Benjamin Ogle Tayloe
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Ogle Tayloe was an American
businessman
, bon vivant, diplomat
, and influential political activist in Washington, D.C.
during the first half of the 19th century. Although he never held elective office, he was a prominent Whig
and influential in presidential electoral politics in the 1840s and 1850s. His home, the Tayloe House
, became a salon
for politically powerful people in the federal government and socially influential individuals in the United States and abroad. Tayloe was also a party in the important 1869 contract
law case, Willard v. Tayloe
, 75 U.S. 557.
, a home belonging to his maternal grandfather, Benjamin Ogle
, the ninth Governor of Maryland
. His maternal great-grandfather was former Provincial governor
, Samuel Ogle
. Tayloe's father was Colonel
John Tayloe III, one of the richest people in Virginia
. Colonel Tayloe had built The Octagon House in 1800, and his great-grandfather had built the great country estate house of Mount Airy
in Richmond County, Virginia
in 1762. His mother, Anne Ogle Tayloe, was the granddaughter of Governor Benjamin Ogle.
He was tutored by Samuel Hoar
, a prominent lawyer
and politician in the state of Massachusetts
. When he was 13 years old, he entered Phillips Exeter Academy
in Exeter, New Hampshire
. His roommate was John Adams Dix
, later the United States Secretary of the Treasury
, Senator
, and 24th Governor of New York. He entered Harvard College
in 1811, where his classmates included some of the most prominent Americans of the next half-century: historian
Jared Sparks
; jurist
Theophilus Parsons
; cleric and politician John G. Palfrey
; Unitarian
minister Convers Francis
; businessman John Amory Lowell
; and historian William H. Prescott
. While in college during the War of 1812
, he witnessed the famous battle between the HMS Shannon
and the USS Chesapeake
. He dined with the Chesapeake's Captain, James Lawrence
, the night before the battle. He graduated from Harvard in 1815.
From 1815 to 1817, Tayloe studied law under United States Attorney General
Richard Rush
. When Rush was appointed Minister to Great Britain
in 1817, Tayloe was named his Private Secretary. While in London
, he lived at 15 King Street, Portman Square
. He visited often with many of Great Britain's most influential politicians and nobility, and became close friends with the young painter
Washington Allston
and the author
Washington Irving
. He was presented to the Prince Regent, George
, in 1818. He also traveled widely in Europe
, Ireland
, and Scotland
, and was an observer at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle
in 1818. He traveled to Paris in the spring of 1819, where Minister to France
Albert Gallatin
introduced him to King Louis XVIII
and Talleyrand.
Tayloe returned to the United States in November 1819 and settled at Windsor (his inherited family estate in King George County, Virginia
), where he began writing for various horse racing
and horse breeding
publications.
On November 8, 1824, Tayloe married Julia Maria Dickinson of Troy, New York
. The couple had six children: John (born 1826), Edward (born 1829), Estelle (born 1833), Anna (born 1834), Eugenie (born 1835), and Julia (born 1838). Anna died when just two years old. Although Tayloe preferred to live at Windsor, his wife asked that they move into the city where she was more comfortable.
On March 23, 1828, Tayloe's father, Col. John Tayloe III, died. In 1816 Col. Tayloe had built six two-story
houses facing Pennsylvania Avenue
at 14th Street NW, and in 1817 had leased them to John Tennison who ran them as a hotel. The structures served as a hotel for the next three decades, the leaseholder and name changing several times: Williamson's Mansion Hotel, Fullers American House, and the City Hotel.
in Washington, D.C.
, directly across the street from the White House
. The Tayloes did not immediately occupy their home, however. Tayloe had a strong political disagreement with the newly elected President, Andrew Jackson
, and refused to move into the home. Instead, Tayloe leased the building to Thomas Swann, Sr., a lawyer
(and the father of Thomas Swann, Jr.
, who became Governor of Maryland
in 1866). Swann vacated the home in November 1829, at which time Tayloe and his wife made the house their permanent residence.
Over the four decades following its construction, the Tayloe House was an important social gathering place for prominent Washingtonians. In 1829, when Henry Clay
left the office of Secretary of State
, much of the furniture
in his home was acquired by the Tayloes and used to decorate their home. Tayloe House was the last house in Washington which President William Henry Harrison
visited before he died in 1841.
In 1859 Tayloe House was the scene of a murder. Philip Barton Key II was the son of Francis Scott Key
and the nephew of Chief Justice
Roger B. Taney
. In the spring of 1858, Key began having an affair with Teresa Bagioli Sickles
, the wife of his friend Daniel Sickles
. On February 26, 1859, Sickles learned of the affair. The following day, he saw Key in Lafayette Square signalling to his wife. Sickles rushed out into the park, drew a single pistol, and shot the unarmed Key three times while the other man pleaded for his life. Key was taken into the nearby Tayloe House and died moments later. Key's spirit, eyewitnesses and authors claim, now haunts Lafayette Square and can be seen on dark nights near the spot where he was shot.
As Tayloe was one of the most influential and active members of the Whig Party
in the District of Columbia, the Tayloe house became a noted meeting place for many of the leading political figures of early 19th century American politics. Among the many frequent visitors to the house were Chief Justice
John Marshall
, Senator and Secretary of State
Henry Clay
, Senator and Secretary of State Daniel Webster
, Vice President and Secretary of State John C. Calhoun
, Senator Henry Clay
, Senator and Secretary of State Lewis Cass
, Secretary of State Edward Livingston
, Speaker of the House
and Senator Robert Charles Winthrop
, General Winfield Scott
, Senator and Secretary of State Edward Everett
, Senator and Secretary of State William H. Seward
, Associate Justice
Joseph Story
, and many others. Presidents John Quincy Adams
, Martin Van Buren
, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor
, and Millard Fillmore
also were frequent guests. Anthony Trollope
spent much of his free time being entertained by the Tayloes at their home during his visit to Washington, D.C., in the winter of 1862.
plantation
in northeast Marengo
(now Hale
) and southwest Perry
counties between Uniontown
and Selma, Alabama
, in 1836. A slave owner
, Tayloe gradually moved most of his slaves from Virginia to Alabama, and invested most of his capital
in the plantation. The Tayloes spent the following year traveling in Europe. The plantation was managed by Tayloe's younger brother, Henry A. Tayloe, who proved a less than capable manager and was relieved of his position in 1843. The Tayloe property flourished afterward, and by 1851 Benjamin and his other brother, William, owned seven plantations (which included more than 13146 acres (5,320 ha) and 465 slaves worth $334,250[ about $13.6 million in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars] ).
The Tayloes were the largest absentee landlords in Alabama. Overseer Robert Morgan earned $1,200 annually for his duties on the Benjamin Ogle Tayloe plantation, 2.4 times what most overseers in the Canebreak Region of Alabama
did. Tayloe visited his property in Alabama only twice during his lifetime.
Tayloe's views on slavery were somewhat moderate in nature. He strongly (but privately) disapproved of sexually abusing slaves and miscegenation
. He felt it inappropriate to ask his daughters to inherit slaves (except for a few household slaves, if the girls wished it). Although Tayloe supported slavery as a legal institution, he did not feel the issue should bring about the dissolution of the Union. During the slavery crisis of 1850
, Tayloe favored maintaining union over maintaining slavery in the Deep South
. He wrote at the time:
Nonetheless, he generally opposed freeing the slaves, and believed that slavery and union could co-exist if only partisan political feeling could be reduced. When Representative
Preston Brooks
of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner
with a cane (leaving him severely wounded) on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 1856, Tayloe applauded Brooks' actions and said Sumner "deserved a sound thrashing—& got it!" When Fort Sumter
was shelled by Confederate forces
(opening the American Civil War
), Tayloe believed that peace could still be restored.
A prominent Whig, Tayloe supported Henry Clay for President in 1840. When Clay did not win the nomination, Tayloe supported William Henry Harrison, and his efforts on Harrison's behalf led the new President to consider him a confidante. Tayloe also played an important role in Henry Clay's unsuccessful 1844 candidacy
for President of the United States. He made many friends among the diplomatic corps, among them the Belgian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Comte
Auguste Vanderstraeten-Ponthoz, with whom he met in 1843 (the Comte departed in 1844) and kept up a 20-year correspondence.
After a long illness, Julia Tayloe died on July 4, 1846.
) when she met Henry Willard, a Chief Steward
aboard the vessel. Miss Warren was so impressed with the way Willard handled the ship's and passengers' needs that she recommended him to her fianceé. Willard visited Washington, D.C., in October 1847 to meet with Tayloe, who subsequently leased the six hotel buildings to him. Willard combined them into a single structure in 1850 and enlarged it into a four story-hotel he called the Willard Hotel
.
Tayloe's lease to Willard later generated an important case before the Supreme Court of the United States
. In 1854, Tayloe leased the property again to Willard, this time for 10 years at a rate of $1,200 per year. The lease contained a provision that Willard could purchase the entire property at any time during the life of the lease for $22,500—$2,000 in "cash" down payment and another $2,000 a year plus interest thereafter until the mortgage was paid. During the lease, the Civil War broke out and property values in Washington, D.C., skyrocketed. In 1863, Congress passed the National Banking Act
, which authorized the federal government to issue United States Note
s (paper money) rather than certificates redeemable in gold. On April 15, 1864, two weeks before the lease was due to expire, Willard tendered the down payment to Tayloe in paper money. Tayloe refused to issue the mortgage and turn over the deed, claiming that the hotel was now worth much more than $22,500 and that Willard had not paid in gold (the only form of cash available in 1854) as specified in the lease. Willard sued. The Supreme Court of the District of Columbia held against Willard. Willard appealed. In 1869, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the terms of the lease should not be interpreted as of the date it was agreed to (1854). Congress had made the use of gold and silver as currency illegal during the war, and this change in the law enabled Willard to pay the down payment in paper currency. The Court also held that the terms of the lease did not provide for a re-evaluation of the worth of the hotel, and that Willard was entitled to the original $22,500 purchase price. For many years, the decision was the leading case in contract
law regarding intent and enforcement.
became President in 1849. Tayloe remained an influential figure in national Whig politics even after Taylor's death on July 9, 1850, and the assumption of Millard Fillmore
to the presidency. Tayloe made the first of two trips to Alabama to visit his business there in late 1850, and spent some time in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana
, before traveling to Havana
, Cuba
. Although Tayloe was an influential backer of Fillmore for re-election in 1852, he was on intimate terms with General Winfield Scott
, the candidate who defeated Fillmore for the Whig nomination for president.
During this period, Tayloe was also a director of the Monument Association, which was striving to build the Washington Monument
. He was elected president of the Board of Trustees of the Washington Orphan Asylum in 1855, and from 1865 until his death in 1868 was president of the Society of the Oldest Inhabitants of DC (an association of citizens who had lived in the District of Columbia at least 20 years). In the 1850s and 1860s he was regularly asked to run for Mayor of Washington, but declined every time. He was a very close friend of Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier
, the Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States from 1857 to 1859.
In the critical presidential election of 1860
, with the Whig Party in disarray, Tayloe worked to elect former Senator John Bell
(running as the candidate of the Constitutional Union Party
). He attempted to convince the Southern Democratic Party
candidate, Vice President
John C. Breckinridge
, to withdraw his candidacy in favor of a "fusion" party that would defeat the Republican Party
candidate, Abraham Lincoln
. When Lincoln won the election, Tayloe met with the president-elect on November 8, 1860, and expressed his views on the need for union in a letter which he handed to him. Lincoln read it over twice, then said, "I am not yet elected President, and shall not be until I receive the vote of the electors
."
Some historians have alleged that Tayloe may have been a spy for the Confederate States of America
during the Civil War. William Tidwell and others point out that he was a noted Southern sympathizer, and that he had the education, skill, connections, and opportunity. Tidwell has even alleged that Tayloe met with John B. Magruder
and George Washington Custis Lee
(son of Robert E. Lee
), both men later to be generals in the Confederate States Army
, on April 21, 1861—the day before Robert E. Lee left Washington, D.C., to join the rebel armies. This left Tayloe in charge of a secret espionage ring in the city, it is claimed. Tayloe may also have helped provide funds to Confederate prisoners housed at the Old Capitol Prison in the city. It is even claimed that Tayloe may have helped conceive the kidnapping plot which later became a plan to kill President Lincoln.
Secretary of State William H. Seward
lived in the house next door to Tayloe's. Seward was almost assassinated on the night of April 14, 1865, by Lewis Powell
. Tayloe and his wife were the first people to enter the Seward house after the attack, and they stayed with the stricken Secretary of State all night long.
Phoebe Tayloe inherited the house upon his death. After she died in 1881, more than 200 marble statues, bronze sculptures, fine furniture, and paintings in the house were donated to the Corcoran Gallery of Art
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
businessman
Businessperson
A businessperson is someone involved in a particular undertaking of activities for the purpose of generating revenue from a combination of human, financial, or physical capital. An entrepreneur is an example of a business person...
, bon vivant, diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
, and influential political activist in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
during the first half of the 19th century. Although he never held elective office, he was a prominent Whig
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...
and influential in presidential electoral politics in the 1840s and 1850s. His home, the Tayloe House
Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House
The Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House is a Federal-style house located at 21 Madison Place NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. The house is on the northeast corner of Madison Place NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, directly across the street from the White House and the Treasury Building...
, became a salon
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
for politically powerful people in the federal government and socially influential individuals in the United States and abroad. Tayloe was also a party in the important 1869 contract
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
law case, Willard v. Tayloe
Willard v. Tayloe
Willard v. Tayloe, 75 U.S. 557 , was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that courts of equity deciding issues of contract have discretion to determine the form of relief based on the circumstances of each individual case...
, 75 U.S. 557.
Birth, schooling and diplomatic career
Tayloe was born on May 21, 1796, at Ogle Hall in Annapolis, MarylandAnnapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
, a home belonging to his maternal grandfather, Benjamin Ogle
Benjamin Ogle
Benjamin Ogle was the ninth Governor of Maryland from 1798 to 1801.-Early life:The Ogle family was quite prominent for many centuries in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England, dating from the medieval period. Born in Annapolis, Maryland, Benjamin Ogle was the son of former Provincial...
, the ninth Governor of Maryland
Governor of Maryland
The Governor of Maryland heads the executive branch of the government of Maryland, and he is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The Governor is the highest-ranking official in the state, and he has a broad range of appointive powers in both the State and local governments,...
. His maternal great-grandfather was former Provincial governor
Province of Maryland
The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S...
, Samuel Ogle
Samuel Ogle
Samuel Ogle was the 16th, 18th and 20th Proprietary Governor of Maryland from 1731 to 1732, 1733 to 1742, and 1746/1747 to 1752.-Background:...
. Tayloe's father was Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
John Tayloe III, one of the richest people in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. Colonel Tayloe had built The Octagon House in 1800, and his great-grandfather had built the great country estate house of Mount Airy
Mount Airy, Richmond County, Virginia
Mount Airy, near Warsaw in Richmond County, Virginia, built in 1758-62, is a mid-Georgian plantation house, the first built in the manner of a neo-Palladian villa. It was constructed for Colonel John Tayloe II, perhaps the richest Virginia planter of his generation...
in Richmond County, Virginia
Richmond County, Virginia
Richmond County is a county located on the Northern Neck in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a state in the United States. As of 2010, the population was 9,254. Its county seat is Warsaw. The rural county should not be confused with the large city and state capital Richmond, Virginia, which is over...
in 1762. His mother, Anne Ogle Tayloe, was the granddaughter of Governor Benjamin Ogle.
He was tutored by Samuel Hoar
Samuel Hoar
Samuel Hoar was a United States lawyer and politician. A member of a prominent political family in Massachusetts, he was a leading 19th century lawyer of that state. He was associated with the Federalist Party until its decline after the war of 1812. Over his career, a prominent Massachusetts...
, a prominent lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and politician in the state of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. When he was 13 years old, he entered Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
in Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The town's population was 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood...
. His roommate was John Adams Dix
John Adams Dix
John Adams Dix was an American politician from New York. He served as Secretary of the Treasury, U.S. Senator, and the 24th Governor of New York. He was also a Union major general during the Civil War.-Early life and career:...
, later the United States Secretary of the Treasury
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...
, Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
, and 24th Governor of New York. He entered Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1811, where his classmates included some of the most prominent Americans of the next half-century: historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Jared Sparks
Jared Sparks
Jared Sparks was an American historian, educator, and Unitarian minister. He served as President of Harvard University from 1849 to 1853.-Biography:...
; jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...
Theophilus Parsons
Theophilus Parsons
Theophilus Parsons was an American jurist.Born in Newbury, Massachusetts, and the son of a clergyman, Parsons was one of the early students at the Dummer Academy before matriculating to Harvard College from which he graduated in 1769, was a schoolmaster in Falmouth from 1770–1773; he studied law,...
; cleric and politician John G. Palfrey
John G. Palfrey
John Gorham Palfrey was an American clergyman and historian who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts. A Unitarian minister, he played a leading role in the early history of Harvard Divinity School, and he later became involved in politics as a State Representative and U.S...
; Unitarian
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
minister Convers Francis
Convers Francis
Convers Francis was a Unitarian minister from Watertown, Massachusetts.-Life and work:He was born the son of Susannah Rand Francis and Convers Francis, and named after his father. His sister, Lydia Maria, later became an important reformer.Francis studied to become a minister at Harvard Divinity...
; businessman John Amory Lowell
John Amory Lowell
Hon. John Amory Lowell was an American businessman and philanthropist from Boston. He became the sole trustee of the Lowell Institute when his first cousin, John Lowell, Jr. , the Institute's endower, died...
; and historian William H. Prescott
William H. Prescott
William Hickling Prescott was an American historian and Hispanist, who is widely recognized by historiographers to have been the first American scientific historian...
. While in college during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
, he witnessed the famous battle between the HMS Shannon
HMS Shannon (1806)
HMS Shannon was a 38-gun Leda-class frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806 and served in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812...
and the USS Chesapeake
USS Chesapeake (1799)
USS Chesapeake was a 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young navy's capital ships...
. He dined with the Chesapeake's Captain, James Lawrence
James Lawrence
James Lawrence was an American naval officer. During the War of 1812, he commanded the USS Chesapeake in a single-ship action against HMS Shannon...
, the night before the battle. He graduated from Harvard in 1815.
From 1815 to 1817, Tayloe studied law under United States Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
Richard Rush
Richard Rush
Richard Rush was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the second son of Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and Julia Rush. He entered the College of New Jersey at the age of 14, and graduated in 1797 as the youngest member of his class...
. When Rush was appointed Minister to Great Britain
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
The office of United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom was traditionally, and still is very much so today due to the Special Relationship, the most prestigious position in the United States Foreign Service...
in 1817, Tayloe was named his Private Secretary. While in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, he lived at 15 King Street, Portman Square
Portman Square
Portman Square is a square in London, part of the Portman Estate. It is located at the western end of Wigmore Street, which connects it to Cavendish Square to its east. It is served by London bus route 274...
. He visited often with many of Great Britain's most influential politicians and nobility, and became close friends with the young painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
Washington Allston
Washington Allston
Washington Allston was an American painter and poet, born in Waccamaw Parish, South Carolina. Allston pioneered America's Romantic movement of landscape painting...
and the author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Washington Irving
Washington Irving
Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He was best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works...
. He was presented to the Prince Regent, George
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
, in 1818. He also traveled widely in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and was an observer at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle
Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818)
The Congress or Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle , held in the autumn of 1818, was primarily a meeting of the four allied powers Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia to decide the question of the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France and the nature of the modifications to be introduced in...
in 1818. He traveled to Paris in the spring of 1819, where Minister to France
United States Ambassador to France
This article is about the United States Ambassador to France. There has been a United States Ambassador to France since the American Revolution. The United States sent its first envoys to France in 1776, towards the end of the four-centuries-old Bourbon dynasty...
Albert Gallatin
Albert Gallatin
Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin was a Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, politician, diplomat, congressman, and the longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury. In 1831, he founded the University of the City of New York...
introduced him to King Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
and Talleyrand.
Tayloe returned to the United States in November 1819 and settled at Windsor (his inherited family estate in King George County, Virginia
King George County, Virginia
As of the census of 2010, there were 23,584 people, 9,411 households, and 4,525 families residing in the county. The population density was 93 people per square mile . There were 6,820 housing units at an average density of 38 per square mile...
), where he began writing for various horse racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
and horse breeding
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...
publications.
On November 8, 1824, Tayloe married Julia Maria Dickinson of Troy, New York
Troy, New York
Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...
. The couple had six children: John (born 1826), Edward (born 1829), Estelle (born 1833), Anna (born 1834), Eugenie (born 1835), and Julia (born 1838). Anna died when just two years old. Although Tayloe preferred to live at Windsor, his wife asked that they move into the city where she was more comfortable.
On March 23, 1828, Tayloe's father, Col. John Tayloe III, died. In 1816 Col. Tayloe had built six two-story
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
houses facing Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. that joins the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street", it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches...
at 14th Street NW, and in 1817 had leased them to John Tennison who ran them as a hotel. The structures served as a hotel for the next three decades, the leaseholder and name changing several times: Williamson's Mansion Hotel, Fullers American House, and the City Hotel.
Residence in Washington, D.C.
In 1828, Tayloe built his wife a houseBenjamin Ogle Tayloe House
The Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House is a Federal-style house located at 21 Madison Place NW in Washington, D.C., in the United States. The house is on the northeast corner of Madison Place NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, directly across the street from the White House and the Treasury Building...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, directly across the street from the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. The Tayloes did not immediately occupy their home, however. Tayloe had a strong political disagreement with the newly elected President, Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
, and refused to move into the home. Instead, Tayloe leased the building to Thomas Swann, Sr., a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
(and the father of Thomas Swann, Jr.
Thomas Swann
Thomas Swann was an American politician. Initially a Know-Nothing, and later a Democrat, he served as mayor of Baltimore , as the 33rd Governor of Maryland , and as U.S...
, who became Governor of Maryland
Governor of Maryland
The Governor of Maryland heads the executive branch of the government of Maryland, and he is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The Governor is the highest-ranking official in the state, and he has a broad range of appointive powers in both the State and local governments,...
in 1866). Swann vacated the home in November 1829, at which time Tayloe and his wife made the house their permanent residence.
Over the four decades following its construction, the Tayloe House was an important social gathering place for prominent Washingtonians. In 1829, when Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
left the office of Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
, much of the furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
in his home was acquired by the Tayloes and used to decorate their home. Tayloe House was the last house in Washington which President William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States , an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. He was 68 years, 23 days old when elected, the oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the...
visited before he died in 1841.
In 1859 Tayloe House was the scene of a murder. Philip Barton Key II was the son of Francis Scott Key
Francis Scott Key
Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet, from Georgetown, who wrote the lyrics to the United States' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner".-Life:...
and the nephew of Chief Justice
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
Roger B. Taney
Roger B. Taney
Roger Brooke Taney was the fifth Chief Justice of the United States, holding that office from 1836 until his death in 1864. He was the first Roman Catholic to hold that office or sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. He was also the eleventh United States Attorney General. He is most...
. In the spring of 1858, Key began having an affair with Teresa Bagioli Sickles
Teresa Bagioli Sickles
Teresa Bagioli Sickles was the wife of Democratic New York State Assemblyman, U.S. Representative, and later U.S. Army Major General Daniel E. Sickles. She gained notoriety in 1859, when her husband stood trial for the murder of her lover, Philip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key...
, the wife of his friend Daniel Sickles
Daniel Sickles
Daniel Edgar Sickles was a colorful and controversial American politician, Union general in the American Civil War, and diplomat....
. On February 26, 1859, Sickles learned of the affair. The following day, he saw Key in Lafayette Square signalling to his wife. Sickles rushed out into the park, drew a single pistol, and shot the unarmed Key three times while the other man pleaded for his life. Key was taken into the nearby Tayloe House and died moments later. Key's spirit, eyewitnesses and authors claim, now haunts Lafayette Square and can be seen on dark nights near the spot where he was shot.
As Tayloe was one of the most influential and active members of the Whig Party
Whig Party (United States)
The Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic...
in the District of Columbia, the Tayloe house became a noted meeting place for many of the leading political figures of early 19th century American politics. Among the many frequent visitors to the house were Chief Justice
Chief Justice of the United States
The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
John Marshall
John Marshall
John Marshall was the Chief Justice of the United States whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative and executive branches...
, Senator and Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
, Senator and Secretary of State Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman and senator from Massachusetts during the period leading up to the Civil War. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests...
, Vice President and Secretary of State John C. Calhoun
John C. Calhoun
John Caldwell Calhoun was a leading politician and political theorist from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Calhoun eloquently spoke out on every issue of his day, but often changed positions. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer, and proponent...
, Senator Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
, Senator and Secretary of State Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass was an American military officer and politician. During his long political career, Cass served as a governor of the Michigan Territory, an American ambassador, a U.S. Senator representing Michigan, and co-founder as well as first Masonic Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Michigan...
, Secretary of State Edward Livingston
Edward Livingston
Edward Livingston was an American jurist and statesman. He was an influential figure in the drafting of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a civil code based largely on the Napoleonic Code. He represented both New York, and later Louisiana in Congress and he served as the U.S...
, Speaker of the House
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
and Senator Robert Charles Winthrop
Robert Charles Winthrop
Robert Charles Winthrop was an American lawyer and philanthropist and one time Speaker of the United States House of Representatives....
, General Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852....
, Senator and Secretary of State Edward Everett
Edward Everett
Edward Everett was an American politician and educator from Massachusetts. Everett, a Whig, served as U.S. Representative, and U.S. Senator, the 15th Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, and United States Secretary of State...
, Senator and Secretary of State William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
, Associate Justice
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
Joseph Story
Joseph Story
Joseph Story was an American lawyer and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1811 to 1845. He is most remembered today for his opinions in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee and The Amistad, along with his magisterial Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, first...
, and many others. Presidents John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...
, Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States . Before his presidency, he was the eighth Vice President and the tenth Secretary of State, under Andrew Jackson ....
, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...
, and Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office of president...
also were frequent guests. Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
spent much of his free time being entertained by the Tayloes at their home during his visit to Washington, D.C., in the winter of 1862.
Plantation activities
Tayloe purchased a cottonCotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
in northeast Marengo
Marengo County, Alabama
Marengo County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named in honor of a battlefield near Turin, Italy, where the French defeated the Austrians on June 14, 1800. As of 2010 the population was 21,027...
(now Hale
Hale County, Alabama
Hale County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named in honor of Confederate officer Stephen Fowler Hale. As of 2010 the population was 15,760. Its county seat is Greensboro and it is part of the Tuscaloosa Metropolitan Statistical Area....
) and southwest Perry
Perry County, Alabama
Perry County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It was established in 1819, and is named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry of Rhode Island and the United States Navy. As of 2010 the population was 10,591...
counties between Uniontown
Uniontown, Alabama
Uniontown is a city in Perry County, Alabama in the United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 1,636. The current mayor is Jamaal O. Hunter.-History:...
and Selma, Alabama
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
, in 1836. A slave owner
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
, Tayloe gradually moved most of his slaves from Virginia to Alabama, and invested most of his capital
Capital (economics)
In economics, capital, capital goods, or real capital refers to already-produced durable goods used in production of goods or services. The capital goods are not significantly consumed, though they may depreciate in the production process...
in the plantation. The Tayloes spent the following year traveling in Europe. The plantation was managed by Tayloe's younger brother, Henry A. Tayloe, who proved a less than capable manager and was relieved of his position in 1843. The Tayloe property flourished afterward, and by 1851 Benjamin and his other brother, William, owned seven plantations (which included more than 13146 acres (5,320 ha) and 465 slaves worth $334,250
The Tayloes were the largest absentee landlords in Alabama. Overseer Robert Morgan earned $1,200 annually for his duties on the Benjamin Ogle Tayloe plantation, 2.4 times what most overseers in the Canebreak Region of Alabama
Canebrake (region of Alabama)
The Canebrake refers to a historical region of west-central Alabama that was once dominated by thickets of Arundinaria, a type of bamboo, or cane, native to North America. It was centered on the junction of the Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers, near Demopolis, and extended eastward to include...
did. Tayloe visited his property in Alabama only twice during his lifetime.
Tayloe's views on slavery were somewhat moderate in nature. He strongly (but privately) disapproved of sexually abusing slaves and miscegenation
Miscegenation
Miscegenation is the mixing of different racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, sexual relations, and procreation....
. He felt it inappropriate to ask his daughters to inherit slaves (except for a few household slaves, if the girls wished it). Although Tayloe supported slavery as a legal institution, he did not feel the issue should bring about the dissolution of the Union. During the slavery crisis of 1850
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War...
, Tayloe favored maintaining union over maintaining slavery in the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
. He wrote at the time:
- S.C.South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
is ripe for disunion. ... Her glory has departed—& she knows it. That is the rub. But the Union must & will be preserved—as I think. Still S.C. may annoy our sisterhood with her old maidish complaints & reproaches. She is proud & poor—having been rich! Poor S.C.!
Nonetheless, he generally opposed freeing the slaves, and believed that slavery and union could co-exist if only partisan political feeling could be reduced. When Representative
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Preston Brooks
Preston Brooks
Preston Smith Brooks was a Democratic Congressman from South Carolina. Brooks is primarily remembered for his severe beating of Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate with a gutta-percha cane, delivered in response to an anti-slavery speech in which Sumner compared Brooks'...
of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
with a cane (leaving him severely wounded) on the floor of the U.S. Senate in 1856, Tayloe applauded Brooks' actions and said Sumner "deserved a sound thrashing—& got it!" When Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...
was shelled by Confederate forces
Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War. Following declarations of secession by seven Southern states, South Carolina demanded that the U.S. Army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor. On...
(opening the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
), Tayloe believed that peace could still be restored.
A prominent Whig, Tayloe supported Henry Clay for President in 1840. When Clay did not win the nomination, Tayloe supported William Henry Harrison, and his efforts on Harrison's behalf led the new President to consider him a confidante. Tayloe also played an important role in Henry Clay's unsuccessful 1844 candidacy
United States presidential election, 1844
In the United States presidential election of 1844, Democrat James K. Polk defeated Whig Henry Clay in a close contest that turned on foreign policy, with Polk favoring the annexation of Texas and Clay opposed....
for President of the United States. He made many friends among the diplomatic corps, among them the Belgian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Comte
Comte
Comte is a title of Catalan, Occitan and French nobility. In the English language, the title is equivalent to count, a rank in several European nobilities. The corresponding rank in England is earl...
Auguste Vanderstraeten-Ponthoz, with whom he met in 1843 (the Comte departed in 1844) and kept up a 20-year correspondence.
After a long illness, Julia Tayloe died on July 4, 1846.
Willard Hotel lawsuit
Tayloe divested himself of his hotel business in 1847. He had renovated the "hotel" on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1843 and 1844. But by 1847 the structures were in disrepair and Tayloe was desperate to find a tenant who would maintain them and run the enterprise profitably. A chance encounter led to the founding of one of the most legendary hotels in the city's history. Tayloe had become engaged to Phoebe Warren, another young woman from Troy, New York. Miss Warren was traveling on the Steamer Niagara (a ship which traveled up and down the Hudson RiverHudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
) when she met Henry Willard, a Chief Steward
Chief Steward
A chief steward is the senior unlicensed crew member working in the Steward's Department of a ship. Since there is no purser on most ships in the United States Merchant Marine, the steward is the senior person in the department, whence its name...
aboard the vessel. Miss Warren was so impressed with the way Willard handled the ship's and passengers' needs that she recommended him to her fianceé. Willard visited Washington, D.C., in October 1847 to meet with Tayloe, who subsequently leased the six hotel buildings to him. Willard combined them into a single structure in 1850 and enlarged it into a four story-hotel he called the Willard Hotel
Willard InterContinental Washington
The Willard InterContinental Washington is an historic luxury Beaux-Arts hotel located at 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. Among its facilities are numerous luxurious guest rooms, several restaurants, the famed Round Robin Bar, the Peacock Alley series of luxury shops, and voluminous...
.
Tayloe's lease to Willard later generated an important case before the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
. In 1854, Tayloe leased the property again to Willard, this time for 10 years at a rate of $1,200 per year. The lease contained a provision that Willard could purchase the entire property at any time during the life of the lease for $22,500—$2,000 in "cash" down payment and another $2,000 a year plus interest thereafter until the mortgage was paid. During the lease, the Civil War broke out and property values in Washington, D.C., skyrocketed. In 1863, Congress passed the National Banking Act
National Banking Act
The National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864 were two United States federal laws that established a system of national charters for banks, and created the United States National Banking System. They encouraged development of a national currency backed by bank holdings of U.S...
, which authorized the federal government to issue United States Note
United States Note
A United States Note, also known as a Legal Tender Note, is a type of paper money that was issued from 1862 to 1971 in the U.S. Having been current for over 100 years, they were issued for longer than any other form of U.S. paper money. They were known popularly as "greenbacks" in their heyday, a...
s (paper money) rather than certificates redeemable in gold. On April 15, 1864, two weeks before the lease was due to expire, Willard tendered the down payment to Tayloe in paper money. Tayloe refused to issue the mortgage and turn over the deed, claiming that the hotel was now worth much more than $22,500 and that Willard had not paid in gold (the only form of cash available in 1854) as specified in the lease. Willard sued. The Supreme Court of the District of Columbia held against Willard. Willard appealed. In 1869, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the terms of the lease should not be interpreted as of the date it was agreed to (1854). Congress had made the use of gold and silver as currency illegal during the war, and this change in the law enabled Willard to pay the down payment in paper currency. The Court also held that the terms of the lease did not provide for a re-evaluation of the worth of the hotel, and that Willard was entitled to the original $22,500 purchase price. For many years, the decision was the leading case in contract
Contract
A contract is an agreement entered into by two parties or more with the intention of creating a legal obligation, which may have elements in writing. Contracts can be made orally. The remedy for breach of contract can be "damages" or compensation of money. In equity, the remedy can be specific...
law regarding intent and enforcement.
Later life
Tayloe married Phoebe Warren, one of his wife's friends, on April 17, 1849. The Tayloe household became a hub of entertaining and political activity once more after Whig Zachary TaylorZachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...
became President in 1849. Tayloe remained an influential figure in national Whig politics even after Taylor's death on July 9, 1850, and the assumption of Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office of president...
to the presidency. Tayloe made the first of two trips to Alabama to visit his business there in late 1850, and spent some time in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, before traveling to Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. Although Tayloe was an influential backer of Fillmore for re-election in 1852, he was on intimate terms with General Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott
Winfield Scott was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852....
, the candidate who defeated Fillmore for the Whig nomination for president.
During this period, Tayloe was also a director of the Monument Association, which was striving to build the Washington Monument
Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington...
. He was elected president of the Board of Trustees of the Washington Orphan Asylum in 1855, and from 1865 until his death in 1868 was president of the Society of the Oldest Inhabitants of DC (an association of citizens who had lived in the District of Columbia at least 20 years). In the 1850s and 1860s he was regularly asked to run for Mayor of Washington, but declined every time. He was a very close friend of Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier
Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier
Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier and 1st Baron Ettrick, KT, PC , was a Scottish polyglot, diplomat and colonial administrator. He served as the British Minister to the United States from 1857 to 1859, Netherlands from 1859 to 1860, Russia from 1861 to 1864, Prussia from 1864 to 1866 and as the...
, the Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States from 1857 to 1859.
In the critical presidential election of 1860
United States presidential election, 1860
The United States presidential election of 1860 was a quadrennial election, held on November 6, 1860, for the office of President of the United States and the immediate impetus for the outbreak of the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout the 1850s on questions surrounding the...
, with the Whig Party in disarray, Tayloe worked to elect former Senator John Bell
John Bell (Tennessee politician)
John Bell was a U.S. politician, attorney, and plantation owner. A wealthy slaveholder from Tennessee, Bell served in the United States Congress in both the House of Representatives and Senate. He began his career as a Democrat, he eventually fell out with Andrew Jackson and became a Whig...
(running as the candidate of the Constitutional Union Party
Constitutional Union Party (United States)
The Constitutional Union Party was a political party in the United States created in 1860. It was made up of conservative former Whigs who wanted to avoid disunion over the slavery issue...
). He attempted to convince the Southern Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
candidate, Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
John C. Breckinridge
John C. Breckinridge
John Cabell Breckinridge was an American lawyer and politician. He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Kentucky and was the 14th Vice President of the United States , to date the youngest vice president in U.S...
, to withdraw his candidacy in favor of a "fusion" party that would defeat the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
candidate, Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
. When Lincoln won the election, Tayloe met with the president-elect on November 8, 1860, and expressed his views on the need for union in a letter which he handed to him. Lincoln read it over twice, then said, "I am not yet elected President, and shall not be until I receive the vote of the electors
Electoral college
An electoral college is a set of electors who are selected to elect a candidate to a particular office. Often these represent different organizations or entities, with each organization or entity represented by a particular number of electors or with votes weighted in a particular way...
."
Civil War years
At the start of the Civil War, Tayloe was reputed to be the richest man in America. But with the outbreak of war and the loss of his Alabama and Virginia lands, Tayloe lost more than half a million dollars (about $20.3 million dollars in inflation-adjusted 2010 dollars).Some historians have alleged that Tayloe may have been a spy for the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
during the Civil War. William Tidwell and others point out that he was a noted Southern sympathizer, and that he had the education, skill, connections, and opportunity. Tidwell has even alleged that Tayloe met with John B. Magruder
John B. Magruder
John Bankhead Magruder was a career military officer who served in the armies of three nations. He was a U.S. Army officer in the Mexican-American War, a Confederate general during the American Civil War, and a postbellum general in the Imperial Mexican Army...
and George Washington Custis Lee
George Washington Custis Lee
George Washington Custis Lee , also known as Custis Lee, was the eldest son of Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Custis Lee...
(son of Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
), both men later to be generals in the Confederate States Army
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
, on April 21, 1861—the day before Robert E. Lee left Washington, D.C., to join the rebel armies. This left Tayloe in charge of a secret espionage ring in the city, it is claimed. Tayloe may also have helped provide funds to Confederate prisoners housed at the Old Capitol Prison in the city. It is even claimed that Tayloe may have helped conceive the kidnapping plot which later became a plan to kill President Lincoln.
Secretary of State William H. Seward
William H. Seward
William Henry Seward, Sr. was the 12th Governor of New York, United States Senator and the United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson...
lived in the house next door to Tayloe's. Seward was almost assassinated on the night of April 14, 1865, by Lewis Powell
Lewis Powell (assassin)
Lewis Thornton Powell , also known as Lewis Paine or Payne, attempted unsuccessfully to assassinate United States Secretary of State William H...
. Tayloe and his wife were the first people to enter the Seward house after the attack, and they stayed with the stricken Secretary of State all night long.
Death and estate
Tayloe, his wife, and his son, Edward, left for an extended tour of Europe on May 16, 1866, touring England, Spain, France, Germany, Prussia, and Italy. The family arrived in Rome in January 1868. Edward returned to the United States, and after his departure Tayloe began to experience weakness (but did not seem seriously ill). He became paralyzed on February 25, 1868, and died a few hours later.Phoebe Tayloe inherited the house upon his death. After she died in 1881, more than 200 marble statues, bronze sculptures, fine furniture, and paintings in the house were donated to the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
.
External links
- Papers of the Tayloe Family. University of Virginia Library.
- Matthews, Essie Collins. "Chapter 3: Windsor Plantation." Aunt Phebe, Uncle Tom and Others: Character Studies Among the Old Slaves of the South, Fifty Years After. Columbus, Ohio: The Champlin Press, 1915 - photographs of and interviews with African American slaves on Tayloe's Windsor Plantation