Presidency of Zachary Taylor

Historical Context Note

Lucas Paul Richert (University of Saskatchewan)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Domains

Changes of government, elections and reigns

Dates

Date of occurrence 1849-03-04-1850-07-09

Places

United States (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

A hero of the Mexican War, Zachary Taylor had notoriety and and a glistening record that made him an attractive presidential nomnee for the Whig Party. In 1848, Taylor won the party's nomination on the 4th ballot then went on to defeat the Democratic Party's candidate, Lewis Cass. Taylor defeated Cass by 163 electoral votes to 127 electoral votes. Taylor then died sixteen months into his administration. Prior to his death, Taylor had opposed the creation of any new slave states he called for the immediate statehood of California. However, southerners fought ardently against this, as they feared a majority of free states that could out vote slave states. Unfortunately, the Taylor administration was beset with scandal. Certain financial improprieties, it was revealed, had been committed…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

157 words

Citation: Richert, Lucas Paul. "Presidency of Zachary Taylor". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 January 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1198, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Presidency of Zachary Taylor

Domains

Dates

Places

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback