Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Allen C. Browne
Taken: August 9, 2015
Caption: John Randolph
Additional Description: This portrait of John Randolph by John Wesley Jarvis hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

“Against the wave of War Hawks who swept into Congress in 1811, Virginian John Randolph of Roanoke stood opposed. Randolph saw war with Britain as foolhardy, driven by land hunger rather than as a defense of American sovereignty. ‘We have heard but one word,’ Randolph accused his fellow congressmen, ‘like the whip-poor-will … Canada! Canada! Canada!’ An aristocratic and eccentric man who brought his hunting dogs into the House chamber, Randolph's colleagues feared his sharp tongue; his biting speeches proved in some ways prophetic. ‘Gentlemen, you have made war. You have finished the ruin of our country. And before you conquer Canada … the Capitol will be a ruin.’ With a brief interruption, he continued to serve in Congress until 1829. He was a financially successful slaveholder who defended the necessity of slavery but freed his slaves in his will.” — National Portrait Gallery
Submitted: August 26, 2015, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p325140
File Size: 2.047 Megabytes

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