Amos Kendall (August 16, 1789 – November 12, 1869) was an American lawyer, journalist and politician. He rose to prominence as editor-in-chief of the Argus of Western America, an influential newspaper in Frankfort, the capital of the U.S. state of Kentucky. He used his newspaper, writing skills, and extensive political contacts to build the Democratic Party into a national political power.Sloan and Startt, p. 108; Remini, Martin Van Buren, p. vii.
An ardent supporter of Andrew Jackson, he was appointed and served as United States Postmaster General during the Jackson and Martin Van Buren administrations. He was one of the most influential members of Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet", an unofficial group of Jackson's top appointees and advisors who set administration policy.O'Brien, McGuire, McPherson, and Gerstle, p. 230. Returning to private life, Kendall wrote one of the first biographies of Jackson, which was published in 1843. He invested significantly in Samuel Morse's new invention, the telegraph. He became one of the most important figures in the transformation of the American news media in the 19th century.Howe, p. 496.
Early life and education
Early life Amos Kendall was born in Dunstable, Massachusetts, on August 16, 1789 (although some sources say 1787). He was the sixth child of Zebedee and Molly (Dakin) Kendall.Davis, p. 181. Accessed 2013-02-21.Cole, p. 13. The Kendalls had immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England in 1640.Kendall, p. 1. Accessed 2013-02-21. The Kendalls became prominent landowners in the town of Dunstable, and established a large family. Members of his family owned the tavern where elections and town meetings were held, were elected town selectmen, and served on the committee of correspondence (the shadow-government which mobilized anti-British sentiment prior to the American Revolutionary War). His mother Molly Kendall gave birth to six more children after Amos, but only two of them lived past the age of six.Cole, p. 15.
Two years after Amos was born, Zebedee Kendall was named a deacon of the local Congregational church.Cole, p. 9-12. The Kendalls were very religious, and family life was strict. Kendall, p. 2-3. Accessed 2013-02-21. Kendall's early years were spent working on the family farm, an average-sized property which had of arable land. The farm primarily raised sheep and dairy cattle and provided pasture for the family horses and oxen (which were used for plowing fields). The family also cultivated corn, flax, hay, potatoes, and rye. A small part of the land was devoted to growing tobacco. Amos also assisted in clearing rocks from the farmland (which was extremely rocky and full of clay), and mending stone and split-rail fences. Kendall, p. 1-2. Accessed 2013-02-21.Cole, p. 14. Amos was a sickly child, thin and prone to colds and severe headaches.
Amos Kendall attended free public elementary schools in Massachusetts and New Hampshire during two months each summer, and was a frequent user of the subscription library in Dunstable, Massachusetts (where his father had the right to check out two books a month). Kendall, p. 3-4. Accessed 2013-02-21.
Kendall attended the New Ipswich Academy in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, for a few weeks in the fall of 1805, and a free public secondary school in New Ipswich for a month in the winter of 1806. In April 1806, he re-entered New Ipswich Academy, paying tuition by working at manual labor. He remained there until the fall, then studied a few weeks in December 1806 at a free public school in Dunstable. Kendall, p. 12-14. Accessed 2013-02-21. At the age of 16, Amos's education was advanced enough that his father obtained a two-month teaching position for him at a school in Reading, Massachusetts, in summer 1806 and another in the fall at a public school in Dunstable, New Hampshire (now known as Nashua). Kendall, p. 14. Accessed 2013-02-21.Cole, p. 18.
Amos entered the Lawrence Academy at Groton in Groton, Massachusetts, in April 1807. Despite poor health, he felt prepared to apply to Dartmouth College. He succeeded, and was admitted to Dartmouth on September 10, 1807. Kendall, p. 15. Accessed 2013-02-21.
College education
Unable to afford the $80 to $90 cost of the fall and winter term, his father Zebedee obtained another teaching position for Amos at a school in Dunstable. Away from his father's control for an extended period of time, Kendall began to play cards, dance, and occasionally drink alcohol.Cole, p. 18-19. With money in hand, he entered Dartmouth in March 1808.Cole, p. 21. Kendall joined the Social Friends, a fraternal society, as well as a small, semi-secret study and debating society known as the Gymnasion Adelphon. Through the college's and society's libraries, he had access to more than 4,000 books (a huge number by the standards of the day), many of which were by recent authors and in fields which he had been unable to study while under his father's strict moral supervision. Kendall later said that the informal education he received through reading and discussion outside the classroom was more productive than the formal classes he attended.Cole, p. 22-23.
Kendall spent the fall and winter terms of 1808 teaching in New Ipswich and began attending classes again at Dartmouth in March 1809.Cole, p. 24. When the college banned on-campus drinking, students blamed Kendall — who had circulated a petition to have it stopped. He was bullied and nearly assaulted on several occasions, and some students attempted to injure him by dropping heavy roof timbers onto him as he exited a building. Kendall would have left Dartmouth if not for the support of the members of the Gymnasion Adelphon. He later admitted that he learned a valuable lesson from the experience: Never attempt to impose his moral values on others.Cole, p. 24-25. In July 1809 he joined the Handel Society, and regularly participated in their productions. Kendall, p. 30. Accessed 2013-02-21. He taught again in Ipswich from November 1809 to February 1810 to earn money for college. Kendall, p. 30-31. Accessed 2013-02-21.
Returning to Dartmouth in the spring of 1810, Kendall's social standing at school improved. He participated in a prank in which the cattle of the townspeople were herded into a basement room at the college. When several students were brought up on charges, Kendall defended them so ably that the charges were dropped.Cole, p. 25. Kendall, like most people from Dunstable, was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. But most students at Dartmouth belonged to the Federalist Party. When asked to provide an oration at the Independence Day celebrations in 1810, he declined by arguing that the Federalists were taking over the event. When he was embraced by the radical Democratic-Republicans, he refused their support by announcing that he found them too "Frenchified" (e.g., too supportive of Napoleonic France and not patriotic enough). His determination to stand his ground but not embrace radicalism won him a great deal of admiration.Cole, p. 26. Kendall taught school again during winter term 1810–1811.It is not clear where he taught. At one point, Kendall says in his Autobiography that he taught in New Ipswich. See: Kendall, p. 42-44, accessed 2013-02-21. But later in the work, Kendall asserts he taught in Weston, Massachusetts. See: Kendall, p. 59-60, accessed 2013-02-21.
Kendall returned to Dartmouth in March 1811. During his senior year, Kendall joined the Philoi Euphradias literary society, Kendall, p. 46. Accessed 2013-02-21. joined Phi Beta Kappa society, and was elected first in his class by his classmates. He graduated from Dartmouth at the top of his class on August 27, 1811. Kendall, p. 65-68. Accessed 2013-02-21.
Legal education, the Clay children, and legal practice
Legal education
Shortly before graduation, Kendall traveled to Groton, Massachusetts, to seek a teaching position. He met with William M. Richardson, a prominent local attorney and friend of his father's. Richardson advised Kendall to abandon teaching and to study law. He became a legal apprentice in Richardson's legal practice on September 4, 1811. Since Richardson's current apprentice would not leave until March 1812, Kendall resolved to live in Groton.Cole, p. 27-28. All able-bodied men were required to join the local militia, and Kendall did so eagerly since his father had been a militiaman. But musters left him physically exhausted for days, he fainted at the sight of blood, and was so unable to withstand physical pain that he fainted when pricked with a needle. A physician certified him as unable to perform his duties.Cole, p. 29-30. But when funds ran out, he spent the winter of 1811–1812 at home reading law books and performing chores for his father.
Kendall suffered a bout of "lung fever" (most likely community-acquired pneumonia) in June 1813 that left him bedridden for three weeks. In addition, he suffered such severe migraines that he could not tolerate loud sounds.Cole, p. 30.
Teaching the children of Henry Clay In the fall of 1813, Richardson announced that he was leaving Groton. Although Richardson offered to secure Kendall an apprenticeship with the attorney taking over his practice, Kendall declined the offer. Kendall decided that, with an economic depression afflicting New England and his only patron leaving, it was time to leave Massachusetts. Kendall, p. 86. Accessed 2013-02-21. He resolved to relocate to Washington, D.C., and arrived in the city on March 2, 1814. Kendall, p. 95. Accessed 2013-02-21.
Introduced to numerous politicians by William M. Richardson, who had been elected to the United States House of Representatives, Kendall was hired by Senator Jesse Bledsoe of Kentucky to tutor the Bledsoe children. He left Washington on March 9, traveling by stagecoach to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then by flatboat down the Ohio River to Cincinnati, Ohio. He largely walked the south to Lexington, Kentucky,Cole, p. 37-40. reaching the city on April 12.
Kendall claims that, upon arrival in Lexington, Senator Bledsoe hinted that he no longer wanted to use Kendall's services. Kendall, p. 112. Accessed 2013-02-21. Other sources, however, claim that Bledsoe's family had not been told of the senator's decision to hire Kendall as a tutor and refused to allow him in the home.Kleber, p. 486. Kendall angrily resolved to have nothing to do with Bledsoe. On April 27, Kendall, p. 113. Accessed 2013-02-21.
Kendall met John Watkins, the younger half-brother of Henry Clay, the powerful Speaker of the House of Representatives. Watkins, a law student, frequented the same tavern as Kendall, and quickly introduced Kendall to Henry Clay's wife, Lucretia. With seven children and both parents frequently absent from the Clay estate, Ashland, the Clays needed someone who could help maintain order in the family as well as educate the children. Mrs. Clay offered Kendall room, board, use of her husband's extensive library, and $300 a year (nearly three times as much as Bledsoe had promised).Heidler and Heidler, p. 120; Remini, Henry Clay, p. 200. He eagerly accepted the offer and began his duties on May 5. Kendall, p. 115. Accessed 2013-02-21.