This cartoon, produced by the New York firm Currier & Ives, satirized President Zachary Taylor’s efforts to balance the competing interests of the North and South over the issue of slavery in 1850. Taylor (1784–1850) is one of the nation’s “forgotten” presidents, largely for two reasons. One is that he was not a politician but rather a general, earning the nickname “Old Rough and Ready” for his success in the Seminole Wars and in the U.S. War with Mexico of 1846–1848. Indeed he was the first U.S. president to have been elected without having previously served in political office.