President Zachary Taylor: The Hero President

by Elbert B. Smith

Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 - July 9, 1850) was an American military leader and the twelfth President of the United States. Taylor had a 40-year military career in the U.S. Army, serving in the War of 1812, Black Hawk War, and Second Seminole War before achieving fame while leading U.S. troops to victory at several critical battles of the Mexican-American War. Taylor's short Presidency was shadowed by the issue then dominating all aspects of American national affairs - that of slavery. However, the immediate issue was the admission of New Mexico and California as states. Taylor confounded his Southern supporters, who had assumed that since the President owned slaves, he would support the pro-slavery position and refuse entry into the union to two states settled by Northerners and likely to be anti-slavery. Taylor recommended that the two territories develop their own constitutions and then request admission based on those constitutions. When Southern states threatened secession he warned them that he would use all his resources as commander-in- chief to preserve the union. Mexicans, and handle them in the same manner that he had deserters. Taylor's brief term in the White House also featured the still on-going question of balancing power between the Congress and the presidency.

282 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

A graduate of Maryville College in Tennessee Elbert B. Smith earned his master’s (1947) and Ph.D, (1949) in history from the University of Chicago. Smith taught at Youngstown University, Iowa State University, and the University of Wisconsin before moving to the University of Maryland, where he retired as professor emeritus as American history.

Reviews

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very positive and thorough view of Zachary Taylor, the famous Mexican War general who was elected president of the United States as a Whig in 1848. Smith argues that contrary to myth, Taylor was a well-read and thoughtful man. He was not the illiterate that history remembers. That slur can be attribute to rival Winfield Scott's mudslinging to discount Taylor's record. Nor, was he politically disinterested. In fact, Taylor always had an active interest in politics. He came from a Kentucky family affiliated with Henry Clay and the Whig Party. Although he had a meaningful administration, Smith feels that the controversial compromise would probably have emerged in 1850 had he lived as it did under his successor Millard Fillmore. Taylor's greatest contribution in the White House, Smith argues, was to keep Texas from taking more aggressive steps in regard to their claims for land in New Mexico. In regards to slavery, Taylor did not think slavery should spread, and likewise believed that it would die simply because it could not spread (a common belief held by both pro- and anti-slavery advocates in the day). This put him at odds with southerns, leading supporters like Alexander Stephens and Robert Toombs to abandon President Taylor.