John Randolph (American History Through Literature) [Paperback]

Henry Adams (Author), Robert McColley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1995 | ISBN-10: 1563246538 | ISBN-13: 978-1563246531 | Edition: Revised

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 228 pages
• Publisher: M E Sharpe Inc; Revised edition (December 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563246538
• ISBN-13: 978-1563246531
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,861,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written chop job, April 24, 2002

By 

chefdevergue (Spokane, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: John Randolph (Hardcover)

Anyone picking up this book should know from the start that this is as about as unobjective a biography as one is bound to find. Henry Adams has multiple scores to settle, on behalf of John Adams and John Quincy Adams (his great-grandfather and grandfather, respectively), with John Randolph of Roanoke (who never had a kind word for either of the Adams presidents). The reader would be strongly advised to read both the introduction by Robert McColley, as well as the notes on the text (located at the end of the book) which deals with specific matters of interpretation in the book.

Adams uses this book to savage Randolph at every opportunity. The bulk of the book follows Randolph in his congressional career up through 1806, when he broke with the Jefferson administration over the administration's attempt to pay France two million dollars to secure Western Florida from Spain. Up until 1806, as Adams puts it, Randolph was the "spoiled child of his party and recognised mouthpiece of the administration." (p. 118) Randolph was in the thick of things up to that point, including the Louisiana Purchase, the approval of which he helped shephard through the House of Representatives. He was also given the responsibility for the February 1805 impeachment of Samuel Chase, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. At that point in history, the question of the Executive Branch's authority over the Judicial Branch was far from settled. A successful prosecution of Justice Chase might well have changed the history of Executive-Judicial relations, but Randolph botched the job thoroughly. Adams can barely contain his glee when describing how unequal to the task Randolph was.

The bungled Chase impeachment increasingly made Randolph an embarrassment to the Jefferson administration. Randolph's political prospects were damaged beyond repair after 1806, and from that point on, as he became increasingly erratic, was on the periphery of the American political scene. He quarrelled, at one point or another, with every administration from Jefferson to Andrew Jackson. Adams devotes only 70 pages to Randolph's life from 1806 until his death in 1833. It is evident at this point that Adams is more interested in directing criticism at Jefferson and his successors in the Virginia Dynasty than he is at studying the life of Randolph.

Adams does make good points in his book, especially regarding the notions of states' rights. Coventional wisdom holds that Randolph was one the early advocates of the states' rights philosophy that John C. Calhoun subsequently embraced, but Adams argues persuasively that actions such as the Louisiana Purchase and the protection by the federal government of slavery (such as the Fugitive Slave Act) were in themselves encroachments on the rights of individual states and helped further the centralization of government in the United States. Far from being a traditional states' rights advocate, Adams contends, Randolph did a great deal to undermine the notion of states' rights as it existed in 1789.

Despite the rather venomous nature of the book, it is none the less a wonderful piece of literature that is worth reading. Adams' skills as a writer are evident throughout. The three stars represents a dual rating: 5 stars for the quality of the writing, 1 star for the utter lack of objectivity...although what could the reader seriously expect anyway?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Henry Adams Skewers a Virginia Eccentric, October 6, 2008

By 

Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life" (Monona, WI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: John Randolph (1898) (Hardcover)

John Randolph was a Jeffersonian Republican and a Virginian to the manor born. He was a virulent political opponent of John Adams and John Quincy Adams. The author of this biography was Henry Adams, great-grandson and grandson of the two Massachusetts presidents. The Adamses and the Randolphs could hardly have been more dissimilar in politics, religion, and every other important influence upon one's outlook on life. In sum, Henry Adams is not an unbiased biographer of John Randolph. Henry Adams skewers this Virginia eccentric and Randolph made it easy.

[ADDENDUM: I need to revise my estimation of Henry Adams's potential bias. See the Garry Wills book (link below) for a discussion of Henry Adams attitude toward his presidential ancestors and John Randolph, pages 105-116. Henry did NOT share political views with either John and John Quincy. He also especially personally did not like or admire John Qunicy.]

Do these differences and biases make Henry Adams an unreliable biographer of John Randolph? I do not really know because frankly John Randolph is such a minor character in American history that books about him are obscure in the extreme. Adams was a respected writer and historian, but that does not bar him from bias. (See, e.g. History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson (Library of America)) From what I have gathered elsewhere, Randolph was an impulsive, outrageously outspoken, heavy-drinking man who may not have been entirely sane.

But really, who cares if Adams is entirely objective or not? I became interested in John Randolph because he keeps popping up in early 19th century American history. He was briefly an important Republican Congressional leader, but if his name is remembered at all, it really remembered because of his eccentricities of drink, manner, politics, and language.

When I learned that the great Henry Adams had penned a biography, the lure was irresistible. John Randolph was rara avis - an odd duck. The fact that Adams had a viewpoint, OK, an axe or two to grind, only makes the book more delicious. Henry Adams could write and his writing is anchored in historical fact. He also gives the reader the flavor and feel of times whether he is entirely fair to Randolph or not. Better than most historians of this era, Adams succinctly lays out the fears of despotism that motivated the early Jeffersonians. He also sees his great-grandfather John's use of the Alien and Sedition laws as putting the republic in `real danger'.

I found John Randolph considerably easier sledding than his far better know The Education of Henry Adams: A Centennial Version. For more on Adams see Garry Wills'Henry Adams and the Making of America. His John Randolph is a short, but fascinating slice of American history.