The U.S. presidents cursed by the Indians - Zachary. Taylor (III)

Wen | Wang Yaohua

Elections in 1848

Nomination within the Party

Taylor had never publicly revealed his political beliefs until 1848, nor had he ever voted at the time. But he leaned toward the Whig Party's program, arguing that the nation needed a strong and robust banking system, and that President Jackson Ann should not have let The Second Bank of america collapse in 1836. He thought it would be impractical to extend slavery to the Western United States, where cotton and sugar cane would not be grown. He was also a staunch nationalist, opposed to the division of the country because of his experience of witnessing many people die as a result of the war.

But because of his outstanding performance in the Mexican-American War, the current President of the Democratic Party, Polk, and the Whig Leader Henry. Clay went to fight for him, and in the end he chose the Whigs. In a propaganda in September 1847, Taylor stated his position on a number of issues. He is not in favor of another national bank, is in favor of lowering tariffs, and argues that the president should not have any role in making laws — the president can veto them, but only if they are clearly unconstitutional. Many Southerners believe Taylor would support slavery and its expansion into new territories absorbed from Mexico, but he stated that he would not veto bills opposing such expansion. This position, however, did not strengthen his support for radical anti-slavery elements in the northern United States, who wanted Taylor to explicitly oppose slavery expansion. Most abolitionists did not support Taylor because he was a slave owner.

In February 1848, Taylor reiterated that he would not accept the nomination of either side for the presidency. This nearly cost him the nomination but Kentucky Senator John. Crittenden and other supporters eventually persuaded Taylor to declare himself a Whig party member.

general election

In the election, Taylor received more than 1.36 million votes from voters and Democratic candidate Cass received more than 1.22 million votes. Due to the internal divisions of the Democratic Party, votes were scattered between the official candidate Cass and the Liberal Soil Party candidate, former President Martin Luther King. Van Buren on both of them. In the end, Taylor received 163 electoral votes and Cass de electoral votes 127, and Taylor was elected as the twelfth president of the United States. Taylor was the last Whig to be elected president and was also the first of 1912 Woodrow. Wilson was the last Southerner to win the presidential election before he was elected.

Taylor was supposed to take the oath of office on March 4, 1849, but that day was Sunday, and he was not sworn on that day for religious reasons, so he was replaced by David. Rice. Acheson served as president for one day, making him the shortest-serving president in U.S. history.

Main credit

Before Taylor took office, the United States had encountered the problem of slavery in the newly joined states, with the South wanting them to be enslaved and the North wanting them to be free—all wanting to be the same as themselves, in order to increase their weight in Congress. As early as 1804, the federal government decided to use the "Maison-Dixon Line"—the 1767 boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, at 39°43'N—as the dividing line between the southern slave states and the northern free states. After that, the north and the south moved in parallel to the west, without major conflicts, and the capitalist system in the north and the slave system in the south coexisted to a certain extent "peacefully".

But as the territory of the United States continued to expand westward, the new states continued to join the Union. Each new state will have two seats in the Senate, which is bound to upset the economic and political balance between the North and the South. So in 1820, Henry, who was then a senator, was a senator. Clay proposed the famous Missouri Compromise, moving the original dividing line south to 36°30' to continue to maintain a broad balance between the North and the South.

After the end of the Mexican-American War, the Western United States acquired vast land, California and New Mexico, Texas and other places are in the south, if according to the Missouri compromise, the strength of slave states will increase greatly, which is also the later President Lincoln at that time resolutely opposed the Fundamental Reason for the Mexican-American War. The struggle between the North and the South continued, culminating in the 1850 Compromise, the main contents of which were as follows:

Grant California to join the Union as a free state;

Adjust the border between Texas and New Mexico, allocating 324,000 square kilometers of land from Texas to New Mexico, and compensating Texas with $10 million in compensation from the federal government;

When New Mexico and Utah join the Union, the residents of the place decide whether or not to become slave states;

Adoption of a new fugitive slave law, as described above;

· Abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

The Whigs were based on the Northeast Industrial and Commercial Bloc, which were staunchly opposed to slavery, and Taylor's compromises displeased many Whigs, creating internal divisions.

death

On July 4, 1850, Taylor suffered heat stroke under the scorching sun while attending the groundbreaking ceremony of the Washington Monument, and it is also rumored that he suffered from acute gastrointestinal disease due to eating too many cherries, and died in the White House five days later. Taylor was in power for only 16 months and died at the age of 66.

Aftermath

Taylor was the last president to remain a slave at the time of his presidency, and because of his short tenure and lack of significant achievements, he was ranked in the final quarter of the ranking of U.S. presidents. But some argue that Taylor made an important attempt to end expansion based on "destiny."