To James Madison from Edmund Randolph, 1 July 1812
From Edmund Randolph
Winchester July 1. 1812
Dear sir
I am greatly indebted to you for your prompt and efficient relief in the difficulty, which I had no reason to expect.1 As soon as I see my son in law Thomas Preston, whom I presume to be now in Baltimore, I shall move on to the medicinal springs either in Berkeley or Bath county.
I scarcely see a man, who does not feel himself elated with the hope, that Rodgers’s pursuit of the Jamaica fleet may be successful.2 For altho’ to multitudes the war was and is very grating, and they would have averted it if they could, while it was merely in a state of preparation, yet the commencement of it has turned their minds to objects of glory, and patriotism. I own, that I expected to see a flood of abuse in the papers of this place: but I am now persuaded, that, unless some dreadful disaster should over take us, a popularity awaits the government, which those, who administer it little counted upon. I am dear sir your obliged friend
Edm: Randolph.
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. Although no correspondence has been found to illuminate the nature of JM’s aid to Randolph, it might have been related to Randolph’s financial difficulties (see Reardon, Edmund Randolph, pp. 361–63, 365).
2. After his fruitless encounter with the Belvidera on 23 June, Rodgers followed the homeward-bound West Indian convoy without incident until he neared British waters on 13 July and was forced to break off the chase (Dudley et al., Naval War of 1812, 1:153, 262–63).