John Randolph of Roanoke

14. Two Souls

14 Two Souls Mirth, sparkling like a diamond shower, From lips of life-long sadness; Clear picturing of majestic thought Upon a ground of madness. on March 17, 1817, at Prince Edward Courthouse, Randolph announced he would not seek re-election. he told the shocked crowd that he was “incapable of discharging the duties of a representative.” he left them with a farewell toast: “The people of this district, when i forget them, may my God forget me.”1 For most of 1817, Randolph sat by his hearth, shut off from the world. “My present situation,” he wrote, “dreary and desolate as it is, is perhaps the best for me at my time of life and with a broken constitution, faculties impaired or obscured by disease and care, a man is at least safe by his own fireside .”2 only sixteen letters survive from the months March through December of that year, unusual for a man who routinely posted twenty to thirty letters a month.3 “i live here the life of a hermit,” he wrote, “for near a fortnight past, i have been confined with a wounded leg and in that time have not seen a white face, except my friend Dudley’s.”4 As witness to Randolph’s behavior at this time, Theodore Dudley described “delirium” marked by “fits of caprice and petulance, following days of the deepest gloom.”5 Randolph, Dudley concluded, was a man “endowed with two souls.”6 one is forced to speculate about the causes of Randolph’s erratic mental condition. Possibly it was the same source as his physical ailments. social skill defects, anxiety, and depression are known symptoms of Klinefelter syndrome. Likewise, his well-documented drug use could have provided the impetus for a host of mood swings. opium triggers surges of euphoria , just as laudanum does dysphoria. in addition, Randolph’s life was filled 182 two souls 183 with traumatic events sufficient to shatter the emotional equilibrium of most men. if one must render a diagnosis, Randolph’s manic and depressive symptoms, manifesting in agitation, insomnia, uneven temper, persistent sadness, and feelings of hopelessness and guilt, suggest a type of bipolar disorder . Whatever the cause, the years 1817 to 1820 would see Randolph frequently lapse into sinister peculiarity, followed by periods of normal behavior . Randolph rose between three and four in the morning and mounted a favorite horse. There he would sit “ten or fifteen minutes, wishing to go somewhere but not knowing where to ride, for i would escape any where from the incubus that weighs me down, body and soul . . . the intenseness of this wretchedness.”7 he found some peace “in the fields and woods, with belted waist and pointers at my heels.” he wrote that he would not “exchange the feeling of independence that warms me as i range the hills and plains for all in the gift of the President and the People.”8 The sounds of nature were a concert, and he delighted in the “doves, summer red-birds, cardinals . . . squirrels and hares” that frequented his lawn.9 he wrote little about politics during these two years, but his competing souls did not diminish his political sagacity. “When i speak of my country,” he wrote to Francis Key, “i mean the Commonwealth of virginia.”10 Randolph must have cloaked his wild mood swings from general view, for by the end of 1818 his friends believed him to be enough of his old self to re-elect him to Congress.11 Again, Randolph did not object. indeed, he compared his return to public life “to nothing so well as the dawning sun after a dark, tempestuous night.”12 it was a propitious time for Randolph to return to Washington. With the war ended, patriotism no longer hushed philosophical and ideological differences . nationalism had reinvigorated the doctrine of states’ rights. The Panic of 1819 had brought the Bank of the United states to disrepute. sectional differences regarding the tariff, slavery, and internal improvements were causing southerners to lament releasing the genie of centralized government . The Republican principles of 1898 were ascendant, and their greatest champion was returning to the arena. “i find myself very well received here,” Randolph wrote upon his arrival in Washington. he noted that only “an old minority man or two and some ultra federalists now become ultra loyalists” were cool to him.13 These men tended to avoid him, he chuckled, lest their past connection be remembered [3.143.17.127] Project MUSE (2024...