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Harper's Popular Cyclopædia of United States History

By Benson John Lossing, 1898


Randolph, John, was born in Chesterfield County, Va., June 3, 1773; died in Philadelphia, May 24, 1833. He was a descendant of Pocahontas. Delicate in health at his birth, he was so all through life. He studied both at Princeton College, New Jersey, and at Columbia College, New York. In 1799 he entered Congress as a delegate from the Charlotte district, which he represented until 1829 (a period of thirty years), excepting four years while holding a seat in the United States Senate—1825 to 1827. He was an adherent of the state supremacy doctrine and in Congress often stood alone, for he opposed measures of the Democratic party, to which he belonged. He was sarcastic in debate, and often eloquent. He frequently indulged in the grossest insults of his opponents, and fought a duel with Henry Clay in 1826. He supported Jackson for the Presidency, and in 1831 was sent to Russia as American minister at the Muscovite court. He soon returned home in feeble health, and expressed his sympathy with the South Carolina nullifiers. When about to depart for Europe again, he died. In politics and social life, Mr. Randolph was like an Ishmaelite — “his hand against every man's, and every man's hand against him.”


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