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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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