Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-04-20
Fiue Minutes A Day
With Our Presidents
Old ROUGH and Ready
by JAMES MORGAN

zachary Taylor was the first army
man to be President. the second and
only other being General Grant. A
dozen Presidents. from Washington to
Roosevelt. had seen war service, but
only as citizen soldiers.
BY birth. Taylor IS one of the eight
Presidential sons Of the Mother OF
Presidents" More properly he belongs
not TO the Virginia group. but with the
group Of frontier Presidents. For In
his infancy he was taken by his fam
lily out to Kentucky. where he grew
up in a log cabin, with no other school
ing than that received from a wander
ing Yankee schoolmaster.
Al twenty-thTee he entered the army
as a Lieutenant. and he remained In IL
forty years, until he was inaugurated
President: Yet he had seen only n
little fighting with the Indians before
his campaign in Mexico. where he
commanded perhaps not many more
than 5000 men and fought half a
dozen engagements, ranging from the
opening skirmish ut Palo Alto to the
battle of Buena Vista. In this last,
his little army of raw troops was out
numbered four to one. But he spurned
Santa Annals demand for his surrender
and. with n little more grape" from
Captain Bragg's battery, he defeated
the Mexicans.
The commanders in the two Mexican
campaigns, Zachary Taylor and VIM
field Scott. were as unlike as their
popular nicknamcs would indicate
odd Rough and Ready" and odd Fuss
and Feathers" "Old Rough and
service a simple American soldier. a
capable officer in peace and a
full one in Il
Obcdient always to the civil author
tty, he retained "a truly American dis
like of military. ceremonial and mans
hers.
With an unmilitary figure. Taylor's
short, dumpy body was placed on legs
so short that his orderly had to lift
one of them over the TANKS of "Old
Whitney" whenever he mounted hat
war horse. He rarely put on a uni
form, and Grant says that he saw him
in 1t only ono in the Mexican War,
where he fought generally in the same
that he wore on his Louisiana
farm.
He was as plain in his private life
and with a wife as unaffected as him
self. This devoted companion made
her home with him in military stock
ades and tents. sending her children
as they came along back to the care
OF relatives. but refusing to be parted
her husband.
When the second daughter was taken
a willing captive by another Kentuck-
ian, Lieutenant. jefferson Davis, Taylor
was furious with the clipping girl and
scornful of her husband, whom he
vowed he would not touch with q
pair of tongs." In a few months the
young wife died, unforgiven. After
years of arrangement, the disowned
son-in-law found himself a colonel in
Mexico under his ~implacable father-in--
law. There he prudently kept out
of tho old mans way, until his reck-
less daring n brilliant success at
Buena Vista melted the General to tears
and they clasped hands on the battle
field.
Taylor's reverence for the high office
and for the great statesman who had
adorned it seemed positively shocked
at the first proposal that he should
be President. He frankly declared
himself untitled for its duties and un-
worthy of its honors. stop your
and drink you whisky" he is
said TO have exclaimed with Impotence
when an oratorlcal visitor to his tent
ventured to toast him as the next
President. Mrs. Taylor agreed with
her husband, preferring the artless
pleasures of their own Preside (includ-
ing her corncob pipe) to the formali-
ties of the White House.
Like every man who has heard the
seductive suggestion of his name for
the Presidency, Taylor was not long in
yielding to 1t. Revising his own poor
opinion OF his qualifications in the light
of their higher appraisal by others.
he came to regard himself as the
candidate and he announced
that ha WOn16 RIM 40 cTIch aN-an tf No
party should nominate him.
The party preference of the old SOL
der was in doubt. with no other clue
to it except his brothers illuminating
remark that Zachary liked Henry Clay
and American-made clothes. The
Wings nominated him without know
ing where he stood on any question and
they made no platform for him to
stand on. 1t was a merry game with
the great problems that confronted the
nation.
After they had nominated Taylor,
the Wings became fearful for a time
that the joke was on them. While
they waited and no word came from
their nominee at Baton Rouge, the.
took alarm lest he would not accept
the honor from their party. But he
had not received their letter of notih-
cation. For they had neglected to
| prepay the postage on it, and "Old
Rough mad Ready" was refusing to
receive all unpaid mail.