Zachary Taylor.

« army fled back across the Río Grande into Mexico.

When Polk got word of the victories, he promoted Taylor to major general.

Congress awarded him two gold medals. B1 Battle of Monterrey In September 1846, Taylor began an invasion of northern Mexico.

His army of 6000 consisted of regulars and volunteers.

On September 21 he attacked the fortifiedcity of Monterrey, which was defended by more than 7000 Mexicans under General Pedro de Ampudia.

Taylor divided his army, giving Brigadier General William J.

Worththe major assignment of attacking the city from the rear while Taylor diverted attention to the city's eastern gates.

The strategy was successful, and on September 24the Mexicans surrendered.

Taylor's lenient terms enraged President Polk, but the activities of Whig Party politicians enraged him even more.

They began maneuveringto make Taylor, who was nominally a Whig, the next president.

Their task was not difficult.

Taylor's victories made him a hero throughout the nation, and Rough andReady clubs were springing up everywhere. B2 Battle of Buena Vista As a member of the Democratic Party, President Polk did not want to contribute to Taylor's growing popularity.

Consequently, in 1847 he detached most of the regularsfrom Taylor's command and gave them to General Winfield Scott, who had orders to attack the Mexican coast at Veracruz and march inland to capture Mexico City. This act left Taylor stranded in northern Mexico with only 5000 men.

Learning of Taylor's weakness, the Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna decided to leadhis army of about 15,000 troops against Taylor.

He hoped that by defeating Taylor and advancing to the Río Grande, he would force Scott to abandon his invasion ofMexico.

On February 23, 1847, Santa Anna's and Taylor's armies met at a hacienda called Buena Vista, just south of Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.

The Americans wereoutnumbered three to one, but Taylor was one step ahead of the enemy.

By constantly shifting his troops to meet each Mexican thrust, Taylor was able to hold hisground and claim victory when Santa Ana decided to retreat despite superior numbers.

His losses were 267 killed, 456 wounded, and 23 missing.

Santa Anna lost anestimated 2000 soldiers.

The Battle of Buena Vista ended the war in northern Mexico.

When Taylor returned to the United States in November 1847, he was the leadingpresidential candidate. C Election of 1848 Taylor was a reluctant candidate.

He had never voted in his life, and it was only after Whig politicians had created a popular groundswell of support for him that hedemonstrated enthusiasm for the race. Taylor's opponents for the Whig presidential nomination included U.S.

Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and General Scott.

Clay was the most respected Whig leader, buthe was old and had previously been defeated three times for the presidency.

Scott's candidacy, despite his efforts, never got off the ground.

Nevertheless, Taylor facedtwo obstacles.

Northern Whigs opposed him because of his Southern and slaveholding background.

Professional politicians opposed him because he had madestatements implying that he considered himself above the party.

Nevertheless, Taylor's great popularity with the people overcame all obstacles and he was nominatedon the fourth ballot at the Whig national convention.

Millard Fillmore, comptroller of New York, was chosen as his running mate. As was the tradition at the time, Taylor did not campaign on his own, although he wrote many letters to friends and politicians.

His platform was that he would bepresident of all the people, regardless of political party.

His opponents were Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan, the Democratic candidate, and former president Martin VanBuren of New York, who represented the antislavery Free-Soil Party.

In the election, Taylor won eight Southern states and seven Northern states, giving him 163electoral votes to Cass's 127.

Taylor did not win a majority of the popular votes.

He had 1,360,099, compared to 1,220,544 for Cass and 291,263 for Van Buren.However, because Van Buren took Democratic votes away from Cass in New York, all of that state's 36 electoral votes went to Taylor, who thereby won the election. IV PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES Taylor was sworn in as president on March 5, 1849.

A huge crowd swarmed to Washington, D.C., to witness the inauguration.

Many of them were office seekers hopingto be appointed to an office under the first Whig administration since 1841.

Taylor had at first intended to be a nonpartisan president, but under pressure from hisadvisers he adopted the spoils system, awarding offices to party loyalists.

As a result, much of his time and many of his problems concerned the demands ofunemployed Whig politicians.

His administration was marked, however, by his personal honesty and courage, especially in the handling of the delicate question ofslavery. A Great Debate on Slavery The expansion of slavery in the new territories gained in the Mexican War had been the major concern of Congress since the introduction of the Wilmot Proviso, whichwould have banned slavery there, in 1846.

The demands of two such territories, California and New Mexico, for statehood brought the issue to a head because bothterritories wanted to be admitted to the federal Union as free states. President Taylor's position on this issue surprised both his supporters and his opponents.

He considered the solution simple.

Because California wanted statehood, itshould be granted promptly.

The president also felt that if the people of California wanted to prohibit slavery, they and not Congress had the right to make thatdecision.

Therefore, compromises and concessions were unnecessary.

Taylor's stand drew the support of the Free Soilers and the antislavery or 'conscience' Whigs, whowere led by Senator William H.

Seward of New York. On the other extreme was a small but vocal faction of Southerners who would accept no changes to the arrangements of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, in whichCongress had drawn a line at 36°30' north latitude as the northern limit of slave territory.

This line bisected California and would have put Los Angeles and San Diego inslave territory.

These so-called diehards, led by Senator John C.

Calhoun of South Carolina, talked of seceding from the Union if Taylor's plan was followed.

Taylorresponded with tough talk of his own.

He personally, he said, would lead an army against any state that attempted secession. In the middle was a group of moderate Whigs and Democrats who were trying to find a compromise.

Its leaders were Senator Stephen A.

Douglas of Illinois and HenryClay, who had brokered the Missouri Compromise 30 years earlier.

As long as Taylor was alive, the moderates' cause was hopeless.

However, when Vice PresidentFillmore succeeded to the presidency in 1850, the moderates got his support for compromise. B Foreign Affairs Taylor's only other major concern during his brief presidency was with foreign relations.

In this area he was advised by his secretary of state, John M.

Clayton.

Taylor'spolicy was to uphold U.S.

neutrality.

He was opposed to expansionism, which at that time was manifested by the Young America movement.

Young America advocated asouthward expansion of the United States into the Latin American countries.

Cuba especially had long been viewed as a possible additional state.

In 1849 Narciso Lopez,a former Cuban provincial governor, attempted to raise an army to invade Cuba and wrest it from Spain.

His base was New Orleans, and he was backed by prominent. »