John Randolph (June 2, 1773 – May 24, 1833), known as John Randolph of Roanoke, was a Congressman from Virginia, serving in the House of Representatives (1799 – 1813, 1815 – 1817, 1819 – 1825, 1827 – 1829, 1833), the Senate (1825 – 1827), and also as Minister to Russia (1830). After serving as President Thomas Jefferson's spokesman in the House, he broke with Jefferson in 1803 and became the leader of the "Old Republican" or "Quids" faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that wanted to restrict the role of the federal government. Specifically, Randolph promoted the Principles of '98, which said that individual states could judge the constitutionality of central government laws and decrees, and could refuse to enforce laws deemed unconstitutional.

A quick thinking orator with a wicked wit, his three decades in Congress were highlighted by his commitment to the republicanism and his advocacy for a commercial agrarian society. Randolph's conservative stance, displayed in his arguments against debt and for the rights of the landed gentry, have been attributed to his ties to his family estate and to his commitment to the elitist values of his native Southside, Virginia. Randolph vehemently opposed the War of 1812 and the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and was active in debates about tariffs, manufacturing, and currency. However, he had mixed feelings about slavery. While opposed to the slave trade abroad and in the capital, Randolph remained dependent on his own slaves to work his tobacco plantation. Voters enjoyed both his fiery character, and his lively electioneering methods. Randolph appealed directly to yeomen, using entertaining and enlightening oratory, socialability, and community of interest, particularly in agriculture, that led to an enduring voter attachment to him regardless of his striking personal deficiencies. His defense of limited government appeals to 21st century conservatives, most notably Russell Kirk (1918 – 1994).

He was born at Cawsons, Virginia (now in Hopewell, Virginia), the son of rich tobacco planter John Randolph (1742 – 1775) and Frances Bland (1744 – 1788). A peculiar illness as a young man left Randolph beardless and high-voiced. He was the nephew of Theodorick Bland and Thomas Tudor Tucker and a half brother of Henry St. George Tucker, Sr. and Nathaniel Beverley Tucker. He studied under private tutors, at Walter Maury's private school, then College of New Jersey, and Columbia College, New York City. He studied law in Philadelphia, but never practiced. At an unusually young age Randolph was elected to the Sixth and to the six succeeding Congresses (1799 to 1813). Federalist William Plumer of New Hampshire wrote in 1803 of his striking presence:

Mr. Randolph goes to the House booted and spurred, with his whip in hand, in imitation, it is said, of members of the British Parliament. He is a very slight man but of the common stature. At a little distance, he does not appear older than you are; but, upon a nearer approach, you perceive his wrinkles and grey hairs. He is, I believe, about thirty. He is a descendant in the right line from the celebrated Indian Princess, Pochahontas. The Federalists ridicule and affect to despise him; but a despised foe often proves a dangerous enemy. His talents are certainly far above mediocrity. As a popular speaker, he is not inferior to any man in the House. I admire his ingenuity and address; but I dislike his politics.

Randolph was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means in the Seventh through the Ninth Congresses, acting as the Democratic-Republican party leader. After breaking with President Thomas Jefferson in 1806, he founded the Tertium quids, a faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that called for a return to the Principles of 1798 and renounced what it saw as creeping nationalism.

Although he greatly admired the political ideals of the Revolutionary War generation, Randolph, influenced by Southern anti-Federalism, propounded a version of republicanism that called for the traditional patriarchal society of Virginia's elite gentry to preserve social stability with minimal government interference. Randolph was one of the Congressional managers who conducted the successful impeachment proceedings against John Pickering, judge of the United States District Court for New Hampshire, in January 1804. Critics complained that he mismanaged the failed effort in December of the same year against Samuel Chase, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

In June 1807 he was the foreman of the Grand Jury in Richmond Va., which was considering the indictment of Aaron Burr and others for treason. By the end of the review he was angry with Thomas Jefferson for supporting General James Wilkinson, Burr's chief accuser. He considered Wilkinson less than a reputable and honorable person.

He was defeated for re-election in 1812 due to his opposition to the War of 1812, but elected in 1814 and 1816, skipped a term, and served from 1819 until his resignation in 1825. Randolph was appointed to the Senate in December, 1825 to fill a vacancy, and served until 1827. Randolph was elected to the Congress in 1826, chairing the Committee on Ways and Means.

Randolph was a member of the Virginia constitutional convention at Richmond in 1829. He was appointed United States Minister to Russia by President Andrew Jackson and served from May to September, 1830, when he resigned for health reasons. Elected again in 1832, he served until his death in Philadelphia on May 24, 1833. He is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. He never married.

John Greenleaf Whittier's poem "Randolph of Roanoke," although written after the Virginian had become a symbol of "slave power," captures his strange brilliance:

Mirth, sparkling like a diamond shower,

From lips of life-long sadness;

Clear picturings of majestic thought

Upon a ground of madness

While others hailed in distant skies

Our eagle's dusky pinion,

He only saw the mountain bird

Stoop o'er his Old Dominion!

All parties feared him; each in turn

Beheld its schemes disjointed,

At right or left his fatal glance

And spectral finger pointed

A modern conservative political group, the John Randolph Club, is named after Randolph. Randolph-Macon College and Randolph College also bear his name.

Despite being a Virginia gentleman, one of the great orators in the history of Caroline, and House leader, Randolph after five years of leadership became (1803) a permanent outsider and eccentric. He had personal eccentricities as well, which were made worse by his lifelong ill health (he died of tuberculosis), his heavy drinking, and his occasional use of opium. He once fought a duel with Henry Clay, but otherwise kept his bellicosity to the floor of Congress. He routinely dressed in a flashy manner, often accompanied by his slaves and his hunting dogs.

In 1819, John Randolph wrote in his will a provision for the freedom of his slaves after his death. Three years later, in 1822, in a codicil to that will, he stipulated that money be provided to transport and settle these freed slaves in some other state (Ohio). (A group of the former "Randolph Slaves" settled in Rumley, Shelby County, Ohio.)

Randolph was raised and remained within the Episcopalian Church. Although he went through a phase of youthful irreligion, in 1818 he had a crisis ending in a conversion experience, all of which he recounted in letters to several friends. His life thereafter was marked with piety; for example, he wrote to John Brockenbrough that he was restrained from taking communion "by the fear of eating and drinking unrighteously."