The Life and Public Service of General Zachary Taylor: An Address | Page 3

had helped to
elect President of the United States. From the outset Lincoln had
believed in Taylor, while many other Whigs refused to support, or
supported with languid interest, a candidate who was a slave-holder and
who had borne a conspicuous part in the Mexican War.
Taylor was nominated by a Whig Convention, which met in
Philadelphia, June 7, 1848. The party was so divided that it could not
put forth a distinctive platform. Even an attempt to unite upon an
expression concerning the Wilmot Proviso was regarded as so divisive
that it was not permitted to come to a vote. The real platform was
General Taylor, and his popular nickname, "Old Rough and Ready."
Although Taylor was no politician and a stranger even to the ballot-box,
he regarded himself as a Whig, but he took pains to explain that he was
not an "ultra Whig." Daniel Webster called him "an ignorant old
frontier Colonel," but not only Webster, but Clay and Seward, joined in
his support. Many a Whig who voted for Taylor accepted him as the
choice of two evils. Lincoln, however, was enthusiastic in his support
of the nominee. He went into the campaign, as Nicolay and Hay remind

us, with "exultant alacrity." They say:
He could not even wait for the adjournment of Congress to begin his
stump speaking. Following the bad example of the rest of his
colleagues, he obtained the floor on the 27th of July and made a long,
brilliant and humorous speech, upon the merits of the two candidates
before the people.--(Abraham Lincoln: A History, vol. I, p. 279.)
This was Lincoln's noted "coat-tail speech," in which he paid his
respects to General Cass, the candidate of the Democrats.
Immediately after the adjournment of Congress, Lincoln went to New
England, where he delivered speeches in favor of Taylor, and opposing
not so much the Democrats as the Free-Soilers, whose hostility was
weakening and threatening to defeat the Whig Party.
Lincoln fully expected that Taylor when elected would remember and
reward him for this service. What Lincoln wanted, inasmuch as he was
not permitted to return to Congress, was an appointment as General
Commissioner of the United States Land Office in Washington. To his
bitter disappointment Taylor did not appoint him, but gave the position
to Justin Butterfield, of Chicago, who was said to have been favored by
Daniel Webster.
Although Lincoln's chief activity in the Taylor campaign was outside
the State of Illinois, it happened that he delivered one notable stump
speech for Taylor in the city of Chicago. It was while he was on his
way back from the East, coming in part by the Great Lakes, and making
his visit to Niagara, that he stopped in Chicago, Friday, October 6,
1848. The "Evening Journal" announced that "Hon. A. Lincoln, M.C.,
from this State, and family, were at the Sherman House." The same
issue called upon the friends of Taylor and Fillmore to rally that
evening at the Court-House and hear Mr. Lincoln on the issues of the
campaign. "The notice is short," said the "Journal," "but Old Zack's
soldiers are all minute men." The papers next day announced that
although there was scant notice, only six hours, the Court-House was
overcrowded, and adjournment had to be taken to the park, where
Lincoln spoke for two hours in what the editor declared was one of the

best political speeches which the editor had ever heard or read.
When General Taylor died, it was eminently fitting that Lincoln, as the
one Whig member from Illinois of the last Congress before the election
of Taylor, should have been invited to deliver the Eulogy upon him.
His arrival in Chicago, two days before the death of President Taylor,
furnished a convenient opportunity for the people of the city to hear
him. If Lincoln had any feelings, as he may well have had, that General
Taylor did not sufficiently recognize Lincoln's activities in the
campaign that led to his election, the address portrays nothing of his
disappointment. Though the address was hastily prepared in the midst
of duties which kept him more or less busy in court, he accepted the
invitation gladly and improved the occasion to the satisfaction of his
hearers.
In a number of respects the address of Lincoln presents points of
interest. First of all, it is notable in its biographical character. It
presents in outline a fairly complete account of the life and service of
General Taylor. Lincoln doubtless availed himself of such biographical
data as the campaign had recently produced and which Lincoln found at
hand in Chicago after the invitation had been received by him to deliver
the address.
It is noteworthy that in speaking of Taylor's invasion of Mexican
territory, Lincoln takes pains to state that he did it under