[USA] - 12th President of the USA Zachary Taylor 13th President of the USA Millard Fillmore

12th President of the USA Zachary Taylor 13th President of the USA Millard Fillmore

 

Zachary Taylor	Birth: 24 November 1784
	Died: 9 July 1850
	Party: Whig
	Presidency: 1849 – 1850
	Vice President: Millard Fillmore
	Nickname: Old Rough and Ready

 

● Henry Clay’s compromise for slavery  

Zachary Taylor himself owned a handful of slaves so the Whig party and the part of Southern America hoped Zachary Taylor would help to promote slavery. However, it turned out that Taylor didn’t want to expand slavery in the newly admitted territories during the Mexican Cession.

The Southern states of the United States were outraged and there were attempts to break off from the Union in states like South Carolina. The omens of the Civil war started to surface.

 

 

The California region was populated in an exceptional rate due to the Gold Rush and already it became one of the most financially rich regions within the United States. The decision on rather appointing the new territories a slavery state or a free state had to be imminent.

Henry Clay proposed a compromise to admit California as a free state, while leaving the rest of the states obtained by the Mexican Cession a choice.

 

Henry Clay 'The Great Compromiser'

 

● Fugitive Slave Act

Among Henry Clay’s compromise was the Fugitive Slave Act. While slaves that escaped from slavery states would be freed when they reached a free state, the Fugitive Slave Act proposed the federal government to be responsible to return any fugitive slaves to their owners regardless of the status of slavery or free state.

 

 

Zachary Taylor himself vetoed the 1850 Compromise due to the Fugitive Slave Act and the free states of the North also objected the Fugitive Slave Act as well.

The Fugitive Slave Act would grant authority to the slavery states to hunt down fugitive slaves in free states.

 

 

● Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe published the novel ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ which became one of the most representative abolitionist novels. Harriet Stowe was a female author and an advocate for antislavery which made her one of the most modern female activists considering the era.

 

Harriet Beecher Stowe

 

 

 

Already 10,000 copies were sold during the first week Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published. When Abraham Lincoln becomes president, he would invite Harriet Stowe to the White House during the Civil war.

Abraham Lincoln greeted her ‘So this is the little lady who made this big war!’.

 

‘So this is the little lady who made this big war!’.

 

● Zachary Taylor’s death in Office.  

Zachary Taylor was the second president to die in office. The first president to die in office was William Henry Harrison who was the 9th president of the United States.

Zachary Taylor showed symptoms of intestinal cramps after he attended speeches for Independence Day at the Washington Monument(Construction wasn’t finished during this date). After a short time since he showed such symptoms, he passed away on the 9th of July 1850.

 

 

People believe that Zachary Taylor was infected by Cholera for his symptoms. The bacteria group Vibrio cholerae cause Cholera that develops an acute diarrhea that could be lethal by causing severe dehydration.

The knowledge of hygiene and medical science was not developed during these days so diseases such as Cholera was abundant and unfortunately may have killed the president.

 

  

Millard Fillmore	Birth: 7 January 1800
	Died: 8 March 1874
	Party: Whig
	Presidency: 1850 – 1853
	Vice President: None
	Nickname: Last of the Whigs

 

● Matthew C. Perry and the ‘Black Ships’ open Japan trades – Treaty of Kanagawa

Japan maintained a seclusion policy which meant that it would close trades with all foreign countries. Japan already have been making trades with Portugal and European countries in the past.

However, after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi who unified Japan, Dokugawa Ieyasu started the ‘Edo Shogunate’ that maintained a seclusion policy throughout the 17th ~ mid-19th century.

 

 

Millard Fillmore ordered Matthew C. Perry who was a commodore of the US Navy to lead in expedition to Japan in March of 1852. After the Mexican Cession, the United States would now reach the Pacific Ocean.

The United States needed to maintain naval forces and develop trade routes in the Pacific as well. In 8th of July 1853, US Navy commodore Matthew C. Perry sailed to the Edo Bay with warships and demanded the Edo Shogunate to open port for US trades.

 

Matthew C. Perry

 

The warships included steamboats that were black which gave Japanese called ‘Black ships’(Kurofune). Matthew Perry’s pressure would later lead to the Convention of Kanagawa that granted trades between the United States and Japan.

European countries would also rush for trades with Japan as Matthew Perry sort of forcefully opened trades with Japan.

 

 

● The Compromise of 1850

While Zachary Taylor opposed to Henry Clay’s compromise, especially the Fugitive Slave Act, Millard Fillmore thought that the conditions would be the only method to prevent Civil War.

Zachary Taylor was determined enough to part off from the Whig party, but Millard Fillmore wasn’t aggressively determined with antislavery and tried to keep the Whig party together as well.

 

 

Millard Fillmore signed the Compromise of 1850 which granted 5 bills including the Fugitive Slave Act. The southern American states weren’t satisfied with California which became one of the most financially richest region so rapidly become a free state while the northern American states were outraged that the Fugitive Slave Act was signed.

 

Henry Clay explaining the Compromise dof 1850

 

● Demise of the Whigs

Even the Whigs would divide into the northern Whigs that supported antislavery and the southern Whigs that supported slavery.

For the next presidency, the southern ‘Cotton’ Whigs still supported Millard Fillmore for the next president while the northern ‘Conscience’ Whigs would support Winfield Scott who was a war hero of the American-Mexico war.

Eventually the Whigs party couldn’t resolve disputes within and would be disbanded in 1856. The Republican party would success the Whigs.