After Zachary Taylor’s Victory in the Mexican War, he became the Whig party’s leading candidate for the presidency. Taylor’s Military record appealed to the north, and he gained southern votes with slaveholding status, which would later cause controversy when anti-slavery began & would continue until Taylor’s death just over a year into office. Much of Taylor’s presidency would be a dispute between the North and the South of whether territories gained from Mexico would be opened to slavery. Northerners stood strongly behind the Wilmot Proviso which plainly prohibited slavery or involuntary servitude in any territory gained from Mexico. Senators in the south were doing whatever possible to block the Wilmot Proviso. In 1845 Taylor became a famous Indian fighter in the nation’s ongoing warfare with the natives. Taylor posted of hardships of field duty. His willingness to share his stories awarded him the nickname of “Old Rough and Ready." A nickname still used today. President Polk then ordered Taylor to station his troops along the border of the Rio Grande River. After hostiles broke out President Polk sent General Winfield Scott to take Taylor’s army and reinforcements to capture Mexico City. However, Taylor took less than five thousand volunteers and won the Battle of Buena Vista in February of 1847. Word spread quickly across the nation of Taylor’s efforts in the Mexican War, the “Hero of Buena Vista." Press compared Taylor to war heroes such as George Washington and Andrew Jackson, both former presidents. Before 1848 Taylor hadn’t voted nor expressed his political opinion as an officer in the Army. Taylor was truly a “political outsider." Yet, political clubs sprung up among the nation in support of Taylor’s candidacy. Taylor didn't identify himself in a party, yet both Northerners and Southerners supported his candidacy. Taylor most thought of himself as an independent nationalist due to the many deaths of him comrades during times of secession & disliked the Democratic stand on money. He was in favor of a strong banking system, unlike Andrew Jackson, which led to the Whigs belief of Taylor as a Union man. Southerners believed Taylor would support the expansion of slavery into the new territories, and that he was opposed to protective tariffs and government spending on internal improvements. However, the Whig party believed Taylor was a Union man based on how he fought in defense of the nation during the war. In fact, Taylor did stand to have the same basic principles of the Whig party. Taylor thought it was be unsuitable to expand slavery into the new territories where neither cotton nor sugar could be produced. Taylor believed that the President should not use veto unless a law was unconstitutional, and that the President should not interfere with the Congress. However, Taylor was