Randolph, Edmund Jennings
ran'dolf, Edmund Jennings (1753-1813), an American statesman. He was a native of Williamsburg, Virginia, and was educated at William and Mary College . Virginia sent him to Congress and made him governor. He was a member of the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States and, though it did not please him, he recommended its adoption. When the national government was established, Washington made him his first attorney-general. In 1794 he succeeded Jefferson as secretary of state , but, finding that he did not enjoy the confidence of the president, he resigned and retired to the practice of law in his native state.
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Randolph, John
John (1773-1833), a distinguished American statesman. He belonged to an old, wealthy, influential family of Virginia. By way of distinction from the many other members of the family, he was known as Randolph of Roanoke. He was reputed to be a direct descendent of Pocahontas. He was educated at William and Mary, Princeton, and Columbia. He took up the practice of law. In 1799 he entered Congress. He denounced the Alien and Sedition Laws and opposed the War of 1812. During Jackson's administration he was minister to Russia, yet upheld Calhoun against Jackson in the nullification controversy. He was a tall, slender, dark complexioned man, with a keen, high, shrill voice and long, thin hands. He had a habit of shaking his forefinger at his opponents when speaking excitedly. He was a man of eccentric ideas and great originality. He despised the Northern men who compromised with slavery, calling them "doughfaces." When Adams of New England and Clay of Kentucky formed an alliance, Randolph stigmatized it as "a combination of Puritan and blackleg." Clay challenged him to a duel. He accepted, fired his gun into the air, and offered Clay his hand. He was never married. At his death he emancipated 318 slaves and left them property enough to start them off in life. See Pocahontas
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Randolph, Peyton
Peyton (1723-1775), an American statesman. He was a native of Williamsburg and was graduated at William and Mary College . He held a lucrative position from the king as royal attorney to the colony. He was nevertheless one of the leading spirits in exciting the Revolution. In 1764 he was an active member of the Virginia House of Burgesses that memorialized the king against the passage of the Stamp Act . When Massachusetts sent out a call for concerted action to oppose the encroachments of royal authority, Randolph was one of the foremost to induce Virginia to respond cordially. He was a member of the First Continental Congress and was chosen unanimously its president.
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Ranelagh
a building erected in 1742 on the site of the gardens of a villa of the last Earl of Ranelagh Chelsea, London, England. Its rotunda was 150 feet in diameter, with an orchestra in the center and tiers of boxes all round. The chief amusement, promenading, as it was called, was going round and round the area below, and taking refreshments in the boxes, the orchestra performing meanwhile. Ranelagh was a fashionable and notorious place of resort in 1740- 1803. Its last public appearance was when the installation ball of the Knights of the Bath was given there in 1802. This building was closed the next year and torn down. Its site is now part of the Chelsea Hospital garden.
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Range (Gunnery The horizontal)
in gunnery: (1) The horizontal distance to which a projectile is thrown. Strictly, it is the distance from the muzzle of the gun to the second intersection of the trajectory with the line of sight. A cannon lying horizontally is called the right level or point-blank range; when the muzzle is elevated to 45° it is called the utmost level. (2) A place where gun or rifle practice is carried on. In music, the whole ascending or descending series of sounds capable of being produced by a voice or instrument; the compass or register of a voice or instrument. In natural science, the geographical limits within which an animal or plant is now distributed, and the limits in point of time within which it has existed on the globe. The first is called range in space, and the second range in time. As a nautical term: (1) A length of cable a little in excess of the depth of water, ranged on deck ready to run out when the anchor is let go. (2) A large cleat in the waist for belaying the sheets and tacks of the courses.
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Range (Small tract of land extending)
a small tract of land, extending 25 miles either side of Johannesburg, South Africa, and famous for its mineral wealth. Discovered in 1885. The reefs are accessible and rather easily worked. The deposits are unique in their unparalleled persistence of ore, which is interspersed in the quartz and sandstone. It $10 per ton. There are about 10,000 stamps in the district, which can crush 7,000,000 tons a year. The Boer War passed over Johannesburg without doing any vital damage to the plants. Just before the war it was yielding at the rate of $100,000,000 a year, or one-third of the world's production. The reefs are over a mile deep, and conditions favor deep mining. The deposits are not, as asserted, practically unlimited. South Africa rivals the United States in disrespect for tradition. In fact, its brightest pioneers are Americans, and the leading figure igure among Johannesburg engineers is Hennan Jennings, a Harvard graduate. There are many problems ahead of the Rand, the chief being that of power. There are no navigable rivers, and practically no waterfalls. The Kaffir, of whom there are 100,000 in the Rand, is lazy and dissolute, and the Boer War made him worse and scarcer; while the climate makes white menial labor impossible.
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Ranger
HENRY WARD, an American landscape painter. He was born in 1858 in western New York. He developed his technique by the study of his art in the galleries of Europe, and speedily eliminated the faults of his earlier work till he came to be looked upon as the leader of the tonal school among painters of American landscapes. "Spring Woods" in the Metropolitan Museum, New York; "Sheep Pastures" in the Pennsylvania Academy; and "Top of the Hill" in Corcoran Gallery, Washington, are among the best examples of his art. He is represented in other American museums, received gold medals at Charleston and Philadelphia, and in 1906 became National Academician. He died in 1916.
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