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.In August 1795, dispatches by Fouchet to France were seized by privateers; the papers found theirway back to President Washington.These diplomatic papers contained a number of documentswhich clearly implicated Edmund Randolph in financial deals with fouchet, showing evidence ofbribery and treason.Once he had seen these papers, President Washington had no alternative but todemand Randolph's resignation.He is the only Secretary of State who had to resign under suchcharges.Randolph never again held public office, although he lived thirty-eight years after hisdisgrace, dying in 1813.After Edmund Randolph sent in his resignation, the accounts of the Secretary of State showed that$49,000 was missing from the funds of the department.A later Treasury Department investigationshowed an additional $61,000 was missing, for which Edmund Randolph was solely responsible.Thus the Grand Master of Virginia Masonry left office under a cloud of accusations of bribery,treason, and embezzlement.This was hardly surprising in a man who had sworn to rebel againstGod, and to impose the demon worship of Baal on his unsuspecting fellow-citizens.The missinggovernment funds were never recovered.Edmund Randolph devoted his later years to the practice of law.Because of his Masonicconnections, he never wanted for clients.He also worked for years on the writing of a massiveHistory of Virginia, which he began in 1786, and finally completed in 1810.For some reason, hemade no attempt to have it published.The manuscript was stored for many years at Staunton LodgeNo.13, and was finally published by the University of Virginia Press in 1970.Although it is a well-researched and factual work, it does not contain a single reference to Freemasonry or to the partwhich this organization played in controlling the state from behind the scenes.During his legal career, Edmund Randolph received considerable publicity because of his defenseof two controversial criminals, George Wythe Sweeney and Aaron Burr.Sweeney was the nephewof George Wythe, who is generally regarded as the father of the legal profession in the UnitedStates, because of his long tenure as professor of law at the College of William and Mary inWilliamsburg.His pupils included Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, and many other politicalfigures.Like his close friend, Edmund Randolph, George Wythe's commitment to the cause of theRevolution was always suspect.It was Wythe and Randolph who had shouted "Treason!" at PatrickHenry.In 1793, George Wythe, sitting as Judge of the Chancery Court of Richmond, ruled againstAmericans and awarded British creditors full payment from Virginia debtors on all loans predatingthe Revolutionary War, holding them to the full valuation of the loans.Many Virginians demandedthat Wythe be lynched because of this Tory decision, although it was more likely a Masonic one.Wythe had a young wife who died after only one year of marriage; she was but sixteen.Henry Claythen became secretary to Wythe at Chancery Court and for some years was like a son to him.Wythe's housekeeper, a slave named Lydia Broadnax, became his consort, and he had a son by her,whom he set free.Dr.John Dove reported the subsequent events in a document now known as"Dove's Memorandum": "Wythe had a yellow woman by the name of Lydia who lived with him aswife or mistress as was quite common in the city.By this woman he had a son named Mike." InEustace Mullins, Curse of Canaan 1181806, Edmund Randolph was called in by Wythe to write a codicil to his will, providing that someof his stock in the Bank of Virginia be left to his son, Mike.Wythe had a grandnephew namedSweeney who was to be his principal heir.Wythe claimed that the nephew had been stealing fromhim, and he called Randolph in to write a second codicil leaving Mike the remainder of his bankstock.In fact, Wythe's decision was prompted by his passion for the youth, who for some time hadbeen serving him as a catamite, according to the Curse of Canaan.Through the natural aging process, Lydia, who was about the same age as the now venerable Wythe,was no longer a satisfactory bed partner.Wythe, still lusty beyond his years, now began to satisfyhimself with his handsome mulatto bastard.Overcome by his passion for the youth, he made hisfatal mistake.The tradition of the Old South was that an owner might sire as many mulatto childrenas he wished, they being a desirable commercial commodity, and the lighter-skinned, the higher theprice; an equally powerful tradition was that such offspring could never inherit money or property.They were often left some clothing, perhaps a gold watch, but the owner was never expected toaward them status by willing them large sums of money or land holdings.Because he violated this fundamental principle, Wythe was murdered by his rightful heir.Wythe'swill provided that if Mike preceded him in death, Sweeney would receive the entire estate.Sweeneyprepared coffee for his granduncle and Mike, and laced it heavily with arsenic.They both died inagony.Sweeney was charged with murder, and much damaging evidence was presented againsthim; that he had purchased arsenic, and testimony from Lydia that she had seen him put somethingin the coffee.Nevertheless, Edmund Randolph, who defended Sweeney, won acquittal by jury [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]