I Wish I Knew That: U.S. Presidents: Cool Stuff You Need to Know (7 page)

The Northern states wanted him to stop the spread of slavery. The Southern states thought new non-slave states would make them less powerful, and they threatened to break away from the United States. Taylor warned them if they tried, he would lead the U.S. army against them.

FUN FACTS

Zachary Taylor was elected on November 7, 1848—the first time all the states voted for president and vice president on the same day.

Although Taylor was determined to stop the Southern states from breaking away from the United States, his only son, Richard, became a general in the Confederate army in the Civil War.

A Short-Term President

Just 16 months after becoming president, while laying the cornerstone of the Washington Monument at a July Fourth ceremony, Taylor collapsed from heat stroke after drinking a pitcher of water and slipped into a coma. He died five days later with symptoms of cholera. More than 100,000 people lined the parade route to pay tribute to their hero.

Doctors thought Taylor got cholera from the water, or from some buttermilk and cherries he snacked on. But no matter how he died, he left the country dangerously divided and headed down the path to the Civil War.

13th President ~ 1850–1853

MILLARD FILLMORE

Last of the Whigs

“May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.”

Born

January 7, 1800 Summerhill, New York

Political Party

Whig

First Lady

Abigail

Children

Millard and Mary

Pets

None known, but founded Buffalo chapter of American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

A Poor Beginning

Born poor in a log cabin on a farm near Ithaca, New York, Millard Fillmore had to go to work instead of school to help feed his family. He taught himself to read and devoured every book he could get his hands on. He managed to put himself through six months of grammar school at the age of 17 and fell in love with his teacher, Abigail Powers, who was 19 at the time. They eventually married. A tall, handsome, and polite man, Fillmore later taught school and learned law working as a clerk. He served as a congressman and ran for governor of New York, but lost. He was elected vice president in 1848.

Becoming President

Millard Fillmore became the second vice president to become president on the sudden death of a serving president.

When he became president, the country was coming apart over the issue of slavery. Fillmore tried to hold it together by finding ways to keep both sides happy. He signed the Compromise of 1850, which, among other things, helped slave owners hunt down runaway slaves in Northern states. The law enraged everyone who was against slavery and led Harriet Beecher Stowe to write the novel
Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
a story about the horrors and injustice of slavery. The book turned many Americans against slavery once and for all. It also lost Fillmore any chance of getting re-elected.

PRESIDENTIAL FIRST

Fillmore and his wife established the first permanent library at the White House.

FUN FACT

Millard Fillmore did not meet Zachary Taylor until after the presidential election, when Taylor was elected president and Fillmore was elected vice president. They did not get along well.

Trading with Japan

Fillmore sent Commodore Matthew Perry to Japan to persuade the Japanese, who wanted nothing to do with the United States, to start trading with America. Perry succeeded, and Japan opened its ports to U.S. shipping.

PRESIDENTIAL MYTHS

THE FIRST BATHTUB

Several scholars and historians claim that Millard Fillmore installed the first bathtub in the White House in 1851. It would be an interesting bit of presidential trivia if it were true—but it isn’t.

Just a Joke

The false story was written in 1917 in the
New York Evening Mail
newspaper by H. L. Mencken, a writer, editor, and author who liked to play jokes on famous people and was known for his crazy sense of humor. He thought that if he made up a story about the history of the bathtub in America, it would make people forget about the fact that the country was fighting a war in Europe. But now, everyone who hears that made-up story believes that it was true!

A Made-up Story

Mencken wrote that the first bathtub in the country was an elegant wooden one put into the home of a Cincinnati businessman and the odd practice of taking a bath caught on among rich people. When word of the bathtub got out, many people thought it was just a silly toy from England made to turn ordinary Americans into fancy lords and ladies. But by bravely installing a bathtub in the White House, Mencken went on, President Fillmore really helped people get into the habit of taking regular baths.

Some years later when Mencken realized that people actually believed his story was the truth of history, he confessed to the whole joke. But even though he tried to set the record straight, people today still believe that the bathtub story is true.

The Real Truth

So what is the true story behind the White House’s first bathtub? A bathing room with copper tubs and a shower was installed on the White House’s first floor in 1833 or 1834 and the first permanent bathtub (on the second floor) was installed by President Franklin Pierce in 1853.

FUN FACT

President William Howard Taft was known as Big Bill because he weighed over 300 pounds and was six feet tall. None of the bathtubs in the White House were big enough for Big Bill. The solution came from an officer of the battleship
North Carolina
. When the captain heard that the president was coming to visit the ship, he had a special bathtub built for the occasion. Seven feet long and 41 inches wide, the bathtub could hold four normal-size men—and one Big Bill. After the visit President Taft had it installed in his bathroom at the White House.

14th President ~ 1853–1857

FRANKLIN PIERCE

Handsome Frank

“With the Union my best and dearest earthly hopes are entwined.”

Born

November 23, 1804 Hillsborough (now Hillsboro), New Hampshire

Political Party

Democrat

Vice President

William R. D. King

First Lady

Jane

Children

Franklin, Frank, Robert, and Benjamin

A Rough Start

Franklin Pierce went to Bowdoin College in Maine and by his second year, he had the worst grades in his class. He made a change, though, and turned himself around, graduating third in a class that included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Giving Up Washington

At 33, he became one of the youngest U.S. senators ever. His wife, Jane, who was very strict and religious, hated the party-filled life of Washington, D.C. She made her husband resign and move back to New England. He joined the army as a private in the Mexican-American War, and by the end of the war, he had been promoted to one-star general. Friends suggested he run for president, so he did—and he narrowly won the election.

A Tragic Start in the White House

Just weeks before he was sworn in as president, Pierce’s 11-year-old son, Benjamin, was killed in a train accident. The Pierces had already lost two other children. And so the first days and months in the White House were very sad for President and Mrs. Pierce. Many believe his sadness made it hard for him to do a good job as president.

PRESIDENTIAL FIRST

Franklin Pierce was the first president who gave his inauguration speech from memory.

FUN FACT

William King, Pierce’s vice president, died one month after being sworn in. No one replaced him as vice president during Pierce’s presidency.

Bad Decisions

Pierce tried to keep the peace between the North and the South, but he was never a very skilled politician. His biggest mistake was signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which let settlers in new territories decide if they wanted to allow slavery or not. The Act set off deadly riots over slavery and pushed the country closer to the brink of a civil war (a war a country fights within itself). He tried to buy Cuba, but Spain refused to sell. He did, however, add 29,000 square miles of land along the Mexican border. He was not nominated for a second term.