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Edmund Randolph retired from the office of Secretary of State in September 1795. Mr. Randolph now returned home with all the pride and the tastes of a Virginia planter; and doubtless full of political aspirations.

From the time that France sympathised with the American colonies in their contest with England for independence, French politics and French notions of government began to exert more or less influence in this country. English and French notions of government were then, as they are now, the very opposites of each other. English political philosophy calls for a divided authority, distributed amongst different departments of government, and amongst local institutions, established over the country, exercising independent though subordinate jurisdictions of their own. French political philosophy, on the contrary, calls for administrative centralization, placing all authority in one central power. The one is the political philosophy of liberty, the other is the political philosophy of despotism. During our revolution, there grew up a party in every State, who ignored English institutions and were for fashioning our State governments after the French model of a legislature with but one chamber. Dr. Franklin was of this party. And through his influence Pennsylvania formed a government with a legislature of a single house. When he went to France, he took with him, the different American Constitutions, and submitted them to Mr. Turgot. That French politician, at once, approved the Constitution of Pennsylvania and condemned all the others, because (said he,) "Instead of collecting all authority into one centre, that of the nation, they established different bodies, a body of Representatives, a Council, and a Governor, because there is in England, a House of Commons, a House of Lords, and a King." This notion of a single legislative Assembly began to gain ground so rapidly in America, that the elder Adams in order to counteract it, in the beginning of the year 1787, published his "Defence of the American Constitutions." In September of the same year, the National Convention changed the Federal Constitution, from the single Assembly of the Confederation, to a government framed after the English model. Pennsylvania changed her government also; and all the States and Territories of this vast confederacy have now governments framed on the plan of the English.

When, in 1789, the French Revolution burst with such stupendous fury on the world, all the nations of christendom were moved from their propriety. A vague notion, that a new era was at hand, prevailed universally. But different views of it, and all erroneous, were entertained. The friends of liberty saw in it, the beginning of universal freedom; the friends of despotism saw in it, the inauguration of universal anarchy. But so tremendous and overwhelming was the destruction, with which it laid waste all the institutions of the past, that the friends of liberty also began to

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fear universal anarchy. Burke thought France was about to be expunged from the map of Europe. Only Mirabeau really understood the character of the movement. He wrote secretly to the King: "Compare the present state of things with the old regime, and console yourself and take hope. A part, the greater part of the acts of the National Assembly, are decidedly favourable to monarchical government. Is it nothing to have got rid of parliament, separate States, the clerical body, the privileged classes, and the nobility? Richelieu would have liked the idea of forming but one class of citizens; so level a surface assists the exercise of power. A series of absolute reigns would have done less for royal authority than this one year of revolution." In fact the revolution was but the triumph of ancient Byzantine imperial notions of government over Tentonic notions and institutions. It was the movement of centralization through centuries culminating in the destruction of institutions, which had had universal sway over Europe, that recognized different orders, classes and professions, in society, and substituting for them a social and political organization resting on the equality of all ranks. It was the sudden and violent termination of a work that had been going on for many generations. All Frenchmen had now become the equal servants of one master, who had monopolised all the powers which had theretofore been divided amongst various orders of men and amongst local institutions. There was equality, but no liberty.

It was while French politics, such as we have described them, were mingling with American politics, that Mr. Randolph grew to manhood. At first, he thought the French revolution a movement of freedom: but the powerful delineations of its tendencies to root up ancient institutions, to sever the thread of history, presented by Burke, reversed his notions, and inspired him with detestation of French politics. Bonaparte he held in especial abhorrence after that military despot had become a leading actor on the theatre of those fearful times. With these sentiments Mr. Randolph entered into national politics; and in the year 1799 became a candidate for a seat in the House of Representatives of the United States, and was elected.

Mr. Randolph, as we have seen, was for confining the Federal Constitution within the limits of a strict construction. Those who entertained this opinion, thought that the administration of Washington tended to an undue augmentation of power and patronage in the federal government. Mr. Adams had succeeded to Washington, and the suspicions and distrust, which reverence for Washington had suppressed, were now openly avowed by a strong party. Politics had too, in fact, assumed the character of a contest between Northern and Southern influences. There were jealousies, rivalries and bickerings between North and South. Prior to the war of independence, the intercourse and trade between the

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Northern and Southern colonies had been small, and the alliance during the struggle had not brought the people of the two sections much into contact. There was, in fact, but little more sympathy between North and South after the revolution than before it. The administration of Mr. Adams had produced the most unfavourable impression in the South. The alien and sedition laws had, in fact, rendered Mr. Adams and his administration odious in Virginia. The legislature of that State meeting in 1798 had, by the famous resolutions of that year, expressed the strongest condemnation of the federal doctrines of the day, and embodied the then State Rights creed. Mr. Randolph entered Congress with all the Southern antipathy to Mr. Adams and his administration.

On the 10th of January, 1800, Mr. Randolph made his first speech on a resolution relative to the army. In his remarks he called the soldiery in general "raggamuffins." The night of the same day he was insulted in the theatre, by two officers of the marine corps. The next day he addressed a letter to the President in which, after stating the facts, he said, "It is enough for me to state that the independence of the Legislature has been attacked, and the majority of the people, of which you are the principal representative, insulted, and your authority contemned. 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. In addressing you in this plain language of man, I give you sir, the best proof I can afford of the estimation in which I hold your office and your understanding, and I assure you with truth, that I am with respect, your fellow-citizen. John Randolph." Three days thereafter, President Adams sent a message to the House of Representatives enclosing the letter, stating that if any breach of the privileges of the House had been committed, the House should enquire into it; and that he submitted the whole letter and its tendencies to the consideration of the House, without any other comment on its matter and style. The message, on motion, was referred to a select committee, which, on the 20th of the month, made a report expressing regret at the indecorum of Mr. Randolph's manner of communicating with the President, and that there was no reason for any interference in the matter as a breach of the privileges of the House. The report was sustained; though Mr. Randolph defended himself in a spirited speech.

In the fall of 1800, a great political change took place, which elevated Mr. Jefferson to the Presidency, and gave the councils of the nation to the Republican party. The presidential contest was decided by the House of Representatives between Mr. Jefferson and Col. Burr. Randolph thought that Alexander Hamilton, by his great influence with the federal party, determined the contest in favour of Jefferson. He therefore ever after, spoke of Hamilton

with high respect. The new administration had great strength in both Houses of Congress. At the first session Nathaniel Macon was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Mr. Randolph was made Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means.

Just before Mr. Adams surrendered the government into the hands of Mr. Jefferson, a law had been passed, by which the Executive had the appointment of sixteen new judges. Mr. Jefferson recommended the repeal of this law. The repeal was moved in the Senate, but such was the opposition, that a debate ensued, which occupied, at intervals, much of the session. As Mr. Kandolph wanted to get the opinion of the House on the matter, he did not wait for the final action of the Senate, but proposed in the House, "that a committee be appointed to inquire whether any, and what alterations can be made in the Judiciary department of the United States, and to provide for securing the impartial selection of juries in the Courts of the United States." To this resolution was appended another, to inquire what reduction could be made in the civil list. The whole matter was referred to a select committee, of which Mr. Randolph was chairman. On the 4th of February, he reported a bill to repeal the law of the last session relative to the judiciary, which, after much discussion, was passed by the House.

As chairman of a select committee to inquire into the means of expediting the public printing, Mr. Randolph reported in favour of appointing a public printer, which remains the arrangement to this day.

At the session of 1803, the most important measure which occupied the attention of Congress, was the relations of the country with Spain, arising from the conduct of the authorities of New Orleans, in regard to the navigation of the Mississippi river. Mr. Randolph took an important part in the deliberations on the subject, and his opinions were sanctioned by the House. Mr. Monroe was sent special envoy to France, and he negotiated a treaty with that government, by which Louisiana was ceded to the United States, and thereby the question of the navigation of the Mississippi, involving, as it did, the vastest interests of the nation, was settled, in the only effectual mode. This was the great achievement of Mr. Jefferson's administration, and the concurrence of Mr. Randolph, in the project of purchase, is an evidence of his practical statesmanship; as the purchase could hardly be brought within any power of the constitution, according to Mr. Randolph's strict rules of construction. He, therefore, yielded to a high expediency of state, in an instance of the greatest and unquestionable benefit to the nation, and where there was no prohibition in the constitution of the exercise of the power.

At this session, a memorial for a temporary suspension from the anti-slavery part of the ordinance of 1787, was sent up to Congress

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from Indiana, and Mr. Randolph was made chairman of the committee to which it was referred. He reported against the petition for the following reasons: "That the rapid population of the State of Ohio sufficiently evinces, in the opinion of your committee, that the labour of the slave is not necessary to promote the growth and settlement of colonies in that region. That this labour, demonstrably the dearest of any, can only be employed to advantage, in the cultivation of products more valuable than any known to that quarter of the United States: and the committee deem it highly dangerous and inexpedient to impair a provision wisely calculated to promote the happiness and prosperity of the North-western country, and to give strength and security to that extensive frontier. In the salutary operation of this sagacious and benevolent restraint, it is believed that the inhabitants of Indiana will, at no very distant day, find ample remuneration for a temporary privation of labour and emigration.'

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So zealous was Mr. Randolph in pushing forward the business of the House, that he proposed, at this session, that the House should meet on Sunday; saying, that the business pressed so heavily as to justify it. The proposition was wisely rejected.

At the session of 1804, Mr. Randolph offered a resolution as the foundation of the impeachment of Judge Chase. The resolution, though strenuously opposed, was resolutely defended by Mr. Randolph, and passed the House by a large majority. The charge against the judge was, that in the trial of John Fries, for high treason, committed during the so called "whiskey insurrection," he had prejudged the question by handing from the bench to the counsel for the prisoner, a written opinion, forbidding them to discuss the law of treason as applicable to the particular case. Fries' counsel were so incensed by the act that they withdrew from the case. The prisoner was found guilty, and sentenced by the court to be hanged: but was pardoned by President Adams. In 1805, in the month of November, the matter having been continued over to that session, Mr. Randolph, as chairman of the managers of the impeachment, appeared at the bar of the Senate, and in the name of the House of Representatives impeached Samuel Chase, of high crimes and misdemeanours. Mr. Randolph opened the impeachment in a good oration but the trained forensic skill, the cunning legal learning, and the rough strong logic of Luther Martin, counsel of the accused, scattered the impeachment to the winds.

It was not only the supposed corruption of single persons that Mr. Randolph, with ceaseless vigilance, inquired into, and prosecuted with a strong arm, but assaulted the strongholds of wickedness, fortified by whole bands of conspirators. At the previous session he had proposed an inquiry into the celebrated Yazoo fraud. He accused the Legislature of Georgia of having betrayed the confi

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