I Would Not Be a Partisan President

The True Whig Sentiment: General Taylor's Two Alison [sic, Allison] Letters

Taylor, Zachary

Notes: One sheet folded to make four pages.

This circular, printed shortly before the presidential election of 1848, reprints two letters that the white Whig candidate Zachary Taylor sent to his brother-in-law J. S. Allison, in which he outlined his political positions.

In the first letter, called "the most important document of the preconvention campaign" by Taylor biographer Holman Hamilton, the future president stated, "I am a Whig, but not an ultra Whig." That really clarified the issue and so in September, while in East Pascagoula, Mississippi, Taylor wrote a second letter to Allison to further explain his views. The letter offers an account of Taylor's path to the Whig nomination, which he pursued by pretending not to have political ambitions.

In the second letter, Taylor presents himself as a true outsider. "I have said I was not a party candidate, nor am I, in that straitened and sectarian sense which would prevent my being the President of the whole people in case of my election ... I would not be partisan President."

Taylor was elected the twelfth president of the United States and died just 16 months into his first term. These two letters were widely reprinted in newspapers and became among the most important elements of Taylor's successful candidacy. Modern scholarship has established that the letters were written by Taylor's advisors and then copied by the general with the idea that they would be made public by Allison.

This separate printing is scarce in commerce.

Edition + Condition: First edition (first printing). Light tanning and a few small stains, but generally near fine.

Publication: [Boston]: Eastburn's Press, 1848.

Item No: #5605

Price: $250