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Zachary Taylor

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   Zachary Taylor
   Zachary Taylor
     __________________________________________________________________

   12th President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1849 –  July 9, 1850
   Vice President(s)   Millard Fillmore
   Preceded by James Knox Polk
   Succeeded by Millard Fillmore
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born November 24, 1784
   Barboursville, Virginia
   Died July 9, 1850
   Washington, D.C.
   Political party Whig
   Spouse Margaret Smith Taylor
   Religion Episcopal
   Signature

   Zachary Taylor ( November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American
   military leader and the twelfth President of the United States. Taylor
   had a 40-year military career in the U.S. Army, serving in the War of
   1812, Black Hawk War, and Second Seminole War before achieving fame
   while leading U.S. troops to victory at several critical battles of the
   Mexican-American War. A Southern slaveholder who opposed the spread of
   slavery to the territories, he was uninterested in politics but was
   recruited by the Whig Party as their nominee in the 1848 presidential
   election. In the election Taylor defeated the Democratic nominee, Lewis
   Cass, and became the first U.S. president never to hold any prior
   office.

   As president, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to
   by-pass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood,
   setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.

   Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis
   just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore became
   President.

Early life and family

   Taylor was born on November 24, 1984, in a log cabin near Barboursville
   in Orange County, Virginia.

   Zachary Taylor was the third of eight children of Richard Taylor and
   Sarah Strother. Taylor's family was aristocratic: James Madison was a
   second cousin and Robert E. Lee was a fourth cousin once removed. In
   his infancy, Taylor's family moved to Kentucky, where Taylor grew up on
   a plantation. He was known as "Little Zack" and was educated by private
   tutors. He is one of the descendants of King Edward III of England .

   Taylor met Margaret "Peggy" Mackall Smith of Maryland in early 1810,
   and they were married on June 21, 1810. They had one son and five
   daughters, two of whom died in infancy. The surviving children were:
     * Ann Taylor (born April 9, 1811)
     * Sarah Knox "Knoxie" Taylor (born March 6, 1814)
     * Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Taylor (born April 20, 1824)
     * Richard "Dick" Taylor(born January 27, 1826)

   Sarah Knox Taylor married future Confederate president Jefferson Davis
   at age 21 over her father's strenuous objections; she died from malaria
   three months after the marriage.

Military career

   Zachary Taylor
   Enlarge
   Zachary Taylor

   On May 3, 1808, Taylor joined the U.S. Army, receiving a commission as
   a first lieutenant of the Seventh Infantry Regiment. He was ordered
   west into Indiana Territory, taking command at the Battle of Fort
   Harrison; he was promoted to captain in November 1810.

   During the War of 1812, Taylor became known as a talented military
   commander. Assigned to command Fort Harrison on the Wabash River, at
   the northern edge of present-day Terre Haute, Indiana, he successfully
   commandeered a small force of soldiers and civilians to stave off a
   British-inspired attack by about 500 Native Americans between September
   4 and September 15. The Battle of Fort Harrison, as it became known,
   has been referred to as the "first American land victory of the War of
   1812." Taylor received a brevet promotion to major on October 31, 1812.
   Taylor was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 20, 1819, and
   colonel on April 5, 1832.

   Taylor served in the Black Hawk War (May-August 1832) and the Second
   Seminole War (1835-1842). During the Seminole War, Taylor fought at the
   Battle of Lake Okeechobee and received a brevet promotion to brigadier
   general in January 1838. It was here he gained his nickname "Old Rough
   and Ready" for his rumpled clothes and wide-brimmed straw hat. On May
   15, 1838, Taylor was promoted commanding general of all U.S. forces in
   Florida.

   James K. Polk sent the Army of Occupation under Taylor's command to the
   Rio Grande in 1846. Mexico attacked Taylor's troops and Taylor defeated
   them despite being outnumbered 4-to-1. Polk later declared war. In the
   Mexican-American War that followed, Taylor won additional important
   victories at Monterrey and Buena Vista and became a national hero.

   Polk kept Taylor in northern Mexico, disturbed by his informal habits
   of command and his affiliation with the Whig Party. He 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."

Election of 1848

   Whig Party banner from 1848 with candidates Taylor and Fillmore
   Enlarge
   Whig Party banner from 1848 with candidates Taylor and Fillmore

   He received the Whig nomination for President in 1848. Like many other
   army officers, he was nonpolitical and had never voted. His homespun
   ways and his status as a war hero were political assets. Taylor
   defeated Lewis Cass, the Democratic candidate, and Martin Van Buren,
   the Free Soil candidate.

   To the astonishment of Whigs, Taylor ignored their platform, As
   historian Michael Holt explains:

     Taylor was equally indifferent to programs Whigs had long considered
     vital. Publicly, he was artfully ambiguous, refusing to answer
     queries about his views on banking, the tariff, and internal
     improvements. Privately, he was more forthright. The idea of a
     national bank "is dead, & will not be revived in my time." In the
     future the tariff "will be increased only for revenue"; in other
     words, Whig hopes of restoring the protective tariff of 1842 were
     vain. There would never again be surplus federal funds from public
     land sales to distribute to the states, and internal improvements
     "will go on in spite of presidential vetoes." In a few words, that
     is, Taylor pronounced an epitaph for the entire Whig economic
     program.

   Although Taylor won the election, he didn't know it at first. Having
   been a popular war general, he received many fan letters, some without
   postage. To avoid paying large sums of money, he had asked his post
   office to stop sending letters without postage. The letter from
   Washington, informing Taylor had won the election, did not have
   postage, and Taylor didn't receive the letter until another letter with
   postage had been sent.

Presidency

Policies

   Although Taylor had subscribed to Whig principles of legislative
   leadership, he was not inclined to be a puppet of Whig leaders in
   Congress. He ran his administration in the same rule-of-thumb fashion
   with which he had fought Indians.

   Under Taylor's administration the United States Department of the
   Interior was organized, although the department had been activated
   under President Polk's last day in office.

Compromise of 1850

   The slavery issue dominated Taylor's short term. Although he owned
   slaves, he took a moderately anti-slavery position. Taylor urged
   settlers in New Mexico and California to draft constitutions and apply
   for statehood, bypassing the territorial stage. New Mexico was too
   small to act but California—which had high population growth from the
   gold rush—wrote a constitution that did not allow slavery; it was
   approved by the voters and a new state government took over in December
   1849 without Congressional approval. Southerners were furious with
   Taylor (a southerner) and with California. In February 1850, Taylor
   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. Henry Clay then
   proposed a complex Compromise of 1850. Taylor died as it was being
   debated. (The Clay version failed but another version did pass under
   the new president, Millard Fillmore.)
   Taylor postage stamp
   Enlarge
   Taylor postage stamp

Administration and Cabinet

   OFFICE                    NAME             TERM
   President                 Zachary Taylor   1849–1850
   Vice President            Millard Fillmore 1849–1850
   Secretary of State        John M. Clayton  1849–1850
   Secretary of the Treasury William Meredith 1849–1850
   Secretary of War          George Crawford  1849–1850
   Attorney General          Reverdy Johnson  1849–1850
   Postmaster General        Jacob Collamer   1849–1850
   Secretary of the Navy     William Preston  1849–1850
   Secretary of the Interior Thomas Ewing     1849–1850

Supreme Court appointments

   none

States admitted to the Union

   none

Death

   Picture of Zachary Taylor
   Enlarge
   Picture of Zachary Taylor

   The cause of Zachary Taylor's death is not well understood, nor is it
   well documented. On July 4, 1850, Taylor was diagnosed by his
   physicians with cholera morbus, a term that included diarrhea and
   dysentery but not true cholera. Cholera, typhoid fever, and food
   poisoning have all been indicated as the source of the president's
   ultimately fatal gastroenteritis. More specifically, a hasty snack of
   iced milk, cold cherries and pickled cucumbers consumed at an
   Independence Day celebration might have been the culprit. By July 9,
   Taylor was dead.

   In 1991, Taylor's body was exhumed, and Larry Robinson and Frank Dyer
   conducted an autopsy at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
   Investigating the possibility of assassination by means of deliberate
   poisoning, Dyer and Robinson detected traces of arsenic and sent the
   results to a Kentucky medical examiner, who determined the quantity of
   arsenic present -- there is a faint amount of arsenic present naturally
   in the human body -- was several hundred times less than there would
   have been, had he been poisoned with arsenic. Taylor is buried in
   Louisville, Kentucky, at what is now the Zachary Taylor National
   Cemetery.

   There is some strong evidence that Taylor died from complications of
   heat stroke. On July 4, 1850, the weather in Washington was hot and
   rather humid. Taylor was there to preside over ceremonies at the laying
   of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument. Taylor was sporting a
   thick coat, vest, high-collared shirt, and a top hat. Shortly after
   arriving, Taylor complained that he was very thirsty. He went to the
   reception table and downed a large amount of water directly from a
   pitcher.

   Since the water was sitting in the sun, the idea of cholera is a
   possibility. But Taylor exhibited classic symptoms of heat stroke,
   particularly red, flushed skin on the face. Records also indicate that
   Taylor was having trouble walking and exhibiting slurred speech. At no
   time while outside did anyone loosen or remove Taylor's clothing. Only
   after returning to the White House was some of his clothing loosened.
   It was only a short time before Taylor collapsed.

   At this point his clothing was removed, but internal organs had already
   been damaged. In fact, his doctors were mystified as to the cause of
   multiple organ failure. Medical sciences had not addressed heat stroke
   and the internal damage caused by it. According to author Charles
   Panati, Taylor actually awoke briefly and said- "I should not be
   surprised if this were to result in my death." He took a few sips of
   iced milk, again adding to the possibility of cholera. He lapsed again
   into unconsciousness and died on July 9.

Surviving family

   Taylor's son Richard became a Confederate Lieutenant General, while his
   daughter Sarah Knox Taylor (1814–1835) had married future President of
   the Confederate States Jefferson Davis three months before her death of
   malaria. Taylor's brother, Joseph Pannill Taylor, was a Brigadier
   General in the Union Army during the Civil War. {Joseph P. Taylor's son
   Joseph Hancock Taylor was a Colonel in the US Civil War and was also a
   son-in-law of Union General Montgomery C. Meigs}. Taylor's niece Emily
   Ellison Taylor was the wife of Confederate General Lafayette McLaws.

Trivia

   1848 Democratic cartoon ridicules General Taylor as butcher of Mexican
   soldiers
   Enlarge
   1848 Democratic cartoon ridicules General Taylor as butcher of Mexican
   soldiers

     * Taylor's term of service was scheduled to begin on March 4, 1849,
       but as this day fell on a Sunday, Taylor refused to be sworn in
       until the following day. Vice President Millard Fillmore was also
       not sworn in on that day. As a result, it is often claimed that the
       previous president pro tempore of the Senate, David Rice Atchison,
       was "president for a day," or that the presidency was vacant. Most
       scholars believe that according the U.S. Constitution, Taylor's
       term began on March 4, regardless of whether he had taken the oath
       or not.
     * Taylor always preferred old and slovenly clothes (including his
       unique straw hat) to military uniforms, leading to his nickname,
       "Old Rough and Ready."
     * In 1942, a Liberty ship named the SS Zachary Taylor was launched.
       The ship was scrapped in 1961.
     * Taylor had a stutter.
     * Taylor was a poor writer and had difficulty spelling.
     * Taylor was the last Veteran of the War of 1812 to serve as
       President {the others were Andrew Jackson & W.H. Harrison}; the
       only Veteran of the Seminole War as President; and the first
       Veteran from either the Black Hawk War (the other was Abraham
       Lincoln) or the Mexican-American War (the others were Franklin
       Pierce, and Ulysses Grant) to become President.
     * On The Daily Show for October 17, 2006, as part of Its "Ten Years"
       observance, host Jon Stewart showed clips from previous shows that
       mentioned at least in passing every one of the United States
       Presidents — except for Zachary Taylor.

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