A gen’ral and expaaaansionist!
Thank you both for the fab write-ups! Pity that my HS American History course managed to gloss over all of this so utterly!
No! Hijack away! This was a great read. I’m not nearly as familiar with Taylor yet, mostly because his presidency and election to same largely get glossed over, even in good history books.
HS American History…heck even collegiate American history, tends to miss this stuff pretty badly, but you can really see how it has echoed through the ages.
Well when a guy dies in office, and his biggest accomplishment is merely to defer a conflict, it tends to get glossed over. The factors in his rise mostly will get wound up in the push towards the civil war. He’s part of the chapter where they set the stage for Lincoln, nothing more usually. After all it’s easier to write about the shooting that does happens, than the shooting that doesn’t happen yet.
Jeez, does that sound like this year’s election.
I knew about 1824 election, the “colorful” Presidency of Andrew Jackson, the dullness of Van Buren, but I had no idea of the craziness of 1836 election. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks for the history lessons! Guys like Taylor or van Buren or Polk may not get movies or miniseries about them,* but in many ways the stories behind the elections of these “ordinary” presidents give a better insight into the times than those of the “great” (but highly atypical) presidents like Lincoln or FDR.
*But there are a couple of songs! Obligatory links.
triggercut, can you give us your summary of the infamous election of 2016? I’ve heard it was pretty bizarre. Also, is it true cows only had one head back then? And the land wasn’t covered in the ashes of the dead?
Surely you mean NuSnow, Friend Countryman! Haha! Hear how pure and white my laugh is! Utterly unlike NuSnow, which is a proper grey, ashen color, as it always was!