The USA in the Time of Zachary Taylor
1849-1850
by Mike Donovan
"Old Rough and Ready" The Hero of Buena Vista
Whig – Louisiana slave-owner -VP- Millard Fillmore – Clayton-Bulwer – Second cousin of President Madison – # 12 - Non-drinker who chewed tobacco and could hit a spittoon with the best of ‘em – Father-in-law of Jefferson Davis – No Supreme Count appointees – “Whitey”
Nominated by the Whig convention at Philadelphia in 1848 on the 4th ballot, Taylor beat Democrat Lewis Cass in the big election, 163-127. Ex-prez Van Buren finished a distant 3rd at the head of the Free-Soil party. The FS Party did however manage to win 12 seats in Congress.
Popular vote -----------Taylor W) 1,360,000
Cass D) 1,220,000
Van Buren FS) 292,000
The USA elected only two Whig Party presidents and both of them died within 16 months of their inaugurations. Including their replacements, there were a total of four Whig Presidents. Tyler and Fillmore round out the four big Whigs. His own Whig Party renounced Tyler and Fillmore was not very Whig. But they were all Whigs when they entered the White House. If a game show host ever asks you to name the four Whig Presidents, the answer is Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, and Fillmore (the first Harrison of course.)
Taylor's cabinet
Secretary of State-----J. M. Clayton –1849-1850
Secretary of War-----G. W. Crawford-1849-1850
Sec. of Treasury------W. M. Meredith-1849-1850
Att. General----------Reverdy Johnson-1849-1850
Sec. of the Interior--Thomas P. Ewing---1849-1850
BIO
America’s 12th President was a direct descendent of Billy Brewster, the leader of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower. Brewster, who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. His great great Grandfather James Taylor came over from Carlisle England in the mid 1600’s, where he was famous for singing a lot of sad songs
ZT’s dad, Rich Taylor had served as a Colonel in the Revolution in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. The nation rewarded RT for his services in the Revolution with a farm. Little Zachary Taylor was born on a farm in Orange County, Virginia on November 24, 1784. He was a Washington baby. Zachary had six sisters and two brothers.
His mother, Sally Strother had disfigured hands from a horrible accident she incurred when making bullets with molten lead. That’s a little bit karma spooky when you consider her son grew up to be a big military hero.
The Taylors moved to frontier Kentucky when Zack was one.
In 1810 Zachary married and joined the army. Its hard to say which one was a bigger commitment.
Future first lady Margaret Smith was a tough frontier woman who smoked a pipe. She became Mrs. Taylor and they went on to have six children. One of their sons served as a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army in the Civil War. A Taylor daughter married Jefferson Davis who later became president of the Confederacy. But she had passed away shortly after the marriage began and never became the First Lady of the Confederate States of America. But she almost did.
Taylor was hostile to Jeff after this. But later, when the two men had to watch each other’s back in the Mexican War, Jefferson Davis showed courage and loyalty, and they became friends as a result. The friendship with Jeff Davis later helped Taylor in the presidential campaign of 1848.
Although he is famous as the hero of Palo Alto and Buena Vista in the Mexican War, it is seldom noted that Zachary Taylor also served heroically in the War of 1812. Taylor was commander of Fort Harrison in Indiana territory when a determined battalion of Shawnee Indians attacked. The famous Chief Tecumseh led the charge. Taylor’s exemplary performance in that battle earned him promotion to colonel.
Taylor was the commander of the American troops on the Rio Grande when the Mexican War broke out. Instructed to defend American territory, he took the fight to the enemy and invaded northeastern Mexico. President Polk became alarmed as Taylor won too many great victories. In those days, a winning general automatically became a front-runner for the presidency. Today, a general can still run for president but it is hardly considered the best orthodox launching pad for the office. In 1846 it was. (The USA hasn’t had a warrior President since Eisenhower, and he never saw actual combat - Ike was the man because of his great ability to be a fair, tough, and honest administrator - Patton the warrior could have run for President in 48 or 52 and lost if he wanted to.)
Polk reduced Taylor’s forces to 5,000 men and boosted the forces of General Scott, who was about to invade central Mexico. The plan backfired on Polk (he was scheming to reduce the glory of Taylor) because ol’ Rough and Ready won a stellar victory at Buena Vista in February of 1847. Santa Anna had 20,000 troops to Taylor’s 5,000 but the Americans won the battle. At the height of the fighting some of Taylor’s officers begged him to retire to a safer location. He replied, “Let them ride nearer, and then their balls will go over us.”
The Whigs heard about Buena Vista and immediately decided that they wanted this Zachary Taylor guy for president in 1848.
Taylor had never held public office before. Now he was to run for the top job. Zachary had served 40 years in the Army. When he was inaugurated, he was 64. When President Polk learned of Taylor’s election he shook his head and said that Zachary was “wholly unqualified” to be president.
Taylor was a large plantation owner in Louisiana. His father had left him slaves and property. He owned more than three hundred slaves. At the time he ran for president, Zachary Taylor was a rich man. He could have sold his slaves for at least $50,000, and he had a large plantation on the Mississippi near the town of Rodney. The plantation was called Cypress Grove. Taylor also owned a smaller plantation in West Felecia Parish, along with warehouses in Kentucky which sold after his death for $13,000. The retired general also received a healthy pension from the government and owned a cottage in Baton Rouge where he spent most of his days while faithful overseers ran the plantations.
Taylor grew a lot of cotton before switching over to sugar. Because of the fluctuations in prices and the dangers of flooding, these so-called ‘staple crops’ were not Taylor’s best source of revenue. The only consistent winner was lumber. It’s steady supply and demand, and its healthy profit margins made it the winning tortoise against the cotton and sugar hares. Taylor eventually built sawmills on his property and sold refined lumber.
Cypress Grove was Taylor’s Tara. Relative to the era and the evil of the overall institution, Taylor was by all accounts a benevolent massa. His slaves usually seemed genuinely happy to see him. He forbade the selling of slaves or the break-up of slave families.
There is no such thing as a benevolent slave-owner, of course. But Taylor lived up to what this oxymoron was supposed to be. It’s a good thing. A plantation master with a reputation as a whip wielder probably could never have won the White House even in the antebellum era.
After serving in the War of 1812 and the Indian Wars Taylor played an important role in the Black Hawk War (Lincoln led a band of militia in this conflict).
It was in the Seminole War that Zack earned the nickname of “Old Rough and Ready.”
The First Lady, Margaret Smith Taylor was in poor health for most of Taylor’s Administration. She was not the official White House Hostess.
Margaret had traveled with Zachary throughout the old west but by the time fate brought her to Washington D. C. she was tired and a semi-invalid. She entertained visitors in private at the White House in an upstairs room.
The job of White House Hostess belonged to Taylor’s daughter, Linda Elizabeth Taylor (Liz Taylor).
EVENTS
DEATH OF POLK
CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH
OMNIBUS BILL (THE COMPROMISE OF 1950)
CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY
RIOT AT THE ASTOR OPERA HOUSE
CUBAN FILIBUSTER
DEATH IN OFFICE OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR
ELECTION OF 1848
Jimmy Polk decided not to run for re-election in 1848. "I would rather sit in a barrel of ice for eight years than return to this dreadful job for another four," he wrote to a friend.
Clay was the Whig front-runner but ol’ Henry carried heavy baggage left over from the Wilmot Proviso. Clay had asserted after his third defeat in 44 that he was through as a presidential aspirant, but as 48 closed in he lost his enthusiasm for such self-denial.
The Whig nominee in 1848 was the war hero and plantation owner from Louisiana, Zachary Taylor, the hero of Buena Vista.
The 1840’s could be called the Whig Decade. They won two out of the three elections in the 1840’s. One of the reasons the Whigs were able to win in 1848 was the sensational sectional split between the Northern and Southern Democrats. Since a Democrat (Northern) had written the Wilmot Proviso, the Whigs were able to campaign in part on the idea that they could protect Southern interests better than the Democrats could. The Proviso it will be recalled had died in the senate but its spirit hung over the country.
The big knock on the Whig campaign of ’48 is the charge that it was a party without a platform, with a candidate to match. There is some truth to this charge, although Taylor was personally an independent man, not a puppet. The problem was that the Whig Party really had no rudder on issues. They had only really existed as an opposition group (anti-Jackson), not a proposition group.
In 1844 the Whigs had opposed the Mexican War and now were in no position to claim any points for that. The War had been a great American victory adding a zillion miles of exiting new territory.
Other Whig issues weren’t working out either. The Whigs had campaigned in 44 on the need to re-establish the Bank of the United States or else the country would face financial ruin. Instead the nation’s economy seemed to be doing fine without the BUS.
The Whigs had campaigned in 44 on the need for federal subsidies for internal improvements like canals and roads. The country seemed to be building these at a healthy rate with private funding.
Knowing they couldn’t run someone heavily associated with the Whig Party record, the Whigs found a war hero without a political past. It had worked in 1840 and was worth another try.
The Democratic Party chose Louis Cass as a compromise candidate from their own arguing factions.
Cass dodged the argument of Wilmot vs. the doctrine of popular sovereignty by coming up with a new political invention. He called it "squatter sovereignty." By this doctrine each new territory would decide for itself from the earliest, squatting, stages of settlement whether to become slave or free. Popular sovereignty had meant voting on slave or free only on the eve of admission to statehood.
The squatter doctrine raised more questions than it answered, but it served its purpose of avoiding the sectional conflict over slavery within the Democratic Party. (Some textbooks say that Cass’s squatter sovereignty is the exact same thing as popular sovereignty – other books say that the name was a put-down term invented by anti slavery persons in the north – still other books say that the term was a put down invented by pro-slavery persons in the south – still others say that it was a different proposal than popular sovereignty – what is the history student supposed to conclude?)
Cass was born in Exeter, New Hampshire. Lou was a classmate of Daniel Webster at Exeter Academy. Soldier, lawyer, Governor of Michigan Territory, Senator, explorer, loyal friend to the Indian, Ambassador to France, Secretary of War, and accomplished juggler, a young Cass was the first American soldier to set foot on Canadian land in the War of 1812.
Cass served in the War of 1812 under the controversial General Hull at Fort Detroit. At tghe moment when “Geezer Hull” surrendered the Detroit in 1812 without a fight, Cass was out on patrol with his reconnaissance unit. When Lewis returned to the fort he had to surrender. The big strong Cass snapped his sword in half across a stone rather than hand it to a British officer. Cass had insisted to Hull to hold on, that the British were outnumbered and could be put to the flight with the simplest assault. Cass later testified against Hull at his courts-martial in 1813.
Cass was not acceptable to the Wilmot wing of the Democratic Party. The WW was led by ex-president Marty Van Buren. These Dems got a famous nickname, the 'Barnburners.' This was based on the legend of the Swedish farmer who burned down his barn to get rid of a rat. Barnburners was not meant as a compliment. The BB’s broke away completely from the Democrats and united with various anti-slavery groups like the Liberty party and 'Conscience Whigs.' The Barnburners and their followers were opposed to the slaveholder Taylor, and formed their own party, the FSP, which stood for the Free Soil Party, but most people called it “FSP”. The Soiler spoilers met at Buffalo and chose Old Kinderhook, Martin Van Buren as their nominee for President of the United States.
Congressman Davey “Proviso” Wilmot himself was among the Free-Soil converts.
In the meantime the “hunker-down” element of the New York Democratic Party went ahead with their plans to promote Lou Cass for prez.
At the street level the campaign was fervently fought. In New Orleans a torchlight parade for Cass passed the Taylor headquarters taunting the general’s supporters. One of the Cass men rammed the blazing torch into the face of a Taylor man. The Taylorite pulled out his revolver and emptied it into the Democrat. The Cass parade then put its torches to the Taylor headquarters, burning it to the ground.
In a less deadly incident a member of a Taylor for President Marching Band was assaulted by a Cass supporter. He was banging a huge drum while the marchers chanted “Tay-Lor Tay-Lor!” A Cass supporter grabbed the drum and broke it over the Taylor man’s head. The incident caused no serious injury except to one guy’s pride. Who said studying history isn’t fun. Stories like this make my day (and remind me of the great El Ka-Bong.)
Both Cass and Taylor avoided clear-cut statements and positions on slavery extension. It was a total cop-out on both sides. In fact, the Cass team published two separate campaign biographies, one for the North where Lew seemed to favor the Wilmot Proviso, and another for the South where Cass seemed to favor an anti-Wilmot proviso. Even John Kerry would have to be impressed with this kind of fence straddling. The Whigs and the Democrats competed to see who could be the most vague on slavery. In fact, if either party had ever taken a true stand against slavery, the Liberty Party could never have polled nearly three percent of the vote. The Liberty Party was openly and courageously against slavery.
Taylor was virtually pro-slavery, a Southern plantation man who had Southern élan. He had written that if the North pushed to the point where resistance became proper,
“Let the South act promptly, boldly, and decisively, with arms in their hands if necessary, as the Union in that case will be blown to atoms, or will no longer be worth preserving.”
This was balanced by Zack’s insistence that the slavery extension controversy was a moot point because slavery was very unlikely to be voted favorably upon in the new arid regions. Essentially, Taylor favored the protection of slavery where it existed, and was passive accepting about letting the new territories become free states, as long as this happened naturally and not by Congressional decree.
As the election of 1848 approached the states were evenly divided, 15 free and 15 slave. The admission of California as a free state would mean immediate domination of the Senate by the free states with no immediate prospect of new slave states to counter. The free states were already dominant in the House of Representatives. Now both Houses of Congress might be free.
The other Whig candidate with a chance for the nomination (besides the powerful but unelectable Clay who feigned to have ‘retired’ from presidential politics) was ‘Old Fuss and Feathers,’ Winfield Scott. Fuss was also a hero of the Mexican War. Taylor, who got his ‘rough and ready’ nickname as a spin off of Scott’s) despised Scott. Zachary felt that Win Scott had put Taylor’s men in harm’s way during the Mexican campaign for political reasons, a crime no true soldier can ever forgive. Taylor probably would never have consented to the nomination if not for his detestation of Scott. Taylor had never voted in a presidential election but said that if he had voted in ’44 he would have voted for Clay. If Clay had been the nominee, Taylor would have been happy to support him, but with Scott the other front-runner besides himself, Taylor agreed to run. Zack allowed his supporters to throw his hat into the ring if only to see it cut off Scott’s head like Odd Job (the hit man in the early James Bond films who used his fashion derby as a flying razor brimmed weapon.)
Taylor wrote of Scott that he was a “sycophant” of Polk, that he was “low and contemptible.” Taylor called him as “heartless and insincere an individual” as exists. The rub was that in 46 Polk was backing Scott for a future presidency and withdrew some of Taylor’s best troops between Zachary’s wins at Monterey and Buena Vista. and that it was political. Polk reduced Taylor’s forces in order to reduce Taylor’s rising presidential star and promote Scott’s. Taylor could have been slain in battle because Polk favored Scott’s presidential ambitions. When the election campaign came along Taylor said to himself as he wagged his clenched fist, “now comes payback time.”
History has left us with an image of Taylor as a dumb military man, a total stooge at the head of legion of sharpie politicos. In fact, Taylor had strong political instincts and could never have been elected without his own input into his candidacy.
Taylor had been shrewd in 1847 when several different political parties were seeking him out as a candidate. He never rejected any overtures from any party in order to widen his support when he later made a choice. Taylor shrewdly considered himself a candidate of the luke-warms, undecideds, and independents, and never avoided this position in public.
As the campaign closed in the Whigs were frustrated with Taylor because they kept insisting that they wanted him and he kept insisting that he would gladly run on their ticket as long as the public understood that he was not really running as a member of any particular party.
Taylor genuinely felt that way and also was one of the few who understood that the only chance for a Whig victory was to carry substantial portions of the other parties. The Whig ticket on Whig strength alone was a guaranteed loser.
Taylor studiously avoided any discussion of the slavery issue at every step of the process. In the famous ‘Allison letter’, a virtual hat in the ring campaign announcement, published in the New Orleans Picayune April 22nd, 1848 Taylor discusses his unashamed vagueness on platform, and promises to make no promises,
“I have no private purposes to accomplish – no
party projects to build up – no enemies to punish
nothing to serve but my country –
…I am not sufficiently familiar with all the minute
details of political legislation to give solemn pled-
goes to exert my influence if I were President to
carry out this or defeat that measure. … crude
impressions upon matters of policy which may
be right today & wrong tomorrow are perhaps not
the best test of fitness for office; & one who can-
not be trusted without pledges, ought not to be
confided in merely on account of them …
…
I am a Whig but not ultra Whig … If elected I
would not be the mere president of a party …
…
My life has been devoted to arms, yet I look
upon war as a national calamity to be avoided
if compatible with National Honor; the principles
of our Government as well as its true policy are
opposed to the subjugation of other nations & the
dismemberment of other Countries by Conquest.
This “Allison Letter” was extremely well received all across the country. General Taylor was no longer a mere household name. Now he breathed words and opinions like other men. Even if readers didn’t hear all they wanted to hear, at least they heard the spirit of a decent guy who was nobody’s simpleton tool (in spite of what some historians might say even today). In a world without television and radio, the Allison Letter was Taylor’s introduction to the masses.
Why was it called the Allison letter? Taylor was sitting on the banks of the Mississippi one day with a friend named Allison when three important Taylor supporters pulled up on a steamboat to visit him with a letter they had written. It was supposed to be from Zachary’s own pen and it stated all his opinions, political positions, and personal creeds. The letter was read aloud to him in small slices. Taylor made extensive comments which the authors frantically scribbled into the margins of the letter.
Later on the speechwriters reconstructed the letter entirely, this time using only the scribbled remarks that had been made by Taylor in response to the original. Taylor approved the final draft. The letter had to have a recipient. A certain Mr. Allison allegedly received it and a copy was sent to the Picayune.
Incidentally, Taylor also added in the AL that he believed that the occupant of the oval office should completely stay out of domestic affairs.
The Whig convention of 1848 met in Philadelphia at a place called the Chinese Museum and among those present as observers were Abe Lincoln, Horace Greeley (opposed to Taylor,) Shuyler Colfax (not to be confused with Sandy Koufax) and Millard Fillmore. Lincoln was a staunch Whig and was there as a non-delegate.
The northern wing of Whigs was rent with strife over the choice of Taylor, the slave-owner. Horace Greeley said that the Chinese Museum had been turned into a “slaughterhouse of Whig principles.” The Conscience Whigs clashed with the Cotton Whigs over Taylor.
Historians usually refer to the 1848 campaign as dull and uneventful. There was, nevertheless, was a healthy quota of the usual mudslinging. Van Buren was called a traitor to the Democratic Party and Taylor was referred to as a slave-trader, which he never had been. (Not that slave-owner was so superior morally to slave-trader, but at the time this was considered so in some circles). Taylor was criticized by one political cartoon, which depicted him sitting like a king in his military uniform atop a giant pile of human skulls. The caption read, “The one qualification for a Whig candidate.” Taylor and Scott were Mexican War heroes and Clay had been the warmonger in 1812. There was some truth to the charge, although the Mexican War had on the other hand, been fought under a Democrat, Polk.
Horace Greeley wasn’t fond of fellow Whig Taylor, but Cass he referred to as a “pot-bellied, mutton-headed cucumber.” After Taylor was nominated Greeley agreed to support him but was convinced that he would “expect to be driven into opposition before Taylor has been a year in power.”
In September, in response to a rising clamor of protest within the traditional Whig base that Taylor was no more of a Whig than the possums on his plantations, the Taylor group rolled out a second so-called “Allison letter.” This time Taylor stressed that he had a powdered Whig that he wore proudly. He wasn’t going to campaign. Everything you wanted to know was included in these two Allison letters and the country would have to make its call accordingly. He had been a Whig when he fought in the Mexican War but since he was “surrounded by Whigs and Democrats” on the battlefield, the last thing he wanted to do at that time was wear his Whig on his sleeve.
Taylor refused to apologize for accepting support from all parties. He was defiantly proud of this political defiance. Taylor politely accepted the nomination of the Know-Nothings, an extremist racist xenophobic political movement whose dream was to hang all foreigners and Catholics from the nearest tree,
“I have declared myself to be a Whig on all proper
occasions. With this distinct avowal published to
the world, I did not think that I had a right to repel
nominations from political opponents any more
than I had a right to refuse the vote of a democrat
at the polls: and I proclaimed it abroad that I should
not reject the proffered support of any body of my
fellow citizens.”
This was the wise man at his best. Mr. Vague, yes, guilty as charged, but a uniter, not a divider. Look at four candidacies from history to see what works. We have Mondale in 1984 bashing all conservatives and getting crushed in the election. Then we have Bob Dole in 1992 bashing all liberals and getting crushed in the election. Then we have Zachary Taylor reaching out to make friends in all parties and winning the election of 1848 at the head of a platform-less party on the decline, and John Kennedy winning in 1960 by attacking the Eisenhower Administration but not the Republican Party or conservatives in general. Vague works. ‘The best lack all conviction’ and win the most elections.
Taylor even added that, “I would accept a nomination from Democrats.” He would not change a single opinion to woo them, of course, but he would run on the ticket of both major parties if asked!
Van Buren never had a chance and Van Buren knew it. So why did one of the great names in the history of the Democratic Party free-soil the chances for the Democratic party in a presidential election? For one, VB was an anti-slavery man and did not like the pro-slavery tendencies of Clay and other dominant Southerners. For another he was still hurt because he was passed over for the Democratic nomination in 1844 and he wanted to hurt back. He was being a Van Baby. It was Lewis Cass, the current Democratic nominee that had blocked Van Buren’s chance of nomination in 44. Van Grudge did not forget.
Without Van Buren and the Free Soilers, it's a pretty good bet that Cass becomes the 12th President and wins the election of '48. The Free Spoil vote was enough to swing the decision against the Dems in New York and Pennsylvania. New York State single-handedly held 35% of the nations electoral votes in 1848. The FS party was the makeweight in 11 states by some estimates.
The ability of both parties to avoid the slavery issue and the resulting “sectional party” problem is demonstrated by the fact that Taylor won 8 out of 15 slave states and 7 out of 15 free states. It was an exceptionally non-section election.
1848 - America Elects a Master to the Presidency
Election Day 1848 marked the first time that the presidential vote was held on the same day in every state. In 1844 the election was held on various dates between October 30 and November 10. This of course encouraged voter apathy if the later states had an inkling of the previous results. The old system also enabled cheaters to vote in more than one state. “Floaters” these were called.
South Carolina, in a world of its own as usual, was the only state that by 1848 still did not have a popular vote for president.
BOX BROWN – MARCH 23-24 1849
One of the greatest stories hardly ever told is of a slave who had himself mailed to freedom from Virginia to Philadelphia in a box! It's that simple.
The slave was named Charles Johnson, but he has come down to history named after the packing crate he mailed himself to Philly in. “Box Brown” conspired with a white doctor in Philadelphia named Brian McKim to escape slavery in Richmond by using the good ol' ol postal service. Neither rain nor snow nor dark of skin will stop these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
The box was only 3 feet long and 2 feet deep and two feet wide. His fellow slaves hammered the box shut with nails and humbly dragged him to the post office for delivery to a friend in Philly, Dr. McKim. The unwitting enabler was the Adams Express Shipping Corporation of Richmond
The trip covered 350 miles and took 28 hours. At one stretch he was upside down for three hours next to some chatty passengers on a ferry. He wanted to turn around but he did not dare move for fear of detection. Brown later said he almost passed out at his point Doctor McKim later said that during this stretch Brown was probably flirting with death.
When the “box” was delivered to McKim he opened it in front of a group of freedom's friends. Up popped Brown with a grin and said with a shout, “Good morning gentlemen!” Everyone cheered and Box stood up and smiled again, but then fainted. It had been a long trip but worth every postage stamp.
So many Abbies wanted to tell the story far and wide but the true friends of freedom knew that to tell the story would ruin the chance for some other slaves to try the same gag. In spite of urgings to “ixne,” the story got around and sure enough Adams Express caught two slaves trying to mail themselves to Elmira NY. Adams told the workers at the company to always tap twice on the boxes and say, “knock knock.” When two boxes answered back instinctually, “who's there?” the jig was up and they had to go back to slavery.
Johnson moved to Boston as soon as he could find an open box headed that way. He wanted to get as far away from the Mason Dixon line as possible, and way back then Boston was famous for being against racism. Brown began telling his story all over Boston and became one of the city's most popular citizens.
When Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, Brown decided it was better safe than sorry so he caught a shit to England and stayed there until Lee surrendered and it was safe to come back.
Brown became a show biz attraction for the rest of his years, telling his story with panoramic illustrations for dazzled audiences.
I admire Box. I can't handle the cramped airline seats on my five and half hour flight to Vegas.
RIOT AT THE ASTOR PLACE OPERA HOUSE 5.10.49
Now here is the story about a riot in New York City in which 32 people were killed. And what caused the riot? Was it food shortages? No. Resistance to the draft? No. Maybe it was a workers’ strike that got out of control?
No, the riot that killed 32 people on May the tenth, 1849 was over which actor was better qualified to play hamlet in Mac Beth, the American stage star or the British stage star. True story.
The American superstar actor was Edwin Forrest and the British celebrity was William C. Macready.
The trouble started when Forrest was attending a performance of Hamlet in Edinburgh, Scotland. The American prima donna did not like the way Macready was interpreting the role and began hissing from the audience. Forrest kept hiss-rupting the show until others in the crowd urged Forrest to leave, which he did (without a refund.)
Then back in the states in May of 1849 the two actors happened to be playing Hamlet in Macbeth at the same time in separate venues in New York City. On May 10 a crowd of Forrest fans went to the Macready performance at the Astor Theatre and deliberately disrupted the show by pelting the stage with non-lethal objects, coupled with catcalls for Macready to get off. “Hey what time does the entertainment come on?” shouted one heckler 40 minutes into the show. That was the cue to start throwing things at the stage and yell a a group. The actors finished the performance in spite of the obstructionism. Thug fans of US Forrest warned UK Macready not to try getting on stage in this town any more.
Macready was ready to quit but Herman Melville and other local literary giants convinced him that the show must go on. “Don’t give in to these uncouth squids,” Melville told him.
By now the Forrest supporters were determined to physically stop the next showing of Macbeth at the Opera House.
On May 10, 1840 a crowd of 20,000 insane cultural jingoist New Yorkers gathered in and around Astor Place. As soon as Macready began his performance the Forest chumps pelted the poor bloke with rotten eggs, potatoes, cupcakes, old shoes and other vile objects. Macready walked to the front of the stage and, dodging the tomatoes and eggs, boldly declared that he was being paid to do a job and was legally obliged to continue. But the situation got worse. Now stones and chunks of plaster came crashing down upon the actors from the balconies and even upon many members of the audience. At the same time the crowd outside was spinning out of control, attacking the police and throwing bricks through the windows of the theatre.
The National Guard was called out, not to protect the actors or even stop the riot, but simply to save the lives of the police. The Guardsmen battled their way through the mob and made a protective cordon around the building. There was shooting. It was Kent State in lower Manhattan but not over an unjust war, but rather over a show business argument not worthy today of a paragraph in a third rate tabloid. But at the time, there weren’t 22,000 celebrities, 2,400 TV shows and 1,550 movies to pick from. In 1849 the entire focus and locus of the US public was locked in on this one stupid rivalry between these two actors. All that massive river of show business energy that grips the nation today was all zeroed in on New York City and this rivalry.
And all over Shakespeare. Famous Comedian Jackie Mason asserted bluntly in his one man theatre show that everyone pretends to like Shakespeare and nobody really does. He might have had a different take on it if he had witnessed the Astor Riot. That mob of quasi-cultured pirates made the second show friday crowd I tried to entertain last weekend in Atlantic City look like a bunch of girl scouts.
The incredible popularity of today’s show business gods distract and distort our perspective of what is truly important. This trend clearly goes back at least as far as 1849. Masters murdered slaves every day in the South with impunity and few were enraged. Women can’t vote and kids work 17 hour days in dangerous factories and no one is livid. But let a British actor bring his lame interpretation of Hamlet to a New York stage and a riot breaks out in which 32 people die and over 100 are injured.
“I can’t explain it son, it’s a mystery to me too.”
THE 49’ERS;
Gold was discovered on Sutter’s Mill in California in 1848. By the middle of 1849 the California gold rush was a national and international sensation. Just about every town in the United States lost population to the Gold Rush (Nantucket Island in Massachusetts, for example lost more than half of it’s voting population to the mad dash.) 82,000 people migrated to California in 1849. That might not seem like such a great number today but it was a big figure in 1849. In the Marquesas Islands in the Pacific, French soldiers and civilians headed east for the gold. Some islands were completely depopulated.
Overnight, the Yankees overwhelmed the Spanish speaking population in Cal. The whites were no longer a minority and the racism was reversed. Now instead of Mexicans calling all whites “gringos”, the whites were calling all Hispanics “greasers” .
The sudden rush in population created a condition of imminent statehood for California. President Taylor hoped to avoid, through a bypass, the slavery controversy. Taylor proposed that California never become a territory. California would come into the USA directly as a state. Then it could decide for itself whether to be free or slave. There was, after all, little or no debate over whether a state could choose slavery. The hot issue was who had the right to decide the issue in territories. The feds owned the territories, not the states. .
Slavery though, would have to be decided at long last in the California situation. The Dems and the Whigs had tried to settle the country down by pretending the slavery argument was no longer a controversy, and to some extent the ostrich conspiracy had succeeded. Taylor was a shrewd man who could dodge an issue like a wiz, but met his match in the Gold and statehood Rush in California. ZT actually had to make a call.
Some southerners demanded that California be divided into two states, one free state in the north and another, and slave, in the south (it should become two states today – northern California is nothing like southern California.) .
There wasn’t much chance of this. Taylor proposed allowing California to apply for immediate statehood as a free state. Pro-slavery Southerners were unhappy with him for this but Taylor wasn’t conceding very much. It was common knowledge that any referendum on the subject would come out overwhelmingly against slavery. Taylor was willing to allow the inevitable on the west coast while still resolving to protect slavery in Rodney, Louisiana.
COMPROMISE OF 1850;
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 left the United States with a fresh start on the slavery controversy just when it seemed to have settled down. Prior to the Mexican War there were 15 slave and 15 free states. It will be recalled that Massachusetts had let Maine break off and become a new free state in order to maintain the bondage balance in 1820.
With victory came responsibility for administering new territories, setting up governments, and accepting applications for statehood. The slavery issue had to be addressed.
There were three basic alternatives for the USA.
One: Have Congress bar the institution of slavery in the new
Territory (the Dave Wilmot position), which was of course, unacceptable to the South.
Two: Extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific
Ocean. This would allow slavery below the line of 36-30’ and ban slavery above it. But the MC was not acceptable to the Southerners for two reasons.
For one, it would admit the power of Congress to legislate on the slavery issue and the South was arguing that the Congress had no such power. Southerners also were saying that slaves were property and they were therefore protected by the Constitution. The South was agitating for the right to take their slaves into the new territories regardless of Congressional laws on slavery there.
As far as the slaver-owners were concerned, Congress had no authority on the matter one way or another, or at least that was their convenient logic.
The second reason the South opposed this solution was that the South had little hope of obtaining new slave states below the Missouri Compromise line anyway. The South was not interested in making a concession that would gain them nothing. The South had its eyes on Mexico and the Caribbean for more potential slave states. They weren't looking west to the American desert and California for slave gardens.
Not all Southerners shared this opinion and some felt that some new slave states could be gained to the west. Some Southerners felt that black slaves would be well suited for working the mines of the southwest, just as they had worked the cotton fields of the southeast. Some Southerners favored the Missouri Compromise extension even if they could not gain full slavery for California. However these Southerners were in the minority. The conventional wisdom was that slavery was not likely to thrive or survive in the new southwest.
The Missouri Compromise extension plan would displease most Northerners who were now feeling that the momentum was turning against slavery in the new age. The free-soil movement was increasing in numbers and what was acceptable in 1820 was not acceptable in 1850. The Northern liberals were now insisting that the Congress did have the right to legislate on the slavery issue just as surely as the South was insisting that Congress did not. Some even defied the sacred scrolls. New York Whig Senator William Seward would rise in the Capitol during the debate and dare to say that there was a “higher law than the Constitution.” This was a shocker by any standard.
Three; The doctrine of "popular sovereignty." This gave each state or territory the right to choose between slavery or not slavery by ballot. But the exact mechanisms for this system were always delicate and complex and left as many questions as answers. Did the territories get to vote on slavery as a territory? Could they then seek admission as a free or slave state? Or did a territory have to achieve statehood first and then decide on the slavery issue?
The Democrats deliberately did not answer such questions so that each branch of the party could sell it’s own interpretation in it’s respective areas.
Two new complications thickened the plot. Gold was discovered in 1848 in California (one week before the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo) and soon a mad rush was on. It was “California or Bust” as a hundred thousand greedy prospectors flooded the state. San Francisco went from a tumbleweeds town of a handful of people into the west’s new metropolis (and a lawless one at that, one resident said that everyone was generally armed and he personally used a cane with a sword hidden inside it.) California territory would be ready for statehood much sooner than expected, and so a decision had to be made that much more quickly on slavery.
Also the Mormons under Brigham Young had settled in the Utah desert when it was ruled by Spain, and now this established and prosperous community called Deseret would also be soon applying for statehood. Slavery would have to be decided in Utah Territory too.
It was Henry Clay, The Great Compromiser who first proposed the Compromise of 1850 on January 29th of that year. But Clay tried to do it all at once. He tried to get Congress to pass a so-called “Omnibus Bill” including compromise solutions for several problems.
The southern radicals, called ‘fire-eaters’ who were against compromise of any sort, rejected Clay's omnibus bill and called for an ominous anti-omnibus convention of southern states to meet at Nashville.
Northern rads also rejected the Clay plan because they too, were against compromise of any sort on the slavery issue.
Three of the greatest political men of the era would play out their last scenes in this great debate that led to the Compromise of 1850. The three were Clay, Calhoun and Daniel Webster.
Calhoun was so old and weak in 1850 that his speeches had to be read by someone else. Calhoun would sit in his wheelchair and listen to his words echoing through the senate via the voice of a younger man. Calhoun surprisingly demanded that California be admitted as a slave state and even proposed an amendment whereby the United States elected co-presidents, one from the free states and the other from the slave! Yeah, that would have worked real good.
Henry Clay of Kentucky had lost his final bid for the Presidency in 1848 and was attempting to continue his notable record of forging compromise in 49 and 50. Clay would later need compromised versions of his compromise to get his compromise passed. Clay was 73 in 1849.
Daniel Webster supported Clay’s compromise. This would cost Webster his place in history as a great moral crusader. The public suddenly saw Daniel as just another effective politician. His star faded faster than the wacky next door neighbor on a cancelled sit-com. ‘He’s not the liberal we once knew,’ went one angry song lyric. Webster felt that avoiding civil war was more important than taking an unequivocal stand against slavery. This choice came at a time when the anti-slavery movement was getting hot and hip. It was the wrong call. Webster’s 7th of March speech in support of the compromise of 1850 was considered one of the best of his great oratorical career. But its message damaged his reputation forever.
While Webster’s Seventh of March speech knocked his star down, the Eleventh of March speech of Senator Will Seward of New York would send his star rising. His phrase about a “higher law” became an overnight folk legend. In one month the leadership of the liberal movement in the north passed from Webster to Seward, where it would remain until that role was taken over with Lincoln’s inauguration day in 61.
The attempted Compromise of 1850 tackled the following issues; 1) the status of slavery in the newly acquired territories – 2) statehood for California – 3) The border dispute between the State of Texas and the territory of New Mexico - 4) The Fugitive Slave Law – 6) Slave trading on federal property in the District of Columbia (Here there were no states rights to compete with) - 6) The general agitation in the south for secession as result of all of these problems.
President Taylor in the meantime was no-nonsense about the Texas-New Mexico dispute. When Texans began threatening to occupy the disputed territory and incorporate the land into Texas by force in defiance of federal troops, Taylor took a page out of Andrew Jackson’s book of 1832. Zachary announced that the US Army would if necessary march on Texas;
“I will command the army in person and
hang any man taken in treason.”
The Clay omnibus bill contained the following solutions.
One: California would apply for immediate statehood as a free state and skip the probationary territorial period. Slavery would be decided in the new territories by popular sovereignty. Utah and New Mexico would be encouraged to prepare for statehood in the short-term future.
Two: The Texas-New Mexico dispute would be solved by compromise but with the settlement generally favorable to the new aspiring state of New Mexico. The federal government would assume the large state debt of the State of Texas to compensate for it’s giving in on the New Mexico issue. This was an effective plan because Texas needed the dough. It had lost significant revenue when it became a state because when it was a nation Texas kept its customs revenues. Now it had to hand it over to the feds. Assumption was welcome relief in Texas.
Three: The new and improved Fugitive Slave Law would be strictly enforced. FTL was an incendiary issue. The idea that southern slave-owners could hunt down and arrest runaway slaves in free Northern cities was unacceptable to legions of Yankees. This law would lead to much trouble and would be ferociously resisted. For the South the right to do this was important because it upheld its argument that slaves were property and therefore protected by the Constitution. Already there were owners bringing slaves into California. Southerners were insisting that it was their right to do so. (This argument would come to a climax later in the Dred Scott case).
Four: Slave trading would be prohibited in the District of Columbia. Whig Congressman Abe Lincoln had been horrified by the slave auctions going on near his boardinghouse as he walked to work every day at the Capitol Building. Slavery itself however would not be prohibited in D.C. You could own and use a slave in D.C., but you had to buy the guy elsewhere.
President Taylor opposed Clay's compromise Omnibus Bill. But Taylor's untimely death on July 9 was timely for Clay, for Webster and and for all the compromise crowd. New President Fillmore the Fill-in was more amenable to the compromise.
BENTON WHIGS OUT
No debate becomes famous or great unless there is a lot of hatred on both sides. Two senators almost came to personal violence on one April day in 1850.
Senator Tommy Benton was from a slave state and was making courageous decisions against the institution and the southerners were on a short fuse with this ‘traitor.’ Senator Foote of Mississippi was tearing Benton to smithereens in a nasty speech when Benton snapped. He jumped out of his seat and made a b-line for Foote. Benton wanted a piece of the senator from Mississippi. Other saner senators grabbed on to Benton and restrained the temporarily deranged Missourian. At the same time Foote drew a loaded pistol and pointed it at Benton!
“I am not armed!” cried Benton as he tried in vain to break away from his arrestors, “Stand aside and let the assassin fire!” Foote held his shot but make a sound effect and pretended to shoot.
Violence in the senate on this day was averted at the last moment. Congressman Brooks would resume it in 1856 with the attack on Senator Sumner. Thomas Hart Benton’s saga earned him a chapter in John F. Kennedy’s book, Profiles in Courage (c-1959), about politicians who go against the grain of their party in order to do the right thing in a crisis.
COMPROMISED COMPROMISE
Eventually, with the indispensable help of rising political star Stephen Douglas, the entire Clay omnibus bill was passed, but not in that form. Instead it’s separate parts were proposed, debated, voted on and passed one at a time. By itself as a full package, it would seem too extreme to some, and others who might have an objection to only one part were sure to vote against the entire bill. By breaking it down to smaller parts the plan enabled those who objected to one part to at least be there for yea votes on all the others. So the elements of the Clay omnibus bill were all passed but without the official participation of Clay and not in the form of his one great bill. It was in the end, the Clay-Douglas-Fillmore Compromise of 1850.
It is hard to decipher exactly which elements of the Clay Omnibus Bill that Taylor was so opposed to. It may be that he did not wish to hand the 1852 nomination for President to Henry Clay. A third Clay compromise victory would probably give the aged Clay one more chance in ’52.
In the end Taylor may have been more active in death than in life as far as his presidency is concerned. The compromise of 1850, intended to settle the simmering secession movement in the south might not have made it through Congress under his watch. Taylor said he would have vetoed it. He even threatened to support a Wilmot position if it came to it. Webster later said flatly that the compromise of 1850 could not have been engineered under Taylor.
News of Taylor’s death hit the North hard and people mourned. In the South there was a chilled equanimity about it. They had been greatly disappointed with their slaveholder ally. Taylor had not exactly come through for the old south. Maybe it was because he wasn’t from the deep South where cotton was king and slavery was queen Zachary had been born in Virginia and raised in Kentucky. Perhaps President Taylor even felt guilty about his slave-ownership and tried to lean against the institution as his apology to God. In the end he pleased none of the political groups. The Cotton Whigs, Conscience Whigs, Democrats, Barnburners, Hunkerers, Locofocos, or the Know-Nothings, all repudiated Zachary Taylor. He died an independent man.
FOREIGN POLICY UNDER TAYLOR
During the heyday of manifest destiny under Tyler and Polk, US foreign policy dominated politics and domestic policy played second fiddle to events in that field. After 1848 the equation was reversed. The election of a Whig was a reaction to the USA perhaps biting off more territory than it could chew. The Whigs had been vehemently opposed to the Mexican War and, even though the war had been a success, the Whigs were back in office.
America was ready for a “return to normalcy” on foreign policy and the conciliatory policy in places like Central America may have been in part a result of recent fulsome victories on the USA’s frontiers.
LOPEZ FILIBUSTER
The USA had its hawk-eyes on Cuba. President Polk had offered to buy the island and a Spanish official told James that he would rather see it sink into the ocean than sell it to The United States.
In the spirit of manifest destiny some Northerners supported the movement to take Cuba. But most of the ‘get Cuba’ fever came from the South, which was more inspired by a spirit of manifest inhumanity. The South wanted the United States to annex Cuba for all the wrong reasons; more slave states, more slaves, and more sugar, rice and cotton fields.
Several Southerners tried to organize rebellion in Cuba against the Spanish Empire with a hope that revolution would lead to immediate annexation. The idea certainly had promise. Out of a population over 2.1 million persons, 450,000 in Cuba were slaves. The Devil's infrastructure was already up and running on the big island. Cuba in fact was one of only 3 slavery systems left in the world in 1850, the USA and Brazil being the other 2.
Southerners didn't need the western US desert where there was no work for slaves and no support for slavery? Cuba was closer, had better weather and had only weak and declining Spain to protect it from eagles.
Many Cuban slave owners didn’t mind the idea of annexation to the US. They feared a British takeover of the island which would mean an end to slavery. They knew they had a fighting chance to keep slavery if Cuba joined the United States.
“THIS LOPEZ … HIS JUDGMENT STINKS.”
One such Cuban who liked the Yankees was Narcisco Lopez, a Venezuelan by birth and a former official of both Spain and Cuba. The charismatic and narcissistic Narcisco went to the United States to seek help from influential pro-slavery people. Lopez planned a 'filibuster,' an expedition to foment revolution, in Cuba. Lopez obtained interviews with the likes of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. In separate interviews they all heard him out but declined to help. One attempt to launch the attack from NYC was derailed at the last minute when punks slashed the sails of the ships during the night for no reason.
Lopez persisted. Narcisco toured to the Deep South and found luck in Louisiana. A new filibuster was hatched. Even the governor of Mississippi, General Quitman, was on board this time. The Lopez army of 750 men pretended to leave New Orleans for the gold fields of California but the filibuster flotilla instead landed on the beach at Cardenas, Cuba. The time was April of 1850. They proclaimed a revolt and soon found that no one cared to join them. The Narc Lopez filibuster was filibusted. The Lopezians fled back to Key West Florida to save their hides.
The US kept it’s covetous eyes on Cuba and did not clamp any restraints on itself in the Cuban theatre when it signed in July the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. America agreed to not conquer Central America by this treaty's terms, but Cuba was not on the safe list.
CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY
The discovery of gold in California increased the desire and urgency of building a canal across Central America.
In 1850, Great Britain and the USA signed they Clayton-Bulwer agreement to co-operate and compromise on the building of trans-oceanic canal. Whether the canal would be located in Nicaragua or in New Grenada (modern Panama), it was agreed that its building and operation would not be under the exclusive control of either the United States or of the British Empire. Clayton-Bulwer also stipulated that neither nation would fortify any canal built in the region. The US and UK agreed not to exclude the shipping of either party, nor for that matter exclude the ships of any nation, at least in times of peace.
The CB treaty also committed the two signatories to not invade or colonize any of the small states of Central America including specifically, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Mosquito Coast, where Great Britain was becoming established. This was quite an addition to the Canal agreement.
Inadvertently, the USA was putting a cramp in its infamous 'manifest destiny,' which had been so recently decreed by O’Sullivan. Uncle Sam was so fearful of the British navy and it’s ability to defy the Monroe Doctrine that it put the limits of the Monroe Doctrine on himself! From now on, the tiny helpless states of Central America would be safe from either the British lion or the American eagle. The two mugger powers stared each other down while the old lady walked away with her handbook unsnatched. Like the Netherlands in Europe, these small states found their safety guaranteed only by the desire of powerful neighbors to not allow any other powerful neighbor to swallow them up.
The Clayton-Bulwer treaty was signed into law on July 4, 1850, the same day President Taylor was stricken with his sudden fatal illness.
The CB Treaty was condemned in America condemned the CB Treaty, as had no other since Jay’s in Washington's time. Clayton-Bulwer was never popular, in fact some historians refer to it as the number one most unpopular treaty ever ratified in this country.
DEATH OF POLK
In June of 1849, barely three months after leaving office, President Polk passed away. Zachary Taylor’s dislike of Polk was such that he wrote this to a friend after hearing the first report,
“While I regret to hear of the death of anyone, I would
as soon have heard of his death, if true, as that of any
other individual.”
Now that’s cold, even for me. Maybe the slave-owner is revealing his true self here.
GALPHIN, HEAT, BORING SPEEECHES AND ICE CHERRIES: THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR
One month before his death, Zachary Taylor purchased a fashionable second plantation complete with more slaves. It was a sugar plantation and it was named Fashion. Now he owned Fashion and Cypress Grove.
Taylor had been far from in excellent health when he took office, and had been subject to intestinal ailments long before 1850. He died after taking suddenly badly ill on the Fourth of July.
The man many called simply "Z" died on July 9 1850 of gastroenteritis. Zack ate too much of something at the dedication of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument on July 4, 1850.
A terrible heat wave had been on for some days, and warnings went out to everyone to watch out for certain foods and to avoid over-drinking liquids.
The holiday heat was an awful 98 degrees, and the speeches at the ceremony were even worse. The President sat at the base of the cornerstone of the new monument and listened to base speeches. Senator Foote spoke for more than two hours and didn't say a thing (it was, after all a political speech.) People were so bored they wished they were dead anyway, but for Taylor it really was a fatal day of bad food, boredom and sweat. The speeches alone would have been an ordeal in the most perfect weather. When he got home it was as if ZT had been struck by lightning.
Most historians blame it on something he ate, but accounts differ as to exactly what food killed the President and changed history. Cucumbers were on the enumerated list and could have been a trigger. Some accounts say he ate “Cucumbers, cherries and cabbage.” Other accounts say “Bread, milk and cherries,” or even a simple “glass of milk.” Charles Kuralt reported in a CBS documentary that it was “iced milk and cherries,” so we know it couldn't be that. Pauline Maier claims it was Hostess chocolate cupcakes, but Hostess wasn't even a company then, so what is she talking about? Whatever it was, it got Zachary Taylor mighty sick.
On July 7 his doctors told Zachary that he was improving. “No,” he responded, “In two days I will be dead.” Two days later he was right and couldn't say I told you so. His last words were that he was going to miss his friends. President Zachary Taylor passed away late in the evening of July 9, 1850.
GALPHIN CLAIMS SCANDAL FACTOR
The Taylor Administration was wracked by only one personal scandal and it involved his Secretary of War George Carl Crawford, the former Governor of Georgia. This monumental wave of shame just happened to break over Washington at the exact same time that President taylor got sick at the Monument.
Crawford had years back won a settlement for a Native American from Georgia named Galphin based on illegal deprivation of property. The settlement was for about $6,000 and Crawford had pocketed half.
Now Crawford decided to put in claims for interest that was owed to Galphin that amounted to almost $200,000. Crawford used his own influence plus the influence of two other cabinet members to push the case through, win it, and pocket a fortune. It was highly improper even at casual glance. On the very day that Taylor was at the Monument listening to Foote, the Congress was in a special session to consider sanctions against Crawford and against the Taylor Administration in general. Crawford had meesed Taylor badly on this one (meese as in Ed Meese, and I'm converting it to a improper verb.) Surely this weighed heavily on Taylor's mind as he sat there in the Washington heat, literally and figuratively.
When Taylor died the Galphin scandal was dropped. The Taylor cabinet resigned anyway.
Did the Galphin affair contribute to the death of Taylor?
My sciatic nerve problem doubles when I have to follow three hacks at a comedy club for three shows on a weekend. It gets 70% better overnight from Saturday night to Sunday morning. When comedy clubs owe me $5,800 back due from many months ago I find it hard to fight a simple cold. But when I've got next months rent paid in advance, others around me have the latest flu going around and I don't.
Yes, the Galphin affair contributed mightily to the death of Zachary Taylor.
ASSASSININE THEORIES THAT TAYLOR WAS ASSASSINATED
A book was published in 1864 that espoused a conspiracy theory. The book thought the pro-slavery people had assassinated Taylor with Jonestown Brand ice cream. It also accused the slavers of having poisoned another president, William H. Harrison with arsenic. The book also alleged that pro-slavery folks also derailed the passenger train carrying President-elect Franklin Pierce in 1852 an attempt to kill him, the crash that killed the President's son.
In 1991 an historian convinced some of Taylor’s descendants that maybe there was something to these conspiracy theories. ‘Old Rough and Ready’ might have been assassinated by poison. The historian convinced the Taylor's to have Zachary’s body exhumed and examined with modern technology for evidence of arsenic. The former President was unearthed and samples were examined through neutron activation analysis at Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
The result? There was no abnormal level of arsenic in Zachary Taylor’s 220-year-old body. The pro-slavery suspects were exonerated of suspicion of murder. It was determined that Taylor had died of either food poisoning or cholera.
Mrs. Taylor died in 1852
During his fatal illness he waxed sadly about the experience at the top,
“I did not expect to encounter what has beset me since
my elevation to the presidency. I have been mistaken,
my motives have been misconstrued ..”
Taylor’s white horse was named “Whitey.” General Taylor rode Whitey through all the trials and battles of the Mexican War. When Washington D.C. honored the dead president with a funeral procession through the capitol city, a hearse pulled Taylor’s casket while Whitey walked alone with an empty saddle behind the wagon. Do you think Whitey understood?
The Interior Department was created under Taylor.
SOURCES
The American Pageant, A History of the Republic, by Thomas A. Bailey of Stanford University – c) 1961 D.C. Heath
Bailey is always opinionated and always readable. One day a friend was in his office and asked him what he was going to do over the holiday. Bailey responded that “I'm going to start writing as soon as you leave.”
I have said similar things to people keeping me on the phone.
“How's the book coming?”
“It was going great until now.”
Diplomatic History of the American People, by Thomas A. Bailey
A Diplomatic History of the United States, by Samuel Flagg Bemis, Farnam Professor of Diplomatic History at Yale University – c) 1934 Henry Holt
Bemis reminds us that Polk could have made Win Scott the next President by allowing him more military glory in the Mexican War, but he kinged Taylor instead.
Empire for Liberty, by Dumas Malone and Basil Rauch
The Enduring Vision – Should be titled, The Enduring Politically
Correct Propaganda Vision – Good grief, what happened to free thinking in our colleges?
The Graphic Story of the American Presidents, by Whitney
The Great Republic, by Bailyn and Donald
GR in it’s coverage of Taylor’s time stresses that the movement against slavery in the new areas of Mexican cessions was not entirely based on moral sympathy for the blacks. Anti-slavery areas like California and Oregon were motivated by a desire to keep free blacks as well as slaves out of the area. White settlers did not want to have to compete with unpaid labor in the form of slaves, nor with free blacks who would offer more competition in addition to the Asians and South American already going to the American west coast of. Some settlers couldn’t accept the idea of swinging a pickaxe “side by side with a negro.”
The authors (of Harvard, Yale, Brown and UCLA) sometimes seem to be reaching far to fit the facts into their fancy. They state baldly that “fear and hatred of blacks” is what inspired the California constitutional convention of 1849 to prohibit slavery. Surely they are not suggesting that this was the only factor out west and that absolutely none of the morality of Yankee abolitionism was in play west of the Mississippi. On close reading it seems they are and I cannot agree with this, notwithstanding some evidence supporting them such as a later clause in the Oregon state constitution officially prohibiting black settlers from migrating there. They also remind us that David Wilmot himself was no Negro sympathizer, and in fact wanted to include the prohibition of free blacks in the new regions. The point is well taken but California was a melting pot like Manhattan once the Gold Rush was on. Chinese, Spanish and European people mixed together to a degree that was far more progressive than in Bangor, Maine or Valdosta, Georgia. Some liberalism obviously existed in California at this time. The negative incidents get all the ink. The laborers who refuse to work side by side with a black get all the quotes, but surely some laborers did not take this backwards attitude. If some people weren’t working openly with blacks, then the backlash against this couldn’t have existed.
Hats in the Ring, by Cornog delivered the quote about the mutton headed cucumber Lewis Cass.
History of a Free People by Henry W. Bragdon (Instructor of History at Phillips Academy High School) and Samuel P. McCutchen (Chairman of the Social Studies Department, School of Education, New York University) – c) 1954 MacMillan
You look at their job titles and you get a pretty good idea of what's in here. This was a time when everyone had to do well on every test and no child was left behind without a sore behind. The quiz questions at the end of each chapter are nothing short of brutal.
Out of Many , A History of the American People, by John Mack Faragher (Yale); Mary Jo Buhle (Brown), Daniel Czitrom (Mount Holyoke); and Susan Armitage (Washington State), c)1994 –
Very good and very left.
Oxford History of the American People, by Samuel Eliot Morison – c) 1965 Oxford University Press
Only a Sam Morison would tell you that when Taylor was sick the doctors drugged him with ipecac, and calomel, as though any of us know what these drugs are. Typical deliberate snobbery from professor Morison.
Presidents of the United States, by Cornel Adam Lengyel c) 1964 provided the quote at the Battle of Buena Vista.
The Price of Union, by Herbert Agar, c)1950 Riverside Press – It’s a very detailed political history of the USA, with extra detailed chapters on the origins of the Civil War.
Agar’s first book The People’s Choice, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1934. He was also a poet, I’m sorry to note.
Rise of the American Nation, by Merle Curti (my High School history book)
A Short History of the American Nation, by John A. Garraty – c) 1977 Harper& Row
This is the sixth revised edition from a 1966 maiden voyage. Garraty is far closer to Claude Bowers than Kenneth Stampp in his treatment of the Negro question and the coming of the Civil War (that is not a compliment.)
Slavery and Anti-Slavery, A History of the Great Struggle in Both Hemispheres, by William Goodell, c)1854 – I have a fine looking reprint hardcover (Augustus M. Kelly Publishers) from 1970. I paid good money for this book and it was worth it.
The United States to 1865, by Michael Kraus of The City College of New York c) 1959, University of Michigan Press, Volume Four of the University of Michigan History of the Modern World
Kraus may not be one of the most famous American historians, but he is one of the most famous American history historiographers. He wrote the book on American historiography, which is the study of the study of American history. It was published in 1937 and was titled The History of American History.
The two revised editions of 1953 and 1990 were titled The Writing of American History, but the first title was much better.
The United States: The History of a Republic by Richard Hofstadter of Columbia, William Miller of the Gate of Heaven High School, and Daniel Aaron of Smith College – c) 1957 Prentice-Hall
These three men have an outrageous bias in favor of the Democratic party. What else is new in the history craft?
Webster’s Speeches, selected by Rev. B. F. Tefft, D.D., LL.D., Embracing his Acknowledged Masterpieces in Each Department of the Great Field of Intellectual Action.
This contains the interesting Seventh of March speech, which was officially called at the time, “The Compromises of the Constitution.”
This old book has no copyright date on it but a good guess would be about C) 1910. As an experienced used book hound, I would not bet against my guesswork within three years on either side on any book. Every publishing era has it’s physical qualities. True book lovers can never get the kind of pleasure that great physical books can bring when using the computer or the audio tape.
Zachary Taylor, Soldier in the White House, by Holman Hamilton c) 1951 Bobbs-Merrill – A loving and thorough biography with a running apologist thread on Taylor’s ostrich like stands on slavery.
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