University of Virginia Library

The attacks made by Randolph on Judge Bouldin and Dr. Crump at
this meeting are especially to be regretted, in view of the fact that Judge
Bouldin had been one of his intimate friends, as Randolph's Diary and
journals show; and Dr. Crump such a fiery partisan of his that when he met
Samuel McDowell Moore, after the scurrilous speech which the latter had
made against the re-election of Randolph to the United States Senate, he
came to blows with him over the matter. "Watkins Leigh," Randolph
once wrote to Dudley, "is well, much fattened and inspirited by matrimony.
Bouldin, too, is here; a heavy draft from our country of abilities and
integrity." Jan. 24, 1814, Letters to a Y. R., 151. Strange to say, it was
when Judge Bouldin was announcing the death of Randolph, that he
dropped dead in the middle of a sentence on the floor of the House of Representatives.
Letters and Times of the Tylers, by Tyler, v. 1. 507.

William M. Watkins voted against Randolph in 1813, and Randolph,
perhaps, never entirely forgot the fact; though their relations, on the whole,
remained those of good friends. On one occasion, Randolph expressed the
conviction that but for Watkins' propensity to drink, he might have been,
and ought to have been, and would have been, the first man in Charlotte
County and Randolph's District, and (as far as Randolph knew) South
of James River. Letter from J. R. to H. A. Watkins, Jan. 24, 1832,
Randolph Will Litigation at Petersburg.

Even were no allowance to be made for Randolph's intensive habits of
speech, what he says about this tavern would hardly deserve the significance
which sectional writers like Henry Adams and James Parton have hastened
to impart to it: "The taverns along the road (from Boston to Washington)

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John Randolph Bryan was told by Mrs. Wyatt Cardwell that, once when
Randolph was under her husband's roof at Charlotte Court House at this
time, he declared that he saw devils going up and down a stairway that
landed in his room; and that she had had his bedstead moved around so that
his back might be turned to the stairway; whereupon, after a time, he
looked revived, and told her that she had changed his polarity, and, by doing
so, saved his life. J. R. B. to Mr. Robertson, March 27, 1878, Bryan MSS.

"The interest which you express in my well being and the anxiety which
you have manifested for my safety demand every acknowledgment at my
hands. I am not careless of life. I am perhaps more than sufficiently attached
to it; but I do not, I cannot, value it so highly as to wish to hold it
with dishonor." J. R. to J. M. Garnett, July 5, 1806, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS.

The observations of Van Buren, in his Autobiography, on Randolph are
deeply tinged by his knowledge of a confidential letter, which he says was
written to Jackson by Randolph in an effort to create discord between
Jackson and Van Buren, and especially by a series of letters, of which this
may have been one, in which, Van Buren says, Randolph labored to
divert Jackson from the purpose of making Van Buren his successor in the
Presidency; and also, to some extent, by the chagrin resulting from the
partisan clamor excited by the departure of Randolph from St. Petersburg.
Pp. 12 and 420. But the Autobiography pays more than one striking
tribute to Randolph's intellectual and social endowments. In one place
Van Buren speaks of the "sparkling clearness" of his perceptions; in
another place he tells us that, though Randolph was occasionally melancholy
and irritable, he was generally lively, and, at times, remarkably
fascinating. Pp. 428, 430. And in still another place he more than confirms
what Sawyer has told us about Randolph's conversational characteristics
and powers: "He avoided as a general rule the subjects under discussion
in Congress, apparently glad to drop them and to recreate his mind in fresh
fields. Except when something of unusual piquancy was afoot, and when
left to himself, Virginia, her public men of earlier days, her people and her
ast condition, the character, the life, of his deceased brother, Richard,

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Notwithstanding the coincidence of opinion which existed between
Randolph and Calhoun in some respects, their relations were never thoroughly
cordial; though there was a time when Calhoun spared no effort to
conciliate the support of Randolph in his Presidential aspirations. "He
is full of zeal, and almost makes love to Mr. M. (Macon) and another gent
you wot of," Randolph wrote to Tazewell. "He thinks that he will use us
for his ends. Quant à moi I shall go along with him very cheerfully until
I come to the `fork of the roads' that leads to my house, when, if he
will go home with me, well! and welcome! If not, I shall go home."
Feb. 28, 1826, L. W. Tazewell, Jr., MSS. In the first instance, Randolph
was kept from forming any intimacy with Calhoun by their wide divergence
on the subject of the War of 1812, and afterwards by the feud
between Calhoun and Andrew Jackson. Evidence is not wanting, however,
that Randolph had an underlying admiration for Calhoun, such as was
indicated by his remark on one occasion that Calhoun was a strong man
armed in mail. Nathan Loughborough MSS.

A member of Mr. Seaton's family, writing from Virginia, early in 1833,
says: "Mr. Randolph has been staying with us, but so feeble that he could
not leave his room. He talks as much and as wonderfully as usual, and is, if
possible, more witty and eccentric than ever. Cousin J. remarked to him
that he was surprised to see him persist in the exploded fashion of wearing
round-toed shoes. `Oh,' replied Mr. Randolph, `I am like Ritchie—I
neither track the one way nor the other.' " William Winston Seaton, A
Biographical Sketch, 152.

In a letter to James M. Garnett written before this speech was made,
Randolph, after saying that it was very plain to him that, if "Count Tariff"
carried his project, the slave States would be better off as English colonies
than nominal allies to his Countship, observed: "At this time I would not
give one farthing for all the benefit that Virginia and North Carolina get
from the General Government. The burthens which the British Parliament
would have imposed upon us were feathers compared with brother

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Of these resolutions, Martin Van Buren says in his Autobiography: "I
do not believe that it was in the power of any one of our public men then on
the stage of action to set forth the principles therein advocated in a manner
so precise, lucid and statesmanlike as distinguished those resolutions." 424.

At a meeting held at Buckingham C. H. a week later than this meeting,
that is on Feb. 11, 1833, the suggestion that Randolph should become a
candidate for Congress was "received with a deafening burst of applause."
Richm. Enquirer, Feb. 28, 1833.

"At Richmond, he made a long speech, sitting in his chair, praising Watkins
Leigh and denouncing Thomas Ritchie and Daniel Webster." Autobiog.
of Martin Van Buren, 425.

Henry Adams, following Garland (v. 2, 375), sequaciously over the fence,
says: "June 24, 1833"; (John Randolph, 305) but this is an error.

In his Reminiscences, which passed into the possession of Dr. Philip
Slaughter, of Culpeper County, Va., Dr. Francis West said: "His face,
after death had closed his penetrative dark-brown eyes, resembled much that
of an old woman."

"I would not die in Washington," Randolph declared, "be eulogized by
men I despise and buried in the Congressional Burying Ground. The idea
of lying by the side of—! Ah, that adds a new horror to death."
Figures of the Past, by Josiah Quincy, 216.

To all this might be added the declaration of Tristam Burges, of Rhode
Island, in the House: "Genius he certainly has; for he is original and unlike
all other men. If you please, he is eloquent, but, if so, the eloquence is
like himself—sui generis." Reg. of Deb., 1830-31, v. 7 494.

"No collection of American speeches, however, has been deemed complete
without some of them [Randolph's speeches]; though pronounced, as

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In a letter to David K. Este, a distinguished lawyer and citizen of
Cincinnati, dated Washington, Feb. 15, 1916, John McLean, after dwelling
with some pungency upon the length and discursiveness of Randolph's
speeches in the House at that time, nevertheless concludes: "And yet,
this extraordinary man generally commands attention. He speaks with
great fluency, and his elocution is never perhaps surpassed. In invective he
stands certainly unrivalled." Louise E. Bruce MSS.

Evidence of the fact that Randolph lacked the egotism to be intolerant
of criticism conceived in a proper spirit is also to be found in the patient
manner with which he accepted the harsher part of Gilmer's sketch of
himself as an orator, in which Gilmer even stated that someone who had
lately heard Randolph in the House had compared him to an exhausted
crater. The letter from Randolph to Gilmer which touched upon this
subject is one of the best that he ever wrote. Century Mag., v. 29, 714.

"How every idle word I utter flies abroad upon the wings of the wind, I
know not." J. R. to Dr. John Brockenbrough, Dec. 21, 1827, Garland, v.
2, 295.

"Who is that?" inquired Mr. Randolph [at an election]. "Mr. Beasley,"
responded someone in the crowd. "Ah, yes," said Mr. Randolph, "the
old one-eyed sleigh-maker, who lives on Sandy Creek." Century Magazine,
v. 29, 1895-96, 718.

Another version of this story is: "John, when you go down into the
world, if you hear anyone say there is no God, tell him that I say he is a liar."
Nathan Loughborough MSS.

The contrast between the thrifty face of the earth in the Free States and
the conditions bred by the listless and benumbing spirit of slave labor was
very fully presented in a Quakei Memorial laid before the Delaware Legislature
in 1826; (Gazetteer of the U. S., April 16 1826); but by no one was the
contrast ever more lucidly and pointedly stated than by Robert Goodloe
Harper, whose life was passed in Virginia, South Carolina and Maryland:
"In population, in the general diffusion of wealth and comfort, in public
and private improvement, in the education, manners and mode of life of

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Returning from Virginia to Philadelphia in 1815, Randolph said: "We
are not only centuries behind our Northern neighbors, but at least 40 years
behind ourselves." Letter to James M. Garnett, Feb. 10, 1815, J. M. Garnett,
Jr., MSS. It was only from local pride, political policy or other
similar reasons that he was not always willing to admit that slavery was the
true cause for this fact. Sometimes, when the term "slave-holder" was
used reproachfully in the House, he would refer pointedly to one of his
colleagues as "my fellow-slaveholder"; and, when the London consignees
of his tobacco and slave-factors of his father urged him to liberate his slaves,
he silenced them by saying: "Yes, you buy and set free to the amount of
the money you have received from my father and his estate for these slaves,
and I will set free an equal number." 30 Years' View by Benton, (1864),
475.

After recalling these friendly observations upon the Southern people,
it is gratifying to remember that sensible and fair-minded men were not
lacking at the South either to bear cordial testimony to the merits of New
England. Dr. John Holt Rice visited it in 1822 and he was deeply impressed
by the religious zeal, the intellectual enlightenment, the public
spirit and the order and decorum of its inhabitants. Among other agreeable
experiences of a social nature, he was much pleased with "the frank, easy
and graceful" manners of the people of Hartford, and the hospitality of
Col. J. C. T—k, of Springfield, he said, falling back upon his Virginia
standards, would have done honor to a Southern planter. Memoir of Dr.
John Holt Rice, by Maxwell, 214, et seq.

Writing to Dr. Hall from Charlotte Court House in 1840, Dr. James
Waddell Alexander said of Benjamin Watkins Leigh: "I heard him pronounce
a most cordial, discriminating and copious eulogy on the people of
Massachusetts." Forty Yrs.' Familiar Letters; v. 1. 314.

The father of the author was a student at Harvard a little later, and, while
a thorough-going Virginia planter in all his social characteristics and political
convictions, often descanted in the presence of his children until his
death in 1896 upon the admirable virtues of the New England character.

In 1828 Randolph stated in the House that $5,000 would build what was
considered a first rate house in his part of the country.

In his letters to Theodore Dudley, Randolph mentions two cases in which
James Bruce, when in Richmond on business, became so absorbingly engaged
in the task of loading his wagons, or otherwise, as quite to forget
engagements to dine; once with Dr. Brockenbrough and once with a Mr. T.,
another host of Randolph. "But," concludes Randolph in telling the
incidents, "I am growing scandalous." Nov. 18, 1815, Letters to a Y.R., 171.

"Once a wife, always a wife, except in very severe cases where the Legislature
did sometimes, but rarely, grant a divorce," was declared by Randolph
on one occasion in the House to be the matrimonial rule in Virginia.
A. of C., 1816-17, v. 2, 806.

Of certain of the non-freeholding whites in his District, Randolph is said
to have once declared in the Senate: "If you take the upper classes of the
blacks, and the lower classes of the whites, the former is the most moral,
virtuous and intelligent man. I mean to confine myself to the slaves and
not to the free blacks." Niles Register, Aug. 26, 1828, 454. But these
words were part of an unrevised text which was given to the world by the
National Intelligencer and Niles under circumstances that strongly suggest
malicious garbling. Nor should it be forgotten that, even if they were
spoken as written, it was no uncommon thing for the pride of the large
Southern slaveholder to laud unduly the virtues of his negroes and to
emphasize unduly the shortcomings of the indigent whites, towards whom
his negroes were as arrogant as they were obsequious to him. "The best
slaves that I have ever seen," Randolph once wrote to James M. Garnett,
"are the Catholic negroes of Maryland, who are like the Irish peasant
implicitly guided by the priest." Nov., 24, 1832, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS.

Some months after Randolph had been elected in 1811, he entered in his
Diary these words: "Heard Dr. Hoge from Luke XXIV, 42. Very great."

The fact that Southside Virginia was, in Randolph's time still, in some
respects, a frontier country, is brought to our notice very characteristically
when we read a letter in which he told Theodore Dudley that Barksdale
on his way home from Petersburg had been soused in Skinny Creek, and
had nearly perished from cold. Jan. 17, 1822, Letters to a Y. R., 235.

Two exceptions springing from two of the most conspicuous families of
Virginia are mentioned by Anburey and John Randolph, respectively.
P. 385, and Letter from J. R. to Dr. John Brockenbrough, Feb. 10, 1826,
J. C. Grinnan MSS.

But it is a mistake to think of the climate of Southside Virginia as being
always more or less moderate in winter. In 1829, Randolph wrote to Dr.
Brockenbrough from Oakland, the home of his friend Wm. R. Johnson, in
Chesterfield County, Va., that cattle were perishing from the bitter weather.
March 26, 1829, Mo. Hist. Soc. "I see through the window the ox that
draws our firing wood," diarizes Richard N. Venable, on Jan. 12, 1792.
"See how he holds down his head to the weather, and, as he slowly moves
through the snow with silent gravity and humility, joins all nature in
acknowledging that it is winter." Not an ineffective touch for a diarist
who was neither painter nor poet, but simply a vagrant country lawyer.

"Tobacco, situated as we are, is the best crop that we can cultivate. Too
far from market for wheat,—no range for stock—it is that precise point
where the plant can thrive to advantage." July 24, 1813, J. R. to J. M.
Garnett, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS. Among Randolph's letters to Garnett
is another addressed to him as "Corn-planter," in which he gives him quite
detailed instructions as to the best methods of tobacco culture. This letter
is a capital illustration of the firm grasp which Randolph had upon the
practical side of every subject that interested him.

In Randolph's time the wheat was separated from the husk at Roanoke
by the primitive process of treading. Diary of J. R.

The conditions were no better at Yale and Princeton in the first half of
the nineteenth century. Describing a Fourth of July dinner at Yale, John
Marsh, who entered that institution in 1800, says: "The result was Io
Bacche—the triumph of Bacchus." Temperance Progress of the Century,
by Wooley and Johnson, 46. "We have dozens of young men in and about
Princeton," Dr. James Waddell Alexander wrote to Dr. Hall on March 31,
1840, "who are drunk every little while, and always on wine." v. 1, 299.
If anything, dissipation was still more rampant at the University of Virginia.
Hist. of U. of Va., by Philip A. Bruce, v. 2. 279, et seq. Indeed Gaillard
Hunt goes so far as to say that in the early part of the nineteenth century
"Indulgence in strong drink was the curse of every class and every section."
Life in America 100 Years Ago, 104.

The well-known Presbyterian divine of Scotch origin who was at one
time the President of Davidson College in North Carolina, and afterwards,
from 1866 to 1885, the professor of Moral Philosophy at the present Washington
& Lee University, at Lexington, Va. He was also at one stage of his
career a Moderator of the Southern Presbyterian Church.

The idea has obtained currency that Randolph used this simile in regard
to Henry Clay, but there is, we believe, no real authority for it.

The real motive, which impelled Randolph to worry Chapman Johnson
so viciously in the Virginia Convention of 1829-30, was the fact that Johnson
had been the author of the manifesto of the Convention held in Richmond
for the purpose of promoting the re-election of John Quincy Adams.
Referring in his speech on Retrenchment and Reform in the House, in 1828,
to the extent to which Adams had condoned the military excesses of Andrew
Jackson, Randolph said: "What shall we say to a gentleman . . . filling
a large space in the eye of his native State, who should with all the adroitness
of a practiced advocate gloss over the acknowledged encroachments of
the men in power upon the fair construction of the Constitution, and then
present the appalling picture, glaring and flaming, in his deepest colors,
of a bloody military tyrant—a raw-head and bloody-bones—so that we
cannot sleep in our beds; who should conjure up all the images that can
scare children or frighten old women—I mean very old women, Sir—and
who offers this wretched caricature—this vile daub, where brick-dust stands
for blood, like Peter Porcupine's Bloody Buoy, as a reason for his and our
support in Virginia of a man in whom he has no confidence, whom he damns
with faint praise—and who moreover—tell it not in Gath! had zealously and
elaborately (I cannot say ably) justified every one of these very atrocious
and bloody deeds?" Bouldin, 296. The quotation used by Randolph in
this speech from some undisclosed source at least suggests one substantial
reason why Chapman Johnson, one of the greatest lawyers ever known to
Virginia, and a powerful figure in the Virginia Convention of 1829-30, never
acquired more prominence in the field of politics. "It is his pride and
honest and honorable pride," the individual quoted by Randolph declared,
"which makes him delight to throw himself into minorities, because
he enjoys more self-gratification from manifesting his independence of
popular opinion than he could derive from anything in the gift of the
people." In other words, in the cant phrases of our time, he was "a mugwump,"
an "intellectual."

John Hampden Pleasants was the son of James Pleasants, "the unworthy
son of a worthy sire," Randolph dubbed him; (Nathan Loughborough MSS.)
another way of saying that he was the Whig son of a Democratic father.
It is said that, meeting Randolph on Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington,
Pleasants placed himself directly in front of him, exclaiming loudly as he
did so: "I don't get out of the way of puppies." Stepping instantly
aside, Randolph replied: "I always do, pass on." Recollections of a
Long Life, by Joseph Packard, 110.

Two clever utterances of Randolph have been preserved for us in the
recently published Autobiography of Martin Van Buren. At one time,
Walter Lowrie was the Secretary of the Senate. His reading was certainly
not of the best, and his penmanship was egregious, Van Buren tells us; but
in more important respects he discharged the duties of his office with
eminent success. Of him, Randolph said, that, although he could neither
read nor write, he was the best clerk that any public body had ever been
favored with. P. 238. Once, when Van Buren referred the party disloyalty
of John Holmes, of Maine, to a deadly attack made by John Randolph
upon him, Randolph replied vehemently: "I deny that. I have not
driven him away. He was already a deserter in his heart. If you examine
the body, you will find that the wound is in the back." P. 206.

If, for no other reason, Randolph's speeches can be read with pleasure
because of the way in which language in the forge of his exalted moods of
glowing improvisation becomes as ductile as gold. An illustration is a
paragraph in one of his later speeches: "An anathema, Sir, has been
issued from the laboratory of the modern Vatican; and a Nuncio has been
dispatched (I believe I must drop the metaphor, or it will drop me). Well,
Sir, an agent then, has been dispatched." Reg. of Debates, 1827-28, v. 4,
Part I, 1040.

Randolph was on such familiar terms with his constituents that he
sometimes singled one of them out from his audience and addressed a question
to him: "Captain Price," he once called out to one of his venerable
friends from the rostrum, "turn round a moment? How many acres in
that old field?" "Between 100 and 150, I presume," was the reply. "Now
tell me Nat. Price," continued Randolph, "here before all your neighbors,
can you enclose that old field with 10 panels of fence?" "No, no indeed,"
shouted the crowd. "And yet," said Randolph, "I am to be turned out of
office because I will not waste your money to do what can no more be done
than Nat. Price can enclose this old field with ten panels of fence." Recollections
of Wm. S. Lacy, So. Lit. Mess., June, 1859, 461-466.

"I never prepared myself to speak, but on two questions—The Connecticut
Reserve and the first discussion of the Yazoo claims." Letter from
J. R. to Francis W. Gilmer, Century Mag., (1895-96), v. 29, 713.

This was Jacob Crowninshield, who was secretary of the Navy at the time
while Jefferson was President. It was upon the head of his brother, Benjamin
W. Crowninshield, who filled the same post under Madison and
Monroe, that Randolph emptied the vials of his wrath in a note to his speech

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Another good example of Randolph's clever way of putting things is
the observations drawn from him in 1809 by the fact that Berent Gardenier,
a Federalist, had pushed his defense of England further than even he
could approve as a matter of good tactics, if not of principle. "I looked,"
he said, "at the gentleman from New York at that moment, with a sort of
sensation which we feel in beholding a sprightly child meddling with edge
tools, every moment expecting what actually happened—that he would cut
his fingers." A. of C., 1808-09, v. 3, 1464.

Randolph's clever reply to his critics is well known: "A caterpillar comes
to a fence; he crawls to the bottom of the ditch and over the fence, some of
his hundred feet always in contact with the subject upon which he moves.
A gallant horseman at a flying leap clears both ditch and fence. "Stop,"
says the caterpillar, "you are too flighty, you want connection and continuity.
It took me an hour to get over, you can't be as sure as I am, who
have never quitted the subject, that you have overcome the difficulty and
are fairly over the fence." "Thou miserable reptile," replies our fox-hunter,
"if like you, I crawled over the earth slowly and painfully should I ever
catch a fox or be anything more than a wretched caterpillar?" N.B. He
did not say "of the law." Bouldin, 310.

"Yet as regards the interests of my country—of the State of Virginia,"
are among the words employed by Randolph in one of his speeches in the
House. Reg. of Debates, 1827-28; V. 4, Part 1, 966.

The other States of the Union undoubtedly owe much to New England
and Virginia, but those two parts of the Union are at least not a little indebted
to them for the patience with which they have borne their favorable
opinions of themselves. "O, New England," breaks out Noah Webster
in his Diary, after a visit to Virginia, "how superior are thy inhabitants in
morals, literature, civility and industry!" Notes on the Life of Noah
Webster, by E. E. F. Ford; V. 1, 146 (note 3). After telling Creed Taylor
that he had seen Lafayette, Samuel Taylor, a prominent citizen of Southside
Virginia, observes: "In his manners there is great simplicity. They

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769

Perhaps, however, the import of this remark was misunderstood by
Quincy; for Randolph long cherished a most earnest desire to make a tour
of New England, which he repeatedly expressed in his correspondence. In
a letter to James M. Garnett from Richmond, he said: "I should like
to `reside here' a part of the year; but then I should like still better an
excursion to the Eastern States, or a trip to Europe. Both are denied by
my situation." May 14, 1814, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS.

"The history of that period, the accounts given by both sides are replete
with evidence of the efficient part taken by him (Randolph) in the contests
of the day and the sacrifices to which he was exposed from their violence."
Autobiog. of Martin Van Buren, 429.

"Varnum has much against my wishes removed Randolph from the
Ways and Means and appointed Campbell of Tennessee. It was improper
as related to the public business, and will give me additional labor."
Gallatin, by Adams, 363.

Perhaps, however, the idea may have originated with Jefferson; for on
Dec. 13, 1803, he wrote to Gallatin: "In order to be able to meet a general
combination of the banks against us in a critical emergency, could we not
make a beginning towards an independent use of our own money, towards
holding our own bank in all the deposits where it is received, and letting
the Treasurer give his draft or note for payment at any particular place,
which in a well-conducted government ought to have as much credit as any
private draft or bank-note or bill and would give us the same facilities which
we derive from the banks?" Life of Jefferson, by Randall, v. 3, 93.

It was not Randolph extolling Virginia, but Quincy extolling Massachusetts,
who used these words: "Sir, I confess it, the first public love of my
heart is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; there is my fireside; there
are the tombs of my ancestors.

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The love of this Union rose out of this attachment to my native soil, and is
rooted in it. I cherish it because it affords the best external hope of her
peace, her prosperity, her independence." A. of C., 1810-11 v. 3, 542.

"Northern gentlemen think to govern us by our black slaves; but let me
tell them we intend to govern them by their white slaves." These words
have been imputed to Randolph. Life of Quincy, by Quincy, 66. But,
were they ever really spoken by him?

There is a reference to the author of these reminiscences in Dr. James
Waddell Alexander's Forty Years Familiar Letters to Dr. Hall. "The Episcopal
Clergy hereabouts," he says, "are all evangelical and hard working men.
John Clark, who preaches nearest here, cannot I suppose make the circuit
of his preaching places without riding 60 miles." V. 1, 272. This good man
was the son of Col. John Clark, of Mount Laurel, Halifax County, Va.,
one of the wealthiest land owners in that part of Virginia; but he put aside
every lure of wealth, or high family position to give himself up to the sacred
calling which took him over such an extensive territory. On one occasion,
when he was to preach at St. Andrew's, in Mecklenburg County, Va., a man
on his way from the other side of the river to hear him said to one of the
Mecklenburg Alexanders: "I made up my mind to attend and take dinner
with you, for I wished to hear a man preach and talk who made a market
crop of 150,000 pounds of tobacco and five thousand bushels of wheat."
MSS. Memoirs of Mark Alexander, Jr., owned by Mrs. W. Kennedy Boone
of Baltimore, Md.

Yet William M. Watkins, who was one of Randolph's neighbors and
friends, testified in the Randolph Will Litigation with no little truth: "Mr
Randolph was very unforgiving in his temper. It was the principal fault in
his character."

Or, as Randolph once said in a letter to Dr. Brockenbrough, "never could
have made a gin horse." Dec. 17, 1828, Garland, v. 2, 315.

In the Randolph Will Litigation, William M. Watkins, who knew Randolph
intimately, testified that he would never have attempted to shut up
Robert Carrington in the manner he did, if he had not been insane.

The following entries taken from Randolph's journal of 1830 (Va. Hist.
Soc.) show that the relations between him and Robert Carrington shortly
before the Russian Mission of Randolph were very neighborly and friendly:

"Feb. 13, 1830. Killed beef, fore qr. to Robt. Carrington."

"May 21, 1830. Robt. C. to dinner."

This loan remained unpaid when the time came for the reconveyance to
Randolph of a tract of land and a number of slaves, which Randolph had
conveyed to Beverley Tucker about the time of his marriage as a contribution
towards the support of the newly-wedded couple; subject to the
promise that they would be so reconveyed. The land was reconveyed, but
Beverley declined to reconvey the slaves on the ground that Judge Coalter
had told him that St. George Tucker intended the slaves to be retained by
Beverley in payment of the debt due by Randolph to him. Testimony of
William Leigh, in Coalter's Exor. vs. Randolph's Exor., Clk's Office, Cir.
Ct., Petersburg, Va.

This inference is strengthened by the fact that the slaves which Theodorick
Bland gave to Mrs. Eaton, Mrs. Randolph's sister, he secured to her
and her children. Testimony of Mrs. Anna Bland Dudley in the Randolph
Will Litigation.

In a letter to St. George Tucker, Randolph wrote: "Of Morris I will
state an opinion which occurred to me most forcibly whilst he was speaking,
that a fine gentleman has destroyed a great orator." Jan. 15, 1802, Lucas
MSS.

Herman Blennerhassett has something to say of the mistress of Presque
Isle in his journal, under date of Oct. 18, 1807: "I there (at Mrs. Chevalier's)
met Mrs. David Randolph, who is a middle-aged lady and very
accomplished; of charming manners and possessing a masculine mind.
From this lady, the near relation of the President, and whose brother is
married to his daughter, I heard more pungent strictures upon Jefferson's
head and heart, because they were better founded, than any I had ever
heard before, and she certainly uttered more treason than my wife ever
dreamed of, for she ridiculed the experiment of a republic in this country,
which the vices and inconstancy of parties and the people had too long
shown to be nothing more than annual series of essays to complete a work
ill-begun, and which appeared to be nearly worn out before it was half-finished.
But `she always was disgusted with the fairest ideas of a modern
republic, however she might respect those of antiquity.' And as for the
treason `she cordially hoped whenever Burr or anyone else again attempted

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"Enclosed is a draft for $300. May it afford every pleasure and profit.
I wish it were a cipher more." J. R. to Tudor Randolph, Richmond, Dec.
31, 1813, J. C. Grinnan MSS., Annual Register, 1832, 33, 440.

Whatever Randolph or Ogden, or anyone else may have thought of Mr.
Morris, there can be no question that her aged husband had no fault to find
with her. Two years after his marriage to her, he wrote to his intimate
friend, John Parish, then at Bath, England: "Perhaps some wind may yet
waft you over the bosom of the Atlantic, and then you shall become acquainted
with my wife, and you shall see that fortune—fortune? No! the
word befits not a sacred theme—let me say the bounty of Him who has
been to me unsparingly kind—gilds with a celestial beam the tranquil evening
of my day." Some 18 months after the date of Mrs. Morris' reply to
Randolph, he wrote again to Parish as follows: "I lead a quiet, and more
than most of my fellow-mortals, a happy, life. The woman to whom I am
married has much genius, has been well educated, and possesses, with an
affectionate temper, industry and love of order." Life of Gouverneur Morris,
by Jared Sparks, v. 1, 494, 495.

In a letter to Joseph C. Cabell, dated Oct. 14, 1831, Mrs. Morris said that,
if she held out until her son was of age, he would do very well, notwithstanding
all the fraud and falsehoods of David Ogden (a grandnephew of her
husband) "whose humble tool Jack Randolph became—a man who cheated
his own mother." Univ. of Va. Libr. MSS. We know of no evidence to
warrant such a charge against Ogden, but the testimony of William Leigh
in the Randolph Will Litigation leaves no room for doubt that it was
Ogden who convinced Randolph that Mrs. Morris was leading a licentious
life. Leigh deposed that in 1815 Randolph had read to him some of the
contents of a letter which he had written to Mr. and Mrs. Morris; that he
asked him why he had written such a singular letter, and that Randolph
said that he had been persuaded to write it by Ogden, and had written it
because Mr. Morris had treated Tudor Randolph with great kindness, and
that he thought that he ought to inform him of the character of his wife.

Though Mrs. Morris met with as little success in her effort to utilize the
grudge that the Cabell brothers had against Randolph to promote her own
grudge against him as she had experienced in her effort to avail herself of
the quarrel between Randolph and Giles for the same purpose, it cannot
be denied that she had a promising field for her experiment; for the language
employed by Randolph in one of the notes which he affixed to a reprint

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773

This was not the only occasion on which the hero of Tippecanoe aroused
Randolph's sense of the ludicrous. "For which of my sins," he wrote to
Theodore Dudley, "it is I know not that I have sustained this long and
heavy persecution (by a manoeuvring lady) more hot and galling than the
dreadful fire which killed nine of General Harrison's mounted rifleman."
Jan. 24, 1814, Letters to a Y. R., 150.

Randolph had more than one prejudice to overcome before he could
become truly friendly to Pinkney. When the latter was appointed to
supplement Monroe in his negotiations with the British Court, Randolph
wrote to James M. Garnett: "I hope that Mr. Monroe . . . will have
concluded all matters with the Court of London before that Federal interloper,
P., can arrive to share the honor which does not belong to him."
May 11, 1806, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS.

The imprisonment of Aaron Burr in Richmond at the time of the Burr
Trial elicited this tristful observation from Randolph: "He was last night

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774

Another reference by Burges to the same subject—so vague as to suggest
a boy who has loaded a gun but is not quite certain enough of himself to let
it off—is supposed by his enthusiastic biographer to have had such a cowing
effect upon Randolph that he immediately left the House and never raised
his voice in it again. "Sir, Divine Providence takes care of his own Universe.
Moral monsters cannot propagate . . . Impotent of everything
but malevolence of purpose, they can no otherwise multiply miseries than
by blaspheming all that is pure and prosperous and happy. Could demon
propagate demon, the Universe might become a Pandemonium; but I rejoice
that the Father of Lies can never become the Father of Liars. One
adversary of God and man is enough for one Universe. Too much! Oh!
how much for one nation!" Memoir of Tristam Burges, by Henry L. Bowen
105.

There is much additional testimony in regard to the extent to which
Randolph retained his brilliant faculties even when demented. "He spoke
as clearly and brilliantly as I have ever heard him," Wm. M. Watkins testified
in the Randolph Will Litigation as to the conversation of Randolph in
the early part of 1832. According to William B. Banks, of Halifax Co.,
Va., after Randolph's return from Russia, he was "splendidly mad."
George P. Coleman, MSS.

A part of the testimony, rendered by General Winfield Scott in the
Randolph Will Litigation, has an important bearing on this point. Once,
he says, Randolph in his desire to let him realize just how he would have
answered an antagonist in the House (Daniel Sheffey), if he had had the full
chance to do so, asked him to sit as Speaker to hear his reply. Then for
thirty minutes or more Randolph poured forth as rich a volume of indignant
and yet connected eloquence as the General had ever heard from his lips,
but soon mistook him in his vehemence for his antagonist in the debate,
with the result that the General had some difficulty before leaving him for
the night to disabuse his mind of its impression.

The good will of Randolph for the people of Amelia County was not so
far won by the kindness, of which he was the recipient in that County, that
he could not say of them in a letter to Theodore Dudley: "Those people
dislike business, love amusement, and the issue need not be foretold."
Jan. 17, 1822, Letters to a Y. R., 236.

Writing to James M. Garnett from Roanoke, on Nov. 1, 1823, Randolph
said: "I am embosomed in woods—oaks, hickories, elms, pines, black gums,
red buds, &c., grapevine, sweet briars, green briars, &c., and nothing can be
more charming than their present appearance. One thriving young oak
`occludes' (as St. Thomas of Cantingbury would say) the only window of
my bed chamber whose shutters are unclosed at night, and the effect is so
grateful that when I sleep abroad, on awaking in the morning, I feel as if
I had come out of darkness to a strong artificial light." James M. Garnett,
Jr., MSS.

"After dinner I sit over my fruit and wine without the company even of
a solitary fly. These, although I can't manage their Hessian namesakes, I
have nearly extirpated here." J. R. to James M. Garnett, Roanoke, Sept.
10, 1823, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS.

The missing element in the Roanoke larder was an abundance of fish.
At that time, of course, fish could not be transported for any great distance,
and, apparently, shad and other sea fish were unable to run up the Roanoke
higher than a certain plantation just above Weldon, where they were caught
in vast numbers; but this was many miles below Roanoke. Reminiscences
of John Randolph Bryan, Bryan MSS. The Staunton itself is usually
very muddy and is stocked mainly with the fish known locally as the "Redeye,"
the "River Jack" and the "Sorrel Horse." "This climate," Randolph
once wrote to James M. Garnett, "has avenged the wrongs of my red
ancestors as the gullies, old fields and rivers of mud (fishless) have that
of the African slave trade. God is just! Crime insures punishment!"
March 4, 1826, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS. Fish, usually a single one, and
once a "Red-eye" a foot long, are mentioned occasionally in Randolph's
journals. A gift of a fish, which a man whom he hardly knew had sent him
from a point 8 miles away, was received by him gratefully enough to be
noted in one of his letters to Dr. Brockenbrough. Roanoke, May 15, 1827,
Garland, v. 2, 291.

"Immediately after the adjournment (of Congress)," Randolph once
wrote to Dr. Brockenbrough, "I shall travel—perhaps take a sea voyage,
not to get rid of duns (although the wolf will be at my door in the shape
of the man I bought that land of) but to take the only chance of prolonging
a life that I trust is now not altogether useless." Feb. 23, 1820, Garland,
v. 2, 132.

Buck Spring, Macon's home in North Carolina, presented very much the
same glaring incongruity as Roanoke. Randolph's idea of living in two

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776

It is manifest that the total value of Randolph's estate depends not a
little on the average figure that is employed in multiplying the whole number
of his slaves. The prevailing prices for negroes in Southside Virginia in
1828 was, say $250.00 for a young woman, and $300.00 to $400.00 for a
young man. James Bruce to M. Brame, Oct. 13, 1828, Malcolm G. Bruce
MSS. But in 1828 Randolph declared in the House that, when cotton had
sold at $30.00 per hundred pounds, he had known a common field hand to
bring as much as $1200.00. Reg. of Debates, 1827-28, v. 4 Part 1, 1129.
In one of his answers in the Randolph Will Litigation Beverley Tucker referred
to Randolph's estate as a "vast" one.

"Rain all around us," "Fine rain last night, thanks be to God!" are two
entries in his journals that reveal the suspense of a severe drought, and the
devout joy awakened by its cessation.

Randolph was intimate with more than one of the Mortons of Charlotte
and Prince Edward Counties, and he is said to have entertained a peculiar
respect for Major James Morton, of "Willington," Prince Edward County.
The Major's sobriquet in the Revolutionary Army was "Solid Column"—
a name which had its origin in his stocky build. He was well known to
Lafayette during the American Revolution, and, when he advanced to pay
his respects to the latter at a reception given to the latter at Richmond,

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777

"You who have a kindly heart," is the casual tribute paid on one occasion
by Joseph Bryan to the personal character of Randolph. July 16,
1809, Bryan MSS.

Although a devoted equestrian, I fell far short of him who was as much
at home on horseback as an Arab. Autobiog. of Martin Van Buren, 429.

To the same effect is the testimony of Nathan Loughborough in the
Randolph Will Litigation. "On the morning of the day on which he
fought with Mr. Clay, I saw him at his lodgings. He then appeared to be
very cheerful, not at all excited, made some remarks on `the paper system'
and its probable fate, talked of blooded horses, and upon no other subject
that I now recollect."

James Schouler, and his History of the United States under the Constitution,
are to be credited in their attempt to delineate the character of
Randolph with an elaborate conceit worthy of the age of Cowley and
Donne: "In a few vivid passages his genius gleamed mischievously out
like a Lucifer in armor passing some sunny aperture in his dark and
fathomless descent." v. 3, 368. While duplicity was entirely foreign to
Randolph's nature, his intense pride of character did offer at times an
"inflexible resistance to everything like attempts to read his motives or
thoughts." Autobiog. of Martin Van Buren, 426. In Van Buren's case,
this occasional inscrutability was perhaps due in part to Randolph's
knowledge of Van Buren's own peculiarities. He is said to have once told
the latter that he could look at nothing, but only over or under or around it.
Nathan Loughborough MSS.

Randolph was not easily outmatched even by a termagant quean. "My
servants here," he wrote on one occasion to Dr. Brockenbrough, "have been
corrupted by dealing with a very bad woman that keeps an ordinary near
me. Twenty odd years ago I saw her, then about 16, come into Charlotte
Court to choose a very handsome young fellow of two and twenty for her
guardian, whom she married that night. She was then as beautiful a
creature as ever I saw (some remains yet survive). They reminded me of
Annette and Lubin. But alas! Lubin became a whiskey sot, and Annette
a double you. Her daughters are following the same vocation, and her

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778

"Mrs. Fitzhugh too is one of my old and greatly admired female friends.
So is `my good friend Mrs. H.' You never mention another old friend of
mine, Mrs. Carrington. Should you see her make my best respects and
regards." To Eliz. T. Coalter, Feb. 19, 1823, Bryan MSS.

Another woman who was very much admired by Randolph was Mrs.
Rush of Philadelphia: "She is indeed a fine woman," he wrote to Theodore
Dudley. "One for whom I have felt a true regard unmixed with the foible
of another passion. Fortunately, or unfortunately for me, when I knew her
`I bore a charmed heart.' " July 21, 1811, Letters to a Y. R., 93.

"I never in all my professional practice had a more agreeable sitter. He
sat to me for three different pictures." Chester Harding, My Egotistigraphy,
145.

In the course of his remarkable speech in the Virginia Convention of
1829-30, on the basis of representation, Mr. Morris said that, upon the
principle of the Western members, the Thirteen Colonies, if they had been
allowed representation by England, would not have been accorded more
than twenty or twenty-five representatives in the British Parliament; thirty
perhaps. "Here," observes the official reporter of the Debates of the
Convention (P. 115) "a shrill and very peculiar voice was heard to say:
`Less than the county of Wilts.' "

"My passion for tobacco (like that for play 15 years ago)," Randolph
wrote on one occasion to James M. Garnett, "has entirely deserted me."
Dec. 25, 1809, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS. In an earlier letter to Tazewell, in
which he made an incidental reference to his old bête-noir, Maury, he discloses

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779

Describing the occasion, Randolph said: "We had no riot, no fuss,
no dancing, no great supper, and, what is more uncommon, no bawdry.
We retired to cards soon after the ceremony was over; refreshments, the
very best of their kind, both light and substantial, were on an adjacent
sideboard, and occasionally handed round, just as you chose them; and we
were all as easy as if we had been in my apartments at Crawford's. The
Governor, who did not play, occasionally went out of the room, and finally
made his escape without being missed. You are not mistaken in Macon.
In a full suit of broadcloth, striped silk stockings and dress shoes, his
countenance beaming with benevolence, and his voice softened by the
occasion, he went through his part with an elevation of manner that
delighted me. Whilst we were dressing, `they have both been twice
married' said he, and, if they have not yet found out for what it was instituted,
I shall not tell them. They are not tyros." J. R. to James M.
Garnett, Sept. 28, 1810, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS.

"We have been lounging à la Virginienne at the house of a friend about a
day and a half's ride." J. R. to Francis Scott Key, Oct. 25, 1816, Garland,
v. 2, 89.

One of his last thrusts at "Yankees" was given on his death bed. He
descanted upon the honesty of his servant John; said that he was then in
possession of all the money that he had with him, and concluded by contrasting
him with the "Yankee," who, if entrusted with a similar sum,
would soon be off to Canada with it. Reminiscences of Dr. Francis West,
J. C. Grinnan MSS.

An observation made by Madame de Neuville created a profound
impression upon Randolph's mind. "Madame de Neuville," he said in a
letter to Elizabeth T. Coalter, "who feeds many of the poor here has a
maxim that ought to be written in letters of gold; that, when the rich are
sick, they ought to be starved, but, when the poor are sick, they ought to be
well fed, and `nourished with wine,' etc." Feb. 5, 1822, Bryan MSS.

The author has endeavored by correspondence and otherwise to trace
all the letters written by Randolph to the various persons to whom he was
in the habit of writing letters. Those written by him to Benjamin Watkins

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780

One of the severest shocks ever given to Randolph's fastidious habits of
pronunciation was the barbarous manner in which Ritchie, the editor of the
Richmond Enquirer, pronounced the name of the Dutch Minister during
Andrew Jackson's time: "Your friend the Baron Huygens," he once
wrote to Van Buren, "(whom Ritchie, etc. etc., persist in calling `Huggins'
to my great annoyance) to whom I beg to be most respectfully presented,
can give you all the information I want." Roanoke, June 1, 1830, Van
Buren Papers.

Another child, in whom he took the warmest interest, was a son of his
friend, Dr. Robinson, to whom he referred in his letters to Theodore Dudley
as his "little friend Will"; or his "little friend William." Letters to a Y. R.,
Feb. 28, and March 18, 1808, 47 and 51.

"Nonum prematur in annum, is the maxim of the great Roman critic.
I do not see therefore why you should not keep your compositions at least
half as many days instead of sending me what you have just scribbled off in
a hurry, without time perhaps to read it over once." Letter to Theodore
Dudley, March 30, 1808, Letters to a Y. R., 58.

"I never did `distrust your affection for me' until the summer before last.
The surprise and anguish which then overwhelmed me you witnessed. I
would not recall such recollections (it is the office of friendship to bury
them in oblivion) but to put you in possession of the clew to my feelings
and conduct. I viewed you as one ready and willing from the impulse of
your own pride to repay what you considered a debt of gratitude whilst you
held the creditor in aversion and contempt that you could not at all times

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781

In Southside Virginia, during Randolph's time, it was the usage to make
deceased persons the subjects of funeral sermons, and in some instances
quite a time after they had been interred. Among such instances were the
funeral sermons preached in regard to Tudor Randolph and Dr. Bathurst
Randolph.

One of the most touching things about the relations of Randolph to St.
George was his eagerness to promote any evidence of intellectual aptitude
that he saw in him, such as a turn for drawing or wood carving. "St.
George," he wrote exultingly to Theodore Dudley on one occasion, "has
turned an ivory chessman (a castle) superior to the European model."
Roanoke, Aug. 12, 1811, Letters to a Y. R., 98.

Apparently Randolph hoped at one time that either St. George or Tudor
and Sally, the sister of Theodore Dudley, would make a match of it. "Poor
Sally!" he said in one of his letters to Theodore, "I had flattered myself
that she would return to Virginia and make one of our family." Feb. 18,
1816, Letters to a Y. R., 174.

Skates, fish-hooks, and Christmas boxes, are among the many things
which we find Randolph, from time to time, purchasing for the youthful
charges who happened to be under his roof exactly as if they were his sons.

Another indication of the keen interest felt by Randolph in young persons
of both sexes is found in his references to a sister of Theodore Dudley, of
whom he sometimes speaks as "my favorite Fanny." Dec. 27, 1814, Letters
to a Y. R., 170.

It is said that on the night before the duel between Randolph and Clay,
Randolph came into the hotel room at Washington in which his brother,
Henry, who did not know that the duel was impending, was, and leaning
over him, as he lay in bed, said: "God bless you Hal." Bishop Beverley
D. Tucker MSS.

In one of his letters to Theodore Dudley, Randolph said of Polly: "She
is a good creature as ever breathed, knows nothing of megrims, hartshorn,

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782

"That old sinner of `Marland' ", he termed Samuel Smith, in a letter to
Dr. John Brockenbrough of Jan. 4, 1822. Garland v. 2. 157.

In a letter to William Henry Harrison, Gallatin once took occasion to
deny that he had ever said that Randolph was under the British influence.
"No man," he declared, "is more free of extraneous influence of any
kind than he is." Sept. 27, 1809, Writings of Gallatin, ed. by Henry
Adams, v. 1, 463.

"Poor N. is destroyed body and mind by paralysis," Randolph wrote to
Theodore Dudley from Baltimore. Feb. 18, 1816, Letters to a Y. R., 174.

In a letter to James M. Garnett, dated April 14, 1812, Randolph used the
words "A quondam friend of mine in Maryland." He doubtless meant
Nicholson. J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS.

In a letter, dated Feb. 5, 1807, Randolph, after saying that the infernal
climate of Washington would sooner or later be the death of half of them—a
result that might be of great public advantage, he added, if the selection of
victims were judiciously made—prayed God that he would at least take
Nicholson's headpiece into his Holy Keeping. Nicholson MSS. Libr. Cong.

In their letters to each other, Randolph and Garnett, who was an excellent
letter writer, had nicknames for certain individuals. Jefferson was,
"St. Thomas of Cantingbury"; John Taylor of Caroline, "Trismegistus";
Richard Stanford of North Carolina, "Win Jenkins"; and John Nicholas,
of Richmond, "Falconi."

When Macon was about to die, true to the simplicity of character—
"white simplicity" Keats calls it—which is so charming to every truly
unsophisticated human being when blended with real moral and mental
superiority, he not only called for the bill of his physician and paid it, but
paid his undertaker for his prospective services too. Nathaniel Macon,
by Wm. E. Dodd, 398.

In a letter to Littleton Waller Tazewell, John Randolph said that Langdon
was the only man from "the universal Yankee nation" that he had ever

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For still other New England men Randolph entertained a great admiration.
One was Roger Sherman, "who had scarcely his superior in sagacity,"
he once said. Reg. of Deb., 1827-28, v. 4, Part 1, 948. Another
was one of his own contemporaries, James Burrill. The day before the
death of Burrill, Randolph wrote to Francis W. Gilmer: "Mr. Burrill, of
the Senate (from Rhode Island), lies very ill, and I fear will make the third
loss in Congress this winter. He is a very able and amiable man. Mr.
King and Mr. Pinkney are the only members of the Senate that may be
considered equal (perhaps superior) to him." Dec. 24, 1820, Bryan MSS.

Notwithstanding the miff disclosed by the letter from Randolph to Key,
the friendship between Lloyd and Randolph remained unbroken. In
Randolph's letters are occasional references to Lloyd's "jollifications," as
Randolph once termed them; and on one occasion James M. Garnett, who
also knew Lloyd well, wrote to Randolph that he longed for something with
which to dissipate his "humor," as much as ever a breeding lady, or their
friend Lloyd, did for their peppermint and magnesia. July 21, 1810, J. M.
Garnett, Jr., MSS. Lloyd's habits, however, were no more convivial than
became the master of Wye, and a link in a long chain of high-bred and hospitable
gentleman. At one time or another, he was Governor of Maryland,
a member of the House of Representatives and a member of the United
States Senate, and he was highly respected in both public and private life.

"I can hardly figure to myself the ideal of a Republican statesman more
perfect and complete than he (John Taylor of Caroline) was in reality—
plain and solid, a wise counsellor, a ready and vigorous debater, acute and
comprehensive, ripe in all historical and political knowledge, innately
Republican, modest, courteous, benevolent, hospitable, a skilful practical
farmer giving his time to his farm and his books when not called by an
emergency to the public service, and returning to his books and his farm
when the emergency was over. His whole character was announced in
his looks and deportment and in his uniform (Senatorial) dress—the coat,
waistcoat and pantaloons of the same `London brown', and in the cut of a
former fashion—beaver hat with ample brim—fine white linen—and a gold-headed
cane, carried not for show but for use and support when walking
and bending under the heaviness of years." 30 Years View, by Benton
(1864), 45.

Gilmer fully shared Randolph's aversion to the institution of slavery.
"I begin to be impatient to see Virginia once more," he wrote to William

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784

Two very handsome tributes to Randolph were brought out by the
testimony in the Randolph Will Litigation. "He was an accomplished
gentleman," John Taliaferro testified. "In fine," declared Nathan Loughborough,
"I believe Mr. Randolph while living (it is still my belief) to have
been among the most wise, honest and sagacious of his species."

Few things have been circulated more widely in Randolph's District than
words of commendation written by him about one of his neighbors. A
letter from his pen which was long, if it is not still preserved, was one which
he gave to his neighbor Elisha E. Hundley introducing him to John
Rowan, of Kentucky. "Mr. Hundley," the letter said, "is a plain, industrious
quiet man, who minds his own affairs and does not meddle with
other people's business." Bouldin, 230.

"His (Littleton Waller Tazewell's) perceptions are as intuitive and as
strong as those of Mr. Marshall. He has as much intrepidity of intellect
as Mr. Pinkney, and great boldness, but no insolence; no exultation of
manner. He wants only ambition to make him rival, nay, perhaps, even to
surpass, the accomplished champion of the Federal Bar." Sketches by
Francis W. Gilmer, 36. Indeed Gilmer said in the same sketch, that
Tazewell was endowed with the best and most various gifts that he had
ever known to concur in any individual.

Randolph once said sarcastically in the House that the excellence of the
postal establishment in his District was such that a broad-wheeled wagon,
ladened with two heavy hogsheads of tobacco, would go from his house
to Richmond in a day and a half less time than the mail did; which was
besides only weekly. A. of C., 1816-17, v. 2, 466. Some nine or ten years
later, he declared in the House that he could not get a reply to Washington
from Halifax County, in Southside Virginia, under three weeks, even if
there were no miscarriage of the mail; but that the Postmaster General
had promised to establish a bi-weekly mail which would bring a reply in
10 days.

In 1804 he had five horses in training for the race track. Letter to Jos.
H. Nicholson, Aug. 27, 1804, Nicholson MSS., Libr. Cong. And in his

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"Miss W. (his mare Wildfire) and Mr. R. are both equally ignorant who
`King Caucus' is," he once wrote to Martin Van Buren. "If a horse at all
points his company would be peculiarly acceptable to the lady at this
juncture, who is pining for the loss of her late companion." Van Buren
Papers, Libr. Cong.

Describing the departure of Randolph, on one occasion, from Washington
with a young spaniel that some friend had doubtless given to him,
Nathaniel Macon wrote to Weldon N. Edwards: "He carried with him a
puppy of the same kind, scarcely large enough to follow his chair in which
he went." May 2, 1828, N. C. Hist. Soc. Papers.

In a characteristic message to Theodore Dudley, Randolph once wrote:
"Beverley and Polly desire their best regards to you, so do Carlo, Echo and
Dido, and also little Dash, who arrived last night in the wagon." Roanoke,
Oct. 29, 1810, Letters to a Y. R., 73.

"Bodily motion seems to be some relief to mental uneasiness, and I was
delighted yesterday morning to hear that the snipes are come." J. R. to
Francis Scott Key, Mar. 2, 1819, Garland, v. 2, 96.

On one occasion, when shooting, he met with an accident which, we
cannot but be surprised, should not have happened oftener before the
invention of the breech-loading gun. After telling his friend Garnett how
one of his toes had been completely crushed by the newly-shod hoof of a
horse, he said: "Although I could bear neither boot nor shoe on the
wounded foot, I soon made a shift to go a-shooting on horseback. On
reloading my piece, the powder took fire, as I poured it into the barrel, and,
communicating to the flask, which had been previously filled, it blew up
with a horrible explosion. Brunette, whose ears were smartly singed,
started and set off at a pretty brisk gate. Although I lost neither my seat
nor my gun, yet, my right hand being wholly useless, I was compelled to
drop the latter in order to seize the reins which I had no other means of
shortening but by the assistance of my teeth." Roanoke, Nov. 6, 1810,
J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS. The explosion was due to a piece of ignited
wadding which had stuck to the barrel when it had been last discharged.
The sore foot, Randolph thought, probably saved his life; for it was too sore
to bear the butt of his gun when he was reloading and consequently, when
the accident occurred, he had elevated the muzzle of his gun as high as his

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786

"I should rather have Essex than any nurse or attendant I ever saw."
Jan. 27, 1817, Letters to a Y. R., 184.

"A little pet negro, about three years old, whom you never saw, and
whom a red flannel frock has made as happy as Queen Dolly at her Levee."
J. R. to James M. Garnett, Dec. 31, 1813, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS.

"The wants of some 200 wretches, whom I never think of without perplexity
and dismay, diversify my time." J. R. to James M. Garnett, Dec.
22, 1818, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS.

The intimate contact between master and slave in Virginia is exemplified
in an effective manner in one of the letters from Randolph to James M.
Garnett: "I must rouse Jupiter," he said, "who is sleeping very soundly
on a comfortable bed by the fire, and prepare for a short journey to Sterett
Ridgely's." Georgetown, Feb. 11, 1816, J. M. Garnett, Jr., MSS.

After Randolph returned from Russia John took advantage of his master's
loss of reason, and reverted to his former bad habits, according to the
testimony of Wyatt Cardwell in the Randolph Will Litigation. He not
only got drunk whenever he had a chance, but purloined some money that
belonged to his master and gambled with it. This witness also testified
that Essex too was in the habit of drinking. John was No. 285 in the list
of negroes emancipated by Randolph which was registered at Charlotte C.
H., and his wife Betsey No. 286. Both are described in the list as being "of
black complexion." John's age is given as 63 yrs., and his height as 5 feet
and 2 inches.