Fri 30 Mar 2007
Great WSO post from Miles Klee.
I was reading this book full of trivia when I stumbled upon the excerpt below. It’d be a great thing to bring up in that part of the Williams tour where we assure prospective students that we aren’t competitive people:
The most trivial of disputes could provoke a [duel]. For example, when John Randolph, the swashbuckling congressman from Virginia, was enrolled at Williams College, he fought and wounded a fellow student over the pronounciation of a word.
That’s awesome (though it would be awesomer if we knew what the word was). If only Williams professors today would allow the same physical enactment of academic arguments, we might each get a chance to wail on that one Sophist bully that sits across from us in class. You know the one.
I am the one.
Is that a true story? I have my doubts. How many Virginians went to Williams before 1900? Can someone document it better? And what was the word?
March 30th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
This excerpt is from the Congressional website and includes a short biography of John Randolph of Roanoke.
“RANDOLPH, John, (nephew of Theodorick Bland and Thomas Tudor Tucker, half brother of Henry St. George Tucker), a Representative and a Senator from Virginia; born in Cawsons, Prince George County, Va., June 2, 1773; known as John Randolph of Roanoke to distinguish him from kinsmen; studied under private tutors, at private schools, the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), and Columbia College, New York City; studied law in Philadelphia, Pa., but never practiced; engaged in several duels; elected to the Sixth and to the six succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1799-March 3, 1813); one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in January 1804 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against Judge John Pickering, and in December of the same year against Supreme Court Justice Samuel; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1812 to the Thirteenth Congress; chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Seventh through Ninth Congresses); elected to the Fourteenth Congress (March 4, 1815-March 3, 1817); was not a candidate for reelection in 1816 to the Fifteenth Congress; elected to the Sixteenth and to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1819, until his resignation, effective December 26, 1825; appointed to the United States Senate on December 8, 1825, to fill the vacancy in the term beginning March 4, 1821, caused by the resignation of James Barbour; served from December 26, 1825, to March 3, 1827; unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Senate in 1827; elected to the Twentieth Congress (March 4, 1827-March 3, 1829); was not a candidate for reelection to the Twenty-first Congress; chairman, Committee on Ways and Means (Twentieth Congress); member of the Virginia constitutional convention at Richmond in 1829; appointed United States Minister to Russia by President Andrew Jackson and served from May to September, 1830, when he resigned; elected to the Twenty-third Congress and served from March 4, 1833, until his death in Philadelphia, Pa., May 24, 1833; interment at his residence, ‘Roanoke,’ in Charlotte County, Va.; reinterment at ‘Hollywood,’ Richmond, Va.”
Unless Williams was one of those “private schools”, this idea of John Randolph duelling over the pronunciation of a word is just a myth.
April 1st, 2007 at 2:21 pm
A biography at http://jmisc.net/BIOG-R.htm states:
“John Randolph of Roanoke”. Representative and Senator in the U.S. Congress. Known for brilliance, biting invective, and eccentricity bordering on madness.
Studied under private tutors; attended Walker Maury’s School at Burlington, Orange County, VA, the grammar schools of the College of William and Mary, the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1787, and Columbia College, New York City in 1788 and 1789.”
Again, no evidence of any Williams connection. Possibly confusion with William and Mary. An archived story at smithsonian.com does indicate that he fought a duel in college over the pronunciation of a word, but does not specify the word or the college.