Zachary Taylor

Served as president from 1849-1850
Era: Westward Expansion Era

American Identity and Culture
When Zachary Taylor was elected for president in 1848, he had no political experience whatsoever. However, while he was president he did realize the sectionalism amongst the North, South, and the West. To avoid any further tension, Taylor selected his presidential cabinet members from different regions of the states. His cabinet consisted of Thomas Ewing who was the Secretary of Interior from Ohio, George Crawford who was Secretary of War from Georgia, William Ballard who was Secretary of Navy from Virginia, and William Meredith who was the Secretary of Treasury from Pennsylvania. By appointing members of the cabinet from various regions of the United States, it allowed for each region’s representative to represent each region’s desires which showed how Taylor demonstrated his acceptance of individualism between the different regions of the United States.
Economic Transformation and Globalization
In 1848, a man named James Wilson Marshall found gold while building a mill near the Sierra Nevada River. When the news spread, thousands of migrants flocked to California. In 1849, roughly 100,000 settlers flocked into California in hopes of finding gold. These people known as the “forty-niners” came to California believing God had sent them there to find gold. Due to the gold rush, some cities such as San Francisco turned into an urban settlement location. Mining was very unsanitary. Men often dug holes while mining and lived in the holes for a few days. The men faced diseases such as cholera and scurvy. In general, people faced fires, overcrowding, violence, crime, and dog fights. People also faced high food prices, back-breaking labor, and attacks from claim jumpers.
Environment
With thousands of migrants flocking to California to find gold, Taylor found it necessary to create laws to regulate and maintain the large increases in population in the west. In 1849, the settlers of California drafted a constitution and applied for statehood. In the Californian constitution, slavery would be banned. Although President Taylor was a slaveholder, he supported California in becoming a state. President Taylor also supported New Mexico as a free state even though New Mexico had no interest in becoming a free state. Agitated by Taylor’s overwhelming support for California, “fire-eaters” who were radicals met in Nashville, Tennessee, to talk about seceding from the Union. However at the same time, Henry Clay proposed a compromise which would later be known as the Compromise of 1850. The Compromise of 1850 would admit California as a free state into the Union, divide the Mexican Cession into Utah and New Mexico in which they could use popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery, prohibit slave trade in the District of Columbia, enforce the Fugitive Slave Law, and give the land in between New Mexico and Texas to the new lands in exchange for assuming Texas’ debt of 10 million dollars.
Politics and Citizenship
On March 7th, 1850, Senator Daniel Webster recited his speech called the “Seventh of March.” In his speech, Webster gave his support for the Compromise of 1850 meaning he supported the idea of enforcing the new fugitive slave law which stated that any federal official that captures a runaway slave must return the slave to the owner. Abolitionists from New England criticized Webster for giving his support to the compromise. After his speech, Webster was never able to regain his popularity and thus decided to resign from his position of a senate in 1850.
Slavery and its legacies in North America
During the election of 1848, Zachary Taylor stated that he had no position in whether or not slavery should be abolished in territories. However, Zachary Taylor was a southern slave holder. In the admission of California and New Mexico into the Union, Taylor supported their statehood because in California’s constitution it was state that slavery would be prohibited. The white southerners, also known as “fire-eaters” were appalled by Taylor’s support since Taylor was a slaveholder himself, they thought he would be against the no slavery clause. Angered by Taylor’s support for California and New Mexico with no slavery, the fire-eaters contemplated secession from the Union. In the end, no states seceded because of the Compromise of 1850 proposed by Henry Clay.
In 1852, the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe described the daily treatment of slaves from their masters. The book described the gruesome torture they faced and the endless labor their masters forced upon them. The book instantly became a bestseller within a few weeks. Simultaneously, a law was passed that enforced Northerners to return any runaway slaves if found. However, the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin created northern resistance toward this law because they wanted to help the slaves escape the torture they had to face.
War and Diplomacy
In 1850, Taylor’s Secretary of State John M. Clayton negotiated a treaty with Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer from Britain known as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. The treaty was negotiated after a series of attempts by the U.S to construct the Nicaragua Canal which would connect the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Since Britain had claims in the Honduras, Mosquito Coast (the area near the Atlantic Coast), and Bay Islands, Britain stated that the United States had no rights to build a canal in an area that they claimed, thus leading to the negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty had three essential clauses which were: the U.S and Britain would share the usage of the canal, the canal was a neutral territory, and no colonies were to be established in Central America. In the long run, the treaty was significant because it helped establish a more stable alliance between Britain and the United States. The treaty also helped hinder American expansion into Latin America.