Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1833-08-09
JOHN RANDOLPH, OF ROANOKE.

rive give, as our leading afucie 'o' ""'
ming the auto biographical letter Of the iate 'onn
Randolph, Of Misunderstanding some lew eA'
pressions Of harshness, which might pernaPs'
wound the feelings Of surviving relations IN VIZ
oinia. II was written in 1873, to his nephew,
who afterwards died-we believe, in Eng land
TWAS never intended for the public eye by the
writer: but with the very few omissions We have
made, we cannot perceive the least objection 10
ito ratification, The fling at DR.. WnhersPoon'
will in no wise affect that great and goods man s
memory. II was obviously the malignant Petu-
ience Of a dis.olute school boy, thwarted in his
nurnoses by being restrained in his pocket mo.
hewitt is launt daily repeated in the case OF
every similar guardian. Probably the charges
against MIR. Tucker and Edmund Randolph are
no better founded. Nv r. Com.
DECEMBER Is, 1918.
You shall "kuow something Of my life" nay,
eysry thing, my dear son, that can be desirable
or profitable for you to knrv. 1t is tale not
devoid of interest or events, and might be wrought
up into a more engaging narrative, than ninety
niue out Of a hunded Of the hasty volumes which
minister to the mental green.sckness OF our
misses and masters. Like yourself, was lett
BY my father an orphan. when too young TO De
sensible OF my loss. The first thing that L can
remember, is, finding myself 10 my mother
We
think that can recoliect some circumstances
that must have happened in l776; but DIS
tinctly remember events which took place IN the
wear following. shared my mothers widowed
bed, and was the nesting OF her bosom. Every
NIGHT after was undressed, and in the morning
before | rose, | kneeed down in my bed, and
putting up my little hands, repeated after my
mother the Lords prayer and the "belief;'' aud
70 this circumstance attribute some 0f my pre-
sent opinions. say present, because they lay
long dormant, and az il extnguished within me-
In the autumn OF the year 1888, my mother
married St. George Tucker. From that day
there was change in my situation. Ihe hrst
blow that ever received, was from the hand oil
this man, and not week after his union with
nv mother. At his instance, was sent at the
age of nine to the school OF Walker Murray
who had been his fellow. student at College,
IN the country Of Orange; then, and perhaps yet,
a wild and savage county, inhabited BY the
coarsest the mos, ignorant, and vicious of the
human race! A new world was opened to me.
Our school fellows, your father and uncle The
odoric were at the same school, were, with the
execution of one or two genffemens sons, adopts
in every species of proflisacy vulgar, brutal,
savage Our schoolmaster was the most petu-
LIANT aud malignant wretch in creation. We had
scarcely the necessaries Of life; without an OPP
portuuty to acquire any thing more than as much
Latin, as sufIiced to furnish out bald transla
ton of the ordinary school books. Indignant at
his treatment, your father, hardly thirteen years
old, determined to desert aud 60 home. From
our step father, we looked for nothing like syn.
PATTY or tenderness. My brother was deferred
by his expostuatons FROM executing his purpose.
Murray transferred his school to Villa asburs,
and we were transferred along with it. 10 1884,
the state of my health induced my mother to
send me to Bermuda, where | arrived in the
month Of July; and Just twelve months alter
wards, she came over with her whole family,
and remained till Nov. 1855; when she encoun'
tered long aud boisterous passage, in a wretch
ed sloop, TO Virginia This laid the foundation
of that disease, which deprived me, two years
afterwards, Of the best mother that ever man had.
NV spjourn in Bermuda was Of essential ser.
vice to me in many respects. 1t was respite
from the austere rule OF my step-father, and the
tyranny, hardly tolerabe, OF Murray; and ac-
CURED a temper not to brook ,ameIy their unrea-
sonable exactinns. There was good coun.
try.centlemcn's library in old Mr.. fuckers
house, where staid, and here | read many
sterling English authors. Your father and my.
self we're always book. worms. 1t was sort OF
bond to the affection that united u.s. Our first
question at meeting, was, generally, "What
have you read? Have you seen this or that
works. By going to Bermuda, however. lost
nv Greek; l had Just mastered the grammar per-
fectiy. when | left WILLIAMSBURG. Walking
round the base, lit was circular iron railing that
protected il, of Lord BotetOurt's statue, had
committed the Westminster grammar to memo
~. so as to be able to repeat every word OF it
The pendulum Of the great clock which v'bra.
ted over my head, seemed to concentrate my at
teution on nv book. My Bermudian tutor,
Ewing, had no Greek class, and would not take
the troobIe of teaching single boy.
After our return, we went back to william.
burgh your father continuing to board with MUIR
ray, bnt attending Mr.. Wythe in Greek, Mathe.
mates. and think Latin also. Soon afterwards
he entered college We we're at the grammar
school kept in the old capitol, which has been
since pulled down, to save the expense Of repair
ing the hall, where Henry spoke and independ.
ence was declared. The shocking barbarity Of
Murray towards my brother Theodorick, drove
him from the school, four mother was then in
\ 4 l.cs