The life and public service of General Zachary Taylor : an address

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NOTE

AiTBB lying buried for almost three quarters
of ^ century in the columns of a single news-
paper, unknown even to Lincoln specialists,
this eulogy on President Zachary Taylor was
discovered by sheer accident. It was then
brou{^t to the attention ot Rev. William E.
Barton, D.D., ci Chicago, who has long been
an ardent student ci Abraham Lincohi and
has published several books about him. By
diligent searching he was able to gather the
many details which he has embodied in his
Introduction to the eulogy, and the publish-
ers have gladly codperated with him for the
preservation ci all the material in a worthy
and attractive form.

4 Park Stbudt, Boston
September 1, 1922

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THB UFB AND PUBLIC SXBVICS OF

GENERAL ZACHARY TAYLOR

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THIS BDinOK IB LIlflTBD TO FOUR HUNBBBD AND
THIBTT-FIVB COPISS» PBINTBD AT THB RIYBBSIDa

raaaa, cambbidgb, u. s. a., or which four hxtn-

DBBD ABB VOB BAUD. THIB IB NUMBBB. . .-A/ii^.

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THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SiatYIQE PP '

GENERAL Z ACH ARY T AtlO^

AN ADDBESS

BT

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

BOSTON AND NEW TOBK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

1922

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COPYKIGHT, 1922, BY WILLIAM K. BABTON
ALL RIGHTS RBSBRVSD

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e

INTRODUCTION

49i13G

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INTRODUCTION

Thb discovery of an unknown address by
Abraham Lincoln is an event of literary and
historical significance. Various attempts
have been made to recover his '' Lost Speech/'
delivered in Bloomington, in 1856. Henry
C. Whitney undertook to reconstruct it from
notes and memory, with a result which has
been approved by some who heard it, while
others, including a considerable group who
gathered in Bloomington to celebrate the
fiftieth anniversary of its original delivery
and of the event which called it forth, de-
clared their conviction that ''Abraham
Lincoln's 'Lost^peech' is still lost." So far
as I am aware no one now living remembers
to have heard Lincoln's address on the death
of President Zachary Taylor. Lincoln's ora-
tion on the death of Henry Clay is well

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4 INTRODUCTION

known, and his speech commemorative of
his friend, Benjamin Ferguson, also is of
record. His eulogy on President Zachary
Taylor, however, appears to have been
wholly overlooked by Lincoln's biographers
and by the compilers of various editions
of his works. Nioolay and Hay make no
allusion to it, either in their ''Life" of Lin-
coln or in their painstaking compilations of
his writings and speeches. I have found but
one reference to it, that in Whitney's ''Life
on the Circuit with Lincoln."

Lovers of Lincoln are to be congratulated
upon this discovery, of which some acooimt is
to be given in this introduction. The address
was delivered in the City Hall in Chicago on
Thursday afternoon, July 25, 1850. It was
printed in one Chicago paper. It was set up
from Lincoln's original manuscript, furnished
for the purpose.

President Taylor died at Washington on

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INTRODUCTION 6

July 9, 1850. The disease was diagnosed as
cholera morbus. A number of other distin-
guished men were sick in Washington at the
same time and apparently with the same dis-
ease. The death of Taylor was a hard blow to
the Whig Party. Of its seven candidates for
the Presidency, it succeeded in electing only
two, William Henry Harrison and Zachary
Taylor, and each of these died not long after
his election.

Lincoln arrived in Chicago two days be-
fore the President's death. The ''Chicago
Journal" of Monday evening, July 8, 1850,
reported:

Hon. A. Ldncohi, of Springfield, arrived in town
yesterday to attend to duties in the United States
District Court, now in session in this city.

A meeting was held in Chicago on the night
of the President's death, Tuesday, July 9,
1850, and arrangements were made for a
memorial service. In accordance with the

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6 INTRODUCTION

journalistic methods of the times, the daOy
papers reported the proceedings entire.

The committee appointed evidently acted
promptly, for the same issue records that the
committee had selected Lincoln as the eulo-
gist, and that he had accepted. The formal
acceptance, however, was not published un-
til two weeks later, and just before the ad-
dress itself was delivered. The occasion for
the delay would appear to have been that the
Common Coxmcil of the City of Chicago had
started independently a movement for a'
Memorial Service, and that the two commit-
tees after some conference had agreed to com-
bine in one service to be held in the City
Hall. The following correspondence was pub-
lished on Wednesday evening, July 24:

EULOGY UPON THE LATE PRESIDENT

The following is a copy of the correspondence
between the Hon. A. Lincoln and the Committee
of Arrangements, for paying a suitable tribute of
respect to the late President of the United States:

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INTRODUCTION 7

A. LmcoLK, Ebq.

Sir: — We, the undersigiied Committeei ap-
pointed at a meeting of our fellow citisens, to act
in conjunction with the Committee appointed by
the Common Council of this city, to select a suit-
able person to deliver an address to our citizens
at the City Hall upon the life of Z. Taylor, de-
ceased, late President of the United States of
America.

We have, with great unanimity of feeling and
sentiment of both Committees, selected yourself
for the purpose named — and desire that you will
be kind enough to accept thereof and to name the
time when you will perform that duty, of address-
ing your fellow-citizens of Chicago, at the place
named.

With sentiments of high esteem
Your fellow-citizens

L. C. KSBCHXYAL
B. S. MOBBIS

G. W. Dole
J. H. EiNzis
W. L. Newbbbet

Chicago, III., July 24, 1850
Gsntlbmbn: —

Yours of the 22nd inviting me to deliver an ad-
dress to the citizens of this city upon the life of

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8 INTRODUCTION

Z. Taylor, deceased, late President of the United
States, was duly received. The want of time for
preparation will make the task, for me, a very dif-
ficult one to perform, in any degree satisfactory
to others or to myself. Still I do not feel at liberty
to decline the invitation; and therefore I will fix
to-morrow as the time. The hour may be any
you think pr(^)er, after 12 o'clock m.
Your Ob't. Serv't

A. Lincoln
Messrs. L. O. Ebbcheval

B. S. M0BBI8

G»o. W. Doui

John H. Kinzib

W. L. Nbwbbbbt

Formal announcement of the time and

place appeared in the papers of Thursday,

July 25.

EULOGY

The Eulogy upon General Taylor will be de-
livered at 4 o'clock this afternoon at the City Hall,
by A. Lincoln, Esq., in obedience to the request of
the Council, and of citizens.

The Committee of Arrangements took

action immediately following the address and

on the same day made formal request of Mr.

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INTRODUCTION 9

Lincoln for a copy of the address for publi-
cation. The committee's letter and Lincoln's
reply were both printed in full:

Chicago, Jidy 25, 1850
Dbab Sir: —

Having listened with great satisfaction to the
chaste and beautiful eulogism on the character
and services of Zachary Taylor, late President of
the United States, pronounced by you before the
citizens of Chicago, and desirous that the public
at large may participate in the pleasure enjoyed
by those who had the good fortune to be present
on the occasion, we respectfully request that you
wiU furnish a copy of your address for publication.
With great regard

Your obedient servants
L. C. KsBCHBVAL, City CammiUee

RiCHABD J. HAMIim>N,

Far the Committee Common Council
City of Chicago.

Ilo Hon. A. Lincoln

CmcAGO, Jidy 26, 1850
Gbntlembn: —

Your polite note of yesterday, requesting for
publication a copy of the address on the life and
public services of Gen. Taylor, is received; and I

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10 INTBODUCnON

comply with the request very cheerfully. Accom«

panying this I send you the original manuscript.

Your ob't serv't

A. Lincoln

Messrs. L. C. Eerchbyal
R. J. Hamilton

As was fitting, the committee turned over
the manuscript to "The Journal," a Whig
paper, and " The Journal " xmdertook to fur-
nish the address to its readers on Saturday,
July 27. It found itself under the necessity
however, of printing only part of the address
in that issue, and apologized with a state-
ment that postponement of the remainder
was due to illness among its workmen. On
Monday the address was printed complete.
The type used in the Saturday issue re-
mained standing and the remainder of the
Eulogy was set up, and joined to it.

My attention was called to this report by
Hon. Edward W. Baker, of Barry, lUinoiSi
who having undertaken to discover in the

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INTBODUCnON 11

Chicago Historical Society another matter
relating to Lincohi, in which we were both
interested, found this address and reported
it to me, with an inquiry whether I had
knowledge of it. I made search of the daily
papers of the period and f oxmd not only the
address, but the correspondence and notable
items as here given.

Lincoln must have been glad of this op-
portunity to speak out of his heart his words
of sincere admiration for a man whom he
had helped to elect President of the United
States. From the outset Lincoln bad be-
lieved in Taylor, while many other Whigs
refused to support, or supported with languid
interest, a candidate who was a slave-holder
and who had borne a conspicuous part in the
Mexican War.

Taylor was nominated by a Whig Conven-
tion, which met in Philadelphia, June 7,
1848. The party was so divided that it could

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12 INTBODUCTION

not put forth a distinctive platform. Even
an attempt to mute upon an expression con-
cerning the Wihnot Proviso was regarded as
so divisive that it was not permitted to come
to a vote. The real platform was General
Taylor, and his popular nicknamei "Old
Rough and Ready." Although Taylor was no
politician and a stranger even to the ballot-
box, he regarded himself as a Whig, but he
took pains to explain that he was not an
"ultra Whig." Daniel Webster called him
"an ignorant old frontier Colonel," but not
only Webster, but Clay and Seward, joined
in his support. Many a Whig who voted for
Taylor accepted him as the choice of two
evils. Lincoln, however, was enthusiastic in
his support of the nominee. He went into
the campaign, as Nicolay and Hay remind us,
with "exultant alacrity." They say :

He could not even wait for the adjournment of
Congress to begin his stump speaking. Follow-

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INTRODUCTION 13

ing the bad example of the rest of his colleagues, he
obtained the floor on the 27th of July and made a
long, brilliant and humorous speech, upon the
merits of the two candidates before the people. —
(Abraham Lincoln: A History, vol. i, p. 279.)

This was Lincoln's noted " coat-tail speech/'

in which he paid his respects to General CasSi

the candidate of the Democrats.

Immediately after the adjounmient of Con-
gress, Lincoln went to New En^and, where
he delivered speeches in favor of Taylor, and
opposing not so much the Democrats as the
Free-Soilers, whose hostility was weakening
and threatening to defeat the Whig Party.

Lincoln fuUy expected that Taylor when
elected would remember and reward him for
this service. What Lincoln wanted, inas-
much as he was not permitted to return to
Congress, was an appointment as General
Commissioner of the United States Land
Office in Washington. To his bitter disap-
pointment Taylor did not appoint him, but

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14 INTRODUCTION

gave the position to Justin Butterfield, of
Chicago, who was said to have been favored
by Daniel Webster.

Although Lincoln's chief activity in the
Taylor campaign was outside the State of
Illinois, it happened that he delivered one
notable stump speech for Taylor in the city
of Chicago. It was while he was on his way
back from the East, coming in part by the
Great Lakes, and making his visit to Niagara,
that he stopped in Chicago, Friday, October
6, 1848. The "Evening JoumaP' annoxmced
that "Hon. A. Lincoln, M.C., from this
State, and family, were at the Sherman
House." The same issue called upon the
friends of Taylor and Fillmore to rally that
evening at the Court-House and hear Mr.
Lincoln on the issues of the campaign. "The
notice is short," said the " Journal," " but Old
Zack's soldiers are all minute men." The
papers next day announced that although

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INTRODUCTION 15

there was scant notice, only six hours, the
Court-House was overcrowded, and adjourn-
ment had to be taken to the park, where
Lincohi spoke for two hours in what the edi-
tor declared was one of the best political
speeches which the editor had ever heard or
read.

When General Taylor died, it was emi-
nently fitting that Lincoln, as the one Whig
member from Illinois of the last Congress be-
fore the election of Taylor, should have been
invited to deliver the Eulogy upon him. His
arrival in Chicago, two days before the death
of President Taylor, furnished a convenient
opportunity for the people of the city to hear
him. If Lincoln had any feelings, as he may
well have had, that General Taylor did not
sufficiently recognize Lincoln's activities in
the campaign that led to his election, the
address portrays nothing of his disappoint-
ment. Though the address was hastily pre-

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16 INTRODUCTION

pared in the midst of duties which kept him
more or less busy in court, he accepted the
invitation gladly and improved the occasion
to the satisfaction of his hearers.

In a mmiber of respects the address of Lin-
coln presents points of interest. First of all,
it is notable in its biographical character. It
presents in outline a fairly complete account
of the life and service of General Taylor.
Lincoln doubtless availed himself of such
biographical data as the campaign had re-
cently produced and which Lincoln found at
hand in Chicago after the invitation had been
received by him to deliver the address.

It is noteworthy that in speaking of Tay-
lor's invasion of Mexican territory, Lincoln
takes pains to state that he did it xmder or-
ders. It was this fact that enabled Lincoln
and other Whigs who were opposed on prin-
ciple to the Mexican War to support Taylor
for the Presidency, They were particular to

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INTRODUCTION 17

explain that he performed that act as a sol-
dier, under orders, and that the Polk Admin-
istration was responsible, and not their own
candidate. In this address Lincoln did not
enlarge upon that fact, but he did not fail to
state it.

His favorable comment upon the fact that
Taylor had not engaged in dueling is the more
notable because Lincoln had himself been an
unwilling participant in what had threatened
to be a duel — a fact of which he was never
very proud.

It is notable that he speaks of Taylor's
freedom from ambition to be President until
the position came within the range of possi-
bility, and then became possessed of a ''laud-
able ambition" to secure the position. Lin-
coln had not as yet precisely an ambition of
that character, but there always lurked in his
mind the possibility that he might rise to that
high position. Even in 1848, when he had not

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18 INTRODXJCnON

been reelected to Congress, and had been dis-
appointed in his remaining political ambi-
tion, he still thought the desire to become
President a " laudable ambition."

We note in the oration one or two studied
attempts at eloquence, such as character-
ised the earlier oratory of Lincoln, but which
disappeared wholly from his later and more
chaste style. The description of the mutual
solicitude of the garrison of Fort Brown and
the party of soldiers outside the fort, and of
the relief that was succeeded by a cry of
"Victory," must have been dramatic, and
it shows at its best that earlier vein of Abra-
ham Lincoln's studied attempt at oratorical
effect.

One of the most interesting because most
characteristic qualities of the address is the
appreciation of the magnanimity of General
Taylor, as exemplified in his treatment of
Colonel Worth. This I regard as one of the

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INTRODUCTION 19

best things in the address, because it was an
example of what was best in that bluff and
sensible and generous old soldier, Zachary
Taylor, and because it was so nobly char-
acteristic also of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln
^nphasized that quality in Taylor, because
he unconsciously sought out in him what
was most truly like to his own noble nature.
Orations by one President upon another
are none too common in American literature;
and this by Lincoln upon Taylor is of value in
its estimate of the best in Taylor as discerned
by one in whom the same quality was wor-
thily present. Lincoln would have done for
Worth what Taylor did. He treated in sim-
ilar fashion the men who opposed him.

One feature of the oration has remarkable

interest. It appears to have been the only

address of Lincoln's in which he made use

of his favorite poem, —

''Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"

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20 INTRODUCTION

This poem he quoted so often to his friends
that some of them supposed him to have been
its author, but so far as a search of his pub-
lished works can show, he did not use it in any
other formal address.

Lincoln often inquired of his friends
whether any of them knew the author of this
poem. So far as is known, he never learned.
Hemdon, in his lecture which has served
as the basis of all the literature concerning
Lincoln and Ann Rutledge, informs us that,
after the death of Ann, Lincoln formed an
attachment for this poem. It has been af-
firmed that he learned it from Ann. I have
inquired of Mrs. Sarah Rutledge Saunders,
surviving ^ sister of Ann Rutledge, whether
her mother knew this poem and taught it to
her daughters, Ann included. She replied:

Yes, Mother knew the poem, ''Oh, why should

^ Mn. Saunders was living when this Introduction
was written, but died May 1, 1022.

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INTRODUCTION 21

the spirit of mortal be proud." But she did not
teach it to lincoki. The girls and Mother learned
it from Lincoln. They alwa3rs called it linooln's
song.

The first aUusion made to this poem in any
of Lincoln's letters, that I have seen, was in
April, 1846, when he was writing some verses
of his own, and comparing them with those
of another budding poet, William Johnson,
Johnson had sent to Lincoln a poem which he
had written, a parody upon Poe's " Raven.'*
Lincoln had never read the '' Raven,'' but he
sent to Johnson some lines of his own, com-
posed after his visit to his old home in Indi-
ana in the fall of 1844. Subsequently, in
September, 1846, Lincoln sent him additional
lines suggested by the same visit. It is in the
letter of April 18, 1846, that Lincoln refers to
the poem, " Oh why should the spirit of mor-
tal be proud?" He says:

I have not your letter now before me; but from
memory, I think you ask me who is the author of

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22 INTRODUCTION

the piece I sent you, and that you do so ask as to
indicate a slight suspicion that I am the author.
Beyond all question, I am not the author. I would
give all I am worth, and go in debt, to be able to
write so fine a piece as I think that is. I met it in
a strag^ing newspaper last summer, and I re-
member to have seen it once before, about fifteen
years ago, and this is all I know about it.

The statement that he first had seen the
poem about fifteen years before 1846 — that
is, about 1831 — carries his acquaintance with
it back to the period of his friendship for Ann
Rutledge, and it is not at all improbable that
she learned it at the same time.

After Lincoln had become President, he is
said to have made one or more copies of this
poem for personal friends; but I have not seen
any of these copies. It would be interesting
to know whether he ever knew the whole
poem.

Literary critics have not shared his high
estimate of the composition. In general
they have esteemed it a rather mediocre

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INTBODUCnON 23

piece. But its rfa3rthm is accurate, and its
rh3nne is good, and its plaintive sentiment ac- '
corded with the melancholy of Lincoln and of
his social environment. It is not the only
poem of no great literary merit whidi became
popular in that period; and it would have
been f orgottean with the rest but for the as-
sociation of its lines with the name of Abra-
ham Lincoln. He gave to it and its author
their chief claim to immortality.
During his Presidency, Lincoln said:

There is a poem which has been a great favorite
with me for years, which was first shown me when
a young man, by a friend, and which I afterwards
saw and cut from a newspaper and learned by
heart. I would give a good deal to know who wrote
it, but I have never been able to ascertain.

The author of the poem, " Oh, why should
the spirit of mortal be proud?'' was William
Knox, who was bom at Firth, in the parish of
Lilliesleaf , in the county of Roxburghshire,
in Scotland, on the 17th of August, 1789,

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24 INTRODUCTION

and who died at the age of thirty-six. From
his early childhood he wrote verses, and he
attained sufficient prominence to win the
atteantion of Walter Scott, who encouraged
him and loaned him money. What he might
have done had he lived, we do not know; but
this is the only poem of his that has any claim
to distinction, and that not for its own out-
standing merit, but for its association with
Abraham Lincoln.

Knox's earliest volume, ''The Harp of
Zion," was published in 1825, and does not
contain this poem. What appears to have
been an inclusive volume of the poems of
Knox was published in London and Edin-
burgh in 1847, and bore the title " The Lonely
Hearth, The Song? of Israel, Harp of Zion,
and Other Poems." This includes the poem
which bears the title '' Mortality." It is in-
teresting to recall that it has sometimes been
printed with the title "immortality." To

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INTRODUCTION 25

that title, however, it can bear no daim.
It will be of interest to compare the poem
in its entirety with the stanzas which Lin-
coln quoted on the occasion of his oration in
memory of the deceased President, General
Zachary Taylor.

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Digitized by CjOOQIC

MORTALITY
By WILLIAM KNOX

Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be pi'oud?
like a swift flying meteor, a fast fl3dng cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
Man passeth from life to his rest in the grave.

The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade.

Be scattered around and together be laid;

And the young and the old, and the low and the

high,
Shall moulder to dust and together s}iall lie.

The infant a mother attended and loved;
The mother that infant's affection who proved;
The husband that mother and infant who blessed,
Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest.

The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in

whose eye.
Shone beauty and pleasure, — her triumphs are

by;
And the memory of those who loved h^ and

praised.
Are alike from the minds of the living erased.

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28 MORTALITY

The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne;
The brow of the priest that the mitre hath

worn;
The eye of the sage and the heart of ihe brave,
Are hidden and lost in the depth of the grave.

The peasant whose lot was to sow and to reap;
The herdsman who climbed with his goats up

the steep;
The beggar ^o wandered in search of his bread,
Have faded away like the grass that we tread.

The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven;
The sinner who dared to remain unforgiven;
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.

So the multitude goes, like the flower or the

weed.
That withers away to let others succeed;
So the multitude comes, even those we behold,
To repeat every tale that has often been told.

For we are the same our fathers have been;
We see tiie same sights our f ath^n have seen, —
We drink the same stream and view ihe same

sun,
And run the same course our fathers have run.

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MOBTAIalTT 20

The tiiou^ts we are thinking our fathers would

think;
From the death we are shrinking our fathers

would shrink;
To the life we are clinging our f ath^n would

cling; ♦

But it cfpeeds for us all, like a bird on the wing.

They loved, but the story we cannot unfold;
They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is

cold;
They grieved, but no wail from their slumbers will

come;
They joyed, but the tongue of their gladness is

dumb.

They died, ayl they died: and we things that are

now.
Who walk on the turf that lies over Aeir brow,
Who make in their dwelling a transient abode,
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage

road.

Yea I hope and despondency, pleasure and pain,

We mingle together in sunshine and rain;

And the smiles and the tears, the song and the

dirge.
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge.

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30 MOBTALITT

T is the wink of an eye, 't is the draught (^ a

breathy
From the blossom of health to the paleness of

death.
From the gilded sdoon to the bier and the

shroud, —
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

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THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICE OF

GENERAL ZACHARY TAYLOR

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EULOGY '•'• •.••••:••

PB0N0X7NCSD BT HON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

ON THE LIFE AND SBBVICBS OF

THB LATB PBBSIDBNT OF THB XTNITBD BTATB8

General Zachart Taylor, the eleventh
elected President of the United States, is
dead. He was bom, November 2, 1784, in
Orange County, Virginia; and died July 9,
1850, in the sixty-sixth year of his agei at
the White House in Washington City.

He was the second son of Richard Taylor,
a Colonel in the Army of the Revolution.
His youth was passed among the pioneers of
Kentucky, whither his parents emigrated
soon after his birth; and where his taste for
military life, probably inherited, was greatly
stimulated. Near the commencement of our
last war with Great Britain, he was ap-
pointed, by President Jefferson, a Lieutenant
in the Seventh Regiment of Infantry. Dur-
-ing the war, he served under General Harri-

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; ^ mFB A^ EUBLIC SBBYICB OF
:8QQ'2a'l!|i$:No]rtlv-We^m campaign against
ike Indians; and, having been promoted to
a Captaincy, was entrusted with the defense
of Fort Harrison, with fifty men, half of them
unfit for duty. A strong party of Indians,
under the Prophet, brother of Tecumseh,
made a midnight attack upon the Fort; but
Taylor, though weak in his force, and without
preparation, was resolute and on the alert;
and after a battle, whidi lasted till after day*
light, completely repulsed them. Soon after,
he took a prominent part in the expedition
under Major-General Hopkins against the
Prophet's town; and on his return, found a
letter from President Madison, who had suc-
ceeded Mr. Jefferson, conferring on him a
Major's brevet for his gallant defense of Fort
Harrison.

After the dose of the British war, he re-
mained in the frontier service of the West,
till 1818. He was then trapsferred to the

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GENERAL ZACHART TAYLOR 35

Southern frontier, where he remained, most
of the time, in active service till 1826. In
1819, and during his service in the South, he
was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-
Colonel. In 1826 he was again sent to the
North-West, where he continued until 1836.
In 1832 he was promoted to the rank of
Colonel. In 1836 he was ordered to the South
to engage in what is well known as the Flor-
ida War. In the autimm of 1837 he fought
and conquered in the memorable Battle of
Okeechobee, one of the most desperate strug-
gles known to the annals of Indian warfare.
For this he was honored with the rank
of Brigadier-General; and in 1838 was ap-
pointed to succeed General Jessup in com-
mand of the forces in Florida. In 1841 he was
ordered to Fort Gibson to take command of
the Second Military Department of the
United States; and in September, 1844, was
directed to hold the troops between the Bed

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36 UFB AND FUBUC SEBVICE OF

River and the Sabine in readiness to march
as might be indicated by the charge of the
United States, near Texas. In 1845 his forces
were concentrated at Corpus Christi.

In obedience to orders, in March, 1846,
he planted his troops on the Rio Grande op-
posite Matamoras. Soon after this, and near
this place, a small detachment of General
Taylor's forces, imder Captain Thornton,
was cut to pieces by a party of Mexicans.
Open hostilities being thus commenced, and
General Taylor being constantly menaced by
Mexican forces vastly superior to his own
in nmnbers, his position became exceedingly
critical. Having erected a fort, he mig}it de-
fend himself against great odds while he
could remain within it; but his provisions
had failed, and there was no supply nearer
than Point Isabel, between which and the
new fort the country was open to, and full of,
armed Mexicans. His resolution was at once

yGoogk

GENEBAL SSACHABT TATLOB 37

taken. He garrisoned Fort Brown (the new
fort) with a force of about four hundred ; and,
putting himself at the head of the main body
of his troops, marched forthwith for Point
Isabel. He met no resistance on his march.
Having obtained his supplies, he began his
return march, to the relief of Fort Brown,
which he at first knew would be, and then
knew had been, besieged by the enemy, im-
mediately upon his leaving it. On the first or
second day of his return march, the Mexican
General, Arista, met General Taylor in front,
and offered battle. The Mexicans niunbered
six or eight thousand, opposed to whom were
about two thousand Americans. The mo-
ment was a trying one. Comparatively, Tay-
lor's forces were but a handful; and few, of
either officers or men, had ever been under
fire. A brief council was held; and the result
was the battle commenced. The issue of that
contest all remember — remember with

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38 UFB AND FUBUC SEBVICB OF

mingled sensations of pride and sorrow, that
then American valor and powers triimiphedi
and then the gallant and accomplished and
noble Ringgold fell.

The Americans passed the night on the
field. The General knew the enemy was still
in his front; and the question rose upon him,
whether to advance or retreat. A council was
again held; and it is said, the General over-
ruled the majority, and resolved to advance.
Accordmgly, m the morning, he moved rap-
idly forward. At about four or five miles from
Fort Brown he again met the en^ny in force,
who had selected his position, and made
some hasty fortifications. Again the battle
conunenced, and raged till nightfall, when the
Mexicans were entirely routed, and the Gen-
eral, with his fatigued and bleeding and re-
duced battalipns, marched into Fort Brown.
There was a joyous meeting. A brief hour
before, whether all within had perished, aU

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GENERAL SSACBABT TATLOB 39

without feared, but none could tell — whSe
the incessant roar of artillery wrought those
within to the highest pitch of apprehension,
that their brethren without were being mas-
sacred to the last man. And now the din of
battle nears the fort, and sweeps obliquely
by: a gleam of hope flies through the half-
imprisoned few; they fly to the wall; every
eye is strained; it is — it is — the Stars and
Stripes are still aloft! Anon the anxious breth-
ren meet; and while hand strikes hand, the
heavens are rent with a loud, long, glorious,
gushing cry of Victoryl Victory!! Victory!!!

Soon after these battles, General Taylor
was brevetted a Major-General in the United
States Army.

In the meantime, war having been de-
dared to exist between the United States
and Mexico, provision was made to reinforce
General Taylor; and he was ordered to march
into the interior of Mexico. He next marched

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40 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICE OF

upon Monterey, arriving there on the nine-
teenth of September. He commenced an as-
sault upon the city, on the twenty-first; and
on the twenty-third, was about carrying it at
the point of the bayonet, when General Am-
pudia capitulated. Taylor's forces consisted
of four himdred and twenty-five officers, and
nine thousand two himdred and twenty men.
His artillery consisted of one ten-inch mor-
tar, two twenty-four-pound howitzers, and
eight field batteries of four guns, the mortar
being the only piece serviceable for the siege.
The Mexican works were armed with forty-
two pieces of cannon, and manned with a
force of at least seven thousand troops of
the line, and from two to three thousand
irregulars.

Next we find him advancing farther into
the interior of Mexico, at the head of five
thoiisand four hundred men, not more than
six hundred being regular troo(>s.

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QBNEBAL ZACHABT TAYLOB 41

At Agua Nueva^ he received intelligence
that Santa Anna, the greatest military chief-
tain of Mexico, was advancing after him;
and he fell back to Buena Vista, a strong
position a few miles in advance of SaltQlo.
On the twentynsecond of February, 1847, the
battle, now called the Battle of Buena Vista,
was commenced by Santa Anna at the head
of twenty thousand well-appointed soldiers.
This was General Taylor's great battle. The
particulars of it are familiar to all. It con-
tinued through the twenty-third; and al-
though General Taylor's defeat seemed inev-
itable, yet he succeeded by skill, and by the
courage and devotion of his officers and men,
in repulsing the overwhelming forces of the
enemy, and throwing them back into the
desert. This was the battle of the chiefest
interest fought during the Mexican War. At
the time it was fought, and for some weeks
after. General Taylor's communication with

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42 LIFE AND PXJBUC SEBVICE OF

the United States was cut off; and the road
was in possession of parties of the enemy*
For many days after full intelligence of it
should have been in all parts of this country,
nothing certain concerning it was known,
while vague and painful rumors were afloat^
that a great battle had been fought, and that
General Taylor and his whole force had been
annihilated. At length the truth came, with
its thrilling details of victory and blood, — of
glory and grief. A bright and glowing page
was added to our Nation's history; but then,
too, in eternal silence, lay Clay and McKee
and Yell and Lincoln, and our own beloved
Hardin.

This was also General Taylor's last battle*
He remained in active service in Mexico till
the autumn of the same year, when he re-
turned to the United States.

Passing in review General Taylor's mili-
tary history, some striking peculiarities will

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C(BNERAL aSAGBABT TATLOB 43

appear. No one of the six battles which he
fought, except, perhaps, that of Monterey,
presented a field which would have been se-
lected by an ambitious captain upon which to
gather laurels. So far as fame is concerned,
the prospect — the promise in advance —
was, " Yoit may lose, but you cannot win.'*
Yet Taylor, in his blunt, businesslike view of
things, seems never to have thought of this.
It did not hi^pen to General Taylor, oi^q^
in his life, to fight a battle on equal terms, or
on tenos advantageous to himself — and yet
he was never beaten, and he never retreated.
In aQ, the odds were greatly agamsfhim; in
eaoby defeat seemed inevitable; and yet in ftU
hetiriiimphnd. Wherever he has led, while the
battle still raged, the issue was painfully
doubtful; yet in each and all, when the din
had ceased, and the smoke had blown away,
our country's flag was still seen, fluttering in
the breeze.

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44 LIFE AND PUBLIC SEBYICE OF

General Taylor's bMtles were lot dis-
tinguished for brilliant military maneuvers;
but in aU he seems rather to have conquered
by the exercise of a sober and steady judg-
ment, coupled with a dogged incapacity to
understand that d^fsot was poaaible. His
rarest military trait was a combination of
negatives — absence of excitement and ab-
sence of fear. He could not be flurried, and
he could not be scared.

In connection with General Taylor's mil-
itary character may be mentioned his re-
lations with his brother officers, and his sol-
diers. Terrible as he was to his countrjr's
enemies, no man was so little disposed to have
difficulty with his friends. During the period
of his life, dueling was a practice not quite
uncommon among gentlemen in the peace-
ful avocatipns of life, and still more com-
mon among the officers of the Army and
Navy, yet, so far as I can learn, a duel with

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GBNER4L ZACHABY TAYLOB 45

General Taylor has never been talked of.
He was alike averse to sudden and to star-
tling quarrels; and he pursued no man with
revenge. A notable and a noble instance of
this is found in his conduct to the gallant and
now lamented General Worth. A short while
before the battles of the eighth and ninth of
May, some question of precedence arose be-
tween Worth (then a Colonel) and some other
officer, which question it seems it was General
Taylor's duty to decide. He decided against
Worth. Worth was greatly oflfended, left the
Army, came to the United States, and ten-
dered his resignation to the authorities at
Washington. It is said, that in his passionate
feeling, he hesitated not to speak harshly
and disparagin^y of General Taylor. He
was an officer of the highest character; and
his word, on military subjects, and about
military men, could not, with the country,
pass for nothing. In this absence from the

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46 LIFE AND PUBLIC fiBBVICB OF

Army of Colonel Worth, the unexpected turn
of things brought in the battles of the eighth
and ninth. He was deeply mortified — in
ahnost absolute desperation — at having lost
the opportunity of being present, and taking
part in those battles. The laurels won by
his previous service, in his own eyes, seemed
withering away. The Government, both
wisely and generously, I think, dedined ac-
cepting his resignation; and he returned to
General Taylor. Then came General Tay-
lor's opportimity for revenge. The Battle of
Monterey was approaching and even at hand.
Taylor could, if-he would, so place Worth in
that battle, that his name would scarcely be
noticed in the report. But no. He felt it
was due to the service to assign the real post
of honor to some one of the best (^cers; he
knew Worth was one of the best, and he felt
that it was generous to allow him, then and
there, to retrieve his secret loss. Accordingly,

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GENERAL ZACHABYTATLOB 47

he assigned to Colonel Worth in that assault,
what was par excellence the post of honor; and
the duties of which he executed so well and
so brilliantly as to eclipse, in that battle,
even General Taylor, himself.

As to General Taylor's relations with his
soldiers, details would be endless. It is per-
haps enough to say — and it is far from the
least of his honors that we can truly say —
that of the many who served with him,
through the long course of forty years, all
testify to the uniform kindness, and his con-
stant care for, and hearty sympathy with,
their every want and every suffering; while
none can be found to declare that he was ever
a tyrant an3rwhere, in anything.

Going back a little in point of time, it is
proper to say that so soon as the news of the
battles of the eighth and ninth of May, 1846,
had fairly reached the United States, Gen-
eral Taylor began to be named for the next

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48 LIFE AND PUBLIC SEBVICE OF

Presidency, by letter writers, newspapers,
public meetings and conventions in various
parts of the country.

These nominations were generally put forth
as being of no-party charactBr. Up to this
time I think it highly probable — nay, al-
most certain — that General Taylor had
never thought of the Presidency in conneo-
tion with himself . And there is reason for be-
lieving that the first intelligence of these
nominations rather amused than seriously in-
terested him. Yet I should be insincere, were
I not to confess that, in my opinion, the re-
peated and steady manifestations in his favor
did beget in his mind a laudable ambition to
reach the high distinction of the Presiden-
tial chair.

As the time for the Presidential canvass
approached, it was seen that general nom-
inations, combining anything near the num-
ber of votes necessary to an election, could

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GENERAL ZACBABT TATLOB 49

not be made without some pretty strong and
decided reference to party politics. Accord-
ingly, in the month of May, 1848, the great
Democratic Party nominated as their can-
didate an able and distinguished member of
their own party [General Cass] on strictly
party grounds. Almost immediately follow-
ing this, the Whig Party, in General Conven-
tion, nominated General Taylor as their can-
didate. The election came off in the Novem-
ber following, and though there was also a
third candidate, the two former only re-
ceived any vote in the electoral college.
General Taylor, having the majority of them,
was duly elected; and he entered on the du-
ties of that high and responsible office, March
5,1849. The incidents of his administration,
up to the time of his death, are too familiar
and too fresh to require any direct repetition.
The Presidency, even to the most expe-
rienced politicians, is no bed of roses; and

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50 LIFB AND PUBLIC SEBYICB OF

General Taylor, like others, found thorns
within it. No human being can fill that sta-
tion and escape censure. Still, I hope and be-
lieve, when General Taylor's official conduct
shall come to be viewed in the calm light of
history, he will be found to have deserved as
little as any who have succeeded him.
/ Upon the death of General Taylor, as it
j.^ would be in the case of any President, we are
naturally led to consider what will be its ef-
fect, politically, upon the country. I will not
pretend to believe that all the wisdom, or all
of the patriotism of the coimtry, died with
General Taylor. But we know that wisdom
and patriotism, in a public office under in-
stitutions like ours, are wholly inefficient
and worthless, imless they are sustained by
the confidence and devotion of the people*
And I confess my apprehensions, that in the
death of the late President, we have lost a
degree of that confidence and devotion which

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OBNERAL ZACHART TATLOB 51

wQl not soon again pertain to any sucoeesor.
Between public measures regarded as an-
tagonistic, there is often less real difference in
their bearing on l^e public weal, than l^ere
is between the dispute being kept up or be^
ing settled either way. I fear the one great
question of the day is not now so likely to be
partially acquiesced in by l^e different sec-
tions of the Union, as it would have been
could General Taylor have been spared to us.
Yet, under aU circumstances, trusting to our
Maker and through His wisdom and benefi-
cence to the great body of our people, we will
not despair, nor despond.

In General Taylor's general public re-
lation to his country, what will strongly im-
press a dose observer was his unostentatious,
self-sacrificing, long«enduring devotion to
his duty. He indulged in no recreations, he
visited no public places seeking applause;
but quietly, as the earth in its orbit, he was

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52 LIFB AND PUBLIC SBBVIGB OF

alwa3ns at his post. Along our whole Indian
frontier, through summer and winter, in sun-
shine and storm, like a sleepless sentinel,
he has watched while we have slept for forty
long years. How well might the dying hero
say at last, ' ' I have done my duty, I am ready
to go."

Nor can I help thinking that the American
people, in electing General Taylor to the
Presidency, thereby showing their high appre-
ciation of his sterling, but inobtrusive qual-
ities, did their country a service, and them-
selves an imperishable honor. It is much
for the young to know that treading the hard
path of duty as he trod it will be noticed, and
will lead to high places.

But he is gone. The conqueror at last is
conquered. The fruits of his labor, his name,
his memory and example, are all that is left
us — his example, verifying l^e great truth
that ''he that humbleth himself, shall be

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OBNBRAL ZACHABT TATLOB 53

exalted " — teaching that to serve one's coun-
try with a singleness of purpose gives assur-
ances of that country's gratitude, secures its
best honors, and makes " a dying bed, soft
as downy pillows are."

The death of the last President may not be
without its use, in reminding us that we, too,
must die. Death, abstractly considered, is
the same with the high as with the low; but
practically we are not so much aroused by the
contemplation of our own mortal natures, by
the fall of many undistinguished, as that of
one great and well-known name. By the
latter, we are forced to muse, and ponder
sadly,

"0, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? "

So the multitude goes, like the flower or the
weed,

That withers away, to let others succeed;

So the multitude comes, even those we be-
hold,

To repeat every tale that has of t^i been told.

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54 LIFE AND PUBUC SSBVICE OF

For we are same that our fathers have been;
We see the same sights our fathers have

seen, —
We drink the same streams, and see the same

sun<

And run the same course our fathers have run.

They loved, but the story we cannot unfold;

They scorned, but the heart of the haughty is
cold;

They grieved, but no wail from their slumbers
will come;

They rejoiced, but the tongue of their glad-
ness is dumb.

They died I Aye, they died. We, things that

are now,
That work on the turf that lies on their brow,
And make in their dwellings a transient abode,
Meet the thinp that they met on their pil-
grimage road.

Yeal hope and despondency, pleasure and

pain
Are mingled together in sunshine and rain —
And the smile and the tear, and the song and

the dirge
Still follow each other like surge upon surge.

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QBNERAL ZAOHABY TAYLOR 55

'T is the wink of an eye, 't is the draught of a

breath,
From the blossom of health, to the paleness of

death —
From the gilded saloon, to the bier and the

shroud,
why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

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