"With Mr. John Randolph I was on terms of intimacy for more than twenty years. He was a very extraordinary man, whose life and character should be delineated by one who could analyze them thoroughly and explain their strange apparent inconsistency. To me it always appeared that but for the weakness of his physical constitution and the almost perpetual sufferings it entailed upon him, he would have been one of the highest models of a high-minded gentleman, as well as one of the wisest, most consistent statesmen of the age. But his physical infirmities and sufferings impaired the vigor and consistency of his mind, while they often soured his temper, and caused those sudden caprices, which lost him many friends, and made his greatest admirers almost afraid to indulge in the society of one the charm of whose conversation was otherwise irresistible. This, however, I will say of him, that whatever may have been the infirmities of his temper, his principles were of the most high, and, indeed, lofty character. His integrity was exemplary, and his devotion to the great principles of liberty consistent and profound. "The life and character of Mr. Macon young men may safely make the objects of their imitation throughout, while Mr. Randolph is rather a subject of admiration and wonder. Virginia should be proud of him as an orator without an equal among his contemporaries and as a man who, with all his faults, was possessed of many virtues of the very highest order." Looking at the matter from our present standpoint, it seems strange that a more suitable name was not selected more in accordance with the special character of the object of the institution, the blending of the highest culture of the mind with the elevation of Christian character. [Illustration: REV. JOHN EARLY. _First President (1832-1868) of the Board of Trustees of Randolph-Macon College, and Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South._] FIRST MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. The first meeting of the Board of Trustees appointed under the act of incorporation, was held at Boydtown (so it reads), Mecklenburg county, Va., April 9, 1830. The following members were duly qualified and took their seats, viz.: Rev. Hezekiah G. Leigh, Rev. John Early, Rev. William A. Smith, Rev. William I. Waller, Rev. Moses Brock, Rev. James Boyd, Rev. Caleb Leach, Rev. Matthew M. Dance, Rev. Lewis Skidmore (members of the Virginia Conference), Rev. John G. Claiborne, Rev. James Smith (local ministers), Jas. Wyche, Howell Taylor, J. W. Lewis, William O. Goode, and Nathaniel Alexander, Esqs. Rev. John Early was elected chairman, and Rev. William A. Smith secretary. A committee was appointed to draft rules for the government of the Board, and one to obtain drafts of buildings for the College. H. G. Leigh, J. W. Lewis, James Boyd, and L. Skidmore constituted the latter committee.