The Honorable
Hannis Taylor
United States Ambassador to Spain
In office
1893–1897
PresidentGrover Cleveland
Preceded byA. Loudon Snowden
Succeeded byStewart L. Woodford
Personal details
Born
Hannis Taylor

(1851-09-12)September 12, 1851
New Bern, North Carolina
DiedDecember 26, 1922(1922-12-26) (aged 71)
Washington, D.C.
Political partyDemocratic Party
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
OccupationLawyer and writer

Hannis Taylor (September 12, 1851 – December 26, 1922) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and writer.

Biography

Early life

Taylor was born in New Bern, North Carolina, on September 12, 1851.[1] His mother contracted tuberculosis when he was 18, resulting in Taylor, his 6 siblings, and his parents moving to southern Alabama in search of a better climate; she died shortly after leaving a distressed father and Taylor left to take care of his family.[2] He received a degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before moving to Mobile, Alabama, where he was admitted to the Bar.[3]

He worked for 15 years as a lawyer in Mobile before publishing his first volume of The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution in 1889.[3][4] Although he was not considered a successful lawyer, his writing career and connections within the Democratic party earned him notoriety and the presidency of the Alabama State Bar.[5]

Ambassadorship

Between 1893 and 1897, Taylor served as Envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States to the Spanish Empire.[1][6][7][8] His selection by President Cleveland, was done to incorporate the New South and appease expansionist, Democrat leader Senator John Tyler Morgan. Morgan's candidate was a surprising choice, due to his inability to speak Spanish and lack of familiarity with international law.[2][9]

Originally Taylor showed greater interest in advancing his constitutional studies, but he would quickly take on the expansionist role Morgan hoped for abroad, pushing American interests and never backing down from Spanish pressure.[10] He would first be tested when the Mora case was reopened as the Spanish Cortes blocked payments conceded by Foreign Minister Segismundo Moret over illegally confiscated land from a naturalized U.S. citizen.[5]

Later in his term, in 1896, Taylor would butt heads with the Spanish government again. Antonio Cánovas del Castillo instructed then Foreign Minister Carlos O'Donnell to solicit European support against the eventuality of the U.S. invading Cuba and the Monroe Doctrine. In the Summer of that year, O'Donnell drafted a memorandum that stated American intervention would ultimately result in the destabilizing and overthrowing of the Spanish Monarchy and its colonial holdings, which would in turn spread to the rest of Europe. Taylor would become aware of this through the British Ambassador to Spain, Henry Drummond Wolff, who revealed the plans to him. Taylor would then respond by warning O'Donnell that, should he continue with the plot, the Cleveland administration would perceive it as a hostile action which saw the memorandum scrapped.[11] That same year, Taylor would seek compromise by requesting Spain grant semi-autonomy to Cuba under the rule of Cánovas del Castillo.[12]

During this period he would work on a second volume of The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution which was published in 1898.[4] After his assignment, Taylor was called before President McKinley to give his impressions of Spain's American policy, especially with regarding Cuba.[13] During this meeting, he advocated for American intervention to the president.[5]

In November 1897 former President Cleveland gave this assessment of Taylor in a letter to former Attorney General Richard Olney: "I am thoroughly disgusted with Hannis Taylor. I’d give a month’s salary as President if I was in the White House and he was in Madrid. What a satisfaction it would be to bounce him. It is an aggravating thing to have to put up with his general inefficiency, and find out last that he is not even a gentleman. Well: He’s another of our Southern men of “high character” who – if appointed “will reflect credit on the administration.” He wrote that he intended to come to see me. I hope not."[14]

Post-Ambassadorship

In 1901 Taylor published A Treatise on International Public Law describing cases and doctrines such as the Caroline test, detailing in the latter its necessity.[3][15] The next year, in 1902, he moved his family to Washington, D.C., after two failed campaigns for the United States Congress.[2]

Taylor would later publish several additional works: The Science of Jurisprudence in 1908 and 1911 a final volume for The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution.[2][3]

On December 26, 1922, Taylor died in Washington D.C. at his home.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b "Hannis Taylor". Henderson Daily Dispatch. Newspapers.com. May 10, 1943. p. 4. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d "Hannis Taylor's Science of Jurisprudence: Book as Text, Book as Object, Book as Legacy". Litera Scripta. October 12, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Obituaries: Hannis Taylor" (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1923. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Fiske, Amos K. (February 11, 1899). "ENGLAND'S CONSTITUTION.; Hannis Taylor, Formerly Minister to Spain, Publishes His Second Volume". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  5. ^ a b c McWILLIAMS, TENNANT S. (1978). "Procrastination Diplomacy: Hannis Taylor and the Cuban Business Disputes, 1893–97". Diplomatic History. 2 (1): 63–80. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.1978.tb00422.x. ISSN 0145-2096. JSTOR 24909944.
  6. ^ "Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 15, Number 4, Nappanee, 12 April 1893". newspapers.library.in.gov. Hoosier State Chronicles. April 12, 1893. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  7. ^ "Hannis Taylor (1851–1922)". history.state.gov. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  8. ^ "Former Ambassadors". U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Spain and Andorra. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  9. ^ McWilliams, Tennant S. (1978). Hannis Taylor: The New Southerner as an American. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-5114-4.
  10. ^ Ross, William G., ed. (2017), "Military Conscription", World War I and the American Constitution, Cambridge Studies on the American Constitution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 13–49, doi:10.1017/9781316148464.002, ISBN 978-1-107-09464-2, retrieved June 15, 2021
  11. ^ Tucker, Spencer (2009). The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-951-1.
  12. ^ "The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War". www.loc.gov. Library of Congress. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  13. ^ "HANNIS TAYLOR IN WASHINGTON.; Former Minister to Spain Confers with President McKinley". The New York Times. October 10, 1897. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  14. ^ Cleveland to Olney, November 11, 1897, in Olney Papers, Library of Congress
  15. ^ OCCELLI, MARIA BENVENUTA (2003). ""Sinking" the Caroline: Why the Caroline Doctrine's Restrictions on Self Defense Should Not Be Regarded as Customary International Law". 4. University of San Diego: 467–490. ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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