It was only successfully carried, however, with the aid of the Democrats in Congress, whose influence Tyler continually sought, after antagonizing his own party.

Although Tyler accepted a renomination from a convention composed mainly of office-holders, held in May,1844, it soon became evident, even to him, that he would certainly be ignominiously beaten; consequently he withdrew his name from the candidacy. He was the first President to express himself actively in favor of slavery, and everything which looked toward a limitation of the “institution" aroused his most violent opposition. In 1861 he was a member of the Peace Convention, held in Washington, in the futile hope of arranging the difficulties between the seceded States and the National government. The convention being without result, he threw in his fortunes with the Confederacy, and presented the humiliating spectacle of a former Chief Magistrate in open rebellion against the government of which he had once been the head.

Tyler was twice married, and was the father of several children. He died on January 17, 1862, at Richmond, Virginia, while a member of the Confederate Congress.

JAMES K. POLK.

James Knox Polk, the eleventh President, was born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, November 12, 1795. He did not, like the Virginia Presidents, spring from the wealthy and cultured class, but was the son of a farmer in very moderate circumstances, who removed in 1806 to Tennessee. His early education was very limited; but he managed to prepare himself for college, and was graduated in

1818 from the University of North Carolina. He began to practice at the bar in 1820; was elected to the State legislature in 1823; was sent to Congress in 1825, where he was strongly opposed to President John Quincy Adams' administration. Later he became ardently devoted to General Jackson, and remained a most earnest Democrat during his life. In 1835, Polk was elected Speaker of the House. After being in Congress fourteen years, he declined a renomination, and retired to Tennessee, only to be immediately made Governor of the State. In May, 1844, the National Democratic convention nominated him for President, with George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania for VicePresident. The Whig candidates were Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysen. Polk and Dallas were successful, and entered office March 4, 1845. The annexation of Texas had just been advised by President Tyler, and it became the most important effort of President Polk's administration to defend the frontier of our new possession. He sent General Taylor with a small force to occupy the disputed land between the Nueces river, which Mexico claimed as the boundary, and the Rio Grande, which the government claimed as the boundary. In April, 1846, active fighting began between General Taylor and General Arista, the Mexican commander. The President then declared that war existed, and asked Congress for men and money. Authority was given to call for fifty thousand men and $10000,000. Although the war was generally unpopular at the North, it was prosecuted with energy, our forces even penetrating to the very capital of Mexico. Mexico ended by ceding all that was demanded of her, yielding upper California and New Mexico, and granting the Rio Grande

from its mouth to El Paso, as the southern boundary of Texas. Beside the Mexican war, the important events in Polk's administration were certain modifications of the tariff, the creation of the department of the Interior, the admission of the State of Wisconsin, and the very important event of establishing the National Treasury system in Washington, independent of all State banks.

Having agreed not to seek a renomination, President Polk retired from office March 4, 1849, and three months later died, after a few days' illness, at his home in Nashville.

CHAPTER XLIII.

ZACHARY TAYLOR, MILLARD FILLMORE, AND FRANKLIN PIERCE, TWELFTH, THIRTEENTH, AND FOURTEENTH PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES.

Taylor Purely a Military Man - His Reputation Made in the Mexican War His Death in Four Months - His Disqualifications for Political Life - Fillmore's Early Success - His Foreshadowing of the National Banking System - Approval of the Fugitive Slave Law – The Irreparable Injury it did Him – A Candidate of the American Party - Pierce a Northern Man with Extreme Southern Principles - His Constant Sympathy with and Sustainment of Slavery - His Gallantry in the Field - Retirement to Private Life Equivalent to Extinction.

T

HE twelfth President, General Zachary Taylor, was

the last of the Presidents born in Virginia. He

first saw the light on September 24, 1784, in Orange county, from which his father, Colonel Richard Taylor, removed to the neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1785. Until he was twenty-three, Zachary remained on his father's plantation; but in 1808, his elder brother, Hancock, died in the army, and the commission that of lieutenant which he held, was offered to Zachary. This was the beginning of a military career which lasted nearly all his life. After the declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812, he, being then a captain, was placed

in command of Fort Harrison on the Wabash River, not far from Vincennes. This was furiously attacked at night by the Indians; but Captain Taylor, with a handful of men, two-thirds of them being ill, made a brilliant and successful defense, and received as his reward from President Madison the brevet rank of major the first time a brevet rank was ever conferred in our army. Having thus established his military reputation, he constantly held important commands until the peace in 1815, when, for a brief period, he resigned his commission, and retired to private life.

It

He was soon reappointed, however, and took conspicuous part in the Black Hawk war, and in the conflicts with the Indians in Florida in 1836-37, and in 1840 was appointed commander of the First Department of the Southwest. About this time he purchased an estate at Baton Rouge, and removed his family thereto. In July, 1845, following the annexation of Texas, he was ordered with fifteen hundred troops to defend our new possession against invasion by Mexico. He encamped near Corpus Christi, and his force was soon increased to four thousand. was pretty plainly indicated to General Taylor that the government would be glad to have him throw down the gauntlet to Mexico by moving into the disputed territory. Taylor, however, was to wise to commit any overt act until expressly ordered to do so by President Polk. Being positively ordered to advance, he began to move toward the Rio Grande on March 8, 1846, and on the 28th reached the bank of the river opposite Matamoras. On the 12th of April, General Ampudia, in command of the Mexican forces near by, sent word to General Taylor to retire to the Nueces River, while the boundary question was being settled by the