ELECTION #16, 1848. The NASTY-METER is 3.

QUOTE from Zachary Taylor before he was elected president on November 7, 1848: "I have no private purposes to accomplish, no party projects to build up, no enemies to punish - nothing to serve but my country."

Historians all agree that James Polk was a hard working president. He worked ten to twelve hours a day and held two cabinet meetings a week. He also accomplished all four of the goals he promised in his inaugural address. He promised he would reduce the tariff, re-establish an independent treasury to get money out of the hands of private banks, acquire Oregon from the British, and acquire California from Mexico. It took a war with Mexico from 1846 to 1848 to acquire California but he did it. One of the U.S. military heroes of the Mexican War was a general named Zachary Taylor.

The CANDIDATES in 1848.

WHIG; ZACHARY TAYLOR.

U.S. wars often make heroes out of military leaders. Such was the case with Zachary Taylor. He had become well-known for his war successes in Florida against the Seminiole Indians and especially in the Mexican War. The Whigs were looking for a winner and they quickly latched unto Taylor. He didn't know if he was a Whig or not but agreed to run. The Whigs nominated Millard Fillmore as his VP candidate. Fillmore was a former congressman and comptroller of New York State. Taylor was mailed notification of his nomination for president, but because there was postage due on the letter, he refused it and did not learn of the nomination for several dys.

DEMOCRAT: LEWIS CASS,

Polk had made few friends in his own party so he decided not to run. The best the Democrats could come up with was Lewis Cass, former governor and senator from Michigan. For VP they picked General William Butler, another hero of the Mexican War.

The CAMPAIGN of 1848.

Taylor could not really be accused of anything because he had never voted. No one could tell what Tayor (nicknamed "Old Rough and Ready') was thinking, but a few suspected the answer was "not much." Taylor even said he was a Whig but "not an ultra-Whig." In the 1800s there was a system called phrenology. Phrenology was the belief that an analysis of a person's character could be made by a study of the shape and protuberances of a person's skull. The Democrats showed a cartoon of a phrenologist measuring Taylor's head with a pair of calipers. The phrenologist's judgment was that Taylor was "stubborn and obstinate as a mule" and "utterly wanting in all sympathy."

Lewis Cass was a nice fellow and had a distinguihed career, but his name rhymed with both "ass" and "gas." The Whigs depicted him in cartoons as "General Gas," with cannons farting noxious fumes out of his belly, or as "The Gas Bag," with an enormous rear end, ready to lift off into the sky, like a hot-air balloon. The Whigs also claimed that Cass had sold white men into slavery and that he was guilty of graft as superintendent of Indian Affairs. They were both lies. One final blast at Cass was that he was a "pot-bellied, mutton-headed cucumber."

The WINNER was ZACHARY TAYLOR - the 12th president.

The election was held on November 7, 1848 - this was the first time everybody voted on the same day. A law had been passed in 1845 to make the election the same for eveybody. (Keep in mind that the only people who got to vote were white men- women and slaves could not vote in 1848.)

Taylor got 1,360,967 popular votes and 163 electoral votes
Cass got 1,222,342 popular votes
and 127 electoral votes.

Taylor served only sixteen months in office. On a very hot July 4th in 1850, Taylor attended an Independence Day celebration. After the celebration Taylor took a walk, returned to the White House and ate a bowl of cherries and drank ice-cold milk. He soon developed symptoms of severe gastric distress, which continued for five days and were probably caused by cholera. After five days of illness, Taylor died on July 9, 1850. He was succeeded by his VP, Millard Fillmore.