Taylor, Zachary
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Zachary (1784-1850), the twelfth president of the United States . He was born in Orange County, Virginia, September 24, 1784. The next year his father, Colonel Richard Taylor, removed to Kentucky. Like Andrew Jackson, young Taylor had little education. When a mere stripling, he received a commission as lieutenant in the 7th U. S. Infantry. He served in the War of 1812, successfully defending Fort Harrison on the Wabash. He held command also in the Black Hawk War of 1832 and on the Seminole War of 1836. When the war with Mexico came on, Taylor, now a general, was stationed with 4,000 soldiers at Fort Brown to await the expected invasion. He received the first attack of the Mexicans at Palo Alto, May 8, 1846, and on the following day won the engagement of Resaca de la Palma. The taking of Monterey followed, September 19th. February 22-23, a part of his army having been withdrawn by General Scott for the invasion of Mexico by way of Vera Cruz , Taylor was attacked by a superior force under Santa Anna and won a creditable victory. At the conclusion of peace "Old Rough and Ready," as his soldiers called him, was nominated by the Whigs for the presidency. The names of his victories played no little part in the campaign. The "Hero of Monterey and Buena Vista" was elected over Cass, the Democratic, and Van Buren, the Free Soil candidate. The great question of his administration was the disposition of the territory acquired by the war. The various measures, known together in American history as the Compromise of 1850, were still under discussion in Congress July 9, 1850, when president Taylor died. He was succeeded by Vice-President Millard Fillmore. Taylor was a soldier, not a statesman. He was made president because he was popular with the people and satisfactory to the slaveholding interests. See Whig; Clay ; Webster
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The military narrative Aiton's gave in 1910 still stands, though two details have moved. In 1991 Taylor's remains were exhumed at Louisville after a writer argued he had been poisoned with arsenic; tests on hair and nail samples found no such levels, and the accepted cause of death remains a gastrointestinal illness contracted in Washington's July heat. Modern historians also part company with the claim that he was "satisfactory to the slaveholding interests": Taylor owned slaves himself, but as president he pressed for the swift admission of California and New Mexico as free states and warned Southern leaders he would use force against secession. Aiton's also gives his birth as September 24, 1784; the date now standard is November 24.
Written for this edition, 2026.