have no reproaches for the President because his views did not coin- 
 cide with mine. Which were best adapted to preserve the Democratic 
 party and the Constitution let the country decide. 
 
 In conclusion, I implore you and those who act with you to abandon 
 your denunciations of men with whom you must ultimately act in pre- 
 serving the Constitution and State institutions, if they are to be pre- 
 served at all. Do not further verify the old maxim, that " Those whom 
 God would destroy, he first makes mad.'' That the cordial co-operation of 
 the supporters of Breckinridge, D.ouglas, and Bell might have prevented 
 the triumph of Black Republicanism, and may hereafter render its triumph 
 transient and innocuous, no observing man can doubt. Why then not 
 labor to bring them together, instead of thrusting them further apart 1 
 Is the new-fangled dogma on which the Charleston convention split, or 
 any theoretical claim to a right of secession, of more importance than 
 the preservation of the Union, the Constitution, the peace, the happi- 
 ness, the prosperity, and the glory of our country, — hitherto unequalled 
 by those of any other people on the face of the earth ? Or shall Black 
 Republicanism in the North and secessionism in the South be allowed to 
 cut asunder our bond of Union and divide us into hostile States, occa- 
 sionally drenching our own joyous fields in the blood of their cultivators. 
 Any man who thinks this Union can be peacefully broken up, or, if it 
 could, that peace could always be maintained between its fragments, 
 shuts his eyes to the events of our own age, and is deaf to the lessons 
 
 of history. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The letter to Colonel Orr had a wide circulation through the 
 couutiy. 
 
 From the many favorable notices of his letter, the two following 
 are selected as fair samples of the whole number. The first is 
 from the "State Sentinel" of Harrisburg, September 29, 1860. 
 
 "LETTER FROM AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 *' No name is more familiar to the American people than that of Amos 
 Kendall ] and no man is more universally respected for his intellect, 
 integrity, and moral worth. At one time an active politician, the bosom 
 
LETTER ON SECESSION. 535 
 
 friend and confidant of General Jackson, a cabinet officer of that patri- 
 otic old President, he made his mark by the intelligence and stem 
 justice with which he discharged his duties, and by the tenacity with 
 which he clung to the President through the troublous times of his 
 administration. Next to Jackson himself he was the favorite of the 
 party, and is perhaps the most notable individual now living who repre- 
 sents the principles of the old hero. Any advice from him, at any 
 time, would command respect, and a letter from him now, on the 
 subject of national politics, cannot fail to attract universal attention. 
 We publish such a letter in to-day's ' Sentinel,' addressed to Honorable 
 James L. Orr, of South Carolina. It covers the whole ground of con- 
 tention, and shows conclusively who are right and who are wrong ; and 
 portrays in strong and eloquent language the inevitable results of the 
 mad doctrines of the Abolitionists on the one hand, and the sectionalists 
 on the other, if carried to their logical conclusions. Mr. Kendall has 
 long since retired from active political life, and looks upon the stirring 
 events of the times with the eye of a philosopher, statesman, and 
 patriot. Whoever reads his able letter may well imagine, as we do, 
 that the spirit of the old hero was near him, and every word is an in- 
 vocation from the other world to the people of this Republic to frown 
 upon all the attempts now being made to weaken the Constitution and 
 dissever the Union.'' 
 
 The following is from the " Daily Enquirer," of September 27, 
 1860, published in Memphis, including the fancy sketch by Miss 
 Harriet Martin eau. 
 
 "AMOS KENDALL'S LETTER. 
 *♦ Honorable James L. Orr has called forth a letter from one of the 
 most renowned Democrats of the old regime yet on the stage, and 
 adverse enough to Mr. Orr's politics it is. Mr. Kendall's letter is done 
 in admirable style. It is evidently the work of a master of first-class 
 abilities, and of long and thorough practice. Politics of past times 
 dwell pertinaciously in his mind, but their recollection serves to illus- 
 trate and point out his views of present questions. BaiTing some of his 
 old party leanings and his defence of Douglas's distinguishing doctrine, 
 his letter is one of the ablest Union papers of the season. He prefers 
 with Crittenden to fight the Abolitionists in the Union, if fight he must. 
 He savs the Union sentiment is overwhelming in all the Middle and 
 Western States, constituting two-thirds of the Republic. Pennsylvama, 
 Ohio Indiana, and Illinois are as little inclined, he says, to become 
 frontier States, as Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. He sees one 
 notable feature in the attitude of the South : — 
 
586 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " ' There is one notable feature in the attitude of the South. The cry 
 of disunion comes, not from those who suffer most from Northern out- 
 rage, but from those who suffer least. It comes from South Carolina, 
 and Georgia, and Alabama, and Mississippi, whose slave property is 
 rendered comparatively secure by the intervention of other slaveholding 
 States between them and the free States, and not from Delaware, and 
 Maryland, and Virginia, and Kentucky, and Tennessee, and Missouri, 
 which lose a hundred slaves by abolition thieves where the first named 
 States lose one. Why are not the States that suffer most loudest in 
 their cry for disunion ] It is because their position enables them to see 
 more distinctly than you do, at a distance, the fatal and instant effects 
 of such a step. As imperfect as the protection which the Constitution 
 and laws give to their property undoubtedly is, it is better than none. 
 They do not think it wise to place themselves in a position to have the 
 John Browns of the North let loose upon them, with no other restraints 
 than the laws of war between independent nations, as construed by 
 reckless fanatics.' 
 
 "Mr. Kendall is now in his seventy-second year. In 1834, Miss Har- 
 riet Mai-tineau being in Washington, thus writes of him as one of the most 
 important personages of the day. She was well acquainted with Webster 
 and Clay, and it is thought that her picture of Kendall is tinged with 
 the unfriendly hues of a rival party ; but she thus speaks : — 
 
 " ' I was fortunate enough once 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 administration ; the thinker, 
 planner, and doer ; but it is all in the dark. Documents are issued, the 
 excellence of which prevents their being attributed to the persons who 
 take the responsibility of them ; a correspondence is kept up all over 
 the country, for w^hich no one seems answerable ; work is done of goblin 
 extent and with goblin speed, which makes men look about them with 
 superstitious wonder ; and the invisible Amos Kendall has the credit of 
 it all. President Jackson's letters to his cabinet are said to be Kendall's ; 
 the Report on Sunday mails is attributed to Kendall ; the letters sent 
 from Washington to remote country newspapers, whence they are col- 
 lected and published in the " Globe," as demonstrations of public opinion, 
 are prouoimced to be written by Kendall. Every mysterious paragraph 
 in opposition newspapers relates to Kendall ; and it is some relief that 
 his now having the office of postmaster-general affords opportunity for 
 open attack upon this twilight personage, who is proved by the faults in 
 the post-office administration, not to be able to do quite everything well. 
 But he is undoubtedly a great genius. He unites with his ''great 
 talent for silence " a splendid audacity. 
 
 " ' It is clear that he could not do the work he does (incredible enough 
 
LETTER ON SECESSION. 
 
 587 
 
 in amount any way) if he went into society like other men. He did, 
 however, one evening, — I think it was at the attorney-general's. The 
 moment I went in, intimations reached me from all quarters, amid nods 
 and winks, " Kendall is here " ; '' That is he." I saw at once that his 
 plea for seclusion (bad health) is no false one. The extreme sallowness 
 of his complexion, and hair of such perfect whiteness as is rarely seen 
 in a man of middle age, testified to his disease. His coimtenance does 
 not help the superstitious to throw off their dread of him. He probably 
 does not desire this superstition to melt away, for there is no calculating 
 how much influence was given to Jackson's administration by the 
 universal belief that there was a concealed eye and hand behind the 
 machinery of government, by which everything could be foreseen, and 
 the hardest deeds done. A member of Congress told me this night that 
 he had watched through five sessions for a sight of Kendall, and had 
 never obtained it till now. Kendall was leaning on a chair, with head 
 bent down, and eye glancing up at a member of Congress, with whom 
 he was in earnest conversation, and in a few minutes he was gone.'" 
 
 After the publication of the foregoing letter to Colonel Orr, Mr. 
 Kendall was persuaded by many friends of the Union to continue 
 his efforts for the maintenance of peace and the Union. Yielding 
 to these solicitations, though almost despairing of success, he wrote 
 a series of articles upon Secession, which were published in the 
 " Evening Star " of Washington. The editor of that paper, in an- 
 nouncing the publication, said : — 
 
 *' If there lives a man entitled to be heard attentively and respectfully 
 upon such a subject by the Democratic party, that man is surely Amos 
 Kendall, the right-hand man of Andrew Jackson, in times as trying to 
 the party and the country as those now upon us. In those times, next 
 to Jackson's, his mind was the controlling one in the goverament; 
 stamping the impress of its patriotism and will more indelibly upon 
 the future of the United States than those of all the rest of Jackson's 
 constitutional advisers. Long since entirely disconnected with politics, 
 and now at a very advanced age, if any man can approach the discussion 
 of such a subject in such times unbiassed by any other than the purest 
 considerations, that man is Amos Kendall." 
 
 Washington, November 16, 1860. 
 To THE Editor of the Evening Star : — 
 
 The annexed article was prepared for the '< Constitution," but its 
 editor, avowing himself a Secessionist, closes his columns against the 
 friends of the Union ! The writers for his paper denounce as no true 
 Democrat all who deny this new doctrine of secession, thus setting up a 
 new test of Democracy. 
 
588 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 From boyhood I have considered myself a Democrat, reared in the 
 school of Jefferson, in whose words or acts I challenge any one to find 
 the trace of a thought giving color to this doctrine. 
 
 I have some claim to be heard by Southern people. Like hundreds 
 of others in the border slave States, I have suffered by abolition thieves. 
 When at the head of the Post-Office Depai-tment, I incurred violent 
 denunciations by denying the right of the Abolitionists to distribute 
 their incendiary papers and documents in the Southern States through 
 the United States mails and postmasters, by justifying the postmaster 
 at New York for refusing to mail them to Charleston, and the people of 
 Charleston for seizing and burning them in the street. Moreover, I am 
 an old man, whose political race is run ; who has no motive of ambition 
 or gain to influence him, nor any inducement to take up his pen, but 
 such as is common to all who have property to lose or families to leave 
 behind them. AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 PREFACE TO A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON SECESSION. 
 
 The troubles of our country arise entirely from a defective political 
 education, both North and South. The tendency of the Northern 
 mind is to consider the United States a consolidated republic for all 
 purposes^ while that of the Southern mind is that they are not consoli- 
 dated for any purpose. The North is consequently inclined to claim 
 for the general government powers which it does not possess, while the 
 South is inclined to deny to it powers which it does possess. 
 
 When the Constitution says, " We, the people of the United States," it 
 means all the people of all the States, as truly as if all had been assem- 
 bled in one mass and had unanimously " ordained and established " that 
 instrument. The only reason they acted through State conventions 
 was, that each State was an independent sovereignty, which could not 
 be divested of any of its powers without its own separate consent. The 
 State conventions which adopted the Constitution in effect accomplished 
 two objects, namely : — 
 
 First, they divested their respective States of certain powers which it 
 was proposed to vest in another government. In this they acted sepa- 
 rately from the people of the other States. 
 
 Secondly, they agreed with all the people of all the other States to vest 
 those powers in the government of the United States, and that the Con- 
 stitution and laws of that government should be "the supreme law of the 
 land." In this they acted jointly with the people of all the other States. 
 
 The consolidation, to the extent of the granted powers, hut no further^ 
 was just as effectual as if there had been no State governments in exist- 
 ence, and the whole people of the United States had acted in one con- 
 vention. 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. 539 
 
 In the same sense, each State remained a consolidated government to 
 the extent of its reserved powers, but no further. To that extent they re- 
 mained just as foreign to the general government and to each other as 
 Great Britain is to France. One State, or the people of any one State, 
 have no more to do with the laws of any other State reg-ulating the 
 rights of property, or the relations between man and wife, parent and 
 child, master and apprentice, or master and servant, than they have 
 with the laws of Great Britain and France, nor are they any more re- 
 sponsible for those laws than they are for the laws of the African king- 
 dom of Dahomey. It is difficult fully to possess most Northern minds of 
 these ideas, and hence their notion that Southern slaveiy is " our great 
 national sin," which, if a sin at all, is only the sin of those States which 
 tolerate it. 
 
 Equally unsound in principle, and much more fatal in its consequences, 
 is the Southern idea that our Constitution is nothing more than a treaty 
 between independent nations, to which the States and not the people 
 are parties, and which any one State may repudiate at will, not only 
 without the consent, but to the manifest injury and even total destruc- 
 tion of her sister States. The argument is, that the States did not and 
 could not part with any portion of their sovereignty when their people 
 adopted the Constitution. If this be true, they can no more part with 
 any portion of their sovereignty hereafter than they could heretofore ; 
 and they may, whenever the notion seizes them, secede from any new 
 confederacy into which they may hereafter enter, as they claim a right 
 to do from the present Union. The principle is not only unsound, but, 
 if recognized, is fatal to the idea of any stable government, whether in 
 the existing Union or any future confederacy of States. In an instant, 
 as it were, the weakest member of such a confederacy may, as South 
 Carolina has done now, throw everything into confusion, break up the 
 business and depreciate the property of all the other members, seize 
 their forts, arsenals, ships, and munitions of war, and for all this there 
 will be neither remedy nor redress because the little State is " sover- 
 eign," and nobody has a right to " coerce " her ! 
 
 " reason, thou has fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their wits ! " 
 
 SECESSION.— No. 1. 
 
 The Origin of the Federal Union. — To be Perpjetual by Compact between 
 THE States. — The Articles of Confederation the Act of State Legis- 
 latures. — The Constitution the Act of the People. — Sovereignty may 
 limit itself. 
 
 To THE People of the South, — I propose to discuss the doctrine of 
 secession in a few short numbers, and commence by showing the origin 
 of the Federal Union, constituting the United States of America. 
 
590 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 When, in 1776, the British Colonies, constituting the original mem- 
 bers of our Federal Union, became independent States, each State was 
 an independent nation, possessing all the powers of unlimited sover- 
 eignty. They were then acting in concert against British oppression ; 
 but it was not until more than two years afterwards that a formal com- 
 pact of union was consummated. That compact was styled, *' Articles of 
 Confederation and perpetual union between the States,^' naming them. 
 
 A part of the 13th article of this instrument reads as follows : — 
 
 "And the articles of this Confederation shall be inviolably observed by 
 every State, and the union shall he perpetual" 
 
 The form of ratification of those articles was as follows : — 
 
 " And whereas it has pleased the great G-overnor of the world to incline the 
 hearts of the Legislatures we respectfully represent in Congress, to approve of, 
 and to authorize us to ratify, the said Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
 Union, Know ye, that we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power 
 and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these presents, in the name 
 and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and con- 
 firm each and every of the said Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, 
 and all and singular the matters and things therein contained. And we do fur- 
 ther solemnly plight and engage the faith of our respective constituents, that 
 they shall abide by the determinations of the United States in Congress as- 
 sembled, on all questions which by the said Confederation are submitted to 
 them ; and that the articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the States 
 we respectfully represent, and that the Union shall be perpetual" 
 
 To this instrument South Carolina became a party by the authorized 
 signatures of her delegates, Henry Laurens, William Henry Drayton, 
 John Mathews, Richard Hutson, and Thomas Heyward, Jr. 
 
 The advocates of secession base their argument, not on any right re- 
 served or in any way alluded to in the Constitution, but on the inherent 
 sovereignty possessed by an independent State ; which, as they say, en- 
 ables her to set at naught, whenever she chooses, any and all her com- 
 pacts with other States. Without commenting upon the unsoundness 
 and demoralizing tendency of this doctrine, we ask secessionists to say, 
 whether South Carolina, after solemnly plighting her faith that she 
 would abide by the articles of Confederation, and that " the Union should 
 he perpetual,'' could, at will, rightfully secede and break up that Union'? 
 Surely, the wise men of that day did not understand that by means of 
 the sovereignty of any discontented State she could rightfully leave the 
 Union, her plighted faith notwithstanding, or they would not have 
 trifled with each other and the world by such a stipulation. They 
 evidently thought that a sovereign State had power to limit its own 
 sovereignty by coinpacts with other States, which should be oi perpetual 
 ohligation. 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. 
 
 691 
 
 There is, however, a striking difference in the authority by which the 
 Articles of Confederation and our present Constitution are sanctioned. 
 The former rested on the authority of the State legislatures, acting 
 through their delegates in Congress ; the latter on the authority of the 
 people of each State, acting through delegates in convention. The 
 Constitution, therefore, rests on the highest authority known to republi- 
 can government, the people themselves, not the people of the United 
 States, in mass, but the people of each and every separate State, and in 
 that sense emphatically " the people of the United States," as asserted 
 in the preamble. 
 
 Now, if the legislatures of the States could bind them to a " perpet- 
 ual Union,'' their sovereignty notwithstanding, (as they actually did, 
 unless we suppose that the men of that day were totally ignorant of the 
 legal effects of their own acts,) surely the people of the States, the origi- 
 nal sovereigns, could do the same thing. That they have done the same 
 thing, and have provided in the Constitution itself the means of perpetu- 
 ating the Union, we shall endeavor to show in future numbers. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Washington, November 16, 1860. 
 
 SECESSION. —No. 2. 
 
 To Strengthen the Unlon was the Leading Object of Congress in recom- 
 mending, THE Convention in framing, and the People in adopting, the 
 Present Constitution. 
 
 To THE People op the South, — In our first number we have shown 
 that the States composing the Federal Union, from 1778 to 1789, had 
 solemnly plighted their faith to each other in the articles of Confedera- 
 tion that the Union should be ''perpetual.'' These articles constituted 
 the Constitution of the United States until 1789, when they were merged 
 in our present Constitution. 
 
 We will now show that the object of the change was not to relieve the 
 States from their perpetual obligation, or in any way to weaken the Fed- 
 eral Union, but to give it greater strength, and furnish it with means to 
 perpetuate itself by relieving it from dependence on the States for the 
 
 execution of its acts. 
 
 By the Articles of Confederation, Congress had power to determine 
 the amount of revenue necessary to be raised for the service of the United 
 States, and apportion it among the States ; but whether the necessary 
 taxes should be levied or duties imposed and collected depended on the 
 State authorities. The consequence was, that not long after the close of 
 the revolutionary war, through the refusal or neglect of some of the 
 States to fulfil their Federal obligations in that respect, the United 
 States found themselves without means to support the public credit or 
 
592 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 perform the functions then intrusted to them. It therefore became 
 necessary that the United States should have power to levy taxes and 
 duties, and collect them, without the aid or interposition of the States. 
 This required that the United States should have independent legislative, 
 executive, and judicial powers, together with the means of executing 
 their acts and decisions. To such a pass had the neglect or misconduct 
 of some of the States brought the affairs of the United States, that there 
 was imminent danger of a dissolution of the Union from the want of 
 self-sustaining powers. 
 
 The history of the United States for some years after the close of the 
 revolutionary war, is replete with difficulties growing out of weak and 
 unstable governments, and with expedients, proposed by the statesmen 
 of that day, to put an end to them. Finally the minds of all intelligent 
 and patriotic men settled down in the conviction, that an effectual rem- 
 edy was to be found only in a thorough revision of the Federal Constitu- 
 tion, and the delegation to the United States of sufficient powers to enable 
 them to command respect at home and abroad, and especially to preserve 
 the Federal Union. This conviction found expression in a resolution of 
 Congress, adopted on the 24th of February, 1787, in the following 
 words : — 
 
 " Resolved, That in the opinion of Congress, it is expedient, that on the 
 second Monday of May next, a convention of delegates, who shall have been 
 appointed by the several States, be held in Philadelphia, for the sole and ex- 
 press purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, and reporting to Con- 
 gress, and the several Legislatures, such alterations and provisions therein, as 
 shall, when agreed to in Congress, and confirmed by the States, render the 
 Federal Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government, and the preser- 
 vation of the Uniony 
 
 There was already, by compact, a " perpetual Union " ; and this per- 
 petual Union it was the avowed object of Congress to preserve, by a 
 revision of the ''Federal Constitution." South Carolina was present by 
 her delegates, and doubtless voted for the resolution. 
 
 The several States concurred in this recommendation, and in appoint- 
 ing their delegates, recognized and designated the objects in view. 
 
 Virginia stated the object to be, "devising and discussing such alter- 
 ations and further provisions as might be necessary to render the Federal 
 Constitution adequate to the exigencies of the Union." 
 
 North Carolina stated the object to be '*to discuss and decide upon 
 the most effectual means to remove the defects of the Federal Union, 
 and to procure the enlarged purposes which it was intended to effect." 
 
 South Carolina stated the object to be '' devising and discussing all 
 such alterations, clauses, articles, and provisions as might be thought 
 necessary to render the Federal Constitution entirely adequate to the 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. 593 
 
 actual situation and the future good government of the confederated 
 States." 
 
 All the other States stated their object in similar language, all con- 
 curring in the project of giving additional power and strength to the 
 " perpetual union " already in existence. 
 
 The object of the Convention which framed the Constitution, in this 
 respect, is shown in the letter signed by " George Washington, Pres- 
 ident," transmitting that instrument, as framed by them, to the Pres- 
 ident of Congress. He says : — 
 
 " In all our deliberations on this subject we kept steadily in view that which 
 appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the consolidation of 
 OUR Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our 
 national existence." 
 
 Thus we have, distinctly avowed, the leading object of Congress which 
 recommended the calling of the Convention, and of the Convention itself 
 after they had finished their work. 
 
 The Convention proposed that the Constitution framed by them should 
 be submitted for ratification, not to the legislatures of the States, but 
 to a conveiltion in each State chosen by the people thereof, and Con- 
 gress adopted their recommendation. Conventions were held, the pro- 
 posed Constitution was ratified, and thus became the act of the people. 
 Their objects in ratifying it are set forth in the preamble, and foremost 
 among them is the increased stability of the Union. 
 
 " We, the people of the United States," say they, " in order to form a 
 more perfect union,'' etc.^ " do ordain and establish this Constitution for 
 the United States of America." 
 
 It was unnecessary to repeat in the Constitution that the Union should 
 be perpetual, because on its face it purports to be of unlimited duration, 
 and contains within itself the means of perpetuating its own existence. 
 The ratifications of all the States were unconditional, and, in the lan- 
 guage of Mr. Madison, bound them ''forever.'' 
 
 The State of Vermont was not a member of the ''perpetual Union," 
 •estabhshed by the articles of Confederation, but when she came in under 
 the Constitution, she expressly recognized its perpetual obligation. By 
 her convention she declared that on her admission into the Union by 
 Congress, the Constitution of the United States should (in their own 
 words) ''he binding on us and the people of Vermont forever." Yet, 
 who at that day supposed it was more binding on the people of Vermont 
 than it was on the people of South Carolina] 
 
 It thus appears that Congi'ess, the State legislatures, the Philadelphia 
 
 ' Convention, and the people of the States in exchanging the Articles of 
 
 Confederation for our present Constitution, intended to give additional 
 
 strength and security to the Union. Yet, if the doctrine of secession 
 
 38 
 
594 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 be sound, they did not understand their own work, and exchanged a 
 " perpetual Union " for one which any discontented State may break up 
 
 at pleasure ! 
 
 In another article, I shall endeavor to show that the men of that day 
 did not fail in their object, but in fact added strength and stability to 
 
 the pre-exist inff Union. 
 
 ^ AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Washington, November 19, 1860. 
 
 SECESSION.— No. 3. 
 
 How THE Federal Union was made Stronger by its New Constitution. — It 
 Established a Government Independent of the States in the Exercise 
 OF its Powers. — We live under two Governments, each having its own 
 exclusive Powers. 
 
 To THE People of the South, — We have shown in our first num- 
 ber that, in 1778, the States which had previously declared their inde- 
 pendence of the British Crown entered into a Federal Union, solenmly 
 stipulating with each other that it should be ^'perpetual." 
 
 We have shown in our second number that the Congress of 1787, 
 which recommended the Convention of 1789, the State legislatures 
 which appointed the delegates, the Convention itself, and the people of 
 the States who ratified it, declared their leading object to be to strengthen 
 and perpetuate the " perpetual Union " then in existence. 
 
 To assert that they failed in their object, and exchanged that Union 
 for one which exists only at the will and pleasure of each individual 
 State, is to impeach the wisdom of the whole generation of revolution- 
 ary statesmen, and render further argument unnecessary. But more 
 effectually to refute the modern claim of secession in each State, we 
 propose to show that the statesmen of 1787-89 did not fail in their 
 object, and actually gave to their country a Constitution which contains 
 within itself the means of perpetuating its own existence. 
 
 How did they go to work to effect that object] They changed the 
 Confederation into an effective government^ giving it the means of caiTy- 
 ing on its operations without the aid and in spite of the interference of tlie 
 States. 
 
 The Constitution, when it came from the hands of the Convention, 
 was but a proposition to the States. It contained the frame of a gov- 
 ernment complete in its legislative, executive, and judicial departments. 
 It proposed to the sovereign people of each State to divest themselves 
 of certain powers, and vest them in the United States and in the gov- 
 ernment thus formed. It proposed to vest in Congress, power to pass 
 all laws necessary and proper to carry the granted powers into effect. 
 It proposed that these laws should be " the supreme law of the land,^ 
 
"ARTICLES ON SECESSION. ggr 
 
 *' anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwith- 
 standing r It proposed that the members of Congress and of the State 
 legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the States 
 and the United States, should be sworn to support the Constitution. It 
 prescribed a special oath to the President of the United States, to the 
 effect that he would ''faithfully execute the office of President, and to 
 the best of his ahility preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the 
 United States." It required him to '' take care that the laws be faith- 
 fully executed " ; and, to enable him to perform that duty, and to " pre- 
 serve, protect, and defend the Constitution," it proposed to put at his 
 disposition the army, navy, and militia of the United States. It pro- 
 posed that levying war against the United States by any of their citizens, 
 or giving their enemies aid and comfort, should be treason, punishable 
 as Congress might direct. Finally, it proposed modes of amending the 
 Constitution, by the assent of the legislatures or conventions of three 
 fourths of the States. 
 
 The sovereign people of South Carolina, through their convention, 
 acceded to this proposition in all its parts. Upon the sole condition 
 contained in the instrument itself, that nine States should do the same 
 thing, they consented and agreed to part with a portion of their sover- 
 eign powers, or rather to put them into a common stock, and vest them 
 in a common government, whose laws, passed in the exercise of those 
 powers, should be beyond the reach of all State authority. Nine States 
 did consent to do the same thing ; the condition precedent was falfilled ; 
 the Constitution became a compact between the ratifying States ; and 
 since the organization of the new government in 1789, the people of 
 the United States have been living under two governments deriving their 
 powers from the same source, that source being the sovereign people of 
 the several States. Each government, however, has a distinct class of 
 powers, the United States possessing all that relate to foreign nations, 
 and a few relating to interior affairs, in the due exercise of which all the 
 States have a common interest, while the States retain all powers relat- 
 ing to domestic institutions, rights of person and property, — in fine, all 
 powers of legislation and government not granted to the United States 
 in the Constitution. 
 
 Each government, acting ivithin its own sphere, is just as independent 
 of the other as if they were wholly foreign and separated by oceans, 
 and if one infringes on the incontestahle rights of the other, the remedies 
 are only such as exist between independent nations. 
 
 The Constitutions of the "two governments, however, differ in this: 
 The State constitutions 'are compacts between individuals for their own 
 government, which can be altered or abolished by the citizens of the 
 State, while the Constitution of the United States is a compact between 
 
596 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the sovereign people of each State with the sovereign people of every 
 other State, acting through conventions, which cannot be abolished 
 without the consent of all the parties to it, though it may be altered in 
 the manner prescribed in its own provisions. 
 
 The laws of the United States, like the laws of the States, reach and 
 bind every citizen, high and low, and while the United States cannot 
 absolve any one from bis obligation to obey the State laws, so neither 
 can the States absolve any one from his obligation to abide by the laws 
 of the United States. Each government has its own judiciary, and en- 
 forces its own constitutional laws, without the aid and in spite of any 
 attempted let or hindrance from the other. Such, at least, is the true 
 theory of our institutions. 
 
 Does not the foregoing statement of incontestable facts show the un- 
 soundness and absurdity of the doctrine of secession 1 
 
 In another paper special attention will be paid to the argument by 
 which the secessionists attempt to maintain their modern doctrine. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Washington, November 21, 1860. 
 
 SECESSION. — No. 4. 
 
 Notice of Secession Arguments. — Sovereignty not Indivisible nor Inhe- 
 rent. — Independent States can merge or surrender their Soverigntt 
 in Whole or in Part. — In this Country it has been divided, a Por- 
 tion transferred to the United States, and a Portion left in the 
 State?.— Mr. Madison's Yiews. 
 
 To THE People of the South, — Secessionists maintain that each of 
 the United States retains all its original sovereignty ; that the United 
 States possess no sovereign power ; that their government is a mere 
 ' agency for the States ; that any of the States may at will dismiss this 
 agent, and thus relieve its people from all obligation to submit to its 
 Constitution and laws. One fundamental position assumed by the seces- 
 sionists is, that "Sovereignty is incapable op division." 
 
 If this be true, how happens it that there is more than one sover- 
 eignty in the world 'i 
 
 Old Adam, we suppose, was the first sovereign, and if " sovereignty 
 is incapable of division," how happens it that there are so many sover- 
 eigns among his descendants 1 If this position be sound, there is now 
 but one sovereign on earth, and that is vested in all mankind as one 
 consolidated mass. South Carolina has been in rebellion against this 
 " one and indivisible " sovereignty since 1776 at least ! 
 
 How came South Carolina to have any sovereignty at all*? She 
 formed a part of the British Empire, whose sovereignty, according to 
 this argument, or assumption rather, was and is '* indivisible." She is, 
 therefore, still a part of the British Empire-, though in a state of rebel- 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. 59^ 
 
 lion, and ought to return to her allegiance ! But if they mean that the 
 sovereignty of any one nation cannot be divided, the position is equally 
 absurd, as we shall hereafter show. 
 
 It is another fundamental position of secessionists, that "sovereignty 
 IS INHERENT." Inherent in what 1 Secession answers, "In the States." 
 But how did it get into the States ? Surely they were not sovereign 
 while they formed parts of the British Empire. They then had no 
 "inherent" sovereignty. Did the Declaration of Independence make 
 them sovereign 1 That was the act of Congress. If that gave them 
 sovereignty, they derived it from their own creature, and Congress must 
 have been sovereign before they could impart that quality to their con- 
 stituents. That sovereignty was inherent in Congress, nobody pre- 
 tends ; to say that it was inherent in the Colonies, while parts of the 
 British Empire, is absurd ; and if it be " indivisible " and " inherent," 
 pray where did they get it, and when did it begin to be " inherent 2 " 
 And what became of the " indivisible " sovereignty of the British 
 Empire when it was divided into twelve or thirteen independent States % 
 
 The truth is, sovereignty, is not ^'indivisible'" nor '' inherent'' It has 
 been divided and subdivided, acquired and lost, restricted and enlarged, 
 times without number, and by various means, during the world's history. 
 
 But, without caring how or where the States got their sovereignty, 
 we are ready to admit that they were sovereigns in 1776 ; but we main- 
 tain that they could and did modify their own sovereignty in the adop- 
 tion of the Constitution. Can any one doubt that the peopje of each 
 State, if they had been so minded, could have united with the people 
 of all the other States and formed a consolidated government ; that all 
 their sovereignties could have been merged into one sovereignty, and 
 that the States could thus have been extinguished ? The history of the 
 world is full of examples of two or more nations being merged into one, 
 and of one divided into two or more ; of sovereignty lost by conquest 
 or by voluntary surrender, and sovereignty acquired by rebellion or 
 voluntary association. To say that a State cannot surrender or merge 
 her own sovereignty, is to deny the existence of sovereignty itself; for 
 how can a State be sovereign which cannot dispose of herself? And if 
 a State can merge her entire sovereignty in that of other States, cannot 
 she merge a part and retain a part ? To say that she cannot is also to 
 deny her sovereignty ; for sovereignty, according to secession logic, 
 possesses all political power, while, by the same logic, it cannot divide 
 itself, and therefore does not possess all political power ! The argument 
 is difelo de se, — it destroys" itself. 
 
 When secessionists say that sovereign power cannot be invested in 
 the government of the United States, they utter a truth which is equally 
 applicable to the governments of the States. Both governments are 
 
598 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 agents in the same sense, and both of them are governments in the same 
 sense. What is a State? The people composing it. What is the 
 United States 1 The people composing them in the sense of the Con- 
 stitution where it says, '' We, the people of the United States." The 
 grants of the Constitution are to the United States, meaning the people 
 thereof and not to their government. The powers reserved in the Con- 
 stitution are reserved to the States, meaning the people of the Staites, 
 not their governments. When the Constitution says there is such a 
 thing as " the people of the United States,'' there must be such a peo- 
 ple in some sense, and in that people is vested and merged the sover- 
 eignty of the people of the States, so far and so far only as it covers the 
 powers gi'anted in the Constitution. In reference to all their reserved 
 powers, the people of the States remain as sovereign and independent as 
 they were in 1776. 
 
 If I had entertained a doubt of the correctness of my own views on 
 this subject, it would have been obviated by the following lucid and un- 
 answerable exposition I have recently met with in one of Mr. Madison's 
 letters : — 
 
 " In order to understand the true character of the Constitution of the United 
 States, the error, not uncommon, must be avoided of viewing it through the 
 medium either of a consolidated government or of a confederated government, 
 whilst it is neither the one nor the other, but a mixture of both. And, having 
 in no model the similitudes and analogies applicable to other systems of gov- 
 ernment, it must, more than any other, be its own interpreter according to its 
 text and i\i% facts of the case. 
 
 " From these it will be seen that the characteristic peculiarities of the Con- 
 stitution are: 1. The mode of its formation; 2, The division of the supreme 
 powers of government between the States in their united capacity and the 
 States in their individual capacities. 
 
 "1. It was formed, not by the governments of the component States, as the 
 Federal G-overnment for which it was substituted was formed. Nor was it 
 formed by a majority of the people of the United States, as a single com- 
 munity in the manner of a consolidated government. It was formed by the 
 States ; that is, by the people in each of the States acting in their highest 
 sovereign capacity, and formed consequently by the same authority which 
 formed the State constitutions. 
 
 " Being thus derived from the same source as the constitutions of the States, 
 it has, within each State, the same authority as the constitution of the State ; 
 and is as much a constitution, in the strict sense of the terra, within its pre- 
 scribed sphere, as the constitutions of the States are, within their respective 
 spheres ; but with this obvious and essential difference, that being a compact 
 among the States in their highest sovereign capacity, and constituting the 
 people thereof one people for certain purposes, it cannot be altered or annulled 
 at the will of the States individually, as the constitution of a State may be at 
 its individual will. 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. 
 
 599 
 
 " 2. And that it divides the supreme powers of government between the 
 government of the United States and the government of the individual States, 
 is stamped on the face of the instrument ; the powers of war and of taxation 
 of commerce and of treaties, and other enumerated powers vested in the gov- 
 ernment of the United States being of as high and sovereign a character, as 
 any of the powers reserved to the State governments. 
 
 " Nor is the government of the United States, created by the Constitution, 
 less a government, in the strict sense of the term, within the sphere of its 
 powers, than the governments created by the constitutions of the States are, 
 within their several spheres. It is, like them, organized into legislative, execu- 
 tive, and judiciary departments. It operates, like them, directly on persons 
 and things. And, like them, it has at command a physical force for executing 
 the powers committed to it." 
 
 Here Mr. Madison describes the sources of error into which different 
 classes of politicians fall in considering the nature of our government, 
 one class considering it a consolidated government and the other a mere 
 federation, ' ' whilst it is neither the one nor the other ^ hut a mixture of 
 hothP It was the error of federalism to consider it consolidated ; it is 
 the error of secessionism to consider it a mere confederation ; it is the 
 creed of Jeffersonian and Madisonian republicanism that it is " neither 
 the one nor the other, hut a mixture of hothr 
 
 In another number I shall show the utter incompatibility of secession 
 arguments with the language and substance of the Constitution. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Washington, November 23, 1860. 
 
 SECESSION. — No. 5. 
 Where there is Allegiance there is Sovereignty, and there can be Treason 
 
 ONLY where there ARE BOTH. — MISTAKE SOMEWHERE. — ThERE IS TREASON 
 AGAINST THE UNITED STATES. — SeCESSIONISM CLAIMS THE PoWER OF ABSOLU- 
 TION FROM Allegiance, Crimes, and Oaths. 
 
 To THE People of the South, — Secessionists deny that the United 
 States are anything more than a partnership, and they represent the 
 general government to be a mere agency, of which the Constitution is 
 the power of attorney, and from these assumptions they deduce the con- 
 clusion that the United States can neither possess sovereignty nor com- 
 mand allegiance. 
 
 The Constitution itself, on its face, negatives this conclusion. It 
 recognizes such a crime as treason against the United States. Now, 
 treason is " the breach of allegiance from a citizen or subject to a sover- 
 eign." Where there is no sovereignty there can be no allegiance, and 
 where there is no allegiance there can be no treason. By recognizing 
 such a crime as treason against the United States therefore, the Consti- 
 tution asserts sovereignty in them, and claims allegiance. 
 
600 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The first Congress assembled under the Constitution passed "An act 
 for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States," the 
 first-named of which is treason. It enacts that " if any person or per- 
 sons owing allegiance to the United States of America shall levy war 
 against them, or shall adhere to their enemies, giving them aid and 
 comfort within the United States or elsewhere," etc., etc., such person 
 or persons " shall suffer death." 
 
 The same Congress passed another act touching the army of the 
 United States, which required every officer and soldier to take an oath 
 to *' hear true allegiance to the United States of Ame^^ica.^' 
 
 There must be a mistake somewhere. Either George Washington, and 
 the Convention which framed the Constitution, the whole people who 
 adopted it, and the first Congress convened under it, must have been 
 mistaken, or our modem secessionists must be greatly in error. All the 
 former, without exception, and it is believed every member of Congress 
 and every United States judge for at least forty years after the Consti- 
 tution was adopted, fully believed the United States to be a limited sover- 
 eign, to whom every citizen owed allegiance. Are they less likely to be 
 right than the modern enemies of the Union 1 "\¥ho is it that " owes 
 allegiance to the United States,'' and can commit the crime of treason 
 against them 1 We answer, everg citizen of every State, all of whom are 
 also citizens of the United States, the two descriptions embracing pre- 
 cisely the same persons. Every citizen of every State, therefore, owes 
 allegiance to the United States, not in his character as a citizen of a 
 State, but in his character as a citizen of the United States. 
 
 Now, can any State absolve its citizens from their allegiance to the 
 United States % In other words, can a State abolish the crime of treason 
 against the United States, so far as its own citizens are concerned % Can 
 it do this, though it has, by its highest sovereign authority, stipulated 
 with all the other States that its citizens shall be deemed traitors, if caught 
 levying war against the United States, and after stipulating that their 
 Constitution and laws shall be " the supreme law of the land," " any- 
 thing in its own constitution and laws to the contrary notwithstanding" % 
 To say that a State can, directly or indirectly, absolve its citizens from 
 allegiance to the United States, and from the guilt of treason should 
 they be found in arms against the United States, is to say that the peo- 
 ple of a State can at will absolve themselves from every human obliga- 
 tion, and bid defiance to constitutions, compacts, laws, and all government. 
 The principle goes further, and assumes a power to absolve men from 
 their self-imposed obligations to their Maker. The law-givers, judges, 
 and governors of the States have taken a solemn oath to support the 
 Constitution of the United States, and many of their citizens have sworn 
 to bear them true allegiance. Secessionism maintains its power to ab- 
 
AETICLES ON SECESSION". gOl 
 
 solve the law-givers, judges, governors, and citizens of the State, though 
 also citizens of the United States, from their obligations to their God 
 incurred by these oaths. Secession does not stop there. It even under- 
 takes to release the United States law-givers, judges, and officers, and 
 the President himself, from the obligations of their oaths ! Though the 
 President swears that he will, to the best of his abihty, '^preserve, pro- 
 tect^ and defend the Constitution of the United States,''^ secessionism under- 
 takes to release him from his oath within any State by declaring it no 
 longer a member of the Union. It denounces the mere suggestion that 
 he has any right to attempt " to preserve, protect, and defend the Con- 
 stitution," though he may have ample " ability " to do so, should the 
 people of any State declare themselves absolved from their voluntary 
 compact with the people of the other States. 
 
 This pretended "indivisible" and "inherent sovereignty'' arrogates to 
 itself a power not now claimed by priest, pope, or potentate ; a power 
 to release itself from its own most sacred obligations ; a power to relieve 
 citizens from allegiance to their government ; a power to absolve law- 
 givers, judges, governors, and presidents from the obhgations of their 
 oaths. 
 
 There are some miscellaneous matters not yet touched upon, illus- 
 trating the absurdity of this doctrine of secession, which will form the 
 
 subiects of another number. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 "Washington, November 30, 1860. 
 
 SECESSION.— No. 6. 
 
 Secession Aegitments further considered. — The Constitution a Singular 
 Power of Attorney. — What is to become of Lands ceded by the States ? 
 — Secession an Easy Way to pay Debts, and get out of Wars. 
 
 To THE People of the South, — "Allegiance " to an agency ! " Trea- 
 son" against an " agency" ! An agency which has power to enact and 
 enforce laws! An agency divided into three departments, — legislative, 
 
 executive, and judicial ! 
 
 Such is the political monster into which secession converts the United 
 States and their government. The Constitution is a mere power of at- 
 torney, forsooth ! A singular power of attorney which creates the very 
 being it clothes with power ! But if it be a mere power of attorney, 
 why'Vas it called a Constitution 1 And if the government was a mere 
 agency for the States, why was it not called an agency ? Why was not 
 the preamble to the Constitution made to read, " We, the people of the 
 United States," etc., etc., "do ordain and establish this agency for the 
 United States of America " 1 Why was it not made to say that " all 
 legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the 
 United States agency " 1 
 
602 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Why not have said, '■ The House of Representatives of the United 
 States " agency ] " The Senate of the United States " agency 1 " The 
 President of the United States " agency 1 
 
 Why not have sworn the President " to preserve, protect and defend " 
 the power of attorney constituting the United States agency 1 Would 
 this have been ridiculous ? If so, it is because the fundamental argu- 
 ments of secessionists are ridiculous. 
 
 Why were not the judges of the United States called judges of the 
 United States agency, and their jurisdiction defined to extend to all cases 
 arising under the power of attorney, the laws of the agency % etc., etc. 
 
 Why was it not provided that the United States agency shall have 
 power ''to lay and collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce, coin 
 money % " etc., etc. 
 
 If the Constitution be a mere power of attorney it contains some very 
 singular provisions. It is not usual for parties giving powers of attor- 
 ney, revocable at will, to restrict their own powers. But in the power 
 of attorney which we call the Constitution, the principals bind them- 
 selves to their agent, that they will not exercise some of their own pow- 
 ers. " No State," says the pretended power of attorney, " shall make 
 anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts, pass 
 any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation 
 of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.'' Now, is it not very singu- 
 lar, that the States, in giving a power of attorney to an agent, should 
 thus tie up their own hands in matters not at all involved in the powers 
 conferred upon their agent % Does it not make the Constitution look a 
 little more like a compact between the States than a joint power of at- 
 torney to a common agent % 
 
 But the oddest feature in the Constitution considered as a power of 
 attorney given by the States, is the provision which relates to amend- 
 ments. It provides that amendments when proposed in a manner speci- 
 fied, and '^ ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several 
 States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, shall he valid to all 
 intents and purposes as part of the Constitution.^' Now, who ever thought 
 of amending a power of attorney, either enlarging or restricting the 
 powers of an agent, without the concurrence of all the parties originally 
 granting it ? We have now thirty-three States, twenty-five of which 
 can make any change they please in the Constitution, and the other 
 eight will be bound by them. Here, then, is the anomaly of a pro- 
 vision in a power of attorney binding on eight parties who have not given 
 their assent to it ! Is there a parallel to such " a power of attorney " in 
 the world's history 1 
 
 But let us look at this question in another aspect. Many of the 
 States have ceded to the United States from time to time large tracts 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSIOISr. gno 
 
 of territory, including soil and jurisdiction, as weU as small tracts for 
 forts, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings, and for the seat 
 of government. Over the District of Columbia, and many more of these 
 tracts, the jurisdiction of the general government is exclusive. Is not 
 the United States their sovereign ? If not, who isl And if the United 
 States be their sovereign, they are something more than an agency. 
 
 In case of the secession of a State which has made one of these 
 grants, does the property return to herl Virginia owned nearly all of 
 Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Should she secede, would all these regions 
 revert to her, on the ground that she could not part with her sovereignty 
 or divide it ] So, most of the ten-itory embraced in Alabama and Mis- 
 sissippi was ceded to the United States by Georgia. Should she secede, 
 does' it all revert to her "i 
 
 The truth is, that all the States making these grants supposed they 
 were making them to a government of perpetual duration^ and not to an 
 agency which might be broken up by the smallest State in the Union. 
 They had no conception that under the " more perfect Union '' formed 
 by the Constitution, any State could recover its ceded property or its 
 ceded powers by seceding from the Union. 
 
 Look at the principle in other aspects. There is a national debt ; 
 could South Carolina evade the payment of her portion of it by seced- 
 ing from the Union 1 
 
 See what sort of a government a recognition of a right of secession 
 would leave us : — 
 
 A State don't like an existing tariff, and she secedes. 
 
 A State don't like a direct tax which Congress finds it necessary to 
 impose, and she gets rid of it by secession. 
 
 Congress lays an embargo, and Massachusetts opens her ports by se- 
 cession. 
 
 Congress declares war, and South Carolina, thinking it more for her 
 interest to sell cotton to the enemy than to furnish men and money for 
 the war, makes peace for herself through secession ! 
 
 Is this the " more perfect Union " which our fathers made " to estab- 
 lish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
 promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to them- 
 selves and their posterity " ? The blood of Revolutionary warriors cries 
 from the ground, and the manes of Revolutionary statesmen shout from 
 their tombs, " No, no ! Secession is Treason." 
 
 A few remarks about the attitude of South Carolina, and the idea of 
 
 "■ coercing a State," will form the topics of another number. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Washington, December 7, 1860. 
 
 p. s. — That " secession is treason " is not an original thought. In 
 
504 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 1808, Massachusetts threatened to leave the Union on account of the 
 injury to her commerce caused by the restrictive measures of Jeffer- 
 son's administration. In December of that year, the Virginia elec- 
 tors who had voted for Mr. Madison, dined together, in company with 
 many other distinguished citizens. Among the regular toasts was the 
 following : — 
 
 " TJie Union of the States: The majority must govern. It is treason to 
 secede.'' 
 
 Spencer Roane presided, and Robert Taylor was Vice-President. There 
 were present Governor Cabell, Hugh Nelson, J. Peyton Randolph, John 
 Preston, Thomas Ritchie, and many other prominent Virginians. 
 
 SECESSION.— No. 7. 
 
 Coercing States an Artful Fallacy. —Every Government is a Government 
 OF Coercion. — The United States Government coerces Individuals, 
 NOT States. — The States cannot absolve the Mail Robber or Traitor 
 from Guilt or screen him from Punishment. — Ax Act of Secession not 
 Treason, but Nugatory. — Actual Armed Resistance to the Execution 
 OF THE United States Laws is Treason, whose Penalty is Death. 
 
 To THE People op the South, — The unprejudiced reader cannot, I 
 think, fail to be satisfied that our Constitution is the work of the people 
 of all the States, and is just as mu<jh in effect, though not in form, a 
 compact between all the people of all the States as the constitution of 
 a State is a compact between the people of that State. But whatever 
 it may be in its origin, in its operations it ignores the States altogether. 
 By its legislative, executive, and judicial powers, it acts directly on every 
 citizen of every State as effectually as if no State government existed. 
 
 Those who have been for years endeavoring by their teachings to 
 smooth the way for a dissolution of the Union, have specially denounced 
 the idea that the general government should think of maintaining its 
 authority or existence by coercing States. Who threatens to '■^coerce 
 States " ? The States are not citizens or subjects of the United States. 
 
 The laws of the United States are not made for States, but for citi- 
 zens of the United States, regardless of the other bodies politic of 
 which those citizens may be members. A citizen .of the United States 
 does not cease to be a citizen oven by becoming a member of a State 
 legislature, a judge, a governor of a State, or even a member of a 
 State convention. If the governor of a State were to be detected in 
 robbing the mails, or counterfeiting the coin of the United States, he 
 is punishable in the same manner as the humblest citizen ; nor could 
 any act of the State, through a convention or otherwise, screen him 
 from punishment. The Constitution and the laws of the United States, 
 constitutionally enacted, are " the supreme law of the land," and the 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. 605 
 
 citizen owes obedience to them, from which he cannot be relieved by- 
 State authority. Can a State by legislation, resolution, judicial de- 
 cision, or any other device, pardon the mail robber ? If she attempt to 
 do so, by the resolutions of a convention or otherwise, and the United 
 States proceed to punish him notwithstanding, is that coercing a State ? 
 
 Every government which deserves the name is a government of coer- 
 cion. To give that character to the government of the United States 
 was the leading object of Washington and his compatriots in framing 
 our present Constitution. For this, it was clothed with the legislative, 
 judicial, and executive powers, and with means to execute them. To 
 make these means effective, it expressly places the Constitution and 
 laws of the United States, constitutionally enacted, beyond the reach 
 of State authority. 
 
 Treason has among all nations been considered a crime of the highest 
 enormity. That crime is defined by the Constitution to be " levj^ing 
 war against the United States or giving aid and comfort to their 
 enemies," and the laws of the United States prescribe death as the 
 penalty. Now, can any State interpose to screen a traitor from punish- 
 ment any more than a mail robber, when convicted under the " supreme 
 law of the land " ] • And is the punishment of a traitor to be denounced 
 as the coercion of a State ? 
 
 The truth is, that whatever the convention of South Carolina may 
 resolve, she cannot release her citizens from their allegiance to the United 
 States. Any ordinance of her convention purporting to do so, will be 
 absolutely null and void, and all her citizens will still be citizens of the 
 United States. In itself it will not be treason, because it would not be 
 " levying war against the United States," and the general government 
 would not be bound to take any notice of it. But if any citizen of 
 South Carolina, acting under the pretended authority of a convention 
 or the legislature, shall be found " levying war against the United 
 States," he will be guilty of treason, and incur the penalty of death. 
 
 What it may become the duty of the general government to do, 
 should the political leaders of South Carolina delude her people mto 
 the crime of treason under the pretext that a State convention can re- 
 lease them from their allegiance to the United States, it is not my prov- 
 ince to anticipate. My object is to dispel delusion as to the pretended 
 right of secession, and enable every citizen to understand the awful 
 responsibihty he will incur, should he, under cover of an unconstitu- 
 tional and void act of his State, be found resisting the execution of the 
 
 laws of the United States. , i . - f .... 
 
 The slang about not coercing States, as well as the doctrme of seces- 
 sion, are the invention of the enemies of the Union; devised for he 
 purpose of making disunion easy, by impressing the popular mind ^ith 
 
606 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the belief that so far as regards the people of each State, the decrees 
 of a State convention are '* the supreme law of the land," — "the Con- 
 stitution and laws of the United States," notwithstanding. 
 
 And thus, the whole theory of the government is reversed, and the 
 States are thrown into a revolutionary state, where the will of each is 
 a law to itself. 
 
 The right of rebellion against intolerable wrong and oppression, 
 nobody in this country contests. Why does not South Carolina place 
 herself on that ground 1 Is it because the wrongs of which she com- 
 plains are, in her opinion, not sufficient to justify her in the opinion of 
 her own people, or those of other States, in rushing headlong into revo- 
 lution 1 And is she, therefore, compelled to conceal the true character 
 of the movement under a new name and a pretext of inherent right 1 
 
 In one or more numbers I propose to examine the wrongs of the 
 
 South, and treat of the remedies. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Washington, December 8, 1860. 
 
 * 
 
 P. S. — Since the foregoing was written I have read the admirable 
 and unanswerable argument of the President against the pretended 
 right of secession ; but its force on the public mind is much impaired by 
 the conclusion at which he arrives. It is very true that the Constitu- 
 tion confers no power on Congress to declare or carry on war against a ' 
 State ; for such a power would have been inconsistent with its leading 
 principles. But it does confer power to coerce ever?/ citizen of a State 
 detected in the violation of its provisions and the laws of the United 
 States. The power is in no way affected if the transgressor be sustained 
 by all the authorities of his State, who may become his accomplices ; 
 themselves punishable, not as State officers, but as citizens of the 
 United States. 
 
 The truth is, the right of the United States to enforce their own laws 
 on every citizen of every State, no matter what the State may enact or 
 resolve, is as perfect as any granted right can be ; but the times and 
 modes of its exercise depend on circumstances, and to some extent on 
 the discretion of the public authorities. 
 
 SECESSION. — No. 8. 
 
 Fatal Error of the Nouni. — The States Foreign to each other in Rela- 
 tion TO Domestic Institutions. — Unconstitutional Legislation not Nul- 
 lification. — Hostile Acts North the most Effective Arguments of 
 Secessionists. — The Sufferers are the Border Slaveholding States, 
 and not South Carolina. 
 
 To THE People of the South, — If a portion of the people of the 
 South have been deluded into the idea that they have an inherent right 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. 507 
 
 to secede from the Union, a delusion equally fatal has been practised 
 upon the public mind of the North. It is in the inculcation of the idea 
 that they have any right to interfere with the existence of slavery in the 
 South. They do not realize the fundamental principle of our institu- 
 tions, that so far as regards the reserved rights of the States they are as 
 foreign to each other as are Great Britain and France. Massachusetts 
 has no more right to interfere with the relations of master and slave in 
 South Carolina than South Carolina has to interfere in the relations of 
 master and apprentice, man and wife, parent and child, in Massachusetts. 
 A man in Massachusetts has the same right to the labor of his wife, his 
 son, his daughter, and his apprentice, that a man in South Carolina has 
 to the labor of his slave. It is not a natural right, but a right originat- 
 ing in the laws of an independent State, with which no foreign States 
 or people have any right to interfere. If our States were not united 
 for general purposes under one Constitution, the interference of one 
 State or its people with the institutions of another would be impertinent 
 an(i offensive, and might be carried so far as to afford just cause of 
 war. 
 
 Under our present Constitution, not only does every State reserve an 
 unlimited control over its domestic institutions, but it is one of the con- 
 ditions of union that " no person held to service or labor in one State 
 under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of 
 any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, 
 but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or 
 labor may be due." 
 
 This is the language of the Constitution, the supreme law of the 
 land, which all State legislators and judges are not only bound, but are 
 
 sworn to support. 
 
 The provision has two aspects. In one of its aspects it provides, in 
 substance, that no apprentice or slave owing labor to his master under 
 the laws of one State, shall, on escaping into another, be relieved from 
 that legal obligation by legislation or judicial decision in the latter State. 
 Every State judge, therefore, who decides that an apprentice or slave is 
 free as soon as he escapes from one State into another, as from Kentucky 
 into Ohio, or from Virginia into New York, not only violates the Consti- 
 tution but also his oath to support it. 
 
 The other aspect of the provision is that which requires that the 
 fugitive, apprentice, or slave, shall be delivered up to his master. It 
 does not say by what agency he shall be delivered up ; but if the 
 several States were actuated by the spirit of harmony which ought 
 to pervade the Union, they would lend their agency to carrying mto 
 effect this provision as well as every other part of the Constitution. 
 The least that could be expected of them, if they wish to preserve 
 
608 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the Union, is not to obstruct the Federal authorities in their efforts 
 to make effective this provision of the Constitution. But several of 
 the States, instead of aiding to give effect to the Constitution in this 
 respect, or even maintaining a passive attitude, have done their ut- 
 most, by legislation and otherwise, to render this provision nugatory. 
 Their legislators have by their acts defied the laws of the United 
 States, and violated the Constitution, together with their oaths to 
 support it. These acts afford the most effective argument now wielded 
 by the secessionists, because they constitute a just cause of com- 
 plaint ; and they furnish pretexts for charging the offending States 
 with nullification. 
 
 While these acts are an outrage upon the Constitution, they are far 
 from constituting " nullification " in the South Carolina sense of the 
 term. In that sense, " nullification " is a sovereign act of the people of 
 a State, not susceptible of revision by any earthly tribunal, rendering 
 any designated act or acts of Congress inoperative and void within the 
 limits of that State; whereas these offensive acts of the States do, not 
 profess to render void any act of Congress, (though designed to obstruct 
 the operation of a particular act,) nor to be beyond revision by the Fed- 
 eral judiciary, which will undoubtedly pronounce them unconstitutional 
 and void as often as an appeal shall be made to them. Whether, with 
 this remedy always at hand, they constitute a just cause for rebellion 
 an<l revolution may well be doubted. 
 
 The practical effect of those laws is not so much to prevent the 
 recovery of fugitive slaves as it is to encourage negro stealing and 
 demoralize Northern sentiment on that subject. There will always 
 be thieves of other property as well as negroes, whose operations no 
 State can prevent, but so far from attempting to restrain the negro thief, 
 he is encouraged and sustained by legislative enactments, void though 
 thev be. 
 
 That a portion of the Northern States and people have grossly vio- 
 Lited tl)e rijihts of Southern slaveholders under the Constitution, does 
 not admit of a doubt. But who are the sufferers, and what is the 
 remedy 1 
 
 The sufferers are almost exclusively the border slaveholding States, — 
 ^larvland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. They have lost slaves, 
 in consequence of Northern agitation and legislation, by thousands; 
 while South Cai'oHna, secure by a double cordon of slaveholding States 
 intei-vening between her and the haunts of the negro thieves, has lost 
 few or none from that cause. Yet, without consulting them in a matter 
 which concerns their interest a thousand times more than her own, she 
 tells them their only remedy is in a dissolution of the LTnion ; and, with 
 a white population scarcely exceeding that of the city of Baltimore, 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION". 
 
 609 
 
 she plunges into the sea of revolution, expecting to compel these great 
 States to follow her. 
 
 We will examine the remedy she proposes, and consider whether there 
 
 is not a better. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 "Washington, December 11, 1860. 
 
 SECESSION. —No. 9. 
 
 Remedies for Existing Evils proposed by South Carolina. — Their Absurd- 
 ity. ^ The Avowed not the True Motive. — Opening of African Slave- 
 Trade the Leading Object. — Its Effects on the Border Slave States. 
 — They are to be used to effect "Peaceful Secession," and then 
 ** coerced " into Terms, or left as a Barrier against Abolitionism. 
 
 To THE People of the South, — Let us briefly consider the remedies 
 which South Carolina proposes for the wrongs of which the South com- 
 plains. 
 
 They complain that Northern men intend to exclude slaveholders 
 from the Territories, which are the common property of all the States, 
 and, as a remedy for this prospective grievance. South Carolina proposes 
 to give up tlie Territories altogether ! 
 
 They complain that some of the Northern States have violated the 
 Constitution by passing acts to impede the execution of the Fugitive 
 Slave Law, and as a remedy for this violation on their part, South Caro- 
 lina proposes to abolish the Coiistitution altogether 1 
 
 They complain that the Constitution and laws of the United States 
 are not sufficient to prevent the abduction of slaves, or secure the ren- 
 dition of fugitives, and South Carolina's remedy is, to relieve Northern 
 negro stealers from those restraints^ and give up all claims to the rendition 
 of'fugitives. 
 
 They complain of the ''underground-railroad" by which slaves are 
 transported to Canada, and, as a remedy, South Carolina proposes to 
 save the cost and trouble of transportation by virtually bringing Canada 
 down to the Ohio River and the borders of the slaveholding States ! 
 
 They complain that there is a party in the Northern States which is 
 seeking the overthrow of Southern institutions, and South Carolina's 
 remedy is to drive all other Northern men into that party 1 
 
 They complain of the sympathy expressed by a few madmen in the 
 North for John Brown, and South Carolina's remedy is to remove every 
 barrier to the organization of powerfid fillibustering expeditions against 
 slavery on the very borders of the slaveholding States ! 
 
 In every one of these cases the remedy she proposes would aggravate 
 the injury beyond calculation, though in these particulars it would fall 
 hghtly upon her. Ensconced as she 's upon the seacoast, surrounded 
 
 39 
 
610 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 by a double and triple circumvallation of slaveholding States, she does 
 not lose one slave by Abolition thieves, where Maryland, Virginia, Ken- 
 tucky, and Missouri lose hundreds. If her remedies were adopted, they 
 would expose those States to a constant border- war and the loss of ten 
 slaves where they now lose one ; while the statesmen of South Carolina 
 might still sleep quietly in their beds, undisturbed by the increased 
 perils and losses brought on other parties by their mad ambition. 
 
 It is inconceivable that the evils of which the South justly complains, 
 inasmuch as they affect South Carolina very little if at all, constitute 
 the real motive with her leading men for plunging into a revolution, the 
 only effect of which, if peaceful and successful, would unquestionably 
 be greatly to increase the losses and dangers of other States without the 
 least benefit to their own State. 
 
 There must be some other motive not openly avowed, which stimu- 
 lates them to take this desperate plunge. What that motive is, I think 
 I understand. 
 
 Already the men who expect to lead in the Southern Confederacy 
 have declared themselves in favor of reopening the African slave-trade. 
 They have no hope of the accomplishment of that object so long as their 
 respective States constitute a portion of the present Confederacy. But 
 should a new confederacy composed of the cotton States be established, 
 undoubtedly one of their first acts would be to legalize the African slave- 
 trade. Its immediate effect would be to depreciate the value of slaves 
 more than fifty per cent throughout all the slaveholding States ; for 
 while the cost of a good hand from Virginia in the cotton States is not 
 less than $ 1,000, able hands brought direct from Africa under an un- 
 restricted slave-trade, can soon be purchased for % 200. And if the 
 Southern Confederacy should then conquer Mexico and annex Cuba, 
 what a magnificent empire it will become ! 
 
 But in the mean time, what is to become of the border slaveholding 
 States ? They have no desire to open the African slave-trade, and no 
 interest which can be subserved by it. On the contrary, such a measure 
 would at one blow annihilate more than one half the value of their slave 
 property, while the breaking up of the Union would expose the residue 
 to increased perils. 
 
 I venture to predict that Virginia and the other border slave States 
 will never be allowed to join the Cotton Confederacy, should it be estab- 
 lished, unless it be with the clear understanding that they will assent 
 to the reopening of the African slave-trade. They are now to be used 
 for the purpose of effecting the ''peaceful secession " of the cotton States, 
 and to ward off from them the perils of disunion ; but when that object 
 shall have been effected, they will be required to submit to the terms 
 of the seceders, and in any event remain a barrier between them and 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. ^-^-^ 
 
 « 
 
 the abolitionism of the North, relieved from the restraints of our present 
 Constitution and laws. 
 
 In another number we will consider the possibility of a practical 
 remedy for the real evils endured by the South. 
 
 Washington, December 16, 1860. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 SECESSION. — No. 10. 
 
 DisiTNiONisTS South and Abolitionists North not to be consulted, — The 
 Union men North and South must save the Union. —The Border Slave- 
 holding States must be appeased. — No General Hatred of the North 
 against the South. — Garrison and Keitt. 
 
 To THE People South and North, — In considering the remedies 
 for the present difficulties of our country, it is essential to understand 
 the elements with which we have to deal. There are two classes of men 
 whom it is needless to consult. 
 
 The first of these is the South Carolina leaders and their confederates 
 in other States, who have long desired the destruction of the Union, and 
 avail themselves of existing circumstances as a pretext, so- far as they 
 are concerned, to accomplish their cherished object. 
 
 Nothing, as these men openly avow, will deter them from their pre- 
 determined course ; and, if they be consulted at all, their policy will be, 
 as it has been in their connection with the administration and their 
 control of its newspaper organ, to prevent all compromise and hasten 
 the dissolution of the government. To consult such men, when seeking 
 means to preserve the Union, is but to take enemies into your counsels. 
 
 The other class, whom it is not only unnecessary but dangerous to 
 consult, are the. extreme men of the North, who would at once rush to 
 civil war for the preservation of the Union, without listening to the just 
 complaints of the Union men of the South. They do not seem to reflect 
 that secession arguments on the one hand, and Union arguments on the 
 other, are, in the border slaveholding States, addressed to men who are 
 smarting under a sense of wrong and outrage from Northern interference 
 with their domestic institutions. It is but natural that men so situated 
 should listen with complacency to those who promise them relief and 
 satisfaction by means however desperate. 
 
 Keeping clear of the disunionists per se on the one hand, and those 
 who would at once rush into civil war on the other, let the lovers of the 
 Union, North and South, particularly those of the border slaveholding 
 and the Middle free States, on whom the calamities of disunion must 
 most heavily fall, confer together and devise, if possible, a peaceful rem- 
 edy for existing wrongs. This is not a very difficult task if approached 
 in the spirit which gave birth to the Constitution. 
 
 To secure the cordial adhesion of the people in the border slaveholding 
 
512 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 States, it is only necessary to relieve them from the apprehension of per- 
 petual interferences by Northern demagogues and fanatics with their local 
 affairs. In several of those States not one fourth of the voters are slave- 
 holders ; but they justly consider slavery an institution with which their 
 more Northern neighbors have no business to interfere, and they resent 
 such interferences as indignantly as the slaveholders themselves. Neither 
 class have' any interest to be subserved by the disruption of the Union, 
 and no men would be more loyal to it, if satisfied that the reserved rights 
 of their respective States will be sacredly respected. 
 
 It is a great error to suppose that all the Northern men who voted for 
 Lincoln and Hamlin have any disposition to interfere with the rights of 
 the South. A large mass of them are Democrats, who were driven from 
 their party by the acts of Southern disunionists, through whose insid- 
 ious influence one obnoxious issue after another, culminating with the 
 Lecompton Constitution, and the act relative to the admission of Kansas 
 into the Union, was attempted to be incorporated into' their creed. 
 They are, as they always have been, the staunch friends of State rights. 
 Another mass of those voters were from the old Whig party ; who, what- 
 ever may have been their errors in other respects, had no design or desire 
 to interfere with Southern institutions. And it may be safely assumed 
 that not one in twenty of those who voted the Republican ticket had the 
 least conception that by so doing they were endangering the union of the 
 States. How they now shrink back from the consequences of their own 
 work, is shown by the result of the recent elections in Boston and sur- 
 rounding towns; and if such be the reaction in the very hot-bed of 
 abolitionism, what must it be in the less excited portions of the North ! 
 •In short, Lincoln's election by a minority of the popular votes was the 
 result of divisions artfully produced with a view to that result by the 
 Southern disunionists themselves ; and now, for the purpose of carrying 
 out their disorganizing schemes, they falsely assume that there is a settled 
 hatred in the North toward the South, incompatible with the existence 
 of the Union ! Woe to themselves as well as their country, if they shall 
 succeed in inflaming the whole North with the hatred which burns in the 
 bosoms of a Garrison and a Keitt, — one of whom calls our Constitution 
 " a league with hell " because it protects slavery, and the other pronounces 
 it " accursed " because it does not ! If these inculcators of popular hatred 
 North and South shall succeed in their infernal work, how long will it be 
 before the North and the South, whether in the Union or out of it, will 
 precipitate themselves upon each other in a conflict more terrible than 
 the pen of history has ever yet recorded ] 
 
 Lest this number should be too long, I postpone to another my re- 
 marks upon the specific remedies which the occasion suggests. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 WASTiiNGTON, December 20, 1860. 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. 
 
 613 
 
 P. S. — Since the foregoing was written, the following additional evi- 
 dence of a decisive reaction in the North has come to hand : 
 
 " Boston, December 18. — A strong address to the people of Massachusetts 
 has been published, denouncing the unconstitutionality of the Personal Liberty 
 Bill, and recommending its repeal. It is signed by thirty-five gentlemen, in- 
 cluding Ex-Chief Justice Shaw, B. R. Curtis, late Judge of the U. S. Supreme 
 Court, -Ex-Grovernors Lincoln, Clifford, Washburn, Gardner, and other eminent 
 citizens, representing nearly every county in the State." 
 
 SECESSION. — No. 11. 
 
 Southern Union Men must ee satisfied. — Repeal of Liberty Laws, — Amend- 
 ments OF Fugitive Slave Law. — The Territorial Question, how settled. 
 Breckinridge, Bell, and Douglas called upon to unite. — A Democratic 
 Union Party. — No War on South Carolina, but the Duties must be paid 
 AND THE Forts defended. — The Policy of the Executive. — ** The Fed- 
 eral Union must be preserved." 
 
 To THE People of the North and South, — Obviously the first thing 
 necessary to a peaceful solution of our present difficulties is to satisfy 
 the conservative men of the South that there is no fixed determination 
 in the North to deprive their property of the protection which is guar- 
 anteed by the Constitution. How is this to be done 1 The first step 
 toward it is a concerted effort of all the conservative elements of the 
 North to repeal the so-called "liberty laws" wherever they have been 
 enacted. The Republicans themselves admit them to be unconstitu- 
 tional, and under ordinary circumstances it might be safely left to the 
 judiciary to declare them void. But their passage and unrepealed exist- 
 ence are an evidence of hostility to the South which nothing but their 
 repeal can eftectually rebut. 
 
 As to the rendition of fugitives from labor, the following is the pro- 
 vision of the Constitution : — 
 
 " No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, 
 escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therem, 
 be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim 
 of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.'' 
 
 It seems to me impossible to provide for the rendition of fugitives 
 more efifectually than is done in this provision as it now stands. The 
 power of Congress to pass all laws necessary to eflfect the object is abso- 
 lute ; and while the attempts of States to embarrass the execution of 
 those laws are in a degree analogous to the secessionism of South Caro- 
 lina, they leave all the citizens of such States subject to the laws and 
 authorities of the United States in the full plenitude of their power. 
 If, therefore, the existing laws are not adequate to the object, let them 
 be amended. Let fine and imprisonment be imposed upon those who 
 
614 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 shall resist their execution, and if it be done with arms, let the guilty 
 wretches be hanged as traitors. 
 
 The territorial question is of little practical importance. The Con- 
 stitution was made for a country in which the slave question was 
 already settled. By the ordinance of 1787, slavery had been excluded 
 from all the territory north of the Ohio, while the country south of that 
 river was left open to that institution. No serious question on that 
 subject could ever have been raised but for the acquisition of territory 
 outside of the original limits of the United States and outside of the 
 provisions of the Constitution. It would have seemed but fair that the 
 precedent already set should have been followed, and the new territory 
 divided in like manner ; and, so far as related to Louisiana, it was at- 
 tempted by the Missouri Compromise. The objection to that mode is, 
 that to maintain the principle the line might have to be modified upon 
 every new acquisition of territory. 
 
 There is another principle more general and just in its application, 
 and* more congenial with the philosophy of the case, which, if carried 
 into a Constitutional provision, would settle the question forever in all 
 past and future acquisitions. What reasonable objection can there be 
 to an amendment of the Constitution somewhat in the following form ? 
 " It shall be lawful for all citizens and residents of the United States 
 migrating into any of the Territories thereof to carry with them all 
 property and all persons held to service or labor under the laws of the 
 States from which they emigrate, and said laws shall govern their rights 
 of property and claims to service or labor aforesaid in said Territories, 
 until the same shall be admitted into the Union, anything in the legis- 
 lation of Congress or the territorial legislatures to the contrary not- 
 withstanding." 
 
 Such a provision would be in harmony with the general plan of the 
 Constitution, and would leave the people of each Territory free to settle 
 the question permanently for themselves in framing their State constitu- 
 tion. 
 
 These three points seem to me all that is necessary to settle for the 
 purpose of satisfying the conservative men of the South, and remove 
 every plausible pretext for a disruption of the Union : — 
 
 1st. The repeal of the liberty laws, so called, of some of the North- 
 ern States. 
 
 2d. Such modifications of the Fugitive Slave Law as may be required 
 to give it more efficiency, and at the same time render it, if possible, 
 less obnoxious to Northern sentiment. 
 
 3d. A final settlement of the territorial slave question by an amend: 
 ment of the Constitution. 
 
 But by what means shall these ends be brought about 1 There are 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. 615 
 
 three men "whose enviable position enables them to give a turn to pub- 
 lic opinion and political action which will rescue their country from the 
 perils which surround it. Let Messrs. Bell, Breckinridge, and Douglas, 
 throwing behind them all antipathies and all personal ambition, meet 
 together on the platform of the Union, and by an united effort save 
 their country. It is madness to quarrel about the future command of 
 a sinking ship. Let their only emulation be which shall do the most to 
 save it, and the crew will hereafter know how to reward him who may 
 have been most active and devoted. It requires but an effort of these 
 men to organize a Democratic Union Party which shall sweep over the 
 country like an avalanche, burying abolitionism and disunionism beyond 
 the hope of resurrection. It was the insidious arts of the disunionists, 
 dividing and distracting the conservative vote of the country, driving 
 multitudes into the Republican ranks, and keeping other multitudes 
 from the polls, which secured victory to the Republicans in the late 
 presidential election. There is the best evidence of which the nature 
 of the case is susceptible, that a large proportion of the Republican 
 party is thoroughly conservative, and is prepared, in concert with the 
 conservatives of other parties, to concede to the South all that the 
 Union men of that section really desire. What can resist a combina- 
 tion composed of these elements, united in a cause as holy as that which 
 actuated Washington and his compatriots in 17SS1 
 
 I do not speculate upon the course which may be pursued by the new 
 administration after the 4th of March next, because it is still a matter 
 of doubt. It seems to me that, as a matter of necessity, and I hope of 
 choice, it must be conservative, but if it be not, it will be more power- 
 less than any which has preceded it. 
 
 The course which any President of the United States, who regards his 
 oath, must pursue in two important particulars, is pointed out by Mr. 
 Buchanan in his last annual message. 
 He must collect the Federal revenues. 
 
 He must defend the forts and other property of the United States. 
 These duties he must perform, an^/ ordiyiances of secession to the con- 
 trary notwithstanding. But it is not necessary for him to be the aggres- 
 sor in any act of violence. 
 
 If a State chooses to withdraw her representation m Congress, let 
 
 them go. . . , ^ 
 
 If the Federal judicial officers within a State resign, and none can be 
 
 found to fill their places, it cannot be helped. , . j + 
 
 If the postmasters within a State resign, and none can be found to 
 
 supply their places, or if they refuse to pay o^er their quarterly 
 
 revenues, let the post-offices be discontinued. , , . , , ,, • , ,. 
 
 Bnt let not a .Up enter her ports vAthovi pay^ng the lawful dviu> to 
 
616 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the United States, nor leave them without a clearance from the Federal 
 authorities. 
 
 Let the white population of South Carolina, about equal to one third 
 of that of the city of New York, enjoy for a while the luxury of a 
 direct tax to support an independent government with all its parapher- 
 nalia of an army and navy. It may be that a short experience would 
 satisfy her people that the Union is not such an "accursed" thing as 
 has been represented, and they may deem it best for themselves to 
 resume their relations with the Federal government. But should she 
 become restive under this state of things, and attempt by violence to 
 " coerce " the United States into a surrender of their forts or their ships, 
 the issue must be met, and ** God protect the right." 
 
 " The Federal Union must he preserved.^^ 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Washington, December 28, 1860. 
 
 SECESSION.— No. 12. 
 
 RECKI.ESSNESS AND SELFISHNESS OF SoUTH CAROLINA — ShE RELEASES FROM 
 
 Allegiance and absolves from Oaths. — Course of the General Gov- 
 ernment. — A Strange Spectacle. — Shall South Carolina be allowed 
 to ruin the Country? — Disunion the Knell of Slavery and of Free- 
 dom. — South Carolina repudiates all Idea of Compromise. — Disunion- 
 isTS AS Dangerous as Abolitionists. — A Letter to the President. — The 
 Union may be Saved. — Conclusion. 
 
 To THE People of the North and South, — South Carolina has 
 adopted her ordinance of secession. A little State with a white popula- 
 tion about equal to that of a second-rate city, embracing hardly seventy 
 thousand adult males, with no tax by the general government on her 
 soil or its products, drawing large sums from that government for the 
 support of her custom-houses and postal facilities, enjoying a degree of 
 prosperity never excelled, and suffering nothing herself from the griev- 
 ances of which she complains, rushes madly into rebellion, and is seek- 
 ing to involve in revolution thirty-three States and thirty millions of 
 people ! She will take no advice, and listen to no counsel ; she spurns 
 the remonstrances of those slaveholding States which really suffer from 
 Northern aggressions ; she will not allow them to consult as to the 
 means of their own safety ; she will admit of neither compromise nor 
 delay ; but avowing her long-cherished desire to destroy the Federal 
 Union, she declares her purpose to compel her sister States of the South, 
 whom she cannot persuade, to follow her example. 
 
 She undertakes to release her citizens from their allegiance to the 
 United States, and absolves her own public officers and judges, and the 
 officers and judges of the United States within her borders, from their 
 oaths to support the Constitution. She taunts and defies the govern- 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. g^^ 
 
 ment she avows her purpose to destroy; sets guard around its arsenal 
 to prevent the removal of the arms and munitions which belong to it • 
 declares her intention to possess herself of the public forts, and her pur- 
 pose to take them by violence should a man be sent to reinforce their 
 feeble garrisons She is coUecting arms from every quarter, organizing 
 military bands throughout her territory, and exciting her young men to 
 brave the penalties of treason. 
 
 And what is the government of the United States doing to maintain 
 Its authority, collect its revenue, and defend its forts 1 Is it true that 
 our Executive, though it had months of warning, has taken no step to 
 put the forts in a state of defence 1 Is it true that it has been deterred 
 from reinforcing them by threats of conspirators ? Is it true that cannon 
 are now being mounted in one of them, at the expense of the United 
 States, which contains not a soldier to use or defend them] Is it true 
 that there is an understanding between the Executive and the conspir- 
 ators that the former shall not reinforce the forts, and in consideration 
 thereof that the latter will not attack them while the present adminis- 
 tration remains in power 1 Has the commander of the handful of men 
 occupying one of those forts, after being denied reinforcements, been in- 
 structed to surrender if attacked ] 
 
 If these things be so, the wealth of worlds cannot outweigh the awful 
 responsibility our President has incurred. If they are not so, he owes 
 it to himself and his country to make the truth known. 
 
 A strange spectacle our country presents to the world. Within a 
 period of seventy years, under our incomparable Constitution, our States 
 have increased from thirteen to thirty-three, our population from three 
 millions to thirty, our country has expanded from the Mississippi River 
 to the Pacific Ocean, and our wealth has accumulated with a rapidity 
 heretofore fabulous. In the full enjoyment of peace and plenty, of every 
 comfort and luxury which the heart of man could desire, we are sud- 
 denly alarmed by the cry of rebellion and revolution coming from a little 
 State enjoying a higher degree of security and prosperity than almost 
 any of her sisters. The alarm spreads over the whole extent of our 
 broad country ; credit is destroyed ; the banks stop payment ; trade is 
 paralyzed ; industry is prostrated ; want and destitution surround us ; 
 anarchy is marching in upon us ; and the government, which should save 
 us, seems paralyzed as by the wand of an enchanter. 
 
 All this is chargeable to the madness of a few politicians, who have 
 already destroyed more property than all the lands and negi'oes of South 
 Carolina are worth, and she is herself one of the greatest sufferers. 
 
 Shall this little State be permitted to complete, by the utter destruc- 
 tion of our government, the ruin she has so successfully begun 1 The 
 hopeless disruption of this Union would be the hiell of the black man's 
 
618 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KEKDALL. 
 
 slavery and the ivhite man's liberty. It would be the tocsin of a war 
 which, however delayed in its commencement, and from time to time 
 intermitted in its progress, will cease only with the extinction of negro 
 slavery in the South ; while by its plunderings and taxes to support 
 armies and navies, and minister to the cupidity and luxuries of military 
 chieftains, it would reduce the white laboring man, North and South, 
 to a condition compared with which that of the present slave is to be en- 
 vied. There is no other property so much put in jeopardy by revolution 
 as slaves. Look at St. Domingo, Mexico, and the Spanish Provinces 
 of South America. In them all, slavery perished in revolution ; while in 
 Brazil and Cuba, which the revolutionary fires have never reached, it 
 remains intact and unassailable. Why, but because it affords protection 
 to negro slavery, do the ultra abolitionists denounce our Constitution 
 *' as a, league with hell " ? Why is it that they also would plunge into 
 revolution to destroy it 1 
 
 It cannot be too strongly impressed on the public mind, that the 
 avowed object of South Carolina is not a redress of Southern grievances, 
 but the final and irretrievable destruction of the Union. Every State and 
 every man that joins or understandingly sustains her, is an opponent of 
 all measures of redress, and unconditionally an enemy of the Union. 
 There is not an intelligent man in the States of Virginia, Maryland, 
 Kentucky, and Missouri, who does not know that the losses and dangers 
 of those States would be incalculably increased by their joining South 
 Carolina, and becoming the frontier of a Southern Confederacy. The 
 disunionists of South Carolina, in their reckless selfishness, are practi- 
 cally the enemies of those States as truly as the raving fanatics of Mas- 
 sachusetts. She has already struck down the value of their property a 
 hundred-fold more than all the abolitionism of the North, and the ques- 
 tion comes home to every one of their citizens, shall she be allowed to 
 consummate the ruin she has so successfully begun ? Shall she " coerce " 
 them to their destruction, or will they ^' coerce '' her into a decent res2)ect 
 for the feelings, rights, and interests of her sister States? 
 
 If South Carolina were an independent nation, she would have no 
 right so to use her liberty as seriously to injure the interests of other na- 
 tions ; much less, in the relations which she holds with her sister States, 
 especially those in the South, has she a right to destroy their property 
 and expose their institutions to new dangers. 
 
 Four years ago, alarmed at the current of political events, North and 
 South, I took the liberty of addressing a letter, of which a copy is an- 
 nexed, to the President of the United States. It is obvious that if the 
 disunionists had then succeeded by their arts in causing the election of 
 Fremont, the scenes now passing before us would then have been enacted. 
 
 The same threats of secession were made in case of Fremont's elec- 
 
ARTICLES ON SECESSION. 
 
 619 
 
 tion which preceded the election of Lincoln, and they were doubtless 
 disappointed at Mr. Buchanan's success. They then induced him, by 
 threats of opposition, to place the whole power of his administration at 
 their disposition, and they used it to distract and destroy the Demo- 
 cratic party, which they considered the chief barrier to their designs. 
 If, instead of surrendering himself into the hands of the conspirators 
 against the Union, Mr. Buchanan had cut loose from them, and repelled 
 the no less dangerous fanatics of the North, throwing himself upon the 
 true lovers of the Union in the North and the South, the East and the 
 West, the perils which now surround us might have been averted. 
 That which might have been a preventive, must, if our country is to be 
 saved, now be the remedy. It is the rally under one patriotic standard, 
 of all true Union men, under whatever party flag they may have here- 
 tofore marched. 
 
 Let their motto be " the Federal Union must he preservedj^ and let their 
 first measures be, the removal of all just complaiuts on the part of the 
 South by the repeal of the Northern liberty laws, and if need be, amend- 
 ments of the Fugitive Slave Law and of the Constitution. Having thus 
 given security to Southern institutions, let them say to South Carolina, 
 " We cannot allow that all our agricultural and commercial interests 
 shall be deranged, our property destroyed, and our political security 
 endangered by the frowardness of a petty State, which is blind to her 
 own interests, faithless to her own engagements, and reckless of the 
 calamities she brings upon her neighbors." Talk not of governing her 
 as a " conquered province," but tell her, in a voice of thunder, that she 
 must lay down the weapons of her rebellion, and resuming her position 
 of equality with her neighbors, no longer aspire to control them. 
 
 My task is done. Surely there is virtue and patriotism enough in the 
 country to save it. To the men in active political life is committed the 
 solemn duty of organizing the conservative elements. North and South, 
 into one great party, and by its overwhelming power save the Union, 
 and in so doing save the State institutions. Do not, I beseech you, 
 through the want of concession on the one hand and firmness on the 
 other, sufi"er our glorious Republic, which has been the world's wonder, 
 to become the world's derision. Let it not be said that all wisdom, dis- 
 interestedness, patriotism, and energy lie buried with our Washingtons, 
 our Jeff'ersons, and our Jacksons, 
 
 But if, through timidity or any less excusable causes, no antidote 
 can be found, in a proper organization, for a paralyzed government and 
 a crumbling confederacy, I can only, like one of a boat's crew going over 
 
 the Falls of Niagara, fold my arms and submit to the common fate. 
 
 AMOS KENDALU 
 Washington, December 28, 1860. 
 
620 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HON. J. D. CATON. 
 
 Washington, March 14, 1861. 
 Hon. J. D. Caton : — 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have just received your very complimentary letter' of 
 the 1 1th inst., for which I heartily thank you. If my hasty lucubra- 
 tions shall aid in securing our country from the calamities which must 
 sooner or later follow a hopeless disruption of the Union,' I shall be 
 amply rewarded. 
 
 You ask my opinion of the future. It is difficult to foresee results 
 when so large a portion of our countrymen are no longer governed by 
 duty or interest, but seem to have surrendered themselves to prejudice 
 and passion. I am not without hope, however, that the storm will blow 
 over, and that the Union may become stronger than ever. But it can 
 be brought about only by moderation and wisdom in the administration 
 of the government. The signs here are, that the present Cabinet un- 
 derstand their position. They will, I think, take special care to avoid 
 an armed collision with the seceders, while they will probably attempt 
 to collect the duties outside of their harbors, hoping that the incon- 
 veniences to which the people in the cotton States may be exposed, and 
 the new taxes which may be imposed upon them, may produce a decided 
 reaction. I do not think the administration contemplates any real conces- 
 sion, to pacify the border slaveholding States, and hence I look upon the 
 result of their policy as extremely doubtful. Those States will probably 
 hold a convention, and endeavor to agree upon conditions on which alone 
 they will remain in the Union. If they should do so with great unanim- 
 ity, their conditions must be acceded to, or all hope of a restoration of 
 union and peace must be abandoned. 
 
 I have been a little surprised that Western men have said so little 
 about the mouths of the Mississippi passing into the hands of a foreign 
 power. The ordinance conceding its free navigation is a mockery. It 
 simply concedes that vessels loaded with produce and merchandise may 
 pass through the Confederacy on the river ; but it makes no provision 
 allowing the landing or transhipment of their cargoes. Your river boats 
 cannot go to Europe, and ocean ships cannot ascend the Mississippi. 
 
 And how will your Western people like the idea of giving up the free 
 trade of the Mississippi, and having their imports and their exports taxed 
 on the rivers and railroads connecting them with the Confederate States ] 
 
 If I were editing a newspaper in the West, I would make the country 
 ring with these themes. I should take the ground, that the West ought 
 not and would not submit to such a state of things ; that we would re- 
 move every pretext of complaint touching slavery, and that the seced- 
 ing States should then resume their position in the Union, peaceably if 
 
NO WAR. g2l 
 
 they would, compulsorily if it must be so. And I think your editors and 
 politicians can in no other way render so much service to the cause of 
 the Union as by boldly assuming this ground, at the same time dwelling 
 in detail on the injuries which the course of the cotton States must in- 
 flict on all the industrial and commercial interests of the West. 
 With high respect, your obt. serv't., 
 
 Ottawa. 111. ^^^^ KENDALL. 
 
 NO WAR. 
 
 The seceders marched in armed bodies, and compelled the guards of 
 the United States forts and arsenals to surrender them ; hut it was not 
 war. With arms in their hands, they captured millions of dollars worth 
 of cannon, small arms, and munitions of war belonging to the United 
 States ; hut it was not war. They seized the ships of the United States ; 
 hut it was not war. They seized the mints and the moneys of the United 
 States, and applied them to their own use ; hut it was not war. They 
 fired on an unarmed ship carrying supplies to a fortress of the United 
 States ; hut it ivas not war. They are besieging two fortresses of the 
 United States, having surrounded them with military works and cut off 
 their supplies ; hit it is not war. But if the United States attempt to 
 relieve their beleaguered garrison, or even send them provisions in an 
 unarmed vessel, it is war. If they attempt to transport a cannon from 
 one fort to another, or from a foundry to a fort, it is war. If they trans- 
 fer a soldier from fort to fort, or from State to State, it is war. If they 
 send out a ship to protect their loyal citizens, it is war. To talk of 
 executing their laws, protecting their commerce, or collecting their rev- 
 enue, is war, — horrihle war. 
 
 Such are the inconsistencies of the seceders and their sympathizers ! 
 Is it not amazing that such stuff as this should operate on any sensible 
 Union man in Virginia, or anywhere else, to distrust his own govern- 
 ment, and thereby give countenance to the cause of secession, already 
 stained as it is by treachery, perjury, robbery, and usurpation ! 
 
 April 12, 1861. 
 
 TO SAMUEL MEDARY. 
 
 Washington, April 15, 1861. 
 Samuel Med art, Esq. : — 
 
 Dear Sir, — I received some days ago a copy of your paper con- 
 taining General Jackson's proclamation against nullification, and the 
 explanatory article in the " Globe." The two together show the true 
 position of the Jackson Democracy of that day; alas, how different 
 from the democracy with which the Southern mind has since been in- 
 fected ! how different also from the republicanism of this day. 
 
622 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 My position is upon the old Jackson platform, intermediate between 
 secessionisra and republicanism ; in one respect, however, with more 
 affinity to the latter than the former. "The Federal Union must be 
 preserved " is the first plank in my platform, and I may add, "peaceably 
 if we can, or forcibly '' if we ca7i. In their unionism, therefore, I am 
 with the Kepublicans ; and if, as now stated, Mr. Lincoln proposed to 
 withdraw the garrison of Fort Sumter, if allowed to retain possession 
 by means of a corporal and two or three men, it appears to me he 
 did all that could be expected of him to preserve the peace. He might, 
 it seems to me, well doubt his constitutional right to give his voluntary 
 consent to the surrender of the fort, or to omit any effort he could 
 make to provision or defend it. A real " military necessity " is rather 
 to be judged of by the officer in direct command than by the President, 
 and may result from starvation or successful assault. 
 
 Knowing that the design of the leading seceders was to break up the 
 Union /or'et;er, the talk about reconstruction being a ^?iesse to toll certain 
 States out of it, and secure the sympathy of the Northern Democracy, 
 I am prepared to sustain the only measure which can by any possibility 
 prevent the permanent division of the republic into hostile sections, 
 exhausting each other by oft-recurring wars. And I am not without 
 hope that the present breach may be healed without much bloodshed ; 
 but it can be done only by decisive measures, and presenting to the 
 
 rebels an imposing front 
 
 With high regard, yours truly, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO SIMON CAMERON, SECRETARY OF WAR. 
 
 Kendall Green, April 17, 1861. 
 Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War : — 
 
 Sir, — Understanding that accommodations are wanted for troops 
 destined for the defence of Washington city, I beg leave to tender for 
 that purpose two houses owned by me, on lots adjoining the city, but 
 little more than a mile from the capitol, on a ridge through which is the 
 first deep cut on the railroad. 
 
 The government may fix its own terms, being responsible for any 
 damage done to the houses and the adjacent property by the soldiers, 
 or in consequence of their occupation. 
 
 I think other accommodations can be found in this quarter, and I 
 would, if the public interest require it, give up my own residence for 
 the uses of the government. 
 
 With high respect, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
LETTER TO WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
 
 623 
 
 TO WILLIAM H. SEWARD, SECRETARY OF STATE. 
 
 Washington, April 29, 1861. 
 Hon. W. H. Sewakd, Secretary of State ; — 
 
 My dear Sir, — I am emboldened by the recollection of a friendly 
 interview to which you invited me some time ago, to submit to you a 
 few remarks upon the present aspect of public affairs. While I do not 
 possess the means of information which belong to your position, I claim 
 to have some skill in judging of the currents of popular opinion and 
 the ends to which it may be directed. 
 
 The wanton attack upon Fort Sumter united all parties North and 
 West in support of the government, and the massacre of the soldiers 
 peacefully marching through Baltimore to the defence of the capital, 
 has roused the people in those sections to a fuiy. *^ * Burn Baltimore, 
 level it with the ground, exterminate the villains,' etc., etc., is the uni- 
 versal cry," says a gentleman from New York, who has contributed large 
 sums of money and sent two sons to the defence of Washington. 
 
 A gentleman who has recently travelled from Washington to New 
 York, by way of Frederick, Hagerstown, Chambersburg, Harrisburg, 
 etc., after stating that all seemed quiet in Maryland, writes as fol- 
 lows : — - ' 
 
 " The change after reaching the Pennsylvania line was striking. The 
 whole country was in a blaze of wild excitement. In all the villages 
 soldiers were parading the streets, preceded by fife and drum ; cheers and 
 hurrahs rent the air; flags waved from church steeples, across the streets, 
 and from innumerable staffs ; and all seemed carried away with one sen- 
 timent of patriotic enthusiasm. Here in New York the same spirit 
 everywhere and in all classes prevails. Broadway is decked with flags 
 from the Union Park to the Battery,'' etc., etc. 
 
 I need not multiply evidences that no people were ever more united 
 and more determined to sustain their government and preserve their 
 institutions than the people of the free States, from the far East to the 
 far West, now are. The practical question is, how can this unity and 
 enthusiasm be turned to a beneficial result by the government 1 
 
 Not, I assume, by timid counsels and equivocal measures. It was a 
 mistake, I think, to order the Pennsylvanians back from Cockeyville, 
 and surrender to the mob that route to Washington. It will not do 
 for the members or friends of the administration to talk of letting the 
 seceding States "go in peace." And if, as reported this morning, an 
 armistice for six months has been proposed, I think it is an awful if not 
 an irretrievable blunder. 
 
 You must have observed in the New York papers doubts expressed as 
 to the firmness and energy of the administration, produced, no doubt, 
 
624 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 by the retrograde order to the Pennsylvania troops, and the indications 
 that some of the cabinet despair of the Union. The letter, from which 
 I have quoted above, proceeds to state what the writer hears. Says he, 
 *' It is said the government must prosecute the war with determined 
 vigor, or Lincoln and his cabinet will be displaced to make room for 
 some one who will. No vacillation, compromise, or delay will be toler- 
 ated. Action is the cry, and that they will have.'' 
 
 You may judge what effect the idea of an armistice will have upon 
 the thousands upon thousands whose minds have already begun to dis- 
 trust the administration. For the sake of the country, I most devoutly 
 hope that the administration may be able to preserve the unity of 
 Northern sentiment, and direct it, not to the sacking of cities, but to 
 measures (as peaceful as circumstances will allow) calculated to buing 
 back the erring States and their deluded people. 
 
 The attack upon Fort Sumter, and the threats of attack upon the 
 capital, justify the concentration of a force here sufficient to overawe 
 any army the South can bring against us. Davis's proclamation invit- 
 ing privateers justifies the blockade of all the seceded ports. Let these 
 two measures be enforced to the utmost. In addition to these meas- 
 ures, cut off as far as possible all supplies from the West, and beyond 
 this let the seceded States alone. 
 
 • • • • a • 
 
 Nothing will satisfy the Northern mind, in its present state, which 
 seems to contemplate anything short of a restoration of the Union. It 
 is only on that ground that the administration can sustain itself. The 
 public mind North is not prepared to acquiesce in a severance of the 
 Union, until it shall have put forth all its powers to prevent it. 
 
 Let the attempt be made. Let the administration put forth all its 
 united energies to make it successful, and, if they can for two years cut 
 off the commerce of the seceding States, the wants and the burdens of 
 the people in those States will, I am confident, do the work of a con- 
 queror. 
 
 Pardon me for troubling you with my lucubrations upon matters 
 which you probably understand much better than I do, and believe me. 
 With great respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO WILLIAM STICKNEY. 
 
 Washington, April 30, 1861. 
 
 My dear Stickney, — Washington is becoming a military camp. We 
 
 have near twenty thousand troops in the city, and they are pouring in 
 
 at the rate of two thousand a day. After the massacre at Baltimore, 
 
 the government quietly directed the approaching bodies of troops to 
 
DEATH OF HIS ONLY SURVIVING SON. g25 
 
 land at Annapolis, and suddenly seized the engines and cars on this end 
 of the railroad to Baltimore, and also those on the Annapolis road. 
 There was no resistance, though a party of Baltimoreans came up to the 
 junction for that purpose. When the New York Seventh and the Mas- 
 sachusetts men approached, they concluded that ''discretion was the 
 better part of valor," and retired. The Annapolis road had been broken 
 in several places, but in twenty-four hours it was repaired, and now the 
 cars run through from Washington to Annapolis. 
 
 Secessionism is completely cowed in this District and in Maryland, 
 and it seems in a measure to be paralyzed on the other side of the Poto- 
 mac. The universal uprising of the North has struck terror into the 
 Virginia leaders. 
 
 Though all immediate danger here has ceased, I still think it prudent 
 to take my family to the North. With forty thousand volunteer troops 
 in and about Washing-ton, it will not be an agreeable place of residence, 
 especially for ladies. But there is no occasion for haste. 
 
 With love to all, as ever, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 In the autumn of 1861 Mr. Kendall with his household, then 
 consisting of himself and wife, his oldest daughter by his second 
 wife, Mrs. William Stickney, her husband and son, and his youngest 
 daughter Marion, removed to Trenton, N. J., where they resided for 
 a year. 
 
 His residence, Kendall Green, was little else than a military 
 camp, — thousands of soldiers being encamped in its immediate 
 neighborhood, — and it was in search of retirement that this 
 temporary change was made. 
 
 While in Trenton, his then only surviving son John, a resident 
 of Washington, died after a few weeks' sickness with the typhoid 
 fever. He was taken sick about the middle of November, 1861. 
 The attack was so light that it was not thought expedient to in- 
 form his parents of it for a whole week. Another week passed, 
 when he requested that his father and mother should be sent for. 
 They immediately repaired to Washington, and found him very 
 low, but not beyond hope of recovery. During the last four days 
 they were agitated with hopes and fears by the changing symp- 
 toms of the disease. On the 7th of December he quietly breathed 
 his last. 
 
 In a letter written December 24th, 1861, to his afflicted daugh- 
 ter-in-law, Mr. Kendall said : — 
 
 40 
 
626 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " I can scarcely realize that Johu is no more, but when I do, it is 
 with entire resignation to the will of God. To you the blow is doubt- 
 less more severe ; but the duty of resignation cannot be less. Both of 
 us have still those around us whose happiness it is in our power to 
 promote, and instead of wasting our days and distressing our friends by 
 useless repining, let us rather resolve cheerfully to perform all our 
 family and social duties. I am sure that John, if he be permitted still 
 to love, will love you infinitely better if he sees you with smiling face 
 and ready hand ministering to the comfort and pleasures of your father, 
 mother, brothers, and friends, than if he beheld you sunk in desponding 
 melancholy, useless to the dead and distressing to the living. I cannot 
 but think that lasting mourning under afflictions is in the nature of 
 repining against the' God that sends them, and of rebellion against his 
 will. It is, I think, a sin of an aggravated nature inconsistent with 
 Christian sentiment, and almost as wicked as any other indulgence of 
 our depraved nature. I do not censure outbursts of grief when calami- 
 ties overtake us, and I should think the man or woman was to be 
 shunned who could look on the death of a dear relative or friend with- 
 out emotion. The sin lies in cherishing this grief, and sacrificing to it 
 the duties we owe to ourselves and those around us. Is not he who 
 kills himself with grief a suicide 1 Does not he who makes all around 
 him unhappy by gloomy features and constant complainings become as 
 much the guilty author of human misery as if he studied how to 
 torture his fellow-men 1 
 
 " All my household are engaged to-day in preparing a Christmas tree 
 and other devices to interest the Sunday-school children on Christmas 
 eve. I like this. How much better it is thus to make the little folks 
 happy than to hide themselves in their chambers, clothed in weeds, 
 bewailing the late act of God in taking to himself a son and a brother ! 
 Go thou and do likewise." 
 
 Writing subsequently to a friend on the death of his son, Mr. 
 Kendall says : — 
 
 " I stand, as it were, an old tree in a broad field, with no young growth 
 around me to occupy my place when I too shall be prostrated by the 
 storms of heaven. Yet I am content. It is the will of God. I accept 
 the teachings of the New Testament as far as I can understand them, 
 and do not reject them wherein I do not. It teaches me to live a life 
 of honesty, kindness, and charity towards my fellow-men, and of entire 
 resignation to the will of my Maker. This I understand and endeavor 
 to practise. But when I attempt to penetrate the mysteries of infinity 
 and eternity, I find there is a limit to human thought which no mortal 
 

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 i 
 
 <V^ 
 
,; 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 r 
 
 > 
 ? 
 
 >^ 
 
ON THE DEATH OF HIS SON, ^27 
 
 mind can penetrate. I cannot think of the infinite otherwise than as an 
 extension of the finite, or of eternity otherwise than as time without end, 
 yet as passing time. Thus is my mind walled in by the finite creations 
 around me, beyond which all is dark and fathomless, into which imagina- 
 tion itself cannot penetrate without carrying with it the finite objects 
 among which it dwells. I am content to live and die within this prison- 
 house, without attempting to scale its narrow walls in the vain effort to 
 grasp the infinite and understand the eternal, but not without hope that, 
 in a future state of existence, my capacities will be so enlarged as to 
 enable me, not to comprehend God as he is, but to approach him more 
 nearly, enjoy his presence, and comprehend his ways with man." 
 
CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 The following is extracted from a lecture given by Mr. Kendall 
 before the Young Men's Christian Association at Trenton, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1862. 
 
 GENERAL JACKSON AND THE PRESENT TIMES. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, — I am apprehensive that your attendance 
 here this evening will subject you to serious disappointment. You see 
 before you one whom his Maker never designed for an orator or a lec- 
 turer. A constitution always feeble, and a voice always weak, have been 
 fui-ther enfeebled by the decay of nature and the infirmities of age, so 
 that he can scarcely make himself heard throughout the hall which is 
 before him. The desire to oblige the society for whose benefit this series 
 of lectures was instituted, and to say something for his country, though 
 it were with his dying breath, he hopes will be accepted by you as an 
 excuse for any disappointment he may inflict upon you this evening. 
 
 We have indeed fallen on evil times. Under the protecting cegis of 
 our Federal Constitution, our country had increased in population from 
 three millions to thirty, in States from thirteen to thirty-four, and had 
 expanded its territory to the capes of Florida, and from the Mississippi 
 River to the Rio Grande and the Pacific Ocean. By our cotton we 
 clothed half of the civilized world ; by our bread-stuffs and provisions 
 we fed the laboring millions in European manufactories ; and California 
 poured into the cup of our prosperity her long-hidden treasures. Lines 
 of railroad and telegraph checkered the Atlantic States, seemingly des- 
 tined to bind them in a closer union, and were preparing to leap across 
 the deserts to the shores of the Pacific. The hand and the mind of 
 man, freed from the apprehensions of danger and of care for the means 
 of subsistence and comfort, were busy in the fields of mechanics and 
 invention, illustrating the age and astounding the world with new 
 achievements and discoveries. Each year brought us from the Old 
 World emigrants enough to form a new State, who came to share in our 
 wealth, our liberty, and ouf glory. Such a scene of active industry 
 and increasing wealth, under the peaceful sway of liberty regulated by 
 law, had never been witnessed on this earth. 
 
GENEEAL JACKSON AKD THE PRESENT TIMES. 629 
 
 AH is now changed. Almost as suddenly as the fire of heaven fell 
 upon Sodom, have the fires of war fallen upon this glorious scene, and 
 daily IS the smoke of battle and of burning habitations, instead of the 
 incense of thanksgiving for these unparalleled blessings, ascending to- 
 wards heaven; while desolation, want, and despair are spreading over 
 large portions of our lately happy land. Surely a great crime has been 
 committed, -a crime not only against our countiy, but against the 
 brotherhood of man ; a crime against high heaven itself; a crime never 
 surpassed since the rebellion of the fallen angels. 
 
 _ Let us inquire into the causes of this calamity, look present dangers 
 in the face, and consider our duties in relation to the future 
 
 On the 13th day of April, 1829, being the birthday of Thomas Jef- 
 ferson, a public dinner was gotten up at Washington by the extreme 
 State rights school of politicians, of which John C. Calhoun was the 
 leader, the immediate object of which was to embody a party for the 
 purpose of making their chief President of the United States, as the 
 the successor of General Jackson, while the ostensible purpose was 
 merely to do honor to the memory of Thomas Jefferson and reaffirm ad- 
 herence to his political principles. General Jackson was invited, and 
 sympathizing with the professed objects of the meeting, he accepted the 
 invitation. The usual routine of toasts and speeches was pursued, and 
 State rights were the general theme. Quickness of perception and 
 promptitude of action were characteristics of General Jackson. He saw 
 in the extremes to which the doctrine of State rights was proclaimed, 
 danger to the Constitution and the Union, and before he was called on 
 for a toast he wrote one with a pencil and put it under his plate. It 
 was given in these words, " The Federal Union : it must he preserved.'' 
 
 Is not this sentiment yours, as it is mine, now and forever ? This 
 was a heavy blow to the extreme State rights hydra, then just begin- 
 ning to show its hissing heads ; but the monster was not killed. Mr. 
 Calhoun attempted to parry the blow by another toast to the Union, in 
 which it was declared, that, " it can only be preserved by respecting the 
 rights of the States, and distributing equally the benefits and burdens 
 of the Union." Taken in connection with the fact that at that very 
 time Mr. Calhoun was stoutly maintaining that "the benefits and bur- 
 dens of the Union " were not equally distributed, and that the South 
 was unjustly and unconstitutionally taxed for the benefit of the North, 
 this toast was tantamount to a declaration that there was then just 
 cause for breaking up the Union. Mr. Calhoun possessed a brilliant 
 intellect ; but it was meteoric and eccentric, seeing nothing in any light 
 but its own. The sun of all human wisdom was darkness to him if 
 
 en 
 
 most 
 
 .countered by the fitful radiance of his own conceptions. One of our 
 ost inconsistent statesmen, he earnestly insisted that he was entirely 
 
630 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL, 
 
 consistent. Mr. Benton said of him, that he seemed to have two sets 
 of morals, one for private life which was very good, and another for 
 public life which was very bad. Be that as it may, Mr. Calhoun aspired 
 to be President of the United States, and he made State rights his hobby 
 to carry him to the goal of his ambition. His ardent mind had reasoned 
 itself into the belief that the cotton, rice, an"d sugars planters of the 
 South, whose products were not taxed by the United States at all, di- 
 rectly or indirectly, paid the major part of the duties on all imported 
 merchandise ; and, therefore, that the tariff of that day was a tax upon 
 the South for the benefit of the North, unequal, unjust, oppressive, and 
 even unconstitutional ! He was right in the general position that the 
 duties on imported merchandise, though paid by the consumer, are an 
 ultimate charge on the profits of labor, constituting the income of the 
 consumer, and that when levied for the purpose of enriching certain 
 classes of the community, at the expense of all the rest, they are unjust. 
 But he was not right in the position that the Southern planter had any 
 more reason to complain or so much as the Northern farmer, mechanic, 
 or professional man. He treated the question, however, -as purely sec- 
 tional, and attempted to rally the whole South in a consolidated party 
 against the existing tariff. He was too impatient to wait or too wise 
 to hope for a remedy for the assumed wrong, in time to meet the exigen- 
 cies of his ambition, through the slow progress of public opinion, and 
 imagined that he could hasten events by invoking the interposition of 
 State authority. In the Virginia resolutions of 1798, he found a decla- 
 ration of abstract principles, and in a passage from Mi\ Jefferson's pen 
 he found the word ** nullification " as "the rightful, remedy " for flagrant 
 and persistent violations of the Constitution by the general government. 
 Ignoring the fact that Virginia, in reaffirming her Resolutions, had de- 
 clared in a report drawn by Mr. Madison, that the only mode of redress 
 contemplated was through a change of public opinion, to be effected by 
 discussion ; and though Mr. Jefferson had indicated no other process of 
 *' nullification,'' Mr. Calhoun's fertile mind proceeded to invent one. 
 Assuming that the tariff laws were unconstitutional, and that the States, 
 by virtue of their sovereignty have a right to decide whether the laws 
 of the United States are constitutional or not, he proposed that South 
 Carolina, through a convention, should declare the tariff laws void, and 
 resist their execution in her ports. Accordingly his followers resorted 
 to his newly invented process ; they assembled a State convention, which 
 declared the tariff laws void ; and they proceeded to organize a military 
 force to resist their execution. It is not supposed that they then ex- 
 pected a military issue with the government. With such a man as 
 General Jackson at its head, such a deliberate purpose would have indi- 
 cated a degree of madness to which their minds had not arrived. The 
 
GENERAL JACKSON AND THE PRESENT TIMES. 531 
 
 calculation doubtless was, that, as on a more recent occasion, other 
 Southern States would follow the lead of South Carolina, and the com- 
 bination would become so powerful and threatening, that Congress, to 
 avoid the calamities of an impending civil war, would hasten to modify 
 the obnoxious laws, when the leader of nullification would ride into the 
 Presidency on the wave of victorious State rights. It may be that 
 some even then contemplated disunion as the ultimate result, and it is 
 said, though I know not on what authority, medals were struck in- 
 scribed with the words, ''John C. Calhoun, first President of the Southern 
 Confederacy.''^ 
 
 But a man who never knew fear or hesitation in the performance of a 
 public or private duty was then President of the United States. Taking 
 it for granted that the conspirators were in earnest, President Jackson 
 sent troops and armed ships to the port of Charleston, removed the cus- 
 tom-house to Fort Moultrie, and compelled every vessel arriving to stop 
 there and pay the duties. Through confidential agents, he organized the 
 Union party in the State to the number of about nine thousand, of whom 
 about seventeen hundred lived in the city of Charleston, all ready, upon 
 the firing of the first gun, to rush to arms. By a patriotic proclamation 
 he electrified the country, as it has never since been electrified until the 
 rebel fire was opened upon Fort Sumter. 
 
 There was then, as more recently, a Union party opposed to coercion. 
 A delegation of Union men from South Carolina visited Washington to 
 dissuade President Jackson from using military force in the execution of 
 the laws, lest it should lead to bloodshed and civil war. He quietly 
 listened to what they had to say, and then he replied, " Gentlemen, 
 there will be no bloodshed. I have in that drawer," pointing to a desk 
 in the room, " the tender of one hundred and fifty thousand volunteers 
 to aid me in the execution of the laws, and I have General Coffee now 
 in this house to place at the head of a force to be called out in the West. 
 When everything is ready, I shall join them myself We shall cross 
 the mountains into the upper part of South Carolina with a force, which, 
 joined by the Union men of that State, will be so overwhelming as to 
 render resistance hopeless. We will march through the State, seize the 
 ringleaders, turn them over to the civil authorities, and come home. 
 You need not fear any bloodshed, gentlemen," he repeated. This inci- 
 dent rests upon the authority of one of the delegation, confirmed by a 
 letter from General Jackson himself, now in my possession. 
 
 To bring matters to an issue, a ship loaded with sugar attempted to 
 enter Charleston harbor, claiming exemption from payment of the duties 
 by virtue of the ^'nullification ordinance." She was compelled t9 stop 
 at Fort Sumter. General Haynes, then Governor of South C^irolina, 
 issued a proclamation, and through General Hamilton, in command of 
 
632 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the army of South Carolina, proceeded to make military preparations for 
 an attack on the fort. Civil war now seemed imminent. But no 
 Southern State could then be found to follow the lead of South Caro- 
 lina, and it soon became apparent that if she fired a gun in the cause 
 of nulUfication, she would bring down upon herself the whole power of 
 the Union, headed by a man whose name was a host. Congress clothed 
 the President with almost dictatorial powers, and it became evident that 
 nullification would be crushed at a blow. Mr. Calhoun, then in the Sen- 
 ate of the United States, saw his doom approaching. His whole scheme 
 of ambition was a miserable failure, and if he went further, there was a 
 tolerable certainty that his life would pay the forfeit. His haggard ap- 
 pearance and incoherent utterances showed the agony of his mind, and 
 many thought he would soon become a fit subject for a lunatic asylum. 
 
 In this state of things, unfortunately, as I think, for the country, Mr. 
 Clay interposed to rescue the necks of the leading nuUifiers from the 
 halter, by one of those compromises which distinguished his political 
 life. Under his lead and influence, an act of Congress was passed pro- 
 viding for a reduction of the tariff duties, periodically, until the max- 
 imum should not exceed 20 per cent. President Jackson could not do 
 otherwise than approve the act, though he did it with serious misgivings 
 as to its ultimate consequences upon the future of the Union. And who 
 can now doubt, that if the nullifiers had struck a blow, and a few of 
 their leaders had been hanged for treason, the country would not now 
 be under the necessity of putting forth all its resources and power for 
 the suppression of a gigantic rebellion, gotten up and headed by the dis- 
 ciples of the nullification school ! 
 
 The nullifiers claimed a victory, and not without some reason. The 
 compromise involved no surrender of principles on their part, and they 
 had influenced the government to make concessions by threats of vio- 
 lence. Glad, however, to escape the danger of meeting in rebellion the 
 man who had little mercy for traitors to his country, they repealed their 
 own ordinance of nullification, and betook themselves to other means 
 for destroying the Union. 
 
 Nullification and secession are based on the same principle, and that 
 is the absolute and unqualified sovereignty of the States. The differ- 
 ence is, that nullification claimed only to abrogate a specified law or 
 laws of the United States, while secession claims a right by the same 
 authority, to abrogate not only all the laws, but also the Constitution 
 itself 
 
 From the unfortunate compromise of 1833, we may date the com- 
 mencement of the machinations which ended in the present rebellion. 
 For this belief we have the evidence of some of the leaders in the South 
 Carolina convention, which passed the ordinance of secession. Mr. Cal- 
 
GENERAL JACKSON AND THE PRESENT TIMES. 635 
 
 houn himself went home and announced that the slavery question would 
 be thereafter the ground-work of division between the North and the 
 South. Having signally failed in his effort to get up an effective sec- 
 tional party on the tariff question, he resorted to the only subject, 
 dangerous as it was, upon which the South could be consolidated in a 
 party array against the North. In this effort he and his followers would 
 have again signally failed, but for the aid they received from the North. 
 That aid consisted not in sympathy, but in antipathy. I have reference 
 to the Northern abolitionists. These men may be divided into two 
 classes, one of which may be called political abolitionists^ and the other 
 religious abolitionists. The objects Of these classes are very different, 
 but they have alike, for years past, played into the hands of the South- 
 ern conspirators. The political abolitionists have no particular objec- 
 tions to slavery, but avail themselves of Northern hostility to the 
 institution as means of gaining power. From them slavery never had 
 anything to fear -, for, whatever language they used in stump speeches, 
 they knew that the institution was constitutionally beyond their reach. 
 The religious abolitionists are more sincere, and for that reason are 
 much more dangerous. The poUtical abolitionist has, when he comes 
 to act, some regard for the Constitution and laws of his country ; but 
 the religious abolitionist assumes to act under a " higher law," which 
 nullifies all constitutions and laws which purport to sanction slav- 
 ery. But both alike have, by their speeches and actions in their 
 several States, enabled the Southern leaders to represent to their peo- 
 ple that there was a settled majority of the Northern population de- 
 termined to overleap the barriers of the Constitution, for the purpose 
 of interfering with their local institutions, and setting their negroes 
 free. And it must be confessed, that in the legislation of some of 
 the Northern States, and in the conduct of some of their officers 
 and people, there was evidence enough to give plausibility to the charge. 
 Political abolitionism, now that it sees the temple on fire, has meas- 
 urably ceased to play with this fire-brand, and would gladly extin- 
 guish the flames ; but religious abolitionism would see the temple of 
 our liberty in ashes rather than it should protect the master and his 
 
 This class of men seem utterly oblivious of the fact, that in relation to 
 slavery and all domestic and local institutions, our States are as inde- 
 pendent of each other as any two distant nations ; that we are one 
 people and one nation only for the purposes specified in the Federal 
 Constitution ; and that they have no more right to interfere with the 
 institutions of the Southern States than' with those of Cuba and Brazd. 
 And having no rightful authority over the institution of slavery, they 
 are no more responsible for its existence or abuses than they are for the 
 
634 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 peonage of Mexico or the serfdom of Russia. One would think, that 
 seeing the terrible calamities which, by meddling with other people's 
 affairs, they have aided the Southern conspirators in bringing upon the 
 country, these men would desist from agitation and subside into quiet 
 citizens, content with the peaceful enjoyment of their own rights under 
 the institutions from which our country has derived all its prosperity 
 and glory. But it seems that this pestilent political and religious 
 heresy is not to be satisfied without a subversion of our present Consti- 
 tution, and the establishment of a new one, purified in the crucible of 
 their own fanaticism, no matter how many thousands of lives and mil- 
 lions of treasure are sacrificed in the process. 
 
 • • • • • • 
 
 What further shall I say of Andrew Jackson? I may say of him, 
 without disparagement to the men of this day, that had he been at the 
 head of affairs for the last eighteen months, the rebellion would not 
 have occurred, or if it had, the rebels would ere this have been driven 
 into the Gulf of Mexico. Without ever courting popularity, he 
 enjoyed the popular confidence in a higher degree than any other man 
 of our country except George Washington. There was indeed a degree 
 of enthusiasm in his popularity more fervid than in that of the Father 
 of his country. They were in fact very different men. Washington 
 was, in his temperament and actions, slow and cautious ; Jackson was 
 ardent and impetuous. His reasoning was like lightning, and his 
 action like the thunderbolt. He never evaded danger or shrank from 
 responsibility. He knew no fear, physically or morally. When he had 
 made up his mind that it was his duty to do anything, he marched 
 straightforward to his object, regardless alike of public opinion and 
 personal consequences. Conscious of rectitude himself, he took it for 
 granted that the country would sustain him. Yet, though he acted 
 rapidly, he never acted rashly. The difference between him and other 
 men was more in the rapidity of reasoning than in the prudence of 
 action. Louis McLane said of him : " General Jackson is the most rapid 
 reasoner I have ever met with. He jumps to a conclusion before I can 
 start on my premises." If there ever was chivalry, it was found in him. 
 Ho prized liis honor above his life, and incurred danger for a friend as 
 I'eadily as for himself As a husband, no man could be more faithful 
 and <k'V(>ted ; as a master, he was kind and indulgent; and having no 
 children or near relations of his own, he filled the office of a father to 
 several of his wife's kindred. No man was ever more coui-teous in his 
 manners, or more upriglit in his dealings, and it may surprise some to 
 hear that a deep religious feeling pervaded his nature. The world was 
 told that he was shockingly passionate and profane. It niaj' surprise 
 you to hear, that, although I was associated with him for nearly ei^-ht 
 
GENERAL JACKSON AND THE PRESENT TIMES. 535 
 
 years, most of the time as intimately perhaps as any one, not of his 
 immediate household, I never saw him in a passion, or heard him utter 
 a profane word. That he did sometimes, when excited, use the words, 
 " By the Eternal," I do not douht ; but he could hardly be said to " take 
 the name of God in vain," for his oaths always meant something. He 
 had no pride of opinion or of authorship. In his military campaigns 
 he never submitted a question to a vote in a council of war. He asked 
 the opinion of each member on the case presented, dismissed them, and 
 they knew not what was to be done until his order was issued. He 
 never took a vote in his Cabinet. Questions were submitted and dis- 
 cussed ; but, when it came to decision, " he took the responsibility." 
 Nor was he so proud or self-conceited as to be above seeking information 
 from any one whom he thought capable of giving it, and no President 
 ever had a greater number or more faithful counsellors ; but, when it 
 came to action, it was still, " I take the responsibility." 
 
 Time will not allow me to trace the history of General Jackson's life, 
 and I must content myself with relating a few incidents and anecdotes, 
 illustrative of his character, public and private. 
 
 Jackson was but a boy during the revolutionary war. At one period 
 the Whigs and Tories in some parts of South Carolina hunted each 
 other like wild beasts, and the only chance for safety was with parties 
 in arms. No man dared to return to his own house, even for a night, 
 without a strong guard. It was on such an occasion, that young Jack- 
 son went one night to assist in guarding a neighbor's house. He was 
 acting as sentinel, and the rest of the party were in-doors. A strong 
 party of Tories approached. After hailing them in vain, he fired upon 
 them, and amidst whistling bullets ran into the house. A desperate 
 fight ensued, which ended in the repulse of the Tories, though more 
 than half of the Whigs were killed or wounded. General Jackson, in 
 relatino- the incidents of those times, used to speak of a man named 
 Wright, who, seeing the body of a friend murdered and horribly muti- 
 lated, swore that he would never spare a Tory, and he continued to 
 hunt them until he had murdered upwards of twenty. "' But," said the 
 General, " he was never a hapj^y man afterwards." 
 
 These shocking scenes have been renewed within the last year in some 
 portions of Missouri ; but thanks to Providence and General Halleck 
 they are at an end, and we hope forever. 
 
 Having been afterwards taken prisoner, the boy Jackson showed his 
 spirit by^efusing to black the boots of a British officer, in return for 
 which he received a cut from the officer's sword, the scar of which he 
 carried to his grave. Little did that officer think the proud boy he so 
 abused was destined thirty odd years afterwards to humble the pride 
 of the British arms at New Orleans. 
 
636 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The event which established Jackson's reputation in Tennessee was 
 his duel with Dickinson. At the time of his advent at Nashville, there 
 was in that place a club of profligate young lawyers, who had entered 
 into an agreement not to bring suits against each other. The conse- 
 quence was, that other citizens were without remedy when a lawyer was 
 the debtor or offender. The aggrieved citizens went to the new-comer, 
 who did not hesitate to take their cases. The conspirators found they 
 were no longer to contract debts and commit outrages with impunity, 
 unless this intruder were put out of the way. Their best shot was 
 therefore put forward to insult and then shoot him in a duel. Jackson 
 knew that he must kill or die. By the rules of this horrible game, 
 either party may reserve his fire for a definite period after the word is 
 given. Jackson reserved his fire, and Dickinson's ball cut a furrow 
 across his breast nearly burying itself in its passage. Without the 
 change of a muscle, Jackson buttoned up his coat, levelled his pistol, 
 and Dickinson was a corpse, — being shot through the head. Jackson's 
 friend, afterwards Judge White, did not know that he was wounded 
 until they had ridden some miles from the field, when he observed blood 
 at the top of Jackson's boot, where it had run down under his clothes 
 from his breast. These particulars T had from Judge White himself. 
 After that wonderful exhibition of nerve, nobody ventured to insult the 
 young lawyer or doubted his courage. 
 
 When the war of 1812 with Great Britain broke out, Jackson was a 
 general of Tennessee militia. The State authorized the enrolment of 
 5,000 volunteers for one year. General Jackson was ordered to New 
 Orleans with a portion of this force, and had advanced as far as Natchez 
 when he received an order from the War Department, at Washington, 
 to suspend his march and discharge his men at that place, without any 
 provision to take them home. The country between the Natchez settle- 
 ment and Tennessee was then a wilderness, inhabited only by Indians 
 and wild beasts, and to discharge men without money, provisions, or 
 transportation under such circumstances, was so palpably unjust and 
 oppressive that General Jackson did not hesitate to disobey the order. 
 Believing that the object was to force his men to enlist in the regular 
 army, he excluded all recruiting ofl[icers from his lines, and being refused 
 transportation he seized it. His sick were placed in wagons, except one 
 man, who was reported to be in a dying state. " Not a man who has 
 breath in his body shall be left behind," said the General, and the in- 
 sensible soldier was also lifted into a wagon. The train had proceeded 
 some distance, and the General was riding beside the wagon, when the 
 sick soldier opened his eyes and exclaimed, " Where am IV " You are 
 on the way to Tennessee," replied the General, " and will soon see your 
 parents and friends.'' From that moment the man was convalescent. 
 
GENERAL JACKSON AND THE PRESENT TIMES. ^37 
 
 Arriving in Tennessee, the General discharged his men, and reported his 
 reasons for disobeying orders, and there the matter ended. 
 
 When the Creek war broke out, General Jackson was placed in com- 
 mand of the forces collected to put an end to it. At the battle of Tal- 
 lahatchie an incident occurred, illustrative of the General's character, 
 as well as that of the Indians. The battle was fought in an Indian 
 village, and several women were among the slain. A male infant, un- 
 hurt, was found on the breast of its dead mother, and the soldiers brought 
 it to the General. He sent for several squaws who had been taken pris- 
 oners and urged them to take charge of the child j but they all declined, 
 saying, " It has no father or mother, — kill it." He instructed his ser- 
 vant to scrape an empty sugar-barrel and make food for it, having no 
 other means, and by the first conveyance sent the child to a friend in 
 Huntsville. On his return from the war, he took the boy to the Hermit- 
 age, and raised him as kindly as if he had been his own son. But 
 though raised entirely among the whites, all his tastes were Indian, and 
 whenever any of the chiefs visited the Hermitage, he evinced the strong- 
 est desire to go with them on their departure. The poor fellow died of 
 consumption before he became of age. 
 
 The Creek war produced many interesting incidents, showing the dif- 
 ficulties our hero had to encounter, and his courage and skill in sur- 
 mounting them ; but I have not time to dwell upon them, and must 
 hasten to New Orleans. 
 
 It was not the battle of the 8th of January which was the prime 
 cause of saving the city of New Orleans, but that of the 23d of the pre- 
 ceding December. The enemy had avoided the forts built on the Mis- 
 sissippi for the defence of the city, by penetrating the swamp and reaching 
 the river above them. Between the British troops which had reached 
 the levee and the city there were no defences whatsoever, and General 
 Jackson's force was neither in numbers or character competent to meet, 
 in the open field, any considerable number of the Wellington veterans 
 composing the British army. General Jackson's only hope was in con- 
 cealing^ his own weakness and gaining time, and his lightning mind in- 
 stantly suggested the most effectual method of attaining those ends. It 
 was by a furious night attack on the portions of the British army which 
 had landed, leading the enemy to suppose, in the darkness, that his 
 force was much stronger than it really was, and thus deterring them 
 from advancing on the city until he could prepare defences. The plan 
 succeeded to admiration. The British were so roughly handled by their 
 invisible foe, that they dared not advance until their whole army was 
 landed. Jackson's force drew back out of sight, keeping out mounted 
 videttes near the enemy, and fell resolutely to work erecting breastworks, 
 extending from the river to the swamp. Thus it was, that by the time 
 
^38 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 the British had recovered from their surprise, Jackson's force was pro- 
 tected by a formidable breastwork, and instead of encountering a small 
 body of badly armed and ill-disciplined troops in the open field, they found 
 that they would have to storm intrenchments defended by an increased 
 and daily increasing army. The slaughter of the 8th of January, and the 
 retreat of the British army, was the consummation of the measures inaug- 
 urated on the 23d of December. 
 
 But General Jackson's greatest victory at New Orleans was over him- 
 self He found it necessary in the defence of the city to establish mar- 
 tial law, and supersede the civil authorities. A judge interfered and at- 
 tempted to take a prisoner out of his hands. He ordered the judge to 
 be arrested and sent beyond his lines. After peace was restored, the 
 judge caused the General to be arrested, and fined him a thousand dollars 
 for contempt of his court. Then was his triumph. The court-room was 
 crowded with people who gave unmistakable indications of a disposition 
 to mob the judge. The General mounted a bench and begged them, if 
 they had regard for him, to respect t^e judicial authority and submit, as 
 he did, to its decisions, whether right or wrong, as the only way of j)rei 
 serving peace and order in the community. The rising indignation of 
 the populace was thus allayed ; and having paid the fine, he left the 
 court. The people on the outside took the horses out of a carriage, 
 thrust the General into it, and, with shouts and yells, dragged it to his 
 hotel. 
 
 How the General liked his ride is well illustrated by an incident. It 
 happened that Mrs. Jackson was walking the street with General William 
 0. Butler of Kentucky, and as the crowd of human horses passed, drag- 
 ging her husband, she laughed immoderately. On being asked what 
 amused her, she replied, " This is the first time I ever saw Mr. Jackson (as 
 she always called him) look as if he were ashamed of himself .^^ This inci- 
 dent I learned from General Butler himself A thousand dollars were 
 raised by the people and sent to General Jackson to reimburse him ; but he 
 directed it to be distributed among the families of those who had fallen 
 in the defence of the city. The reader of our country's history in future 
 times cannot but be struck with the contrast between those times and the 
 present. Then, in a case of extreme urgency, a General suspended the 
 habeas corpus to prevent mutiny in his very camp, and in the presence of 
 a powerful enemy ; and though he atoned for the imputed violation of the 
 law by paying promptly an unjust and vindictive fine, his country never 
 showed its appreciation of the necessity of his act, and of his noble vin- 
 dication of the judicial authority, by refunding the fine, until after his 
 final retirement to private life. Now, the habeas corpus is daily disre- 
 garded without creating a sensation, not in camps only, but in cities and 
 whole States, and the people murmur not, because, without knowing, 
 
LETTER TO W. H. SEWARD. g3g 
 
 they take for granted that it is necessary to prevent conspiracy and 
 suppress rebelHon. 
 
 Time passed, and General Jackson became a candidate for the Presi- 
 dency of the United States. In 1825 he was defeated by the coaHtion 
 of the friends of Adams and Clay. The consequence was the union of 
 aU other parties upon him for the election in 1828. The contest was 
 almost ferocious. General Jackson was charged with every folly and 
 crime from cock-fighting to murder. Never before nor since did a can- 
 didate encounter such a storm of obloquy or abuse. The confidence of 
 the people in General Jackson's integrity, disinterestedness, and devo- 
 tion to his country prevailed, and placed him at the head of its govern- 
 ment. The great mass of the people could sooner believe that other 
 men perjured themselves than that Jackson had done wrong. 
 
 Take General Jackson all in all, had he not, as Mr. Jefferson said, 
 '' more of the Roman in him than any man living " 1 Yet the sternness 
 of the Roman was blended with the gentler virtues of the Christian. 
 *' When shall we look upon his like again 1 " There are many brave 
 men at the head of our armies, candidates for glory and renown. Is 
 there one of them who would not prefer the fame of a Washington or a 
 Jackson to that of a Caesar or of a Napoleon 1 Not one. Like the exem- 
 plars they have before them, they will lay down their arms when the 
 Constitution shall be re-established over every State, city, and hamlet 
 of our country, becoming again peaceful citizens, and enabling us to fill 
 whole albums with Washingtons and Jacksons, the pride of our own age 
 and country, and the admiration of all tinies and nations. It is now our 
 duty to give them our confidence and support, cheering them on in their 
 glorious career, still shouting, until the stars shaU re-echo it, *'The 
 Federal Union ! it must be p^eservecl.^' 
 
 TO W. H. SEWARD. 
 
 Trenton, IST. J., January 26, 1862. 
 Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State : — 
 
 My dear Sir, — I most heartily congi-atulate the President, yourself, 
 and the country on the recent change in the head of the War Depart- 
 ment. The equivocal position held by the late Secretary on the subject 
 of slavery in connection with the war, and the extraordinary proclama- 
 tions of some of his generals, will have cost this nation millions of 
 money and thousands of lives. 
 
 The position of the President on this subject is the only judicious if 
 not the only safe one, and I have been amazed and in some degree dis- 
 couraged to find that any of the prominent men in the Cabinet have 
 been allowed to hold a different language. The preservation of the 
 
640 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Union and the Constitution just as they are, should be held out at all 
 times and everywhere as the only object of the war. If it be made a 
 war for emancipation, it from that moment ceases to be on our side a 
 legal and constitutional war, and we are set adrift on the billows of 
 revolution- The two parties would become virtually two factions, nei- 
 ther of which would be contending for a government that is, but for 
 such an one as they may desire to establish. They would stand on the 
 same footing before foreign nations, who may with as much propriety 
 recognize the independence of the one as the other. 
 
 I trust that under the new administration of the War Department 
 the officers of the army and navy everywhere will be made to hold the 
 same language on this subject ; and the more thoroughly the privates 
 of the army and the rebels themselves can be made to understand that 
 the sole object of the war is the preservation of the Constitution pur© 
 and simple, the less protracted, expensive, and bloody it will prob- 
 ably be. 
 
 It seems to me the wildest abolitionist ought to be satisfied with the 
 progress now being made. Though emancipation cannot lawfully be 
 made the object of the war, it may be, and in fact every day is^ one of its 
 results. Nobody maintains that the slave of a traitor, finding his way 
 into the Union lines or the free States, ought to be restored to him. 
 
 The master's right is forfeited by his rebellion. What in this respect is 
 going on along the Southern coast ] About eight thousand negroes have 
 been abandoned by their masters near Beaufort, and are now free. 
 Should the slave-owners persist in their mad rebellion, the armies of the 
 Union will advance into the interior of South Carolina, the masters will 
 fly, and the slaves will be free. And what will be the end? All the 
 seacoast of South Carolina will be abandoned to the negroes, who will 
 become a separate community under the protection of the United States. 
 We already have the embryo of such a community around Port Royal, 
 and its enlargement will be an incidental result of a long-continued war. 
 A portion of the South will be abandoned to the negro, and slavery wiH 
 cease to exist. 
 
 It has seemed to me that good might be done in the present con- 
 dition of the country by discussing the slavery question in these aspects. 
 Extreme men North might be quieted if shown that emancipation is in 
 progress, by means most effectual and with all needful rapidity, and the 
 slaveholders South might possibly be brought to their senses if made to 
 comprehend that persistence in rebellion will assuredly end in the sur- 
 render of their plantations to their negroes. 
 
 If you think such a discussion would in any degree aid the govern- 
 ment in its efforts to save the country, I am inclined to devote a portion 
 of my time to such a purpose. A little labor with my pen is all I 
 
LETTERS TO A. T. GOODMAN AND H. S. RANDALL. 641 
 
 can do for my country, and I would do nothing to embarrass its eovem- 
 ment. ^ 
 
 With high respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The Administration having intimated to Mr. KendaU its desire 
 that he would carry into effect the suggestion contained in the 
 foregoing letter to Mr. Seward, he prepared and published a series 
 of patriotic articles addressed to the President of the United States, 
 which are omitted from this biography from want of space. 
 
 TO ALFRED T. GOODMAN. 
 
 ., ^ ^ _ Trenton, June 10, 1862. 
 
 Alfred T. Goodman, Esq. : — 
 
 Dear Sir, — Publications in the newspapers of this day are emphati- 
 cally " like bread cast upon the waters." Few read them, and of that 
 few a very small number pause to reflect upon them. We are all swept 
 along, like drift upon a raging flood, by the torrents of argument and 
 declamation which come pouring in from ten thousand sources, forget- 
 ting in the excitements of to-day the serious impressions of yesterday. 
 It was in the hope that I might in some small degree aid in preventing 
 general anarchy, by impressing upon the popular mind that there is a 
 rock of safety in our Constitution, and that by planting themselves 
 upon that rock they may defy the waves of tumultuous passion now 
 beating against it, and see oiu' beloved country again restored to unity 
 and peace, that I took up my trembling pen. But whether the curse 
 of reckless ambition in the South and the curse of blind fanaticism in 
 the North, co-operating towards the same end, are not destined to sub- 
 vert every vestige of a free government and place us under warring 
 military despotisms, remains to be seen. Towards such a catastrophe 
 we are manifestly tending ; but there is yet hope, and while hope lasts 
 
 let us work. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 TO HENRY S. RANDALL. 
 
 Trenton, N. J., June 10, 1862. 
 Henry S. Eandall, Esq. : — 
 
 Dear Sir Your letter of the 6th ultimo came duly to hand, and has 
 
 remained unanswered only because matters of more immediate impor- 
 tance have pressed upon my attention. 
 
 I have never abandoned ray purpose to finish the biography of General 
 Jackson, commenced by me many years ago, and suspended for want of 
 materials and means to procure them. Of Parton's life I have read 
 
 41 
 
642 AUTOBIOGEAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 but little, and that little with very unfavorable impressions. Its chief 
 value is probable in the materials it embodies, though they are not in 
 all cases reliable. 
 
 I never saw Mrs. Jackson, and know nothing of her character and 
 habits otherwise than by report. But I do know that the old hero was 
 .enthusiastically attached to her, and I do not believe it was in his nature 
 to love a vulgar woman. I saw myself evidences of the devotion he 
 cherished for her memory, years after her death, which led me to believe 
 that the hope he cherished of a happy immortality derived one of its 
 dearest joys from the anticipated reunion with her whom he had so 
 loved on earth. 
 
 From impressions derived from the conversations and acts of the Gen- 
 eral himself, and his family and friends, I believe Mrs. Jackson to have 
 been one of the best and most pious women that ever lived, with as much 
 refinement as could be expected in one raised upon the frontiers of civiliz- 
 ation ; and I look upon the stories which have been circulated, about her, 
 implying vulgarity of language and manners, as wicked caricatures, if 
 not entirely false. 
 
 If I live to finish my biogi'aphy of the General, I shall endeavor to 
 do justice to one whose miniature, carried near his heart, was but an in- 
 dex to the love which dwelt within, during all the years of his eventful 
 administration. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Cortland Village, N. Y. 
 
 To John J. Crittenden, under date of February 18, 1863, he 
 wrote : — 
 
 "What the country wants is a concert among'loyal men of all parties, 
 — I mean, men loyal to the Constitution and the country, — and this 
 it must have, or God alone can save us. 
 
 " I am ready to labor to the last day of my life, if my labors can be 
 made effective, without other reward than closing my eyes, for the last 
 time, on a Constitution preserved and a Union restored ; for in them 
 alone can be found any sure g-uaranty of our country's happiness and 
 glory." 
 
 W. D. WALLACH. 
 
 Kendall Green, March 7, 1863. 
 W. D. Wallach, Esq., Editor of 'the Evenmrf Star : — 
 
 Dear Sir, — With a reluctance amountinor almost to loathinsr, I have 
 undertaken to write a few more articles upon public affairs. The influ- 
 ence of my labors heretofore against secession has not been such as to 
 encourage their renewal ; and although I strongly disapprove the general 
 
LETTER TO MR. CATON. ^^3 
 
 policy and many acts of the administration in the prosecution of the 
 war, I would not knowingly do anything to lessen its power to suppress 
 the rebellion. True, it has lessened its own power, and by its policy and 
 acts has exposed the country to a new danger. My desire and object is 
 to do what I can towards obviating that danger. 
 
 Loyal old Democrats say to me : "A few reckless or treacherous leaders 
 seem to be rushing our young Democracy to their own and their coun- 
 try's ruin. You can speak to them from the age of Jackson ; no man can 
 charge you with having any aims of personal ambition to accomplish ; 
 perhaps they will listen to you." To those appeals I reluctantly yield, 
 not without the conviction, however, that mauy of those who now rally 
 under the name of Democrat would not be " convinced " though Andrew 
 Jackson himself "rose from the dead." 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 TO HON. J. D. CATON. 
 
 Washington, April 17, 1863. 
 Hon. J. D. Caton : — 
 
 My dear Sir, — I read with great satisfaction the printed copy of 
 your letter to Governor Seymour, of New York, which you kindly sent 
 me, and do not doubt that it has had a happy influence in giving a more 
 patriotic tone to the Democratic party. With distrust in my power to 
 do any good, and an unwillingness to do or say anything which may 
 lessen the power of the government to suppress the rebellion, I comply 
 with your request, and place my views in relation to the policy and duty 
 of the Democratic party at your disposition. 
 
 I concur with you in the opinion that President Lincoln has all along 
 been desirous of using none but legitimate means for putting down the 
 rebellion, and that his principal error has been in surrendering his better 
 judgment to unsafe and designing counsellors. 
 
 I also concur with you in the opinion, that the success of the Demo- 
 cratic party in the elections of last fall was attributable, not to oppo- 
 sition to the war, but to the abuses and imbecility which attended its 
 management. It was the beginning of a reaction which, if judiciously 
 manao-ed, would have relieved the President from the meshes in which 
 he has become entangled, i-eplaced the war on its original and only 
 leoitimate basis, preserved the Constitution and restored the Union. 
 
 ^Unfortunately for the Democratic party and the country, a few men 
 who sympathized more with rebellion than with the Union, assumed 
 the direction of this reactioTi, and endeavored to rush it into collision 
 with the government, thus disarming the administration of all the power 
 which its own mismanagement had left to maintain the integrity of the 
 
 Union. 
 
644 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The consequences are seen in the result of the recent elections in New 
 Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Thousands of intelligent 
 men, disgusted with the management of the war and ready to join the 
 Democratic party upon a patriotic platform, shrunk back from the 
 precipice to which blind or traitorous leaders would hurry them, pre- 
 ferring the support of the administration, with all its abuses, to striking 
 hands with the rebellion. Thus it is, that the next House of Hepresen- 
 tatives, instead of having a Democratic majority, has been thrown into 
 the hands of the Republican party, and any reform in the management 
 of the war has been rendered uncertain or indefinitely postponed. 
 
 I know that but few of the would-be Democratic leaders dare as yet 
 to advocate giving up the Union, and acknowledging the Southern Con- 
 federacy. They only talk of an armistice with a view to ascertaining 
 whether the Union cannot be restored by compromise. The great mass 
 of the people have the sagacity to perceive that an armistice, under 
 existing circumstances, could lead to but one kind of peace, and that 
 involving a perpetual dissolution of the Union. Honest Union men 
 who talk of an armistice seem to forget the facts of history and to be 
 blind to passing events. 
 
 They seem to forget that the conspiracy which has culminated in re- 
 bellion originated more than thirty years ago, in the nullification doctrine 
 of John C. Calhoun. 
 
 They seem to forget that the pretext then was not abolitionism in 
 the North, but the alleged inequalities of the tariff. 
 
 They seem to forget the avowals of the South Carolina leaders, that 
 a dissolution of the Union has been their aim and their study ever since. 
 
 They seem to forget, that having failed upon the tarifip question, they 
 next, as General Jackson predicted, seized upon the slavery question, 
 and, by bandying abuse with Northern abolitionists, sought to create an 
 inveterate hatred between the North and the South. 
 
 They seem to forget, that having broken up all other national parties, 
 they sought to divide the national Democracy by profiPeriug at their 
 national conventions, as conditions of union, useless and obnoxious 
 issues which they knew could not be sustained in the North. 
 
 They seem to forget, that the entire policy of the rebel leaders in 
 Buchanan's Cabinet and in Congress was to disarm the general govern- 
 ment, so that it should be unable to oppose the establishment of a 
 Southern Confederacy with any prospect of success. 
 
 They seem to forget, that from the installation of the rebellion up to 
 this hour, complete and eternal separation has been the avowed object 
 of the rebel leaders, and they seem not to know that any suggestion 
 from the North of negotiations for peace on any other basis, is met by 
 those leaders and the Southern press with insult and defiance. 
 
LETTERS TO MR. CATON. ^45 
 
 They seem to forget that the rebel leaders entered upon their crimi- 
 nal enterprise through perjury, fraud, and public robbery, and that their 
 only chance for redeeming themselves in any degree from the deep infamy 
 which their crimes deserve, is to be looked for only in the eclat which 
 attends successful revolution and the establishment of a new empire. 
 
 Can any sane intelligent man believe that these proud and haughty 
 men, conscious that they already deserve the infamy of the gallows, will 
 ever give up the chance of gilding their crimes with success so long as 
 they can keep an army in the field % 
 
 Let all such idle fancies be dismissed. They originate with semi- 
 traitors, and are lures to betray the unwary into complication with 
 treason. Every true Union man, whether Democrat or Republican, must 
 make up his mind to the patent fact, that a restoration of the Union 
 can be accomplished only by breaking the military power of the rebel 
 leaders. There is not on earth a more ferocious military despotism than 
 that which now grinds and starves the people of the rebel States, and it 
 is not possible for them to bear it much longer. Whenever the rebel 
 armies in the field are crushed, the leaders will disappear, and the great 
 mass of the population will, if permitted, resume their position under 
 the Constitution and the flag of the Union, from which they have been 
 allm-ed or driven by the arts and arms of those who now rule them with 
 a rod of iron. 
 
 Our Union and Constitution cost a seven years' war. Are we so 
 degenerate that rather than encounter a four years' war, we will sur- 
 render those precious legacies of our fathers and all the glorious hopes 
 of our children % Rather let us encounter the dangers and privations 
 of a war which shall end only with our lives. 
 
 ''But," says the coward, the sympathizer with traitors, and their corrupt 
 instruments, "the President has surrendered himself to a faction, has 
 violated the Constitution and laws which it was his duty to maintain 
 and enforce, and to sustain him in the prosecution of the war is to 
 sanction all his usurpations." 
 
 I propose to discuss that proposition in another communication. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Ottawa, Illinois. 
 
 "Washington, April 28, 1863. 
 
 Hon. J. D. Caton:— i • i t, .^ oo 
 
 My dear Sir — In a former communication I conclusively showed, as 
 I think, that all ideas of peace or an armistice with the rebel States, on 
 any other basis than the independence of their Confederacy, are at 
 pJsent a delusion and a snare, and that their practical effec is to 
 encourage the rebels and dishearten loyal men. Yet there is a class of 
 
646 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 men among us who delude themselves, or seek to delude others, with 
 the idea, that peace and a restoration of the Union may be obtained by 
 negotiation, and they recommend opposition to the prosecution of the 
 war and an armistice for the purpose of trying the experiment. There 
 are two classes of these men : one of them so very credulous and 
 humane that they would have stopped to argue with Cain when in the 
 act of knocking out his brother's brains ; the other of men who have 
 sympathized with the traitors from the outset, and now seek to secure 
 their success by withholding from the government the means of carry- 
 ing on the war, knowing full well that armistice is tantamount to an 
 acknowledgment of Confederate independence, and that the govern- 
 ment, looking upon it in that light, will not agree to any such measure, 
 they seek to compel it by withholding men and money. In addition to 
 the delusive cry of armistice and peace, they give as a reason for the 
 course they recommend, the alleged fact that in their measures for putting 
 down the rebellion the administration has violated the Constitution and 
 laws. Let us admit, for the sake of argument, that this position is well 
 founded, and then consider the conclusions which these men deduce 
 from it. In this view, the Constitution and laws have two practical 
 enemies : one of them seeking their entire subversion by force of arms j 
 the other violating them in a resolute effort to preserve the life of the 
 nation. What in such an emergency is the duty of the loyal citizen] 
 Obviously the only means by which not only the Constitution but the 
 nation itself can be saved from destruction is by repelling fordfe by force. 
 The only legitimate remedy for attacks on the Constitution by legisla- 
 tion and proclamation is by a change of rulers. The question for the 
 consideration of the loyal citizen who disapproves the policy and manage- 
 ment of the administration is, ought he to refuse to aid in defending his 
 country and its Constitution against armed traitors, until they can be 
 rescued from mismanagement or usurpation by incapable or treacherous 
 public officers'? Or, instead of defending the Constitution against' 
 armed traitors, will he turn his arms against his own government, under 
 pretence of correcting abuses, and thus insure the success of rebellion 
 and the ruin of his country 1 Each of these attacks on our Constitu- 
 tion has its appropriate remedy, which the truly loyal citizen will know 
 how to apply. The attack by arms, he will repel by arms ; the attack 
 by legislation and proclamations, he will endeavour to repel by a peace- 
 ful change of rulers through the independent exercise of the right of 
 suffrage. Will he refuse to repel the attack by arms until he shall have 
 repelled the attack by proclamation or legislation 1 The result might 
 be that he would soon have neither Constitution, government, nor 
 country to defend. Will he attempt to change the policy of his govern- 
 ment by force 1 This would be destroying the Constitution under pre- 
 
LETTER TO MR. CATON. g^hr 
 
 text of defending it. It would be the inauguration of civil war in the 
 North, and at once give success to the rebels. The Constitution knows 
 no such process as force to effect a change of rulers or of public policy, 
 and he who entertains any such projects is a traitor in his heart. Next 
 to him in guilt is he who ^ould encourage desertions, discourage enlist- 
 ment, or in any way, whether treasonable or not, wilfully embarrass 
 and weaken the government in the prosecution of the war. In its at- 
 tempts to suppress the rebellion, if in nothing else, the administration 
 is doing its sworn duty, and in performing it is entitled to the support 
 of every patriotic citizen. A just people will excuse errors of judg- 
 ment in the selection of means, provided they be honestly designed 
 to accomplish the one great end. If they shall not be sq designed, 
 or shall be unnecessarily harsh and oppressive, let us charge them 
 to an account to be settled at the great day of accounts after the sup- 
 pression of the rebellion. Let us first defend our Constitution by 
 conquering the armed rebels, and then vindicate its principles at the 
 polls. 
 
 Obedience to a law is not necessarily an approval of the law. The 
 good citizen will obey the law, however unjust it may be, and seek 
 redress in the courts of justice or at the polls. The executive authority, 
 to which the suppression of the rebellion has been intrusted, adopts 
 a policy for that purpose which is obnoxious to the citizen, — shall the 
 citizen refuse his aid in accomplishing the great end because he does not 
 like the means 1 
 
 Nothing can be clearer to my mind than the duty of all true Demo- 
 crats under existing circumstances. It is to support the war with as 
 much determination as if they heartily approved of its management, 
 and at the same time give such a direction to their political action as 
 may put an end to its mismanagement and abuses. Probably the 
 salvation of their country, certainly the future fame and success of their 
 party, depend on their taking and persevering in this patriotic course. 
 Let us all adopt as our motto the sentiment of the invincible hero and 
 incorruptible statesman, Andrew Jackson : — 
 
 ''The Federal Union: It must be preserved." 
 
 And let us add " Slavery or no slavery." No true Northern man 
 loves slavery for slavery's sake. The genuine patriot loves the Constitu- 
 tion and the Union more than he loves slavery or hates it. He would 
 not give them up to save slavery or to abolish it. If one must perish, let 
 slavery perish. Why should any loyal man sympathize with the rebel 
 slave-holders for the loss of their slaves ? They voluntarily put them in 
 jeopardy by their rebellion ; they are fast losing them by their obstinate 
 persistence ; they might now save what is left of them by submission to 
 the Constitution and laws ; but if they are determined never to submit, 
 
548 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 who ought to regret to see the slave become an independent freeman 
 upon the plantation of his master '? 
 
 Let no one suppose from the contents of this letter that the policy or 
 management of the administration in their attempts to suppress the 
 rebellion is deemed by me unexceptionable /but I must write another 
 letter to put myself right on that subject. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Ottawa, IlUnois. AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 EESPONSIBILITIES OF POSTMASTERS. 
 
 To THE Morning Chronicle : — My attention has been attracted to 
 some comments on my official action when Postmaster-General, touching 
 the circulation of printed matter through the mails, in one of your edi- 
 torials this morning, and in a report of the present Postmaster-General. 
 The principles involved in that action do not appear to be distinctly 
 
 I 
 
 understood. 
 
 You say that " Under the strong appeals of the slaveholders and their 
 Northern Democratic friends, and in utter defiance of the aboHtionists 
 of that day, the most drastic measures of prevention were enforced for 
 a long period of time.'' 
 
 Now, if it be intended to mean that I, as Postmaster-General, enforced 
 any "measures of prevention," it is an entire misapprehension. I did 
 indeed express the opinion, that the United States had no rightful power 
 to circulate through their mails and postmasters incendiary documents 
 prohibited hy the laws of the States^ and I declined taking any measures 
 to punish postmasters for refusing to be made instrumental in violating 
 those laws. Of course, the abolitionists had as little regard for State 
 laws then as they have for the Constitution of the United States now, 
 and abused me most soundly ; but I survived it. 
 
 Prima facie it is the legal duty of every postmaster to forward all 
 newspapers placed in his office to be mailed, and, if he refuses to do so, 
 he is liable in 'damages to the party aggrieved. The Postmaster-General 
 cannot excuse him from the performance of that duty, nor shield him 
 from damages if he refuses. The law prohibits postmasters and others 
 from opening letters not addressed to them, under a heavy penalty. On 
 one occasion the Washington postmaster came to me with a police officer, 
 bringing a letter which they asked authority to open, believing it would 
 lead to the detection of a criminal. My reply was, that I had no lawful 
 power to open the letter myself or to authorize them to open it ; that 
 knowing the motive, I would not punish the postmaster for opening it ; 
 but if he did so, he would expose himself to the penalty of the Ikw from 
 which I had no power to screen him. He opened the letter, and it fully 
 verified his suspicions. Of course nobody complained of him. 
 
A CLERICAL REBUKE. 549 
 
 So in reference to the circulation of incendiary newspapers and docu- 
 ments prohibited by the laws of the States. I had no rightful power to 
 authorize the violation of those laws, or screen postmasters from pun- 
 ishment for so doing. I therefore practically left them in that, as in the 
 first instance, to their legal responsibilities, with only this difference, that 
 when called on I expressed the opinion that they were right. And the 
 abolitionists thought so too ; for they never ventured to sue the post- 
 master at New York for refusing to mail their documents to the South. 
 
 There is certainly a wide difference between my action and that of 
 the present Postmaster-General, and it is a little singular that he first 
 quotes me as a precedent, and afterwards repudiates the precedent alto- 
 gether. 
 
 While I left the postmasters to forward the obnoxious papers or not, 
 under their responsibility to the law, he peremptorily forbids their mail- 
 ing them, without regard to the law. My opinions even justified them 
 only in refusing to mail incendiary papers into States where their circu- 
 lation was prohibited by law. The orders of the present Postmaster- 
 General prohibit the mailing of certain obnoxious papers into auy States, 
 law or no law. 
 
 I do not write to censure the Postmaster-General, who, however, must 
 look for full justification to an extreme political necessity not within the 
 horizon of my limited vision. That there are papers claiming to be 
 Democratic which ought to be suppressed, I have no doubt. Being now 
 and forever a Democrat of the Jackson school, I have no affinity with 
 those who, under that honored name, cry for peace by the sacrifice of 
 the Union, and quite as little with those who seek to save the Union by 
 the destruction of the Constitution. When the Democratic party be- 
 comes a secession party, and the Republican party becomes an abolition 
 nartv I shall seek for new political affinities, or remain a ^ar^y hy myself. 
 ^ "" AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 February 19, 1863. 
 
 A CLERICAL REBUKE. 
 
 Kendall Green, December 9, 1863. 
 
 Rev, 
 
 Sir _ On the 4th instant you called on me with a letter from the 
 
 Rev. Mr. H^ , and asked for a subscription to aid you in complet- 
 
 ino- a house of worship for the colored people. 
 
 To Mr H 's name was attached an apparent subscription of twenty 
 dollars. Actuated by his recommendation and liberality, I gave you a 
 
 check for thirty dollars. i. • 4.- + 
 
 I have since learned that Mr. H. did not attach any subscription to 
 his name, and that another subscription of twenty dollars on your book 
 is equally fictitious. You therefore came to me with a he m your hand, 
 
650 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 and thereby obtained my money. I fear you have studied the New 
 Testament with little profit if you consider forgery and falsehood allow- 
 able means for raising money for any purpose whatsoever. 
 
 My first impulse on making this discovery was to advertise you as an 
 impostor, seeking to raise money by false pretences ; but in the charita- 
 ble hope that in this matter you acted without due consideration of the 
 moral turpitude of the transaction, and on being reminded of it, will at 
 once abandon the use of such means to raise money, I content myself 
 at present with writing this letter. How can you teach the observance 
 of truth as a Christian duty to your flock, if you think it right to prac- 
 tice deception yourself ? Of all men preachers should be most strict. 
 
 Veiy respectfully, your obt. serv't, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Another series of articles on public affairs from Mr. Kendall's 
 pen, signed " Andrew Jackson," was published in the " Evening . 
 Star " at this tirqe. Their lofty patriotism and powerful arguments 
 are shown in the following letter : — 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS WHY EVERY PATRIOT SHOULD SUSTAIN THE 
 ADMINISTRATION IN THEIR ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS THE RE- 
 BELLION. 
 
 To all Unconditional Union Men in the United States : — 
 
 The following considerations are conclusive in the mind of the writer, 
 that it is the imperative duty of every true patriot to sustain the ad- 
 ministration in their efforts to suppress the existing rebellion : — 
 
 1. Our country is at war, and the administration are the only consti- 
 tutional organs by whom it can be carried on. 
 
 2. The object of the war on the part of the rebels is to break up the 
 government and destroy the Union, now and forever, by the establish- 
 ment of a Southern Confederacy. What would soon be the fate of the 
 North if the administration be not sustained with men and money, may 
 be conceived by imagining where the rebel armies of Lee and Bragg 
 would now be had they been victorious at Antietam or Gettysburg, Mur- 
 freesboro' and Chattanooga'} Not to support the administration with 
 adequate means, is to give up our capital, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New 
 York, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, and the lake cities, to rebel oc- 
 cupancy, and the intermediate country to ravage and plunder by swarms 
 of men more hungry than the locust of the African desert. 
 
 3. But it is alleged that the imbecility, bad policy, military jealousy, 
 and political ambition of the administration and its adherents, have al- 
 ready sacrificed unnecessarily tens of thousands of Northern lives, and 
 hundreds of millions of Northern money. What then 1 Shall we there- 
 
WHY THE ADMINISTRATION SHOULD BE SUSTAINED. 651 
 
 fore submit to the rebels and give up forever the hope of handing down 
 to our children the glorious legacy bequeathed to us by our fathers ] 
 Let us rather consider the imbecility, jealousy, and ambition of civil and 
 military rulers in the same light as other obstacles to success, all to be 
 overcome by sacrifices and perseverance. 
 
 4. But it is said the administration has made, and will make, an un- 
 constitutional use of the means put at their disposition. That is a risk 
 we must always encounter under any administration. But the possibil- 
 ity that they will not do their duty is no excuse for not doing our own. 
 Give all the requisite means, and hold the administration to a strict re- 
 sponsibility for their proper application. Herein is the ground of a 
 legitimate opposition, and it is already broad enough in all conscience. 
 
 5. If there were no principle which requires the patriot to furnish the 
 Administration all the means they want for carrying on the war, partisan 
 policy would dictate the same course. If furnished with abundant means 
 as heretofore, the responsibility for failures will rest exclusively with 
 themselves ; but if they are restricted in means, they will cast the re- 
 sponsibility on those who may have denied them. 
 
 6. But there are those who would refuse to furnish the administration 
 with the means of carrying on the war, because they think the Union 
 cannot be restored by force, and. would compel the government to resort 
 to an armistice and negotiation. Many of these men are perfectly sin- 
 cere ; but they labor under a strange delusion. They seem to forget the 
 origin, progress, and object of the conspiracy which in 1861 culminated 
 in the great rebellion. That conspiracy was the growth of thirty years. 
 Assiduously, during that period, have the leading conspirators inculcated 
 their revolutionary dogmas on the Southern mind, and, by bandying in- 
 sults with the abolitionists of the North, sought to produce im2:)lacable 
 hatred between the two sections. They forced themselves, by threats of 
 opposition, into the Cabinet of a weak President, and used their positions 
 to disarm the government and lay the country prostrate before meditated 
 insurrection. Their avowed object, from first to last, has not been a 
 redress of gi-ievances or further guarantees for their rights, but absolute 
 and entire independence. They are proud and haughty men who have 
 hazarded everything upon the chances of success, and had rather die 
 than go down to posterity as unsuccessful traitors. They have set their 
 hearts upon the establishment of a new empire, and will not give up the 
 hope of gilding their crimes \vith the tinsel of victory so long as they 
 can " set a squadron in the field." Every suggestion of compromise and 
 peace on any other terms than the acknowledgment of their indepen- 
 dence, has been, and will be, treated with scorn and derision. There is 
 no alternative for this government, by whomsoever administered, but to 
 deprive these men of power by defeating and dispersing the rebel armies. 
 
652 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Let that be done and the great mass of the Southern people will, if per- 
 mitted, gladly return to their allegiance. 
 
 But were it otherwise, whencp comes the cowardly or treacherous cry 
 that the rebels cannot be conquered ] When the war commenced, the 
 men of the military age in the loyal States were as four to one compared 
 with the white men of similar age in the seceded States. Now, the 
 proportions, throwing into the loyal scale the whites and blacks capable 
 of bearing arms in those portions of the seceded States occupied by the 
 Union armies, are as five to one. The loss of one man to the rebel* is 
 equal to the loss of five to the loyalists ; every drawn battle is virtually 
 a Union victory ; and every able-bodied rebel prisoner detained in cus- 
 tody, is equal to five soldiers added to the Union armies. There are 
 already about forty thousand rebel prisoners in the North, and should 
 not exchanges be resumed, there is ground to hope the day is not dis- 
 tant when half of the rebel army will be found in Northern prisons. 
 
 If, with this disparity of fighting men, the command of the sea, and 
 an equal disparity in all the means and appliances of war, the North 
 cannot, if need be, subjugate the people of the rebel States, we may as 
 well admit their insolent claim to superiority and bow our necks to 
 Southern domination. 
 
 It has seemed to me amazing that any Northern man, and especially 
 any Democrat, can entertain the least sympathy for the perjured leaders 
 of this inexcusable and bloody rebellion. They are rebels not only to 
 their country and to mankind, but douhly rebels to tlie Democratic party 
 which they betrayed and abandoned. Sympathy with them, by any loyal 
 man, is a crime ; but by a Democrat it is not only a crime, but a degra- 
 dation. With what utter contempt must he be looked upon by those 
 proud men ! But let us not confound with the arch conspirators the 
 mass of the Southern people who have been seduced or driven into re- 
 bellion. While we sustain our government in defeating and dispersing 
 the rebel armies, let us be prepared then to demand that the popular 
 masses shall be allowed to resume, unconditionally, their former position 
 under the Constitution and laws of their country. 
 
 This leads me to consider the President's plan of restoration, which 
 will form the subject of another letter. 
 
 January 21, 1864. ^^^S KENDALL. 
 
 On tlie 2r)th of June, 1864, Mr. Kendall was called to part with 
 his second wife. In a letter to a friend of that date, he said : — 
 
 *' But I feel it almost sacrilege to touch on any topic at this moment 
 which does not relate to the dead. This morning, my second wife, with 
 whom I hav.e lived most happily for nearly forty years, took her departure 
 for another world. She had been prostrate with that insidious disease, the 
 
LETTERS TO HIS DAUGHTERS. 
 
 653 
 
 typhoid fever, near three weeks. Its fatal termination has been appre- 
 hended for some days, but not quite so soon. At ten o'clock last night 
 she responded to my " Good night," and turned her head for a parting 
 kiss, — and a parting kiss it was. When called to her bedside, soon 
 after day this morning, she was insensible, and soon ceased to breathe. 
 My mind flew back to the first kiss in contrast with the last, — the 
 ecstacy of the one, and the sadness of the other. Such is life." 
 
 To another friend, under date of June 29th, he wrote : — 
 
 " My wife breathed her last on Saturday morning, and was buried on 
 Sunday evening last. For several days we flattered ourselves with the 
 belief that she was getting better ; but typhoid symptoms then appeared, 
 and she sank rapidly, but with little or no pain, and died as gently as a 
 child goes to sleep. It is a terrible blow to me ; but with God's help it 
 will not unman me." 
 
 To his eldest daughter, residing in Minnesota, he wrote : — 
 
 " I had lost all hope, but did not think her end so near. I requested 
 Mr. Fox, who sat up, to rouse me if there should be any serious change 
 in the night. Soon after day he entered my room and said she was 
 sinking fast. I found her insensible to voice or touch, passing away as 
 gently as an infant falls to sleep, and she breathed her last without 
 moving a muscle or giving any other sign of pain or sufl'ering. And so 
 placid were her features that one might say, Death is beautiful. 
 
 "It is to me an irreparable blow. But my remaining children are 
 very kind to me, and for them I must live henceforth, until my Maker 
 calls me home to meet the loved ones, and live in love and peace for- 
 ever.'' 
 
 Writing to his daughter, now Mrs. Cutter, in the autumn of 
 1864, Mr. Kendall said : — 
 
 " Though my health is much as it has been for many years, I do not 
 enjoy life as I did before your mother's death. Your sister Jeannie is 
 as kind to me as a daughter can be, but no other relation can supply 
 the place of a loving, ever-kind, and faithful wife. I wish all my daugh- 
 ters may make their husbands as good wives as your mother made me. 
 We were very poor, and she was very happy. We became tolerably 
 rich, and she was scarcely happier. We were in humble position, and 
 yet there was sunshine at home ; we were in high position, and our joys 
 were scarcely brighter. Rich or poor, high or low, she encountered the 
 vicissitudes of life with an equanimity seldom equalled, and perhaps 
 never surpassed. The secret of all was in her own native good sense, 
 aided perhaps by implicit confidence in her husband." 
 
654 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 At the time of her death, Mrs. Kendall was an active, earnest, 
 member of the E Street Baptist Church, in Washington, and the 
 President of the sewing-circle connected with that church. 
 
 At a meeting of the circle, soon after her decease, the following 
 resolution with others was adopted : — 
 
 " At a meeting of the managers of the Ladies' sewing-circle of the 
 Calvary Baptist Church, held on the 23d day of August, 1864, the fol- 
 fowing preamble and resolutions were unanimously passed : — 
 
 " Whereas, It has pleased God by a mysterious Providence to call from her 
 home, her friends, and her church, our beloved sister, Mrs. Amos Kendall, the 
 President of this society ; and 
 
 " Whereas, As her amiable disposition, her many moral excellencies, and her 
 devotion to the cause of Christ, exhibited in her exalted hfe and consecration 
 to his cause, have filled us with the highest admiration and regard, so that we 
 deem it alike due to her memory, and to our own feelings to bear testimony to 
 her worth ; 
 
 " Therefore, he it resolved, 1st. That, while it is with deep emotion that we 
 record her death, yet we rejoice that He w^ho removed her from those she loved 
 on earth, gave her the victory over death, and has raised her to the exalted 
 companionship of angels, and the spirits of the just made perfect, and that she 
 now lives in the immediate presence and glory of our Divine Redeemer. In 
 this life she possessed and exhibited the entire galaxy of Christian excellencies: 
 faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, brotherly kindness, and love. The church 
 of Christ was her home, and the prosperity of Zion her constant care and de- 
 light. Every enterprise for the welfare of the church found in her a ready and 
 active assistant. Her influence, her personal service, and her munificent gifts 
 fell together into the lap of the church. Among friends, bearing the dignity, 
 kindness, and cordiality which a truly sanctified spirit bestows, the social circle 
 in which she moved was exalted and blessed by her presence. As she was to 
 the afBi<!ted and bereaved a cordial sympathizer and benefactor, many beyond 
 our circle will mourn the absence of her encouraging smile and conversation. 
 Having been to the widow and fatherless a sister, a mother, and companion, 
 many, as the coming winter sets in, will miss her benefactions, which were dis- 
 tributed often by another or an unknown hand." 
 
 For several years immediately preceding this affliction, Mr. Ken- 
 dall's mind was much given to the subject of religion. It was 
 always an agreeable topic of conversation as well as of correspond- 
 ence ; the Bible was his favorite study ; and he often expressed 
 great satisfaction in the thought that his wife, daughters, and sons- 
 in-law Avere professing Christians. 
 
 The following letter to his former pastor best expresses his views 
 on this subject : — 
 
LETTER ON PROFESSING CHRISTIANITY. 555 
 
 Trenton, December 25, 1861. 
 Rev. G. W. Samson : — 
 
 My dear Sir, — Before I left Washington I received your kind letter 
 of the 11th instant, in which you express a strong desire that I should 
 make " an open profession of religion," which I have not until now found 
 time to answer. 
 
 Years ago, when the same desire was expressed to me by another 
 clergyman, who was intimate with me and my family, my reply was, " I 
 am not hypocrite enough." To you in all sincerity I make the same 
 answer. 
 
 I accept what I understand of Christianity as my rule of action ; 
 many of its mysteries I cannot say that I believe or disbelieve ; and in 
 all such cases " I am not hypocrite enough " to say before God and man 
 that I believe them. I am content to say, in all that lies beyond the 
 reach of finite mind, "God's will be done"; and few Christians, I am 
 sure, are more ready to submit to that will with entire resignation. 
 
 About 1821 I might claim to have undergone the process of con- 
 version. My wife was absent, and I had with a friend been attending an 
 evening meeting. At its close I held a conversation with my friend, 
 whose feelings sympathized with my own, and retiring to my chamber . 
 knelt in prayer. Suddenly a sensation of wonderful serenity pervaded 
 my whole being, rendering me perfectly but quietly happy. It lasted 
 several days ; but gradually I became insensible to its influence. The 
 whole thing was incomprehensible to me then, as it is now ] it did not, 
 that I am aware of, change my views in relation to morals or religion, 
 and I should then have considered myself as unfit to join a church on 
 the ordinary platform as I do now. 
 
 If this difficulty were removed, there is another which I should find 
 as difficult to overcome. It is that there is so little 2^ractical Christianity 
 among professing Christians. With few exceptions, their lives are no 
 more exemplary than those of the great mass of their fellow-citizens 
 out of the church. Their avarice is as grasping, their business subter- 
 fuges as deceptive, their pride as haughty, their envy as keen, their 
 tongues as ungovernable, and their charities no more active. I do not 
 urge this as an objection to Christianity ; but it is a serious objection to 
 churches under their present state and discipline. Unsuitable persons 
 are too readily admitted, and unworthy persons too forbearingly retained. 
 I have heard members of the church, with whom I am most familiar, 
 relate transactions of other members for which, if I were\a member, I 
 should feel it my duty to institute proceedings for their expulsion. Nor 
 have I reason to believe the members of that church to be worse than 
 those of similar bodies in general. 
 
 Perhaps my standard of Christian morals and church discipline is too 
 
656 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 high ; but being what it is, I fear I should be a disturber of the peace 
 
 in any of those bodies with which I might connect myself. 
 
 With these views I apprehend I shall die as I have lived, a church hy 
 
 myself. 
 
 With enduring regard, your friend, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 In June, 1862, Mr. Kendall wrote to Eev. J. S. Kennard, his 
 former pastor, in relation to matters connected with the Calvary 
 Baptist Church, which had then been recently organized at Wash- 
 ington, and for whose benefit he had expressed the intention of 
 making a liberal contribution : — 
 
 " What may be my own relations with the organization is as yet im- 
 certain. I have heard unofficially that they have appointed me one of 
 their trustees. If so, it has been done without consulting me and with- 
 out communicating to me their regulations, if any have been adopted. 
 
 " My willingness to serve will depend entirely on the system which 
 may be adopted for the management of the temporal affairs of the 
 church. 
 
 "1 am very anxious to see a practical, working Christian church at 
 Washington, though I have no expectation of being anything more than 
 an outside member of it. Your creeds require men to believe undoubt- 
 ingly altogether too much, and make religion to consist more in profes- 
 sions of faith than in the active performance of Christian duties. I 
 could become one of an organization of working Christians who should 
 take the New Testament for their creed, and let me construe it for my- 
 self ; but it would be most unreasonable in me to expect any body of 
 men to modify their articles of faith for the purpose of accommodating 
 them to my notions. Hence it is that I do not expect to become a 
 member of any church, though I hope always to be a practical Christian. 
 
 " To me, however, men's speculative faith, if not inconsistent with 
 positive duty, is of little consequence compared with practical Chris- . 
 tianity, as inculcated by the precepts and example of Christ and his 
 Apostles. Hence it is that I can consistently and cordially encourage 
 and assist a religious society whose practices are in accordance with New 
 Testament rules, though I may not be able to ' see eye to eye * with 
 them in matters of faith. In the hope that the new organization may 
 consist of practical Christians, whatever may be their Articles of Faith, 
 I am disposed to aid them in their enterprise, not however without a dis- 
 tinct understanding of the rules by which they propose to be governed." 
 
 To his daughter, on the occasion of the baptism of her husband 
 by a Baptist clergyman, an Episcopalian and Methodist minister 
 
RELIGIOUS OPINIONS. 657 
 
 having administered the rite of baptism by immersion to candi- 
 dates for membership in their respective churches on the same 
 occasion, Mr. Kendall \Yrote : — 
 
 My dear Jeannie, — We received last evening yonr veiy interesting 
 letter of the 3d instant. Your mother very much regrets that she 
 could not be with you on Sunday evening. To me also it would have 
 afforded much satisfaction, from the truly Christian spirit exhibited by 
 the intermingling of different denominations. I am happy to see also 
 the members of my family acquire that implicit faith which enables 
 them with all sincerity to become members of a Christian church ; for 
 whatever is good among men is comprehended in the practical precepts 
 taught in the New Testament. It is a matter of regret with me that 1 
 have never been able to command that degree of faith in the doctrines 
 insisted upon by any sect of Christians which would justify me to my- 
 self in professing faith in its creed. Perhaps I am mistaken in the de- 
 gree of faith required ; perhaps the creeds are mistaken in requiring too 
 much. Be that as it may, I have endeavored to live the life of a prac- 
 tical Christian, and feel as if I might belong to any Protestant sect if 
 they would not require me to profess implicit faith in multiflirious mat- 
 ters of a doctrinal nature which no finite mind can comprehend, and 
 which, if it could, would make the man neither better nor worse. No 
 man is more ready than I am to say " God's will be done/' and to submit 
 to that will without a murmur. 
 
 Your devoted father, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Mrs. Wm. Stickney. 
 
 A TRUE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN. 
 In February, 1865, Mr. Kendall wrote to a friend as follows: — 
 *'As I understand it, the Christian system of religion is based on the 
 fact that the human mind is incompetent to conceive the existence, or 
 perhaps I should say the form, of any being or thing independent of 
 matter. God himself was ' the unknown God ' until made ^ manifest 
 in the* flesh ' That manifestation gave man a material object of 
 worship combining matter and spirit. To that material object, mysteri- 
 ouslv spiritualized and transferred from earth to heaven, the Christian 
 addresses his devotions. This incapacity of the human mind to con- 
 ceive of the nature or form of spiritual beings independent of matter 
 nndoubtedly gave origin to idolatry, and existence to 'gods many and 
 lords many ' both in the fanciful theories of pagan mythology and m 
 idol forms provided for human worshippers. Whether adoration is 
 
 42 
 
658 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 addressed to the sun, moon, fire, or any other thing or being, it was to 
 something material in fact or in imagination. In this respect the 
 Christian and the Pagan are alike. 
 
 " All or nearly all religions are also alike in recognizing the existence 
 of God who governs the universe, of the depravity of man, of the 
 necessity of a redeemer and intercessor with God ; and some systems 
 besides the Christian have attempted to supply this general want. No 
 system except the Christian has succeeded. 
 
 "There appears to me to be two kinds of Christianity, which must be 
 united into one to make a full grown Christian. I call one the rational^ 
 the other the emotional. The rational Christian is he who exercises his 
 mind in studying out all that the human mind can grasp in the Chris- 
 tian system, and. is content to receive the balance upon faith. The 
 emotional Christian is he who scarcely thinks at all, whose religion is a 
 matter of feeling, and develops itself only in prayers and enthusiastic 
 demonstrations. One is of the head; the other of the heart. Unite 
 the two attributes in one person, and add a profusion of unselfish good 
 works, and you have my ideal of a true practical Christian.^' 
 
 On the 22nd of March, 1865, Mr. Kendall wrote to his pastor, 
 T. R. Howlett : — 
 
 " I have been a pretty constant attendant at the prayer-meetings, but 
 as yet have taken no part in them. You know something of my diffi- 
 culties about joining the church. I have, however, so far overcome 
 them some weeks since as to resolve on offering myself soon after your 
 return. I perceive there is a strong desire that I should take that 
 step, and I have determined, God willing, to announce my purpose to- 
 morrow evening. 
 
 "0 that you could be with us, but we know that your duties at present 
 are at the bedside of your dear, dying wife. I can conceive of few 
 situations more trying than yours at present. God give you grace to 
 bear your trials with patience and resignation, and in his own good time 
 restore you to your flock with increased energies to advance his king- 
 dom.r 
 
 To Rev. A. B. Earle, under date of March 31, 1865, he wrote : — 
 
 " The impulse which has decided me was in part a belief that I could 
 do more good in the church than out of it, and in part that my position 
 was in effect a standing argument with the world against Christianity. 
 I felt that I was looked upon and spoken of as a good man, but not a 
 Christian, involving the plain inference that to be a good man it is not 
 necessary to be a Christian. 
 
 *' But, my dear sir, I find it very hard to recover that blissful serenity 
 
BAPTISM OF MR KENDALL. 559 
 
 which once pervaded my whole nature. It seems impossible for me to 
 approach God in prayer without trembling of heart and confusion of 
 thought. I ask you to pray for me, and also to present my case for 
 prayer to the Christian people among whom you are laboring." 
 
 TO THE REV. T. R. HOWLETT. 
 
 ^ ^ Washington, April 1, 1865. 
 
 Rev. T. R. Howlett : — 
 
 My very dear Sir, — My heart impels me to write you a few lines, 
 in the nature of explanation. Last evening Mr. Olcott. his daughter 
 Mina, Mrs. McKnew, and myself, related our Christian experiences, and 
 were accepted by the Calvary Baptist Church. I believe every one of 
 us, and I know that myself, would have preferred being baptized by you 
 in preference to any other man. Of course, my first impulse was to 
 await your return. But a little reflection satisfied me that such was not 
 my duty. Your recent letters showed that the time of your return is 
 entirely uncertain, and may be delayed for months. On the other hand, 
 a revival was in progress ; it might be accelerated by the baptism of 
 such as were ready, or checked by an unnecessary postponement, and if, 
 as my family and friends thought, my example would have a happy 
 efiect, it seemed to me I could not furnish it too soon. Accordingly, 
 when Mr. Kennard said to me, " I suppose you will wait Mr. How- 
 lett' s return," I replied, " No, I am ready to go into the water as soon 
 as necessary arrangements can be made." 
 
 The ceremony will be performed by Mr. Kennard, God willing, in the 
 E Street Baptist Church, after morning service to-morrow. 
 
 Remember me most kindly to Mrs. Howlett. 
 
 Your devoted friend, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 "Winona, Minn. 
 
 On Sunday, April 2, 1865, the ordinance of baptism was admin- 
 istered to the two ladies referred to in the preceding letter, and to 
 
 Mr. Kendall. 
 
 The following account of the ceremony is taken from a Wash- 
 ington paper of the next day : — 
 
 " When the services at the E Street Baptist Church were concluded 
 yesterday, according to previous arrangement the ' congregation of the 
 Calvary Church with their fine choir entered, and were received by 
 Rev Dr. Gray and his church officers. 
 
 "Deep solemnity pervaded all present. A few moments elapsed, and 
 then were seen advancing down the centre aisle the then officiating 
 clergyman of the Calvary Church, Rev. J. S. Kennard, followed by two 
 
660 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 ladies, each accompanied by a deacon, .and then the venerable form of 
 the Hon. Amos Kendall, with a time-honored ofi&cer of the church by 
 his side. 
 
 *' The minister, the two ladies, and Mr. Kendall were enrobed for the 
 impressive services of immersion. 
 
 " The candidates took their seats in front of the pulpit, the choir 
 singing, 'All hail the power of Jesus' name.' The hymn concluded, 
 Mr. Kennard arose, and in most eloquent terms referred to his former 
 relation with this church and people. Dr. Gray followed with a fervent 
 prayer. Mr. Kennard then descended into the pool, where, amid deep 
 solemnity, he received and baptized the two ladies. Mr. Kendall then 
 rose, and in a firm step ascended the pulpit platform, then devoutly 
 descended the steps leading into the pool. 
 
 " The older members here looked on with intense interest, for they 
 remembered that but a few years since the devoted wife of the good 
 man, two daughters, and one son-in-law had consecrated themselves 
 freely to God in that identical spot, and they seemed to imagine his 
 feelings as he too entered the pool. Mr. Kennard received Mr. Kendall, 
 and put the usual 'questions,' to which he replied distinctly. The 
 preacher then repeated these words : ' Though for many years I have 
 endeavored to live the life of an upright man, yet, by not attaching myself 
 to the church, I feel that my life was a standing opposition to Chris- 
 tianity.^ These words are understood to have formed a part of Mr. 
 Kendall's experience before the church. He was then baptized, and the 
 services closed with prayer and benediction." 
 
 That immersion was the mode of baptism, as practised by the 
 founder of the Christian religion and his apostles, Mr. Kendall 
 never entertained a doubt, 
 
 Eeferring to this subject afterwards in a letter, he wrote : — 
 
 '' The most interesting news I have to give you is the conversion of 
 my grandson, Willie Stickney, and his baptism last Sabbath in Phila- 
 delphia, by Rev. J. S. Kennard, in the presence of his father and mother 
 and myself. That the occasion was most interesting you may well im- 
 agine. And to me it is a great consolation to see all my surviving children 
 devoting themselves to the service of the Redeemer. The only draw- 
 back is that some of them do not feel it their duty to follow his example 
 and obey his commands in the matter of baptism ; but as their dis- 
 obedience is not wilful, 1 trust it will be forgiven." 
 
 In the new version of the Bible he strongly deprecated the sub- 
 stitution of the word immerse for baptize, upon which he wrote the 
 following characteristic article : — 
 
IMMERSION NOT BAPTISM. 
 
 IMMERSION NOT BAPTISM. 
 
 661 
 
 " The meaning of a word is the idea which it conveys. The English word 
 BAPTIZE does not convey to the majority of those who hear and read it the 
 idea of immersion. But the idea of the Greek word baptizo is immersion. As 
 BAPTIZE does not convey that idea, it is not a true and faithful translation. It 
 is error, and displeases God. 
 
 ^' Does the Greek word baptizo mean to raise out of the water? No. It 
 never had that meaning among the Greeks. The hundreds of quotations from 
 Greek authors adduced in the books disprove any such supposition. None of 
 the great scholars of Europe ever suggested it. The idea was never started 
 till the question arose about revising the common version, and then opponents 
 of revision inserted it. 
 
 " It is true that those who are immersed on the profession of their faith, are 
 afterivards raised out of the water. But the Greek word baptizo does not 
 mean to raise out of the water." 
 
 I take issue with the learned gentleman and maintain that the Greek 
 word baptizo does now, and has from the institution of baptism as a 
 Christian rite, include the idea of raising out of the water. For the 
 truth of this assertion, I appeal to the following testimony : — • 
 
 1. The common sense of all those who have been baptized or have 
 witnessed a baptism in font or river in the only true mode. Did any 
 Baptist ever conceive that his baptism was complete until he was raised 
 out of the water % Did any spectator ever conceive that the ceremony 
 was complete as soon as the subject was plunged under the water 1 I 
 am sure no one ever had that idea until it was recently invented to 
 justify an abandonment of the name given by Christ and his apostles 
 to this most solemn Christian rite. 
 
 2. The New Testament itself. What did Christ mean in this respect 
 when he commanded his disciples to " go and teach all nations, baptizing 
 them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost" 1 
 Did he mean that they should plunge all nations under the w^ater and 
 let them stay there ? If that was the end of the rite, it was tantamount 
 to a command to drown all nations ! If the idea of raising them out of 
 the water is not embraced in the word baptize, or baptizo, then the ad- 
 ministrator of the ordinance has complied w^ith the command when he 
 has put the subject under the water, and ought then to let go of him.' 
 He has, upon that hypothesis, no right to raise him out of the water; 
 for that is adding to the divinely prescribed ceremony, which he has no 
 
 right to do. 
 
 The most minute description we have of the ceremony of baptism, m 
 
 the New Testament, is in the case of Philip and the eunuch, Acts viii. 
 
 Qa '^9 " They went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch ; 
 
 H h baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water," etc. 
 
662 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Three acts are here described : First, going down into the water ; sec- 
 ondly, the baptizing ; thirdly, the coming up out of the water. Going 
 down into the water was no part of the baptism, nor was coming up out 
 of the water j but the baptism was that which Philip did between the 
 going down and the coming up. What was that ] He plunged the 
 eunuch into and under the water and raised him up again, and this pro- 
 cess is described by the word haxjtize. They did not come up out of the 
 water while the eunuch was under the water, but after he was raised up 
 out of the water. They went down and stood in the water; Philip 
 plunged him into the water and raised him up again hy one continuoiis 
 movement^ which left them again standing in the water ; and then^ the 
 ceremony being completed, they came up out of the water. Every one 
 who looks at a Baptist baptism may realize this scene by the evidence 
 of his own senses. He may also realize that without the raising out 
 of the water it would be a drowning instead of a hcqytism. Instead of 
 being an incident like " clothing," and " numerous other attendant cir- 
 cumstances,'' it is an essential part of the thing itself ; so essential that 
 without it every baptism would he a murder. 
 
 3. Much learning and labor have been wasted in hunting up passages 
 in heathen authors to prove that the Greek word haptizo^ as used by them, 
 does not mean raising out of the water. What has all that to do with 
 the subject % The question is not what the word means in heathen 
 authors, but what does it mean in the New Testament % The word ex- 
 isted before the Christian rite of baptism was instituted. In adopting 
 a name for the new rite, Christ and his Apostles selected this word as 
 more analogous to the ceremony in its accepted meanings than any other 
 in the Greek language. But to ascertain its meaning, in its new appli- 
 cation, we must look to the new thing intended to be described by it, 
 rather than to the old things to which heathen authors had previously 
 applied it. If a new -word, or any other old word of any other meaning 
 in heathen authors, had been adopted, its true meaning, as descriptive of 
 the new rite, could be ascertained only by reference to the rite itself. 
 The rite does not derive its form or existence from its name ; but the 
 name derives its meaning from the rite. Christ and his Apostles adopted 
 the words haptisma and haptizo as the names of their new rite, and the 
 process of administering it. They became equivalent to proper names, 
 and the translators of our English Bible, not feeling authorized to alter 
 them, or not being able to find equivalent English words, very properly 
 retained the Greek, altered — not in meaning nor even in form — only so 
 far as was necessary to conform them to the idioms of the English lan- 
 guage. But our revisers have become more learned if not more wise. 
 They have found an English equivalent for haptizo in the word immer- 
 sion ; but as that literally means only plunging into the watei^, they are 
 
Calvary Baptist Church, Washington, D. C. 
 
LETTER TO MR. KENNARD. 553 
 
 obliged, in order to make it a true translation of haptizo, to cut off one 
 half of the sacred rite and leave all poor Baptists under the water 1 Im- 
 merse means simply to plunge into the water ; hajytize means to plunge 
 into the water and raise out of the water, and this is the only true 
 Christian baptism, when done in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 4. Let us see how sundry passages of the New Testament would read 
 with haptizo translated into simple Anglo-Saxon, meaning only to plunge 
 under the water. Matthew iii. 13, 14,16. **Then cometh Jesus from 
 Galilee to Jordan unto John, to he put under water of him. But John 
 forbad him, saying, I have need to be put under the water of thee, and 
 comest thou to me % . . . . And Jesus, when he was put under the water ^ 
 went up straightway out of the water,'' etc. Matthew xx. 22, 23. " But 
 Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink 
 of the cup that I shall drink of, or to be put under the water with the 
 putting under the water that I 'am put under the water with*? They say 
 unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them. Ye shall drink indeed 
 of my cup, and be put under the water with the putting under the water 
 that I am put under the water with,'' etc. 
 
 The Calvary Baptist Society, which Mr. Kendall had joined, 
 was engaged in the erection of a new edifice, mainly by his aid. 
 Eeferring to this subject and his own religions exercises, he wrote in 
 a letter to Kev. J. S. Kennard, July 7, 1865 : — 
 
 '* Our new church excites more admiration as its details are developed. 
 But it will be very costly. My advances will be over $ 60,000 ; but all 
 this I shall esteem as nothing if the church shall come up to my ideal 
 of what a Christian church ought to be, and in " the beauty of holiness " 
 far outshine the architectural beauties of their temple of worship. Of this 
 I almost despair when 1 reflect upon my own imperfections. I find it 
 hard to subdue my heart to the dispensation of Providence which has 
 doomed me to a condition of comparative loneliness during the remain- 
 ino- period of my earthly existence. So smoothly had my life passed for 
 many years that 1 took almost no note of time, and the death of a be- 
 loved wife first awoke me to the fact that I was an old man, — a fact I 
 am more and more forced to realize when, looking around me, I find 
 almost none left of the generation to which I belong, while those of 
 succeeding generations, although they sympathize with me and perhaps 
 1 me as a son or a daughter may love, cannot reciprocate the love of 
 +h t higher relation which binds two hearts in one. My children are as 
 V rl to me as children can be, and I believe love me as children ought 
 + 1 ve a kind father ; but they cannot fill the void left by the death of 
 
664 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 their sainted mother. I have sought relief by * marrying the church/ 
 and I hope to find in her that peace and happiness which cannot but 
 flow from a cheerful acquiescence in the Divine will. Pray for me that 
 it may be so ; for as yet it is not so." 
 
 The following is from a letter written July 12, 1865 : — 
 
 " I have a Bible class in our Sabbath-school, and the subject of our 
 study and discussion during the last month was the Lord's Prayer. 
 Many ideas in connection with that wonderful production, somewhat 
 new to me, were elicited. One of the most impressive is the qualifica- 
 tion for approaching the Throne of Grace, with any hope of being kindly 
 received, implied in the petition, " Forgive us our debts as we forgive our 
 debtors.'" Who can utter this prayer in sincerity and at the same time 
 cherish in his heart ill-will, enmity, or an unforgiving spirit towards any 
 human being % It is only as we forgive that we can ask to be forgiven^ — 
 not imaginary wrongs only, but real wrongs, however aggi'avated. What 
 human wrong can be more aggravated than sin against God 1 And how 
 dare we ask forgiveness of him while we do not forgive those comparatively 
 trifling wrongs which we may have received from our fellow-men 1 It is 
 an insult to our heavenly Father to ask forgiveness when we do not for- 
 give. The very first thing we have to do to fit us to approach the 
 throne of grace is to exercise that godlike virtue which we ask God to 
 exercise for our benefit, and freely forgive every wrong which we may 
 have received from our fellow-men. It is only as we forgive that we are 
 entitled to ask forgiveness ; and if there be no forgiveness in our hearts, 
 what do we pray for in this prayer but curses instead of blessings % God's 
 judgments are the only answers we have a right to expect to every 
 petition coming up to him from unforgiving hearts." 
 
 On the 3d day of June, 1866, the new house of worship of the 
 Calvary Baptist Church was dedicated to the service of God. The 
 day was auspicious, and multitudes tlironged the temple. For 
 montlis this day had been looked forward to by Mr. Kendall with 
 increasing interest. As chairn\an of the building committee, he 
 applied his best energies to the work, watching its progress, super- 
 vising its details, scrutinizing the material, and devoting himself 
 almost exclusively to the achievement of this enterprise, so dear to 
 his heart. The cost greatly exceeded the original estimate, so that 
 his own advances were not less than a hundred tliousand dollars. 
 Though so much pleasure had been anticipated by Mr. KendaU 
 on this occasion, he was doomed to sad disappointment. He had 
 been suffering severely with a bad cold for several w^eeks, and on 
 
MR. KENDALL'S INTEREST IN SABBATH-SCHOOLS. 665 
 
 the morning of the dedication he had a fever and headache which 
 contiDued during the day. He attended both services, and re- 
 ceived with an almost fainting heart the congratulations of his 
 friends. 
 
 Referring to these circumstances in a letter to a friend, he said : 
 " We had anticipated too much worldly enjoyment on this occasion, 
 and our heavenly Father has sent us this disappointment by way 
 of rebuke." 
 
 As an active member of the church, laboring to build up its 
 spiritual interests, Mr. Kendall was equally zealous. Constant in 
 his attendance upon the meetings, public and devotional ; earnest in 
 his exhortations to its members ; faithful in his duties as a teacher 
 in the Sunday-school, where he seemed to forget his old age as his 
 heart overflowed with love and sympathy for all its members ; 
 visiting and ministering unto the sick ; liberal in his contributions ; 
 — he had fully consecrated himself, his means, and his energies to 
 the cause of his Divine Master. 
 
 His heart retained all the freshness and buoyancy of youth, 
 though his almost snow-white hair, trembling hand, and feeble 
 frame admonished him that the last of earth was near. 
 
 Although he never failed to attend any of the meetings of the 
 church, unless prevented by sickness or other insuperable obstacle, 
 the Sunday-school possessed for him peculiar attractions. He 
 loved to be among the children, to be at their celebrations, and fes- 
 tivals, and picnics, and mingle in their sports. 
 
 Notwithstanding his familiarity with the Scriptures, his almost 
 invariable rule was to devote from six to twelve hours' close study 
 in preparing to go before his class. Commentaries he cared little 
 for, but he compared scripture with scripture, examined critically 
 the original Greek, studied the customs and habits of the ancients, 
 and thus by diligent and patient investigation, prayer and medita- 
 tion, he furnished himself for his Sunday-school labors. That his 
 interest in this field of usefulness was not of recent origin, appears 
 from the foUowing letter, yeUow with age, which was found among 
 
 his papers : — 
 
 Frankfort, Ky., September 17, ]829. 
 
 Dear Brother, — This will be presented by Mr. Amos Kendall of this 
 place, who has taken an active part in promoting a Sunday-school here, 
 ^hich is independent, and auxiliary to none. Mr. Kendall is anxious to 
 obtain such information as may be productive of good to this school. 
 
566 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL; 
 
 We therefore take pleasure in recommending him to your attention as a 
 
 gentleman desirous of promoting the interests of religion, as one of the 
 
 managers of the Sunday-school at this place, and as the editor of the 
 
 "Argus of Western America,'' published here. 
 
 Yours, in the bonds of the gospel, 
 
 JOHN LITTLEJOHN. 
 B. T. Cranch. 
 
 The custom which prevailed in most churches of taking up col- 
 lections, Sabbath after Sabbath, was in the opinion of Mr. Kendall, 
 simply an "abomination." The placing of boxes or other recep- 
 tacles in the vestibule, for voluntary offerings from strangers and 
 others, he approved and recommended ; but the offering of bags or 
 plates, with intent to solicit gifts during the service, he esteemed a 
 wilful desecration of the Temple of God. He also regarded the 
 incurring of debts by churches as not only detrimental to their 
 usefulness, but positively immoral. His proposition to aid the 
 Calvary Baptist Church was based upon certain conditions, de- 
 signed to prevent these practices. The conditions set forth in his 
 deed of gift to the church, and formally agreed to by that body, 
 are as follows : — 
 
 " In trust, nevertheless, for the following uses and purposes, and sub- 
 ject to the conditions contained in the letter and agreement of the party 
 of the first part, dated June 6, 1865, to the committee of said church, 
 as follows : — 
 
 "1. As a place of public worship. For the accommodation of a Sab- 
 bath-school. For other religious business meetings of said society. For 
 lectures, fairs, festivals, and exhibitions, all of a moral character, as 
 means of raising money for religious and benevolent objects. For gen- 
 eral meetings of Baptist associations and other religious assemblies. 
 And it shall not be used for any other purpose whatsoever. 
 
 " 2. The pastor of said church and congregation shall be elected, and 
 may be dismissed, by the majority of the members of the church. All 
 persons who do now, or shall hereafter, for a period of three consecutive 
 months, contribute by pew-rents or otherwise towards the payment of 
 church expenses, shall, so long as said contribution shall continue, be 
 considered members of the congregation, entitled to the same vote as 
 members of the church in the election of trustees, clerk, and treasurer, 
 and in all matters pertaining to its temporalities. Provided, that indi- 
 viduals not thus qualified may at any time be admitted as members of 
 the congregation by a majority of the church and congregation. Pro- 
 vided also, that a majority of all the members composing the church and 
 
CONDITIONS OF A GIFT TO HIS CHURCH. 5^7 
 
 congregation, for good cause shown, may exclude any member of the 
 congregation from all participation in its proceedings. 
 
 " 3. No contributions shall be taken up on the Sabbath-day for the 
 use of the church and congregation, in any respect whatsoever." Pro- 
 vided that this restriction shall not be construed so as to prevent the 
 raising of money for such use, in any other mode, which may be adopted 
 by said society or their trustees, nor to prevent occasional or stated col- 
 lections, in the ordinary mode, for missionary, Sabbath-school, and other 
 chai'itable purposes. 
 
 " 4. Neither the church, nor the church and congregation, nor both 
 united, shall contract or owe at any one time a debt or debts exceeding 
 in the aggregate two thousand dollars. 
 
 " 5. The office of pastor shall not be allowed to remain vacant at any 
 one time for more than eighteen months. 
 
 " 6. The church and congregation shall not suffer their board of 
 trustees to become extinct by dissolution of their society or otherwise. 
 
 " 7. They shall not suffer said lot and building to pass out of their 
 own possession. 
 
 " 8. If the said church and congregation shall hereafter allow said 
 house to be used for any other purpose than .those prescribed in the 
 first foregoing conditions, or if they shall in any way disregard or violate 
 any of the foregoing provisions, then, in that case, the title and property 
 of said lot and church edifice shall be forfeited, and the property shall 
 revert to me, or in case of my decease, to such of my heirs as shall be 
 at the time of said revision, members of the Baptist church in good 
 
 standing. 
 
 " 9. But in case the said church and congregation shall not hereafter 
 violate or disregard any of the conditions of the trust, then the said lot 
 and buildino- shall forever remain in trust, as aforesaid, for the uses of 
 said church and congregation, and all claims by me or my heirs on 
 account of any moneys expended therefor or thereon, heretofore or here- 
 after, shall be forever cancelled." 
 
 Several years' experience has vindicated the wisdom and pro- 
 priety of these conditions, and though unusual in Baptist, or per- 
 haps any other, churches, their influence has been most salutary. 
 
 The project of visiting foreign countries, especially the land of 
 Palestine, had for some time occupied Mr. Kendall's mind. With 
 the double motive of acquainting himself by actual observa- 
 tion with the lands of the Bible, that he might impart instruc- 
 tion to his Sunday-school class, and of improving his health, 
 he sailed for Europe, in the Scotia, June 27, 1866, Ins daughter, 
 
568 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Mrs. William Stickney, her husband and son accompanying him. 
 To many of his friends, this undertaking, in view of his great age 
 ■ — seventy-seven years — and his feeble health, seemed hazardous ; 
 while others, who knew him better, prophesied beneficial results 
 from it. 
 
 The good ship, after a very rapid passage of eight days and 
 three hours, landed her passengers at Queenstown on the evening 
 of the 5th of July. 
 
 The nation's birth-day was celebrated on board ship with all due 
 ceremony and enthusiasm. The morning was glorious. A fresh 
 breeze from the northwest filled the canvas and sent the ship leap- 
 ing at the rate of sixteen knots the hour. The passage had thus 
 far been unprecedentedly short, and as we expected the next day 
 to tread the soil of the Emerald Isle, all hearts were light and pre- 
 pared to enter enthusiastically upon the celebration of the day. 
 
 The stars and stripes waved from the mast-head, and the 
 national colors of Columbia and Albion in loving embrace dec- 
 orated the cabin. 
 
 After dinner the company were called to order, and Mr. Kendall 
 was chosen to preside. He came up from his state-room and said, 
 with Neptune's permission, he would accept the honor, and endeavor 
 to perform the duties of the place assigned him. He remained in the 
 cabin but a few minutes, however, and again sought his state-room. 
 Toasts, and speeches, and champagne, the latter liberally furnished 
 by the Captain, enlivened the patriotic company for an hour ; and, 
 exhilarated by proud memories of the land we had left behind us, 
 and pleasant anticipations of that we were approaching, the com- 
 pany se[)arated, with three hearty cheers for Captain Judkins and 
 his noble ship. 
 
 The following letter from Paris, written by Mr. Kendall to his 
 pastor in Washington, tells the story of the travellers' adventures 
 up to its date. 
 
 Paris, August 25, 1866. 
 Pi,EV. T, R. HOWLETT : — 
 
 My dear Brother, — Since we left the shores of America we have 
 seen much to admire in the works of the great Creator and of his 
 creature, man. The boundless ocean with its restless waves, the hills 
 and lakes of Ireland and Scotland, the hills and dales of England, and 
 the plains of France, lead the devout mind to the contemplation of the 
 power and goodness of God, who has so diversified this beautiful world 
 
SABBATHS IN EUROPE. 669 
 
 as to prepare it not only to supply the wants, but also to gratify the 
 tastes and minister to the pleasures of his earthly children. In the 
 silent memorials of antiquity, and the rude Irish hut occupied by 
 human beings in common with beasts and fowls, we are forced to con- 
 template the degradation to which man sunk himself by transgressing 
 the laws of his nature ; and in the ruined structures of barbaric ages we 
 see him gradually redeeming himself by the aid of a Christianity not 
 yet fully understood, and not at all appreciated in its most glorious at- 
 tributes. It is quite remarkable that during the dark ages the religion 
 of Christ was universally recognized, as attested by inscriptions upon 
 tombs, palaces, and ruins still existing, when history informs us that at 
 the same time its professors were strangers to all its loving precepts, 
 and went forth to plunder and kill in the name of the Kedeemer. And 
 do we not still behold a remnant of the same infatuation even in our 
 times, when Christian nations go to war with each other; each calling on 
 God to aid them in the bloody strife 1 
 
 Our first Sabbath on this side of the ocean was spent in the city of 
 Cork, in Ireland. On inquiring for a Baptist church, we were told that 
 there was now none in the city ; that some years ago there was one in 
 a floimshing condition, but their pastor left them in consequence of 
 some difficulty j that they had never employed another; that their 
 house of worship was dilapidated, and that now there were probably not 
 
 ten Baptists in the city. 
 
 Our second Sabbath was spent in Dublin, where there are several 
 Baptist churches. We attended service in " The Tabernacle" ; a singular 
 building for a church, having three galleries around three sides, with a 
 pulpit 'projecting from the level of the second gallery. The service con- 
 sisted of congregational singing led by the pastor, prayers, reading a 
 chapter from the Bible with a running commentary thereon, and a 
 repetition of the same course at night, but no regular sermon, — the whole 
 beincr rather dull. The house would hold, I suppose, two thousand; 
 but "there were not five hundred in attendance. 
 
 Our third Sabbath was spent in Glasgow, Scotland, where there are 
 several Baptist churches. We heard an excellent sermon from a young 
 man named Medhurst. Observing the communion table set, we re- 
 mained after the congregation was dismissed, and gladly accepted an 
 invitation to participate ; the pastor announcing that we were from 
 Washington, in the United States. On the conclusion of the ceremony 
 the preacher and some of the elders clustered around us and we had 
 quite an agreeable conversation. On inquiring about their Sabbath-school, 
 we were told that they had only a ragged school, to which the members 
 of the church did not send their own children ! . , . ,^ . 
 
 The difference between their service and ours is, that m theirs the in- 
 
670 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 vocation is omitted, the singing is altogether congregational, and the 
 congregation is dismissed immediately after the close of the sermon. 
 
 Our fourth Sabbath was spent in Edinburgh. It was a wet day, and 
 having no knowledge of the Baptist churches, Mr. Stickney went in the 
 morning to hear Dr. Candlish, but was disappointed, and in the after- 
 noon we all heard Dr. Lee, — both Presbyterians. 
 
 Our fifth Sabbath was also spent in Edinburgh, and having learned that 
 there were several Baptist churches in the city, we sought them out. In 
 the morning we heard a good sermon from a Mr. Watson, who stated in 
 his discourse that he had been fifty years a preacher of the gospel, and 
 twenty the pastor of that church. Here also we partook of the sacra- 
 ment ; at its close were introduced to the pastor, and were treated very 
 kindly. The service was like ours, with the omission of the invocation, 
 and we were surprised to hear an organ and a choir. 
 
 In the afternoon we went to another Baptist church and heard a sim- 
 ilar service, except that there was no organ, and the singing was alto- 
 gether congregational. Here also the communion table was set, but we 
 did not remain. The Scotch Baptists commune every Sabbath. 
 
 In general, no contributions are taken up by any denomination in 
 Edinburgh during the services • but they have conspicuous boxes in the 
 vestibules of their churches, into which contributors drop their offerings 
 unsolicited. 
 
 On inquiring about their Sabbath-schools, we were told they were sus- 
 pended during the hot season, — a season so cold to us that we found it 
 necessary for our comfort to have a fire in our parlor, every day after the 
 first, during our stay in Edinburgh. 
 
 The Presbyterian is the predominant religious denomination in Scot- 
 land; but it is divided into two classes, one the government church, 
 supported by a general tax ; the other " the Free Church," supported by 
 voluntary contributions. But they are not the Presbyterians of John 
 Knox's time. We visited Knox's house, and saw the window through 
 which he preached to crowds in the streets. We saw pulpits, mere boxes 
 of boards, still preserved, from which he addressed multitudes, standing 
 in the old Catholic cathedrals. All is changed. The old cathedrals are 
 now used as Presbyterian places of worship, having in some instances 
 been divided by partitions into two or more apartments. We visited 
 one in Edinburgh where three Presbyterian societies worship in separate 
 apartments, each abundantly capacious, under ^the same old roof. In 
 Knox's time they had no seats. Now the seats are generally straight- 
 backed, uncushioned slips ; and they have no organs. On my asking 
 one of our guides why they did not have organs, she replied she did not 
 know, unless it was because the Catholics had them. This prejudice is 
 gradually giving way to the enlightenment of our age, and we were told 
 
SABBATHS IN EUROPE. 
 
 671 
 
 they now began to have organs in cases where the societies unanimously 
 desired it. But while these Presbyterian societies still maintain some 
 of the prejudices of John Knox's time, they have become, perhaps, more 
 exclusive than the Catholics or Episcopalians ever were. In some of 
 their churches, a stranger cannot enter without a ticket previously pro- 
 cured. In most of them there are printed notices requesting strangers 
 not to enter the audience room till after the first prayer. We were early 
 at Dr. Lee's church, and, in addition to the placard notice, received a 
 special warning ; but as it was raining, and there was no probability that 
 the faithful would be out in numbers, a special dispensation was, after 
 some delay, extended to us, and we were shown to seats before the com- 
 mencement of the service. 
 
 These Presbyterians are also gradually falling into the formalism of the 
 Episcopal service, having their printed prayers and lessons for each Sab- 
 bath in the month. We found in the slips of Dr. Lee's church a prayer- 
 book compiled by himself, containing morning and evening lessons for 
 every Sabbath in the year. 
 
 Desirous of witnessing the ceremonies and displays on the 15th in- 
 stant, the birth-day of Napoleon L, we came to Paris direct from Edin- 
 burgh, without passing through London, and here we spent our sixth 
 Sabbath in Europe. We attended divine service in the American chapel, 
 and heard an ordinary sermon from a clergyman from Detroit. The ser- 
 vices were of a mongrel character, half Episcopalian and half Presby- 
 terian. The organ was played wretchedly, with long voluntaries of 
 opera music between the stanzas, and the choir's voices, not strong at 
 the best, were nearly drowned by its sound. 
 
 Our seventh Sabbath in Europe was spent in this city. I presume 
 there is not a Baptist church in Paris, and if there were, its services would 
 be little edifying to us who are so little conversant with the French 
 lanffuao'e. We therefore spent most of the day in our rooms, not with- 
 out soul-communion with our Christian brothers and sisters beyond the 
 ocean We have neither seen nor heard anything since we left home to 
 make us think more lightly of our dearly beloved Calvary Ba'ptist Church. 
 On the contrary, we have seen much to attach us more strongly to its 
 flstor its choir, its prayer-meetings, general and special, its Sabbath- 
 •chool and to its members. So far as we can judge, it is far ahead of 
 
 vthino* we have yet met with among the Baptists of Europe. More 
 nd more as we become farther separated from it by distance and time, 
 do we appreciate the charm of that harmony which has existed among 
 'ts members from its first institution, and the more earnestly do we pray 
 f r its continuance. Love is the essence of Christianity, — love of God, 
 1 ve of Christ, love of the Church, love of its members, love of our neigh- 
 h rs and, if we would " be perfect as God is perfect," even love for our 
 
672 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 enemies. It is no part of the Christian to plead our natural infirmities 
 and temperament as an excuse for a want of self-control and a failure in 
 the performance of duties enjoined upon us by the word of God. The 
 want of self-control is itself a sin, and if it be habitual in us, we have 
 no right to consider ourselves Christians, 
 
 How often and how emphatically is love of the brethren inculcated 
 by Christ and his Apostles as an essential characteristic of the true 
 Christian ! How emphatically does St. Paul warn the faithful against 
 wrangling and excited discussions of any sort ! He knew and we know, 
 that the spirit of love, as well of God as of man, flies from the bosom, 
 whether of the church or of its members, which becomes agitated by 
 angry discussions. Hence it is, that we are commanded to sufiPer wrong, 
 whether of act or imputation, rather than expel the spirit of love from 
 our hearts, and aid in expelling it from the bosom of the church. 
 
 Let us never forget these facts and these teachings in their applica- 
 tion to ourselves individually, and to the Calvary Baptist Church as a 
 body. It is the spirit of harmony and love which has made it what it is, 
 and that spirit only can maintain and extend its usefulness. Let each 
 member examine himself or herself, and with jealous care guard against 
 the indulgence of those infirmities of temper, of ambition, of prejudice, 
 of pride of opinion, which more or less cling around every human heart, 
 and too often influence the words and actions of the best of men. To 
 avoid, as far as may be, occasions calling into action these human in- 
 firmities, let us not indulge in useless discussions or bring into the 
 church topics not connected with its duties or interests as a body. Our 
 one great insti-ument for good is our church itself, composed of an 
 united band of Christians. Around that, and the means of building it 
 up, let us cluster with loving hearts and ready hands. There are many 
 outside objects of benevolence, requiring the aid of such of us as have 
 time or means to devote to them. Let all such be left to our individual 
 sense of duty, lest by bringing them into the church they meet there 
 diff'erences of opinion, and cause excited discussions and angry feelings, 
 chilling our Christian ardor and giving pain to pious hearts. 
 
 If these suggestions shall seem to be unnecessary and untimely, I 
 have no excuse for making them other than an anxiety too strong to be 
 repressed, that the Calvary Baptist Church may continue to be an ex- 
 ample to the world of a band of professing Christians who live their 
 religion, as well among themselves as in their intercourse, collectively 
 and individually, with the world around them. 
 
 I am happy to say that my health has greatly improved, and that Mr. 
 and Mrs. Stickney and Willie are in excellent health. We enjoy the 
 glories of art with which we are surrounded, frequently dashed however, 
 with the reflection that the labor of millions has been oppressively taxed 
 
TRAVELS IN FOREIGN LANDS. 573 
 
 bring them into existence, and that to a very great extent they are 
 but monuments of human pride and ambition. But I have not time to 
 follow out this train of thought now. 
 
 Within a week we expect to leave for Switzerland, and thence, after 
 satisfying our curiosity, pass over into Northern Italy. 
 
 Please say to my brothers and sisters of the church that I should be 
 much gratified to hear from them or any one of them, and that my ad- 
 dress will for the present be Florence, Italy. 
 
 We shall now for a long time be among people whose language we do 
 not understand, and with whose religion we do not sympathize. Pray 
 for us that we may find a substitute for the privation in a closer com- 
 munion in spirit with our God and Saviour, and with our unseen brothers 
 and sisters of our beloved church. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 As it is impossible to give details of our trip, whose incidents 
 would fill a volume, suffice it to say, that we visited the most in- 
 teresting portions of Ireland, Scotland, and England, France, Switz- 
 erland, and Italy ; going from Naples to Alexandria, Cairo, the Eed 
 Sea, Joppa, Jerusalem, Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Samaria, Beyrout, 
 Damascus, Cyprus, Ehodes, Smyrna, Ephesus, Athens, Constanti- 
 nople, Pesth, Vienna, Munich, Prague, Dresden, Wittenberg, Ber- 
 lin, Brunswick, Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Brussels ; again to Paris, 
 thence to Lyons and the jmncipal cities in the south of France, the 
 Pyrenees, and back to Paris, London, and Liverpool, where we took 
 passage on the Persia, and arrived in New York the 17th of Octo- 
 ber, 1867, after a passage of eleven days, and an absence from home 
 of a little more than fifteen months. 
 
 During all our journeyings, which sometimes involved hardship 
 and fatigue, Mr. Kendall proved equal to every emergency, and 
 often referred to himself as the youngest of the party. 
 
 While the rest of us had assistance in climbing the steep and 
 rocky sides of the crater of Vesuvius, Mr. Kendall disdained all 
 offers of aid. Tlie ball on St. Peters at Eorae, the head of the 
 Bavarian statue at Munich, the tiresome ascent to Wartberg Castle, 
 the mer de glace, excursions among the Alps and Pyrenees, the fa- 
 tiouing journeys on horseback in Palestine, the sleeping in tents 
 within view of Bedouin robbers, the daily visits to the Exposition 
 
 p^P^g^ none of these dangers or difficulties daunted him. 
 
 Wth a lig^^ heart and buoyant spirits he entered into the full 
 
674 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 enjoyment of the tour ; returning home with invigorated health, 
 and laden with rich treasures of knowledge. 
 
 Soon after his arrival in Washington, the members of the church 
 he so much loved gave him a cordial reception ; congratulating him 
 and themselves upon his safe return. 
 
 With unabated zeal he renewed his labors with them, striving 
 by words and example to elevate the standard of Christian charac- 
 ter, and exhorting the members to still greater fidelity in their 
 duties. 
 
 A new calamity awaited him. Sunday morning, December 15, 
 1867, while the family at Kendall Green were preparing to go to 
 Sunday-school, the pastor made his appearance, bringing the sad 
 news that our beautiful temple of worship was in ruins ; having 
 been destroyed by fire during the night. 
 
 Jo)'' was turned into mourning, but no murmur was heard. Mr. 
 Kendall regarded the disaster as a chastisement for the overween- 
 ing pride of the members of the church in their beautiful edifice. 
 
 In a letter to his former pastor, written a few days after the fire, 
 Mr. Kendall said : — 
 
 *^ We are literally overwhelmed -with public sympathy. Every princi. 
 pal Protestant church in the city — Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, and 
 Lutheran, (the Episcopalian only excepted) — sent us messages of con- 
 dolence with offers to share with us their places of worship, — most of 
 them while the flames were still raging. 
 
 " Last evening oiir- people assembled in the lecture room of Dr. 
 Butler's church. They met in gloom, but separated in smiles. It would 
 have done your heart good to see how a few words of cheer changed the 
 aspect of this large assemblage. They resolved unanimously to restore 
 their lost edifice with all practicable despatch ; and, on adjournment, 
 afforded another example of the difficulty our people have in separating 
 when once they get together. 
 
 "■ Instead of a people met together to mourn over a great calamity, 
 you might have taken them to be a joyous party met to celebrate the 
 happy accomplishment of a glorious enterprise. 
 
 " Before this late calamity I began to feel that I would like to be at 
 rest. Now I feel that my work on earth is not yet done, though a 
 conscious gradual failing of my physical and mental powers admonishes 
 me that what I would do I must do quickly.'' 
 
 The following is extracted from the account of the fire as given 
 by the " Chronicle " of Monday, December 16th. 
 
REMOVAL TO THE CITY 575 
 
 ' The beautiful edifice which the members of the Society and others 
 nad viewed with a commendable pride is now in ruins, — the tower and 
 wails, still graceful in their crumbling condition, alone remaining. 
 
 "The outside walls are coated with ice, while the branches of the 
 surround mg trees glisten in their icy coverings. The dial of the clock 
 remains intact, with the hands indicating half-past four. 
 
 " The fire is believed to have originated in the wood work adjoining 
 the flues. 
 
 " The sexton, after getting the fires under good headway in the 
 furnaces, left the building at one o'clock in the morning. About three 
 o'clock the fire was discovered by a policeman, issuing from the windows 
 and tower. The weather was intensely cold, and a driving snow-storm 
 was prevailing." 
 
 Nothing was saved from the flames. The grand organ in the 
 gallery, the pulpit furniture, Sunday-school organ, banners, library, 
 — all were utterly destroyed. 
 
 The insurance of upwards of $ 50,000 was promptly paid, and 
 the work of reconstruction energetically begun. In this, as in the 
 former enterprise, Mr. Kendall was the leading spirit, though 
 cordially sustained by the membership. 
 
 In a letter of May 5th, 1868, he Avrote : — 
 
 " We are all in usual health ; but I am made more sensible from day 
 to day that my race on earth is nearly run. Not only is memory sadly 
 impaired, but eyesight and hearing are gradually failing me. I would 
 gladly live to finish some things undertaken and not yet completed, but 
 whenever it is God's will, I am ready to go. Death has no terrors for 
 me, not because of my fitness for heaven, but because of the mercy of 
 God and the redeeming sacrifice of his Son. 
 
 "Our burnt church is rising from its ruins, and we hope to see it 
 renewed in all its beauty within the present year." 
 
 In the autumn of 1868, Mr. Kendall, with his household, re- 
 moved from Kendall Green to the city In a letter of November 
 Sd f that year, be said : " We have left the country, and are now 
 livino- in a rented house, until one building by Mr.^Stickney shall 
 l^ f; °' 1 d I yieldfid to this change with reluctance, and chiefly 
 'f will enable us better to serve the cause of religion in 
 ^^^^ h and Sabbath-school." Eeferring to his health in the 
 ^^^^ 1 tter he continues : " My poor walking machine is wearing 
 ^^^^ onstant use and must soon tumble to pieces. Sometimes 
 
 ^ J -f T should like to be disembodied, that I might get rid 
 I feel as ia 
 
676 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 of the grossness which is inherent in flesh and blood, and love 
 with a pure love, and worship with a pure devotion." 
 
 Notwithstanding his feebleness, Mr. Kendall relaxed none of 
 his interest in the church and Sunday-school. A lesson in the 
 latter, having for its subject the future condition of children, Mr. 
 Kendall prepared and had printed the following views on the 
 subject : — 
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN. 
 Their Place in the Plan of Redemption. 
 
 In all ages of the Christian Church, the minds of its members have 
 been much exercised in relation to the fate of httle children who die 
 before they are able to discriminate between right and wrong. It ap- 
 pears to me the whole difficulty has arisen from an imperfect view of 
 the scope and beauty of the Christian system. 
 
 The following propositions appear to me to be clearly set forth in the 
 New Testament : — 
 
 First The redemption by Christ was as comprehensive in its spiritual 
 effects as the sin of Adam, and perfectly parallel thereto. 
 
 Second. That young children are fit subjects for heaven. 
 
 In support of the first proposition, I quote the following passages of 
 Scripture, namely : — 
 
 John i. 29. " The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, 
 Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the w^orld." 
 
 John iii. 17. " For G-od sent not his Son into the world to condemn the 
 world ; but that the world through him might be saved." 
 
 John vi. 33. " For the bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven, 
 and giveth life unto the world." 
 
 John xii. 47. " And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge 
 him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." 
 
 1 John ii. 1,2. " My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye 
 sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus 
 Christ, the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for 
 our's only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 
 
 1 John iv. 14. " And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent 
 the Son to be the Saviour of the world." 
 
 The word worlds in all these passages, means manhind, — all the de- 
 scendants of Adam ; and lest some constructive limitation should be 
 put upon the word, the Apostle John declares that the propitiation was 
 not for the sins of believers only, but also for the sins of the ivhole 
 world, — of the whole race of Adam, who were involved in the conse- 
 quences of his transgression. 
 
VIEWS ON THE REDEMPTION OF LITTLE CHILDREN. 677 
 
 In direct confirmation of this view, I quote the following passages, 
 namely : — 
 
 1 Corinthians xv. 21, 22. " For since by man came death, by man came 
 also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ 
 shall all be made ahve." 
 
 Romans v. 18, 19. " Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came 
 upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the rightousness of one the free 
 gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobe- 
 dience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be 
 made righteous." 
 
 The words all in the eighteenth verse, and many in the nineteenth, 
 mean the same thing, inasmuch as Adam's disobedience involved all 
 men, and the phraseology in the latter instance was used to illustrate 
 the idea that the effect of Christ's redemption is commensurate with 
 the effect of Adam's disobedience. 
 
 That young children are fit subjects for heaven is proved by the fol- 
 lowing passages of Scripture, namely : — 
 
 Matthew xviii. 2-4, 10, 11. " And Jesus called a little child unto him, and 
 set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be 
 converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom 
 of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the 
 
 same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven Take heed that ye despise 
 
 not one of these little ones ; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels 
 do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. For the Son of 
 man is come to save that which was lost." 
 
 Then follows the parable of the lost sheep. 
 
 Mark x. 13-16. "And they brought young children to him, that he 
 should touch them ; and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But 
 when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the 
 little children to come unto mo, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom 
 of God Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of 
 Grod as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his 
 arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them." 
 
 Luke ix. 47 48- " -^^^ Jesus perceiving the thought of their heart, took 
 
 1 'M and set him by him, and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this 
 
 1 "Id '' mv name receiveth me ; and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth 
 
 1 • i\ \ ent me • for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great." 
 
 ••; 15-17. "And they brought unto him also infants, that he 
 
 1 them* but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But 
 
 ^^^ 1 rhem unto him, and said, Suffer httle children to come unto me, 
 
 Jesus ca ,^^^ ^^^.^ for of such is the kingdom of G-od. Verily I say unto 
 
 ^ ^, ^^^ choil not receive the kingdom of Grod as a Httle child shall in 
 you Whosoever t."'^ ^^ 
 
 no wise enter therein. 
 
 t read these passages of Scripture without the conviction that 
 
 vo fit subiects for heaven. Were it not so, is it credible that 
 infants are nt j 
 
678 AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Christ would have selected them as models for his adult followers 1 He 
 does not tell his disciples that they must be more harmless, more inno- 
 cent, or more holy, but simply " as little children,'' — " as a little child " ; 
 and in Luke ix. 48, he tells them that, " Whosoever shall receive this 
 child" — the child sitting by him — "in my name receiveth me; and 
 whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me." And is it 
 possible that a child fit to be the representative of Christ himself, is not 
 fit for heaven 1 
 
 But it may be asked how the children of sinful parents are made fit 
 for heaven. I answer, by the mercy of God, through the atonement by 
 Christ. Little children compose that world for which Christ died. Who 
 is there of all the human race that has not been a child, — such a child 
 as Jesus set beside him ; such a child as he took in his arms and blessed ; 
 such a child as might have been a pattern of that innocent faith and 
 humility necessary to enable adults to reach the kingdom of heaven 1 
 Thus did Christ redeem all the little, children, and through them the 
 whole world, from all the spiritual consequences of Adam's transgres- 
 sion. It is thus that, "as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made 
 alive." It is thus that, " as by the offence of one, judgment came upon 
 all men to condenmation ; even so by the righteousness of one, the free 
 gift came upon all men unto justification of life." 
 
 If this view of the subject be correct, all children, through the re 
 demption by Christ and the mercy of God, come into the world as sin- 
 less as Adam was when he came from the hands of the Creator. As 
 with Adam, so it is with them ; they are responsible and punishable for 
 their own sins only. They are born within Christ's fold, and they stray 
 from it only when they commit their first sin. Until they sin, they are 
 of " the ninety and nine which went not astray." And if, having sinned, 
 they sincerely repent and ask forgiveness, they are forgiven and restored 
 to the fold, " not seven times only, but seventy times seven." 
 
 This view of the universality of redemption reconciles all difficulties 
 in relation to the spiritual condition of infants and to the justice of God. 
 That a good being should bring creatures into existence just to damn them 
 to eternal misery, is a thought abhoiTcnt to the human mind. How they 
 could be saved from that fate was, and still is, a problem with those who 
 consider infants responsible for Adam's transgression. An expedient to 
 save them was thought to be found, soon after the Apostolic age, in bap- 
 tism, not by sprinkling, but by immersion. It was believed that baptism 
 literally and truly washed away all sin, and that baptized persons, old or 
 young, were fit to enter heaven as soon as they came out of the water. 
 So, to insure heaven to little children, if they should happen to die in 
 infancy, the practice of baptizing them was introduced. Modem Prot- 
 estants have discarded the idea that baptism washes away sin, or of 
 
VIEWS ON THE REDEMPTION OF LITTLE CHILDREN. 679 
 
 itself makes any change in the spiritual condition of the infant or the 
 adult. In the adult it is esteemed, at least by Baptists, to be an act of 
 obedience to the commands of Christ, and a rite of initiation into the 
 visible Church. Other Protestant denominations, while rejecting the 
 reason in which infant baptism originated, still profess to retain the 
 practice, thus rendering the rite, to say the least of it, wholly unmean- 
 ing and useless. 
 
 Thank God, little children do not need baptism, or even repentance, 
 to fit them for heaven. Washed by the blood of Christ from the taint 
 of Adam's transgression, they are fit to be taken at once into the Saviour's 
 arms and be forever blest. In the annunciation that " the seed of the 
 woman shall bruise the serpent's head," our erring first parents were 
 comforted by the assurance that the great enemy of their race had failed 
 in his object, that provision had already been made to redeem their 
 posterity from the spiritual death entailed by their sin, that every one 
 of their descendants should be held responsible, not for the sins of his 
 ancestors, one or many, but for his own sins only, committed after he 
 became capable of discriminating between right and wrong. 
 
 See how, giving the most natural construction to the simple language 
 of the Bible, the justice of God is vindicated ; his character illustrated ; 
 the responsibilities of man defined ; the difficulties in this subject, which 
 have bewildered the human mind for ages, removed ; the comprehensive- 
 ness of the atonement made plain ; and the beauty of the Christian sys- 
 tem of religion commended to the intelligent mind. But it does not 
 follow that all men will be saved because all children are born redeemed. 
 As God made the man, so Christ makes the infant, sinless, but prone to 
 sin. As Adam fell, so may the infant when he becomes a man, or arrives 
 at the age of moral responsibility. But in the language of St. John, if 
 any of Christ's little children sin, they "have an advocate with the 
 Father " who, upon repentance, is a propitiation for their sins, and upon 
 his intercession they will be restored to the Saviour's fold. 
 
 How then, should we treat little children in our Sabbath-schools ] 
 
 Shall w^e teach them that they are heirs of damnation for Adam's sin, 
 
 and can reach heaven only by repentance for sins they never committed 1 
 
 O shall we treat them as Christ did, take them to our arms, tell them 
 
 th- f thev are the redeemed lambs of his flock, and teach their expand- 
 
 • .1. +/^ look to him as their kind friend and Saviour, who has died 
 in^' mmo.s to i^j^'^ ^^ ^ ' 
 
 , 1 ^i^ xu r rviioht live, and who alone has redeemed them from the spiritual 
 that tney mi^"^ ' , . i i i jy ^^ ^^ 
 
 ^,.n/^« of Adam s sm ; and who alone can procure for them the 
 consequenceb ui ; r ^ v. • 
 
 ] of their own sms, and secure for them a happy immortality m 
 
 the world to come. 
 
 ^" A TEACHER 
 
 In the Calvary Baptist Sunday -school, Washington, D. C. 
 
680 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 In January, 1869, he wrote : — 
 
 *' My own health is very feeble and my strength failing. My right 
 eye and ear are almost useless, and my left failing. Every night I sleep 
 soundly about three or four hours, when I wake up in much distress, 
 and have no more sound sleep that night. 
 
 The doctors say the trouble is produced by imperfect digestion. It 
 produces fever and headache, which pass away by breakfast time, and in 
 general I feel pretty well until the next night. I apprehend ray disease 
 is incurable, being old age. We have weekly meetings at our house of 
 the teachers of our Sabbath-school, which are very pleasant and in- 
 structive. One of them has been held this evening, since I commenced 
 this letter. Our school is increasing in numbers and interest. The 
 spirit of God seems to be among the scholars and also in the congrega- 
 tion. Five or six have professed Christ, and are ready to be buried in 
 baptism, and we hope that the work has but just begun." 
 
 In February, 1869, he wrote: — 
 
 " There is little ground of hopefulness loft for me in this life ; and, 
 though naturally cheerful, I cannot sometimes look back without sad- 
 ness. How many relatives and associates have gone before me, and how 
 few are left ! My father and mother had twelve children. Parents and 
 nine of the children are dead. 
 
 "My first marriage was into a family consisting of a father, mother, 
 four sons, and three daughters. They are all dead. My second mar- 
 riage was into a family consisting of a father, mother, two sons, and two 
 daughters. They are all dead. I have had two wives, five sons, and 
 nine daughters. The wives and the sons are all gone, and only four 
 daughters are left. Of upwards of twenty men who held cabinet ap- 
 pointments under General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren, I am the only 
 one left. I seem like one standing alone among the dead on the battle 
 field of life, while generation after generation come marching before me. 
 1 too must soon lie among the dead around me, and the world will still 
 march thoughtlessly onward. 
 
 " In spite of hope and foith, there is something sad in the thought 
 that the past pleasures of life cannot be repeated or replaced, while 
 before one is only that shadowy world opened to us by revelation. 
 ]\Iaterial nature teaches only that we must die ; that all is change ; that 
 life is produced and maintained by death, and death by life ; that there 
 is nothing fixed and eternal luiless it be matter, in ever-changing forms, 
 and the incomprehensible Mind which has imposed its law^s. In that 
 gospel which Uirought life and immortality to light,' and in that only, 
 can be found a substitute for those earthly enjoyments which can 
 return no more. And in its precepts are found those moral rules which, 
 
DONATION TO COLUMBIAN COLLEGE. 681 
 
 if followed by rulers and people, would indeed produce 'peace on earth'; 
 "while discord, crime, and bloodshed, in nations and among nations, pre- 
 vail just in a degree that those rules are violated or disregarded. This 
 is a great truth which ought to be taught in every school and every 
 college as well as the pulpit. 
 
 " The end with me cannot be far distant." 
 
 DONATION TO THE COLUMBIAN COLLEGE. 
 
 Washington, Febmary 4, 1869, 
 To the Board of Trustees of the Columbian College : — 
 
 Gentlemen, — On behalf of the Calvary Baptist Church of the city 
 of Washington, I tender you six thousand dollars to purchase a classical 
 scholarship in your institution, upon the following conditions : — 
 
 First. That said church shall be entitled to perpetual representation 
 in the election of the board of trustees of said college. 
 
 Secondly. That the trustees of public schools in the city of Washing- 
 ton in the Pistrict of Columbia, and their successors by whatever name 
 they may be called, shall have the perpetual privilege of selecting from 
 said schools one pupil annually to fill said scholarship ; and the pupils so 
 selected shall each be entitled to instruction in said college for the term 
 of six years, free of charge for tuition, use of library and apparatus, or 
 for any other privilege allowed to paying students of the same grade. 
 
 On receiving official notice of the acceptance of the foregoing pro- 
 position with the conditions annexed, by your board, I shall be prepared 
 to pay to their order the proffered consideration of six thousand dollars. 
 
 With profound respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Mr. Kendall was not more jealous of his own honor than he 
 was of the good name of General Jackson, and he never failed to 
 repel with burning words the slightest imputation upon the charac- 
 ter of the old hero, by whomsoever uttered. An article in the 
 " National Intelligencer," containing a disparaging allusion to the 
 General was the occasion of the folloAving : — 
 
 Washington, April 27, 1869. 
 
 Editors of the National Intelligencer : — Please discontinue your 
 paper sent to my address at US Uth Street. 
 
 I know of no more fitting way to express my indignation at your m- 
 
 +f nr.lr imon the character of General Jackson in this day's issue, 
 famous attacK. ujjv" , , ,. . .r 
 
 C no deoree of integrity, patriotism, and public service save the mem- 
 ^ the'^illustrious dead from the jackals of a hcentious press ] 
 
 ^^^ ^ Yours, etc., 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
682 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 Mr. Kendall was seldom idle. Eeading or writing occupied his 
 time indoors. The Bible was consulted and studied in these latter 
 days of his life more than all other books together, and although 
 he wrote with difficulty, his pen was always within reach, and his 
 habit was to write out his ideas upon any subject that interested 
 him, religious or political, for future reference and consideration. 
 
 A few days before leaving for the North, in 1869, he penned the 
 following thoughts upon 
 
 MAN'S NATURE. 
 
 There is one God, and only one. Man was created by God. By 
 means described or typified in the book of Genesis, human nature has 
 become corrupt, so that the natural inclination of every human bejng 
 born into the world is to violate the laws of God. 
 
 Obedience to the laws of God consists in a perfect morahty and an 
 entire submission to his will. 
 
 By reason of the corruption of man's nature, perfect morality and 
 entire submission to God's will became practically , impossible, and hence 
 all mankind became sinners. 
 
 The mission of Christ had a two-fold object : First, to redeem all 
 men from original sin, so that each should be responsible only for his 
 own sins, and in this sense he died for all men. Secondly, to redeem 
 every repentant sinner from the punishment due to sins actually com- 
 mitted by him. From these principles it results that all dying infants 
 go to heaven, and adults are punished for then- actual sins only. 
 
 Salvation is offered to all, not in mockery, but in sincerity and truth. 
 The means by which all may obtain it are pointed out with equal clear- 
 ness. It is optional with man to use those means or let them alone. 
 God by his grace has given him power to will, and he is responsible for 
 the use of that power. 
 
 God created the body of man, breathed into it the breath of life, sur- 
 rounded it with an atmosphere capable of sustaining that life; gave it 
 the power, by force of its own will, to rise from the earth or lie still, to 
 continue to breathe or refuse to breathe, — to live or to die. So God has 
 given man a soul; through his grace has diffused, as it were, an atmos- 
 phere around it, and endowed him with a perfect freedom of will to 
 breathe it and live, or refuse to do so and die. As he has power to will 
 a movement of his animal body, so he has power to control the action 
 of his spirit. He can will to pray, just as he can will to walk. The 
 power to do both is the gift of God. The will to do them is his own. 
 Neither of them secures of itself any valuable result ; but both are 
 only the means by which important results are brought about. " Ask, 
 
DONATIONS TO CALYARY CHURCH. 683 
 
 and it shall be given you j seek, and ye sliall find ; knock, and it shall 
 be opened unto you." God has given man power to will the asking, the 
 seeking, and the knocking, as the means of receiving, of finding, and of 
 being admitted ; and he has promised to give the good asked for and 
 sought after, and an entrance into heaven in response to a proper use 
 of those means. It is thus that " faith is the gift of God." It is thus 
 that our heavenly Father " gives good things to them that ask him." 
 He gives as the father gives bread to the child who asks for it. It is as 
 free a gift as if bestowed without the asking. 
 
 God does not force his gifts, temporal or spiritual, on any one. He 
 gives man physical powers, and leaves him at liberty to use them for 
 good or for evil according to his own will. On the use he wills to make 
 of those powers depends his temporal condition, whether in riches or in 
 poverty, in honor or in infamy. He gives him the same freedom of will 
 in spiritual matters, and in addition thereto lays down certain rules by 
 the observance of which he may secure the favor of his Maker and ever- 
 lasting happiness. He is not left to his own judgment as in temporal 
 affairs ; but is told to do this and liv6y — to " believe And be baptized" ; 
 to pray without ceasing ; to do good to his fellow-men ; to live in 
 peace with all men; to return good for evil; not to resent injuries, 
 etc., etc. Let him but observe these rules and he has the promise of 
 God that he shall have abundant success in spiritual affairs, whatever 
 may have been the result of following his own judgment in temporal 
 matters. 
 
 On Sunday, July 11, 1869, the new church, having risen from its 
 ashes, was rededicated in the presence of a vast congregation. 
 
 In his letter, dated July 31, 1869, to Henry Beard, the treasurer, 
 proposing a donation of whatever sum was necessary to discharge 
 all liabilities, Mr. Kendall wrote : — 
 
 " I enclose herein a check for % 2,500, which I request you to place to 
 
 the credit of the building fund, and I hold myself in readiness to meet 
 
 any other demands actually incurred through the building committee. 
 
 B thus relieving our society of all charge for the reconstruction of our 
 
 y^ ^ of worship, I hope to enable our brethren and sisters to enter 
 
 the new career now opened to them with a more hopeful and de- 
 
 ' d snirit a spirit which shall stimulate them to make all need- 
 
 f 1 -rifices to maintain the efficient preaching of the gospel, and secure 
 
 .for^rlpd and salutary influence for our church. And while no 
 a more extenucLi cv^ ^ 
 
 « .1 . or.ar.i*ql oTauts must be expected from me, I am prepared to do 
 •fiirtner bpfoi<n g, > -i • r- ^ 
 
 , • contributing the needful means to sustam the services oi the 
 
 ^noW on a liberal and efficient scale. 
 
684 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 " I expect to leave the city on Monday morning next, and be absent 
 
 about three weeks. I hope the building committee will proceed at once 
 
 to close up all unadjusted accounts, that all balances may be promptly 
 
 paid. 
 
 Your brother in Christ, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 The advances by Mr. Kendall, on account of reconstruction, did 
 not fall short of $15,000. 
 
 On Monday, the 2d of August, in company with his daughter, 
 Mrs. Babcock, Mr. Kendall left for the North, hoping the change 
 and travel would be beneficial. His rest at night had been much 
 disturbed; his food distressed him, and his nervous system was 
 badly disordered. 
 
 He intended to visit his nephew, Andrew Kendall, in Xew York 
 State, and if his health improved to go further East. 
 
 On the 6th of August he wrote the following letter, the last one 
 tlie writer ever received from his pen : — 
 
 Lewis, N. Y., August 6, 1869. 
 W. Stickney, Esq. : — 
 
 My dear Son, — We arrived here safely on Wednesday evening, hav- 
 ing spent Monday night in New York, and Tuesday night at Whitehall. 
 The journey this side of New York was far from pleasant, owing to 
 delays and confusion on the railroads. The connections are such, that 
 one cannot come from New York here in a day, without a night ride at 
 one end of the line or the other. To get a trip down Lake Champlain 
 by day, and avoid landing in the middle of the night, we remained over 
 night at Whitehall, and leaving there at 11 a. m. on AVednesday, had a 
 charming trip down the lake, and landed at an insignificant village called 
 Westport, about 4 p. m. Thence we rode twelve miles in a primitive 
 stage to a place called Elizabetli, and thence to this place, four miles, in 
 a vehicle containing only ourselves, our trunks, the driver, and a small 
 mail-bag. On our arrival we were kindly received by Mrs. Kendall, who 
 informed us that her husband was down with his wagon at another land- 
 ing waiting for us, and on casually hearing of our arrival he came home 
 last evening. 
 
 Mrs. Guest remained with us all night in New York, and ticketed on 
 Tuesday morning for Buffalo ; but through misinformation at Albany 
 went on with us to Troy, whence we saw her start for Buffalo about 5 
 p. M., expecting to arrive next morning. 
 
 Andrew Kendall and his wife seem to be living very comfortably in 
 a large new house, the finest in the place ; which, however, contains only 
 
HIS LAST SICKNESS. 685 
 
 about "half a dozen, — the village being nothing more than the centre of 
 a country township. 
 
 It is quite cold here, and I took some cold yesterday, and had a bad 
 mght. I was well enough after breakfast this morning to take a ride, 
 wrapped up in overcoat, shawl, and buffalo robe, and none too warm. 
 If the weather does not improve, oar stay here will be short. 
 
 Mallie joins me in love to brothers, sisters, nephew, and nieces, the 
 
 Stickneys and the Foxes. 
 
 Affectionately, your father, 
 
 AMOS KENDALL. 
 "Washington, D. C. 
 
 His cold so affected him, that he determined to return home. 
 He arrived in Washington, Saturday, the 14th of August, greatly 
 prostrated, and immediately took his bed. As his own household 
 were making preparations to move to their new residence, Mr. Ken- 
 dall went immediately to the house of his son-in-law, Mr. Fox. 
 
 Monday, the 16th, was his eightieth birthday. He was con- 
 fined to his room, and a part of the time to his bed for three weeks, 
 when he recovered sufficiently to join his household at their new 
 residence. He ^\'as assisted from the carriage to his room in the 
 second story, from which he never descended. 
 
 For three months he patiently but hopefully looked forward to 
 the termination of his sufferings. The smallest quantity of food, 
 and that of the most digestible character, caused him great distress. 
 He remarked to the writer at this time, that but for the terrible 
 sin of suicide he would abstain entirely from food, and thus hasten 
 the end. His four daughters were constant and faithful in minis- 
 terincT to his comfort. His pastor, Eev. J. W. Parker, made frequent 
 visits^ which afforded him great consolation. He looked upon death 
 as very near, but never expressed a regret. His only anxiety was 
 in reference to the church, which was dearer to him than life. That 
 the members would set a holy example, be faithful in all their 
 duties cultivate brotherly love, sustain their pastor, and by godly 
 r honor their Master, was the theme of his conversation and 
 
 his constant prayer. ,.,,,,., . i • t ■ i tt 
 
 V ts of his early and middle hfe were fresh m his mmd. He 
 11 1 1 frequently to his relations with General Jackson, and re- 
 n ^d he had never completed the Life of that great man. In a 
 feUer to the writer in 1862, he said:- 
 
 have been reading Parton's Life of Jackson. It is a caricature 
 
686 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 of the noble old hero, and a libel upon his friends. It causes me to re- 
 proach myself for not finishing my work. I miist do it with such means 
 as I have. This is my seventy-third birthday ; shall I ever see another 1 
 God only knows, and his will be done. I pray, however, that he will 
 spare me and give me strength until I can do justice to my great and 
 good friend, not mine only, but the friend of our country and our race." 
 
 A few nights before his death, Mr. Kendall about midnight sent 
 for the writer, who was sitting in the library below. Approaching 
 his bedside, I saw that he had some important communication to 
 make. His mind was clear, his manner impressive, and his voice 
 distinct, as he said : — 
 
 *^ I have sent for you, Mr. Stickney, because I want the public to 
 know the reasons why I never finished the Life of Jackson. The first 
 was my poverty. I was too poor to collect information from all over the 
 country. Second, every person, with one exception, who had promised 
 material for the work, disappointed me. I could only write what I knew 
 from personal knowledge." 
 
 This was the message that he had to deliver ; but now as ever 
 the subject of Jacjison was a fruitful and pleasing theme to dwell 
 upon. He continued : — 
 
 ^' General Jackson was as gentle as a lamb. I was very intimate with 
 him, and never saw him in a passion, or heard him use a profane word ; 
 but I do not doubt that when aggravated by some gross insult, he did 
 sometimes suffer his passion to get the mastery over him, for he was a 
 man of very strong passions. The honest old giant opposed the Bank 
 of the United States from principle purely, not on account of some little 
 quarrel with a branch bank in Virginia, as stated by Parton. This au- 
 thor has written a caricature of the old General, giving him occasionally 
 a little praise for things that every one praised him for, but generally 
 slurring it over afterwards." 
 
 When asked if he wrote much of General Jackson's messages, 
 he replied, " No, the old hero wrote the most of his own messages. 
 I wrote nearly all of those portions of his messages connected 
 with the Indians." 
 
 During no period of his sickness was Mr. Kendall's mind so 
 active, and his conversational powers so remarkable, as during the 
 last few days of his life. For hours continuously, to several mem- 
 bers of his family, children and grandchildren, to officers of the 
 institutions he had been connected with, and of the church he had 
 served, he poured forth a stream of calm, collected, earnest instruc- 
 
HIS LAST WORDS. 
 
 687 
 
 tion, that seemed marvelloTis as the emanation of a mind just 
 breaking loose from its prison. His statements as to the doctrinal 
 difficulties of the Christian revelation were speciaUy discriminat- 
 ing. As to the source of our knowledge of spiritual truth, he 
 said : — 
 
 "Yes, it is hj faith we see spiritual things. What is all our knowl- 
 edge, after all, but belief in what we see, or hear, or imagine? True 
 knowledge brings us back to our childhood ; all we know begins in what 
 we believe from the testimony of others. My personal faith in the 
 whole body of religious truth is as clear and assured as is a child's con- 
 fidence in what is told him." 
 
 Alluding to the nature of God, referred to as Father, Son, and 
 Holy Spirit, he remarked : — 
 
 " We feel the difference when we are baptized into the three names, 
 though we cannot comprehend or even appreheiid it." 
 
 Of the future spiritual world he said : — 
 
 " You know I am no enthusiast, but I am just as sure that the other 
 world is real in its joys and honors as I am that this world is real; be- 
 sides, that is more substantial and enduring than this." 
 
 On the use of property he said : — 
 
 " I hold that children have no legitimate right to anything more 
 than a living and an education, during minority, out of the property of 
 a father ; and that it is his duty to look at all the claims God has im- 
 posed on him, in his varied social relations, in disposing of his accumula- 
 tions. Among these, the first is his duty to provide for his own house- 
 hold ; but this is only one among many. I believe, too, that all experi- 
 ence shows it to be best for a man of property to make his donations to 
 objects of charity during his lifetime, that there be no dispute and dis- 
 appointment over his gifts after he is gone, and that he may personally 
 superintend their appropriation." 
 
 For a few days before his death, Mr. Kendall talked almost in- 
 cessantly. Like Joshua of old, he gathered his household about 
 his bed and in the most earnest manner exhorted them to be faith- 
 ful in all their Clnistian and moral obligations. 
 
 " Read the Bible," he said, *'take that as your guide instead of the 
 
 • t'tutes of men; take that; that is all I ask of any one. I cannot 
 
 V» itisfied to keep silent so long as I have the power to speak. Read 
 
 +I1 Book for yourself, each one of you, each one of you ; because each 
 
 of vou whether parent or child, is responsible to God." 
 
688 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 To his grandson, W. S. Stickney, he said : — 
 
 ^' You have been a good child ; be faithfuL Do all God enables you 
 to in his cause, not only in the Calvary Baptist Church, but everywhere ; 
 for this religion is not confined to persons or individuals ; but whatever 
 your duty is, I hope you may ever be able to perform it. In the first 
 place, comply with all your moral duties in the Old and New Testa- 
 ments ; fulfil your duties to your fellow-men ; do not deceive them for 
 any purpose, but go through life an honest man, as your gi'andfather 
 has endeavored to do. What I would add to that is Christian faith ; 
 which is the only assurance we can have of any immortality at all. Be 
 true. Be useful and honest with your fellow-men. Be true and faithful to 
 your profession. Do all you can in every proper way to promote Christ's 
 kingdom here on earth while you live. Be honest, go straightforward. 
 There is one point upon which you cannot deviate, whatever you have 
 belongs to your creditors, if you get into debt, rather than yourself. 
 First satisfy them, conceal nothing ; be direct and honest. Be honest, 
 honest, first and last. No man can be a true Christian who is not in all 
 his transactions truthful and honest. If we cannot get along according 
 to the principles of the Bible, we cannot get along at all." 
 
 His message to the Deaf-Mute and Columbian Colleges was : — 
 
 " Tell the friends of the colleges that I have entire, entire confidence 
 in the official management of these institutions, and in their future suc- 
 cess and usefulness. I might have given more to them ; but it was not 
 right that I should take the work from others who are able, and will 
 prove willing, to aid." 
 
 For two or three days before his death, that event was momen- 
 tarily expected. But there was no dimness of his mental vision. 
 As he approached nearer the heavenly world, his face was irradi- 
 ated by new light, and his words glowed with almost divine in- 
 spiration. 
 
 " All that will be required of me is submission to the will of God, 
 whatever it may be, that when this call comes, whether it be to-night 
 or at any other time, I may be ready for it ; relying not on myself or 
 anything I have done, but upon the righteousness of Christ. There is 
 my reliance for immortality ; not upon anything I have done in any 
 way, but simple faith in him and his sufferings and redemption, which 
 without any merit of mine, may be applicable to me, and give me a 
 title to immortality in the presence of God and all holy beings. I shall 
 be glad that all my brethren in the church should know it is not any- 
 thing I have doue for them, or anything else, on which I place the 
 
ENDOWMENT OF MISSION SUNDAY-SCHOOLS. 689 
 
 slightest reliance for the future ; but it is faith in Christ and his re- 
 demption. That is the faith in which I die. I am willing to live as long 
 as God wills it ; but my own desire would be to die. If God wills that 
 I should survive, his will be done ; I do not pray for it, nor can I say I 
 desire it ; but his will be done. 
 
 " I would say to the Calvary Baptist Church, it is my strong desire 
 they should all live in unity and brotherly love ; that they all perform 
 their duties to themselves and their God, so as to prove the sincerity of 
 their faith ; that they should be examples of true Christian faith , that 
 they should be examples of that spirit which belongs to unselfishness, 
 willing to sacrifice anything ; that they would look upon what I have 
 done not as a gift from me, but as a gift from God, — a sacred charge ; 
 that they would show their thankfulness to God for what has been done 
 for them ; that they will preserve the gift, and profit by it, by showing 
 in some practical manner their gratitude to God ; that the whole church 
 are tenants of God, not of me ; that they may show their gratitude, 
 not by empty words, but by contributing of their means to keep up the 
 worship of God in that sanctuary perpetually." 
 
 For some months Mr. Kendall had been deliberating upon the 
 best method of endowing two mission-schools connected with the 
 Calvary Baptist Church. Perceiving his end so near, he doubted 
 if he would be spared long enough to carry out his designs, which 
 he communicated fully to the writer. For one of those missions, 
 now known as Kendall Chapel, he had previously purchased a lot 
 of ground and had erected upon it a commodious building. The 
 other mission-school was then held in a rented room poorly adapted 
 for the purpose. 
 
 A deed was at once prepared conveying Kendall Chapel and 
 seventeen thousand dollars in bonds to six trustees, with instruc- 
 tions to devote seven thousand dollars to the purchase of another 
 lot, and the erection of a chapel thereon ; reserving the remaining 
 ten thousand dollars as a perpetual fund, the interest of which 
 should be applied for the support of the two schools. This deed 
 he carefully examined and duly executed. This gift increased his 
 contributions, on account of the two mission Sunday-schools, to 
 twenty-five thousand dollars. 
 
 The Sunday night preceding his death he expressed a desire to 
 have the two hymns beginning, " Jesus, lover of my soul," and 
 " On Christ the solid rock I stand," sung in the room below. 
 
 The day before his death he said in broken sentences : — 
 
690 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDAlL. 
 
 " I die in peace with all my fellow-men, and love to all those who are 
 faithful to their profession. I rely upon that Saviour, that Redeemer 
 who has been provided for those who sincerely repent of their sins in 
 life. I rely entirely upo-n him. I have been a sinner up to the last 
 moment. My thoughts have been sinful, but I rely wholly upon, that 
 Saviour and his sufferings. I thank God he has given me my mind in 
 these last moments. Though my expressions are broken, my mind is 
 clear." 
 
 When asked by Doctor Samson if he had any directions to give 
 respecting his funeral services, he replied : — 
 
 " I leave all that to the discretion of my family. You know my own 
 preference to avoid ostentation. If a public service in the church will 
 do good, let it be there. If anything in my life and experience as a 
 Christian can benefit others, let it be stated." 
 
 When a^ked if he had any choice as to who should take part in 
 the services, he said : — 
 
 ** I cannot choose. I love all Christ's ministers, and feel a special 
 attachment to my three pastors. I wish you, however," addressing 
 himself to Doctor Samson, " as having known me the longest and being 
 familiar with all my views, to make a statement of my Christian experi- 
 
 ence." 
 
 Turning to his weeping children, he continued : — 
 
 *' I thank God he has given me strength to say what I have. I 
 thank God he has allowed me to have my mind clear. All my children 
 are around me, ready to render any service, all affectionate and kind. I 
 thank God for it." 
 
 Friday morning, November 12, he asked that the inside shutters 
 of his room might be opened that he might see the rising sun, at 
 the same time turning his face towards the window which faces the 
 east, and placing his hand under his head. The sky was painted 
 in gorgeous colors. He gazed intently for a few moments at the 
 glorious picture, and then faintly whispering, " How beautiful, how 
 beautiful," closed his eyes, and calmly, gently breathed his last. 
 The golden bowl was broken, and the spirit returned to God who 
 gave it. 
 
 Impressive funeral services, attended by a large concourse, in- 
 cluding Sunday-school scholars, deaf-mute students, and others, 
 were held at the Calvary Baptist Church, Sunday afternoon, the 
 14th November, conducted by Drs. Samson, Parker, and Sunder- 
 
LETTER OF SYMPATHY FROM PROFESSOR MORSE. 691 
 
 land, and Eev. Mr. Hewlett ; after which, Mr. Kendall's remains 
 were buried in the Glenwood Cemetery. 
 
 Eesolutions of sympathy and respect by the City Council of 
 Washington, the Calvary Baptist Church, Ihe Deaf and Dumb In- 
 stitution, Columbian College, and other organizations, attest the 
 warm affection in which Mr. Kendall was held by those who knew 
 him best. 
 
 From among the many letters of sympathy from Mr; KendaU's 
 surviving friends we select the following from Professor Morse, 
 who bears cheerful testimony to the skill and energy of Mr. Ken- 
 dall in the management of his telegraph interests, and acknow- 
 ledges his great obligation to him for the pecuniary benefit derived 
 from his invention. 
 
 FROM PROFESSOR SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. 
 
 New Yokk, November 12, 1869. 
 
 My dear Sir, — Although prepared by recent notices in the papers to 
 expect the sad news which a telegram, this moment received, announces 
 to me of the death of my excellent, Icng-tried friend, Mr. Kendah, I 
 confess that the intelligence has come with a shock which has quite un- 
 nerved me. I feel the loss of ^father rather than of a brother in age, 
 for he was one in whom I confided as a father, so sure was I of affec- 
 tionate and sound advice. 
 
 Very slowly recovering my strength from my long confinement with 
 my broken limb, I have only been able to reach my winter home in the 
 city, but not to leave the house except for a very short drive in the 
 Park. 
 
 My heart, if not my body, is with you all on this mournfid occasion. 
 Were it possible, most gladly would I be with you to pay my sincere re- 
 spect to his memory by attending the funeral solemnities, but my phys- 
 ical condition forbids. I need not tell you how deeply I feel this sad 
 bereavement. I am truly and severely bereaved in the loss of such a 
 friend • a friend, indeed, upon whose faithfulness and unswerving in- 
 te<^»Tity I have ever reposed with perfect confidence, — a confidence which 
 has never been betrayed, and a friend to whose energy and skill in the 
 conduct of the agency which I had confided to him, I owe (under God) 
 the comparative comfort which a kind Providence has permitted me to 
 enjoy in my advanced age. 
 
 When vour first telegram was received, announcing the serious illness 
 
 of Mr. Kendall and the prospect of his not living many days, I was par- 
 
 ticidarly struck with your expression in giving an account of his state 
 
 f mind that with an unclouded intellect he had a ^^ faith triumphant.''* 
 
692 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AMOS KENDALL. 
 
 These words are full of consolation ; all other words fall into insignifi- 
 cance before them. We mourn not then for him. He is forever free 
 from the sorrows and sufferings that afflicted him here, and we camiot 
 doubt he is happy in the' bosom of that precious Saviour whom he loved 
 and delighted to honor, — in whose footsteps he trod, in all the walks of 
 a large-hearted benevolence. 
 
 I beg you, my dear sir, to present to all the members of the afflicted 
 family the sincere condolence and sympathy of all my family, and be- 
 lieve me, 
 
 With sincere esteem, your obedient servant, 
 
 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. 
 William Stick ney, Esq., Washington, D. C. 
 
 His protracted, useful, and eventful life is ended. Who can 
 doubt that he received the welcome greeting, " Well done ! " 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 OFFICIAL PAPERS IN CASE OF STOCKTON AND STOKES. 
 
 The following extract is from a deposition given by General Jackson 
 himself, in the case of Stockton and Stokes against us, and included in 
 a statement of the case prepared by Mr. Kendall : — 
 
 "Deponent, at this time, perceiving that Major Barry's health was sinking 
 and could not endure the labor of the office, which was greatly increased by 
 the numerous calls of Congress, through their committees, found it necessary 
 to relieve him of his duties ; and a sea voyage being suggested as the best 
 means of preserving his valuable life, deponent proposed to send him minister 
 to Spain. Major Barry accepted the proposition with kindness, but agreed to 
 remain in the office until deponent could find a fit and competent individual to 
 •fiU i*. Deponent at once turned his thoughts to Amos Kendall, the defend- 
 ant, who had displayed eminent talents under the able heads of the Navy De- 
 partment, and had done much in clearing that branch of the public service of 
 all its existing impurities, and restoring it to order and system. The proposition 
 was made to him to accept the Post-Office Department, and he was made ac- 
 quainted with the arrangement which had been made with Major Barry. 
 
 " Mr. Kendall, the defendant, stated that he did not desire the office. He 
 said his health was not good ; that the situation of the Post-Office Department 
 was such as to require great labor in restoring it to order, and he well knew, 
 from past experience, that the retrenchment which was necessary to bring its 
 expenditures within its means, could not' be effected without exposing the agent 
 to censure and abuse ; that the office he then held was the height of his ambi- 
 tion ■ that it was reduced to system, and that his labors in it were light com- 
 pared to those which were required in the Post-Office Department. Deponent 
 requested him to think of the subject more maturely ; and, after an earnest 
 expression of the hope that he would yield in this instance to his wishes, asked 
 him to call again the next day. At the next interview, deponent again urged 
 upon Mr. Ke'iidall the acceptance of this office, and endeavored to meet his 
 objections by assurances that he overrated the difficulties of the office, and that 
 his talents and energy would be as successful there as they had been in the 
 Fourth Auditor's Office. Finally; at deponent's request, but with great reluc- 
 tance, he agreed to accept the office, when Major Barry was appointed min- 
 ister to Splin, and the vacancy was filled by Mr. Kendall, the defendant. 
 
694 APPENDIX. 
 
 Deponent adds, that the offer of this appointment to Mr, Kendall was spon- 
 taneous on his part, without any inducement from any quarter." 
 
 Again we appeal to the deposition of General Jackson, expressing his 
 opinion of our administration, from May, 1835, to March, 1837, when 
 his term of office expired. He says : — 
 
 " And this deponent further says, that, as fa? as the official acts of the de- 
 fendant came to his knowledge, he acted with the greatest impartiality in all 
 cases. Deponent believes that the defendant was incapable of being acted 
 upon improperly, either by friendship on the one side, or enmity on the other ; 
 and that he was too honest to allow politics to interfere with the strict rules 
 of justice in his decisions. Judging the tree by its fruit, deponent can safely 
 say, that he never knew any public man who exhibited the qualities of in- 
 tegrity, independence, and impartiality in a higher degree than the defendant. 
 . • * . • 
 
 "Deponent here again repeats his conviction, founded on along acquaintance 
 with the character of the defendant, that he was incapable of being swerved 
 from the performance of duty by any personal feehng, and that the scales 
 of justice in his hands were never influenced by sordid or unworthy consider- 
 ations." 
 
 On the 16th of February, 'Mr. Wright, from the Committee of Claims 
 in the Senate, made the following report : — 
 
 ♦ ' 
 
 " That, previous to the time of Mr. Kendall's holding the office of Postmaster- 
 
 G-eneral, and during a part or the whole of that period, William B. Stokes, and 
 others, were contractors for carrying the United States mails upon certain 
 post-routes ; that there came to be a difference between these contractors 
 (usually known by the copartnership name of " Stockton and Stokes") and the 
 Post-Office Department as to the amount due to them for their services as mail 
 contractors ; these differences arising, not upon the face of contracts subsisting, 
 or which had been entered into between them and the Department, but princi- 
 pally, if not entirely, from claims presented by the contractors for '' extra ser- 
 vices," in the common parlance of these transactions ; being claims for services 
 alleged to have been rendered by them in carrying the maQ above, beyond, 
 and witliout the service which they had contracted to perform ; and allegations 
 on the part of the contractors, that such extra j?ervices had been performed 
 under permissions or directions from the Department, with an express or im- 
 plied promise of the compensation claimed. These claims and allegations were 
 not admitted by Mr. Kendall, as the head of the Department; and payment of 
 the claims was refused by him. 
 
 " These transactions, out of which the claims originated, were those which 
 took place while the predecessor of Mr. Kendall was at the head of the Depart- 
 ment, and not any contracts, or directions, or permissions, or promises, claimed 
 to have been made or entered into by himself iis the Postmaster-G-eneral. 
 
 " A claim was then interposed by them for the damages they alleged they 
 had sustained by the delay ; which, not being paid, they commenced a suit 
 
APPENDIX. gg^ 
 
 against Mr. Kendall individually, before the courts of the District of Columbia 
 to recover the claim. A trial v^^as had, and the contractors recovered a large 
 verdict; the precise amount of which the committee have not, nor is it material 
 that it should be given, inasmuch as the court before which the trial took 
 place, upon a motion made on behalf of Mr. Kendall for the purpose, set aside 
 that verdict, and granted a new trial. 
 
 " A second trial has been had before the same court, and a verdict of a 
 second jury given in favor of the contractors, against Mr. Kendall, for the sum 
 of $11,000; as the damages actually sustained by the contractors in conse- 
 quence of the delay of payment complained of, caused by Mr. Kendall as Post- 
 master-General, — though the verdict and the judgment upon it is against 
 Amos Kendall, as a private citizen, not against the Postmaster-G-eneral. 
 
 " Upon the judgment rendered upon this verdict, a writ of error was sued 
 out by Mr. Kendall, and the cause thus carried before the Supreme Court of 
 the United States, where it now is, without argument or decision, and with 
 very little prospect, as the committee learn from the best inquiries they have 
 been able to make, of being reached upon the calendar so as to be argued and 
 decided at the present term of that court. 
 
 " The writ of error does not, as a matter of course, suspend proceedings upon 
 the judgment and execution in the court below ; and the only way in which it 
 could be made to work that suspension was, for Mr. Kendall to give a bond, 
 with sureties, for the absolute payment of the debt in case the judgment in er- 
 ror should be against him. This he has not felt at liberty to do, as he does not 
 feel an assurance that he could indemnify such sureties in case that judgment 
 should be against him, as the amount is large in proportion to any means he 
 ever had, or now has, and for a consideration which gave him great labor 
 and anxiety and care, and as is now presumptively shown, responsibility also, 
 without adding one dollar, directly or indirectly, to his ability to pay such an 
 amount. 
 
 " He has, therefore, while entertaining every confidence that the judgment in 
 error, coming from a tribunal so elevated as the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, will be in his favor, chosen rather to suffer in his personal liberty, so far 
 as a confinement to the prison bounds of this city require, and in his property, 
 so far as he has property within the reach of an execution issued upon the 
 judgment given in the court below, rather than to involve friends in a liability, 
 of this singular character, and for this large amount. 
 
 " His choice in this respect has been followed by its legal consequences on 
 the part of the contractors, the plaintiffs in the suit against him. An execution 
 has been issued upon the judgment rendered in the court below, notwithstand- 
 ing- the writ of error, and the consequent uncertainty of the entire recovery, 
 and his body has been arrested and imprisoned, and is now in prison within the 
 limits of the liberty of the jail of this city, where it has remained for months, 
 under the most perfect bond with sureties that it shall not move beyond those 
 bounds without rendering the sureties positively liable for the payment of this 
 
 whole judgment, 
 
 " This state of facts ha^, in the opinion of the committee, roused the public 
 sense and broucrht before the Senate the petitions which have been referred to 
 them'; and still were it simply this, and could the parties rest where they now 
 
696 APPENDIX. 
 
 are, until a final decision of the court of last resort upon these strongly litigated 
 and most important questions could be had, the committee would most cheer- 
 fully recommend to the Senate that no legislative step be taken to change the 
 relations of the parties, or the interests in the questions' involved. 
 
 " This has led them to examine the laws of this District under which Mr. 
 Kendall is now in prison, and they find that, if within one year from the day 
 of his confinement, the debt be not paid, or he be not discharged from his con- 
 finement as an insolvent debtor, under the laws of Congress applicable to such 
 debtors within this District, it is, by an existing law, made the duty of the 
 marshal, on the day that year shall expire, and notwithstanding his perfectly 
 satisfactory bond and sureties to keep himself within the limits of the jail of 
 this city and county, ' to recommit him to close jail and confinement, there to 
 remain until the debt for which he is charged in execution shall be paid, or un- 
 til he shall be discharged under the act of Congress for the relief of insolvent 
 debtors within the District of Columbia.' 
 
 " Mr. Kendall was committed to the prison bounds upon the execution in 
 favor of these contractors on the 4th day of October now last past, and the 
 year permitted to him to remain a prisoner within these bounds, according to 
 the present state of the law regulating imprisonment for debt within this Dis- 
 trict, will consequently expire on the 4th day of October next, after which 
 day, unless the Supreme Court shall, by a decision upon the writ of error in 
 his favor during the present term of that court, relieve him, or unless Con- 
 gress shall interfere, or unless he shall actually pay the debt, or be driven 
 through the process of insolvency, he must be committed ' to close jail and 
 confinement,' and must there remain until he can be relieved in one of these 
 modes. 
 
 " Were the demand upon which Mr. Kendall is now confined within the 
 prison bounds, and is liable, after the expiration of one year of that confinement, 
 to be locked up within the walls of the debtor's prison, a debt admitted by him 
 to be justly due and owing, and not a matter resting yet in litigation, and a very 
 novel if not a very doubtful claim, — were it a judgment of the courts, rendered 
 and settled beyond the reach of appeal or review, — the question presented to 
 the committee would be a very different one from that which his case in fact 
 does present; and whatever might, in the opinion of the committee, be the 
 claims of a debtor to relief in the supposed cases, they have felt called upon 
 only to recommend a remedy for the evil and injustice now presented, leaving 
 any further modification of these laws to future legislation. 
 
 " They believe the present state of the law regulating imprisonment for debt 
 within this District wrong in principle, and most singularly in conflict with the 
 spirit of the age upon this subject, as well as with the policy of modern legis- 
 lation in this country. 
 
 '* The present law intrusts the marking and laying out of the prison bounds 
 within the district to the circuit court thereof; with power, from time to time, 
 to ' renew, enlarge, or diminish the same.' The committee have added a sec- 
 tion to their bill to prohibit any alteration of the prison bounds so as to affect 
 that class of prisoners for which they are providing, by declaring that for them 
 respectively those bounds shall be what they were at the times of their respec- 
 tive commitments. This they believe to be right in itself, and to be necessary 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 697 
 
 • 
 
 to render certain the relief they intend to extend to prisoners circumstanced 
 as those are to be for whom the bill provides; nor do they see that any valid 
 objection can exist against such a modification of this law, as it will leave all 
 the parties in the situations they had themselves assumed, without invitations 
 to make applications to the court, on the one side to enlarge, and on the other 
 to restrict, the prison bounds. 
 
 " The committee adopt this mode of relief in the present case, because they 
 think it just in itself, and because they believe it to be inexpedient and improp- 
 er for Congress to legislate, in any way in reference to the judgment against 
 Mr. Kendall, while the matter remains in the hands.of the judiciary. 
 
 " Tlie question raised as to his liability, under the circumstances, and the cer- 
 tificate of the jury as to his bona fide intentions faithfully to discharge his pub- 
 lic duty, is a very delicate and important one, and it is difficult to measure the 
 consequences which may follow from the establishment of this principle, if it 
 shall be established. It may change very materially the relations between the 
 government and its ofiScers and agents and the citizens with and towards whom 
 their responsible duties are to be discharged. 
 
 "Tlie question behind that is not less dehcate, and may not be less important 
 to the public Treasury. If an officer of the United States, governed by the best 
 intentions, mistakes his duty, by reason of which a citizen is damnified, and he 
 is to be held by the courts liable for such damage in a civil action, prosecuted 
 against him in his individual and private capacity, is the public Treasury to in- 
 demnify the officer ? This is the question. Although seen to be an important 
 one from its mere statement, reflection and examination will enlarge its influ- 
 ences, direct and conseciuential, upon the public interest and the administration 
 of the affairs of the government, 
 
 " The committee believe that Congress could not now decide this question 
 affirmatively, without imminent danger of influencing in fact the judicial 
 settlement of the former one, — the liability of the officer himself under the cir- 
 cumstances ; and it will certainly be early enough, so far as the unfortunate 
 individual himself is concerned, to decide it negatively, after the exigency has 
 risen to call for such action. It has been, therefore, the settled purpose of the 
 committee not to consider either of these questions themselves, and not to 
 recommend any action on the part of Congress which shall bring either of 
 them before it for discussion or action. 
 
 " They respectfully ask leave to introduce the bill they have prepared, and 
 recommend its passage. 
 
 " Section Z of ' An Act to amend the Laws ivithin the District of Columhia.' 
 " Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the benefit of the prison rules shall 
 not be allowed to any debtor, hereafter taken or charged in execution within 
 the said District, for more than one year from the date of the bond given by 
 him or her for keeping within the said rules ; after the expiration of which 
 time, if the person so taken or charged in execution shaU not be discharged 
 by due course of law, it shall be the duty of the marshal or other officer, to 
 whose custody such person was committed, to recommit him or her to close 
 jail and confinement, there to remain until the debt for which he or she was 
 taken or charged in execution be paid, or until he or she shall be discharged 
 
698 APPENDIX. 
 
 under the act of Congress for the rehef of insolvent debtors within the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. 
 
 " Section 16 0/ ' An act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors within the District 
 
 of Columbia.^ 
 
 " Sec. 16. And be it further enacted, That the said court may cause to be 
 marked and laid out, reasonable bounds of the prisons in the said District, to 
 be recorded in the same court ; and, from time to time, may renew, enlarge, 
 or diminish the same. And every prisoner not committed for treason or 
 felony, giving such security to keep within the said bounds, as any judge of 
 the said court shall approve, shall have liberty to walk therein, out of the 
 prison, for the preservation of his health ; and keeping continually within the 
 said bounds, shall be adjudged in law a true prisoner." 
 
 In the New York legislature, Mr. Wheeler, fromi Delaware county, 
 introduced a resolution which was passed through the House of Repre- 
 sentatives with only one or two dissenting voices, and through the 
 Senate by yeas 17, nays 6, in the following form : — 
 
 " Whereas, Amos Kendall is now confined to the jail limits in the District 
 of Columbia, on execution issued upon a judgment which was rendered against' 
 him in favor of William B. Stokes and others, for damages sustained by them 
 in consequence of certain official acts of said Kendall ; and whereas, the said 
 acts complained of by said' Stokes and others were performed by said Kendall, 
 without any interest other than a desire faithfully to perform the duties of his 
 office of Postmaster-G-eneral, and to protect the public interests committed to 
 his charge, — 
 
 " Resolved^ therefore, (if the Senate concur,) That our senators and repre- 
 sentatives in Congress be requested to procure, if possible, at the present 
 se.^sion of Congress, the passage of such a law as will entirely relieve Amos 
 Kendall from all and every personal responsibilitv and damage in consequence 
 of a certain judgment rendered against him in favor of William B. Stokes and 
 others. 
 
 In the House of Representatives there was not opposition enough to 
 elicit opinions, and little was said beyond a statement of facts by Mr. 
 Wheeler. 
 
 In the Senate, it met with opposition from General Root and Mr. 
 Dickinson, and was supported by Mr. Denniston, ]\Ir. Faulkner, and 
 Mr. Hunter. We have room only for short extracts from their re- 
 marks. 
 
 ]\Ir. Denniston said : — » 
 
 " Stockton and Stokes presented Mr. Kendall individually for damages, and 
 obtained a judgment of §11,000 aj^ainst him, for which be was now imprisoned, 
 and, it was understood, unless relieved would soon be incarcerated. This, Mr. 
 Denniston thought, was outrap:eous, that a public servant should thus suffer for 
 having honestly endeavored to discharge his duty. The subject had been acted 
 upon in the House of Representatives of the United States, and the committee 
 
APPENDIX. 599 
 
 on claims — seven of whom were Whigs— had reported in favor of reheving 
 Mr. Kendall, by liquidating the judgment. This showed that there was no 
 party feeling on the subject." 
 
 Mr. Faulkner said : — 
 
 " Of Amos Kendall it was enough to say, that he was admitted by all parties 
 to have been a faithful and vigilant public officer, and to have incurred this 
 liability in the conscientious discharge of his duty." 
 
 Mr. Hunter said : — 
 
 '' He had risen, however, at this time, and with regret, because he found his 
 old friend opposing a resolution which was called for by justice, and demanded 
 by national honor. Yes, sir, (said Mr. H.,) a servant of the repubhc has been 
 deprived of his freedom, withheld from exercising his talents for the benefit 
 of his family, — has been imprisoned, dishonored, — and why ? Because he 
 fearlessly and faithfully performed the duties of his office. That man was 
 Amos Kendall. He who assumed the duties of his office with unwillingness, 
 because of his feeble health. Who was told by G-eneral Jackson, when he 
 declined the appointment, that the condition of the Department occasioned 
 him great anxiety ; that there were many who could perform its duties, but 
 '' I know that you will." And he did bring order out of chaos ; he made that 
 prosperous which was unprosperous before. The whole transaction is dis- 
 graceful to the republic, — a blot on its escutcheon, almost without a parallel 
 in the history of nations." 
 
 How shall we express our gratitude to the legislature of Maine 1 
 Who would not suffer imprisonment a while for such perj^etual testi- 
 mony to his integrity, patriotism, and zeal in the pulilic service as that 
 body have spread upon the records of their State 1 The first intimation 
 we had that such a proceeding was in progress or was intended, was the 
 reception of the following document from the Office of the Secretaiy 
 of State, namely : — 
 
 ''STATE OF MAINE. 
 " Resolved in Favor of Amos Kendall. 
 
 " Resolved, That while it is the duty of a free government to protect the 
 people from injustice and oppression, it is also bound to sustain and defend its 
 officers and agents in an honest, firm, and rigid discharge of their duties and 
 trusts. That while all infringements of the laws should be visited with merited 
 punishment, reparation of injuries incurred in the conscientious and impartial 
 performance of their official functions should be prompt and complete. 
 
 " Resolved That in the execution of his duties as Postmaster-General of the 
 United States the Honorable Amos Kendall evinced, not only talents of the 
 hidiest order but unswerving and unpurchasable integrity, exalted and dis- 
 interested patriotism, never tiring industry and zeal for the public weal, and 
 eao-le-eyed watchfulness of peculators and swindlers, which have never been 
 
700 APPENDIX. 
 
 surpassed in the history of this government, and entitle^ him to the gratitude 
 of the nation. 
 
 " Resolved^ That in resisting what he deemed to be an unjust and exorbi- 
 tant claim upon the Post-Office Department, for which he is now incarcerated 
 within the jail limits of the city of Washington, Mr. Kendall acted with a 
 single eye to the public good, and with a deep sense of an imperative duty as 
 a public servant. 
 
 " Resolved^ That the rank injustice of suflfering a public servant, thus meri- 
 torious, to be placed in durance, not for any defalcation or misconduct, but on 
 account of his fidelity to the government, is a stain upon the national honor, 
 which, as far as it can be done by Congress, should be speedily erased. 
 
 " Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Represent- 
 atives requested, to exert all fair and honorable means to have the judgment 
 on which the Honorable Amos Kendall is now imprisoned, for withholding 
 his official sanction to the claim of Stockton and Stokes on the Post-Office 
 Department, cancelled by the Treasurer of the United States, and also to have 
 the said Kendall allowed and paid, from the public treasury, the costs and ex- 
 penses incurred by him in defending the suit of said Stockton and Stokes 
 against him, together with such further sum for his damages, by reason of said 
 suit and imprisonment, as may be a full remuneration therefor. 
 
 " Resolved^ That a copy of these resolutions be transmitted by the Grovernor 
 to each of the Senators and Representatives in Congress from this State, and 
 to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives 
 of the United States. 
 
 " Read and passed. 
 
 " Read and passed. 
 
 " February 21, 1843. 
 " Approved. 
 
 "In the House of Eepkesentatives, February 20, 1843. 
 
 "DAVID DUN[X, Speaker. 
 
 "In Senate, February 21, 1843. 
 "EDWARD KAVAKAGH, President. 
 
 "JOHN FAIRFIELD, Governor.'' 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Cambridge : Electrotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co 
 
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