Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-04-12
DUEL MADE FAMOUS
John Randolph and Henry Clay
on Field of Honor.
TWO SHOTS EXCHANGED
Details as Given in Statement by
Thomas H. Benton.
vIRGINIAN'S BITTER ATTACKS
Preparations for the Encounter De-
liberately Made by Each.
Neither Would Recede.
TWO SHOTS EXCHANGED
vIRGINIAN's BITTER ATTACKS
BY WILLIAM E CERTIS

BY WILLIAM F.. CURTIS.
Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
| Herald
| My neighbor. Maj Holmes Conrad OF
| Virginia showed me the other day
an autograph letter written by the
| brilliant and eccentric John Randolph
Of Roanoke to Thomas Forman Bryan
the father of Mrs Conrad. on the even :
ing before he fought his celebrated
duel with Henry Clay Mr.. Bryan
| was not related to Senator Randolph
| but was the son of his most intima e
| friend, his ward and at that time 4
student at Georgetown University.
The letter reads as follows:
"kervends.
Half past nine.
April s. 1925
Private and CONFIDENTIAL
Think of me always at half past
| eleven m, in case that we shall never
| meet again.
IL have deceived you by telling you
the truth, but not the whole truth.
| / told you all that honor permitted ME
to disclose.
yours and your fathers friend,
Randolph of Roanoke
"To Thomas Forman Bryan.
The penmanship is small and grace
full, very much like that of Thomas
Carlyle, and the note once bore q
| wax seal, which has since been torn
off
Cause of the Duel.
Senator Thomas II. Benton of Mis-
souri,. who was an intimate friend of
both Mr.. Clay and Mr.. Randolph. aft
erward made a detailed statement
concerning the duel between those
eminent gentlemen. Although they
had been bitter political opponents,
and Mr.. Randolph had repeatedly at
tackled Mr. Clay tthen Secretary OF
State) from his seat in the Senate, the
following sentence from a speech at
lacking message from John Quincy
Adams concerning a proposed meetin Z
of delegates of the several American
republics at Panama was the direct
casus belli. Mr.. Randolph asserted
| that letter from Gen Salazar, the
Mexican minister at Washington. sub
mitted by the executive to the Senate.
manufactured or forged by the Score
tary of State (Mr. Clay); denounced
the administration as "a corrupt coali-
tion between the Puritan and the
blackleg,' and added that he fMr.
Randolph) held himself personally re-
sponsible for all that he said.
Secretary Clay sent Gen. Jessup OF
the army TO MIR. Randolph with de-
mand for retraction. Col. Tatnail,
representing Mr.. Randolph. declined to
retract.
1T was Saturday, the first day of
April 1926" said Mr.. Benton in his
narrative, toward noon, the Senate
on that day not being in session, that
Browns Hotel and told me he would
make my bosom the depository of j
secret which he should commit to no
other person; which was. that he did
not intend to fire at Mr.. Clay. He told
ii to me because he wanted witness
of his intention, and did not mean to
tell ii to his second or anybody else:
and enjoined inviolable secrecy until
the duel was over. That determination
rested on two grounds: first, an en-
tire unwilIingness to hurt Mr. Clay,
and next conviction that to return
the fire would be an implied acknowl-
edgment of Mr. Clays right to make
him answer out of the Senate for
words spoken within it,
Brief, Terse and Decorous.
The acceptance of the challenge was
i'm Keeping with the whole proceeding
brief, terse, and in superlatively decorous
language. 1t ran thus:
Mr.. Randolph accepts the challenge
tests against the right of any minister
of the executive government of the
United States to hold him responsible
for words spoken in debate, as a SEN
ator from Virginia, in elimination of
such minister or the administration un-
der which he shall have taken office.
Col. Tatnall of Georgia, the bearer of
this letter, is authorized to arrange with
Gen Jessup the bearer of Mr.. Clay's
challenger the terms of the meeting to
which Mr.. Randolph is invited by that
note
"AlI hope of accommodation having
vanished" continues Mr.. Benton, the
seconds proceeded to arrange for the
duel The afternoon of Saturday, the
Sth of April, was fixed upon for the
time: the right bank of the Potomac
within the state of Virginia, above the
Little Falls bridge, was the place. The
Virginia side of the Potomac was taken
at the instance of Mr.. Randolph. He