John P. Kennedy
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- For other persons named John Kennedy, see John Kennedy (disambiguation).
| John Pendleton Kennedy | |
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| In office July 26, 1852 – March 4, 1853 |
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| Preceded by | William A. Graham |
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| Succeeded by | James C. Dobbin |
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| Born | October 25, 1795 Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
| Died | August 18, 1870 Newport, Rhode Island, USA |
| Political party | Whig |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Gray Kennedy |
| Profession | Politician, Lawyer, Writer |
| Religion | Episcopalian |
John Pendleton Kennedy (October 25, 1795 – August 18, 1870) served as United States Secretary of the Navy from July 26, 1852 to March 4, 1853, during the administration of President Millard Fillmore, and as a Congressman from the fourth district of Maryland. He was the brother of senator Anthony Kennedy.
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[edit] Background
Born in Baltimore, Maryland on October 25, 1795, Kennedy graduated from Baltimore College in 1812 and fought in the Battles of Bladensburg and North Point in the War of 1812. Although admitted to the bar in 1816, he was much more interested in literature and politics than law. He published Swallow Barn in 1832 and Horse-Shoe Robinson in 1835 to win a permanent place of respect in the history of American fiction.
Kennedy was an active Whig, winning a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates in 1820. In 1838 he succeeded Isaac McKim in the U.S. House of Representatives but was defeated in his bid for reelection in November of that year. He was re-elected to Congress in 1840 and 1842; but, because of his strong opposition to the annexation of Texas, he was defeated in 1844. His influence in Congress was largely responsible for the appropriation of $30,000 to test Samuel Morse's telegraph.
President Millard Fillmore appointed Kennedy to the post of Secretary of the Navy in July 1852. During Kennedy's tenure in office, the Navy organized four important naval expeditions including that which sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry to Japan and Lieutenant William Lewis Herndon and Lieutenant Lardner Gibbon to explore the Amazon .
Kennedy retired from public life in March, 1853 when President Fillmore left office, but he retained an active interest in politics and forcefully supported the Union. At the end of the American Civil War he advocated amnesty for the South. He died at Newport, R.I. in 1870, and is buried in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.
USS John P. Kennedy and USS Kennedy (DD-306) were named for him.
[edit] Literary life
It is worth noting that Kennedy befriended Edgar Allan Poe and that while abroad he became a friend of William Makepeace Thackeray and wrote or outlined the fourth chapter of the second volume of The Virginians, a fact which accounts for the great accuracy of its scenic descriptions. Of his works Horse-Shoe Robinson is the best and ranks high in antebellum fiction. He sometimes used the pen name Mark Littleton.[1] Other works of his include:
- The Red Book (1818-19, two volumes)
- Swallow Barn (1832) §
- Horse-Shoe Robinson (1835)
- Rob of the Bowl (1838) §
- Annals of Quodlibet (1840)
- Memoirs of the Life of William Wirt (1849, two volumes)
- The Border States (1861)
- Mr. Ambrose's Letters on the Rebellion (1865)
- Collected Works of John Pendleton Kennedy (1870-72, ten volumes)
- At Home and Abroad: A Series of Essays: With a Journal in Europe in 1867-68 (1872, essays)
- The Literature of the American South: A Norton Anthology (1998, composure)
§ Under the name Mark Littleton.
[edit] Posthumous request
In his will, Kennedy wrote the following:
It is my wish that the manuscript volumes containing my journals, my note or common-place books, and the several volumes of my own letters in press copy, as also all my other letters, such as may possess any interest or value (which I desire to be bound in volumes) that are now in lose sheets, shall be returned to my executors, who are requested to have the same packed away in a strong walnut box, closed and locked, and then delivered to the Peabody Institute, to be preserved by them unopened until the year 1900, when the same shall become the property of the Institute, to be kept among its books and records.[2]
[edit] Biography
- Collected works of Henry Theodore Tuckerman, tenth volume, (New York, 1870-72).
[edit] External links
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- John Kennedy biography at NNBD
- John Kennedy at Find A Grave
- Swallow Barn, vol. 1
- Swallow Barn, vol. 2
- Horse-Shoe Robinson
This article includes public domain text from the Naval Historical Center.
| Preceded by: Isaac McKim |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 4th congressional district March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1839 |
Succeeded by: James Carroll |
| Preceded by: James Carroll |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 4th congressional district March 4, 1841 – March 3, 1845 |
Succeeded by: William F. Giles |
| Preceded by: William A. Graham |
United States Secretary of the Navy July 26, 1852 – March 4, 1853 |
Succeeded by: James C. Dobbin |
