remained steadfast to his cardinal doctrine that the power of the general government must be restrained and the rights of the States kept inviolable. He took consider able part in the proceedings of the conven tion and became the leader of the strong party which opposed all changes in the old Constitution. In 1830, Mr. Randolph accepted the posi tion of Minister from the United States to Russia. But he remained only a short time in St. Petersburg, which place he abused in strong and racy terms. He then repaired to England, where he remained for nearly a year, and returned home without revisiting Russia. In some of his peculiarities he seems to have taken pride. One which he cultivated with care was an exaggerated precision of pronunciation. This led him to correct without hesitation whatever he considered a blunder in that respect. In one of his irrit able moods at Roanoke, he grew very im patient for his cup of coffee, and testily asked the woman who was waiting on him, "Why don't you make that coffee?" "I wuz a makin' it," she replied. "You 'wuz' makin' it " retorted the sick man. " Who ever said ' wuz ' but you and the chief justice!" Always opposed to a protective tariff, Mr. Randolph was in strong sympathy with the Nullification movement in South Car olina, in 1832. In an almost dying condi tion he had himself carried from county to county to arouse the Virginians to oppose General Jackson's usurpation of power. Prostrated by these exertions, he determined to seek alleviation of his sufferings in an other voyage to Europe, but could go no further than Philadelphia, where he died on June 24, 1833, in an hotel, with no friend near him but his faithful servant John. The account given by Dr. Parish of his last hours is mournful in the extreme. Dur ing the last year of his life, he lived, as he said, " by opium, if not upon it," and was
alternately in a state of semi-delirium or deep despondency. Years before this, at the time of his overwhelming sorrow, he had given up the atheism of his youth, and after many struggles and searchings of heart had avowed to his most intimate friends that he had be come a Christian and intended to lead a Christian life. That his repentance and in tentions were at the time sincere we may not doubt. That they failed to change en tirely his nature and his life we cannot deny. Among the wild utterances of his sad, final hours, we read that he expressed a humble hope in the Merciful Saviour, and to that Mercy we leave him. Randolph's letters show that he was on the most intimate terms with those devout men, William Meade — afterwards Bishop of Virginia — with Doctor Moses Hoge and Francis S. Key. He pronounced these Christians the " only happy men " he knew. Other friendships which lasted during life were with his schoolmate, Governor Taze well, and with Dr. Brockenborough of Rich mond, to whom he became attached in early manhood. His correspondence with these and other friends tells his whole story, and assures the reader that he was a man to be loved as well as to be feared. A recent writer has said that " temper is a weapon which we hold by the blade." John Randolph's temper, ungoverned in his youth, became uncontrollable in his later years. To it may be traced many of his failures and his follies. It drove him with the lash of the furies to extravagances of con duct and speech which weakened his influ ence, strengthened his enemies, and made him, in spite of his genius and his patriotism, a laughing stock to the world in general. The remains of the unhappy statesman, whose brilliant youth and manhood sank in to an old age so loveless and forlorn, were taken to his beloved Virginia, and laid to rest amidst the solitude of Roanoke. They have since been removed to Hollywood Cemetery at Richmond, Virginia.
