Zachary Taylor

IV

President of the United States

Taylor was sworn in as president on March 5, 1849. A huge crowd swarmed to Washington, D.C., to witness the inauguration. Many of them were office seekers hoping to be appointed to an office under the first Whig administration since 1841. Taylor had at first intended to be a nonpartisan president, but under pressure from his advisers he adopted the spoils system, awarding offices to party loyalists. As a result, much of his time and many of his problems concerned the demands of unemployed Whig politicians. His administration was marked, however, by his personal honesty and courage, especially in the handling of the delicate question of slavery.

A

Great Debate on Slavery

The expansion of slavery in the new territories gained in the Mexican War had been the major concern of Congress since the introduction of the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery there, in 1846. The demands of two such territories, California and New Mexico, for statehood brought the issue to a head because both territories wanted to be admitted to the federal Union as free states.

President Taylor's position on this issue surprised both his supporters and his opponents. He considered the solution simple. Because California wanted statehood, it should be granted promptly. The president also felt that if the people of California wanted to prohibit slavery, they and not Congress had the right to make that decision. Therefore, compromises and concessions were unnecessary. Taylor's stand drew the support of the Free Soilers and the antislavery or 'conscience' Whigs, who were led by Senator William H. Seward of New York.

On the other extreme was a small but vocal faction of Southerners who would accept no changes to the arrangements of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, in which Congress had drawn a line at 36°30' north latitude as the northern limit of slave territory. This line bisected California and would have put Los Angeles and San Diego in slave territory. These so-called diehards, led by Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, talked of seceding from the Union if Taylor's plan was followed. Taylor responded with tough talk of his own. He personally, he said, would lead an army against any state that attempted secession.

---

---

In the middle was a group of moderate Whigs and Democrats who were trying to find a compromise. Its leaders were Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and Henry Clay, who had brokered the Missouri Compromise 30 years earlier. As long as Taylor was alive, the moderates' cause was hopeless. However, when Vice President Fillmore succeeded to the presidency in 1850, the moderates got his support for compromise.

B

Foreign Affairs

Taylor's only other major concern during his brief presidency was with foreign relations. In this area he was advised by his secretary of state, John M. Clayton. Taylor's policy was to uphold U.S. neutrality. He was opposed to expansionism, which at that time was manifested by the Young America movement. Young America advocated a southward expansion of the United States into the Latin American countries. Cuba especially had long been viewed as a possible additional state. In 1849 Narciso Lopez, a former Cuban provincial governor, attempted to raise an army to invade Cuba and wrest it from Spain. His base was New Orleans, and he was backed by prominent Southerners. After Taylor issued a proclamation forbidding Americans to participate in expeditions like Lopez's, the venture collapsed.

The landmark of Taylor's foreign policy was the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, which he signed just before his death. This treaty with Great Britain guaranteed the neutrality of Central America and paved the way for the construction of a canal through Nicaragua. Plans for the canal were later abandoned in favor of the Panama Canal, but the treaty was effective in cementing relations between the United States and Great Britain.

V

Death

Taylor was 64 years old when he assumed the presidency. Years of service on the frontier had taken their toll of his health, and he came close to death when he fell ill during a trip through Pennsylvania in September 1849. The duties of his office also wore him out. He was especially depressed when three members of his Cabinet were charged with corruption, leaving him open to vicious attacks from Congress that were all the more venomous because of his stand on slavery.

On July 4, 1850, Taylor stood in the hot sun at the foot of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., listening to patriotic speeches celebrating Independence Day. That night he had an attack of cholera morbus, or acute indigestion, and he died on July 9, 1850. His last words were, “I regret nothing, but I am sorry to leave my friends.”

Vice President Fillmore took the oath of office as president and soon delivered a message to Congress indicating that he was willing to compromise on California. Congress passed the Compromise of 1850, which admitted California as a free state but allowed slaveholders to settle in all the other former Mexican territories. Another concession to the South was a new, stronger Fugitive Slave Law. See Compromise Measures of 1850.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain