Zachary Talor Essay, Research Paper
In the election of 1848, “Old Rough and Ready’s” homespun ways were political assets. His long military record would appeal to northerners; his ownership of 100 slaves would lure southern votes. He had not committed himself on troublesome issues. Millard Fillmore, comptroller of New York, was chosen as his running mate. The Whigs nominated him to run against the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass, who favored letting the residents of territories decide for themselves whether they wanted slavery which is called Popular Sovereignty.
Northerners who opposed extension of slavery into territories formed a Free Soil Party and nominated Martin Van Buren. In a close election, the Free Soilers pulled enough votes away from Cass to elect Taylor. In the election, Taylor won eight Southern states and seven Northern states, giving him 163 electoral votes to Cass’s 127. Taylor did not win a majority of the popular votes. He had 1,360,099, compared to 1,220,544 for Cass and 291,263 for Van Buren. However, because Van Buren took Democratic votes away from Cass in New York, all of that state’s 36 electoral votes went to Taylor, who thereby won the election. Thus, Taylor was a minority President.
As President, Zachary Taylor adopted the Spoil System as did Jackson and Washington to a certain extent, 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.
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. 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 five days later. 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 slave holders to settle in all the other former Mexican territories. Another concession to the South was a new, stronger Fugitive Slave Law.
Events during Taylor s administration
* Gold rush to California (1849).
* Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with Great Britain guarantees neutrality of the proposed Nicaraguan Canal (1850).
* Senate debates on Clay’s Compromise (1850).
* President Taylor dies (1850).