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76-585: The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January 1836. The bank's formal name, according to section 9 of its charter as passed by Congress, was "The President, Directors, and Company, of the Bank of the United States". While other banks in

152-478: A Roman villa than a Greek temple. Since the bank's closing in 1841, the edifice has performed a variety of functions. Today, it is part of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. The structure is open to the public free of charge and serves as an art gallery, housing a large collection of portraits of prominent early Americans painted by Charles Willson Peale and many others. The building

228-499: A conservative allegiance to local community and inherited ways and a radical- populist suspicion of capitalism , 'progress,' government and routine logrolling politics.'" According to historian Adam L. Tate, Taylor was "an agrarian who 'viewed happiness as possession of family, farm, and leisure,' had no great love for organized religion , social hierarchy, and other such traditional institutions." Joseph R. Stromberg wrote, "Taylor took solid liberal ground in holding that men were

304-519: A protective tariff , and the attempt to bar slavery from Missouri. Along with many other Southerners, Taylor feared that these and other measures following in the train of Hamilton's financial system, were undermining the foundations of American republicanism . He saw them as the attempt of an "artificial capitalist sect" to corrupt the virtue of the American people and upset the proper constitutional balance between state and federal authority in favor of

380-556: A 20-year charter. Madison's misgivings on the Bank's constitutionality raised doubts in President Washington 's mind as to the legality of the Bank Bill . Washington delayed signing it to consult with his cabinet. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Attorney General Edmund Randolph concurred with Madison that the federal government was one of strictly enumerated powers and bolstered that argument by citing

456-713: A Founding Father of the State of Virginia who served as president of the Fifth Virginia Convention held between May and July 1776, that declared in favor of independence. Taylor was of the same line as General Zachary Taylor , who became the President of the United States. He graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1770, studied law, and began to practice in Caroline County in 1774. At

532-504: A centralized national government. Taylor wrote, "If the means to which the government of the union may resort for executing the power confided to it, are unlimited, it may easily select such as will impair or destroy the powers confided to the state governments." Jefferson, who noted that "Col. Taylor and myself have rarely, if ever, differed in any political principle of importance," considered Construction Construed and Constitutions Vindicated "the most logical retraction of our governments to

608-419: A chapter of his 1842 travelogue American Notes for General Circulation , Philadelphia, and its solitary prison: We reached the city, late that night. Looking out of my chamber-window, before going to bed, I saw, on the opposite side of the way, a handsome building of white marble, which had a mournful ghost-like aspect, dreary to behold. I attributed this to the sombre influence of the night, and on rising in

684-580: A classical interest in strong citizen participation in rule to prevent concentrated power and wealth, political corruption, and financial manipulation." According to some sources, John Taylor was born in Orange County, Virginia, in 1753, though others state that this is in error and that he was in fact born in Caroline County in 1754. He was the son of James Taylor and Ann Pollard. She was a sister of Sarah Pollard, wife of Edmund Pendleton ,

760-411: A mixture of good and evil. Self-interest was the only real constant in human action.... Indeed, while other thinkers, from Thomas Jefferson to Federalist John Adams , agonized over the need for a virtuous citizenry, Taylor took the view that 'the principles of a society may be virtuous, though the individuals composing it are vicious.'" Taylor's solution to the effects of factionalism was to "remove

836-453: A national bank to address these needs. The political climate—dubbed the Era of Good Feelings —favored the development of national programs and institutions, including a protective tariff , internal improvements and the revival of a Bank of the United States . Southern and western support for a bank, led by Republican nationalists John C. Calhoun of South Carolina and Henry Clay of Kentucky,

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912-464: A national financial crisis, would be avoided, or at least mitigated. It was just this mechanism that the local private banks found objectionable, because it yoked their lending strategies to the fiscal operations of the national government, requiring them to maintain adequate gold and silver reserves to meet their debt obligations to the U.S. Treasury. The proliferation of private-sector banking institutions – from 31 banks in 1801 to 788 in 1837 – meant that

988-411: A number of services as part of its charter, including holding and transfer of all U.S. deposits, payment and receipt of all government transactions, and processing of tax payments. In other words, the bank was "the depository of the federal government, which was its principal stockholder and customer." The chief personnel for the bank comprised 25 directors, five of whom were appointed by the President of

1064-448: A series of agricultural essays, practical and political, 1818, was one of the first American books on agriculture. Taylor County, West Virginia , was named in his honor. English legal historian Maurice Vile views Taylor as "in some ways the most impressive political theorist that America has produced." The historian Clyde N. Wilson describes Taylor as "the systematic philosopher of Jeffersonian democracy " and as "representing 'both

1140-660: A strict construction of the Constitution in the political battles of the 1790s. His first published writings argued against Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton 's financial program. Construction Construed and Constitutions Vindicated was Taylor's response to a series of post- War of 1812 developments including John Marshall 's Supreme Court decision in McCulloch v. Maryland , the widespread issuance of paper money by banks, proposals for

1216-486: Is located nearby in Philadelphia. This can be seen in the more Roman-influenced Federal structure's ornate, colossal Corinthian columns of its façade, which is also embellished by Corinthian pilasters and a symmetric arrangement of sash windows piercing the two stories of the façade. The roofline is also topped by a balustrade , and the heavy modillions adorning the pediment give the First Bank an appearance more like

1292-800: Is of great significance in the political and intellectual history of the South and is essential for understanding the constitutional theories that Southerners asserted to justify secession in 1861. Taylor fought in the Continental army during the American Revolution and served briefly in the Virginia House of Delegates and as a U.S. Senator. It was as a writer on constitutional, political, and agricultural questions, however, that Taylor gained prominence. He joined with Thomas Jefferson and other agrarian advocates of states' rights and

1368-592: The "necessary and proper" clause of the US Constitution and charged Hamilton with violating a literal, strict constructionist interpretation of the founding document. Despite Madison’s objections, the Bank Bill of 1791 penned to form the First Bank of the United States passed without amendment in the US House of Representatives by a vote of 39-20 on February 8, 1791. The bank was endowed with

1444-495: The Bank War and placed the fate of the bank at center of the 1832 presidential election . Jackson mobilized his political base by vetoing the recharter bill and, the veto sustained, easily won reelection on his anti-bank platform. Jackson proceeded to destroy the bank as a financial and political force by removing its federal deposits, and in 1833, federal revenue was diverted into selected private banks by executive order, ending

1520-793: The Mechanics National Bank (also in Philadelphia). He also designed the second building for the main U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1833, as well as the New Orleans , Dahlonega , and Charlotte branch mints in the mid-to-late 1830s. Strickland's design for the Second Bank is in essence based on the Parthenon in Athens , and is a significant early and monumental example of Greek Revival architecture. The hallmarks of

1596-548: The Panic of 1837 and lasting approximately seven years. The bank suspended payment from October 1839 to January 1841, and permanently in February 1841. It then started a lengthy liquidation process, complicated by lawsuits, that ended in 1852 when it assigned its remaining assets to trustees and surrendered the state charter. The bank maintained the following branches. Listed is the year each branch opened. The Second Bank

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1672-612: The Tenth Amendment . They advanced the position of states' rights and believed in limited federal power. The Tenth Amendment was not ratified until December 15, 1791 after the Bank Bill passed Congress on February 2, 1791 and so it was not then part of the Constitution. Hamilton's famous rebuttal on the Bank was submitted to Washington on February 23, 1791. It introduced the doctrine of " implied powers " based on

1748-545: The United States Senate (1792–1794, 1803, 1822–1824). He wrote several books on politics and agriculture. He was a Jeffersonian Republican and his works provided inspiration to the later states' rights and libertarian movements. Sheldon and Hill (2008) locate Taylor at the intersection of republicanism and classical liberalism . They see his position as a "combination of a concern with Lockean natural rights , freedom, and limited government along with

1824-436: The American public as to the efficacy of paper money, and in whose interests a national system of finance operated. Upon this widespread disaffection the anti-bank Jacksonian Democrats would mobilize opposition to the bank in the 1830s. The bank was in general disrepute among most Americans when Nicholas Biddle , the third and last president of the bank, was appointed by President James Monroe in 1823. Under Biddle's guidance,

1900-559: The Bank's directors were selected, and the other 75% of its stock was provided by the investors. The Secretary of the Treasury was presented with statements by Bank administrators to see that the debt limit did not exceed $ 10 million exclusive of deposits and to assure its compliance with the government's rules of incorporation. Certificates of indebtedness, or government American Revolutionary War debt, had been paid with government securities at face value, plus arrears of interest, under

1976-412: The First Bank in 1811. These interests played significant roles in undermining the institution during the administration of U.S. President Andrew Jackson (1829–1837). The Second Bank was a national bank. However, it did not serve the functions of a modern central bank : It did not set monetary policy , regulate private banks, hold their excess reserves , or act as a lender of last resort . The bank

2052-466: The Greek Revival style can be seen immediately in the north and south façades, which use a large set of steps leading up to the main level platform, known as the stylobate . On top of these, Strickland placed eight severe Doric columns, which are crowned by an entablature containing a triglyph frieze and simple triangular pediment . The building appears much as an ancient Greek temple, hence

2128-535: The Jackson administration in December 1829, on the grounds that it had failed to produce a stable national currency, and that it lacked constitutional legitimacy. Both houses of Congress responded with committee investigations and reports affirming the historical precedents for the bank's constitutionality and its pivotal role in furnishing a uniform currency. Jackson rejected these findings, and privately characterized

2204-485: The Public Credit and Hamilton's arguments for the Bank of the United States "laid the philosophical foundation for a genuinely effective national government." John Taylor of Caroline John Taylor (December 19, 1753 – August 21, 1824), usually called John Taylor of Caroline , was a politician and writer. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates (1779–1781, 1783–1785, 1796–1800) and in

2280-407: The Second Bank as both constitutionally illegitimate and a direct threat to Jeffersonian agrarianism, state sovereignty and the institution of slavery , expressed by Taylor's statement that "...if Congress could incorporate a bank, it might emancipate a slave." Hostile to the regulatory effects of the national bank, private banks—proliferating with or without state charters—had scuttled rechartering of

2356-609: The Second Bank faced strong opposition from this sector during the Jackson administration. The architect of the Second Bank was William Strickland (1788–1854), a former student of Benjamin Latrobe (1764–1820), the man who is often called the first professionally trained American architect . Latrobe and Strickland were both disciples of the Greek Revival style. Strickland went on to design many other American public buildings in this style, including financial structures such as

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2432-483: The Second Bank, as chartered by Congress in 1816, was to restrain the uninhibited proliferation of paper money (bank notes) by state or private lenders, which was highly profitable to these institutions. In this capacity, the bank would preside over this democratization of credit, contributing to a vast and profitable disbursement of bank loans to farmers, small manufacturers and entrepreneurs, encouraging rapid and healthy economic expansion. Historian Bray Hammond describes

2508-540: The U.S. markets collapsed in the Panic of 1819 —a result of global economic adjustments—the bank came under withering criticism for its belated tight money policies—policies that exacerbated mass unemployment and plunging property values. Further, it transpired that branch directors for the Baltimore office had engaged in fraud and larceny. Resigning in January 1819, Jones was replaced by Langdon Cheves , who continued

2584-456: The US were chartered by and only allowed to have branches in a single state, it was authorized to have branches in multiple states and lend money to the US government. A private corporation with public duties , the bank handled all fiscal transactions for the U.S. government, and was accountable to Congress and the U.S. Treasury . Twenty percent of its capital was owned by the federal government,

2660-407: The United States in a generous short-term loan arrangement in which the federal government borrowed $ 2 million in Bank stock with funds lent by the Bank itself. "By 1792," observed the historian John Chester Miller , "largely as a result of the leadership assumed by Alexander Hamilton, the heavy war debt dating from the struggle for independence had been put in the course of ultimate extinction,

2736-438: The United States, subject to Senate approval. Federally appointed directors were barred from acting as officials in other banks. Two of the three Bank presidents, William Jones and Nicholas Biddle, were chosen from among these government directors. Headquartered in Philadelphia, the bank was authorized to establish branch offices where it deemed suitable, and these were immune from state taxation . The primary regulatory task of

2812-488: The bank as a corrupt institution, dangerous to American liberties. Biddle made repeated overtures to Jackson and his cabinet to secure a compromise on the bank's rechartering (its term due to expire in 1836) without success. Jackson and the anti-bank forces persisted in their condemnation of the bank, provoking an early recharter campaign by pro-bank National Republicans under Henry Clay . Clay's political ultimatum to Jackson—with Biddle's financial and political support—sparked

2888-430: The bank evolved into a powerful institution that produced a strong and sound system of national credit and currency. From 1823 to 1833, Biddle expanded credit steadily, but with restraint, in a manner that served the needs of the expanding American economy. Albert Gallatin , former Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison , wrote in 1831 that the bank was fulfilling its charter expectations. By

2964-470: The bank's charter put the institution at the center of the general election of 1832 , in which the bank's president Nicholas Biddle and pro-bank National Republicans led by Henry Clay clashed with the " hard-money " Andrew Jackson administration and eastern banking interests in the Bank War . Failing to secure recharter, the Second Bank became a private corporation in 1836, and underwent liquidation in 1841. There would not be national banks again until

3040-416: The bank's single largest stockholder . Four thousand private investors held 80 percent of the bank's capital, including three thousand Europeans. The bulk of the stocks were held by a few hundred wealthy Americans. In its time, the institution was the largest monied corporation in the world. The essential function of the bank was to regulate the public credit issued by private banking institutions through

3116-603: The base from under the stock jobbers, the banks, the paper money party, the tariff-supported manufacturers, and so on; destroy the system of patronage by which the executive has corrupted the legislature; bring down the usurped authority of the Supreme Court ." "The more a nation depends for its liberty on the qualities of individuals, the less likely it is to retain it. By expecting publick good from private virtue, we expose ourselves to publick evils from private vices." Taylor wrote in defense of slavery but admitted that it

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3192-483: The circumstances and apprehensions of his day, would be used to support more emphatic defenses of slavery by writers, such as John C. Calhoun , Edmund Ruffin , and George Fitzhugh , who extended the argument by claiming the institution to be a "positive good." Stromberg says that Taylor's role in calling for Virginia's secession in 1798 and his role in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions "show how seriously he took

3268-445: The contraction in credit in an effort to stop inflation and stabilize the bank, even as the economy began to correct. The bank's reaction to the crisis—a clumsy expansion, then a sharp contraction of credit—indicated its weakness, not its strength. The effects were catastrophic, resulting in a protracted recession with mass unemployment and a sharp drop in property values that persisted until 1822. The financial crisis raised doubts among

3344-427: The contrary they were invariably the result of extra-economic coercion and deceit." "Along with John Randolph of Roanoke and a few others, Taylor opposed Madison's War of 1812—his own party's war—precisely because it was a war for empire." Tate (2011) undertakes a literary criticism of Taylor's book New Views of the Constitution of the United States, arguing it is structured as a forensic historiography modeled on

3420-401: The death of Stevens Thomson Mason, and served from June 4, 1803, until December 7, 1803, when he resigned. In 1822, he was elected to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of James Pleasants , and was elected later to serve the regular term for six years beginning December 18, 1822, but died at his estate in Caroline County, August 20, 1824. Taylor was a prolific political writer, and

3496-524: The fiscal duties it performed for the U.S. Treasury, and to establish a sound and stable national currency . The federal deposits endowed the bank with its regulatory capacity. Modeled on Alexander Hamilton 's First Bank of the United States , the Second Bank was chartered by President James Madison , who in 1791 had attacked the First Bank as unconstitutional, in 1816 and began operations at its main branch in Philadelphia on January 7, 1817, managing 25 branch offices nationwide by 1832. The efforts to renew

3572-429: The government-owned share. It was required to remit a "bonus" payment of $ 1.5 million, payable in three installments, to the government for the privilege of using the public funds, interest free, in its private banking ventures. The institution was answerable for its performance to the U.S. Treasury and Congress and subject to Treasury Department inspection. As exclusive fiscal agent for the federal government, it provided

3648-412: The local banks was in specie i.e. silver and gold coin, the pressure for settlement automatically regulated local banking lending: for the more the local banks lent the larger amount of their notes and checks in use and the larger the sums they had to settle in specie. This loss of specie reduced their power to lend. Under this banking regime, the impulse towards over-speculation, with the risks of creating

3724-471: The manner in which it was cut, has begun to deteriorate due to weak parts of the stone being exposed to the elements. This phenomenon is most visible on the Doric columns of the south façade. Construction lasted from 1819 to 1824. The Greek Revival style used for the Second Bank contrasts with the earlier, Federal style in architecture used for the First Bank of the United States , which also still stands and

3800-434: The mechanism by which the bank exerted its anti-inflationary influence: Receiving the checks and notes of local banks deposited with the [Bank] by government collectors of revenue, the [Bank] had constantly to come back on the local banks for settlements of the amounts which the checks and notes called for. It had to do so because it made those amounts immediately available to the Treasury, wherever desired. Since settlement by

3876-407: The morning looked out again, expecting to see its steps and portico thronged with groups of people passing in and out. The door was still tight shut, however; the same cold cheerless air prevailed: and the building looked as if the marble statue of Don Guzman could alone have any business to transact within its gloomy walls. I hastened to inquire its name and purpose, and then my surprise vanished. It

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3952-466: The national bank was engaged in promoting a democratized expansion of credit to accommodate laissez-faire impulses among eastern business entrepreneurs and credit-hungry western and southern farmers. Under the management of its first president William Jones , the bank failed to control paper money issued from its branch banks in the West and South, contributing to the post-war speculative land boom. When

4028-485: The onset of the Revolutionary War he joined the Continental army, becoming a colonel of cavalry. Taylor served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1779 to 1787, being one of the leading members. About this time he gave up the practice of law and devoted his ample time to politics and agriculture. In 1792 he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Richard Henry Lee in the United States Senate , and

4104-638: The passage of the National Bank Act . The political support for the revival of a national banking system was rooted in the early 19th century transformation of the country from simple Jeffersonian agrarianism towards one interdependent with industrialization and finance. In the aftermath of the War of 1812 , the federal government suffered from the disarray of an unregulated currency and a lack of fiscal order; business interests sought security for their government bonds. A national alliance arose to legislate

4180-592: The political foundations for a two-party system . Based on a New York - Virginia alliance, the Democratic-Republican Party would defeat the Federalist Party in the " Revolution of 1800 ." The First Bank of the United States had a mixture of government and private ownership and was subject to public oversight. The federal government appointed five of the 25 Bank's directors and held one fourth of its stock. The remaining 20 of

4256-459: The price of government securities had been stabilized close to their face value, hoarded wealth had been brought out of hiding, a system of debt management had been created, the power of the Federal government had been decisively asserted over the states, foreign capital had begun to pour into the United States, and the credit of the Federal government had been solidly established." The Reports on

4332-508: The principle of broad construction of the Constitution. He argued that the authority to create the Bank was not explicitly mandated in the Constitution but was inherent to a central government and was required for it to fulfill its duties prescribed in the founding document. The "broad" or "liberal" interpretation swayed Washington, who signed the Bank Bill on February 25, 1791. Hamilton's success in advancing his fiscal and financial plans moved Madison and Jefferson towards establishing

4408-573: The privately held but publicly funded institution would also serve to process revenue fees and to perform fiscal duties for the federal government. Hamilton regarded the bank as indispensable to produce a stable and flexible financial system. The ease with which Federalists advanced legislation to incorporate the bank impelled agrarian opposition that was hostile to Hamilton's emerging economic nationalism . Resorting to constitutional arguments, Representative James Madison challenged Congress's broad authority to grant charters of incorporation under

4484-464: The reach of palliation." Taylor criticized Jefferson's ambivalence towards slavery in Notes on the State of Virginia . Taylor agreed with Jefferson that the institution was evil but took issue with Jefferson's repeated references to the specific cruelties of slavery. Taylor argued that "[s]laves are docile, useful and happy, if they are well managed," that "[t]he individual is restrained by his property in

4560-438: The regulatory role of the Second Bank. In hopes of extorting a rescue of the bank, Biddle induced a short-lived financial crisis that was initially blamed on Jackson's executive action. By 1834, a general backlash against Biddle's tactics developed, ending the panic, and all recharter efforts were abandoned. In February 1836, the bank became a private corporation under Pennsylvania law. A shortage of hard currency ensued, causing

4636-797: The reserved rights [interposition (nullification) and secession] of these primary political communities [the States]." Taylor was responsible for guiding the Virginia Resolution, written by James Madison , through the Virginia legislature. He wrote: "enormous political power invariably accumulates enormous wealth and enormous wealth invariably accumulates enormous political power." "Like his radical bourgeois counterparts in England, Taylor would not concede that great extremes of wealth and poverty were natural outcomes of differences in talent; on

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4712-475: The site of the greatest of all successful slave insurrections, the Haitian Revolution . "Taylor is one with most American thinkers from Washington to Jefferson to Lincoln in doubting that the free Negro could ever be anything but a problem for American politics." Thus, he advocated the deportation of free blacks . "Negro slavery is a misfortune to agriculture, incapable of removal, and only within

4788-406: The slave, and susceptible of humanity, and that "[r]eligion assails him [the slaveholder] both with her blandishments and terrors. It indissolubly binds his, and his slaves' happiness or misery together." That slavery might paradoxically have fostered a sense of equality among whites has been reconsidered recently by Edmund S. Morgan . Taylor's approach, defending the preservation of slavery under

4864-413: The stylistic name. The interior consists of an entrance hallway in the center of the north façade flanked by two rooms on either side. The entry leads into two central rooms, one after the other, that span the width of the structure east to west. The east and west sides of the first large room are each pierced by a large arched fan window. The building's exterior uses Pennsylvania blue marble , which, due to

4940-479: The techniques of 18th-century whig lawyers. Taylor believed that evidence from American history gave proof of state sovereignty within the union, against the arguments of nationalists such as Chief Justice John Marshall. Taylor's primary plantation estate, Hazelwood , was located three miles from Port Royal, Virginia and is on the National Register of Historic Places . Taylor County, West Virginia

5016-399: The terms of Hamilton's First Report on the Public Credit . The new securities were accepted by the Bank to purchase its stock up to three quarters (75%) of their value. Based on the collateral of the securities, the Bank issued new notes, producing a dramatic increase in the money supply and serving as the principal circulating medium, the legal tender, for the country. Hamilton enlisted

5092-524: The time of Jackson's inauguration in 1829, the bank appeared to be on solid footing. The Supreme Court had affirmed its constitutionality in McCulloch v. Maryland , the 1819 case which Daniel Webster had argued successfully on its behalf a decade earlier, the Treasury recognized the useful services it provided, and the American currency was healthy and stable. Public perceptions of the national bank were generally positive. The bank first came under attack by

5168-475: Was America's national bank, comparable to the Bank of England and the Bank of France , with one key distinction – the United States government owned one-fifth (20 percent) of its capital. Whereas other national banks of that era were wholly private, the Second Bank was more characteristic of a government bank. Under its charter, the bank had a capital limit of $ 35 million, $ 7.5 million of which represented

5244-532: Was decisive in the successful chartering effort. The charter was signed into law by James Madison on April 10, 1816. Subsequent efforts by Calhoun and Clay to earmark the bank's $ 1.5 million establishment "bonus", and annual dividends estimated at $ 650,000, as a fund for internal improvements , were vetoed by President Madison, on strict constructionist grounds. Opposition to a new bank emanated from two interests. Old Republicans , represented by John Taylor of Caroline and John Randolph of Roanoke , characterized

5320-687: Was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987 for its architectural and historic significance. The Wall Street branch in New York City was converted into the United States Assay Office before it was demolished in 1915. The federal-style façade was saved and installed in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1924. The Second Bank building was described by Charles Dickens in

5396-582: Was elected to the term that began March 4, 1793, but resigned, May 11, 1794. He served as a presidential elector in 1797. Taylor was a close friend of Thomas Jefferson , and, as member of the House of Delegates, was one of the men who offered the Virginia Resolves to that body. Taylor served in the U.S. Senate on two additional occasions. He was appointed to the Senate to fill the vacancy caused by

5472-603: Was formed in 1844 and named in Senator Taylor's honor. The last three books listed "are to be valued chiefly for their insight into federal-state relations and the true nature of the Union." M. E. Bradford, ed., Arator 35 (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1977). The above publication notations are credited to F. Thornton Miller, ed., Tyranny Unmasked , Foreword ix-xxii (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1992). From Reprints of Legal Classics (1) Little-known today, Taylor's work

5548-496: Was launched in the midst of a major global market readjustment as Europe recovered from the Napoleonic Wars . It was charged with restraining uninhibited private bank note issue—already in progress—that threatened to create a credit bubble and the risks of a financial collapse. Government land sales in the West, fueled by European demand for agricultural products, ensured that a speculative bubble would form. Simultaneously,

5624-524: Was the Tomb of many fortunes; the Great Catacomb of investment; the memorable United States Bank. The stoppage of this bank, with all its ruinous consequences, had cast (as I was told on every side) a gloom on Philadelphia, under the depressing effect of which it yet laboured. It certainly did seem rather dull and out of spirits. Second Report on Public Credit Modeled on the Bank of England ,

5700-759: Was the author of "An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States," 1814; "Construction Construed and the Constitution Vindicated." 1820; "Tyranny Unmasked. 1822; "New Views of the Constitution of the United States." 1823. He was also a scientific agriculturist, and in 1811 was first president of the Virginia Agricultural Societies. His little books, "Arator" ("Ploughman", in Latin), being

5776-474: Was wrong. "Let it not be supposed that I approve of slavery because I do not aggravate its evils, or prefer a policy which must terminate in a war of extermination." Rather, he defended the institution because he "thought blacks incapable of liberty." Taylor feared that widespread emancipation would ultimately and invariably lead to the horrific bloodshed witnessed in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791,

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