The telegraph manual: a complete history and description of the semaphoric, electric and magnetic telegraphs of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, ancient and modern.

EMINENT TELEGRAPHERS. 809
In the contest for the Presidency, which ended in the election of John
Quincy Adams, Mr. Kendall supported Mr. Clay, avowing that General
Jackson was his second choice. In the subsequent contest between Mr.
Adams and General Jackson, he zealously supported the latter. In
March, 1829, he was, without solicitation on his part, appointed by
General Jackson, Fourth Auditor of the Treasury Department at Washington. There was much confusion and corruption in this office, all of
which was rectified by Mr. Kendall, who held the office five years. He
was then unexpectedly solicited by General Jackson to take charge of
the Postoffice Department, whose affairs were much deranged. Reluctantly, and only because the President placed his request on personal
grounds, Mr. Kendall undertook the herculean task of reforming that
department. In one year it was efficiently organized, purged from abuses.
and freed from debt. IIe held the office until 1840, when he resigned.
IHe was much persecuted by malicious suits instituted by certain mail
contractors whose exactions he had resisted; but, after years of annoyance,
they ended in his triumphant vindication, and the payment to him by the
unanimous concurrence of all parties in Congress, of all costs and expenses
which they had occasioned.
Much has been said about Mr. Kendall's influence with General Jackson. That the General had great confidence in him, is shown by the trusts
committed to his hands. But in his public measures, General Jackson
was a man, who, having once formed his opinions, might be aided but not
influenced. That Mr. Kendall did aid him by his pen and counsel, particularly in his warfare with the Bank of the United States, there can be
no doubt. Mr. Kendall's opinions in relation to that Bank were fixed as
early as 1818, and perfectly accorded with General Jackson's and he
considers the aid he was able to render the General in destroying the
Bank the highest title he has to the gratitude of his country.
Mr. Kendall left public life poor, and betook himself to the publication
of a newspaper for subsistence. In this he was but partially successful;
and not being able to transfer his establishment to a more promising field.
on account of embarrassments arising out of the malicious suits already
alluded to, he discontinued his newspaper, and resorted to the prosecution
of claims against the government, to him a most irksome business.
While thus employed, he fell in with Professor Morse, who was endeavoring, with little prospect of success, to get an appropriation from
Congress, to extend a line of his telegraph from Baltimore to New-York,
it being already in operation between Washington and Baltimore. Finding the Professor much discouraged, he inquired whether he had no
project to render his telegraph profitable as a private enterprise if he
should fail in obtaining further aid from the government? On being
answered in the negative, he rejoined that if the appropriation failed, he
would be glad to talk further on the subject. It failed, and Professor
Morse asked Mr. Kendall for a proposition to take charge of his telegraph
business. It was made and at once accepted. It vested Mr. Kendall with
full power to manage and dispose of Morse's patent rights according to
his discretion. A similar arrangement was made with Professor L. D.
Gale, who owned one sixteenth. and Mr. Alfred Vail, who owned two
sixteenths of Morsels patent. Without going into the details of his management. suffice it to say that it has placed Professor Morse in a condition
of pecuniary independence, has profited in the same proportion the other
owners of the patent, and has secured to himself and family the means of
comfort.
Mr. Kendall was married at the age of 29, lived with his wife five years,
and had four children, of whom only one survives. After living a
widower two years, he was again married, and by his second wife has had
ten children, of whom four with their mother still survive.