busy
Taylor was an odd duck in some ways. Prior to his election he had never voted (I'm not even sure if he voted in the election of 1848). He had been a General in the Mexican War, but he dressed so shoddily that people often mistook him for just another old guy, and Zach would play along when people made that mistake apparently. During the Mexican War, James K. Polk had wanted to find a general who was a Democrat, but his two leading generals, Taylor and Winfield Scott, were both Whigs, and both had their eyes on the White House. Taylor had especially gained notoriety for winning a couple of remarkable battles in the Mexican War, and a draft Taylor for President movement arose. As a consequence, Polk took some of Taylor's troops from him and gave them to Winfield Scott who was only too happy to gain the limelight from the war.
Taylor kept his political beliefs close to the vest, but as the draft movement persisted he declared himself to be a Whig. Many southerners believed that Taylor supported slavery, and its expansion into the new territory absorbed from Mexico. Most abolitionists did not support Taylor, since he was a slave-owner. Many southerners also knew that Taylor supported states' rights, and was opposed to protective tariffs and government spending for internal improvements. The Whigs hoped that he put the federal union of the United States above all else.
Taylor received the Whig nomination for President in 1848. Millard Fillmore of New York was chosen as the Vice Presidential nominee. His homespun ways and his status as a war hero were political assets. Taylor defeated Lewis Cass, the Democratic candidate, and Martin Van Buren, the Free Soil candidate. Taylor was the last Southerner to be elected president until Lyndon Johnson, 116 years later in 1964.
Once elected, Taylor ignored the Whig platform. The slavery issue dominated Taylor's short term. Although he owned slaves on his plantation in Louisiana, he took a moderate stance on the territorial expansion of slavery, angering fellow Southerners. He told them that if necessary to enforce the laws, he personally would lead the Army. He said that persons "taken in rebellion against the Union, he would hang" with less reluctance than he had hanged "deserters and spies in Mexico." He never wavered. Henry Clay then proposed a complex Compromise of 1850. Taylor died as it was being debated.
Taylor's legacy is more as a general than as a president. Known as "Old Rough and Ready," Taylor had a forty-year military career in the United States Army, serving in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and the Second Seminole War. He achieved fame leading American troops to victory in the Battle of Palo Alto and the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican–American War. He wasn't in office long enough to accomplish much, and his managerial style was more along the lines of Ronald Reagan, he was definitely not a micromanager like his predecessor James K. Polk.