Zachary Taylor (The American Presidents Series), by John S.D. Eisenhower
140 pages, @2008
If you are a regular reader of my blog, or a good friend of mine, or someone I was just talking to at a BBQ this weekend, you know that one of the goals on my “Life List” is to read a book about each President in order. Zachary Taylor, was President #12! Only 32 more Presidents to read about, at the rate I’m going, that’ll be 16 more years (although there will be some new ones to add to the list by then I’m sure!)
Interesting fact about Zachary Taylor, he was the first man to become President who had never held a public office. He was never a Senator, Representative, Mayor, Governor, etc. He was a military guy, and a Mexican War hero and that reputation put him as the front man for the Whigs in the election of 1848! President Polk had promised not to run for another term so Taylor was up against a new Democrat running mate as opposed to an incumbent President. President Taylor himself never expressed any interest in running for the position, he was pushed to it by the Whigs,and even though they did push him, he was very reluctant. They had to get him to sign two different letters at two different times during the campaign to convince die hard Whigs that he was really interested and even then it seemed that the letter was written for him and he was encouraged to sign it.
Unfortunately, President Taylor died only 16 months into his office. Many believe that as a Southern slave holder who was not interested in creating additional slave states, that he might have been a calm voice a reason during a time of great turmoil for our nation. I guess we’ll never know. He died of an infection.
President Taylor wasn’t my favorite of the bunch, but I am still enjoying learning about each President in their time, who they were before they became President and what they accomplished as President. The riveting President Millard Fillmore is next, only one book ever written about him to date and it’s big, this next one is going to be a tough read. Hopefully I’ll be proven wrong.
3 stars
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Do you remember President Taylor’s nickname???
