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KENDALL, AMOS. 



greater than that of any other State in the 

 Union, with the exception of little Vermont, 

 which realized 16 bushels per acre against 

 Kansas 15.6. The limestone soil is specially 

 adapted to the culture of this cereal. Both 

 spring and fall varieties seem admirably suited 

 to the soil and climate. 



Much interest has been manifested in the 

 cultivation of timber known as the European 

 larch. An investigation has clearly shown 

 that this wood is applicable for domestic pur- 

 poses, and is also much sought for buildings 

 and railroad purposes. One hundred and fifty 

 thousand acres of wood land are cut yearly to 

 supply the demand for railroad sleepers alone. 



Much fear has been awakened by the reck- 

 less disregard paid by settlers to the forests, 

 and it has been suggested that an appeal should 

 be made to the Legislature to protect them by 

 some stringent enactment. 



A woman's rights convention was held in 

 September, but was not favorably viewed and 

 no important action was taken. 



KENDALL, AMOS, LL. D., an American 

 statesman, political leader, and publicist, born 

 in Dunstable, Mass., August 16, 1789; died in 

 Washington, D. 0., November 11, 1869. His 

 parents were poor, and he worked with his 

 father on the farm until he was sixteen years 

 old, enjoying few privileges of education. He 

 then became anxious to enter college, and after 

 little more than a year's preparation entered 

 Dartmouth. Still poor, he was obliged to ab- 

 sent himself a large part of the time, in order 

 to obtain means for support by teaching. With 

 all these discouragements, however, he was 

 graduated the first in his class. He then studied 

 law with W. B. Eichardson, of Groton, Mass., 

 subsequently Chief Justice of New Hampshire, 

 and in the spring of 1814 moved to Lexington, 

 Ky. His practice not proving lucrative, he 

 again resorted to teaching, acting for some time 

 as tutor in the family of Henry Clay. Eemoving 

 to Georgetown, Ky., he was there appointed 

 postmaster, and there also commenced his 

 editorial career by writing for a local paper. 

 His writings attracted attention, and in 1816 

 he accepted a position on the staff of The Argus 

 of Western America, the State journal at Frank- 

 fort. He advocated the measures of the Dem- 

 ocratic party, taking also a special interest in 

 the common schools, and securing the passage 

 of an act to district the State and set apart 

 one-half the profits of the Bank of the Com- 

 monwealth as a school fund. During the pres- 

 idential contest of 1824 Mr. Kendall was a 

 warm supporter of General Jackson, and, when 

 he took the presidential chair, Kendall was 

 called to Washington as Fourth Auditor of the 

 Treasury. Here his influence was soon felt, 

 and, augmented by his own natural secretive- 

 ness, he came ere long to be looked upon as the 

 secret spring which moved the presidential 

 pen, and perhaps, also, the presidential will. 

 That he enjoyed the utmost confidence of Pres- 

 dent Jackson, and lent his pen to express the 



President's desires, is perfectly well known. 

 When the President first concluded to take 

 action against the United States Bank, Mr. M. M. 

 Noah, surveyor of this port, received a note 

 from Mr. Kendall, informing him of the tenor 

 of the forthcoming message. This letter, slightly 

 altered, appeared as an editorial in The Courier 

 and Enquirer the next morning. When the 

 Senate reached Mr. Kendall's name, on the list 

 of appointments, it was very unwilling to con- 

 firm it, and when it was confirmed it was by 

 the casting vote of the Yice-President. When 

 the name of Isaac Hill was rejected, a long 

 communication was published in The New 

 Hampshire Patriot, calculated to make every 

 Jackson man regard the rejection as a personal 

 affront. There is little doubt of Kendall's being 

 its author. When the quarrel between Jackson 

 and Calhoun became public, General Duff 

 Green, editor of The United States Telegraph, 

 the organ of the Administration, sided with the 

 Yice-President. Kendall foresaw the defection, 

 and gave the President warning, and it was by 

 his request that his old contributor, Francis 

 P. Blair, came to Washington and established 

 The Globe. In 1835 Mr. Kendall was placed 

 at the head of the Post-Office Department. His 

 administration here was very successful. He 

 freed the department from debt, and induced 

 Congress to adopt an organization which has 

 continued with little change up to the present 

 time. In 1835, while he was Postmaster-Gen- 

 eral, he issued his famous order concerning 

 the United States mails. On the 29th of July, 

 a report was spread in Charleston, South Caro- 

 lina, that the mails from the North contained 

 a quantity of abolition documents. A public 

 meeting was called. This meeting resolved 

 that the mail matter in question should be 

 publicly burned. Accordingly a mob proceeded 

 to the post-office, seized and rifled the mail- 

 bags, but did not find any thing more incen- 

 diary than a few harmless Northern papers, 

 which were destroyed. The postmaster at 

 Charleston reported the occurrence to Post- 

 master-General Kendall. He replied in an 

 official letter, sanctioning the proceedings. " J 

 am satisfied," he wrote, "that the Postmaster- 

 General has no legal authority to exclude 

 newspapers from the mails, nor to prohibit 

 their carriage and delivery on account of their 

 character or tendency, real or supposed. But 

 I am not prepared to direct you to forward or 

 deliver the papers of which you speak. We 

 owe an obligation to the laws, but a higher one 

 to the communities in which we live ; and, if 

 the former be permitted to destroy tlie latter, 

 it is patriotism to disregard them." In his 

 next annual report he urged Congress to pass 

 a law, for which he framed a bill himself, for- 

 bidding the circulation in the mails of "any 

 pamphlet, newspaper, handbill, or other print- 

 ed paper or pictorial representation, touching 

 the subject of slavery," etc. He left the Cabinet 

 in 1840, and was no longer heard of in public 

 life. President Polk offered him a foreign mis- 



