Washington telegraph., 1851-01-15

blanket over his head and shoulders
and he directed John to place his hat on
over the blanket, which aided in keeping
il close to his head With countenancs
fulls of sorrow John stood close by tine
side of his dying master. The four wit.
nesses-Ednund Badger, Francis Wes:
Isaac Parish and Joseph Pansh were
placed in semicircle in full view. He
rallied all the expiring energies of mind
and body. to this last effort. "His whole
soufs" says Dr.rParisll, .seemed coucen-
trated in the act. HIS eyes flashed feel
ing and Intelligence. Pointing toward
US. wllhhis long index finger he address.
ed us:
Il confirm all the directions in my will
respecting my slaves, and direct them 10
be enforced, particularly in regard to a
provision Ior their support" Aud lheu
raising his arm as high as he could, he
brought it down with his open hand on
the shoulder of his favorite John, and
added these words. especially for this
man." lie hen asked each of the wit
nesses whether they understood him. DR..
Joseph Parish explained to them what
MIR. Randolph had said in regard to the
law in Virginia on the subject of manu-
mission. and then appealed to the dying
man to know whether he had stated it
correctly. "Yes,' he said, and gracefully
waving his hand as token of submission,
he added, 1.-THE young gentlemen will re-
main with me-
1he scene was soon changed. Having
disposed of that subject mos, deeply im-
pressed on his heart, his keen penetrating
eye lost its expression, his powerful mind
gaze way, and his fading Imagination
began to wander amid scenes aud with
friends that he had left behind In two
hours The spirit took its flight. and all
that was mortal of John Randolph, of
Roanoke, was hushed in death. At a
quarter before 12 clock, on the Gath of
June. 1S33 aged sixty years. he brea,hed
his last, IN chamber of the City Hotel,
No. IL North Third street, Philadelphia
The DIsCOvERER OF THE COLUMBIA
RIvER.-In the Senate, few days since,
Mr.. Winthrop presented memorial from
Mrs. Martha Gray. of Boston, the wild
ow Of Capt. Robert Gray, the discoverer
of the Columbia River. 1t is stated that
Capl. Gray was in the naval service Of
the country during part of the Revolu-
tionaiy war. Being afterwards employ
ed in the merchant service, he made a
voyage between the years 1857 and 1890,
III the sloop Washington, aud was the
first to carry the flag of our Union at the
masthead of vessel bearing tha. august
name in triumph round the world In a
subsequent voyage, in the year 1899, he
discovered aud entered the Columbia
river, and gave to it the name of the
ship which he then commanded. The
voyage was merely mercantile in its de-
>igu. but it terminated, as is well known,
in securing to this country the first aud
hes. element in its title to a vast territory
on the Pacific. In the protracted con-
.roversy between Great Britain and the
United States, which was so happily
brought to close few years since. no
point was more successfully relied on by
our Americansnegotia tors than the dis
covery of the Columbia river by Capt.
Gray. 1t is not too much to say that the
discovery gave US Oregon.
Capt. Gray did not live to see his coun-
try reap the fruits of his adventure and
enterprise, much less to taste any Of them
himself. He died in 1909, leaving a
widow and four children and very little
property.
Mrs. Gray and her daughters, only one
of whom has been married, have since
supported themselves mainly by their own
exertions and economy. the widow having
never enjoyed the benefit of pension
tor her husbands revolutionary services,
owing in part to the date Of her marriage.
| and in part to some technical defeat in
the evidence. She now calls upon Con-
gress to cheer her old age by making
such grant to herself and daughters as
shall be .'in accordance with the liberal
spirit in which il may be proper that
a great and magnauimous Government
should regard the circumstances of a
widow and children of a citizen whose
NAUTICAL skill and bold enterprise have
been instrumental in rendering SO dis
tinguished benefit to his country"
N. y. Picaywne.
A man in Boston has been fined five
dollars and discharged for brutally whip
ping his his wife, so as to do her seri-
Gus injury.