Comrade | Guevara
Since Washington took office as its first president in 1789, 46 people have served as presidents in the course of more than 200 years of U.S. history, and for various reasons, 8 of them have died in office. One of those presidents who died before completing their terms died of a rather bizarre cause, losing his life as a result of overeating. The rather tragic president is none other than the 12th president, Zachary Taylor.
Taylor, born in Virginia in 1784 to a family of plantation owners, is the third-largest of her siblings. Although Taylor's father, Richard Taylor, owned more than 1,000 acres of land, he was keen on adventure, and soon after the birth of his son, he moved his family west to Kentucky to pioneer the wilderness. After years of hard work, the Taylor family eventually carved out about 10,000 acres of land in several counties. Since childhood, Taylor has followed his father and brother to pioneer the wilderness, not only forging a good physique, but also developing a strong and indomitable, hard-working character.
Zachary Taylor
Taylor did not like to read since childhood, but was full of interest in fighting as a soldier, so at the age of 19 he joined the Kentucky Militia, and because of his outstanding performance, he was promoted to the Seventh Corps as a second lieutenant officer in 1808. For nearly 40 years, Taylor fought in two Indian Wars and the Second Anglo-American War, and was promoted to major general by 1846. Because of His rugged appearance but quick wit, and his bravery in battle on the battlefield, Taylor earned the nickname "Clever Old Man".
After the outbreak of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), Taylor was ordered by President Polk to go on a campaign that, after capturing the military fortress of Fort Texas, went deep into Mexico to fight, all the way to the capture of Monterrey. In February 1847, the U.S. army led by Taylor defeated the main force personally commanded by Mexican President Santa Anne in the Battle of Buena Vista, setting the biggest victory during the Mexican-American War, thus gaining the reputation of "the greatest hero" and being loved by the American people.
Mexican-American War Comics
After the end of the Mexican-American War, Taylor resigned from the military and returned to his hometown because of the jealousy of President Polk, and planned to die. However, because Taylor's prestige was too high, in the 1848 election, the Whig Party graciously invited him to run for president, and Taylor could not resist the temptation and finally decided to re-emerge. In the November election of that year, Taylor, with a heroic aura on his head, defeated the Democratic candidate Cass and was elected president as he wished.
Digression. Taylor and his wife Margaret are deeply in love, and the two remain inseparable for life, even when marching and fighting, Margaret will stay by her husband's side. Margaret's greatest wish is to pray for her husband's peace and that the whole family can live together in harmony forever. So when Taylor agreed to run for president, Margaret secretly prayed for Taylor's failure because she was worried that her elderly husband would not be able to cope with the heavy state affairs, which was also a strange story.
Taylor's wife, Margaret
According to the law, Taylor should be sworn in on March 4, 1849, but since it happens to be a Sunday, it is a Christian sunday and cannot perform any work according to doctrinal regulations. Therefore, Taylor, who was a devout believer, refused to take office on the same day, and instead had Acheson, the pro tempore speaker of the Senate, serve as interim president for one day, and did not officially take office until noon the next day. With nothing to attend to, Acheson slept all day in the White House and thus completed his presidency.
When Taylor became president, the dire situation was evident in the sharp conflict between the free states of the North and the slave states of the South over the question of whether slavery should be extended to the newly occupied territories, and the two groups of parliamentarians were often at war in Congress. Although Taylor belonged to the southern slave-owning class, in order to maintain the stability of the country, he explicitly demanded that the existing state of slavery in the country be maintained, but it was forbidden to extend it to the newly occupied areas, and vowed to use force to maintain the unity of the Federation.
Taylor was sworn in
However, although Taylor's attitude was resolute, the southern slave owners were also tough enough, and in order to expand slavery to the west, they did not hesitate to seek to break away from the Union and establish their own state. Worse, Taylor lacked enough political wisdom and negotiation skills to say that he had no way to deal with sensitive and complex matters. Therefore, in order to bridge the contradictions between the North and the South, Taylor, although he has devoted all his efforts, is embarrassed to find that the situation has slipped into a worse abyss. In this regard, Taylor was deeply exhausted, and his health deteriorated day by day.
At the Independence Day celebration on July 4, 1850, Taylor, who was over a year old, listened to various patriotic speeches for more than two hours in the scorching sun, and because he was thirsty and hungry, he drank a pot of ice milk impatiently after returning to the White House, and then devoured a large plate of cherries. Unfortunately, that night Taylor developed severe abdominal pain and rising body temperature, which was diagnosed by the president's health doctor, Wasserspoon, and found to be cholera.
Taylor's death
In the days that followed, Wasserspoon, along with other doctors, used various methods to treat the president, but Taylor's condition became more serious and he died on July 9 at the age of 66. At this point, it had only been 16 months since Taylor had entered the White House. Before taylor died, he said to his relatives and friends who were standing by: "I am probably going to die, and I look forward to God's summons as soon as possible." I have faithfully tried my best to fulfill all my duties - I am not ashamed of this, and my regret is that I will have to leave my friends".
bibliography
Alan Brinkley (US): A History of the United States, Hainan Publishing House, 2014.
Lin Tao and Pei Yingqin (center): The Complete Biography of the President of the United States, Current Affairs Press, 2004.