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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2009
After years of comparative neglect John Taylor of Caroline has recently begun to receive again a degree of attention more in keeping with his true importance. That his impact upon both his own generation and upon subsequent generations of historians has always been less than it might have been is due largely to his tortured style of writing and the tortuous thought processes it reflected. John Randolph of Roanoke once commented that Taylor needed only a translator to make an impact, and Thomas Jefferson, replying to a communication from John Adams in 1814, wrote that a book received by Adams must have been Taylor's An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States: “neither the style nor the stuff of the author of Arator can ever be mistaken. [I]n the latter work, as you observe, there are some good things, but so involved in quaint, in far-fetched, affected, mystical conceipts [sic], and flimsy theories, that who can take the trouble of getting at them?” Taylor himself appeared to hold a fluent style in contempt, commenting that “A talent for fine writing is often a great misfortune to politicians.”
Although Taylor's style renders study of his writings far from congenial, the consistency of his purpose and thought make it relatively easy to extract the main thrusts of his arguments. Far from a rigorous theorist he provides a running commentary upon the politics of his times. In that capacity, however, he never felt compelled to define clearly, even to himself perhaps, some of the central premises from which his arguments derived.
1 Kirk, Russell, John Randolph of Roanoke: A Study in American Politics (Chicago, 1964), p. 65Google Scholar; Sowerby, E. Millicent, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson (Washington, D.C., 1952), 1, 371Google Scholar.
2 “John Taylor Correspondence,” in The John B. Branch Historical Papers of Randolph-Macon College, 2 (06 1908), 344Google Scholar.
3 See, for example, the various treatments of Taylor in Wood, Gordon, The Creation of the American Republic (Chapel Hill, 1969)Google Scholar; Zvesper, John, Political Philosophy and Rhetoric: A Study of the Origins of American Party Politics (Cambridge, 1977)Google Scholar; Banning, Lance, The Jeffersonian Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology (Ithaca, 1978)Google Scholar; Mudge, Eugene T., The Social Philosophy of John Taylor of Caroline (New York, 1939)Google Scholar. Professor Banning's treatment of Taylor suffers from being extensively illustrated by references to a pamphlet Taylor almost certainly did not write, An Examination of the Late Proceedings in Congress Respecting the Official Conduct of the Secretary of the Treasury (Richmond, 1793)Google Scholar. (For evidence of James Monroe's authorship see Edmund, and Berkeley, Dorothy Smith, “‘The Piece Left Behind’. Monroe's Authorship of a Political Pamphlet Revealed,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 75 (1967), 174–80Google Scholar. The sentiments expressed in that pamphlet were, however, such that Taylor could easily have expressed them and they could have been illustrated by reference to the works Taylor did write.)
4 See, for example, Hill, C. William Jr, The Political Theory of John Taylor of Caroline (Rutherford, N.J., 1977)Google Scholar.
5 “John Taylor Correspondence,” p. 316.
6 The pastoral theme has been emphasized most significantly by Baritz, Loren, City on a Hill: A History of Ideas and Myths in America (New York, 1964), pp. 159–203Google Scholar, and by Bradford, M. E. in his introduction to the Liberty Classics edition of Arator (Indianapolis, 1977)Google Scholar.
7 Taylor, John, An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States (Fredericksburg, 1814), p. 395Google Scholar.
8 Taylor, John, Arator, Being a Series of Agricultural Essays, Practical and Political: In Sixty-Four Numbers, Fourth Edition (Petersburg, 1818), p. ivGoogle Scholar.
9 Ibid., p. v.
10 Ibid., p. 42.
11 Taylor, John, A Definition of Parties; or the Political Effects of the Paper System Considered (Philadelphia, 1794)Google Scholar, An Enquiry into the Principles and Tendency of Certain Public Measures (Philadelphia, 1794)Google Scholar, A Letter on the Necessity of Defending the Rights and Interests of Agriculture, Addressed to the Delegations of the United Agricultural Societies of Virginia (Petersburg, 1821)Google Scholar.
12 Taylor, , A Definition of Parties, p. 8Google Scholar; Taylor, , Arator, p. 190Google Scholar.
13 See, for example, Arator, pp. vi, 20, 34.
14 Genovese, Elizabeth Fox, The Origins of Physiocracy: Economic Revolution and Social Order in Eighteenth-Century France (Ithaca, 1976)Google Scholar.
15 Taylor, , An Enquiry into the Principles …, p. 31Google Scholar; Arator, p. vi.
16 See the discussion in Crowley, J. E., This Sheba, Self. The Conceptualization of Economic Life in Eighteenth-Century America (Baltimore, 1974), pp. 86–91Google Scholar and passim.
17 For evidence that The Wealth of Nations was thought to be difficult to comprehend, see American Monthly Magazine, 1 (1817), p. 234Google Scholar; those familiar with Smith's ideas had often come to them through J. B. Say's Traité d'économie politique, described by Jefferson, as an easy version of The Wealth of Nations, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Lipscomb, Andrew A. and Bergh, Albert E., eds. (Washington, D.C. 1903), 11, 223Google Scholar; see also Dorfman, Joseph, The Economic Mind in American Civilization (New York, 1946–1949), 1, 513–14Google Scholar.
18 Raymond, Daniel, Thoughts on Political Economy (Baltimore, 1820)Google Scholar; McVickar, John, Outlines of Political Economy (New York, 1825)Google Scholar; Cooper, Thomas, Lectures on the Elements of Political Economy (New York, 1826)Google Scholar; (Tucker, George), “Political Economy,” American Quarterly Review, 1 (1827), 309–31Google Scholar, Cardozo, Jacob N., Notes on Political Economy (Charleston, 1826)Google Scholar.
19 Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, ed. Cannan, E. (London, 1904), p. 49Google Scholar; Coxe, Tench, Observations on the Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce of the United States: In a letter to a Member of Congress. By a Citizen of the United States (New York, 1789)Google Scholar. I have found particularly useful the following works on the economic theories of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: Blaug, Mark, Economic Theory in Retrospect, 3rd edn. (Cambridge, 1978)Google Scholar; O'Brien, D. P., The Classical Economists (Oxford, 1975)Google Scholar; and, more provocatively, Meek, Ronald L., Studies in the Labour Theory of Value, 2nd ed. (London, 1973)Google Scholar.
20 There has been considerable debate as to the exact nature of Ricardo's value theory. That debate has been reviewed in Blaug, , Economic Theory in Retrospect, pp. 95–102Google Scholar, and O'Brien, , The Classical Economists, pp. 84–91Google Scholar; see also Sraffa's introduction to the Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Sraffa, P. with Dobb, M. H. (Cambridge, 1951–1955)Google Scholar.
21 Cardozo, Jacob N., Notes on Political Economy (Charleston, 1826; reprint, New York, 1960), pp. 5–8, 64–71Google Scholar; Cardozo, , “Political Economy – Rent,” The Southern Review, 1 (02 1828), 192–218Google Scholar; Leiman, Melvin M., Jacob N. Cardozo. Economic Thought in the Antebellum South (New York, 1966), pp. 20–35Google Scholar.
22 Arator, pp. v, 191, 235, 237.
23 An Inquiry, p. 124.
24 Ibid., pp. 546, 124, 258.
25 Ibid., p. 258.
26 Ibid., p. 224.
27 Blaug, Economic Theory in Retrospect, Chapter Three; O'Brien, , The Classical Economists, pp. 56–61, 124–31Google Scholar.
28 Malthus, T. R., An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent and the Principles by which it is Regulated (London, 1815)Google Scholar; SirWest, E., Essay on the Application of Capital to Land, with Observations Shewing the Impolicy of any Great Restriction of the Importation of Corn (London, 1815)Google Scholar; Torrens, R., An Essay on the External Corn Trade (London, 1815)Google Scholar; Ricardo, D., An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock (London, 1815)Google Scholar.
29 An Inquiry, p. 470.
30 Arator, p. vi.
31 Locke, John, Two Treatises of Government. A Critical Edition with an Introduction and Apparatus Criticus by Peter Laslett, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1967), pp. 314–17Google Scholar.
32 Taylor, , Construction Construed and Constitutions Vindicated (New York, 1970), p. 203Google Scholar. First published 1820. Note how easily Taylor moves between labour and property as the selfsame natural right.
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34 Raymond, Danield, Elements of Political Economy (Baltimore, 1823), 1, 97–102Google Scholar.
35 Cardozo, , Notes on Political Economy, pp. 8–9, 84Google Scholar.
36 Blaug, , Economic Theory in Retrospect, pp. 79–85Google Scholar; O'Brien, , The Classical Economists, Ch. 3Google Scholar.
37 Arator, pp. vi–vii, 19, 20, 22, 28, 31, 37, 39, 40. Some historians have likewise argued that too rapid settlement of the west was harmful not merely to eastern farmers but to agricultural profits as a whole; see, Swierenga, R. P., “Land Speculator ‘Profits’ Reconsidered: Central Iowa as a Test Case,” Journal of Economic History, 26 (1966), pp. 1–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wright, G., “An Econometric Study of Cotton Production and Trade, 1830–1860,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 53 (1971), 111–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Passell, P., “The Impact of Cotton Land Distribution on the Antibellum Economy,” Journal of Economic History, 21 (1971), 917–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Passell, P. and Wright, G., “Effects of pre-Civil War Territorial Expansion on the Price of Slaves,” Journal of Political Economy, 80 (1972), 1188–1202CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
38 Cardozo, “Political Economy — Rent,” p. 199.
39 Arator, pp. 59–187.
40 Bailor, Keith M., “John Taylor of Caroline: Continuity, Change and Discontinuity in Virginia's Sentiments towards Slavery, 1790–1820,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 75 (1967), 290–304Google Scholar; Arator, pp. 99–101, 59–61, 73–5 – the quotations are from pp. 99 and 100–1.
41 Construction Construed, p. 208.
42 Ibid., p. 234.
43 An Inquiry, p. 352.
44 Robbins, Caroline, The Eighteenth Century Commonwealthman: Studies in the Transmission, Development, and Circumstances of English Liberal Thought from the Restoration of Charles II until the War with the Thirteen Colonies (Cambridge, Mass., 1959)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bailyn, Bernard, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge, Mass., 1967)Google Scholar; see also Banning, , The Jeffersonian Persuasion, esp. pp. 21–90Google Scholar.
45 Construction Construed, p. 211.
46 A Pamphlet Containing a Series of Letters, Written by Colonel John Taylor, of Caroline, to Thomas Ritchie, Editor of the “Enquirer” … Richmond. In Consequence of an Unwarranted Attack Made by that Editor upon Colonel Taylor (Richmond, 1809), p. 25Google Scholar.
47 Construction Construed, pp. 224–30.
48 Ibid., p. 209.
49 “John Taylor Correspondence,” p. 275.
50 An Inquiry, pp. 316–17.
51 Arator, p. 48.
52 For a fuller discussion of Taylor and slavery see, MacLeod, Duncan J., Slavery, Race and The American Revolution (Cambridge, 1974), pp. 65–69, 82–89Google Scholar. For a different view see, Bailor, “John Taylor of Caroline.”
53 An Enquiry, p. 30.
54 Cardozo, , Notes, pp. 22, 33, 84Google Scholar and “Political Economy — Rent,” pp. 216–17.
55 Blaug, , Economic Theory in Retrospect, pp. 100–02Google Scholar; O'Brien, , The Classical Economists, pp. 90–91Google Scholar.
56 Letwin, W., The Origins of Scientific Economics (London, 1963)Google Scholar.
