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KENNEDY, John Pendleton, (brother of Anthony Kennedy),
a Representative from Maryland; born in Baltimore, Md., October 25, 1795;
attended private schools and was graduated from Baltimore Academy in 1812; volunteered and
served in the War of 1812; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1816 and commenced practice in
Baltimore, Md.; also engaged in literary pursuits and was a novelist of distinction; member of the State
house of delegates 1821-1823; appointed secretary of the legation in Chile January 27, 1823, but did
not proceed to his post, resigning June 23, 1823; unsuccessful candidate for election to the
Twenty-fifth Congress; subsequently elected as a Whig to the same Congress to fill the vacancy
caused by the death of Isaac McKim and served from April 25, 1838, to March 3, 1839; unsuccessful
candidate for reelection in 1838 to the Twenty-sixth Congress; elected as a Whig to the
Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1845); chairman,
Committee on Commerce (Twenty-seventh Congress); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1844
to the Twenty-ninth Congress; again a member of the State house of delegates, in 1846, and served as
speaker; Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President Fillmore from July 22, 1852, to March 7,
1853; resumed literary pursuits; died August 18, 1870, at Newport, R.I., while on a visit; interment
in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, Md.
BibliographyBohner, Charles H. John Pendleton Kennedy,
Gentleman from Baltimore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1961; Spelman, Georgia
Peterman. The Whig Rhetoric of John Pendleton Kennedy. Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1974.
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