Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/182

140 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS Gen. Taylor was an upright man, to which she replied: "He is not"; that he insisted his long acquaintance should enable him to judge better than she. But she persisted in her denial, and he asked: "Then what manner of man is he?" when she said: "He is a downright man." As president he had purity, patriotism, and dis cretion to guide him in his new field of duty, and had he lived long enough to stamp his character on his administration, it would have been found that the great soldier was equally fitted to be the head of a government. He was buried in the family cemetery, five miles from Louisville. Gen. Taylor s life was written by Joseph R. Fry and Robert T. Conrad (Philadelphia, 1848), by John Frost (New York, 1848) , and by Gen. O. O. How ard, in the "Great Commanders" series (1892). His wife, MARGAKET, born in Calvert County, Md., in 1790; died near Pascagoula, La., August 18, 1852, was the daughter of Walter Smith, a Maryland planter. He was descended from Rich ard Smith, who was appointed Attorney-General of Maryland by Oliver Cromwell. She received a home education, married early in life, and, until her husband s election to the presidency, resided with him chiefly in garrisons or on the frontier. During the Florida war she established herself at Tampa bay, and did good service among the sick