Randolph, JOHN

Randolph, JOHN, 'of Roanoke,' was born at Cawsons, in Virginia, June 2, 1773. He was a second cousin of Edmund Randolph, and boasted the Indian princess Pocahontas among his ancestors. In 1799 he was elected to congress, where he became distinguished for his eloquence, wit, sarcasm, invective, and eccentricity, and for thirty years was more talked and written about than any American politician. Tall and meagre, peculiar in dress and manners, he was described as a strange mixture of the aristocrat and the Jacobin. He was the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, but quarrelled with Jefferson, and opposed the war of 1812; he opposed also the Missouri Compromise, and stigmatised its northern supporters as 'Doughfaces;' and he sided against Jackson on the nullification question. From 1825 to 1827 he sat in the senate, and in 1830 he was appointed minister to Russia. By his will he manumitted his numerous slaves, and provided for their settlement in a free colony. He died in Philadelphia, June 24, 1833. See Lives by Garland (2 vols. 1850) and Henry Adams ('American Statesmen' series, 1882).