View TEI
Introduction
Amos Kendall was one of President Andrew Jackson's unofficial advisors, known popularly as the "kitchen cabinet," and the intellectual force behind the Democratic Party. Thomas Dorr, chairman of the state Democratic committee, wrote to Kendall in advance of the presidential election of 1840. The election pitted the incumbent Martin Van Buren against the Whig candidate William Henry Harrison, a military hero from the War of 1812.