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About Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States
Major General Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/1023/zachary_taylor
- https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/people/president/zachary-taylor
- https://guides.loc.gov/zachary-taylor
- https://millercenter.org/president/taylor
President Taylor was an American military leader and the 12th President of the United States.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready," 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 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 have held any previous elected office. Taylor was also the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson.
As president, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore then became President.
Zachary Taylor was born on a farm on November 24, 1784, in Orange County, Virginia, to a prominent family of planters. He was the youngest of three sons in a family of nine children. His father, Richard Taylor, had served with George Washington during the American Revolution.
Taylor was a descendent of William Brewster, one of the Pilgrims; U.S. President James Madison was Taylor's second cousin, and Confederate Major General Robert E. Lee was also a kinsman.
During his youth, he lived on the frontier in Louisville, Kentucky, residing in a small cabin in a wood during most of his childhood, before moving to a brick house as a result of his family's increased prosperity. He shared the house with seven brothers and sisters, and his father owned 10,000 acres, town lots in Louisville, and twenty-six slaves by 1800. Since there were no schools on the Kentucky frontier, Taylor had only a basic education growing up, provided by tutors his father hired from time to time. He was reportedly a poor student; his handwriting, spelling, and grammar were described as "crude and unrefined throughout his life." When Taylor was younger, he wanted to join the military
On May 3, 1808, Taylor joined the U.S. Army, receiving a commission as a first lieutenant of the Seventh Infantry Regiment from his cousin James Madison. He was ordered west into Indiana Territory, and was promoted to captain in November 1810. He assumed command of Fort Knox when the commandant fled, and maintained command until 1814.
During the War of 1812, Taylor successfully defended Fort Harrison in Indiana Territory, from an attack by Native Americans under the command of Shawnee chief Tecumseh. As a result, Taylor was promoted to the temporary rank of major, and led the 7th Infantry in a campaign ending in Spur's Defeat. Reduced to the rank of captain when the war ended in 1814, he resigned from the army, but re-entered it after he was commissioned again as a major a year later. In 1819, he was given the rank of lieutenant colonel, and made a full colonel in 1832.
Taylor led the 1st Infantry Regiment in the Black Hawk War of 1832, personally accepting the surrender of Chief Black Hawk. In 1837, he was directed to Florida, where he defeated the Seminole Indians on Christmas Day, and afterwards was promoted to brigadier general and given command of all American troops in Florida. He was made commander of the southern division of the United States Army in 1841.
Mexican-American War
In 1845, Texas became a U.S. state, and President James K. Polk directed Taylor to deploy into disputed territory on the Texas-Mexico border, under the order to defend the state against any attempts by Mexico to take it back after it had lost control by 1836. Taylor was given command of American troops on the Rio Grande River. When some of Taylor's men were attacked by Mexican forces near the river, Polk told Congress in May 1846 that a war between Mexico and the United States had started by an act of the former. That same month, Taylor commanded American forces at the Battle of Palo Alto, using superior artillery to defeat the significantly larger Mexican opposition. In September, Taylor was able to inflict heavy casualties upon the Mexican defenders at the Battle of Monterrey. The city of Monterrey was considered "un-destroyable". He was criticized for not ensuring the Mexican army that surrendered at Monterrey disbanded. Afterwards, half of Taylor's army was ordered to join General Winfield Scott's soldiers as they besieged Veracruz. Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna, through a letter by Scott destined for Taylor that had been intercepted by the Mexicans, found out that Taylor had only 6,000 men, many of whom were not regular army soldiers, and resolved to defeat him. Santa Anna attacked Taylor with 20,000 men at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847, inflicting 672 American casualties at a cost of 1,800 Mexican. As a result, Santa Anna left the field of battle.[4]
Buena Vista turned Taylor into a hero, and he was compared to George Washington and Andrew Jackson in the American popular press. Stories were reportedly told about "his informal dress, the tattered straw hat on his head, and the casual way he always sat atop his beloved horse, "Old Whitey," while shots buzzed around his head".
In his capacity as a career officer, Taylor had never reportedly revealed his political beliefs before 1848, nor voted before that time. He thought of himself as an independent, believing in a strong and sound banking system for the country, and thought that Andrew Jackson should not have allowed the Second Bank of the United States to collapse in 1836. He believed it was impractical to talk about expanding slavery into the western areas of the United States, as he concluded that neither cotton nor sugar (both were produced in great quantities as a result of slavery) could be easily grown there through a plantation economy. He was also a firm nationalist, and due to his experience of seeing many people die as a result of warfare, he believed that secession was not a good way to resolve national problems. Taylor, although he did not agree with their stand on protective tariffs and expensive internal improvements, aligned himself with Whig Party governing policies; the President should not be able to veto a law, unless that law was against the Constitution of the United States; that the office should not interfere with Congress, and that the power of collective decision-making, as well as the Cabinet, should be strong.
After the American victory at Buena Vista, "Old Rough and Ready" political clubs were formed which supported Taylor for President. Taylor declared, as the 1848 Whig Party convention approached, that he had always been a Whig in principle, but he did consider himself a Jeffersonian-Democrat. Many southerners believed that Taylor supported slavery, and its expansion into the new territory absorbed from Mexico, and some were angered when Taylor suggested that if he were elected President he would not veto the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed against such an expansion. This position did not enhance his support from activist antislavery elements in the Northern United States, as these wanted Taylor to speak out strongly against the Proviso. Most abolitionists did not support Taylor, since he was a slave-owner. Many southerners also held that Taylor supported states' rights, and was opposed to protective tariffs and government spending for internal improvements. The Whigs hoped that he put the federal union of the United States above all else. Reportedly no-one knew for sure what his political beliefs were.
Taylor received the Whig nomination for President in 1848. Millard Fillmore of Cayuga County, New York was chosen for the Vice Presidential nominee. 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. Taylor was the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson, as Andrew Johnson became president through succession.
Taylor ignored the Whig 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, and 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 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 Native Americans.
Under Taylor's administration, the United States Department of the Interior was organized, although the legislation authorizing the Department had been approved on President Polk's last day in office. He appointed former Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing the first Secretary of the Interior.
The true cause of Zachary Taylor's premature death is not fully established. On July 4, 1850, Taylor consumed a snack of milk and cherries at an Independence Day celebration. On this day, he also sampled several dishes presented to him by well-wishing citizens. Upon his sudden death, five days later on July 9, the cause was listed as gastroenteritis. He was interred in the Public Vault of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.. Later, he was interred in a mausoleum in Louisville, Kentucky, at what is now the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery. He was moved to his current mausoleum in 1926.
In the late 1980s, Clara Rising theorized that Taylor was murdered by poison and was able to convince Taylor's closest living relative and the Coroner of Jefferson County, Kentucky, to order an exhumation. On June 17, 1991, Taylor's remains were exhumed and transported to the Office of the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner, where radiological studies were conducted and samples of hair, fingernail and other tissues were removed. The remains were then returned to the cemetery and received appropriate honors at reinterment. He was reinterred in the same mausoleum he had been in since 1926. A monolith was constructed next to the mauseoleum later on. Neutron activation analysis conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory revealed arsenic levels several hundred times lower than they would have been if Taylor had been poisoned.
Despite these findings, assassination theories have not been entirely put to rest. Michael Parenti devoted a chapter in his controversial 1999 book History as Mystery to "The Strange Death of Zachary Taylor", speculating that Taylor was assassinated and that his autopsy was botched. It is suspected that Taylor was deliberately assassinated by arsenic poisoning from one of the citizen-provided dishes he sampled during the Independence Day celebration.
Personal Life
In 1810 Taylor wed Margaret Smith, and they would have six children of whom the only son, Richard, would become a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army. One of Taylor's daughters, Sarah Knox Taylor, decided to marry in 1835 Jefferson Davis, the future President of the Confederate States of America, who at that time was a lieutenant. Taylor did not wish Sarah to marry him, and Taylor and Davis would not be reconciled until 1847 at the Battle of Buena Vista, where Davis distinguished himself as a colonel. Sarah had died in 1835, three months into the marriage. Around 1841, Taylor established a home at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and gained a large plantation and a great number of slaves.
Taylor's son, Richard, became a Confederate Lieutenant General, while his daughter, Sarah Knox Taylor (1814–1835), married future Confederate President 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 US Colonel in the 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.
Ann Taylor's son, John Taylor Wood, a U.S. Navy officer, defected to the Confederate side and later fled to Canada during the Civil War; his great-grandson, Zachary Taylor Wood, was Acting RCMP Commissioner, great-grandson Lieutenant Charles Carroll Wood died from wounds suffered during the Anglo Boer War, great-great-grandson Stuart Taylor Wood was Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and great-great-great-grandsons (Cst. Herschel Wood and Supt. (Ret) John Taylor Wood served in the RCMP.
American Military Leader and the twelfth President of the United States.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready", 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 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 previous elected office. Taylor was also the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson. As president, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore then became President.
The cause of Zachary Taylor's death is not well understood. On July 4, 1850, Taylor consumed a snack of milk and cherries at an Independence Day celebration. On this day, he also sampled several dishes presented to him by well-wishing citizens. Upon his sudden death, five days later on July 9, the cause was listed as gastroenteritis.[4] He was buried in Louisville, Kentucky, at what is now the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery.
In the late 1980s, Clara Rising theorized that Taylor was murdered by poison and was able to convince Taylor's closest living relative and the Coroner of Jefferson County, Kentucky, to order an exhumation. On June 17, 1991, Taylor's remains were exhumed and transported to the Office of the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner, where radiological studies were conducted and samples of hair, fingernail and other tissues were removed. The remains were then returned to the cemetery and received appropriate honors at reinterment. Neutron activation analysis conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory revealed traces of arsenic at levels several hundred times less than necessary for poisoning to have occurred.
Despite these findings, assassination theories have not been entirely put to rest. Michael Parenti devoted a chapter in his controversial 1999 book History as Mystery to "The Strange Death of Zachary Taylor", speculating that Taylor was assassinated and that his autopsy was botched. It is suspected that Taylor was deliberately assassinated by arsenic poisoning from one of the citizen-provided dishes he sampled during the Independence Day celebration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
Northerners and Southerners disputed sharply whether the territories wrested from Mexico should be opened to slavery, and some Southerners even threatened secession. Standing firm, Zachary Taylor was prepared to hold the Union together by armed force rather than by compromise.
Born 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 Gen. 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.
In protest against Taylor the slaveholder and Cass the advocate of "squatter sovereignty," northerners who opposed extension of slavery into territories formed a Free Soil Party and nominated Martin Van Buren. In a close election, the Free Soilers pulled enough votes away from Cass to elect Taylor.
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.
Zachary is the twelth president of the United States.
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor)
Zachary Taylor is Dorothy Willard's second cousin 9 times removed.
Dorothy Willard (Duncan) -John Henry Duncan, Dorothy’s father-Emma Whitman, John Henry’s mother- Mary Jane Stodghill, Emma’s mother- Joel Stodghill, Mary’s father- Lucy Higginbotham, Joel’s mother- Dolly Gatewood, Lucy’s mother- Catherine Penn, Dolly’s mother- Mary Taylor, Catherine’s mother- John Taylor, Mary’s father- James Taylor, John’s father- Elizabeth Nin, James mother- Sarah Allerton, Elizabeth’s mother- Elizabeth Lee, Sarah’s daughter and Elizabeth Nin’s sister- Richard Taylor, Elizabeth Lee’s son-President Zachary Taylor, Richard’s son.
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850)[2] was an American military leader and the twelfth President of the United States. Known as "Old Rough and Ready," 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 after 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. Taylor was also the first and to date only president from Louisiana.
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.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore became President.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/zt12.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass and becoming the first President never to have held any previous elected office. Taylor was the last President to hold slaves while in office, and the last Whig to win a presidential election.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a forty-year military career in the United States Army, serving in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. He achieved fame leading American troops to victory in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War. As president, Taylor angered many Southerners by taking a moderate stance on the issue of slavery. He urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850. Taylor is thought to have died of gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term, the third shortest tenure of any President. Only Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield served less time. Taylor was succeeded by his Vice President, Millard Fillmore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass and becoming the first President never to have held any previous elected office. Taylor was the last President to hold slaves while in office, and the last Whig to win a presidential election.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a forty-year military career in the United States Army, serving in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. He achieved fame leading American troops to victory in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War. As president, Taylor angered many Southerners by taking a moderate stance on the issue of slavery. He urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850. Taylor is thought to have died of gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term, the third shortest tenure of any President. Only Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield served less time. Taylor was succeeded by his Vice President, Millard Fillmore.
12th President of the United States.
Please see Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
An American military leader and the 12th President of the United States.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready", 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 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 have held any previous elected office. Taylor was also the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson. As president, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore then became President.
Born: 24 Nov 1784, Montebello, Orange, VA 660
Marriage: Margaret Mackall Smith on 21 Jun 1810 in Louisville, Jefferson, KY 660
Died: 9 Jul 1850, Washington, DC at age 65 660
Another name for Zachary was Old Rough and Ready.
Zachary married Margaret Mackall Smith on 21 Jun 1810 in Louisville, Jefferson, KY.660 (Margaret Mackall Smith was born on 21 Sep 1788 in Calvert Co., MD 660 and died on 14 Aug 1852 in East Pascagoula, Jackson, MS 660.)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/zt12.html
On May 3, 1808, Taylor joined the U.S. Army, receiving a commission as a first lieutenant of the Seventh Infantry Regiment from his cousin James Madison.
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader and the twelfth President of the United States.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready", 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 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 elected office. Taylor was also the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson. As president, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore then became President.
Taylor was born on November 24, 1784, in a log cabin, near Barboursville in Orange County, Virginia.
He was the third of nine children of Colonel Richard Lee Taylor and Sarah Strother. James Madison was a second cousin and Robert E. Lee was a third cousin once removed (through Colonel Richard Lee the Immigrant). In his infancy, Taylor's family moved to Jefferson County, Kentucky, where Taylor grew up on a plantation called "Springfield", now called the Zachary Taylor House. He was known as "Little Zack" and was educated by private tutors. He was a descendant of King Edward I of England, as well as Mayflower passengers Isaac Allerton and William Brewster.
Taylor met Margaret 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.
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader and the twelfth President of the United States. Known as "Old Rough and Ready," 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 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 second U.S. president never to hold any prior office (George Washington had been the first). Taylor was also the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson. (Andrew Johnson became president through succession).
As president, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore then became President.
______
1. 12TH. PRESIDENT, UNITED S ZACHARY * (12TH US PRESIDENT)10 TAYLOR (RICHARD *9, ZACHARY *8, JAMES *7, JAMES *6, JOHN *5, THOMAS *4, THOMAS *3, ROWLAND *2, JOHN *1) was born 24 November 1784 in HARE FOREST, ORANGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, and died 09 July 1850 in WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES. He met (1) MARY (SLAVE) * MULATTO. He married (2) MARGARET MACKALL SMITH 21 June 1810 in LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES, daughter of WALTER SMITH and ANNE MACKAL. She was born 21 September 1788 in St. Leonard's, CALVERT COUNTY, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES, and died 18 August 1852 in PASAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI, UNITED STATES.
Notes for 12TH. PRESIDENT, UNITED S ZACHARY * (12TH US PRESIDENT) TAYLOR:
Twelfth President of the USA.ZACKARY WAS 12TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1849 & 1850 HE PASSED AWAY IN OFFICE AFTER 16 MONTHS IN OFFICE. HE LED A DISTINGUISHING MILITARY CAREER BEING COMMISSIONED BY PRESIDENT JEFFERSON IN MAY 1808. AS A CAPTAIN HE WAS SUCCESSFUL AT FORT HARRISON AGAINST A BAND OF 400 NATIVES LED BY TECUMSEH. IN JUNE 1815 HE RETURNED HOME TO PLANT CORN. IN MAY 1816 HE WAS MADE A MAJOR IN THE 3RD INFANTRY IN WISCONSIN. HE SERVED MISC. GARRISONS FOR 15 YEARS. IN 1819 HE WAS PROMOTED TO LIEUTENANT COLONEL. STATIONED AT LOUISVILLE IN 1824. IN 1827 WENT TO THE SOUTHWEST. 1829 TO FORT SNELLING,MINNESOTA. IN 1832 WAS PLACED IN COMMAND OF THE 1ST INFANTRY AS FULL COLONEL. (W.A.T. VISITED FORT SNELLING NEAR MINNEAPOLIS DURING THE SUMMER OF 1996 AND WALKED THE GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS THAT HIS GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER HAD COMMANDED IN 1929. IT WAS A GOOD EXPERIENCE.)
HE WAS SUCCESSFUL L IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR AND SECURED A SURRENDER. HE WAS PUT IN CHARGE OF THE EXPEDITION AGAINST THE SEMINOLES IN FLORIDA. HE DEFEATED THEM BADLY ON
CHRISTMAS DAY 1837 AND WAS PROMOTED BRIGADIER GENERAL. HE EARNED THE TITLE "OLD ROUGH AND READY" . IN 1841 TWO MAIN EVENTS OCCURRED, TAYLOR PURCHASED A PLANTATION NEAR RODNEY MISSISSIPPI WHICH MADE HIM A SLAVE HOLDER AND SECOND WAS PUT IN CHARGE OF THE MILITARY DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH WEST. HE ALSO BOUGHT A COTTAGE IN BATON
ROUGE LA. WHICH BECAME HIS PERMANENT HOME. THE MEXICAN WAR, TAYLOR WON 4 BATTLES WHICH MADE HIM A NATIONAL HERO. HE WAS MADE A MAJOR GENERAL. SANTA ANNA ATTACKED ON FEB 22,1847 THE BATTLE PURSUED AND WHEN IT WAS OVER TAYLOR HAD LED THE LARGEST VICTORY THE AMERICANS HAD HAD. TEXAS WAS SECUR
THE PRESIDENCY. TAYLOR WAS SAID TO BE UNCOUTH AND ILLITERATE, WHEN IN FACT HE WAS NEITHER. IF NOT WELL EDUCATED, HE WAS INTELLIGENT AND HAD A MIND OF HIS OWN. AS PRESIDENT HE SOON LEARNED TO MODIFY HIS ACTIONS AND DID SO. HIS MAIN WEAKNESS WAS THAT HE DIED ONLY 16 MONTHS INTO HIS FIRST TERM. PROBABLY HIS MAIN ACCOMPLISHMENT WAS IN APPEASING THE FORCES FOR CIVIL WAR AT THE TIME AND WAS ABLE TO QUELL IT FOR ANOTHER 10 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH. MY THOUGHTS ARE THAT IF HE HAD STAYED TO TERM HE
MAY HAVE SUCCEEDED IN AVOIDING THE CIVIL WAR COMPLETELY.
ON JULY 4 1850 ALTHOUGH NOT FEELING WELL HE SAT UNDER THE HOT SUN AT THE LONG
CEREMONY AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNERSTONE OF THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. HE TOOK
SICK, DIAGNOSED AS CHOLERA MORBUS. HE DIED 5 DAYS LATER. HE LEFT A STATEMENT IN PART "I HAVE TRIED TO DISCHARGE MY DUTIES FAITHFULLY; I REGRET NOTHING."
ACCORDING TO INFORMATION HANDED DOWN BY MY GRANDFATHER ZACHARY FATHERED A SON
BY A MULATTO SLAVE PRIOR TO HIS MARRIAGE. IN ORDER TO PROTECT THIS SON FROM SLAVERY OR PREJUDICE IN THE SOUTH ZACHARY HAD HIS SON SET UP IN ONTARIO WHERE HE RAISED A FAMILY. MY GRANDFATHER W. A. TAYLOR WAS SON TO THIS INDIVIDUAL. THE LINK BETWEEN THIS AND ZACHARY IS NOT PROVED TO ME BUT IT WILL BE A CHALLENGE TO FIND A CONNECTION. W.A.TAYLOR 1991 #162
DURING DECEMBER OF 1991 I W.A.TAYLOR WHILE TRAVELLING IN THE UNITED STATES FROM WINNIPEG TO NEW ORLEANS SPENT MUCH TIME INVESTIGATING THE POSSIBLE CONNECTION TO THE POSSIBLE LINK. OUR FIRST STOP WAS IN ST LOUIS TO VISIT MY BROTHER Wm J.RUSSELL AND HE TOLD ME THE FOLLOWING STORY HE CLAIMS WAS TOLD TO HIM BY GRANNY COATES WHEN HE
WAS A YOUTH.
AS IS INDICATED ZACHARY HAD SIX CHILDREN. THE FIRST FIVE WHERE GIRLS AND RICHARD WAS THE SIXTH. DUE TO THE RISK OF DEATH FROM CHILDBIRTH OR OTHER REASONS. AFTER RICHARD WAS BORN ZACHARY'S WIFE WOULD NOT SLEEP WITH HIM ANY MORE OR WOULD NOT AGREE TO BEAR ANY FURTHER CHILDREN AND IT IS REPORTED THAT ZACHARY WENT TO NEW ORLEANS AND
PURCHASED A MULATTO SLAVE FOR PERSONAL DUTIES. THE SLAVE WAS REPORTED TO BE FROM THE CARIBBEAN. IT WAS QUITE COMMON DURING SLAVERY DAYS FOR THE MASTER TO SIRE SLAVES IN THIS WAY.
ACCORDING TO GRANNY COATES A CERTAIN WILLIAM HENRY WAS THE RESULT. PROBABLY NO MORE THAN 25% BLACK DEPENDING ON THE PERCENTAGE IN THE MULATTO MOTHER. WILLIAM WAS REPORTED TO HAVE BEEN BORN IN BATON ROUGE LOUISIANA. NO MENTION IS MADE OF THIS WILLIAM UNTIL L ATOR AS ZACKERY'S S PERSONAL VALET HOWEVER WHEN ZACKERY WAS CONVINCED TO RUN FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES WILLIAM BECAME A LIABILITY AS A
NATURAL SON AS PERSONAL VALET OF BLACK ORIGIN WAS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO WASHINGTON SOCIETY. THEREFORE ZACKERY ARRANGED THAT SOME DIPLOMATS TRAVELING TO KINGSTON, THE THEN CAPITOL OF CANADA WOULD TAKE WILLIAM WITH THEM AND SET HIM UP IN CANADA BUT NOT IN KINGSTON AS IT WAS POLITICALLY TO CLOSE TO WASHINGTON. THEY WENT ON TO HAMILTON AND SET WILLIAM UP AS A FARMER. WRITTEN BY W.A.TAYLOR #162
DURING THE SAME TRIP TO THE USA WE TRAVELED TO BATON ROUGE AND SPENT A DAY AND A HALF INVESTIGATING INFORMATION ABOUT ZACKERY TAYLOR IN BOTH THE PENTAGON BARRACKS MUSEUM AND THE LOUISIANA STATE LIBRARY WERE PEOPLE WERE MOST HELPFUL.
IT IS REPORTED THAT ZACKERY SUPERVISED THE BUILDING OF THE PENTAGON BARRACKS AND IT WAS COMPLETE IN 1822, HE ALSO HAD A COTTAGE (LARGE HOUSE BY TODAYS STANDARDS) BESIDE THE BARRACKS WERE HE LIVED WHEN IN BATON ROUGE. WE SAW BOTH STONE MARKERS SHOWING THE APPROXIMATE LOCATION ON THE CAPITOL GROUNDS BUT SOME SAY THE ACTUAL HOME WAS CLOSSER TO THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. DISPUTED DISTANCES ARE ONLY A FEW
100 YARDS ONE WAY OR THE OTHER. WHILE EXAMINING SEVERAL PAINTINGS OF AN OLDER ZACKERY TAYLOR WITH WHITE HAIR I COULD NOT HELP TO RECOGNIZE THE STRONG RESEMBLANCE TO HIM AND MY OWN GRANDFATHER IN HIS 80'S AND 90'S. THE RESEMBLANCE WAS QUITE EVIDENT AND ALSO TO MY OWN FATHER AND BROTHER. FAMILY RESEMBLANCE IS QUITE REMARKABLE.
MY RESEARCH WAS TO ESTABLISH THE CHRONOLOGICAL POSABILITIES OF THE SITUATION AND I AM CONVINCED THAT THE DATES WOULD WORK IF THE FOLLOWING ASSUMPTIONS WERE MADE. RICHARD WAS BORN IN JAN OF 1826 AND ZACKERY THEN GOT HIS MILATO SLAVE SO IT IS CONCEIVABLE THAT WILLIAM WAS BORN IN LATE 1826 OR EARLY 1827. THAT WOULD MAKE HIM 20 OR 21 BY THE TIME WASHINGTON POLITICS WOULD CREATE AN EMBARRASSMENT. AT THAT
AGE HE ENTERED CANADA AND MARRIED IN HAMILTON ABOUT AGE 40 AND STARTED A FAMILY. WILLIAM HENRY WHO BY 1869 WAS FOURTY AND MARRIED MISS ANNIE AND HAD A SOM WILLIAM ARTHUR TAYLOR, MY GRANDFATHER IN 1869. THE DATE LINE WORKS. RESEARCH IS PLANED FOR THE HAMILTON AREA TO CHECK THOSE RECORDS.
THE FIRST TIME LINK OF COURSE IS ZACKERY TAYLOR AND WAS HE IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME. IT IS REPORTED THAT HE LIVED IN BATON ROUGE BEFORE 1822 AND THAT HE PURCHASED A 380 ACRE PLANTATION JUST UP THE RIVER IN IN WEST FELICIANA COUNTY NEAR ST. FRANCISVILLE AS EARLY AS 1823 SO HE WAS IN THE AREA AND HAD NEED FOR SLAVES. THE HOME IN BATON ROUGE CONTINUED TO BE USED BY HIM UP TO THE TIME OF THE PRESIDENCY. DURING OUR VISIT WE STOPPED AT THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY IN ST FRANCESVILLE TO FIND WHERE THE PLANTATION WAS BUT COULD NOT BE HELPED BUT WHILE AT THE STATE LIBRARY WE TALKED WITH A RESEARCHER WHO HAD DOCUMENTED THAT SUCH A PURCHASE WAS MADE.
SOME INTERSECTING BACKGROUND ON ZACKERY TAYLOR NOW FOLL OWES FROM INFORMATION
GLEANED FROM THE MANY BITS OF INFO AT THE LOUISIANA STATE LIBRARY. IT SHOWS THAT HE PURCHASED A 500 ACRE PLANTATION ON THE RIVER BETWEEN LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI. IT IS REPORTED THAT HE OWNED IT FOR 25 YEARS AND SOLD IT IN 1849 FOR $3000.00. IT ALSO SAYS THAT HE PURCHASED A PLANTATION BY THE NAME OF CYPREE GROVE IN 1841 FOR THE SUM OF $95,000.00 CASH. A GOOD DEAL IS WRITTEN ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCE WITH THIS PLANTATION AND
INDICATES THAT HE STILL OWNED IT AT THE TIME OF DEATH AND THAT IT WAS NOT TOO PROFITABLE PROBABLE DUE TOO ONE MAIN FACTOR. THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. OF COURSE ZACKERY WAS ALSO ABSENT A GOOD DEAL OF THE TIME SO HE WAS NOT ABLE TO HAVE THAT HANDS ON APPROACH. HE DID WRITE A LOT WITH INSTRUCTIONS AND HE PROBABLE HAD FOR THE MOST PART CAPABLE MANAGERS. BY THE TIME OF HIS DEATH HIS SON RICHARD WAS TAKING SOME ROLE.
THE FOLLOWING OBSERVATIONS ARE REPORTED ABOUT ZACKERY AND HIS SLAVES. IT WAS
REPORTED THAT HE NEVER SOLD A SLAVE AND THAT HE THOUGHT OF HIS SLAVES AS "SERVANTS" RATHER THEN "SLAVES". ONE QUOTE STATES THAT SLAVERY AT CYPRESS GROVE WAS PERHAPS AS IDYLLIC AS IT EVER BECAME. A LETTER HOME SETS OUT CONDITIONS FOR THE SLAVES THAT THEY ARE TO RECEIVED A DAILY RATION OF ONE POUND OF MEAT PER DAY AND AS MANY VEGETABLES AND BREAD AS THEY MIGHT CARE TO EAT. THAT ALL FOOD STOFFS WERE GROWN ON
THE PLANTATION. IT WAS ALSO NOTED THAT IF A SLAVE GETS SICK HE OR SHE IS TO BE ALLOWED TIME OFF UNTIL WELL ENOUGH TO RETURN TO WORK. IT WAS REPORTED THAT MANY SLAVES LIVED TO THEIR 80'S. NOT ALWAYS COMMON ON OTHER PLANTATIONS. ONE NOTATION SHOWS THAT AT CHRISTMAS ZACKERY WOULD GIVE EACH SLAVE A BONUS OF ABOUT $5.00. A VERY GOOD SUM IN THOSE DAYS. A REPORT OF TRAVELING DIPLOMATS TO CYPRESS GROVE REMARKS AT THE NEAT AND TIDY HOMES OF THE SLAVES. ZACKERY DID NOT SEAM TO BE BOTHERED BY RUNAWAYS.
IN THE FILE ARE SEVERAL DOCUMENTS ABOUT ZACKERY
A 6 PAGE OUTLINE OF HIS DEATH
A 7 PAGE OUTLINE OF FAMILY TREE
A NOTE ON SLAVE ANCESTRY TRACING
INFORMATION PUT IN FILE BY WILLIAM ARTHUR TAYLOR B1944.
Taylor, Zachary (1784-1850), U.S. general in the Mexican War, who became the 12th president of the United States (1849-50).
Taylor was born on November 24, 1784, in Orange County, Virginia, the son of a veteran of the American Revolution. Taken to Kentucky as a child, he grew up on his father's plantation near Louisville, where he was educated by local tutors. He was married (1810) to Margaret Mackall Smith (1787-1852) of Maryland, with whom he had four children; one of these was the first wife of Jefferson Davis, later Confederate president; another became a Confederate general.
Military Career
In 1808 Taylor joined the regular army as an infantry officer. After distinguishing himself under William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812 and briefly returning to civilian life, he saw active duty on various frontier posts in the Northwest and Louisiana, where he established a second home. He participated in the Black Hawk and Second Seminole wars and in 1838 defeated the Seminole in the Battle of Lake Okeechobee. Although not decisive, this engagement earned him promotion to the rank of brigadier general, and he was given overall command of the campaign against the Seminole in Florida.
In the early 1840s Taylor was stationed at the southwestern boundaries of the United States. Sent to Texas shortly before the outbreak of war with Mexico, he was ordered to advance into the disputed territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, where he defeated Mexican detachments at Palo Alto and Roseca de la Palma (May 8-9, 1846). These battles made him famous and led to the U.S. declaration of war on Mexico. Taylor, now a major general, subsequently captured Matamoros and Monterrey. Part of his command was detached to join General Winfield Scott in central Mexico. Nevertheless, on February 22-23, 1847, Taylor routed a numerically superior force assembled under Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna at Buena Vista, a feat that thrilled the nation. See Buena Vista, Battle of.
Political Career
Taylor, who had never bothered to vote, had little political experience, but he had quarreled with President James K. Polk and sympathized with the Whigs, and thus seemed a perfect candidate for the opposition. Although he declared himself nonpartisan and was a slave owner, which might have made him unpopular in the North, the Whig party nominated him for the presidency in 1848. In the ensuing election, he defeated both his Democratic and Free-Soil opponents.
The Taylor administration encountered severe difficulties. To end British encroachments in Central America, it concluded the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850) neutralizing any future Atlantic-Pacific canal in that area, an arrangement that proved unpopular in the U.S. Taylor favored granting immediate statehood to California and New Mexico, which had been acquired as a result of the war, but when California prohibited slavery, the South opposed its admission to the Union. The president, however, refused to reconsider. Adamantly resisting Henry Clay's compromise proposals, which sought to balance southern with northern concessions, he declared himself ready to use force to prevent secession or a threatened seizure of eastern New Mexico by Texas. His stand completely alienated southern Whigs, and it contributed to an impasse in the U.S. Congress. In the midst of this controversy Taylor fell ill, and he died on July 9, 1850. His death removed the principal obstacle to the ultimate passage of the Compromise Measures of 1850.
Taylor was an adequate but by no means brilliant general, who reached the presidency without preparation at a critical moment. Whether, as has been suggested, a continuation of his hard-line policy toward the South might have prevented the American Civil War will never be known.
Contributed by: Hans L. Trefousse
Biographic entry: B1256, B1550
"Taylor, Zachary," Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1993 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1993 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation[]
Occuption: President of the US
! Zachary Taylor distinguished himself in the Mexican War and afterwards
was president of the United States.
INTERNET DOWNLOAD OF MARCH 27TH, 1998 PROVIDES THE FOLLOWING INFORMATIO
BURIAL: ZACHARY TAYLOR NAT'L CEM. JEFFERSON CO. KY.
He was the 12th President of the United States (1849- 1850) and was a member of the Whig party. His VP was Willard Fillmore. He was known as "Old Rough and Ready" and is buried in Zachary Taylor National Cemetary near Louisville, Ky.
He rose to power after his military victories in the Mexican War of 1846-47 and served as President for little more than a year when he contracted cholera and died in July of 1850.[]
Zachary was the 12th President of the US. He was the first professional soldier to become President, having been elected because of his victories in the Mexican War. His presidency was brief (16 months) and his accomplishments few. He did, however, take a steong stand against Southern secession over slavery question, though a Southerner and a landowner himself. Taylor was of English heritage and Whig political affiliation. He stood 5'8" tall and was a Episcopalian. His death came July 9, 1850 in the White House; he was buried in the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery near Louisville, KY.
Information on this person has been provided by or confirmed by a Gedcom file received on August 24th, 1998 from George & Diane Gravlee merged into this file by William A. Taylor b1944 on September 1St, 1998. Info. was Name, birth and death dates plus places and marriage information and the following source information.
!SOURCE
World Book Ency.
!SOURCE
Who Was Who in America-mom Mary wrong;m.18 Jun 1810;b.Montebello,VA.
FURTHER SOURCES PRESIDENTIAL FAMILY FOREST CD-ROM PUT INTO FILE BY WILLIAM A TAYLOR B1944 ON OCT 6TH,1998
Sources for President Zachary Taylor
3rd Edition, Facts About The Presidents, by Joseph Nathan Kane, page 80
Notable American Women, Vol III, page 434-435
Pedigree and History of the Washington Family: .............. Down to General George Washington .............., by Albert Welles, page 241
Founders & Patriots Family Forest
Abridged Compendium of American Genealogy, by Frederick A. Virkus, page 797
Facts About The Presidents, 3rd Edition, by Joseph Nathan Kane, page 299 & 84
Mayflower descendant through great-grandmother, Sarah Allerton (qv). Grand-uncle of Squire Asbury (qv) who married Mary Elizabeth Washington.
Name appeared on CD-Rom Vol 22 WFT and the following information was reported to this file by William Arthur Taylor b 1944 on January 2nd 1999. n
Download from net on Jan 3rd, 1999 from data base of Cathe Campbell at cathecamp@aol.com suggested by Larry A. Taylor at Larry-a-taylor@worldnet.att.net. site location http://www.familytreeclimbers.com/family/gedcoms/campbell/dat27.htm#6. Downloaded by William Arthur Taylor b1944 and compared or updated this file on Jan 10th, 1999. new info provided as noted. non[tay99015.FTW]
[Stafa03.ged]
He was the twelfth President of the United States from 4 Mar 1849 to 9 Jul 1850.
He was born at "Montebello".
He died of cholera morbus, at the White House, while serving in the office of President of the United States.
He is buried near Louisville.
Name appeared in Gedcom file downloaded on Jan. 14, 1999 from Charles Wesley Smith stafa@worldnet.att.net (http://www.parsonstech.com/genealogy/trees/csmith13/stafa03.htm and merged into this file by William Arthur Taylor B1944 on Jan 20, 1999.
.
Zachary Taylor Information from Whie House internet site. Downloaded by William Arthur Taylor b1944
Twelfth President 1849-1850
[Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor]
Interesting Fact: Zachary Taylor spent July 4, 1850, eating cherries and milk at a ceremony at the Washington Monument. He got sick from the heat and died five days later, the second president to die in office.
Fast Fact: With Zachary Taylor, a career soldier first attained the Presidency.
Biography: Northerners and Southerners disputed sharply whether the territories wrested from Mexico should be opened to slavery, and some Southerners even threatened secession. Standing firm, Zachary Taylor was prepared to hold the Union together by armed force rather than by compromise.
Born 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 Gen. 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.
In protest against Taylor the slaveholder and Cass the advocate of "squatter sovereignty," northerners who opposed extension of slavery into territories formed a Free Soil Party and nominated Martin Van Buren. In a close election, the Free Soilers pulled enough votes away from Cass to elect Taylor.
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.
Zachary Taylor
Inaugural Address
Monday, March 5, 1849
For the second time in the history of the Republic, March 4 fell on a Sunday. The inaugural ceremony was postponed until the following Monday, raising the question as to whether the Nation was without a President for a day. General Taylor, popularly known as "Old Rough and Ready," was famous for his exploits in the Mexican War. He never had voted in a national election until his own contest for the Presidency. Outgoing President Polk accompanied the general to the ceremony at the Capitol. The oath of office was administered by Chief Justice Roger Taney on the East Portico. After the ceremony, the new President attended several inaugural celebrations, including a ball that evening in a specially built pavilion on Judiciary Square.
ELECTED by the American people to the highest office known to our laws, I appear here to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution, and, in compliance with a time-honored custom, to address those who are now assembled.
The confidence and respect shown by my countrymen in calling me to be the Chief Magistrate of a Republic holding a high rank among the nations of the earth have inspired me with feelings of the most profound gratitude; but when I reflect that the acceptance of the office which their partiality has bestowed imposes the discharge of the most arduous duties and involves the weightiest obligations, I am conscious that the position which I have been called to fill, though sufficient to satisfy the loftiest ambition, is surrounded by fearful responsibilities. Happily, however, in the performance of my new
duties I shall not be without able cooperation. The legislative and judicial branches of the Government present prominent examples of distinguished civil attainments and matured experience, and it shall be my endeavor to call to my assistance in the Executive Departments individuals whose talents, integrity, and purity of character will furnish ample guaranties for the faithful and honorable performance of the trusts to be committed to their charge. With such aids and an honest purpose to do whatever is right, I hope to execute diligently, impartially, and for the best interests of the country the manifold duties
devolved upon me.
In the discharge of these duties my guide will be the Constitution, which I this day swear to "preserve, protect, and defend." For the interpretation of that instrument I shall look to the decisions of the judicial tribunals established by its authority and to the practice of the Government under the earlier Presidents, who had so large a share in its formation. To the example of those illustrious patriots I shall always defer with reverence, and especially to his example who was by so many titles "the Father of his Country."
To command the Army and Navy of the United States; with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties and to appoint ambassadors and other officers; to give to Congress information of the state of the Union and recommend such measures as he shall judge to be necessary; and to take care that the laws shall be faithfully executed-these are the most important functions intrusted to the resident by the Constitution, and it may be expected that I shall briefly indicate the principles which will control me in their execution.
Chosen by the body of the people under the assurance that my Administration would be devoted to the welfare of the whole country, and not to the support of any particular section or merely local interest, I this day renew the declarations I have heretofore made and proclaim my fixed determination to maintain to the extent of my ability the Government in its original purity and to adopt as the basis of my public policy those great republican doctrines which constitute the strength of our national existence.
In reference to the Army and Navy, lately employed with so much distinction on active service, care shall be taken to insure the highest condition of efficiency, and in furtherance of that object the military and naval schools, sustained by the liberality of Congress, shall receive the special attention of the Executive.
As American freemen we can not 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. In all disputes between conflicting governments it is our interest not less than our duty to remain strictly neutral, while our geographical position, the genius of our institutions and our people, the advancing spirit of civilization, and, above all, the dictates of religion direct us to the cultivation of peaceful and friendly relations with all other powers. It is to be hoped that no international question can now arise which a government confident in its own strength and resolved to protect its own just rights may not settle by wise negotiation; and it eminently becomes a government like our own, founded on the morality and intelligence of its citizens and upheld by their affections, to exhaust every resort of honorable diplomacy before appealing to arms. In the conduct of our foreign relations I shall conform to these views, as I believe them essential to the best interests and the true honor of the country.
The appointing power vested in the President imposes delicate and onerous duties. So far as it is possible to be informed, I shall make honesty, capacity, and fidelity indispensable prerequisites to the bestowal of office, and the absence of either of these qualities shall be deemed sufficient cause for removal.
It shall be my study to recommend such constitutional measures to Congress as may be necessary and proper to secure encouragement and protection to the great interests of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, to improve our rivers and harbors, to provide for the speedy extinguishment of the public debt, to enforce a strict accountability on the part of all officers of the Government and the utmost economy in all public expenditures; but it is for the wisdom of Congress itself, in which all legislative powers are vested by the Constitution, to regulate these and other matters of domestic policy. I shall look with confidence to the enlightened patriotism of that body to adopt such measures of conciliation as may harmonize conflicting interests and tend to perpetuate that Union which should be the paramount object of our hopes and affections. In any action calculated to promote an object so near the heart of everyone who truly loves his country I will zealously unite with the coordinate branches of the Government.
In conclusion I congratulate you, my fellow-citizens, upon the high state of prosperity to which the goodness of Divine Providence has conducted our common country. Let us invoke a continuance of the same protecting care which has led us from small beginnings to the eminence we this day occupy, and let us seek to deserve that continuance by prudence and moderation in our councils, by well-directed attempts to assuage the bitterness which too often marks unavoidable differences of opinion, by the promulgation and practice of just and liberal principles, and by an enlarged patriotism, which shall acknowledge no limits but those of our own widespread Republic.
Name appeared in file from Carol Hauk #71550,2261 Compuserve. file sent by LAT. name confirmed in this file on Feb 14th, 1999 by William Arthur Taylor B1944.
Name appeared in list at . Confirmed with this file Feb 23, 1999 by William Arthur Taylor b 1944.
Name appeared in list at data was ectracted from book by Funk & Wagnell, called "The Presidents" and confirmed with this file on March 6th, 1999 by William Arthur Taylor b1944. Adds
Elected in 1848 over Lewis Cass byu popular vote of 1,360,967 to 1,222,342 and an electoral vote of 163 to 127. Chose Millard Fillmore as vice-president.
FILE FULL SEE FIRST WIFE FOR MORE.
Notes for MARY (SLAVE) * MULATTO:
ACCORDING TO RUSS ZACKERY HAD A SON OF THIS UNKNOWN SLAVE AND CALLED
HIM
WILLIAM TAYLOR. RESERCH TO BE DONE. INFORMATION PUT IN FILE BY WIL
12th President of the United States of America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was the 12th President of the United States (1849-1850) and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass. Taylor was the last President to hold slaves while in office, and the last Whig to win a presidential election.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a forty-year military career in the United States Army, serving in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. He achieved fame leading American troops to victory in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War. As president, Taylor angered many Southerners by taking a moderate stance on the issue of slavery. He urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850. Taylor died just 16 months into his term, the third shortest tenure of any President. He is thought to have died of gastroenteritis. Only Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield served less time. Taylor was succeeded by his Vice President, Millard Fillmore.
He distinguished himself in the Mexican War and, afterward, was elected as the 12th President of the United States serving from March 4, 1849 to July 9, 1850 (Died in office after serving only 16 months of his 4 year term).
Zachary10 Taylor (Richard9, Zachary8, James7, James6, John5, Thomas4, Thomas3, Rowland2, John1); born 24 Nov 1784 at Montecello, Orange Co., VA;180 married Margaret Smith, daughter of Walter Smith and Margaret Mackall, 21 Jun 1810 at Jefferson Co., KY;181 died 9 Jul 1850 at Wash. DC at age 65.182 Zachary was a Member of the "Aztec Club of 1847" aka "The Military Society of the Mexican War" (1847).
He was also a Hereditary Member of the Society of the Cincinnati" (1783).
He was a Member of the "General Society of Mayflower Descendants (1897)".
Zachary Taylor remained on his father's plantation until 1808, in which year (May 3) he was appointed First Lieutenant in the 7th Infantry, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the death of his older brother, Hancock. Up to this point he had received but a limited education. [Copy from reproduced material from "Presidents of the United States", as collected by Bobbye Miniard.] He fought in the Indian Wars all over the United States. He commanded troops in Corpus Christi, TX. and later in Mexico against General Santa Anna. He was in possession of the Rio Grande Valley until November 1847. He was nominated by the Whig Party for President in June 7, 1848. Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States, from 1849 to 1850, and he died one year and 4 months in office.
Margaret Smith was born on 21 Sep 1788 at Calvert Co., MD.183 She died on 18 Aug 1852 at East Pascagoula, Jackson Co., MS, at age 63.184
The five known children of Zachary10 Taylor and Margaret Smith were as follows:
243. i. Sarah Knox11; married Jefferson Davis. 244. ii. Anne Margaret Mackall. + 245. iii. Lt. General Richard, born 27 Jan 1826 at Louisville, Jefferson Co., KY; married Myrthe Bringier. 246. iv. Mary Elizabeth; born 1829. 247. v. Octavia Pannel. See http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=DESC&db=dowfam3&... add link http://la-cemeteries.com/Presidents/Taylor,Zachary/TaylorZachary.shtml add link http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1023 Add link http://www.ourfamtree.org/browse.php/Zachary-Taylor/f39836
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was the 12th President of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general. His status as a national hero as a result of his victories in the Mexican-American War won him election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was preserving the Union, but he died sixteen months into his term, before making any progress on the status of slavery, which had been inflaming tensions in Congress. Taylor was born to a prominent family of planters who migrated westward from Virginia to Kentucky in his youth. He was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army in 1808 and made a name for himself as a captain in the War of 1812. He climbed the ranks establishing military forts along the Mississippi River and entered the Black Hawk War as a colonel in 1832. His success in the Second Seminole War attracted national attention and earned him the nickname "Old Rough and Ready".
In 1845, as the annexation of Texas was underway, President James K. Polk dispatched Taylor to the Rio Grande area in anticipation of a potential battle with Mexico over the disputed Texas–Mexico border. The Mexican–American War broke out in May 1846, and Taylor led American troops to victory in a series of battles culminating in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey. He became a national hero, and political clubs sprang up to draw him into the upcoming 1848 presidential election.
The Whig Party convinced the reluctant Taylor to lead their ticket, despite his unclear platform and lack of interest in politics. He won the election alongside U.S. Representative Millard Fillmore of New York, defeating Democratic candidate Lewis Cass. As president, Taylor kept his distance from Congress and his cabinet, even as partisan tensions threatened to divide the Union. Debate over the slave status of the large territories claimed in the war led to threats of secession from Southerners. Despite being a Southerner and a slaveholder himself, Taylor did not push for the expansion of slavery. To avoid the question, he urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850. Taylor died suddenly of a stomach-related illness in July 1850, ensuring he would have little impact on the sectional divide that led to civil war a decade later. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader and the 12th President of the United States.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready," 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 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 have held any previous elected office. Taylor was also the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson.
As president, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore then became President.
Zachary Taylor was born on a farm on November 24, 1784, in Orange County, Virginia, to a prominent family of planters. He was the youngest of three sons in a family of nine children. His father, Richard Taylor, had served with George Washington during the American Revolution.
Taylor was a descendent of William Brewster, one of the Pilgrims; James Madison was Taylor's second cousin, and Robert E. Lee was a kinsman.
During his youth, he lived on the frontier in Louisville, Kentucky, residing in a small cabin in a wood during most of his childhood, before moving to a brick house as a result of his family's increased prosperity. He shared the house with seven brothers and sisters, and his father owned 10,000 acres, town lots in Louisville, and twenty-six slaves by 1800. Since there were no schools on the Kentucky frontier, Taylor had only a basic education growing up, provided by tutors his father hired from time to time. He was reportedly a poor student; his handwriting, spelling, and grammar were described as "crude and unrefined throughout his life." When Taylor was younger, he wanted to join the military
On May 3, 1808, Taylor joined the U.S. Army, receiving a commission as a first lieutenant of the Seventh Infantry Regiment from his cousin James Madison. He was ordered west into Indiana Territory, and was promoted to captain in November 1810. He assumed command of Fort Knox when the commandant fled, and maintained command until 1814.
During the War of 1812, Taylor successfully defended Fort Harrison in Indiana Territory, from an attack by Native Americans under the command of Shawnee chief Tecumseh. As a result, Taylor was promoted to the temporary rank of major, and led the 7th Infantry in a campaign ending in Spur's Defeat. Reduced to the rank of captain when the war ended in 1814, he resigned from the army, but re-entered it after he was commissioned again as a major a year later. In 1819, he was given the rank of lieutenant colonel, and made a full colonel in 1832.
Taylor led the 1st Infantry Regiment in the Black Hawk War of 1832, personally accepting the surrender of Chief Black Hawk. In 1837, he was directed to Florida, where he defeated the Seminole Indians on Christmas Day, and afterwards was promoted to brigadier general and given command of all American troops in Florida. He was made commander of the southern division of the United States Army in 1841.
Mexican-American War
In 1845, Texas became a U.S. state, and President James K. Polk directed Taylor to deploy into disputed territory on the Texas-Mexico border, under the order to defend the state against any attempts by Mexico to take it back after it had lost control by 1836. Taylor was given command of American troops on the Rio Grande River. When some of Taylor's men were attacked by Mexican forces near the river, Polk told Congress in May 1846 that a war between Mexico and the United States had started by an act of the former. That same month, Taylor commanded American forces at the Battle of Palo Alto, using superior artillery to defeat the significantly larger Mexican opposition.[4] In September, Taylor was able to inflict heavy casualties upon the Mexican defenders at the Battle of Monterrey. The city of Monterrey was considered "un-destroyable". He was criticized for not ensuring the Mexican army that surrendered at Monterrey disbanded. Afterwards, half of Taylor's army was ordered to join General Winfield Scott's soldiers as they besieged Veracruz. Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna, through a letter by Scott destined for Taylor that had been intercepted by the Mexicans, found out that Taylor had only 6,000 men, many of whom were not regular army soldiers, and resolved to defeat him. Santa Anna attacked Taylor with 20,000 men at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847, inflicting 672 American casualties at a cost of 1,800 Mexican. As a result, Santa Anna left the field of battle.[4]
Buena Vista turned Taylor into a hero, and he was compared to George Washington and Andrew Jackson in the American popular press. Stories were reportedly told about "his informal dress, the tattered straw hat on his head, and the casual way he always sat atop his beloved horse, "Old Whitey," while shots buzzed around his head".
In his capacity as a career officer, Taylor had never reportedly revealed his political beliefs before 1848, nor voted before that time. He thought of himself as an independent, believing in a strong and sound banking system for the country, and thought that Andrew Jackson should not have allowed the Second Bank of the United States to collapse in 1836. He believed it was impractical to talk about expanding slavery into the western areas of the United States, as he concluded that neither cotton nor sugar (both were produced in great quantities as a result of slavery) could be easily grown there through a plantation economy. He was also a firm nationalist, and due to his experience of seeing many people die as a result of warfare, he believed that secession was not a good way to resolve national problems. Taylor, although he did not agree with their stand on protective tariffs and expensive internal improvements, aligned himself with Whig Party governing policies; the President should not be able to veto a law, unless that law was against the Constitution of the United States; that the office should not interfere with Congress, and that the power of collective decision-making, as well as the Cabinet, should be strong.
After the American victory at Buena Vista, "Old Rough and Ready" political clubs were formed which supported Taylor for President. Taylor declared, as the 1848 Whig Party convention approached, that he had always been a Whig in principle, but he did consider himself a Jeffersonian-Democrat. Many southerners believed that Taylor supported slavery, and its expansion into the new territory absorbed from Mexico, and some were angered when Taylor suggested that if he were elected President he would not veto the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed against such an expansion. This position did not enhance his support from activist antislavery elements in the Northern United States, as these wanted Taylor to speak out strongly against the Proviso. Most abolitionists did not support Taylor, since he was a slave-owner. Many southerners also held that Taylor supported states' rights, and was opposed to protective tariffs and government spending for internal improvements. The Whigs hoped that he put the federal union of the United States above all else. Reportedly no-one knew for sure what his political beliefs were.
Taylor received the Whig nomination for President in 1848. Millard Fillmore of Cayuga County, New York was chosen for the Vice Presidential nominee. 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. Taylor was the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson, as Andrew Johnson became president through succession.
Taylor ignored the Whig 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, and 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 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 Native Americans.
Under Taylor's administration, the United States Department of the Interior was organized, although the legislation authorizing the Department had been approved on President Polk's last day in office. He appointed former Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing the first Secretary of the Interior.
The true cause of Zachary Taylor's premature death is not fully established. On July 4, 1850, Taylor consumed a snack of milk and cherries at an Independence Day celebration. On this day, he also sampled several dishes presented to him by well-wishing citizens. Upon his sudden death, five days later on July 9, the cause was listed as gastroenteritis. He was interred in the Public Vault of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.. Later, he was interred in a mausoleum in Louisville, Kentucky, at what is now the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery. He was moved to his current mausoleum in 1926.
In the late 1980s, Clara Rising theorized that Taylor was murdered by poison and was able to convince Taylor's closest living relative and the Coroner of Jefferson County, Kentucky, to order an exhumation. On June 17, 1991, Taylor's remains were exhumed and transported to the Office of the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner, where radiological studies were conducted and samples of hair, fingernail and other tissues were removed. The remains were then returned to the cemetery and received appropriate honors at reinterment. He was reinterred in the same mausoleum he had been in since 1926. A monolith was constructed next to the mauseoleum later on. Neutron activation analysis conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory revealed arsenic levels several hundred times lower than they would have been if Taylor had been poisoned.
Despite these findings, assassination theories have not been entirely put to rest. Michael Parenti devoted a chapter in his controversial 1999 book History as Mystery to "The Strange Death of Zachary Taylor", speculating that Taylor was assassinated and that his autopsy was botched. It is suspected that Taylor was deliberately assassinated by arsenic poisoning from one of the citizen-provided dishes he sampled during the Independence Day celebration.
Personal life
In 1810 Taylor wed Margaret Smith, and they would have six children of whom the only son, Richard, would become a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army. One of Taylor's daughters, Sarah Knox Taylor, decided to marry in 1835 Jefferson Davis, the future President of the Confederate States of America, who at that time was a lieutenant. Taylor did not wish Sarah to marry him, and Taylor and Davis would not be reconciled until 1847 at the Battle of Buena Vista, where Davis distinguished himself as a colonel. Sarah had died in 1835, three months into the marriage. Around 1841, Taylor established a home at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and gained a large plantation and a great number of slaves.
Taylor's son, Richard, became a Confederate Lieutenant General, while his daughter, Sarah Knox Taylor (1814–1835), married future Confederate President 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 US Colonel in the 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.
Ann Taylor's son, John Taylor Wood, a U.S. Navy officer, defected to the Confederate side and later fled to Canada during the Civil War; his great-grandson, Zachary Taylor Wood, was Acting RCMP Commissioner, great-grandson Lieutenant Charles Carroll Wood died from wounds suffered during the Anglo Boer War, great-great-grandson Stuart Taylor Wood was Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and great-great-great-grandsons (Cst. Herschel Wood and Supt. (Ret) John Taylor Wood served in the RCMP.
American military leader and the twelfth President of the United States.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready", 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 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 previous elected office. Taylor was also the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson. As president, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore then became President.
The cause of Zachary Taylor's death is not well understood. On July 4, 1850, Taylor consumed a snack of milk and cherries at an Independence Day celebration. On this day, he also sampled several dishes presented to him by well-wishing citizens. Upon his sudden death, five days later on July 9, the cause was listed as gastroenteritis.[4] He was buried in Louisville, Kentucky, at what is now the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery.
In the late 1980s, Clara Rising theorized that Taylor was murdered by poison and was able to convince Taylor's closest living relative and the Coroner of Jefferson County, Kentucky, to order an exhumation. On June 17, 1991, Taylor's remains were exhumed and transported to the Office of the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner, where radiological studies were conducted and samples of hair, fingernail and other tissues were removed. The remains were then returned to the cemetery and received appropriate honors at reinterment. Neutron activation analysis conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory revealed traces of arsenic at levels several hundred times less than necessary for poisoning to have occurred.
Despite these findings, assassination theories have not been entirely put to rest. Michael Parenti devoted a chapter in his controversial 1999 book History as Mystery to "The Strange Death of Zachary Taylor", speculating that Taylor was assassinated and that his autopsy was botched. It is suspected that Taylor was deliberately assassinated by arsenic poisoning from one of the citizen-provided dishes he sampled during the Independence Day celebration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
Northerners and Southerners disputed sharply whether the territories wrested from Mexico should be opened to slavery, and some Southerners even threatened secession. Standing firm, Zachary Taylor was prepared to hold the Union together by armed force rather than by compromise.
Born 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 Gen. 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.
In protest against Taylor the slaveholder and Cass the advocate of "squatter sovereignty," northerners who opposed extension of slavery into territories formed a Free Soil Party and nominated Martin Van Buren. In a close election, the Free Soilers pulled enough votes away from Cass to elect Taylor.
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.
Zachary is the twelth president of the United States.
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor)
Zachary Taylor is Dorothy Willard's second cousin 9 times removed.
Dorothy Willard (Duncan) -John Henry Duncan, Dorothy’s father-Emma Whitman, John Henry’s mother- Mary Jane Stodghill, Emma’s mother- Joel Stodghill, Mary’s father- Lucy Higginbotham, Joel’s mother- Dolly Gatewood, Lucy’s mother- Catherine Penn, Dolly’s mother- Mary Taylor, Catherine’s mother- John Taylor, Mary’s father- James Taylor, John’s father- Elizabeth Nin, James mother- Sarah Allerton, Elizabeth’s mother- Elizabeth Lee, Sarah’s daughter and Elizabeth Nin’s sister- Richard Taylor, Elizabeth Lee’s son-President Zachary Taylor, Richard’s son.
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850)[2] was an American military leader and the twelfth President of the United States. Known as "Old Rough and Ready," 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 after 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. Taylor was also the first and to date only president from Louisiana.
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.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore became President.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/zt12.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass and becoming the first President never to have held any previous elected office. Taylor was the last President to hold slaves while in office, and the last Whig to win a presidential election.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a forty-year military career in the United States Army, serving in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. He achieved fame leading American troops to victory in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War. As president, Taylor angered many Southerners by taking a moderate stance on the issue of slavery. He urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850. Taylor is thought to have died of gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term, the third shortest tenure of any President. Only Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield served less time. Taylor was succeeded by his Vice President, Millard Fillmore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass and becoming the first President never to have held any previous elected office. Taylor was the last President to hold slaves while in office, and the last Whig to win a presidential election.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a forty-year military career in the United States Army, serving in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. He achieved fame leading American troops to victory in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War. As president, Taylor angered many Southerners by taking a moderate stance on the issue of slavery. He urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850. Taylor is thought to have died of gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term, the third shortest tenure of any President. Only Presidents William Henry Harrison and James Garfield served less time. Taylor was succeeded by his Vice President, Millard Fillmore.
12th President of the United States.
Please see Wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachary_Taylor
An American military leader and the 12th President of the United States.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready", 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 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 have held any previous elected office. Taylor was also the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson. As president, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore then became President.
Born: 24 Nov 1784, Montebello, Orange, VA 660
Marriage: Margaret Mackall Smith on 21 Jun 1810 in Louisville, Jefferson, KY 660
Died: 9 Jul 1850, Washington, DC at age 65 660
Another name for Zachary was Old Rough and Ready.
Zachary married Margaret Mackall Smith on 21 Jun 1810 in Louisville, Jefferson, KY.660 (Margaret Mackall Smith was born on 21 Sep 1788 in Calvert Co., MD 660 and died on 14 Aug 1852 in East Pascagoula, Jackson, MS 660.)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/zt12.html
On May 3, 1808, Taylor joined the U.S. Army, receiving a commission as a first lieutenant of the Seventh Infantry Regiment from his cousin James Madison.
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader and the twelfth President of the United States.
Known as "Old Rough and Ready", 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 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 elected office. Taylor was also the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson. As president, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore then became President.
Taylor was born on November 24, 1784, in a log cabin, near Barboursville in Orange County, Virginia.
He was the third of nine children of Colonel Richard Lee Taylor and Sarah Strother. James Madison was a second cousin and Robert E. Lee was a third cousin once removed (through Colonel Richard Lee the Immigrant). In his infancy, Taylor's family moved to Jefferson County, Kentucky, where Taylor grew up on a plantation called "Springfield", now called the Zachary Taylor House. He was known as "Little Zack" and was educated by private tutors. He was a descendant of King Edward I of England, as well as Mayflower passengers Isaac Allerton and William Brewster.
Taylor met Margaret 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.
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader and the twelfth President of the United States. Known as "Old Rough and Ready," 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 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 second U.S. president never to hold any prior office (George Washington had been the first). Taylor was also the last southerner to be elected president until Woodrow Wilson. (Andrew Johnson became president through succession).
As president, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.
Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis just 16 months into his term. Vice President Millard Fillmore then became President.
______
1. 12TH. PRESIDENT, UNITED S ZACHARY * (12TH US PRESIDENT)10 TAYLOR (RICHARD *9, ZACHARY *8, JAMES *7, JAMES *6, JOHN *5, THOMAS *4, THOMAS *3, ROWLAND *2, JOHN *1) was born 24 November 1784 in HARE FOREST, ORANGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, and died 09 July 1850 in WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES. He met (1) MARY (SLAVE) * MULATTO. He married (2) MARGARET MACKALL SMITH 21 June 1810 in LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES, daughter of WALTER SMITH and ANNE MACKAL. She was born 21 September 1788 in St. Leonard's, CALVERT COUNTY, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES, and died 18 August 1852 in PASAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI, UNITED STATES.
Notes for 12TH. PRESIDENT, UNITED S ZACHARY * (12TH US PRESIDENT) TAYLOR:
Twelfth President of the USA.ZACKARY WAS 12TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN 1849 & 1850 HE PASSED AWAY IN OFFICE AFTER 16 MONTHS IN OFFICE. HE LED A DISTINGUISHING MILITARY CAREER BEING COMMISSIONED BY PRESIDENT JEFFERSON IN MAY 1808. AS A CAPTAIN HE WAS SUCCESSFUL AT FORT HARRISON AGAINST A BAND OF 400 NATIVES LED BY TECUMSEH. IN JUNE 1815 HE RETURNED HOME TO PLANT CORN. IN MAY 1816 HE WAS MADE A MAJOR IN THE 3RD INFANTRY IN WISCONSIN. HE SERVED MISC. GARRISONS FOR 15 YEARS. IN 1819 HE WAS PROMOTED TO LIEUTENANT COLONEL. STATIONED AT LOUISVILLE IN 1824. IN 1827 WENT TO THE SOUTHWEST. 1829 TO FORT SNELLING,MINNESOTA. IN 1832 WAS PLACED IN COMMAND OF THE 1ST INFANTRY AS FULL COLONEL. (W.A.T. VISITED FORT SNELLING NEAR MINNEAPOLIS DURING THE SUMMER OF 1996 AND WALKED THE GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS THAT HIS GREAT GREAT GRANDFATHER HAD COMMANDED IN 1929. IT WAS A GOOD EXPERIENCE.)
HE WAS SUCCESSFUL L IN THE BLACK HAWK WAR AND SECURED A SURRENDER. HE WAS PUT IN CHARGE OF THE EXPEDITION AGAINST THE SEMINOLES IN FLORIDA. HE DEFEATED THEM BADLY ON
CHRISTMAS DAY 1837 AND WAS PROMOTED BRIGADIER GENERAL. HE EARNED THE TITLE "OLD ROUGH AND READY" . IN 1841 TWO MAIN EVENTS OCCURRED, TAYLOR PURCHASED A PLANTATION NEAR RODNEY MISSISSIPPI WHICH MADE HIM A SLAVE HOLDER AND SECOND WAS PUT IN CHARGE OF THE MILITARY DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH WEST. HE ALSO BOUGHT A COTTAGE IN BATON
ROUGE LA. WHICH BECAME HIS PERMANENT HOME. THE MEXICAN WAR, TAYLOR WON 4 BATTLES WHICH MADE HIM A NATIONAL HERO. HE WAS MADE A MAJOR GENERAL. SANTA ANNA ATTACKED ON FEB 22,1847 THE BATTLE PURSUED AND WHEN IT WAS OVER TAYLOR HAD LED THE LARGEST VICTORY THE AMERICANS HAD HAD. TEXAS WAS SECUR
THE PRESIDENCY. TAYLOR WAS SAID TO BE UNCOUTH AND ILLITERATE, WHEN IN FACT HE WAS NEITHER. IF NOT WELL EDUCATED, HE WAS INTELLIGENT AND HAD A MIND OF HIS OWN. AS PRESIDENT HE SOON LEARNED TO MODIFY HIS ACTIONS AND DID SO. HIS MAIN WEAKNESS WAS THAT HE DIED ONLY 16 MONTHS INTO HIS FIRST TERM. PROBABLY HIS MAIN ACCOMPLISHMENT WAS IN APPEASING THE FORCES FOR CIVIL WAR AT THE TIME AND WAS ABLE TO QUELL IT FOR ANOTHER 10 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH. MY THOUGHTS ARE THAT IF HE HAD STAYED TO TERM HE
MAY HAVE SUCCEEDED IN AVOIDING THE CIVIL WAR COMPLETELY.
ON JULY 4 1850 ALTHOUGH NOT FEELING WELL HE SAT UNDER THE HOT SUN AT THE LONG
CEREMONY AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNERSTONE OF THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. HE TOOK
SICK, DIAGNOSED AS CHOLERA MORBUS. HE DIED 5 DAYS LATER. HE LEFT A STATEMENT IN PART "I HAVE TRIED TO DISCHARGE MY DUTIES FAITHFULLY; I REGRET NOTHING."
ACCORDING TO INFORMATION HANDED DOWN BY MY GRANDFATHER ZACHARY FATHERED A SON
BY A MULATTO SLAVE PRIOR TO HIS MARRIAGE. IN ORDER TO PROTECT THIS SON FROM SLAVERY OR PREJUDICE IN THE SOUTH ZACHARY HAD HIS SON SET UP IN ONTARIO WHERE HE RAISED A FAMILY. MY GRANDFATHER W. A. TAYLOR WAS SON TO THIS INDIVIDUAL. THE LINK BETWEEN THIS AND ZACHARY IS NOT PROVED TO ME BUT IT WILL BE A CHALLENGE TO FIND A CONNECTION. W.A.TAYLOR 1991 #162
DURING DECEMBER OF 1991 I W.A.TAYLOR WHILE TRAVELLING IN THE UNITED STATES FROM WINNIPEG TO NEW ORLEANS SPENT MUCH TIME INVESTIGATING THE POSSIBLE CONNECTION TO THE POSSIBLE LINK. OUR FIRST STOP WAS IN ST LOUIS TO VISIT MY BROTHER Wm J.RUSSELL AND HE TOLD ME THE FOLLOWING STORY HE CLAIMS WAS TOLD TO HIM BY GRANNY COATES WHEN HE
WAS A YOUTH.
AS IS INDICATED ZACHARY HAD SIX CHILDREN. THE FIRST FIVE WHERE GIRLS AND RICHARD WAS THE SIXTH. DUE TO THE RISK OF DEATH FROM CHILDBIRTH OR OTHER REASONS. AFTER RICHARD WAS BORN ZACHARY'S WIFE WOULD NOT SLEEP WITH HIM ANY MORE OR WOULD NOT AGREE TO BEAR ANY FURTHER CHILDREN AND IT IS REPORTED THAT ZACHARY WENT TO NEW ORLEANS AND
PURCHASED A MULATTO SLAVE FOR PERSONAL DUTIES. THE SLAVE WAS REPORTED TO BE FROM THE CARIBBEAN. IT WAS QUITE COMMON DURING SLAVERY DAYS FOR THE MASTER TO SIRE SLAVES IN THIS WAY.
ACCORDING TO GRANNY COATES A CERTAIN WILLIAM HENRY WAS THE RESULT. PROBABLY NO MORE THAN 25% BLACK DEPENDING ON THE PERCENTAGE IN THE MULATTO MOTHER. WILLIAM WAS REPORTED TO HAVE BEEN BORN IN BATON ROUGE LOUISIANA. NO MENTION IS MADE OF THIS WILLIAM UNTIL L ATOR AS ZACKERY'S S PERSONAL VALET HOWEVER WHEN ZACKERY WAS CONVINCED TO RUN FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES WILLIAM BECAME A LIABILITY AS A
NATURAL SON AS PERSONAL VALET OF BLACK ORIGIN WAS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO WASHINGTON SOCIETY. THEREFORE ZACKERY ARRANGED THAT SOME DIPLOMATS TRAVELING TO KINGSTON, THE THEN CAPITOL OF CANADA WOULD TAKE WILLIAM WITH THEM AND SET HIM UP IN CANADA BUT NOT IN KINGSTON AS IT WAS POLITICALLY TO CLOSE TO WASHINGTON. THEY WENT ON TO HAMILTON AND SET WILLIAM UP AS A FARMER. WRITTEN BY W.A.TAYLOR #162
DURING THE SAME TRIP TO THE USA WE TRAVELED TO BATON ROUGE AND SPENT A DAY AND A HALF INVESTIGATING INFORMATION ABOUT ZACKERY TAYLOR IN BOTH THE PENTAGON BARRACKS MUSEUM AND THE LOUISIANA STATE LIBRARY WERE PEOPLE WERE MOST HELPFUL.
IT IS REPORTED THAT ZACKERY SUPERVISED THE BUILDING OF THE PENTAGON BARRACKS AND IT WAS COMPLETE IN 1822, HE ALSO HAD A COTTAGE (LARGE HOUSE BY TODAYS STANDARDS) BESIDE THE BARRACKS WERE HE LIVED WHEN IN BATON ROUGE. WE SAW BOTH STONE MARKERS SHOWING THE APPROXIMATE LOCATION ON THE CAPITOL GROUNDS BUT SOME SAY THE ACTUAL HOME WAS CLOSSER TO THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. DISPUTED DISTANCES ARE ONLY A FEW
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Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States's Timeline
| 1784 |
November 24, 1784
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Montebello, Gordonsville, Orange County, Virginia, United States
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| 1811 |
April 9, 1811
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Bear Grass Creek, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States
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| 1814 |
March 6, 1814
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Petit Rocher, Ft. Knox II, Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana, United States
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March 6, 1814
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Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana, United States
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| 1816 |
August 16, 1816
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Bear Grass Creek, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States
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| 1819 |
July 17, 1819
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Bear Grass Creek, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States
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| 1824 |
April 20, 1824
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Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States
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| 1826 |
January 27, 1826
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Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States
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