Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor (1784-1850)
Twelfth President (1849-1850)

Throughout his career as a professional soldier, Zachary Taylor took no more than a passing interest in politics. But his victories at the battles of Palo Alto, Monterrey, and Buena Vista during the Mexican War changed all of that. In their wake, this "rough and ready" general became eminently ripe for elective office, and even if Taylor had wanted to, he perhaps could not have stopped the groundswell of determination within the Whig Party to elect him President in 1848.

Upon entering the White House, Taylor declared his intention to bring harmony to the Union. Yet his refusal to placate the South by allowing slavery in some of the new territories acquired during the Mexican War did quite the opposite. Within a year of Taylor's coming to office, the country seemed to be moving toward civil war. Only after his unexpected death in July of 1850 did compromise on this divisive issue become possible. This portrait depicts Taylor in a more decorous light than the reality of his appearance often warranted. In or out of uniform, he was no stickler for spit and polish, and what frequently struck people most upon meeting him was the frayed and dusty shabbiness of his attire.

Attributed to James Reid Lambdin (1807-1889)
Oil on canvas, 1848
National Portrait Gallery
Smithsonian Institution
Gift of Barry Bingham, Sr.
NPG.76.7

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Zachary Taylor (1784-1850)
Twelfth President (1849-1850)

At the battle of Buena Vista early in 1847, Zachary Taylor's army was outnumbered by four to one, and his triumph in the face of those odds became his most celebrated accomplishment of the Mexican War. But because this victory so clearly strengthened Taylor's Whig candidacy for the White House, his democratic commander-in-chief, President James K. Polk, was decidedly unenthused over it. In his diary, Polk dismissed the battle as the result of an irresponsible "imprudence" that unnecessarily cost American lives. Congress, however, took a more positive view and was soon voting to present Taylor with a gold medal commemorating Buena Vista.

Charles Cushing Wright (1796-1854),
after an oil by Salathiel Ellis
Bronze, 1848
National Portrait Gallery
Smithsonian Institution
Gift of Marvin Sadik
NPG.77.247

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Zachary Taylor (1784-1850)
Twelfth President (1849-1850)

Zachary Taylor's sudden popularity as a victorious commander in the Mexican War created widespread interest in his likeness, and he sat for numerous portraits in various mediums.

This daguerreotype with his aide (and future son-in-law and private secretary) William S. Bliss, may have been made while Whig Party leaders were promoting Taylor for the presidency in 1847-1848.

Unidentified photographer
Daguerreotype, circa 1847
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
NPG.77.142

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