that Taylor was to hand over all of his troops to serve
under Scott in a great offensive in Mexico. Instead of
complying with this order, Taylor marched away from
where he had been ordered to meet Scott and headed to-
ward the city of Victoria. Scott demanded Taylor return
a majority of his troops, which he did unwillingly. Scott
then ordered Taylor’s now-diminished force to march on
Veracruz (also Veracruz). It was at this time that Taylor
received word that Mexican general Antonio Lopez de
santa anna was marching to fight his army with some
20,000 troops—more than four times Taylor’s force.
The two armies met at Buena Vista (22–23 February
1847), south of Saltillo, and despite the numerical dis-
advantage, Taylor was able to win an important victory.
American newspapers editorialized that Taylor had al-
most been sacrificed by a jealous administration and an
incompetent general—Scott—who had removed some
of Taylor’s finest fighters for his own. Despite the sup-
port of the American people, Taylor’s unwillingness to
follow Scott’s direct orders cost him, and after Buena
Vista his military career was over.
In 1844, the Whigs had lost an important election
to James Polk; four years later, they strove to find a can-
didate who could appeal to a national audience against
the Democrats’ candidate, former Michigan governor
Lewis Cass. Although Taylor had never expressed politi-
cal views, “Taylor for President” clubs sprang up after his
victories in Mexico. Despite the fact that the Whigs were
moving to an antislavery position by 1848, Taylor was a
wealthy slave owner. The southern Whigs hoped that as
president, Taylor would support the right of slavehold-
ers to move their slaves into new American territories to
be carved out of lands taken from Mexico following the
end of the war. The northern Whigs hoped that despite
his ownership of slaves, he would not do anything to
force a breakup of the Union. In fact, Taylor was against
both the spread of slavery and the threat of secession
from slave states. At the Whig convention in Philadel-
phia, he was nominated for president, and Millard Fill-
more, a former congressman who had been the chair of
the House Ways and Means Committee, was named as
the candidate for vice president. A faction of antislavery
Democrats broke from Cass to support former president
Martin Van Buren, who polled enough votes in New
York to throw the state and its electoral votes to Tay-
lor. In the end, Taylor won 1,360,099 votes to Cass’s
1,220,544, with 291,616 votes going to Van Buren; the
electoral vote count was 163-127.
Inaugurated as the 12th president of the United
States on 4 March 1849, Taylor was challenged by the
split in the nation over the issue of slavery. Proslavery
advocates demanded that he support their right to move
their slaves into new territories; antislavery supporters
wanted those people in the new territories of Califor-
nia and New Mexico to decide for themselves whether
or not slavery should be legal there. Taylor sided with
the antislavery side, and southerners called for a vote
on secession from the Union. Taylor decried any talk
of leaving the Union, threatening with death anyone
who attempted such a move. In Congress, a number of
leaders fashioned a settlement to placate the South and
end the crisis. Their work, which allowed for a stron-
ger Fugitive Slave Act to capture and ship escaped slaves
from northern free states back to southern slave states,
became the Compromise of 1850. It was a short-term
fix and lasted only a decade. The compromise permitted
slavery in the new territory of New Mexico but made
California free, thus leaving the number of free and slave
states numerically even. Although this issue dominated
his presidency, Taylor did not participate in congressio-
nal debates over the compromise, instead allowing the
legislative branch to cobble the deal together.
On 4 July 1850, Taylor attended Fourth of July
celebrations in Washington, D.C. He drank cold milk
and ate cherries, but later in the day he became violently
ill with an apparent stomach flu. He lingered for five
days until he succumbed on 9 July at the age of 65. His
funeral was attended by some 100,000 mourners who
lined the route along which his casket was taken. He
was laid to rest in what is now called Zachary Taylor
National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. Known as
“Old Rough and Ready” for his fights against the Semi-
nole in Florida, Zachary Taylor was a notable soldier
of the 19th century. Rumors that his death had been
caused by poison were disproved in 1991.References: Bauer, Karl Jack, Zachary Taylor: Soldier,
Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest (Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1985); Letter on Florida
operations, Taylor to General R. Jones, 20 July 1839, RG
94, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, ca. 1775–ca.
1928, National Archives, Washington, D.C.; Lavender,
David Sievert, Climax at Buena Vista: The American Cam-
paigns in Northeastern Mexico, 1846–47 (Philadelphia:
Lippincott, 1966); Eisenhower, John S. D., So Far From
God: The U.S. War with Mexico, 1846–48 (New York:tAyloR, zAchARy