's election had been effected by both a Southern and a Northern
split in the Democratic party. Northern Democrats had voted for the
Free-soil candidate because of the alleged pro-slavery tendencies of
their own party. Southern Democrats voted for Taylor because of their
distrust of Lewis Cass, their own candidate. Some of these met in
convention and formally nominated Taylor, and Taylor accepted their
nomination with thanks. Northern anti-slavery Whigs had a difficult task
to keep their members in line. There is evidence that Taylor held the
traditional Southern view that the anti-slavery North was disposed
to encroach upon the rights of the South. Meeting fewer Northern
Whig supporters, he became convinced that the more active spirit of
encroachment was in the pro-slavery South. California needed a state
Government, and the President took the most direct method to supply
that need. As the inhabitants were unanimous in their desire to exclude
slavery, their wish should be respected. New Mexico was in a similar
situation. As slavery was already excluded from the territory under
Mexican law, and as there was no wish on the part of the inhabitants to
introduce slavery, the President recognized existing facts and made
no change. When Southern leaders projected a scheme to enlarge the
boundaries of Texas so as to extend slavery over a large part of New
Mexico, President Taylor set a guard of United States troops to maintain
the integrity of the Territory. When a deputation of Southern Whigs
endeavored to dissuade him from his purpose, threatening a dissolution
of the Union and intimating that army officers would refuse to act
against citizens of Texas, the soldier President replied that in such an
event he would take command in person and would hang any one caught in
acts of treason. When Henry Clay introduced an elaborate project for a
compromise between the North and the South, the President insisted
that each question should be settled on its own merits and directed the
forces of the Administration against any sort of compromise. The debate
over Clay's Omnibus Bill was long and acrimonious. On July 4, 1850,
the President seemed triumphant. But upon that day, notwithstanding his
apparent robust health, he was stricken down with an acute disease and
died five days later. With his passing, the opposing Whig faction came
into power. The so-called compromise measures were at length one by one
passed by Congress and approved by P