Джон Рэндольф Роанокский: Жизнь и политическая деятельность

American politician (1773–1833)

John Randolph (June 2, 1773May 24, 1833), commonly known as John Randolph of Roanoke, was an American planter, and a politician from Virginia, serving in the House of Representatives at various times between 1799 and 1833, and the Senate from 1825 to 1827. He was also Minister to Russia under Andrew Jackson in 1830. After serving as President Thomas Jefferson's spokesman in the House, he broke with the president in 1805 as a result of what he saw as the dilution of traditional Jeffersonian principles as well as perceived mistreatment during the impeachment of Samuel Chase, in which Randolph served as chief prosecutor. Following this split, Randolph proclaimed himself the leader of the "Old Republicans" or "Tertium Quids", a wing of the Democratic Republican Party who wanted to restrict the role of the federal government. Specifically, Randolph promoted the Principles of '98, which said that individual states could judge the constitutionality of central government laws and decrees, and could refuse to enforce laws deemed unconstitutional. Described as a quick thinking orator with a remarkable wit, he was committed to republicanism and advocated a commercial agrarian society throughout his three decades in Congress. Randolph "attracted great attention from the severity of his invectives, the piquancy of his sarcasms, the piercing intonation of his voice and his peculiarly expressive gesticulation." Randolph's conservative stance, displayed in his arguments against debt and for the rights of the landed, slaveholding gentry, have been attributed to his ties to his family estate and the elitist values of his native Southside Virginia. His belief in the importance of a landed gentry led him to oppose the abolition of entail and primogeniture: "The old families of Virginia will form connections with low people, and sink into the mass of overseers' sons and daughters". Randolph vehemently opposed the War of 1812 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820; he was active in debates about tariffs, manufacturing, and currency. With mixed feelings about slavery, he was one of the founders of the American Colonization Society in 1816, to send free blacks to a colony in Africa. At the same time, he believed that slavery was a necessity in Virginia, saying, "The question of slavery, as it is called, is to us a question of life and death You will find no instance in history where two distinct races have occupied the soil except in the relation of master and slave." In addition, Randolph remained dependent on hundreds of slaves to work his tobacco plantation. However, he provided for their manumission and resettlement in the free state of Ohio in his will, providing money for the purchase of land and supplies. They founded Rossville, now part of Piqua, Ohio and Rumley, Ohio. His supporters admire Randolph's fiery character, and education was one of his passions. On the other hand, others, particularly northern advocates of democracy, mocked Randolph for his eccentricities discussed below, as did many Virginians including Thomas Jefferson. He applied rousing methods in electioneering, which he also enjoyed as a hobby. Randolph appealed directly to yeomen, using entertaining and enlightening oratory, sociability, and community of interest, particularly in agriculture. This resulted in an enduring voter attachment to him. His defense of limited government appeals to modern and contemporary conservatives, most notably Russell Kirk, who wrote an influential monograph on Randolph.

Randolph was born at Cawsons (now in Hopewell) in the Colony of Virginia, the son of rich tobacco planter John Randolph (1742–1775) and Frances Bland (1744–1788). His families, the Randolph family of Virginia and the Bland family of Virginia, are both among the prominent First Families of Virginia and often intermarried. His grandfathers were Richard Randolph and Theodorick Bland of Cawsons, who were, respectively, the son and grandson of William Randolph and Mary Isham of Turkey Island. He was the first cousin once removed of both Richard Bland and Peyton Randolph, the two pillars of the First Continental Congress, the nephew of Congressman Theodorick Bland and stepnephew of Thomas Tudor Tucker, a half brother of Henry St. George Tucker, Sr. and Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, and a second cousin of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson's mother was the daughter of Isham Randolph of Dungeness.

A genetic aberration — possibly Klinefelter syndrome — left him beardless and with a soprano prepubescent voice throughout his life. Modern science has established that latent pulmonary tuberculosis can sometimes settle in the genital tract and can cause the symptoms and permanent damage that would prevent the onset of puberty. Randolph's brother died of tuberculosis, and it appears that Randolph contracted it as a youth and never went through puberty. He finally died of tuberculosis at age 60, after it broke out into the open. He began to use opium as a way to deal with the extreme pain caused by his lifelong battle with tuberculosis. Contemporary accounts attest to his having had a belligerent and bellicose personality before the onset of any disease.

First studying under private tutors, Randolph attended Walker Maury's private school. After one of his brothers was disciplined, the Randolph brothers beat Maury and left the boarding school without completing their studies. Their stepfather then sent them to College of New Jersey, and Columbia College, New York City. The Randolph brothers neglected their studies and spent much time in taverns. After failing their courses and running out of money, they returned to Virginia. John later studied law in Philadelphia under his cousin Edmund Randolph, but never practiced. In 1792, his family's wealth and influence gained him admission to William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia. Convinced that his pronunciations of words were the only correct ones, he insulted fellow student Robert B. for allegedly mispronouncing a word. Randolph refused to apologize and a duel ensued. Randolph soon after left William and Mary, thus ending his formal education.

Randolph was raised and remained within the Episcopal Church. Although he went through a phase of youthful irreligion, in 1818 he had a crisis ending in a conversion experience, which he recounted in letters to several friends. Randolph's life thereafter was marked with piety. For example, he wrote to John Brockenbrough that he was restrained from taking communion "by the fear of eating and drinking unrighteously." In the two decades after the Revolutionary War, so many planters freed slaves that the proportion of free blacks in Virginia increased from less than one percent in 1782 to 13.5 percent in 1810. Nearly two decades after Richard's death, in 1819, John Randolph also wrote a will providing for the manumission of his slaves after his death. He wrote, "I give and bequeath to all my slaves their freedom, heartily regretting that I have ever been the owner of one." The will made provision for settling the manumitted slaves on their own land in free territory (since these freed men unlike Richard's could not date their freedom before Virginia's law requiring freed blacks to leave the Commonwealth). Another will made in 1821 provided that each slave above the age of 40 was to receive of land. Although the will was challenged in the courts, his slaves were ultimately ruled to be free. In 1846, 383 former "Randolph Slaves" arrived in Cincinnati. Local farmers in the Ohio county where Randolph's executor had purchased 3200 acres for them prevented the freedpeople from settling there. Many of them ultimately settled in Miami and Shelby Counties at places such as Rossville near Piqua, Ohio, of which only the community cemetery remains.

1799; Randolph was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives with 40.54% of the vote, defeating Federalists Powhatan Bolling and Clement Carington. 1801; Randolph was reelected unopposed. 1823; Randolph was reelected unopposed. 1825; Randolph was reelected unopposed. 1827; Randolph was reelected unopposed. 1833; Randolph was reelected unopposed.

Portrayed by Melvyn Douglas in the 1936 film The Gorgeous Hussy. Portrayed by Edwin Maxwell in the 1942 film Ten Gentlemen from West Point. Edgar Allan Poe in "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (1845) states that the fatally consumptive M. Valdemar "is (or was) particularly noticeable for the extreme sparseness of his personhis lower limbs much resembling those of John Randolph". Poe might have seen Randolph while living in Richmond, Virginia, from 1820 to 1827.

Randolph, John. Letters of John Randolph, to a Young Relative, 1834, 254 pp. (Available online.) Randolph, John. Collected letters of John Randolph of Roanoke to Dr. John Brockenbrough, 1812–1833, edited by Kenneth Shorey; foreword by Russell Kirk, Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1988.