Grand inauguration ball.

Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States, serving from March 1849 until his death in July 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general. Zachary Taylor was a national hero in the United States Army from the time of the Mexican-American War and the War of 1812. "I have always done my duty. I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me."

Millard Fillmore, a member of the Whig party, was the 13th President of the United States (1850-1853) and the last President not to be affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties. The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century. Four Presidents belonged to the Party while in office. Along with the rival Democratic Party, it was central to the Second Party System from the early 1830s to the mid-1850s. It originally formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson (in office 1829–37) and his Democratic Party. The Whigs supported the supremacy of Congress over the Presidency and favored a program of moderniza​tion, banking, and economic protectionism to stimulate manufacturing. "It is not strange... to mistake change for progress."