6. The death of Zachary Taylor just sixteen months after taking office has persistently been twisted into an assassination allegedly by pro-slavery factions
A career officer in the United States Army, serving during the War of 1812 as well as the Mexican-American War, Zachary Taylor rose to the rank of major general and became a national hero for his victories. Becoming the twelfth President of the United States in March 1949 on the back of his military service, Taylor’s core platform was the preservation of the Union and settling the inflammatory issue of slavery. However, just sixteen months into his term of office, on July 9, 1850, the sixty-five-year-old Taylor died after a short but brutal contraction of an unknown illness. Succeeded by Millard Fillmore, his replacement quickly signed the Compromise of 1850 which permitted the expansion of slavery into the Southwest.
Believed to have been the product of the over-consumption of large quantities of raw fruit and iced milk during a fund-raising event at the under-construction Washington Monument, inducing a digestive ailment similar to dysentery, several other cabinet members were afflicted with a comparable illness around the same time. In spite of this, almost immediately following Taylor’s demise rumors began spreading regarding an assassination. Alleging he had been poisoned by pro-slavery Southerners to achieve a more receptive White House, such conspiracy theories became sufficiently prevalent in the late-20th century to warrant an exhumation which proved beyond doubt poison was not involved.