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U.S Presidents — Zachary Taylor | |||||||||||||||||
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OVERVIEW
Name: Zachary Taylor
President: # 12 Term Number(s): 16 Term Length: 1.5 Took Office: March 4, 1849 Left Office: July 9, 1850 Age when Elected: 64 Party: Whig Also Known As: "Old Rough and Ready" BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
Education: no formal education
Occupation: Soldier (General) Other Governmental Position: None Military Service: Major General in the United States Army Religion: Episcopal Spouse(s): Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor (June 21, 1810) Children: Ann Mackall Taylor-Wood, Sarah Knox Taylor Davis, Mary Elizabeth Taylor Bliss, Richard Taylor
Birthdate: November 24, 1784
Birthplace: Barboursville, Virginia Deathdate: July 9, 1850 Deathplace: Washington, D.C. Age at Death: 65 Cause of Death: gastroenteritis Place of Internment: Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky  Signature FIRST ELECTION
Election Year: 1848
Main Opponent: Lewis Cass Voter Participation: N/A
CABINET AND COURT APPOINTMENTS
Vice President: Millard Fillmore
Secretary of State: John M. Clayton (1849–1850) Secretary of the Treasury: William M. Meredith (1849–1850) Secretary of War: George W. Crawford (1849–1850) Secretary of the Navy: William B. Preston (1849–1850) Secretary of the Interior: Thomas Ewing Sr. (1849–1850) Attorney General: Reverdy Johnson (1849–1850) Postmaster General: Jacob Collamer (1849–1850) Supreme Court Assignments: None PRESIDENT'S BIOGRAPHYBorn in Virginia in 1784, he was taken as an infant to Kentucky and raised on a plantation. He was a career officer in the Army, but his talk was most often of cotton raising. His home was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and he owned a plantation in Mississippi. But Taylor did not defend slavery or southern sectionalism; 40 years in the Army made him a strong nationalist. He spent a quarter of a century policing the frontiers against Indians. In the Mexican War, he won major victories at Monterrey and Buena Vista. President Polk, disturbed by General Taylor's informal habits of command and perhaps his Whiggery as well, kept him in northern Mexico and sent an expedition under General Winfield Scott to capture Mexico City. Taylor, incensed, thought that "the battle of Buena Vista opened the road to the city of Mexico and the halls of Montezuma, that others might revel in them." "Old Rough and Ready's" homespun ways were political assets. His long military record would appeal to northerners; his ownership of 100 slaves would lure southern votes. He had not committed himself on troublesome issues. The Whigs nominated him to run against the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass, who favored letting the residents of territories decide for themselves whether they wanted slavery.  although Taylor had subscribed to Whig principles of legislative leadership, he was not inclined to be a puppet of Whig leaders in Congress. He acted at times as though he were above parties and politics. As disheveled as always, Taylor tried to run his administration in the same rule-of-thumb fashion with which he had fought Indians. Traditionally, people could decide whether they wanted slavery when they drew up new state constitutions. Therefore, to end the dispute over slavery in new areas, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to draft constitutions and apply for statehood, bypassing the territorial stage. Southerners were furious, since neither state constitution was likely to permit slavery; Members of Congress were dismayed, since they felt the president was usurping their policy-making prerogatives. In addition, Taylor's solution ignored several acute side issues: the northern dislike of the slave market operating in the District of Columbia, and the southern demands for a more stringent fugitive slave law. In February 1850 President Taylor had held a stormy conference with southern leaders who threatened secession. He told them that if necessary to enforce the laws, he personally would lead the Army. Persons "taken in rebellion against the Union, he would hang... with less reluctance than he had hanged deserters and spies in Mexico." He never wavered. Then events took an unexpected turn. After participating in ceremonies at the Washington Monument on a blistering July 4, Taylor fell ill; within five days he was dead. After his death, the forces of compromise triumphed, but the war Taylor had been willing to face came 11 years later. In it, his only son Richard served as a general in the Confederate Army. FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor Moreover, the story goes that Margaret Taylor had taken a vow during the Mexican War: If her husband returned safely, she would never go into society again. In fact she never did, though prepared for it by genteel upbringing. "Peggy" Smith was born in Calvert County, Maryland, daughter of Ann Mackall and Walter Smith, a major in the Revolutionary War according to family tradition. In 1809, visiting a sister in Kentucky, she met young Lieutenant Taylor. They were married the following June, and for a while the young wife stayed on the farm given them as a wedding present by Zachary's father. Their first baby was born there, but Mrs. Taylor cheerfully followed her husband from one remote garrison to another along the western frontier of civilization. An admiring civilian official cited her as one of the "delicate females...reared in tenderness" who had to educate "worthy and most interesting" children at a fort in Indian country. Two small girls died in 1820 of what Taylor called "a violent bilious fever," which left their mother's health impaired; three girls and a boy grew up. Knowing the hardships of a military wife, Taylor opposed his daughters' marrying career soldiers, but each eventually married into the Army. The second daughter, Knox, married Lt, Jefferson Davis in gentle defiance of her parents. In a loving letter home, she imagined her mother skimming milk in the cellar or going out to feed the chickens. Within three months of her wedding, Knox died of malaria. Taylor was not reconciled to Davis until they fought together in Mexico; in Washington, the second Mrs. Davis became a good friend of Mrs. Taylor's, often calling on her at the White House. Though Peggy Taylor welcomed friends and kinfolk in her upstairs sitting room, presided at the family table, met special groups at her husband's side, and worshiped regularly at St. John's Episcopal Church, she took no part in formal social functions. She relegated all the duties of official hostess to her youngest daughter, Mary Elizabeth, then 25 and recent bride of Lt. Col. William W.S. Bliss, adjutant and secretary to the President. Mrs. Bliss filled her role admirably. One observer thought that her manner blended "the artlessness of a rustic belle and the grace of a duchess." MAJOR EVENTS
1850: The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, a treaty signed with Great Britain guaranteeing future canal access across Central America to all nations.
1850: Compromise of 1850. Due to the rapid expansion of U.S. territory following the Mexican-American War, this series of five bills was created to avoid a confrontation between southern slave states and northern free states. (Debated while Taylor was president but not passed until after Millard Fillmore becomes president.)
1850: Taylor dies unexpectedly of gastroenteritis after having a snack of milk and cherries at an Independence Day celebration.
TRIVIA
1. Visitors to the White House would take souvenir horse hairs from Whitey, Zachary Taylor's old Army horse that he kept on the White House lawn.
2. Taylor was the second president to die in office. He spent July 4, 1850, at a ceremony at the Washington Monument. He became ill from the heat and died five days later of intestinal ailments. Recently, his body was exhumed because some believed he was poisoned, but this was proved to be false.
3. Taylor received his nomination for presidency late because he refused all postage due correspondences.
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