Zachary Taylor, twelfth president of the United States, was, as one of the two military heroes of the Mexican War, the last Whig president.
Background
Zachary Taylor was born in a well-to-do prominent family of planters on 24 November 1784 in Orange County Virginia. His father's name was Richard Taylor and his mother's name was Sarah Strother Taylor. He had seven siblings; four brothers and three sisters.
Education
Poorly educated by private tutoring, young Taylor was intended for an agricultural life on the family plantation, but the death of an elder brother allowed him to enter the Army.
Career
In 1808 Taylor was appointed a lieutenant by President Thomas Jefferson and assigned to Gen. James Wilkinson's command at New Orleans.
A bout with yellow fever forced Taylor into temporary retirement, but he was promoted to captain in 1810 and assigned to the command of Governor William Henry Harrison of Indiana Territory.
During the War of 1812 Taylor won prominence in his command of Ft. Harrison. His small garrison withstood an attack by 400 Indians led by Tecumseh. During the war he was promoted to brevet major, but at the war's end he reverted to captain. This so angered him that he resigned his commission and returned to Kentucky to raise "a crop of corn."
In May 1816 President James Madison restored Taylor to the rank of major and sent him to Wisconsin Territory to command the 3d Infantry. Fifteen years of garrison duty followed in Louisiana and Minnesota. In 1832 he was promoted to colonel, and during the Black Hawk War he had charge of 400 regulars, under the command of Gen. Henry Atkinson. After receiving the surrender of the Indian chief Black Hawk, he returned to Ft. Snelling as commanding officer.
In 1837 Taylor was assigned command of the Army prosecuting the Seminole Wars in Florida. On Christmas Day he inflicted a stinging defeat on them at Lake Okeechobee, for which he was breveted a brigadier general. In May 1833 he assumed command of the department. Muscular and stocky, rarely in full uniform, he was dubbed "Old Rough and Ready" by his troops. In 1840 he returned to the Department of the Southwest as commander, and that year he purchased a house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which he thereafter considered home. He also purchased, in 1841, Cyprus Grove, a plantation near Rodney, Missouri, thus becoming a slave owner.
In May 1845 Taylor was ordered to correspond with the government of the Republic of Texas, then negotiating annexation to the United States, and to repel any invasion of Mexicans. In July he moved his army of 4, 000 men to the site of Corpus Christi, Tex. In January 1846 he was ordered to the mouth of the Rio Grande to support the American claim to that river as the boundary of Texas. In March he constructed Ft. Brown, opposite the Mexican town of Matamoros.
When Mexican forces attacked his troops, Taylor did not wait for Congress to declare war. On May 8, 1846, at Palo Alto he defeated a Mexican army three times the size of his own force, largely through the accuracy of his artillery. The next day he won the Battle of Resaca de la Palma and then occupied Matamoros. President James K. Polk thereupon named him commander of the Army of the Rio Grande and promoted him to brevet major general. A grateful Congress voted him thanks and two gold medals.
With 6, 000 men Taylor set out in September 1846 for Monterrey, Mexico, which he captured on September 20-24, granting the Mexicans an 8-week armistice. The Polk administration criticized Taylor's leniency toward the Mexicans and would have replaced him but for his growing popularity. Because of that, and because Taylor's name was being prominently mentioned as the Whig nominee for president, the Democrat Polk reassigned half his troops to General Winfield Scott, who was to invade Mexico at Veracruz. Taylor was ordered to hold at Monterrey and be on the defensive.
Taylor ignored his orders, advancing southward until he came into contact with Antonio López de Santa Ana's Mexican army of 15, 000-20, 000 men. On February 22-23 they fought the Battle of Buena Vista. Many of Taylor's men, mainly volunteers, broke and fled, but his artillery proved so effective that the Mexicans were forced to retreat. In gratitude for this victory, Congress voted him another gold medal, but Polk continued to hamper and demean his activities. Taylor remained in Mexico until November 1847, when he returned to campaign in his peculiar fashion for the presidency.
The Whigs nominated Taylor on the fourth ballot, passing over Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Winfield Scott, even though Taylor had never even voted in a presidential election. The Democrats chose Lewis Cass. Because of a split in the Democratic party, Taylor carried New York State and thereby won the election. People voted for him in the North because he was a war hero; in the South he was admired as a slave owner.
Although a slave owner, Taylor gradually came to support the Wilmot Proviso (mandating that there be no extension of slavery into the territory taken from Mexico at the end of the war). He encouraged Californians to seek admission as a free state, just as he did New Mexicans, despite the Texan claims to all land east of the Rio Grande. Southern Whigs thereupon turned against Taylor and the party. His steadfast opposition to the Texan claims heated the sectional controversy; yet when there was talk of secession, he stated forthrightly, "Disunion is treason." His strong stand discouraged secession and perhaps delayed the Civil War.
A lifelong admirer of George Washington, Taylor attended the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument on July 4, 1850, sitting for hours in the hot sun. Afterward he drank quantities of ice water and then ate cherries with iced milk. That night he suffered what the doctors described as a cholera attack; he died 5 days later. He rallied at his deathbed to make a last statement: "I have tried to discharge my duties faithfully. I regret nothing." He was buried near Louisville, Kentucky.
In June 1846 Taylor had written that he would decline the presidency even "if preferred and I could reach it without opposition." In August 1847 he stated, "I do not care a fig about the office." Yet by the late fall of 1847 he was becoming interested and writing his views on political issues. He said that the Bank of the United States was a dead issue, that he favored internal improvements, and that he would use the veto to protect the Constitution. His political backers, appalled at such statements, preferred that his views remain unknown.
After inauguration Taylor advocated military and naval effectiveness; friendly relations with foreign powers; Federal encouragement of agriculture, commerce, and manufacturing; and congressional conciliation of sectional controversy. Four of his seven Cabinet members were Southerners, and the Cabinet contained no men of real ability.
Because of Taylor's political inability, he suffered in his relations with Congress. He also contributed to the ruination of the Whig party because he thought himself above partisan politics. "I am a Whig," he stated, "but not an ultra Whig." The result was discord and dissension within party ranks.
Taylor little understood foreign affairs and blundered badly on several occasions. His one major accomplishment in this area was the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, which dealt with English-American efforts to build an Isthmian canal.
Views
Quotations:
"I have always done my duty. I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me."
"As American freemen, we cannot but sympathize in all efforts to extend the blessings of civil and political liberty, but at the same time, we are warned by the admonitions of history and the voice of our own beloved Washington to abstain from entangling alliances with foreign nations."
"If elected, I would not be the mere president of a party - I would endeavor to act independent of party domination and should feel bound to administer the government untrammeled by party schemes."
"Economy I consider a virtue & should be practiced by all; there is certainly no way in which money can be laid out than in the education of children."
"I have never yet exercised the privilege of voting, but had I been called upon at the last presidential election to do so, I should most certainly have cast my vote for Mr. Clay."
Membership
In recognition of his victory at Buena Vista, on July 4, 1847 Taylor was elected an honorary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati, the Virginia branch of which included his father as a charter member. Taylor also was made a member of the Aztec Club of 1847, Military Society of the Mexican War.
New York Society of the Cincinnati
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United States
1847
Aztec Club
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United States
1847
Personality
By all accounts, Taylor as genuinely warm, open, and plainspoken. He was said to be a bit shy before new acquaintances but warmed readily. He stammered occasionally and thought carefully before speaking. Far from being the unmannerly boor that his long years in the military and careless dress led many to expect, he was, according to biographer Holman Hamilton, “a gentleman, inherently gracious, even gallant here women ere concerned, and an affable and agreeable host…true to the Virginia-Kentucky tradition of unstudied gentlemanliness.”
Physical Characteristics:
Taylor stood about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed about 170 pounds in his prime, about 200 pounds as president. A disproportionate figure, he had long, gangling arms, a thickly set torso, and short, bowed legs. His long thin face was dominated by a high forehead and long nose. He had brown hair and hazel eyes. Farsighted and walleyed, he wore reading glasses and often squinted. He dressed sloppily, wearing whatever was most comfortable, and even as a soldier typically appeared in a hodgepodge of civilian and military dress. He often walked or stood with one hand behind his back. His health generally was sound.
Quotes from others about the person
"By all accounts, Taylor was genuinely warm, open, and plainspoken. He was said to be a bit shy before new acquaintances but warmed readily. He stammered occasionally and thought carefully before speaking. Far from being the unmannerly boor that his long years in the military and careless dress led many to expect, he was, according to biographer Holman Hamilton, "a gentleman, inherently gracious, even gallant where women were concerned, and an affable and agreeable host... true to the Virginia-Kentucky tradition of unstudied manliness.""
William A. DeGregorio, The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents (1984), p. 175
Connections
Zachary Taylor tied the knot with Margaret Mackall Smith, who went on to be the first lady of the United States after the former was crowned the President. Margaret, also fondly known as ‘Peggy’, was the beloved child of a war veteran named Walter Smith. The wedding took place way back in 1810.
The couple eventually became parents to six children.