12th president biography
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Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, – July 9, ) was the 12th president of the United States. He served as president from until he died in He was a second cousin to James Madison. He was the first person elected to the presidency without any political experience.[1]
General years
[change | change source]Taylor was a general in the United States Army. He led an army during the Mexican-American War. He was selected by the Whigs to be their candidate because he was a famous general. He was the last President to own slaves while in office.[2]
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During his term, slavery was a big issue because the Northerners wanted no slavery in the U.S. and wanted to stop newly formed states from allowing slavery. The Southerners believed that they had the right to keep their slaves and people feared that they would choose to not be a part of the United States anymore (which they would eventually do in ).
Taylor did not like the idea of th
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Zachary Taylor
The biography for President Taylor and past presidents is courtesy of the White House Historical Association.
Zachary Taylor, a general and national hero in the United States Army from the time of the Mexican-American War and the War of , was elected the 12th U.S. President, serving from March until his death in July
Northerners and Southerners disputed sharply whether the territories wrested from Mexico should be opened to slavery, and some Southerners even threatened secession. Standing firm, Zachary Taylor was prepared to hold the Union together by armed force rather than by compromise.
Born in Virginia in , he was taken as an infant to Kentucky and raised on a plantation. He was a career officer in the Army, but his talk was most often of cotton raising. His home was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and he owned a plantation in Mississippi.
But Taylor did not defend slavery or southern sectionalism; 40 years in the Army made him a strong nationalist
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Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor will always be remembered for his forty years of military service and sixteen months as the twelfth president of the United States of America. Taylor was born in Montebello Plantation, Virginia on November 24, , just over a year after the Revolutionary War concluded. He was born to Sarah Dabney Strother and Richard Taylor, a veteran lieutenant colonel who served on George Washington’s staff. Shortly after his birth, the family migrated to Kentucky and raised Zachary Taylor and their other eight children on a tobacco plantation. In Kentucky, Taylor received a rudimentary level of education, and he learned about farming and horsemanship, but he desired a life of military service.
In , Taylor left Kentucky, and he was granted a commission as a first lieutenant for the United States Army. He was assigned to a garrison at Fort Pickering in Tennessee. Two years later, he married Margaret Mackall Smith, a