University of Virginia Library

SUDDEN CHANGE.

We now come to a crisis, an epoch in Mr. Randolph's political life, the most extraordinary
of any that ever occurred in it, eventful as it was. To this period he had
been considered the unrivalled leader of the Republican party in the House. He had
been the confidential friend of Mr. Jefferson, from the commencement of his first

Presidential term in 1801, to this fatal moment. By his station at the head of
the Committee of Ways and Means, he was in almost daily communion with
the church he had till then received as orthodox. He had but a short time before,
in the exuberance of his friendly feeling, honored the President with the most
enviable of all titles, that of a great and good man at the head of the nation. He
had conducted himself as the privileged, and almost exclusive champion of Executive
policy on the floor. But, in one unfortunate moment, these congenial
feelings are blasted for ever, and as if, with the vengeful wrath of Othello, are
blown away with a breath, and exchanged for the most deadly hatred. The
ostensible occasion on which this most singular phasis took place, and of which
no portent or sign in his political zodiac had given the least prognostication, was
Mr. Gregg's resolution for the non-importation of goods from Great Britain and
Ireland. On the 5th day of March, 1806, Mr. Randolph delivered a long and
intemperate speech against it. In the course of it, he attacked Mr. Madison's
pamphlet, that had been lately published, as an answer to a pamphlet produced
under the immediate eye of the Ministry, called "War in Disguise."
"If I were the foe," said he, "as I must aver I am the friend of this nation, I
would say, `Oh that mine enemy would write a book.' " At the very onset, on
the first page, there is a complete abandonment of the principle in dispute. The
first principle taken is the broad principle of unlimited freedom of trade between
nations at peace, which the writer endeavors to extend to the trade between a
neutral and a belligerent power, accompanied, however, by this acknowledgment:
"But inasmuch as the trade of a neutral with a belligerent power might in
certain special cases affect the safety of its antagonist, usage, founded on this
principle of necessity, has admitted of few exceptions to the general rule. The
pamphlet, called the `War in Disguise,' had maintained this very principle of
necessity, and this is abandoned by this pamphleteer at the very threshold." Mr.
Madison's pamphlet was called, "The Examination of the British Doctrine of
Neutral Trade." For profound views, sound and statesman-like opinions, and
the deep and comprehensive knowledge of the laws of nations in their relations
to neutral and belligerent powers, it was as invulnerable to Mr. Randolph's puny
attacks, as were those of Chapman Johnson in the convention of Virginia, upon
the position of Judge Marshall, which Mr. Randolph compared to an attack
upon the rock of Gibraltar with a pocket pistol. Even the garbled extract (a most
unfair and uncandid mode of judging a work) which he has selected, does not
sustain him in his charge of abandonment, where he says, "usage, founded on
the principle of necessity, has admitted a few exceptions to the general rule."
But he does not admit that those exceptions are numerous and important enough
to constitute a rule of themselves. Mr. Madison went on to show, that even
those very exceptions did not apply to our trade with the enemies of Great Britain,
with whom we had treaty stipulations and commercial intercourse.

After allowing the usual time for the expression of general astonishment at
this most unexpected change, the next inquiry arose as to the cause of it. A
paper called "The Expositor," which professed to be in the secret, said that an
embassy was sought for and refused. The Enquirer, of Richmond, had hitherto

applauded Mr. Randolph's course, and appeared still reluctant to give him up to
the opposition, and desired us to wait till everything that had been done with
closed doors should be published, before we decided upon the nature of his strictures
on the Cabinet. On the 28th of March, Mr. Randolph declared war against
Mr. Madison in fit terms, and promised that on the Monday following he would
publicly denounce him, and assigned as a reason, that Mr. Madison had told him
at the beginning of the session, that France wanted money and must have it,
and would not suffer Spain to treat with us till we gave it to her: upon which,
he said, he turned upon his heel. In his overweening vanity and arrogance, Mr.
Randolph flattered himself that, in his herculean strength, he could prostrate the
Government at a single blow—that, on the first division, he could have them at
his mercy and exact his own terms. That the majority which he had been accustomed
to lead would follow him, like a flock of sheep their bell-wether. But he
calculated without his host. On the very first vote, on the very question on
which he had hurled the lightning and thunderbolts of his denunciation at the devoted
heads of the Government, he was left in a woful minority. From the very
rebound of his ireful arm, which he bared and raised aloft, to level to the dust the
unconscious victims of his wrath, he fell from his angel height, like Lucifer, never
to rise more.

The painful duty now devolves upon me to give the true cause of his hostility
to the Administration. We are informed that on Friday, the 21st of March, the
House was sitting with closed doors. When the doors were opened and the
injunction of secresy dissolved, the important proceedings which had been before
them appeared in the form of a resolution:—

"Resolved, That—dollars be hereby appropriated towards purchasing the
Spanish territory lying on the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, and castward of
the Mississippi, to be applied under the direction of the President of the United
States, who shall have authority to borrow the same, at a rate not to exceed six
per cent., and that the account thereof be laid before Congress at its next session."

The resolution was adopted by ayes 77, and noes 54: and the engrossed bill
for defraying the expenses of the purchase of the territory described in the resolution
passed by a vote of 76 to 54, Mr. Randolph being in the minority.

About the 17th of January, Mr. Jefferson had communicated to Congress a
secret message, no doubt containing the proposition for the purchase of the Floridas,
and requiring an appropriation of two millions to carry it into effect. From
some cause or other, the secret was not entrusted to Mr. Randolph, but the honor
of introducing and advocating the measure in the House, was confided to Barnabas
Bidwell of New York. Hinc illæ lachrymæ. I am well assured from those that
ought to know, and whose veracity was unimpeachable, and fortified by the
strong probability of the cause assigned, that to this source alone may be ascribed
the anger of Mr. Randolph against his late friends, and his implacable jealousy
against the favorite. He, of course, opposed the passage of this bill with all
his might, and held up Mr. Bidwell to ridicule, as the weak and unworthy recipient
of Executive favor. But he had lost his influence—his opposition had no
weight, and even his abilities were supposed to have fallen with it, and he appeared
in some measure shorn of the beams of both mental and political power.

In December, 1807, Mr. Randolph introduced a resolution calling on the President
for information respecting the proceedings in the western country, and the
measures adopted to defeat any combination against the peace and safety of the
United States. The object of the resolution was to expose to censure the conduct
of Judge Innes of Ohio, for concealing a conspiracy on the part of Spain,
to separate the western States from the Union. It seems the subject was communicated
to him by one Dr. Powers, an authorized agent of the Governor of
New Orleans, the Baron de Carondelet, as early as 1797, but as he alleged in
his deposition of the 1st of December, 1806, he had not divulged the project because
Mr. Adams was President, and he did not want an army sent into the
country. Mr. Randolph said, "We are told this conspiracy is defeated, or has
succeeded to the utmost. If it has succeeded but in part, can it not be checked?
The newspaper evidence to which he alluded, he observed was the authentic
proofs, at the trial of Judge Sebastian, of the disposition of the Spanish. Castilian
honor and fame are no more. Spain, while treating with one hand, was
preparing to stab us with the other. What has been the treatment of the
Spanish Minister? Why has he not been sent home? When Miranda had
gone, how great were his complaints and inquiries. We have no complaints
or inquiries now made by him. New Orleans is the object, and can we doubt
that he is concerned in it. Of one circumstance, he thought, we had sufficient
evidence. He believed that if the conspirator should arrive at Baton Rouge
before our troops, New Orleans must fall. He wished not such an "union of
honest men" to take possession of the key of the Mississippi, and shut the door
in our face. He was not disposed to triumph, though he had ample cause. It
would be no gratification to him, to triumph in the disgrace of the country. He
had no hand in these acts of omission or commission which had brought us to
the present disastrous state. He had expressed, he had foretold the danger of
losing the delta of the Mississippi. He knew not who the modern Catiline
would be, but expected there would be such. Yet the House seemed to be in a
state of insensibility or indifference, or were so economical, they wanted greatness
of soul enough to purchase a key to secure their strong box. They pursued
a narrow and unaccountable policy. What would have been the feelings
of this House, if the British forces were now scouring the lakes, were along
the 45th degree of latitude on our frontier? What if the British minister had
been ordered home, and his Court had continued him here—stuck him under
the very nose of the executive? The feelings and the measures of the House
would be very different from what they are now. They would be what they ought
to be, but what they are not. The resolution had been said to betray a want
of confidence in the executive. He must be indulged in the cultivation of a
sceptical philosophy. He should judge in politics as in religion, by works, not
by faith. He would not mortgage his conscience to the executive in that manner.
But the principle was wrong. The House was entitled to information.
It was their duty to obtain it."

On the 23d of December, Mr. Jefferson communicated a long message to
the House, denouncing Burr's conspiracy. Upon the strength of its supposed

dangerous tendency, and from the alarm the exposure occasioned,
the Senate passed a bill in secret conclave on the 26th of January, for a
suspension of the habeas corpus, and sent it to the House for concurrence;
and on a motion to reject the bill, a warm debate arose. Mr. Randolph
opposed it in an eloquent speech. He handled with great severity, "the
monstrous, outrageous, violent usurpation of authority on the part of General
Wilkinson, in seizing and transporting two citizens of the United States
(Dr. Bollman and Samuel Swartwout), of his own mere arbitrary will, refusing
them a writ of habeas corpus, or even a hearing before a court. He called
Burr's conspiracy a mere intrigue, nothing comparable to the western insurrection,
where no such tyrannic measure was ever thought of. He declared the
contest now was, whether we were to live under a military or civil government—whether
by passing this law, the House would connive at the violation
of all law that had been committed by General Wilkinson. As well might he
have transported these men to Cayenne or Botany Bay. A mortal wound had
been attempted upon the constitution, and he hoped the House would never
countenance it." The bill was rejected by a large majority.

Burr was brought to Richmond the first of April, 1807, to undergo a trial before
the District Court, his principal scene of operations being on Blennerhasset's
Island, in the State of Virginia. Mr. Randolph was among the leading men of
the State summoned on the grand jury, who found an indictment of treason
against him the July following. On the same jury he moved for an indictment
against Gen. Wilkinson for misprision of treason, but being opposed by Gen.
Taylor, was defeated. On examination of the evidence offered to the grand jury,
the celebrated letter of Burr to Wilkinson, in cypher, which is herewith given,
was laid before them by the General, who attended before them as a witness.
The General gave the key by which he had deciphered it, and which seemed
incomprehensible to all the jury except Mr. Randolph, who understood it at once,
and explained it to the comprehension of the rest of the members. The chief
ground of his charge against Wilkinson was, the length of time which he suffered
to elapse from the time he received the letter until he divulged it, from
which he inferred that the General was a party in Burr's conspiracy, and that he
only awaited the event to declare himself openly—that on the failure of Burr's
plans, and his capture and order for trial, he for the first time produced this letter,
and entered the charge of treason against him. This proceeding, as well as other
severe strictures uttered against the General at the preceding session, laid the
foundation of that enmity, which ended in the challenge on the part of the General.