Zachary Taylor

Taylor, Zachary (1784–1850), war hero and 12th president of the United States. Taylor was a bold and resourceful general in the Mexican War and one of the most popular presidents of the period. His brief term in office—he died 16 months into his term—has been all but forgotten. However, he took a bold stand on the extension of slavery, the burning issue of his day, and—had he lived and prevailed—the Civil War might have broken out 11 years earlier than it did.

Early life

Taylor grew up on a wilderness farm. There were no schools, but his parents and tutors gave him some education. In 1810, he married Margaret Mackall Smith. They had six children, two of whom died in infancy.

Military career

In 1808, Taylor became a 1st lieutenant in the U.S. Army. During his 40-year army career, he moved from one end of the nation to the other, and did a great deal to open the West to settlement. He fought Native Americans and the British in the Northwest Territory during the War of 1812, served in the Black Hawk Indian War (1832), and spent three years fighting the Seminole in the Florida Everglades. He commanded Army posts, built roads and forts, and—along the way—purchased land and slaves for himself in Mississippi and Louisiana. “Old Rough and Ready,” as his troops affectionately called him, won a reputation for skill, daring, and fairness as a commander and fighter.

The Whig Party, which saw the war hero as a sure winner, nominated Taylor as its presidential candidate in 1848. Taylor and the Democratic candidate each took a two-sided stand on slavery; the Free-Soil Party's candidate opposed slavery in new territories. Taylor and his running mate, Millard Fillmore, won the election.

President

In Dec. 1849, Congress was faced with California's request to enter the Union as a free state. Unexpectedly, Taylor urged Congress to accept California and New Mexico as free states. This, coming from a Southerner and slave owner, outraged militant Southerners. There was talk of secession, but Taylor declared that, if there was any rebellion, he would personally lead the army to put it down. Like many older-generation Southerners, Taylor believed that the Union must be preserved, even if it meant slavery would be kept from expanding beyond its existing borders. He probably was also swayed by the antislavery attitudes of his Whig advisers.

Senator Henry Clay offered a set of bills—later called the Compromise of 1850—that would admit California as a free state, with no provisions against slavery in Utah and New Mexico, and would prohibit the slave trade in the District of Columbia. To appease the South, they provided a rigorous law for the return of fugitive slaves. There was a great debate in the Senate; Taylor held firm and tensions grew. Then on July 9, 1850, Taylor died suddenly of acute gastroenteritis. Had Taylor lived, his uncompromising stand might have provoked a war by Aug. However, Millard Fillmore, his successor, allowed the compromise bills to go through, postponing the conflict.