Tyranny Unmasked

by John Taylor of Caroline

A passion for carnage, is the tyranny of savages. Ambition and avarice are the passions which produce civilized tyranny. A policy for encouraging the latter passions, is like one for training savage nations to become bloodhounds. If ambition is cultivated by feeding it with excessive power, it extorts from industry the fruits of its labour; if avarice is cultivated by feeding it with excessive wealth, it acquires political power to pillage industry also. Enormous political power invariably accumulates enormous wealth, and enormous wealth invariably accumulates enormous political power.

Genres: Politics, American, American History, Philosophy, History, Economics

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1821

About the author

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 (1779–81, 1783–85, 1796–1800) and in the United States Senate (1792–94, 1803, 1822–24). He wrote several books on politics and agriculture. He was a Jeffersonian Democrat 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 a classical interest in strong citizen participation in rule to prevent concentrated power and wealth, political corruption, and financial manipulation"

Reviews

[Tony Genualdi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a master work in defense of liberty and limited government. John Taylor had written this to fight against what he felt was an unjust tariff in the early 1820's, and went on in the third section, to warn us today of what abuses government can make us suffer under. He warns of Supreme Courts making laws, and of the two-party system, which existed even in his day, when he penned this work. Taylor warns us of following the English example in many things, such as too powerful magistrates, and of the need for the states to defend their liberty jealously against federal encroachments. He goes on to warn the voters not to let themselves be deceived by flattery into giving up their rights to career politicians.
Read this work and remember what he had warned about which is coming to pass before our eyes, and work to fight it.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did they ever here of run-on sentences back then?????

[Craig Bolton]

TYRANNY UNMASKED by JOHN OF CAROLINE TAYLOR (1992)