Author and legislator; born in Baltimore, Md., Oct. 25, 1795; was educated at the University of Maryland; served for a short time in the war of 1812, after which he studied law, but devoted much of his time to literature, editing a new publication entitled The Red Book. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1820; was a member of Congress 1839–45, and in 1852 he was appointed by President Fillmore Secretary of the Navy. As the head of the Navy Department the Japanese expedition of Commodore Perry and the second Artie exploration of Dr. Kane were mainly due to him. In politics Kennedy had been an earnest Whig of the Henry Clay school, but early showed strong anti-slavery feelings, and during the civil war his sympathies were entirely on the Federal side. Died at Newport, R. I., Aug. 18, 1870. He is best known as the author of works of fiction, among which are “Swallow Barn” (1832); “Horseshoe Robinson” (1835), a tale of Revolutionary times; and “Rob of the Bowl” (1838), the scene of which is laid in Maryland in Colonial times.
Personal
From youth up he has had the good fortune to possess an ample competence, and a temperament that enabled him to take the world as he found it, without permitting himself to be annoyed by its trifles or its cares. He is, moreover, prudent in his style of living; and while not averse to a reasonable enjoyment of the gifts of Providence, is rigidly exact in his habits. This may account for the manner in which years have almost insensibly stolen upon him without leaving those tell-tale evidences that usually accompany their progress. But while thus placid in his domestic life, he has been an ardent politician, and in this capacity has filled several important positions, the last of which was Secretary of the Navy during the administration of Mr. Fillmore.
Mr. Kennedy, as a man, was greater and better than all his books. One certainly looks in vain in all that he wrote or did for the full measure of those gifts and acquirements of mind and heart, that learning and wisdom, that wit and humor, that whole-souled cordiality and gayety and kindness, which shone out so conspicuously in the intimacies of daily intercourse. A truer friend or more charming companion has rarely been found or lost by those who have enjoyed the privilege of his companionship and friendship; and among those may be counted not a few of our most distinguished authors and statesmen.
General
This [“Swallow Barn”] is a work of great merit and promise. It is attributed to a gentleman of Baltimore, already advantageously known to the public by several productions of less compass, and in various styles, but all excellent in their respective ways. The present attempt proves that he combines, with the talent and spirit which he had previously exhibited, the resource, perseverance and industry, that are necessary to the accomplishment of extensive works. We do not know that we can better evince our friendly feeling for him than by expressing the wish that the success which this production has met with may induce him to withdraw his attention from other objects, and devote himself entirely to the elegant pursuits of polite literature, for which his taste and talent are so well adapted, and in which the demand for labor,—to borrow an expression from a science, to which he is no stranger,—is still more pressing than in law, political economy, or politics.
Mr. Kennedy is altogether one of our most genial, lively, and agreeable writers. His style is airy, easy, and graceful, but various, and always in keeping with his subject. He excels both as a describer and as a raconteur. His delineations of nature are picturesque and truthful, and his sketches of character are marked by unusual freedom and delicacy. He studies the periods which he attempts to illustrate with the greatest care, becomes thoroughly imbued with their spirit, and writes of them with the enthusiasm and the apparent sincerity and earnestness of a contemporary and an actor. He pays an exemplary regard to the details of costume, manners, and opinion, and is scarce ever detected in any kind of anachronism. There are some inequalities in his works, arising perhaps from the interruptions to which a man in active public life is liable; there is occasional diffuseness and redundance of incident as well as of expression; but his faults are upon the surface, and could be easily removed.
The position occupied by Kennedy as a writer is a prominent and highly respectable one. He is best known to the public as the author of “Swallow Barn” and “Horseshoe Robinson,” two very popular and well written novels, whose scenes are laid in the Southern states, and whose incidents turn upon the peculiarities of Southern life as it presented itself nearly a century ago…. Although Kennedy has rendered good service to his country as a politician, yet, after all, it is to be regretted that he did not devote himself more exclusively to literature, for which he has certainly exhibited rare ability. Side by side with Scott’s Meg Merrilies, of Cooper’s Leather Stocking, of Dickens’s Sam Weller, and of Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, Horseshoe Robinson must be recognized as a real and veritable creation which occupies a permanent place in the minds of those who are familiar with the story.
Mr. Kennedy wrote with delightful ease and freshness. His works are evidently the natural product of his thought and observation, and are pervaded by the happy genial temperament which characterized the man in his personal relations. We have a full reproduction in his volumes of the old Virginia life, with its old-time ideas of repose, content, and solid comfort; its hearty out-door existence, and the “humors” which are apt, in a fixed state of society, to develop quaint features in master and dependents. The author’s books abound in delightful rural pictures and sketches of character, which, in easy style and quiet genial humor, recall the Sketch Book and Bracebridge Hall. The author has himself acknowledged the relationship in the graceful tribute to Irving which forms the dedication to the volume.
When “Swallow Barn” first appeared few vivid and faithful pictures of American life had been executed. Paulding had described Dutch Colonial life in New York; Tudor had published letters from New England; Flint and Hall had given us graphic sketches from the West, toward which virgin domain the tide of emigration had set; but, with the exception of a few impressive and finished legendary tales from the then unappreciated pen of Hawthorne and the genuine American novels, the “Spy” and the “Pioneer,” of Cooper, American authorship had scarcely surveyed, far less invaded, the rich fields of local tradition and native life. Accordingly “Swallow Barn” met with a prompt and cordial reception. Emanating from a man of leisure, it was hailed as the precursor of a series of works imbued with the spirit and devoted to the illustration of our history, scenery, and manners.
Mr. Kennedy was a fluent and often elegant writer, and showed, in his descriptions, a love of the beautiful and a refined taste.
This single creation [“Horseshoe Robinson”] lifts the work of Kennedy into national importance.
Mr. Kennedy’s writings were very popular during his life-time and deserve to be so still, for his three novels give graphic and excellent pictures of their times, and are true in their historical details.
Among the most accomplished of the many brilliant men who adorned American public life during this period.
