The New Hampshire Gazette

On occasion of Mr. Kendall's transference to the Post Office department, the clerks in the Fourth Auditor's office sent him a communication expressing their gratitude for the kindness he had ever shown them, bearing testimony to his integrity, fidelity and ability as a public officer, and congratulating him on his accession to a higher and more dignified station. We can find space only for--what does equal honor to the head and heart of the author--

MR. KENDALL'S REPLY.

WASHINGTON, May 1st, 1835.

Gentlemen: I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt by the hands of the Chief Clerk of the Fourth Auditor's office, of your communication dated 27th ult.

For this expression of your personal kindness, I tender you my heartfelt thanks; and it is the more grateful to me, because it was entirely spontaneous and unexpected. It has been my design in public life to carry myself with perfect justice and impartiality towards all with whom I may have had official relations; and the united expression of your good will, which has been sought by me in no other way, is at the same time a confirmation of the soundness of the principle, and the most gratifying evidence of my success in its practical application.

You do me justice when you say that 'I have never exacted from you more than I was myself willing to perform.' In our government, where public officers are but servants of the People, the higher the elevation and the greater the salary, the stronger is the obligation, by fidelity and industry, to merit the one and render an equivalent for the other. He who does not feel that obligation, does not appreciate as he ought the character of our government, and his relation to the people; and he who does not endeavor to discharge it, is unmindful of his first public duty, and unworthy of any public station.

I fear my friends anticipate too much from me in the responsible station to which it has been the pleasure of the President to call me. I enter upon its duties with fear and trembling; but at the same time with firmness of purpose which nothing can shake, to devote all my bodily and mental powers to its service; and if I fail, it shall be because it is impossible for me to be successful. Being indebted for the appointment, not to any political arrangement, but solely to the confidence the President reposes in me, I have no motive to actuate me, but by a faithful discharge of the duties of the station, to enable him to close his administration with honor, advance my own reputation, and promote the interests of our country.

To the slanders of the profligate and misinformed, of which you speak, I have long since become measurably indifferent. You, gentlemen, of whom I have never exacted the slightest political service, and to whom I have never uttered a word with a view to influence your political opinions or acts, can bear witness how little probable it is that I would prostitute any public station to party or other improper purposes. If I have lived down these imputations within the narrow sphere of one office, I shall put them down, if I have opportunity, upon the broader theatre of another. While I shall ever express and maintain, with ardor and firmness, my own political opinions and principles, as a right which no patriot would surrender for office, and no honest man would fail to exercise, I will never permit myself, nor suffer those under my control, if I know and can prevent it, to bring the power of office to operate upon elections, otherwise than by an impartial, rigid, and punctilious discharge of its duties. It is not to govern the people, but to serve them, that offices are created; and a departure from that principle in their administration, is an approach to those usurpations which hold so large a portion of mankind in bondage.

In taking leave of you, I beg to reciprocate, most cordially, the personal kindness with which your communication abounds. To whatever field of action I may be called, I cannot hope to find official associates with whom I can act with more pleasure to myself, or more advantage to the public service; and unexpectedly happy shall I be, if in any other station I find myself in those respects equally or fortunate. From my personal knowledge of the talents and excellent qualities of my successor, I am quite certain that you, gentlemen, will have no cause to regret the change in your official superior, and there remains to me the pleasing reflection, that while our official connexion may be severed, our personal relations may not only be preserved, but be made most intimate. On this anticipation I rest a large portion of my hopes of any happiness it may hereafter be my good fortune to enjoy in the society of my fellow men.

Accept, gentlemen, for yourselves severally, assurances of my ever kind and grateful remembrance, with my best wishes for your happiness and prosperity.

With the highest regard,

Your friend, &c.

AMOS KENDALL.