Daily American telegraph., 1852-04-12
Juar. wnIiam leigh, OF virginia.

Il ~ -.
country than that of rendering homage 10 the
fame Of the Just, the upright, and the humane
onr bsr et;zens. When the honor and in
tegrity of an individual are trled oy the severest
tests and found not only unimpaired but unfair
, nisbed when they are maintained at great sac
ri6ce and by conduct the opposite of which would
have exposed their possessor to no censure, they
NAV be deemed inherent qualities Of character,
ornaments which must secure to it both conf
| dence and admiration. Virginians are justly
proud of many great illustrous names among
their citizens, both dead and living but there is,
perhaps, no one more clearly entitled to public
confidence and esteem than the gentleman whose
name is placed at the head of this article
In December, 1921 the late eccentric but dis
tngushed John Randolph wrote a will in which
he made provision for the emancipation of all
his slaves, (some three hundred, and their set
Element in some free State where they might be
permitted to reside, and left the most Of his re-
naming large estate to his long-tried friend,
Judge Leigh, whom he constituted his execu-
tor, relying fully upon his fidelity in the exc
cution of his, benevolent designs towards his
slaves In 1881 Mr.. Randolph returned from
his mission to Russia, to which he had been
appointed by General Andrew Jackson. His
health, always feeble, had become greatly i'm
paired, and it was painfully manifest to his
friends that both in body and mind he was much
changed and disordered. His subsequent conduct
excited alarming apprehensions of utter mental
alienation. In December, 1881 Judge LEIGH was
summoned to visit him, and saw unmistakeable
signs of his friends mental disorder. The last
night of this visit Judge Leigh sat up alone with
Mr.. Randolph until late hour; and being com
PEELED to leave the next morning retired to rest,
Mr.. Randolph being left alone. Very early in
the morning Mr.. Randolph brought into the room
where Judge Leigh was sleeping testamentary
paper, entirely changing the disposition which
had been made of his property by the will of 1921
and delivered the paper and the will Of 1921 in a
cancelled condition to the care of Judge Leigh.
Mr.. Randolph died in 1888; and when the last
written testamentary paper was offered for pro-
bate much testimony was offered tending power
fully to prove that, at the time that instrument
was written and the will of 1921 was cancelled,
the testator was utterly incompetent to any tes-
tamentary act whatever-either to make or re-
woke will The last will itself gave evidence of
mental arrangement. If this instrument was
rejected, the consequence would be that the will
should be admitted, the disposition it contained
for the benefit of Judge Leigh, and in favor of
the slaves, would inevitably be contaminated
No one knew as well as Judge Leigh the state
of Mr.. Randolph's mind. No one had been more
intimately acquainted with him, or had more
closely observed the changes and disorders which
had afflicted it. He only was with him about
the hours of midnight, when the last tesla
mentary acts were attempted to be performed by
Mr.. Randolph. He knew, from the conduct of
the testator before and at that time, up almost
to the very moments when these acts were per-
formed that Mr.. Randolph was destitute of tes-
tamentary capacity
| In the posture of the case upon the proofs,
| without any testimony of Judge Leigh, as it
was presented before the court of probate, it was
not at all an unreasonable calculation that the
instrument propounded would be denied probate
by the court. Besides, there was no rule of evil
dence, as it would seem, that would have rem
dered Judge Leigh incompetent to testify in the
pending controversy against that instrument; and,
if competent, what imputations Of contingent in
terest could at the bar of any tribunal before
which he could be sworn, shake the credit in any
fact that he would state? But Judge Leigh had
the rights of more than three hundred slaves, en-
titled, as he knew, to their freedom resting upon
his conscience. These rights would be utterly
defeated, if the revocation of the will of 1921
should be established by the establishment of an
instrument entitled to no validity. The duty
which he owed to the slaves could not be compro-
missed by any calculations Of probability of sue
cess, or by any selfish remissness in performing
everything in his power that could in any way
contribute to secure the emancipation and pro-
vision for the slaves. He would not allow their
case to be submitted upon the proofs strong as
they were, without the aid of his own testimony.
He would not for their sakes, in Offering his own
testimony, unnecessary though it might be, allow
it to he weakened by any supposable imputations
upon its credit Justice and humanity pleaded
alike in behalf of the slaves, in the contest that
was waging that they should have the full ben
eft of his evidence, without the shadow of sus-
picion to dim the light it might shed upon the
case. Under these considerations he voluntarily
came forward, and bya release executed byhim,
renowned the wealth which Mr.. Randolph, in
his will of 1921, had devised to him-reserving
only the right to qualify as the executor Of Mrs.
Randolph under his will, which might be proved
Judge Leighs testimony, with the imposing sane
tons which his disinterested magnanimity threw
around it, was offered and heard. The paper
that was propounded was ultimately denied pro-
| hate and tho will NJ 1901 boa e;nca heen astah-