1544. CONGRESS, Leadership in.—[continued].
The House of Representatives
is as well disposed as I ever saw
one. The defection of so prominent a leader
[John Randolph], threw them into disMay
and confusion for a moment; but they soon
rallied to their own principles, and let him
go off with five or six followers only. One
half of these are from Virginia. His late
declaration of perpetual opposition to this administration,
drew off a few others who at
first had joined him, supposing his opposition
occasional only, and not systematic. The
alarm the House has had from this schism,
has produced a rallying together and a harmony,
which carelessness and security had begun
to endanger. On the whole, this little
trial of the firmness of our representatives in
their principles, and that of the people also,
which is declaring itself in support of their
public functionaries, has added much to my
confidence in the stability of our government;
and to my conviction, that, should things go
wrong at any time, the people will set them
to rights by the peaceable exercise of their
elective rights.—
To Wilson C. Nicholas. Washington ed. v, 5.
Ford ed., viii, 435.
(W.
April. 1806)
