Zachary Taylor

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the
Voice of America.

(MUSIC)

The Whig party considered four men for its candidate in the
presidential election of eighteen-forty-eight: Senator Henry Clay of
Kentucky, General Zachary Taylor, General Winfield Scott, and
Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts.

Clay was seventy years old. He knew it would be his last chance
to get into the White House. He worked hard to get the support of
party leaders. But they did not give Clay their support. They wanted
to win the election. And they felt they had a better chance for
victory with a military hero like General Taylor.

VOICE TWO:

Taylor was sixty-three years old.
He had almost no formal education. He had spent almost forty years
in the west as an Indian fighter and commander of small army posts.

A number of politicians did not believe he had the ability to be
president. General Taylor's supporters put great energy into their
campaign for his nomination. They tried to sell the idea that the
old general was the only man who could defeat the candidate of the
Democratic Party.

On the first vote of the convention, Taylor got the most votes.
But no candidate got the necessary majority. On the fourth vote, all
of Webster's supporters and many of Clay's supporters gave their
votes to Taylor. He finally won the Whig Party's nomination for
president.

VOICE ONE:

The Democratic Party's candidate for president was Senator Lewis
Cass of Michigan. Many Americans did not like either candidate,
because of the candidates' policies on slavery. Lewis Cass saw
nothing wrong with slavery if that was what the people wanted.
Zachary Taylor was a slave-owner.

In Ohio, a group of men decided to form a new political party.
They called it the "Free Soil Party," because they believed in free
land for free settlers. They wanted no further spread of slavery.

The Free Soil leaders proposed a convention of all who supported
their ideas. Ten-thousand people went to the convention in Buffalo,
New York. For two days, the delegates debated the slavery issue and
discussed their choice of a candidate for president. They also
worked on a platform -- a statement of their party's purpose.

VOICE TWO:

The platform declared that slavery was an institution of the
states, not the nation. It said Congress had no right to help spread
slavery by permitting it in the new western territories. The
platform declared that the issue should be faced with firmness. No
more slave states. No more slave territory. No more compromises with
slavery, anywhere.

Convention delegates then voted on candidates. They chose former
President Martin Van Buren as candidate for president.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The people of the nation voted on November seventh. It was the
first time a presidential election was held on the same day in all
parts of the country. Zachary Taylor won both the popular and
electoral votes. He became the twelfth president of the United
States.

Congress met a few weeks after the election, long before Taylor
took office. It faced serious problems. Territorial governments were
needed for the areas won in the war against Mexico. California,
especially, needed help. Gold had been discovered in California.
Thousands were moving there. A government was needed to protect the
lives and property of the new population.

VOICE TWO:

The dispute over slavery had prevented Congress from acting
earlier. Southerners wanted the right to take slaves into the new
territories. Northerners wanted to keep slavery out. Then there was
the question of laws forcing northern states to return escaped
slaves to their owners. The laws were not always obeyed. Southerners
wanted a new law that would be easier to enforce.

Congress found it difficult to act on these problems. The House
of Representatives was controlled by members of the Free Soil Party,
which opposed slavery. The Senate was controlled by southerners, who
supported slavery. The two houses found it almost impossible to
agree on anything.

Early in January, eighteen-forty-nine, a congressman proposed a
bill to first limit, and then end, slavery in the District of
Columbia. The bill would free all slaves in the district who were
born after a certain time. It would permit the federal government to
buy slaves and then free them.

VOICE ONE:

Opposition to the bill was strong. It was amended. The new bill
would simply close all places in the District of Columbia where
slaves were bought and sold.

Southern congressmen disliked the
bill, even as amended. They organized a committee representing every
one of the southern states. Senator John C. Calhoun of South
Carolina said the committee should write a declaration explaining
the position of the south. The committee agreed, and Calhoun wrote
most of the declaration himself.

VOICE TWO:

The southern declaration accused the north of many aggressions.
The south, it said, faced many dangers. Soon there would be enough
free states to control both the House and the Senate. And then the
constitution would be changed and all slaves would be freed. And
this, said the southern declaration, would lead to bitter hostility
and war between north and south. The declaration called on the
people of the south to unite and be firm in their opposition to the
north.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

With this new firmness, southern lawmakers fought to make slavery
legal in the new territories. They effectively blocked proposals for
territorial governments in California and New Mexico.

Congress ended its session on March fourth, eighteen-forty-nine,
without any progress. Zachary Taylor was sworn-in as president that
same day. The new president believed it would be easier to get
statehood for California and New Mexico than to create territorial
governments for them. Taylor, as we have said, was a slave-holder.
But he believed that both California and New Mexico should be free
states.

VOICE TWO:

During these years around eighteen-fifty, the people of the
United States were becoming more and more involved in the dispute
over slavery. In the north, more people joined the anti-slavery
campaign. Even those who did not wish to end slavery in the south
felt that slavery should not spread further.

In the south, many people felt that the constitutional equality
of fifteen southern states was being questioned.
Sixteen-hundred-million dollars worth of slave property was
threatened by Abolitionists. Southerners felt that if the campaign
against slavery was successful, everything they believed in would be
destroyed.

People hoped that President Taylor would be able to bring the
north and south together again. But his message to Congress showed
no signs of such leadership.

VOICE ONE:

Taylor asked Congress to give statehood to California
immediately. He reported that California leaders had written a state
constitution. The constitution banned slavery. Settlers from both
the north and south supported the document.

The president also reported that the people of New Mexico would
be asking for statehood soon. He said it would be best to let the
people themselves decide if New Mexico would be a slave or free
state. Taylor's opponents described these proposals as his "no
action plan."

VOICE TWO:

President Taylor really had no policy. He could not support a
bill to keep slavery out of the territories. That might start a
quick revolt among the southern states. He could not support a bill
to let slavery spread into the territories. That would make the
north rise in anger.

Taylor tried to be neutral. He hoped the problem of slavery would
solve itself. But the problem would not solve itself. The division
between north and south grew wider. That will be our story next
week.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Doug Johnson and Faith
Lapidus. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley.