Description:

John Taylor
Caroline County, VA, ca. 1823
Jeffersonian Democrat John Taylor of Caroline Interprets the Constitution as Creating a Federation
AM
JOHN TAYLOR, Autograph Manuscript (fragment), ca. 1823. 2 pp., 7.75" x 9.75". With clipping attached with wax with printed words "A Dictionary of the English Language:" and handwritten (signed?) "John Taylor"; general toning; very good.

In this partial manuscript, John Taylor of Caroline offers his understanding of the Constitution of the United States. It comes from Section I of his New Views of the Constitution of the United States, published in 1823.

In his preface to that work, Taylor wrote, "That many eminent and respectable men have ever preferred, and ever will prefer, a consolidated national government to our federal system; that the constitution, under the influence of this predilection, has been erroneously construed; that these constructions are rapidly advancing towards their end, whether it shall be consolidation or disunion; that they will become a source of excessive geographical discord; and that the happiness and prosperity of the United States will be greater under a federal than under a national government, in any form, are the opinions which have suggested the following treatise. If the survey taken of these subjects is not proportioned to their importance, it yet may not be devoid of novelty, nor wholly ineffectual towards attracting more publick attention towards a question involving a mass of consequences either very good or very bad."

Complete Transcript
is obviated by selecting the word "Congress" in preference to the words parliament or assembly, to the comprehensiveness of which the states had been accustomed. It was the precise word used to express a congregation of deputies from independent states or governments. In that sense it was adopted by the provinces, used in the confederation of 1777, and repeated in the constitution. No word could have been selected with equal felicity, to convey the idea contemplated by a federal system. It avoided the implications which the usual words parliament or assembly might have furnished, and demonstrated that a body of men invested with powers equivalent to those exercised by such denominations, was not intended to be established. And it intimated the independence of the several states as being similar to the independence of the several provinces of each other, as well as to that of distinct kingdoms. The assemblage of men which framed the constitution, was called "a convention of deputies from the States of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersy, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia." By what authority did the States appoint these deputies, if not in virtue of their respective sovereignties, existing in common with a "Congress of the United States." If a Congress did not destroy the sovereignties of the States at that time, is it reasonable to suppose that the present "Congress of the United States" was constituted to destroy them? The deputies of the States in the convention, through representatives, could not have enacted a constitution, because it would have violated the limited powers which they received from state sovereignties; and in like manner, the deputies of the States now composing a Congress, though representatives, cannot exceed their powers. It is upon this principle, that Congress cannot alter the terms of the union.

The word "federal," also adopted into our political phraseology, is a national construction of the terms used in forming our system of government, comprising a definite expression of publick opinion, that State sovereignties really exist. It implies a league between sovereign nations, has been so used by all classes of people from the commencement of our political existence down to this day, and is inapplicable to a nation consolidated under one sovereignty.
The meaning of the word "State" accords with that of the words associated with it. Used in reference to individuals, it comprises a great variety of circumstances, but in reference to the publick, it means a political community. Johnson thus expounds it, and adds, that it implies a republick, or a government not monarchical. What other word was more proper to describe the communities recognised by the declaration of independence, the union of 1777, and the union of 1787? Can the same word have been intended to convey an idea in the last, inconsistent with the idea it conveys in the two first instruments? Neither monarchy nor aristocracy would have fitted the case, and the word republick itself would have been exposed to uncertainties, with which the word State is not chargeable; because it has been applied to governments discordant with those which were established by our revolution. As no word more explicitly comprises the idea of a sovereign independent community; as it is used in conjunction with a declared sovereignty

John Taylor of Caroline (1753-1824) was born in Virginia, graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1770, studied law, and established a law practice in Caroline County in 1774. During the Revolutionary War, he served as a colonel of cavalry. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates (1779-1787) and represented Virginia in the United States Senate for three partial terms (1793-1794, 1803, 1822-1824). He was a close friend of Thomas Jefferson and a prolific political writer on Jeffersonian democracy.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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