Zachary Taylor by John S. D. Eisenhower

Author:John S. D. Eisenhower
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Published: 2011-03-28T16:00:00+00:00

The Democrats had held their convention at Baltimore in late May, before the Whigs. Like the Whigs, their convention was open; President James K. Polk was upholding his pledge, made during the 1844 election, not to run for a second term. The slate the Democrats came up with was a pair of responsible, if perhaps colorless, candidates. Though neither carried the appeal of Zachary Taylor, they made a good team.

The presidential candidate, Lewis Cass of Michigan, was two years Taylor’s senior in age, having been born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1782. He was very much a product of the eastern establishment, having attended Phillips Exeter Academy in the same town. He had participated in the War of 1812 as a brigadier general and was later appointed by President James Madison as governor of the Michigan Territory, a post he held for eighteen years. During that time, he had led an exploring expedition to find the headwaters of the Mississippi River, since that location was deemed of some importance in the continuing negotiations between the United States and Britain over the boundary between the United States and Canada.

In 1831, Cass resigned his post in Michigan to serve as secretary of war under President Andrew Jackson. During his tenure, he was credited with—or accused of—playing a major role in Jackson’s policy of removing all the Indian tribes to the west of the Mississippi. Cass later served for six years as American ambassador to France, and upon his return home he entered the Senate from Michigan, where he remained until the 1848 presidential campaign.

The man chosen to be the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate was General William O. Butler of Kentucky. He was no stranger to Taylor, having commanded the Volunteer Division at Monterrey. By no means, however, was that assignment his only accomplishment. Born in 1781, Butler was also a veteran of the War of 1812 but as a junior officer. He had attained one great distinction: he had been aide-de-camp to Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. He had also served as a congressman from Kentucky from 1839 to 1843.

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