Edmund Randolph

On August 10, 1753, in Williamsburg, Colony of Virginia, Edmund Randolph was born into one of the colony's leading legal families. He attended the College of William and Mary and read law under his father and uncle before the Revolution interrupted ordinary practice. Service as aide to George Washington and then as attorney general of Virginia made him a central figure in republican government.

As governor of Virginia, Randolph opened the Constitutional Convention in 1787 by presenting the Virginia Plan, which framed much of the debate over representation and national power. Although he refused to sign the finished Constitution, he later supported ratification and entered George Washington's cabinet as the first attorney general and then secretary of state. His 1795 resignation over the Jay Treaty controversy showed how foreign policy and cabinet politics were already testing the new system.

Randolph's Virginia Plan left a lasting mark on the House of Representatives, the presidency, and the federal judiciary created by the Constitution. His service as the first attorney general also helped define the Justice Department's ancestral place in national government.