Cyclopædia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States

TAYLOR

TAYLOR, Zachary, president of the United States 1849-50, was born in Orange county, Va., Nov. 24, 1784, and died at Washington city, July 9, 1850. In 1808 he obtained a commission in the army as lieutenant, and in the war which followed he rose to the rank of major. At the outbreak of the Mexican war he held the rank of major general, and was in command of the army which advanced through Texas into northern Mexico and won a series of victories ending with Buena Vista. In 1848 he was the whig candidate for president, and was elected. (See WHIG PARTY, ELECTORAL VOTES.) His short term of office was marked by the sectional disputes on the subject of slavery which were settled in 1850. (See COMPROMISES, V.) The president's own plan of settlement was the admission of the disputed territories as states, but it was successful only in the case of California. See Fry's Life of Taylor; Powell's Life of Taylor; Abbott's Lives of the Presidents, 299; 2 Benton's Thirty Years' View, 737; 3 Von Holst's United States, 523; 3 Statesman's Manual, 1831 (for his messages).

A. J.