scurity as if his name had never been known. Mr. J.
Randolph is in the same track, and will end in the same way. His course
has excited considerable alarm. Timid men consider it as a proof of the
weakness of our government, and that it is to be rent into pieces by
demagogues and to end in anarchy. I survey the scene with a different
eye, and draw a different augury from it. In a House of Representatives
of a great mass of good sense, Mr. Randolph's popular eloquence gave him
such advantages as to place him unrivalled as the leader of the House;
and, although not conciliatory to those whom he led, principles of duty
and patriotism induced many of them to swallow humiliations he subjected
them to, and to vote as was right, as long as he kept the path of right
himself. The sudden defection of such a man could not but produce a
momentary astonishment, and even dismay; but for a moment only. The
good sense of the House rallied around its principles, and, without any
leader, pursued steadily the business of the session, did it well, and
by a strength of vote which has never before been seen. Upon all trying
questions, exclusive of the federalists, the minority of republicans
voting with him, has been from four to six or eight, against from
ninety to one hundred; and although he yet treats the federalists with
ineffable contempt, yet having declared eternal opposition to this
administration, and consequently associated with them in his votes, he
will, like Mercer, end with them. The augury I draw from this is that
there is a steady good sense in the legislature, and in the body of the
nation, joined with good intentions, which will lead them to discern and
to pursue the public good under all circumstances which can arise, and
that no _ignis faiuus_ will be able to lead them long astray. In the
present case, the public sentiment, as far as declarations of it have
yet come in, is, without a single exception, in firm adherence to the
administration. One popular paper is endeavoring to maintain equivocal
ground; approving the administration in all its proceedings, and
Mr. Randolph in all those which have heretofore merited approbation,
carefully avoiding to mention his late aberration. The ultimate view of
this paper is friendly to you, and the editor, with more judgment than
him who assumes to be at the head of your friends, sees that the ground
of opposition to the administration is not that on which it would be
advantageous to yo