The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-01-26
JACKSON AND KENDALL.

We make another extract from the
book of Ex-Governor Henry A. Wise:
"And yet, soon after he was a lodger
there in the White house, that room
was the scene of his private confer
ences at night in which Amos Ken
dali was his chief scribe and aman-
uensis, to write the broadside editor
ials of the Globe under his direction
and instruction, but not with his die
t1on. He was a better thinker than
his scribe, a better writer than he.
He would lie down and smoke and
dictate his ideas as well as he could
express them, and Amos Kendall
would write paragraph and read it.
That was not the thing; many times
the scribe would write and re-write
again and again, and fail to fetch a
compass of the meaning. At last by
alteration and correction, getting
nearer and nearer to it, he would see
1t, and be himself astonished at his
mastery power. General Jackson
needed such an amanuensis-intelli-
gent, learned, industrious-as Mr..
Kendall was. He could think but
could not write he knew what nerve
to touch, but he was no surgeon,
skilled in the instrument of dissec-
ton, Kendall was. But how came
Amos Kendall there, in General Jack
sons sanctum, where his saints pic
ture hung? She had been most ma
ligned by Amos Kendall, TIE editor
of Clay's leading journal in Ken
lucky, during the canvass. Kendall
had called her Aunt, Rachel with
the. corn-cob pipe etc. There was
the chief enemy who had maligned
her; there hung the picture of the
wounded saint, and there was the
husband avenger, who volunteered
VOW at her grave! This was mighty
strange! Not so, however. to those
who knew General jackson wen. No
man was cooler in his calculations
than he was. He would sometimes
seem to fight most rashly, but no one
ever knew him to fight at all. unless
there was stake up worth fighting
for.
"Kendall had been poo. school
master, and was a pr0tege of Mr.. Clay.
He had been a hireling, and was but
pen for the political malice of Mr..
Clay's party
"What had he president Jackson)
to gain by fighting the pen, the mere
amanuensis, when his aim was TO
slay the prompter of all this wrong?
Kendall, for this cause, left the fallen
house of Clay and fled to the rock of
power and strength. He knew much,
could reveal much, could deliver up
all the eEemy's armory. He was
indefatigable, unscrupulous and able.
He was the very weapon for pug
nacious patron to use, and could sur
est strike the arch enemy-he had
been the arch ene1ny's own.
General Jackson then could throw
away his prejudice, passion, vengence
itself, and VOWS, and coolly take
Amos to that chamber. Amos Ken
dali was his man, and he could and
did use him with tremendous effect
to destroy his first patron, Mr.. Clay.
"Such was General Jackson, the
man with whom Mr.. Tyler and his
compeers had to deal at the begin
ming of Mr.. Tyler's career in the
senate of the United States. No two
men were ever more unlike than Mr..
Tyler and General Jackson. They
were bred in totally different scenes
and schools in Hfe-the one child
of gentle people, and brought up in
ease, the other poor boy of humble
Irish extraction, orphaned and eXiled
by war and poverty to build his own
fortunes in the western wilds of Ten
nessee; the one taught and trained
by the best of teachers and books,
the other n Hercules of action with
out learning, except that which was
sclf-taught; the one winning the
stakes Of life by geDtleness and grace,
the other taking them by main force,
and commanding success by seiZing
the prize he sought; the one q civilian
and orator, the other warrior always
in the camp Of life, Il leader of men,
and in every sense an actor. Mr..
Tyler had tot ched him sorely in the
tender point of Arbuthnot and Am
brister, and he remembered what he
deemed ali unkindness, and he show
ed no good opinion Of or favor to any
one who had censured his course III
that affair. Feeling that Mr.. Cal
houn had censured him in the Cabin
ct of Mr. Monroe, he separated from
him, though they were elected on the
same ticket in 1928. Thus Mr.. Cal
houn's friends, among whom was
Mr.. Tyler, were soon made to stand
aloof from General Jackson, though
in the main, as on the Maysville
road bill, the States rights party still
maintained some of the leading
measures of the administration"