2005-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/31/2005
An important and historic content manuscript letter, being a true copy of correspondence by Zachary Taylor, an incredible 37pp. 8 x 10": " Head Quarters. Army of Occupation Camp near Monterey 29 Aug, 1847 to Secretary of State, James Buchanan. Written in the hand ofTaylor's son-in- law, Robert Wood. The location of the original letter by Taylor is unknown. This letter was copied from the original that had been given to Wood by Buchanan. A lengthy and detailed letter in which Taylor defends his actions in the Mexican War after he was marginalized by President Polk and Secretary of War Marcy who viewed Taylor as a potential political threat' (A belief that proved quite correct!) Marcy sent Winfield Scott to command the conquest of the heart of Mexico and it's capital. Taylor recounted: "I received by express General Scott’s sugared letter of November 25th from New York. .. informing me he "was on his way to Mexico, not to relieve or supersede me, but only to take from me the greater portion of my command, in order that he might do something for himself, that I had done enough (perhaps too much) and could afford to remain on the defensive until congress could raise an army for me to command; a more contemptible and insidious communication was never written. This was the first and I may say the only intimation I had that I was to be outraged; but I then knew the poisoned shafts which had been sent to Washington (as mentioned by my friends) had done their work but too effectually. .. " Taylor noted that it was his actions and in particular: " ... the battle of Buena Vista [that) opened the road to the city of Mexico, and the doors of the halls of Montezumas, that others might revel in them .... " The letter also alludes to his run the next year for the Presidency ... but reads, at face value, as a denial: "On the subject of my being a candidate for the Presidency alluded to in your letter to Major Butler, 1 can only say that if I am so, or to be made one at the coming election, it will be by the acts of others, without any agency of mine in the matter, directly or indirectly. 1 have not now and never have had any aspirations for that situation, nor have I encouraged anyone directly or indirectly to bring my humble name before the country for that high office; the fact is my course has been a contrary one, for I apprehended at the same time what would be the result, which has been but too well realized, viz. to destroy that confidence which should exist between a commanding officer in the field and his Government so necessary to the success of military operations, and which I humbly conceive has been gradually withdrawn from me, as well as a disposition evinced to drive me from the service, or to lay me on the shelf, ever since the capitulation of Monterey; or why was the army which I had commanded for near three years, which I had conduced from the frontier of Louisiana to the tableland of the Sierra Madre, which had won three important battles (or least so thought a large portion of the good people of the country) so unceremoniously taken from me without the slightest regard to the courtesy usual on such occasions, as if intended to add insult to injury? Or if it was thought necessary to supplant me by another in the most cruel manner which could be devised, one who had declined or hesitated in taking it, when he thought it would interfere with his prospects for reaching the Presidency, why was I not offered a command in that army with which I had been so long associated, and permitted to share its toils, its dangers, and its triumphs? These are matters which can only be explained by those better versed in court intrigues than I pretend or wish to be ... " At the end of the text of the letter, Wood has added a short note that this is “A true copy form the original which had been returned by Mr. Buchanan at Washington -- one copy is in the hands of Mr. W H. Prescott of Mass -- and one in the hands of Honble. Abbott Lawrence, Mass ( both [illeg) Washington Sept. 23d. 1849 ..” Less than a year later, Taylor accepted the Whig nomination for President and was victorious in the election of 1848. More fine content, far too lengthy to recount here, but the text of the letter has been published in William K. Bixby, ed. Letter of Zachary Taylor from the Battle-fields of the Mexican War (1908). A truly historic missive deserving of proper attention. Bears the usual folds with afew minor marginal tears, Fine.
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