The main parallel begins with Zachary Taylor’s converting his fame as a Mexican-American ... having served as a senator and a Cabinet member in a long but contentious career.

Born in Montebello, Virginia, on November 24, 1784, Zachary Taylor moved to Kentucky with his parents as an infant. Taylor grew up on what was then the frontier, and enlisted in the army in 1806.

Born in Virginia, raised in Kentucky, with a home in Louisiana and a plantation in Mississippi, Zachary Taylor ... slavery dominated Taylor's presidency, as it did those of his mid-nineteenth ...