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NARRATOR: Izak Starfisher Productions presents American Profile:

Zachary Taylor.

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NARRATOR: 1848. Mississippi, New York, New England, Washington, D.C.

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ANN: Old Rough and Ready has just returned to his plantation in East Pascagoula, Mississippi — with over a hundred slaves, he is a Southern gentleman of the old school. Zack Taylor — an unassuming man, who spent much of his Army career of slow promotions guarding forts in Minnesota and Wisconsin, a general who reviews his troops in civvies or whatever clothes are near at hand topped off with a straw hat — Old Zack is tired. The Mexican War hadn't been his war, but it was his fight — until General Winfield Scott took the reins, and the best troops, in a campaign from Vera Cruz to the Halls of Montezuma — a campaign of which Taylor was not any longer a part. After the bloody impasse at Buena Vista against Santa Anna, claimed as a victory by both sides but a stalemate nevertheless, President Polk had placed Scott at the head of all American armies.

Polk had helped engineer the U.S. into (A) annexation of the Republic of Texas — still regarded by Mexico as a rebellious province — and (B) an expansionist war aimed at two other Mexican provinces: New Mexico and Alta California, already partially settled by Americans moving West. Whether slavery would be expanded West was the question debated in Washington — by Calhoun, the voice of the South, Webster from New England, the Kentuckian Henry Clay — with the voices of the righteous, but not the politic, raising the moral question of invasion and conquest. Thoreau — among others — condemned the War, but only one politician spoke clearly and strongly in favor of peace — the Democrat, former President, leader of his party at the 1844 Convention — Martin Van Buren. It cost him the nomination; locked in a head-to-head confrontation with Lewis Cass, Van Buren could not get the prize, nor could Cass. America's first dark horse candidate James K. Polk came out winner on the support of none other than Van Buren himself. The party carried Polk to victory over Henry Clay. James K. Polk, the man to preside over Manifest Destiny, was indeed a man of the people — he even expressed a desire to acquire Cuba, but Northern Mexico was all he had time for in one term.

Old Zack Taylor was far from the politicking, though. He didn't like the War, but he'd damn well do a good job fighting it. He'd never voted in his life, and as election time came around again, folks weren't sure just what party he belonged to — if any. A war hero despite himself, the man who made war heroic — Whigs and Democrats alike rejoiced in American victories, before the adventure of war would give way to counting the dead.

As early as April 1847, Philip Hone had written:

HONE: At present all parts and parties, professions, sexes, and conditions, call him away from the field of battle to take upon himself the chief magistracy. Webster and Clay, Scott and MacLean, Calhoun and Polk, are shoved aside to make way for the hero of Resaca de la Palma, Palo Alto, Monterey, and Buena Vista. The lovers of peace, even the Quakers, callout for the warrior. Gentlefolk in white kid gloves say "he must positively be the man," fair ladies purse up their ruby lips and make his support a passport to their favor, and the gentry with red flannel shirts shout "Rough and Ready" at the top of their voices.

NARRATOR: Taylor himself wrote in May:

TAYLOR: Was the election to come off this fall, I make no doubt I would be elected.

NARRATOR: … in July …

TAYLOR: I would be elected by an overwhelming majority, tomorrow or even next November, but things may greatly change.

NARRATOR: … in October …

TAYLOR, It may be that the excitement in my favor is on the decline. I do not care a fig for the office.

NARRATOR: As for President, and commander-in-chief, Polk, Taylor wrote privately…

TAYLOR: While I regret to hear of the death of anyone, I would as soon have heard of his death if true, as that of any other individual.

NARRATOR: The fever of presidential ambition had begun setting in on Rough and Ready. His estimates of the men who might be his rivals, should he deign to actively seek the nomination, changed dramatically. Henry Clay had retired from politics. Or had he? Zack earlier said that if Clay ran…

TAYLOR: I would at once retire from the contest.

NARRATOR: But …

TAYLOR: Although I would much prefer seeing Mr. Clay in the chair of state than myself, and would not be in his way if I knew he could be elected, yet I would not loan myself to elevate Mr. C.

NARRATOR. And a little later …

TAYLOR, A portion of the Whigs would rather be defeated with Mr. Clay than succeed with anyone else.

NARRATOR: As for Winfield Scott, Taylor had earlier hoped that

TAYLOR: Scott will be selected as the Whig candidate for the next presidential term.

NARRATOR: But after Scott had taken his own best men for the campaign deep into Mexico, Taylor felt abused.

TAYLOR. The White House has set the whole pack to barking and snapping at my heels. Old Harry take the hindmost. They are all of a piece. Cass will no doubt be the Loco-foco candidate. Polk will be thrown overboard, or discarded as was Tyler. I would rather undergo political martyrdom than see Scott or Cass in the White House.

NARRATOR: So, he had turned it around in his own mind — reluctant though he may appear, win or lose he was already astride the white horse, marching in triumph at the head of a grateful cheering nation toward the Presidency — a job which he regarded as an honor, not a responsibility.

Let me mention another of those "despitefull" politicians —Thurlow Weed, of New York. Weed's machine — the Albany Regency, working by political patronage, maneuvering, and publicity — had already secured the nomination of William Henry Harrison, Old Tippecanoe — in 1840, had launched William H. Seward as the first Whig Governor of New York, and installed another protege, Millard Fillmore, in the House of Representatives, with the aid of Horace Greeley as the editor of the Whig machine campaign papers. Even after Greeley established his independent and highly successful New York Tribune, he remained an outspoken Whig, as well as outspoken health nut, pundit on political matters, and — in 1848 candidate for the House of Representatives. But Harrison died in office early, Seward failed as the Vice Presidential nominee in 1844, and Fillmore's bid for Governor also flopped. Looking toward 1848, Weed was the first to promote Zachary Taylor for President. Thoughtful people asked themselves why.

Thurlow Weed was a practical man for a power broker — he offered the V.P. slot to Daniel Webster, who scorned the second place, as he had earlier, to his regret, in the. Harrison campaign. And in April Weed writes:

WEED: I think Taylor cannot get a Whig nomination unless he promises to be a Whig President — and it seems too late for that. Perhaps it may go off on Scott, though I think Clayton would be the better man!

NARRATOR: And from the Senate, Hugh White reports:

WHITE: There has been a sort of private, secret intrigue in the Senate, by and through which some choice spirits are to be placed at the head of affairs.

NARRATOR: … in which Thurlow Weed, never himself a candidate, served again as kingmaker.

Meanwhile, a trio of Southerners, determined to get Zack Taylor to stand as a Whig, wrote a draft of a letter for the General to sign. Zack heard them out, made his pithy remarks on it, which were noted down. After dinner the revised draft was presented for him to consider. The General weakened. The letter was rewritten through the night and presented again at breakfast. Taylor reached for his pen to sign. "No," said the author, "It must be in your handwriting."

The Allison Letter, as it was called, may have done more than anything else to arouse "The Taylor fever" again. A President for everybody, and a Whig to boot!

Now at last the Taylor campaign could get off the ground. Alexander Stephens, one of the Young Indians of the party in New York, solved the annoyance of paid political heckling at Taylor rallies. As soon as the heckling commenced at a speech by Taylor supporter Robert Toombs, Stephens reports:

STEPHENS: Toombs, in imperturbable temper, not seeming excited in the least, again commenced. Again yells arose. Then there was the greatest row you ever saw. "Put him out!" rang from one side of the hall to the other, and everywhere a stalwart arm was seen pitching some fellow out. Rhynders's men were at work. Some who were being pitched out exclaimed, "I made no noise!" "You have chalk on your back!" was the reply; "and you've got to go."

In two minutes the hall was cleared of some forty "chalk-backs." Rhynders' plan, as he afterward told Toombs, had been to scatter his men through the audience; they were quietly to mark the backs of all who made interruptions. On the order "Put them out!" they were to seize and put out by force all chalk-backs. He and they knew pretty well beforehand who were the brawlers sent to break up the meeting; but, to make certain, his plan was first to spot them. The hall was soon cleared of rowdies. The audience was quiet and orderly while Toombs gave them one of his masterly popular harangues. Before the conclusion, the wildest enthusiasm prevailed; loud shouts of applause went up; and then came "three cheers for old Zack" given with vim as Toombs took his seat. Our victory was complete; we had a foothold in New York; our battery in that stronghold of the enemy was well served afterward and did most effective work. Great events often turn on small ones.

NARRATOR: Another Young Indian, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, had arrived in Washington the previous year — he too worked for the Taylor campaign from the sidelines — most effectively by his tour with William H. Seward in New England as a Conscience Whig speaking against Whigs bolting their own party to support the new Free-Soil Party, which rallied around the outcast Democrat Martin Van Buren. The Barn Burners, as they were called by other Democrats (supporting Lewis Cass), split the Democratic Party, which had been in power since Andy Jackson's day.

Free-Soilers, opposed to the extension of slavery into thenew territories — over a million square miles, rode on the moral issue, with a witty, articulate warhorse as their reluctant candidate — Van Buren's fourth try, his last campaign. The Free Soil Convention in Buffalo — of course they had little support in the South, where talk of a fourth party for Southern Rights nearly got off the ground -- drew from Whigs in Ohio, Democrats in New York, but in Pennsylvania, Lewis Levin's Native American Party "recommended" Taylor for President, and Thaddeus Stevens orated as a Whig, and for Taylor. Massachusetts set up Charles Francis Adams of the Adamses as Van Buren's running mate, supporting Free-Soil with great enthusiasm by Brahmins and intellectuals — but in that state Black Dan Webster helped swing the balance back to Taylor.

WEBSTER: I am an anti-slavery man. I have no confidence in Mr. Van Buren. I would much rather trust General Taylor on this very question of slavery, for I believe Taylor is an honest man. I am sure he is not so much committed on the wrong side, as I know Van Buren to have been for fifteen years.

NARRATOR: Cass bid strong in the old Northwest Territory states. "The Father of the West" had no serious Whig opposition or Free-Soil bolting in Indiana, Michigan — nor in the newest states Wisconsin and Iowa. New Jersey and Rhode Island were Whiggish, but Maine and Franklin Pierce's New Hampshire machine continued Democratic. Lewis Cass and William O. Butler were running strong.

In late summer, political forecasters suggested that, if Van Buren carried New York, both Taylor and Cass would be stymied of a majority — the election would be thrown into the House, and by a quirk of electoral procedures in the Constitution, William O. Butler would be President! South Carolina Democrats had set up a Taylor-Butler ticket — with Taylor's unthinking approval. Taylor had replied to William Pringle:

TAYLOR: Concluding that this nomination, like others in various parts of the union, has been offered me without pledges or conditions it is thankfully accepted.

NARRATOR: New York — Greeley — Albany — reacted violently. A witness reports:

WITNESS: Excitement continued great throughout the night. A large crowd gathered in front of the Journal office, and a procession with drums, trumpets, etc., paraded the streets till nearly midnight, breathing the most violent animosity to Taylor.

NARRATOR: But Thurlow Weed saw political capital even in this blunder. With talent tested on a hundred stages Weed grasped the implication of the Pringle letter. Directing Benedict to saunter out on the boards on Saturday, he had him make a declamation sounding like an anti-Taylor diatribe. Then Fillmore's Collier became a conciliator, creating the impression that Fillmore's friends were less anti-Taylor than the General's champion. This excellent theater, too subtle for most, achieved the effect which Weed desired. What argument, indeed, could the Clay men make when Fillmore himself was reconciled? The mock heroics were perfectly gorgeous, though few had the sense to appreciate them. With Benedict in Collier's natural role, Collier in Benedict's, Weed in the box and Fillmore in the wings, every actor acquitted himself like a seasoned trouper. Judged by any critical standards, no other act of '48 was quite so professional as this August comedy.

The man least involved in the political ferment, Taylor spent the hiatus with his family at East Pascagoula and Pass Christian, where skies were bright and breezes bracing. Sometimes he was seen sitting sideways in a split-bottomed chair in the lobby of Pascagoula's luxury hotel, reading newspapers which he held quarter-folded in his right hand. Visitors, meeting him on the hotel grounds, noted the military cap and loose-fitting clothes Taylor liked so much. There were receptions in the hero's honor, casual meetings with old associates and also military reviews — for thousands of soldiers came there from Mexico to be demobilized and paid. Most of the time Taylor stayed at his small cottage on the water front. Here, on the edge of a tree-shaded knoll on the banks of the Singing River, he wrote out the important document later called the Second Allison Letter.

TAYLOR: East Pascagoula, Sept. 4, 1848

Z. Taylor

NARRATOR. Taylor, peaceful but thoughtful in East Pascagoula, had strengthened his hand at last, while Cass in Detroit was silent, and Van Buren left the politicking to his vigorous son, "Prince John." Horace Greeley put up Rough and Ready's banner on the masthead of the Tribune, which was shipped wholesale to the Western Reserve. Taylor kept out of sight, except at occasional barbecues. When he did mingle with the public, emphasis was on his military triumphs. Taylor wrote less often. The contest, he felt, was virtually decided. Frantic, last-minute maneuverings would be undignified and ineffectual. The General remained at his Baton Rouge cottage until after election day. There is no evidence that he voted.

SINGER ONE. Come fall in, boys, eyes right and steady,

And raise the shout for Rough and Ready,

He licked Old Peg-Leg with his Pass

And now he'll use up Lewis Cass,

Cho: Then go it, boys, strong and steady

And raise the shout for Rough and Ready.

SINGER TWO: Come, ye hardy sons of toil,

And cast your ballots for Free Soil;

He who'd vote for Zacky Taylor,

Needs a keeper or a jailor.

And he who still for Cass can be

He is Cass without the C;

The man on whom we love to look

Is Martin Van of Kinderhook.

SINGER ONE: Rough and Ready is the man

That all good Whigs delight in;

He's just the sort for President,

And 'a' the man for fightin'.

Then raise the song, the States along,

From Maine to Louisiana.

We've got "the coon" that sealed the doom,

Of Polk and Santa Anna.

NARRATOR. As the votes were counted, Lewis Cass held strong in the North and West, Taylor in the South and industrial East — Pennsylvania proved to be the pivot, and Philadelphia's vote crucial — for Taylor. Van Buren and the Free-Soilers carried not a single state, yet without the Barn Burner rift in Cass's Democratic ranks — and enough votes to swing the balance in nearly half the states — the Election of 1848 would have gone very badly for Taylor. Too much politicking on real issues —annexation, slavery, the tariff — had done in the professionals. The non-candidate, non-campaigner, non-politician had outfoxed the foxes.

(HAIL TO THE CHIEF, CHEERS, MIXED WITH MUSICAL TUMULT, & FINALLY SLOW STATELY STAID BACKGROUND & FADE)

NARRATOR: In December 1848, before Zachary Taylor took office, Fortune gave another violent spin to America's destiny. The news of gold in California stirred up new hppes in younger eons, footloose veterans, and even families were caught by the gold bug. Philip Hone reports.

HONE. Our newly acquired territory of California, having passed from the hands of Spaniards and Indians into those of the enterprising Yankees, who run faster, fly higher, and dig deeper than any people under the sun, has now developed its riches. The region of country watered by the river Sacramento is found to abound in pure gold; the shining tempter of mankind is found in the land and crevices of the rocks, and all the world have become diggers and delvers. The towns are deserted by all but the women; business is neglected; houses stand empty; vessels are laid up for want of hands; the necessaries of life cannot be obtained, and the people are starving, with their pockets full of gold. The most extravagant stories are told of the prices of the ordinary articles in use in this new business; pick-axes, spades, and hammers are literally "worth their weight in gold," which latter commodity has fallen in value from $18 to $10 per ounce, whilst the products of the neglected earth are producing a "golden harvest. Some of the gold has reached our part of the world, and has been assayed at the mint; and it is found, in fact, that "it is all gold that glitters." The papers are filled with advertisements and enticements to adventurers, and California takes up all the commerce of the seaport.

NARRATOR: Zachary Taylor died eighteen months later of gastroenteritis.

The Great Debate of Clay and Webster and Calhoun came and went without Changing Rough and Ready's opinions. To the last he was a stout Union man, a Southern gentleman, a hero laughed at for his unschooled ways, neither a fool nor a genius, a reluctant President. His last words were:

TAYLOR: The storm, in passing, has swept away the trunk. I am about to die — I expect the summons soon — I have endeavored to discharge all my official duties faithfully — I regret nothing, but am sorry that I am about to leave my friends.

NARRATOR: This has been American Profile. Zachary Taylor, an Izak Starfisher Production.

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NARRATOR: Portions of this program were taken from Zachary Taylor, Soldier in the White House by Holman Hamilton and The Diary of Philip Hone, edited by Allan Nevins.