Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/202

176 his parliamentary experience and judicial wisdom. On 20 Jan.. 1775. he issued a call to the counties and corporations of Virginia, requesting them to elect delegates to a convention to be held at Rieh- iiiniid. 21 March, the call being signed " Peyton Randolph, moderator." He was elected to that convention on 4 Feb. On the night of 20 April, 1775, the gunpowder was clandestinely removed from the public magazine at Williamsburg by order of Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia. Randolph persuaded the enraged citizens not to assault the governor's residence. To 700 armed men assembled at Fredericksburg, who offered then services, he wrote a reply assuring them that the wrong would be redressed if menace did not com- pel Dunmore to obstinacy. Through his negotia- tions with Lord Dunmore, assisted by the approach of Henry's men, 300 were paid for the powder. anil hostilities were delayed. Randolph resumed his duties as speakerof the burgesses in May. 1775. and after their adjournment he returned to the congress at Philadelphia, where he died of apo- plexy. His death is alluded to with sqrrow in one of Washington's despatches to congress. He mar- ried a sister of Benjamin Harrison, governor of Vir- ginia, but left no issue. His body was conveyed from Philadelphia in the following year by his nephew. Edmund Randolph, and Imrird in the i-h.iju'l of William and Mary college. Another son of Sir John, John, lawyer, b. in Tazewell 1 1 all, Williamsburg, Va., in 1727; d. in Brompton, Lon- don. 31 Jan., 1784, after graduation at William and Mary, studied law, and soon attained high rank at the bar. His home at Williamsburg was the cen- tre of literary society as well as of fashion. He was a man of fine literary culture, an accomplished violinist, and in religion a freethinker. For inter- esting anecdotes concerning him see Wirt's " Life of Patrick Henry," and Randall's "Jefferson." In 1766 John Randolph was appointed king's attorney under Gov. Fauquier, to succeed his brother Pey- ton. When, during the excitement that followed the removal of the gunpowder from Williamsburg, Lord Dunmore. fearing assassination, took up his abode on a man-of-war at York (8 June, 1775), John Randolph was the medium of communication be- tween him and the burgesses. When hostilities lie- came inevitable, he regarded it as inconsistent with his oath of office to assist a rebellion, as it then ap- peared, and in August he sailed for England with his wife and two daughters, leaving his only son. Ed- mund, on the shore. His subsequent correspondence with his constant friend, Thomas Jefferson, proc- that he was regarded by that statesman as in sym- pathy with the American cause. For a time Lord Dunmore gave him a home at his house in Scot- land, and there one of the daughters, Ariana, was married to James Wormeley, of Virginia. When the newly married pair sailed for Virginia, on the first ship bound thither after the peace, they bore the dead body of John Randolph, whose dying request was to be buried in his native country. He was laid in the chapel of William and Mary college. John's son. Edmund Jennings, statesman, b. in Williamsburg, Va., 10 Aug., 1753 ; d. in Clarke county, Va., 13 Sept., 1813. He was distinguished for scholarship and eloquence at William and Mary college, and at eighteen years of age was orator to commemorate the royal founders, the oration being printed by the faculty. After studying law with his father he was admitted to the bar. He was a favorite of Lord Dunmore, and when his parent, left for England was only withheld from sailing with them by enthusiasm for the American caii-e. Washington took him into his family as aidc-de-camp, 15 Aug., 1775. and Randolph received the guests at headquarters; but on the sudden dealh of his tincle Peyton he returned to Williamsburg. In the Virginia convention of 1776 he assisted in framing the con- stitution and pass- ing the bill of rights. He op- posed the demand of Patrick Henry that the governor should have pow- er of veto. At the close of the convention he was elected mayor of Williamsburg, and he was also the first attorney- general of Vir- ginia under the new constitution. In 1779 he was elected to congre--. but soon resigned. In 1780 he was re-elected, and remained in congress two years. There he was occupied with foreign affairs. "He resigned his seat in 17S-J. and after his father's death in 178:! suc- ceeded to the property of his uncle Peyton, which had become encumbered with claims against his father. These he might have met by selling the negroes, but, being conscientiously opposed to this, he had to work hard at his profession. He was one of the commissioners at the Annapolis convention which induced congress to summon the Constitutional convention of 1787. Being gov- ernor of Virginia (1786-'88), he largely influenced the choice of delegates, and it was due to his per- suasion that Washington's resolution not to at- tend was overcome. As leader of the Virginia delegation he introduced the general plan of a con- stitution that had been agreed on among them as a basis for opening the convention. He also drafted a detailed scheme of his own. which was discovered in 1887 among the papers of George Mason. His career in the convention was brilliant, and elicited admiration from Benjamin Franklin, who generally voted with him. He earnestly opposed the single executive, the presidential re-eligibility and pardoning power, the vice-presidential office, and senato- rial equality of states. He desired an executive commission chosen by the national legislature, and resembling that of the present Swiss republic. He favored a strong Federal government which wa- to have power of directly negativing state laws that should be decided to be unconstitutional by the su- preme court. On his motion the word "slavery" was eliminated from the constitution. He refused to sign the document except on condition that a second National convention should be called after its provisions had been discussed in the country : but in the Virginia convention of 17*x he advocated its ratification on the ground that a ninth state was needed to secure the Union, and that within the L^nion amendments might be passed. The op- position, led by Patrick Henry, was powerful, and the ratification, even by a small majority (tent, was mainly due to Gov. Randolph, whose inflexible in- dependence of party was then and after described as vacillation. He urged amendments; owing to his vigilance the clause of Art. VI.. on religious tests for oflice. implying power over ihe uvncral subject, was supplemented by the first article added in the constitution. He resigned the governorship in I7SS, and secured a seat in the a>scmliK for the