that the Executive, if no choice were reached by the State electors, should be chosen by the Senate. The bicameral system had been accepted by Randolph in the belief that a second chamber would check "precipitate" legislation. It did not occur to him that on this feature the smaller States would fix their demand for inequality of representation. In Randolph's Republic, as in Franklin's, a Second Chamber was an anomaly,—at best a fifth wheel to his coach, which required only the State Legislature, the National Legislature, the Judiciary, and the Executive. The Vice-Presidency he viewed with an apprehension which must have arisen in thoughtful minds at various periods of our later history. He pleaded against the President's power to pardon the crimes in which he would be most likely to participate. He opposed executive re-eligibility until after the office was lodged in an individual hand; then he thought that a President debarred from legal re-election might be tempted to continue his power by coup d'état. In all these matters Randolph exhibited a philosophic insight which won the admiration of Franklin, who generally voted with him. Indeed, the clearness and. force of Randolph's argument several times won the Convention to his side; but after such favorable votes the smaller States, or the semi-monarchical party, managed to work on committees outside and secured reversal of these victories.
Of the fifty-five members who sat in the Convention the names of but thirty-nine were attached to the Constitution. Of the other sixteen three only remained to the end, and among these was Randolph. He had long before intimated to the Convention that he would not be able to sign the Constitution in the shape it was assuming, but he knew that it would, in substance, become the basis of the government. Though Randolph was then only thirty-four years of age, he had for eleven years been actively connected with the administrative affairs of the chief State in the Confederation, and was then its Governor. This enabled him to assist the Convention materially in all the details connected with judicial procedure, finance, and inter-State relations. It is now melancholy to reflect that the Convention passed so lightly over Randolph's efforts to make the relative State and Federal powers definite and unmistakable. The clause he would have added in ink has since been written in blood. By remaining in the Convention Randolph was able to secure modifications now generally approved, and he gained a prestige which enabled him to urge subsequent amendments. He agreed to sign if the Convention would add a provision for a second Convention after the sense of the country had been taken on the Constitution. This motion was seconded by Franklin, but failed; and Randolph, though appealed to by his venerable friend, who ifttered an encomium on his services and ability, refused to sign. He said, however, that he did not mean by this refusal to decide that he should oppose ratification of the Constitution by his State. He meant only to keep himself free to be governed by his duty, as it should be prescribed by his future judgment.
Randolph's criticisms of the Constitution partly anticipated those of Mill, Bagehot, Karl Blind, Louis Blanc, and other republican authors of Europe. Indeed, a number of works have recently ap-
