bodies of England and America. The work, however, on which his reputation rests is his "Statistics of Coal" (8vo., Philadelphia, 1848), which had engaged him for many years, and which was regarded as the standard authority on the distribution, production, and consumption of fossil fuel. Beside his proficiency in economic geology, in which he stood preeminent, he was well informed in theoretic geology, and was the first to refer the old red sandstone underlying the Pennsylvania coal fields to its true position, corresponding with its place in the series of European rocks. During his residence in England he gave much attention to archæology, and published in 1821 an "Index Monasticus, in the Ancient Kingdom of Anglia" (fol.), followed by a very complete "General Index to Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum" (fol., 1830).

TAYLOR, STEPHEN WILLIAM, LL.D., an American educator, born in Adams, Berkshire co., Mass., Oct. 23, 1791, died at Hamilton, Madison co., N. Y., Jan. 7, 1856. He was graduated at Hamilton college, N. Y., in 1817, and took charge of the Black river academy at Lowville, Lewis co., where he remained for 14 years. In 1831 he resigned and became the teacher of a family school, and in 1834 was invited to take charge of the preparatory department of the "Hamilton Institution," now Madison university. In 1838 he was elected to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy, which he resigned in 1845, and in the following winter removed into Pennsylvania and aided in the establishment of the university at Lewisburg, of which he was chosen the first president. At the end of 5 years (1851), the institution being placed in a flourishing condition, he resigned, and in the same year was offered the presidency of Madison university, then in a state of great depression from the efforts to transfer the collegiate department to Rochester, and the removal of a majority of its faculty and board to that city, although the supreme court had decided that Madison university must remain at Hamilton. He entered upon his duties in the autumn of 1851, and within 3 years the university was stronger in resources and the number of its students than at any previous time. A historical sketch of Madison university, several inaugural and baccalaureate discourses, and a series of essays on the theory of education published in the "Christian Chronicle," Philadelphia, are all that remain of his published works. He had partially completed at the time of his death an elaborate work on education.

TAYLOR, THOMAS, an English scholar and translator, surnamed the "Platonist," born in London, May 15, 1758, died at Walworth, Nov. 1, 1835. He studied the classics, mathematics, and chemistry, but was obliged to relinquish his design of entering a university, and became a clerk in a banking house. Having been appointed assistant secretary of the society for the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and

commerce, he resolved to attempt an English version of all the works of Aristotle and Plato and those of the Neo-Platonists. The duke of Norfolk and others defrayed the expense of the publication of many of these, but Mr. Taylor received little or no profit from them. In this way he issued, in the course of 40 years, translations of part or the whole of Ocellus, the hymns of Orpheus, the complete works of Plato in 5 vols. 4to., Proclus, the emperor Julian, Pausanias, Plotinus, Apuleius, Aristotle, Maximus Tyrius, Demophilus, Iamblichus, Hierocles, Porphyry, Celsus, Olympiodorus, and the "Chaldean Oracles." Beside these he published works on geometry and arithmetic, on the Eleusinian and Bacchic mysteries, on "The Rights of Brutes" (in ridicule of Paine's "Rights of Man"), "Miscellanies in Prose and Verse," &c. His works amounted to 55 vols. 8vo. or 4to.

TAYLOR, TOм, an English author, born in Sunderland, Durham, in 1817. He was educated at the Grange school of his native town, passed some time at the university of Glasgow, and was graduated at Trinity college, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow. After filling for a few years the chair of English literature in University college, London, he was in 1845 called to the bar, and went the northern circuit, until his appointment in 1850 as assistant secretary to the board of health, of which in 1854 he became secretary. Since 1858 he has held the position of secretary to the local government act office. He was a frequent contributor to the early volumes of "Punch," and is favorably known as the author of numerous dramatic pieces, among the most successful of which have been "Still Waters Run Deep," "The Unequal Match," and "The Overland Route." Of more pretension and value than these are his biography of Benjamin Robert Haydon, prepared from the journals of the artist, and his editorial preface and continuation to the "Autobiography of Charles Robert Leslie." His contributions to the periodical press have been numerous.

TAYLOR, WILLIAM, an English author and translator, born in Norwich in 1765, died there in March, 1836. He completed his education in France, Italy, and Germany, returned to Norwich in 1783, and soon began to write for periodicals and translate from German writers. In 1802 he became editor of the "Norwich Iris," a weekly journal, which he continued for two years. Among his publications are translations of Bürger's "Lenore" and Lessing's "Nathan the Wise," a collection of essays on English synonymes, and critical essays on the German poets, with translations, entitled "Survey of German Poetry" (1830). His "Life and Writings," including his correspondence with Southey, was published in 1843, with a memoir by J. W. Robberds (2 vols. 8vo.).

TAYLOR, WILLIAM COOKE, LL.D., an Irish author, born in Youghal, April 16, 1800, died in Dublin, Sept. 12, 1849. He was educated at the university of Dublin, and commenced con

tributing to the periodical press at an early age. He went to London about 1828, and till his death was constantly engaged in literary labor. His chief works are: "Historical Miscellany" (1829); "History of France and Normandy" (1830); manuals of ancient and modern history; "Natural History of Society" (2 vols.); "History of Mohammedanism;" "History of Christianity;" "History of the Civil Wars in Ireland;" "History of British India;" "Life and Times of Sir Robert Peel" (3 vols.); "Revolutions and Remarkable Conspiracies in Europe" (3 vols.); "Romantic Biography;' "The Bible Illustrated from Egyptian Monuments:"" ;" "History of Popery;" and the "History of the House of Orleans," which was his last work. In 1846 he was employed by the British government to inquire into the system of education on the continent, and at the time of his death was about to be appointed superintendent of national education in Ireland.

TAYLOR, ZACHARY, the 12th president of the United States, born in Orange co., Va., Nov. 24, 1784, died in Washington, D. C., July 9, 1850. His father, Col. Richard Taylor, was a Virginian of a distinguished family, who served with zeal and courage throughout the revolutionary war, and subsequently removed to Kentucky, where he was one of the first settlers of Louisville, in the neighborhood of which city he had an extensive plantation. Zachary was but a few months old at the time of his father's emigration from Virginia; and as Kentucky during his infancy and early boyhood was thinly peopled and greatly harassed by the Indians, his means of education were very limited, and were confined to the simplest rudiments of learning. Until his 24th year he was engaged in the labors of the plantation; but his brother Hancock, a lieutenant in the U. S. army, having died in 1808, through the influence of Madison, then secretary of state, who was a relative of the Taylor family, the vacant commission was assigned to Zachary, and he became first lieutenant in the 7th regiment of infantry. He was made a captain in Nov. 1810, and two years later, after the declaration of war against Great Britain, was placed in command of Fort Harrison, a blockhouse and stockade on the Wabash river, about 50 miles above Vincennes. This place was one of the most advanced posts of the United States on the Indian frontier, and was the first object of attack by the tribes whom Tecumseh had stirred up to war against the Americans. Early in September it was invested by a large force of Indians, who, after a futile attempt to outwit the young captain by professions of peace, made a furious night assault, and succeeded in setting fire to the lower buildings of the fort. Taylor had but 50 men, of whom two thirds were ill with fever. He maintained the defence, however, with skill and steadiness, and after a sharp conflict of several hours extinguished the flames and repulsed the savage assailants with such severe loss that at daybreak

they abandoned the siege. For his conduct on this occasion he received from the president the rank of major by brevet, the first instance in the service of this species of promotion. A few months later he took part in a successful expedition led by Gen. Hopkins against the Indian villages, and from that time to the close of the war was actively engaged in service on the N. W. frontier. In 1814 he attained the full rank of major, ånd commanded an expedition against the British and Indians on Rock river, during which he fought an indecisive action with a superior force of the enemy strongly posted at the mouth of the river. On the restoration of peace in 1815, congress reduced the army and annulled many of the promotions made during the war. By this means Taylor was reduced to the rank of captain, and in consequence resigned his commission and retired to his plantation near Louisville. The influence of his friends, however, soon procured his reinstatement as major, and he was employed for several years alternately on the N. W. frontier and in the south, where in 1822 he built Fort Jesup. In 1826 he was a member of a board of officers convened by the secretary of war to consider and prepare a system for the organization and improvement of the militia of the United States. A report drawn by Gen. Scott was adopted on Taylor's motion, and was approved in congress, but never carried into effect. In 1819 Taylor had received a commission as lieutenant-colonel, and in 1832 he was promoted to the rank of colonel. In the latter year he was engaged in the Black Hawk war, and Black Hawk after his capture was placed in his charge to be conveyed a prisoner to Jefferson barracks. After the war Taylor was ordered to Prairie du Chien, where he took command of Fort Crawford, a work which had been erected under his superintendence. In 1836 he was ordered to Florida, where the war with the Seminoles was then going on without much prospect of a speedy termination. On Dec. 25, 1837, he defeated the Indians in the battle of Okechobee, one of the most desperate and hotly contested in the annals of our warfare with the red men, and which had a decisive effect upon the duration of the struggle, the Seminoles never again rallying in sufficient force to be formidable to the whites. Taylor was rewarded for this affair by promotion to the rank of brigadier-general by brevet, and in April, 1838, he was made commander-in-chief in Florida in place of Gen. Jesup. This post he held till 1840, when he was relieved from it at his own request, and was immediately appointed to the command of the first department of the army in the south-west, comprehending the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. He purchased at this time an estate at Baton Rouge on the banks of the Mississippi, to which he removed his family from Kentucky. On March 1, 1845, congress passed the joint resolution annexing Texas, and on May 28 Mr. Marcy, the secretary

of war, sent a confidential letter to Gen. Taylor, instructing him to hold the troops under his command in readiness to defend Texas in case of an invasion from Mexico. He demanded more explicit instructions, and in reply was directed generally to be governed by circumstances, to avoid all aggressive measures, and to hold his army ready to protect the Texan territory "to the extent that it had been oci had been occupied by the people of Texas." The Rio Grande was indicated by the secretary as the boundary of Texas, though the Mexicans maintained that Texas never extended west of the Nueces. Corpus Christi, on Aransas bay, near the mouth of the Nueces, was pointed out as the best point for concentrating the U. S. forces; and accordingly in July, 1845, Taylor embarked at New Orleans with 1,500 troops, and in the beginning of August encamped with them at Corpus Christi, where he was followed by reënforcements, so that in November his forces amounted to about 4,000 men. He remained for several months, during which his conduct under the most embarrassing circumstances was marked by great prudence and discretion. The administration desired to bring the Mexican question to a crisis, without, if possible, incurring the responsibility of beginning a war. Indirectly, therefore, it endeavored to induce Gen. Taylor to advance his forces into the disputed territory; but the wary old soldier disregarded all hints to that effect, and would not move till explicitly ordered to do so by the president. Positive instructions were at length sent, and on March 8, 1846, the army began its march toward the Rio Grande, and on the 28th reached the banks of that river opposite Matamoras. Here it encamped and erected Fort Brown, which commanded Matamoras, where the Mexicans were also throwing up batteries and redoubts. On April 12 Gen. Ampudia, the Mexican commander, addressed a note to Gen. Taylor requiring him within 24 hours to break up his camp and retire beyond the Nueces, "while our governments are regulating the pending question in relation to Texas," and informing him that his non-compliance would be regarded by the Mexicans as equivalent to a declaration of war. Gen. Taylor replied that he was acting under instructions which did not permit him to return to the Nueces, and that if the Mexicans saw fit to commence hostilities he should not avoid the conflict. Ampudia was soon after superseded as Mexican commander-in-chief by Arista, who early in May crossed the Rio Grande with a force of 6,000 men, and on the 8th of that month attacked and was defeated by Gen. Taylor with 2,300 men at Palo Alto, a few miles from Matamoras. (See PALO ALTO.) The Mexicans retreated to Resaca de la Palma, where they took up a strong position, and on the following day again gave battle to the Americans, who after a severe contest routed them with great loss and drove them across the Rio Grande. The total loss of the Mexi

cans in these battles amounted to about 1,000 men. In his report to the government Gen. Taylor said: "Our victory has been decisive. A small force has overcome immense odds of the best troops that Mexico can furnish-veteran regiments, perfectly equipped and appointed. Eight pieces of artillery, several colors and standards, a great number of prisoners, including 14 officers, and a large amount of baggage and public property, have fallen into our hands." The first intelligence of the outbreak of hostilities on the Rio Grande called forth a special message from the president (May 11), in which he declared that the Mexican government had "at last invaded our territory, and shed the blood of our fellow citizens on our own soil." Two days later congress declared that "by the act of the republic of Mexico war exists between that government and the United States," and at the same time authorized the president to accept the services of 50,000 volunteers. Meanwhile Taylor, who had been promoted to the rank of major-general as a reward for his victories, took possession of Matamoras on May 18 without opposition, and remained there awaiting reënforcements and organizing his forces till September, when he marched against Monterey, which he reached Sept. 9 with a force of 6,625 men, mostly volunteers. The place was defended by Gen. Ampudia with about 10,000 regular troops. On the 19th Gen. Taylor ordered an assault, and after 3 days' desperate fighting Gen. Ampudia capitulated on the 24th. (See MONTEREY.) Taylor made Monterey his headquarters, but occupied with a strong detachment the city of Saltillo, the capital of the state of Coahuila. He was diligently making preparations for an advance with an adequate army upon San Luis Potosi, an important city 300 miles south of Saltillo, when he received in December a letter from Gen. Scott, the commander-in-chief, who was then at New York, informing him that, as he was about to lead an expedition against Vera Cruz, "I shall be obliged to take from you most of the gallant officers and men, regulars and volunteers, whom you have so long and so nobly commanded." His troops were accordingly taken from him, as some of his friends alleged, from motives of jealousy on the part of the democratic leaders who controlled the administration, it being well understood that he was a whig in politics; and he was left to stand on the defensive with only 5,000 men, of whom but 500 were regulars, the rest being volunteers who had never seen a battle. He received intelligence that Santa Anna, the ablest of the Mexican generals, had concentrated at San Luis Potosi the flower of the Mexican army to the number of 21,000 veteran troops, and was moving rapidly to attack him in the valley of the Rio Grande. After carefully examining the ground, Taylor on Feb. 21, 1847, took a position at Buena Vista, a mountain pass 9 miles from Saltillo, and awaited the approach of the Mexicans,

who made their appearance on the following day, and notwithstanding their immense superiority of numbers were signally defeated. (See BUENA VISTA.) Santa Anna retreated with his disheartened followers to San Luis Potosi, and during the rest of the war the frontier of the Rio Grande and the valley of that river remained in quiet possession of the Americans. For a period of several days before and after the battle all communication between the United States and Gen. Taylor's army had been cut off by detachments of Mexican cavalry, and great anxiety prevailed throughout the country as to the result of the encounter between forces so unequal. Rumors came from the Rio Grande that Taylor had been overpowered by the Mexicans and all his troops killed or captured. In consequence of this painful suspense the true tidings of the achievement of a splendid and decisive victory over very superior numbers were received with enthusiastic satisfaction, and the reputation and popularity of Gen. Taylor, already very great, attained the highest pitch. The modest and dignified tone of the despatches in which he announced to the government his victories largely contributed to heighten the public esteem for his character, and on his return home in Nov. 1847, "Old Rough and Ready," as his 'soldiers familiarly called him, was greeted everywhere by the warmest demonstrations of popular applause. This popularity naturally led to propositions to nominate him as a candidate for the presidency at the approaching election of 1848; and indeed, immediately after the reception of the news of the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, he had been so nominated by popular assemblages at Trenton, N. J., and in the city of New York. These hasty nominations, however, were made by persons of little consideration, and attracted but a small share of the public regard. In March, 1847, overtures were made to Gen. Taylor by some of the leaders of the native American party, to which he replied, April 28, that while the country was involved in war and he was engaged in operations against the enemy he could not acknowledge any ambition beyond that of bestowing all his best exertions toward obtaining an adjustment of our difficulties with Mexico. After his return home, however, he wrote and authorized the publication of several brief letters in which he defined his political position, and from which it appeared that he was, as he himself expressed a whig, but not an ultra whig." In a letter to Peter Sken Smith, Jan. 30, 1848, he said: "I have neither the power nor the desire to dictate to the American people the exact manner in which they should proceed to nominate for the presidency of the United States. If they desire such a result, they must adopt the means best suited, in their opinion, to the consummation of the purpose; and if they think fit to bring me before them for this office, through their legislatures, mass meetings, or

it,

conventions, I cannot object to their designating these bodies as whig, democrat, or native. But in being thus nominated, I must insist on the condition-and my position on this point is immutable-that I shall not be brought forward by them as the candidate of their party, or considered as the exponent of their party doctrines." In a letter to Capt. J. S. Allison, April 22, 1848, he said: "I have consented to the use of my name as a candidate for the presidency. I have frankly avowed my own distrust of my fitness for this high station; but having, at the solicitation of many of my countrymen, taken my position as a candidate, I do not feel at liberty to surrender that position until my friends manifest a wish that I should retire from it. I will then most gladly do so. I have no private purposes to accomplish, no party projects to build up, no enemies to punish-nothing to serve but my country.

I am a whig. If elected, I would not be the mere president of a party. I would endeaver to act independently of party domination. I should feel bound to administer the government untrammelled by party schemes. I shall engage in no schemes, no combinations, no intrigues. If the American people have not confidence in me, they ought not to give me their suffrages. If they do not, you know me well enough to believe me when I declare I shall be content. I am too old a soldier to murmur against such high authority." These declarations were satisfactory to a great portion of the people, especially of the whig party; and when the whig national convention met at Philadelphia, June 1, 1848, a considerable number of the delegates were pledged to the support of Gen. Taylor. Strong opposition, however, existed to him on various grounds. The friends of Daniel Webster and of Henry Clay insisted upon the claims of those eminent statesmen upon the whig party, and portrayed the injustice of setting them aside in deference to the mushroom popularity of a mere military chieftain, "an ignorant frontier colonel," as Mr. Webster called him, who had neither experience nor knowledge of civil affairs, and as he himself admitted had paid so little attention to politics as not to have voted for 40 years. It was also alleged that Gen. Taylor could hardly be considered a whig, and was of doubtful orthodoxy on many essential points of the whig political creed. The freesoil whigs further objected that Gen. Taylor was a slaveholder, and was not pledged against the extension of slavery, a question then predominant in American politics. Amid these conflicting views the convention began to ballot for a candidate. The whole number of votes was 280, and 141 were necessary to a choice. On the first ballot Taylor received 111 votes, Clay 97, Scott 43, Webster 22, all others 6; second ballot, Taylor 118, Clay 86, Scott 49, Webster 22; third ballot, Taylor 133, Clay 74, Scott 54, Webster 17; fourth ballot, Taylor 171, Clay 35, Scott 60, Webster 14, and Taylor