JOHN RANDOLPH. The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke. By HUGH A. D. Appleton & It is a conspicuous feature in this book, that there is not a single great statesman of our country alluded to-from General Washington down to those who were on the stage at the period of the death of Randolph, including alike Federalist and Republican-from whose name something has not been detracted. In forming our estimate of the book, this fact will speak for itself. The judicious reader will perceive from it, that everything has been made to yield to an infatuation-a preconceived, unsound desire, to make John Randolph, in his political character, a man of such wisdom, as could not err; to represent him as profound, above all other men, in the opinions he held, as to the nature and extent of the powers of our government under the constitution. This, it seems to us, evidently is done, that the author may proclaim to the fullest extent, the State Rights faith, as the only true faith-its apostles, the only very wise men in the land. This detracts in no inconsiderable degree from the merits of the biography. It is to be regretted, as the book is otherwise full of interest, as a picture of the life of a remarkable man; a man singular in all his characteristics-of a great, though erratic genius,-of diversified and elegant capacities, a rare scholar in our literature, and gifted with a remarkable eloquence, coupled with an extraordinary power of sarcasm and wit, both in public speaking and in corversation. The opening chapters present to us, instructively, the boyhood and early manhood of Randolph; and show forth the life of the old times in Virginia, the habits, manners, style of living, the old residences, the elegant and bountiful hospitalities, the well-bred and elevated characteristics of the old Lowlander in his palmy days, with a clearness and truthfulness of perception, combined with a just enthusiasm which commands our respect; and which fills the mind with a delightful, though sad interest,--that strong interest which all mankind feel, in a just reproduction to the understanding of the glories of a renowned ancestry. It is with regret, therefore, that we feel ourselves bound to speak in dispraise of the political portions of this work. It is not history. History is truth narrated; and every thing that falls short of this truth, is but the outpouring of the political partisan; and as such, is to be unqualifiedly condemned, when it is placed before us as a history of the times. But it is not with this part of the book that we intend now chiefly to concern ourselves. To all thoughtful men, who are at all acquainted with the political history of our country, it will condemn itself in this particular. Whoever has read what so clear and truthful a mind as Chief Justice Marshall's has given to us upon the State affairs of Washington's administration, will not be very likely to have the views and opinions drawn from that well of truth undefiled, altered in the slightest degree; nor his just understanding of our history since that day, at all disturbed or altered by these distempered disquisitions drawn, as the writer admits them to be, from partisan ources, and especially from so partisan a source as the pages of the "Richmond Enquirer; "-a paper certainly very deep in all the Jeffersonian democratic denunciation of our earlier days, against the wise, deliberate, and just actions of Washington and his friends, when they were at the head of the government, and filled with the same order of denunciation against every man who has since aimed to guide the country in the path trodden by the feet of Washington. But, as we have said, it is not with these things that we are about to engage now. We are about to perform what we hold to be a duty,-a duty of vindication towards a great revolutionary name, which we conceive our author to have unjustly assailed. Our purpose is to hold a reckoning with him for the chapter which is headed "Patrick Henry;" a chapter in which we find every thing to condemn, nothing to praise. Every sentence that it contains we consider as dishonoring the memory of the great old patriot and orator,— as an endeavor to detract from the value of his name, in contradiction to the best and most authentic information in regard to him. And to what end? It is apparent as apparent as if the book had been avowedly written for the purpose-to no other end, than that a blind and bigoted faith in the theory of State Rights may be maintained and upheld by the author. The just fame of a great and a good man is dear to every honorable mind,-dear, every where over the land, is the name of Patrick Henry,-deservedly dear; and, above all, is it dearly cherished in the hearts of his own immediate people; those who tread the soil and breathe the air of the State that was the glory and the pride of his heart. And whilst our rivers roll down their waters from the far mountains, until they mingle with the tides of the sea, the name of Patrick Henry will be preserved, as clear from all blemish of folly or weakness, as it is imperishable. Neither hatred, nor uncharitableness, nor unjust judgment, nor any other of the vilenesses of political intolerance and bigotry, will ever be permitted long to sully its noble purity. No injustice will escape rebuke, no unsound derogatory inference from his acts will be permitted, no unfairness of conclusion. As he lived, so will he be proclaimed; as he died, so will it be taken care that he shall live for posterity. Patrick Henry was a just, considerate, and right-minded man-his soul filled with high and ennobling loves-and amongst these, a great and generous love of liberty; and though not marked extraordinarily by any subtle or acute logical power of mind, yet a man of such clear intuitions, the results of right reason, that he saw, at times, into the future, with such clearness of view, that his power has been justly likened to that of the Prophets of old. He was endowed by nature with a strong sense of what was true and right, and to this was joined a greatness of soul, that ever made him amongst the foremost in asserting and maintaining the truth and the right, whatever the self-sacrifice that might be required. Of this his noble life was an exemplification, first and last—first, in the part he took in the great achievement of the last century, the Independence of America and last, as we shall presently show, in his dying efforts to maintain the honor and the laws of his country, as established by the constitution that constitution which is the crowning glory of our ancestors. Such he was, over and above the great gift from Heaven, which he possessed-the gift of an unrivalled eloquence that eloquence, which has been handed down to us of this generation, as being of wonderful power: that eloquence, which made Mr. Jefferson declare that "he was the greatest orator that ever lived "-which made Judge Iredell exclaim, "Gracious Heaven, he is an orator indeed!" which made John Randolph say, that "he spake as never man spake," which made the calm and dispassionate Madison say, that his voice reminded him of a trumpeter on the field of battle, calling the troops to a charge ;" which made Judge Chase, of Maryland, say to his colleague, after Henry had made his ever memorable speech in the old Congress of '74, we might as well go home; we are not able to legislate with these men: "an eloquence which was impassioned sense, fervent wisdom, a bold, heroic outpouring of mind and soul, which made men, as they listened, think of him who "Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece- that eloquence, to sum up all, which, every man in the land knows, was so powerful in arousing the heart of our people to the achievement of the Revolution,-the Revolution in which was cradled a greater liberty for all mankind,-in which was nursed, as in some storm-swept eyrie, the young bird of Jove, destined to a maturity of such unequalled strength and power of wing. But let us note the language of our author in reference to the great orator of Virginia : "Patrick Henry," he exclaims, "the advocate of the Alien and Sedition laws, the defender of federal measures leading to consolidation! Let the reader," he continues, "look back and contemplate his course in the Virginia Convention, called to ratify the Constitution-let him hear the eloquent defence of the Articles of Confederation, which had borne us safely through so many perils, and which needed only amendment, not annihilation let him witness the ardent devotion to the State government as the bulwark of liberty-the uncompromising opposition to the new government, its consolidation, its destruction of State independence, its awful squintings towards monarchy -let him behold the vivid picture drawn by the orator of the patriot of '76, and the citizen of '88: then it was liberty! give me liberty! now the cry was energy, energy, give me a strong and energetic government-then let him turn and see the same man, in little more than ten years, stand forth, his prophecies all tending to rapid fulfilment, the advocate of the principles, the defender of the measures that had so agitated his mind and awakened his fears-let the reader meditate on these things, and have charity for the mutations of political opinion in his own day, which he so often unfeelingly denounces." This is the opening fire of the book-the cannonading has begun, which is kept up to the end with such waste, not of the enemy, but of the author's misdirected powder and ball. Here is the charge-that Patrick Henry had abandoned all the opinions and principles of his life-had weakly and basely (we shall show that the author so means it to be understood) changed sides in politics-that from being the strong advocate of State Rights, he had now become shamefully the defender of federal measures leading to consolidation! Let us look somewhat minutely into this imputation, and see if we cannot destroy this poison, with the antidote of a little good sense-in the confused, yet strong words of Oliver Cromwell, see whether it will not be found very sufficient to judge between this man and reason. To this end, let us go back to Patrick Henry, in the convention that assembled in Virginia to ratify the constitution. We shall see there good reason why Patrick Henry was now the advocate of measures leading to consolidation. In the first speech which Henry made in the convention, we find the following: "That this is a consolidated government, is demonstrably clear." "I have the highest veneration for those gentlemen; but, sir, give me leave to demand, what right have they to say, we the people ?” "Who authorized them to speak the language of we the people, instead of we the States? States are the characteristics and the soul of a confederation. If the States be not the agents of this compact, it must be one great, consolidated, national government of the people of all the States." Again : "Have they said we the States? Have they made a proposal of a compact between States? If they had, this would be a confederation; it is, otherwise, most clearly, a consolidated government. The whole question turns, sir, on that poor little thing; the expression, we the people, instead of the States of America.” Again: "This government is so new, it wants a name! I wish its other matters were as harmless as this. We are told, however, that, collectively taken, it is without an example! that it is national in this part, and federal in that part, &c. We may be amused, if we please, by a treatise of political anatomy. In the brain, it is national; the stamina are federal-some limbs are federal, others are national. The Senators are voted for by the State Legislatures; so far it is federal. Individuals choose the members of the first branch; here it is national. It is federal in conferring general powers, but national in retaining them. It is not to be supported by the States, the pockets of individuals are to be searched for its maintenance. What signifies it to me, that you have the most curious anatomical description of it in its creation? To all the common purposes of legislation, it is a great consolidation of government. You are not to have the right to legislate in any but trivial cases; you are not to touch private contracts; you are not to have the right of having armies in your own defence; you cannot be trusted with dealing out justice between man and man. What shall the States have to do? Take care of the poor, repair and make highways, erect bridges, and so on, and so on! Abolish the State Legislatures at once. What purposes should they be continued for? Our Legislature will indeed be a ludicrous spectacle-180 men marching in solemn, farcical procession, exhibiting a mournful proof of the lost liherty of their country, without the power of restoring it. But, sir, we have the consolation that it is a mixed government! That is, it will work sorely in your neck; but you will have some comfort by saying that it was a federal government in its origin." |