Obviously, an antique of this pattern was out of place as a leader in the Republican party.  For a time the spell of Jefferson’s winning genius, and the presence of a powerful opposition, kept him in some subjection; but in 1807 that spell had spent its force, and the Federal party was not formidable.  John Randolph was himself again.  The immediate occasion of the rupture was, probably, Mr. Jefferson’s evident preference of James Madison as his successor.  We have a right to infer this, from the extreme and lasting rancor which Randolph exhibited toward Mr. Madison, who he used to say was as mean a man for a Virginian as John Quincy Adams was for a Yankee.  Nor ought we ever to speak of this gifted and unhappy man without considering his physical condition.  It appears from the slight notices we have of this vital matter, that about the year 1807 the stock of vigor which his youth had acquired was gone, and he lived thenceforth a miserable invalid, afflicted with diseases that sharpen the temper and narrow the mind.  John Randolph well might have outgrown inherited prejudices and limitations, and attained to the stature of a modern, a national, a republican man.  John Randolph sick—­radically and incurably sick—­ceased to grow just when his best growth would naturally have begun.

The sudden defection of a man so conspicuous and considerable, at a time when the Republican party was not aware of its strength, struck dismay to many minds, who felt, with Jefferson, that to the Republican party in the United States were confided the best interests of human nature.  Mr. Jefferson was not in the least alarmed, because he knew the strength of the party and the weakness of the man.  The letter which he wrote on this subject to Mr. Monroe ought to be learned by heart by every politician in the country,—­by the self-seekers, for the warning which it gives them, and by the patriotic, for the comfort which it affords them in time of trouble.  Some readers, perhaps, will be reminded by it of events which occurred at Washington not longer ago than last winter.[1]

“Our old friend Mercer broke off from us some time ago; at first, professing to disdain joining the Federalists; yet, from the habit of voting together, becoming soon identified with them.  Without carrying over with him one single person, he is now in a state of as perfect obscurity 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 in 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,