Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor ( November 24 , 1784 – July 9 , 1850 ) was the 12th President of the United States ( 1849 – 1850 ) and an American military leader . His 40 - year military career ended with far - reaching victories in the Mexican – American War . His status as a national hero won him election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs . His top priority as president was preserving the Union , but he died 16 months into his term , before making any progress on the status of slavery , which had been inflaming tensions in Congress . Taylor was born to a prominent family of planters who migrated westward from Virginia to Kentucky in his youth . He was commissioned as a U . S . Army officer in 1808 and made a name for himself as a captain in the War of 1812 . He climbed the ranks establishing military forts along the Mississippi River and entered the Black Hawk War as a colonel in 1832 . His success in the Second Seminole War attracted national attention and earned him the nickname " Old Rough and Ready " . In 1845 , as the annexation of Texas was underway , President James K . Polk dispatched Taylor to the Rio Grande area in anticipation of a potential battle with Mexico over the disputed Texas - Mexico border . The Mexican – American War broke out in May 1846 , and Taylor led American troops to victory in a series of battles culminating in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey . He became a national hero , and political clubs sprung up to draw him into the upcoming 1848 presidential election . The Whig Party convinced the reluctant Taylor to lead their ticket , despite his unclear platform and lack of interest in politics . He won the election alongside U . S . Representative Millard Fillmore of New York , defeating Democratic candidate Lewis Cass . As president , Taylor kept his distance from Congress and his cabinet , even as partisan tensions threatened to divide the Union . Debate over the slave status of the large territories claimed in the war led to threats of secession from Southerners . Despite being a Southerner and a slaveholder himself , Taylor did not push for the expansion of slavery . To avoid the question , he urged settlers in New Mexico and California to bypass the territorial stage and draft constitutions for statehood , setting the stage for the Compromise of 1850 . Taylor died suddenly of a stomach - related illness in July 1850 , ensuring he would have little impact on the sectional divide that led to civil war a decade later . Early life and family . Taylor was born on November 24 , 1784 , on a plantation in Orange County , Virginia , to a prominent family of planters of English ancestry . He is believed to have been born , inconclusively , at the home of his maternal grandfather , Hare Forest Farm . He was the third of five surviving sons in his family ( a sixth died in infancy ) and had three younger sisters . His mother was Sarah Dabney ( Strother ) Taylor . His father , Richard Taylor , had served as a lieutenant colonel in the American Revolution . Taylor was a descendant of Elder William Brewster , the Pilgrim colonist leader of the Plymouth Colony , a " Mayflower " immigrant , and one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact ; and Isaac Allerton Jr . , a colonial merchant and colonel who was the son of " Mayflower " Pilgrim Isaac Allerton and Fear Brewster . Taylor ' s second cousin through that line was James Madison , the fourth president . Leaving exhausted lands , his family joined the westward migration out of Virginia and settled near what developed as Louisville , Kentucky , on the Ohio River . Taylor grew up in a small woodland cabin before his family moved to a brick house with increased prosperity . The rapid growth of Louisville was a boon for Taylor ' s father , who came to own throughout Kentucky by the start of the 19th century ; he held 26 slaves to cultivate the most developed portion of his holdings . There were no formal schools on the Kentucky frontier , and Taylor had a sporadic formal education . A schoolmaster recalled Taylor as a quick learner . His early letters show a weak grasp of spelling and grammar , and his handwriting was later described as " that of a near illiterate " . In June 1810 , Taylor married Margaret Mackall Smith , whom he had met the previous autumn in Louisville . " Peggy " Smith came from a prominent family of Maryland planters ; she was the daughter of Major Walter Smith , who had served in the Revolutionary War . The couple had six children : Military career . On May 3 , 1808 , Taylor joined the U . S . Army , receiving a commission as a first lieutenant of the Seventh Infantry Regiment . He was among the new officers commissioned by Congress in response to the Chesapeake – Leopard Affair , in which an American frigate had been boarded by the crew of a British warship , sparking calls for war . Taylor spent much of 1809 in the dilapidated camps of New Orleans and nearby Terre aux Boeufs . He was promoted to captain in November 1810 . His army duties were limited at this time , and he attended to his personal finances . Over the next several years , he began to purchase slaves and a good deal of bank stock in Louisville . In July 1811 he was called to the Indiana Territory , where he assumed control of Fort Knox after the commandant fled . In only a few weeks , he was able to restore order in the garrison , for which he was lauded by Governor William Henry Harrison . During the War of 1812 , in which U . S . forces battled the British Empire and its Indian allies , Taylor successfully defended Fort Harrison in Indiana Territory from an Indian attack commanded by the Shawnee chief Tecumseh . Taylor gained recognition and received a brevet ( temporary ) promotion to the rank of major . Later that year he joined General Samuel Hopkins as an aide on two expeditions : the first into the Illinois Territory and the second to the Tippecanoe battle site , where they were forced to retreat in the Battle of Wild Cat Creek . Taylor moved his growing family to Fort Knox after the violence subsided . In spring 1814 , he was called back into action under Brigadier General Benjamin Howard . That October he supervised the construction of Fort Johnson , the last toehold of the U . S . Army in the upper Mississippi River Valley . Upon Howard ' s death a few weeks later , Taylor was ordered to abandon the fort and retreat to Saint Louis . Reduced to the rank of captain when the war ended in 1814 , he resigned from the army . He re - entered it a year later after gaining a commission as a major . For two years , Taylor commanded Fort Howard at the Green Bay , Wisconsin settlement . He then returned to Louisville and his family . In April 1819 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and dined with President James Monroe . In late 1821 , Taylor took the 7th Infantry to Natchitoches , Louisiana , on the Red River . On the orders of General Edmund P . Gaines , they set out to locate a new post more convenient to the Sabine River frontier . By the following March , Taylor had established Fort Jesup , at the Shield ' s Spring site southwest of Natchitoches . That November he was transferred to Fort Robertson at Baton Rouge , where he remained until February 1824 . He spent the next few years on recruiting duty . In late 1826 he was called to Washington , D . C . , to work on an Army committee to consolidate and improve military organization . In the meantime he acquired his first Louisiana plantation and decided to move with his family to Baton Rouge as their home . In May 1828 , Taylor was called back to action , commanding Fort Snelling in Minnesota on the northern Mississippi River for a year , and nearby Fort Crawford for a year . After some time on furlough , when he expanded his landholdings , Taylor was promoted to colonel of the 1st Infantry Regiment in April 1832 . At that time , the Black Hawk War was beginning in the West . Taylor campaigned under General Henry Atkinson to pursue and later defend against Chief Black Hawk ' s forces throughout the summer . The end of the war in August 1832 signaled the end of Indian resistance to U . S . expansion in the area , and the following years were relatively quiet . During this period Taylor resisted the courtship of his 17 - year - old daughter Sarah Knox Taylor and Lieutenant Jefferson Davis . He respected Davis but did not approve of his daughter becoming a military wife , as he knew it was a hard life for families . Davis and Sarah Taylor married in June 1835 , but she died three months later of malaria contracted on a summer visit to Davis ' sister in St . Francisville , Louisiana . By 1837 , the Second Seminole War was underway when Taylor was directed to Florida . He defeated the Seminole Indians in the Christmas Day Battle of Lake Okeechobee , which was among the largest U . S . – Indian battles of the nineteenth century . He was promoted to brigadier general in recognition of his success . In May 1838 , Brig . Gen . Thomas Jesup stepped down and placed Taylor in command of all American troops in Florida , a position he held for two years . His reputation as a military leader was growing , and with it , he began to be known as " Old Rough and Ready . " After his long - requested relief was granted , Taylor spent a comfortable year touring the nation with his family and meeting with military leaders . During this period , he began to be interested in politics and corresponded with President William Henry Harrison . He was made commander of the Second Department of the Army ' s Western Division in May 1841 . The sizable territory ran from the Mississippi River westward , south of the 37th parallel north . Stationed in Arkansas , Taylor enjoyed several uneventful years , spending as much time attending to his land speculation as to military matters . Mexican – American War . In anticipation of the annexation of the Republic of Texas , which had established independence in 1836 , Taylor was sent in April 1844 to Fort Jesup in Louisiana . He was ordered to guard against any attempts by Mexico to reclaim the territory . He served there until July 1845 , when annexation became imminent , and President James K . Polk directed him to deploy into disputed territory in Texas , " on or near the Rio Grande " near Mexico . Taylor chose a spot at Corpus Christi , and his Army of Occupation encamped there until the following spring in anticipation of a Mexican attack . Taylor ' s men advanced to the Rio Grande in March 1846 . Polk ' s attempts to negotiate with Mexico had failed , and war appeared imminent . Violence broke out several weeks later , when some of Captain Seth B . Thornton ' s men were attacked by Mexican forces near the river . Polk , learning of the Thornton Affair , told Congress in May that a war between Mexico and the U . S . had begun . That same month , Taylor commanded American forces at the Battle of Palo Alto and the nearby Battle of Resaca de la Palma , defeating the Mexican forces , which greatly outnumbered his own . These victories made him a popular hero , and within weeks he received a brevet promotion to major general and a formal commendation from Congress . The national press compared him to George Washington and Andrew Jackson , both generals who had ascended to the presidency , although Taylor denied any interest in running for office . " Such an idea never entered my head , " he remarked in a letter , " nor is it likely to enter the head of any sane person . " In September , Taylor inflicted heavy casualties upon the Mexican defenders at the Battle of Monterrey . The city of Monterrey had been considered " impregnable " , but was captured in three days , forcing Mexican forces to retreat . Taylor was criticized for signing a " liberal " truce , rather than pressing for a large - scale surrender . Afterwards , half of Taylor ' s army was ordered to join General Winfield Scott ' s soldiers as they besieged Veracruz . Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna discovered , through an intercepted letter from Scott , that Taylor had contributed all but 6 , 000 of his men to the effort . His remaining force included only a few hundred regular army soldiers , and Santa Anna resolved to take advantage of the situation . Santa Anna attacked Taylor with 20 , 000 men at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847 , leaving around 700 Americans dead or wounded at a cost of over 1 , 500 Mexican . Outmatched , the Mexican forces retreated , ensuring a " far - reaching " victory for the Americans . Taylor remained at Monterrey until late November 1847 , when he set sail for home . While he would spend the following year in command of the Army ' s entire western division , his active military career was over . In December he received a hero ' s welcome in New Orleans and Baton Rouge , and his popular legacy set the stage for the 1848 presidential election . Election of 1848 . In his capacity as a career officer , Taylor had never reportedly revealed his political beliefs before 1848 nor voted before that time . He thought of himself as an independent , believing in a strong and sound banking system for the country , and thought that President Andrew Jackson should not have allowed the Second Bank of the United States to collapse in 1836 . He believed it was impractical to talk about expanding slavery into the western areas of the U . S . , as he concluded that neither cotton nor sugar ( both were produced in great quantities as a result of slavery ) could be easily grown there through a plantation economy . He was also a firm nationalist , and due to his experience of seeing many people die as a result of warfare , he believed that secession was not a good way to resolve national problems . Taylor , although he did not agree with their stand against protective tariffs and expensive internal improvements , aligned himself with Whig Party governing policies : the President should not be able to veto a law , unless that law was against the Constitution ; that the office should not interfere with Congress ; and that the power of collective decision - making , as well as the Cabinet , should be strong . Well before the American victory at Buena Vista , political clubs were formed which supported Taylor for President . His support was drawn from an unusually broad assortment of political bands , including Whigs and Democrats , Northerners and Southerners , allies and opponents of national leaders such as Henry Clay and James K . Polk . By late 1846 Taylor ' s opposition to a presidential run began to weaken , and it became clear that his principles more closely resembled Whig orthodoxy . Still , he maintained that he would only accept election as a national , independent figure , rather than a partisan loyalist . Taylor declared , as the 1848 Whig Party convention approached , that he had always been a Whig in principle , but he did consider himself a Jeffersonian - Democrat . Many southerners believed that Taylor supported slavery and its expansion into the new territory absorbed from Mexico , and some were angered when Taylor suggested that if he were elected President he would not veto the Wilmot Proviso , which proposed against such an expansion . This position did not enhance his support from activist antislavery elements in the Northern U . S . , as these wanted Taylor to speak out strongly in support of the Proviso , not simply fail to veto it . Most abolitionists did not support Taylor , since he was a slave - owner . Many southerners also knew that Taylor supported states ' rights and was opposed to protective tariffs and government spending for internal improvements . The Whigs hoped that he put the federal union of the United States above all else . Taylor received the Whig nomination for President in 1848 . For his Vice Presidential nominee the convention chose Millard Fillmore , a prominent New York Whig who had chaired the House Ways and Means Committee and had been a contender for Henry Clay ' s Vice Presidential nominee in the 1844 election . Fillmore ' s selection was largely an attempt at reconciliation with northern Whigs , who were furious at the election of a slaveowning southerner ; all factions of the party were dissatisfied with the final ticket . Taylor continued to minimize his role in the campaign , preferring not to directly meet with voters or correspond regarding his political views . His campaign was skillfully directed by Senator John J . Crittenden of Kentucky , a friend and early political supporter , and bolstered by a late endorsement from Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts . Taylor defeated Lewis Cass , the Democratic candidate , and Martin Van Buren , the Free Soil candidate . Taylor ignored the Whig platform , as historian Michael F . Holt explains : Presidency ( 1849 – 1850 ) . Transition and inauguration . As president - elect , Taylor kept his distance from Washington , not resigning his Western Division command until late January 1849 . He spent the months following the election formulating his cabinet selections . He was deliberate and quiet about his decisions , to the frustration of his fellow Whigs . While he despised patronage and political games , he endured a flurry of advances from office - seekers looking to play a role in his administration . While he would not appoint any Democrats , Taylor wanted his cabinet to reflect the nation ' s diverse interests , and so apportioned the seats geographically . He also avoided choosing prominent Whigs , sidestepping such obvious selections as Henry Clay . He saw Crittenden as a cornerstone of his administration , offering him the crucial seat of Secretary of State , but Crittenden insisted on serving out the Governorship of Kentucky to which he had just been elected . Taylor settled instead on Senator John M . Clayton of Delaware , a close associate of Crittenden ' s . Taylor began his trek to Washington in late January , a journey rife with bad weather , delays , injuries , and sickness . Taylor finally arrived in the nation ' s capital on February 24 and soon met with the outgoing President Polk . The incumbent Democrat held a low opinion of Taylor , privately deeming him " without political information " and " wholly unqualified for the station " of President . Taylor spent the following week meeting with political elites , some of whom were unimpressed with his appearance and demeanor . With less than two weeks until his inauguration , he met with Clayton and hastily finalized his cabinet . Taylor ' s term as president began Sunday , March 4 , but his inauguration was not held until the following day out of religious concerns . His inauguration speech discussed the many tasks facing the nation , but presented a governing style of deference to Congress and sectional compromise instead of assertive executive action . Throughout the summer of 1849 , Taylor toured the northeastern U . S . , to familiarize himself with a region of which he had seen little . He spent much of the trip plagued by gastrointestinal illness and returned to Washington by September . Sectional crisis . As Taylor took office , Congress faced a battery of questions related to the Mexican Cession , comprising three major territories acquired by the U . S . after the Mexican War : California , New Mexico , and Utah . It was unclear which of the acquisitions would achieve statehood and which would remain federal territories , while the question of their slave status threatened to bitterly divide Congress . While a southern slaveowner himself , Taylor had no particular bias toward the southern faction of Congress which sought to maintain its right to slavery . His major goal was sectional peace , preserving the Union through legislative compromise . As the threat of Southern secession grew , he sided increasingly with northern abolitionists such as Senator William H . Seward of New York , even suggesting that he would sign the Wilmot Proviso to ban slavery in federal territories should such a bill reach his desk . In Taylor ' s view , the best way forward was to admit California as a state rather than a federal territory , as it would leave the slavery question out of Congress ' s hands . The timing for statehood was in Taylor ' s favor , as the Gold Rush was well underway at the time of his inauguration , and California ' s population was exploding . The administration dispatched Rep . Thomas Butler King to California , to test the waters and advocate on behalf of statehood , knowing that the Californians were certain to adopt an anti - slavery constitution . King found that a constitutional convention was already underway , and by October 1849 , the convention unanimously agreed to join the Union — and to ban slavery within their borders . The question of the New Mexico – Texas border was unsettled at the time of Taylor ' s inauguration . The territory newly won from Mexico was under federal jurisdiction , but the Texans claimed a swath of land north of Santa Fe and were determined to include it within their borders , despite having no significant presence there . Taylor sided with the New Mexicans ' claim , initially pushing to keep it as a federal territory , but eventually supported statehood so as to further reduce the slavery debate in Congress . The Texas government , under newly instated governor P . Hansborough Bell , tried to ramp up military action in defense of the territory against the federal government , but was unsuccessful . The Latter Day Saint settlers of modern - day Utah had established a provisional State of Deseret , an enormous swath of territory which had little hope of recognition by Congress . The Taylor administration considered combining the California and Utah territories , but instead opted to organize the Utah Territory . To alleviate the Mormon population ' s concerns over religious freedom , Taylor promised they would have relative independence from Congress despite being a federal territory . Taylor sent his first and only State of the Union report to Congress in December 1849 . He recapped international events and suggested several adjustments to tariff policy and executive organization , but such issues were overshadowed by the sectional crisis facing Congress . He reported on California ' s and New Mexico ' s applications for statehood , and recommended that Congress approve them as written and " should abstain from the introduction of those exciting topics of a sectional character " . The policy report was prosaic and unemotional , but ended with a sharp condemnation of secessionists . It had no effect on Southern legislators , who saw the admission of two free states as an existential threat , and Congress remained stalled . Foreign affairs . Taylor and his Secretary of State , John M . Clayton , both lacked diplomatic experience , and came into office at a relatively uneventful time in American – international politics . Their shared nationalism allowed Taylor to devolve foreign policy matters to Clayton with minimal oversight , although no decisive foreign policy was established under their administration . As opponents of the autocratic European order , they vocally supported German and Hungarian liberals in the revolutions of 1848 , although they offered little in the way of aid . A perceived insult from the French minister Guillaume Tell Poussin nearly led to a break in diplomatic relations until Poussin was replaced , and a reparation dispute with Portugal resulted in harsh words from the Taylor administration . In a more positive effort , the administration arranged for two ships to assist in the United Kingdom ' s search for a team of British explorers , led by John Franklin , who had gotten lost in the Arctic . While previous Whig administrations had emphasized Pacific trade as an economic imperative , the Taylor administration took no major initiative in the Far East . Throughout 1849 and 1850 , they contended with Narciso López , the Venezuelan radical who led repeated filibustering expeditions in an attempt to conquer the island of Cuba . While López made generous offers to American military leaders to support him , Taylor and Clayton saw the enterprise as illegal . They issued a blockade , and later , authorized a mass arrest of López and his fellows , although the group would eventually be acquitted . They also confronted Spain , which had arrested several Americans on the charge of piracy , but the Spaniards eventually surrendered them to maintain good relations with the U . S . The definitive foreign policy accomplishment of the Taylor administration was the Clayton – Bulwer Treaty , regarding a proposed inter - oceanic canal through Central America . While the U . S . and Britain were on friendly terms , and the construction of such a canal was decades away from reality , the mere possibility put the two nations in an uneasy position . For several years , Britain had been seizing strategic points , particularly the Mosquito Coast on the eastern coast of present - day Nicaragua . Negotiations were held with Britain that resulted in the landmark Clayton – Bulwer Treaty . Both nations agreed not to claim control of any canal that might be built in Nicaragua . The treaty promoted development of an Anglo - American alliance ; its completion was Taylor ' s last action as president . Compromise attempts and final days . Senate Majority Leader Henry Clay took a central role as Congress debated the statehood question . While his positions had some overlap with Taylor ' s , the president always maintained his distance from Clay . Historians disagree on his motivations for doing so . With assistance from Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts , Clay developed his landmark proposal , the Compromise of 1850 . The proposal allowed statehood for California , giving it independence on the slavery question , while the other territories would remain under federal jurisdiction . This would include the disputed parts of New Mexico , although Texas would be reimbursed for the territory . Slavery would be retained in the District of Columbia , but the slave trade would be banned . Meanwhile , a strict Fugitive Slave Law would be enacted , bypassing northern legislation which had restricted Southerners from retrieving runaway slaves . Tensions flared as Congress negotiated and secession talks grew , culminating with a threat from Taylor to send troops into New Mexico to protect its border from Texas . The omnibus law was a major step forward but ultimately could not pass , due to extremists on both sides . No great compromise reached Taylor ' s desk during his presidency ; instead , his last days were overshadowed by the Galphin affair . Before joining the Taylor cabinet , Secretary of War George W . Crawford had served as a lawyer . He had been involved in a fifteen - year case , representing the descendants of a colonial trader whose services to the British crown had not been repaid at the time of the American Revolution . The British debt to George Galphin was to be assumed by the federal government , but Galphin ' s heirs only received payment on the debt ' s principal after years of litigation , and were unable to win an interest payment from the Polk administration . Taylor ' s Treasury Secretary William M . Meredith , with the support of Attorney General Reverdy Johnson , finally signed off on the payment in April 1850 . To the president ' s embarrassment , this payment included a legal compensation of nearly $ 100 , 000 to Crawford ; two cabinet members had effectively offered a tremendous chunk of the public treasury to another . A House investigation cleared Crawford of any legal wrongdoing , but nonetheless expressed disapproval of his accepting the payment . Taylor , who had already been sketching out a re - organization of his cabinet , now had an unfolding scandal to complicate the situation . Death . On July 4 , 1850 , Taylor reportedly consumed raw fruit , probably cherries , and iced milk after attending holiday celebrations and a fund - raising event at the Washington Monument , which was then under construction . Over the course of several days , he became severely ill with an unknown digestive ailment . His doctor " diagnosed the illness as cholera morbus , a flexible mid – nineteenth - century term for intestinal ailments as diverse as diarrhea and dysentery but not related to Asiatic cholera , " the latter being a widespread epidemic at the time of Taylor ' s death . The identity and source of Taylor ' s illness are the subject of historical speculation ( see below ) , although it is known that several of his cabinet members had come down with a similar illness . Despite treatment , Taylor died at 10 : 35 p . m . on July 9 , 1850 . He was 65 years old . Taylor was interred in the Public Vault of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington , D . C . from July 13 , 1850 to October 25 , 1850 . ( It was built in 1835 to hold remains of notables until either the grave site could be prepared or transportation arranged to another city . ) His body was transported to the Taylor Family plot where his parents are buried , on the old Taylor homestead plantation known as ' Springfield ' in Louisville , Kentucky . In 1883 , the Commonwealth of Kentucky placed a fifty - foot monument in his honor near his grave ; it is topped by a life - sized statue of Taylor . By the 1920s , the Taylor family initiated the effort to turn the Taylor burial grounds into a national cemetery . The Commonwealth of Kentucky donated two pieces of land for the project , turning the half - acre Taylor family cemetery into . On May 6 , 1926 , the remains of Taylor and his wife ( who died in 1852 ) were moved to the newly constructed Taylor mausoleum nearby . ( It was made of limestone with a granite base , with a marble interior . ) The cemetery property has been designated as the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery . Assassination theories . Almost immediately after his death , rumors began to circulate that Taylor was poisoned by pro - slavery Southerners , and similar theories persisted into the twentieth century . In 1978 , Hamilton Smith based his assassination theory on the timing of drugs , the lack of confirmed cholera outbreaks , and other material . In the late 1980s , Clara Rising , a former professor at University of Florida , persuaded Taylor ' s closest living relative , who was also the coroner of Jefferson County , Kentucky , to order an exhumation so that his remains could be tested . The remains were exhumed and transported to the Office of the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner on June 17 , 1991 . Samples of hair , fingernail , and other tissues were removed , and radiological studies were conducted . The remains were returned to the cemetery and reinterred , with appropriate honors , in the mausoleum . Neutron activation analysis conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory revealed no evidence of poisoning , as arsenic levels were too low . The analysis concluded Taylor had contracted " cholera morbus , or acute gastroenteritis " , as Washington had open sewers , and his food or drink may have been contaminated . Any potential for recovery was overwhelmed by his doctors , who treated him with " ipecac , calomel , opium and quinine ( at 40 grains a whack ) , and bled and blistered him too . " Political scientist Michael Parenti questions the traditional explanation for Taylor ' s death , and , relying on interviews and reports by forensic pathologists , argues that the procedure used to test for arsenic poisoning was fundamentally flawed . A 2010 review concludes : " there is no definitive proof that Taylor was assassinated , nor would it appear that there is definitive proof that he was not . " Legacy . Because of his short tenure , Taylor is not considered to have strongly influenced the office of the Presidency or the U . S . Some historians believe that Taylor was too inexperienced with politics , at a time when officials needed close ties with political operatives . Despite his shortcomings , the Clayton – Bulwer Treaty affecting relations with Great Britain in Central America is " recognized as an important step in scaling down the nation ' s commitment to Manifest Destiny as a policy . " Taylor was the last President to own slaves while in office . He was the third of four Whig presidents , the last being Fillmore , his successor . Taylor was also the second president to die in office , preceded by William Henry Harrison who died while serving as President nine years earlier , as well as the only President elected from Louisiana . The US Post Office released the first postage stamp issue honoring Zachary Taylor on June 21 , 1875 , 25 years after his death . In 1938 , Taylor would appear again on a US Postage stamp , this time on the 12 - cent Presidential Issue of 1938 . Taylor ' s last appearance ( to date , 2010 ) on a US postage stamp occurred in 1986 when he was honored on the AMERIPEX presidential issue . After Washington , Jefferson , Jackson and Lincoln , Zachary Taylor was the fifth American president to appear on US postage . He is the namesake for several names and places throughout the United States , including : Further reading . General biographies Political history Genealogy