White House Gallery Vintage Photogravure Zachary Taylor Presidential Image

DURING Zachary Taylor's brief incumbency of the great office of President, for which he never thought himself well qualified, he was a tower of strength to the Union and blocked all the ambitious projects of the slave power.

In considering the admission of new

States to the Union, he recommended that they be admitted on their merits, and that the question of slavery be left to them for settlement.

This position provoked much opposition in Congress and became the subject that agitated the public mind during almost the entire time that he was in executive control. Having information as to the fitting out of an armed expedition with the intention of evidently

invading the island of Cuba, on August 11, 1849, he issued a proclamation of warning against engaging in such an enterprise so grossly in violation of our laws and our treaty obligations, and calling upon every officer of the Government, civil or military, to use all efforts in his power to arrest for trial and punishment every such offender against the laws providing for the performance of our sacred obligations to friendly powers.

His term of office was too short, and the questions that came before him too much of one general character to enable us to form an adequate opinion of his abilities as a civil administrator. He was open and direct in his methods; his state papers are models of pure and virile English, and the honesty of his purpose is beyond cavil.

In the single year of his administration he advocated some great improvements, the wisdom of which is only beginning to be fully appreciated. One of these measures was a canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He worked earnestly to secure a location for such a canal, either Nicaragua or by way of Tehuantepec or across the Isthmus of Panama.

His views on

that subject, in stating the objects of that treaty, are well worth quoting at the present time.

He

said: "This treaty has been negotiated in accordance with the general views expressed in my message to Congress in December last.

Its object is to establish a commercial alliance with all

great maritime states for the protection of a contemplated ship canal through the territory of Nicaragua to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and at the same time to insure the same protection to the contemplated railways or canals by the Tehuantepec and Panama routes, as well as to every other interoceanic communication which may be adopted to shorten the transit to or from our territories on the Pacific. It will be seen that this treaty does not propose to take money from the public Treasury to effect any object contemplated by it. It yields protection to the capitalists who may undertake to construct any canal or railway across the Isthmus, commencing in the southern part of Mexico and terminating in the territory of New Granada.

It gives no preference to any one route over another, but proposes the same measure of protection for all which ingenuity and enterprise can construct."

The Clayton-Bulwer treaty, concluded in his administration, had this for its purpose and object.

President Taylor also saw the necessity of a transcontinental railroad to the Pacific coast. At his direction the first steps were taken for making the preliminary surveys.

Equally broad-minded and far-seeing was President Taylor in reference to the Hawaiian Islands.

He declared that no foreign power should be allowed to get control of them. He pointed out their usefulness to our vessels engaged in commerce and whaling in the Pacific. Self-interest as well as humanity, he declared, directed that the people and government of the United States should extend every encouragement to the Hawaiian people to improve their government and raise themselves to a higher plane of civilization.

In domestic affairs President Taylor was equally zealous in the line of progress and development. He urged the establishment of an agricultural department by the Government to foster and advance what he considered was the greatest industry of this country. He also started the geological surveys in California and other Western States, which have been of such incalculable value in developing their mineral resources.

Known as a soldier as " Old Rough and Ready," he carried those qualities of fearlessness and decision into executive affairs and diplomacy.

What he might have accomplished had

Providence not cut short his career so early in his Administration, can be imagined from the v��gorous governmental policy which he began.