Randolph, Edmund

Randolph, Edmund,

1753–1813, American statesman, b. Williamsburg, Va.; nephew of Peyton Randolph. He studied law under his father, John Randolph, a Loyalist who went to England at the outbreak of the American Revolution. He served briefly in the Continental army as aide-de-camp to George Washington. He was a member of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1776, state attorney general (1776–86), a delegate to the Continental Congress (1779–82), and governor of Virginia (1786–88). Randolph was prominent at the Constitutional ConventionConstitutional Convention,
in U.S. history, the 1787 meeting in which the Constitution of the United States was drawn up. The Road to the Convention

The government adopted by the Thirteen Colonies in America (see Confederation, Articles of, and Continental
..... Click the link for more information.  in 1787, presenting the Virginia, or Randolph, Plan, which favored the large states. He at first vigorously opposed the Constitution as finally drafted, although his plan, more than any other, closely resembled it; later he urged its adoption in the Virginia ratifying convention (June, 1788). First Attorney General of the United States (1789–94), he left that post to succeed Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State. Like Jefferson, he had difficulties because of Alexander Hamilton's constant pressure to secure a favorable treaty with England rather than one with France. In 1795 the British captured dispatches of the French minister to the United States, which implied (falsely) that Randolph would welcome French money, whereupon President Washington forced his resignation. Randolph returned to the practice of law in Virginia, and many years passed before his name was entirely cleared. In 1807 he was chief counsel for Aaron Burr in his trial for treason.

Bibliography

See M. D. Conway, Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph (1888, repr. 1971); H. J. Eckenrode, The Randolphs (1946).

Randolph, Edmund (Jenings or Jennings)

(1753–1813) lawyer, cabinet officer; born in Williamsburg, Va. (grandson of Sir John Randolph and descendant of Pocahontas). A lawyer and briefly an aide to Gen. George Washington (1775), he served in the Continental Congress (1779–82). As a delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787), he proposed the Virginia (or Randolph) Plan (basing representation solely on population) and then refused to sign the final version of the Constitution because it was not "republican" enough; later, however, he advocated that Virginia ratify it. Washington named him the first attorney general (1789–94) and then the second secretary of state (1794–95). As the latter, he tried to hold to a neutral path but found himself challenged when Alexander Hamilton got John Jay to negotiate a treaty with the British (1794); intercepted letters from the French ambassador, Fauchet, intimated that Randolph was receptive to bribery; although both Fauchet and Randolph denied this, Randolph was forced to resign. He returned to his law practice and was Aaron Burr's chief counsel when he was tried for treason (1807).