Representative Joseph Fitz Randolph

Joseph Fitz Randolph (March 14, 1803 – March 20, 1873) was an American Whig Party politician, lawyer, and jurist who represented New Jersey in the United States House of Representatives from 1837 to 1843 as part of a general ticket covering the entire state. His three terms in Congress coincided with a formative period in American political and constitutional development, during which he participated in the national legislative process and represented the interests of New Jersey’s constituents.

Randolph was born in New York City on March 14, 1803. In his early childhood he moved with his parents to Piscataway, New Jersey, where he was raised. He received his early education from private tutors and in private schools, reflecting the educational opportunities available to families of some means in the early nineteenth century. He prepared for admission to the class of 1825 at Rutgers College but ultimately did not enter the institution, instead directing his efforts toward the study of law.

Pursuing a legal career, Randolph read law in New Jersey and was admitted to the bar in 1825. He commenced practice in Freehold Township, New Jersey, where he established himself as a practicing attorney. By about 1836 he was serving as prosecuting attorney for Monmouth County, New Jersey, a role that placed him at the center of local legal affairs and helped build the professional reputation that would support his subsequent political career.

Randolph entered national politics as a member of the Whig Party, which opposed the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic successors and advocated for a stronger role for Congress and internal improvements. He was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Congresses, serving from March 4, 1837, to March 3, 1843. Elected on a general ticket that covered the entire state of New Jersey, he served during a period marked by economic instability following the Panic of 1837 and intense debates over banking, tariffs, and federal authority. During the Twenty-sixth Congress he served as chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims, overseeing the consideration of petitions and claims arising from the Revolutionary War. After three consecutive terms, he was not a candidate for renomination in 1842, concluding his service in the House at the end of his third term.

After leaving Congress in 1843, Randolph moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he resumed the practice of law. His legal and political experience led to his selection as a delegate to the New Jersey constitutional convention of 1844, which produced a new state constitution and restructured aspects of state government. That same year he also served as a member of a committee appointed by the Governor of New Jersey to revise the statutes of the state, contributing to the modernization and clarification of New Jersey’s legal code.

In 1845 Randolph moved to Trenton, the state capital, where his judicial career began in earnest. He was appointed an associate justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, serving from 1845 to 1852. In this capacity he participated in the adjudication of significant questions of state law during a time of social and economic change. His standing as a jurist and former congressman led to his selection as a member of the Peace Conference of 1861, held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to avert the impending Civil War by seeking a compromise between free and slave states.

In the later years of his life, Randolph relocated to Jersey City in 1864. He continued to be regarded as an experienced public figure whose career had spanned local prosecution, national legislative service, constitutional revision, and high judicial office. He died in Jersey City on March 20, 1873. Joseph Fitz Randolph was interred in Easton Cemetery in Easton, Pennsylvania, closing a public life that had been closely intertwined with the legal and political development of New Jersey in the mid-nineteenth century.