Zachary Taylor: Cherries and Milk Anyone?

In recent years there has been quite a lot of speculation that the 12th President of the United States was murdered. Conspiracy theories are the rage in this day and age of instant communication, and progressive technological improvements that we can hardly keep up with. How about a second shooter on the grassy knoll, or perhaps a controlled demolition of the twin towers? (although it does seem rather suspicious that more than two buildings fell when only two planes hit them...just a thought) So what is the deal with Zachary Taylor? Is there a 162 year old conspiracy theory here?

     The official cause of President Taylor's death has gone down in history as being due to a bad stomach ache. Most historians accept the conclusion that Taylor died of gastroenteritis. On July fourth 1850 President Taylor and other dignitaries attended Independence Day celebrations at the site of the Washington Monument which was under construction. It was a hot day but Taylor and his companions took in the festivities relaxing under a large awning. Witness' say that Taylor surfeited on cherries and milk, and that he took ill. He lingered for a few days before succumbing to this mysterious illness on July 09, 1850. This was the second time in a decade that a sitting President had died in office. Taylor had lasted less than a year and a half. A funeral oration given by Benjamin Thompson in Boston Massachusetts summed up the general feeling of the country at the time:

Alas! It is even so! Death has conquered another and a noble victim, and called a nation to mourning; this great people, throughout this vast Republic, has been suddenly startled by the sad intelligence that its respected, honored, and beloved chief magistrate, Zachary Taylor, is no more!

                                                       Zachary Taylor (1784-1850)
     
      According to Benjamin Thompson, the President had been in good health before the ceremony on July the Fourth. The Chicago Daily News Almanac stated that Taylor had died of "Cholera Morbus, induced by improper diet." So...did the 12th President of the United States die from a lethal overdose of cherries and milk? In 1991 in an effort to put the matter to rest, Taylor's body was exhumed and tissue samples of his hair and fingernails were taken to see if he might have died from a lethal dose of arsenic poisoning. In other words...had someone killed him? The results were rather ambiguous, but it was determined that the arsenic levels in Taylor's body were too low for that to be the cause of his death. Does this prove that Taylor was not murdered? Of course not...there are many ways that a man can be poisoned...but who would have wanted to kill the 12th President of the United States?

                                 A Haunting Picture Of Taylor And His Cabinet
       
       Zachary Taylor was not a politician. He was a career soldier who had fought with distinction during the War of 1812, and the more recent Mexican War where he had won brilliant victories over the Mexican army at the battles of Buena vista, and Monterrey. The Whig party was looking for a viable Presidential candidate to take on the Democratic contender. Most Whigs had been anti-war and although supporting the troops during the recent war, they looked at James K. Polk's policy of Manifest Destiny with a degree of skepticism and suspicion. Taylor was looked at as a sort of compromise candidate. He was a southerner from Louisiana. Although he owned a plantation with slaves he was averse to the expansion of slavery into the recent land acquisitions taken from Mexico in the late war. Was this a reason for possible murder? Possibly? But what would there be to gain for pro-slavery southerners with the death of Zachary Taylor? Millard Fillmore? This would have been plenty of reason for someone to do away with Taylor. Fillmore had supported the Fugitive Slave Act, and the Compromise of 1850 which angered many northerners who regarded Fillmore as being nothing more than an appeaser to the south. What about a northern conspiracy to off Taylor? Abolitionists despised the President for owning a plantation with slaves. In fact, a whole new party emerged during the election of 1848 led by northern abolitionists who referred to their party as the "Free Soil Party." Although limited in number these free-soilers gathered up a good chunk of votes in the north. Could one or more of these free-soilers conspired to kill Taylor?

      We will probably never know with any certainty whether Zachary Taylor was murdered by pro-slavery southerners, or free-soil northerners, however...the motive was there. Abraham Lincoln, who had stumped for Taylor during the 1848 election gave a eulogy at City Hall in Chicago on July, 25th 1850. Lincoln said: "but he is gone, The conqueror at last is conquered. The Fruits of his labor, his name, his memory and example, are all that is left us-"
What is left Mr. Lincoln...162 years later...is a legacy of cherries and milk.