Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/199

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RANDOLPH
RANDOLPH

country in 1630. After receiving a common-school education, James entered a printing-office, and in isf.' liiT.-iiur ro-t'ditor df Ilic " Fivdonia." a weekly newspaper, in which he continued for thirty years. He was U. S. collector of internal revenue in 1815-'4G, and was subsequently clerk of common pleas for Middlesex county, and a member of the legislature for two years. He was elected to con- gress as a Democrat in 1828 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of George Holcombe, served till 1833 and subsequently invested largely in coal lands. His son, Theodore Frelinghnysen, senator, b. in New Brunswick, X. J., 24 June. 1816 ; d. in Morristown, N. J., 7 Nov., 1883, was educated at Kiituvrs grammar-school, and entered mercantile' life at sixteen years of age. He settled in Vicks- burg, Miss., about 1840, where he married a grand-daughter of Chief-Justice Marshall, and on his return to New Jersey in 1850 resided first in Hudson county and subsequently in Morristown, N. J. He was a member of the legislature in 1859-'60, di'clinod the speakership of that body, was chair- man of the special committee on the peace con- gress in 1861, and was the author of the measure for relief of the families of soldiers that should en- gage in the civil war. He became state senator the same year, served by re-election till 1865, and was appointed commissioner of draft for Hudson county in 1862. He was president of the Mor- ris and Essex railroad in 1867, doubled its gross tonnage in eighteen months, and negotiated the existing lease of that road to the Delaware, Lacka- wanna, and Western railroad by which the bond- holders were guaranteed seven per cent, in perpe- tuity. He became governor of New Jersey in 1868, during his tenure of office caused a* repeal of the Camden and Amboy monopoly tax. established a general railway law, made the state-prison sys- tem self-supporting, and suggested the plan of the present State lunatic asylum at Morris Plains, which is the largest in the world. On 11 July, 1871, the day preceding the Orange riot in New York city, he issued a proclamation insuring the right of parade to the Orangemen of New Jersey. To secure the speedy transmission of this procla- mation throughout the state and in New York city, where it was alleged rioters were arranging to invade New Jersey, he went in person to the tele- graph-offices and took " constructive " possession of several of them. He also ordered out the mi- litia, and by these measures prevented disturbance. He was elected U. S. senator in 1874, served one term, was chairman of the committee on military affairs, and a member of the special committee to investigate election frauds in South Carolina. He procured patents for several inventions, includ- ing a " ditcher," and an application of steam to type-writing machines.


RANDOLPH, Thomas Mann, patriot, b. at Tuekahoe, his father's homestead, in Virginia, in 1741 ; d. there, 19 Nov., 1793. He was the son of " William of Tuekahoe," who, at his death (1745), confided his infant and only child to Peter Jeffer- son, father of Thomas, who thereupon removed to the child's estate (Tuekahoe) in Goochland (now Albemarle) county, Va. The young man was graduated at William and Mary college, and in 1761 married Anne, daughter of Col. Archibald ( 'ary (b. 1745 ; d. 1789), widely known by her chari- ties. He was a member of the Virginia house of burgesses, and of the convention of 1776. He was also a member of the Colonial committee of safety from the first. His son, Thomas Mann, governor of Virginia, b. at Tuekahoe, on James river, Va., 1 Oct., 17ti8 ; d. in Monticello, Charlottesville, Va.,

June. 1828. In 1785 Randolph was sent with a 

younger brother to Edinburgh university, where iir ,-is very studious, and formed the friendship of Sir John Leslie, who returned with the brut hers and was for two years tutor in their Virginia home. While at Edinburgh he formed a scientific society, of which Thomas Jefferson was elected an honorary member. Jefferson acknowledged the diploma with cordiality ; he also wrote several letters of adviiv 1 1 < the youth, with whose father he had been brim -hi up almost as a brother. In the summer of 17** hr visited the Jeffersons in Paris, and there first un-t Martha Jefferson (q. v.), whom he married, 23 Feb., 1790, at Monticello. This marriage of his daughter gratified Jefferson, who described the youth as " a man of science, sense, virtue, and competence." The event also put an end to his daughter's desire for a conventual life, which had distressed him. Randolph, at the entreaty of Jefferson, resided at Monticello for a time, and gave much attention to study. Among his frequent visitors was the Abbe Corea, a botanist. In 1803 he was elected to the house of representatives, where he sharply resented remarks of John Randolph of Roanoke, and a duel nearly resulted. He continued in congress until 1807. While in Washington the family resided in the executive mansion. In 1812 he enlisted in the military service, and on 3 Jan. became lieutenant of light artillery. He marched to Canada as captain of the 20th infantry, but resigned on 6 Feb., 1815, on account of a misunderstanding with Gen. Arm- strong. He was governor of Virginia in 1819-'21. His death was caused by exposure while riding, after giving his cloak to an aged and thinly clad man whom he passed on the high-road. His son, Thomas Jefferson, b. at Monticello, Va., 12 Sept., 17!)2; d. at Edge Hill, Albemarle co., Va., 8 Oct., 1875, was Thomas Jefferson's oldest grandson, and was described by his grandfather as " the staff of his old age." When six years of age he used to walk five miles to an "old-field school," so called, and used to say that he had a watch in his pocket before he had shoes on his feet. He went to school in Phila- delphia at fifteen, and afterward in Charlottesville, Va. In 1824 he married JaneHollins.daugh- ter of Gov. Wilson

Cary Nicholas. After the sale of Jefferson's property, debts to the extent of $40.000

remained, and these were paid by Randolph out of regard for his grandfather's honor. He also supported and educated his brothers and sisters. He had been appointed literary executor of Jefferson, and in 1829 published the "Life and Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson " (4 vols., Boston). Being in the Virginia legislature at the time of the Southampton negro insurrection in 1832, he introduced a bill for emancipation on what was called the " post-natal " plan, originally suggested by Jefferson. This was necessarily postponed to the following session, and then failed through the resentment excited by the harangues of George Thompson, who was regarded as an "abolition emissary" from Great Britain. Ran-