Lincoln Backs Zachary Taylor for President

By David J. Kent

Washington, DC

Friday, June 13, 2024

On June 11, 1848, Congressman Abraham Lincoln arrived back in Washington, D.C., after having traveled all night from Philadelphia, where he attended the Whig National Convention that nominated Zachary Taylor for president.

Zachary Taylor was an odd choice to be the Whig nominee. He had been fairly apolitical up to this point, having spent most of his life in the military. In fact, it was his military service in the Mexican War that ingratiated him to the American public, who clamored for him to be the next president of the United States. He was so popular that both the Whig and Democratic parties vied to make him their nominee. Taylor at first said he would only agree if he could do so “untrammeled with party obligations or interests of any kind,” the sort of divine elevation that George Washington had enjoyed after the Revolutionary War. Both the Whigs and Democrats quickly disavowed him of that politically naïve delusion. He agreed to sign on with the Whigs, finding them slightly less objectionable than the conservative Democrats of the South.

For his part, while Lincoln was in Philadelphia at the Whig Convention, he spurned his old beau ideal of a statesman, Henry Clay, and spoke out in favor of Taylor. Clay had been a nominee three times before, losing every time. Ever the vote counter, Lincoln wrote a friend that “Mr. Clay’s chance for an election, is just no chance at all,” going on to enumerate which states Clay could not carry. Based on his read of public sentiment, Lincoln noted, “In my judgment, we can elect nobody but Gen. Taylor.” And so, Taylor became the Whig nominee. Lincoln was assigned to go to Massachusetts to make the case for Taylor.

It was not an easy case to make. Many Whigs were not convinced Taylor was one of them. After all, his biggest claim to fame was that he was the hero of Buena Vista in the Mexican War. The same Mexican war that Lincoln has challenged with his “spot” resolutions. The war that the Whigs had “very generally opposed,” believing it “unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the President.” Taylor was also a Southern plantation owner enslaving hundreds of African Americans. Were not the Whigs supposed to be against slavery, or at least the expansion of it? Taylor himself had been rather apolitical, but would he support Whig principles?

Taylor was a slaveholder but nevertheless was not a fan of expanding slavery into the western territories, now doubled in size. With both parties vying for him to lead their ticket, Taylor at first said he would only agree if he could do so “untrammeled with party obligations or interests of any kind,” the sort of divine elevation that George Washington had enjoyed after the Revolutionary War. Both the Whigs and Democrats quickly disavowed him of that politically naïve delusion. He agreed to sign on with the Whigs, finding them slightly less objectionable than the conservative Democrats of the South.

This is the dilemma Lincoln faced when he went to Massachusetts.

[Photo of Zachary Taylor painting by Joseph Henry Bush, circa 1848, Public Domain]