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, I have directed
that you should have the inspection of my letter of the twenty-second of
July, agreeably to your request; and 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. I
grant this permission, inasmuch as the extract alluded to manifestly
tends to impress on the public mind an opinion that something has passed
between us, which you should disclose with reluctance, from motives of
delicacy with respect to me."

In reference to Randolph's proposition to submit his vindication to the
inspection of Washington, the latter remarked, "As you are no longer an
officer of the government, and propose to submit your vindication to the
public, it is not my desire, nor is it my intention, to receive it
otherwise than through the medium of the press. Facts you can not
mistake, and, if they are fairly and candidly stated, they will invite
no comments."

In December the pamphlet appeared, entitled, "A Vindication of Mr.
Randolph's Resignation," in which was a narrative of the principal
events which we have just been considering, the correspondence between
the president and Randolph, the whole of Fauchet's letter, and
Randolph's remarks. "From the nature of the circumstances," says Sparks,
"Mr. Randolph 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." The statements which he
made in proof of his innocence were not such as to produce entire
conviction. "He moreover," continues Sparks, "allowed himself to be
betrayed into a warmth of temper and bitterness of feeling not
altogether favorable to his candor. After all that has been made known,
the particulars of his conversations with Fauchet and his designs are
still matters of conjecture."

In after life, Mr. Randolph deeply regretted the course that he pursued
toward Washington at this time. In a letter to Judge Bushrod Washington,
written in the summer of 1810, he said: "I do not retain the smallest
degree of that feeling which roused me fifteen years ago against some
individuals. For the world contain