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Infirm as your health is, your country has
made another call upon you for your services. I have no right to ask,
nor do I enquire whether you will accept of this highly honorable appointment.
As a friend I have a right to say your country has no further
claims upon you, and that you ought to consult your own comfort and
happiness.

Should you accept the appointment, a long (tho' I trust not a final)
separation must take place between us. My heart is too full to allow
me to express my feelings, when I think of it, as I do now think of it.

Remember that in whatever situation you may be placed, I am your
friend.

W. M. Watkins.

The following is Mr. Randolph's reply:

Roanoke, June 2nd, 1830.

I cannot express to you how deeply I am penetrated by your note
which Peyton has this moment handed to me.

I have accepted the appointment in consequence of the manner in
which it has been offered to me. Come and see me and I shall take
pleasure in showing you the correspondence—that is, the letter of the
P. and my reply.

Though "seas between us broad may roll," I too shall not be unmindful

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of "auld lang syne," and under every change of time and circumstance
shall remain as I am, most truly your friend.

J. R., of Roanoke.

To W. M. W., Esq.

The allusion is to Mr. Randolph's acceptance of the mission
to the Court of St. Petersburg. The following is the
letter of the President offering him the post:

Washington, Sept. 16, 1829.

Dear Sir:

—

The office of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
to Russia will soon become vacant, and I am anxious that the
place should be filled by one of the most capable and distinguished
of our fellow-citizens.

The great and rapidly increasing influence of Russia in the affairs of
the world, renders it very important that our representative at that court
should be one of the highest respectability; and the expediency of such
a course at the present moment is greatly increased by circumstances of a
special character. Among the number of our statesmen from whom the
selection might with propriety be made, I do not know one better fitted
for the station, on the score of talents and experience in public affairs, or
possessing stronger claims upon the favorable consideration of his country
than yourself. Thus impressed, and entertaining a deep and grateful
sense of your long and unceasing devotion to sound principles, and the
interest of the people, I feel it a duty to offer the appointment to you.

In discharging this office I have the double satisfaction of seeking to
promote the public interest, whilst performing an act most gratifying to
myself, on account of the personal respect and esteem which I have always
felt and cherished towards you.

It is not foreseen that any indulgence as to the period of your departure,
which will be required by a due regard to your private affairs,
will conflict with the interests of the mission: and I sincerely hope that
no adverse circumstances may exist, sufficient to deprive the country of
your services.

I have the honor to be, with great respect,
Your most ob't serv't,

Andrew Jackson.

The Hon. John Randolph, of Roanoke.

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The following is Mr. Randolph's reply:

Roanoke, Sept. 24, 1829.

Sir:

—

By the last mail I received, under Mr. Van Buren's cover, your
letter, submitting to my acceptance the mission to Russia.

This honor, as unexpected as it was unsought for, is very much enhanced
in my estimation by the very timid and flattering terms in which
you have been pleased to couch the offer of the appointment. May I be
pardoned for saying, that the manner in which it has been conveyed,
could alone have overcome the reluctance that I feel at the thoughts of
leaving private life and again embarking on the stormy sea of Federal
politics. This I hope I may do without any impeachment of my patriotism,
since it shall in no wise diminish my exertions to serve our
country in the station to which I have been called by her chief magistrate,
and under these "circumstances of a special character," indicated
by your letter. The personal good opinion and regard, which you kindly
express towards me, merit and receive my warmest acknowledgments.

I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, sir, your most obedient
and faithful servant,

John Randolph, of Roanoke.

To Andrew Jackson, Esq., President of the U. S.

He had not been in St. Petersburg a week before he left
for London. In the last speech which he made to the people
of Charlotte, and which the reader will find reported in
another chapter, he states his reasons for taking that step,
which appear to us to be most excellent; the only wonder is,
that he accepted the mission when he must have known that
neither the duties of the office nor the climate of Russia
would suit him.

Mr. Garland excuses him. "In accepting this appointment,"
he remarks, "he only carried out his original design
of going abroad in search of health, while at the same time
he served his country in a station pressed upon him as an
evidence to foreigners of her distinguished regard." But Mr.
Baldwin is very severe upon him. He says, he was physically

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unfit for the duties of the post; and besides, "he had
won his influence as the great champion of the states by
never taking pay or holding office from the Federal government."

In his speech on retrenchment and reform, delivered in
the House of Representatives in 1828, he said: "I shall
retire upon my resources; I will go back to the bosom of
my constituents—to such constituents 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 receive—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 splendid 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?"

Who would believe that in one year seven months and
twenty-three days from the time that he said this, Mr. Randolph
would have accepted a foreign mission to any country,
least of all to Russia?

It was well known to his constituents that until he received
this appointment he was exceedingly hard pressed for the
means to meet his engagements. It was also known that in
the latter part of his life he became exceedingly fond of
money. The presumption, therefore, is strong, that he
accepted the appointment for the pay. We have it from an
official source that he received pay as minister to Russia
from June 9th, 1830, to July 17th, 1831, at the rate of nine
thousand dollars per annum (nine thousand, nine hundred

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and fifty-seven dollars and seventy-one cents), and in addition
thereto was granted the usual allowance of nine thousand
dollars for an outfit and two thousand two hundred
and fifty dollars for expenses in returning to his home.

It mars the symmetry of a beautiful political character;
but we feel bound to state the facts as they were given to us
by those who knew him, and to draw such conclusions as
may seem to us reasonable and just.

But, notwithstanding the great blemish of his acceptance
of the mission to Russia, Mr. Randolph may be regarded
as the most consistent statesman which this country has
ever produced.