January 14

"For more than half a century…this Union has stood unshaken. The patriots who formed it have long since descended to the grave; yet still it remains the proudest monument to their memory."

Zachary Taylor, 12^th President, 1849-1850

-From his State of the Union Address, December 4, 1849.-Taylor gave only this single State of the Union Address. He died the next summer on July 9, apparently from food poisoning. Here he addresses sweeping foreign relations with numerous counties. He advocates an agreement with Nicaragua to build a canal across the isthmus of Panama, which would be accomplished sixty years later. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hildalgo had been signed annexing a large territory across the southwest, including what would become California, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming and Colorado. Mexicans in those annexed areas had the choice of returning to Mexico or becoming U.S. citizens with full rights. He also casts an eye towards Hawaii, then called The Sandwich Islands. He advocates their independence, but does not want them to come under the influence of any other nation. Looming most largely on the horizon is the issue of slavery and whether or not it would be allowed in the new territories. There was rumbling the the southern states may secede from the union if slavery was not to be allowed to expand. Taylor, formerly a general in the army, was prepared to forcibly keep the union together. He alludes to the strength of the union at the end of his address:"...attachment to the Union of the States should be habitually fostered in every American heart. For more than half a century, during which kingdoms and empires have fallen, this Union has stood unshaken. The patriots who formed it have long since descended to the grave; yet still it remains, the proudest monument to their memory and the object of affection and admiration with everyone worthy to bear the American name. In my judgment its dissolution would be the greatest of calamities, and to avert that should be the study of every American. Upon its preservation must depend our own happiness and that of countless generations to come. Whatever dangers may threaten it, I shall stand by it and maintain it in its integrity to the full extent of the obligations imposed and the powers conferred upon me by the Constitution.