Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), twelfth president of the United States. Taylor grew up in Kentucky, where his father was a moderately prosperous planter. Despite his family's social standing, he received little formal schooling; as a result, his writing was ungrammatical, and he found reading difficult all his life. Aided by his family's political connections, he received an army commission in 1808. Prior to the Mexican War, most of his service was spent on the frontier dealing with Indian affairs. His informal attire and indifference to physical hardship led his troops to nickname him Old Rough-and-Ready. During these years, Taylor successfully speculated in land. Eventually he purchased cotton plantations in Louisiana (which he made his home) and Mississippi and became a wealthy slave owner. When relations with Mexico deteriorated following the annexation of Texas, the Polk administration ordered Taylor to move his army of four thousand men to the Rio Grande. War commenced shortly after his arrival in March 1846 when Mexican forces attacked units of Taylor's army. In May, Taylor defeated the Mexican army at Palo Alto and quickly won another victory at Resaca de la Palma. His subsequent capture of Monterrey and his victory at the Battle of Buena Vista (February 22-23, 1847), where he was outnumbered three to one, firmly established his popular reputation as a military hero. He was a brave commander who remained calm in the heat of battle, but not a brilliant military leader: he was excessively cautious, failed to plan campaigns adequately, and displayed limited tactical ability. His successes stemmed more from his opponents' blunders, effective leadership by his subordinates, and his own dogged determination. Up to this point in his life, Taylor, who harbored moderate Whig sympathies, had evidenced only limited interest in politics. As his popularity increased, however, a number of Whig leaders, looking for an available candidate, boomed Taylor for president. He was nominated without a platform and elected in November 1848. Taylor's political inexperience caused him to oversimplify complex problems as president. This quality was most apparent in his response to the growing controversy over the expansion of slavery. Although a defender of slavery, he nevertheless believed that lack of rainfall would exclude the institution from the territory acquired from Mexico, and thus he dismissed the issue as pointless. He proposed to bypass the territorial phase and organize the entire Mexican Cession into two huge free states, California and New Mexico. Taylor's proposal exacerbated the sectional controversy. Southern Whigs angrily denounced the president and threatened secession, while Henry Clay introduced a more extensive compromise plan early in 1850. Habitually suspicious of other men's motives, Taylor stubbornly clung to his plan, and his saber-rattling against Texas in its boundary dispute with New Mexico did nothing to defuse tensions. Matters were at a stalemate when the president died suddenly on July 9, 1850, from an attack of cholera. Taylor was honest and well intentioned, but his blunt manner and unsophisticated mind handicapped him as president. An ardent nationalist, he did not appreciate southerners' fears, and his inflexible will, which had served him well in the military, was less useful in working with Congress. Under different circumstances, he might have been a successful president, but he lacked the intellectual subtlety or political tact necessary to handle the sectional crisis. |
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Zachary Taylor Born: November 24, 1784
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First lady: Margaret Mackall Smith Taylor |