Robert Love Taylor - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Taylor was born in Happy Valley in Carter County, Tennessee, the third son of Nathaniel Green Taylor, a Methodist minister, and Emaline Haynes, an accomplished pianist. His father, a member of the Whig Party, had been defeated by Andrew Johnson in a campaign for Congress in 1849, but would win the seat in the mid-1850s. His mother's family supported the Democratic Party, and her brother, Landon Carter Haynes, was a prominent Democratic politician. Robert Taylor would adopt his mother's political leanings and become a Democrat, while his older brother, Alfred, would follow his father into the Whig (and later Republican) Party.

Nathaniel Taylor supported the Union during the Civil War, and the family moved to Philadelphia in 1861 when the Confederate Army occupied East Tennessee. In 1864, the Taylor brothers enrolled in Pennington Seminary in New Jersey. The family moved to Washington in 1867 when Nathaniel Taylor was appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs by President Andrew Johnson, and Robert Taylor took a position in the Treasury Department. The family returned to Tennessee in 1869, where Robert would attend Buffalo Institute (modern Milligan College) and East Tennessee Wesleyan College. While at the former, he cowrote a play with his brother, Alfred.

During the 1870s, Robert Taylor tried several business ventures, including farming, operating a lumber mill, and managing his father's Doe River iron forge. He largely failed at all of these, however, as he was wreckless with money, overpaid his employees, and preferred conversation and storytelling to working. He read law during this period with S.J. Kirkpatrick in Jonesborough.

In 1878, Alfred Taylor ran for the Republican nomination for the 1st district congressional seat against Augustus H. Pettibone. At the party's convention, Alfred appeared to have more delegates, but Pettibone managed to win the nomination, leading Taylor's supporters to suspect corruption. Robert Taylor was then convinced to run against Pettibone on the Democratic ticket in the general election. The public got its first real taste of his speaking ability at a debate in Bristol, when Taylor thrashed Pettibone with a "bewildering kaleidoscope of oratory." With help from Alfred's disgruntled supporters, Robert was able to edge Pettibone for the seat by 750 votes. Among the legislation sponsored by Taylor was a bill calling for a federal income tax.

Taylor was defeated by Pettibone in his reelection campaign in 1880, and lost to Pettibone a third time when he tried to regain the seat in 1882. He then launched a pro-Democratic Party newspaper, The Comet, in nearby Johnson City. In 1884, Taylor was named the elector from the 1st district for Democratic presidential candidate Grover Cleveland, and campaigned across the district against the Republican elector, Samuel Hawkins. After Cleveland won the election, he appointed Taylor federal pension agent in Knoxville.