Zachary Taylor was the reluctant candidate of the Whig Party, which nominated him purely on his reputation as a hero of the Mexican–American War. He defeated Democrat Lewis Cass. The election was ...

The main parallel begins with Zachary Taylor’s converting his fame as a Mexican-American ... having served as a senator and a Cabinet member in a long but contentious career.

Born in Montebello, Virginia, on November 24, 1784, Zachary Taylor moved to Kentucky with his parents as an infant. Taylor grew up on what was then the frontier, and enlisted in the army in 1806.

Born in Virginia, raised in Kentucky, with a home in Louisiana and a plantation in Mississippi, Zachary Taylor ... slavery dominated Taylor's presidency, as it did those of his mid-nineteenth ...