John Taylor and the Democratic Tradition
| Author | Grant Mcconnell |
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295100400103 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
17
JOHN
TAYLOR
AND
THE
DEMOCRATIC
TRADITION
GRANT
MCCONNELL
Institute
of
Industrial
Relations
University
of
California
I
INCE
Charles
Beard’s
EC01iornIC
Origins
o
f Je f f ersonian
Democracy
appeared
in
1915,
a
new
appreciation
of
economic
factors
in
our
history
and
a
strong
emphasis
upon
the
agrarian
foundations
of
much
in
our
democratic
tradition
have
developed
in
the
literature
of
political
science.
In
the
past
few
years,
however,
there
has
been
an
increasing
inclination
to
challenge
the
second
of
these
trends
by
application
of
tests
derived
from
the
first
one.
The
term
&dquo;agrarian
democracy&dquo;
is
regarded
with
increasingly
jaundiced
eyes
as
the
congressional
farm
bloc
moves
from
victory
to
victory
for
a
constituency
that
is
becoming
ever
more
narrowly
conceived.
In
the
growing
distaste
for
this
contemporary
spectacle,
the
questions
have
been
asked:
&dquo;Are
they
[the
family
farmers]
]
still
the
most
precious
part
of
the
state?
Were
they
ever?&dquo;
1
The
skepti-
cism
induced
by
the
wide
discrepancy
between
the
traditional
ideas
of
agrarian
democracy
and
the
behavior
of
present
farm
groups
has,
indeed,
extended
to
the
founders
of
the
tradition,
Jefferson
and
John
Taylor
of
Caroline.
The
likenesses
between
Jefferson
and
Taylor
were
many.
Both
men
were
natives
of
the
Old
Dominion.
Both
were
wealthy
and
the
wealth
of
each
was
in
part
the
result
of
marriage.
Both
were
members
of
the
&dquo;planter
aristocracy.&dquo;
Both
were
slaveholders.
Both
engaged
intimately
with
the
issues
of
politics,
as
participants
and
as
thinkers.
They
were
associates
in
the
great
political
struggles
of
the
era
as
leaders
of
the
planter-agrarian
party
in
Virginia
and
on
the
national
scene:
The
Virginia
Resolutions
of
1789
(for
which
Jefferson
has
received
most
of
the
credit)
were
introduced
by
Taylor,
who
carried
the
brunt
of
the
debate
on
them.2
2
Taylor
and
Jefferson
both
saw
some
inner
moral
light
shining
from
the
farming
way
of
life.3
Jefferson
and
Taylor
held
much
the
same
views
1
A.
Whitney
Griswold,
Farming
and
Democracy
(New
York:
Harcourt
Brace,
1948),
p.
45.
2
For
a
discussion of
this
debate,
see
H.
H.
Simms,
Life
of
John
Taylor
(Richmond:
William
Byrd
Press,
1932),
pp.
75-88.
3
Compare
the
following
statements.
Taylor
wrote:
"At
the
awful
day
of
judgment,
the
discrimination
of
the
good
from
the
wicked,
is
not
made
by
the
criterion
of
sects
or
of
dogmas,
but
by
one
which
constitutes
the
daily
employment
and
the
great
end
of
agriculture.
The
judge
upon
this
occasion
has
by
anticipation
pronounced,
that
to
feed
the
hungry,
clothe
the
naked,
and
give
drink
to
the
thirsty
are
the
passports
to
future
happiness;
and
the
divine
intelligence
which
selected
an
agrarian
state
as
a
paradise
for
its
first
favorites,
has
here
again
prescribed
the
agricultural
virtues
as
the
means
for
the
admission
of
their
posterity
into
heaven."
From
Arator:
Being
a
Series
of
Agri-
cultural
Essays,
Practical
and
Political,
6th
ed.,
Petersburg,
Va.,
printed
by
Whitworth
and
Yancy
for
John
M.
Carter,
1818,
p.
189.
The
famous
chapter
in
Jefferson’s
Notes
on
Virginia:
"Those
who
labour
in
the
earth
are
the
chosen
people
of
God,
if
ever
He
had
a
chosen
people,
whose
breasts
He
has
made
his
peculiar
deposit
for
substantial
and
genuine
virtue."
(Query
XIX.)
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