Background
KENNER, Duncan Farrar was born on February 11, 1813 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, United States. Son of William and Mary (Minor) Kenner.
Businessman congressman Diplomat lawyer planter
KENNER, Duncan Farrar was born on February 11, 1813 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, United States. Son of William and Mary (Minor) Kenner.
Graduate Miami University, Oxford, O., 1831.
He attended public schools in New Orleans, graduated from Miami University of Ohio in 1831, and spent the next four years traveling in Europe. Although he studied law under John Slidell ), he never practiced, becoming, in 1835, a sugar planter and horse breeder at his plantation “Ashland” in Ascension Parish. On June 1, 1839, he married Anne Guillelmine Nanine Bringier.
Kenner, a Whig, served in the Louisiana legislature from 1836 to 1850 and lost a race for the U.S. Senate in 1849. He was a delegate to the state constitutional conventions of 1844 and 1852, serving as president of the latter. He supported secession.
In the provisional Confederate Congress, he served on the Finance and Patents Committees and was responsible for the formation of the Congress under the permanent constitution. Elected to the first Confederate House from the Third District of Louisiana, he was reelected in 1864. He was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the Confederate House throughout the war.
An administration supporter, he was one of the most important members of the Congress, as much of the administration legislation was steered through his committee. In 1864, he was sent as special commissioner to France and Great Britain, where he promised an end to slavery in return for diplomatic recognition from these nations. After the war, he found his plantation in ruins, but his great business skill enabled him to recoup his losses.
He was president of the Louisiana Sugar Planters Association in 1877, and he subsequently became president of the New Orleans Gas Company, the Crescent Cotton Seed Oil Company, and the Louisiana Sugar Company. Kenner also had an active postwar political career. In 1866-1867, he served in the state Senate.
He lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1879, running as a Democrat. In 1883, President Arthur named him to the U.S. Tariff Commission.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
Member Louisiana Constitutional Convention, 1844, president, 1852. Member Louisiana Senate, 1866-1867. Member United States Tariff Commission, 1882.
Married Anne Guillelmine Nanine Bringier, June 1, 1839.