RANDOLPH, Edmund Jennings, Amer ican statesman: b. Williamsburg, Va., 10 Aug. 1753; d. Clarke County, Va., 13 Sept. 1813. He was educated at William and Mary College and afterward admitted to the bar. He was Vir ginia's first attorney-general, was member of Congress, 1779-82 and governor of Virginia, 1786-88. He was a member of the convention that framed the Federal Constitution though he did not approve or sign the document when completed. However, he urged Virginia to ac cept it, feeling the necessity of union of the States. He was a leader in the work of codify ing the Virginian laws begun in 1788. In 1789 Washington appointed him Attorney-General and in 1794 he succeeded Jefferson as Secretary of State. During the pending of the Jay treaty, Fauchet, the French Minister to the United States, sent home some dispatches to his coun try which were intercepted an English ship and through the English Minister were trans mitted to Washington. They were kept by the
President for eight days before their contents were disclosed to Randolph. Feeling that others had been consulted regarding the matter before he was apprised and that he must consequently be prejudged, he resigned his office after deny ing the allegations of the dispatches. He re tired to Virginia and resumed the practice of the law, but his public career was blighted and his memory bore the stain of the accusations against him until his vindication was presented by Mon cure D. Conway in an article 'A Suppressed Statesman,) in Lippincort's Magazine for Sep tember 1887, followed by a biography, 'Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph) (1888).