Thesis
EXECUTIVE INFLUENCE AND THE OPPOSITION DISCOURSE OF JOHN TAYLOR OF CAROLINE: A CONTEXTUAL STUDY IN AMERICAN PARTY DEVELOPMENT, 1793-1794
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
01/2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004417
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/125355
Abstract
This thesis is a case study in the evolving language of opposition discourse during the initial formation of political parties in the United States, chiefly from 1793 to 1794. Using the political writings of John Taylor of Caroline (1753-1824), a senator from Virginia and staunch opponent of Federalist policies at the time, this study demonstrates how Jeffersonian Republicans such as Taylor became increasingly critical of President Washington’s Administration because of the intersecting contexts of fiscal-military state development pursued by Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, and the polarizing ideas of liberty and political corruption fostered by the French Revolution. Taylor’s attachment to the French Revolution led him to oppose any policy that tended to strengthen connections between the US and Britain. Indeed, because Taylor viewed the French Revolution as a transatlantic mirror of the American Revolution, he considered opposition to the French Revolution as evidence of a conspiracy between Federalists and the British government to overthrow liberty and reinstate a system of monarchy and aristocracy. As such, Taylor was highly suspicious of Alexander Hamilton’s fiscal policies, which were largely patterned after the fiscal-military developments pursued by Sir Robert Walpole in Britain during the first half of the eighteenth century. Just as Bolingbroke had opposed Walpole as a corrupt minister, Taylor cast Hamilton in the same fashion, stressing the cunning sophistry of Hamilton’s reports to Congress during an understudied investigation into the financial conduct of the Treasury Department in February 1793. Taylor’s focus on Hamilton’s “ministerial” language gained widespread currency in opposition discourse, especially through a previously unrecognized satirizing of the word “instrumentality” used by Hamilton in his reports to Congress.
President Washington himself had originally avoided being a target of opposition, while Hamilton bore the brunt of the assault. In April 1794, however, Washington nominated John Jay to serve as an envoy to Britain, despite Jay’s position on the Supreme Court. This ignited a new wave of opposition, also led by Taylor, which transformed the language of opposition away from the idea of “ministerial influence,” and into a more modern opposition to “executive influence” leveled against the President himself.
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Details
- Title
- EXECUTIVE INFLUENCE AND THE OPPOSITION DISCOURSE OF JOHN TAYLOR OF CAROLINE
- Creators
- James Ammon Cornelius
- Contributors
- Lawrence B. A. Hatter (Advisor)Steven D. Kale (Committee Member)Matthew A. Sutton (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- History, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 121
- Identifiers
- OCLC#: 1370910628; 99900883239001842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis