Landmark Books in All Fields
ItemID: #121392
Cost: $2,500.00

Tyranny Unmasked

John Taylor

"TAXATION DISGUISED IN ANY WAY, IS DISGUISED TYRANNY": FIRST EDITION OF JOHN TAYLOR'S TYRANNY UNMASKED, 1822

TAYLOR, John. Tyranny Unmasked. Washington City: Davis and Force, 1822. Octavo, late-19th-century three-quarter brown calf, raised bands, black spine label, marbled boards and endpapers. $2500.

First edition of this powerful work by John Taylor of Caroline—"one of the first and clearest spokesmen of state rights" (ANB)—arguing against Hamiltonian principles and the Marshall Court, and forcefully declaring that tyranny is that "which takes away our money, transfers our property and… eats the food belonging to others," handsomely bound.

"One of America's greatest disciples and philosophers of agrarian liberalism, John Taylor 'of Caroline' was the champion of local democracy and one of the first and clearest spokesmen of state rights" (ANB). Strongly opposed to a Hamiltonian political economy, Taylor also spoke out against the decisions of Chief Justice Marshall in viewing his rulings as "the handwriting on the wall that revealed all too clearly an ominous power inhabiting the house the fathers had built" (Gustafson, Representative Words, 44). By the 1820s, when "the Republicans and even Jefferson had disappointed him… Taylor personified a revival and analytical toughening of the original Republican challenge to the political economy of the market… In Tyranny Unmasked (1822) Taylor made state rights his bulwark, not only against the federal judiciary but also against such congressional oppressions as protective tariffs transferring wealth from agriculture to manufactures" (Sellers, 145-6). Here, Taylor argues, "taxation disguised in any way, is disguised tyranny," and tyranny is without question "something which takes away our money, transfers our property and comforts to those who did not earn them, and eats the food belonging to others" (295-7). Without scarce errata slip. Howes T65. Shoemaker 10418. Sabin 94495.

Text very fresh, mild rubbing to bright boards. A distinctive about-fine copy.

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