Background
Edmund Randolph was born on June 9, 1819 in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Peyton Randolph and his wife Maria Ward.
Edmund Randolph was born on June 9, 1819 in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Peyton Randolph and his wife Maria Ward.
He was graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1836 and then studied law for a year at the University of Virginia.
Moving to New Orleans shortly thereafter, he entered upon the practice of law and soon became clerk of the United States circuit court for Louisiana.
In 1849 he moved to San Francisco and the same year was elected to represent that town in the lower branch of the first California legislature, meeting at San Jose, December 15, 1849.
After the close of his term he never held public office but frequently appeared in political conventions, on the stump, or as a candidate. Early in 1851 he formed a law partnership in San Francisco with R. A. Lockwood and Frank Tilford, and the firm became prominent and highly successful. The greatest case in which Randolph was engaged was the Alameden quicksilver mine case.
He was leading counsel for the government along with Edwin M. Stanton, and the opposing counsel included Reverdy Johnson and Judah P. Benjamin. The trial of the case was described as the "acme of his fame, the flower of his power, " and his "most enduring monument. "
The decision was appealed to the United States Supreme Court where the elaborate brief prepared by Randolph was the basis upon which the government won its case. His prolonged and exhausting labors in this litigation led to his untimely death before the case came on for argument before the Court. Although the suit involved millions, Randolph's fee, paid to his widow, was a paltry $17, 000. With John Nugent and William Walker, Randolph was associated in the editorship of the San Francisco Herald when it was established in 1850.
He publicly and defiantly opposed the Vigilance Committees of 1851 and 1856. He took an active part in Walker's scheme for the conquest of Nicaragua and in the winter of 1855-56 went to Nicaragua to counsel with Walker and help him organize a government there. In the Kansas controversy of 1857-58, Randolph warmly espoused the Anti-Lecompton position of Stephen A. Douglas, and in 1859 was the Anti-Lecompton-Republican fusion candidate for attorney-general of California. In 1861 he was a candidate for the United States Senate. Although a stanch defender of slavery, he openly opposed secession and upheld the Union.
But he was untroubled by considerations of consistency and was soon denouncing the early measures of the Lincoln administration.
He had little wit, never told a joke, and was sarcastic to a superlative degree. He was gifted, excitable, and impetuous in temper, full of poetry and enthusiasm, but he was not a powerful, or even a logical, reasoner.
He won wide public admiration, but he had few intimate friends and was not companionable. Some of these traits may be attributable to the dyspepsia from which he suffered throughout his life.
Quotes from others about the person
In his last public speech, before the Breckinridge Democratic convention held at Sacramento, in the summer of 1861, "his whole soul, " says a contemporary who was present, "seemed to have become one vast volcano of molten rage, " and he spoke with "the fury of an inflamed patriot and the frenzy of an inspired prophet, " fervently praying for the slaying of Lincoln, the "despot usurper. "
The same contemporary declares that Randolph was "more powerful in invective than any other lawyer among his contemporaries. "
He married Thomassa Meaux, the daughter of Dr. Meaux of that city; she and two daughters survived him.