^\)t iTarmcr's illnntlilri llisitor. 



ill whose presence lie (lirecti.'d liis serv.-iiit 10 gO 

 luiH l;ilie one liiiridiril ilollnrs jis m dontilion to 

 Bii|i|ii)it the coiiliiiiraiice oT liis iVee trade |i;i|)er. 

 Mr. Riii\dol|)li's |iolitii-.il liislory is recollecled 

 I'y those who liave riiMrUed piililic events for the 

 last hult'eeiitury. (^'oiniiijc into Ciin^ress wiien 

 under the ronstitiilion,il njje of Iwoniy-tive years 

 US 11 yonn^r ehiitii|iicni ol' Viri>ini:i (iriiieijiles, he 

 u;if< c»Med to acconni by hlso|i|)oiientH lor his le- 

 giliiiiiite ii,ulu to hi:? position — « liether Ills ;i!je 

 qnalified him for a sent. "Go and n^k my eoii- 

 stituiMits," was his etiiplialic reply. His talents 

 proved him to lie iinich more potent as the lead- 

 er of a minority in the opposition than ris the ad- 

 ministrative champion of the rulinfi party. He 



I evidently failed ilnriiif; the (irst four year.s of Mr. 

 Jefliii,son as a leader — gradually lieeame fjonred 



I that hi;? plory iivj the premier of tiie Hon.se had 

 Tlie celelirated John Randolph, while lie lived, departed ; and hy the time of the eoimiienee.-neiil 

 ■ the linsine.ss of a planter wilhli snceess of the war of 1812 lie had heeoine one of those 



i)orse.s and hauler: many would not leave till te ii 

 Hiid twelve o'clock .at tiij;ht. The eonrse of con- 

 duct ol' these inhahiiants, ofa new and helter in- 

 structed iieneration — (few children any where in 

 New Hamiishire that cannot read and write) — 

 lia.s entirely changed dining the last thirty year.s. 



jMeredith Neci<, further south on the lake 

 shore, extemls four miles into the lake, and con- 

 tains ahoiit thirty (iirms and as many familieji. 



Sqiium lake, which discharges its waters at Hol- 

 (lernes.s, aliont twenty miles ahove tlie Winnipis- 

 seogce at Fi-.-iiiklin, lies on a level twenty-seven 

 letl ahove Wiiniipisseogee, and is distant only 

 some two miles: with very little labor it might 

 be made to discharge it.self into the hirger lake 

 below. 



THK r.Vn.SlKR A.Ml STATESM.ift. 



pnrsiiei 



which enahled him to accumulate ami leave a 

 large propel ty. His plantation called Roanoke, 

 near the river of that name, is in that part of 

 Virginia which borfleis on the State of North 

 Carolina. The celebrated |>lantation is a beauti- 

 ful level of many acres. The title to his proper- 

 ly is now ill contest between conflicting heirs, 

 and during the controvcr.sy neither h.is pos.ses- 

 bioii. 



A gentleman, who visited the place in the Fall 

 of 1842, described to us its situation at that lime. 

 His dwelling-houses and place of residence was 

 in the woods out of siylit of the laud usually 

 cultivated. The house where he resided as long 

 as he lived was an old one of one story and only 

 two rooms. The outside of this house i.s not 

 even clapboarded, but is of rough hoards. The 

 posts of the piazza in front rest, not upon stone, 

 but upon wooden hUicks: the front door step is 

 an uneven cobble stone taken as if from a com- 

 mon wall. At a liitle distance from the olil 

 bouse is one more recently erected of nearly the 

 same dimensions built as a s nhstitnie, hut aban- 

 doned by Mr. Randolph as bis residence, under 

 the idea that he was always sick there, (n this 

 house the extensive library left by Mr. Randolph 

 wjis kept and siill remains. 



An intelligent colored man and sl.ne to Mr. 

 Randolph resides with his wile mi the premises, 

 having the exclusive control in tlie state id' abey- 

 ance while the title to the property under the last 

 will remains nndecifled. This negro man was 

 for many years the close personal attendant of 

 Mr. Randolph. When the duel v^as fought with 

 Mr. Clay the negro John stood within fifteen 

 icpt of his master. 



The servant rcineinbers and relates almost 

 every thing occiirring in the life of bis master — 

 points out the bed where he slept, his daily hab- 

 its and occupations when at home — his peculiar- 

 ities of personal intercourse with his neighbors 

 and those who visited him — his often arbitrary, 

 but generally luimane treatment of both family 

 nnd field slaves. The grave where his remaifis 

 repose lies in the vicinage of the house where 

 be resided : by bis especial direction his grave 

 was longitudinally laid <lne east and west and his 

 bead hud at the eastern e.MieiTiily. 



Mr. Randolph dieil at Badger's hotel in Phila- 

 delphia alioiit the year 1832: he travelled in his 

 own carriage — a homely veliicle drawn by four 

 liorses^when on his way to the north, and tar- 

 ried soiiiH time in VVashlui'Inn. Always the 

 champion of the Virginia doctrine of fri^e trade 

 ns contra- distinguished from a high tarift" he was 

 at the lime near his death a great favorite of 

 southern politicians of the school of Slate righl.s. 

 The writer reuieinhers, while the Senate was in 

 session, that i\Ir. Callioim, then a distinguished 

 Senator from South Carolina, moved out of his 

 own seal to give Mr. Randolph :i place on the 

 floor — a circninstance, aceoriling to our best rec- 

 ollection, that never occurred in any other case 

 in favor of any individual however distinguished. 

 The negro John related a fact which proved 

 Mr. Randolph's "ruling |iassinn strong in death." 

 Mr. Condy RiiiTuct, a celebrated and able writer 

 of the free trade school, now likewise deceased, 

 published a newspaper at Philadelphia, which lan- 

 guished for support. The paper was suspended, 

 und proposals were issneil and silbsiuiptions ask- 

 ed lor reviving its publication. Wandering in 

 bis mind, his last conversation was on the free 

 trade subject with the person standing over his 



bed n hom he supposed to be Mr. Raguet himself, < ago. 



men in Congress who took a stand against Mr. 

 iMadisoii. From the House of Re|iry«i;ntatives, 

 some time after the war, Mr. Randolph was trans- 

 lated into the Senate of the United States. In 

 this body, during the administration of J. (i. Ad- 

 ams, he attacked that admiuistralion with his ac- 

 customed scorching satire : hi.'' reproofs were 

 both feared and felt; and his duel with Jlr. Chiy 

 was one result of the freedom with which he ut- 

 tered words in debate. On a new election of 

 Senator about the year 1828, it will be remem- 

 bered that John Tyler, the present President of 

 the United States, was chosen as in opposition to 

 Mr. Randolph. Our inforinaut, « ho was at the 

 time a member of the Virginia legislature, and 

 who was there an eflici<iit friend to Mr. Tyler, 

 says this election and preference was not deci- 

 ded, as was then supposed, on parly grounds. 



Mr. Randolph presents the anomaly ofa po- 

 litical man, shooting acro.ss the horizon in all di- 

 rections like some erratic comet, who was at the 

 .same time the steady and successful planter and 

 farmer who never came out at the end of the year 

 poorer than he begun it, and who always contri- 

 ved to keep an extensive tobacco plantation im- 

 proving in its capacity for production. 



FARMING I.N VIKGIMA. CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON, 

 GKN. WASHINGTON, &C. 



All along till! Atl.inlic seaboard, we haVe evi- 

 dence of the resiisciiatioii and reclamation of 

 sterile lands. Chancellor Livin^'ston an. I a band 

 of wealthy associates on the Hudson river in 

 New York commeiired ilie work of improved 

 eiiltivaiiou on their own farms more than fifty 

 years ago ; and from that day !o this the farms 

 of Orange, Dnii'liess, Columbia, iSiC. near his 

 place of location, have been growing more and 

 more valuable. The improved farms in those 

 comities from the river to the distance of ten 

 and fifteen miles now sell from sixty to one hun- 

 dred dollars the acre. Ciianeellor Livingston, in 

 an agricnlliiral address published in 1794, said — 

 " As Agricnlinre is the Imsis of arts, by furnish- 

 ing the materials upon which they work, so it is 

 the |iareiit of science, by uniting men in civil 

 society, who without il.s'aid would have contin- 

 ued to be waiurering savaL'cs, but liitle advanced 

 in im|iroveinent beyond the beasts of the forest, 

 that afforded them a miserable and scanty sub- 

 sistence." .And again : "To the disg-race of this 

 Slate (New York) it has so happened, that thoiigb 

 it has always possessed men of rlistingiiished tal- 

 ents, the rage for party jioiiiics and dissipation 

 have defeated every attempt to establish any so- 

 ciety for the pnnnotion of arts, agriculture, or 

 any literary or scientific object." 



The example of such men as Livingston has 

 done every thing for the river counties of New 

 York. It w^as this distinguished patron of Agri- 

 culture who first demori.';trated the value of gyp- 

 sum as a manure; and to its iiitrodiiclion nnd 

 cnniiiined use is it mainly due that the counties 

 of Dutcliess and Columbia have doubled and in 

 some instances (piadrii[iled th(!ir agriciiltiir.d pro- 

 ductions. Where there is great imp.rovenient 

 there is always great increaserl value to the lands 

 of that neighborhood, 'I'lie farmers of Dutchess 

 and the other river counties of New York in 

 twenty years have increased the cash prices of 

 all their im|irovi il lands perhap.s foiir-liild, svliile 

 the fashion of fainiiiig in many counties ol' Vir- 

 ginia and Maryland had ih.'preciated their lands 

 one-half iVom the prices of forty and fifty years 



It is well for the country, that in nil llie o'' 

 settled parts of it, the agriciiliiiral spirit has been 

 aroused, and that the win k of renovation and im- 

 provement is going on, 'I'he lands about tho 

 seat of the National goveriinient, many years 

 silice worn out in the deteriorating proees.s, bavo 

 been abandoned and neglected by llioii.^ands of 

 acres, iiiilil they no longer bear their original 

 I>rice : many |iluntalioiis, which were liomishing 

 in the rcvohitioii, have become desolate. S|)arks' 

 Lile of Washington presents an cngr.ued plan 

 of the three planliitioiis nt' him who n ill always, 

 fi-om his disinieresK-d love of country — and fioin 

 his great prudence and consummate ability, be 

 set down as " first in war, first in peiK'e, and first 

 in the hearts of his countrymen :" those three 

 planialioiis, wdiich were visited only twice by 

 their ilhislrious owner during the whole term in 

 which be was commainlerin chief of the Amer- 

 ican arinie.s, rtere all the time cultivated under 

 the care of an overseer, and llio work performed 

 by slaves ; all this time, itis remarkable that they 

 yielded a profit to their owner. These planta- • 

 tions, .'luce the death of VVashiiiptoii, which took 

 place ill December 17!if), only !i few days before 

 the commencement of the present ceiittny, have 

 become a mere iinprodiictive waste, giving hard- 

 ly a snfiiciency to subsist the few slaves that re- 

 iiiaiii about the premises. The beautifiil gardens 

 and lawns, the green house.--, the work-shops, 

 the tool lioii.se.s, the stables the kitchen bouses, 

 and even the ancient mansion itself, with the ar- 

 bors and walks, and the brick walls which di- 

 vided and encircled llie ground.'", have all become 

 as the picture of desolation and decay. 



Mount Vernon ami its environs are but n rep- 

 reseiilatioii of iiincb of that [>:irt of Virginia ill 

 which il is locaied. There is jierhaps a reason 

 why agricultural inijirovemeuts should flagii|'on 

 some of the low urouiids of the river."! iiii.l creeks 

 which border upon the Chesapeake and Dela- 

 ware bays in the prevalence of bilious fevers and 

 ague? nt some seasons of the year; but the 

 higher grounds are said to be as heallhy, when 

 the residents become used to the climate, as any 

 other part of ihe United Slates. 



The county of Fairlax is that part of Virginia 

 nearest to the city of NVasbinglon, and is con- 

 sidered among the poorest Of the Virginia lanils. 

 To this point a considerable number of the New 

 York fu'iiiers have recenlly turned their atieii- 

 tioii ; ami the occupiers of less than half a doz- 

 en years have already put a new face upon their ^ 

 lands by means of tici! w hiie labor instead of the 

 labor of skives. Of these I he Hon. Goiiverrieiir 

 Kemble, l:ite a memlier of Congress from ihe 

 county of Putnam, N. Y., lately sold his fiirm in 

 Ihe highl.inds opjiosite West Point at ninety-si.'? 

 dollars the acre, and purchased a large tract of 

 the Fairfax land.s. Mr. .^lontaigne, another farm- 

 er member of Congress from New York, also 

 sold at home and purchased in the same county 

 six hundred acres: in one season he cleared fifty 

 acres of his new purchase and sold the standing 

 timber upon it for twelve dollars the acre — more 

 tliaii the price of purchase. A .Mr. Foster of New 

 York purchased in the .^ame vicinity a fiirni and 

 tract of l.ind of eleven himdred acres at the low 

 price of tliiee dollars the acre. Mr. Townsliend, 

 the .sergeant-al-ai'rlis of the List House of Repre- 

 sentatives, lately a citizen of Connecticut, very 

 wisely while he was in oflice got under Way u 

 (iuiii in Fairfiv w hich he purchased at a low 

 price about twelve miles out of Washington, to 

 which he has retired with the prospect of some- 

 thing more permanent as a means of procuring 

 the means of living tluin an otTice from which he 

 intist be ejected in the iips and downs of political 

 parties. The northern fiirnu-rs find a very sensi- 

 ble difference and advantage in favor of tlieVir- 

 gini.'i location. They can work more days in 

 each year, and in the winter season to quite as 

 good advantage as any other time — there is not 

 so much frost in the ground as to prevent ploiigh- 

 intr a greater part of the winter. 



The lands considered to be worn-out are very 

 easilv renovated : plaster with clover and suin- 

 iner "fallows will bring up this land without ma- 

 nure. Rut manure is abundant and cheap. On 

 the ntivigable waters lime can be |inrchased at 

 from eight to ten rcut.-i a biisbei. :\t various 

 points on the rivers there are deep beds of oys 

 ter-shells, which, spread over the land ill (pianii 

 ties, have a lasting efi'-ct upon the laud. Recent 

 Iv it bus been iliscovtred that much of the couii- 



