An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States

Originally published in 1814, this is a reprint of the Yale University Press 1950 edition with an introduction by Roy Franklin Nichols. 562 pp. Taylor wrote this important work in 1814 as a reply to John Adams's Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. Unlike Adams, he rejects the concept of "a natural aristocracy" of "paper and patronage" and a federal government based on a system of debt and taxes. He considers the American government to be one of divided powers responsible to the sovereign people alone. Opposed to the extent of power awarded to the executive office, he calls for shorter terms for the president and all elected officers. Charles Beard said this work "deserves to rank among the two or three really historic contributions to political science which have been produced in the United States." JOHN TAYLOR [1753-1824] was known as "John Taylor of Caroline County, Virginia." He served in the Continental Army and later in the Virginia House of Delegates, then served three terms as a member of the United States Senate. He is considered to be one of the nation's greatest philosophers of agrarian liberalism. He was one of the nation's first proponents of states' rights. His works include New Views of the Constitution of the United States (1823), Construction Construed, and Constitutions Vindicated (1820) and A Defence of the Measures of the Administration of Thomas Jefferson. By Curtius (1804), an argument in favor of the achievements of the first Jefferson administration. Read more