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ZACHARY TAYLOR Autograph Letter Signed to his Brother Hancock, Mother’s Death

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:5,000.00 USD Estimated At:6,000.00 - 8,000.00 USD
ZACHARY TAYLOR Autograph Letter Signed to his Brother Hancock, Mother’s Death
Autographs
Rare Zachary Taylor Autograph Letter Signed to his Brother Hancock regarding their Mother’s Death and Plans "in order to get my negroes together."
ZACHARY TAYLOR (1784-1850). 12th President of the United States.
December 30, 1823-Dated, Autograph Letter Signed, " Z. Taylor", 4 pages, measuring 9.875" x 8", Very Fine. Written from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to his brother Hancock Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky; Integral Address Panel part of the fourth page, with other text in the margins, Postmarked “1 February 1823”. There is some scattered dampstaining, soiling, red wax seal tear and remnant from being opened. Zachary Taylor grieves over the loss of his mother. Within the body of his very personal Letter to his brother, Hancock, Zachary Taylor writes, in part:

“ Your two letters of the 19th of Deer 22 & 19th of Jany 23 only reached me a few days ago since & about the same time - the first giving me the melancholy & disturbing intelligence of the death of our good kind & affectionate mother; & although I had expected that event, from the turn Peggy informed me her disease had taken, yet the information has truly distressed me. I had anticipated the pleasure of once more seeing her, but providence has directed otherwise, & our family has for the few last fatal years been among those that have been most severely afflicted. I sincerely hope that our good father will be able to bear up against this severe trial with his usual firmness. What course he will pursue relative to his breaking up or keeping house, time must determine. You are on the spot and I have no doubt will aid him with your advice, & I wish it was in his power to follow those pursuits, & walk of life that is most agreeable to him. But I am fearful that he will be under necessity of keeping house, on account of Sally & perhaps the other likewise; & should this be the case, you can advise whether it will be best for him to keep the plantation or dispose of it, & purchase a small establishment... (concluded) --- Your Affectionate Brother, - (Signed) Zachary”.

Zachary Taylor continues his private Letter with details on various family matters including an impending legal battle. Fearing his brother had not received an earlier letter, he recaps the content herewith noting he has purchased a small plantation, "in order to get my negroes together." A very rare, personal and heartfelt Letter from one Taylor brother to another, as they grapple with the loss of a parent.
General Zachary Taylor was a native of Virginia but an adopted Kentuckian. Born in 1784, he had risen to some national prominence as an army officer in the War of 1812 and in campaigns against Seminole Indians in the 1830s.

President James K. Polk ordered the 62-year-old brigadier general to lead a 3,500-man army into Texas to secure that newly annexed state, and as tensions between the United States and Mexico mounted, ordered him to establish a fortified base near the mouth of the Rio Grande River. Hostilities broke out in late April and early May, and Taylor drove Mexican forces from the region in a series of well-fought battles that earned him promotion to Major General. Taylor slowly pursued the defeated Mexican troops toward Monterrey, Mexico, and captured that important city in September 1846.

When Mexico refused American peace overtures, President Polk ordered Taylor to hold his position in northern Mexico while General Winfield Scott took most of Taylor’s army and more than 10,000 reinforcements on a campaign to capture Mexico City by way of a landing at Vera Cruz. Taylor, left with an army of fewer than 5,000 mostly untried volunteers, faced a savage attack from Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and 20,000 regulars, militia, and conscripts at the cataclysmic Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847. The fight, although a narrow U.S. victory, brought Zachary Taylor to the forefront of the American imagination.

This acclaim carried him to the White House in 1848. As President, Taylor faced a host of challenges regarding the expansion of Slavery into the territory captured from Mexico. After a life of rigorous service, Taylor died in office in 1850.