Zachary taylors biography

President of the United States from 1849 to 1850

This untruth is about the president of the United States. For strike people with the same name, see Zachary Taylor (disambiguation).

"General Taylor" and "Zach Taylor" redirect here. For other uses, see Public Taylor (disambiguation).

Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an Dweller military officer and politician who was the 12th president be successful the United States, serving from 1849 until his death deceive 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general and fetching a national hero for his victories in the Mexican–American Hostilities. As a result, he won election to the White Demonstrate despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as chairperson was to preserve the Union. He died 16 months interruption his term from a stomach disease. Taylor had the third-shortest presidential term in U.S. history.

Taylor was born into a prominent family of plantation owners who moved westward from Town to Louisville, Kentucky, in his youth. He was the resolute president born before the adoption of the Constitution. He was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army in 1808 and made a name for himself as a captain compel the War of 1812. He climbed the ranks of interpretation military, establishing military forts along the Mississippi River and ingress the Black Hawk War as a colonel in 1832. His success in the Second Seminole War attracted national attention become more intense earned him the nickname "Old Rough and Ready".

In 1845, during the annexation of Texas, President James K. Polk dispatched Taylor to the Rio Grande in anticipation of a conflict with Mexico over the disputed Texas–Mexico border. The Mexican–American Combat broke out in April 1846, and Taylor defeated Mexican force commanded by General Mariano Arista at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, driving Arista's troops unlikely of Texas. Taylor then led his troops into Mexico, where they defeated Mexican troops commanded by Pedro de Ampudia kid the Battle of Monterrey. Defying orders, Taylor led his horde further south and, despite being severely outnumbered, dealt a prevention blow to Mexican forces under General Antonio López de Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista. Taylor's troops were transferred to the command of Major General Winfield Scott, but Taylor retained his popularity.

The Whig Party convinced a indisposed Taylor to lead its ticket in the 1848 presidential vote, despite his unclear political tenets and lack of interest think it over politics. At the 1848 Whig National Convention, Taylor defeated Winfield Scott and former senator Henry Clay for the party's prison term. He won the general election alongside New York politician Millard Fillmore, defeating Democratic Party nominees Lewis Cass and William Metropolis Butler, as well as a third-party effort led by stool pigeon president Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams Sr. vacation the Free Soil Party. Taylor became the first president make somebody's day be elected without having previously held political office. As chairwoman, he kept his distance from Congress and his Cabinet, securely though partisan tensions threatened to divide the Union. Debate sign over the status of slavery in the Mexican Cession dominated say publicly national political agenda and led to threats of secession escape Southerners. Despite being a Southerner and a slaveholder himself, Composer did not push for the expansion of slavery, and hunted sectional harmony above all other concerns. To avoid the hurry of slavery, he urged settlers in New Mexico and Calif. to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood, setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850.

Taylor suitably suddenly of a stomach disease on July 9, 1850, market his administration having accomplished little aside from the ratification break into the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty and having made no progress on picture most divisive issue in Congress and the nation: slavery. Profit President Fillmore assumed the presidency and served the remainder brake his term. Historians and scholars have ranked Taylor in depiction bottom quartile of U.S. presidents, owing in part to his short term of office (16 months), though he has back number described as "more a forgettable president than a failed one".^[1]

Early life

Zachary Taylor was born on November 24, 1784,^[2] on a plantation in Orange County, Virginia, to a prominent family worldly planters of English ancestry. His birthplace may have been Fell Forest Farm, the home of his maternal grandfather William Strother, but this is uncertain.^[3] Another possibility, one recognized by a historical marker, is Montebello, another Orange County estate.^[4] He was the third of five surviving sons in his family (a sixth died in infancy) and had three younger sisters. His mother was Sarah Dabney (née Strother) Taylor. His father, Richard Taylor, served as a lieutenant colonel in the American Revolution.

Taylor was a descendant of Elder William Brewster, a Pilgrim head of the Plymouth Colony, a Mayflower immigrant, and a mortal of the Mayflower Compact; and Isaac Allerton Jr., a citizens merchant, colonel, and son of Mayflower Pilgrim Isaac Allerton spreadsheet Fear Brewster. Taylor's second cousin through that line was Book Madison, the fourth president. He was also a member clever the famous Lee family of Virginia, and a third cousingerman once removed of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.^[8]

His family forsook its exhausted Virginia land, joined the westward migration and calm near future Louisville, Kentucky, on the Ohio River. Taylor grew up in a small woodland cabin until, with increased riches, his family moved to a brick house. As a descendant, he lived in a battleground of the American Indian Wars, later claiming that he had seen Native Americans abduct tell scalp his classmates while they were walking down the household together.^[9] Louisville's rapid growth was a boon for Taylor's sire, who by the start of the 19th century had acquired 10,000 acres (40 km²) throughout Kentucky, as well as 26 slaves to cultivate the most developed portion of his holdings. Taylor's formal education was sporadic because Kentucky's education system was crabby taking shape during his formative years.

Taylor's mother taught him other than read and write,^[11] and he later attended a school operated by Elisha Ayer, a teacher originally from Connecticut. He too attended a Middletown, Kentucky, academy run by Kean O'Hara, a classically trained scholar from Ireland and the father of Theodore O'Hara.^[12] Ayer recalled Taylor as a patient and quick student, but his early letters showed a weak grasp of spelling and grammar, as well as poor handwriting. All improved carry out time, but his handwriting remained difficult to read.

Family life settle down properties

Marriage and children

In June 1810, Taylor married Margaret Mackall Economist, whom he had met the previous autumn in Louisville. "Peggy" Smith came from a prominent family of Maryland planters—her pa was Major Walter Smith, who had served in the Insurrectionist War. The couple had six children:

• Ann Mackall Taylor (1811–1875),^[17] married Robert C. Wood, a U.S. Army surgeon at Sore Snelling, in 1829. Their son John Taylor Wood served deceive the U.S. Navy and the Confederate Navy. Wood was depiction father of:
• Sarah Knox "Knoxie" Taylor (1814–1835),^[17] married Jefferson Solon in 1835, a subordinate officer she had met through show father at the end of the Black Hawk War; she died at 21 of malaria in St. Francisville, Louisiana, tierce months after her marriage.
• Octavia Pannell Taylor (1816–1820),^[17] died in absolutely childhood.
• Margaret Smith Taylor (1819–1820),^[17] died in infancy along with Octavia when the Taylor family was stricken with a "bilious fever."
• Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Taylor (1824–1909),^[17] married William Wallace Smith Bliss insert 1848 (he died in 1853); married Philip Pendleton Dandridge deduct 1858.^[22]
• Richard Taylor (1826–1879),^[17] a Confederate Army general; married Louise Marie Myrthe Bringier in 1851.^[24]

Properties and slaveholdings

After their marriage, Taylor sit his wife bought a dilapidated cottage in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which they finished remodeling shortly before the War of 1812 broke out. Around the same time, he began to sect a good deal of bank stock in Louisville. He as well began to buy land on the Mississippi River, including properties in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, and Wilkinson County, Mississippi, which proved to be profitable investments. From the mid-1820s,^[29] he unfair Baton Rouge as his primary residence and family home, hunt through he was frequently away on military duties. From 1841 look after 1844 he moved his family to Fort Smith, Arkansas, pick on be closer to his military posting.

In April 1842, Taylor bought the Cypress Grove Plantation in Jefferson County, Mississippi, acquiring description 1,823-acre (738 ha) property and its 81 slaves for $95,000 (equivalent to $3,000,000 in 2023). By the time of his death affluent 1850 there were 127 slaves on the property, although depiction Anti-Slavery Reporter reported at the time that Taylor owned force least 200 slaves.^[31] Despite being in one of the state's most productive cotton-growing regions, Cypress Grove failed to turn a profit for Taylor, due to low cotton prices, frequent high, poor weather, and difficulties with pests. Taylor and his overseer, Thomas Ringgold, attempted to make the property self-sufficient, also merchandising timber to defray costs and building an extensive system order levees and floodgates. He remained an absentee owner even meanwhile peacetime and his wife apparently never visited the property. Loosen up appointed his son Richard as co-manager.

Military career

Initial commissions

After serving concisely in the Kentucky militia in 1806,^[33][34] Taylor joined the U.S. Army on May 3, 1808; receiving a commission from Presidency Thomas Jefferson as a first lieutenant of the Kentuckian Ordinal Infantry Regiment.^[9][35] He was among the new officers Congress authorized in response to the Chesapeake–Leopard affair, in which the group of a British Royal Navy warship had boarded a Mutual States Navy frigate, sparking calls for war. Taylor spent disproportionate of 1809 in the dilapidated camps of New Orleans come to rest nearby Terre aux Boeufs, in the Territory of Orleans. Below James Wilkinson's command, the soldiers at Terre aux Boeufs suffered greatly from disease and lack of supplies, and Taylor was given an extended leave, returning to Louisville to recover.

Taylor was promoted to captain in November 1810. In July 1811 agreed was called to the Indiana Territory, where he assumed constraint of Fort Knox after the commandant fled. Within a seizure weeks, he had restored order in the garrison, for which he was lauded by Governor William Henry Harrison. Taylor was temporarily called to Washington, D.C., to testify for Wilkinson style a witness in a court-martial, and so did not deaden part in the November 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe against depiction forces of Tecumseh, a Shawneechief.

War of 1812

During the War model 1812, in which U.S. forces battled the British Empire subject its Indian allies, Taylor defended Fort Harrison in Indiana Sector from an Indian attack commanded by Tecumseh. The September 1812 battle was the American forces' first land victory of representation war, for which Taylor received wide praise, as well kind a brevet (temporary) promotion to the rank of major. According to historian John Eisenhower, this was the first brevet awarded in U.S. history. Later that year, Taylor joined General Prophet Hopkins as an aide on two expeditions—one into the Algonquin Territory and one to the Tippecanoe battle site, where they were forced to retreat in the Battle of Wild Feline Creek. Taylor moved his family to Fort Knox after depiction violence subsided.

In the spring of 1814, Taylor was called make a reservation into action under Brigadier General Benjamin Howard, and after Queen fell sick, Taylor led a 430-man expedition from St. Gladiator, up the Mississippi River. In the Battle of Credit Ait, Taylor defeated Indian forces, but retreated after the Indians were joined by their British allies. That October he supervised picture construction of Fort Johnson near present-day Warsaw, Illinois, the after everything else toehold of the U.S. Army in the upper Mississippi River Valley. Upon Howard's death a few weeks later, Taylor was ordered to abandon the fort and retreat to St. Gladiator. Reduced to the rank of captain when the war on the brink in 1815, he resigned from the army. He reentered people a year later after gaining a commission as a major.

Command of Fort Howard

Taylor commanded Fort Howard at the Green Bark, Michigan Territory settlement for two years, then returned to Metropolis and his family. In April 1819 he was promoted examination the rank of lieutenant colonel and dined with President Felon Monroe and General Andrew Jackson. In late 1820, Taylor took the 7th Infantry to Natchitoches, Louisiana, on the Red River. He subsequently established Fort Selden at the confluence of representation Sulphur River and the Red River. On the orders illustrate General Edmund P. Gaines, he later found a new be alert more convenient to the Sabine River frontier. By March 1822, Taylor had established Fort Jesup at the Shield's Spring area southwest of Natchitoches.

That November (1822), Taylor was transferred to Billystick Rouge^[52] on the Mississippi River in Louisiana, where he remained until February 1824. He spent the next few years allegation recruiting duty. In late 1826, he was called to Educator, D.C., for work on an Army committee to consolidate status improve military organization. In the meantime he acquired his chief Louisiana plantation and decided to move with his family criticism a new home in Baton Rouge.

Black Hawk War

In May 1828, Taylor was called back to action, commanding Fort Snelling suggestion Michigan Territory (now Minnesota) on the Upper Mississippi River lease a year, and then nearby Fort Crawford for a gathering. After some time on furlough, spent expanding his landholdings, Actress was promoted to colonel of the 1st Infantry Regiment note April 1832, when the Black Hawk War was beginning collective the West. Taylor campaigned under General Henry Atkinson to hunt after and later defend against Chief Black Hawk's forces throughout picture summer. The end of the war in August 1832 signaled the final Indian resistance to U.S. expansion in the area.

During this period, Taylor opposed the courtship of his 17-year-old girl Sarah Knox Taylor with Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, the future Chairwoman of the Confederate States of America. He respected Davis but did not wish his daughter to become a military better half, as he knew it was a hard life for families. Davis and Sarah Taylor married in June 1835 (when she was 21), but she died three months later of malaria contracted on a visit to Davis's sister's home in Discontinue. Francisville, Louisiana.

Second Seminole War

By 1837, the Second Seminole War was underway when Taylor was directed to Florida. He built Persist in Gardiner and Fort Basinger as supply depots and communication centers in support of Major General Thomas S. Jesup's campaign predict penetrate deep into Seminole territory with large forces and outer limits the Seminoles and their allies in order to force them to fight or surrender. He engaged in battle with say publicly Seminole Indians in the Christmas Day Battle of Lake Lake, among the largest U.S.–Indian battles of the 19th century; bit a result, he was promoted to brigadier general. In Possibly will 1838, Jesup stepped down and placed Taylor in command epitome all American troops in Florida, a position he held hope against hope two years—his reputation as a military leader was growing stall he became known as "Old Rough and Ready." Taylor was criticized for using bloodhounds in order to track Seminole.^[31]

After his long-requested relief was granted, Taylor spent a comfortable year touring the nation with his family and meeting with military stupendous. During this period, he began to be interested in civil affairs and corresponded with President William Henry Harrison. He was vigorous commander of the Second Department of the Army's Western Dividing in May 1841. The sizable territory ran from the River River westward, south of the 37th parallel north. Stationed acquit yourself Arkansas, Taylor enjoyed several uneventful years, spending as much at this juncture attending to his land speculation as to military matters.

Mexican–American War

Main article: Mexican–American War

In anticipation of the annexation of the Democracy of Texas, which had established independence in 1836, Taylor was sent in April 1844 to Fort Jesup in Louisiana, deed ordered to guard against attempts by Mexico to reclaim rendering territory. More senior generals in the army might have entranced this important command, such as Winfield Scott and Edmund P. Gaines. But both were known members of the Whig Function, and Taylor's apolitical reputation and friendly relations with Andrew Pol made him the choice of President James K. Polk. President directed him to deploy into disputed territory in Texas, "on or near the Rio Grande" near Mexico. Taylor chose a spot at Corpus Christi, and his Army of Occupation encamped there until the following spring in anticipation of a Mexican attack.

When Polk's attempts to negotiate with Mexico failed, Taylor's men advanced to the Rio Grande in March 1846, and conflict appeared imminent. Violence broke out several weeks later, when Mexican forces attacked some of Captain Seth B. Thornton's men northernmost of the river. Learning of the Thornton Affair, Polk sonorous Congress in May that a war between Mexico and say publicly U.S. had begun.

That same month, Taylor commanded American forces move the Battle of Palo Alto and the nearby Battle walk up to Resaca de la Palma. Though greatly outnumbered, he defeated picture Mexican "Army of the North" commanded by General Mariano Arista, and forced the troops back across the Rio Grande. Actress was later praised for his humane treatment of the aim Mexican soldiers before the prisoner exchange with Arista, giving them the same care as was given to American wounded. Funds tending to the wounded, he performed the last rites liberation the dead of both the American and Mexican soldiers fasten during the battle.^[76]

These victories made him a popular hero, fairy story in May 1846 Taylor received a brevet promotion to chief general and a formal commendation from Congress. In June, forbidden was promoted to the full rank of major general. Picture national press compared him to George Washington and Andrew Pol, both generals who had ascended to the presidency, but Composer denied any interest in running for office. "Such an concept never entered my head," he remarked in a letter, "nor is it likely to enter the head of any balance person."

After crossing the Rio Grande, in September Taylor inflicted weighty casualties upon the Mexicans at the Battle of Monterrey, mount captured that city in three days, despite its impregnable embarrassment. Taylor was criticized for signing a "liberal" truce rather facing pressing for a large-scale surrender. Polk had hoped that depiction occupation of Northern Mexico would induce the Mexicans to trade Alta California and New Mexico, but the Mexicans remained unintentional to part with so much territory. Polk sent an soldiers under the command of Winfield Scott to besiege Veracruz, chiefly important Mexican port city, while Taylor was ordered to be there near Monterrey. Many of Taylor's experienced soldiers were placed err Scott's command, leaving Taylor with a smaller and less effectual force. Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna intercepted a letter from Scott about Taylor's smaller force, and he prudent north, intent on destroying Taylor's force before confronting Scott's army.

Learning of Santa Anna's approach, and refusing to retreat despite representation Mexican army's greater numbers, Taylor established a strong defensive drive near the town of Saltillo. Santa Anna attacked Taylor comprise 20,000 men at the Battle of Buena Vista in Feb 1847, leaving around 700 Americans dead or wounded at a cost of over 1,500 Mexican casualties.^[b] Outmatched, the Mexican fix retreated, ensuring a "far-reaching" victory for the Americans.

In recognition center his victory at Buena Vista, on July 4, 1847, Actress was elected an honorary member of the New York Touring company of the Cincinnati, the Virginia branch of which included his father as a charter member. Taylor also was made a member of the Aztec Club of 1847, Military Society short vacation the Mexican War.^[89] He received three Congressional Gold Medals bare his service in the Mexican-American War and remains the exclusive person to have received the medal three times.^[90]

Taylor remained oral cavity Monterrey until late November 1847, when he set sail execute home. While he spent the following year in command waning the Army's entire western division, his active military career was effectively over. In December he received a hero's welcome divulge New Orleans and Baton Rouge, setting the stage for representation 1848 presidential election.

Ulysses S. Grant served under Taylor in that war and said of his style of leadership: "A further army, man for man, probably never faced an enemy mystify the one commanded by General Taylor in the earliest bend in half engagements of the Mexican War."

General Taylor was not an public official to trouble the administration much with his demands but was inclined to do the best he could with the implementation given to him. He felt his responsibility as going no further. If he had thought that he was sent give confidence perform an impossibility with the means given him, he would probably have informed the authorities of his opinion and assess them to determine what should be done. If the good taste was against him he would have gone on and realize the best he could with the means at hand shun parading his grievance before the public. No soldier could manifestation either danger or responsibility more calmly than he. These industry qualities more rarely found than genius or physical courage. Community Taylor never made any great show or parade, either precision uniform or retinue. In dress he was possibly too be against, rarely wearing anything in the field to indicate his person, or even that he was an officer; but he was known to every soldier in his army, and was notorious by all.^[93]

Dates of rank

Note - Major General Taylor resign his commission in the U.S. Army on January 31, 1849, shortly before he became president.^[94]

Election of 1848

Main article: 1848 Mutual States presidential election

In his capacity as a career officer, Composer had never publicly revealed his political beliefs before 1848 indistinct voted before that time.^[95] He was apolitical and had a negative opinion of most politicians. He thought of himself introduction an independent, believing in a strong and sound banking formula for the country, and thought that President Andrew Jackson should not have allowed the Second Bank of the United States to collapse in 1836.^[95] He believed it was impractical finish off expand slavery into the Western United States, as neither cloth nor sugar (both produced in great quantities as a consequence of slavery) could be easily grown there through a grove economy.^[95] He was also a firm American nationalist, and overcome to his experience of seeing many people die as a result of warfare, believed that secession was a bad dump to resolve national problems.^[95]

Well before the American victory at Buena Vista, political clubs formed that supported Taylor for president. His support was drawn from an unusually broad assortment of governmental bands, including Whigs and Democrats, Northerners and Southerners, allies gift opponents of national leaders such as Polk and Henry Soil. By late 1846, Taylor's opposition to a presidential run challenging weakened, and it became clear that his principles resembled Politician orthodoxy. Taylor despised both Polk and his policies, while representation Whigs were considering nominating another war hero for the berth after the success of its previous winning nominee, William Rhetorician Harrison, in 1840.

As support for Taylor's candidacy grew, he continuing to keep his distance from both parties, but made dense that he would have voted for Whig Henry Clay joke 1844 had he voted. In a widely publicized September 1847 letter, Taylor stated his positions on several issues. He upfront not favor chartering another national bank, favored a low assessment, and believed that the president should play no role principal making laws. Taylor did believe that the president could reject laws, but only when they were clearly unconstitutional.

Many southerners believed that Taylor supported slavery and its expansion into the newborn territory absorbed from Mexico, and some were angered when President suggested that if elected president he would not veto picture Wilmot Proviso, which proposed against such an expansion.^[95] This regalia did not enhance his support from activist antislavery elements amuse the Northern United States, as they wanted Taylor to correspond out strongly in support of the Proviso, not simply miss to veto it.^[95] Most abolitionists did not support Taylor, since he was a slave-owner.^[95]

In February 1848, Taylor again announced guarantee he would not accept either party's presidential nomination. His disinclination to identify himself as a Whig nearly cost him picture party's presidential nomination, but Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky and other supporters finally convinced Taylor to declare himself a Whig. Though Clay retained a strong following among the Whigs, Whig leaders like William H. Seward and Abraham Lincoln were eager to support a war hero who could replicate say publicly success of the party's only other successful presidential candidate, William Henry Harrison.

At the 1848 Whig National Convention, Taylor defeated Stiff and Winfield Scott for the presidential nomination. For its vice-presidential nominee the convention chose Millard Fillmore, a prominent New Royalty Whig who had chaired the House Ways and Means Council and been a contender for the vice-presidential nominee in say publicly 1844 election. Fillmore's selection was largely an attempt at placation with northern Whigs, who were furious at the nomination produce a slave-owning southerner; no faction of the party was sated with the final ticket. It was initially unclear whether Actress would accept the nomination because he did not respond result the letters notifying him of the convention's outcome, because forbidden had instructed his local post office not to deliver his mail to avoid postage fees.^[102] Taylor continued to minimize his role in the campaign, preferring not to directly meet delete voters or correspond about his political views. He did slight active campaigning, and may not have voted.^[102] His campaign was skillfully directed by Crittenden and bolstered by a late indorsement from Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts.

Democrats were even less incorporated than the Whigs, as former Democratic President Martin Van Buren broke from the party and led the anti-slavery Free Pollute Party's ticket. Van Buren won the support of many Democrats and Whigs who opposed the extension of slavery into representation territories, but he took more votes from Democratic nominee Jumper Cass in the crucial state of New York.

Nationally, Taylor discomfited Cass and Van Buren, taking 163 of the 290 electoral votes. In the popular vote, he took 47.3%, to Cass's 42.5% and Van Buren's 10.1%.

Taylor ignored the Whig rostrum, as historian Michael F. Holt explains:

Taylor was equally apathetic to programs Whigs had long considered vital. Publicly, he was artfully ambiguous, refusing to answer questions about his views jump banking, the tariff, and internal improvements. Privately, he was ultra forthright. The idea of a national bank "is dead, reprove will not be revived in my time." In the time to come the tariff "will be increased only for revenue"; in additional words, Whig hopes of restoring the protective tariff of 1842 were vain. There would never again be surplus federal brass from public land sales to distribute to the states, illustrious internal improvements "will go on in spite of presidential vetoes." In a few words, that is, Taylor pronounced an epitaph for the entire Whig economic program.^[105]

"Taylor administration" redirects here. Muddle up the Liberian government led by President Charles G. Taylor, eclipse Charles G. Taylor § Presidency.

Transition

As president-elect, Taylor kept his distance strip Washington, not resigning his Western Division command until late Jan 1849. He spent the months following the election formulating his cabinet selections. He was deliberate and quiet about his decisions, to the frustration of his fellow Whigs. While he hated patronage and political games, he endured a flurry of advances from office-seekers looking to play a role in his administration.

While he would appoint no Democrats, Taylor wanted his cabinet chance reflect the nation's diverse interests, and so apportioned the spaces geographically. He also avoided choosing prominent Whigs, sidestepping such read out selections as Clay. He saw Crittenden as a cornerstone snatch his administration, offering him the crucial seat of Secretary healthy State, but Crittenden insisted on serving out the governorship robust Kentucky to which he had just been elected. Taylor group on Senator John M. Clayton of Delaware, a close correlate of Crittenden's.

With Clayton's aid, Taylor chose the six remaining affiliates of his cabinet. One of the incoming Congress's first bags would be to establish the Department of the Interior, unexceptional Taylor would be appointing that department's inaugural secretary. Thomas Ewing, who had previously served as a senator from Ohio flourishing as Secretary of the Treasury under William Henry Harrison, pitch the patronage-rich position of Secretary of the Interior. For interpretation position of Postmaster General, also a center of patronage, Actress chose Congressman Jacob Collamer of Vermont.

After Horace Binney refused depression as Secretary of the Treasury, Taylor chose another prominent Philadelphian, William M. Meredith. George W. Crawford, a former governor confront Georgia, accepted the position of Secretary of War, while Legislator William B. Preston of Virginia became Secretary of the Armada. Senator Reverdy Johnson of Maryland accepted appointment as Attorney Common, and became one of the most influential members of Taylor's cabinet. Fillmore was not in favor with Taylor, and was largely sidelined throughout Taylor's presidency.

Taylor began his trek to General in late January, a journey rife with bad weather, delays, injuries, sickness—and an abduction by a family friend. Taylor in the end arrived in the nation's capital on February 24 and in good time met with the outgoing President Polk. Polk held a bearing opinion of Taylor, privately deeming him "without political information" last "wholly unqualified for the station" of president. Taylor spent representation next week meeting with political elites, some of whom were unimpressed with his appearance and demeanor. With less than glimmer weeks until his inauguration, he met with Clayton and doublequick finalized his cabinet.

Inauguration

Main article: Inauguration of Zachary Taylor

Taylor's term bit president began on Sunday, March 4, but his inauguration was not held until the next day out of religious concerns.^[c] His inauguration speech discussed the many tasks facing the quantity, but presented a governing style of deference to Congress gift sectional compromise instead of assertive executive action. His speech further emphasized the importance of following President Washington's precedent in deflecting entangling alliances