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13 The Moral Authority of My Heart he knew her faults, yet never stooped his proud and manly feeling To poor excuses of the wrong or meanness of concealing. John Randolph’s diary is comprised mostly of short entries about the weather or travel. he left behind no memoirs, and his colorful public persona has cast a long shadow nearly eclipsing the private man. Yet when his voluminous correspondence is read together, the man behind the eccentricities emerges. This is particularly so in letters Randolph wrote to family members and his several “adopted” sons. Randolph considered himself the father of Tudor and st. George Randolph , the two sons of his deceased brother Richard. he was also very close to his godson, John Randolph Clay, and to the Bryan boys, John Randolph and Thomas, the two sons of his friend from his Philadelphia days, Joseph Bryan. Perhaps his closest relationship was with Theodore Dudley, his first cousin once removed, who lived at Bizarre and Roanoke for twenty years. Rounding out the family with whom he most corresponded were his sister Fanny Tucker Coalter, and his niece, Elizabeth. Randolph viewed these relationships seriously. he tutored his nephew Tudor before sending him to local private schools and then to harvard. There Tudor excelled before his life was cut short by tuberculosis. harvard awarded his degree posthumously. st. George, a deaf mute, presented a different challenge. Randolph sent him to London and Paris for specialized education , but the boy’s tragic circumstances soon overwhelmed him. he was committed to an insane asylum upon his return to the states. Randolph paid for Dudley’s education in virginia and at medical school in Philadelphia and provided room and board for the Bryans. When John Randolph Clay returned to his home in Philadelphia after living at Roanoke while 176 the MoRal authoRitY of MY heaRt 177 attending school, Randolph reported to Mrs. Clay that the boy “has been taught to obey, promptly, unhesitatingly . . . to rise early and to be temperate in his meats and drink.” Young Clay’s constitution had “been toughened and hardened by habits of exercise in the open air,” Randolph wrote. “Let them not be substituted by warm parlors, a bed chamber with a fire in it, curtains and sedentary habits.”1 Given Randolph’s actions on behalf of his wards, it is not surprising that his letters focus on education. he made recommendations on readings, offered grammatical corrections, and suggested courses of study. “i hope,” he wrote to Dudley, “that you will make every exertion to attain a proficiency in Greek, even at the expense of a temporary neglect of your French and Latin. indeed, the Greek itself would keep alive your knowledge of the last.”2 Randolph viewed a mastery of languages as the foundation of a sound education and repeatedly recommended the study of Greek, Latin, French, spanish , and German.3 “Do you read French? he wrote to Elizabeth Coalter. “if not, why not? You are not one day too old to learn that and italian, and everything else a lady ought to know—even Greek, if you wish to imitate Lady Jane Grey. . . . i want you to be mistress of the Roman mouth and the Tuscan tongue.”4 “herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, and Livy,” he wrote to Dudley “should be read, in preference to those who have made books, merely by pillaging these invaluable ancients.”5 To that list he added ovid, homer, hume, and, on numerous occasions, the letters of William Pitt.6 Additionally he urged an in-depth knowledge of “the reign of Elizabeth . . . of Charles i, the Protectorate , and Charles and James ii,” to be supplemented by a history of scotland .7 “Do not, however,” he warned, “permit history to engross your attention to the exclusion of languages.”8 he peppered the students with questions. “Why does Milton write steep Atlantic stream?” he asked Elizabeth. Then answering: “Because poetry is not prose; altho’ prose is often poetry, and of the highest order. . . . [P]oetry affects us by exciting images and thoughts in us, as one instrument, thought not struck, responds in unison to another.”9 “Who is the greatest man that you have met in English history?” he wrote to Dudley. “Who is the worst man? The most learned?”10 When the correspondents ventured replies, they were often met with extensive grammatical critiques.11 “You must not think me crabbed and censorious when i notice a little bit of false English and false spelling (and the last proves...

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