known as John Taylor of Caroline
born Dec. 19?, 1753, Caroline county, Va.
died Aug. 21, 1824, Caroline county, Va., U.S.
U.S. politician.
He served in the Continental Army (1775–79) and the Virginia militia (1781) in the American Revolution . A strong advocate of states' rights , he opposed ratification of the U.S. Constitution. He was a member of the U.S. Senate (1792–94, 1803, 1822–24), and he introduced the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions in the Virginia legislature (1798). A supporter of Thomas Jefferson , he wrote essays on the importance of maintaining an agrarian democracy as a defense against the development of an overly powerful central government.