Randolph's Veto Analysis

George Wythe Randolph was born on march 10 1818 in monticello in albemarle county. He was the twelfth surviving child of thomas mann randolph jr. and martha jefferson randolph.( which makes him the grandson of Thomas Jefferson. Randolph joined the confederate army and fought in the battle of big bethel in 1861. On march 1862 he helped to reform the war department at a time when the confederate capital at Richmond was threatened by union general George B McClellan's peninsula campaign in 1862. Randolph helped to improve procurement and authored the confederacy's first conscription law, having already done the same for virginia. His independence and focus on the strategic importance of the west put him into conflict with confederate president
Randolph was elected as a delegate to the virginia convention of 1861 which met in richmond in february and for two and half months hotly debated the question of secession. On april Randolph and two other virginia delegates- william B preston and alexander H.H stuart- met in washington D.C with the newly elected U.S president, Abraham Lincon, hoping to dissuade him from forcefully resupplying The federal garrison at fort sumter in charleston harbor, south carolina, and thereby provoking war. Lincoln vowed to meet force with force, however, and that night confederates fired on sumter. On april, after lincoln responded with a call for 75,000 volunteers, the virginia convention voted to secede. In the meantime, Randolph served on the conversion military committee and helped to organise the state's defenses and draft a conscription law based on european models. Randolph was commissioned a major in the Virginia militia and his howitzers were placed under the command to John Bankhead magruder quickly promoted to colonel, Randolph was chief of artillery with magruder's army of the peninsula at the battle of big bethel in new york county and hampton on june 10