Zachary Taylor

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. 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 1850 did compromise on this divisive issue become possible.