“With unfeigned respect and regard, and as sincere a deprecation on the extension of slavery and its horrors, as any other man, be him whom he may, I am your friend, in the literal sense of that much abused word. I say much abused, because it is applied to the leagues of vice and avarice and ambition, instead of good will toward man from love of him who is the Prince of Peace.”
While in Congress, he said:—
“Sir, I envy neither the heart nor the head of that man from the North who rises here to defend slavery on principle.”
It is well known that he emancipated all his negroes. The following lines from his will are well worth perusing and preserving:—
“I give to my slaves their freedom, to which my conscience tells me they are justly entitled. It has a long time been a matter of the deepest regret to me that the circumstances under which I inherited them, and the obstacles thrown in the way by the laws of the land, have prevented my emancipating them in my life-time, which it is my full intention to do in case I can accomplish it.”
THOMAS M. RANDOLPH.
In an address to the Virginia Legislature, in 1820, Gov. Randolph said:—
“We have been far outstripped by States to whom nature has been far less bountiful. It is painful to consider what might have been, under other circumstances, the amount of general wealth in Virginia.”
THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH.
In 1832, Mr. Randolph, of Albemarle, in the Legislature of Virginia, used the following most graphic and emphatic language:—