Whig · 1849–1850
Zachary Taylor
Soldier-president. A short term, hostile to secession talk, incomplete on slavery’s spread.
Zachary Taylor was president 1849–1850. The party color on the chart is Whig. Early presidents are not forced into today’s party names. The placement note is: Soldier-president. A short term, hostile to secession talk, incomplete on slavery’s spread.
The dot is economics +8 and authority +12. That is near the middle on economics. The other axis sits near the middle. Color and place are allowed to disagree. Theodore Roosevelt sits left of Grover Cleveland on economics.
What was said, and what the administration did, are filed separately. Said: A soldier above party, and no secession. Done: He died sixteen months in, before a settlement on slavery in the new territories. Where those two sentences pull apart, the dot follows the governing record, not the slogan.
The nearest other presidents on these two numbers are James Madison (1809–1817, +10 / +8) and James Monroe (1817–1825, +10 / +16). A small distance can join people who would have disliked each other. The chart is a compression, not a claim that they were alike.
Presidents are not placed with the Voteview roll-call score used for the current Congress. Two axes cannot carry a war, a court, a tariff, and a civil-rights record as separate facts.