Benjamin "Ogle" Tayloe (May 21, 1796 — February 25, 1868) was an American businessman, bon vivant, diplomat, scion of colonial tidewater gentry, and influential political activist in Washington, D.C. during the first half of the 19th century.

[1]: 78  His home, the Tayloe House, became a salon for politically powerful people in the federal government and socially influential individuals in the United States and abroad.

[1]: 1  His maternal great-grandfather was former provincial governor Samuel Ogle, descended from an ancient Northern English Family, the Barons Ogle, a family allied with the Talbots of Shrewsbury (the premier Earldom in England), Cavendish's of Newcastle, Barons de Ros and ancient Norman House of Percy.

"[5] In addition, he counted as his progenitors' such men of the tidewater gentry at Col. Thomas Addison of Oxon Hill Manor, and Benjamin Tasker Sr.

[1]: 2–3  [6] He entered Harvard College in 1811, where his classmates included some of the most prominent Americans of the next half-century: historian Jared Sparks; jurist Theophilus Parsons; cleric and politician John G. Palfrey; Unitarian minister Convers Francis; businessman John Amory Lowell; and historian William H.

Gibbes of Charleston, William Gray Brooks, George Eustis Sr., Edward Everett, Theodore Lyman II, George Peabody, Thomas Aspinwall (consul), Thomas Handasyd Perkins of Boston; Archibald Gracie II, Joseph Delafield, Edward Livingston (speaker) of New York.

Haper and wife, the former Ms Carroll of Carrollton where he was presented to Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Pope Pius VII.

[1]: 12–13  He traveled to Paris in the spring of 1819, where Minister to France Albert Gallatin introduced him to King Louis XVIII and Talleyrand.

[10] In 1816 Col. Tayloe had built six two-story houses facing Pennsylvania Avenue at 14th Street NW, and in 1817 had leased them to John Tennison who ran them as a hotel.

[12] He adopted his father's coat of arms, Purpure a sword palewise proper between two lions rampant addorsed [Argent?].

Tayloe had a strong political disagreement with the newly elected president, Andrew Jackson, and refused to move into the home.

[1]: 23  [18]: 159–160  Swann vacated the home in November 1829, at which time Tayloe and his wife made the house their permanent residence.

[21]: 164  Sickles rushed out into the park, drew a single pistol, and shot the unarmed Key three times while the other man pleaded for his life.

[17][18]: 160  Key's spirit, eyewitnesses and authors claim, now haunts Lafayette Square and can be seen on dark nights near the spot where he was shot.

[24][25][26][27][1]: 176  Presidents John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, and Millard Fillmore also were frequent guests.

[24][26][27][1]: 176  Anthony Trollope spent much of his free time being entertained by the Tayloes at their home during his visit to Washington in the winter of 1862.

[28][29] Tayloe purchased cotton plantations in northeast Marengo (now Hale) and southwest Perry counties between Uniontown and Selma, Alabama, in 1836.

[30]: 131  The Tayloe property flourished afterward, and by 1851 Benjamin and his other brother, William, owned seven plantations (which included more than 13,146 acres (5,320 ha) and 465 slaves worth $334,250 [about $13.6 million in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars]).

[30]: 238  Nonetheless, he generally opposed freeing the slaves, and believed that slavery and union could co-exist if only partisan political feeling could be reduced.

"[30]: 279  When Fort Sumter was shelled by Confederate forces (opening the American Civil War), Tayloe believed that peace could still be restored.

[1]: 25–27  Tayloe also played an important role in Henry Clay's unsuccessful 1844 candidacy for President of the United States.

[38] In 1863, Congress passed the National Banking Act, which authorized the federal government to issue United States Notes (paper money) rather than certificates redeemable in gold.

[38] Tayloe refused to issue the mortgage and turn over the deed, claiming that the hotel was now worth much more than $22,500 (~$356,819 in 2023) and that Willard had not paid in gold (the only form of cash available in 1854) as specified in the lease.

[38][35]: 205  The Court also held that the terms of the lease did not provide for a re-evaluation of the worth of the hotel, and that Willard was entitled to the original $22,500 purchase price.

[1]: 40  Tayloe remained an influential figure in national Whig politics even after Taylor's death on July 9, 1850, and the assumption of Millard Fillmore to the presidency.

[1]: 40  Tayloe made the first of two trips to Alabama to visit his business there in late 1850, and spent some time in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, before traveling to Havana, Cuba.

[1]: 69–70  When Lincoln won the election, Tayloe met with the president-elect on November 8, 1860, and expressed his views on the need for union in a letter which he handed to him.

[44] Tayloe and his wife were the first people to enter the Seward house after the attack, and they stayed with the stricken Secretary of State all night long.

[17][18]: 161  After she died in 1881, more than 200 marble statues, bronze sculptures, fine furniture, and paintings in the house were donated to the Corcoran Gallery of Art.