(Book by Kenner, Duncan Farrar)
Book by Kenner, Duncan Farrar
https://www.amazon.com/man-pleasure-business-European-1833-1834/dp/094098458X?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=094098458X
Duncan Farrar Kenner, the youngest son of William and Mary (Minor) Kenner, was born on February 11, 1813, in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. His father, a prosperous New Orleans merchant, had emigrated to Louisiana from Caroline County, Virginia, soon after the purchase; his mother was the daughter of Major Stephen Minor, commandant at Natchez, Mississippi, during the Spanish régime in Louisiana.
Kenner received his early education from private tutors and in the public schools of New Orleans, and then entered Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, where he graduated in 1831. After four years of travel and study in Europe, mostly spent in England and France, he read law for a time with John Slidell.
About 1835 Kenner settled upon "Ashland" plantation, Ascension Parish, Louisiana, where he became a sugar planter and horse breeder. He had a private track for training purposes and was widely known among turf followers throughout the country, his thoroughbreds winning consistently at the New Orleans, Saratoga, and other tracks.
In 1836 Kenner was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives from Ascension Parish, and subsequently served several terms in the state legislature, first in the House and then in the Senate. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1844, and president of the state constitutional convention in 1852. He was one of seven delegates from Louisiana to the provisional Congress of the Confederacy at Montgomery, Alabama, in 1861, and after the Southern capital was removed to Richmond, Virginia, he continued to represent his state in the Confederate House of Representatives, where he was chairman of the committee on ways and means.
As the war went on, he became more and more convinced of the impossibility of Confederate success without European recognition and that slavery stood in the way, and in 1864, when the Southern cause looked desperate, he urged upon his friend, Judah P. Benjamin, secretary of state, the sending of a special commission to Europe to offer England and France the abolition of slavery in return for recognition. President Davis reluctantly agreed to the plan, and, realizing the need of secrecy, accepted the responsibility without appealing to Congress, but instead of a commission he followed the advice of Benjamin and appointed Kenner sole envoy with the rank of minister plenipotentiary.
In disguise Kenner made his way overland to New York, and sailed from that port February 11, 1865, on the steamer America. He arrived safely in Europe, but Sherman's campaign had destroyed all confidence in the chances of Confederate success, and the mission, aptly characterized as grasping at a straw, was a failure. The war over, Kenner returned to a plantation in ruins, for "Ashland" had been raided by Union troops in 1862. The house had not been burned, but his valuable horses had been seized, his overseers captured, and his slaves freed. At fifty-two he had to begin life over again, but, undaunted, he went to work, and by close application and the exercise of great business skill he built up an estate which was larger and more valuable at the time of his death than it had been before the war.
Kenner was also active politically and otherwise during these postwar years. During 1866-1867 he represented Ascension in the state Senate, and in 1877 he was elected to the same body from New Orleans, where he then lived. He was prominent in all efforts to wrest the state from Republican control during Reconstruction days. In the winter of 1876-1877 he was in Washington, D. C. , in the interests of the Democratic party during the Hayes-Tilden election contest. Two years later he was a candidate for the United States Senate, but failed of election. In 1882 he was appointed a member of the United States Tariff Commission by President Arthur. He was chairman of the building committee for the Cotton Exposition held in New Orleans during 1884-1885 and for a number of years he was a member of the Louisiana Levee Board.
Kenner became the prominent owner of sugar plantation and thoroughbred horse breeder in Louisiana. He is said to have been the first in the state to introduce and use the portable railroad to carry cane from fields to mill, the Rillieux double-effect pans, and the McDonald hydraulic pressure regulator. He also played a leading part in organizing the Louisiana Sugar Planter's Association in 1877, and the Sugar Experiment Station in 1885.
(Book by Kenner, Duncan Farrar)
Duncan F. Kenner was a member of the Democratic Party. He proposed a national income tax of 20%, including a schedule of exemptions.
Kenner served as a president of the Louisiana Sugar Planter's Association. When the Louisiana Jockey Club was formed he became its president and held the position until his death.
On June 1, 1839, Kenner married Anne Guillelmine Nanine Bringier, member of an old and influential French family of Louisiana.
