Nice & Curious Questions

Edwin S. Clay III and Patricia Bangs


 

Left Out, or What Happened

to Zachary Taylor?

 

Several sharp-eyed readers noticed a missing president in our recent column, “A Heartbeat Away: Vice Presidents From Virginia” (Bacon’s Rebellion, September 25, 2006). For some reason, we skipped over our 12th president, Zachary Taylor, when listing the various Virginians who had occupied the White House.

 

To make up for this grievous oversight, we thought we’d devote some copy to “Old Rough and Ready,” born in 1784 near Barboursville in Orange County. It’s true his family moved to what is now Kentucky (a part of Virginia until 1792) while he was still an infant, but Taylor’s Virginia roots went deep. (Zachary Taylor -- Wikipedia). His second cousin was James Madison, and Robert E. Lee was a fourth cousin once removed. Taylor’s daughter, Sarah, even married Jefferson Davis (although her father objected and she died of malaria three months later).

 

Taylor was elected president in 1848 after a 40-year career in the military. At the age of 64 when elected, he is among the oldest to serve as president. (In the 20th century, only Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were older when they came to office.) Taylor fought in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, the Seminole War – where he earned his nickname “Old Rough and Ready” due to his preference for rumpled clothes and straw hat, rather than a uniform – and the Mexican War.

 

It was his reputation as a war hero that attracted the Whigs to his candidacy. Taylor, himself, seemed fairly apolitical. He had never even registered to vote and did not even vote in his own election. Taylor ran against Lewis Cass, who favored letting those who lived in territories decide if they wanted slavery – a major political issue as the nation grew during pre-Civil War days. A third group, which opposed Taylor because he owned slaves and Cass’ position on territories, nominated Martin Van Buren. As in most third-party elections, Van Buren’s candidacy took votes from Cass and Taylor won.

 

Inauguration Day fell on Sunday, March 4, 1849. Taylor and his vice president Millard Fillmore both refused to be sworn in on a Sunday, so the ceremony was postponed a day. Constitutional scholars still argue whether the presidency was vacant for a day. As president, Taylor attempted to run the White House in the same rough and tumble way he had led troops in the Indian Wars (whitehouse.gov/presidents). At a contentious meeting in 1850 about slavery in the territories, southern leaders threatened secession. Taylor told them he would lead the Army personally and any persons “taken in rebellion against the Union, he would hang … with less reluctance than he had hanged deserters and spies in Mexico.”

 

His determination helped initiate the Compromise of 1850, which postponed the Civil War for 11 more years. Taylor, however, seemed ready to fight it then and there.

 

On July 4, 1850, while laying a cornerstone for the Washington Monument, Taylor fell ill and died five days later. The day was hot. He had snacked on iced milk, cold cherries and pickled cucumbers. Some believe it was cholera, others attribute it to complications from heat stroke.

 

There was even a theory he had been poisoned. In the 1980s, an author convinced Taylor’s closest living relative to allow him to be exhumed (Find a Grave -- Zachary Taylor). In 1991, an autopsy was performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. While traces of arsenic were found, they were attributed to the faint amounts naturally found in the human body ("President Taylor and the Laboratory," Oak Ridge National Laboratory Review).

 

Whatever the reason, Taylor seemed to realize his fate. One author wrote that the president awoke briefly and said, “I should not be surprised if this were to result in my death.”

 

Taylor is buried in Louisville, Ky., in what is now known as Zachary Taylor National Cemetery. This is actually his third burial spot. He was held in a public receiving vault in Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., from July 13, 1850 – October 25, 1850, then shipped to Louisville where his remains lay in a family vault before he and his wife were moved to a mausoleum in 1926. A memorial at the site identifies him as “Maj. Genl. Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the U.S.” First a soldier, then a president.

 

So, are we back in our readers’ good graces?

 

NEXT: Is Virginia Really a State? What the Heck is a Commonwealth?

 

-- October 23, 2006

 

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About "Nice & Curious"

 

In 1691, a group of English wits, calling themselves the Athenian Society, founded a publication entitled, "The Athenian Gazette or Causical Mercury, Resolving All the Most Nice and Curious Questions proposed by the Ingenious." The editors accepted questions posed by readers on any and all topics, and sought the most ingenious answers.

 

Inspired by their example, Edwin S. Clay III, president of the Virginia Library Association and Director of the Fairfax County Public Library, created an occasional column on Virginia facts that may require "ingenious answers" of the type favored by those 17th-century wags.

 

If you have a query, e-mail him at eclay0@fairfaxcounty.gov.

 

Fairfax County Public Library staff Patricia Bangs, Lois Kirkpatrick and MaryAnn Sheehan assist in the writing, editing and research of the column.