The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1873-01-18

another great figure il public events
Randolph's private and public life vul
CARRIED and heightened each other, an6
the meanness of anecdote often reduces
his public stature, while the man EN-
balms the aneedote, mean as it may be
RANDoLPH's NEIGHBoR, HENRY.
"How is this called Roanoke, said
to the affable engineer, being on the
/ Staunton p
Well, there is a little creek, I be
lieve, called Roanoke, winding through
Randolph's old estate At any rate,
this is in the general Valley of the
Roanoke, and Roanoke is the name OF
the railroad station, two miles from the
fellows abode He was born at Cav
sons, an estate near City Point, just
before the Revolutionary War. His
youth was spent at Matoax, another es-
tate, this side of Petersburg, and he
4ivetsrfa I5izersaas siliftz- szState---slls.
which were destroyed by fire. He often
came here to shoot and stop awhile, but
he moved here after 1910, when Bizarre
burned up. He never built anything
extensive down here"
! ''Was he rich ?"
''Oh, yes one of the largest slave
holders in Virginia He left 31S slaves
and $50 horses, and he had some of che
best racing stock in this country.
. Have any more recent great men
/ come from about here?"
Yes, sir. Tom Bocock and General
Joe Johnston
Are you much acquainted around
here2"
Putty tol'bul well"
What do the people at this day
think of Randolph %
The old people remember him as
naughty, honest, and, although never
mixing much with the voters, sure to
get their support. They never under
stood him; nobody did; but he had two
or three acquaintance, and one of them
was the tavern-keeper at Charlotte
/ CoWt-house, who knew from contact
thai he was a great man. He was a
brave follow, too, and good hunter
part of his life. One idea is, that he
got in love, and was afraid to marry on
good grounds, and that it soured him
all his life But his memory is getting
very indistinct, and is kept up most al
together by anecdotes.
Whereabouts in this country did
Patrick Henry liye?"
- Uo l;,-o5 a+ Do1 rT,l1 +l;r4,- ,,,;1,e.
from here, and his descendants, L think,
occupy the place yet That was said
to be little better for comfort than Ran
dolph's place, though Henry had some
mountain views from his yard They
were competitors, sir. Henry only lived
in this country five years, and he died
in 80, making his lat speech just as
Randolph made his first, at our old
Courthouse town. Neither has got
any mark set up on his grave
-s-ra-sss. Z = " -. y y
public man nowadays who rose in his
stirrups, in the heighto Of his fame, on a
Long Island race-course, after having
betted all his money, to shout thus yul-
carly: Ell bet crop of niggers on
Sir Henry - We should not associate
Southern hospitality with public man
who replied to a constituents pleasant
address: Mr. Randolph, / passed
your house to-day please continue
| to do so. sir p We should still consid-
er him very mean Congressman who
! accused a door-keeper falsely of listen
/ ing at a key-hole to secret session, in
order to have him turned OF, and then
bluffed the man without explanation as
John Randolph did Yanzandt, merely
because he was an enemy's prOtcge.
And we read of his causeless chastise-
ment of his negroes and wounding their
feelings with no more repugnanee than
oN his sending his books to England
because his Northern couptrymen might
otherwise get the job He showed, in
this last respect, equal want efnational-
ity and sagacity, because to spite the
Yankee by incurring a greater cost was
only to increase the relative poverty Of
the South in the ratio. He did
mannmit his slaves, bat the feeling he
had previously made on the subject
helped to envelop the manumission with
litigation, and probably the best act in
its consequences he ever did was to re-
fnse Indiana Territory some the bless
ings of slavery for which he petition
ed as n - temporary dispensation, in
1903.
There We're magnanimous times about
the man, and he did recognize low and
little natures and pierce 1T through and
through; but he would also turn like an
Algerine upon great associate, tograt-
| ify a moments pique or conceit. Ger
tainly not less e-editable than his fitful
generosity was the long and uniform al
lowance of his contemporaries and his
country for his admitted genius ant
disease.
UNDERNEATH ALL.
Nature appears to have gifted hin
with the melancholy talent OF perceiv
ing the wrong that he himself did, anC
of generalizing the tortures which h'
among the naked trees, a man without
monument as he never created any in
stitntion or public measure. Might he
arise and look around his country now
it would seem to deserve less of his ter
rible excoriation forty years ago. ''Pov
erty stalking. through the land, Will,
|