John Randolph 1773–1833

John Wesley Jarvis (1781–1840)
Oil on wood, 1811

Enlarged image

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mrs. Gerard B. Lambert

John Randolph 1773–1833

John Wesley Jarvis (1781–1840)
Oil on wood, 1811

Against the wave of War Hawks who swept into Congress in 1811, it seemed only one man, John Randolph of Roanoke, stood against them. Randolph saw war with Britain as foolhardy and driven by land hunger rather than violations of American rights. “We have heard but one word,” Randolph accused his fellow congressmen, “like the whip-poor-will, but one eternal monotonous tone—Canada! Canada! Canada!”

Randolph was an aristocratic and eccentric man who brought his hunting dogs into the House chamber. His colleagues feared his sharp tongue, yet his biting speeches could not be ignored and proved in some ways prophetic: “Gentlemen, you have made war. You have finished the ruin of our country. And before you conquer Canada your idol [Napoleon] will cease to distract the world and the Capitol will be a ruin.”

Enlarged image

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Mrs. Gerard B. Lambert