managing his father's Doe River iron forge. He largely failed at all of those, however, since he was reckless 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 Tennessee's 1st congressional district seat against Augustus H. Pettibone. At the party's convention, Alfred appeared to have more delegates, but Pettibone managed to win the nomination, which led Alfred's supporters to suspect corruption. Robert Taylor was 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 edged Pettibone for the seat by 750 votes. Legislation sponsored by Taylor included a bill calling for a federal income tax. Taylor was defeated by Pettibone in his re-election campaign in 1880 and lost to Pettibone a third time when he tried to regain the seat in 1882. He 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 as federal pension agent in Knoxville. Governor In 1886, Republicans, hoping to exploit divisions in the Democratic Party between the pro-farmer and Bourbon factions, nominated Alfred Taylor for governor. (The office then had a two-year term.) Democrats, realizing they needed a unifier and effective campaigner to counter Alfred, nominated Robert Taylor as their candidate, pitting the two brothers against one another. The Prohibition Party offered its nomination to the Taylors' father, Nathaniel, but he declined. The 1886 gubernatorial campaign is remembered for the Taylor brothers' relatively light-hearted political banter and entertaining speeches. Canvassing together, they spent the first part of each campaign stop "cussing out each other's politics" and telling stories and the second part playing fiddle tunes while the crowd danced. At a stop in Madisonville, Robert suggested that both he and Alfred were roses, but he was a white rose while Alfred was a red rose. As their respective supporters subsequently wore white and red roses, the campaign became known as the "War of the Roses" (the name