Zachary Taylor (1784-1850)/biography

Zachary Taylor (, –, ) was an  and the twelfth. Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a 40-year military career in the, serving in the , , and  after achieving fame while leading U.S. troops to victory at several critical battles of the. A  who opposed the spread of slavery to the, he was uninterested in politics but was recruited by the  as their nominee in the. In the election Taylor defeated the nominee,, and became the first U.S. president never to hold any prior office. Taylor was also the first and to date only president from, and the last southerner to be elected president until ( became president through succession).

As president, Taylor urged settlers in and  to by-pass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the.

Taylor died of acute just 16 months into his term. became President.

Early life
Taylor was born on, , in a in Montecello, near  in.

Zachary Taylor was the third of nine of Richard Taylor and Sarah Strother. Taylor's family was aristocratic: was a second cousin and  was a third cousin once removed (through ). In his infancy, Taylor's family moved to, where Taylor grew up on a. He was known as "Little Zack" and was educated by private tutors. He was one of the descendants of of, as well as Mayflower passengers  and.

Taylor met of  in early 1810, and they were married on,. They had one son and five daughters, two of whom died in infancy because of malaria.
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married future  at age 21 over her father's strenuous objections; she died from  three months after the marriage.

Military career
On, , Taylor joined the U.S. Army, receiving a as a  of the. He was ordered west into, taking command at the ; he was promoted to in November 1810.

During the, Taylor became known as a talented military commander. Assigned to command on the, at the northern edge of present-day , Indiana, he successfully commandeered a small force of soldiers and civilians to stave off a British-inspired attack by about 500 Native Americans between September 4 and September 15. The, as it became known, has been referred to as the "first American land victory of the War of 1812." Taylor received a promotion to  on,. Taylor was promoted to on, , and  on ,.

Taylor served in the (May-August 1832) and the Second Seminole War (1835-1842). During the Seminole War, Taylor fought at the and received a brevet promotion to  in January 1838. It was here he gained his nickname "Old " for his rumpled clothes and wide-brimmed. On, , Taylor was promoted commanding general of all U.S. forces in.

sent the Army of Occupation under Taylor's command to the in 1846. After sent a cavalry unit and attacked Taylor's troops (and additionally killed 16 American soldiers), Polk urged  to declare the. In that conflict Taylor won additional important victories at and  and became a.

Polk kept Taylor in Northern Mexico, disturbed by his informal habits of command and his affiliation with the Whig Party. He sent an expedition under General to capture. Taylor, incensed, thought that "the battle of Buena Vista opened the road to the city of Mexico and the halls of, that others might revel in them."

Election of 1848
Taylor received the nomination for President in 1848. of was chosen for the Vice Presidential nominee. Like many other army officers, Taylor was nonpolitical and had never voted. His homespun ways and his status as a war hero were political assets. Taylor defeated, the candidate, and , the  candidate.

To the astonishment of Whigs, Taylor ignored their 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 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.

Policies
Although Taylor had subscribed to principles of legislative leadership, he was not inclined to be a puppet of Whig leaders in. He ran his administration in the same rule-of-thumb fashion with which he had fought Indians.

Under Taylor's administration the was organized, although the department had been activated under President Polk's last day in office. He appointed former  the first.

The Compromise of 1850
The slavery issue dominated Taylor's short term. Although he owned slaves, he took a moderate stance on the territorial expansion of slavery, angering fellow Southerners. Taylor urged settlers in and  to draft constitutions and apply for statehood, bypassing the territorial stage. New Mexico was too small to act but California — which had high population growth from the — wrote a constitution that did not allow slavery; it was approved by the voters and a new state government took over in December 1849 without Congressional approval. Southerners were furious with Taylor and with California. In February 1850, Taylor held a stormy conference with Southern leaders who threatened. 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 proposed a complex. Taylor died as it was being debated. (The Clay version failed but another version did pass under the new president, .)

Supreme Court appointments
none

States admitted to the Union
none

Death
The cause of Zachary Taylor's death is not well understood, nor is it well documented. On, , Taylor was diagnosed by his physicians with cholera morbus, a term that included and  but not true. Cholera,, and have all been indicated as the source of the president's ultimately fatal gastroenteritis. More specifically, a hasty snack of iced milk, cold cherries and pickled cucumbers consumed at an celebration might have been the culprit. By, Taylor was dead.

In, with permission from his descendants, Taylor's body was exhumed, and and Frank Dyer conducted an autopsy at the. At the exhumation, observers noted that Taylor's body, while somewhat decomposed, was still instantly recognizable as the 12th President — Taylor's brow ridge remained intact. Investigating the possibility of assassination by means of deliberate poisoning, Dyer and Robinson detected traces of and sent the results to a Kentucky medical examiner, who determined the quantity of arsenic present — there is a faint amount of arsenic present naturally in the human body — was several hundred times less than there would have been had he been poisoned with arsenic. Despite these findings, assassination theories have not been entirely put to rest. devoted a chapter in his controversial 1999 book History as Mystery to what he called "The Strange Death of Zachary Taylor". In it he speculates that Taylor was assassinated and that his autopsy was botched.

There is some strong evidence that Taylor died from complications of. On July 4, 1850, the weather in Washington was hot and rather humid. Taylor was there to preside over ceremonies at the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument. Taylor was sporting a thick coat, vest, high-collared shirt, and a top hat. Shortly after arriving, Taylor complained that he was very thirsty. He went to the reception table and downed a large amount of water directly from a pitcher.

Since the water was sitting in the sun, the idea of cholera is a possibility. But Taylor exhibited classic symptoms of heat stroke, particularly red, flushed skin on the face. Records also indicate that Taylor was having trouble walking and exhibiting slurred speech. At no time while outside did anyone loosen or remove Taylor's clothing. Only after returning to the White House was some of his clothing loosened. It was only a short time before Taylor collapsed.

At this point his clothing was removed, but internal organs had already been damaged. In fact, his doctors were mystified as to the cause of multiple organ failure. Medical sciences had not addressed heat stroke and the internal damage caused by it. According to author Charles Panati, Taylor actually awoke briefly and said: "I should not be surprised if this were to result in my death." He took a few sips of iced milk, again adding to the possibility of cholera. He lapsed again into unconsciousness and died on,.

Taylor is buried in, at what is now the.

Surviving family

 * Taylor's son became a  Lieutenant General, while his daughter  (1814–1835) had married future   three months before her death of.
 * Taylor's brother, Joseph Pannill Taylor, was a Brigadier General in the during the . (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 ).
 * Taylor's niece Emily Ellison Taylor was the wife of Confederate General.
 * Ann Taylor's son, a officer defected to the  side and later fled to  during the Civil War; his great-grandson  was Acting RCMP Commssioner, great-great-grandson  was  and great-great-great-grandsons (Cst. Herschel Wood and Supt.(Ret) John Taylor Wood served in the RCMP.