American History Through Literature Page Intentionally Left Blank Paul Finkelman Series Editor fREEDOM ROAD Howard Fast Introduction by Eric Foner JOHN RANDOLPH Henry Adams Introduction by Robert McColley THE LIFE Of WASHINGTON Mason L. Weems Introduction by Peter S. Onuf OHN DOLPH HENRYAD S Arew edition with primary documents and introduction by ROBERT McCOLLEY ~ l Routledge i ~ Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 1996 by M.E. Sharpe Published 2015 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0Xl4 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright© 1996 Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved. Acknowledgments, Introduction, Suggestions for Further Reading, Notes on the Text, and introductions to Related Documents copyright © 1996 by Robert McColley No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notices No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use of operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data Adams, Henry, 183&-1918. John Randolph I Henry Adams : a new edition with primary documents and introduction by Robert McColley. p. em.- (American history through literature) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-56324-652-X (alk. paper).- ISBN 1-56324-653-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) I. Randolph, John, 1773-1833. 2. United States--Politics and government-1783-1865. 3. Legislators--United States--Biography. 4. United States. Congress. House-Biography. I. McColley, Robert. II. Title. Ill. Series. E302.6.R2A64 1996 328.73 '092-dc20 [B] 95-33361 CIP ISBN 13: 9781563246531 (pbk) ISBN 13: 9781563246524 (hbk) Contents Foreword by Paul Finkelman lX Acknowledgments by Robert McColley X Introduction by Robert McColley Suggestions for Further Reading 17 JOHN RANDOLPH by Henry Adams I. YOUTH 19 II. VIRGINIAN POLITICS 33 III. IN HARNESS 46 IV. A CENTRALIZING STATESMAN 61 V. VAULTING AMBITION 73 VI. YAZOO AND JUDGE CHASE 89 VII. THE QUARREL 107 VIII. MONROE AND THE SMITHS 128 IX. "A NUISANCE AND A CURSE" 146 X. ECCENTRICITIES 165 XI. BLIFIL AND BLACK GEORGE 176 XII. "FACULTIES MISEMPLOY ED" 191 Notes on the Text 201 Related Documents 205 Index 213 About the Editor 219 Foreword Novelists, poets, and essayists often use history to illuminate their understanding of human interaction. At times these works also illuminate our history. They also help us better understand how people in different times and places thought about their own world. Popular novels are themselves artifacts of history. This series is designed to bring back into print works of literature--in the broadest sense of the term-that illuminate our understanding of U.S. history. Each book is introduced by a major scholar, who places the book in a context, and also offers some guidance to reading the book as "history." The editor will show us where the author of the book has been in error, as well as where the author is accurate. Each reprinted work also includes a few documents to illustrate the historical setting of the work itself. Books in this series will primarily fall into three categories. First, we will reprint works of "historical fiction"--books that are essentially works of history in a fictional setting. Rather than simply fiction about the past, each will be first-rate his- tory presented through the voices of fictional characters, or through fictional presentations of real characters in ways that do not distort the historical record. Second, we will reprint works of fiction, poetry, and other forms of literature that are primary sources of the era in which they were written. Finally, we will republish nonfiction such as autobiographies, reminis- cences, essays, and journalistic exposes, and even works of history that also fall into the general category ofliterature. PAUL FINKELMAN ix Acknowledgments Thanks are due Paul Finkelman and Michael Weber, who en- couraged me to prepare this new edition of Henry Adams's John Randolph. Paul has subsequently offered several valuable suggestions for making the introduction more coherent. At M.E. Sharpe, Peter Coveney and Eileen Gaffney have facili- tated the completion of the project, and Susan Burke has edited out several errors and further smoothed the prose. I should also thank my early mentors, who bear some responsibility for my becoming a professional historian: Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., who introduced me to several important themes in American history during my undergraduate years, and later suggested that I write about Adams's Randolph; and Kenneth M. Stampp, who directed my doctoral studies at California, Berke- ley, and encouraged my studies of the South in the early na- tional period. None of the above are responsible in any way for the further eccentricities I have introduced in this edition of a singular American's biography of another singular American. ROBERT MCCOLLEY X Introduction Historians of the United States during the era from 1801 to 1829-from the inauguration of President Thomas Jefferson to the inauguration of President Andrew Jackson-have espe- cially quoted two political characters, each immensely talented for his stringent, acerbic, satiric, and, more often than not, critically cutting comments. On the one hand we have John Quincy Adams (17 67-1848); stem, laborious, plainspoken, disciplined, and always the servant of both his own tightly harnessed ambition and an increasingly expansive view of the possibilities of American civilization. John Quincy Adams's sense of propriety prevented his entering into the public record the trenchant views, "written with a pen dipped in acid," that make his Diary (published after his death by his descendants) such fascinating reading. The other wonderfully incisive critic of the era was John Randolph of Roanoke (1773-1833), who sooner or later turned against every president from John Adams to Andrew Jackson. Most history students today have forgotten that Randolph coined the term "War Hawks" for the young congressmen, led by Henry Clay, who took over the House of Representatives in 1811 and pressured James Madison toward his war message in June, 1812; Randolph also ridiculed these birds for their con- stant song, "Canada, Canada, Canada." Years later he pushed even the easygoing but proud Henry Clay too far by describing him as a "being, so brilliant yet so corrupt, which, like a rotten mackerel by moonlight, shined and stunk." Randolph further denounced the political alliance of then-Secretary of State Clay with President John Quincy Adams as "the coalition of Blifil and Black George ... the combination, unheard of till then, of the Puritan with the blackleg." For the unforgettable dead-fish metaphor and the telling comparison with two unsavory char- acters in Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, Clay challenged Ran- I 2 INTRODUCTION dolph to a duel (Adams, Randolph pp. 188----89). As Henry Adams notes (p. 188), the two exchanged fire on April 8, 1826. Both of Clay's shots narrowly missed Randolph at hip level; Randolph's first missed Clay below the knee, and his second went harmlessly into the air. Adams does not report that Randolph had confided before the duel that under no cir- cumstances could he aim to kill Clay, upon whom a wife and children depended, nor does he cite the judgment of Thomas Hart Benton, no stranger to such affairs, but present as a peace- maker: "It was about the last high-toned duel that I have wit- nessed, and among the highest toned I have ever witnessed, and so happily conducted to a fortunate issue,-a result due to the noble character of the seconds as well as to the generous and heroic spirit of the principals" (Thirty Years' View [New York, 1854], vol. 1, p. 77). These, and the great majority of Randolph's famous say- ings, originated in public speeches, invariably as momentary flashes of inspiration-some would say diabolical posses- sion-and therefore instantly noted, widely quoted, and often distorted by the press and word of mouth. A regular and stylish correspondent, Randolph was rarely as outspoken in private letters as he was in public, a strange reversal for a man of his or any era. As Henry Adams forcefully relates, Randolph broke with President Thomas Jefferson in the congressional sessions of 1805-1806, and was never again the member of any working majority in national politics. His function was to find fault with virtually every major initiative pursued by pres- idential administrations and congressional majorities for the rest of his life. Old John Adams and young John Quincy Adams were Randolph's lifelong foes. He referred to them as "the American House of Stuart"; in the then-familiar Whig-Re- publican view of politics, the Stuarts signified the repellent doctrine of monarchy by divine right. Furthermore, Randolph perceived that John Quincy was both abler and more danger- ous than his father: "the cub is a greater bear than the old one." If ever the House of Adams had an inveterate and implacable enemy, it was the reactionary Virginian, John Randolph.