older than Tazewell, was born in
Smithfield, attended in Norfolk the school of that elegant scholar, the
late Dr. Alexander Whitehead, became a student of William and Mary
College, where he remained till his duel with John Randolph, in which he
received a ball that he carried to his grave; studied law with Judge
Marshall, and in 1796, at the age of twenty-two, engaged in the practice
of the law in this city. His fine talents attracted universal attention,
and business crowded upon him. His voice, action, eloquence, were all in
fine harmony. As the district court system was then in operation, he had
an opportunity of witnessing the displays of the leading counsel of the
state in the neighboring town of Suffolk; and it was the dictate alike
of interest and ambition to prepare himself for the conflict with his
ablest contemporaries. Politics were the order of the day; and they soon
engaged the attention of young Taylor. I heard many years ago, that when
he came to the bar, and some time afterwards, he sided with his college
mates Tazewell, Randolph, Cabell, Thompson, and James Barbour, and
hailed with rapture the progress of the French revolution; but, shocked
by the barbarities which disgraced the later stages of that moral and
political maelstrom, and indignant at the unprecedented conduct of the
diplomatic agents of France in our own country, he determined to
separate from his early friends, and to uphold with all his influence
the administration of Washington and that of his successor. It is said
that he read with unmixed feelings of admiration and delight the
Reflections of Burke on the French Revolution, which had appeared about
six years before; and, if that work vanquished his early love of France,
he may be said at least to have fallen by a noble hand. At such a crisis
of foreign and domestic affairs, it was impossible that a young man with
such powers of eloquence and such fearlessness of spirit should be
allowed to remain at home, while all his old associates, and the oldest
and ablest politicians of the state were about to assemble in Richmond,
and to battle for the victory. He was accordingly returned, in 1799, by
the Borough of Norfolk to the House of Delegates, on the floor of which
the contest was to be decided. At the session of the previous year, the
Assembly had passed the celebrated resolutions of John Taylor of
Caroline, long since known to have been written by Mr. Madison, which
had been sent to the sev