It Got Them Killed: Zachary Taylor

President Zachary Taylor

1784 - 1850

Cause of Death: 

Poisoning

Likely Suspects: 
The Slave Power Conspiracy

Who Killed Zachary Taylor..? from Spike1138 on Vimeo.
The Odd Death of Zachary Taylor

On July 4, 1850, President Taylor became overheated.

To alleviate his symptoms, he drank a pitcher of milk and ate both a bowl of cherries and several pickles.

Five days later, he died.

Almost immediately, rumors spread that he’d been poisoned. However, for more than a century, historians blamed various ailments for his passing, including cholera, typhoid fever, and food poisoning. Then, in the late 1980s, an author by the name of Professor Clara Rising decided to challenge established history.

The (Flawed) Exhumation?

Professor Rising theorized that unknown persons assassinated President Taylor via poison, specifically arsenic. She convinced his distant relatives to exhume the body. On June 17, 1991, his lead coffin was removed from the ground.

Soon after, Dr. George Nichols and Dr. William Maples discovered that Taylor’s remains were in remarkably good shape. They proceeded to gather tissue samples. Initial tests showed relatively high arsenic levels. However, they were proclaimed too low to indicate a deliberate poisoning.

But the rumors didn’t end. In 1999, Michael Parenti revisited the arsenic theory in his book History as Mystery and reported numerous flaws in the autopsy. He also provided a convincing mass of circumstantial evidence that pointed to a poisoning. For example, Zachary Taylor’s hair showed a suspicious amount of antimony, which is poisonous. Also, the amount of arsenic revealed in a sectional analysis of his hair was similar to that of other poison victims. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Why would anyone assassinate Zachary Taylor?
One possible motive for assassination was the issue of slavery. Although he owned slaves, President Taylor was considered a moderate on the issue. As such, he didn’t support the Compromise of 1850, which required the return of runaway slaves. Henry Clay, the bill’s author, attacked Taylor within the Senate. Threats of secession rang out across the nation. In response, Zachary Taylor threatened military action against the “traitors”. Civil war seemed like a near certainty. But President Taylor’s death paved the way for a temporary peace. Also, it enabled Millard Fillmore, a known supporter of the Compromise, to take office. Fillmore later passed a revised version of the Act.

Guerrilla Explorer’s Analysis

President Taylor doesn’t seem all that important today. However, if it weren’t for that fateful July 4, the name Zachary Taylor might have been etched indelibly into Civil War history, rather than that of Abraham Lincoln. Evidence for an assassination is credible. Also, numerous pro-slavery advocates, including many powerful ones, had strong motives to kill President Taylor. Historical detectives need to revisit this case. When they do, it’s quite possible that they’ll find that the first assassination in American history wasn’t of Abraham Lincoln but rather, of a little-known military hero named Zachary Taylor.

Who Killed Zachary Taylor?

And who found Johnny Gosch...?

The idea that I should become President seems to me too visionary to require a serious answer. It has never entered my head, nor is it likely to enter the head of any other person.

#9

I have always done my duty. I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me.

#8

The power given by the Constitution to the Executive to interpose his veto is a high conservative power; but in my opinion it should never be exercised except in cases of clear violation of the Constitution, or manifest haste and want of due consideration by Congress.

#7

As American freemen we can not but sympathize in all efforts to extend the blessings of civil and political liberty, but at the same time we are warned by the admonitions of history and the voice of our own beloved Washington to abstain from entangling alliances with foreign nations. In all disputes between conflicting governments it is our interest not less than our duty to remain strictly neutral, while our geographical position, the genius of our institutions and our people, the advancing spirit of civilization, and, above all, the dictates of religion direct us to the cultivation of peaceful and friendly relations with all other powers.

#6

I have no private purpose to accomplish, no party objectives to build up, no enemies to punish—nothing to serve but my country.

#5

I congratulate you, my fellow-citizens, upon the high state of prosperity to which the goodness of Divine Providence has conducted our common country. Let us invoke a continuance of the same protecting care which has led us from small beginnings to the eminence we this day occupy, and let us seek to deserve that continuance by prudence and moderation in our councils, by well-directed attempts to assuage the bitterness which too often marks unavoidable differences of opinion, by the promulgation and practice of just and liberal principles, and by an enlarged patriotism, which shall acknowledge no limits but those of our own widespread Republic.

#4

It eminently becomes a government like our own, founded on the morality and intelligence of its citizens and upheld by their affections, to exhaust every resort of honorable diplomacy before appealing to arms.

#3

For more than half a century, during which kingdoms and empires have fallen, this Union has stood unshaken. The patriots who formed it have long since descended to the grave; yet still it remains, the proudest monument to their memory.

#2

It would be judicious to act with magnanimity towards a prostrate foe.

#1

I shall pursue a straight forward course deviating neither to the right or left so that comes what may I hope my real friends will never have to blush for me, so far as truth, honesty & fair dealings are concerned.