Zachary Taylor

"Zachary Taylor was a soldier's soldier, a man who lived up to his nickname, "Old Rough and Ready." Having risen through the ranks of the U.S. Army, he achieved his greatest success in the Mexican War, propelling him to the nation's highest office in the election of 1848. He was the first man to have been elected president without having held a lower political office." "John S. D. Eisenhower, the son of another soldier-president. shows how Taylor rose to the presidency,where he confronted the most contentious political issue of his age: slavery. The political storm reached a crescendo in 1849, when California, newly populated after the Gold Rush, applied for statehood with an antislavery constitution, an event that upset the delicate balance of slave and free states and pushed both sides to the brink." "As the acrimonious debate intensified, Taylor stood his ground in favor of California's admission - despite being a slaveholder himself. In July 1850, however, he unexpectedly took ill, and within a week he was dead. His truncated presidency had exposed the fateful rift that would soon tear the country apart."--BOOK JACKET.Eisenhower, John S. D. is the author of 'Zachary Taylor' with ISBN 9780805082371 and ISBN 0805082379.