Richmond Enquirer

RICHMOND, JAN. 4.

FOR THE ENQUIRER.

THE ELECTION OF SENATOR.

I am not astonished at the interest, which the election of a Senator of the United States has produced during the present session of the General Assembly. The times are squally. The friends of the Administration are strongly opposed to Mr. Randolph's re-election: And his friends are just as anxious for his success. The ministerial party at Washington have been moving in this business.—Two of the Secretaries are understood to have been writing letters to the City of Richmond about it; and, it is to be presumed, in a style not very favorable to his pretensions: And, on the other hand, his friends in Congress have expressed the solicitude which they entertained, to see him returned to the Senate. All the signs of the times exhibited at Richmond have been most anxiously watched abroad. The public prints throughout the country have harped upon every circumstance, which was supposed to bear upon the election.—Even the rejection of Mr. Wilson's resolution has been eagerly seized upon by distant politicians as an indication of the fate of Mr. Randolph himself.

The means, to which some of his adversaries have resorted to get up an opposition to him, are said to have been as extraordinary as their Zeal has been animated. Their personal application to the Governor does not surprise me. They could not have selected a candidate, whose name is more popular, or whose principles are more acceptable to the Legislature of Virginia. But Mr. Tyler knows what is due to himself, as well as to his country. He is unwilling to weaken the party, to whose principles he is attached, by any appearance of division; and to lend his sanction to any measure, which is got up by gentlemen of a different persuasion.

He is understood to have declined in the most explicit but respectful terms, the proposition which has been made to him. But it is a matter of some surprise, that any attempt should be made to start a candidate by subscription: it is still more surprising that Judge Barbour should be the candidate selected, because he has so recently pledged himself to his friends, in his own district, to serve them, if elected, in the other House of Congress. I will not permit myself to doubt the answer which he has made, or will make, to this singular application. He knows too well what is due to his own district to desert it. He knows too well what is due to his political principles, to yield to the importunities of gentlemen, who are as much opposed to his opinions, as they are to those of Mr. Randolph. He will never suffer himself to be taken away from his own political and personal friends, and to be used against them, by other gentlemen, who, however much they respect his character, are directly opposed to him in politics.

What then excites this profound interest; and this extraordinary opposition? The answer is to be found in the name of John Randolph. It is his fearless intrepidity in dragging public abuses to light; his determined opposition to the Administration; his avowed preference of Gen. Jackson, as the only man fitted to drive them from power; the peculiar powers of eloquence which he wields in the combat; these are some of the circumstances which have raised up the opposition. The friends of Mr. Adams and of Mr. Clay are to a man, united against him. Reject Mr. Randolph, and the cry will immediately go forth through the Union, that Virginia is abandoning her enlightened views of the Constitution; that the Administration is gaining ground among us; that all opposition to the re-election of Mr. Adams is unavailing; and in truth, never would a more joyous triumph be won by the ministerial party at Washington than by the immolation of this distinguished Senator.

It is said, that if Mr. Randolph be re-elected, it will prove the capriciousness of public sentiment: He has been guilty, (it is urged,) of numerous political transgressions; he was opposed to the Non-Intercourse System, and to the War.—Shall the People now cherish a statesman, whom they once condemned? But these questions come a day too late. They ought to have been addressed to the Legislature who elected him. If they deemed him capable of "doing the State some service," at the moment when he was elected, it remains for his opponents to show wherein the times have become better, or in what he has deserted the principles of Virginia. Let this credit be given him in the midst of all his aberrations; that he has ever been true to the principles of the Federal Constitution. He belonged to the Virginia School of Politics, when he first went into public life; he has supported her constitutional doctrines throughout his life: he is true to them at the present moment. His consistency on these great questions would atone for many errors, and entitle him to the confidence of Virginia in this moment of tribulation and peril.

I hold, if Mr. Randolph was ever capable of serving his country, that this is the accepted time. His powers are peculiarly adapted to the task which he is to encounter. He will be called upon to defend the constitution, when it is most violently assailed; to wither up by his fearless eloquence, the men who abuse the public confidence; and to drag malversation to the light of day. If in performing these offices, Mr. Randolph should be called upon to display a patience, which some honorable men suppose is a stranger to him—they should recollect, that the events of the last winter will read him an instructive lesson; that the present opposition to his re-election will not be entirely useless as a warning; and that if he finds no check in the admonitions of his friends, the power of the legislature does not expire with his re-election. They yet keep a check rein over all their proud public servants; and a vote of censure may arrest them in their career, or drive them from office.

That Mr. Randolph will be re-elected, I do not entertain a moment's doubt.

VIRGINIUS.