RANDOLPH.
Edmund Randolph, a "child of the Revolution,"[451] was Governor of
Virginia at the time of the Federal Convention. Probably it was on
account of his position as the chief magistrate of the State that he
was, by the general consent of his colleagues, selected to bring forward
the Virginia plan of government, which was submitted at an early period
of the deliberations, and which became, after great modifications, the
nucleus of the Constitution.
At an early age, in August, 1775, this gentleman joined the army at
Cambridge, and was immediately taken into Washington's military family
as an aide-de-camp.[452] He served in this capacity, however, no longer
than until the following November, when he was suddenly recalled to
Virginia by the death of his relative, Peyton Randolph, the President of
the First Continental Congress.
In 1779, he became a member of Congress from Virginia, and served until
March, 1782.
In 1786, he was elected Governor of Virginia, succeeding in that office
Patrick Henry. In this capacity, it became his duty to secure the
attendance of Washington upon the Federal Convention. This matter he
managed with great tact and delicacy; and, by the aid of other friends,
he succeeded in overcoming the scruples of the illustrious patriot then
reposing in the retirement of Mount Vernon.
Governor Randolph's conduct with regard to the Constitution might seem
to be marked by inconsistency, if we were not able to explain it by the
motive of disinterested patriotism from which he evidently acted. He
brought to the Convention the most serious apprehensions for the fate of
the Union. But he thought that the dangers with which it was surrounded
might be averted, by correcting and enlarging the Articles of
Confederation. When, at length, the government which was actually framed
was found to be a system containing far greater restraints upon the
powers of the States than he believed to be either expedient or safe, he
endeavored to procure a vote authorizing amendments to be submitted by
the State conventions and to be finally decided on by another general
convention. This proposition having been rejected, he declined to sign
the Constitution, desiring to be free to oppose or advocate its
adoption, when it should come before his own State, as his judgment
might dictate.
When the time for such action came, he saw that the rejection of the
Constitution must be followed by disunion. He had wearied himself in
endeavoring to find a possibility of preserving the Union without an
unconditional ratification by Virginia. To the people of Virginia,
therefore, he painted with great force and eloquence the consequences of
their becoming severed from the rest of the country. Virginia was not,
he said, invulnerable. She was accessible to a foreign enemy by sea, and
through the waters of the Chesapeake. Her situation by land was not less
exposed. Her frontiers adjoined the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland,
and North Carolina. With the first she had long had a disputed boundary,
concerning which there had been imminent danger of a war, that had been
averted with the greatest difficulty. With Maryland, there was an
ancient controversy upon the navigation of the Potomac, and that
controversy, if decided on grounds of strict right, would be determined
by the charter of Maryland in favor of that State. With North Carolina,
too, the boundary was still unsettled. Let them call to mind, then, the
history of every part of the world, where independent nations bordered
in the same way on one another. Such countries had ever been a perpetual
scene of bloodshed; the inhabitants of one escaping from punishment into
the other,--protection given to them,--consequent pursuit, violence,
robbery, and murder. A numerous standing army, that dangerous expedient,
could alone defend such borders.
On her Western frontier, Virginia was peculiarly exposed to the savages,
the natural enemies of the white race, whom foreign gold could always
incite to commit the most horrible ravages upon her people. Her slave
population, bearing a very large proportion to the whites,[453]
necessarily weakened her capacity to defend herself against such an
enemy.
Virginia, then, must be defended. Could they rely on the militia? Their
militia did not, at the utmost, exceed sixty thousand men. They had
performed exploits of great gallantry during the late war, but no
militia could be relied on as the sole protectors of any country.
Besides, a part of them would be wanted for the purposes of agriculture,
for manufactures, and for the mechanic arts necessary for the aid of the
farmer and the planter. They must have an army; and they must also have
a navy. But how were these to be maintained without money? The enormous
debt of Virginia, including her proportion of the Continental debts, was
already beyond her ability to pay from any revenue that could be derived
from her present commerce.
In this state of things, looking forward to the consequences of a
dissolution of the Union, he could not but remind the people of Virginia
of what took place in 1781, when the power of a dictator was given to
the commander-in-chief, to save the country from destruction. At some
period, not very remote, might not their future distress impel them to
do what the Dutch had done,--throw all power into the hands of a
Stadtholder? How infinitely more wise and eligible than this desperate
alternative would be a union with their American brethren. "I have
labored," said he, "for the continuance of the Union,--the rock of our
salvation. I believe, as surely as that there is a God, that our safety,
our political happiness and existence, depend on the union of the
States; and that, without this union, the people of this and the other
States will undergo the unspeakable calamities which discord, faction,
turbulence, war, and bloodshed have produced in other countries. The
American spirit ought to be mixed with American pride, to see the Union
magnificently triumphant. Let that glorious pride, which once defied the
British thunder, reanimate you again. Let it not be recorded of
Americans, that, after having performed the most gallant exploits, after
having overcome the most astonishing difficulties, and after having
gained the admiration of the world by their incomparable valor and
policy, they lost their acquired reputation, their national consequence
and happiness, by their own indiscretion. Let no future historian inform
posterity that they wanted wisdom and virtue to concur in any regular,
efficient government. Should any writer, doomed to so disagreeable a
task, feel the indignation of an honest historian, he would reprehend
our folly with equal severity and justice. Catch the present
moment,--seize it with avidity,--for it may be lost, never to be
regained! If the Union be now lost, I fear it will remain so for ever. I
believe gentlemen are sincere in their opposition, and actuated by pure
motives; but when I maturely weigh the advantages of the Union, and the
dreadful consequences of its dissolution; when I see safety on my right,
and destruction on my left; when I behold respectability and happiness
acquired by one course, but annihilated by the other,--I cannot hesitate
in my decision."[454]
NOTE.--The following account of the genealogy of Governor
Randolph, for which I am indebted to one of his female
descendants, was not received in season to be incorporated in
the text.
Edmund Randolph was the son of John Randolph and grandson of
Sir John Randolph, each of whom was Attorney-General of the
Colony under the royal government. He was educated at William
and Mary's College. Peyton Randolph, President of the First
Continental Congress, was also a son of Sir John Randolph,
and of course was uncle of Edmund Randolph, to whom he
devised his estate. Sir John Randolph was one of five or six
sons of William Randolph of Turkey Island in Virginia, from
whom all the Randolphs in Virginia are descended. Of this
William Randolph little is known, beyond the fact that he was
a large landholder, and a nephew of Thomas Randolph, the
poet, who flourished in the reigns of James I. and Charles
I., 1605-1634.
FOOTNOTES:
[451] His own description of himself in a speech made in the Virginia
Convention which ratified the Constitution. Elliot, III. 65.
[452] Washington's Writings, IX. 66.
[453] He stated the number of blacks to be 236,000, and that of the
whites only 352,000.
[454] Debates in the Virginia Convention, Elliot, III. 65-84, 85, 86.