Randolph Republican

The Randolph Republicans (sometimes shortened to Randolphians) were various factions of the Democratic-Republican Party in the United States from 1806 to 1812.

By the 1810s, the term would more famously be used to refer to the radical faction of the Democratic-Republican Party. The group, which was also called the Old Republicans, was more strongly opposed to the Federalist Party's policies than was the emerging moderate leadership and even the old radicals of the Democratic-Republican Party.

New York State
In New York State, the term was applied to the faction of the Republican Party that remained loyal to Morgan Lewis after he had been repudiated by the party's majority, which was led by moderate Madison Republican DeWitt Clinton.

Virginia


When Virginia Representative John Randolph of Roanoke broke with Jefferson and James Madison in 1806, his faction was called the "Randolphians". Randolph was the leader of the Randolph Republican faction, which insisted on strict adherence to the US Constitution. He summarized Randolph Republican principles as "love of peace, hatred of offensive war, jealousy of the state governments toward the general government; a dread of standing armies; a loathing of public debts, taxes, and excises; tenderness for the liberty of the citizen; jealousy, Argus-eyed jealousy of the patronage of the President".

Randolph made no initial effort to align with the radical faction in New York and made no effort to build a third party at the federal level. He supported George Clinton against Madison during the runup to the presidential election of 1808. However, the state Randolphians supported Madison and were led by Randolph, who had started as Jefferson's leader in the House but later became his most bitter enemy. Randolph denounced the compromise on the Yazoo Purchase in 1804 as totally corrupt. Randolph would become embittered with Jefferson and Madison and complained: "Everything and everybody seem to be jumbled out of place, except a few men who are steeped in supine indifference, whilst meddling fools and designing knaves are governing the country."

Increasingly, Randolph felt that the Democratic-Republican Party was adopting Federalist policies and betraying the true party spirit under the leadership of the Madison Republicans. In 1809, he wrote to an ally that "the party... favors federal principles, and, with the exception of a few great rival characters, federal men.... The old Republican party is already ruined, past redemption. New men and new maxims are the order of the day."

Randolph's increasingly-strident rhetoric limited his influence, until 1816 where he allied with Morgan Lewis to nominate him and Jeffersonian Simon Snyder and took back control of the party which would unfortunately die out shortly there-after. However, many of his supporters lived on and, by 1824, had looked to Nathaniel Macon to resurrect what they called "Old Republicanism".