Book Description

Excerpt from John Randolph of Roanoke, 1773-1833: A Biography Based Largely on New Material The biography (so-called) of Randolph by Lemuel Sawyer is but a mere memoir; though by no means negligible, because Sawyer served for many years in the House of Representatives with Randolph, and, while sharing the prejudice against him, felt by all the fervid Jeffersonians, after the breach between him and Jefferson, was an ardent but not an indiscriminate admirer of Randolph's genius; and was an admirer, in many respects, of his character too. But, even if Sawyer's book were a much more extensive one, he had a failing which is enough to destroy, or all but destroy, the value of any book, brief or otherwise; that is, gross inaccuracy. He was, we are told by John Quincy Adams, a writer of poems and plays, as well as a Congressman, and no playwright or poet ever deliberately took more license with historical facts than Sawyer did in the loose statements of his memoir. The Reminiscences of the Home Life of John Randolph of Roanoke by Powhatan Bouldin contains much contemporary testimony about Randolph of the highest importance, but, as its title indicates, its scope is limited. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.