Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-10-20
A DYING STATESMAN.
II, Venerable Honorabl. Ano. Kendall

henuhii, VINO mas Dteu apparently ~
the point of death for several days,
but still keeps alive with character
istic tenacity. He Is past eighty, and
i think has been in feeble health for
the greater part Of his life, but his vi
taiity is wonderful, aud though the
physicians expect him to depart i'm
nltdiately, he may linger yet for many
DAYS. He came back from the North
about two months ago with a severe
cold, caught in the AdirODdacks, and
has been suffering since with what the
doctors call bilious fever, but which
seems TO be an exhaustion OF the di-
gestive organs and the effects of old
age. All nourishment, however light,
distresses him so badly that he takes
scarcely any food, and Is literally
starving to death.
lie is a favorite al Washington,
where he has resided nearly forty
years, and has accumulated an estate
OF haf million dollars, largely in
vested in land here and al Chicago.
He came here poor man and an OBJ
Seure man. He will die rich and
again obscure; for, though in the in
tergal he has been one of the famous
men of the nation, he has of late years
become comparatively unknown out
side OF this city, except TO a few old
fogies like myself, who have not en-
tirely forgotten the events and the
petsOnages
"softheir hot youth, when deorge the Third
was King
"Or rasher, 10 be precise, when An
drew Jackson WAS President. We
still remember that there were brave
men before Grant, and smiling pOliti-
clans before COlEiX; and prominent in
those days, among the satellites OF
Jackson and Van Buren, was the Yets
eran statesman who now lies dying
within a few hundred yards OF where
l am writing.
Born in Massachusetts in 1889, the
year of the adoption of the COnsutu-
zion. reared in poverty, and educated
Dy his own cXertiOns 50 well that he
graduated first of his class at Dart
mouth, in 1871, Mr.. Kendall went TO
kentucky in Iel3, met with some sue
cess as a lawyer, but still more as
Democratic editor and politician, IN
which capacities his reputation was SO
high that, when in 1879 President
Jaeks0n called him 10 Washington -
Fourth Auditor OF the Treasury, he
almost Immediately became the 6ste
stof,-e of the Wing party, and acquired
pFOdigiOgS IenUNVH and corresponding
Odium sIn5ug the opposition, rs the 1
evil genius who inspired the policy /
aad Invented the MEASURES OF The 4
stormy administration OF Old HEX I
ory He was made POstlnaSter-tien 4
eral in 1888. and continued in that 1
office till the last year of Van Bureu's 4
term, distinguishing himself in II by 4
the energy OF his management and by /
theSkiil With which he raised the de- |
partmeGt from a state OF debt and
CHAOS TO a solvent condition, and TO 1
an organization 80 orderly and efficient
Ehat il has needed scarcely any i'm
proyemens down 10 our own day.
Between Is3g and lS4O, Mr.. Ken
d1ll's reputation ~ a politician at
taiBed its elimination. The most
striking evidence of his FeHVWl at
that period is contained in Miss Mar
tineau's Retrospect of Western
Travel" written IN 1881, from which
/ copy the following exceedingly vivid
sketch
81 was fortunate enough once to
catch a glimpse OF the invisible Amos
Kendall, one of the most remarkable
men in America. lie is supposed TO
be the moving spirit OF the whole Ad-
miuistratiOn: the thinker, planHer
and dOCr; but il is all in the dark. ,
Documents are issued, Of an excellence
which prevents their being attributed ;
70 persons Is hO take the responsibility +
OF them; a correspondence Is kept up ,
ali over the country for which no one
seems 10 be answerdble; wGYk is done, !
of goblin extent and with goblin spegl, :
which makes men look about them I
with a superstitious wonder; and the :
invisible Amos Kendall has the credit !,
ii il ali. President JacksOn's letters :
- rs Cabinet are said 10 be kendall'Ss
the 3ssLsrs sent from Washington to Z
appear IA TsInOte country newspapers, !
whence they sEe cOllated and pub II
lisbed in the Gi35r ~ demonstrations :
of pnblic opinion, are pronounced to / !
be written by Kendall. Every mys-
teri0us paragraph in opposition news
Dapers relates 10 Kendall; and il is {
some relief to thstiWid that his hsv- Z
ing now the office 81 Postmaster Gen- }
sr2l affords opportunity fvF 6pen AZ ]
tacks upon the twilight parsonage, ( ]
who is proved, by the faults in the !
PostOfiice administration, not 10 be 2
able to do quite everything well. But !
ne is undoubtedly a great genius. lie ]
unites with his great talent Tor silence &
a splendid audacity.
.IIt is clear that he could not do the :
work he does Incredible enough in |
amount, any way if he went into SO /
riety like other men. He did, how
ever, one evening; / think it was at :
the Attorney Generals The moment {
/ went in inumatiOns FeacuSd me ]
from all quarter, amid mods and 4
.Yinks, Kendall is here; that is her I
! saw AT once that his plea for seciu-
sion (bad Eealtn) Is no false one. The q
extreme salloWneSs Of his complexion, i
and hair Of such perfect whiteness a. >
Is rarely seen in Il man Of middle age, d
.estified to disease. His eOuntenance
lOes not help the superstitiOns to a
throw OF their dread OF him. He y
does not desire this super :
IItiOn to melt away, for there is no I
how much influence was .
gigen 10 Jacks0n's administration by d
ne universal belief that there was a / j,
concealed eye and hand behind the /
OF Government, by which !,
everything could be fOreseen, and the 4
hardest deeds done. A member OF :.
Congress told me this night that he :
lad watched through four sessions for :,
sight OF Kendall, and had never OBJ 4
aimed IL ttilg now. Kendall was iean- !
40 on a chair, with head bent down | "a
nd eye glaucing up at a member OF h
'Ongresss, with whom he was in earn !
81 conversation, aud ia few minutes \.
he was gone !,
Making ali allowances for exaggera- I.
ion, ahd discarding the nonsense / Z
bout uPelnaturaiisIn, We have here q,
very impressive picture Of 2
he effect produced on his cOntempo- / !
aries by Amos Kendall in the prime =
\ his power. J can recall nothing +
Ike Il IN our history, except, perhaps, n
4 The case 81 AarOu Barr, who had I
be same energy and capacity OF labor,
nd fUr time exercised, OF at least
eceiVed the credit Of a similar mystic n
iOus and weird inhGeuCe. Miss Mar io
inessu wrote chiefly under WING in h
piration, but the Mhigs Of that day Il
we're represented at Washington by &
nen like Clay and Webster, and as- dl
ure,ily there must have been some L
hing Uf weight aud power in Amos IA
Sendall 10 have made such an impress tO
ion on antagonists OF their eGliber. a
Hiss Martineau's supernatural alius- hi
lns were evidently the result Of a ! 10
Misunderstanding, very common hi
mOng foreigners thirty or forty years D,
20, OF that peculiarly American spe- sh
ies of hun0T, the essence Of which ro
onsisis la graVely pretending to be- in
eve the incredible. She really seems IN
. have taken for eairaest the solemn d,
,kes of the Wings about kendal's as
sblin energies, and to have fancied ca
he saw the effect of such a supersti- 70
on on a people who are the least SUI re
ersfitious la their politics OF any that an
~, 81 Rave ever nNed. pI
But the most singular fact OF Mr.. hi
-endall's life Is to me, not his tempo pl
ary celebrity, but the subsequent OBJ tr
,urity to which ! have already al ~
lded. 1t IS not easy to conceive how to
man, fOr ten years 50 potent and so OF
readea, should have become at once OF
T 50 little consequence and so nearly Ell
,ngotten, especially when We reflect W
lat his reputation was won by his lis
Vn natural powers OF mind, and not fu
lerely BY court or party favor. And
ct, after I840, Amos Kendall ceased n;
!, be of any account whatever in ma - =,
on which, five years before, had rung ~
18th his name. The American Fepur ~ 4,
ltioRs OF thirty or forty years ago, =,
oWeVer, in politics IS in literature, o.
ere, most Of them, grossly exag- -, -
grated, and are rapidly fading out. :. -