Political donations are not as simple as donations. In a conventional sense, political donations, that is, campaign donations, are free support provided by supporters of presidential candidates to the candidates they support.
All citizens across the country can donate to candidates whose demands and political views are consistent with theirs and who hope they can succeed in the election.
But usually ordinary people's donations are only a few dollars, or even just a few cents.
Although there are many ordinary people making donations across the country, the total amount donated by these ordinary people usually only accounts for a small part of the candidates' campaign funds. The real bulk comes from capitalists!
The political donations made by capitalists to presidential candidates are not charitable donations, but an investment behavior that requires a return.
After candidates receive political donations, they will repay the donors with political benefits after taking office, allowing the donors to profit.
In other words, the capitalists who provide large amounts of funds to presidential candidates all have their own demands, and they need the candidates to fulfill their demands after they are successfully elected.
This sudden huge donation made Zachary Taylor feel a little solemn, wondering what kind of demands the other party would have.
He told himself in his heart that if the other party's request violated the interests of citizens and the country, he would not agree even if he did not want the funds.
Upon hearing Zachary Taylor's inquiry, Tom faced his probing and scrutinizing gaze and answered with an expression that was neither humble nor overbearing.
"General Taylor, this money from our boss is not a political donation, but a free donation to support your campaign for president. There is no demand for anything."
Zachary Taylor couldn't help but be stunned by Tom's words. He thought of various possible answers, but he didn't think of this one.
"Why?"
Zachary Taylor couldn't help but asked in confusion.
Tom smiled slightly, looked at Zachary Taylor and said slowly.
"Our boss said, thank you for taking care of Victor and James these past two years."
"It's him!"
…
In the end, things turned out just as the Whigs thought. The Mexican-American War had just passed, and the biggest hero in the entire war, the well-known war hero Zachary Taylor, had a huge influence in the hearts of the people. In addition,
With the combined effects of the advantages mentioned earlier, the operation of the Whig Party's internal forces, and the large amount of campaign funds from New York, Zachary Taylor successfully defeated Lewis Cass and was successfully elected as the first president of the United States.
Twelve presidents.
After Taylor came to power, he first dealt with the Cuban issue.
Slave owners in the southern United States had long coveted Cuba as a new source of slave labor. President Polk once wanted to purchase an island in Cuba from Spain.
In 1849, the expansionists and slave owners in the southern United States supported a Cuban adventurer to organize an expedition near New Orleans to foment rebellion in Cuba and prepare to annex Cuba to the United States as a slave state.
President Taylor was worried that this would cause great disputes at home, so on August 11, 1849, he issued a proclamation on the Cuba issue, declaring that the U.S. government had the responsibility to abide by treaties and prevent its citizens from infringing upon the territory of friendly countries. He warned U.S. citizens
Shall not participate in the illegal activities of an armed expedition against Cuba.
The expedition's plan fell apart and was stillborn.
This was Zachary Taylor's first confrontation with the slave-owning forces of the Southern plantations.
In fact, Zachary Taylor himself was actually a member of the slave owners of the southern plantations. Based on his own interests, he should have supported this incitement against Cuba, but the slave owner was just an identity for him.
In the past forty years, he has spent most of his time in the army. The huge cotton plantation is just one of his properties. He does not put much thought into treating his slaves.
Far less harsh and cruel than other slave owners.
Now that he has become the president, he has to consider the national interests. The war against Mexico has just ended. What he should do now is to digest the gains of this war, instead of greedily continuing to launch aggression, which is detrimental to the stability of the country.
There was no benefit from the development of the country. The only ones who really benefited were the southern slave owners in the South who urgently needed a large number of slaves to expand the size of their plantations.
This behavior of Zachary Taylor aroused dissatisfaction among some southern planters, who believed that he had betrayed the south and defected to the northerners.
At this time, Zachary Taylor faced another big problem.
After the Mexican War, did the United States implement slavery in the newly acquired lands such as California, New Mexico, and Utah?
The plantation slave owners in the southern United States and the northern bourgeoisie have long been engaged in a fierce struggle over the issue of slavery.
As early as 1790, in order to resolve interstate boundary disputes, the federal government drew a Mason-Dixon line between Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. After 1804, this line became the boundary between the Eastern Free States and Maryland.
Boundary lines between slave states.
To the north of this line were free states, which did not allow slavery; to the south were slave states, which allowed slavery.
By 1819, there were 22 states in the United States, of which half were slave states and half free states, so they had equal seats in the Senate. The southern plantation slave owners and the northern bourgeoisie maintained a balance in political power and jointly controlled the
The development direction and political decisions of the United States.
But in the year 1819, the District of Missouri, which had had slavery as early as the French period, applied to join the Union.
A dispute arose in Congress over whether Missouri should join the Union as a free state or a slave state.
At the end of the same year, the Northern Territory requested that a separate Territory of Maine join the Union as a free state.
Finally, Congress reached the Missouri Compromise in 1820. Missouri joined the Union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, maintaining the "balance of power" in the Senate and setting the line dividing free states and slave states at northern latitudes.
36 degrees 30 minutes.
When Zachary Taylor became president, anti-slavery sentiment was rising in the northern states.
Whether the large tracts of new land acquired after the Mexican-American War would join the Union as slave states or as free states has become an important factor in the expansion of the conflict between the North and the South.
The most pressing issue facing Zachary Taylor was the status of California and New Mexico.
California asked to join the Union as a free state, and New Mexico asked to become a territory where slavery was prohibited. These demands immediately intensified the struggle between the North and the South.
Congress was also quarreling over the issue of slavery, with opinions so divided that even the election of a gatekeeper had to be investigated for his attitude toward slavery.