New Views of the Constitution

Reprint of the uncommon first edition of the fourth and last of Taylor's books on the United States Constitution. Little-known today, Taylor's work is of great significance in the political and intellectual history of the South and essential for understanding the constitutional theories that Southerners asserted to justify secession in 1861. Taylor was a leading advocate of states' rights, agrarianism and a strict construction of the Constitution in the political battles of the 1790s.

"Taylor and myself have rarely, if ever, differed in any political principle of importance."-- Thomas Jefferson. Later Southern political leaders, notably John C. Calhoun, shared this opinion.

Known as John Taylor of Caroline [1753-1824], Taylor fought in the Revolutionary War and served briefly in the Virginia House of Delegates before he became a Senator from Virginia. Taylor was the author of Construction Construed and Constitutions Vindicated, A Defence of the Measures of the Administration of Thomas Jefferson, attributed to "Curtius," An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States and other works.