12th U.S. President Zachary Taylor

Taylor, Zachary (1784-1850). 12th President of the United States. A career soldier who never voted, he served fewer than 500 days in the White House. Yet he significantly influenced political developments during the first half of 1850, when there was a domestic crisis and a grave possibility of civil war. Although long a slaveholder, Taylor was as much a Westerner as a Southerner. He was nationalistic in his orientation, seeking, above all, to preserve the Union.

Ancestry and Early Life. Taylor was a member of several prominent families. One forebear was William Brewster, a Mayflower pilgrim. James Madison was Taylor's second cousin, and Robert E. Lee also was a kinsman. The 12th president's father was Lt. Col. Richard Taylor of the Revolutionary Army. His mother was Sarah Dabney Strother Taylor.

Zachary Taylor was born in Orange County, Va., on Nov. 24, 1784. A third child and third son, he had six younger brothers and sisters. As an infant he was taken to what became Jefferson County, Ky., and he grew to manhood on a farm near Louisville. His formal schooling was slight.

Early Military Career. In 1808, Taylor was commissioned a first lieutenant of infantry. Two years later he married Margaret Mackall Smith of Calvert County, Md. As a captain he won distinction in September 1812 for his defense of Fort Harrison in Indiana Territory against an Indian attack. For this achievement the young officer became the first brevet major in the U.S. Army. In 1814, Taylor led U.S. troops against British and Indians at Credit Island in Illinois Territory. Outnumbered three to one, he scored temporary successes before withdrawing. In 1815 he was promoted to the lineal grade of major.

After a year as a civilian, Taylor reentered the army in 1816. At various times he served in the states or future states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Commissioned a colonel in 1832, he fought in the Black Hawk War that year, participating in the Battle of Bad Axe. Taylor acquired his nickname, "Old Rough and Ready," fighting the Seminole Indians in Florida Territory from 1837 to 1840. His victory at the Battle of Okeechobee in 1837 was the single most successful U.S. effort of the protracted Second Seminole War. Breveted a brigadier general in 1838, he commanded all U.S. troops in Florida. He emerged from the struggle with the reputation of a determined, resourceful leader.

There followed five placid years, 1840–1845, during which Taylor remained in the army, but also gave careful attention to his plantation in Mississippi. The annexation of Texas, however, enabled him to receive his most important military assignment. In August 1845, he was in command of a small army of regulars near the mouth of the Nueces River at Corpus Christi, Texas. Both the United States and Mexico claimed the region between this river and the Rio Grande, and because Mexican military activity was rumored, Taylor augmented his troops and awaited specific instructions before moving through the disputed region.

Mexican War. Early in 1846 the order came. Advancing to his new supply base at Point Isabel, General Taylor ordered the construction of Fort Texas (later Fort Brown, site of Brownsville, Texas) on the American side of the Rio Grande opposite Matamoros. Nearby on April 25 about 1,600 Mexican soldiers, who had crossed the river, surrounded an American detachment and killed or captured its members. This was the unofficial start of the Mexican War. Taylor set out for Point Isabel to secure his base and, after several days devoted to strengthening its defenses, began a return march to relieve Fort Texas, which had come under Mexican bombardment.

The American force of 2,228 found its route blocked by a Mexican army more than twice its size. On May 8 at Palo Alto, 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Fort Texas, Mexican Gen. Mariano Arista opened cannon fire, and Taylor retaliated. Palo Alto was the war's first battle. It was a minor U.S. victory, which demonstrated the superiority of American artillery.

The next day told a more dramatic story. Arista fell back 5 miles (8 km) to terrain where embankments, underbrush, and chaparral offset the effectiveness of Taylor's cannon. The fight at Resaca de la Palma that afternoon was especially bloody. Little headway could be made against the strong Mexican right flank by the greatly outnumbered Americans. But before the insistent hammering of Taylor's infantrymen, Arista's left flank was turned, and his army crumbled. The Mexicans retreated hastily across the Rio Grande. Fort Texas was safe and the American army triumphant. The Mexicans suffered three times as many casualties as the Americans.

The two May victories resulted in Taylor's becoming not only a major general but also a national hero. Then, Congress having declared war, volunteer regiments made it possible for "Old Rough and Ready" to have 6,641 troops when he launched his attack on Monterrey on Sept. 21, 1846. Northern Mexico's largest community proved to be well defended. Gen. Pedro de Ampudia's army of 7,303 held many advantages behind fortified hills and adjacent strong-points. Much of the fighting was house-to-house as sharpshooters fired from doorways, windows, and roofs while artillery controlled the streets and plazas. For three days the combat raged. Finally, Ampudia broached an eight-week armistice, stipulating his willingness to surrender the city if Taylor would permit withdrawal of the Mexican troops. Because his supply lines were extended and this seemed the best result he could obtain, Taylor accepted Ampudia's proposal.

Despite the indecisive outcome and the numerous U.S. casualties, many Americans at home regarded Monterrey as a third Taylor success. Not so President James K. Polk. Losing confidence in Taylor, Polk transferred most of the seasoned soldiers to Gen. Winfield Scott. Polk himself, however, made a serious mistake. He gave the exiled Mexican dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna a safe-conduct through the U.S. naval blockade in the belief that the opportunistic firebrand would arrange peace negotiations. Instead, Santa Anna attacked Taylor.

The Battle of Buena Vista on Feb. 22–23, 1847, marked the climax of Taylor's Mexican War service. With fewer than 500 regulars in his force of 4,760, he was outnumbered by Santa Anna four to one. Amid crags and gullies near Saltillo, the doughty commander halted waves of mounted and dismounted assailants and turned the tide in counterassaults. After two days of struggle, Santa Anna retreated from the rugged terrain. The field and the victory were Taylor's.

Election of 1848. Buena Vista, more than anything else, elevated Taylor to the presidency. His unassuming personality, earthiness, and courage contributed substantially to his appeal. The Whig party, trying to repeat its one great success with William Henry Harrison in 1840, nominated this second old soldier as its presidential candidate in June 1848. Taylor was a military hero whose views on the crucial issues of the day were not well enough known to be damaging. His ownership of blacks and a cotton plantation helped in the South.

Taylor's opponents in the campaign were Democrat Lewis Cass and Free Soil standard-bearer Martin Van Buren. The main issue was the extension of slavery into the vast regions ceded by Mexico to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican War. While Van Buren explicitly opposed extension, neither major-party aspirant took a clear position. Van Buren, a former Democrat, split the Democratic vote in pivotal New York. Taylor defeated Cass 163 to 127 in the electoral college. Taylor carried half the states, seven in the North and eight in the South. His popular vote was 1,362,101; Cass', 1,222,674; Van Buren's, 291,616.

President. Zachary Taylor was president from March 5, 1849, to July 9, 1850. The Thirty-first Congress, which did not assemble until December 1849, had a Democratic plurality in the House and a Democratic majority in the Senate. Its members were far from agreement on the burning issues of the times.

Many Southern senators and representatives favored projecting the Missouri Compromise line of 36° 30' to the Pacific Ocean, with slavery legal south of the line. Other senators, notably Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas, supported mutual concessions, including the application of popular sovereignty to two western territories they wished to create. Taylor rejected those schemes, the "President's Plan" being limited to the admission of California and New Mexico as states.

Because California had applied to enter the Union as a free state, and it was thought that New Mexico would follow suit, Taylor's stand was clearly anti-extension. His congressional backing consisted almost wholly of free-state Whigs. With two exceptions, every Northern Whig senator explicitly or implicitly sided with the president.

Thus Taylor's role is vital to an understanding of the memorable debates of 1850, during which some congressmen carried firearms, and prominent politicians were involved in fist-fights. There was fear and danger of civil war and a possibility that the Texas militiamen would attempt to drive the U.S. Army out of Santa Fe before the year was over. A Unionist in the Jacksonian tradition, President Taylor made it clear that he would not hesitate to employ the full authority of his office to quell rebellion in any form. 

Taylor died in Washington, D.C., on July 9, 1850, when the national crisis was particularly acute. Except for the dramatic congressional speeches over the extension of slavery—some among the most famous in American history—the sole major event associated with the Taylor administration is the signing of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Britain, which provided for control over a future canal or other route across Central America. 

Assessment. Taylor was a conscientious military officer, popular with his subordinates, considerate, and brave, although not one of the truly great commanders. Stocky, sturdy, of medium height, with furrowed face and graying hair, he habitually wore civilian garb during the Mexican War—preferring a wide-brimmed straw hat and unmatched trousers and coat. When reviewing his troops on Old Whitey, he liked to sit side-saddle with one leg casually thrown over the pommel. Afoot he was often taken for a farmer. In Washington, dressed more formally but with his top hat perched on the back of his head, the President frequently went about unrecognized. Simplicity, in its best sense, is the word most accurately characterizing Taylor both before and after he became famous.

Devoted to his invalid wife, his children, and grandchildren, Taylor valued family life and played host to countless relatives. He became fully reconciled to his son-in-law, Jefferson Davis, who had married Sarah Knox Taylor in 1835 against her father's wishes only to become a widower three months later. Another Taylor daughter, Mary Elizabeth ("Betty"), then married to Col. William Bliss, acted as White House hostess during her father's presidency.

A cotton planter, Taylor took an abiding interest not only in land and crops but particularly in his slaves, who were well treated. Owning 118 slaves when elected president, he acquired 64 more and a sugar plantation several weeks before he died. Yet he adamantly opposed the extension of slavery. From Taylor's point of view this was not inconsistent. He respected slaveholders' rights in the 15 states where the institution was legal. At the same time, he did not wish to jeopardize the Union because of the extension issue.

In some Southern eyes, Taylor, politically, was a doughface in reverse—a Southern man with Northern principles. Fundamentally he was a dedicated Unionist, a son of the West, a product of the frontier, a patriot who placed the highest value on what he conceived to be national interests and national welfare.

Recommended Reading: Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest. Description: Zachary Taylor was one of the most unlikely men to ever serve as president of the United States. Self-educated, an average and conservative military leader, considered by many to be less than intellectual, but General Zachary Taylor, affectionately referred to as the soldier’s soldier,  was thrust into the limelight because of his success in the Mexican War. Although a southerner, Taylor opposed the extension of slavery and threatened dire consequences to secessionists. (Ironically, his son, Richard Taylor, became one of the South’s greatest Civil War generals.) Continued below...

He died unexpectedly after serving only sixteen months as president. His death occurred just as he was reorganizing his administration and attempting a recasting of the Whig Party. Mr. Bauer does a good job of describing the effect that Zachary Taylor had on the nation as well as that “personal side” of the soldier’s soldier.

Recommended Reading: Zachary Taylor: The 12th President, 1849-1850 (The American Presidents) (Hardcover). Description: The rough-hewn general who rose to the nation’s highest office, and whose presidency witnessed the first political skirmishes that would lead to the Civil War. Zachary Taylor was a soldier’s soldier, a man who lived up to his nickname, “Old Rough and Ready.” Having risen through the ranks of the U.S. Army, he achieved his greatest success in the Mexican War, propelling him to the nation’s highest office in the election of 1848. He was the first man to have been elected president without having held a lower political office. John S. D. Eisenhower, the son of another soldier-president, shows how Taylor rose to the presidency, where he confronted the most contentious political issue of his age: slavery. Continued below...

The political storm reached a crescendo in 1849, when California, newly populated after the Gold Rush, applied for statehood with an anti-slavery constitution, an event that upset the delicate balance of slave and free states and pushed both sides to the brink. As the acrimonious debate intensified, Taylor stood his ground in favor of California’s admission—despite being a slaveholder himself—but in July 1850 he unexpectedly took ill, and within a week he was dead. His truncated presidency had exposed the fateful rift that would soon tear the country apart.

 

Recommended Reading: The Presidencies of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore (American Presidency Series) (Hardcover) (University Press of Kansas). Description: In this book, Elbert B. Smith sharply disagrees with traditional interpretations of Taylor and Fillmore, the twelfth and thirteenth presidents (from 1848 to 1853). He persuasively argues that the slaveholding Taylor--and not John C. Calhoun--was the realistic defender of southern slaveholding interests, and that Taylor did nothing to impede the Compromise of 1850. While Taylor opposed the combination of the issues into a single compromise bill that could not be passed without amendments to suit the extremists, he would have approved the different parts of the Compromise that were ultimately passed as separate measures.

Most historians have written that Taylor's death and Fillmore's accession led to an abrupt change in presidential policy, but Smith believes that continuity predominated. Taylor wanted the controversies debated and acted upon as separate bills; Fillmore helped to accomplish it. Taylor had desired statehood for California and New Mexico with self-determination, or popular sovereignty, on slavery. As separate measures, the Congress admitted California and preserved a viable New Mexico as a “territory authorized to make its own decision on slavery.” With secessionists pitted against moderates in the southern elections of 1851, Fillmore had to choose between his constitutional oath and his personal antipathy to the new fugitive slave law. He supported the law and thereby helped keep southern moderates in power for a few more years. In fact, however, his efforts did not recapture a single slave. In Smith's view, Fillmore's most serious mistake was refusing a second term. Smith argues that Taylor and Fillmore have been seriously misrepresented and underrated. They faced a terrible national crisis and accepted every responsibility without flinching or directing blame toward anyone else.

 

Recommended Reading: President Zachary Taylor: The Hero President (First Men, America's Presidents) (Hardcover). Description: 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. Continued below…

 

Recommended Reading: The Radicalism of the American Revolution. From Library Journal: Historians have always had problems explaining the revolutionary character of the American Revolution: its lack of class conflict, a reign of terror, and indiscriminate violence make it seem positively sedate. In this beautifully written and persuasively argued book, one of the most noted of U.S. historians restores the radicalism to what he terms "one of the greatest revolutions the world has ever known." It was the American Revolution, Wood argues, that unleashed the social forces that transformed American society in the years between 1760 and 1820. Continued below...

The change from a deferential, monarchical, ordered, and static society to a liberal, democratic, and commercial one was astonishing, all the more so because it took place without industrialization, urbanization, or the revolution in transportation. It was a revolution of the mind, in which the concept of equality, democracy, and private interest grasped by hundreds of thousands of Americans transformed a country nearly overnight. Exciting, compelling, and sure to provoke controversy, the book will be discussed for years to come.