In this third installment in the Anglo-American Conservative Book Series, Jon covers John Taylor of Caroline’s 1823 work, “New Views of the Constitution of the United States,” which critiques the shift from a federation of sovereign states to a consolidated national government.
Taylor, a Revolutionary War veteran, Virginia politician, and friend of Jefferson and Madison, argued that the Constitution preserved state autonomy and rejected nationalist interpretations like those in Joseph Story’s Commentaries or The Federalist Papers.
He highlighted previously secret Convention debates, rejected proposals for federal supremacy over state laws, and warned against encroachments like federal assumption of debts, national banks, tariffs, and judicial overreach. Taylor emphasized federalism as key to American exceptionalism and cautioned that abandoning it would lead to despotism, drawing parallels to Rome, France, and England.
PowerPoint: https://www.patreon.com/posts/145194421
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