speaker in the House of Representatives, in December 1849, emphasized the sectional passions already engendered. Under the circumstances the first message from President Taylor was awaited with great interest. While advising Congress to “abstain from the introduction of those exciting topics of sectional character which have hitherto produced painful apprehensions in the public mind,” he favoured the admission of California as a free state, and counselled the legislators to await the action of the people of New Mexico and Utah upon the slavery question. As he had already encouraged California to form the state government it desired, and later took a strong position against the efforts of Texas to possess itself of part of New Mexico, it was apparent that he was less inclined to favour the radical pro-slavery programme than his previous career had seemed to promise. This was still further emphasized by his marked friendship for William H. Seward and his contemptuous reference to the territorial portion of Clay’s compromise measures as the “Omnibus Bill.” This situation militated greatly against that leader’s cherished policy, and led him to a bitter criticism of the president on the floor of the Senate. Such was the situation when the president, early in July 1850, was stricken by the disease to which he succumbed on the 9th. His remains were temporarily interred at Washington, but afterwards removed to the family cemetery near Louisville.
The only son that survived him, Richard Taylor (1826–1879), popularly known as “General Dick,” graduated at Yale in 1845, entered the Confederate army at the beginning of the Civil War, was commanding officer in Louisiana, and under Kirby Smith helped to administer the western half of the Confederacy, after the fall of Vicksburg. He won the victory of Sabine Cross Roads over the Union expedition under Gen. N. P. Banks on the 8th of April 1864. He finally surrendered to Gen. E. R. S. Canby on the 4th of May 1865. He wrote Destruction and Reconstruction (1879).
H. Montgomery’s Life. (Auburn, 1850) and John Frost’s Life (New York and Philadelphia, 1847) are almost wholly devoted to President Taylor’s military career, and are excessively laudatory in character. A better biography is that (New York, 1892) by Maj.-Gen. O. O. Howard, in the “Great Commanders” series. There is much material about Taylor in the general histories of M‘Master, Von Holst, and Rhodes. (I. J. C.)
TAYLOR, a town in Williamson county, Texas, U.S.A., about 35 m. N.E. of Austin. Pop. (1890) 2584; (1900) 4211 (1260 negroes); (1910) 5314. It is served by the International & Great Northern and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railways. It is in a region especially devoted to the growing of cotton and grain and to poultry raising, and an annual county fair is held here. In the city are machine and car shops
of the International & Great Northern railway, and cotton-compresses, and there are manufactures of cotton-seed oil, &c. Taylor, named in honour of Gen. Zachary Taylor, was founded in 1876, and was incorporated in 1882.
TAYPORT, a police burgh of Fifeshire, Scotland. Pop.
(1901) 3325. It is situated on the Firth of Tay, here about 1 m.
wide, opposite to Broughty Ferry, with which there is communication
by means of a ferry, 512 m. N. of Leuchars Junction
by the North British railway. Its older alternative name of
Ferry Port on Craig has reference both to its uses and its site.
Its industries include manufactures of linen and jute, spinning
mills, engineering works, timber-yard and salmon fishery. In
other respects it is a residential quarter for Dundee. A mile
S.W. is the estate of Scotscraig, which belonged to Archbishop
Sharp (1613–1679), of whose mansion there are still some
traces. Two miles and a half W. by S. is the police burgh of
Newport (pop. 2869), with stations at Easter and Wester
Newport, on the North British Railway Company’s loop line
from Leuchars Junction to Wormit. It lies on the Firth of
Tay opposite to Dundee, with which there is communication
by means of a ferry, as well as by rail via the Tay Bridge. Even
to a greater extent than has Tayport, it has practically become
a suburb of Dundee. Its small harbour was designed by
Telford. Two and a quarter miles S.W. of Wormit, the
nearest railway station, close to the southern terminus of the
Tay Bridge, is the village of Balmerino (Gaelic, “ Town on
the seashore ”). Its once considerable shipping trade has
declined, but some fishery is still carried on. In 1227 Ermengarde,
widow of William the Lion, and her son Alexander II.
founded a Cistercian Abbey here, but in 1604 the Abbey
estates were converted into a temporal lordship in favour of
James Elphinstone, created Lord Balmerino.
TAYUG, a town of the province of Pangasinan, Luzon, Philippine Islands, near the Agno river, 33 m. E. of Lingayen, the capital. Pop. (1903) 10,400. The river furnishes water for irrigating the low fields in the vicinity. The town’s inhabitants are farmers, and rice is the principal crop. Pangasinan and Ilocano are the languages spoken.
TAZZA (Ital., cf. Fr. tasse, Ger. Tasse, cup; all from Persian tas, goblet), a word generally adopted by archaeologists and connoisseurs for a type of drinking vessel. It is a shallow saucer-like dish either mounted on a stem and foot or on a foot alone.
TCHERNAIEV, MIKHAIL GREGORJOVICH (1828–1898), Russian general, a member of a noble family, was born on the 24th of October 1828. Educated at the Nicholas Staff College, he entered the army in 1847, and distinguished himself in the Crimean war and in the Caucasus. After serving as divisional chief of the staff in Poland, he went to Orenburg in 1858 as assistant to the commander of the line of the Syr-Darya, and
the following year commanded an expedition to support the Kirghiz tribes on the borders of the Sea of Aral against the Khivans. He did duty on the staff of the army of the Caucasus for a time, and returned to Orenburg as chief of the staff. In 1864, having reached the rank of major-general, he made his famous march with 1000 men across the steppes of Turkestan to Chimkent in Khokand, to meet another Russian column from Semipalatinsk, in Siberia, in conjunction with which he
successfully stormed Chimkent, and then unsuccessfully attacked Tashkent, 80 miles farther south. Wintering at Chimkent, he captured Tashkent the following year. This was contrary to his instructions, and although he was received in St Petersburg with enthusiasm, and presented with a sword of honour by the emperor, he was not again employed in the military service, and retired from it in July 1874. He bought, and edited with great success, the Russkiy Mir in Slavonic interests, devoting himself to the Panslavic idea. In the summer of 1876 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Servian army, but on
entering Turkey was driven back by Osrhan Pasha, who followed him into Servia, defeating him at Zayechar and Yavor in July, and the campaign in Servia proved disastrous. He rashly proclaimed Milan king of Servia in September, and in October Aleksinats and Deligrad were in the hands of the Turks, and the road open to Belgrade. An armistice was concluded, and Tchernaiev resigned his command. In 1877 he visited Austria in connexion with his propaganda, but was expelled, and lived
for a time in France. In 1879 he organized a Bulgarian rising, but was arrested at Adrianople and sent back to Russia. He succeeded Kaufmann (q.v.) as governor of Turkestan in 1882, but his aggressive policy led to his recall two years later, when he was appointed a member of the council of war at St Petersburg. In 1886 his opposition to the Central Asian Military railway caused him to lose his seat in the council. He died on the 16th of August 1898, at bis country seat in the province of Mogilev.
TCHIHATCHEFF, PIERRE ALEXANDROWITSCH DE (1812–1890), Russian naturalist and geologist, was born at Gatchina, near St Petersburg, in 1812. He entered the diplomatic service and was (1842-44) attached to the embassy at Constantinople; whence he visited Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt. In 1844, he was charged with a scientific mission to the Altai mountains. He died at Florence on the 13th of October 1890 (N.S.).
His publications include: Voyage scientifique dans l’Altai oriental et les parties adjacentes de la frontière de Chine (with atlas, 1845); Asie Mineure; description physique, statistique et archéologique de cette contrée (4 vols, with 3 atlases, 1853–69); Le Bosphore et Constantinople (1864, another ed. 1877); Considerations géologiques sur les Îles Océaniques (1878); and Espagne, Algérie et Tunisie (1880).
