Vexations followed. The War department began to make sug gestions as to the movements of his subordinates and the adminis tration disapproved the armistice. These matters incensed Taylor who was becoming convinced that Polk and Marcy were trying to discredit him because of their political differences. He vetoed the plans for his subordinates, wrote a letter to Gen. Gaines criticizing the administration which later found its way into the press and brought down Marcy's rebuke, and moved on to Saltillo which he occupied Nov. 16, deciding to take possession of the territory be tween that point and the sea-coast where Tampico had fallen into the hands of the navy. While carrying out these plans he received a letter from Gen. Scott informing him that Scott was to lead an expedition into Mexico and, without divulging the plan, indicated that he would need most of Taylor's troops, requesting a meeting to perfect the details. Taylor upon receiving this note decided that instead of meeting Scott he would go as far away as he could, and accordingly went to Victoria which Quitman had lately occupied. When Scott learned of this move, he contented himself with ordering the greater part of Taylor's troops to the coast to embark for Vera Cruz while with the remainder Taylor was to defend the occupied territory in northern Mexico. Taylor pro tested to the War department and informed Senator Crittenden that he was a receptive candidate for the presidency. Reluctantly he led the remnant of troops left him by Scott back to Monterey, but instead of remaining there moved southward where word came that Santa Anna with 20,000 troops was advancing upon Taylor who had only a quarter of that number. The armies met at Buena Vista (q.v.), Feb. 22, 1847, and in spite of his lack of skill, his army inspired by his presence snatched a victory from defeat and the north of Mexico was saved. At home, the feeling was general that Taylor had been stripped of his troops by a jealous administration and left to perform the impossible. This ended his military activity but his political availability increased.
Shrewd politicians had become increasingly convinced of his potentialities as a candidate. The Whig party was especially in need of a strong candidate to retrieve the defeat of 1844. Very early in the war, Thurlow Weed of New York began pushing him and popular enthusiasm made his task easier. His correspondence was skillfully handled ; he was reluctant, he maintained, and with truth, to be a seeker for the office; he had never voted and though a Whig in sympathy was not an avowed partisan. As a slaveholder also he was certain to gain votes in the South where there was a good deal of suspicion that northern influences dominated the Whig managers. These advantages were sufficient to ensure success and in the Whig convention on the fourth ballot, Taylor won the nomination from Clay, Webster and Scott. An opportune split in the Democratic party ensured his victory and on March 5, he was inaugurated.
Few presidents have had less knowledge of what was expected of them. The new executive expected to be a non-partisan presi dent, leaving to Congress all legislative matters and confining himself to executing the laws. With Col. Bliss, his son-in-law, to
phrase his thoughts, he, at first, was more or less influenced in his policies by Vice-Pres. Fillmore, but it was not long before the superior astuteness of Sen. Seward, Fillmore's rival in New York State, accomplished results. The new president became convinced that it was his duty to build up the Whig party by means of clever patronage, and deserving Whigs began to come into their own.
With these preliminary lessons learned, Taylor found his most perplexing problem to be the status of the newly acquired territory. As a soldier he was anxious to see stable government established. In order to hasten this he authorized Congressman King of Georgia to go to California and urge an application for statehood. When Congress met, Dec. 1849, the President had the pleasure of report ing that California was ready to become a State and that New Mexico would be soon. He recommended the admission of Cali fornia and hoped that the slave issue would not be injected into the situation. When Southern representatives objected because California had prohibited slavery, he resented their protests. He declared himself willing to accept any law providing for admission, passed by Congress and warned Southern leaders that he would take the field if necessary to carry out such a law and hang any who resisted. His attitude was the natural reaction of a military executive to those opposed to the regular process of law and order. Consequently he was not in favour of conciliating those opposed and referred contemptuously to the Compromise measures of 1850 as the "Omnibus Bill." In other respects his administration was not proving a sinecure ; charges were made against his secretary of war, Crawford, to the effect that he had used his official position to pursue a claim successfully before the secretary of the treasury by which he benefited financially. This charge involving the secre taries of war and the treasury as well as the attorney-general, deeply mortified Taylor who prided himself on scrupulous honesty and he determined to reorganize his cabinet. Then came the fatal July 4, 185o, when exposure to the heat and injudicious eating combined with worry, aggravated an attack of typhus fever, which caused his death five days later.
A combination of honesty, simplicity, determination and com mon-sense had brought him successfully through a variety of difficult situations and by a strange turn of the wheel carried him to the White House.
Taylor had six children, three of whom survived him. One daughter, Sarah Knox Taylor, gained his reluctant consent to marry a young subaltern, Jefferson Davis, in 1835, surviving the marriage but three months. His only son, Richard Taylor (1826 1879) graduated from Yale in 1845 and after a short service in his father's camp, became a sugar-planter and politician in Louisiana. At the outbreak of the Civil War he entered the Confederate army and served in various capacities, finally commanding an army which surrendered in May 1865.