o work to prepare a pamphlet in explanation of
his conduct. While thus occupied he addressed several notes to
Washington, requiring information on various points, and received
concise answers to all his queries. On one occasion, where he had
required a particular paper, he published in the Gazette an extract
from his note to Washington; as if fearing the request might be
denied, lest the paper in question should lay open many confidential
and delicate matters.

In reply, Washington writes: "That you may have no cause to complain
of the withholding of any paper, however private and confidential,
which you shall think necessary in a case of so serious a nature ...
you are at full liberty to publish, without reserve, _any_ and _every_
private and confidential letter I ever wrote to you; nay more, every
word I ever uttered to you or in your hearing, from whence you can
derive any advantage in your vindication."

The vindication which Mr. Randolph had been preparing appeared in
December. In this, he gave a narrative of the principal events
relating to the case, his correspondence with the President, and the
whole of the French minister's letter. He endeavored to explain those
parts of the letter which had brought the purity of his conduct in
question; but, as has been observed, "he had a difficult task to
perform, as he was obliged to prove a negative, and to explain vague
expressions and insinuations connected with his name in Fauchet's
letter."

Fauchet himself furnished the best vindication in his certificate
above mentioned; but it is difficult to reconcile his certificate with
the language of his official letter to his government. We are rather
inclined to attribute to misconceptions and hasty inferences of the
French minister, the construction put by him in his letter on the
conversation he had held with Mr. Randolph. The latter injured his
cause by the embittered feelings manifested in his vindication, and
the asperity with which he spoke of Washington there and elsewhere. He
deeply regretted it in after life.

After a considerable interval from the resignation of Randolph,
Colonel Pickering was transferred to the department of State, and Mr.
James McHenry was appointed Secretary of War. The office of
attorney-general becoming vacant by the death of Mr. Bradford, was
offered to Mr. Charles Lee of Virginia, and accepted by him on the
last day of November.

During the late agitations, George Washington Lafayette,