12. ZACHARY TAYLOR 1849-1850
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.
