John Randolph

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Sm 16-267-2^.2

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^ ^mmcan ^tate^men

EDITED BT

JOHN T.^OBSE, JB.

r

JOHN RANDOLPH

BY

HENRY ^DAMS

SIXTH EDITION.

,1 BOSTON
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street
1884

V

HARVARD C0LLE6E UBIiA>{

JUi 7 1885

Copyright, 1889,
By henry ADAMS.

M rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge:
Sfcerootyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton and Company.

OOl^TENTS.

CHAPTEB L

TOITTB 1

CHAPTEB n.
YisGiNiJLN Politics S5

CHAPTEB HL
l!r HiBinBSS 48

CHAPTEB IV.
A Cbntbalizino Statssmait 75

CHAPTEB V.
Yaultino Ambition .96

CHAPTEB VL
Tazoo and Judob Chasb 123

CHAPTEB Vn.
Tbb Quabbbl 154

CHAPTEB Vm.

MONBOB AND THE SmITHS 191

Vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

"A Nuisance and a Cubsb'* 219

CHAPTER X

EOOBNTBICITIBS 249

CHAPTER XL
Blivil and Black Geobob 268

CHAPTER Xn.
^Facultibs Misemplotbd" 292

JOHN EA]srDOLPH.

CHAPTER I.

YOUTH.

^ WiLUAM Raitoolph, gentleman, of Tur-
key Island," bom in 1650, was a native of
Warwickshire in England, as his tombstone
declares. Of his ancestry nothing is certainly
known. The cause and the time of his coming
to Virginia have been forgotten. The Henrico
records show that in 1678 he was clerk of
Henrico County, a man of substance, and mar-
ried already to Mary Isham ; that in 1686 he
was " Captain William Randolph " and Justice
of the Peace ; that in 1706 he conveyed to son
Henry '^land called by the name of Curies,
with Longfield," being all that land at " Curies"
lately belonging to Nathaniel Bacon, Jr. ; that
in 1709 " Col. William Randolph of Turkey
Island " made his -will which mentioned seven
sons and two daughters; and finally that in
1711, he died.

Turkey Island, just above the junction of
1

2 JOHN RANDOLPH.

the James and Appomattox rivers, lies in a re-
gion which has sharply attracted the atten-
tion of men. In 1675 Nathaniel Bacon lived
near by at his plantation called Curies, and in
that year Bacon's famous rebellion gave bloody
associations to the place. About one hundred
years afterwards Benedict Arnold, then a gen-
eral in the British service, made a destructive
raid up the James River which drew all eyes
to the spot. Neither of these disturbances,
historical as they are, made the region nearly
so famous as it became on Junp 30, 1862, when
fifty thousand northern troops, beaten, weary,
and disorganized, converged at Malvern Hill
and Turkey Island bridge, and the next day
fought a battle which saved their army and
perhaps their cause, without a thought or a
care for the dust of forgotten Randolphs on
which two armies were trampling in the cradle
of their race.

William Randolph of Turkey Island was not
the first Randolph who came to Virginia, or
the only one who was there in 1678, but he
was the most successful, when success was the
proof of energy and thrift. He provided well
for his nine children, and henceforth their de-
scendants swarmed like bees in the Virginian
hive. The fifth son, Richard, who lived at
Curies, Nathaniel Bacon's confiscated planta-

rajTH. 8

tion, and who married Jane Boiling, a great-
great-granddaughter of John Rolfe and Poca-
hontas, disposed by will, in 1742, of forty thou-
sand acres of the choicest lands on the James,
Appomattox, and Roanoke rivers, including
Matoax, about two miles west of Petersburg,
and Bizarre, a plantation some ninety miles
further up the Appomattox River. John, the
youngest son of this Richard of Curies, born in
1742, married in 1769 Frances Bland, daugh-
ter of a neighbor who lived at Cawsons, on a
promontory near the mouth of the Appomattox,
looking north up the James River to Turkey
Island. Here on June 2, 1773, their youngest
child, John, was born.

In these lasj_ days of colonial history , the
Ra ndoiphswere numerous and powerful, a fa m-
il y such i^a n^ ^^^ ^^ Vir ginia would wish t o
ofiEend ; and if they were proud of their posi-
tion" and importance, who could fairly blame
them? There was even a Randolph of Wilton,
another of Chatsworth, as though they meant
to rival Pembrokes and Devonshires. There
was a knight in the family, old Sir John, sixth
son of William of Turkey Island, and father
of Peyton Randolph, who was afterwards presi-
dent of the American Congress. There was
a historian, perhaps the best the State has
yet produced, old William Stith. There were

i JOHN RANDOLPH,

many members of the Council and the House
of Burgesses, an innumerable list of blood re-
lations and a score of allied families, among the
rest that of Jefferson. Finally, the King's At-
torney-General was at this time a Randolph,
and took part with the crown against the col-
ony. The world upon which the latest Ran-
dolph baby opened his eyes lyas, so far as his
horizon stretched, a world of cousins, a colon ial
aristocracy all his o wn, supported by toba cco
plantations and negro labor, by colonial pat-
ronage and royal fa yor, or, to do it justice, by
audacity, vigor, and mind.

This small cheerful w orld, which was in its
way a remarkable phenomenon, and produced
the greatest list of great names ever known
this side of the ocean, was about to suff er a
wreck the more fatal and hop eless because no
skill could avert itj^ ^.tkI f.l-iA diaflolntion -yaa
so quiet and subtle that no one could protect
himself or secure Ms children. The boy was
Bofn"'at the moment wken the first shock was
at hand. His father died in 1775 ; his mother,
in 1778, married Mr. St. George Tucker, of Ber-
muda, and meanwhile the fim,iy]f.ry \\^({ plnngAil
into a war which in a single moment cut that
connection with England on which the old
Virginian society depe nded for its tastes, f ash«
lOnsTQlgOrtes, and etPove a|i for its ari^tpcratiQ

YOUTH.

status in politics and law> The D eclaration
of Indepe ndence proclaimed that America wa s
no longer to be Englis h, but Amer ican ; that is
to say, democratic and popular m all its parts,
— a fa6t equivalent lo a sentence 6t d eath upon
old virg;inian society, an d forebod ',n{y fnRfl7>1n>
ti on to the !^^p^ o]p|]fi w*^ th^ ntflt until thrj
s hould learn to master the new condition^ of
American life. For passing through such a
maelsirom a^century was not too short an allow-
ance of time, yet this small Randolph boy, not
a strong creature at best, was born j ust as the
downward plunge began, and every moment
made the outlook drearier and more awful.

On January 3, 1781, he was at Matoax with
his mother, who only five days before had been
confined. Suddenly it was said that the Brit-
ish were coming. They soon appeared, under
the command of Brigadier-General Benedict
Arnold, and scared Virginia from Yorktown
to the mountains. They hunted the Governor
like a tired fox, and ran him out of his famous
mountain fastness at Monticello, breaking up
his government and mortifying him, until Mr.
Jefferson at last refused to reassume the office,
and passed his trust over to a stronger hand.
St. George Tucker at Matoax thought it time
to seek safer quarters, and hurried his wife,
with her little baby, afterwards the well-knowQ

6 JOHN RANDOLPH,

Judge Henry St. George Tucker, away to Bi-
zarre, ninety miles up the Appomattox.

Here he left her and went to fight Cornwallis
at Guilford. Henceforward the little Ran-
dolphs ran wild at Bizarre. Schools there were
none, and stern discipline was never a part of
Virginian education. Mrs. Tucker, their moth-
er, was an affectionate and excellent woman ;
Mr. Tucker a kind and admirable step-father ;
as for the boy John Randolph, it is said that he
had a warm and amiable disposition, although
the only well-authenticated fact recorded about
his infancy is that before his fifth year he was
known to swoon in a mere fit of temper, and
could with diflBculty be restored. The life of
boyhood in Virginia was not well fitted for
teaching self-control or mental discipline, qual-
ities which John Randolph never gained ; but
in return for these the Virginian found other
advantages which made up for the loss of meth-
odical training. Many a Virginian lad, espe-
cially on such a remote plantation as Bizarre,
lived in a boy's paradise of indulgence, fished
and shot, rode like a young monkey, and had
his memory crammed with the genealogy of
every well-bred horse in the State, grew up
among dogs and negroes, master equally of both,
and knew all about the prices of wheat, to-
bacco, and slaves. He might pick up much that

YOUTH. 7

was high and noble from his elders and betters,
or much that was bad and brutal from his in-
feriors ; might, as he grew older, back his fa-
vorite bird at a cocking-main, or haunt stables
and race-courses, or look on, with as much in-
terest as an English nobleman felt at a prize-
ring, when, after the race was over, there oc-
curred an old-fashioned rough-and-tumble fight,
where the champions fixed their thumbs in
each other's eye-sockets and bit off each other's
noses and ears ; he might, even more easily
than in England, get habits of drinking as
freely as he talked, and of talking as freely
as the utmost license of the English language
would allow. The clim ate was genial, the
soil generous, th e^ life easy, the tempt ations
strongt. Everythmg encouraged individuality,
and if by accident any mind had a natural bent
towards what was coarse or brutal, there was
little to prevent it from following its instinct.
There was, however, another side to Virgin-
ian life, which helped to civilize young sav-
ages, — the domestic and family relation ; the
influence of father and mother, of women, of
such reading as the country-house offered, of
music, dancing, and the table. John Randolph
was born and bred among gentlefolk. Mr.
Tucker had refinement, and his wife, along with
many other excellent qualities, had two very

8 JOHN RANDOLPH.

feminine instincts, family pride and religicm.
To inoculate the imagination of her son with
notions of family pride was an easy task, and
to show him how to support the dignity of his
name was a natural one. ^^ Uever part w ith
vour land, " was her solemn injunction, which
he did not forget ; " keep your land, and your
land will keep you." T ^is was the E nglish
theory, and Randolph acted on it through llie,
aRlluugU IL WJiy beyuilllli^ more and mbre evi-
dent, with every passing year, that the best
thing to be done with Virginian land at the rul
ing prices was to part with it. His passion for
land became at last sheer avarice, a quality so
rare in Virginia as to be a virtue , and he went
on accumulating plantation upon plantation
without paying BiK'dSbt57'whtle''ffieTanct^ worth
very little at Best, was steajily ~B econim g as
wbrthleg^ as the leaves which every autumn
shook from its forests. Not an acre of the forty
thousand which his grandfather bequeathed
now belongs to a Randolph, but the Randolphs
or any one else might have bought bacfe the
whole of it for a song at any time within half
a century.

Thus the boy took life awry from the start ;
he sucked poison with his mother's milk. Not
BO easy a task, however, was it for her to teach
him her other strong instinct; for, although

TOUTH. 9

he seems really to have loved his mother as
mach as he loved any one, he was perverse in
childhood as in manhood, and that his mother
should try to make him religious seems to
have been reason enough for his becoming
a vehement deist. At what age he took this
bent is nowhere said ; perhaps a little later,
when he went for a few months to school
at Williamsburg, the focus of Virginian deism.
At Bizarre he seems rather to have turned
towards story-books and works that appealed
to his imagination ; the kind of reading he
would be apt to find in the cupboards of Vir-
ginian houses, and such as a boy with fits of
moodiness and a lively imagination would be
Ukely to select. Thus he is said to have read,
before his eleventh year, the Arabian Nights,
Shakespeare, Homer, Don Quixote, Gil Bias,
Plutarch's Lives, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver,
Tom Jones. The chances are a thousand to one
that to this list may be added Peregrine Pickle,
the Newgate Calendar, Moll Flanders, and Rod-
erick Random. Whether Paradise Lost, or
Sir Charles Grandison and Pamela, were soon
added to the number, we are not told; but
it is quite safe to say that, among these old,
fascinating volumes, then found in every Vir-
ginian country-place as in every English one,
Randolph never learned to love two books

10 JOHN RANDOLPH.

which made the library of every New Eng-
land farm-house, where the freer literature
would have been thought sinful and heathen-
ish. If he ever read, he must have disliked the
Pilgrim's Progress or the Saint's Rest ; he
would have recoiled from every form of Puri-
tanism and detested every affectation of sanc-
tity.

The kind of literary diet on which the boy
thus fed was not the healthiest or best for a
nature like his; but it made the literary educa-
tion of many a man who passed through life,
looked on by his fellows as well read with no
wider range than this ; and as Randolph had a
quick memory he used to the utmost what he
had thus gained. His cleverest illustrations
were taken from Shakespeare and Fielding. In
other literature he was well versed, according
to the standards of the day : he read his Gib-
bon, Hume, and Burke ; knew English history,
and was at home in the English peerage ; but
it was to Shakespeare and Fielding that his im-
agination naturally turned, and in this, as in
other things, he was a true Virginian, a son of
the soil and the time.

As he grew a few years older, and looked
about him on the world in which he was to play
a part, he saw little but a repetition of his own
surroundings. When the Revolutionary Wai

YOUTH. 11

d osed| in 17R.^^ hft was ten years o ld, and
during the next five years he tried to pick
up an education. America was the n a small,
straggling, exhausted c ountry, without a go v-
ernment, a, natlfthality, a capital , or eve n a
town ot thirty thousand inhabitants : a country
which had not the means of supplying such an
education as the young man wanted, however
earnestly he tried for it. His advantages were

wholl y social, an rj it is Tint to hA Harii'prl flityf.

they were great. He had an immense family
co nnection, which gave him confi dence and a
sen se of pow er ; from his birth surrounded by
a society in itself an education, he was accus-
tomed to the best that Virginia had, and Vir-
ginia had much that was best on the continent.
He saw about him that Virginian gentry which
was the child of English squirarchy, and repro-
duced the high breeding of Bolingbroke and Sir
Charles Grandison side by side with the coarse-
ness of Swift and Squire Western. The con-
trasts were curious, in this provincial aristoc-
racy, between old-fashioned courtesy and cul-
ture and the roughness of plantation habits.
Extreme eccentricity might end in producing
a man of a new type, as brutal at heart as
the roughest cub that ran loose among the
negro cabins of a tobacco plantation, vio-
lent, tyrannical, vicious, cruel, and licentious

12 JOHN RANDOLPH.

in language as in morals, while at the same
time trained to habits of good society, and
sincerely feeling that exaggerated deference
which it was usual to affect towards ladies ; he
might be well read, fond of intelligent con-
versation, consumed by ambition, or devoured
by self-esteem, with manners grave, deferen-
tial, mild, and charming when at their best,
and intolerable when the spirit of arrogance
seized him. Nowhere could be found a school
of more genial and simpler courtesy than that
which produced the gi*eat men and women of
Virginia, but it had its dangers and affecta-
tions ; it was often provincial and sometimes
coarse.

John Randolph, the embodiment of these con-
trasts and peculiarities, was an eccentric type
recognized and understood by Vii^ginians. To
a New England man, on the contrary, the type
was unintelligible and monstrous. The New
Englander had his own code of bad manners,
and was less tolerant than the Virginian of
whatever varied from it. As the character
of Don Quixote was to Cervantes clearly a
natural and possible product of Spanish char-
acter, so to the people of Virginia John Ran-
dolph was a representative man, with qualities
exaggerated but genuine ; and even these exag
gerations struck a chord of popular sympathy

YOUTH, 18

his very weaknesses were caricatures of Virgin-
ian failings ; his genius was in some degree a
caricature of Virginian genius; and thus the
boy grew up to manhood, as pure a Virginian
Quixote as ever an American Cerrantes could
have conceived.

In the summer of 1781 he had a few months'
schooling, and afterwards was again at school,
about one year, at Williamsburg, till the spring
of 1784, when his parents took him on a visit to
Bermuda, the home of his step-father's family.
In the autumn of 1787 he was sent to Prince-
ton, where he passed a few months ; the next
year, being now fifteen, he went for a short time
to Columbia College, in New York. This was
all the schooling he ever had, and, excepting
perhaps a little Latin, it is not easy to say what
he learned. "I am an ignorant man, sir," was
his own statement. So he was, and so, for that
matter, are the most learned : but Randolph's
true ignorance was not want of book-learning ;
he had quite as much knowledge of that kind
as he could profitably use in America, and his
mind was naturally an active one, could he only
have put it in sympathy with the movement of
his country. At this time of life, when the
ebullition of youth was still violent, he was cu-
riously torn by the struggle bAf.wPftTi P/i^^firvfu
tive and radical instincts. He read Voltaire,

14 JOHN RANDOLPH,

Rousseau, Hume, Gibbon, and was as deistical
in his opinions as any of them. The Christian
religion was hateful to him, as it was to Tom
Paine ; he loved everything hostile to it. " Very
early in life," he wrote thirty years afterwards,
" I imbibed an absurd prejudice in favor of Ma-
hometanism and its votaries. The crescent had
a talismanic effect on my imagination, and I re-
joiced in all its triumphs over the cross (which
I despised), as I mourned over its defeats; and
Mahomet II. himself did not more exult than
I did when the crescent was planted on the
dome of St. Sophia, and the cathedral of the
Constantines was converted into a Turkish
mosque." This was radical enough to suit
Paine or Saint Just, but it was the mere intel-
lectual fashion of the day, as over-vehement
and unhealthy as its counterpart, the religious
spasms of his later life. His mind was always
controlled by his feelings ; its antipathies were
stronger than its sympathy ; it was restless and
uneasy, prone to contradiction and attached to
paradox. In such a character there is nothing
very new, for at least nine men out of ten,
whose intelligence is above the average, have
felt the same instincts : the impulse to contra-
dict is as familiar as dyspepsia or nervous excit-
ability; the passion for referring every compari-
son to one's self is a primitive quality of mind

YOUTH. 16

by no means confined to women and children ;
but what was to be expected when such a tem-
perament, exaggerated and unrestrained, full
of self-contradictions and stimulated by acute
reasoning powers, remarkable audacity and
quickness, violent and vindictive temper, and a
morbid constitution, was planted in a Virginian,
a slave-owner, a Randolph, just when the world
was bursting into fire and flame ?

Of course, while at college, the young Ran-
dolph had that necessai-y part of a Southern
gentleman's education in those days, a duel, but
there is no reason to suppose that he was given
to brawls, and in early life his temper was
rather affectionate than harsh. His friendships
were strong, and seem to have been permanent.
He was intelligent and proud, and may have
treated with contempt whatever he thought
mean or contemptible. He certainly did quar-
rel with a Virginian fellow-student, and then
shot him, but no one can now say what excuse
or justification he may have had. His oppo-
nent's temper in after life was quite as violent
as his own, and the quarrel itself rose from a
dispute over the mere pronunciation of a word.

In the year 1788 he was at college in New
York with his elder brother Richard, and we
get a glimpse of him in a letter to his step-
father, dated on Christmas Day, 1788 : —

16 JOHN RANDOLPH.

" Be well assured, my dear sir, our expenses since
our arrival here have been enormous, and by far
greater than our estate, especially loaded as it is with
debt, can bear ; however, I flatter myself, my dear
papa, that upon looking over the accounts you will find
that my share is by comparison trifling, and hope that
by the wise admonitions of so affectionate a parent,
and one who has our welfare and interest so much at
heart, we may be able to shun the rock of prodigal-
ity upon which so many people continually split, and
by which the unhappy victim is reduced not only to
poverty, but also to despair and all the horrors at-
tending it."

This was unusual language for a Virginian
boy of fifteen! It would have been safe to
prophesy that the rock of prodigality was not
one of his dangers. Down to the last day of
his life he talked in the same strain, always
complaining of this old English indebtedn ess,
living with careful ec onomy, but neve r willing
to^^ygyBtS diibt, arid never able to resist the
temptation ^l \}\i^\\\^ lUlld ana slaves. The
letter goes on : — "" ' *

" Brother Richard writes you that I am lazy. I
assure you, dear papa, he has been egregiously mis-
taken. I attend every lecture that the class does.
Not one of the professors have ever found me dull
with my business, or even said that I was irregular.

. • If brother Richard had written you that I did

TOUTH. 17

nothing all the vacation, he would have been much
in the dark ; neither was it possible for me. We
lived in this large building without a soul in it but
ourselves, and it was so desolate and dreary that I
could not bear to be in it. I was always afraid that
some robber, of which we have a plenty, was coming
to kill me, after they made a draught on the house."

Nervous, excitable, loving warmly, hating
more warmly still, easily affected by fears,
whether of murderers or of poverty, lazy ac-
cording to his brother Richard, neither dull
nor irregular, but timid, according to his own
account, this letter represents him as he showed
himself to his parents, in rather an amiable
light. It closes with a suggestion of politics :
" Be so good, my dear sir, when it is conven-
ient, to send me the debate of the convention in
our State." He was too true a Virginian n ot
to oppose the new Constitution of the Un ited
States which FatincK jdenryandj^eor ge M agon
ha3 so veheme ntly resisted] but that Consti«
t utionwas now ad^ p^-^^, ^ri(\ wbj flh^ntTi? 'hn nrt
in m otion. From this moment a new school
\^«iJ3 provided for the boy, far more interesting
to him than the lecture rooms of Columbia Col-
lege; a school which he attended with extraor-
dinary amusement and even fascination.

" I was at Federal Hall," said he once in a
speech to his constituents ; ^^ I saw Washing*
8

18 JOHN RANDOLPH.

ton, but could not hear him take the oath to,
support the federal Constitution. The Consti-
tution was in its chrysalis state. I saw w hat
Washington did not see, but two otEer men in
Virginia s^W it, — George Mason and I'atrick
, / ^ Hgmyr- ^ Ihij iJtJCL ' ^L mlug which luikyd be neath
the gaudy^' pTmong. . of. jjae. huHSrHy ." Wiser
men than he, not only in Virginia , but el se-
where, saw and dreaxred "t he'centralizin^. oy er-
wlTelimrigi' pow^l'ij oi the new gover nment^, and
are not to be bla me J tor their fears. Without
boldly assuming that America was a country
to which old rules did not apply ; that she stood
by herself, above law, it w as impossible to look
w ithout alarm a t the te ndency of the Consti tu-
tion, for history ^rom beginni ng to end^ w as
one long warning against the ab use of jjust su ch
powers. Were Randolph alive to-day he would
probably feel that his worst fears were realized.
From his point of view as a Virginian, a slave-
owner, a Randolph, it was true that, although
the Constitution was not a butterfly and did
not carry poison under its wings, — for only at
Roanoke could a butterfly be found with a
secret sting in such a part of its person, — it
did carry a fearful power for good or evil in
the tremendous sweep of its pinions and the
terrible grip of its claws.

Another little incident sharpened Randolph*!

"J

( C \/^^'.

rouTH. 19

per ception of the poison wbi fli lay \rx iho. tiour
s ystem . " I was in New York," said he nearly
forty years afterwards, "when John Adams
took his seat as Vice-President. I recollect —
for I was a school-boy at the time — attending
the lobby of Congress when I ought to have
been at school. I remember the manner in
which my brother was spumed by the coach-
man of the then Vice-President for coming too
near the arms emblazoned on the scutcheon of
the vice-regal carriage. Perhaps I may have
some of tins old animosity rankling in my
heart, . . . coming from a race who are known
never to forsake a friend or forgive a foe."
The world would be an uncomfortable residence
for elderly people, if they were to be objects
of life-long personal hatred to every boy over
whose head their coachman, without their
knowledge, had once snapped a whip, and
especially so jf, as in this case, the feud were
carried down to the next generation. Of course
the sting did not lie in the coachman's whip.
Had the carriage been that of a Governor
oi Virginia or a Lord Chancellor of England
or had the coachman of his own old-fashioned
four-horsn;^ Virginian chariot been to blame,
John Randolph would never have given the
matter another thought , bu t that his br other,
a Virginian gentleman of ancient family and

20 JOHN RANDOLPH,

large estates, should be struck b y t he ser vant
of ^ Ya nkee sc hool-master, wHo had nei ther
family, wealth, nor land, but was a mere_s hoot
of a j)salm -s ingiiig d(ilI10^f acy , and th at this
naan should lord it over V irp rhiia^ and Yi rprin-
ians, w as^inadHenin g : and the sight of that
Massachusetts whip was portentous, terrible,
inexpressible, to the boy, like the mysterious
solitude of his great school-house, which drove
him out into the street in fear of robbery and
murder.

The Attorney-General of the new govern-
ment was a Randolph, — Edmund, son of John,
and grandson of Sir John, who was brother to
Richard of Curies, — and when, in 1790, the
seat of administration was transferred to Phil-
adelphia, John Randolph left Columbia College,
and went to Philadelphia to study law in the
Attorney-General's train. Here, excepting for
occasional visits to Virginia, and for interruption
by yellow fever, he remained until 1794, occu-
pying himself very much as he liked, so far as
is now to be learned. He was not pleased
with Mr. Edmund Randolph's theories in the
matter of teaching law. He studied system-
atically no profession, neither law nor medi-
cine, although he associated with students of
both, and even attended lectures. He seems
to have enjoyed the life, as was natural, for

YOUTH. 21

Philadelphia was an agreeable city. " I know,"
Baid he many years afterwards, " by fatal expe-
rience, the fascinations of a town life, — how
they estrange the mind from its old habits and
attachments." This " fatal experience " was
probably a mere figure of speech ; so far as can
be seen, his residence in New York and Phila-
delphia was the most useful part of his youth,
and went far to broaden his mind. A few of
his letters at this period are extant, but they
tell little except that he was living with the
utmost economy and was (^f>^ply iT^ fArftafArl \r\
pnlitififl^ takiTifr^ fff fionraP., a strnnprly anti.fpdftr-
aliat side .

In April, 1794, he returned to Virginia to as-
sume control of his property. In after years he
complained bitterly of having " been plundered
and oppressed during my nonage, and left to
enter upon life overwhelmed with a load of
debt which the profits of a nineteen years' mi-
nority ought to have more than paid ; and, ig-
norant as I was, and even yet am, of business,
to grope my way without a clue through the
labyrinth of my father's affairs ; and, brought
up among Quakers, an ardent ami des noirs^ to
scuffle with negroes and overseers for some-
thing like a pittance of rent and profit upon
my land and stock." He lived with his elder
brother Richard, who was now married, at Bi-

22 JOHN RANDOLPH.

zarre, near Farmville, a place better known to
this generation as the town from which General
Grant dated his famous letter calling upon Gen-
eral Lee for a surrender of the Confederate army
of northern Virginia. From here he could direct
the management of his own property at Roan-
oke, some miles to the southward, while he en-
joyed the society at Bizarre and economized his
expenses.

Nothing further is recorded of his life until
in the spring of 1796 he visited his friend
Bryan in Georgia, and daring a stay in Charles-
ton came under the notice of a bookseller, who
has recorded the impression he made : " A
tall, gawky-looking, flaxen-haired stripling, ap-
parently of the age from sixteen to eighteen,
with a complexion of a good parchment color,
beardless chin, and as much assumed self-con-
fidence as any two-footed animal I ever saw,"
in company with a gray-headed, florid-complex-
ioned old gentleman, whom he slapped on the
back and called Jack, — a certain Sir John Nes-
bit, a Scotch baronet, with whom he had become
intimate, and whom he beat in a horse-race,
each riding his own horse. The bookseller at
once set him down as the most impudent youth
he had ever seen, but was struck by the sud-
den animation which at moments lighted up
lis usually dull and heavy face.

YOUTH. 28

After his stay at Charleston, he went on to
his friend Bryan's in Georgia, where he proved
his convivial powers, as in South Carolina he
had proved his superiority in horse-racing.
" My eldest brother," wrote Bryan afterwards,
" still bears a friendly remembrance of the rum
ducking you gave him." This visit to Georgia
was destined to have great influence on his later
career. He found the State convulsed with
excitement over what was long famous as the
Yazoo fraud. The legislature of Georgia, in the
preceding year, had authorized the sale of four
immense tracts of land, supposed to embrace
twenty millions of acres, for five hundred thou-
sand dollars, to four land companies. It was
proved that, with one exception, every member
of the legislature who voted for this bill was
interested in the purchase. A more flagrant
case of wholesale legislative corruption had
never been kpown, and when the facts were
exposed the whole State rose in indignation
against it, elected a new legislature, annulled
the sale, expunged the act from the record,
and finally, by calling a convention, made the
expunging act itself a part of the state constitu-
tion. With his natural vehemence of temper,
Randolph caught all the excitement of his
friends, and became a vehement anti- Yazoo man,
%s it was called, for the rest of his life.

24 JOHN RANDOLPH.

The visit to Georgia accomplished, he tamed
homewards again, and was suddenly met by
the crushing news that his brother Richard was
dead. In every way this blow was a terrible
one. His brother had been his oldest and clos-
est companion. The widow and two children,
one of whom was deaf and dumb from birth,
and ultimately became insane, besides the
whole burden of the joint establishment, now
came under John Randolph's charge. " Then,"
to use his own words, " I had to unravel the
tangled skein of my poor brother's difficulties
and debts. His sudden and untimely death
threw upon my care,, helpless as I was, his fam-
ily, whom I tenderly and passionately loved."
Richard's last years had been embittered by a
strange and terrible scandal, resulting in a fam-
ily feud, which John, with his usual vehemence,
made his own. These complications would
have been trying to any man, but to one of his
peculiar temper they were a source of infinite
depression and despair.

CHAPTER n.

I

VIRGINIAN POLITICS.

Po litics meanwhile were becomipg m ore
an d more Tiolent. The Tiegroj-,]at,]>n nf .J^xfa
t reaty with England, which took place in 1 794,
followed by its publication in June, 1795, and
the e xtraordinary behavio r of France, t hrew the
country in to a state of alarming excitem ent.
Randolph shar ed in the indignation of th ose
w ho thought the treaty a disgraceful one, and
there is a story, told on the authority of his
friends, that at a dinner, pending the ratifica-
tion, he gave as a toast, "George Washington,
— may he be damned I " and when the company
declined to drink it, he added, "if he signs
Jay's treaty." No one can fairly blame the
opposition to that treaty, which indeed chal-
lenged opposition; and that Randolph should
havei opposed it hotly, if he opposed it at all,
was only a part of his nature ; but none the less
was it true that between J]iq A"g1irfln tufgtf^
and his Gallic an polic y he was in a false posi-
tion, as he was also be tween his aristocra tic
prejQdices^and his democratic theories , his de-

26 1 JOHN RANDOLPH.

i

ist ical doctrines and his con sftfyafivA tempera-
ment, his interests as a slave-owner and his
th'e(5riea iiij'lili wm i des ^lovFs^^ d G^nollj in the
entire delusio n which possessed h is mind tfaftfe a
Virginian aristocracy could mai ntain itself in
alliance with a democratic polity.

iP(efh"aps These tlagrant Inconsistencies might
hav^ worked out ten years sooner to their nat-
ural result, had not John Adams and New
England now stood at the head of the govern-
ment. If Randolph could wish no better fate
for his own countryman, Washington, than
that he might be damned, one may easily im-
agine what were his feelings towards Washing-
ton's successor, whose coachman had cracked
his whip over Richard Randolph. For thirty
years he never missed a chance to have his
fling at both the Adamses, father and son;
*'the cub," he said, "is a greater bear than
the old one ; " and a lthough he spared n o prom-
inent Vir ginian, neith er Was hington^ Jeff erson,
Madison, Monroe, nor Ulay, yet the only per-
sons against wliom ins strain of invective was
at all seasons copious, continuous, and vehe-
ment were the two New England Presidents.
To do him justice^ there was every reason, in
his category of innate prejudices, Tor" the an-
tipathy he felt ; and especially inj^egaxTto the
administration of the ^Ider Adams there was

I

VIRGINIAN POLITICB. 27

ftm ijf ground for l? nT^Pf=t^ rlivftrgftHfiA nf opminn
For one moment in the career of that adminis-
tration the country was in real danger, and
opposition became almost a duty. When hos-
tilities with France broke out^ and under ^h eir
cover the Alien a,ftd S edition laws were pass ed,
backe"g"5"y a large army, wi ^h th<^ snamft^y con-
cealed obiect oi overawing th reatened res ist-
ancB fium V ii'gima, it was ti me tliat oppositi on
sh ould be put in power , even though the op-
position had itself undertaken to nullify acts
of Congress and to prepare in secret an armed
rebellion against the national government.

Feeling ran high in Virginia during the year
1798. Mr. Madiso n had left Congress, but both
he and Mr,^Jefferson, the Vice-President, were
bus y in or ^ yaniz^y ^ g their party for what was too
much like a dissolution of the Unio n. They
induced the legislatures of Virginia and lien-
t iTcky Lu Assuit IhB right Uf r^^^ls tauce J Li l iut-
tional laws, and were pnvj toJ^a^pr^j^parat^i^Tig
making in Virginia for armed resistan ce ; or if
they were not, it was because they chose to be
ignorant. Monroe was certainly privy to these
warlike preparations ; for, in the year 1814,
Randolph attacked in debate the conscription
project recommended by Monroe, then Secre-
tary of War, and said, " Ask him what he
would have done, whilst Governor of Virginia^

28 JOHN RANDOLPH.

and preparing to resist federal usurpation, had
such an attempt been made by Mr. Adams and
his ministers, especially in 1800 I He can give
the answer." At a still later day, in January,
1817, Randolph explained the meaning of his
innuendo. " There is no longer," said he, " any
cause for concealing the fact that the grand
armory at Richmond was built to enable the
State of Virginia to resist by force the en-
croachments of the then administration upon
her indisputable rights." Naturally Randolph
himself was in thorough sympathy with such
schemes, and it would be surprising if he and
the hot-headed young men of his stamp did
not drag their older chiefs into measures which
these would have gladly avoided.

Seizing this moment to enter political life,
with characteristic audacity he struck at once
for the highest office within his reach ; at
the age of twenty-six, he announced himself a
candidate for Congress. Both parties were
keenly excited over the contest in^VTrgmia, and
the federalists," with W ashtngtoti 'sit theiFhead,
were greatly distressed" and "alarmed, for they
knew what was gomg on, and after oppos ing
to the utmost Mi\ Madison^ liullification reso-
lutions, straining everj_jijgr^ijtO,jJIay the ex-
citement, as~ a last regQiirce^-th^F- implored
their otff opponent, Patrick Henry, to come

VIRGINIAN POLITICS. 29

to their rescue. Unwillingly enough, for his
Btrengtli was rapidly failing, Henry consented.
Nothing in his life was nobler. The greatest
orator and truest patriot in Virginia, a sound
and consistent democrat, sprung from the peo-
ple and adored by them, t his persistent a nd
energetic opponent of the Consti tution, who
haJ dmiouniitid its uvyr-bwull^v > powflra '^A its
" a wful squ int towards monarchy." n [ 9F ?fV ^^
forward^ noi; ior omce, nor to qualify or with-
draw anything he had ever said, but with his
last breath t o^warn the people of Virgin iaj iot

to raise t heir h^fl agAmaf. fViQ TiQfi'nnnl gr.TTOT»n-

Tnfipf. Washington himself, he said, would lead
an army to put them down. "Where is the
citizen of America who will dare lift his hand
against the father of his country ? No ! you
dare not do it 1 In such a parricidal attempt,
the steel would drop from your nerveless arm ! "
In the light of subsequent history there is a
solemn and pathetic grandeur in this dying
appeal of the old revolutionary orator, by the
tavern porch of Charlotte, at the March court,
in 1799, — a grandeur partly due to its sim-
plicity, but more to its association with the
great revolutionary struggle which had gone
before, and with the awful judgment which
fell upon this doomed region sixty-five years
afterwards. There was, too, an element of

80 JOHN JtANDOLPH.

contrast in the composition ; for when the old
man fell back, exhausted, and the great au-
dience stood silent with the conviction that
they had heard an immortal orator, who would
neyer speak again, make an appeal such as
defied reply, then it was that John Randolph's
tall, lean, youthful figure climbed upon the
platform and stood up before the crowd.

What he said is not recorded, and would in
no case be very material. He himself, in 1817,
avowed in Congress the main burden of his ad-
dress : "I was asked if I Justified the e stablish-
ment of the armory for the purpose of opp osing
Mr. Adama^sjjllUlJ ilytraflon. Tl s^rT^did; that
I could not conceive any case m which the people
could not be'mtrusTyd with arma ; kii& Lhab the
use of them to oppose oppressive measures was
i n principle the same, wbetner tnose ot the ad-
ministration of Eord iSorth 61* that ot~Mr . Ad-
ains,^ At this period Randolph did not talk
in the crisp, nervous, pointed language of his
after life, but used the heroic style which is still
to be seen in the writings of his friend, " the
greatest man I ever knew, John Thompson, the
immortal author of the letters of Curtius."
The speech could have been only a solemn de-
fence of states' rights ; an appeal to state pride
and fear ; an ad hominem attack on Patrick
Henry's consisteiwy, and more or less effective

VIRGINIAN POLITICS, 31

d enunciation of federalist s in general. What
he could not answer, and what must become
the more impressive through his own success,
was the splendor of a sentiment ; history, past
and coming; the awe that surrounds a dying
prophet threatening a new doom deserved.

Vague tradition reports that Randolph spoke
for three hours and held his audience; he rarely
failed with a Virginian assembly, and in this
case his whole career depended on success.
Tradition further says that Patrick Henry re-
mained to a by-stander, " I have n't seen the
little dog before, since he was at school; he
was a great atheist then ; " and after the speech,
shaking hands with his opponent, he added,
" Young man, you call me father; then, my son,
I have something to say unto thee : Keep jus-
tiee, keep truth, — and you will live to think
differently."

Randolph never did live to think differently,
but ended as he began, trying to set bounds
against the power of the national government,
an d to protect those bounds, if need be. bv f OT*c e.
Whether his opinions were wrong or right,
criminal or virtuous, is another matter, which
has an interest far deeper than his personality,
and more lasting than his fame ; but at least
those opinions were at that time expressed with
the utmost clearness and emphasis, not by him,

82 JOHN RANDOLPH.

but by the legislatures of more than one State ;
and as he was not their author, so he is not to
be judged harshly for accepting or adhering to
them. Doubtless as time passed and circum-
stances changed, Randolph figured as_aj)olitical
Quixote in h is champio ns liip of state s' rig hts,
which became at the end his h o bby, his m^ nia ;
he played tricks with it until his best friends
were weary and disgusted; but, so far as his
wayward life had a meaning or a moral pur-
pose, it lay in his strenuous effort to bar the
path of that spirit of despotism which in every
other age and land had perverted government
into a curse and a scourge. The doctrine of
states' rights was but a fragment of republican
dogma in 1800, and circumstances alone caused
it to be remembered when men forgot the
system of opinions of which it made a part;
isolated, degraded, defiled by an unnatural
union with the slave power, the doctrine be-
came at last a mere phrase, which had still a
meaning only to those who knew what Mr.
Jefferson and the republicans of America had
once believed ; but to Randolph it was always
an inspired truth which purified and elevated
his whole existence ; the faith of his youth, it
seemed to him to sanctify his age ; the helmet
of this Virginian Quixote, — a helmet of Mam-
brino, if one pleases, — it was in Quixote's eyes

VIRGINIAN POLITICS. 83

a helmet all the same. What warranted snch
enthusiasm in this threadbare formula of words?
Why should thousands on thousands of simple-
minded, honest, plain men have been willing to
die for a phrase ?

T he republican party, which assumed cont rol
of the goyemment in 1801 , had taken gr eat
pain s to express its ideas so clear jy t^<^^- no
Tunn^rmlil mifirnn^^iy? t h^"^ -At the bo ttom
of its the ories lay, as a foundation, the hist or-
ical ' Set that political p^^fiT h"""^, "'^ '^l^ z.^/.^'-
e nce, tended to grow a^ thf | f>]^AngA nf VinTnan
liberty . Every government tended towa rds
d espotism; contained somewhere a suprem e,
irresponsible, self-defined power called sov er-
eignty, wni cn held human rights, if hum an
rignts there were, at its mercy. Americans
belie v ed thUL lh(^ llbuiliLU »t this continent
depended on iixmg a barrier against tfllS su-
preme'central power called n atinn^] pnyprft^'prnty^
w hich, if left to grow unresisted, would re peat
here j ll^ the miserable ex p^T-iftTinfts r>f F.nrrtpa^
and, f alling into the g ras p of f jnir^ gi'/^np of
men, would be the centr a of a n^^ilif^Ty fyr,
apny[^ at, to resist the growth of this po wer>
it was n ecessary to with hold a^ |horify f rom
the"pQvernT pent^ and to administftr it with^the
utmost e conomy, b ecaus e extravagance g ener*
^tes liorrupiion, an3"corruption gene rates des-

84 JOHN RANDOLPH,

potism ; that the Executive must be held in
check; the popular bran en ot jK^ ^ftjB PiAlatnrft
streng thened, tlie Judiciary curbed. , and the
ge neral powers of g oyernme Ti t r^ti p.tljjr con-
strued ; ^but^ above all,"^^ States mus t be
supported in exercising all their reserved rights,
BecauSig, 111 th6 last resort, the States alone
could malre heaa agamst a central sovereign at
WashiiigLuu: TTh'ese 'pnnclpTes'^mipTfSda pol-
icy of peace abroad and ot loose tie s at h ome,
leahed'rather towafds'lirconfederation than to-
wards "a" CDiisoM?(1^dlmion7an3"p^
of the human" Yace before "^^ "gJ^o^y #L a mere
nationality.

In the famous Virginia and Ke ntucky resolu«
tigns of 1798, MrHSIadigmJa J effers on set

forth these ideas with a care and a n aut hority
wliich"gave the two papers "a^'cliafacter hardly
less decisive than that of the Constitution itself.
The hand which drafted the Declaration of In-
depen3^ence draTteJ^e'^nTucIE y Kesolutions ;
tlie hand which had most share in fr aming the
Constitution of the United States framea that
gloss upon it which is ^Sowia as tTi e Virginia
Resolutions of 1798. Kentucky declared her
determination "tamely to submit to undele^
gated^ and consequently unlirmted^' pbwerB in no
mail or body of tneh'^OT "^ai'lh," Hiid it"warned
the government at Washington tjiat acts of

VIRGINIAN POLITICa. 86

u ndelegated power. ^^ unless arrested o n the
threshold, may tend to d rive these States into
re volution and blood ; ''' th at submission t o such
acts " would be to surrender th e form of ^ g ov-
er nment we have chosen, and to live unde r one
derivi ng its powers from its own will y and not
from bur authority ; and that the co-States, re-
currin ^ to t heir natural righ tln cases noTma de
federal, will concur in declaring these acts void
a nd of no^force.**" While Kentucky used this
energetic language, dic tated by ivir. Jfiffftra on.
Vil*ginla"ecnoed her words with the emphasis
of a mathematical demonstration, and laid down 1
as a general principle of the constitutional
compact that, " in case of a deliberate, palpable,
and dangerous exercise of other powers not
granted by the said compact, the States, who
are the parties thereto, have the right, and are
in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the
progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within
their respective limits, the authorities, rights,
and liberties appertaining to them."

Whether this was good constitutional law
need not be discussed at present ; at all events,
it w as the doctrine of the repu blican . Darty in
180(?, the essence of republican pri n ciple s, and
lor many years the undisputed faith of a vast
majuriiy of Ih^ Am erica n people. T he princi-
ple tha^ the central government was a mac

86 JOHN RANDOLPH.

established by the peo ple of the Stat gaJor cer-
tainpui^OSfeS and no others, was itself equiva-
lent to a declaratioiT that this machi ne c ould
lawfully do nothing but what it was expressly

A^?^prA<r^/V ilii liyJ.llfipfinpTp nf -Ifer^fflfpg ;

and who except the people of th e States could
properly decide when the machine jaiacatepped
its bounds? To ma ke the Judiciary a final ar-
biter was to ma¥e7tE^,inRnhinpi . maatftr, for the
Jiidiciary was not only a part ofjh^ machine,
but its most irresponsible and da ngerous part.
The class of lawyers, trained, as they were, in
the common law of England, could conceive of
no political system without a core of self-defined
sovereignty in the government, and the Judici-
ary merely reflected the training of the bar.
Judiciary, Congress, and Executive, all parts
of on§ mechanism , could be restrained only by
the_constant coRtroJof the people of the Stp.tes,
There can be little doubt that this was the
opinion of Patrick Henry in 1800, as it was
of Randolph, Madison, and Jefferson"; on no
other theory, as thej believed, could there be
a guaranty for their liberties, anSTcertain it is
that the opposite doctrine, which made the
central machine the measure of its own powers,
[ offered no guaranty to the citizen against any
\ stretch of authority by Congress, President, or
I Judiciary, but in principle was merely the old

VIRGINIAN P0LITIC8, 37

despotic sovereignty of Europe, more or less I
disguised.

Not, therefore, in principle did Randolph dif-
fer from Patrick He ui'V ; it was in apply ing
the prittciple that tlieir ideas clashed so rud ely ;
and this ap plication alwa ys embarrassed the
subject of st ates^ rights. Tliat the cen tral
government was a mere" creatiSre of the people
of the ^)tate s, and tliat tJie people of th ose
States could unmake a s they had made it, was
a""l^ct" un questionable and unqi^estioned ; but
it was one thing to claim that the p eople of
Virginia h ad a constitutional rigfht to interp ose
a p rotest ag;ainst usurpationsof power at W ash-
ington, an d it was another thing ^^ (^Iqityi j-l^at
f.hp.y^mild finppnrt thftir prntfiat by forfift.

P atrick Henry and Mr. Mad ison shr ank from
this lasT^p eal' to arms', whicli John Rando lph
boldly accepted ; and, in his defence, it is but
fair to say that a right which has nowhere any
ultimate sanction of force is, in law, no right at
all.

With the correctness of the constitutional
theories which have perturbed the philosophy of
American politics it is needless to deal, for it
is not their correctness which is now in ques-
tion so much as the motives and acts of those
who believed in them. There is no reason to
doubt that Randolph honestly believed in all

88 JOHN RANDOLPH,

the theories of his party ; was deeply persuaded
of the^orrupldo^ in

every government which defines its own pow-
ers; and wished to make himself an embod-
iment of purity in politics, apart from every in-
fluence of power or person. For a generation
like our own, in whose ears the term of states'
rights has become hateful, owing to its perver-
sion in the interests of negro slavery, and in
whose eyes the comfortable doctrines of unlim-
ited national sovereignty shine with the glory
of a moral principle sanctified by the blood of
innumerable martyrs, these narrow and jealous
prejudices of Randolph and hia^frlftftds sound
like systematized treason; but th ey were the
honest convictions pfjthat^generation which
framed and adopted the Constitution, and the
debates of the state conventions" in T788, of
Massachusetts as well as of New York and Vir-
ginia, show that a gi*eat majority of the Amer-
ican people shared the same fears of despotic
governmenL Time wHl show whether those
fears were well founded, but whether they
prove real or visionary, they were the essence
of republican politics, and Randolph, whatever
his faults may have been, and however absurdly
in practice his system might work, has a right
to such credit as honest convictions and love ol
liberty may deserve.

VIRGINIAN POLITICB, 89

On these ideas, advocated in their most ex-
treme form, he contested the field with Patrick
Henry, and carried with him the popular sym-
pathies. A few weeks later, Patrick Henry
was dead, and young " Jack Randle," as he was
called in Virginia, had secured a seat in Con-
gr ess. '

It would be folly to question the abilities of
a man who, at twenty-six, could hold his own
against such a champion, and win spurs so
gilded. The proof of his genius lies in his au-
dacity, in the boldness with which he com-
manded success and controlled it. More than
any other southern man he felt the intense
self-confidence of the Virginian, as contrasted
with his northern rivals, a moral superiority
which became disastrous in the end from its
very strength ; for the resistless force of north-
ern democracy lay not in its leaders or its polit-
ical organization, but in its social and industrial
momentum, and this was a force against which
mere individuality strove in vain. Randolph
knew Virginia, and knew how far he could
domineer over her by exaggerating her own
virtues and vices; but he did not so well
understand that the world could not be cap-
tured oflE-hand, like a seat in Congress. His
intelligence told him the fact, but his ungov-
ernable temper seldom let him practice on it.

40 JOHN RANDOLPH.

Meanwhile the crisis, which for a time had
threatened a catastrophe, was passing away ;
thanks, not to the forbearance of Randolph or
his friends, but to the personal interference
of that old bear whom Randolph so cordially
hated, the President of the United States.
Fate, however, seemed bent upon making mis-
chief between these two men. In December,
1799, Randolph took his seat, cordially wel-
comed by his party in the House, and within a
very short time showed his intention to chal-
lenge a certain leadership in debate. He was in
the minority, but a minority led by Albert Gal-
latin was not to be despised, when it contained
men like John Nicholas of Virginia, Samuel
Smith of Maryland, Edward Livingston of New
York, Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina, and
Joseph Nicholson of Maryland. Randolph was
admitted, as of right, into this little circle of
leaders, and plunged instantly into debate.
He had already addressed the House twice :
the first time on the census bill ; the second on
a petition from free negroes in favor of emanci-
pation, an act of license which led him to hope
" that the conduct of the House would be so
decided as to deter the petitioners, or any per*
sons acting for them^ from ever presenting one
of a similar nature hereafter ; " and on Janu-
ary 9, 1800, he rose again, and spoke at some

VIRGINIAN POLITICB. 41

length on a moti on to reduce the arm y. The
speech, to say the least of it, was not happy :
its dftnnnm'a.tion of fitfl.ndin| y flrm ifia was hot
clever enough to enliven the staleness of the
idea, and its praise of the militia system lay
open to the same objection ; but its temper was
fatal had the speech been equal to Pitt's best.
Speaking invariably of the army as " merce-
naries" an3 ^Tiireliugs,*^ *^ loung ers who ^ive
upon the public," *^ who consume the fru its
of their honest industry under the pretext of
p i dh 1 (TTV jJTnxL Jrnm ftf n rnij ^ jn im/^ hnnr lint
added, "The people put no confidence in the
protection of a handful of ragamuffins." This
troubled even his friends, and the next day
he rose again to " exchange," as he expressed
it, the term ragamuffin. The same evening
he was at the theatre with his friends Macon,
Nicholson, Christie of Maryland, and others,
when two young marine officers came into the
box behind them, and made remarks, not to
Randolph, but at him : " Those ragamuffins
on the stage are black Virginia ragamuf-
fins ; " " They march well for ragamuffins ; "
" Our mercenaries would do better ; " until at
length one of them crowded into the seat by
Randolph, and finally, at the end of the per-
formance, as he was leaving, his collar was vio-
lently jerked from behind, and there was some

42 JOHN RANDOLPH.

jostling on the stairs. The next morning Ran-
dolph wrote a letter to the President, begin-
ning, —

" Sir, — Known to you only as holding, in common
with yourself, the honorable station of servant to the
same sovereign people, and disclaiming all preten-
tions to make to you any application which in the
general estimation of men requires the preface of
apology, I shall, without the circumlocution of com-
pliment, proceed to state the cause which induces
this address."

Then, after saying in the same astonishing dic-
tion, that he had be^n insulted by two young
marine officers, one of whom was named Mc-
Knight, he concluded, —

" It is enough for me to state that the independ-
ence of the Legislature has been attacked, the maj-
esty of the people, of which you are the principal
representative, insulted, and yo6r authority con-
temned. In their name I demand that a provision
commensurate with the evil be made, and which will
be calculated to deter others from any future attempt
to introduce the reign of terror into our country."

To this wonderful piece of bombast the Pres-
ident made no reply, but inclosed it in a very
brief message to the House of Representatives
as relating to a matter of privilege " which, in
my opinion, ought to be inquired into in the
House itself, if anywhere." " I have thought

VIRGINIAN POLITICS. 48

proper to submit the whole letter and its ten-
dencies to your consideration, without any other
comments on its matter or style." The mes-
sage concluded by announcing that an investi-
gation bad been ordered.

This reference to the House was very dis-
tasteful to Randolph, and when a committee
of investigation was appointed he hesitated
to appear before it. He was still more annoyed
when the committee made its report, which
contained a sharp censure on himself for " de-
viating from the forms of decorum customary
in official communications to the chief mag-
istrate," and for demanding redress from the
Executive in a matter which respected the priv-
ileges of the House, thereby derogating from
the rights of that body. In vain Randolph
protested that he had not written " Legisla-
ture," but " Legislator ; " in vain he disavowed
the idea that a breach of privilege had taken
place, and declared that he had addressed the
President only in his military capacity; the
majority had him in a position where the
temptation to punish was irresistible, and he
was foroed to endure the stripes.

Even Mr. Gallatin's skilful defence of him
was a little equivocal. "As I do not feel my-
self possessed of sufficient courage," said he,
** to support the character of a reformer of re-

44 JOHN RANDOLPH.

eeived customs, I shall not, when they are only
absurd, bnt harmless, pretend to deviate from
them, and I do not mean to change my manner
in order to assume that used by the gentleman ;
bnt he certainly has a right to do it if he thinks
proper." One can hardly doubt that the ex-
perience of being insulted in public, and cen-
sured for it by Congress, though somewhat
sharp, did Randolph good. He was more cau-
tious for a long time afterwards ; talked less
about ragamuffins and hirelings ; went less out
of his way to challenge attention; and was
more amenable to good advice. Indeed, it
might be supposed from the index to the re-
ported debates that he did not again open his
mouth before the adjournment; but, on the
other hand, he has himself said that the best
speech he ever made was on the subject of the
Connecticut Reserve at this session, and the rec-
ord shows that on April. 4, 1800, he did speak
on this subject, although his remarks were not
reported. In fact, he took an active share in
the public business.

His spirits seem to have been much depressed.
" I too am wretched," he wrote to his friend
Bryan, in the course of the winter. He says
that he meditated resigning his seat and going
to Europe. He seems to have been suffering
under a complication of trials, the mystery of

VIRGINIAN POLITICS, 45

whicli his biographers had best not attempt to
penetrate, for his wails of despair, sometimes
genuine, but oftener the effect of an uncon-
trolled temperament, tell nothing more than
that he was morbid and nervous. " My char-
acter, like many other sublunary things, hath
lately undergone an almost total revolution."
No such change is apparent, but possibly he
was really sufiEering under some mental dis-
tress. There is talk even of a love affair, but
it is very certain that no affair of the heart had
at any time a serious influence over his life.

Nothing, however, is more remarkable than
the solemnity with which he regarded himself.
It is curious that a man so quick in seeing the
weakness of others, and in later life so admira-
bly terse in diction and ideas, should have been
able to see nothing preposterous in his own mag-
niloquence, or could have gravely written a let-
ter such as that to the President ; but he was
writing in a similar vein to his only very inti-
mate friend, Bryan, telling him that " the eagle
eye of friendship finds no diflBculty in piercing
the veil which shrouds you ; " that " you seek
in vain to fly from misery ; it will accompany
you ; it will rankle in that heart in whose cruel
wounds it rejoices to dwell." This was not the
tone of his friend, for Bryan had used language
which, if profane, was at least natural, and had

46 JOHN RANDOLPH.

only said that he " was in a hell of a taking for
two or three days," on account of a love affair,
and was going to Europe in consequence. Bom-
bast, however, was a fault of the young Virgin-
ian school. John Thompson, one of Randolph's
intimates, the author of Gracchus, Cassius, Cur-
tius, and Heaven knows how many more clas-
sical effusions, wrote in the same stilted and
pseudo-Ciceronian sentences. This young man
died in 1799, only twenty-three years old ; his
brother William was another of Randolph's
friends, and not a very safe one, for his habits
were bad even at twenty, and grew worse as he
went on. All these young men seem to have
lived on mock heroics. John Thompson, writ-
ing to his brother in 1799, mentions that Ran-
dolph is running for Congress : " He is a brill-
iant and noble young man. He will be an ob-
ject of admiration and terror to the enemies of
liberty." William Thompson was, if possible,
still more in the clouds than his brother John ;
his nonsense was something never imagined out
of a stage drama of Kotzebue. " Often do I ex-
claim. Would that you and I were cast on some
desert island, there to live out the remainder of
our days unpolluted by the communication with
man ! " In politics, in love, in friendship, aJl
was equally classic ; every boyish scrape was a
Greek tragedy, and every stump speech a terror

VIRGINIAN POLITICS. 47

to the enemies of liberty. To treat such effu-
sions in boys of twenty as serious is out of the
question, even though their ringleader was a
member of Congress ; but they are interesting,^
because they show how solemnly these young
reformers of 1800 believed in themselves and
in their reforms. The world's great age had
for them begun anew, and the golden years re-
turned. They were real Gracchi, Curtii, Cassii.
His little collision with the President, there-
fore, was calculated to do Randolph good. He
had come to Washington, a devoted admirer of
the first Pitt, hoping, perhaps, to imitate that
terrible comet of horse, and, imless likenesses
are very deceptive, he studied, too, the tone and
temper of the younger Pitt, the great orator of
the day, who had been prime minister at twenty-
five, and was still ruling the House of Com-
mons, as Randolph aspired to rule the House of
Representatives. The sharp check received at
the outset was a corrective to these ideas; it
made him no less ambitious to command, but it
taught him to curb his temper, to bide his time,
and not expose himself to ridicule.

CHAPTER in.

IN HARNESS.

In the autumn of 1800 the pre si dent!^ elec-
tion took place, whicTfoverthrew the federaUst
sway, and broughrT;he""fepu15Iican party into
pbwer. " As every readef"k"hbws^Tefferson and
BuiT received an equal numlper oFe lectoral
yotes^a result which, under the Constitution as
it then stood* threw the choice inlo.tha. House
of Representatives, where the vote must be
taken by States. This business absorbed atten-
tion and left little opening for members to put
themselves forward in debate. Randolph, like
the rest, could only watch eagerly and write
letters, two of which, addressed to Joseph H.
Nicholson, then for a few days absent from his
seat, are curious as showing his state of mind
towards Mr. JefEerson, the idol of his party.
The first letter is dated December 17, 1800 : —

"There is not a shadow of doubt that the vote will
be equal between them £Jefferson and Burr], and if
we suffer ourselves to be bullied by the aristocrats
they will defeat the election. The '6nly m(5fSb for ug
to adopt is to offer them choice of the men, and see

IN HARNESS. 49

on which horn of the dilemma they will choose to
hang themselves. ... I need not say how much /
would prefer Jefferson to Burr ; bu t I am not like
some of ou r party, who are as much devote d fo him
as the feds were to Gen eral Washin^ton^ I am not
a ywQW-archis t in any sense."

These ideas seem to have startled Nicholson,
who replied with a remonstrance, while in the
mean time public opinion in Washington quickly-
decided that Jefferson alone could be accepted
as the republican candidate. On January 1,
1801, a fortnight later, Randolph wrote with a
considerable change of tone : —

"I have very obscurely expressed, or you have
misconceived, my meaning, if you infer from either
of my letters that the election, whether of J. or B.,
to the presidency is in my estimation a matter of in-
difference."

Then, after explaining that the will of the
people would in any case decide his conduct
and preferences, he continued : —

" 'T is true that I have observed, with a disgust
which I have been at no pains to conceal, a spirit of
personal attachment evinced by some of the support-
ers of Mr. J., whose republicanism has not been the
most unequivocal. There are men who do right from
wrong motives, if indeed it can be morally right to
act with evil views. There are those men who sup-
port republicans horn monarchical principles ; and if
4

7

50 JOHN RJLNDOLPH.

the head of that very great and truly good man can
be turned by adulatory nonsense, they wUl endeavor
to persuade him that our salvation depends on an in-
dividual. This is the essence of monarchy, and with
this doctrine I have been, am, and ever will be, at
issue."

This was sound doctrine for a man of the
people, who held no office and had no object
in politics beyond the public good; but in a
man himself aspiring to rival the demi-god,
and who instinctively dislikedT wh at "otlier men
adored, it was open to misinterpretation. Mr.
Jefierson was quick — no man was quicker —
to feel a breath of coldness in his supporters.
What would he have thought had Nicholson
shown him these letters ?

For the present Randolph's in depe ndence
roused no ill-Te'eling or suspicionr Mc Jeffer-
son got Ills election by the withdrawal of feder-
a ljst vo tes. The session passed without bring-
ing to Randolph anyl spgcia^ pportunity for
distinguishing - bim o eif ; and on M arch 4^1 §01,
the new administration was organized. In
every way-it-jsaaJ2jVorable to Randolph^ am- •
bition. The President was aT^rginmiuand a
blood r.^lation, although perhaps not on that
account dearer to Randolph's affections; the
Secretary of State was a Virginian ; and, still
better, the appointment of Gallatin as Secre*

IN HARNESa. 51

fcary of the Treasury removed from the House
its oldest and ablest leader.

The summer of 1801 was passed quietly at
Bizarre, while Mr. Jefferson was getting his
new administration into order, and preparing a
series of measures intended to purify the Con-
sti tution and restore th e^^S tnt in Hl o Th e ir^op er
functions. On July 18, 1801, Randolph writes
thus to his friend Nicholson : —

" If you are not surfeited with politics, I am. I
shall therefore say but a word on that subject, to
tell you that in this quarter we think that the great
work is only begun, and that without a suhstantidl
reform we shall have little reason to congratulate
ourselves on the mere change of men. Independent
of its precariousness, we disdain to hold our privi-
leges by so base a tenure. We challenge them asvof
right, and will not have then^ depend on the com-
plexion of an individual. The objects of this reform
will at once suggest themselves to you."

In other words, if Mr. Jefferson did not prove
reformer enough, RanJolplr^waTridr'c to"'^
reforming, and wisheH" for Nich olson's hel p.
Here already is tbe germ ofTiis future develop-
ment and the clue to his erratic career. The
writer goes on : —

" It is no exaggeration when I tell you that there
is more of politics in the preceding page than I have
thought, spoken, or written since I saw you. Dup*

52 JOHN RANDOLPH,

ing this period I have been closely engaged in my
own affairs, which afford very little of satisfaction or
amusement."

He had passed the last session in the same
house with the Nicholsons, and wished to do so
again : —

"Do exert yourself and procure lodgings for us
both in time. I shall want stabling for two horses,
and a carriage house. . . . By Christmas I expect
the leeches of Washington, having disgorged much of
their last winter's prey, will be pretty sharp set On
making up my accounts I find that, independent of
the unlucky adventure of my pocket-book, I have
had the honor of expending in the service of the
United States nearly $1,000, exclusive of their com-
pensation. Such another blood-letting, in addition to
the expensive tour which I undertake to-morrow [to
the warm springs] and the fall of produce, will be
too much for my feeble frame to endure. I therefore
wish to lay aside the character of John Bull for a
time at least ; and, although I will not live in a sty,
i^ish you to have some eye to economy in the ar-
rangement above mentioned. 'T is the order of the
day, you know."

And finally comes a significant little post-,
script : " What think you of the New Jersey su-
pervisor?" The New Jersey supervisor was
James Linn, a member of the last Congress,
whose doubtful vote decided the State of New

IN HARNESS. 53

Jersey for Jefferson, and who now received his
reward in the profitable office of supervisor.
Randolph seems to have questioned the perfect
disinterestedness of the transaction on either
side.

This glimpse of his private life shows the
spirit in which he took up his new responsi-
bilities. He prided himself on independence.
These old republicans of the south, Giles,
Macon, Nicholson, Randolph, and their friends,
always asserted their right to judge party
measures by their private standard, and to vote
as they pleased, nor was this right a mere
theory, for they exercised it freely, and some-
times fatally to their party interests. Whether
they were wise or foolish statesmen, the differ-
ence between them and others was simply in
this pride, or, as some may call it, self-re^
spect, which made them despise with caustic
contempt po liticians w^d "obeyed party orders,
and surrendered their conscie nces to "a " caucus.
Even m 1801 Randolph would probably have
horsewhipped any man who dared tell him he
must obey his party, but the whip itself would
not have expressed half the bitter contempt
his heart felt for so mean a wretch. To be
jealous of executive influence and patronage
was the duty of a true republican, and to wear
the livery of a superior was his abhorrence.

54 JOHN RANDOLPH.

Ran dolph, from th e first, was jealous o f Mr.
J efferson . Whether he was right or wrong
is the riddle of his life.

When Congress met, December 7, 1801, the
House chose Nathaniel Macon for its Speaker.
Honest, simple-minded, ignorant as a North
Carolinian planter in those days was expected
to be, and pure as any Cincinnatus ever bred
by Rome, Macon was dazzled and bewitched
by the charm of Randolph's manner, mind, and
ambition. Few southern men could ever resist
Randolph's caresses when he chose to caress,
and the men who followed him most faithfully
and believed in him to the last were the
most high-minded and unselfish of southern-
ers. Macon was already on his knees to him
as before an ApoUq, and in spite of innumer-
able rude shocks the honest North Carolinian
never quite freed himseK from the strange
fascination of this young Virginian Brutus,
with eyes that pierced and voice that rang
like the vibr5,tion of glass, and with the pride
of twenty kings to back his more than Ro-
man virtue. This conception of Randolph's
character may have ^shown want of experience,
but perhaps Macon had, among his simple theo-
ries, no stronger conviction than that Randolph
was, what he himself was not, a true man of
the world. At all events, the Speaker instantly

IN HARNESS. 66

made his jouthful idol chairman of the Ways
and Means Committee and leader of the House.
Thus, from the start, Randolph was put in the
direct line of promotion to the cabinet and the
presidency. During the whole of Mr. Jeffer-
son's first administration, from 1801 to 1805,
he was on trial, like a colt in training. Long
afterwards Mr. Gallatin, in one of his private
letters, ran over the list of candidates for hon-
ors, favored by the triumvirate of Jefferson,
Madison, and himself : " During the twelve
years I was at the Treasury I was anxiously
looking for some man that could fill my place
there and in the general direction of the na-
tional concerns ; for one, indeed, that could re-
place Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and myself.
Breckenridge of Kentucky only appeared and
died ; the eccentricities and temper of J. Ran-
dolph soon destroyed his influence ; " so that
Mr. William H. Crawford of Georgia became
at last the residuum of six great reputations.

Randolph began, like Breckenridge, with
marked superiority of will, as well as of tal-
ents, and ruled over the House with a hand
so heavy that William Pitt might have envied
him. Even Mr. Jefferson in the White House,
wielding ah influence Tittle short of despotic,
did not veilt trr0~t cr put oh, like Randolph, the
Vianners of a despot. Outside the House, how-

66 JOHN RANDOLPH.

eyer, his authority did not extend. In the Cab-
inet and in the Senate other men overshadowed
him, and some dramatic climax could hardly
fail to* spring from this conflict of forces. The
story of Randolph's career as a party leader
marks an epoch ; round it cluster more serious
diflBculties, doubts, problems, paradoxes, more
disputes as to fact and theory, more contradic-
tions in the estimate to be put on men called
great, than are to be found in any other part
of our history. Elsewhere it is not hard for
the student to find a clue to right and wrong ;
to take sides, and mete out some measure of
justice with some degree of confidence ; but in
regard to John Randolph's extraordinary career
from' 1800 to 1806 it is more than likely that
no two historians will ever agree.

From the moment of his first appearance
in Congress, Randolph claimed'~and received
recognition as a representative of the extreme
school of Yirgiman "re publicans, whose poltt-
ical creed was expressed_bj the Resolutions of
1798. Dread of the Executive, o f corru ption
and patronage, of usurpations "Fy the central
gnvArnmpnf j~;7fAQY^ f\i tha J^ij^T^Vy gg" An in-
variable servant to despotism; dread, of na-
tional sovereignty altogetherj^w®?^. .!^i§-jdogmas
of this creed. All these men foresaw what the
people of America would be obliged to meet

IN HARNESS, 57

they were firmly co nvinced that ^the central
gov ernment, intended to be the peopte's cr eat-
ure and servant, would one day make itself
the people s master, and, interpreting !tn>wn
powe rs without askm g permission, would be-
come extravagant^ jcprru^tj. jJifiP-Otic^ Accord-
ingly they set themselves to the task of correct-
ing past mistakes, and of establishing a new
line of precedents to fix the character of future
politics. Every branch of the government ex-
cept the Judiciary was in their hands. Mr.
Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Gallatin were
their greatest leaders ; Macon, the Speaker, was
heart and soul with them ; Joseph H. Nicholson
and Randolph were Macon's closest friends, and
by these three men the House of Representa-
tives was ruled. If any government could be
saved, this was it.

No one can deny the ability with which Mr.
Jefferson's first administration began its career,
or the'T)filliant success wnich it won. ""During
twetyg ye5t*§' of"6ppb'sItion the party had_ham-
m ered out a scheme of gove rnment, forging it,
so to sp eak, on the anvil of teaera lism^ so, as to
be teder alism precisely rev erse d. Th e consti-
tiition of the republican party was the iedferal-
i sts'-^eea otitution " ■■ ^ ■ ■1 If^fi'irw ur^lM^ liiro a. rr\aA\.
•eval invocation of the devil ; and this was in
many respects and for ordinary times, the best

58 JOHN RANDOLPH,

and safest way of reading it, although followed
for only a few years by its inventors, and then
going out of fashion, never again to be heard of
except as mere party shibboleth, not seriously
intended, even by its loudest champions, but
strong for them to conjure with among honest
and earnest citizens. In 1801, however, the
party was itself in earnest. Mr. Jefiferson
and his Virginian followers thoroughly believed
themselves to have founded a new system of
polity. Never did any party or any adminis-
tration in our country begin a career of power
with such entire confidence that a new era of
civilization and liberty had dawned on earth.
If Mr. Jefferson did not rank wfcng his follow-
ers as one of the greatest lawgivers recorded
in history, a resplendent figure seated by the
side of Moses and Solon, of Justinian and
Charlemagne, the tone of the time much be-
lies them. In his mind, what had gone before
was monarchism; what came after was alone
true rep.iiblicanism^ However'~~absur3^ this
doctrine may have sounded to northern ears,
and to men who knew the relative character of
New England and Virginia, the still greater
absurdities of leading federalists lent some color
of truth to it ; and there can be no doubt that
Mr. Jefferson, by his very freedom from theo-
logical prejudices and "from Calvinisnc Aoo

IN SARNESa, 59

fcrines, was a sounder democrat than any ortho-
d ox'^ew Eilt^lander could 6y et h o]^e'To ' be.
Thus it was that he took into his hand the
fe deralists* constitution^ and aftt himRftlf tn t)i A
task of stripping awa y its monarchical exc res-
c ences, and r estori ng its true repub lican out-
linesjj)ut its one serious excrescence, the only
one w hich was essentially and dan^ggfoiisTy mon-
archical, he could not, or would not, touch ; it
was his own office, — the executive power. -

When Randolph sp"6Ee*6T "a* " substantial
reform," he meant that he wanted som"etliing
radical^ someth ing* more tJian a mere chan^y e of
office-holders. The federalists had built up the
nation at the expense of t he State s; theiF work
must be undone. When he returned to Wash-
ington he tound what it was that the President
and the party proposed to do by way of restor-
ing purity to the system. In the executive de-
partment, forms wer e to be renounced; patron -
age cut down ; influence diminished ; the army
and navy reduced to a jg) 5!l6e force ; IgT ernal
taxes abaud 6n^d; tne aebt paid, and its cen-
traiizm g influence removed from the bod ^y pol-
itic; liay, even the mint abolished as a useless
es^ense, and lorelgii coins to'b'ellsed in pref-
i>T»ayij»u ^rr-^jllj^A iJ' IT^ TiQfii^n, since even a cop-
per ceut» the only national coin then in com-
mon use, was a daily and irritating assertion

60 JOHN RANDOLPH,

of national over st ate s overeign ty. In the leg-
islative department there could be little change
except in sentiment and in their earnest wish
to heal the wounds that the Constitution had
suffered ; but in the Judiciary 1 — there was
the rub !

The test of the party policy lay here. All
these Jeffe rsonian ^reformg, Pf^y^^^^ti ^^^<^l^^i
reduction of patronage, abandonme nt o f eti-
queTfy, prefBfence"^ Spanish doil ars, touched
only tbe_ s iirface of tilings. The exec utive
power was still there, though it might not be so
visiEIeT't3lF"'fe^p5tn 1iiye p Q^^L^gg J^^A^ there,
dangerous as ever even by its very acts of re-
form^-while, to exorcise these demons'effect-
ually, it was necess_ar^to alter the Constitution
itiftlf, Trhioh nrithn T Mr. J efferson nor his party
da red to do. There was something not merely
ridiculous, but contemptible, in' abolishtng the
President's receptions and stopping the coinage
of cents, while that terrilDle* clause "was left in
the Constitution which enabled Congress to
niate aTTIaws it.n^ig}at .cllQQSe!^I£ltlmrk " neces-
sary and propftr'* t.nj>arry,f)ut ita oyg ;^ powers
and provide for the general welfare ; or while
the Judiciary stood ready at any moment to in-
terpret that clause as it pleased.

Certainly Randolph's own wishes would have
favored a thorough revision of the Constitution

IN HARNESS. 61

an d the law s ; he knew where the radical dan-
ger lay, and would have supported with his
usual energy any radical measures of reform, but
it was not upon him that responsibility rested.
The President and the Cabinet shrank from
strong "me Sbuie s, aud the northern~democrat8
were not to be relied upon for their support.
Moreover, the 5eimf6 _Wa5 /"gfltT liarrowly. di-
vided, and the federalists were not only str ong
in iiutfibers, but m abili ty. . Ir* erbapSj^ howev^^
the re al reason for foUo ^jng ^ TnnfJAraffi g^nrgA

lay deeply th^,p f|,ny Tn^fp gnaflfinTi nf lyt^jp^ri^^'^"

The re publica n party in 1801 wo uld not t ouch
the "true sources ot* political danger, the execu-
tive and legislative power s, beca use "they them-
s'gl'ves nuwTOTitrolle d these po wers^ an^^hey
honestly thought that so long as this wasTthe
cSsl, States* rights" an'd^ private^ TiFerlTes ^ere
safgr "The Jud iciary, howeye r^^was notj^hin
their cou trol, but wa s wholly federalist, and
likely for mg(,ny; i ^^ears to r emam'so,^---- a fortress
of centralization^^a^ standing thr^.at tQ. states'
righ ts. The la te administration had in its last
moments, after the ele ction" of Mr. Jeff erson,
taken a series of measures meant not only to
rivet* Its '"CVTrT h oldover t He Judiciary^ but to
widuu and sLrengtlien the influence of national
at'lhe expense of state court s, by reconstruct-
ing the -indicigiyiSystem, reducing to^five the

62 JOHN RANDOLPH.

number of judges on the supreme bench, and
increasmg the distiicL i5UUiia to Lwe nty-three^
thus cilja.liii^ a^many new ju dgea>, . '<'ff iA done,
the late President filled up these offices with
fgdacalists; the S^ate* c6nBrmed~ K^ appoint-
ments ; and, to crown all, the Presi dent ap «
pointed " and tfr6""Sen ale'conffimed the ablest
of the- Vii'jL^iuian feiteialists/'l Jlj ^iySBretary of
Stale, Xohii MarshallTas Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court.

' The hew President was furious at this ma-
noeuvre, and to the last day of his life never
spoke of what he called the " mjdnight ap-
pointments " without an unusual display of tem-
per, aT!h5ugh it is not clear that a midnight
appointment is worse than a midday appoint-
ment, or that the federalists were bound to
please a President who came into office solely
to undo their work. The real cause of Mr. Jef-
ferson's anger, and its excuse, lay beneath the
matter of patronage, in the fact that jhe J udi-
ciary thus established jgs a serious, if not fatal
obstacle to his own success ; for until t!he fount-
ain oFjustice should be purified the stream of
constitutional law coi^lcl HQt.run^ure, the nec-
essary legal precedents could not be established,
the States could not be' safe„ fronci^ncroach-
ments or the President himself from constant
insult, —.--.—.—.—,—

IN HARNESS. 63

Thus it was. that tba most. iflriQiia question
for the new Prpsirif^Tit ^r\A his payty regarded
the Judiciary, and this question of the Judi-
ciary was that which Congress undertook to
settle. Randolph, and men of his reckless nat-
ure, seeing clearly that Chief Justice Marshall
and the Supreme Court, backed by the array of
circuit and district judges, could always over-
turn republican principles and strict construc-
tion faster than Congress and the President
could set them up, ^aw with the same clear-
ness that an entire reform of the Judiciary and
its adhesion to the popular will were necessary,
since otherwise the gross absurdity would fol-
low that four fifths of the people and of the
States, both Houses of Congress, the Executive,
and the state Judiciaries might go on forever
declaring and maintaining that the central gov-
ernment had not the right to interpret its own
powers, while John Marshall and three or four
old federalists on the supreme bench proved the
contrary by interpreting those powers as they
liked, and by making their interpretation law.
Randolph and his friends, therefore, wished to re-
construct the Judiciary throughout, and to se-
cui e ail aHC^Iia^i ri K y oVCTthe court s of law, but
fchii UOf thern democrais ^read!ed nothing more
tfiatl the charge of revolutionary and violent at-
tacks'tni" the CoiiBllLuLluiia.llJ^e Ptcgid ent and

64 JOHN RANDOLPH,

Ca binet gave no encouragement to hasty and in-
t emperate measu res i all the wisf^ h fi^f^a of the
party advised that Chief JusticeJtlaE^hall and
the Supreme Court should be left to ti^e influ-
eufifijaLtime ; and that Congress should be con-
tent with abolishing^ tKe new'.circuiF syst em of
the federalists, and with getting.xid.ol t he new
judges.

On January 4, 1802, Randolph moved for
an inquiry into the condition of the judiciary
establishment, and the motion was referred to
a committee of which his friend Nicholson was
chairman. Pending their report, a bill came
down from the Senate by which the Judiciary
Act of 1800 was repealed. The debate which
now ensued in the House was long and discur-
sive. The federalists naturally declared that
this repealing act put an end forever to the
independence of the Judiciary, and that it was
intended to do so ; they declaimed against its
constitutionality; ransacked history and law
to prove their positions, and ended by declar-
ing, as they had declared with the utmost sim-
plicity of faith on every possible occasion for
ten years past : " We are standing on the
brink of that revolutionary torrent which del-
uged in blood one of the fairest countries in
Europe." Yet the Repealing Act was in fact
not revolution, but concession ; overthrowing a

IN HARNESS. 65

mere outer line of defence, it left the citadel
intact, and gave a tacit pledge that the federal-
ist supreme bench should not be disturbed, at
least for the present. When it is considered
that Chief Justice Marshall, in the course ot his
long judicial career, rooted out Mr. Jefferson's
system of polity more effectually than all the
Presidents and aU the Congresses that ever
existed, and that the S upreme Court no t only
made war on states' rights, but supported with
surprising unanimity every politicanTIid con-
stitutional innovation' on the'par^oTCongress
and the Executive, it can oriTybe a matter of
wonder that Mr. Jefferson's party, knowing
well the danger, and aware that their lives and
fortunes depended, or might probably depend,
on their action at this point, should have let
Chief Justice Marshall slip through their fin-
gers. To remodel th e whole b enchjaiight have
been revolution, but nQj^.;tn, rPinodp] Jt was to
insure the failure of their aim.

The republicans were over-confident in their
own strength and in the permanence of their
principlesj they had in fact hoodwinked them-
selves, and Mr. Jefferson and John Randolph
were responsible for their trouble. The party
had really fought against the danger of an over-
grown governmental machine ; but Mr. Jeffer-
son and John Randolph had told them they

5

66 JOHN RANDOLPH.

were fighting against monarchy. Setting up,
to excite themselves, a scarecrow with a crown
upon its head, they called it King John I., and
then, with shouts of delight, told it to go back
to Brain tree. The scarecrow vanished at their
word, and they thought their battle won. Ran-
dolph saw from time to time that, so far as
there had been any monarchy in question, the
only difference was that Thomas Jefferson in-
stead of John Adams wore the shadow of a
crown, but even Randolph had not the perspi-
cacity or the courage to face the whole truth,
and to strike at the very tangible power which
stood behind this imaginary throne. He, like
all the rest, was willing to be silent now that
his people were masters ; he turned away from
the self -defined, sovereign authority which was
to grind his "country," as he called Virginia,
into the dust ; he had, it may be, fixed his eyes
somewhat too keenly on that phantom crown,
and in imagination was wearing it himself, —
King John II.

The debate on the Judiciary in the session of
1801-2 lacks paramount interest because the
states'-rights republicans, being nowin power,
were Ttf raid of laying weight on their own princi-
ple, although there was then no taint of slavery
or rebellign jatiiirit "it, 'aud'allEbugtrtt was a
principle of which any man, who honestly be«

IN HARNESS. 67

lieved in it, must be proud. On the day when
Randolph moved his inquiry, Mr. Bayard of
Delaware, in debating the new apportionment
bill, had proposed to make 30,000 instead of
33,000 the ratio of representation, and had
given as his reason the belief that an addition
of ten members to the House would do more
than an army of 10,000 men to increase its
energy, and to give power by giving popularity
to the government. Randolph sprang to his
feet as Bayard sat down, and burst into a strong
states'-rights speech; yet even then, speaking
on the spur of his feelings, he was afraid to
say what was in his mind, — that the powers
of government were already too strong, and
needed to be diminished. " Without entering
into the question whether the power devolved
on the general government by the Constitution
exceeds that measure which in its formation I
would have been willing to bestow, I have no
hesitation in declaring that it does not fall
short of it; that I dread its extension, by
whatever means, and shall always oppose meas-
ures whose object or tendency is to effect it."
Throughout the speech he stood on the defen-
sive ; he evaded the challenge that Bayard
threw down.

The same caution was repeated in the judi-
ciary debate where there was still less excuse

68 JOHN RANDOLPH,

tor timidity. The bill could be defended only
on the ground that the new Judiciary had
been intended to strengthen the national at
the expense of the state courts ; and that the
principle of limited powers could only be main-
tained by fostering the energies of. the States,
and especially of the state Judiciaries, and by
protecting them from the interference of the
general government. Randolph showed him-
self afraid of this reasoning; his party dreaded
it ; the President discouraged it ; and the fed-
eralists would have been delighted to call it
out. When, on February 20, 1802, Bayard
concluded his long judiciary speech, Randolph
again rose to answer him, and again took the
defensive. In an ingenious and vigorous argu-
ment, as nearly statesman-like as any he ever
made, he defended the repeal as constitu-
tional, and certainly with success. He con-
ceded a great deal to the opposition. " I am
free to declare that if the intent of this bill
is to get rid of the judges, it is a perversion
of your power to a base purpose ; it is an un-
constitutional act. The quo animo determines
the nature of this act, as it determines the in-
nocence or guilt of other acts." What, then,
was the quo animo^ the intent, which constrained
him to this repeal ? Surely this was the mo-
ment for laying down those broad and perma»

IN HARNESS, 69

nent principles which the national legislature
ought in future to observe in dealing with ex-
tensions of the central power ; now, if ever, Ran-
dolph should have risen to the height of that
really great argument which alone justifies his
existence or perpetuates his memory as a states-
man. What was his " substantial reform " ?
What were its principles ? What its limits ? " If
you are precluded from passing this law lest
depraved men make it a precedent to destroy
the independence of your Judiciary, do you not
concede that a desperate faction, finding them-
selves about to be dismissed from the confi-
dence of their country, may pervert the power
of erecting courts, to provide to an extent for
their adherents and themselves ? " " We assert
that we are not clothed with the tremendous
power of erecting, in defiance of the whole spirit
and express letter of the Constitution, a vast
judicial aristocracy over the heads of our fel-
low citizens, on whose labor it is to prey." " It
is not on account of the paltry expense of the
Dew establishment that I wish to put it down.
No, sir! It is to give the death-blow to the
pretension of rendering the Judiciary an hospi-
tal for decayed politicians ; to prevent the state
courts from being engulfed by those of the
Union ; to destroy the monstrous ambition of
arrogating to this House the right of evading

70 JOHN RANDOLPH.

all the prohibitions of the Constitution, and
holding the nation at bay."

That is all! Just enough to betray his
purpose without justifying ifc; to show temper
without proving courage or forethought ! This
was not the way in which Gallatin and Mad-
ison had led their side of the House. Take
it as one will, all this talk about "judicial aris-
tocracy" preying on labor, these sneers at
" decayed politicians," was poor stuff. Wojrse
than this : withput a thorough justification in
principle, the repeal itself was a blow at the
very doctrine of strict construction, since it
strained the powers of Congress by a danger-
ous precedent, without touching the power of
the Judiciary ; it was the first of many in-
stances in which Mr. Jeffe rson's adm inistration
unintentionally enlarged and exagger ated the
potrerar of the generar"government in one or
anothexoLiiaJiianches.' '

By way of conclusion to a speech which, as
Randolph must have felt, was neither candid nor
convincing, he made a remark which showed
that he was still jealous of executive influence,
and that he wished to act honestly, even where
his own party was concerned, in proving his
good faith. Mr. Bayard twitted him with be-
ing a mere tool of Mr. Jefferson, and the sneer
rankled. " If the gentleman is now anxious to

IN HARNESS, 71

protect the independence of this and the other
House of Congress against executive influence,
regardless of his motives, I pledge myself to
Bupport any measure which he may bring for-
ward for that purpose, and I believe I may
venture to pledge every one of my friends."
Whether Mr. Jefferson would be flattered by
this hint that his finger was too active in legis-
lation seems to have been a matter about which
Randolph was indiEEerent.

The Judiciary Bill, however, was not Ran-
dolph's work, but was rather imposed upon
him by the party. His speech showed that
he was in harness, under strict discipline, and
rather anxious to disguise the full strength of
his opinions than to lay down any party doc-
trine. The bill passed the House by a large
majority, and became law, while the practical
work of the Ways and Means Committee fell
to Randolph's special care, and proved serious
enough to prevent his eccentric mind from
worrying about possible evils in a distant
future. He was obliged to master Gallatin's
financial scheme; to explain and defend his
economies, the abolition of taxes, and operations
in exchange; details of financial legislation
which were as foreign to Randolph's taste and
habits of mirfd as they were natural to Galla-
tin. This was the true limit of his responsi-

72 JOHN RANDOLPH.

bility, and there is notliing to prove that he
was otherwise consulted by the President or the
Cabinet.

The federalists, who were better men of
business and more formidable debaters than
the republican majority, offered the usual op-
position and asked the ordinary troublesome
questions. At this early day the rules of the
House had not been altered ; to stop debate
by silencing the minority was impossible, and
therefore Randolph and his friends undertook
to stop debate by silencing themselves, an-
swering no questions, listening to no criticisms,
and voting solidly as the administration di-
rected. Such a policy has long since proved
itself to be not only dangerous and dictatorial,
but blundering, for it gives an irresistible ad-
vantage of sarcasm, irony, and argument to the
minority, — an advantage which the federal-
ists were quick to use. After a short trial the
experiment was given up. The republicans re-
sumed their tongues, a little mortified at the
ridicule they had invited, and in future they
preferred the more effective policy of gagging
their opponents rather than themselves ; but
there remained the remarkable fact that this
attempt to check waste of time was made un-
der the leadership of John Randolph, who in,
later years wasted without the least compuno

IN HARNESS, 73

tion more public time than any public man
of his day iif discursive and unprofitable talk.
The explanation is easy. In 1802 Randolph
and his party wished to prove their compe-
tence and to make a reputation as practical
men of business ; they frowned upon waste of
time, anJwanCedlli ^publi^ to u mTfirPi^-^^^^^^^''a^
they were not to blame for it. Randolph set
the example' 15y speaking as little as possible,
always to the point, and by indulging his re-
bellious temper only so far as might safely be
allowed; that is to say, in outbursts against
the federalists alone.

He gained ground at this session, and was a
more important man in May, 1802, when he
rode home to Bizarre, than in the previous
autumn when he left it. Congress had done
good work under his direction. The internal
taxes were abolished and half the government
patronage cut off ; the army"arid navy ^u ETered
what Mr. Jefferson called a^'^chasfe'relorma-
tion ;'^^Tie new federalist "jiidiciary" was "swept
awaj^^^llt Is tfue"Thar~with all these reforms
in detail iTot one dangerous power had been
expFessty-ttmtted, n ot had 01 T5 word O f the
Constitntioh been altered or deiined; no feder-
alist precedents, not^eyen .jth^lAlien alTJ 'Sedi-
tion -iawSj^'tTerenbranded _as jincon sti tu tio nal by
either H o us e u f "Congi-ess or by the Executive.

74 JOHN RANDOLFU.

The governmentwas reformed, as an army may
be cut down, by dismissing half the rank and
fire"*ailTl"TedilcltIg^th~e "expeiisesj while leaving
all lis" latent str ength ready at an y moment
fur I'ecallmg tne men and renewing tlie extrav-
agance. "TtTere Ts"nothing to show that Ran-
^Iph now saw or cared for this fact, although
he afterwards thought proper to throw upon
others the responsibility for inaction.

CHAPTER IV.

A CENTBALIZING STATESMAN.

• After the session closed, early in May,
1802, Randolph retired to Bizarre and re-
mained there, undisturbed by politics, until
called back to Washington by the meeting of
Congress in December. In the interval events
happened which threatened to upset all the
theories of the new administration. Napoleon,
having made peace with England, turned liia
attention to America, "lending "a huge" arma-
ment to bt. i)omingo~t(r"rescue 'that' island
from "ToussaihF and the blacts, while at the
same instant it' was made"^nown that he Jiad
recovered Louisiana from Spain, and was about
to secure his new possession. Finally, at the
close^of the year, it was suddenly announced
that the Spanish Intendant at New Orleans
had put an end to the right of deposit in that
city, recognized by the Spanish treaty of
1795. The world naturally jumped to the con-
clusion that all these measures were parts of
one great scheme, and that a war with France
was inevitable.

76 JOHN RANDOLPH.

Randolph's position was that of a mere
mouth-piece of the President, and Mr. Jeffer-
son adopted a policy not without inconven-
ience to subordinates. To foreign nations Mr.
Jefferson spoke in ajyery wadika -tone ; at home
^~ ardeiiLly wished to soothe irritation, and to
prevent himself from being driven into a war
distasteful to him. For Mr. Jefferson to act
this double part was not diflBcult; his nature
was versatile, supple, gentle, and not conten-
tious ; for Randolph to imitate him was not so
easy, yet on Randolph the burden fell. He
was commissioned by the government to man-
age the most delicate part of the whole busi-
ness, the action of the House. It was Ran-
dolph who, on December 17, 1802, moved for
the Spanish papers ; forced the House into se-
cret committee, which he emphatically called
" his offspring ; " kept separate the public and
the secret communications from the President;
and held the party together on a peace policy
which the western republicans did not like, in
opposition to the federalists' war policy which
many republicans preferred. Unfortunately,
the debates were mostly secret, and very little
ever leaked out ; this only is certain : the Presi-
dent sent to the House a public and cautious
message, with documents; Randolph carried
the House into secret session to debate them ;

A CENTRALIZING STATESMAN. 77

fchere some administration member, either Ran-
dolph or Nicholson, produced a resolution,
drawn up by Mr. Madison or by the President
himself, appropriating two million dollars " to
defray any expenses which may be incurred in
relation to the intercourse between the United
States and foreign nations ; " this resolution was
referred to a committee, with Nicholson for
chairman, who made a report explaining that
the object of the appropriation was to purchase
East and West Florida and New Orleans, in
preference to making war for them; and, on
the strength of this secret report, the House
voted the money.

The public debate had been running on at
intervals while these secret proceedings were in
hand, but the reports are singularly meagre and
dull. It seems to have been Randolph's policy
to hold his party together by keeping open the
gap between them and the federalists, and these
tactics were not only sound in party policy, but
were suited to his temper and talents. The
federalists wanted war, not so much with Spain
as with Napoleon. Kentucky and Tennessee
wanted it, not because they cared for the
federalists' objects, but because they were
more sure to get the mouth of the Mississippi
by fighting than by temporizing. To prevent
Kentucky and Tennessee from joining the op*

78 JOHN RANDOLPH,

position, it was necessary to repel the federal-
ists, and yet promise war to the western repub-
licans in case the proposed purchase should
fail. No task could be more congenial to Ran-
dolph's mind than that of repelling insidious
advances from federalists. He trounced them
vigorously; showed that they had offered to
sacrifice the navigation of the Mississippi some
years before there had been a federalist party
at all, or even a House of Representatives ;
and after proving their innate wickedness and
the virtues of the party now in power, he con-
cluded, —

" When an administration have formed the design
of subverting the public liberties, of enriching them-
selves or their adherents out of the public purse, or
of crushing all opposition beneath the strong hand
of power, war has ever been the favorite minis-
terial specific. Hence have we seen men in power
too generally inclined to hostile measures, and hence
the opposition have been, as uniformly, the cham-
pions of peace, not choosing to nerve with new vigor,
the natural consequence of war, hands on whose
hearts or heads they were unwilling to bestow their
confidence. But how shall we account for the ex-
ception which is now exhibited to this hitherto re-
ceived maxim ? On the one part the solution is easy.
An administration, under which our country flourishes
beyond all former example, with no sinister views,
seeking to pay o£E the public incumbrances, to lessen

A CENTRALIZING STATESMAN. 79

tlie public burdens, and to leave to each man the en-
joyment of the fruits of his own labor, are there-
fore desirous of peace so long as it can be preserved
consistently with the interests and honor of the coun-
try. On the other hand, what do you see ? Shall I
say an opposition sickening at the sight of the public
prosperity; seeking through war, confusion, and a
consequent derangement of our finances, that aggran-
dizement which the public felicity must forever for-
bid ? No, sir ! My respect for this House and for
those gentlemen forbids this declaration, whilst, at
the same time, I am unable to account on any other
principle for their conduct."

In all this matter, so far as general policy
was concerned, the administration behaved dis-
creetly and well. No fault is to be found with
Randolph, unless, perhaps, the usual one of
temper. In every point of view, peace was the
tsue^^olicy ; forbearance towards Spain proved
to be the proper course ; distrust of the federal-
ists was fully justified. There was no exag-
geration in the picture of public content which
he drew, or in the rage with which the federal-
ists looked at it. The still unknown character
of Napoleon Bonaparte was the only cloud in
the political horizon ; and until this developed
itself there was no occasion for the President to
hazard the success of his pacifi^jiQlicy.

So far as Louisiana was concerned, Ban

80 JOHN RANDOLPH,

dolph's activity seems to have stopped here.
He did his part eflBciently, and supported the
administration even more steadily than usual.
In the other work of the session, he was the
most active member of the House ; all financial
business came under his charge, while much
that was not financial depended on his ap-
proval ; in short, he with his friend Nicholson
and the Speaker controlled legislation.

It is not, however, always easy, or even pos-
sible, to see how far this influence went. One
biographer has said that at this session he spoke
and voted for a bill to prevent the importation
of slaves ; but this was not the case. Some of
the States, alarmed at the danger of being in-
undated with rebel negroes from St. Domingo
and Guadaloupe, had passed laws to protect
themselves, and, in order to make this legisla-
tion effective, a monstrous bill was reported by
a committee of Congress, according to which no
captain of a vessel could bring into the ports
of any State which had passed these laws a
negro, mulatto, or person of color, under penalty
of one thousand dollars for each. No negro or
mulatto, slave or free, fresh from bloody St.
Domingo or from the Guinea coast, whether
born and educated in Paris, a citizen of France,
or a free citizen of the United States, a soldier
of the Revolution, could, under this bill, saii

A CENTRALIZING STATESMAN. 81

into any of these ports without subjecting the
master of his vessel to a fine of one thousand
dollars. Even the collectors of customs were
directed to be governed by the laws of the
States. Such a measure excited opposition.
Leading republicans from the North pointed
out the unconstitutional and impossible nature
of its provisions, and moved its recommitment.
So far as Randolph is concerned, the report
mentions him only as one of those who opposed
recommitment, and insisted on the passage of
the bill as it stood. The. opposition carried its
point; tlie bill was amended and passed on
February 17, 1803. Randolph did not vote on
its passage, although his name appears at the
next division the same day.

He seems to have been beaten again on the
subject of the Mint, which he moved to abolish.
Indeed, after making one strong effort to over-
come opposition to this measure, he was so de-
cidedly defeated that he never touched the
subject again, and ceased to sneer at the " in-
signia of sovereignty." On the other hand, he
carried, without serious opposition, the impor-
tant bill for establishing a fund for schools
and roads out of the proceeds of land sales in
the Northwestern territory, and he shared
with his friend, NicTiolson, the burden of im-
peaching Judge Pickering, whose mental con-
6

82 JOHN RANDOLPH.

dition rendered him incapable of sitting on tho
bench.

With this impeachment, on March 4, 1803,
the session closed. By the federalists, the at-
tack on Judge Pickering was taken as the first
of a series of impeachments, intended to revolu-
tionize the political character of the courts, but
there is nothing to prove that this was then the
intent of the majority. The most obnoxious
justice on the supreme bench was Samuel
Chase of Maryland, whose violence as a polit-
ical partisan had certainly exposed him to the
danger of impeachment; but two years had
now passed without producing any sign of an
intention to disturb him, and it might be sup-
posed that the administration thus condoned
his offences. Unluckily, Judge Chase had not
the good taste or the judgment to be quiet.
He irritated his enemies by new indiscretions,
and on May 13, 1803, nearly three months
after Pickering's impeachment, Mr. Jefferson,
in a letter to Joseph H. Nicholson, suggested
that it would be well to take him in hand : —

"You must have heard of the extraordinary
charge of Chase to the grand jury at Baltimore.
Ought this seditious and official attack on the prin
ciples of our Constitution and on the proceedings of
a State to go unpunished ? And to whom so poin^
edly as yourself will the public look for the neces

A CENTRALIZING STATESMAN. 88

Bary measures ? I ask these questions for your con-
sideration. As for myself, it is better that I should
not interfere."

Accordingly, Nicholson took up the matter,
and consulted his friends, among others Macon,
the Speaker, who, in a letter dated August 6,
1803, expressed grave doubts whether the
judge ought to be impeached for a charge to
the grand jury, and his firm conviction that, if
any attempt at impeachment should be made,
Nicholson, at all events, ought not to be the
leader. On this hint that no candidate for the
judge's oflBce should take the lead, Nicholson
seems to have passed on to Randolph the
charge he had received from the President.

As usual, Randolph passed his summer at
Bizarre. Some of his letters at this period are
preserved, but have no special interest, except
for a single sentence in one addressed to Gal-
latin on June 4, which seems to prove that
Randolph was not very serious in his parade
of devotion to peace. Monroe had been sent
to France to negotiate for the purchase of New
Orleans, while at home not only the press,
but the President, in order to support his nego-
tiation, openly threatened war should he fail.
Randolph said, —

*' T think you wise men at the seat of government

84 JOHN RANDOLPH.

have much to answer for in respect to the temper
prevailing around you. By their fruit shall ye know
them. * Is there something more of system yet intro-
duced among you ? Or are you still in chaos, without
form and void ? Should you have leisure, give me
a hint of the first news from Mr. Monroe. After
all the vaporing, I have no expectation of a serious
war. Tant pis pour nous ! " *

" So much the worse for us I " This sounds
little like his comments on the war policy of
the fed.eralists.

The criticism, too, on the want of system in
the Cabinet reflected on Mr. Jefferson's want of
method and grasp. The President, it seems,
enforced no order in his surroundings, but al-
lowed each cabinet officer to go his own gait,
without consulting the rest. Apparently Gal-
latin shared this opinion, annoyed at his failure
to get Mr. Jefferson's support in efforts to con-
trol waste in the navy.

All this grumbling was idle talk. For this
time, again, Mr. Jefferson's happy star shone
so brightly that cavil and criticism were un-
noticed. Little as Randolph was disposed to
bow before that star, he could not help himself
where such uninterrupted splendor dazzled all
his friends. Within a month after this letter
was written, the news arrived that Monroe had
bought New Orleans; had bought the whole

A CENTRALIZING STATESMAN. 85

west bank of the Mississippi; had bought,
Heaven only knew what I the whole continent I
— excepting only West Florida, which had
been the chief object of his mission.

The efifect of such extraordinary success was
instantaneous. Opposition vanished. The fed-
eralists kept up a sharp fusillade of slander and
abuse, but lost ground every day, and Mr. Jef-
ferson stood at the flood-mark of his immense
popularity and power, while IliijQdi)lpt~»hared
in the prestige thft administration had-garned.
His influence in the House became irresistible,
and his temper more domineering than ever.
In his district he had no rival ; in the House
he overrode resistance. The next session, of
1803-4, was a long series of personal and party
ti'iumphs.

In order to give the new treaty immediate
effect. Congress was called for October 17,
1803. Macon was again chosen Speaker;
Randolph and Nicholson, at the head of the
Ways and Means, were reinforced by Caesar A.
Rodney, who had defeated Bayard in Delaware.
The {louse plunged at once into the Louisiana
business. ATfliougb" the federalists were very
impert'ectly informed, they divined the two
weak points of the treaty : for France had sold
Louisiana witliout consulting Spain* although
the was pledged not to alienate it at all, and

86 JOEN RANDOLPH.

could convey no good title without Spain's as-
sent J sfreiiad' soUTt, too, witli6i rt"defini ng its
boundaries,- and on tfaiS' account Sgain became
again a party to tbe bargain. Spain had pro-
tested against the sale as invalid ; it was to be
expected that, even if she withdrew her protest
against the sale, she would insist on defining the
boundaries to suit herself. The federalists nat-
urally wanted to know what Spain had to say
on the subject, and they moved for the papers.
The republicans were determined not to gratify
them, and Randolph refused the papers.

This was treading very closely in federalist
footsteps, for few acts of the federalists had ex-
cited more criticism than their refusal of papers
in the dispute over Jay's treaty. Randolph
rejected the federalist doctrine that the House
had nothing to do but to carry the treaty into
effect, yet he followed it so closely in practice
that his majority almost rebelled, and even
Nicholson could not be induced to go with him.
This, however, was not all. Only some four
months before, he had written to Gallatin him-
self, the only consistent advocate of peace in
the whole government, that it would be the
worse for us if we had not a serious war. Like
many if not most southern men, he wanted a
war with Spain, and was pacified only by the
assurance that Florida would certainly be oura

A CENTRALIZING STATESMAN, ST^**'

without it. Mr. Jefiferson and Mr. Madison/
Mr. Monroe and Mr. Livingston, had all writ-
ten or said, more or less privately, that under
the treaty a fair claim could be set up to West
Florida as having at one time been included in
Louisiana. There was hardly a shadow of sub-
stance in this assumption, in itself an insult to
Spain, put forward without the sanction of
France, and calculated to erfibarrass relations
with both powers ; yet Randolph, as though in
order to force the hands of government, boldly
stated this shadowy claim as an express title:
*' We have not only obtained the command of
the mouth of the Mississippi, but of the Mobile,
with its widely extended branches, and there is
not now a single stream of note, rising within
the United States and falling into the Gulf of
Mexico, which is not entirely our own, the Ap-
alachicola excepted." On the strength of this
assertion, which he afterwards confessed to be
unfounded, he reported a bill which authorized
the President, whenever he should deem it
expedient, " to erect the shores, waters, and
inlets of the bay and river of Mobile, and
of the other rivers, creeks, inlets, and bays
emptying into the Gulf of Mexico east of the
said river Mobile," into a collection district of
the United States, with ports of entry and with
the necessary officers of revenue. This bill

88 JOHN RANDOLPH,

passed through Congress and was signed by the
President, although it actually annexed by
statute the whole coast of Florida on the Gulf.
As for Spain, Randolph ignored her existence ;
he considered her right of reclaniatiuii as 'not
worth notice. NotTnng could have tended more
directly to bring on the war, which "the " act in-
directly authorized the President to begin.

Nevertheless, there was one pT3int in this
Louisiana business which Randolph, of all liv-
ing men, was most certain to mark and expose.
Mr. Jefferson had instantly seen it, and had
lost no time in explaining it to his confidants.
What effect would tlie acquisition end the mode
of acquisition have upon states' rights and on
th^_ Cozxatitntion ? No one could doubt the
answer, for it was plain that t he Louisiana
purchase, in every possible point of view, was
fatal^to s t a t es ^ l!^^^^* ^^^m the grouTid which
Mr. Jefferson and his friends had consistently
taken, the_Const_itution_."viaa.jaci2arefulIy con-
sidered compact between certain States, with a
view to traion for certain defined objects ; any
measure likely to alter the fixed relations and
the established balances of the Constitution
without an amendment required the consent of
all the parties; it might jeyen be jumped, as
Timothy Pickering actually did assert, that in
an extreme case a State liad The righrto treat

A CENTRALIZING STATESMAN, 89

the Constitution as abrogated if the status were
altereH against he r single w ill. TheXoimiana
purchase w as such an extreme ease. No one
doubted, and Randolph least of all, that it com-
pletely changed the conditions of the constitu-
tional compact; ren'deriiig"'£he nation, inde-
pejadent of the "Slates," master of an eiiipire
immensely greater than the States themselves ;
pledging the nation m effect loth^ admission
of indefinite new States; insuring an ultimate
transfer of power from the old original parties
in the compact to the new States, thus forced
on their society ; and foreboding the destruction
of states' rights by securing ^'majority of
States, without traditions, history, or character,
the mere creatures of the general government,
thousands of miles from the old Union, inhab-
ited in 1803, so far as the territory was popu-
lated at all, only by Frenchmen, Spaniards, or
Indians, and fitted by climate and conditions for
a people different from that of the Atlantic sea-
board. There was, indeed, no end to the list
of instances in which this jmrchase affected the
original TTnmp No federalist measure had ever
approached it in constitutional importance. The
whole lisfoT questionalble Tederalist* precedents
was insignificant beside this one act.

By what authority was the Union to put on
this new' character and to accept this destiny,

90 JOHN RANDOLPB,

of which no man had an idea on July 3, 1803,
and which was an accomplished fact on the
next day? Who did it? Itjvasthejperfectly
indepe ndent act of Pr esident Jeff erson and
twen ty-six sen ators. This constitutional cata-
clysm w as eff ected 15ytlie"Tfeaty-ma£ing power.
Congress had not been otherwise "consulted ; the
StafgriTad-tw>t'45een Canea;,u|^^ other

way to assent; tTie central government, not the
S tates, was party "fo'fhe neWTJnrrfcrftet.

Mr. Jefferson, Tn' this far-reaching action,
scandalized even himself. "The Executive,"
said he, " has done an act beyond fheTJonstitu-
tion. The legislature must ratify it, and throw
themselves on the country for an act of indem-
nity." He drew the necessary amendment to
the Constitution, consulting his Cabinet, and
getting oflBcial opinions ; writing to his friends,
and soon receiving letters in reply. Shocked to
find that his party, perverted by the possession
of power, would not hear of amending the Con-
stitution or seeking indemnity, he supplicated
them to listen to him : " Qur peculiar security
is in the possession of a written Constitution.
Let us not make it a blank paper Xy co nstruc-
tion." He said that this new rule jpf construc-
tion abolished the Constitution*— His^supportera
persisted in their own contrary opinion, and in
the end he acq^uiesced.

A CENTRALIZING STATESMAN, 91

Randolph was probably the most thorough-
going states'-rights man in the republican party, ^
for he had assailed Patrick Henry, and was
one day to stand by Calhoun on this favorite
creed. So extreme were his views that at a
later period he boasted of having never voted
for the admission of any new State into the
Union, not even for that of Ohio in the session
of 1802. Now that the federalists were out of
office, they too had become alive to the impor-
tance of this principle, for, at bottom, Massachu- ^ ^v-
setts^as as jeidous as Virginia of any stretch ^
of ^ower like! 3^ to weaken her influence. The
federalist leaderj in Congress, accomingly, now
attacked the administration for exceeding its
powers, and Mr. Griswdld of TTewTToi-k* in a
temperate and reasonable speech, took precisely
the ground which Mr. Jefferson had taken in
his private letters, that the annexation of Lou-
isiana and its inhabitan tsjby. treaty ,iKaka.plain
violation of the Constitution. Randolph re-
plied, and the reply was a curious commentary
on his past and future political life. Not a
word fell from his lips which could be con-
strued into a states'-rights sentiment. He who
had raged with the violence of a wild animal
against the constitutional theories of Wash-
ington and John Adams did not whisper a re-
monstrance against this new assumption of

92 JOHN RANDOLPH.

power, which, according to Mr. JeflEerson, made
blank paper of the Constitution, j ig adv anced
an astonishing argiimjnt_tp show th at a ri ght
to acijuire territory must exist, because the na^
tional boundaries in certain directions, under
the treaty of 1783, were, disputed or 3oubtful,
and because the government had obtained ter-
ritory at Natchez and elsewhere without rais-
ing the question. The federalists, he said, had
wanted to seize New Orleans by force, and
were therefore estopped from reasoning that it
could not be annexed by treaty. The condi-
tions of acquisition, moreover, being a part of
the price, were involved in the right to acquire ;
for if the Constitution covered the right to pur-
chase territory, it covered also the price to be
paid for that territory^ whether this included
the naturalization of the inhabitants or special
privileges to foreign nations. Acting doubtless
under the advice and instructions of Mr. Mad-
ison, he denied that there was any unconstitu-
tional stipulation in the treaty ; he even denied
that the pledge given in it, that " the inhabit-
ants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated
in the Union," meant that they should be in-
corporated into the Union of States, or that the
further pledge, that they should be " admitted
as soon as possible, according to the principles
of the federal Constitution, to the enjoyment oi

A CENTRALIZING STATESMAN,] 93

all the rights, advantages, and immunities of
citizens of the United States," meant that they
were to enjoy any political rights.

If this reasoning satisfied Randolph, it should
certainly Lave pleased those who had labored
for fifteen years, against the bitterest opposition
from Randolph and his friends, to strengthen
the national government; buj; how Mr. Ran-
dolph, after making such an argument," could
ever again claim credit as a champion of states'
riglits is a question whicli he alone could answer.
Under such rules of construction, according to
Mr. Jefiferson's view, the President and two
thirds of the senators might abolish the States
themselves and make serfs of every Randolph
in Virginia, as indeed, some sixty years after-
wards, was done. This is no captious criticism.
Mr. Jefferson's language is emphatic. He de-
clared that thi& cou&truction "would make our
powers boundless," and it did so. Randolph
himself acknowledged his mistake. " We were
forewarned I " he cried in 1822. " I for one,
although forewarned, was not forearmed. If I
bad been, I have no hesitation in declaring that
I would have said to the imperial Dejanira of
modern times, ' Take beck your fatal present I ' "
From this moment it became folly to deny that
die general government was the measure of its
own powers, for Randolph's own act had changed

94 JOHN RANDOLPH,

theory into fact, and he could no more undo
what he had done than he could stop the earth
in its revolution.

Having swallowed without even a grimace
this enormous camel, Randolph next strained
at a gnat. A bill came down from the Senate
authorizing the President to take possession of
the new territory and to exercise all the pow-
ers of government until Congress should make
provision on the subject. Of course the au-
thority thus conveyed was despotic, but so was
the purchase itself; circumstances allowed no
delay, and the President was properly responsi-
ble for his trust, which would last only so long
as Congress permitted. Randolph, however,
was vigilant in his watchfulness against the
danger of executive encroachments. "If we
give this power out of our hands, it may be
irrevocable until Congress shall have mad©
legislative provision; that is, a single branch
of the government, the executive branch, with
a small minority of either House, may prevent
its resumption." Had he refused to confer this
dictatorial power at all, he would at least have
had a principle to support him, but he was
ready to approve despotic principles for four
months, till the session ended, though not a
moment longer. In the end he allowed the
President to govern Louisiana with the powers

A CENTRALIZING STATESMAN. 95

of a King of Spain until a rebellion became im
minent.

Of other measures, only two were of enough
interest to deserve notice. While the regu-
lar business of the session went on, exacting
that attention which the chairman of Ways
and Means must always expect to give, two
subjects came before the House, which were
to decide Randolph's future career, — the im-
peachment of Judge Chase and the Yazoo
claims. Thus far all had gone well with him ;
his influence had steadily increased with every
year of his service ; his control over the House
was great, for among the republicans who
obeyed his lead, there was not a single mem-
ber competent to dispute it. Already the fed-
eralists dreaded this aristocratic democrat, who,
almost alone in his party, had the ability and
the courage to act upon his theories ; and they
looked on with a genuine feeling of terror, as
though they saw in his strange and restless face
a threat of social disaster and civil anarchy,
when, with the whole power of the administra-
tion behind him and a majority of two to one
in the House, he rose in his place to move the
impeachment of Judge Chase. /

CHAPTER V.

VAULTING AMBITION.

There is nothing to show that Randolpli was
the real author of Judge C hasers 3mpgf^f;>h"^<^"^' ;
on the contrary, it appears from the letters al-
ready quoted that Mr. Jefferson himself was
the man who set this engine in rngtion, and
that it was Nicholson through whom the Presi-
dent acted. Nicholson impeached Judge Pick-
ering, and was the only prominent manager
in that cause, of which he was now in charge.
Nicholson, too, had made all the preparations
for this second, more serious exercise of the im-
peaching power. However readily the" scheme
may have fallen in with Randolph's wishes and
prejudices, it was certainly Nicholson who urged
him to action, and provided him with such law
as he could not do without. Properly, there-
fore, the credit or discredit of the measure
should have fallen upon Nicholson and Mr.
Jefferson, but Randolph willingly relieved them
of the load.

Judge Chase's recent charge to the Balti-
more grand jury in May, 1803, offensive as it

VAULTING AMBITION, 97

certainly was, seemed hardly such a high crime
or misdemeanor as to render his conviction cer-
tain, and the impeachers thought it safer to
strengthen their cause by alleging other of-
fences of earlier date. Yet Chase had sat on
the bench and administered justice for three
years since Mr. Jefferson's election without a
sign of impeachment, and without complaint
from the suitors in his court. To go back
four years, and search old court records for
offences forgotten and condoned, was awk-
ward. Could the impeachers excuse themselves
and their House for permitting this notorious
criminal to wear his robes and expound the
Constitution and the laws for so many years,
without an attempt on their part to relieve a
groaning people from the tyranny of a worse
than Jeffries or Scroggs? Could the House
venture to set out on this crusade against a co-
ordinate and independent, branch of the govern-
ment, without at least an invitation from the
Executive ? Mr. Jefferson, however, would not
bum his fingers in such a flame. " As for my-
self, it is better that I should not interfere."
Nicholson and Randolph were hot-headed men I
They had the courage of their convictions, and
they accepted the difficult task.

Mr, Jefferson was a little too apt to evade
open responsibility ; the number of instances

7

98 JOHN RANDOLPH,

in which he encouraged others to do what he
would not do himself is so large as to strike
even careless attention. He would have shud-
dered at the idea of betraying friends, but it is
not to be denied that a sanguine temperament
and perfect faith in his own honest purposes
sometimes caused him to lead those friends
into difficulties from which, in case of failure,
he could not extricate them. Had Randolph
been a wise or cautious man, he would have
insisted that nothing should induce him to
touch the impeachment until the President
had sent to the House some official message,
as in the case of Judge Pickering, upon which
an inquiry might be founded. Being neither
wise nor cautious, but on the contrary deeply
jealous oT~Mr. Jefferson an3 Tiis* interference,
Randolph~~Tmdertook to act aloneT^ Perhaps,
li£e many another man, his mind was over-
mastered by the splendor of the Hastings
trial, then so recent, which has dazzled the
good sense of many politicians ; perhaps he was
deluded by the ambition to rival his great
teacher, Edmund Burke; but more probably
he was guided only by the political faith of his
youth, by the influence of Nicholson, and his
own impatient temper.

On January 5, 1804, Randolph rose to move
for an inquiry into the conduct of Judge Chase*

VAULTING AMBITION. 99

No official document existed on which to found
Buch a motion, and he condescended to act a
Kttle comedy, not so respectful to the House
or the country as might have been expected
from a Eandolph, whose sense of truth and
honor was keen. In the course of the last ses-
sion, a bill had been introduced to change the
circuits, by which Judge Chase was assigned to
that of Pennsylvania, and one of the Pennsyl-
vanian members, John Smilie, made a speech
on February 16, 1803, in connection with this
bill. In order to explain why Mr. Chase should
be put on some other circuit, where he would
not be obnoxious to the bar and the people, he
recalled the well-known stories of Chase's arbi-
trary conduct at the trial of Fries in April,
1800. These remarks were of so little impor-
tance in Mr. Smilie's mind that he put no
weight upon them except for the passing object
they were meant to serve. The idea of im-
peachment did not enter his head.

There was, therefore, a certain grimace of
fun in the solemnity with which Randolph now
rose and said that Mr. Smilie's remarks on that
occasion and the facts stated by him were of
such a nature as the House was bound to
notice. " But the lateness of the session (for
we had, if I mistake not, scarce a fortnight re-
maining) precluding all possibility of bringing

100 JOHN RANDOLPH.

the subject to any efficient result, I did not then
think proper to take any steps in the business.
Finding my attention, however, thus drawn to
a consideration of the character of the officer
in question, I made it my business, considering
it ray duty as well to myself as to those whom
I represent, to investigate the charges then
made, and the official character of the judge in
general."

Mr. Smilie was a very respectable but not
very weighty member of the House, and this
sudden elevation to the rank of public accuser,
which Mr. Jefferson, if any one, could alone fill
with sufficient authority, was a stroke of Ran-
dolph's wit, characteristic of the man. As for
the whole statement with which Randolph intro-
duced his motion, it is curious chiefly because it
is, to say the least, inconsistent with the facts.
Mr. Smilie's speech had no more than the ora-
tion of Cicero against Clodius to do with Ran-
dolph's sudden zeal. Smilie's speech was made
on February 16, 1803 ; Chase's address to the
grand jury at Baltimore was made nearly three
months afterwards, on May 2, 1803; and it was
only then that the idea of impeachment was
suggested. Yet this invocation of Smilie in
place of Mr. Jefferson was less amusing than
the coolness with which the speaker required
llie House to believe that his only knowledge

VAULTING AMBITION. 101

of Judge Chase's conduct at the trial of Fries
was derived from a few remarks made in Con-
gress three years after the offence. The trial of
Fries had taken place in Philadelphia, in April,
1800, within twenty rods of the building where
Randolph was then sitting as a member of Con-
gress, and excited great attention, especially
among the members, many of whom were pres-
ent at it ; Mr. Dallas, the most prominent re-
publican lawyer in the State, closely connected
with all the leaders of his party, acted as coun-
sel for Fries, and threw up his brief on account
of the judge's conduct ; William Lewis, one of
the best lawyers Pennsylvania ever had, and a
federalist by previous tastes, was also in the
case and guided the course of Dallas : yet, in
spite of this notoriety, and the dissensions aft-
erwards caused by President Adams's pardon
of Fries, Randolph still asserted that the sub-
ject was new lo him, when Mr. Smilie, in
February, 1803, made his passing allusion to
it. " It is true that the deliberations of Con-
gress were then held in Philadelphia, the scene
of this alleged iniquity, but, with other mem-
bers, I was employed in discharging my du-
ties to my constituents, not in witnessing in
any court the triumph of my principles. I
could not have been so employed." Even if
fchis were true, did his ignorance excuse the in*

102 JOHN RANDOLPH.

action of his whole party ? Or would his ef-
frontery go so far as to assert that he and his
friends had never heard of Callender's trial at
Richmond, which was to constitute other counts
in the indictment ?

Mr. Smilie, thus put forward as official ac-
cuser, told his story over again. Without other
evidence, after a long debate, the inquiiy was
ordered, and Randolph, with his friend Nich-
olson, was put at the head of the committee.
On March 26, 1804, they reported seven arti-
cles of impeachment: the first and second
covering the case of Fries ; the third, fourth,
and fifth that of Callender ; the sixth that of
Judge Chase's refusal to discharge the grand
jury at Newcastle in June, 1800, until they
should have indicted a Delaware printer ; and,
the seventh embracing that charge to the grand
jury at Baltimore in May, 1803, which had
stirred up President Jefferson io set the whole
movement afoot. With this the session ended,
and the trial went over to the next year.

The Yazoo claims came before the House in
the regular course of business. The story of
these claims is long and complicated, but it is so
closely entwined with the thread of Randolph's
life that to omit or slur it would be to sever
the connection of events, and to miss one of the
decisive moments of his career.

VAULTING AMBITION. 103

The rescinding act, already mentioned as
passed by the State of Georgia in the year 1796
at the time when Randolph was visiting his
friend Bryan, did not end the matter of the Ya-
zoo grants, and the very pains taken to fortify
that act by incorporating it in the state Consti-
tution showed doubt as to its legality. The
companies had, in fact, paid their money, ob-
tained their grants, and sold considerable por-
tions of the land to private individuals through-
out the Union ; and these persons, in their turn,
wherever there was money to be made by it,
had transferred the property to others. _Awild
speculation followed involving some two mil-
lion dollars in Massachusetts alone. Were the
companies and these third parties innocent
purchasers ? Were they, or any of them, igno-
rant that tEeTtitTe of Georgia to the lands in
question was doubtful, that the grants had been
obtained l)y corruption, and that the State of
GeorgiaTwould certainly revoke them ? The
only evidence that the purchasers knew their
risk was that the companies in all cases de-
clined to give a warranty as against any defect
in their title from the State of Georgia.

When Georgia rescinded and expunged the
act of 1795, a certain number of the purchasers
surrendered their titles and received back their
money. The United States government next

104 JOHN RANDOLPH.

intervened as protector of the Indians, who
actually owned and occupied the land ; and at
length, in 1802, Mr. JeflEerson succeeded in ob-
taining from^ Georgia the cession of such rights
as she had over all that vast territory which
now makes the States of Alabama^j-nd Mis-
sissippi. The purchasers under the Yazoo
grants who still clung to their titles gave due
notice of their claims, and the law which au-
thorized the treaty of cession provided for
a compromise with these claimants. The
Secretary of State, Mr. Madison, the Sec-
retary of the Treasury, Mr. Gallatin, and the
Attorney-General, Mr. Levi Lincoln, commis-
sioners for arranging the terms of settlement,
reported, on February, 14, 1803, that although
in their opinion the title of the claimants
could not be supported, yet they believed that
" the interest of the United States, the tran-
quillity of those who may hereafter inhabit
that country, and various equitable considera-
tions which may be urged in favor of most of
the present claimants " rendered it expedient
to enter into a compromise on reasonable terms.
They proposed, therefore, that five million
acres be set aside, within which, under certain
restrictions, the claimants might locate the
quantity of land allotted to them, or from the
sale of which they were to receive certificates

VAULTING AMBITION. 105

for tLeir proportion of the proceeds, something
like one sixth or one eighth of their claim.

Thus the matter now stood, and it should be
mentioned, by way of parenthesis, that when,
in 1810, the subject came before the Supreme
Court, in the case of Fletcher against Peck,
Chief Justice Marshall delivered the opinion of
the court that the legislature of Georgia had,
by its act of 1795 and its grants of land, exe-
cuted a contract with the claimants ; that the
rescinding act of 1796 impaired the obligation
of that contract, and was therefore repugnant
to the Constitution of the United States ; that
it could not devest the rights acquired under
the contract ; and that the court would not
enter into an inquiry respecting the corruption
of a sovereign State.

It is plain, therefore, that any one who in-
tended to resist the Yazoo claims had a diffi-
cult task on his hands. The President, Mr.
Madison, Mr. Gallatin, and Mr. Lincoln were
against him ; several acts of Congress stood
in his way; the Supreme Court was behind
him, ready to trip him up; a very large num-
ber of most respectable citizens were petition-
ers for the settlement. The compromise sug-
gested would cost nothing to Georgia, for she
had given the lands to the United States, and
would cost nothing to the United States, for

106 JOHN RANDOLPH.

they held the lands' as a gift from Georgia. A
refusal to compromise would throw the whole
matter into the courts, with the result of retard-
ing settlement, multiplying expenses, and prob-
ably getting in the end an adverse decision.
It would create serious political ill-feeling in
the party, and on the other hand, wbat possible
object could be gained by it ?

Randolph was equal to the occasion. On
February 20, 1804, he opened his attack on
the commissioners' report by moving a string
of resolutions: fir^Jthat the Georgia legisla-
ture had not the power^of "alienating territory
*'but in a rightful manner and for tKe public
good;" second, that it is "the inalienable
right of a people" to abrogate ftB-«o4- passed
with bad motives, to the public detriment ; the
third and fourth recited the circumstances of
the case ; the next affirmed the right of a legis-
lature to repeal the act of a preceding legisla-
ture, " provided such repeal be not forbidden by
the Constitution of such State, or of the United
States ; " the sixth affirmed that the rescind-
ing act of Georgia " was forbidden neither by
the Constitution of that State, nor by that of
the United States ; " the seventh declared that
the claims had not been recognized either in
the cession by Georgia, or in any act of the
federal government ; and the last forbade any

VAULTING AMBITION. 107

part of the reserved five million acres to be
used in satisfying the claims.

These resolutions covered the whole ground ;
they swept statements of fact, principles of law,
theories of the Constitution, considerations of
equity, like a flock of sheep into one fold to be
sheared. Randolph, too, was in deadly earnest,
and in his most domineering temper. When he
saw that the Committee of the Whole showed
signs of evading a vote on his resolutions, he
stood over them like an Egyptian task-master,
and cracked his whip as though they were his
own negroes. " No course that can be pursued
shall prevent me from bringing out the sense
of the House. Whether the question on these
resolutions shall be attempted to be got rid of
by the previous question, or by a postpone-
ment, I will have the sense of the House ex-
pressed to the public ; for this is one of the
cases which, once being engaged in, I can never
desert or relinquish till I shall have exercised
every energy of mind and faculty of body I
possess in refuting so nefarious a project." He
was warmly supported, and as warmly opposed.
" Persons of every political description," said
he, " are marshalled in support of these claims.
We have had to contend against the bear of the
arctic and the lion of the torrid zone." Mat-
thew Lyon, once a martyr to the sedition law,

108 JOHN RANDOLPH.

the inan most famous as having spit in Roger
Gris wold's face and rolled with him on the
floor of the House, was in fact a supporter of
the compromise; and being a man of strong
sense and courage, did not shrink from Ran-
dolph's whip. He made a sensible speech
in reply to this challenge, keeping his temper
on this occasion at least. At length, after two
days' debate, a vote was reached, not on the
question of adopting, but of postponing, the
resolutions. On the first Randolph defeated
his opponents by the narrowest possible ma-
jority, 62 to 61. On all the others he was
beaten by majorities varying from 2 to 7, and
after this postponement of his other resolutions
he himself acquiesced in abandoning the first.
The object he had in view was gained ; he had
forced the House to delay legislation for an-
other year.

If, now, the "^^azo^^ffair be considered with-
out prejudice or feeling, it must be acknowl-
edged to involve a sedoijs _doubt. Th at Ran-
dolph was right need iiotJia ^argued ; that he
was wholly in the wrong is not to be lightly
admitted. The people qLiJeoIgia^b^heved
themselves betrayed by their agents, who had,
in their name, entered into a contract against
public interest, induced., thereto- Hijt— corrupt
motives. Were the people to be forever bound

VAULTING AMBITION, 109

by tibe corrupt and dangerous bargain of their
representatives ?

They had instantly, publicly, violently dis-
avowed thbse^agents_jiiidjre£ucrra act,
calling upon all the parties who had meanwhile
pai9 value foT tords,""under the obnoxious
grants, to receive bacE their money and sur-
render their tltTesT^ What "mo re "Cglild * they
have done ? What more should they be re-
quired to do ?

In 1796, and even in 1804, the law was not
yet decided. The case of Fletcher against
Peck, that of Terrett against Taylor, and the
still more famous Dartmouth College case, lay
in the breast of Chief Justice Marshall, waiting
till Mr. JeflEerson's day should be over. Yet,
even now, with all the weight of those decisions
and many more, it is hard for laymen to sur-
render their judgment on this subject. "Were
a state legislature to-day bribed by a great
railroad company to confer a grant of exclu§ive
privileges, fatal to the public interests, for a
nominal consideration, It'^WOTld be dangerous
to jbhe public safety to affirm that the people
could nev er free themselves from this servitude.
To overcome the 3iffictrlty-by resorting to some
theory like that of eminent domain is merely
John Randolph's proposition under another
{orm ; it is state sovereignty, to which we must

110 JOHN RANDOLPH.

come at last. Was it not simpler to assume at
once an implied right, in every grant, to alter or
amend it, if contrary to puBTic' interest ? "Was
it politically safe, even though legally correct,
to make this hazardous experiment of tying
the limbs of sovereignty with the thin threads
of judge-made law?

Randolph's resolutions turned on state sov-
ereignty, but when he came to debate he used
a weapon more effective for the moment, be-
cause states' rights sound less persuasively in
the ears of the party in power than in those of
the opposition. He denounced the Yazoo set-
tlement as a corrupt job, to be forcgdJJirough
Congress by an interested lobby, and declared,
doubtless with perfect honesty, that the purity
of government was gone forever if tJiis gross
outrage on 'decency ^vvere to ^UCCped. In tak-
ing this position, Randolph was consistent ; he
stood on solid party ground, opposing a combi-
nation of northern democrats, federalists, and
executive influence, which he thought corrupt.
To do this required no little courage, and if
there were selfish or personal motives behind
his action they are not to be seen. If he
struck at Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison, he
struck also at Mr. Gallatin, his strongest friend;
and if he made enemies of the northern dem-
ocrats, it was because he knew the weakness

VAULTING AMBITION, 111

of their party principles. Mean ambition does
not work in such paths ; only a classical, over-
towering love of rule thus ventures to defy the
opinion of others. Had Randolph wanted of-
fice he would, like Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Mad-
ison, have conciliated the northern democrats
and smoothed the processes of corruption; he
would have shut his eyes to what was going
on in the lobby, well aware that his blind war
against his party must do more harm than good.
OflBce he did not want, and he willingly flung
his chances away, but only to grasp at the
higher, moral authority of a popular tribune.
He believed that the administration, backed by
northern democrats, was forgetting the princi-
ples on which it had claimed and won confi-
dence and power ; he foresaw an over-powerful
Executive purchasing influence by jobs 'and
p atronage, Gh o eApcilunc eof all past ages, and ■
falTTiTg'^ last into the hands of a Caesar or a
Bonaparte. In his eyes, all the easy roads of
doubtful virtue led to this. Debt, taxes, ar-
mies, navies, and offices of every sort ; executive
intermeddling, legislative jobs, and all expen-
diture of any kind that fed an interest ; all
assumptions of power, all concessions to influ-
ential fraud, were mere steps to Roman degra-
dation. Madman he may have been, but his
madness had a strong element of reason and

112 JOHN RANDOLPH.

truth. He told his party that they were going
wrong; the time was near at hand when he
was to tell them that he could no longer share
their ofl&ces and honors.

Thus far, although touching the extreme limit
of propriety in the manner of his opposition,
he had not passed beyond bounds, and, what
told most in his favor, he won his single-handed
battle ; the path of compromise was blocked,
and he himself was now a great political power,
for never before had any man, living or dead,
fought such a fight in Congress, and won it.
Feared by the federalists for having by an
arbitrary act, avowedly his owD^IoIiifSa^ed
Judge Chase for offences long ago tacitly con-
doned, he was still more formidable to~TS[r.
Jefferson and the Cabinet. Witli such"~3i5ta-
torial power over the House of Representa-
tives, what might he not do should he oppose a
vital measure of the administration, as he had
resisted theJYazoo compromise? Even at this
early moment, shrewd observers might cal-
culate the orbit of this political comet, and
no extraordinary knowledge of mathematics
was needed to show them where to look for a
coming collision.

The session, however, was now at an end,
fmd Randolph buried himself again at Bizarre.
As a curiosity, the following extracts from a

VAULTING AMBITION, 113

letter written by him to Joseph H. Nicholson,
on August 27, 1804, are worth reading/ The
famous duel between Aaron Burr and Al-
exander Hamilton had just taken place, and
Burr's political ruin, caused chiefly by the en-
mity of De Witt Clinton and by the bitter per-
secution of De Witt Clinton's newspaper, the
" American Citizen," edited by an Englishman
named Cheetham, was the excitement of the
day.

EAKDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

" I have not seen, although I have heard, of the
attack which you mention, upon Gallatin, in the
* Aurora.' That paper is so long in reaching me,
and, moreover, is so stuflfed with city, or rather sub-
urb, politics, that I seldom look at it. Indeed, I
have taken a disgust at newspapers ever since the
deception and disappointment which I felt in the case
of Langdon*s election. If the ' Boston Chronicle,'
published almost upon the spot, should so grossly mis-
represent a plain matter of fact, so easily ascertained,
what reliance can be placed upon a newspaper state-
ment ? My incredulity refused to credit Hamilton's
death, which I thought it very likely would be contra-
dicted by the next mail ; and, until I saw Morris's
wretched attempt at oratory, regarded it merely as a
matter of speculation. You ask my opinion on that
subject; it differs but little, I believe, from your
own. I feel for Hamilton's immediate connections
real concern ; for himself, nothing ; for his party axid
8

114 JOHN RANDOLPH.

those soi-dtsant republicans who have been shedding
crocodile tears over him, contempt. The first are
justly punished for descending to use Burr as a tool
to divide their opponents ; the last are hypocrites, who
deify Hamilton merely that they may offer up their
enemy on his altars. If Burr had not fallen, like Lu-
cifer, never to rise again, the unprincipled persecution
of Cheetham might do him service. (By the way, I
wonder if Dennie adverted to Cheelham's patronage
of General Hamilton's memory, when he said that,
* except the imported scoundrel,' etc., etc., all bewailed
his loss.) As it is, those publications are calculated to
engage for him the pity even of those who must deny
their esteem. The people, who ultimately never fail
to make a proper decision, abhor persecution, and
while they justly refuse their confidence to Mr. Burr,
they will detest his oppressors. They cannot, they
will not, grope in the vile mire of seaport politics, not
less vitiated than their atmosphere. Burr's is indeed
an irreparable defeat. He is cut off from all hope
of a retreat among the federalists, not so much be-
cause he has overthrown their idol as because he
cannot answer their purpose. If his influence were
sufficient to divide us, Otis and Morris would to-mor-
row, ere those shoes were old in which they followed
Hamilton to the grave, go to the hustings and vote
for Burr ; and if his character had no other stain
upon it than the blood of Hamilton, he should have
mine, for any secondary office. I admire his letters,
particularly that signed by Van Ness, and think his
whole conduct in that affair does him honor. How

VAULTING AMBITION. 115

macli it 18 to be regretted that so nice a perception
of right and wrong, so delicate a sense of propri-
ety, as he there exhibits should have had such little
influence on his general conduct ! In his correspon-
dence with Hamilton, how visible is his ascendency
over him, and how sensible does the latter appear
of it ! There is an apparent consciousness of some
inferiority to his enemy displayed by Hamilton
throughout that transaction, and from a previous
sight of their letters I could have inferred the issue
of the contest. On one side there is labored obscu-
rity, much equivocation, and many attempts at eva-
sion, not unmixed with a little blustering ; on the
other, an unshaken adherence to his object and an
undeviating pursuit of it, not to be eluded or baffled.
It reminded me of a sinking fox pressed by a vigor-
ous old hound, where no shift is permitted to avail
him. But perhaps you think me inclined to do Burr
more than justice. I assure you, however, that
when I first saw the correspondence, and before my
feelings were at all excited for the man, as they have
been in some degree by the savage yell which has
been raised against him, I applauded the spirit and
admired the style of his compositions. They are the
first proof which I ever saw of his ability."

One more letter is worth a little attention.
The Louisiana business was rapidly taking a new
phase. The Spanish minister at Washington,
the Marquis of Casa Yrujo, irritated by the
cavalier manner in which his country had been

116 JOHN RANDOLPH.

treated, made himself very disagreeable to Mr.
Madison, and in return was charged by William
Jackson, editor of the " Political Register," of
Philadelphia, with an attempt to corrupt the
press by Spanish gold. Mr. Charles Pinckney
of South Carolina, our minister at Madrid, had,
without the authority of government, under-
taken to break off his relations with the gov-
ernment of Spain. W. C. C. Claiborne, the new
Governor of Louisiana, had managed to irritate
Kew Orleans. The British frigates Cambrian
and Leander were searching every vessel that
entered or left the harbor of New York, and
seizing men and ships without mercy. It is
well to know what Randolph, in his private
talk, had to say about matters so loudly dis-
cussed by him at a later time.

On October 14, 1804, he wrote from Bizarre
to the Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gal-r
latin : —

RANDOLPH TO GALLATIN.

" On my return from Fredericksburg, after a rac-
•jig campaign, I was very agreeably accosted by your
truly welcome letter, to thank you for which, and not
because I have anything, stable news excepted, to
communicate, I now take up the pen. It is some
satisfaction to me, who have been pestered with in-
quiries that I could not answer on the subject of
public affairs, to find that the Chancellor of the Ex

VAULTING AMBITION. 117

chequer and First Lord of the Treasury is in as com-
fortable a state of ignorance as myself. Pope says of
governments, that is best which is best administered.
What idea, then, could he have of a government
which was not administered at all ? The longer I
live, the more do I incline to somebody's opinion
that there is in the affairs of this world a mechanism
of which the very agents themselves are ignorant,
and which, of course, they can neither calculate nor
control. As much free will as you please in every-
thing else, but in politics I must ever be a necessita-
rian. And this comfortable doctrine saves me a deal
of trouble and many a twinge of conscience for my
heedless ignorance. I therefore leave Major Jackson
and his Ex. of Casa Yrujo to give each other the lie
in Anglo-American or Castilian fashions, just as it
suits them, and when people resort to me for intelli-
gence, instead of playing the owl and putting on a face
of solemn nonsense, I very fairly tell them, with per-
fect nonchalance, that I know nothing of the matter,
— from which, if they have any discernment, they
may infer that I care as little about it, — and then
change the subject as quickly as I can to horses, dogs,
the plough, or some other upon which I feel myself
competent to converse. In short, I like originality
too well to be a second-hand politician when I can
help it. It i? enough to live upon the broken vict-
tials and be tricked out in the cast-off finery of you
first-rate statesmen all the winter. When I cross the
Potomac I leave behind me all the scraps, shreds, and
patches of politics which I collect during the session.

118 JOHN RANDOLPH,

and put on the plain homespun, or, as we say, the
* Virginia cloth,' of a planter, which is clean, whole,
and comfortable, even if it be homely. Neverthe-
less, I have patriotism enough left to congratulate
you on the fullness of the public purse, and cannot
help wishing that its situation could be concealed
from our Sangrados in politics, with whom depletion
is the order of the day. On the subject of a navy, you
know my opinion concurs with yours. I really feel
ashamed for my country, that whilst she is hector-
ing before the petty corsairs of the coast of Barbary,
she should truckle to the great pirate of the Ger-
man Ocean ; and I would freely vote a naval force
that should blow the Cambrian and Leander out of
water. Indeed, I wish Barron's squadron had been
employed on that service. I am perfectly aware
of the importance of peace to us, particularly with
Great Britain, but I know it to be equally necessary
to her ; and in short, if we have any honor as a na-
tion^to lose, which is problematical, I am unwilling
to surrender it.

" On the subject of Louisiana *you are also ap-
prised that my sentiments coincide with your own,
and it is principally because of that coincidence that
I rely upon their correctness. But as we have the
misfortune to differ from that great political luminary,
Mr. Matthew Lyon, on this as well as on most other
points, I doubt whether we shall not be overpowered.
If Spain be 'fallen from her old Castilian faith^
candor^ and dignity,* it must be allowed that we
have been judicious in our choice of a minister to

VAULTING AMBITION, 119

negotiate with her ; and Louisiana, it being presum-
able, partaking something of the character which dis
tinguished her late sovereign when she acquired that
territory, the selection of a pompous nothing for a
Governor, will be admitted to have been happy. At
least, if the appointment be not defensible on that
principle, I am at a loss to discover any other tenable
point. In answer to your question I would advise
the printing of — thousand copies of Tom Paine's
answer to their remonstrance, and transmitting them
by as many thousand troops, who can speak a lan-
guage perfectly intelligible to the people of Louisi-
ana, whatever that of their Governor may be. It is,
to be sure, a little awkward, except in addresses
and answers, where each party is previously well ap-
prised of what the other has to say, that whilst the
eyes and ears of the admiring Louisianians are filled
with the majestic person and sonorous periods of their
chief magistrate, their understandings should be ut-
terly vacant. If, however, they were aware that, even
if they understood English, it might be no better,
they would perhaps be more reconciled to their situ-
ation. You really must send something better than
this mere ape of greatness to these Hispano-Gaulo.
He would make a portly figure delivering to *my
lords and gentlemen ' a speech which Pitt had previ-
ously taught him ; we want an lutomaton, and a pup-
pet will not supply his place."

This letter, ^vliicli otherwise contains noth-
ing remarkable except perhaps its egotism,

120 JOHN RANDOLPH.

I might equally well have been written by a fed-
eralist in opposition to government. The writer
shows irritation at his want of influence in pub-
lic affairs ; he will vote a navy to blow Brit-
ish ships out of water ; he is ready to face a

* war rather than surrender the national honor;

i he wishes to send some thousands of troops to
overawe his fellow citizens at New Orleans;

! and he has none but words of contempt for all

't the President's appointments. What else could
a federalist have said, and how could he have
shown less respect for the sentiments of 1800 ?
Randolph, however, was a fault-finder by pro-
fession ; what he wrote in fhis "jocular way is
perhaps not to be taken as serious. Eccentric,
as his friends acknowledged, it was not always
easy to tie him down to one opinion ; nor was
it even quite certain that he himself remem-
bered his own opinions from one month to an-
other. Yet in regard to the most notable idea
expressed in this letter, he was so far consistent
as to repeat it in a still more emphatic form
during the next session of Congress ; for when,
on December 6, 1804, the bill for " the more
effectual preservation of peace in the ports and
harbors of the United States " came before the
House, he delivered a violent harangue on the
subject : —
^ I would be glad to see a remedy more complett

VAULTING AMBITION. 121

than the one mentioned in this bill. ... I would
like to see the armed vessels employed in disturbing
our peaceable commerce blown out of the water. I
wish to see our American officers and seamen ly«
ing yard-arm and yard-arm in the attack, and the
question of peace or war staked on the issue, if. the
conduct of such marauders were justified by the gov-
ernment of the nation to which they belong. This
language may appear different from what I have con-
stantly used, but our situation is also different. Here-
tofore I was not disposed to engage in hostilities for
tlie protection of our navigation, but we then had no
maritime force. We have since created one. If we
had no navy, we could not meet them on the ocean ;
but having one, I would apply it to the best purpose,
that of efficaciously defending our ports and harbors,
and would struggle till the whole of our marine was
annihilated, if in the contest Britain should not leave
ns a single ship. Though we lost all, we should not
lose our national honor ; though we should not beat
her on the ocean, we should save our reputation ; but
to suffer insult to be added to injury is indeed a deg-
radation of national honor, and ought never to be
borne with, let it come from any nation whatever."

There was no exaggeration in the mild re-
mark that this language might appear different
from that which he had constantly used ; but
why and how was the situation different ? In
^e name of common truth and consistency,
who made the American navy? Who laid it

122 JOHN RANDOLPH,

up ? Who persisted, during the utmost perils
of our government, in vehement assertions that
a navy was a mere invitation of insult ? Who
for years vomited fire and blood against the
federalist party for trying to be prepared against
war ? In the course of American history the
reader may meet with many mad inconsisten-
cies, but he will never find one more bewilder-
ing than this. In Randolph's later life there
would have been no loss for an explanation, but
in this case he had nursed his new patriotism
for two entire months ; it was no flash of sud-
den excitement ; it was mere temper. He was
angry, and had forgotten his principles.

CHAPTER VI.

YAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE.

Congress met on November 6, 1804, a
montli earlier than usual, and Randolph came
to Washington in the temper which his letter
to Gallatin indicates. He was irritable, ner-
vous, extravagant, and had doubtless many ex-
cuses for being so. More jealous than ever of
executive influence, he seemed at~^iiyt alive to
the mista^^BteTEad made in sfrairrmg" i)arty
principles; he began toTeclure Tiis followers
with the pragmatic air of a pedagogue, and
sought out occasions to worry them with small
discipline. As chairman of the Committee on
Ways and Means he reported against the re-
mission of duties on books intended for the use
of colleges and seminaries of learning, and his
report dogmatized thus : —

"The Constitution of the United States was a
grant of limited powers for general objects which
Congress had no right to exceed. ... Its leading
feature was an abhorrence of exclusive privileges.

• . On the privilege asked f or . . . we refer to the

124 JOHN RANDOLPH.

eightli section of the first article, where it is declared
that Congress shall have power to levy and collect
taxes, duties, imposts, and excises ; but all duties,
imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the
United States. The impost shall be uniform, . . .
that is to say . . . there shall not be two measures
to mete with. If Congress undertake to exempt one
class of people from the payment of the impost, they
may exempt others also. . . . Indeed, it cannot be
seen where they are to stop. . . . Perhaps it may
be said that . . . philosophical apparatus is ex-
empted from duty when imported for the benefit of
seminaries of learning, . . . but I believe that law
to be an unconstitutional law, as well as some others
passed by former Congresses."

This was strict construction run riot ; on
Bucli principles it would not have been difficult
to prove that Congress could lay no imposts at
all, because, in the sense contended, no possible
impost could be uniform ; one or another class
of people might always be exempt from its bur-
den, unless light, air, and water could be made
dutiable; but granting that Randolph was cor-
rect, he might at least have consoled the peti-
tioners by telling them that a means of evad-
ing the difficulty existed ; that to obtain their
object they need only go to the President and
invoke the treaty-making power which brought
Louisiana, all its inhabitants and all their

TAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE. 126

property, real and personal, through the cus**
torn house, made them all citizens, and gave
them special privileges of foreign trade, with-
out offence to the Constitution, or authority
from an act of Congress.

Two days after thus teaching the House its
business, Randolph, Nicholson, Macon, and the
whole body of strict-jconatmctipnists undertook
to tell it that Congress could not embank or
bridg^^e Potomac, because Virginia and lHfary«
land~bad a right of navigation there, aTlho'ugh
navigation might " e ven "be impi'oved''T)y the
change. These petty attempts to restrict a
power which had just been declared suflBcient to
subvert, by a mere treaty, the existing status of
tiie Union, were vexatious and irritating. They
drove the northern democrats into silent rebel-
lion. The House allowed Randolph to say what
he liked, but paid no attention to his lectures,
and he harmed only his own cause. "Mere
metaphysical subtleties," said Mr. Jefferson
openly before a large company at his own
table ; and he added : " they ought to have no
weight."

With Randolph in this state of incessant irri-
tation, it is easy to understand the excitable
temper with which he approached the Yazoo
claim when, on January 29, 1805, it made its
i^ppearance before the House. At his coolest

126 JOHN RANDOLPH.

moments the word Yazoo was to him what the
sight of a bodkin was to Sir Piercie Shafton ;
but in his present condition of mind the effect
was beyond all measure violent. He took the
floor, and after speaking for a few minutes
with apparent self-control broke out into a
tirade such as the House had never yet heard
from him, or from any other man: —

"Past experience has shown that this is one of
those subjects which pollution has sanctified; that the
hallowed mysteries of corruption are not to be pro-
faned by the eye of public curiosity. No, sir, the or-
gies of Yazoo speculation are not to be laid open to
the public gaze. None but the initiated are permitted
to behold the monstrous sacrifice of the best interests
of the nation on the altars of corruption. When this
abomination is to be practised, we go into conclave.
Do we apply to the press, that potent engine, the
dread of tyrants and of villains, but the shield of free-
dom and of worth ? No, sir, the press is gagged !
On this subject we have a virtual sedition law, not
with a specious title, but irresistible in its operation,
which, in the language of a gentleman from Connect-
icut, goes directly to the object. The demon of spec-
ulation at one sweep has wrested from the nation
their best, their only defence, and closed every avenue
of information. But the day of retribution may yet
come. If their rights are to be bartered away and
their property squandered, the people must not, they
shall not, be kept in igrio rance bj^ wh o m or for whooc
it is done."

-«-«lp

YAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE, 127

After mucli more of this wild denunciation,
which should have been stopped by the Speaker
at once; after imputing to the House corrupt
motives and "public plunder" and " out-of-door
intrigues " under " exact discipline," he tried to
re-state his case and to argue upon it : but his
arguments were as wild as his invective, and he
always returned to the easier task of denuncia-
tion. Gideon Granger, the Postmaster-Gen-
eral, had very improperly undertaken to act as
agent of the claimants, and Randolph fell foul
of him with tremendous virulence : —

" His gigantic grasp embraces with one hand the
shores of Lake Erie, and stretches with the other to
the bay of Mobile. Millions of acres are easily di-
gested by such stomachs ! The retail trade of fraud
and imposture yields too slow and small a profit to
gratify their cupidity. They buy and sell corruption
in the gross, and a few millions, more or less, is hardly
felt to the account. ... Is it come to this? Are
heads of executive departments of the government to
be brought into this House, with all the influence
and patronage attached to them, to extort from us
now what was refused at the last session of Con-
gress ? "

He felt it an outrage that he should be
obliged to fight such a battle. He raged like a
maniac because his party had gone ofiE after
false leaders, and left him to prophesy de-

128 JOHN RANDOLPH.

struction and woe to the echoes of the cham-
ber. A party that had come to power only
four years ago, saying and believing that they
had created for the first time in man's his-
tory a system of pure and democratic govern-
ment, under which corruption was impossible,
now forced their leader to devote his most
passionate energies to the task of convincing
them that the Postmaster-General, the master
of executive patronage, should not be a lobbyist
for private claimants on the floor of Congress.
These methods of influencing legislatures Ran-
dolph had always charged on the federalists as
their own dishonest European practices, the
fruit of their monarchical theories; he was
genuinely tortured to find himself wrong, and
to see that his own followers had turned feder-
alist. He had the courage to tell them so : —

"What is the spirit against which we now struggle
and which we have vainly endeavored to stifle ? A.
monster generated by fraud, nursed in corruption,
that in grim silence awaits its prey I It is the spirit
of federalism, — that spirit which considersjhe many
as made only for the few, which sees in_j^overnment
nothing but a job, which is never so true to itself as
when false to the nation ! When I behold a certain
party supporting and clinging to such a measure, al-
most to a man, I see only men faithful to their own
prmciples ; pursuing with steady step and untired zeal.

TAZOO AND JUDGE CEASE, 120

the uniform tenor of their political life. But when
I see, associated with them, in firm compact, others
who once rallied under the standard of opposite prin-
ciples, I am filled with apprehension and concern.
Of what consequence is it that a man smiles in your
face, holds out his hand, and declares himself the ad-
vocate of those political principles to which you are
also attached, when you see him acting with your ad-
versaries upon other principles, which the voice of
the nation has put down, never to rise again in this
section of the globe ? "

What Randolph thus said was to a great ex-
tent true. The re^u blicaji party > whei:^ ip opp n-
sition, set up an impossible standard of political
virtu^TanS uu\r that"^fTrej ]were in power found
that government could not be carried on as
they'liad pledged themselves to conduct it.
Randolph himself shared their inconsistencies.
He Bad talked and' vdted'as'TlIy iutei'usls br
passions dictated, ' supporting the utrirstitation-
aKtyrrtf'the Louisiana purchase, intriguing lEor
war with Spain, inciting to war with England,
governing" 15y" rniHtary power the people of
New Orleani^, 'without a thought of the prece-
deritsTTe Helped to establish; but he had the
m erit" of seeing others' mistakes if not his own.
He had the courage to proclaim the offences of
hisJpaTty. This it was which gave him the
confidence and support of friends and constitu-

130 JOHN RANDOLPH.

ents. They believed in his honesty of purpose^
and pardoned all else.

The debate went on for several days with
increasing violence. Language unprecedented
was used. Randolph attacked Granger with
savage ferocity. He found the whole weight
of the administration, and especially the influ-
ence of Mr. Madison, thrown into the scale
against him, and he struggled desperately
against it. Beaten by five votes on the divi-
sion, he still carried his point in preventing
actual legislation by this Congress, and stood
in the gap with a courage fairly to be called
heroic, had it not been to so great an extent
the iri'ational outcome of an undisciplined and
tyrannical temper. A true statesman, with
some concession and good management, might
perhaps have carried all his points, thus over-
awing his party, reestablishing his favorite
states' rights, and breaking in advance the
force of Marshall's law. Nay, it was not im-
possible that by dexterity and steady persist-
ence he might shut up the Dartmouth College
case forever in gremio magistratus^ or drive
the Chief Justice from the bench. Randolph
clutched with both hands at Marshall's throat,
but to be victor in such a contest he needed
Marshall's mind.

The Yazoo debate closed on Saturday, Feb.

YAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE. 181

ruary 2, and on February 9 Randolpli ap-
peared with his brother managers before the
Senate to open the impeachment of Judge
Chase. It was the weightiest moment of his
public life ; for an instant he challenged a place
in history beside the masters of oratory and
power. Where all others, inchiding Mr. Jeffer-
son himself, shrunk back, he stood forward,
while the object of his ambition, if gained, as-
sured him high rank among the great men of
his century.

The impeachment of Justice Chase is a \2indi'
rnarkm AfflferliiHH MStftry, because 'i?T^?is here
that tte'JSflferSoliian^fepublicaiis fought their
last aggressive nbajfte,^ and,_\yaveving under the
sFocEof defeat, broke into factions which slowly
abando ned the field _and forgot their discipline.
That such a battle must one day be fought for the
control of tlieTiiSEaigLjraa Jrom the beginning
believed by most republicans who understood
their own principles. ^.Witb out" contr oiling the
Judiciary, the*people could never govern thejn-
selves'lh TFeiF own way ; and although they
might, over and over again, in every form of
law and resolution, both state and national,
enact arid"f)"r6claim that theirs was not a des-
potic but a restricted government, which had
no rig ht to BxercisB powers not delegated to, it,
ftnd over wh ich the y, as States, had absolute

132 JOHN RANDOLPH.

control, it was none the less certain that Chief
JusticeTffaTShall and his as sociates wou ld disre-
gard' ^heir'will, and would impose upon them
his own. The people were at t^e mercy of
their creatures. The Constitutions of England,
of Massachusetts, of Pennsylvania, authorized
the removal of an obnoxious judge on a mere
address of the legislature, but the Constitution
of the United States had so fenced and fortiEed
the Supreme Court that the legislature, the Ex-
ecutive, the people themselves, could exercise
no control over it. A judge might make any
decision, violate any duty, trample on any right,
and if he took care to commit no indictable of-
fence he was safe in office for life. On this li-
cense the Constitution imposed only one check:
it said that all civil ofiBcers should be removed
from office"" oh T'^p^^^^limp.p^ for, p"^ Arow^pfmn
of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and
misdemeanors." This right of impeachment
was'as yet undefined, and if stretched a little
beyond strict construction it might easily be
converted into something for which it had not
been intended ; might even be made to serve
for the British removal of judges by address.
That, in order to do this, the strict construc-
tionists must strain the language of the Consti
tution out of its true sense was evident, but
they had, without flinching, faced the same dif

TAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE, 133

ficulfcy in the Louisiana purchase. The actual
disregard of the Constitution would hardly be
so flagrant in regard to impeachment as it had
been in regard to the treaty-making power.

This suggestion was actually carried out by
the impeachment of Judge Pickering in 1803— 4.
In this case twenty Senators had voted Judge
Pickering's removal from office on a simple hear-
ing of the case, without defence or even the ap-
pearance of the accused by counsel. The final
vote had not declared Pickering guilty either
of high crimes or misdemeanors, but simply
" guilty as charged." The proceeding was a
mere inquest of office under a judicial form. In
the eyes of Randolph, Nicholson, Macon, Giles,
and the Virginian school in general, an impeach-
ment and a removal from office by this process
need imply no criminality ; it was a declaration
by Congress that a judge held dangerous opin-
ions, which made it necessary for the public
safety that another man should be substituted
in his place. In their eyes the Senate was not
to be considered a court of justice, but simply
a part of the constitutional machine for making
appointments and removals.

In theory this view was very simple and rea-
aonable; in practice it met with difficulties.
The conviction of Pickering in March, 1804,
was carried by nineteen votes in a Senate of

134 JOHN RANDOLPH.

thirty-four members, and, even after conviction,
only twenty senators voted for his removal.
Five administration senators absented them-
selves; several others voted unwillingly, and
the immediate impeachment of Chase on the
very day of Pickering's conviction startled these
hesitating republicans, whose consciences were
already so heavy laden. Other difficulties were
still more certain. A summary vote of expul-
sion from office, which was feasible enough in
the case of a friendless, absent, unknown, and
imbecile New Hampshire district judge, was out
of the question when a venerable justice of the
Supreme Court appeared at the bar of the Sen-
ate, backed by a body-guard of the ablest law-
yers in America, who were considerably less
afraid of Congressmen than Congressmen of
them. There could be no summary process
here. There must be a regular, formal trial,
according to the rules and principles of law.
The Senate must be a court.

Cogent reasons, therefore, forced Randolph
at the outset to abandon his own theory of im-
peachment, and, what was much more fatal, to
establish a precedent tending to break thia
theory down. He began by accepting the whole
paraphernalia of the law, and by demanding the
conviction of Chase as a criminal. By thus ad*
mitting that criminality of a deep nature alone

YAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE. 136

trarraiited the removal of a supreme judge,
Randolph's victory would have made impeach-
ment as useless as his defeat made it, for there
never sat on the Supreme Bench another judge
rash enough to imitate Chase by laying himself
open to such a charge. To restore its useful-
ness he must have fought another battle under
great disadvantages.

Judge Chase's offences were serious. The
immediate cause of impeachment, his address to
the grand jury at Baltimore on the 2d May,
1803, proved that he was not a proper person
to be trusted with the interpretation of the
laws. In this address he said that those laws
were rapidly destroying all protection to prop-
erty and all security to personal liberty, " The
late alteration of the federal Judiciary," said
he, " by the abolition of the office of the six-
teen circuit judges, and the recent change in
our state Constitution by the establishing of
universal suffrage, and the further alteration
that is contemplated in our state Judiciary, if
adopted, will, in my judgment, take away all
security for property and personal liberty. The
independence of the national Judiciary is al-
ready shaken to its foundations, and the virtue
of the people alone can restore it." That by
this reference to the virtue of the people he
meant to draw a contrast with the want of vir-

136 JOHN RANDOLPH.

tue in their government was made clear by a
pointed insult to Mr. Jefferson: "Themod-
ern doctrines by onr jatft rftfnrn^^ffl, tl^nf. all
men iti a"slafe"bf socjetyjarg_e]ititlfiilJii» enjoy
equalliberty and egiial ri^hts^ hav e bro ught
this mighty mischief upon us, a,nd I fear t hat it
will rapidly progress until peace and order, free-
dom and property, shall be destr oyedT^^ These
opinions were formidable^ bec ause the y were
held by every member of the S upreme Co urt ;
for they were the opinions of the federalist
party, whose leaders were at this moment, on
the same system 6T"reasoning, preparing for a
dissolution of the Union.

There was gr6ss absurdity in the idea that
the people who, by an immense majority, had
decided to carry on their government in one
way should be forced by one of their own ser-
vants to turn about and go in the opposite di-
rection ; and the indecorum was greater than
the absurdity, for if Judge Chase or any other
official held such doctrines, even though he were
right, he was bound not to insult officially the
people who employed him. On these grounds
Mr. Jefferson privately advised the impeach-
ment, and perhaps Randolph might have acted
more wisely had he followed Mr. Jefferson's
hint to rely on this article alone, which in the
end camenearer than any other to securing con

YAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE. 137

viction. In so cumbersome a procedure as thai
of impeachment, it was peculiarly necessary to
narrow the field of dispute, to exclude doubtful
points of law, and avoid cumulative charges.

Randolph thought otherwise. Conscious that
lie would meet with strong opposition in the
Senate, he determined to make his attack over-
whelming by proving criminality, even though
in doing it he gave up for the time his theory
that impeachment need imply no criminal of-
fence ; and therefore, placing the real cause of
impeachment last in the order of his articles,
he threw into the foreground a long series of
charges, which concerned only questions of law.
Going back to the year 1800 and the famous
trials of Fries and Callender, he made out of
these materials no less than six complicated
articles, embracing numerous charges. Still
another article was framed to cover a com-
plaint founded on the judge's treatment of the
grand jury at Newcastle in the same year.
Thus these seven heads of impeachment, in-
tended as they were to support each other with
irresistible cumulative power, withdrew the
trial from the region of politics, and involved
it beyond extrication in the meshes of legal
methods and maxims. Bristling with difficult
points of pure law ; turning on doubtful ques-
tions of practice; involving a flat assumption

138 JOHN RANDOLPH.

of numerous abstract propositions, they required
a categorical, ofiE-hand decision on the rules of
evidence, the reciprocal rights and duties of
judge, counsel, and jury, the customs in differ-
ent courts and in different places, the legality
of bad manners, and the humanity of strict
law, only to prove that Justice Chase had been
actuated by corrupt and criminal motives, — for
it seemed at first to be conceded that no mere
error of judgment would warrant his conviction.
The articles of impeachment which Randolph
presented to the House on March 26, 1804, -and
which were, he claimed, drawn up with his own
hand, rested wholly on the theory of Chase's
criminality ; they contained no suggestion that
impeachment was a mere inquest of office. But
when Congress met again, and, on December
3, the subject came before the House, it was
noticed that two new articles, the fifth and
sixth, had been quietly interpolated, which
roused suspicion of a change in Randolph's plan.
No one could say that the original charges in-
volved any other victim than the one named in
them ; they could not be tortured into an at-
tack on the court as a whole ; but the two
new articles wore a threatening look. The fifth
rharged that Judge Chase had issued a capias
against the body of Callender, whereas the law
of Virginia required a summons to appear at

YAZOO AND JUDGE CEASE. 139

fclie next court ; it alleged no evil intent, as all
the other articles had done, and by thus making
a mere error impeacbable it put the whole court
at the mercy of Congress. The sixth went far-
ther. Assuming that the statute required the
federal courts to follow in each State of the
Union the modes of process usual in that State,
this article impeached Judge Chase for having
held Callender to trial at tlie same term at which
he was indicted. Althougli the sixth, unlike the
fifth, article alleged that this act was done
"with intent to oppress," it was peculiarly
alarming, because one of the earliest decisions of
the Supreme Court had been directly contrary
to the doctrine that the United States courts
were bound to follow the modes of process
usual in the state courts, and there was not a
judge on the supreme bench whose practice in
this respect had not rendered him liable to im-
peachment on the same charge. No one could
doubt that Randolph and his friends, seeing
how little their ultimate object would be ad-
vanced by a conviction on the old charges, in-
serted these new articles in order to correct
their mistake and to make a foundation for the
freer use of impeachment as a political weapon.
The behavior of Giles and his friends in the
Senate strengthened this suspicion. He made
no concealment of Ir's theories, and labored

140 JOHN RANDOLPH.

earnestly to prevent the Senate frc'm calling
itself a court, or from exercising any functions
that belonged to a court of law. To some ex-
tent he succeeded, but when at last he declared
that the Secretary had no right to administer
an oath, and that a magistrate must be called
in for the purpose ; when he was led still further
to acknowledge that on his doctrine the Senate
itself had no right to issue writs, summonses,
and subpoenas, so that all the proceedings against
Judge Pickering had been unconstitutional and
his removal illegal, the Senate lost patience and
rebelled. From that moment the fate of Ran-
dolph was sealed.

In all these transactions Giles and Randolph
acted in the closest alliance. Their idea of
impeachment was honestly held and openly
avowed ; they did their utmost to force it on
their party, and it is clear that, except on such
a theory, Randolph was absurdly out of place
in trying to conduct a trial of such importance.
For an inquest of oflSce, whatever such a pro-
ceeding might be, he was perhaps as competent
as another ; but that a Virginian planter, who
occasionally sat on a grand jury, should be vain
enough to suppose himself capable of arguing
the most perplexed questions of legal practice
was incredible ; and when, in addition, he was
obliged to fling his glove in the faces of the best

TAZOO AND JUDGE CEASE. 141

lawyers in America, his rashness became laugh-
able. Even though he had all the resources of
his party in the House to draw upon, including
Joseph H. Nicholson and Caesar A. Rodney,
both fair lawyers, yet at the bar before him he
saw not only Justice Chase, keen, vigorous, with
long experience and ample learning, but also, at
Chase's side, counsel such as neither Senate nor
House could command, at whose head, most for-
midable of American advocates, was the rollick-
ing, witty, audacious Attorney-General of Mary-
land; boon companion of Chase and the whole
bar ; drunken, generous, slovenly, grand ; bull-
dog of federalism, as Mr. Jefferson called him ;
shouting with a school-boy's fun at the idea
of tearing Randolph's indictment to pieces and
teaching the Virginian democrats some law, —
the notorious reprobate genius, Luther Martin.
If the sight of these professional enemies
were not enough to disturb Randolph's self-
confidence as he rose to open the case under
their contemptuous eyes, the sight of the senate-
chamber might have done so without their aid.
In spite of all his party influence, Randolph
saw few men before him upon whose friendly
sympathy he could count. Hated by the north-
ern democrats, he saw the head and front of
northern democracy, Aaron Burr, presiding
over the court. The supreme bench, led by

142 JOHN RANDOLPH.

Chief Justice Marshall, a man whom Eandolpli
deeply respected, was looking on with sym-
pathies which were certainly not with him.
Among southern senators, his closest associate
was Giles of Virginia, whom no man ever
trusted without regret. The thirty-four senators
consisted of eleven northern democrats, four-
teen democrats from the South, and nine fed-
eralists. If from his own party Randolph could
expect little genuine regard, it is easy to con-
ceive the intensity of ill-will with which the
federalist senators listened to his argument.
Moderate men, like Bayard of Delaware, and
Dayton of New Jersey, had little patience with
him or his opinions, while the New England
senators regarded him with extreme antipathy
and contempt as hearty as that which he had so
freely showered on them and their friends. To
face the humor of Tracy, the senator from Con-
necticut, was more trying than to defy the bit-
ter tongue of Timothy Pickering, which spared
not even his own personal and party friends, or
to ignore the presence of Pickering's colleague,
the " cub," who was " a greater bear than the
old one," and whose capacity for expressing con-
tempt was exceeded only by his right to feel it,
— Mr. J. Q, Adams of Massachusetts.

Before this unsympathetic band of critics, or
the 9th February, 1805, Randolph and his as'

YAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE, 143

sociates appeared, and in a speech of about
one hour and a half, which by its unusual cau-
tion proved that, if not cowed, he was at least
for once subdued by the occasion and the au-
dience, he unfolded to the Senate his articles
of impeachment. On no other occasion in Ran-
dolph's life was he compelled to follow a long
and consecutive train of thought within the
narrow bounds of logical method, and his argu-
ments at this trial are therefore the only exact
test of his reasoning powers. His failure was
decided. From the point of view which law-
yers must take, his arguments, if arguments
they can be called, are not even third-rate ;
they are the feeblest that were made in the
course of this long trial. He undertook to
speak as an authority upon the law, when he
knew no more law than his own overseer ; nat-
urally given to making assertion stand for
proof, he asserted legal principles calculated to
make Luther Martin's eyes sparkle with delight.
From first to last he never rose above the at-
mosphere of a court room. Avoiding all discus-
sion of impeachment as a theory, and leaving
unnoticed the political meaning of his eighth
article, he deliberately ta^ngled his limbs in the
meshes of law, and offered himself a willing
victim to the beak and claws of the eagles who
were marking him for their sport.

144 JOUN RANDOLPH.

To analyze sncb an address is useless. Nat
even the warmest of his friends has ever thought
it a good example of his merits, and no one will
care to waste time in proving self-evident de-
fects. Nevertheless, the peroration has been
often quoted as a specimen of his more care-
fully studied eloquence, and since this perora-
tion illustrates the best as well as the worst of
the speech it shall stand as a fair test of its
value.

" The respondent hath closed his defence by an ap-
peal to the great Searcher of hearts for the purity of
his motives. For his sake I rejoice that by the timely
exercise of that mercy, which for wise purposes has
been reposed in the Executive, this appeal is not
drowned by the blood of an innocent man crying
aloud for vengeance ; that the mute agony of widowed
despair and the wailing voice of the orphan do not
plead to Heaven for justice on the oppressor's head.
But for that intervention, self-accusation before that
dread tribunal would have been needless. On that
awful day the blood of a poor, ignorant, friendless,
unlettered German, murdered under the semblance
and color of law, would have risen in judgment at
the throne of grace against the unhappy man ar-
raigned at your bar. But the President of the
United States, by a well-timed act at once of justice
and mercy (and mercy, like charity, covereth a mul-
titude of sins), wrested the victim from his grasp,
and saved him from the countless horrors of remorst

TAZOO AND JUDGE CEASE. 145

by not sufferiDg the pure ermine of justice to be dyed
in the innocent blood of John Fries."

These words closed the speech, and were
doubtless carefully considered, probably com-
mitted to memory in advance, and intended to
produce a deep effect on the Senate ; but they
will not bear analysis. In drawing the arti-
cles of impeachment, Randolph had carefully
avoided the allegation that John Fries was " an
innocent man." The managers had no idea of
taking evidence in support of such a theory;
they preferred to avoid it, because they knew
that Fries was guilty, under aggravated circum-
stances, of what the law called treason ; that in
any case he must have been convicted; that
his counsel had thrown up their brief, against
Judge Chase's prayers, solely because they saw
no other ground on which to found an appeal
for executive pardon ; and, finally, that Judge
Chase had made no mistake in his rulings. All
this was well known to Randolph, who would
certainly, in his articles of impeachment, have
alleged that Fries was innocent, had there been
the smallest possibility of proving it. With
what decent apology, then, could Randolph ven-
ture upon so gross and evident a misstatement
of fact? What treatment could he expect from
Luther Martin ?

** The President of the United States, by a

10

146 JOHN BANDOLPH,

well-timed act at once of justice and of mercy,
wrested the victim from his grasp." What
made the executive pardon an act of justice?
What proved it? What evidence did the
managers propose to offer on that head ? None
whatever. President Adams pardoned Fries as
an act of mercy, rather than hang, for the first
time in the national history, a political crim-
inal, who had thrown himself, undefended, on
the court. Judge Chase then was to be held
guilty because President Adams had not hung
Fries. Curran is said to have claimed a ver-
dict from an Irish jury on the ground that his
only witness had been spirited away by the at-
torney for the defence. Randolph claimed a
conviction on the ground that, had the Presi-
dent not spirited away all excuse for complaint,
there might have been a grievance, although
none was alleged in the indictment. The whole
array of Chase's counsel must have joined in
broad laughter over this novel idea, as they
drank that night to the confusion of democratic
lawyers, and promised themselves a pleasure to
come.

Their pleasure came in due time. K any
student of American history, curious to test the
relative value of reputations, will read Ran-
dolph's opening address, and then pass on to
the argument of Luther Martin, he will feel

TAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE. 147

the distance between show and strength, be-
tween intellectual brightness and intellectual
power. Nothing can be finer in its way than
Martin's famous speech. Its rugged and sus-
tained force; its strong humor, audacity, and
dexterity ; its even flow and simple choice of
llanguage, free from rhetoric and affectations;
its close and compulsive grip of the law; its
good-natured contempt for the obstacles put
in its way, — all these signs of elemental vigor
were like the forces of nature, simple, direct,
fresh as winds and ocean, but they were op-
posite qualities to those which Randolph dis-
played. The contrast with Randolph's closing
address is much more striking ; for whether
it were that the long excitement had broken
his strength, or that the arguments of Martin,
Harper, Hopkinson, and Key had shattered
his indictment and humiliated his pride, or
whether, in this painful effort to imitate legal
minds and logical methods, he at last flung
himself like a child on the ground, crushed by
the consciousness that his mind could not fol-
low out a fixed train of thought, could not sup-
port the weight of this intellectual armor which
it had rashly put on, certain it is that Randolph
appeared in his closing speech more like a crim-
inal fearing sentence than like a tribune of the
people dragging a tyrant to his doom.

148 JOHN RANDOLPH.

On February 27, 1805, he appeared before
the Senate to make this closiug address. He
was ill and unprepared, although he had surely
been engaged on the subject long enough to
need little more preparation than a single night
of hard work. He no longer had the lash of
Luther Martin to fear, for his own word was
to be the last ; while it was clear that, as the
case stood, conviction was more than doubt-
ful, and Randolph's own reputation and au-
thority could now be saved only by some seri-
ous effort. In spite of all these motives for
exertion, he astonished the Senate by the des-
ultory and erratic style of his address. Soon
he broke down. He wa^ forced to apologize :
he had lost, he said, his voluminous notes;
but it was only too evident that these could not
have helped him ; it would have been quite in
character had he, in his disgust, flung his notes
into the fire, conscious that he was helpless to
deal with their mass of unmanageable matter.
With or without notes, no man of a clear mind
could possibly have run wild, as he now did.
This closing argument or harangue, great as
the occasion was, hardly rises to the level of
Randolph's ordinary stump-speeches: equally
weak in arrangement and reasoning, equally
inexact in statement and violent in denuncia-
tion, it has fewer gleams of wit, fewer clevej

TAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE, 149

illustrations, and none of those occasionnl flashes
of inspired prophecy which sometimes startled
hostile hearers into admiration. When Ran-
dolph sat down he had betrayed his own weak-
ness*; he was no longer dangerous, except to his
friends.

To reproduce or analyze an harangue like
this, of which Randolph himself was keenly
ashamed, would be unfair. He was honest in
acknowledging his failure, and it is useless to
prove what he was first to confess and pro-r
claim. The task, he said, was one for which
he felt himself "physically as well as morally
incompetent." " My weakness and want of
ability prevent me from urging my cause as I
could wish, but it is the last day of my suffer-
ings and of yours." Again and again he apol-
ogized to the Senate for his incompetency in
a manner almost abject, as though he were
crushed under it. He did more: he pleaded
the fact in deprecation of criticism. The news-
papers of the time show how complete was
the impression of his failure; but among the
eye-witnesses of the scene was one who re-
corded on the spot the effect made upon him by
Randolph and his speech. "On the reopen-
mg of the court," wrote Mr. J. Q. Adams, " he
began a speech of about two hours and a half,
with as little relation to the subject-matter as

150 JOHN RANDOLPH.

possible, — without order, connection, or argu-
ment ; consisting altogether of the most hack-
neyed commonplaces of popular declamation,
mingled up with panegyrics and invectives
upon persons, with a few well-expressed ideas,
a few striking figures, much distortion of face
and contortion of body, tears, groans, and sobs,
with occasional pauses for recollection, and con-
tinual complaints of having lost his notes. He
finished about half-past two. Mr. Harper then
made a very few observations on one of the
authorities he had produced, to which he re-
plied with some petulance."

Mr. Adams was certainly a warm partisan of
Judge Chase, but he made no such comments
on the speeches of other managers, and iftdeed
paid a small compliment to Rodney, who had
spoken the day before. His description of the
contents of Randolph's speech is accurate
enough to create confidence in his account of
its delivery, and it is only to be regretted that
he said nothing about that voice which Vir-
ginian hearers were apt to think the most
melodious in the world.

On March 1 Randolph's defeat was at last
seen in all its overwhelming completeness.
When the senators came to a vote, only the
third, fourth, and eighth articles received even
» majority of their voices. The highest poin*

YAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE, 151

reached by the impeachers was in the vote of
19 to 15 on the eighth article, Mr. Jefferson's
peculiar property. Five democratic senators
from northern States and Gaillard of South
Carolina refused to follow Randolph's lead.
Worse than this, so thoroughly had Luther
Martin and his brother counsel broken into
atoms the suspicious fifth and sixth articles of
Randolph's indictment that not a single senator
sustained the one, and only four supported the
other, although Randolph's honor was at stake,
for Martin had openly charged him with hav-
ing misquoted the law of Virginia ; " How this
hath happened is not for me to say," and no
defence was offered to the charge. Wrathful
beyond measure, Randolph and Nicholson hur-
ried back to the House of Representatives, and
on the spot moved that two^ new articles be
added to the Constitution. Randolph's amend-
ment declared that all judges should be removed
by the President on a joint address of both
Houses ; while Nicholson proposed that senators
should be removable at any time by the legisla-
tures of their own States. These resolutions
were made the order of the day for the first
Monday in December, when Congress was to
meet. The same evening Mr. J. Q. Adams
made another curious entry in his diary. In-
formed in society of what had taken place in

152 JOHN RANDOLPH.

the House, he added, "I had some conversap
tion on the subject with Mr. Madison, who ap-
peared much diverted at the petulance of the
managers on their disappointment." Consider-
ing the source from which the impeachment
sprang, Mr. Madison's diversion would perhaps
have seemed to be in better taste, had it been
less openly displayed.

This was the end of Judge Chase's impeach-
ment, a p6ITlicat"finstaEe from its inception by
Mr. Jefferson down to its last agonies ifTRan-
dolph's closing address. As though every act
of Kandolph^'s'lifeTnor matter what its motive
or its management, were fated to injure all that
he most regarded, and to advance every inter-
•^"^est he hated, so.. t his impeachment made the
Supreme Court impregnable ; for the first time
the Chrcf Ju stice could breathe freely. Not
only had Randolph proved impeachment to be
a clumsy and useless instrumen t as_a pplied
-to judicial o'fficers,'but he seemed reckless in
regafa^to" the' fate of his proposed constitu-
tional amendment, and was clearly more an-
gry with the Senate than with the court. As
though not satisfied with allowing Nicholson
to throw a gross insult in the very faces of
senators by an amendment to the Constitution
which branded them as false to their constitu-
ents, Randolph would not allow the House to

YAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE, 153

appropriate money for any expenses of Judge
Chase's trial except such as should be certified
by himself, and in no case for the expenses
of witnesses for the defence. Whether he was
right or wrong in principle was a matter of
little consequence, for, in the temper of the
two Houses, the bill thus passed was a positive
insult to the Senate. Even Giles took up the
challenge, and declared that as he had drawn
the form of summons by which all the wit-
nesses had been commanded to attend, without
indicating on whose behalf they were called,
he could not admit that any distinction should
be made in paying them. The Senate unani-
mously insisted on amending the bill, and Ran-
dolph insisted with equal obstinacy that the
bill should not be amended. The two Houses
were thus driven into a quarrel and the bill
was lost. Randolph then, in flat contradiction
of every financial doctrine he had ever pro-
fessed, wished the House to pay his witnesses
out of the contingent fund, and was defeated
only by the withdrawal of the federalist mem
bers, which left the House without a quorum
whenever the resolution was brought up. In
the midst of this mischievous confusion, the
session ended at half-past nine o'clock on the
evening of March 3, 1805, three days after
Chase's acquittal.

•

CHAPTER Vn.

THE QUAKBEL.

The result of Chase's trial was disastrous to
the influence of RandbTplI atld his wTiole sect.
It widened the breach between him and the
northern democrats, anH "Heepehed Iiis distrust
of Mr. Jefferson and"Mr.^ Mq3Is5v-J»Jio had
taken such good care not to allow their_^wn
credit to be involved with his. The Yazoo
quarrel added intensity to the feeling of bitter-
ness with which the session closed. When,
after March 4, 1805, he went home to Bizarre,
he was oppressed with feelings of disappoint-
ment and perhaps of rage. There is no proof
that he held the President or Mr. Madison
responsible for the defeat of the impeachment;
certainly he never brought such a charge; but

he thought them ,tO hlamp. for ihp^ ]{^;g p-tnrfl.1ify

of the Yazoo bill, and he was particularly irri-
tated with Mr. Madison, whose brother-in-law,
John G. Jackson, a member of Congress from
Virginia, had been a prominent supporter of
that bill, and had sharply criticised Randolph's
course in a speech to the House at a time when

THE QUARREL. 155

Randolph's authority was trembling on the
verge of overthrow. A few extracts from let-
ters written during the summer to Joseph
Nicholson will show the two correspondents
and friends in their own fairest light: —

RANDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

"Bizarre, 29 Marchy 1805. . . . My sins against
Monroe, in whose debt I have been for nea^* five
months, would have excited something of compunc-
tion in me were I any longer susceptible of such sen-
sations ; but I will write to him immediately on your
subject ; and, take my word for it, my good friend,
he is precisely that man to whom your spirit would
not disdain to be obliged. For, if I know you, there
are very few beings in this vile world of ours from
whom you would not scorn even the semblance of ob-
ligation. In a few weeks I shall sail for London my-
self. ... I gather from the public prints that we are
severely handled by the feds and their new allies.
Not the least equivocal proof, my friend, that the
trust reposed in us has not been betrayed. I hope to
be back in time to trail a pike with you in the next
campaign. ... I wish very much to have if it were
but half an hour's conversation with you. Should
you see Gallatin, commend me to him and that ad-
mirable woman his wife. What do you augur from
the vehement puff of B[urr] ? As you well know,
I never was among his persecutors, but this is over-
stepping the modesty of nature. Besides, we were
in Washington at the time, and heard nothing of the

156 JOHN RANDOLPH.

miraculous effects of his valedictory. Rely upon it,
strauge things are at hand. Never did the times re-
quire more union and decision among the real friends
of freedom. But shall we ever see decision or un-
ion ? I fear not. To those men who are not dis-
posed to make a job of politics, never did public
affairs present a more awful aspect. Everything and
everybody seems to be jumbled out of place, except
a few men who are steeped in supine indifference,
whilst meddling fools and designing knaves are
governing the country under the sanction of their
names."

" 30 April. Of all the birds of the air, who should
light upon me to-day but our dapper sergeant-at-
arms. His presence would have been of little mo-
ment had he not informed me that he left you in
Washington in your usual good health and spirits.
You know Wheaton, and will not be surprised when I
tell you that from his impertinences I picked up some
intelligence not altogether uninteresting. The ex-
Vice [Burr] and Dayton, between whom, you know,
there has long subsisted a close political connection,
and my precious colleague Jackson, who is deeply con-
cerned with this last in some very masterly specula-
tioDs, together with J. Smith, of Ohio, himself no
novice, and whose votes on a late occasion you cannot
have forgotten, have given each other the rendezvous
in the northwestern corner of our Uuion. The pi-
ous ^neas and faithful Achates are, I understand,
about to reconnoitre lower Louisiana. As to the up- .
per district, I have no doubt they can safely trus*

THE QUARREL. 157

that province to their well-tried coadjutor, the new
Grovernor [Wilkinson]. Nicholson, my good friend,
rely upon it, this conjunction of malign planets bodes
no good. As Mr. J. is again seated in the saddle for
four years, with a prospect of reelection for life, the
whole force of the adversaries of the man, and, what
is of more moment, of his principles, will be bent to
take advantage of the easy credulity of his temper,
and thus arm themselves with power, to set both at
defiance as soon as their schemes are ripe for execu-
tion. I do not like the aspect of affairs. ... If
you have not amused yourself with the Dean of St.
Patrick's lately, let me refer you to his 'Free
Thoughts on the Present State of Affairs ' for a de-
scription of a race of politicians who have thriven
wonderfully since his time. The * whimsicals ' ad-
vocated the leading measures of their party until
they were nearly ripe for execution, when they hung
back, condemned the step after it was taken, and on
most occasions affected a glorious neutrality."

" 23 October, ... I saw the great match for three
thousand dollars : Mr. Tayloe's Peacemaker, 5 years
old, lbs. 118, against Mr. Ball's ch. c. Florizel, 4 years
old, lbs. 106, both by Diomed ; four mile heats. It
was won with perfect ease by Florizel, beating his
adversary in a canter. . . . Thus, you see, while
you turbulent folks on the east of Chesapeake are
wrangling about Snyder and McKean, we old Virgin-
>uis are keeping it up, more majorum, De gustibus
don est disputandum, says the proverb ; nevertheless,
I cannot envy the taste of him who finds more

158 JOHN RANDOLPH.

amusement in the dull scurrility of a newspaper than
in * Netherby's Calendar/ and prefers an election
ground to a race-field. That good fellow Rodney
has taken the trouble to send me a Philadelphia
print, full of abuse against myself, for which I had to
pay 7/6 postage. If there had been any point in the
piece I should have thought it very hard to be obliged
to pay for having my feelings wounded ; and as it is,
to see a nameless somebody expose himself in an at-
tempt to slander me is not worth the money. I do
not understand their actings and doings in our neigh-
bor State. As Dr. Doubly says, I fear there is some-
thing wrong on both sides. On the one hand indis-
cretion, intemperance, and rashness; on the other,
versatility and treachery. I speak of the leaders.
As to the mass of society, they always mean well, as
it never can become their interest to do ill. Before
the election for Governor was decided in Pennsylva-
nia, I was somewhat dubious whether we should be
able to reinstate Macon in the Speaker's chair. I
am now seriously apprehensive for his election ; and
more on his account than from public considerations,
although there is not a man in the House, himself
and one other excepted, who is in any respect quali-
fied for the ofiice. I cannot deny that the insult
offered to the man would move me more than the in-
jury done the public by his rejection. Indeed, I am
not sure that such a step, although productive of
temporary inconvenience, would not be followed by
permanent good effects. It would open Hie eyes ol
many well-meaning persons, who, in avoiding the

THE QUARREL, 169

Scylla of innovation, have plunged into the Charybdis
of federalism. . . . Do not fail to be in Washing-
ton time enough to counteract the plot against the
Speaker, and pray apprise such of his friends as are
within your reach of its existence."

When we reflect that these letters were writ-
ten by one angry politician to another, and that
Randolph's relations with Nicholson were ab-
solutely confidential, it must be agreed that on
the whole they give an agreeable impression of
Randolph. We see him, with Nicholson, Ma-
con, and a few other very honest men, looking
on with anxiety while Burr and Dayton were
hatching their plot, and working on the " easy
credulity" of Mr. Jefferson's temper. Their
anxiety was not without ample cause, although
Mr. Jefferson did not share it until too late to
prevent the danger. We see them watching
" meddling fools and designing knaves " who
surrounded the administration, and their esti-
mates of character were not very far from right.
We see, too, the contempt with which Ran-
dolph's group regarded the " whimsicals " of
their party, and " my precious colleague Jack-
son," brother-in-law of the Secretary of State,
and John Smith of Ohio, Burr's friend, who
had voted for Justice Chase's acquittal. There
is no sign of violence or revenge in these let-
ters ; in reading them one is forced to believe

160 JOHN RANDOLPH.

that in tliis Virginian character there were two
Bides, so completely distinct that the one had no
connection with the other. The nobler traits,
shown only to those he loved, were caught
by Gilbert Stuart in a portrait painted in this
year, when Randolph was thirty-three. Open,
candid, sweet in expression, full of warmth,
sympathy, and genius, this portrait expresses all
his higher instincts, and interprets the mystery
of the affection and faith he inspired in his
friends. If there were other expressions in
this mobile face which the painter did not care
to render, he at least succeeded in showing art-
ists what the world values most, — how to re-
spect and dignify their subject.

Randolph's letters to Nicholson were not
more temperate or sensible than those he wrote
to Gallatin at the same time, which covertly
suggest without openly expressing two of the
writer's antipathies, the Smiths of Maryland
and Mr. Madison. Robert Smith was Secre-
tary of the Navy, and Mr. Madison was a rival
with Mr. Monroe for the succession to the
presidency.

RANDOLPH TO GALLATIN.

" 28 June, 1805. ... I do not understaDd your
manoeuvres at headquarters, nor should I be sur-
prised to see the Navy Department abolished, or, in
more appropriate phrase, swept by the board, at tha

THE QUARREL, 161

next session of Congress. The nation has had the
most conclusive proof that a head is no necessary ap-
pendage to the establishment."

" 25 October . ... I look forward to the ensuing
session of Congress with no very pleasant feelings.
To say nothing of the disadvantages of the place,
natural as well as acquired, I anticipate a plentiful
harvest of bickering and blunders ; of wliich, how-
ever, I hope to be a quiet, if not an unconcerned
spectator. ... I regret exceedingly Mr. Jefferson's
resolution to retire, and almost as much the prema-
ture annunciation of that determination. It almost
precludes a revision of his purpose, to say nothing
of the intrigues which it will set on foot. If I were
sure that Monroe would succeed him, my regret would
be very much diminished. Here, you see, the Vir-
ginian breaks out ; but, like the Prussian cadet, * I
must request you not to make this known to the Sec-
retary of the Treasury.' "

The sudden announcement of Mr. Jefferson's
withdrawal now made Madison a candidate for
the presidency in 1808, and, in Randolph's
opinion, Madison was a Yazoo man^ a colo rless
semi-federalist, an intriguer with northern dem-
ocrats and soutliern speculators, one who never
s€fnns face firmly against an intrigue or a job.
Holding the man at this low estimate, it was
out of the question for Randolph to support him,
and he turned to Monroe, who alone could con-
test with Madison the State of Virginia. As
u

162 JOHN RANDOLPH.

luck would have it, Mr. Madison, unknown to
Randolph, was doing much to justify this hos-
tility. Between him and the President at
Washington, and Mr. Monroe and Mr. Charles
Pinckney at Madrid, the Spanish dispute had
been brought to a pass which only Randolph's
tongue could describe. After claiming West
Florida as a part of the Louisiana purchase,
and allowing Randolph to erect Mobile by law
into a collection district for the United States
customs, they had been compelled to receive a
terrible castigation from the Marquis of Casa
Yrujo at Washington, and to hear his bitter
severities supported at Madrid and indorsed at
Paris. Their own minister at Madrid, Charles
Pinckney, undertaking to bully the Spanish
government into concessions, actually made a
sort of public declaration of war, which Mr.
Madison hastily disavowed by sending Monroe
to Madrid. Monroe suffered ignominious de-
feat. The Spanish government, which as must
be owned, was wholly in the right, listened very
civilly to all that Monroe had to say, and after
keeping him five months hanging about Madrid
declined to yield a single point, and left him
to travel back to Paris in high dudgeon. At
Paris, M. Talleyrand coldly announced that an
attack upon Spain was an attack upon France
and that Spain was right in every particular

TUB QUARREL. 163

Monroe returned to his legation at Lon Jon, not
a little bewildered and mortified, just in time
to find that Mr. Pitt, during his absence, had
upset the rules hitherto recognized as regulating
the subject of neutral commerce, and that Sir
William Scott had announced in his Admiralty
Court a new decision, which swept scores of
innocent American ships, without warning, as
good prize into British ports.

Here was a list of misadventures well calcu-
lated to keep Mr. Madisoif busily at work, with
very little prospect of repairing them. For a
time during the summer of 1805, every one at
Washington, except the Secretary of the Treas-
ury, fulminated war against Spain. On reflec-
tion, however, the President thought better of
it. This pacific turn took place about Octo-
ber 23, when Randolph was writing so mildly
to Nicholson and Gallatin ; and it was caused
ostensibly by the war news in Europe. At a
cabinet meeting on November 12, Mr. Jeffer-
son accordingly suggested a new overture to
Bonaparte. " I proposed," said he in his man-
uscript memoranda, "we should address our-
selves to France, informing her it was a last
effort at amicable settlement with Spain, and
offer to her or through her a sum of money for
the rights of Spain east of Iberville^ say the
Floridas." " It was agreed unanimously, and

164 JOHN RANDOLPH,

the sum to be offered fixed not to exceed five
million dollars." Not only was it distinctly-
understood and stated in Mr. Jefferson's own
hand at the time that this money " was to be
the exciting motive for France, to whom Spain
is in arrears for subsidies," but in the course of
the next week dispatches arrived from Paris
containing an informal offer from Talleyrand
to effect the object desired on condition of a
payment of seven millions, which were of course
to go to France ; and this proposition from Tal-
leyrand was instantly accepted as the ground-
work of the new offer of five millions.

The President wished to send instructions on
the spot authorizing General Armstrong, our
minister at Paris, to pledge government for the
first instalment of two millions, but was over-
ruled, and it was decided to wait an appropria-
tion from Congress. Then the question rose,
How was the subject to be got before Congress?
Secrecy was required, for in this whole transac-
tion everything was to be secret ; but to con-
ceal measures which must be confided to two
hundred men was not a light task, and Mr. Jef-
ferson, with his easy temper, forgot that John
Randolph was not so easy-tempered as himself.

At length the President arranged the plan.
He sent to Congress his annual message, con-
taining a very warlike review of the Spanish

THE QUARREL. 165

difficulties, and a few days latei he followed up
this attack by sending papers showing, among
other things, that trespasses had been commit-
ted in the Mississippi territory by two parties
of Spanish subjects. To these communications
Congress was to respond in a series of belliger-
ent resolutions, drawn by the President himself.
This done, he was to send a secret message re-
questing an appropriation of two millions to-
wards buying Florida, and this secret message
was to be made the subject of a confidential
report from a special committee, to be followed
by an immediate appropriation.

In due time the matter was arranged. Con-
gress met on December 2. Macon, after a sharp
contest was reelected Speaker, the northern
democrats at last working up their courage
BO far as fairly to rebel against the tyranny of
the Virginian group. Randolph and Nicholson
were again put at the head of the Ways and
Means Committee. The annual message, sound-
ing war, was sent in on December 3 ; the secret
message, inviting Congress to make provision
for a settlement, followed on December 6 : both
were referred to committees at the head of
which Randolph and Nicholson were placed,
and the President restlessly waited for the echo
of his words.

The echo did not come. On the contrary, a

166 JOHN RANDOLPH.

series of lively scenes followed such as no comic
dramatist, neither Sheridan nor Mark Twain
himself, could represent with all the humor of
the reality. Either dramatist or novelist would
be taxed with gross exaggeration who should
describe the events of this winter as grotesquely
as they occurred, or should paint the queer
figure of Randolph, booted, riding-whip in hand,
flying about among the astonished statesmen,
and flinging, one after the other, Mr. Jefferson,
Mr. Madison, and dozens of helpless congress-
men headlong into the mire. The instant Ran-
dolph grasped the situation, he saw that Mr.
Madison had converted the Spanish dispute into
a French job. He put the President's messages
in his pocket. Honestly indignant at what he
considered a mean attempt to bribe one nation
to join in robbing another, he thought the whole
transaction only worthy of Madison's grovelling
character. All his prejudices were strengthened
and his contempt for the Secretary was turned
into a passion. Meanwhile, he had found that
Mr. Madison's partisans were extremely active,
and that his candidacy was to be prevented
only by vigorous resistance. " One of the first
causes of surprise," said he, "which presented
itself to me, on coming to the seat of govern-
ment, was that while the people of the United
States thought all eyes were fixed on the shores

THE QUARREL, 167

of the Atlantic, all eyes were in fact fixed on
tlie half-way house between this and George-
town ; that the question was not what we should
do with France or Spain or England, but who
should be the next President." "I came hero
disposed to cooperate with the government in
all its measures. I told them so." Mr. Madi-
son's avowed candidacy and the disclosure of
the two-million job cut all pacific plans short;
he had no choice but to interpose ; he felt him-
self forced into a dilemma.

For a time he hesitated. Calling his com-
mittee together, he affected to see nothing in
the secret message that could be construed as
a request for money to purchase Florida, and
a majority of the committee joined him in this
view. He went to see Mr. Madison, and, ac-
cording to his account, the Secretary told him
that France was the great obstacle to the com-
promise of Spanish difficulties ; that she would
not permit Spain to settle her disputes with us
because France wanted money, and we must
give her money or have a Spanish and French
war, — all which, whether Mr. Madison said it
or not, was true, but put a terrible weapon into
Randolph's hands. He called on the Presi-
dent, always affecting total ignorance as to ex-
ecutive plans, and professing a wish to cooper-
ate with the government so far as his principles

168 JOHN RANDOLPH.

and judgment would permit; yet when Mr.
Jefferson explained that he wanted two mil-
lions to buy Florida, Randolph replied without
reserve that he would never consent, because
the money had not been asked for in the mes-
sage, and he would not take on his own shoul-
ders or thoi^ of the House the proper responsi-
bility of the Executive ; but even if the money
had been expressly asked, he should have been
averse to granting it, because, after the fail-
ure of every attempt at negotiation, such a
step would disgrace us forever ; because France
would be encouraged to blackmail us on all oc-
casions, and England would feel contempt for
our measures and attitude towards herself. He
did not mince his words.

The meeting of the committee and the in-
terviews with Mr. Madison and the President
seem all to have taken place on December 7 and
8. Randolph now waited a week, and then
on December 14 coolly set out for Baltimore,
where he passed another week, while the ad-
ministration was fuming in Washington, unable
to call the committee together. On December
21 he returned, and by this time the excite-
ment had waxed high, so that even his friend
Nicholson remonstrated. The committee was
instantly called, and Randolph, booted and
spurred, as he had ridden from Baltimore, was

THE QUARREL, 169

hurrying to the committee-roora, when he was
stopped by his friend Gallatin, who put into
his hands a paper headed "Provision for the
purchase of Florida." Randolph broke out
upon him with a strong expression of disgust.
He declared that he would not vote a shilling ;
that the whole proceeding was highly disingen-
uous; that the President said one thing in pub-
lic, another in private, took all the honor to
himself, and threw all the odium on Congress;
and that true wisdom and cunning were utterly
incompatible in the management of great af-
fairs. Then, striding ofiE to his committee, he
put his opinions into something more than
words. Except for Mr. Bid well of Massachu-
setts, the committee was wholly under his con-
trol, and, instead of reporting the two-million
appropriation proposed by Mr. Bidwell, the ma-
jority directed Randolph to ask the Secretary
of War what force was needed to protect the
southwest frontier. When the Secretary's an-
swer was received, the committee met again,
and a second time Mr. Bidwell moved the reso-
lution to appropriate the two millions. Ran-
dolph induced the committee to reject the
motion, and then himself drafted a warlike re-
port, which closed with a resolution to raise
troops for the defence of the southwest fron-
tiers ''from Spanish inroad and insult."

170 JOHN RANDOLPH,

He seems to have dragged Nicholson with
him by main force, for among Judge Nichol-
son's papers is a slip of Randolph's handwrit-
ing, carefully preserved and indorsed in the
Judge's hand : " John Randolph's note relative
to the vote of two millions for the Floridas.
Last of December, 1805, or first of January,
1806, just before the report was made."

RANDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

" I am still too unwell to turn out. My bowels are
torn all to pieces. If you persist in voting the money,
the committee will alter its report. Write me on this
subject, and tell me what you are doing. How is
Edward to-day ? I Ve heard from St. George. He
got to Norfolk in time for the Intrepid, on the 24th,
Tuesday. She was loaded, and only waiting for a fair
wind. If the southeaster of Friday did not drive her
back into the Chesapeake, she has by this time crossed
the Gulf Stream. The poor fellow was very seasick
going down the bay. Yours truly, J. B.

"Mr. Nicholson of Maryland."

Nicholson did not persist, and accordingly
the report as Randolph drafted it was adopted
by the aid of federalist votes in committee, and
was presented to the House on January 3,
J.806. This serio-comic drama had now con-
Bumed a month, during which time Randolpl:
was gravely undertaking to govern the country

TEE QUARREL. 171

in spite of itself, and, by tactics of delay, resist-
ance, and dictation, to defeat the will of the
President and the party. He had succeeded in
checking the Yazoo compromise by like tactics,
and he did not altogether fail in this new
struggle, although no sooner had the House re-
covered possession of the subject than it went
into secret session, flung Randolph's report
aside, and took up in its place the President's
two-million appropriation. Randolph, whose
temper never allowed him to play a losing
game with coolness or skill, threw himself with
a sort of fury into the struggle over his report,
and day after day for a week occupied the floor
in committee of the whole House. Beaten in
committee, and forced to see the appropriation
reported, he kept up his opposition at every
stage in its passage, while the federalists smiled
approval, and the northern democrats sulkily
voted as they were bidden. On January 11
Randolph's warlike report was rejected by a
vote of 72 to 58, and on the 14th the House
adopted Bidwell's resolution by a vote of 77
to 54, the federalists and twenty-seven republi-
cans voting with Randolph against the admin-
istration.

At length the House reopened its doors, and
ihe world asked curiously what had happened
in the long conclave. Randolph was not the

172 JOHN RANDOLPH.

man to let himself be overridden in secret.
His method of attack was always the same : to
spring suddenly, violently, straight at the face
of his opponent was his invariable rule; and
in this sort of rongh-and-tumble he had no
equal. In the white heat of passionate rhet-
oric he could gouge and kick, bite off an ear
or a nose, or hit below the waist ; and he did
it with astonishing quickness and persistence.
No public man in America ever rivaled him in
these respects ; it was his unapproached talent.
With a frail figure, wretched health, and de-
spondent temperament, he could stand on the
floor of the House two or three hours at a time,
day after day, and with violent gesticulation and
piercing voice pour out a continuous stream of
vituperation in well-chosen language and with
sparkling illustration. In the spring of 1806
he was new in the r81e, and still wore some
of the shreds and patches of oflHcial dignity.
The world was scandalized or amused, ac-
cording to its politics, at seeing the Presi-
dent's cousin and friend, Virginian of Virgin-
ians, spoiled child of his party and recognized
mouthpiece of the administration^^apartisan
railer against federalism, whose bitter tongue
had for years sptt defiance upon ^everything
smacfctt^g of -fcdel'al * principles, now^^uddenlj
hirn about and rail at Mr. Jefferson and Mr

THE QUARREL. 173

Madison, as he had railed at Washington and
John Adams, while he voted steadily with fed-
eralists and exercised diabolicanTngentrity to
fhwn rt RTid deTeat th ^iTie^n-g T ^r^? ftt liis friends.
His melodramatic success was largely one of
scandal, but there was in it also an element of
respectability. To defy power requires cour-
age, and although Randolph's audacity too
closely resembled mere bad temper, yet it was
rare, and to the uncritical public admirable.
Moreover, there could be no doubt of the in-
fernal ability with which he caught and tor-
tured his victims; and finally, although tho
question of fact was unfortunately little to the
purpose even then, and now only interests
mere fumblers of historical detail, it is quite
certain that in his assertions he was essentially
correct, and that the stin g of his criticisms lay
in their truth.

Un March 6, 1806, he began his long public
career of opposition. Mr. Gregg of Pennsyl-
vania had oiJereS a resolution for prohibiting
the importation of British goods, in retaliation
for Mr. Pitt's attack on our carrying trade.
Mr. Crowninshield of Salem supported the
measure in a speech strongly warlike in tone,
which certainly promised more than was after-
wards achieved as a resLlr of our future con-
quests, besides suggesting confiscation of Brit-

174 JOHN RANDOLFH.

ish debts to the amount of forty million dollars.
Mr. Crowninshield was a New England demo-
crat, a thorough supporter of Mr. Jefferson, a
" Yazoo man," who had lately allowed himself
to be made Secretary of the Navy and declined
to serve. On all these accounts he was an ob-
ject of hatred to Randplph, who rose when he
sat down.

First he gave Mr. Crowninshield a stinging
blow in the face : " I am not surprised to hear
men advocate these wild opinions, to see them,
goaded on by a spirit of mercantile avarice,
straining their feeble strength to excite the
nation to war, when they have reached this
stage of infatuation that we are an overmatch
for Great Britain on the ocean. It is mere
waste of time to reason with such persons.
They do not deserve anything like serious
refutation. The proper arguments for such
statesmen are a strait- waistcoat, a dark room,
water gruel, and depletion." Then, after a
few words on the dispute with England, adopt-
ing the extreme ground that the carrying trade
was a mushroom, a fungus, not worth a contest,
an unfair trade, to protect which we were to be
plunged into war by the spirit of avaricious
traffic, he hit one of his striking illustrations :
" What ! shall this great mammoth of the Amer-
ican forest leave his native element, and plunge

TEE QUARREL, 175

iuto the water in a mad contest with the shark 1
Let him beware that his proboscis is not bitten
off in the engagement. Let him stay on shore,
and not be excited by the mussels and periwin-
kles on the strand." Thenjbe touched on the
policy of t hrowing weigh t iiito the _scale of
France against England, and on the effects^ of
foreign war in subverting the Constitution, grad-
ually comingTOUUd to IhB prupoyed conMscation
of British debts in order to strike another ugly
blow at Mr. Crowninshield's face : " God help
you, if these are your ways and means for car-
rying on war ; if your finances are in the hands
of such a chancellor of the exchequer! Be-
cause a man can take an observation and keep
a log-book and a reckoning, can navigate a cock-
boat to the West Indies or the East, shall he
aspire to navigate the great vessel of state, —
to stand at the helm of public councils ? Ne
Butor ultra crepidam .^ "

This, however, was mere by-play ; it was not
Crowninshield at whom his harangue was aimed,
but far more important game, and his audience
could see him approach nearer and nearer his
real victim, as though he were himself drawn on
against his own judgment by the fascination of
hatred.

*' You may go to war for this excrescence of the
carrying trade, and make peace at tEe expense of the

176 JOHN RANDOLPH.

Constitution ; your Executive will lord it over you."
** I haveTJelore protested, and I again protest, against
secret, irresponsible, overruling influence. The first
question I asked when I saw the gentleman's resolu-
tion was, *Is this a measure of the Cabinet?' Not
of an open, declared Cabinet, ^ut of a n invisible,
inscrutable, unconstitutional Cabinet, witnout re-
sponsibility, untnown to tile Constitution!^ I speak
of back-stairs influence, — of men who bring mes-
sages to this House, which, although they do not ap-
pear on its journals, govern its decisions. Sir, the
first question I asked on the subject of British rela-
tions was, *AVhat is the opinion of the Cabinet?'
* What measures will they recommend to Congress ? '
Well knowing that, whatever measures we might
take, they must execute them, and therefore that we
should have their opinion on the subject. My an-
swer was, and from a Cabinet minister, too, * There
is no longer any Cabinet* Subsequent circumstances,
sir, have given me a personal knowledge of the fact."

This attempt to drag Mr. Gallatin into the
business of discrediting the President and Sec-
retary of State was a serious if not a fatal
mistake ; but Randolph was already out of his
head. After alienating Gallatin, he insulted
the whole House, exasperating poor Sloan of
New Jersey as he had already embittered
Crowninshield : "Like true political quacks
you deal only in hand-bills and nostrums. Sir
I blush to see the record of our proceedings

THE QUARREL, 177

they resemble nothing but the advertisements
of patent medicines. Here you havi ' the wonn-
destroying lozenges ; ' there ' ' Church's cough-
drops ; ' and, to crown the whole, ' Sloan's veg-
etable specific,' an infallible remedy for all
nervous disorders and vertigos of brain-sick pol-
iticians, — each man earnestly adjuring you to
give his medicine only a fair trial." This done,
he suddenly shot another arrow within the sacred
circle of the administration into the secret and
mysterious Spanish embroglio: "And where
are you going to send your political panacea,
resolutions and hand-bills excepted, your sole
arcanum of government, your king cure-all?
To Madrid? No! You are not such quacks
as not to know where the shoe pinches. To
Paris I " " After shrink ing from the Sp anish
jackal, do you_ presumi? to bu lly the British
Hon ? " Another foul blow, for hrsTips were
sealed on what had been done in secret session ;
but it brought him at last to his end. " Unde
derivatur? Whence comes it," this non-im-
portation bantling ? " Some time ago, a book
was laid on our tables, which, like some other
bantlings, did not bear the name of its father.'*
This was Mr. Madison's well-known examina-
tion into the British doctrine of neutral trade.
"If, sir, I were the foe, as. I trust I am the
friend, of this nation, I would exclaim, ' Oh

12

178 JOHN RANDOLPH,

that miiie enemy would write a book ! ' At the
very outset, in the very first page, I believe,
there is a complete abandonment of the prin-
ciple in dispute. Has any gentleman got the
work?" Then he read a few lines from the
book, and flung it aside. Again sweeping away
over a long, discursive path of unconnected dis-
cussion about Spain, France and England, New
Orleans, Holland, and a variety of lesser topics,
including remarks made by " the greatest man
whom I ever knew, the immortal author of
the letters of Curtius," he closed by another
challenge to the administration : —

^' Until I came into the House this morning I had
been stretched on a sick-bed ; but when I behold the
affairs of this nation, instead of being where I hoped
and the people believed they were, in the hands of
responsible men, committed to Tom, Dick, and Harry,
to the refuse of the retail trade of politics, I do
feel, I cannot help feeling, the most deep and seri-
ous concern. If the executive government wt)uld
step forward and say, * Such is our plan, such is our
opinion, and such are our reasons in support of it,'
I would meet it fairly, would openly oppose or pledge
myself to support it ... I know, sir, ttat we may
say and do say that we are independent (would it
were true !), as free to give a direction to the Execu-
tive as to receive it from him ; but do what you will,
foreign relations, every measure short of war, and
even the course of hostilities depend upon him. He

THE QUARREL, 179

Stands at the helm, and must guide the vessel of state.
You give him money to buy Florida, and he pur-
chases Louisiana! Tou ynn.y Xuiuish'meausi-tliB" ap-
plication ot those _nQeans^r e_stsrwrthjiina7 " "Let 'not
the master a nd ja at e go below when the sKpis in
dislT^^, anS throw the responsibility upon the 'cook

and the cabin-boy ! "
. . r ^-^

The next day he returned to the attack, and
assailed Mr. Madison's pamphlet with a sort of
fury. " No, sir ; whatever others may think, I
have no ambition to have written such a book as
this. I abjure the very idea." He called it ^' a
miserable card-house of an argument, which the
first puff of wind must demolish." " Sir, I have
tried, but I could not get through this work. I
found it so wiredrawn, the thread so fine, that
I could neither see nor feel it; such a tangled
cobweb of contradictions that I was obliged to
give it up." Flinging it violently upon the
floor, as though it were only fit to be trampled
on, he maintainedj hat JEnglf^"^ ^^^ justifiable
in all her measure s, even in im pressing our sea-
men ; impressment was a necessity pi war. Ha
attacked the navy department for waste. He
affirmed "Ebat Great Britain was "ffie sole bul-
wark of'^e hunian race. ' ' ~ '

This was the man who^ barfily ayear l?efore,
had been crying out that tbe navy should be
cmphy^ to blow the British frigates out of

180 JOHN RANDOLFH,

wa ter, and wh o wished to^ee our officer s and
seamen lying yai^'S^arDa^and y ard-arm in the
attack. "Though we lost all, we should not
lose our national honor." _ Within the year
Great Britain had made more than ^e addi-
tional onslaught upon our national honor, but
Randolpli would nowJ[i sten to no thoiigh^of
war, arid derideSthe use, of our nav y. After
aII,'TKere "was much to be said on this side of
the question, and, as events proved, had Mr.
Jefferson followed his first impulse in the sum-
mer of 1805, and seized the moment for going
to war with Spain and France, he might per-
haps have checkmated the aggressive tories in
England, prevented the war of 1812, and proba-
bly saved himself, his successor, and his party
from being driven into a false position in regard
to the liberties of Europe and the states' rights
of America. Randolph, however, did not advo-
cate this policy now, when he might have done
so with effect. Repeatedly and emphatically
he declared himself opposed to war w ith Sp ain
or France or any other nation. " There was
no party of men in this House or elsewhere in
favor of war." "We were not for war; we
were for peace." His only recommendation,
repeated over and over again, was one of the
most extraordinary, as coming from his mouth
that human wit could have imagined : —

TEE QUARREL, 181

" I can readily tell gentlemen what I will not do. I
will not p ropitiate any f oreign nation with moneyr^I
will not launch into a naval war with Great Britain.
. . . T will send her money, sir,' on no pretext what-
ever, mach less on pretence of buying Labrador or
Botany Bay, when my real object was to secure limits
which she formally acknowledged at the peace of 1783.
I go farther. I would, if anything, have laid an em-
bargo. This would have got our property home, and
our adversary's into our power. If there is any wis-
dom left among us, the first step towards hostility
will always be an embargo. In six months all your
mercantile megrims would vanish. As to us, although
it would cut deep, we can stand it." " What would
have been a firm measure ? An embargo. That would
have gone to the root of the evil."

With what interest and amusement, with
■what fury and unconcealed mortification, such
speeches were listened to by the House may be
easily conceived. That they were desultory,
and skipped from subject to subject with little
apparent connection, was an additional charm.
No one could tell where or when his sudden
blows were to fall. He dwelt on nothing long
enough to be tedious. He passed hither and
thither, uttering sense and nonsense, but always
straining every nerve to throw contempt on
Mr. Madison and his supporters. In his next
speech he avowed himself to be no longer a
republican ; he belonged to the third party, the

182 JOHN RANDOLPH.

quiddists or quids^ being that tertium quid^ that
*' third something," which had no name, but was
really an anti-Madison movement, an "anti-
Yazoo " combination. When at last, on April
6, 1806, he dragged the Spanish embroglio be-
fore the open House under pretext of correcting
the secret journal, the personal bias of his oppo-
sition became still more strongly marked. He
told how Mr. Madison had said to him that
France wanted money, and we must give her
money. " I considered it a base prostration of
the national character to excite one nation by
money to bully another nation out of its prop-
erty, and from that moment and to the last
moment of my life my confidence in the prin-
ciples of the man entertaining those sentiments
died, never to live again." No answer«to this
charge was ever made ; no satisfactory answer
was possible. Mr. Madison's counter-statement,
which may be seen in the third volume of his
printed correspondence (p. 104), is equivocal
and disingenuous. The " two million " trans-
action was one of the least defensible acts of
Mr. JefiEerson's administration; but this does
not afEect the fact that Randolph was merely
using it and the private knowledge which Mr.
Madison's confidence had given him, in order to
carry out an attempt at political assassination.
His deepest passions were not roused by the

THE QUARREL, 183

" two million job," but by Madison's overpow-
ering influence. From the first this domination
had galled him : in the Yazoo contest it strove
to defeat him on his own ground; it crowed
over him on his own dung-hill; and he had
fought and beaten it with the desperate cour-
age of his Virginian game-cocks. Even at this
moment he was proclaiming the fact in his
speeches. "The whole executive government
has had a bias to the Yazoo interest ever since
I had a seat here. This is the original sin
which has created all the mischiefs which gen-
tlemen pretend to throw on the impressment of
our seamen and God knows what I This is the
cause of those mischiefs which existed years
ago." " The Yazoo business is thp beginning
and the. end, the Alpha and Omega of our al-
phabet." Mr. Madison's influence had been
brought into the House and pitted against his
own ; he was now retaliating by an attack on
Mr. Madison before the country. A rumor ran
through Washington that he meant to impeach
Madison for attempting to get the 'two mil-
lions to Europe before receiving authority
from Congress, and he did in fact make a des-
perate attempt to drag Gallatin into support
of this charge.

Unluckily for Randolph, it was not directly
Mr. Madison, but the President, who had in-

184 JOHN RANDOLPH.

vented and carried out the whole "two-mil-
lion " scheme down to its smallest detail. All
the Cabinet knew this fact, and the President's
conscience was of course active in stimulat-
ing him to protect his Secretary. The party
could not let Mr. Madison perish as a martyr
before the altar of Jeffersonian popularity. To
sustain him was no matter of choice, but a
necessity. The northern democrats never fal-
tered in their discipline, and the southern re-
publicans were slowly whipped back to their
ranks. Randolph's wild speeches between
March 5 and April 21, 1806, were fatal only
to himself. In his struggle against the admin-
istration on the two-million policy, early in
January, he carried with him some twenty-
seven republicans, including a majority of the
Virginia delegation ; but his withdrawal from
the party in April, and his unexpected devotion
to England, left these followers in an awkward
place, where little could be done by resisting
Madison withinjihe party, and still less by fol-
lowing Randolph into opposition. One by one
they fell away from their eccentric and extrava-
gant chief.

Meanwhile, Randolph showed an astonish-
ing genius for destroying his own influence and
strengthening his opponents. He obstructed
••he business of the House, and then sneered

TEE QUARREL, 185

at the majority for the condition their affairs
were in. He brought up the navy appropri-
ations with a blank for contingent expenses,
and told the House to fill it up as they pleased ;
their decision would be no check on the ex-
penditure; whether they provided the money
or not, the department would spend it. He
kept back the appropriation bills till late in
the session, and then rose to inform the House,
with a contemptuous smile, that All Fools' Day
was at hand, when, if they did not pass the bill
for the support of government, they would look
hke fools indeed. He made the most troub-
lesome attempts to abolish taxes. He had
another bout with the Yazoo men, and man-
aged to procure the rejection of their bill.
He tore the mask of secrecy from the Spanish
negotiation, and succeeded in defeating all
chance of its success. He even irritated Na-
poleon against the government, and helped
to confirm both France and Great Britain in
their meditated aggressions. His vehemence
of manner was equal to the violence of his lan-
guage and acts. One of the members, Sloan,
of the " vegetable specific," described him on
the floor of the House inviting the attacks of his
enemies, and representing them as crying out,
" Away with him ! Away with him ! Clap on
the crown of thorns 1 " (clapping his hand on

186 JOHN RANDOLPH,

fche top of his head). " Crucify him ! Crucify
him I " (whirling his arm about). On another
occasion, it seems, he shook his fist at a mem-
ber, and not only ordered him to sit down, but
to go down the back-stairs. Finally he charged
Mr. Findley of Pennsylvania, once his "ven-
erable friend" and " political father," not only
with "mumbling," but with being an old
toothless driveller, in his second dotage.

Yet in his most violent passions he kept his
coolness of head, and knew well how to subor-
dinate an enmity to an interest. Even while
most bitterly charging Mr. Madison with sub-
servience to France, and proving his charge by
betraying private conversations, as no man of
true self-respect could have done, he was him-
self helping the Secretary to put the country
on its knees before Napoleon in an attitude
more humiliating than the United States had
ever yet assumed towards a foreign power.
In the session of 1804-5 Congress, out of defer-
ence to France and to the obligations of inter-
national law, passed an act to regulate the
trade with revolted St. Domingo, and to re-
strain it within proper and peaceful limits. In
the summer of 1805 Napoleon, still unsatisfied,
issued an order that the United States govern-
ment should stop the trade altogether. Hia
peremptory note on the subject to Talleyrand

THE QUARREL. 187

dated August 10, 1805, is curious, not cnly as
an example of his extraordinary ignorance, but
still more as a specimen of his emphasis. " I
want you to send a note to the American min-
ister here, . . . and declare to him that it is
time to stop this." M. Talleyrand obeyed. Gen-
eral Turreau, also, his minister at Washington,
notified Mr. Madison that " this system must
continue no longer (ne pourrait pas durer),^^
These letters were called for and printed,
while Congress, in December, 1805, and Jan-
uary, 1806, were considering a bill introduced
by Senator Logan of Pennsylvania to prohibit
the trade in question. That Logan's bill was in
reality a subordinate but essential part of the
two-million scheme, is self-evident; but Ran-
dolph, not Mr. Jefferson or Mr. Madison, is
the subject of this story, and it is interesting
to ask whether Randolph denounced the bill
and exposed the shame to which the adminis-
tration was privy.

To prohibit the trade with St. Domingo was
to make the United States government a party
in the attempt to reestablish French influence
in the American hemisphere; it was to help
Napoleon in his plan of reenslaving the negroes
whom France had declared free ; it was to en-
force a French sham blockade by our legisla-
tion, to bolster up a mere pretence of French

188 JOHN RANDOLPH,

occupancy, to throw the whole trade of this
rich market into the hands of England, and to
endanger the life of every American in St. Do-
mingo. Mr. Madison had resisted the measure
as long as he dared. He now yielded, partly
to the mandate of Napoleon, partly to the
outcry of the southern slave-holders, who were
wild with fear of the revolted Haytian ne-
groes, and who seized with avidity upon the
bill. They forced it through the House with
unreasoning arrogance, at the time when Ran-
dolph, an ami dea noirSj a hater of slavery,
was angriest at the attempt of Mr. Madison to
bribe the French government with five million
dollars. This new proof of the " base prostra-
tion of the national character " inherent in the
Florida negotiation might have been a terrible
weapon in Randolph's hands had he chosen to
use it, but, so far from using it, he imitated
Mr. Madison's own conduct: he hid himself
from sight. " I voted in favor of it," said he
in 1817. He was mistaken. He did not vote
at all ; he gave the bill his silent support. " I
voted in favor of it because I considered St.
Domingo as an anomaly among the nations of
the earth, and I considered it my duty, . . .
as a representative above all of the southern
portion of the United States, to leave nothing
undone which could possibly give to the white

THE QUARREL, 189

population in that island an ascendency over
the blacks." For such a purpose he could
consent to use the powers of centralization in
defiance of international law, in contempt of
the rights of northern merchants, and in for-
getfulness of constitutional theories ; but if he
held the arbitrary prohibition of trade with
St. Domingo to be constitutional, how was he
afterwards to denounce as unconstitutional ei-
ther the embargo, or the non-intercourse, or the
law abolishing the coast-wise slave-trade ?

Thus, at length, on April 21, 1806, this
extraordinary session closed, one of the most
remarkable in the history of our government.
Randolph was left a political wreck ; the true
Virginian school of politics was forever ruined ;
Macon was soon driven from the speakership,
and Nicholson forced on to the bench ; Gallatin
was paralyzed ; Mr. Jeffe rsoiij^Mr.. Madison,

and nIfTTTmfplj IVfr, ]\fnnrnfi wPTft flirnwn , info

the hands of the northern democratSj,„whose
lotJSB'poIincal morality henceforward found no
cheeky the spirit of intrigue^ waa. stin^ulated,
and the most honest and. earnest jCOimfilions of
the^republican party were discredited. That
Mr. JefiEerson had steadily drifted away from
his^^ori ginal theories was trnej"and ihat ids
party, lik^^ilj^othft r p a rt if^ ft, - wf^.i mnr -fH^PRff
3orrupted by power can hardly be denjed ; but

190 JOHN RANDOLPH,

Randolph's leadershjg^ aggravated^ these jevils,
deprived hmi and the bettej.fionthern Mipub-
licans of all influence for good, and^left^orrupt
factions. to dispute with each other the possea-
Bioa of merely selfish power.

~^

CHAPTER Vra.

M02!TE0B AND THE SMITHS.

Of all republican factions the most miscliiev-
ous was tliat which gathered round Robert
Smith, the Secretary of the Navy, and his
brother, Samuel Smith, the senator from Mary-
land. The latter, during this turbulent session,
had contributed not a little to vex and worry
Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison by an attempt
to force himself upon them as a special envoy
to London to aid or supplant Monroe in his dif-
ficult negotiations on the neutral trade. The
first effect of Randolph's violent outburst was
to drive General Smith back to discipline ; the
remote result was to give him more influence
than before. As Smith wrote to his brother-in-
law, Wilson Gary Nicholas, on April 1, 1806 : —

" The question was simply, Buy or Fight ! Both
Houses by great majorities said, Buy ! The manner
of buying appears a little disagreeable. Men will
differ even on that subject. Politicians will believe
it perfectly honest to induce France, * by money,' to
coerce Spain to sell that which she has absolutely
declared was her own property, and from which she

iy52 JOHN RAN WLPH.

would not part Mr. R. expects that this public ex-
plosion of our views and plans will render abortWe
this negotiation, and make the Executive and poor
little Madison unpopular. Against this last he vents
his spleen. However, he spares nobody, and by this
conduct has compelled all to rally round the Execu-
tive for their own preservation. From the Potomac,
north and east, the members adhere to the President ;
south, they fall off daily from their allegiance."

Although Mr. Jefferson irritated the Smiths
by passing directly over their heads and taking
another Maryland man, the federalist lawyer
William Pinkney, as his new minister to Eng-
land, General Smith could now only submit in
silence to this sharp rebuke, the more marked
because the new appointment was not laid
before the Cabinet or discussed in advance.
Randolph's revolt had instantly stiffened the
party discipline, and the Smiths were forced
to wait.

The Smiths, however, knew when to wait
and when to intrigue, while Randolph knew
neither the one nor the other. To do him jus-
tice, he was a wretched intriguer and no oflBce-
seeker. He and his friends were remarkably
free from the meaner ambitions of political life ;
they neither begged patronage nor asked for
money, nor did they tolerate jobbery in any
form. Mr. Madison always believed otherwise,

MONROE AND THE IS3IITES. 193

and his loUowers openly charged Randolph with
having sought an office, and with having per-
secuted Mr, Madison for refusing it ; but this
story merely marked a point in the quarrel ; it
was a symptom, not a cause. Certain members
of Congress urged Randolph's appointment as
Minister to England, to fill the office which
Monroe held, which General Smith wanted, and
which William Pinkney got; but Randolph
himself did not know of the suggestion or hear
of the President's refusal until after the whole
transaction was closed. Then he was told of
the matter by the member who had been most
active in it, and, according to an account pub-
lished in the " Richmond Enquirer," evidently
by himself, he replied, " If I did not know you
so well, I should suppose you were sent to me
by the Executive to buy off my opposition, which
they fancy must take place from the course they
pursue." For years Randolph had been steadily
coming nearer a quarrel with his party leaders :
he was striving, as he believed, to drag them
back to their purer principles of 1800; they
were pleasantly drifting with the easy current
of power. The rupture was a mere matter of
time. Randolph's political isolation was in any
case inevitable, if Madison were to fill the ex-
ecutive chair, for Mr. Madison, the President of
the United States, was a very different char-
is

194 JOHN RANDOLPH.

acter from Mr. Madison the author of the Vir-
ginia Resolutions.

He went back to Bizarre in April, 1806, a
ruined statesman, never again to represent au-
thority in Congress or to hope for ideal purity
in government. His illusions of youth were
roughly brushed away. He saw, what so few
Virginians were honest enough to see, that the
Virginian theory had bftftn^i1e ^tly<li{^Q ftrrl<>d hy
its own authors, and that thrqughJjLpuj^. gov-
ernment could iifiyerjjfi .PYpooted. Hencefor-
ward he must be only ji f^ultrJSader, a common
scold, whose exaggerated peculiarities of man-
ner would invite ridicule, and^whose only pdeans
of influence must lie in the violence of his tem-
per and the sharpness of his tongue. Amopg
thousands of honest and enthusiastic young men
who in every generation rush into public life,
with the generous confidence that at last gov-
ernment shall be made harmless and politics re-
fined, Randolph was neither the greatest nor
the best ; his successes and failures were not the
most alluring, and his fate was not more tragic
than that of others: but it is the misfortune of
^ these opal-winged dragon-flies of politics thiit
from the moment their wings become tarnished
and torn they themselves become objects of dis-
gust. After conceiving the career of a Pericles
CHT a Caesar, to fall back among common men

MONROE AND THE SMITHS, 195

with vulgar aims and mean methods, is fatal to
self-respect. When his theories broke down,
and his Virginian leaders decided that their
own principles were visionary, Randolph had
nothing to do in political life but to accept what
other men accepted, or to look on and grumble
at evils which he no longer hoped to cure. He
had failed as a public man, and had dragged
with him in his failure all his friends and his
principles. Though he remained forever before
the public, he could not revive dead hopes or
bring back the noble aspirations of 1800.

To follow him through five-and-twenty years
of miserable discontent and growing eccentric-
ities would be time thrown away. He repre-
sented no one but himself ; he had very few
friends, and mere rags and tatters of political
principles. His party flung him aside, and
Mr. JefEerson, for a time very bitter against
him, soon learned that he was as little to be
feared as to be loved. Randolph, on his side,
dubbing his old leader with the contemptuous
epithet of " St. Thomas of Cantingbury," lost
no chance of expressing for Mr. Jefiferson a
sort of patronizing and humiliating regard. In
his eyes Mr. Jefferson as President had weakly
be tray e J alFth e princ iples, iie-bad preached in
opp osition . The time was to come when Mr.
Jefferson would return to those, principles, but

196 JOUN RANDOLPH,

mg^wViilp. 'Rnnrlnlp'h \^^^ rjiinprl. He knew it,

and it drove bim mad.

For a while, however, he still hoped to re-
trieve himself by bringing Mr. Monroe forward
as tlie candidate of Virginia for the next gen-
eral election in 1808. His letters to Nicholson
during the summer of 180G give glimpses of liis
situation before it was made wholly desperate
by tlie collapse of Monroe's treaty with Eng-
land in March, 1807, and the caucus nominations
of Mr. Madison in January, 1808.

KANDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

"Bizarre, 3 June, 1806. . . . The public prints
teem with misrepresentations, which it would be vain
to oppose, even if an independent press could be found
to attempt it. The torrent is for the present resist-
less. I long for the meeting of Congress, an event
which hitherto I have always deprecated, that I may
face the monster of detraction. . . . Nothing will be
left undone to excite an opposition to me at the next
election, but I have no expectation that it will be ef-
fected, or of its success in case it should. There are
too many gaping idolaters of power among us, but,
like you, we have men of sterling worth ; and one
thing is certain, — that, however we may differ on the
subject of the present administration, all parties here
(I speak of the republicans) unite in support of Mon-
roe for President. I have heard of but one dissent-
mg voice, Giles, who is entirely misled ; all his infor

MONROE AND THE SMITHS, 197

mation is from E[ppes], his representative. They
talk of an expression of the opinion of our legisla-
ture to this effect at their next meeting. An ineffi-
cient opposition is making to Garnett. Thompson, I
believe, will have an opponent likewise, but this is
not yet determined on. From what I have written
above you are not to infer that I mean to yield a
bloodless victory to my enemies. You know me well
enough, I hope, to believe that a want of persever-
ance is not among my defects. I will persevere to
the last in the cause in which I am embarked."

"24 Jane, 1806. . . . As to politics, lies are your
only sort of wear nowadays. Some artificial excite-
ment has been produced in favor of administration,
but it will affect no election, unless perhaps Thomp-
son's, and, on second thoughts, Mercer's. Beau
Dawson and his friend Bailey are in a fair way of
promotion. I can't tell what provision the President
that is to be can make for these two worthy cheva-
liers dHndustricy unless he gives them foreign embas-
sies. As to his respectable brother-in-law, he will
succeed, I suppose, to the vacant Secretaryship of
State, and will be every way qualified to draw the in-
structions and receive the dispatches of the two il-
lustrious diplomates. . . . You ask what are our
prospects in Virginia. Depend upon it, a very large
majority of us are decidedly opposed to Madison's
pretensions ; and if the other States leave it to Vir-
ginia, he never will be President."

" 7 July, . . . From what I can learn, my name
is the general theme of invective in the Northern

198 JOHN RANDOLPH,

prints, and there are not wanting some of us (one of
this district) who are very willing to lend a helping
hand to pull me down. Giles, I am told, has been
very violent, and has even descended to unworthy
means of which I had deemed him incapable. I
have no favors to ask. I want nothing. Let justice
be done to my motives, which I know to have been
upright, and I am content. No member of the ad-
ministration has reason to think them otherwise, I
am sure ; and if they suppose they have, they shall
not dare to say so with impunity. . . . About the
close of the last session of Congress, Granger in-
quired of a gentleman from Richmond, then at Wash-
ington, whether there was not such a character as
Creed Taylor in my district, and if he would not be
brought forward to oppose me. (Giles who had al-
ways professed to despise Mr. T.) has been busy mak-
ing the same inquiries. I am told that he (G.) has
shown a letter which I wrote him in full confidence
during the winter, to my prejudice. * Where dwell-
eth honor?'"

These letters to Nicholson are far less notable
than the series of letters which Randolph was
now writing to Monroe. Of all the great names
in American history, that of Monroe seems to
the keen eyes of critics to stand on the small-
est intellectual foundation. Individuality, orig-
inality, strong grasp of principles, he had to a
less degree than any other prominent Virginian
of his time ; but while usually swept along by

MONROE AND THE SMITHS. 199

the current of prevailing opinion^ he enjoyed
general respect as a man whose personal hon*
esty was above dispute, and whose motives
were sincerely pure. As Mr. Madison's chief
rival in popularity, although absent in Eng-*
land, he now became a disturbing force in
Virginian politics, and Mr. Jefferson on one .
side, Randolph, Nicholson, Taylor, Tazewell,
and their friends on the other, disputed fiercely
the possession of this ally. Far away in Lon-.
don, Mr. Monroe began to receive letters filled
with such honeyed flattery as few men except
those who wield power and dispense patronage
are so happy as to hear. No reader can help
noticing that Randolph could flatter, and per- '
haps, for the moment, he may have believed /
his flattery sincere. He had reason, too, in
feeling kindly towards Mr. Monroe, for Monroe
was showing much kindness to Randolph's
poor deaf-and-dumb nephew, St. George, who
had been sent abroad. The following extracts'
from Randolph's letters show the man in a new
character, — that of political manager. The
first was written in the full excitement of his
i?inter struggle.

BANDOLPH TO MONBOB.

"Washington, March 20, 1806. . . . Tliere is
no longer a doubt but that the principles ol our ad«

200 JOHN RANDOLPH.

ministration have been materially changed. The
compass of a letter (indeed, a volume would bo too
small) cannot suffice to give you even an outline. Suf-
fice it to say that everything is made a business of bar.
gain and traffic, the ultimate object of which is to raise
Mr. Madison to the presidency. To this the old
republican party will never consent, nor can New
York be brought into the measure. Between them
and the supporters of Mr. Madison there is an open
rupture. Need I tell you that they (the old repub-
licans) are united in your support ? that they look to
you, sir, for the example which this nation has yet to
receive to demonstrate that the government can be
conducted on open, upright principles, without intrigue
or any species of disingenuous artifice ? We are ex-
tremely rejoiced to hear that you are about to return
to the United States. Much as I am personally inter-
ested, through St. George, in your stay in Europe, I
would not have you remain one day longer. Your
country requires, nay demands, your presence. It is
time that a character which has proved invulnerable
to every open attack should triumph over insidious
enmity."

"Alexandria, April 22, 1806. . . . Last night
Congress adjourned, under circumstances the most
extraordinary that 1 ever witnessed. It would be
impossible for me, even if it were advisable, to give
you a sketch, much less a history, of our proceedings.
The appointment of Mr. Pinkney to the Court of
London will, no doubt, be announced to you, at least
as soon as this letter can reach the place of its des<

MONROE AND TEE SMITES, 201

tination. A decided division has taken place in the
republican party, which has been followed by a pro-
scription of the anti-miDisterialists. Among the
number of the proscribed are Mr. Nicholson, who
lias retired in strong disgust ; the Speaker, who will
soon follow him from a like sentiment ; and many
others of minor consequence, such as the writer of
this letter, cum multis aliis. My object at present is
merely to guard you, which your own prudence, per-
haps, renders an unnecessary caution, against a com-
promitment of yourself to men in whom you cannot
•wholly confide. Be assured that the aspect of affairs
here, and the avowed characteristics of those who
conduct them, have undergotie a material change
since you left America. In a little while I hope you
will be on the spot to judge for yourself, to see with
your own eyes and to hear with your own ears. All
the statements of our public prints are, at present,
garbled, owing to the peculiar situation of the place
which is the established seat of our government."

"BiZAKRE, July 3, 1806. . . . There is a system
of which you are not informed, but in which, never-
theless, every effort will be made, indeed is making,
to induce you to play a part so as to give a stage effect
that may suit a present purpose. I wish it were in
my power to be more explicit. Be assured, however,
that you have friends, whose attachment to you is not
to be shaken, and from whose zeal you have at the
same time nothing to fear. I need not tell you, I
nope, that the fervor of my attachment has never
betrayed me into a use of your name on any occasion,

202 JOBN RANDOLPH.

except where your public dispatches, laid by govern^
meut before Congress, called for and justiiied the
measure."

" Bizarre, September 16, 1806. . . . If heretofore
I had been at a loss to fix upon the individual the
most disinterested and virtuous whom I have known,
I could now find no difficulty in determining ; nor do
I hesitate to declare that the very arguments which
you adduce to dissuade your friends from supporting
you at the next presidential election form with me
an invincible motive for persisting in that support,
since they exhibit the most irrefragable proof of that
superior merit which you alone are unwilling to ac-
knowledge. Yet I must confess there are consider^
ations amongst those presented by you that would
have great and perhaps decisive influence upon my
mind where the pretensions of the candidates were
nearly equal. But in this case there is not only a
strong preference for the one party, but a decided
objection to the other. It is not a singular belief
among the republicans that to the great and acknowl-
edged influence of this last gentleman [Mr. Madison]
we are indebted for that strange amalgamation of
men and principles which has distinguished some of
the late acts of the administration, and proved so inju-
rious to it. Many, the most consistent and influential
of the old republicans, by whose exertions the present
men were brought into power, have beheld, with un-
measurable disgust, the principles for which they had
contended, and, as they thought, established, neutral*
zed at the touch of a cold and insidious moderatioa

MONROE AND TEE SMITHS. 203

I speak not of the herd of place-hunters, whose sole
view in aiding to produce a change in the administra-
tion was the advancement of themselves and their
connections, but of those disinterested and gener-
ous spirits who served from attachment to the cause
alone, and who neither expect nor desire preferment.
Such men, of whom I could give you a list that would
go near to fill my paper, ascribe to the baneful coun-
sels of the Secretary of State that we have been grad-
ually relaxing from our old principles, and relapsing
into the system of our predecessors ; that government
stands aloof from its tried friends, whilst it hugs to
its bosom men of the most equivocal character, and
even some who have been and still are unequivocally
hostile to that cause which our present rulers stand
pledged to support ; and that you are at this moment
associated with a colleague whom former administra-
tions deemed a fit instrument to execute the ever-
memorable treaty of London ! They are, moreover,
determined not to have a Yazoo President if they can
avoid it, nor one who has mixed in the intrigues of
the last three or four years at Washington. There is
another consideration, which I know not how to touch.
You, my dear sir, cannot be ignorant, although of all
markind you, perhaps, have the least cause to know
it, low deeply the respectability of any character may
be impaired by an unfortunate matrimonial connec-
tion. I can pursue this subject no further. It is at
once too delicate and too mortifying. Before the
decision is ultimately made I h)pe to have the pleas-
ure of communicating fully with you in person.

204 JOHN RANDOLPH.

With you, I believe the principles of our govern-
ment to be in danger, and union and activity on the
part of its friends indispensable to its existence. But
that union can never be obtained under the presi-
dency of Mr. IMadison. ... I will never despair of
the republic whilst I have life, but never could I see
less cause for hope than now. I have beheld my
species of late in a new and degrading point of view,
but at the same time I have met with a few God-
like spirits, who redeem the whole r^ce in my good
opinion."

The story of Randolph's famous quarrel with
his party has now been told in a spirit as
friendly to him as his friends can require or ex-
pect, — has been told, so f{^r as possible, in his
own words, without prejudice or passion, and
shall be left to be judged on its merits. There
are, however, a few questions which students
of American history will do well to ask them-
selves before taking sides with or against the
partisans of Jeflferson, Madison, Randolph, and
Monroe. Did or did not Randolph go -with his
party in disregarding its own principles' down
to the moment when he became jealous of Mad-
ison's influence ? Was that jealousy a cause of
his feud ? Was the Yazoo co mpromise a'fheas-
ure so morally wrong as t o "justify the disrup-
tion of the party? Had he reason to think
Monroe a safer inan than MadisOU ? Had he

MONROE AND THE SMITHS, 205

not reason to know that Mr. Jefferson liiinself,
and Mr. Gallatin, were quite as responsible as
Madison, for " that strange amalgamation "
which he complained of ? Or, to sum up all
these questions in one, was Randolph capable
of remaining true to any principle or any friend-
ship that required him to control his violent
temper and imperious will?

Upon this point Randolph's Virginian ad-
mirers will listen to no argument : they insist
that he was their only consistent statesman ;
they reject Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and
Mr. Monroe, and utterly repudiate President
Washington, Patrick Henry, and John Mar-
shall, in order to follow this new prophet of
evil. Without Randolph, the connection of
Virginian history would, in their eyes, be lost.
Perhaps they are right. Readers must solve
the riddle as truth and justice shall seem to re-
quire.

Meanwhile Randolph fretted at Bizarre, and
wrote long letters, signed " Decius," to the
" Richmond Enquirer," until the much-desired
month of December came, and he returned to
fight his battles at Washington. Passions,
however, had now cooled. Calmer himself, he
found all parties ready to meet him in a formal
truce. Nicholson had gone upon the bench, but
Macon was still Speaker, and Randolph himself ,

206 JOHN RANDOLPH.

until March 4, 1806, could not be deposed from
his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Com-
mittee. Mr. Jefferson's message, very different
in tone from that of the year before, was calcu-
lated to soothe party quarrels and to satisfy
Randolph's wishes. In reality the President's
belligerency of December, 1805, had been in-
tended as a ruse and a false demonstration to
cover a retreat from foreign difficulties; and
Randolph, knowing this, had made use of his
knowledge to worry the administration and to
damage Mr. Madison by ajEfecting at one time
to take these belligerent threats as serious, and
by throwing ridicule upon them at other times
as quackery. In December, 1806, the Presi-
dent, satisfied that the ruse of last year had
failed, sent in a message breathing only peace
and the principles of 1800. Randolph chose to
look upon it as a triumph for himself, and wrote
to Nicholson accordingly : —

RANDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

"Georgetown, 10 December, 1806. . . . The
message of the 3d was, as you supposed, wormwood
to certain gentry. They made wry faces, but, in fear
of the rod and in hopes of sugar-plums, swallowed it
with less apparent repugnance than I had predicted.
... Of all the men who have met me with the
greatest apparent cordiality, old Smilie is the last
whom you would suspect I understand that they

MONROE AND THE SMITHS, 207

(you kflow who they are) are well disposed towards
a truce. The higher powers are in the same goodly
temper, as I am informed. I have seen nobody be-
longing to the administration but the Secretary of the
Navy, who called here the day before yesterday, and
whose visit I repaid this morning. You may remem-
ber, some years ago, my having remarked to you the
little attention which we received from the grandees,
and the little disposition which I felt to court it. I
have therefore invariably waited for the first advance
from them, because at home I conceive myself bound
to make it to any gentleman who may be in my neigh-
borhood."

Burr's conspiracy now broke out, startling
the nation out of its calm, and proving, or seem-
ing to prove, the justice of Randolph's suspi-
cions and anxieties. For a time a sort of panic
reigned in Washington except among the feder-
alists. Randolph and his friends sneered at the
last year's work ; Smith and his friends grum-
bled at the supineness of this year. The ex-
pressions of both these factions in their private
letters were very characteristic.

On December, 26, 1806, Macon wrote to
Nicholson, "The doings here will surely con-
vince every candid man in the world that the
republicans of the old school were not wrong
last winter. Give truth fair play, and it will
prevail." A fortnight later, January 9, 1807,

208 JOHN BANDOLPn,

General Smith wrote to his brpther-in-law, W
C. Nicholas : —

" My ambition is at an end. I sicken when I look
forward to a state of things that would require exer-
tions. AVe have established theories that would stare
down any possible measures of offence or defence.
Should a man take a patriotic stand against those
destructive and seductive fine-spun follies, he will be
written down very soon. Look at the last message !
It in some sort declared more troops to be unneces-
sary. It is such, however, that the President cannot
recommend (although he now sees the necessity) any
augmentation of the army. Nay, I, even I, did not
dare to bring forward the measure until I had first
obtained his approbation. Never was there a time
when executive influence so completely governed the
nation."

General Smith's comments on the " destruc-
tive and seductive fine-spun follies," which he so
detested, forgot to note that, whether destruc-
tive or not, they sprang straight from the theo-
ries of his party, which had no moral existence
except on and in those principles. John Adams
had been sent back to Braintree for no other
avowed reason than that Smith might establish,
as the practice of government, what he now
called "fine-spun follies." Randolph felt the
shame of such an inconsistency. The meeting
of two extremes is always interesting, and the

MONROE AND THE SMITHS 209

moment of their contact is portentous. While
General Smith on one side was repudiating the
theories he had " established " in 1800, and was
frankly going back to his old federalist policy,
Randolph, who still believed in the " fine-spun
follies " of his youth, was also confessing that
in practice they had failed, and that the night
of corruption and violence was again closing
upon mankind. On February, 15, 1807, a few
weeks after General Smith's letter to Nicholas,
Randolph wrote to Joseph Nicholson : —

" I do now believe the destiny of the world to be
fixed, at least for some centuries to come. After
another process of universal dominion, degeneracy,
barbarian irruption and conquest, the character of man
may, two thousand years hence, perhaps, begin to
wear a brighter aspect. Cast your eyes backward to
the commencement of the French Revolution ; recall
to mind our hopes and visions of the amelioration of
the condition of mankind, and then look at things as
they are ! I am wearied and disgusted with this pict-
ure, which perpetually obtrudes itself upon me.'*

The republican party had broken up in fac-
tions, and even its best members had lost faith
in their own theories. Among these factions
Randolph's group of "old republicans " held a
sort of monopoly in pure republican principles,
while the rest were contented with carrying on
the government from day to day, disputing, not

14

210 JOHN RANDOLPH,

about principles, but about oflBces. Randolph
looked down on them all with bitter contempt.
His letters to Nicholson became gall.

KANDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

"Committee Room, 17 February^ 1807. . . .
Bad as you suppose matters to be, they are even
worse than you apprehend. What think you of that
Prince of Prigs and Puppies, G. W. C [ampbell] for
a judge of the Supremo Court of the United States ! ! !
Risum teneas f You must know we have made a new
circuit, consisting of the three western States, with an
additional associate justice. A caucus (excuse the
slang of politics) was held, as I am informed, by the
delegations of those States for the purpose of recom-
mending some character to the President. Boyle was
talked of, but the interest of C. finally prevailed.
This is * Tom, Dick, and Harry ' with a vengeance.
• . . If Mr. * American,' whom, by the way, I never
see, should persevere in the attack which you tell me
he is making upon me, I shall issue letters of marque
and reprisal against his principals. The doughty
general [Samuel Smith] is vulnerable at all points,
and his plausible brother [Robert Smith] not much
better defended. The first has condemned in terms
of unqualified reprobation the general measures pur-
sued by the administration, and lamented that, such
was the public infatuation, no man could take a posi-
tion against it without destroying himself and injur-
ing the cause which he attempted to serve, — with
mach more to the same tune. I called some time

MONROE AND THE SMITHS. 211

Bince at the navy office to ask an explanation of cer-
tain items of the estimate for this year. The Secre-
tary called up his chief clerk, who knew very little
more of the business than his master. I propounded
a question to the head of the department ; he turned
to the clerk like a boy who cannot say his lesson, and
with imploring countenance beseeches aid ; the clerk
with much assurance gabbled out some commonplace
jargon, which I would not take for sterling ; an ex-
planation was required, and both were dumb. This
pantomime was repeated at every new item, until, dis-
gusted, and ashamed for the degraded situation of the
principal, I took leave without pursuing the subject,
seeing that my subject could not be attained. There
was not one single question relating to the depart-
ment that the Secretary could answer."

Randolpli's temper was now ugly beyond
what was to be expected from a man whose ob-
jects were only to serve the public and to secure
honest government. His hatred of the northern
democrats broke out in ways which shaw^-a
wish to r ule o r ruin. When the bill for pro-
hiBiting the slave-trade was before the House,
a bill chiefly supported by the Varnums and
Bidwells, Sloans, Smilies, and Findleys, whom
ho so much disliked, he broke out in a startling
denunciation of the clause which forbade the
coast-wise slave-trade in vessels under forty
tons. This provision, he said, touched the right
of private property ; he feared it might one day

212 JOHN RANDOLPE.

be made the pretext for universal emancipation;
he had rather lose the bill, he had ratlier lose
all the bills of the session, he had rather lose
every bill passed since the establishment of the
government, than agree to the clause ; it went
to blow the Constitution into ruins ; if ever the
time of disunion should arrive, the line of sev-
erance would be between the slave-holding and
the non-slave-holding States. Besides attempt-
ing thus to stir up trouble between the South
and North, he made a desperate effort to put
the Senate and House at odds, and sliowed a
spirit of pure venom that went far to sink his
character as an honest man.

On March 8, 1807, his means of effecting fur*
ther mischief were to be greatly curtailed, for
on that day the Ninth Congress came to an end,
and Randolph lost his hold on the Ways and
Means Committee. This was not his only dis-
aster, for, on the same day, Mr. Erskine, the
British Minister at Washington, received from
London a copy of the new treaty which Mr.
Monroe and Mr. Pinkney had barely succeeded
in negotiating with the British government.
Hurrying with it, to Mr. Madison, the Minister
supposed that an extra session of the Senate
would be immediately called for March 4 ; but
instead of this, the President declined to send
the treaty to the Senate at all, and contented

MONROE AND THE SMITHS, 213

himself with denouncing it in very strong lan-
guage to all the senators who called upon him.
The treaty was indeed a very bad one, but it
carried on its shoulders the fortunes of the old
republicans, and its humiliating reception was
a fatal blow to Randolph's hope of retrieving
his own fortunes by attaching them to those
of James Monroe. Randolph of course felt no
doubt as to the motives which prompted so
stern a rebuke before an expectant nation. He
wrote to Monroe accordingly: —

RANDOLPH TO MONEOE.

"Bizarre, March 24, 1807. . . . Mr. T. M.
Randolph suddenly declines a reelection, in favor of
Wilson Isicliolas, whose talents for intrigue you well
know, I presume. Had I known of Mr. Purviance's
arrival, I should certainly have remained in AVashing-
ton for the purpose of seeing hino, and procuring
better information concerning the treaty than the
contradictory accounts of the newspapers furnish. I
have considered the decree of Berlin to be the great
cause of difficulty ; at the same time, I never had a
doubt that clamor would be raised against the treaty,
be it what it might. My reasons for this opinion I
will give when we meet They are particular as well
as general. Prepare yourself to be surprised at some
things which yen will near."

The old republicans were now in despair.
Uecognizing the fact that Monroe was out; of

214 JOHN RANDOLPH.

the race, they turned their attention to New

York. 01 all northern democracy, the demo-

) crats of New York and Pennsylvania, the Cheet-

' hams and Duanes, had been most repulsive to

! Randolph, but in his hatred for Mr. Madison he

\ .was now ready to unite with these dregs of cor-

j ruption, rather than submit to the Secretary

I of State ; he was ready to make George Clinton

: president, and to elevate De Witt Clinton, most

selfish, unscrupulous, and unsafe of democrats,

into a position where the whole government

patronage would lie at his mercy. He wrote

again to Monroe, evidently to prepare him for

being gently set aside : —

RANDOLPH TO MONROE.

"Richmond, May 30, 1807. . . . The friends of
Mr. Madison have left nothing undone to impair the
very high and just confidence of the nation in your-
self. Nothing but the possession of the government
could have enabled them to succeed, however par-
tially, in this attempt. In Virginia they have met
with the most determined resistance, and although
I believe the executive influence will at last carry
the point, for which it has been unremittingly ex-
erted, of procuring the nomination of electors favor-
able to the Secretary of State, yet it is not even
ji its power to shake the confidence of the people
of this State in your principles and abilities, or to
efface your public services from their recollection^

MONROE AND THE SMITHS. 215

I should be wanting in my duty to you, my dear
sir, were I not to apprise you that exertions to di-
minish the value of your character and public ser-
vices have been made by persons, and in a manner
that will be scarcely credible to you, although at the
same time unquestionably true. Our friend Colonel
Mercer, should you land in a northern port, can give
you some correct and valuable information on this
and other subjects. Meanwhile, the republicans of
New York, sore with the coalition effected by Mr.
John Nicholas between his party and the federalists
(now entirely discomfited), a7id knowing the auspices
under which he acted, are irreconcilably opposed
to Mr. Madison, and striving to bring forward Mr.
Clinton, the Vice-President. Much consequently
depends on the part which Pennsylvania will take in
this transaction. There is a leaning, evidently, to-
wards the New York candidate. Whether the execu-
tive influence will be able to overcome this predispo-
sition yet remains to be seen. In the person of any
other man than Mr. M. I have no doubt it would
succeed. But the republicans of Pennsylvania, set-
ting all other considerations aside, are indignant at
the recollection that in all their struggles with the
combined parties of McKeau, etc., and the federal-
ists, the hand of government has been felt against
them, and so far as it has been exerted they choose to
ascribe [it] to the exertions of Mr. M. Such is, as
nearly as I can collect, the posture of affairs at present.
Wilson C. N[icholas] and Duane are both in town at
sbis time. Some important result is no doubt to flow

216 JOHN RANDOLPH.

from this conjunction. When you return, you wiQ
hardly know the country. A system of espionage
and denunciation has been organized which pervades
every quarter. Distrust and suspicion generally pre-
vail in the intercourse between man and man. All is
constraint, reserve, and mystery. Intrigue has arrived
at a pitch which I hardly supposed it would have
reached in five centuries. The man of all others who,
I suppose, would be the last suspected by you is the
nucleus of this system. The maxim of Rochefou-
cauld is in him completely verified, * that an affecta-
tion of simplicity is the refinement of imposture.'
Hypocrisy and treachery have reached their acme
amongst us. I hope that I shall see you y^ry soon
after your arrival. I can then give you a full ex-
planation of these general expressions, and proof
that they have been made upon the surest grounds.
Amongst your unshaken friends you may reckon two
of our chancellors, Mr. Nicholson of Maryland, Mr.
Clay of Philadelphia, Col. Jno. Taylor, and Mr.
Macon."

At the same time, Judge Nicholson wrote to
Monroe a letter which is worth a moment's
notice on account of the support it gave to
Randolph's views : —

JOSEPH H. NICHOLSON TO MONROE.

"Baltimore, April 12, 1807. ... As to the
public sentiment, I cannot readily state what it is.
Perhaps there is none. The President's popularity
10 nnbounded, and his will is that of the nation. Hit

MONROE AND THE S3fITff8, 217

approbation seems to be the criterion by which the
correctness of all public events is tested. Any treaty,
therefore, which he sanctions will be approved of by
a very large proportion of our people. The federal-
ists will murmur, but as this is the result of system,
and not of principle, its impression v/ill be neither
deep nor extensive. A literal copy of Jay's treaty,
if ratified by the present administration, would meet
their opposition, while the same instrument, although
heretofore so odious to some of us, would now com-
mand the support of a large body who call themselves
democrats. Such is our present infatuation. To
this general position, however, there are some honest
exceptions. There is a portion who yet retain the
feelings of 1798, and whom I denominate the old
republican party. These men are personally attached
to the President, and condemn his measures when
they think him wrong. They neither wish for nor
expect anything from his extensive patronage. Their
public service is intended for the public good, and has
no view to private emolument or personal ambition.
But it is said they have not tis confidence, and I la-
ment it. You must have perceived from the public
prints that the most active members in the House of
Representatives are new men, and I fear that foreign
nations will not estimate American talent very highly
if our congressional proceedings are taken as the rule.
If you knew the Sloans, the Alstons, and the Bid-
wells of the day, and there are a great many of them,
70U would be mortified at seeing the affairs of the
uation in such miserable hands. Yet these are styled

218 JOHN RANDOLPH.

exclasively the President's friends. . . . These facts
will enable you to form an early opinion as to the
necessity of remaining in England. You know Mr.
Jefferson perfectly well, and can therefore calculate
the chances of his approving anything done not in
precise conformity to his instructions. He is, how-
ever, somewhat different from what he was. He feels
at present his own strength with the nation, and
therefore is less inclined to yield to the advice of his
friends. Your return is anxiously wished for by
many who, I presume you know, are desirous of put-
ting you in nomination for the presidency. My own
expectations are not very sanguine on this subject.
Great efforts are making for and by another. The
Virginia and New York elections which take place in
the course of the present month will determine much.
The point is made throughout Virginia, I believe,
and much solicitude is felt and expressed by the can-
didate for the presidency as to the result of the sev-
eral elections. It is to be hoped, therefore, that you
will return as early as possible."

What course things might have taken had
nothing occurred to disturb domestic politics
must be left to conjecture. Fate now decreed
that a series of unexpected events should create
an entirely new situation, and tury in rapid
oblivion all memory of old republican piinci-
ples. The aggressions of EuropB tDrced'Amer«
ica out of her chosen path.

CHAPTER IX.

"A NinSANCB AND A CTJBSE."

Randolph's letters to Nicholson carry on
the story: —

RANDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

" Bizarre, 25 3farch, 1807. ... I fullj intended
to have written to you the day before my departure
from Washington, but was prevented by an accident
which had nearly demolished me. Being very unwell
on Monday night, the 2d, and no carriage to be pro-
cured, I accepted the offer of one of his horses from
Dr. Bibb (successor to Spalding), and we set out to-
gether for Georgetown. Not very far beyond our
old establishment (Sally Dashieirs), the only girth
there was to the saddle gave way, and as it fitted the
horse very badly it came with his rider at once to
the ground. Figure to yourself a man almost bruised
to death, on a dark, cold night, in the heart of the
capital of the United States, out of sight or hearing
of a human habitation, and you will have a tolerably
exact idea of my situation, premising that I was pre-
viously knocked up by our legislative orgies, and some
scrapes that our friend Lloyd led me into. With
Bibb's assistance, however, I mounted the other horse,
\nd we crept along to Crawiord*s, where I was seized

220 JOUN RANDOLPH.

with a high fever, the effects of which have not yet
left me. To end this Canterbury tale, I did not get
out of bed until Wednesday afternoon, when I left it
to begin a painful journey homewards. Anything,
however, was preferable to remaining within the ten-
miles-square one day longer than I was obliged. . . .
Colonel Burr (quantum mutatus ah illof) passed by
my door the day before yesterday, under a strong
guard. So I am told, for I did not see him, and
nobody hereabouts is acquainted with his person.
The soldiers escorting him, it seems, indulged his
aversion to be publicly known, and to guard against
inquiry as much as possible he was accoutred in a
shabby suit of homespun, with an old white hat
flapped oX'er his face, the dress in which he was ap-
prehended. From the description, and indeed the
confession of the commanding officer to one of my
neighbors, I have no doubt it was Burr himself.
His very manner of travelling, although under arrest,
was characteristi ; of the man, enveloped in mystery."

The arrival of Burr at Richmond led to the
summons of a grand jury, on which Randolph
served. Thus he was brought in contact with
a new object of intense aversion, the famous
General Wilkinson, who, for twenty years, had
played fast tmd loose with treason, and who, at
the last moment, saved Mr. Jefferson's admin-
istration from a very serious danger by turning
against Burr. Randolph could not think of
the man henceforward with ordinary patience

"Jl NUISANCE AND A CURSE:' 221

and perlinps his irritation was a little due to
the fact that Wilkinson's vices had so much
helped to cover what he believed to be Mr.
JefiEerson's blunders.

RANDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

" Richmond, 25 June, 1807. . . . Yesterday the
grand jury found bills of treason and misdemeanor
against Burr and Blennerhassett, una voce, and this
day presented Jonathan Dayton, ex-senator, John
Smith of Ohio, Comfort Tyler, Israel Smith of New
York, and Davis Floyd of Indiana, for treason. But
the mammoth of iniquity escaped ; not that any man
pretended to think him innocent, but upon certain
wire-drawn distinctions that I will not pester you
with. "Wilkinson is the only man that I ever saw
who was from the bark to the very core a villain. . . .
Perhaps you never saw human nature in so degraded
a situation as in the person of Wilkinson before the
grand jury, and yet this man stands on tlie very summit
and pinnacle of executive favor, whilst James Monroe
is denounced. As for such men as the quids you speak
of, I should hardly think his Majesty would stoop to
such humble quarry, when James Monroe was in
view. Tazewell, who is writing on the other side of
the table, and whom you surely remember, says that
iie makes the fifth. The o*:her four you have not
mistaken. My friend, I am standing on the soil of
my native country, divested of every right for which
our fathers bled. Politics have usurped the place of
law, and the scenes of 1708 are again revived. Men

222 JOHN RANDOLPH.

DOW see and hear, and feel and think,, politically.
Maxims are now advanced and advocated, which
would almost have staggered the effrontery of Bayard
or the cooler impudence of Chauncy Goodrich, when
we were first acquainted. But enough of this ! It
will not be long, I presume, before I shall see you
again. The news of the capture of the Chesapeake
arrived this morning, and I suppose the President
will convene Congress, of course. I have been look-
ing for something of this sort ever since the change
of ministry and rejection of the treaty was announced.
I have tried to avert from my country a war which I
foresaw must succeed the follies of 1805-6, but I
shall not be the less disposed to withdraw her from
it or carry her through with honor."

The President did not immediately convene
Congress. With great wisdom and forbearance,
accepting the British Minister's disavowal of
the Chesapeake outrage, he waited to hear
from England, only issuing a proclamation to
exclude the British ships of war from our har-
bors. Congress was called together for October
26, and Randolph then appeared at Washington
in a temper bad even for him. The northern
democrats controlled everything. Macon was
obliged to decline being a candidate for the
speakership ; Varnum of Massachusetts was put
in the chair, and his first act was to appoint
George W. Campbell of Tennessee, "that prince

*M NUISANCE AND A CURSE.'' 223

of prigs and puppies," chairman of the Ways
and Means Committee. Randolph showed his
temper on the very first day by bringing a
charge against Nicholas B. Vanzandt, the regr
ular candidate for clerk of the House, too sud-
denly and positively for contradiction, which
caused Vanzandt to be defeated and disgraced.
The man happened to be a protSgS of Mrs.
Madison. That Randolph should have been
beside himself with rage and mortification is
natural ,enough, for he could no longer doubt
the odium in which he had involved himself
and even his friend Macon, who, dazzled by
his wit and overawed by his will, found him-
self isolated and shunned, dropped from the
speakership, and at cross-purposes with his
party. The spell was now at an end, and
Macon, although retaining friendly relations
with Randolph, hastened at this session to draw
away from him in politics, and gave an almost
unqualified support to the administration. Mr.
Jefferson, with his usual dexterity, had already
reduced Randolph's influence in the House by
providing his ally, Nicholson, with a seat on the
bench, and Nicholson probably welcomed this
means of escape from a position which Ran-
dolph had made so uncomfortable. Within a
few weeks more Randolph succeeded in making
himself a mere laughing stock for his enemies.

224 JOHN RANDOLPH,

Even Macon and Nicholson were obliged to
agree that recovery of his influence was scarcely
possible. The story of this last and fatal ec-
centricity, hardly mentioned by his biographers,
merits a place here as further evideiicfi. .pf^iat
irrationality which. F>a/^a lyy o phiions wo rthless,
and his political rnnrsp. f or tp^] y^ HF fi ^^ come

little more th^n n. rpHpa nf way ^^^Tf] impnlgpg

He had been vehement in regard to the Ches-
apeake outrage, and considered Mr. Jefferson's
cautious measures very insufficient. Nicholson
had called his attention to Lord Chatham's
Falkland Island speech, and he wrote from Bi-
zarre, in reply, as follows, July 21, 1807 : —

RANDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

" I have indulged myself in reading once more the
speech to which you allude. It is the inspiration of
divine wisdom, and as such I have ever adored it
But, my good friend, I cannot with you carry ray
zeal so far as to turn missionary and teach the gos-
pel of politics to the heathens of Washington. More
easily might a camel pass through a needle's eye
than one particle of the spirit of Chatham be driven
into that ' trembling council,' to whom the destinies
of this degraded country are unhappily confided. . . •
But great God! what can you expect from men
who take Wilkinson to their bosoms, and at the same
time are undermining the characters of Monroe and
Macoo, and plotting their downfall! There is but

±x\-

**A NUISANCE AND A CURSE.'* 225

one sentiment here, as far as I can learn, on the sub-
ject of the late outrage : that, as soon as the fact was
ascertained, Congress should have been convened, a
strict embargo laid, Erskine [the British Minister]
sent home, our Ministers recalled, and then we might
begin to deliberate on the means of enforcing our
rights and extorting reparation. The Proclamation
(or, as I term it, the apology) is received rather
coldly among us. Many persons express themselves
much mortified at it. Every one I see asks what gov-
ernment means to do, and I might answer, * What
they have always done ; nothing !'...! should not
be surprised, however, if the Drone or Humble Bee,
(the Wasp has sailed already) should be dispatched
with two millions (this is our standing first bid) to
purchase Nova Scotia, and then we might go to war
in peace and quiet to ascertain its boundaries."

So soon as Congress met, Randolph hastened
to proclaim these sentiments, with additions of
startling import, rivalling Mr. Crowninshield's
projected triumphs. Not only should Congress
have been immediately convened, and our Min-
isters in London, Pinkney and Monroe, recalled,
after requiring full measures of redress, which
were to be sent over by a special envoy ; not
only should the nation have been put into a
posture of defence ; but, " redress being refused,
instant retaliation should have been taken on
the offending party. I would have invaded Can-
ada and Nova Scotia, and made a descent on

15

226 JOHN RANDOLPH.

Jamaica. I would have seized upon Canada and
Nova Scotia as pledges to be retained against a
future pacification, until we had obtained ample
redress for our wrongs." This was soaring on
the wings of Chatham, and indeed it would
have been necessary to soar on some wings,
if Randolph meant to attack Nova Scotia and
Jamaica. Redress was refused ; for, although
the British government disavowed the attack
on the Chesapeake, the men were not returned,
but either hanged, or kept in jail for the next
four years. Randolph, however, instead of con-
tinuing to demand redress, or seizing upon Can-
ada and Nova Scotia, declared that he would
not, without great reluctance, vote money for
the maintenance of " our degraded and dish
graced navy."

A few weeks after this tirade, news arrived
of fresh aggressiomr from England and France ;
the Berlin Decree was to be enforced, and the
Orders in Council were to be issued without d^
lay. The next day the President sent down a
confidential message asking for an embargo,
and the House went at once into secret session.
What passed there is only partially known, but
it was asserted by Mr. Fisk of Vermont, in
a speech made later in the session, that there
had been a scramble between Randolph and
Crovninshield as to who should have the honor

"-4 NUISANCE AND A CUE8E.*' 227

first to propose the measure, and Randolph
urged expedition, as he had a bill ready pre-
pared. Certain it is that Randolph got the
better of Crowninshield, and his resolution or-
dering an embargo stands on the secret journal
of the House. A bill for the same purpose just
then came down from the Senate, and Ran-
dolph, after supporting it on December 18 as
the only measure which could promote the na-
tional interests, rose on December 19 to oppose
it as partial, unconstitutional, a new invention,
and he alleged as his strongest objection that
it was expressly aimed at Great Britain. He
voted against it.

This last somersault was more than even
Macon and Nicholson could understand. Nich-
olson wrote, in astonishment, to ask what it
meant, and Randolph's reply and defence are
worth reading : —

BANDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

" December 24, 1807. . . . Come here, I beseech
you. I will then show you how impossible it was
for me to have voted for the embargo. The circum-
stances under which it presented itself were peculiar
and compelled me to oppose it, although otherwise a
favorite measure with me, as you well know. It was,
m fact, to- crouch to the insolent mandate of Bona-
parte * that there should be no neutrals ; ' to subscribe
to that act of perfidy and violence, his decree, at the

228 JOHN RANDOLPH,

moment when every consideration prompted us to re-
I sist and resent it. Non-importation and non-exporta-
tion, — what more can he require? Ought we to
have suffered ourselves to be driven by him out of
\ the course which, whether right or wrong, our gov-
\ ernment had thought proper to pursue towards Eng-
i land? to be dragooned into measures that in all
: human calculation must lead to immediate war ? Put
no trust in the newspaper statements. They will
. mislead you. But come and view the ground, and I
will abide the issue of your judgment."

To Nicholson, then, B-andolph did- Jiot. plead
the unconstitutionality of the embargo or its bad
influence as a stretck of ceD.traUz.e(l^pwer. To
announce such a discovery to Nicholson would
have been ridiculous, after both of them had for
two years insisted on an embargo as the wisest
of possible measures. Only the immediate cir-
cumstances excused tte vote, the wish not to
act partially against England, the very power
wEieli hiid just declared war on our commerce,
after liaving committed that outrage, disavowed
but not yet redressed, which had caused lian»
dolph only a few weeks before, ta urge an at-
tack upon Canada.

Such a combination of contrad ictions a nd in*
consistencies was enough to destroy the weight
of Pitt or Peel ; no reputation, least of all one
«o indifferent as Randolph's, could stagger under

'M NUISANCE AND A CURSED' 229

it. He still hoped to retrieve his fortunes by
securing the defeat of Mr. Madison, but to do
so he was now obliged to keep himself in
the background, for fear of hurting Monroe's
chances by coupling them with his own unpop-
ularity. Just at this moment Monroe reached
America, and Randolph was reduced to see him
by stealth. The same day on which he wrote
to Nicholson to excuse his course about the em-
bargo he wrote also to Monroe, asking an in-
terview : —

BANDOLPH TO MONROE.

" December 24, 1807. My dear Sir, — In abstain-
ing so long from a personal interview with you, I
leave you to judge what violence I have committed
upon my private feelings. Before your arrival, how-
ever, I had determined on the course which I ought
to pursue, and had resolved that no personal gratifi-
cation should induce me to hazard your future ad-
vancement, and with it the good of my country, by
any attempt to blend the fate of a proscribed individ-
ual with the destiny which, I trust, awaits you. It is,
nevertheless, of the first consequence to us both that
I should have a speedy opportunity of communing
fully with you. This, perhaps, can be best effected
at my own lodgings, where we shall not be exposed
to observation or interruption. I shall, however,
acquiesce with pleasure in any other arrangement
which may appear more eligible to you.

« Yrs. unalterably.*'

280 JOHN RANDOLPB.

This coquetry between Monroe and Randolph
continued all winter, while Randolph's friends
were making ready to nominate Monroe for
the presidency. To prevent the nomination of
Madison was no longer possible ; all that could
be done was to make independent nominations
of Monroe in Virginia, and of George Clinton
in New York, on the chance of defeating Mr,
Madison, and substituting the stronger of his
two rivals in his place. The Secretary, how-
ever, overbore all opposition. Giles and W,
C. Nicholas managed his canvass in Virginia,
and on January 21, 1808, a large caucus of the
Virginia legislature nominated him for the pres-
idency. Two days later, at a congressional
caucus called by Senator Bradley of Vermont,
eighty-three senators and members confirmed
the action of Virginia. Macon, Randolph, and
all the "old republicans" held themselves aloof
from both caucuses, but all they could do for
Monroe was to give him a weak independent
nomination.

How far Mr. Monroe made himself a party to
this transaction is not quite clear. There is,
however, no doubt that he was in full sympa-
thy with the old republicans against Mr. Madi
son, and Randolph's letters imply that his sym
pathy was more than passive.

"A NUISANCE AND A CUBSK** 231

BANDOLPH TO MONROE.

"Geoeobtown, March 9, 1808. ... A coii-
scioasness of the misoonstmction (to your prejudice)
which would be put upon any correspondence between
us has hitherto deterred me from writing. You will
have no difficulty in conceiving my motives in putting
this violence upon my feelings, especially after the
explanation which I gave of them whilst you were
here. The prospect before us is daily brightening.
I mean of the future, which until of late has been
extremely gloomy. As to the present state of things,
it is far beyond my powers to give an adequate de-
scription of it. Mr. W. C. N. begins of late to
make open advances to the federalists, fearing, no
doubt, that the bait of hypocrisy has been seen through
by others. I must again refer you to Mr. Leigh for
full information of what is going on here. The in-
discretion of some of the weaker brethren, whose
intentions, I have no doubt, were good, as you will
have perceived, has given the enemy great advantage
over us."

" Georgetown, March 26, 1808. . . . Among
the events of my public life, and especially those
which have grown out of the last two years, no cir-
cumstance has inspired such keen regret as that which
has begotten the necessity of the reserve between us
to which you allude ; not that I have been insensible
to the cogent motives to such a demeanor on both
fides ; far from it ; I must have been blind not to have
perceived them. They suggested themselves at a very

232 JOHN RANDOLPH.

early period to my mind, and my conduct was accord-
ingly regulated by them. But there are occasions
in life, and this, with me, was one of them, in which
necessity serves but to embitter instead of resigning
our feelings to her rigid dispensations. I leave you
then to judge with what avidity I shall seize the op-
portunity of renewing our intercourse when the causes
which have given birth to its suspension shall have
ceased to exist, since amongst the enjoyments which
life has afforded me there are few, very few, which
I value in comparison with the possession of your
friendship. In a little while I shall quit the political
theatre, probably forever, and I shall carry with me
into retirement none of the surprise and not much of
the regret excited by the blasting effects of ministerial
artifice and power upon my public character, should I
find, as I fear I shall, that they have been enabled to
reach even your own."

The worst trait of these insidious attempts
to poison Monroe's mind was not their insinu-
ations, but their transparent character of re-
venge. Monroe was one tool, and Clinton an-
other ; both equally used by Randolph, not to
forward his own views of public good,T)u t to
pull down Mr. Madisoix. . If there was nothing
in Monroe's character or career which could
lead any sensible man to believe him truer than
Madison to the forgotten traditions of his party,
there was everything in George Clinton's his-
tory to prove that he was a blind agent of the

"-4 NUISANCE AND A CURSED 233

northern democracy. His late career as Gov-
ernor of New York had been notoriously and
scandalously controlled by his nephew DeWitt,
and the selfishness of DeWitt Clinton was such
that to trust in his hands the fortunes of " old
republicanism" would have been one degree
more ridiculous than to trust them, as Ran-
dolph did twenty years afterwards, to the
tender sympathies of Andrew Jackson . Not
patriotism, but revenge, inspired Randolph's
passion ;^]bEelnip ulHe to H.liikttjluwii ll i iiwu whu m
he cHose to hate, jji fljig_^nrkftd nn Mnnron'pi

wounded pride to rnnV^ nf jf, q wAapnn ^nrnirtcf

Madison, so he incited and urged the friends of
BTonroe in other States to devote themselves to
the interests of Clinton. Thus he wrote to
Nicholson to stir up Maryland.

RANDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

" February 20, 1808. . . . Our friend gains ground
very fast at home. Sullivan, the Governor of Massa-
chusetts, has declared against M[adiso]n. The re-
publicans of that great State are divided on the ques-
tion, and if Clay be not deceived, who says that
Pennsylvania, Duane non obstante, will be decidedly
for the V[ice] P[resident], the S[ecretary] of S[tate]
has no chance of being elected. Impress this, I pray
you, on our friends. If the V. P.'s interest should
be best, our electors (in case we succeed) will not
hazard everything by a division. If the election

231 JOHN RANDOLPH.

comes Ut the House of Bepresentatives M[adi8o]n ia
the man."

^^ March 24, 1808. . . . Lloyd says that the oppo-
nents of Madison in Maryland and in Baltimore par*
ticnlarly are unnerved ; that they are timid, and that
unless the V[ice] P[resident]'s friends exert them-
selves all is lost in your State ; that if yourself were to
go to Queen Anne's and make known your support of
Cpinton] it would decide the Eastern Shore. This
I am certain you will do, as well as everything else
in your power to promote the cause. It is necessary
to speak and to speak out ; especially those who justly
possess the public confidence, which you do in a most
eminent degree."

At the same time he was consumed by a
feverish impulse to thrust himself forward in
the House. Thus he lost prestige with every
day that passed. As the session drew to its
close, and his obstructive temper became more
and more evident, Macon wrote to Nicholson
bewailing it, but confessing the impossibility
of controlling him : —

" I am really afraid that our friend R. will injure
himself with the nation in this way. An attempt is
now making, and will, I think, be continued, to impress
on the minds of the people that he speaks with a
view to waste time. If this opinion should prevail, it
will, I fear, injure not only him, but the nation also,
because what injures him in public estimation will in<«
jure the people also. His talents and honesty cannd

''A NUISANCE AND A CURSE:* 235

be lost without a loss equal to them both, and they
cannot be ascertained. But you know him as well as
I do/'

This was written on April 14, 1808 ; the ses-
sion closed on the 26th, and on June 1 Macon
wrote again : —

" Madison, I still think, will be the next President
If the New Yorkers mean to run Clinton in good
earnest, as we country people say, it is time they had
begun. The Madisonians will not lose anything by
neglect or indolence. They may overact their part,
and, in their zeal to keep Randolph down, may make
some lukewarm about Madison. If K. had stuck to
the embargo, he would have been up, in spite of
them.'?

All the efforts of Randolph and his friends to
defeat Mr. Madison vanished in thin smoke.
When November arrived, there was little or no
opposition ; Virginia was solid in his support,
and he received 122 out of 176 electoral votes,
the fuU strength of his party, except six votes
for Clinton in New York. His first act as Presi-
dent justified in Randolph's eyes the worst that
had ever been said of him. Allowing himself to
be dragooned by Giles and General Smith into
abandoning Mr. Gallatin, his first choice for
Secretary of State, President Madison nomi-
nated for that office Robert Smith, whose ad-
ministration of the navy had been a scandal not

236 JOHN RANDOLPH.

only to Randolph, but to Gallatin. Thus at the
outset the new administration was thrown into
the hands of a selfish faction, which proclaimed
their contempt for old republican principles to
every one who wouId-4isten. Gallatin alone,
without courage or hope, tried to persevere in
the old path.

To pursue Randolph's course farther through
the meanderings of his opposition would be
waste of time. He at last convinced himself
that his own party was not lessextravagant and
dangerous than those federalists whose doctrines
he had begun by so furiously denouncing. To
discover that one has made so vast a blunder
is fatal to elevation of purpose ; under the reac-
tion of such disappointment, no man can keep
a steady course. The iron entered Randolph's
soul. Now for the first time his habits became
bad, and at intervals, until his death, he drank
to excess. After days or weeks of indulgence,
during which the liquor served only to give him
more vivacity, he seemed suddenly to sink under
It, and remained in a state of prostration until
his system reacted from the abuse. Probably
in consequence of this license his mind showed
signs of breaking down. He was at times dis-
tinctly irrational, though never quite incapable
of seif-control. His health began to give way ;
his lungs became affected ; his digestive organs

"^ NUISANCE AND A CURSE,'* 237

were ruined ; erratic gout, as the doctors called
it, ran through his system. Nevertheless, he
returned every autumn to Washington, and,
although isolated and powerless, he found a
sort of dismal pleasure in watching the evils
he could no longer prevent or cure.

In abandoning Jefferson, Madison, Giles, W.
C. Nicholas, and the whole band of his old co-
adjutors, Randolph had still shown some degree
of shrewdness in trying to retain the respect and
support of Monroe. So long as Monroe, Taze-
well, John Taylor of Caroline, and a few more
respectable Virginiajis, stood apart from the
administration and professed old republican
principles, Randolph was not quite deserted.
There was always a chance that he and his
friends might come back to power, and there is a
certain historical interest in the quarrel which
at last separated him even from Monroe, and
left him hopeless and desperate.

Mr. Madison's cabinet was from the first a
failure. Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treas-
ury, stood alone as the representative of old re-
publicanism, although only on its economical
side, and Gallatin's struggle to prevent the
Treasury from being plundered by factions
under the Smiths and Giles was patient and
prolonged. Two years passed, during which it
was easy to see that Mr. Madison grew stead-

238 JOHN RANDOLPH.

ily weaker, while Duane, Giles, General Smitli,
old Vice-President Clinton, and a score of other
personal enemies were straining every nerve to
break him down by driving Gallatin from the
Treasury. In the event of Gallatin's defeat,
as in that of his victory, Randolph might expect
to find himself once more acting with a large
party, and with good hopes of reasonable suc-
cess. To wait the crisis and to use it was an
easy task, for he had but to hold his tongue
and to support his friends. Unfortunately he
could do neither.

Some extracts from his 'letters to Nicholson,
to whom, as a connection of Gallatin's by mar-
riage, he wrote strongly as the crisis approached,
will best show how deep an interest he felt in
the result.

BANBOLPH TO KIOHOLSON.

" Georgetown, February 14, 1811. . . . For
some days past I have been attending the debates in
the Senate. Giles made this morning the most unin-
telligible speech on the subject of the Bank of the
U. S. that I ever heard. He spoke upwards of two
hours, seemed never to understand himself (except
upon one commonplace topic, of British influence),
and consequently excited in his hearers no other sen-
timent but pity or disgust. But I shall not be sur-
prised to see him puffed in all the newspapers of a
certain faction. The Senate have rejected the notih

"^ NUISANCE AND A CVRSKy 289

luation of Alex. Wolcott to the bench of the Supreme
Court, — 24 to 9. The President is said to have felt
great mortification at this result. The truth seems
to be that he is President de jure only. Who exer-
cises the office de facto I know not, but it seems
agreed on all hands that there is something behind
the throne greater than the throne itself. I cannot
help differing with you respecting [ Gallatin] 's resig-
nation. If his principal will not support him by his
influence against the cabal in the ministry itself as
well as out of it, a sense of self-respect, it would seem
to me, ought to impel him to retire from a situation
where, with a tremendous responsibility, he is utterly
destitute of power. Our cabinet presents a novel
spectacle in the political world ; divided against itself,
and the most deadly animosity raging between its
principal members, what can come of it but confusion,
mischief, and ruin ! Macon is quite out of heart. I
am almost indifferent to any possible result. Is this
wisdom or apathy ? I fear the latter."

" Since I wrote to you to-night, Stanford has shown
me the last * Aurora/ a paper that I never read ; but
I could not refrain, at his instance, from casting my
eyes over some paragraphs relating to the Secretary
of the Treasury. Surely under such circumstances
Mr. G[allatin] can no longer hesitate how to act.
It appears to me that only one course is left to him,
— to go immediately to the President, and to demand
either the dismisal of Mr. [Smith] or his own. No
man can doubt by whom this machinery is put in
motion. There is no longer room to feign ignorance^

240 JOHN RANDOLPH.

or to temporize. It is unnecessary to say to you that
I am not through you addressing myself to another.
My knowledge of the interest which you take, not
merely in the welfare of Mr. G., but in that of the
State, induces me to express myself to you on this
subject. I wish you would come up here. There
are more things in this world of intrigue than you
wot of, and I would like to commune with you upon
some of them."

"Georgetown, February 17, 1811. ... I am
not convinced by your representations respecting
[Gallatin], although they are not without weight.
Surely it would not be diflficult to point out to the
President the impossibility of conducting the affairs
of the government with such a counteraction in the
very Cabinet itself, without assuming anything like a
disposition to dictate. Things as they are cannot go
on much longer. The administration are now, in fact,
aground, at the pitch of high tide, and a spring tide,
too. Nothing remains but to lighten the ship, which
a dead calm has hitherto kept from going to pieces.
If the cabal succeed in their present projects, and I
see nothing but promptitude and decision that can
prevent it, the nation is undone. The state of affairs
for some time past has been highly favorable to their
views, which at this very moment are more flattering
than ever. I am satisfied that Mr. G. by a timely re-
sistance to their schemes might have defeated them,
and rendered the whole cabal as impotent as nature
would seem to have intended them to be ; for in point
of ability (capacity for intrigue excepted) they are ut«

"^ NUISANCE AND A CURSE J' 241

terly contemptible and insignificant. I do assure you,
my friend, that I cannot contemplate the present con-
dition of the country without the gloomiest presages.
The signs of the times are of the most direful omen.
The system cannot continue, if system it may be
called, and we seem rushing into one general dissolu-
tion of law and morals. Some Didius, I fear, is soon
to become the purchaser of our empire ; but in what-
ever manner it be effected, everything appears to an-
nounce the coming of a master. Thank God, I have
no children ; but I have those who are yet dear to me,
and the thoughts of their being hewers of wood and
drawers of water, or, what is worse, sycophants and
time-servers to the venal and corrupt wretches that
are to be the future masters of this once free and
happy land, fill me with the bitterest indignation.
Would it not almost seem that man cannot be kept
free ; that his ignorance, his cupidity, and his base-
ness will countervail the effects of the wisest institu-
tions that disinterested patriotism can plan for his
security and happiness ? *'

" Richmond, March 10, 1811. . . . I could not
learn, as I passed through "Washington, how matters
stood respecting G[allatin] and S[mith]. The gen-
eral impression there was that S[mith] would go
out, and that the Department of State would be of-
fered to Monroe. I do, however, doubt whether
Madison will be able to meet the shock of the * Au-
rora,' * Whig,' ' Enquirer,* ' Boston Patriot,' etc., etc. ;
and it is highly probable that, beaten in detail by the
superior activity and vigor of the Smiths, he may
16

242 JOHN RANDOLPH.

fiink ultimately into their arms, and anquestionablj
will, in that case, receive the law from them. I know
not why I should think so much on this subject, but
it engrosses my waking and sleeping thoughts."

Now came the long-looked-for revolution
which should have restored Randolph's influ-
ence. Whether or not Gallatin was affected by
these appeals, certain it is that early in the
month of March he resigned his office ; that
Mr. Madison declined to accept the resignation,
and worked up his courage to the point of dis-
missing Robert Smith, and defying the senato-
rial cabal of Giles, Leib, Samuel Smith, and
Vice-President Clinton. On March 20, 1811,
the President wrote to Monroe, offering him the
Department of State, and with it, of course, the
prospect of succession to the throne itself. On
the 23d, Monroe accepted the offer. The " old
republicans" once more saw the Executive
wholly in their hands.

This critical moment, when everything de-
pended upon harmony, was chosen by Randolph
as the time to quarrel with Monroe, as he had
already quarrelled with Madison and Jefferson.
That the fault was altogether his own is not
to be said, for in truth the immediate fault
was Monroe's. Two years had now elapsed
eince Monroe's return home in a sort of dis-
grace ; he was poor ; he was, in real truth, no

"-4 NUISANCE AND A CURBE:' 248

more fanatical about his old principles than
Madison himself, and at least it was not he
who had drawn up the Virginia resolutions of
1798 ; he wanted to get back into office ; his
connection with Randolph stood in his way,
and it is probable that he allowed himself to
repudiate this influence somewhat too openly.
In the month of January, 1811, Randolph was
at Richmond, and heard stories to this effect.
A little more tact or less pride would have
made him patient while Monroe was climbing
again up the ladder of office ; but patience was
not Randolph's best trait. He immediately
wrote the following letter to the man for whosa
character he had all through life felt so pro-
found reverence and such affectionate respect :

RANDOLPH TO MOXBOE.

BsUi Tavern, Monday Night,
Jan, 14, 1811.

Deab Sir, — The habits of intimacy which have
existed between us make it, as I conceive, my duty to
inform you that reports are industriously circulated in
this city to your disadvantage. They are to this effect
That in order to promote your election to the Chief
Magistracy of the Commonwealth you have descended
to unbecoming compliances with the members of the
Assembly, not excepting your bitterest personal ene-
mies ; that you have volunteered explanations to them
of the differences heretofore subsisting between your-

244 JOHN RANDOLPH.

Belf and administration which anaount to a derelic-
tion of the ground which you took after your return
from England, and even of your warmest personal
friends. Upon this, although it is imnecessary for
me to pass a comment, yet it would be disingenuous
to conceal that it has created unpleasant sensations
not in me only, but in others whom I know you
justly ranked as among those most strongly attached
to you. I wished for an opportunity of mentioning
this subject to you, but none offered itself, and I
would not seek one, because, when I cannot afford
assistance to my friends, I will never consent to be-
come an incumbrance on them. I write in haste, and
therefore abruptly. I keep no copy, and have only
to enjoin on you that this communication is in the
strictest sense of the term confidential, solely for your
own eye. Yours,

John Randolph op Roanoke.

To this characteristic assault Mr. Monroe
responded as best he could. He sent his son-
in-law, George Hay, to Randolph, and Randolph
refused to talk with him. He wrote to John
Taylor of Caroline, and to Randolph himself.
Randolph's final reply was sent from Washing-
ton precisely at the time of the cabinet crisis,
when Monroe's appointment as Secretary of
State was becoming daily more certain.

"^ NUISANCE AND A CURSE.' 246

BANDOLPH TO MONROE.

Geobgetown, March 2, 1811.

Dear Sir, — I have purposely delayed answerlDg
your letters because you seem (o have taken up the
idea that I labored under some excitement (of an
angry nature it is to be presumed from the expres-
sions employed in your communication to Colonel
Taylor, as well as in that to myself), and I was desir-
ous that my reply should in appearance as well as in
fact proceed from the calmest and most deliberate ex-
ercise of my judgment.

How my letters in Richmond could excite an un-
pleasant feeling in your bosom towards me I am
wholly at a loss to comprehend. Let me beg you to
review them, to reflect for a moment on the circum-
stances of the case, and then ask yourself whether I
could or ought to have done otherwise than as I did
in apprising you of the reports injurious to your honor
that were in the mouth of every man of every de-
scription in Richmond. I certainly held no inter-
course with those who were hostile to your election,
but it surely required no power of inspiration to di-
vine that, when such language was held by your own
supporters, those to whom you were peculiarly ob-
noxious would hardly omit to make a handle of it to
injure you. You may well feel assured that no man
would venture to approach me with observations di-
rectly derogating from your character.

Those who spoke to me on the subject generally
mentioned it as a source of real regret and sorrow ; a

246 JOHN RANDOLPH.

few sounded to see how far they might go, and, re-
ceiving no encouragement, drew off. But it was im-
possible for me to shut my ears or eyes to the passing
scene, and in my hearing the most injurious state-
ments were made, with which, as well as with the
general impression of all with whom I conversed in
relation to them, I deemed it my duty to acquaint ,
you ; mutatis mutandis, I should have expected a
similar act of friendship on your part.

Ask yourself again, my dear sir, whether your cau-
tious avoidance, and that of every one near you, of
every sort of communication with me, and of every
mark of accustomed respect and friendship, was not
in itself a change in the relation between us, which
nothing on my part could have given the least occa-
sion for ; and whether I was not authorized to infer,
as well as the public, — in short, whether it was not
intended that the public should infer, — not only that
all political connection, but that all communication,
was at an end between us.

Under these circumstances, is it my conduct or your
own that is likely to put a stop to our old intercourse ;
and is it you or / that have a right to complain of the
abandonment of the old ground of relation that ex-
isted between us ? Let me add that a passage in your
letter to Col. Taylor (I mean that which was in cir-
culation at Richmond) respecting the motives of the
minority (with whom you had just disavowed all po
litical connection whatever) has been deemed by many
of the most intelligent among them as a just cause of
oomplaint, as furnishing to their persecutors a color*

"^ NUISANCE AND A CURSE.** 247

able pretext for renewing and persevering in the most
unpopular and odious of all the charges that have
been brought against them. We cannot doubt the
sincerity of your impression, but know it to be er-
roneous, and feel it to be injurious to us.

And now let me declare to you, which I do with
the utmost sincerity of heart, that during the period
to which you refer I never felt one angry emotion
towards you. Concern for your honor and character
was uppermost in my thoughts. A determination to
adhere to the course of conduct which my own sense
of propriety and duty to myself pointed out had al-
most dwindled into a secondary consideration.

Accept my earnest wishes for your prosperity and
happiness. I have long since abandoned all thoughts
of politics except so far as is strictly necessary to the
execution of my legislative duty.

Again I offer you my best wishes.

John Randolph of Eoanoke.

Thus Randolph bade farewell to another
President that was to be. Three weeks after
this letter was written, Monroe was Secretary
of State, and in a short time it appeared that,
had Randolph not abandoned him, he had cer-
tainly been quite earnest in his intention to
abandon Randolph. No more was heard of
" old republican " principles from Monroeunjil
many years had elapsed; but within a short
time It appeared that he was ready to accept, if
not to welcome, what Randolph most opposed,

248 JOHN RANDOLPH.

— a war with England, loans, navies, armies,
and even a military conscription.

During aJl ttese troubles and through all
manner of party feuds^" personal quarrels, and
hostile intrigues, in spite of iha laet that he
now habitually voted with the federalists, Ran-
dolph succeeded in keeping control of Kis dis-
trict and in securing his reelection both in 1809
and 1811, when John W. Eppes took up his
residence there with the avowed purpose of
breaking Randolph down. la^lSlkU-h^owever,
his opposition to the war with England proved
too heavy a weight to c arry^ and Mr. Eppes,
after a sharp t;cmtest, def eated him^ ^hile the
<' Richmond Enquirer " de»eunced him as ^< a
nuisance and a curse."

CHAPTER X.

BCCENTBICITIES.

If disappointment and sorrow could soften a
human heart, Randolph had enough to make
him tender as the gentlest. From the first,
some private trouble weighed on his mind, and
since he chose to make a mystery of its cause a
biographer is bound to respect his wish. The
following letter to his friend Nicholson, written
probably in the year 1805, shows his feeling
on this point : —

RANDOLPH TO NICHOLSON.

" Monday^ 4 March. Dear Nicholson, — By you
I would be understood; whether the herd of man-
kind comprehend me or not, I care not Yourself,
the Speaker, and Bryan are, of all the world, alone
acquainted with my real situation. On that subject I
have only to ask that you will preserve the same re-
serve that I have done. Do not misunderstand me,
my good friend. I do not doubt your honor or dis
cretion. Far from it. But on this subject I am, per-
haps, foolishly fastidious. God bless you, my noble
Cello w. I shaJl ever hold you most dear to my heart"

250 JOHN RANDOLPH.

From such expressions not much can ' be
safely inferred. Doubtless he imagined his
character and career to be greatly influenced
by one event or another in his life, but in real-
ity both he and his brother Richard seem to
have had from the first the same vehement, ill-
regulated minds, and the imagination counted
for more with them than the reality, whatever
it was. His was a nature that would have made
for itself a hell even though fate had put a
heaven about it. Quarrelling with his brother's
widow, he left Bizarre to bury himself in a poor
comer among his overseers and slaves at Roan-
oke. " I might be now living at Bizarre," he
wrote afterwards, " if the reunion of his [Rich-
ard's] widow with the [traducers ?] of her hus-
band had not driven me to Roanoke ; " "a
savage solitude," he called it, "into which I
have been driven to seek shelter." This was
in 1810. He had already quarrelled with his
step-father. Judge Tucker, as kind-hearted a
man as ever lived, and of this one-sided quarrel
we have an account which, even if untrue, is
curious. It seems that Randolph had been talk-
ing violently against the justice and policy of
the law which passed estates, in failure of di-
rect heirs, to brothers of half-blood ; whereupon
Judge Tucker made the indiscreet remark,
' Why, Jack, you ought not to be against that

ECCENTRICITIEB. 251

law, for you know if you were to die without
issue you would wish your half-brothers to have
your estate." "I'll be damned, sir, if I do
know it," said Randolph, according to the story,
and from that day broke o£E relations with his
step-father. In 1810 he was only with the ut-
most diflBculty dissuaded by his counsel from
bringing suit against Judge Tucker for fraudu-
lent management of his estate during that guar-
dianship which had ended more than fifteen
years before. He knew that the charge was
false, but he was possessed by it. Two pas-
sions, besides that for drink, were growing on
him with age, — avarice and family pride ;
taken together, three furies worse than the
crudest disease or the most crushing disasters.
Yet disaster, too, was not wanting. His nephew
St. George, Richard's eldest son, deaf and dumb
from his birth, became quite irrational in 1813,
and closed his days in an asylum. The younger
nephew, Tudor, whom he had loved as much as
it was in his nature to love any one, and who
was to be the representative of his race, fell into
a hopeless consumption the next year, and, be-
ing sent abroad, died at Cheltenham in 1815.
Thus Randolph, after falling out with his step-
father and half-brothers, after quitting Bizarre
and quarrelling with his brother's widow, lost
his nephews, failed in public life, and was

262 JOHN RANDOLPH.

driven from his seat in Congress. Had he been
an Italian he would have passed for one pos-
sessed of the evil eye, one who brought destruc-
tion on all he loved, and every peasant would
have secretly made the sign of the cross on
meeting him. His defeat by Eppes in the
spring of 1813 disgusted him with politics, and
he visited his mortification on his old friends.
Macon wrote to Nicholson February 1, 1815 : —

" Jonathan did not love David more than I have
Randolph, and I still have that same feeling towards
him, but somehow or other I am constrained from
saying [anything] about it or him, unless now and
then to defend him against false accusations, or what
I believe to be such. There is hardly any evil that
afflicts one more than the loss of a friend, especially
when not conscious of having given any cause for it.
I cannot account for the coldness with which you say
he treated you, or his not staying at your house while
in Baltimore. Stanford now and then comes to
where I sit in the House, and shows me a letter from
R. to him, which is all I see from him. He has not
wrote to me since he left Congress [in March, 1813],
nor I but once to him, which was to inclose him a
book of his that I found in the city when I came to
the next session. I have said thus much in answer
to your letter, and it is more than has been said or
written to any other person."

The sudden and happy close of the war in
January, 1815, brought about a curious revolu-

ECCENTRiaiTIEa. 253

tion in the world of politics. Everything that
had happened before that convulsion seemed
now wiped from memory. Men once famous
and powerful were forgotten ; men whose polit-
ical sins had been dark and manifold were for-
given and received back into the fold. Among
the rest was Randolph. He recovered his seat
in the spring of 1815, and returned to Congress
with a great reputation for bold and sarcastic
oratory. He came back to a new world, to a
government which had been strengthened and
nationalized by foreign war beyond the utmost
hopes of Washington or John Adams. Mr.
Jefferson's party was still in power, buL«4^'^
thread "was left of the principles with which
Mr . J oJ ieico irhkd'started on his career in 1801,
The 'Country had a debt compared with which
that of the federalist administrations was light ;
it had a navy which was now more popular than
ever Mr. Jefferson had been in his palmiest
days, and an army which Randolph dared no
longer call " ragamuflBn ; '^ the people had faced
the awful idea of conscription, at the bidding of
Jttuies Madison and Jamets Monroe, two men
who had nearly broken up the Union, in 1798,
at ^e mere suggestion of raising half a dozen
regiments ; at the same command the national
bank was to be reestablished ; — in every^lirfic-
dotl states' rights were trampled on ; — and all

264 JOHN RANDOLPH.

this bad been done by..£^aiulQl£b'B old friendB
and bis own party. During his absence, Con-
gress, like school-boys whose monitor has left
the room, had passed the bill for the Tazoo
compromise. This was not the whole. Chief
Justice Marshall and the Supreme Court were
at work. Their decisions were rapidly rivetting
these results into something more than mere
political precedents or statute law. State sov-
ereignty was crumbling under their assaults,
and the nation was already too powerful for
the safety of Vu:ginia. "

Mi:, Jefferson, in his old age^ took the alarm,
and began to preach n nrTrxj niiafln r>cwriirit the
ISupreme Court and the herefiifia-of- federal prin*
ciples. He rallied'about him the " old republi-
cans " of 1798. Mr. Madison andTVTf. Monroe,
Mr. Gallatin and the northern democrats, were
little disposed to betake themselves again to
that uncomfortable boat which they had gladly
abandoned for the broader and stauncher deck
of the natioiial ship of state ; but William B,
Giles was ready to answer any bugle-call that
could summon him back to the Senate, or give
him another chance for that cabinet office which
had been the ambition of his life ; and John
Bandolph was at all times ready to clap on again
his helmet of Mambrino and have a new tilt at
the windmill which had coice already demol

ECCENTRICITIES, 255

ished him. If Virginia hesitated, South Caro-
lina might be made strong in the faith, and
Georgia was undaunted by the Yazoo experi-
ence. If the northern democrats no longer
knew what states* rights meant, the slave power,
which had grown with the national growth,
could be organized to teach them.

Into this movement Randolph flung himself
headlong, and in such a party he was a formi-
dable ally. Doubtless there was much about him
that seemed ridiculous to by-standers, and still
more that not only seemed, but was, irrational.
Neither his oratory nor his wit would have been
tolerated in a northern State. To the cold-
blooded New Englander who did not love ex-
travagance or eccentricity, and had no fancy
for plantation manners, Randolph was an ob-
noxious being. Those traits of character and
person of which he was proud as evidence of his
Pocahontas and Powhatan ancestry, they in-
stinctively attributed to an ancestral type of
a different kind. It was not the Indian whom
they saw in this lean, forked figure, with its
elongated arms and long, bony forefinger,
pointing at the objects of his aversion as with
a stick; it was not an Indian countenance they
recognized in this parchment face, prematurely
old and seamed with a thousand small wrinkles 5
in that bright, sharply sparkling eye; in the

256 JOHN RANDOLPH.

flattering, caressing tone and manner, which
suddenly, with or without provocation, changed
into wanton brutality. The Indian owns no
such person or such temperament, which, if
derived from any ancestry, belongs to an order
of animated beings still nearer than the Indian
to the jealous and predacious instincts of dawn-
ing intelligence.

There is no question that such an antagonist
was formidable. The mode of political warfare
at first adopted by instinct, he had now by long
experience developed into a science. Terror
was the favorite resource of his art, and he had
so practised as to have reached a high degree of
success in using it. He began by completely
mastering his congressional district. At best,
it is not easy for remote, sparsely settled com
munities to shake off a political leader who has
no prominent rival in his own party, and no-
strong outside opposition, but when that leader
has Randolph's advantages it becomes impossi-
ble to contest the field. His constituents re-
volted once, but never again. His peculiarities
were too well known and too much in the nat-
ural order of things to excite surprise or scan-
dal among them. They liked his long stump
speeches and sharp, epigrammatic phrases, des-
ultory style and melodramatic affectations of
manner, and they were used to coarseness that

ECCENTRICITIES, 257

would have sickened a Connecticut peddler.
They liked to be flattered by him, for flattery
was one of the instruments he used with most
lavishness, "In conversing with old men in
Charlotte County," says a native of the spot,
writing in 1878, "they will talk a long time
about how Mr. Randolph flattered this one to
carry his point ; how he drove men clean out of
the country who offended, him ; how ridiculous
he sometimes made his acquaintances appear:
they will entertain you a long time in this way
before they will mention one word about his
friendship for anybody or anybody's for him."

He was simple enough in his methods, and
as they were all intended to lead up to terror
in the end, there was every reason for simplify-
ing them to suit the cases.

" How do you do, Mr. L. ? I am a candidate
for Congress, and should be pleased to have
your vote."

" Unfortunately, I have no vote, Mr. Ran-
dolph."

" Good-morning, Mr. L."

He never forgave a vote given to his oppo-
nent, and he worked his district over to root out
the influences which defeated him in 1813. One
example of his method is told in regard to a Mr.
S., a plain farmer, who had carried his precinct
almost unanimously for Eppes. Randolph is

17

258 JOHN RANDOLPH.

said to have sought him oat one court day in the
most public place he could find, and, addressing
him with great courtesy, presently put to him a
rather abstruse question of politics. Passing
from one puzzling and confusing inquiry to an-
other, raising his voice, attracting a crowd by
every artifice in his power, he drew the unfortu-
nate man farther and farther into the most awk-
ward embarrassment, continually repeating his
expressions of astonishment at the ignorance to
which his victim confessed. The scene exposed
the man to ridicule and contempt, and is said
to have destroyed his influence.

He sometimes acted a generous, sometimes a
brutal, part ; the one, perhaps, not less sincere
than the other while it lasted, but neither of
them in any sense simple expressions of emo-
tion. Although he professed vindictiveness as
a part of his Powhatan inheritance, and al-
though he proclaimed himself to be one who
never forsook a friend or forgave a foe, it is evi-
dent that his vindictiveness was often assumed
merely in order to terrify ; there was usually a
method and a motive in his madness, noble at
first in the dawn of young hope, but far from
noble at last in the gloom of disappointment and
despair. "He did things," says Mr. Henry
Carrington, " which nobody else could do, and
made others do things which they never did be-

ECCENTRICITIEB. 269

fore, and of which they repented all the days of
their lives; and on some occasions he was to-
tally regardless of private rights, and not held
amenable to the laws of the land."

This trait of his character gave rise to a mass
of local stories, many of which have found their
way into print, but which are for the most part
BO distorted in passing through the mouths of
overseers and neighbors as to be quite worth-
less for biography. Another mass of legend
has collected itself about his life in Washing-
ton and his travels. The less credit we give
to the more extravagant of these stories, the
nearer we shall come to the true man. At
times he was violent or outrageous from the
mere effect of drink, but to do him justice, his
brutality was commonly directed against what
lie supposed, or chose to think, presumption, ig-
norance, dishonesty, cant, or some other trait of
a low and grovelling mind. He rarely insulted
any man whom he believed to be respectable,
and he was always kind and affectionate to
those he loved ; but although he controlled him-
self thus far in society, he carried terrorism in
politics to an extreme. He could be gentle
when he pleased, but he often preferred to be
arrogant. Only a few'months before his death,
in February, 1833, he forced some states'-rights
resolutions through a meeting of the county of

260 JOHN RANDOLPH,

Charlotte. A certain Captain Watkins, who
was at the meeting, declined to follow him, and
avowed himself a supporter of President Jack-
son. Randolph, while his resolutions were un-
der discussion, addressed himself to Captain
Watkins, saying that he did not expect " an old
Yazoo speculator " to approve of them. Cap-
tain Watkins rose and denied the charge. At
this, Randolph looked him steadily in the face,
and pointing his finger at him said, —
" You are a Yazoo man, Mr. Watkins."
Mr. Watkins, much agitated and embar-
rassed, rose again and made an explanation.
Randolph, with the same deliberation, simply
repeated, —

" You are a Yazoo man, Mr. Watkins."
A third time Mr. Watkins rose, and was met
again by the same cold assertion, " You are a
Yazoo man ; " until at last he left the room,
completely broken down.

Mr. Watkins had, in fact, once owned some
of the Yazoo land warrants. He was, of course,
no admirer of Randolph, who rode rough-shod
over him in return. If it be asked why a man
who treated his neighbors thus was not fifty
times shot down where he stood by exasperated
victims, the answer is that he knew those with
whom he was dealing. He never pressed a
quarrel to the end, or resented an insult further

ECCENTRICITIES. 261

than was necessary to repel it. He was notori-
ous for threatening to use his weapons on every
occasion of a tavern quarrel, but at such times
he was probably excited by drink ; when quite
himself he never used them if it was possible
to avoid it. In 1807 he even refused to fight
General Wilkinson, and allowed the general to
post him as a coward ; and he did this on the
ground that the general had no right to hold
him accountable for his expressions : " I can-
not descend to your level.'* Indeed, with all
Randolph's quarrelsome temper and vindictive
spirit, he had but one duel during his public life.
His insulting language and manner came not
from the heart, but from the head : they were
part of his system, a method of controlling soci-
ety as he controlled his negroes. His object was
to rule, not to revenge, and it would have been
folly to let himself be shot unless his situation
required it. Randolph had an ugly temper and
a strong wiU ; but he had no passions that dis-
turbed his head.

In what is called polite society these tactics
were usually unnecessary, and then bad man-
ners were a mere habit, controllable at will. In
such society, therefore, Randolph was seen at
his best. The cultivated Virginian, with wit
and memory, varied experience, audacious tem-
per, and above all a genuine flavor of his na-

262 JOHN RANDOLPH.

tiye soil ; the Virginian, in his extremest form,
such as any one might well be curious once
to see, — this was the attraction in Randolph
which led strangers to endure and even to seek
his acquaintance. Thus, as extremes meet,
Massachusetts men were apt to be favorites
with this Ishmaelite ; they were so thoroughly
hostile to all his favorite prejudices that they
could make a tacit agreement to disagree in'
peace. Josiah Quincy was one of his friends ;
Elijah Mills, the Massachusetts senator, another.
In a letter dated January 19, 1816, Mr. Mills
thus describes him : —

" He is really a most singular and interesting man ;
regardless entirely of form and ceremony in some
things, and punctilious to an extreme in others. He,
yesterday, dined with us. He was dressed in a
rough, coarse, short hunting-coat, with small-clothes
and boots, and over his boots a pair of coarse cotton
leggins, tied with strings round his legs. He en-
grossed alnoost the whole conversation, and was ex-
ceedingly amusing as well as eloquent and instruo*
tive."

Again on January 14, 1822 : —

" Our Massachusetts people, and I among the num-
ber, have grown great favorites with Mr. Randolph.
He has invited me to dine with him twice, and he has
dined with us as often. He is now what he used to
be in his best days, in good spirits, with fine manners

ECCENTRICITlEa. 263

and the most fascinating conversation. . . . For the
last two years he has been in a state of great pertur-
bation, and has indulged himself in the ebullitions of
littleness and acerbity, in which he exceeds almost
any man living. He is now in better humor, and is
capable of making himself exceedingly interesting and
agreeable. How long this state of things may con-
tinue may depend upon accident or caprice. He is,
therefore, not a desirable inmate or a safe friend, but
under proper restrictions a most entertaining and in-
structive companion."

In 1826 Mr. Mills was ill, and Randolph in-
sisted on acting as his doctor.

" He now lives within a few doors of me, and has
called almost every evening and morning to see me*
This has been very kind of him, but is no earnest of
continued friendship. In his likings and dislikings,
as in everything else, he is the most eccentric being
upon the face of the earth, and is as likely to abuse
friend as foe. Hence, among all those with whom he
has been associated during the last thirty years, there
is scarcely an individual whom he can call his friend.
At times he is the most entertaining and amusing
man alive, with manners the most pleasant and agree-
able ; and at other times he is sour, morose, crabbed,
ill-natured, and sarcastic, rude in manners, and repul-
sive to everybody. Indeed, I think he is partially
deranged, and seldom in the full possession of his
reason."

The respectable senator from Massachusetts,

264 JOHN RANDOLPH.

" poor little Mills," as Randolph calls him,
seems to have snatched but a fearful joy in this
ill-assorted friendship.

The system of terrorism, which was so effect-
ive in the politics of Charlotte, was not equally
well suited to the politics of Washington ; to
overawe a congressional district was possible,
but when Randolph tried to crush Mr. Jeffer-
son and Mr. Madison by these tactics, the ex-
periment not only failed, but reacted so violently
as to drive him out of public life. Neverthe-
less, within the walls of the House of Represen-
tatives his success was considerable ; he inspired
terror, and to oppose him required no little
nerve, and, perhaps, a brutality as reckless as
his own. He made it his business to break in
young members as he would break a colt, bear-
ing down on them with superciliousness and sar-
casm. In later life he had a way of entering
the House, booted and spurred, with whip in
hand, after the business had begun, and loudly
saluting his friends to attract attention ; but if
any one whom he disliked was speaking, he
would abruptly turn on his heel and go out.
Mr. S. G. Goodrich describes him in 1820, dur-
ing the Missouri debate, as rising and crying out
in a shrill voice, which pierced every nook and
corner of the hall, " Mr. Speaker, I have but
one word to say, — one word, sir; and that is to

ECCENTRICITIES. 265

state a fact. The measure to which the gentle-
man has just alluded origmated in a dirty trick."
Under some circumstances he even ventured on
physical attacks, but this was very rare. He
had a standing feud with Willis Alston of
North Carolina, and they insulted each other
without serious consequences for many years.
Once, in 1811, as the members were leaving the
House, Alston, in his hearing, made some offen-
sive remark about a puppy. Randolph de-
scribed the scene to Nicholson in a letter dated
January 28, 1811 : —

" This poor wretch, after I had prevailed upon the
House to adjourn, uttered at me some very offensive
language, which I was not bound to overhear ; but
he took care to throw himself in my way on the stair-
case, and repeat his foul language to another in my
hearing. Whereupon I said, * Alston, if it were worth
while, I would cane you, — and I believe I will cane
you ! ' and caned him accordingly, with all the non-
chalance of Sir Harry Wildair himself."

The affair, however, got no farther than the
police court, and Randolph very justly added
in his letter, " For Macon's sake (although he
despises him) I regret it, and for my own, for
in such cases victory is defeat." He called
himself an Ishmael : his hand was against ev-
erybody, and everybody's hand was against
him. His political career had now long ended

266 JOHS^ RANDOLPH.

SO far as party promotion was concerned, and
there remained only an overpowering egotism,
a consuming rage for notoriety, contemptible
even in his own eyes, but overmastering him
like the passion for money or drink.

Of all his eccentricities, the most pitiful and
yet the most absurd were not those which
sprang from his lower but from his higher in-
stincts. The better part of his nature made a
spasmodic struggle against the passions and ap- '
petites that degraded it. Half his rudeness
and savagery was due to pride which would al-
low no one to see the full extent of his weak-
ness. At times he turned violently on himself.
So in the spring of 1815 he snatched at religion
and for an instant felt a serious hope that
through the church he might purify his nature ;
yet even in his most tender moments there was
something almost humorous in his childlike in-
capacity to practice for two consecutive instants
the habit of self-control or the simplest instincts
of Christianity. " I am no disciple of Calvin
or Wesley," he wrote in one of these moods ;
*' but I feel the necessity of a changed nature ;
of a new life ; of an altered heart. I feel my
stubborn and rebellious nature to be softened,
and that it is essential to my comfort here as
well as to my future welfare, to cultivate and
cherish feelings of good-will towards all man-

ECCENTRICITIEa, 267

kind ; to strive against envy, malice, and all un-
charitableness. I think I have succeeded in
forgiving all my enemies. There is not a hu-
man being that I would hurt if it were in my
power ; not even Bonaparte."

If in his moments of utmost Christian exal-
tation he could only think he had forgiven his
enemies and would hurt no human being if he
had the power, what must have been his pas-
sion for inflicting pain when the devil within
his breast held unchecked dominion I

CHAPTER XL

BLDBTL AND BLACK GBOEGB.

So long as Mr. Monroe was in office, although
his administration, aided hy the Supreme Court,
paid less regard to afpf^a^ riglifg an/i Ifianefl more
strongly to centralization than either the ad-
ministratioBft-of Madioon oi ' Jo ff^is OTi^ ^Bii^^Qlph
did not venture again upon systematic opposi-
tion. He had learned a lesson : he would have
no more personal quarrels with Virginian Pres-
idents, and restrained his temper marvellously
well, but not because he liked Monroe's rule
better than that of Monroe's predecessors ; far
from it ! " The spirit of profession and devo-
tion to the court has increased beyond my most
sanguine anticipations," said he in 1819 ; " the
Emperor [Monroe] is master of the Senate, and
through that body commands the life and prop-
erty of every man in the republic. The per-
son who fills the office seems to be without a
friend. Not so the office itself." In 1820 one
of the President's friends made, on his behalf,
an advance to Randolph. " I said," writes
Randolph, Februaiy 26, 1820, '' that he had in-

BLIFIL AND BLACK GEORGE, 269

vited Garnett, as it were, out of my own apart-
ment, that year [1812], to dine with General
Moreau, Lewis, and Stanford, the only M. C.'s
that lodged there besides myself, and omitted
to ask me, who had a great desire to see Mo-
reau ; that I lacqueyed the heels of no great
man ; that I had a very good dinner at home."
Although fully warranted in feeling hatred for
Monroe, Randolph remained in harmony with
the administration until he was going to Europe,
in March, 1822, and issued, from "on board the
steamboat Nautilus, under weigh to the Amity "
packet, a letter to his constituents, expressing
the intention to stand again for Congress in
1823: —

" I have an especial desire to be in that Congress,
which will decide (probably by indirection) the char-
acter of the executive government of the confedera-
tion for at least four years, — perhaps forever ; since
now, for the first time since the institution of this
government, we have presented to the people the
army candidate for the presidency in the person of
him [Calhoun] who, judging from present appear-
ance, will receive the support of the Bank of the
United States also. This is an union of the sword
and purse with a vengeance, — one which even the
sagacity of Patrick Henry never anticipated, in this
shape at least. Let the people look to it, or they are
rost forever. ... To this state of things we are rap-

u^

270 JOHN RANDOLPH,

idly approaching, under an administration the head
of which sits an xncvtbm upon the state, while the
lieutenants of this new Mayor of the Palace are al-
ready contending for the succession.'*

Had Randolph's knowledge of history been
more accurate or his memory quicker than it
was, he would not here have fallen into the
blunder of insulting the President by a compli-
ment. To speak of the incubus Monroe as a
"new Mayor of the Palace'* was nonsense, for,
of all men that ever lived, the Mayors of the
Palace were the most efficient rulers. What
Randolph doubtless meant was to brand Mon-
roe as " this new roi fainSantj** this do-nothing
king Childerich, whose lieutenants, Calhoun,
Crawford, Adams, were contending for the suc-
cession.

Against Monroe Randolph did not care to
break his lance, even though Moitfoe was the
worst of all the Virginian traitors to states'
rights, and the most ungrateful for support and
encouragement in his days of disgrace. Not
Monroe, but Monroe's lieutenants were to be
denounced in advance. Randolph liked none of
them, but especially hated Calhoun and Clay,
then representatives of the ardent nationality
engendered by the war of 1812. Mr. Clay was
Speaker, and, with a temper as domineering
and a manner as dictatorial as that of Randolph

BLIFIL AND BLACK GEORGE, 271

himself, he could not fail to rouse every jeal-
ous and ugly demon in Randolph's nature, and
draw out all the exhaustless vituperation of his
tongue. The inevitable quarrel began during
the debate on the Missouri compromise, when
Randolph made a determined effort to drive
Clay from its support. They are said to have
met for consultation in a private interview,
after which they held no further relations even
of civility, and it is easy to imagine that the
language exchanged in such a dialogue may
have been such as neither might care to repeat.
In any case it is true that Clay, as Speaker,
rode ruthlessly over Randolph's opposition, and
jockeyed him out of his right to move a recon-
sideration of the bill. The war between them
was henceforth as bitter as either party could
make it, and came within a hair's breadth of
costing Randolph his life.

Personal antipathies, jealousy, prejudice, and
the long train of Randolph's many vices had,
therefore, something to do with the certain hos-
tility towards Monroe's successor, for which he
was now preparing; but between his opposition
in 1825 and that in 1806 there was this differ-
ence : in 1806 his quarrel was with old friends,
whom, on a mere divergence of opinion in re-
gard to details of policy, he had no right to be-
tray; in 1825 his quarrel was legitimate and

272 JOHN RANDOLPH,

his policy sound, from his point of view. Thia
fact partially rehabilitated his reputation, and
made him again, to no small extent, an impor-
tant historical character. John Randolph stands
in history as the legitimate and natural precur-
sor of Calhoun. Randolph sketched out and
partly filled in the outlines of that political
scheme over which Calhoun labored so long,
and against which Clay strove successfully while
he lived, — the identification of slavery with
states' rights. All that was ablest and most
masterly, all except what was mere metaphys-
ical rubbish, in Calhoun's statesmanship had
been suggested by Randolph years before Cal-
houn began his states' rights career.

Between the slave power and states' rights
there was no necessary connectipft./, ilie ISkis:^^^
power, wh^ in control, waa a ^ftntraliTing^in
fluence, and all the moat conaiderabl^-Microach*
ments on states' rights were its acts. The
acquisition and atjaxi^siou £ft Loul&iaind j the
Embargo ; the War of 1812 ; the Annexation
of Texas "by joint resolution; ''JheWar^vrkh
Mexico, declared by the mere anncJunc^eiit'Df
President FoIE; the EugitiYeSla^X^:r*t©
Dred Scott decision* — alLtriump hs of the slave
power, — did far more than ftit|| er tariffs or
Internal improvements, whichj in their origin,
were also southern measures, to destroy the

!

I

BLIFIL AND BIIaCK GEORGE, 273

very memory of states' rights as they existed in
17891 Whenever a queslion^rose of extending
of profecting slavery, the slave-holders "Became
friencE ol ceuLralized power, Ulid UsedTEat dan-
ge ruus wea pon wHh aMnSTof frenzy." Slavery
in'facf required centralization in order to main-
tain and pro tec t itself, but "llTequ&ednto' con-
trol the centralized machine; it needed despotic
principles of government, but it needed "^them
exclusively for its own use. Thus, in truth,
states' rights were the protgctign of the free
States, and as a matter of fact, during the dom-
fliatlori 6f the slave power, Massachusetts ap-
pealed to this protecting principle as often and
almost as loudly as South Carolina.

The doctrine of states' rights was in itself a
sound and true doctrine ; as a starting point of
American history and constitutional law there
is no other which will bear a moment's exami-
nation; it was as dear to New England as to
Virginia, and its prostitution to the base uses
of the slave power was one of those unfortunate
entanglements which so often perturb and mis-
lead history. *This prostitution, begun by Ran-
dolph, and only at a later time consummated
by Calhoun, was the task of a man who loudly
and pathetically declared himself a victim to
slavery, a hater of the detestable institution, an
ami des noirs; who asserted that all the mis-
is

274 JOHN RANDOLPH,

fortunes of his life — and they had been neither
few nor inconsiderable — were light in the bal-
ance when compared with the single misfortune
of having been bom the master of slaves. It
was begun in the Missouri debate in 1819 and
1820, but unfortunately Randolph's speeches in
these sessions, although long and frequent, are
not reported, and his drift is evident only from
later expressions. His speech on internal im-
provements, January 81, 1824, set forth with
admirable clearness the nature of this new
fusion of terrorism with lust for power, — the
birth-marks of all Randolph's brood. Struck
out like a spark by sharp contact with Clay's
nobler genius, this speech of Randolph's flashes
through the dull atmosphere of the time, until
it leaps at last across a gap of forty years and
seems to linger for a moment on the distant
horizon, as though consciously to reveal the *

dark cloud of smoke and night in which slavery '

was to be sufiEocated.

" We are told that, along with the regulation of
foreign commerce, the States have yielded to the gen-
eral government in as broad terms the regulation of
domestic commerce, — I mean the conmierce among
the several States, — and that the same power is
possessed by Congress over the one as over the other.
It is rather unfortunate for this argument that, if it
applies to the extent to which the power to regulate

BLIilL AND BLACK GEORGE. 276

foreign commerce has been carried hy Congress, they
m&y prohibit altogether this domestic commerce, as they
have heretofore, under the other power, prohibited
foreign commerce. But why put extreme cases?
This government cannot go on one day without a
mutual understanding and deference between the
state and general governments. This government
is the breath of the nostrils of the States. Gentle-
men may say what they please of the preamble to
the Constitution ; but this Constitution is not the
work of the amalgamated population of the then ex-
isting confederacy, but the offspring of the States ;
and however high we may carry our heads and strut
and fret our hour, * dressed in a little brief authority,*
it is in the power of the States to extinguish this
government at a blow. They have only to refuse to
send members to the other branch of the legislature,
or to appoint electors of President and Vice-Presi-
dent, and the thing is done. ... I said that this gov-
ernment, if put to the test — a test it is by no means
calculated to endure — as a government for the man
agement of the internal concerns of this country, is
one of the worst that can be conceived, which is de-
termined by the fact that it is a government not hav-
ing a common feeling and common interest with the
governed. I know that we are told — and it is the
first time the doctrine has been openly avowed —
that upon the responsibility of this House to the
oeople, by means of the elective franchise, depends
all the security of the people of the United States
against the abuse of the powers of this government.

276 JOHN RANDOLPH.

But, sir, how shall a man from Mackinaw or the
Yellowstone River respond to the sentiments of the
people who live in New Hampshire ? It is as great
a mockery, — a greater mockery than to talk to these
colonies aboat their virtual representation in the
British Parliament. I have no hesitation in saying
that the liberties of the colonies were safer in the
custody of the British Parliament than they will be
in any portion of this country, if all the powers of
the States as well as of the general government are
devolved on this House. . . . We did believe there
were some parchment barriers, — no ! what is worth
all the parchment barriers in the world, that there
was in the powers of the States some counterpoise to
the power of this body ; but if this bill passes, we
can believe so no longer.

" There is one other power which may be exercised
in case the power now contended for be conceded, to
which I ask the attention of every gentleman who
happens to stand in the same unfortunate predicament
with myself, — - of every man who has the misfortune
to be and to have been born a slave-holder. If Con-
gress possess the power to do what is proposed by
this bill, they may not only enact a sedition law, — -^
for there is precedent, — but they may emancipate
every slave in the United States, and with stronger
color of reason than they can exercise the power now
contended for. And where will they find the power ?
They may follow the example of the gentlemen who
have preceded me, and hook the power on to the first
loop they find in the Constitution. They might takt

BLIFIL AND BLACK GEORGE. 277

the preamble^ perhaps the war-mciking power ; or they
might take a greater sweep, and say, with some gen-
tlemen, that it is not to be found in this or that of the
granted powers, bnt results from all of them, which is
not only a dangerous but the most dangerous doctrine.
Is it not demonstrable that slave labor is the dearest
in the world, and that the existence of a large body
of slaves is a source of danger ? Suppose we are at
war with a foreign power, and freedom should be of-
fered them by Congress as an inducement to them to
take a part in it ; or suppose the country not at war,
at every turn of this federal machine, at every succes-
sive census, that interest will find itself governed by
another and increasing power, which is bound to it
neither by any common tie of interest or feeling.
And if ever the time shall arrive, as assuredly it has
arrived elsewhere, and in all probability may arrive
here, that a coalition of knavery and fanaticism shall
for any purpose be got up on this floor, / ask gentle^
men who stand in the same predicament as I do to look
well to what they are now doing^ to the colossal power
with which they are now arming this government. The
power to do what I allude to is, I aver, more honestly
inferable from the war^mahing power than the power
we are now about to exercise. Let them look forward
to the time when such a question shall arise, and trem-
Ue with me at the thought fhat that question is to he
decided by a majority of the votes of this House, oj
whom not one possesses the slightest tie of common in'
Urest or of common feeling with us.^*

On the whole, subject to the chance of over-

278 JOHN RANDOLPH.

looking some less famous effort, this speecb, with
its companions at this session, may be fairly
taken as Randolph's masterpiece, and warrants
placing him in very high rank as a political
leader. Grant that it is wicked and mischiev-
ous beyond all precedent even in his own mis-
chievous career; that its effect must be to
create the dangers which it foretold, and to
bring the slave power into the peril which it
helped to create: grant that it was in flagrant
contradiction to his speeches oh the Louisiana
purchase, his St. Dumiiigorvote, and his outcry
for an embargo t timt it"was"inspireri&yTiatred
of Clayj that it related to a scheme of internal
improvement which Mr. Jefferson himself had
invented, and upon which he had once looked
as upon the flower, the crown, the hope, and
aspiration of his whole political system ; that it
was a deliberate, cold-blooded attempt to per-
vert the old and honorable principle of states'
rights into a mere tool for the protection of
uegro slavery, which Randolph professed to
think the worst of all earthly misfortunes;
that it assumed, vrith an arrogance beyond be-
lief, the settled purpose of the slave power to
strain the Constitution In its own interests, and
to block the government at its own will, —
grant all this and whatever more may be re-
quired, still this speech is wonderfully striking

BLIFIL AND BLACK GEORGE, 279

It startles, not merely by its own brightness,
although this is intense, but by the very dark-
ness which it makes visible.

Not content with laying down his new political
principle for the union of slave-holders behind
the barrier of state sovereignty, Randolph re-
peatedly returned to it, as was his custom when
trying to impress a fear on men's minds. His
speeches on the tariff at this session of 1824,
considered as a mere extension of the speech on
internal improvements, are full of astonishingly
clever touches.

" We [of the South] are the eel that is being flayed,
while the cookmaid pats us on the head and cries,
with the clown in King Lear, *Down, wantons,
down ! ' " " If, under a power to regulate trade, you
prevent exportation; if, with the most approved
spring lancets, you draw the last drop of blood from
our veins ; if, secundum artem, you draw the last shil-
ling from our pockets, what are the checks of the
Constitution to us? A fig for the Constitution!
When the scorpion's sting is probing us to the quick,
thall we stop to chop logic? Shall we get some
learned and cunning clerk to say whether the power
to do this is to be found in the Constitution, and then
if he, from whatever motive, shall maintain the af-
firmative, shall we, like the animal whose fleece
forms so material a portion of this bill, quietly lie
down and be shorn ? " " If, from the language I
have used, any gentleman shall believe I am not as

280 JOHN RANDOLPH.

much attached to this Union as any one on this floor,
he will labor under great mistake. But th^e is no
magic in this word union, I value it as the means of
preserving the liberty and happiness of the people.
Marriage itself is a good thing, but the marriages of
Mezentius were not so esteemed. The marriage of
Sinbad the Sailor with the corpse of his deceased
wife was an union ; and just such an union will this
be, if , by a bare majority in both Houses, this bill
shall become a law."

This is very clever, keen, terse, vivacious;
put in admirably simple and well-chosen Eng-
lish ; and the discursions and digressions of the
speaker were rather an advantage than a draw-
back in these running debates. Much of Ran-
dolph's best wit was in parentheses ; many of
his boldest suggestions were scattered in short,
occasional comments. On the question of tax-
ing coarse woollens, such as negroes wear, he
thrust a little speech into the debate that was
like a dagger in the very bowels of the South:

" It is notorious that the profits of slave labor have
been for a long time on the decrease, and Uiat on a
tair average it scarcely reimburses the expense of the
slave, including the helpless ones, whether from in-
fancy or age. The words of Patrick Henry in the
Convention of Virginia still ring in my ears : * They
may liberate every one of your slaves. The Congress
possess the power, and will exercise it.' Now, sir

BLIFIL AND BLACK GEORGE. 281

the first step towards this consummation so devoutly
wished by many is to pass such laws as may yet still
further diminish the pittance which their labor yields
to their unfortunate masters, to produce such a state
of things as will insure, in case the slave shall not
elope from his master, that his master will run away
from him. Sir, the blindness, as it appears to me, —
I hope gentlemen will pardon the expression, — with
which a certain portion of this country — I allude
particularly to the seaboard of South Carolina and
Georgia — has lent its aid to increase the powers of
the general government on points, to say the least, of
doubtful construction fills me with astonishment and
dismay. And I look forward almost without a ray
of hope to the time which the next census, or that
which succeeds it, will assuredly bring forth, when
this work of destruction and devastatioji is to com-
mence in the abused name of humanity and religion,
and when the imploring eyes of some will be, as now,
turned towards another body, in the vain hope that it
may arrest the evil and stay the plague."

On another occasion he is reported as saying
of the people of the North, " We do not govern
them by our black slaves, but by their own
white slaves ; " and again, with an amount of
drastic effrontery which at that early day was
peculiar to himself, " We know what we are
doing. We of the South are united from the
Ohio to Florida, and we can always unite ; but
vou of the North are beginning to divide, and

282 JOHN RANDOLPH,

ygu will divide. We have conquered you once,
and we can and will conquer you again. Aye,
sir, we will drive you to the wall, und when we
have you there once more we mean to keep
you there, and will nail you down like base
money."

What could be more effective than these al-
ternate appeals to the pride and the terrors of
a slave-owning oligarchy ? Where among the
most venomous whispers of lago can be found
an appeal to jealousy more infernal than some
of those which Randolph made to his southern
colleagues in the Senate ?

" I know that there are gentlemen not only from
the northern but from the southern States who think
that this unhappy question — for such it is — of
negro slavery, which the Constitution has vainly at-
tempted to blink by not using the term, should never
be brought into public notice, more especially into
that of Congress, and most especially here. Sir, with
every due respect for the gentlemen who think so, I
differ from them toto ccelo. Sir, it is a thing which
cannot be hid ; it is not a dry rot, which you can
cover with the carpet until the house tumbles about
your ears ; — you might as well try to hide a volcano
in full eruption ; it cannot be hid ; it is a cancer in
your face."

After twisting this barb into the vitals of his
$lave-ovniing friends, he went on to say : —

BLIFIL AND BLACK GEORGE. 283

" I do not put this question to you, sir ; I know
what your answer will be. I know what will be the
answer of every husband, son, and brother through-
out the southern States. I know that on this depends
the honor of every matron and maiden, — of every
matron, wife or widow, between the Ohio and the
Gulf of Mexico. I know that upon it depends the
life's blood of the little ones which are lying in their
cradles in happy ignorance of what is passing around
them ; and not the white ones only, — for shall not
we, too, kill?"

No man knew better how to play upon what
he called the " chord which, when touched, even
by the most delicate hand, vibrates to the heart
of every man in our country." He jarred it till
it ached. The southern people, far away from
the scene of his extravagances, felt the hand so
roughly striking their most sensitive nerve, and
responded by the admiration that a tortured an-
imal still shows for its master. They remem-
bered his bold prophecies and startling warn-
ings, his strong figures of speech, his homely
and terse language. Many now learned to love
him. His naturally irrepressible powers for
mischief-making were never so admirably de-
veloped. He had at last got hold of a deep
principle, and invented a far-reaching scheme
of political action.

Circumstances favored him. The presiden-

284 JOHN RANDOLPH.

tial election of 1824 ended in the House of Rep-
resentatives. Mr. Clay controlled the result ;
he preferred J. Q. Adams to General Jackson ;
he caused Mr. Adams's election, and then, like
the man of honor and courage that he was, he
stood by the President he had made. Those
readers who care for the details of this affair
can find them in Mr. Parton's entertaining life
of Andrew Jackson ; here need only be said that
Randolph saw his opportunity, and repeated
against Clay and Adams the tactics he had used
against Madison and Jefferson, but which he
now used with infinitely more reason and bet-
ter prospects of success. Randolph's opposi-
tion to both the Adamses was legitimate ; if
he hated this " American house of Stuart," as
he called it, he had good grounds for doing so ;
if he despised J. Q. Adams, and considered
him as mean a man for a Yankee as Mr. Madi-
son was for a Virginian, it was not for an in-
stant imagined or imaginable that either of the
Yankee Presidents ever entertained any other
feeling than contempt for him ; they had no
possible intellectual relation with such a mind,
but were fully prepared for his enmity^ ex-
pected it, and were in acconi with Mr. Jeffer-
Bon's opinion, in 1806, that it would be unfort-
unate to be embarrassed with such a eoi-disani
friend. The warfare which Randolph at once

BLIFIL AND BLACK GEORGE, 285

declared against the administration of J. Q.
Adams was not only inevitable ; it was, from
many points of view, praiseworthy, for it
cannot be expected that any one who has sym-
pathy with Mr. Jefferson's theories of govern-
ment in 1801, unfashionable though they now
are, will applaud the theories of J. Q. Adams
in 1825. The two doctrines were, in outward
appearance, diametrically opposite ; and al-
though that of Mr. Adams, in sound accord
with the practice if not with the theories of
Mr. Jefferson, seems to have won the day, and
though the powers of the general government
have been expanded beyond his utmost views,
it is not the business of a historian to deny that
there was, and still is, great force in the oppo-
site argument.

Mr. Adams, however, stood somewhat too
remote for serious injury, and his position was,
at best, too weak to warrant much alarm on
the part of Randolph and his friends. Not
Adams, but Clay, divided the South and broke,
by his immense popularity, the solid ranks
of the slave-holding, states'-rights democracy
which Randolph wished to organize. It was
against Clay that the bitterest effusions of
Randolph's gall were directed, and to crush the
Eentuckian was the object of all his tactics.
Mr. Clay was Secretary of State, and could not

286 JOHN RANDOLPH.

reply to the attacks made upon him in Con
gress, but he retaliated as he best could, and
sustained a losing fight with courage and credit.
Meanwhile, Randolph, soured by what he
considered the neglect of his State, had not
shown that attention to his duties which is us-
ually expected of members. He was late in at-
tending Congress, made long absences, and even
declined to serve at all from 1817 to 1819.
Suddenly, on December 17, 1825, he was elected
to the Senate to fill a vacancy caused by the
appointment of James Barbour as Secretary of
War to Mr. Adams. This election was a curi-
ous accident, for the true choice of the Vir-
ginian legislature was undoubtedly Henry St.
George Tucker, Randolph's half-brother, and it
was only his forbearance that gave Randolph
a chance of success. The first vote stood:
Tucker, 65 ; Randolph, 63 ; Giles, 58 ; Floyd,
40. According to the rule of the House Floyd
was then dropped, and the second ballot stood :
Tucker, 87 ; Randolph, 79 ; Giles, 60. At each
ballot 226 votes were cast. Mr. Tucker had,
however, instructed his friends in no event to
allow his name to come in direct competition
with Randolph's, and accordingly when, on the
third ballot, the contest was narrowed down to
Tucker and Randolph, not only was the former
name withdrawn, but 42 members abstained

BLIFIL AND BLACK GEORGE, 287

from voting at all. Randolph got 104 votes,
not even a majority of the legislature, although
Mr. Tucker's determination to withdraw, not
announced till after the votes were deposited,
was well known, and made the choice inevitable.

He took his seat immediately. Almost at
the same moment President J. Q. Adams sent
to the Senate nominations of two envoys to
the proposed Congress of American nations at
Panama. To this scheme of a great American
alliance Mr. Clay was enthusiastically attached,
but on its announcement every loose element
of opposition in the Senate drew together into
a new party, and Randolph once more found
himself, as in 1800, hand in hand with that
northern democracy which he had so many
years reviled. In the place of Aaron Burr,
New York was now led by Martin Van Buren,
whose gentle touch moulded into one shape
elements as discordant as Andrew Jackson
and John C. Calhoun, Nathaniel Macon and
Thomas H. Benton, John Randolph, James
Buchanan, and William B. Giles.

On January 15, 1826, Mr. Van Buren began
his campaign by moving to debate the Presi-
dent's confidential message in public. Ran-
dolph opposed the motion out of respect for
the President. He went back to the old stage
tricks of his opposition to Madison. He was

288 JOHN RANDOLPH.

again descending to comedy. The scene was
arranged beforehand, and he affected respect
only in order that tie might give more energy
to his vehemence of contempt. Mr. Clay defied
Van Buren's attack, and Randolph then gave
rein to all his bitterness. On February 27,
1826, he wrote in delight at his success : —

"As to Van Buren and myself, we have been a
little cool. . . . He has done our cause disservice by
delay in the hope of getting first Gaillard, then Taze-
welL ... I was for action, knowing that delay would
only give time for the poison of patronage to do its
office. . . . But if fie has not, others have poured
* the leprous distil ment into the porches of mine ears.'
The V. P. [Calhoun] has actually made love to me ;
and my old friend Mr. Macon reminds me daily of
the old major who verily believed that I was a none-
such of living men. In short, Friday's affair has
been praised on all hands in a style that might have
gorged the appetite of Cicero himself.'*

Intoxicated by the sense of old power re-
turning to his grasp, Randolph now lashed on
his own passions, until at length, in a speech
which exhausted the unrivalled resources of his
vocabulary in abusing the President and Sec-
retary, after attributing to them every form of
political meanness, he said, <^I was defeated,
horse, foot, and dragoons, — cut up and clean
broke down by the coalition of Blifil and Black

BLIFIL AND BLACK GEORGE. 289

George, — by the oombination, unheard of till
then, of the Puritan with the blackleg." Not
content with this, it is said that he went on
to call Mr. Clay's progenitors to account for
bringing into the world "this being, so brill-
iant yet so corrupt, which, like a rotten mack-
erel by moonlight, shined and stunk."

Not for this blackguard abuse, but for certain
insinuations against his truth, Mr. Clay called
him out. Randolph had not meant to fight;
his object was to break Clay's influence, not to
kill him ; his hatred was of the head, not of the
heart ; — but he could not refuse. Virginians
would not have tolerated this course even in him.
He had said to General Wilkinson in 1807, " I
cannot descend to your level;" but he could
not repeat it to Henry Clay without losing caste.
On April 8, 1826, they exchanged shots, and
Clay's second bullet pierced the folds of the
white flannel wrapper which Randolph, with
his usual eccentricity, wore on the field. Ran-
dolph threw away his second fire, and there-
upon offered his hand, which Clay could not
refuse to accept.

As for the President, his only revenge was
one which went more directly to its aim than
Mr. Clay's bullet, and fairly repaid the allu-
sion to Blifil and Black George borrowed from
Lord Chatham. Mr. Adams applied to Ran-

19

290 JOHN RANDOLPH.

dolph the lines in which Ovid drew the picture
of Envy : —

** Pallor in ore sedet ; macles in corpore toto ;
Pectora f elle virent ; lingua est saffosa veneno."

His face is livid ; gaant his whole bod/ ;

His breast is green with gall ; his tongue drips poison.

With equal justice he might have appliedr mora
of Ovid's verses: —

" Videt ingratos, intabescitque videndo,
Snccessus hominam ; carpitqne et carpitor ana ;
Sappliciumqne snum est.*'

He sees withj)ain men*s good fortune,
And pines in seeing ; he taunts and is mocked at once ;
And is his own torture.

Thus Randolph orga ni zed the South . Cal-
houn himself learned— bk — loooon fr om the
Qpeechea oliJiia man, "who," said Mr. Vance
of Ohio, in the House of Representatives, on
January 29, 1828, " is entitled to more credit,
if it is right that this administration should go
down, for bis efficiency in effecting that object
than any three men in this nation." " From the
moment he took his seat in the other branch of
the legislature, he became the great rallying of-
ficer of the South." To array the whole slave-
holding influence behind the banner of states'
rights, and use centralization as the instrument
of slavery; alternately to take the aggressive
and the defensive, as circumstances should re

BLIFJL AND BLACK GEORGE. 291

quire, without seeming to quit tht fortress of
defence; to throw loaded dice at every cast, and
call, " Heads I win, tails you lose," at every
toss, — this was what Randolph aimed at, and
what he actually accomplished so far as his
means would allow. The administration of
Adams, a Puritan ant an old federalist, who
had the strongest love lor American national-
ity, was precisely the influence needed to con-
solidate the slave-holding interest. Randolph
converted Calhoun ; after this tx)nversion Clay
alohe ^vided the slave power," and 'ClayJ^as
to B'&x5rudi6(rBy fair means or foul. The cam-
paign* -streceededT Clay was crushed, and the
Blave power ruled supreme.

CHAPTER Xn.

"FACULTIES MISEMPLOYED.*'

Randolph certainly became more sagacioua
with age, but he did not improve in political
sagacity alone. That his moral sense was lost
may be true, for his mind had been dragged
through one degradation after another, until
its finer essence was destroyed ; but in return
it had gained from its very degradation a qual-
ity which at first it wanted. Randolph was
a worse man than in his youth, but a better
rhetorician. No longer heroic even in his own
eyes, he could more coolly play the hero. His
epigrammatic effects were occasionally very
striking, especially on paper. He rose to what
in a man of true character would have been
great elevation of tone in his retort on Mr.
McLane of Delaware. That member had said
with perfect justice that he would not take
Randolph's head, if he were obliged to take his
heart along with it.

" How easy, sir, would it be for me to reverse the
gentleman's proposition, and to retort upon him that I
would not, in return, take that gentleman's heart,

''FACULTIES MJ8EMPL0TED:' 293

however good it may be, if obliged to take such a
head into the bargain I But, sir, I do not think this,
— I never thought it, — and therefore I cannot be so
ungenerous as to say it ; for, Mr. Speaker, who made
me a searcher of hearts ? . . . And, sir, if I should
ever be so unfortunate, through inadvertence or the
heat of debate, as to fall into such an error [as that
which Mr. McLane had made in his argument], I
should, so far from being offended, feel myself under
obligation to any gentleman who would expose its fal-
lacy even by ridicule, — as fair a weapon as any in
the whole parliamentary armory. I shall not go so
far as to maintain, with Lord Shaftesbury, that it is
the unerring test of truth, whatever it may be of tem-
per ; but if it be proscribed as a weapon as unfair as
it confessedly is powerful, what shall we say, I put it,
sir, to you and to the House, to the poisoned arrow ?
to the tomahawk and the scalping-knife ? Would the
most unsparing use of ridicule justify a resort to these
weapons? Was this a reason that the gentleman
should sit in judgment on my heart? yes, sir, my
heart ! — which the gentleman, whatever he may say
in his heart, believes to be a frank heart, as I trust it
is a brave heart I Sir, I dismiss the gentleman to his
self-complacency — let him go, — yes, sir, let him go,
and thank his God that he is not as this publican ! "

This was the best of all Randolph's retorts,
and remarkable for expression and temper.
Unhappily for its effect, it wanted an element
which alone gives weight to such a style of

294 JOHN RANDOLPH.

rhetoric. It was melodramatic, but untrue.
One may imagine with what quiet amusement
Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, Mr. Monroe, Mr.
Clay, not to speak of a score of smaller victims
like Gideon Granger, the poor clerk Vanzandt,
and many an old member, must have smiled on
reading this announcement that Randolph's
frank, brave heart repudiated the use of the
poisoned arrow, the tomahawk, and the scalping-
knif e. He was happier, because truer to himself,
in the more brutal forms of personal attack, as
in turning on Mr. Beecher of Ohio, who per-
sisted in breaking his long pauses by motions
for the previous question : " Mr. Speaker, in the
Netherlands a man of small capacity, with bits
of wood and leather, will in a few moments con-
struct a toy that, with the pressure of the finger
and the thumb, will cry, ' Cuckoo I Cuckoo I '
With less of ingenuity and inferior materials
the people of Ohio have made a toy that will,
without much pressure, cry, 'Previous ques-
tion, Mr. Speaker! Previous question, Mr.
Speaker I ' " This must have been very effect-
ive as spoken with his shrill voice, and accented
by his pointing finger, but it may be doubted
whether Randolph ever produced much serious
effect in the elevated style. His most famoui
bit of self-exaltation was in the speech on re
trenchment and reform in 1828 : —

'* FACULTIES MISEMPLOYED J* 295

" I shall retire upon my resources ; I will go back
to the bosom of my constituents, — to such constitu-
ents as man never had before, and never will have
again ; and I shall receive from them the only reward
I ever looked for, but the highest that man can re-
ceive, — the universal expression of their approbation,
of their thanks. I shall read it in their beaming
faces, I shall feel it in their gratulating hands. The
very children will climb around my knees to welcome
me. And shall I give up them and this ? And for
what? For the heartless amusements and vapid
pleasures and tarnished honors of this abode of splen-
did misery, of shabby splendor ; for a clerkship in the
war office, or a foreign mission, to dance attendance
abroad instead of at home, or even for a department
itself?"

If the criticism already made be just, that
the reply to McLane was melodramatic but un-
true, the same criticism applies with treble
force to this famous appeal to his constituents.
Without inquiring too deeply what the children
in Charlotte County would have said to a sug-
gestion of climbing Randolph's knee, or whether
conflicting emotions could not be read on the
beaming faces of his constituents, it is enough
to add that there can be little doubt of Ran-
dolph's actual aberration of mind at this time.
He talked quite wildly, and his acts had no re-
lation with his language. This patriot would
accept no tawdry honors from a corrupt and

296 JOHN RANDOLPH.

corrupting national government ! He would not
take a seat in the Cabinet, like Clay/ to help
trample on the rights of Virginia I He would
not take a foreign mission, to pocket the peo-
ple's money without equivalent ! He owed ev-
erything to his constitutents, and from them
alone he would receive his reward I This speech
was made in February, 1828. In September,
1829, he was offered and accepted a special mia-
sion to Russia j he sailed in June, 1830 ; re-
mained ten days at his post ; then passed near
a year in England ; and, returning home in
October, 1831, drew $21,407 from the govern-
ment, with which he paid off his old British
debt. This act of Roman virtue, worthy of the
satire of Juvenal, still stands as the most fla-
grant bit of diplomatic jobbery in the annals
of the United States government.

Had Randolph, at this period of his life,
shown any respect for his own dignity, or had
he even respected the dignity of Congress, he
would have been a very formidable man, but he
sacrificed his influence to an irrational vanity.
His best friends excused him on the ground that
te was partially insane ; his enemies declared
that this insanity was due only to drink ; and
perhaps a charitable explanation will agree with
his own belief that all his peculiarities had their
source in an ungovernable temper, which he had

''FACULTIEa MISEMPLOYED,** 297

indulged until it led him to the verge of mad-
ness. Be this as it may, certain it is that his
flashes of inspiration were obtained only at a
painful cost of time and power. During these
last years Randolph was like a jockey, thrown
early out of the race, who rides on, with antics
and gesticulations, amid the jeers and wonder
of the crowd, towards that winning-post which
his old rivals have long since passed. He de-
spised the gaping clowns who applauded him,
even while he enjoyed amusing them. He de-
pised himself, perhaps, more than all the rest.
Not once or twice, only, but day after day, and
especially during his short senatorial term, he
would take the floor, and, leaning or lolling
against the railing which in the old senate cham-
ber surrounded the outer row of desks, he would
talk two or three hours at a time, with no per-
ceptible reference to the business in hand, while
Mr. Calhoun sat like a statue in the Vice-Presi-
dent's chair, until the senators one by one re-
tired, leaving the Senate to adjourn without
a quorum, a thing till then unknown to its
courteous habits ; and the gallery looked down
with titters or open laughter at this exhibition
of a half -insane, half-intoxicated man, talking
a dreary monologue, broken at long intervals
by passages beautiful in their construction, di-
•*ect in their purpose, and not the less amusing

298 JOHN RANDOLPH.

from their occasional virulence. These long
speeches, if speeches they could be called, were
never reported. The reporters broke down in
attempting to cope with the rapid utterance, the
discursiveness and interminable length, the in-
numerable " Yes, sirs," and " No, sirs," of
these harangues. Mr. Niles printed in his Reg-
ister for 1826 one specimen verbatim report,
merely to show why no more was attempted.
In the same volume, Mr. Niles gave an account
of a visit he made to the senate gallery on
May 2, 1826, when Randolph was talking.
Lolling against the rail, stopping occasionally
to rest himself and think what next to talk
about, he rambled on with careless ease in con-
versational tones, while the senate chamber was
nearly empty, and the imperturbable Calhoun
patiently listened from his throne. Mr. Niles
did not know the subject of debate, but when
he entered the gallery Randolph was giving out
a plan to make a bank : —

" Well, sir, we agree to make a bank. You sub-
scribe $10,000, you $10,000, and you $10,000 or
$20,000 ; then we borrow some rags, or make up the
capital out of our own promissory notes. Next we
buy an iron chest — for safety against fire and against
thieves — but the latter was wholly unnecessary —
who would steal our paper, sir ? All being ready
we issue bills — I wish I had one of them (hunting

^'FACULTIEa MI8EMPL0TEDJ* 299

his pockets as though he expected to find one) — like
the Owl Creek bank, or Washington and Warren,
black or red — I think, sir, they begin with * I prom-
ise to pay' — yes, promise to pay, sir — promise to

pay."

He dwelt upon this making of a bank for
about five minutes, and then said something
concerning Unitarians in religion and politics,
making a dash at the administration, and
bringing in Sir Robert Walpole. Then he
spoke of the Bible, and expressed his disgust at
what are called " family Bibles," though he
thought no family safe without a Bible — but
not an American edition. Those published by
the Stationers Company of London ought only
or chiefly to have authority, except those from
the presses of the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge. He described these corporations
briefly ; they would be fined £10,000 sterling
if they should leave the word not out of the
seventh commandment, however convenient it
might be to some or agreeable to others (looking
directly at certain members, and half turning
himself round to the ladies). He never bought
an American edition of any book ; he had no
Jaith in their accuracy. He wished all his books
to have Cadell's imprint — Cadell, of the Strand,
London. But people were liable to be cheated.
He bought a copy of Aristotle's Ethics to pre-

800 JOHN RANDOLPH.

sent to a lady — to a lady, sir^ who could un-
derstand them — yes, su: — and he found it full
of errors, though it had Cadell's imprint —
which he gave to be understood was a forgery.
From the Bible he passed to Shakespeare, drub-
bing some one soundly for publishing a " family
Shakespeare." He next jumped to the Amer-
ican " Protestant Episcopal Church," and dis-
avowed all connection with it, declaring that he
belonged to the Church of Old England ; he had
been baptized by a man regularly authorized by
the bishop of London, who had laid his hands
upon him (laying his own hands on the head
of the gentleman next to him), and he spoke
warmly of the bishop and of the priest. Then
he quoted from the service, " Them that," as
bad grammar. Suddenly he spoke about wine
— it was often mentioned in the Bible, and he
approved of drinking it — if in a gentlemanly
way — at the table — not in the closet — not in
the closet ; but as to whiskey, he demanded
that any one should show him the word in the
Bible — it was not there — no, sir, you can't
find it in the whole book. Then he spoke of
his land at Roanoke, saying that he held it by
A royal grant. In a minute or two he was talk-
ing of the "men of Kent," saying that Kent
bad never been conquered by William the Nor-
man, but had made terms with him. He spoke

''FACULTIES MISEMPLOYED.'* 301

of a song on the men of Kent which he would
give a thousand pounds to have written. All
these subjects were discussed within the space
of thirty-five minutes.

These illustrations of the almost incredible
capacity for attitudinizing which belonged to
Randolph's later career do not affect the fact
that he discovered and mapped out from begin-
ning to end a chart of the whole course on wKch
the' slave power was to sail to its destruction.
He did no legislative wort," sat on no commit-
tees, and was not remotely connected with any
useful measure or idea; but he organized the
slave power on strong and well-chosen ground ;
he taught it discipline, gave it popular cohesion,
pointed out to it the fact that before it could
hope for powerit must break down Henry Clay,
and, having taught his followers what to do,
helped them to do it.

In this campaign, Randolph and his friends
made but one strategical mistake, and it was one
of which they were conscious. In order to pull
down Adams and Clay, they were forced to set
up Aftdr ew " Jacksmr, a - man ^^om " they knew
to b*e unmanageable, despotic in temper and
military in discipline. Meanwhile, Randolph
was defeated in his candidacy for reelection to
the Senate. Virginia could not tolerate his ex-
travagances, and sent John Tyler to take his

802 JOHN RANDOLPH.

place. Deeply wounded, lie was still consoled
by the devotion of his district, which immedi-
ately returned him to his old seat in the House.
He was also a member of the constitutional
convention of Virginia in 1829, and of course
took the conservative side on the great ques-
tions it was called to consider. Broken to
pieces by disease, and in the last stages of con-
sumption, when President Jackson, amid the
jeers of the entire country, oJBEered him the mis-
sion to Russia, he accepted it, in order to remain
in England about eighteen months. Of this
journey, as of his other journeys, it is better to
say as little as possible ; they have no bearing
on his political opinions or influence, and ex-
hibit him otherwise in an unfavorable light. A
warm admirer of everything English, nothing
delighted him so much as attentions from En-
glish noblemen. He was impressed by the at-
mosphere of a court, and plumped down on his
knees before the Empress of Russia, who was
greatly amused, as well she might be, at his
eccentric ideas of republican etiquette. Criti-
cism infuriated him. " The barking of the
curs against me in Congress," he wrote from
London on February 19, 1831, " I utterly de-
spise. I think I can see how some of them, if
I were present, would tuck their tails between
their hind legs, and slink — aye, and stink too 1 '*

FACULTIES MISEMPLOYED.'' 303

On his return home, in October, 1831, he
hastened to Charlotte to make a speech in de-
fence of his conduct as minister ; but the sub-
ject which chiefly occupied his thoughts was the
poverty, the dirt, the pride, and the degeneracy
of Virginia, until he was roused to new life by
the nullification excitement which his own doc-
trines, now represented by Mr. Calhoun, were
stirring up in South Carolina and Georgia.

Jactson's administration had displeased him
from the start, but so long as he wore its livery
his tongue had been tied. Now, however, when
South Carolina raised the standard of resist-
ance, and refused obedience to an act of Con-
gress, Randolph was hot in his applause. He
felt that the days of 1798 had returned. He
wanted to fight with her armies in case of war.
When the President's famous proclamation,
"the ferocious and blood-thirsty proclamation
of our Djezzar," appeared, he was beside him-
self with rage. " The apathy of our people is
most alarming," he wrote. " If they do not
rouse themselves to a sense of our condition and
put down this wretched old man, the country is
irretrievably ruined. The mercenary troops
who have embarked for Charleston have not
disappointed me. They are working in their
vocation, poor devils I I trust that no quarter
will be given to them.^'* Weak and dying as he

804 JOEN RANDOLPH,

was, he set out to rouse Virginia, and spoke
in several counties against Jackson, as he* had
spTJken agains t John A^ams ^ NuIEScation, he
s'aidi was nonsense. He was no nullifier, but he
would not desert those whose interests were iden-
tical with his own. One of the touches in these
harangues is very characteristic of the taste and
temper of this ami des noira : —

"There is a meeting-house in this village, built
by a respectable denomination. I never was in it,
though, like myself, it is mouldering away. The pul-
pit of that meeting-house was polluted by permitting
a black African to preach in it. If I bad been there,
I would have taken the uncircumcised dog by the
throat, led him before a magistrate, and committed
him to jail. I told the ladies, they, sweet souls, who
dressed their beds with the whitest sheets and un-
corked for him their best wine, were not far from hav-
ing negro children.**

He forced a set of states' rights resolutions
down the throat of his county, driving poor
Captain Watkins and the other malcontents out
of his presence. Nevertheless, the President's
proclamation remained and the force-bill stood
on the statute-book, — jSrst-fruits of Randolph's
attempt to maintain the slave power by a
union of slave-holders behind the bulwark of
states' rights ; while the next was the elevatiou
of Henry Clay to a position more powerful thac

''FACULTIES MIBEMPLOYEW 305

ever, as arbiter between the South and the
North.

Anxious to get back to England, where he
hoped, by aid of climate, to prolong his exist-
ence, Randolph started again for Europe ; but,
seized by a last and fatal attack on his lungs,
he died in Philadelphia, May 24, 1833. Of his
death-bed, it is as well not to attempt a descrip-
tion. It was grotesque — like his life. During
the few days of his last illness his mind was
never quite itself, and there can be no pleasure
or profit in describing the expiring irrational
wanderings of a brain never too steady in its
processes. His remains were taken to Virginia,
and buried at Roanoke. His will was the sub-
ject of a contest in the courts, which produced a
vast quantity of curious evidence in regard to
his character, and at last a verdict from the
jury that in the later years of his lif« he was
not of sane mind. It is, perhaps, diflBcult to
draw any precise line between eccentricity and
insanity, but it is still more difticult to under-
stand how the jury could possibly have held the
will of 1821, which emancipated his slaves, to
be a saner document than that of 1832, which
did not.

The question of his sanity has greatly troub-
led his biographers. He himself called his " un-
prosperous life, the fruit of an ungovernable

20

306 JOHN RANDOLPH.

temper.'* So far as his public speeches are con-
cerned, there is no apparent proof that he was
less sane in 1831 than in 1806, except that he
was weakened by age, excesses, and disease.
Nevertheless, it seems to be certain that, on
several occasions, he was distinctly irrespon-
sible ; his truest friends, the Tuckers, thought
so, and the evidence supports them; but
whether this condition of mind was anything
more than the excitement due to over-indulg-
ence of temper and appetite is a question for
experts to decide. Neither sickness nor suffer-
ing, however, are excuses for habitual want of
self-restraint. Myriads of other men have suf-
fered as much without showing it in brutality
or bitterness, and he himself never in his can-
did moments pretended to defend his errors:
"Time misspent, and faculties misemployed,
and senses jaded by labor or impaired by ex-
cess, cannot be recalled." */!,.,,, . y .

,,'.. ^.'"-v' :4:^.-: Att'T^^fu ^

... ! •■ V

INDEX.

ASAXS, John, Vice-President of the
United States, 19 ; his coachman's
whip, 19 ; President, 25 ; Ran-
dolph's enmity to. 26 ; Ran-

. dolph's letter to, 42; called a
monarchist, 66: his pardon of
Fries, 101, 144, 146 ; sent back to
Braintree, 66, 208.

Adams, J. Q. Randolph's enmity
to, 26, 284 ; senator from Massa-
chusetts, 1^ ; his account of Ran-
dolph at Chase's trial, 150 ; quotes
Mr. Madison, 152 ; elected Presi-
dent, 284 ; his theories, 285 ; nom-
inates enyoys to Panama, 287 ;
attacked by Randolph, 288; re-
taliates, 289, 290.

Alston, Willis, Jr., M. 0. from
North Carolina, 217, 266.

Armory built at Richmond in 1800,
28,80.

Armstrong, John, minister to
France, 164.

Arnold, Benedict, 2, 6.

Baooit. Nath&nikl, of Curies, his
rebellion, 2.

Bayard, James A., M. 0. from Dela-
ware, his speeches in the session
of 1801-02, 66-68, 70: succeeded
by Csesar A. Rodney, 85 ; a sena-
tor, 142, 222.

Beeeher, Philemon, M. 0. from
Ohio, 294.

Berlin decree, 213, 216.

Bibb, WiUiam W., M. C. from Geor^
fia, 219.

Bidwell, Barnabas, M. C. from Mas-
sachusetts, 217.

Bizarre, plantation, 8: home of
John Randolph, 6, 9, 21, 22, 250.

Bland, Frances, marries John Ran-
dolph, 3; marries St. Geoi^e
Tucker, 4; taken to Bizarre, 6;
Influence oyer her son, 5.

Boiling, Jane, wife of Richard of
Curies, 8.

Bradley, Stephen B., senator from
Vermont, 230.

Breckenridge, John, of Kentucky,
55.

Bryan, Joseph, 249; Randolph's
yisit to, 23 ; letter from, 45, 46.

Burr, Aaron, his election as Vice-
President, 48, 49; his duel with
Hamilton, 118-115 ; presides at
Chase's trial, 141 ; his yaledictory,
155, 156 ; his plot, 156, 159 ; taken
to Richmond, 220 ; indicted, 221.

Calhoun, John C, Secretary of
War, 269 ; candidate for the presi-
dency, 2^ ; represents centraliza-
tion, 270 ; a pupil of Randolph,
272, 273, 290.

Callender, James Thompson, his
trial at Richmond, 102, 137, 138,
139.

Cambrian, British frigate, 116, 118.

Campbell, George W., M. C. from
Tennessee, 210, 222.

Casa Yrujo, Spanish minister at
Washington, 115, 117, 162.

Chase, Samuel, justice of the Su-
preme Court, a yiolent federalist,
82 ; Mr. Jefferson's letter adyising
his impeachment, 82, 83 ; his of-
fences, 96, 97. 186, 136; is im-
peached, 98, 102 : new articles of
impeachment, 137, 138 ; his trial,
131, 141-150 ; his acquittal, 151.

Cheetham, James, editor of the
" American Citizen," 113, 114

Chesapeake frigate, attack on, 222,
224-226.

Claiborne, W. C. C, Goyemor of
Louisiana, 116, 119.

Clay, Henry, Speaker, 270, 271 ; op-
posed to Randolph, 274; makef

308

INDEX.

J. Q. Adams Prefident, 284 ; Ban-

dolph'B attempt to break him

down, 286, 287-291 ; his duel with

Bandolph, 289; his orerthrow,

^1 ; his recovery, 804.
Clay, Joseph, M. C. from Pennsyl-

Tania, an ^'' old republican," 216,

288.
Clinton, De Witt, his persecution

of Burr, 113, 114; his poUtical

influence, 214, 288.
Clinton, Oeoige, Vice-President, 214,

215, 280, m, 288, 285.
Crawford, William H., 55.
Crowninshield, Jacob, M. C. from

Massachusetts, 178-175, 225, 226,

227.
Curios, plantation, 2.

Dallas, Albzaudsk Jamks, 101.

Dawson, John, M. C. from Virginia,
197.

Dayton, Jonathan, senator from
New Jersey, 142, 156, 159.

Dennie, Joseph, 114.

Duane, William, editor of the "Au-
rora," 216, 233.

Embargo, advised by Randolph,
181, 226, 227 : denounced by Ran-
dolph, 227, 228.

Bppes, John W., M. 0. from Vir-
ginia, 197, 248, 252.

Srskine, David M., British minister
at Washington, 212, 225.

Farmvtlli, 22.

Findley, William, M. C. from
Pennsylvania, 186.

Fisk, James, M. C. from Vermont,
226

Fletcher vs. Peck, 105, 109.

Florida, appropriation to purchase,
77 ; claimed and annexed by act
of Congress, 87, 88; fidlure of
negotiation for, 162 ; proposal to
buy from France, 163; the two-
million appropriation for, 166-
170, 177, 179, 188.

Fries, John, trial of, 99, 137, 144,
145, 146.

Qallatin, Albert, M. C. from Penn-
sylvania, 40; defends Randolph,
48 ; becomes Secretary of the
Treasury, 60 ; remark about Ran-
dolph, 65 ; letter from Randolph
in 1803, 83, 84 ; his report on the
Yazoo claims, 104, 110, 111: at-
tacked in the "Aurora," 113;

letter from Randolph in October
1804, 116-119 ; in 1805, 160, 161 ,
interview with Randolph, 169;
involved by Randolph, 176, 183,
189; set aside by President Madi-
son, 235 ; intrigues against, 287,
238-242; indisposed to states^
rights, 254.

Gamett, James M., M. C. from
Virginia, 197.

Georgia, State of, her land grants
(see Yatoo) ; cedes her territory,
104.

Giles, William B., M. C. from Vir-
ginia, 53 : his theoiy of impeach-
ment, 183. 189, 140 ; Randolph's
associate, 142 ; opposes Randolph
153, 196, 198,230; opposes Gal-
latin. 286, 237, 288 ; his speech on
the bank charter, 288; rejoins
Randolph, 254, 286, 287.

Goodrich, Chauncy, M. C. from
Connecticut, 222.

Granger, Gideon, Postmaster-Gen-
eral, 127, 128, 130, 198, 294.

Grant, General U. S., 22.

Gregg, Andrew, M. C. from Penn-
sylvania^his resolutions, 178.

Griswold, Gaylord, M. C. from New
York, 91.

Griswold, Roger, M. 0. from Con-
necticut, 108.

Hahiltoit, Alkxaivdib, death of,

113-116.
Henry. Patrick, 17, 280 ; his speecb

at Cnarlotte Court House in 1799,

29 ; his remark about Randolph,

81 ; his death, 39.

IMPBAOHIUNT, 132 ; of Judgc Pick-
ering. 82 ; of Judge Chase, 82, 88,
98, 102, 131 ; two new articles,
13^.

Isham, Mary, wife of William Ran-
dolph, 1.

Jackson, Andrew, 284; President
of the United States, 303.

Jackson, John G., M. C. from Vir-
ginia, 154, 156, 159, 197.

Jackson, William, editor of the
" PoUtical Register," 116, 117.

Jay's treaty, 217.

Jefferson, Thomas, President of th«
United States, related to the Ran-
dolphs, 4; hunted by Benedict
Arnold, 6 ; author of the Ken
tucky Resolutions of 1798, 27,84
elected President, 48, 49, 50

INDEX.

309

Randolph's jealousy of, 48, 49,

60, 61 ; forms his cabinet, 60,

61, 64 ; his great authority, 68 ;
his reforms in 1801, 59, 60, 61 ;
his attitude towards me Judiciary,
60, 61, 62, 66; his war against
monarchy, 66 ; his policy towards
France in 1802-03, 76, 79 ; incites
Nicholson to impeach Judge
Chase, 82, 83, 96, 97, 136 ; his ad-
ministration a chaos, 84 ; pur^
chases Louisiana. 84, 86; claims
West Florida, 87; declares the
Louisiana purchase unconstitu-
tional, 88, 90. 93 ; evades respon-
sibility, 97, 98 ; attacked by Ran-
dolph on account of the Yazoo
compromise, 105, 110; " meta-
physical subtleties," 125; his
''easy credulity," 157, 159; an-
nounces his approaching retire-
ment, Itt : decides to buy Florida
of Franlml63, 164; war policy,
163, 180 ; nis plan of proceeding,
164, 165, 183, 1B4 ; interview with
Randolph, 168 ; " St. Thomas of
Cantingbury," 195 ; his message
of 1806, 206, 208 ; suppresses Mon-
roe's treaty, 212, 213 ; nucleus
of intrigue, 216 ; his character in
1807, 218 ; his proclamation on the
Chesapeake outrage, 222, 224 ; ap-
points Nicholson a district judge,
z23; attacks the Supreme Court
in his old age, 254 ; author of in-
ternal improvements, 278; his
opinion of Randolph in 1806, 284 ;
his theories and practice, 285.

Judiciary, the most dangerous part
of the central government, 36 ;
the Judiciary Act of 1800, 62;
its repeal, 64, 71 ; debate on the
repeal, 66-70 : popular control of,
181, 182.

Centtjckt RssoLxmoNS OP 1798, 27,
84.

Lanodon, John, of New Hampshire,
118.

Leander, British frigate, 116, 118.

Lewis, William, 101.

Linn, James, 52.

Logan, George, senator from Penn-
sylvania, 187.

Louisiana, purchase of, 84, 85, 179 ;
its constitutionality, 8S-94 j is
governed despotically by the
United States, 94, 95, 118, 119,
120.

Lyon, Matthew, M 0. from Ken-
tucky, 107, 108.

Mcknight, Jahxs, insults Ran-
dolph, 42.

McLane, LeMs, M. 0. from Dela-
ware, 292, 293, 296.

Macon, Nathaniel, M. 0. from North
Carolina, 40, 41. 53 ; chosen
Speaker in 1801, 54 ; his love for
Randolph, 64, 57, 249, 252, 288 ;
advises against the impeachment
of Judge Chase, 83 ; again chosen
speaker, 85, 168, 165 : driven from
speakership, 189, 201, 222 ; his
letter to Nicholson in December,
1806, 207 ; a supporter of Monroe,
216, 224 ; separates himself from
Randolph; 223, 234; letters to
Nicholson in 1808, 234, 235 ; is out
of heart, 239 ; letter to Nichol-
son in 1815, 252.

Madison, James, author of the Vir-

Einia Resolutions of 1798, 27, 28,
1, 253 ; shrinks from an appeal
to force, 37 ; becomes Secretary
of State, 50 ; his report on the
Yazoo claims, 104, 110, 111;
throws influence s^ainst Ran-
dolph, 130, 152, 154: candidate
for the presidency, 160, 193, 197,
200,214, 215, 218, 280, 233; his
management of the Florida nego-
tiation, 162, 166, 182-184; his
pamphlet, 177 ; is driven by Ran-
dolph to the northern democrats,
189, 192 : his " cold and insidious
moderation," 202, 203 ; his mar-
riage, 208; nominated for the
presidency, 280; elected Presi-
dent, 235 ; his cabinet, 235. 237,
241 ; dismisses Smith, 242 ; indis-
posed to return to the principles
of 1798, 254; Randolph's hatred
of, 284.

Malvern Hill, battle of, 2.

Marshall, John, becomes Chief Jus-
tice, 62 ; his attitude towards
states' rights, 63, 65 ; his decision
in Fletcher vs. Peck, 105, 109 ; at-
tacked by Randolph, 180, 142.

Martin, Luther, 141 ; his argument,
146, 147.

Mason, George, 17.

Matoax, plantation, 8, 6.

Mills, Elijah, senator from Massa
chusetts, 262-264.

Mint, The, a monarchical institu-
tion, 59, 60, 81.

Missouri Compromise, 271, 274.

810

INDEX.

Monroe, Junes, jfAwj to Vlnnniaii
eehemea of leei^tance in 1800, 27,
28, 263 ; is sent to France, 83 : pur-
cluMfl LouisUnA, 84 ; admired by
Randolph, 155,199, 202; candi-
date for the presidmcy, 160, 161,
196, 204, 213, 230 ; sent to Madrid,
162; his character, 198, 199. 232 ;
Randolph's letters to, in 1P06, 199-
204 ; and in 1807, 213, 214, 229 ;
his British treaty, 212, 213, 217 ;
Nicholson's letter to, in 1807, 216-
218 ; is denooneed, 221, 224 ; re-
turns to America, 229 ; coquetry
with Randolph, 229, 230; Ran-
dolph's letters to, in 1808, 231,
282 ; becomes Secretary of State,
241, 242, 247; repudiates Ran-
dolph, 243; Randolph's letters to,
in 1811. 243, 247 : traitor to states'
rights, 247, 248, 253, 254, 270 ; his
poPition as President, 268-270.

Moreau, General, 269.

Morris, GouTemeur, of New York,
his oration on Bamilton, 113,
114.

Napolkon I., attacks Toussaint and
recovers Louisiana, 75 ; an impe-
rial Dejaniia, 93; overtures to,
for the purchase of Florida, 163 ;
requires prohibition of trade with
St. Domingo, 186, 187.

Nicholas, John, 215.

Nicholas, Wilson Cary, 213, 215,
230,231.

Nicholson, Joseph H., M. 0. from
Maryland, 40, 41; letters from
Randolph in the winter of ISOO-
1801, 48, 49, 50 ; in July, 1801, 51,
52 : his political creed, 57 ; his
influence, 80; is urged to im-
peach Judge Chase, 83, 96 ; leaves
impeachment to Randolph, 83 ;
hesitates to refuse Spanish papers,
86 : Ifetter from Randolph in 1804,
113 ; his strict constructions, 125 ;
his theory of impeachment, 133 ;
his proposed constitutional
amendment, 151 r 1 "2 : t\^Aq from
Randolph, 170; iliLvn tok the
bench, 189,201, L' -^ 'IHl \ letters
to, in 1807, 209, ^10 ; aa '' uld re-
publican," 21tJ^ bis Ii^Uer to
Monroe in 1807. 21 1> : letti r-; from
Randolph in li^"-^, L Im,-^;}; let-
ters from Macoib i u 1 -i < -^ , !.: i 1 , 235 ;
letters from Ri.n.k.lf.U In 1811,
288-242 : letter from RaoJolph in

Ou>EU nr OovvciL, 2S6.
Otis, HarriaoB Gray, of Masneln-
setts, 114.

PiCKKBXHa, JoHH, dMriet judge of
New Hampshire, impeached, 82;
his conviction and removal frt»n
office, 138, 134, 140.

Pickering, Timothy, senator from
Massachusetts, 142 ; opposes Lou-
isiana purchase, 89.

PinckiMy, Charles, of South Caro-
lina, minister to Spain, 116, 118 ;
threatens war, 162.

Pinkney, William, of Maryland,
minister to England, 192, 193, 200,
203.

Pocahontas, great-gpreat-grandmoth!-
er of Jane Boiling, 8, 255.

Quids, or Quiddists, 182.
Quincy, Josiah, 262. .

Randolph, Edmuxd, attomey-geB-
eral, 19.

Randolph, Sir John, son of William,
8.

Randol|>h, John, father of Ran-
dolph of Roanoke, 8; marries
Frances Bland, 3 ; dies in 1775, 4.

Randolph, Mrs. John. (See Bland.)

Randolph, John, Jr. (of Roanoke),
bom, 3, 4 ; his mother (see Fran-
ces Bland), 3 ; his boyhood, 6, 9 ;
his reading, 9, 10, 13, 14; his
character as a boy, 12 ; education,
13, 20 ; youthful hostility to
Christianity, 14 ; first duel, 15 ;
lettera to his step-father, 16, 17 ;
early interest in politics, 17 ; wit-
nesses Washington's inaugura-
tion, 18 ; hostile to the Constitu-
tion of 1788, 17, 18 ; old animosity
to John Adams, 19 ; residence in
Philadelphia, 20, 21 ; returns to
Virginia, 21 ; an ami des noirs,
21; lives at Bizarre, 22: his ap-
pearance, 22 ; visit to his friend
Biyan in Georgia, 22, 23 ; his first
acquaintance with the Yasoo
frauds, 23 ; his return to Bizarre
after Richard's death, 24; his
toast to President Washington,
25 ; his enmity to the Adamses,
25, 284 ; against government in
1800, 27, 28, 30; candidate for
Congress in 1800, 28 ; his reply to
Patrick Henry, 30, 81 ; his states*
rights principles, 31, 32, 37, 38 ;
elected to Congress, 89 ; takes his

INDEX.

311

feat, 40 ; addresses the House, 40 ;
is hustled at the theatre. 41;
writes to the President, 42; is
censured hy the House, 48, 44;
speech on the Connecticut Re-
serve, 44 ; his depression, 45 ; his
early style, 46 ; letters to Nichol-
son about Jefferson and Burr, 48,
48, 60; letter to Nicholson in
July, 1801, 61, 62 ; his indepen-
dence, 63; jealous of President
Jefferson, 58 ; becomes chairman
of Ways and Means, 65 ; in train-
ing for the cabinet, 65 ; his creed,
66, 67 ; his attitude towards the
Judiciary in 1801, 61, 63; reply
to Bayard, 67 ; speech on the Ju-
diciary, 68-70 : stops debate, 72;
is charged with the appropriation
for the Louisiana purchase, 76;
earries it through the House, 76-
79 ; his speech, 78 ; his Tote on
prohibiting the importation of
negroes in 1803, 80. 81 ; on abol-
ishing the mint, 81 ; assists in
impeaching Judge Pickering, 82 ;
his letter to Gallatin in June,

1803, 83, 84; wants war with
Spain, 84, 86, 88. 129 ; refuses the
Spanish papers, 86 ; annexes West
Florida by Act of Congress, 87,
162 ; supports the constitutional-
ity of the Louisiana purchase, 91,
9Z ; never voted for admission of
a new State, 91 : regrets the pur-
chase and prefers capture, 93 ;
refuses to confer power on the
President, 94 ; not the author of
Chase's impeachment, 96; un-
dertakes the impeachment, 83, 97,
98 ; his device for bringing the im-
peachment before the House, 99,
lOO, 101; his first articles of im-
peachment, 102, 187 ; attacks the
Yazoo compromise, 106, 110 ; his
Ya«oo resolutions, 106, 107, 108 ;
defeats legislation for 1803-04 ;
108, 112 ; nature of his ambition,
111 ; his letter to Nicholson in
August, 1804, 113-115 ; his
thoughts on Burr's duel with
Hamilton, 118-115 ; his letter to
Gallatin of October, 1804, 116-
119; wants a naval force, 118,
121; his nervous irritability in

1804, 120, 128, 125 ; opposes re-
mission of duties, 128, 124 ; and
embankment of Potomac, 126 ;
his speeches against Yazoo in
1806, 12&-180 \ attacks Chief Jus-

tice Marshall, 180 ; appears before
the Senate to impeach Judge
Chase, 131 ; his theory of im-
peachment, 132; abandons his
theory for the moment, 184, 137 ;
his new articles of impeachment,
138, 189. 151; his opening ad-
dress, 143-146; his closing ad-
dress. 147-160; his defeat, 160,
151 ; nis irritation, 161, 162 ; quar-
rels with the Senate, 153 ; angry
with Madison, 154 ; letters to
Nicholson in 1805, 155-169; letters
to Gallatin in 1806, 160, 161 ; his
anxiety about Burr and Dayton,
166, 159 ; his portrait by Stuart,
160 ; favors Monroe against Madi-
son, 161, 199, 200, 202 ; refuses
the two-million appropriation for
Florida, 166-170 ; interviews with
Jefferson and Madison, 167, 168 ;
with Gallatin, 169 ; goes to Balti-
more, 168 ; his report rejected,
171 ; his method of attack, 172 ;
goes into opposition, 173, 181,
182 ; his speech on Gregg's reso-
lution, 174-179; adopts British
views, 179 ; professes to wish for
peace, 180 ; his violence in April,
1806, 186-186 ; supports prohibi-
tion of trade with St. Domingo,
188 ; disastrous effects of his
quarrel with Madison, 189; sug-
gested as Minister to England,
193 ; his failure as a politician,
194 ; his letters to Nicholson in
1806, 196-198, 206 ; his letters to
Monroe in 1806, 199-204 ; writes
" Decius," 205 ; his return to
Washington in December, 1806,
206 ; his despair of the destinies
of the world, 209 ; opposes bill for
abolishing slave-trade, 211, 212 ;
deposed from chairmanship. 212 ;
letters to Monroe in 1807, 218-216,
229 ; letters to Nicholson, in 1807,
219, 221, 224, 227; returns to
Bizarre in 1807, 219 : on the grand
jury, indicts Burr, S20, 221 ; his
hatred of Wilkinson. 220, 221;
refuses to fight Wilkinson, 261,
289; his opinion of the Chesa-
peake outrage, 222, 224. 226;
urges embargo, 18L226^^7 ; op-
poses embargo, 227, 228, 235;
asks an interview with Monroe,
229 : letters to Monroe in 1808,
281, 282; supports George CUn-
ton, 288, 284 ; letters to Nicholson
in 1808, 283, 284 i is thought to

812

INDEX.

■peak with ariew to waste time,
284 ; his habits become bad, 286 ;
his letters to Nicholson in 1811,
288-212 • quarrels with Monroe,
248-247 ; his letter to Monroe in
1811, 243-247 ; defeated for Con-
gress in 1818, 248; his priyate
troubles, 249-252 ; moTOs to Ro-
anoke, 250 ; his coldness to Macon
and Nicholson, 252 ; recoTers his
seat in 1815, 253 ; his Indian an-
oestiT, 255. 256; his terrorism,
25&-261, 264 : his dress and con-
Tersation, 262-263 ; canes Willis
Alston, 265 ; he gets religion, 266,
267 ; his feeling towards Monroe,
268-270; goes again into opposi-
tion, 271, 272; the precursor of
Oalhoun, 273, 290; his speeches
in 1824, 274-281 ;j[ his ophiions
about negro slayery, 21, 188, 278,
804 \ organises the South against
Clay, 284, 286, 287, 290 ; his opin-
ion of Madison and J. Q. Adams,
284 ; elected senator, 286 ; leads
attack on Clay and Adams, 287-
291 ; duel with Clay, 289 ; his
rhetoric, 292-301 ; his mission to
Russia, 296, 802; his opposition
to Jackson, 803, 804 ; his death,
805 ; his sanity, 295, 296, 805, 306.

Randolph, Peyton, 8.

Randolph, Richard of Curies, fourth
son of William, 2; his will, 3.

Randolph, Richard, elder brother
of John, 15, 16, 17, 250 ; his rela-
tions with the Yice-Prosident's
coachman, 19: lives at Bizarre,
21 ; his death, 24 ; his widow, 250 ;
his children, 251.

Randolph, St. Oeorge, nephew of
John, deaf and dumb from birth,
24 ; goes to Europe, 170, 199,200 ;
his death, 251.

Randolph, Thomas Mann, M. C.
from Virginia, 213.

Randolph, Tudor, nephew of John,
24: his death, 251.

Randolph. William, of Turkey Isl-
and, 1, 2, 8,

^publican party, its principles
in 1800, as, 34, 8o, 57, 58 ; ita pol-
icy in 1801, 69, 60, 61, 68, 65 ; ex-
tent of its reforms, 78 ; its aban-
donment of principles, 125, 129,
268 ; and of discipline, 181.

Rodney, Caesar A., M. 0. from Del-
aware, 85, 141, 158.

|U)lfe, John, great-great-grandfather
(i Jane Boiling, 8.

8r. BoMiKOO, prohibition of
with, 186-189, 278.

Scott, Sir William, 168.

Slave-trade, abolition of, 189, 21L
212.

Sloan, James, M. C. from New Jex^
sey, 176. 177, 211, 217.

Smilie, John, M. C. from Pennsyl-
▼ania, 211 ; his remarks on Judge
Chase, 100-102 ; liis cordiaUty to
Randolph, 206.

Smith, John, senator from Ohio,
156,159; indicted, 221.

Smith, Robert, Secretary of the
Navy, disliked by Randolph, 160,
191, 207, 210, 211 ; made Secre
tary of State, 285, 239 ; dismissed
242.

Smith, Samuel, M. C. from Mary
land, 40 ; senator, 191 : wants
British mission, 191, 193; his
letters to W. C. Nicholas, 191, 192,
208 ; his " flne-spun follies,'- 208
209, 210; opposes Gallatin, 235,

Spain, resists Louisiana cession, 85-
88; tlireatened war with, 84,86,
88,116,118,129,162,180.

States' rights, principles of, 32, 3S,
34, 86, 37, ^ ; affected by the
Louisiana purchase, 88-94; af-
fected by the Yazoo compromise,
106-110 ; connection with slayf
power, 272, 278.

Stith, William, 3.

Stuart, Gilbert, his portrait of Ran
dolph, 160.

Sulliyan, James. Goyemor of Mas*
sachusetts, 233.

Talletband, Charlks Maubicb di,
Wk ; his proposal to sell Florida,
164 ; his instructions regarding
St. Domingo, 186, 187.

Taylor, Creed, 198.

Taylor, John, of Caroline, 216, 237
244, 245, 246.

Tazewell, Littleton Walker, 221, 237.

Thompson, John, author of the let-
ters of Curtius, 30, 178 ; his style,
46.

Thompson, Philip R., M. C. from
Virginia, 197.

Thompson, William, 46.

Tracy, Uriah, senator from Con-
necticut. 142.

Tucker, St. George, step-father ot
John Randolph, 4, 5, 8; letters
to, 15, 16, 17 ; Randolph quarrels
with, 250, 251.

INDEX.

313

Tnoker, Henry St. George, half-
brother of John Bandolph, 6, 286,
806.

Turkey Island, plantation on James
Riyer, 1, 2, 8.

Torrean, (General, I^noh minister
at Washington, 187.

Yam Bu&KT, BIarun, senator from

New York, 287, 288.
Vance, Joseph, M 0. from Ohio,

290 '
Van Ness, William P., 114.
Vanzandt, Nicholas B.. 228, 294.
Vamom, Joseph B^ M. 0. from

Massachusetts, 222.
Virginia, her old society, 4, 6, 6,

V^Wlutioo. 0.1798.27.8*,

WASHHTOTOir, GiOKOi, 17, 18 ; Ran-
dolph's toast to, 26.

Watkins, Captain, 260, 804.

Wilkinson, General James, 221, 224,
261, 289.

Williamsborg, 9.

Wolcott, Alexander, 289.

Yaeoo grants by the legislature ol
Geoigia in 1796, 23 ; annulled in
1796, 28 ; come before Congress,
102, 108, 104, 106 ; come before
the Supreme Court, 106; report
of commissioners, 104: Ran-
dolph's resolutions on, 106-110;
reappear in 1806, 126 ; Randolph's
violence against, 126 ; the " orig-
inal sin " of Mr. Madison, 188 ;
biU rejected by the House 186;
adopted, 264.

American g'tatesmen.

A Series of Biographies • of Men conspicuous in the
Political History of the United States.

EDITED BY

JOHN T. MORSE, Jr.

The object of this series is not merely to give a
number of unconnected narratives of men in Ameri-
can political life, but to produce books which shall,
when taken together, indicate the lines of political
thought and development in American history, —
books embodying in compact form the result of ex-
tensive study of the many and diverse influences
which have combined to shape the political history of
our country.

The series is under the editorship of Mt. John" T.
Morse, Jr., whose historical and biographical writings
give ample assurance of his special fitness for this
task. The volumes now ready are as follows : —

John Quincy Adams, By John T. Morse, Jr.
Alexander Hamilton, By Henry Cabot Lodge,
yohn C. Calhoun, By Dr. H. von Holst.
Andrew- Jackson, By Prof. W. G. Sumner.
John Randolph, By Henry Adams, r
yames Monroe, By Pres. Daniel C. Oilman.
Tliomas Jefferson, By John T. Morse, Jr.
Daniel Webster, By Henry Cabot Lodge.
Albert Gallatin. By John Austin Stevens.

IN PREPARATION.
James Madison, By Sidney Howard Gay.
Henry Clay, By Hon. Carl Schurz.
Samuel Adams, By John Fiske.
Martin Van Buren. By Hon. William Dorsheimer.

Others to be announced hereafter. Each biography
occupies a single volume, i6mo, gilt top. Price $1.25.

ESTIMATES OF THE PRESS.

"JOHN QUINCY ADAMS."
That Mr. Morse's conclusions will in the main be those of
posterity we have very little doubt, and he has set an admirable
example to his coadjutors in respect of interesting narrative,
just proportion, and judicial candor. — New York Evening Post,
The work is done in a vigorous and every way admirable
manner, which it is not too much to say touches the high mark
of impartial but appreciative history. — Independent (New
York).

Mr. Morse has written closely, compactly, intelligently, fear-
lessly, honestly. — New York Times,

"ALEXANDER HAMILTON."

The biography of Mr. Lodge is calm and dignified through-
out He has the virtue — rare indeed among biographers —
of impartiality. He has done his work with conscientious care,
and the biography of Hamilton is a book which cannot have
too many readers. It is more than a biography ; it is a study
in the science of government. — St, Paul Pioneer-Press,

Mr. Lodge's portrait of Hamilton is carefully, impartially, and
skilfully painted, and his study of the epoch in which Hamil-
ton was dominant is luminous and comprehensive. — PhUadel-
fhia North American,

"JOHN C CALHOUN."

Dr. von Hoist's volume is certainly not the least valuable of
the three that constitute the series, so far as it has at present
progressed ; and of the series, as a whole, it may be said that
if the succeeding volumes are of the same high order of excel-
lence as those that have already appeared they will serve a
valuable purpose, not only as exemplifying American statesmen,
but as a means of training in statesmanship. — Boston Journal,

Nothing can exceed the skill with which the political career
of the great South Carolinian is portrayed in these pages. The
work is superior to any other number of the series thus far, and
we do not think it can be surpassed by any of those that are to
come. The whole discussion in relation to Calhoun^s position
is eminently philosophical and just— Thi Dial (Chicago).

"ANDREW JACKSON."

Prof. Sumner has written what we think may rightly be called
an impartial life of perhaps the strongest personality that was
ever elected President, and yet he has not made his story dull.
He has, ... all in all, made the justest long estimate of Jackson
that has had itself put between the covers of a book. — New
York Times,

Professor Sumner's account and estimate of Andrew Jackson
as a statesman is one of the most masterly monographs that we
have ever had the pleasure of reading. It is calm and clear. —
Providenct JournaL

A book of exceptional value to students of politics. — Con*
gregatiofmlist ( Boston ) .

"JOHN RANDOLPH."

The book has been to me intensely interesting. I have been
especially struck by the literary and historical merit of the first
two chapters : they are terse ; full of picture, suggestion, life ;
with fine strokes of satire and humor. The book is rich in new
facts and side lights, and is worthy of its place in the already
brilliant series of monographs on American Statesmen.* I
heartily congratulate Mr. Morse over the solid success the series
has already won. — Prof. Moses Coit Tyler.

Remarkably interesting. . . , The biography has all the ele-
ments of popularity, and cannot fail to be widely read. — Hart»
ford Coitrant.

A most lively and interesting volume. — New York Tribune*

"JAMES MONROE."

In clearness of style, and in all points of literary workman*
ship, from cover to cover, the volume is well-nigh perfect.
There is also a calmness of judgment, a correctness of taste,
and an absence of partisanship which are too frequently want-
ing in biographies, and especially in political biographies. —
American Literary Churchman (Baltimore).

At last the character of this distinguished statesman has re-
ceived justice at the hands of the historian. His biographer
has written the most satisfactory account of the life of this il-
lustrious man which has been given the country. — San Fran-
cisco Bulletin*

A volume which gives an excellent and well-proportioned
outline of the eminent statesman's career. ^ Boston Journal*

"THOMAS JEFFERSON."

The requirements of political biography have rarely been met
80 satisfactorily as in this memoir of Jefferson. . . . Mr. Morse
has shown himself amply competent for the task, and he has
given us a singularly just, well-proportioned and interesting
sketch of the personal and political career of the author of the
Declaration of Independence. — Boston Journal'

The book is exceedingly interesting and readable. The at-
tention of the reader is strongly seized at once, and he is carried
along in spite of himself, sometimes protesting, sometimes
doubting, yet unable to lay the book ^'OTixu^ Chicago StandarcL

"DANIEL WEBSTER."

The massiveness of Mr. Lodge's subject, the conlpass and
high significance of many of the single themes with which he
has had to labor, and the voluminous amount of the material
requiring his critical study would seem to have demanded a
singular skill of compression in bringing the results within this
small volume. Yet the task has been achieved ably, admirably,
and faithfully. — Boston Transcript,

It will be read by students of history ; it will be invaluable as
a work of reference ; it will be an authority as regards matters
of fact and criticism ; it hits the key-note of Webster's durable
and ever-growing fame ; it is adequate, calm, impartial ; it is
admirable. — Philadelphia Press,

« ALBERT GALLATIN."

The greater part of Mr. Stevens's frank, simple, and straight-
forward book is devoted to a careful narrative of Gallatin's
financial administration, and next in importance to this is the
excellent chapter devoted to Gallatin's brilliant diplomatic ser-
vices. The study of an honorable and attractive character is
completed by some interesting pages of personal and domestic
histpry. — New York Tribune,

It is one of the most carefully prepared of these very valu-
able volumes, . . . abounding in information not so readily ac-
cessible as is that pertaining to men more often treated by the
biographer. . . . The whole work covers a ground which the
political student cannot afford to neglect. — Boston Correspond
dent Hartford Courant,

•«♦ For sale hy nil Booksellers, Sent fy mail, posi-paid, on receipt of
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