Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T09:01:49.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

That Ground Called Quiddism: John Randolph's War with the Jefferson Administration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

David A. Carson
David A. Carson
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor in the Department of History,State University College at Buffalo, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14222.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

When Thomas Jefferson said in his 1801 Inaugural Address, “We are all republicans: we are all federalists,” he was attempting to reconcile the differences between the two political parties and make a bid for Federalist support. He could not have realized then that one of the greatest threats to political achievement in his second administration would not come from friction between the established parties, but from one individual who styled himself and his small circle of followers as a “third something” between Republicans and Federalists. During Jefferson's first term certain issues arose which caused a growing dissatisfaction with administration policies among a few party members. Chief among that small, disaffected faction (commonly called the “Tertium Quids” because they claimed to be “third something”) was John Randolph of Roanoke – one of the most capable and consistent representatives who ever took the oath of office. Although Randolph's announcement of his willingness to meet men on that ground called quiddism came in 1806 during debates on non-importation of goods from Great Britain, his personal war with Jefferson had already evolved through a series of issues which emphasized their emerging differences on how political theory, purity and principle should be put into practice. By early 1806 Randolph's break with the administration was inevitable and reconciliation impossible.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , April 1986 , pp. 71 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Cunningham, Noble E., “Who Were the Quids” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 50 (09, 1963), 252–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Bruce, William C., John Randolph of Roanoke (2 vols., New York, 1970), 1, 75Google Scholar.

3 Ibid.2, 319.

4 Randolph to Tudor Randolph, 13 Dec, 1813, quoted in Bruce, 1, 36–37.

5 Dawidoff, Robert, The Education of John Randolph (New York, 1979), p. 100Google Scholar.

6 Johnson, Gerald, Randolph of Roanoke: A Political Fantastic (New York, 1929), pp. 175–77Google Scholar.

7 Bouldin, Powhatan, Home Reminiscences of John Randolph of Roanoke (Danville, Va., 1878), p. 53Google Scholar.

8 Garland, Hugh A., The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke (2 vols., New York, 1851), 2, 137Google Scholar; Johnson, pp. 217–18.

9 For examinations of the roots of this philosophy and its influence on Randolph and the Jeffersonian Republicans see Pocock, J. G. A., “Machiavelli, Harrington, and English Political Ideologies in the Eighteenth Century,” William and Mary Quarterly, 22 (1965)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Browning, Lance, The Jeffersonian Persuasion, Evolution of Party Ideology (Ithaca, 1978)Google Scholar; Dawidoff, The Education of John Randolph.

10 Banning, p. 130; Dawidoff, pp. 145–148.

11 Dawidoff, p. 145.

12 Annal of Congress, Joseph Gales, Sr. (comp.), Washington, 1853, 7th Congress, 1st session, p. 1035.

13 Ibid. 12th Congress, 2nd session, p. 782.

14 Randolph to Nicholson, 17 December, 1800, Nicholson Papers. L.C., quoted in Macphee, Donald, “The Tertium Quid Movement: A Study in Political Insurgency” (Ph.D. dissertataion, University of California at Berkeley, 1959), p. 6Google Scholar.

15 Randolph to Nicholson, 1 January, 1801, Nicholson Papers, in Adams, Henry, John Randolph (Boston, 1868), p. 13Google Scholar.

16 Jefferson to Nicholson, 13 May, 1803, in Bergh, Albert E., ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (20 vols., Washington, D.C., 1907), 10, 390Google Scholar.

17 Adams, p. 137.

18 Annals, 7th Congress, 2nd session, p. 528.

19 Adams, Charles F., ed., Memoirs of John Quincy Adams (7 vols., Freeport, N.Y., 1874–1877), 1, 384Google Scholar.

20 Ibid.1, 365.

21 Randolph to Nicholson, 3 April, 1805, Nicholson Papers, in Macphee, p. 37.

22 Bruce, , John Randolph of Roanoke, 1, 135, 180–84Google Scholar; Malone, Dumas, Jefferson the President-First Term, 1801–1805 (Boston, 1970), p. 448Google Scholar; Haskins, Charles, “The Yazoo Land Companies,” Papers of the American Historical Association (New York, 1891), 5, 417–18, 421–23Google Scholar; Report of the Commissioners, American State Papers, Public Lands, 1, 158.

23 Bruce, 1, 184; Haskins, pp. 423–24; Public Lands, 1, 132–33.

24 Public Lands, 1, 134.

25 Annals, 8th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 979–84.

26 Banning, , Jeffersonian Persuasion, p. 47Google Scholar.

27 Adams, , Randolph, p. 109Google Scholar.

28 See Brant, Irving, James Madison – Secretary of State, 1801–1809 (New York, 1953), pp. 237–38Google Scholar.

29 Risjord, Norman K., The Old Republicans, Southern Conservatism in the Age of Jefferson (New York, 1965), pp. 34–35Google Scholar.

30 Malone, p. 453.

31 Annals, 8th Cong., 2nd sess., pp. 1173–74; Macphee, , Tertium Quid Movement, pp. 54–55Google Scholar.

32 Annals, 8th Cong., 2nd sess., pp. 1173–74.

33 Adams, p. 252.

34 Haskins, “The Yazoo Land Companies,” pp. 432–36.

35 Annals, 9th Cong., 1st sess., p. 909.

36 Bruce, , Randolph, 1, 198Google Scholar; Adams, Henry, History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Jefferson and Madison (9 vols., New York, 1889–1890), 2, 217Google Scholar.

37 Adams, , History, 3, 120Google Scholar.

38 Ibid. p. 127.

39 Annals, 9th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 11–16.

40 Adams, , History, 3, 128Google Scholar.

41 Annals, 9th Cong., 1 sess., p. 19.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid.

44 Cabinet decision on Spain, 14 November, 1805, in Ford, Paul L., ed., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (12 vols., Federal Edition, New York, 1905), 10, 180–81Google Scholar.

45 Ibid., Jefferson to A. Gallatin, 23 October 1805, p. 179.

46 Jefferson to Gallatin: Spanish Resolution, 1805, in Adams, Henry, The Writings of Albert Gallatin (New York, 1960), 1, 277Google Scholar.

47 Adams, , History, 3, 117–19Google Scholar; Adams, , Randolph, pp. 162–64Google Scholar.

48 Adams, , History, 3, 132Google Scholar; Bruce, , John Randolph, 1, 225Google Scholar; Annals, 9th Cong., 1 sess., p. 1117.

49 Jefferson to Gallatin, 7 December, 1805, in Adams, , ed., Writings of Gallatin, 1, 282Google Scholar.

50 First Letter of “Decius” in the Richmond Enquirer, 15 August, 1806.

51 Ibid.

52 Adams, , History, 3, 133–34Google Scholar.

53 Richmond Enquirer, 15 August, 1806.

54 Ibid.

55 Ibid.

56 Annals, 9 Cong., 1 sess., p. 947.

57 Richmond Enquirer, 15 Aug., 1805.

58 Ibid.

59 Annals, 9 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 1120–21.

60 Ibid. p. 1121.

61 Richmond Enquirer, 15 Aug., 1805.

62 Ibid.

63 Quoted in Jordan, Daniel P., Political Leadership in Jefferson's Virginia (Charlottesville, VA, 1983), p. 166Google Scholar.

64 Brown, Everett S., ed., William Plumer's Memorandum of Proceedings in the United States Senate, 1803–1807 (New York, 1923), p. 367CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 Annals, 9 Cong., 1 sess., p. 771.

66 Risjord, , Old Republicans, p. 48Google Scholar; Adams, H., History, 3, 138Google Scholar.

67 Adams, , History, 3, 138Google Scholar.

68 Adams, Charles F., ed., Memoirs of John Quincy Adams (7 vols., Freeport, N.Y. 1874–1877), 1, 419Google Scholar.

69 Jefferson to W. A. Barnwell, 17 September, 1806, in Ford, , ed., Works, 10, 290Google Scholar.

70 Annals, 9 Cong., 1 sess., p. 771.

71 Ibid. p. 775.

72 Ibid. p. 946–49.

73 Haynes, George H., ed., “Letters of Samuel Taggert, Representative in Congress, 1805–1814,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 33, 198Google Scholar.

74 William, and Cutler, Julia C., Life, Journal and Correspondence of Reverend Manasseh Cutler (2 vols., Cincinatti, 1888), 2, 327Google Scholar.

75 Ibid.

76 Haynes, , ed., “Letters,” 33, 198Google Scholar.

77 Annals, 9 Cong., 1 sess., p. 984.

78 Ibid. p. 985.

79 Ibid. p. 988.

80 Ibid.

81 Ibid. p. 1023.

82 Ibid. p. 1060.

83 Ibid. p. 1067.

84 Ibid. p. 247.

85 Ibid. p. 1095.

86 Gallatin to Jefferson, 12 November, 1806, in Adams, H., ed., Writings, 1, 311–12Google Scholar.

87 Jefferson to Gallatin, 14 November, 1806, in Ford, , ed., Works, 10, 303, (n.)Google Scholar.

88 Annals, 9 Cong., 2 sess., p. 14.

89 Ibid. p. 319.

90 Ibid. p. 105.

91 Risjord, , Old Republicans, p. 52Google Scholar; Adams, , John Randolph, p. 184Google Scholar.

92 Macphee, , Tertium Quid Movement, p. 266Google Scholar; Adams, , Randolph, p. 270Google Scholar; Kirk, Russell, Randolph of Roanoke: A study in Conservative Thought (Chicago, 1951), pp. 63–66Google Scholar.