Zachary Taylor Research Paper

The Confusing Death of Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor was the second of eight presidents to die while serving in office. One of the four to die to natural causes, but some conspirators in the early 1990’s said that his death was the result of a poisoning. Taylor was nicknamed “Old Rough and Ready” from his courage and honor in battle. This caused many to believe that some fruit and a glass of milk could not kill Zachary Taylor. Though a conspiracy thought that Zachary Taylor had been poisoned he actually died from milk and cherries. Zachary Taylor died on July 9, 1850, but how did he die? “The second to die in office, Zachary Taylor, president No. 12, did not cut much of a figure in his year-and-a-quarter in the white house” (Dark Times 1). Zachary Taylor had not been in office long before he was overcome by a strange illness. What was thought to have killed Taylor was

Zachary Taylor was not against slavery, but he was against the spread of slavery to the western states. This brought up the conspiracy that a pro-slavery group had poisoned Taylor because he was against the spread of slavery and they wanted to expand slavery throughout the western states. An excerpt from “Tale of Old Zach and Arsenic” says “One needn’t be the county coroner to realize the cherry theory does sound a little shaky” (Leerhsen. C.). Cholera Morbus and arsenic poisoning have some of the same symptoms. Some of the symptoms that they share are vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and in severe cases death. This alarmed many people that Zachary Taylor was the first president to be assassinated. A president had never been assassinated in the presidential office at this time. People were not fully sold on the idea that a simple glass of milk and cherries could kill such a rough and tough man, but a radical thought that Taylor was assassinated was not widely