Advertisement

Sunday, 13 May 2012

Zachary Taylor

1849-1850 
Zachary Taylor
Little is known about Taylor's religious views, though he is widely believed to have been an Episcopalian. With little documentary evidence to go on, a biographer wrote, "In the secret communion of his heart with heaven, who can say he did not die a Christian?" Like Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson before him, Taylor did not issue a proclamation calling for a national day of prayer and fasting while president. He explained his reasoning in a letter dated Nov. 5, 1849: "While uniting cordially in the universal feeling of thankfulness to God for his manifold blessings, and especially for the abatement of the pestilence which so lately walked in our midst, I have yet thought it most proper to leave the subject of a Thanksgiving Proclamation where custom in many parts of the country has so long consigned it, in the hands of the Governors of the several States."

No comments:

Post a Comment