[1] The last in a succession of boyars who advanced reforms during the Phanariote rule, Tăutu stood for the interests of a coalition of low-ranking nobility which aimed to protect itself against competition from modern developments, while adopting various liberal and Romanian nationalist principles in order to counter the growing political power of Moldavian princes.
In 1822, under the rule of Ioan Sturdza (the first non-Phanariote prince in Moldavia), Ionică Tăutu advanced a thorough constitutional project, which soon became highly controversial.
The new law proposed habeas corpus, free trade, as well as a radical definition of private ownership which denied confiscation under any circumstances;[3] at the same time, it called for a reform of the traditional government by the prince and the estates of the realm (the Boyar Divan), which placed virtually all powers with the latter - thus attempting to preserve privileges obtained by boyars in the previous decades.
[6] The most noted adversary of his project was Mihail Sturdza (future prince), who rejected all decrease in influence for the high-ranking boyars.
Alecu Russo, who wrote his memoirs in the 1850s, described Tăutu as "the revived Romanianness, carried along by all patriotic sentiments, and having the same role as the one Vladimirescu [the leader of the previous Wallachian uprising] had with a peasant rifle".