President Zachary Taylor

A Little Whiskey

 

September 23, 2019

 

President Zachary Taylor

Dear President Taylor:

I must admit I didn’t think I would ever be writing a letter to you for several reasons. First, you were not one of our better-known early Presidents and that is probably because your term of office lasted only 17 months as you became the second president to die in office. You were mostly known for your military career and it is said that the first time you ever voted was when you ran for President. You believed that it was impractical to expand slavery and you were a devoted nationalist and believed that the country’s problems could not be resolved by secession. Knowing this, I wonder President Taylor what the country might have been like had you not died in office? I am sure you would like to know and probably be puzzled by the fact that the term “Nationalist” is now considered by some to be taboo.

It is my habit of doing cryptograms that lead me to this letter and a quote attributed to you.

“I have no private purpose to accomplish, no party objectives to build up, no enemies to punish – nothing to serve but my country.”

This tells me you were not looking for personal gains, no party motives and no vendettas toward others to settle. Nothing but service to “We the People.”  This quote led me to do some additional research and I came across the next quote.

 “I am not a party candidate, and if elected cannot be President of a party, but the President of the whole people.”

The soldier in you comes through and you realized to accomplish anything in Washington you needed to be a leader and not a ruler. Obviously, as you stated you were an Independent President and this showed in that you where unwilling to accept the Whig Party nomination and it took convincing by supporters and some influential Senators for you to accept it. Your first two quotes would have made President Washington proud in that he championed the Chief Executive remain independent of any party affiliations. You would also would probably be shocked to know President Taylor that most of our supposed “Public Servants” leave office in much better financial shape than before they entered, giving the appearance of only serving themselves, not us.

Then there is this final quote which seems better suited for President Grant but is attributed to you.

“Stop your nonsense and drink your whiskey!”

This might be good advice for all our elected officials on all levels but instead of whiskey, maybe they should take their medicine and start doing what is right for the country instead of their personal or party interests. After all, with the way they do things today it is “We the People” who need the whiskey to help dull the pain of their follies.

Thank for your time President Taylor

 

Sincerely,

Andrew DeMarco