_Washington July 11, 1850_.
I. The following order of the President of the United States announces
to the Army the lamented death of the illustrious General Zachary
Taylor, late President of the United States:
WAR DEPARTMENT, _July 11, 1850_.
The President of the United States with profound sorrow announces to the
Army, the Navy, and Marine Corps the death of Zachary Taylor, late
President of the United States. He died at the Executive Mansion on the
night of the 9th instant at half-past 10 o'clock.
His last public appearance was in participating in the ceremonies of our
national anniversary at the base of the monument now rearing to the
memory of Washington. His last official act was to affix his signature
to the convention recently concluded between the United States and Great
Britain.
The vigor of a constitution strong by nature and confirmed by active and
temperate habits had in later years become impaired by the arduous toils
and exposures of his military life.
Solely engrossed in maintaining the honor and advancing the glory of his
country, in a career of forty years in the Army of the United States he
rendered himself signal and illustrious. An unbroken current of success
and victory, terminated by an achievement unsurpassed in our annals,
left nothing to be accomplished for his military fame.
His conduct and courage gave him this career of unexampled fortune, and
with the crowning virtues of moderation and humanity under all
circumstances, and especially in the moment of victory, revealed to his
countrymen those great and good qualities which induced them unsolicited
to call him from his high military command to the highest civil office
of honor and trust in the Republic; not that he desired to be first, but
that he was felt to be worthiest.
The simplicity of his character, the singleness of his purpose, the
elevation and patriotism of his principles, his moral courage, his
justice, magnanimity and benevolence, his wisdom, moderation, and power
of command, while they have endeared him to the heart of the nation, add
to the deep sense of the national calamity in the loss of a Chief
Magistrate whom death itself could not appall in the consciousness of
"having always done his duty."
The officers of the Army, of the Navy, and Marine Corps will, as a
manifestation of their respect for the exalted character and eminent
public services of the illustrious dead, and of their sense of the
calamity the country has sustained by this afflicting dispensation of
Providence, wear crape on the left arm and upon the hilt of the sword
for six months.
It is further directed that funeral honors be paid at
each of the military posts according to general regulations, and at
navy-yards and on board all public vessels in commission, by firing
thirty minute guns, commencing at meridian, on the day after the receipt
of this order, and by wearing their flags at half-mast.
By order of the President: