RANDALL, SAMUEL JACKSON. 





General Condition of Church Affairs. 



During 1890 death has considerably depleted the 

 number of the clergy. One bishop, viz., Rt. 

 Rev. J. W. Beckwith, Bishop of Georgia, has de- 

 parted this life. Of the other clergy, priests, and 

 deacons, seventy-seven have gone to their rest. 

 We have already intimated that the Protestant 

 Episcopal Church has abundant cause for thank- 

 fulness in the blessing of God upon the manifold 

 agencies employed toward setting forward the 

 Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. A truly de- 

 vout spirit seems to influence in every direction 

 the members of the Church, and there is appar- 



751 



ent an earnest effort to deal with perplexing so- 

 cial, political, and other questions of the dav j,, 

 a practical way of solving them for the teropon] 

 as well as the spiritual welfare of all sorts and 

 conditions of men. Education, in the full and 

 best sense of the word, is steadily advancing t In- 

 young people of the Church, of both sexes, are 

 alive to their duties and opportunities; and 

 though the picture is not in all respects such as 

 it might be, yet it is sufficiently H-;ir ami dis- 

 tinct to warrant the conviction that God's bless- 

 ing will continue to be bestowed upon his people 

 m the work appointed them to do. 



RANDALL, SAMUEL JACKSON, states- 

 man, born in Philadelphia, Pa., 'Oct. 10, 1828 ; 

 died in Washington, D. C., April 13, 1890. He 

 was a son of Josiah Randall, a well-known law- 

 yer and Democratic politician of Philadelphia, 

 and, after receiving an academic education, he 

 engaged in mercantile business, first as clerk in 

 the counting-room of a firm of silk merchants, 



SAMUEL JACKSON RANDALL. 



and afterward as junior partner in the iron firm 

 of Earp & Randall. Before reaching his major- 

 ity he showed a strong passion for political life. 

 He diligently studied parliamentary law, prac- 

 ticed speaking in public, and, after" casting his 

 first ballot, he began taking an active part in lo- 

 cal political affairs. His personal aggressiveness 

 and abilities as a debater soon attracted to him 

 many admirers, who elected him to the City 

 Councils of Philadelphia and kept him there 

 for four years. At this time he was in affilia- 

 tion with the Old-line Whig party. In 1856" he 

 joined the Democratic party, and as its candi- 

 date was elected to the State Senate. He served 

 there during the session of 1858-'59, and distin- 

 guished himself by his knowledge of parliament- 

 ary law, his grasp of public affairs, and his vigor 

 and tact in debate. For some time prior to the 

 civil war he had been a private in the Philadel- 

 phia City Troop. When the Government issued 

 its call for volunteers for ninety days, in April, 

 1861, his company tendered its services, and 

 with it he was mustered into the volunteer army 

 on May 13. The troop was assigned to duty 

 with the Second United States Cavalry, then 

 commanded by Col. George H. Thomas. During 

 his first campaign Mr. Randall became so im- 



pressed with the soldierly qualities of his com- 

 mander that he wrote a personal letter to the 

 Secretary of War, urging the promotion of Col. 

 Thomas, and shortly afterward the promotion 

 was announced. Mr. Randall was subsequently 

 commissioned captain of the troop. In 1862 he 

 was elected to Congress as a Union Democrat 

 from the First District, which embraced nearly 

 the same wards in Philadelphia that now com- 

 pose the Third District, and by successive re- 

 elections he held his seat till his death. In 1863, 

 on the advance of the Confederates toward 

 Washington, and on the call for Pennsylvania 

 troops to resist the invasion of that State, he 

 again volunteered with his troopers for service, 

 and was on duty in Harrisburg, Gettysburg, and 

 Columbia (where he was provost marshal) till 

 the emergency had passed. He then resumed 

 his public duties, and retained command of the 

 City Troop till 1866. 



During his first term in Congress he was a 

 member of the Committee on Public Grounds 

 and Buildings. In his second term he served on 

 the committees on Banking and Currency, Re- 

 trenchment, and Expenditures in the Stat'e De- 

 partment ; and in his third term he was reap- 

 pointed to these three committees and also was 

 chosen as a Democratic representative on the 

 special committee on the assassination of Presi- 

 dent Lincoln. In the early reconstruction days 

 his party in Congress was in such a minority 

 that he confined himself to committee work, and 

 it was not till " the minority grew strong enough 

 to have confidence in itself " that he made any 

 impression on the floor of the House. In 1869 

 he became a member of the Committee on Elec- 

 tions and of the joint Committee on Retrench- 

 ment, and in 1871 was associated with James G. 

 Blaine, Nathaniel P. Banks, James A. Garfield, 

 and Samuel S. Cox on the Committee on Rules, 

 of which he remained a member till his death. 

 In the succeeding Congress, Dec. 1, 1873, to 

 March 4, 1875, it was through his efforts that the 

 bill to regulate Federal elections called by Dem- 

 ocrats the " Force " bill was kept from passage 

 in the House in time to be adopted in the Sen- 

 ate. In 1874 the congressional elections gave 

 the House of Representatives to the Democratic 

 party, and Mr. Randall's friends urged him for 

 the speakership. But the South and West com- 

 bined in the caucus in favor of Michael C. Kerr. 

 of Indiana. Mr. Randall acquiesced in the choice, 

 and after the election of Mr. Kerr, in December, 



