RANDOLPH, EDMUND [JENNINGS] American statesman, was born on Aug. Io, 1753, at Tazewell Hall, Williamsburg, Va., the family seat of his grandfather, Sir John Randolph (1693-1737), and his father, John Randolph (1727-84), who (like his uncle Peyton Randolph) were king's attorneys for Virginia. Edmund graduated at the College of William and Mary, and studied law with his father, who felt bound by his oath to the king and went to England in 1775. In Aug.–Oct. 1775 Edmund was aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington. In 1776 he was a member of the Virginia convention, and was on its committee to draft a constitution. In the same year he be came the first attorney general of the State (serving until 1786). He served in the Continental Congress in 1779 and again in 1780 82. He had a large private practice, including much legal business for Gen. Washington. In 1786 he was a delegate to the "Annapolis convention," and in 1787-88 was governor of Virginia. He was a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1787, and on May 29 presented the "Virginia plan" (sometimes called the "Ran dolph plan"). In the convention Randolph advocated a strongly centralized Government, the prohibition of the importation of slaves, and a plural executive, suggesting that there should be three executives from different parts of the country, and refused to sign the Constitution because too much power over commerce was granted to a mere majority in Congress, and because no pro vision was made for a second convention to act after the present instrument had been referred to the States. In Oct. 1787 he pub lished an attack on the Constitution ; but in the Virginia conven tion he urged its ratification, arguing that it was too late to attempt to amend it without endangering the Union, and thinking that Virginia's assent 'would be that of the necessary ninth State. In 1788 he refused re-election as governor, and entered the house of delegates to work on the revision and codification of the State laws (published in r794).
On Jan. 2, 1794 he succeeded Thomas Jefferson as secretary of State. In 1795 he wrote 13 letters (signed "Germanicus") de fending the president in his attack on the American Jacobin or democratic societies. He was the only cabinet member who op posed the ratification of the Jay treaty. Before it was ratified the delicate task of keeping up friendly diplomatic relations with France fell to him. Home despatches of the French minister, Joseph Fauchet, intercepted by a British man-of-war and sent to the British minister to the United States, accused Randolph of ask ing for money from France to influence the administration against Great Britain. Although this charge was demonstrably false, Ran dolph when confronted with it immediately resigned, and subse quently secured a retraction from Fauchet ; he published A Vindi cation of Mr. Randolph's Resignation (1795) and Political Truth, or Animadversions on the Past and Present State of Public Affairs (1796). He died at Carter hall, Millwood, Clarke county, Va., on Sept. 12, 1813.
See M. D. Conway, in his Omitted Chapters of History disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph (i888; znd ed., 1889).