Taylor, John
Taylor, John,
1578?–1653, English writer. He was a boatman on the Thames and hence is often called the Water Poet. A traveler throughout England and the Continent, he recorded his observations in both poetry and prose.Bibliography
See his works (5 vol., 1870–78); study by W. Notestein (1956).
Taylor, John,
1753–1824, American political philosopher. Known as John Taylor of Caroline, he was born in Virginia, probably in Caroline co., where he later lived at "Hazlewood." Orphaned at 10, he was adopted by his maternal uncle, Edmund Pendleton, who sent him to the College of William and Mary and under whom he studied law. Taylor fought in the American Revolution, rising to the rank of major, and was a member of the Virginia house of delegates (1779–81, 1783–85, 1796–1800) and of the U.S. Senate (1792–94, 1803, 1822–24). The states' rightsstates' rights,in U.S. history, doctrine based on the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
..... Click the link for more information. doctrine (see Kentucky and Virginia ResolutionsKentucky and Virginia Resolutions,
in U.S. history, resolutions passed in opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were enacted by the Federalists in 1798. The Jeffersonian Republicans first replied in the Kentucky Resolutions, adopted by the Kentucky legislature in Nov.
..... Click the link for more information. ) was introduced in the Virginia house by Taylor, who became a leading publicist of Jeffersonian democracy, or "agrarianism." Although a strict constructionist, he defended the constitutionality of the Louisiana Purchase in A Defense of the Measures of the Administration of Thomas Jefferson (1804). In Thomas Jefferson's second term Taylor was a leader of the Quids, who, disliking James Madison, supported James Monroe for President, but he became a peacemaker between the factions. His greatest work, An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States (1814), was an attack on the growing power of finance capitalism and its harmful effects on agriculture and democracy. In Construction Construed and Constitutions Vindicated (1820), Tyranny Unmasked (1822), and New Views of the Constitution (1823), he opposed John Marshall and the growing power of the federal government. An agrarian liberal, he was much concerned with the economic and political well-being of the farmer, and his Arator (1813) was one of the first analytical treatises on American agriculture and its problems. He is best known, however, as one of the first formulators of the states' rights doctrine.
Bibliography
See biography by H. Simms (1932); study by R. E. Shalhope (1980).
Taylor, John,
1808–87, American leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, b. England. He emigrated in 1832 to Canada, where he was converted (1836) to the Mormon faith. He moved to the United States and became (1838) an apostle in the church. He was also active in missionary work in Europe. While a newspaper editor (1842–46) at Nauvoo, Ill., he was wounded by the mob that assassinated Joseph SmithSmith, Joseph,1805–44, American Mormon leader, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, b. Sharon, Vt. When he was a boy his family moved to Palmyra, N.Y., where he experienced the poverty and hardships of life on a rough frontier.
..... Click the link for more information. in Carthage. In the controversy over Smith's successor, Taylor supported Brigham YoungYoung, Brigham
, 1801–77, American religious leader, early head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, b. Whitingham, Vt. Brigham Young was perhaps the greatest molder of Mormonism, his influence having a greater effect even than that of the church's founder,
..... Click the link for more information. and assisted in the Utah colonization. In Utah he served in the territorial legislature (1857–76) and as probate judge (1868–70). After the death of Young, he became acting president (1877) and then president (1880) of the church. From 1884 until his death he directed the affairs of the church while in hiding to avoid arrest for polygamy.