Compromise of 1850 passed in Congress: California admitted as free state; New Mexico and Utah territories formed with choice of slave or free at the time they would ask for statehood; slave trade abolished in District of Columbia.
TRUTHS & TRIVIA
Second president to die in office, and second to die in the White House.
First president who had not served in the U.S. Congress or the Continental Congress.
Second president inaugurated on March 5, (March 4 was a Sunday, and Taylor refused to be inaugurated on a Sunday because it offended his strict religious beliefs.) Since Polk's term expired at midnight March 3, 1849, and Taylor wasn't inaugurated until Monday, March 5, who was president on Sunday? (As provided for in the Constitution, the presidency passed to the president pro tem of the Senate, a man named David Atchison. He didn't learn about it until several months later, as the law wasn't well known.
Taylor's favorite horse, Whity, had freedom of pasture on the White House lawn.
