Randolph of Roanoke by Russell Kirk

Author:Russell Kirk [Kirk, Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Law, General, Political Science, American Government, Legislative Branch, Political Process, Leadership
ISBN: 9780865971493
Google: KT8OAQAAMAAJ
Publisher: Liberty Fund
Published: 1997-01-15T03:35:59+00:00

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In order to flourish, or even to exist, the society of the planters was dependent upon the guaranties of a strictly constructed Constitution, upon a reasonably free trade with the world, upon simple and austere government, and upon lasting peace. From all these motives, and also because men of the sturdy conservative convictions held by the Old Republicans were naturally lovers of tranquillity and foes of aggression, Randolph’s faction stood opposed to war and foreign alliances. They resisted as best they could the approach of the War of 1812; and, when apparently the struggle had become inevitable, John Randolph, Stanford, and a few other congressmen struggled almost unaided against the tide. Randolph experienced his sole defeat for a seat in the House in consequence of his opposition; but events seemed to vindicate his conduct, and he was returned by his constituents, in the following election, to continue for the remainder of his career the advocacy of political isolation and economic internationalism for America.

From his Jacobin days in 1797, when Randolph opposed war with France, until the days of the Panama Congress in 1826, Randolph was the foe of all proposals for hostilities or foreign entanglements—if one excepts some remarks of his recommending retaliation against England, after the “Chesapeake” affair. From the inception of the embargo until the last echoes of the second war with England had died, the danger of war, together with denunciations of the American restrictive commercial policy, was the great theme of his speeches. His remarks—some of them nearly as pertinent now as then—are worth sampling with a view toward their relation to his planter society.

In John Adams’ administration Randolph called the federal troops “ragamuffins,” and in Jackson’s administration he sneered at them as “mercenaries.” He declared them a threat to the rights of the states, for he placed his reliance for state sovereignty chiefly in the physical superiority of the states to the federal government and not in parchment guaranties; moreover, they were a drain upon the public purse. His own plan for efficiently arming the militia, and substituting flying trains of artillery for permanent harbor fortifications and Jefferson’s gunboats, never was adopted; but it had merit, John Taylor writing of it: “Mr. Randolph’s proposal...is the most effectual, principled, and grand measure, which has been introduced since the government has been in operation. He ought to nurse his popularity in Congress, if for no other end, but to carry the one point.”{161}

Nursing popularity was a talent in which Randolph was totally deficient; instead, sarcasm and terror were his weapons. He opposed the increase of the national army with great bitterness; his speeches from 1807 until the close of hostilities with Britain expound his views with a thoroughness that cannot be imitated here. On November 21, 1812, he delivered one of his most significant speeches on the question of military establishments and preparations for war, holding that he derived his principles from the old and true doctrines of the Republican party and that he would not yield them for the sake of popularity.

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