On this day in 1850, President Zachary Taylor succumbed to Cholera Morbus, a term commonly used at the time and essentially synonymous with “indeterminate causes”. Modern physicians liken the Presidents symptoms as being consistent with arsenic poisoning. Considering the political climate at the time, leading up to the Civil War, the possibility of assassination was very real. In 1991, Taylor’s body was exhumed and tested, though the results were inconclusive.
