Zachary Taylor, The President Whose Sudden Death Sparked Conspiracy Theories
Public DomainZachary Taylor was the second U.S. president to die in office.
Like William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor was a war hero who became president while in his 60s. And like Harrison, Taylor died suddenly.
A veteran of the Mexican-American War, Taylor had no strong political leanings — in fact, both the Whigs and the Democrats had weighed him as a presidential candidate — but when he was elected as a Whig in 1848, he took a stance on the big issues of the day. Taylor was pro-Union, and he threatened to take military action against any states that seceded. He also supported the highly controversial Wilmot Proviso, which proposed banning slavery in the new territory acquired during the Mexican-American War.
But then, in July 1850, Zachary Taylor fell ill.
Public DomainA depiction of the death of Zachary Taylor, which occurred just over a year into Taylor’s term.
The president had reportedly spent the Fourth of July attending several celebrations, during which he consumed large amounts of cherries and iced milk. His thirst unquenched, Taylor then drank several glasses of water. He soon began to experience severe stomach pains, as well as nausea and diarrhea, which lasted for the next five days. And though Taylor’s doctors gave him ipecac, calomel, opium, and quinine, and even tried bleeding him, the president died on July 9, 1850, at the age of 65.
Taylor’s physicians believed he died of cholera morbus, a bacterial infection of the small intestine. Others have suggested that the president caught typhoid fever, or perhaps that he suffered from gastroenteritis from eating cherries combined with milk. But some believe that the president was murdered with arsenic to make way for Vice President Millard Fillmore.
Indeed, Fillmore went on to support the controversial Compromise of 1850, which made it easier for slave owners to pursue runaway slaves.
Public DomainMillard Fillmore, the man who became president after Taylor’s sudden death.
So, was Taylor murdered? Taylor’s body was exhumed in 1991 to test for arsenic, but scientists found no evidence of foul play. Though some mystery remains around Zachary Taylor’s death, it seems that the president did indeed die of natural causes.
The first presidential assassination would not occur for another 15 years.
