intended to insult Mr. Randolph, and to inflict personal injury on him, for words spoken in debate.

The only testimony in opposition to those gentlemen of such high respectability, and Mr. Randolph's own statement, so detailed and explicit, was the declaration of those persons themselves. Their testimony is evidently an equivocation: they say they did not go to the theatre with the intention of insulting Mr. Randolph. “I did not know," says M'Knight, "Mr. Randolph was to be at the theatre, nor do I ever recollect seeing him previous to Friday evening; and, from his youthful appearance and dress, I had no idea of his being a member of the House of Representatives." All this may be very true, and yet after reaching there, it is very evident they conceived the idea of insulting and injuring him.

The committee, after collecting all the evidence they could find material in the case, report the following resolutions :

Resolved, That this House entertains a respectful sense of the regard which the President of the United States has shown to its rights and privileges, in his message of the 14th instant, accompanied by a letter addressed to him by John Randolph, Jun., a member of this House.

Resolved, That in respect to the charge alleged by John Randolph, Jun., a member of this House, in his letter addressed to the President of the United States, on the eleventh instant, and by him submitted to the consideration of this House, that sufficient cause does not appear for the interposition of this House, on the ground of a breach of its privileges.

The first resolution was passed without a division. To the second, several amendments were offered, going to censure M'Knight and Reynolds, but were rejected. Then the resolution itself was rejected, by a majority of twelve, showing that even that House were not prepared to sacrifice their privileges, which had been so evidently and wantonly insulted and trampled on. The Speaker then ruled all further action on the subject out of order, and so shoved it aside.

We leave Mr. Randolph's friend and contemporary, William Thompson, to make his commentaries on these transactions, the more valuable as the spontaneous effusions of an ingenuous and noble mind:-"The committee," says he, "who sat to examine the charge against several minions of executive power, which, of all that can be

brought against men, was most serious, as being most destructive to the liberties of America-the committee who were called on to say whether the privileges of the House should be prostrated, as the privileges of the people have been-the committee who were called on to decide whether a set of armed ruffians should surround the capitol, and dictate our laws-this committee have determined, that although there were some circumstances (language of the report) which deserved censure, yet they were not of such a nature as to be considered a breach of the privileges of the House. Admit the meaning which they wish to give to some circumstances, I say, if there were any circumstance, no matter how trivial in its nature it may be, if on the most rigid inquiry it can be found that a legislator is insulted for his official conduct, that the man who insults offers an insult to the people; and that the men who do not, when called on, inflict all the punishment their power licenses, is an enemy, are enemies to the liberty of America. What, sir, will result from the decision of that committee? The republicans are liable to daily and hourly insults— the soldiers of Philadelphia are to be raised to a Pretorian band— our measures are to be dictated by the willing foes of our libertyand virtuous opposition is to be silenced by the bayonet. Let me not be told that these apprehensions are ridiculous; I say they are grounded in the full conviction, that the military mob is supported by the administration, and that administration will make great sacrifices to their love of power. I say it is grounded on a conviction that this army is not now kept up to secure us from invasion; but that it contemplates something, and I fear that something is injurious to my country. That the insults you received were not offered to you as an individual, is certain; for as an individual, separate from your principles, I perceive they knew you not; it is certain, because your words were quoted. Not content with debasing us in fact, they wish to debase us even in appearance-they cavil at your words. Had you addressed the President in courtly style, they would forgive the contents of your letter; addressing him as you have done, we applaud the conduct, and we rejoice there is one man left us whose principles. and whose manners stand uncorrupted in these corrupted times. I say we, for I speak the language of many; I say we, for I speak the language of your State. The persecutions of a faction have made you more dear to us. Not that your merits are in

creased by circumstances, but because this is a glaring instance amongst many, that men are persecuted as the organs of principles. This committee have done more, anxious that no opportunity should be lost to liquidate part of the great debt of adulation, they have interwoven a motion of thanks to the President for the respectful sense he has shown of their privileges. Whither does this lead? Is it not to be apprehended, that by this conduct your rights are to be changed into courtesy, that your rights are to hang on the nod of your President? Does this man deserve thanks for the compliance with his official duties? Does he deserve thanks for doing that for which he is paid by his country? The friends of America look at this affair with wonder and with horror. The timid part of the community say we will not send a man whose principles are obnoxious, for fear of consequences; the patriots of your State say we will send men who dare to speak the truth, no matter in whose ears it is grating. But it was disrespectful to call him fellow-citizen! Yes, he is not a fellow-citizen, because he is chief officer, he is alienated by promotion. There is more truth in his having been aliened than they would admit. I will forget for a moment that I am personally acquainted with you, and state, that you evinced in this affair an intrepid coolness, a firmness, and calmness, which must convince every man, not sworn to partiality, that every word of your evidence is most rigid truth. But your remark of mercenary and ragamuffin was galling to certain men in that House; your arguments throughout the whole were unanswerable; and your naked truths (for I will adopt your very appropriate expression) were dangerous to men who, unveiled, are damned."

This affair created, at the time, great excitement through the country. It was considered as but one of a series of events that had for their end the subjugation of the people to the will of the federal oligarchy. The enormous public debt, which was daily increasing by heavy loans at usurious interest, the funding system, the National Bank, the recently-created navy establishment, and large standing army without an enemy or the prospect of an enemy, the alien and the sedition laws in active operation, sparing neither station nor age, had given an alarming and a powerful centralizing action to the Government. And it was thought that the evil tendencies of all those measures were now consummated in the humiliation of the legisla

of

ture to executive authority, and its tame submission to the arrogance of military pride. The trivial occurrence in the theatre, giving an opportunity to the President to display his petulant temper and his high sense of official consequence, and to the House of Representatives to manifest their subservient spirit, proved to be a very serious business. The people, more sagacious than they have credit for among some politicians, saw at once the tendency of these proceedings; and Randolph was hailed throughout the Union as the champion of the rights of the people. The very morning (15th January) his correspondence with the President appeared in the Philadelphia papers, and before any action thereon by the House, he received a communication professing to convey the sentiments of a number of respectable citizens. "It is our decided opinion," say they, "that the person & delegate in Congress ought to be as sacred from public or private insult as the person of an ambassador to a foreign power. Should this flagrant violation of the privilege of a member of your House which has been offered to your person be winked at, may not enterprising men introduce parties into the House, which, by putting its members in bodily fear, will completely shackle the freedom of debate, and thereby injure the public good?" They then proceed to thank him for having the boldness candidly to avow the real sentiments of his heart, with a huge capital R and a tremendous underscoring of the word real in the original document, which is now before us. We might infer from this that such boldness was very unusual at that time. And indeed it was true. Madison had retired before the storm; so had Giles and the plain blunt-spoken Finlay, of Pennsylvania. Gallatin was still there; but he was not the man for the crisis; he was a foreigner, modest, plain in his elocution, and dealt more in facts and figures of arithmetic than those bold metaphors and figures of speech so essential to arouse and interest the people. The whole House might slumber under Gallatin's demonstrations, while one schrill echo of Randolph's voice would wake the seven sleepers. Matthew Lyon is seen among the silent voters; but three months' imprisonment last winter in a dungeon, not six feet square, under the sedition law, for daring to publish words in disparagement of the President, has cooled his Irish temper, and awed him into silence. This Harry Hotspur, therefore. or young cornet of horse, burst suddenly among them like a skyrocket. His boldness, his eloquence, his youthful appearance, struck

them with astonishment. But who can tell the effect of those naked truths, which fell like hot shot among the enemy, all intrenched and secure, as they supposed themselves, behind their formidable walls! John Thompson's prediction was fulfilled in the very outset of his career: He will become an object of admiration and terror to the enemies of liberty!

CHAPTER XXIV.

MAKE TO YOURSELF AN IDOL, AND, IN SPITE OF THE DECALOGUE, WORSHIP IT.

DURING the winter and spring of 1800 he kept up a regular correspondence with his friend, William Thompson, who, the reader knows, had found a home and an asylum in his misfortunes under the hospitable roof of Bizarre. The soothing temper he manifests towards that unfortunate youth, the sound advice he gave him, so fraught with wisdom and a knowledge of human nature, and his judicious and well-timed encouragement, to arouse from his lethargy and become the man he was capable of being, present the character of John Randolph in a pleasing point of view, and explain in a measure those traits of mind and disposition, known only to a few, that made him such an object of devoted friendship on the part of those who were honored by his intimate regard.

John Randolph, jun., to his friend and brother, William Thompson. PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 31, 24th year.

"Your letter was peculiarly acceptable to me. It relieved me from considerable anxiety on account of your health, to the ill state of which I attributed that suspension of our correspondence, which has originated in the derangement of the post office department; it contained assurances of that regard of which I never entertained a doubt, but which, nevertheless, were extremely gratifying to me; but above all it put my mind at ease upon a subject which has been productive of considerable concern. I mean your change of residence, which, as you will find by my last, I understood you had removed