12th President Zachary Taylor

1784 - 1850  (65 years)    Has more than 100 ancestors and 14 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Zachary Taylor
  Prefix	12th President
  Birth	24 Nov 1784	Montebello, Orange Co., Virginia, USA
  Gender	Male
  Prominent People	1849
  US President
  Death	9 Jul 1850	White House, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
  Burial	Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA
  Siblings	8 Siblings
  + 1. Hancock Taylor,   b. 1781   d. 1841  (Age 60 years) ▻ Sophia Elizabeth Hoard;   Annah Hornsby Lewis   2. William Dabney Strother Taylor,   b. 1782   d. Yes, date unknown ▻ Polly Osborn + 3. 12th President Zachary Taylor,   b. 24 Nov 1784, Montebello, Orange Co., Virginia, USA d. 9 Jul 1850, White House, Washington, District of Columbia, USA  (Age 65 years) ▻ Margaret Mackall Smith,  m. 21 Jun 1810   4. Richard Strother Taylor   5. George Taylor,   b. 1790   d. Yes, date unknown + 6. Elizabeth Lee Taylor,   b. 14 Jan 1792   d. 22 Apr 1845  (Age 53 years) ▻ John Gibson Taylor,  m. 1812 + 7. Brig. Gen. Joseph Pannill Taylor,   b. 4 May 1796, Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA d. 29 Jun 1864, Washington, District of Columbia, USA  (Age 68 years) ▻ Evelyn Aurilla McLean   8. Sarah Bailey Taylor,   b. 1799   d. Yes, date unknown ▻ French Strother Grey + 9. Emily Richard Taylor,   b. 1801   d. Yes, date unknown ▻ John Standler Allison
  Person ID	I74520	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	2 Feb 2001

  
  

  Father	Richard Lee Taylor,   b. 3 Apr 1744, Orange County, Virginia, USA d. 19 Jan 1829, Lexington, Kentucky, USA (Age 84 years)
  Mother	Sarah Dabney Strother,   b. 14 Oct 1760   d. 13 Dec 1822 (Age 62 years)
  Marriage	20 Aug 1779
  Family ID	F30292	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Margaret Mackall Smith,   b. 21 Sep 1788, Calvert Co., Maryland, USA d. 14 Aug 1852, East Pascagoula, Mississippi, USA (Age 63 years)
  Marriage	21 Jun 1810	Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA
  Children	+ 1. Ann Margaret Mackall Taylor,   b. 9 Apr 1811, Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA d. 2 Dec 1875, Freiburg, Deutschland (Age 64 years)   2. Sarah Knox Taylor,   b. 6 Mar 1814, Vincennes, Knox Co., Indiana, USA d. 15 Sep 1835, Locust Grove, Louisiana, USA (Age 21 years)   3. Octavia Pannill Taylor,   b. 16 Aug 1816, Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA d. 8 Jul 1820, Bayou Sara, Louisiana, USA (Age 3 years)   4. Margaret Smith Taylor,   b. 27 Jul 1819, Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA d. 22 Oct 1820, Bayou Sara, Louisiana, USA (Age 1 year)   5. Mary Elizabeth Taylor,   b. 20 Apr 1824, Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA d. 25 Jul 1909, Winchester, Frederick Co, Virginia, USA (Age 85 years) + 6. Lt. General Richard Taylor,   b. 27 Jan 1826, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA d. 12 Apr 1879, New York, New York, USA (Age 53 years)
  Family ID	F30291	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Aug 2000

  
  

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  		Death - 9 Jul 1850 - White House, Washington, District of Columbia, USA  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

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• Notes

  - US President No. 12 Elected in 1848 over Lewis Cass by a popular vote of 1,360,967 to 1,222,342 and an electoral vote of 163 to 127. Chose Millard Fillmore as vice-president. Died in office, while Congress was in session. Was a second cousin of James Madison. 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 1784, 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. He spent a quarter of a century policing the frontiers against Indians. In the Mexican War he won major victories at Monterrey and Buena Vista. President Polk, disturbed by General Taylor's informal habits of command and perhaps his Whiggery as well, kept him in northern Mexico and sent an expedition under Gen. Winfield Scott to capture Mexico City. Taylor, incensed, thought that "the battle of Buena Vista opened the road to the city of Mexico and the halls of Montezuma, that others might revel in them." "Old Rough and Ready's" homespun ways were political assets. His long military record would appeal to northerners; his ownership of 100 slaves would lure southern votes. He had not committed himself on troublesome issues. The Whigs nominated him to run against the Democratic candidate, Lewis Cass, who favored letting the residents of territories decide for themselves whether they wanted slavery. In protest against Taylor the slaveholder and Cass the advocate of "squatter sovereignty," northerners who opposed extension of slavery into territories formed a Free Soil Party and nominated Martin Van Buren. In a close election, the Free Soilers pulled enough votes away from Cass to elect Taylor. Although Taylor had subscribed to Whig principles of legislative leadership, he was not inclined to be a puppet of Whig leaders in Congress. He acted at times as though he were above parties and politics. As disheveled as always, Taylor tried to run his administration in the same rule-of-thumb fashion with which he had fought Indians. Traditionally, people could decide whether they wanted slavery when they drew up new state constitutions. Therefore, to end the dispute over slavery in new areas, Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to draft constitutions and apply for statehood, bypassing the territorial stage. Southerners were furious, since neither state constitution was likely to permit slavery; Members of Congress were dismayed, since they felt the President was usurping their policy-making prerogatives. In addition, Taylor's solution ignored several acute side issues: the northern dislike of the slave market operating in the District of Columbia; and the southern demands for a more stringent fugitive slave law. In February 1850 President Taylor had held a stormy conference with southern leaders who threatened secession. He told them that if necessary to enforce the laws, he personally would lead the Army. Persons "taken in rebellion against the Union, he would hang ... with less reluctance than he had hanged deserters and spies in Mexico." He never wavered. Then events took an unexpected turn. After participating in ceremonies at the Washington Monument on a blistering July 4, Taylor fell ill; within five days he was dead. After his death, the forces of compromise triumphed, but the war Taylor had been willing to face came 11 years later. In it, his only son Richard served as a general in the Confederate Army.