Randolph, EDMUND JENNINGS

Randolph, EDMUND JENNINGS, an American statesman, was born at Williamsburg, Virginia, 10th August 1753, studied at William and Mary College, and was admitted to the bar. In 1776 he helped to frame the constitution of Virginia, and became the state's first attorney-general. In 1786-88 he was governor of Virginia, and in 1787 he was a member of the convention which framed the constitution of the United States. He was working hard at a codification of the state-laws of Virginia when, in 1789, he was appointed by Washington attorney-general of the United States. In 1794 he was made secretary of state, but after the president's signing of the Jay Treaty (1795) with England he resigned in order to be free to vindicate his own conduct. Meanwhile he was practically ruined by the responsibility which he had incurred, as part of the duties of his office, for certain funds provided for foreign service; and, though he returned to the bar, he had to assign his lands and slaves. He died 13th September 1813. See Moncure D. Conway, Omitted Chapters of History, disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph (1888).