Millard Fillmore

Source

• Born: 7 January 1800
• Birthplace: Cayuga County, New York
• Died: 8 March 1874
• Best Known As: President of the United States, 1850-53

Millard Fillmore came from poor, uneducated beginnings to become a New York lawyer who in 1833 was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. After serving in congress, Fillmore, a Whig, was Zachary Taylor's vice president. When Taylor died in office, Fillmore became the 13th president. His attempts to compromise on the slavery issue left him with few fans on either side, and his stay in the White House was brief. In the election of 1852 Fillmore failed to get the nomination at the Whig convention (the candidate from the Democratic Party, Franklin Pierce, went on to win the election). In the election of 1856 Fillmore ran for president as a candidate of the Know-Nothing Party, but carried only Maryland.

Fillmore married his schoolteacher, Abigail Powers, in 1826; she died a month after he left office and in 1858 he married a wealthy widow, Mrs. Caroline C. McIntosh... After President Lincoln's assassination, a mob, unforgiving of Fillmore's sympathy for the South, surrounded his house and draped it in black cloth, then splashed ink on it.

(click to enlarge)
Millard Fillmore. (credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born Jan. 7, 1800, Locke Township, N.Y., U.S. — died March 8, 1874, Buffalo, N.Y.) 13th president of the U.S. (1850 – 53). Born into poverty, he became an indentured apprentice at age 15. He studied law with a local judge and began to practice in Buffalo in 1823. Initially identified with the Anti-Masonic Party (1828 – 34), he followed his political mentor, Thurlow Weed, to the Whigs and was soon a leader of the party's northern wing. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1833 – 35, 1837 – 43), where he became a follower of Henry Clay. In 1848 the Whigs nominated Fillmore as vice president, and he was elected with Zachary Taylor. He became president on Taylor's death in 1850. Though he abhorred slavery, he supported the Compromise of 1850 and insisted on federal enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. His stand, which alienated the North, led to his defeat by Winfield Scott at the Whigs' nominating convention in 1852. He was an early champion of U.S. commercial expansion in the Pacific. In 1853 he sent Matthew Perry with a fleet of warships to Japan to force its isolationist government to enter into trade and diplomatic relations. He returned to Buffalo and was nominated for president by the Know-Nothing Party in 1856.

For more information on Millard Fillmore, visit Britannica.com.

Fillmore, Millard (1800-74) 13th president of the United States (1850-53), born in Cayuga County, New York. Fillmore spent three terms in the state legislature and four terms (three consecutive) in Congress before being elected (1848) vice president on the Whig ticket that had Zachary Taylor at its head. He became president when Taylor died suddenly in 1850. As president, Fillmore won Congressional approval for the Compromise of 1850, which Taylor had opposed, and sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry to open diplomatic relations with Japan. Fillmore failed to win the Whig presidential nomination in 1852, but in 1856 he ran as the candidate of the American Party (also called the Know Nothing party). His disastrous defeat destroyed the party and ended his political career.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

The major contribution of Millard Fillmore (1800-1874), thirteenth president of the United States, was his signing of the Compromise of 1850.

Millard Fillmore was born in Cayuga County, N.Y., the son of a poor farmer. Although he held several legal clerkships, he was largely self-taught in the law. He entered politics in association with Thurlow Weed and William H. Seward, helping to organize the Anti-Masonic party as a major third party in the North. As one of the party's leaders in the New York Assembly, Fillmore sponsored reforms, including abolishing debtor imprisonment and a bankruptcy bill. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1830s and 1840s, he led his party into the newly formed Whig party. He was elected comptroller of New York State in 1846.

In 1848 Fillmore was elected vice president of the United States under Zachary Taylor. This proved an unpleasant experience, as he was excluded from all patronage and policy-making decisions. He was unable to prevent Taylor's opposition to Henry Clay's proposals for ending the sectional crisis over the extension of slavery into territories acquired by the Mexican War; but before Taylor could veto Clay's compromise bill, he died. Fillmore, now president, quickly accepted the five bills which made up the Compromise of 1850. This was the high point of his administration and demonstrated his attempt to find a middle ground on the slavery question. However, he was attacked by antislavery groups, especially for his vigorous enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, which was part of the compromise. Fillmore believed that slavery was evil but, as long as it existed, had to be protected.

Fillmore's policies all aimed at turning the country away from the slavery question. His most important recommendation was that the U.S. government build a transcontinental railroad. His foreign policy, formulated with Secretary of State Daniel Webster, had similar goals. In marked contrast to the aggressive policy followed by the United States during the rest of the 1840s and 1850s (when Democratic administrations made every effort to acquire additional territory), Fillmore sought to encourage trade through peaceful relations. One of his major undertakings was to send Commodore Matthew Perry to open Japan to American commerce.

In 1852 Fillmore was repudiated by the Whigs. After he ran unsuccessfully for president in 1856 as the Know-Nothing party's candidate, he returned to Buffalo to devote himself to local civic projects. He died on March 8, 1874.

Further Reading

The definitive biography of Fillmore is Robert J. Rayback's objective Millard Fillmore (1959). For background on Fillmore's New York career see the books by Glyndon G. Van Deusen on the leaders of the Whig party in the Empire State: Thurlow Weed: Wizard of the Lobby (1947), Horace Greeley: Nineteenth-Century Crusader (1953), and William Henry Seward (1967).

• Born: Jan. 7, 1800, Cayuga County, N.Y.
• Political party: Whig
• Education: six months of grade school; read law, 1822
• Military service: none
• Previous government service: New York State Assembly, 1829–33; U.S. House of Representatives, 1833–35, 1837–43; New York State comptroller, 1847–48; Vice President, 1849–50
• Succeeded to Presidency, 1850; served, 1850–53
• Died: Mar. 8, 1874, Buffalo, N.Y.

Millard Fillmore was the third and last Whig President, succeeding Zachary Taylor, who died in office. He was the first and only successor to the Presidency to appoint an entirely new cabinet. His support of the Compromise of 1850 preserved the Union for another decade but destroyed his own political career.

Fillmore was born on a frontier farm in upstate New York. He was apprenticed to a cloth maker at age 14, then became a schoolteacher. He read law with a county judge and became a lawyer in East Aurora, New York. He served three terms in the New York legislature, sponsoring legislation to close the debtors prison.

Fillmore began his career in national politics as an opponent of Andrew Jackson, joining the Whig Party during his first term in the House of Representatives in 1833 and becoming party congressional leader in 1841. He opposed the spoils system, under which government posts were filled according to the recommendations of party bosses, and was in favor of national funding for internal improvements. Two of the tariff bills he wrote as chair of the Ways and Means Committee were vetoed by President John Tyler, but a third was approved in 1842.

Fillmore lost the Whig nomination for Vice President in 1844 and was defeated in an election for New York governor that same year. In 1847 he was elected New York State's first comptroller. Fillmore received the Vice Presidential nomination in 1848 to appease Northern Whigs opposed to the nomination of slaveholder Zachary Taylor. As Vice President, he presided fairly and firmly in the Senate over the intense debates between Northern abolitionists and Southern slaveholders. When Fillmore became President, he broke his political alliance with New York State Whig party boss Thurlow Weed and appointed a completely new cabinet, including Daniel Webster as secretary of state. He reversed Taylor's opposition to Henry Clay's Compromise of 1850, a measure designed to effect a compromise over extension of slavery into the newly acquired territories. It admitted California to the Union as a free state, permitted slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories, abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, and strengthened the fugitive slave law to allow Southern slaveholders to use Northern state courts and police in efforts to retrieve runaway slaves. Fillmore approved the compromise to avoid sectional conflict. His major accomplishment in foreign policy was the decision to send a fleet commanded by Commodore Matthew C. Perry to Japan, which resulted in an 1854 treaty that opened up that nation to U.S. trade.

As a result of his sectional compromises, Fillmore was discredited among Northern Whigs, and after 53 ballots he lost the bid for his party's Presidential nomination in 1852 to General Winfield Scott, the third war hero the Whigs had nominated for the Presidency. But the party destroyed itself over the slavery issue, and Fillmore turned the White House over to Democrat Franklin Pierce; he then retired to Buffalo to practice law.

Fillmore's 1856 Presidential campaign on the Know-Nothing ticket was an embarrassment; the party was opposed to foreigners and was strongly anti-Catholic, though Fillmore refused to endorse these prejudices in the campaign. He ran as a nationalist, attempting to preserve the Union from sectional divisions. He received 21 percent of the vote, a record for a third-party candidate until 1912. But after the election the party disappeared and he retired from politics.

Fillmore became active in local affairs in upstate New York. A man who had received only six months of schooling in his life, he had begun his political career in New York by developing the public school system. In later life he founded the University of Buffalo (becoming its first chancellor) and the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy.

Sources

• Elbert B. Smith, The Presidencies of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1988)

(1800-1874), thirteenth president of the United States. Unlike most presidents, Fillmore knew poverty as a boy. Of old New England stock, he was born in western New York, where his father scraped out a living as a tenant farmer. In his youth he received only a limited education before being apprenticed as a clothier. His prospects brightened when he was offered the chance to read law with a local judge; after moving to Buffalo, he continued his legal training and in 1823 was admitted to the bar.

In 1828 Fillmore was elected to the New York legislature as an Anti-Mason and served three terms. He eventually joined the Whig party and served four terms in the U.S. Congress. As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, he played a leading role in framing the tariff of 1842. Deciding to retire from Congress in 1844, he was selected as the Whigs' gubernatorial candidate but was narrowly defeated. In 1848, while serving as state comptroller, he received the Whig vice-presidential nomination and was elected in November.

Despite his support for President Zachary Taylor's policies, Fillmore had little influence in the new administration, and in 1850, after much hesitancy, he backed Henry Clay's compromise proposals rather than the president's plan for settling the sectional conflict. When he became president following Taylor's death in July, Fillmore, displaying rare decisiveness, threw his influence behind the compromise movement in Congress. By September, he had signed the various compromise measures into law, and in his annual message in December, he hailed them as a final settlement of the sectional controversy.

As part of his plan to purge the Whig party of its radicalism, Fillmore began removing opponents of the compromise from federal office. This ill-considered policy deepened party divisions and precipitated a bruising struggle for the 1852 presidential nomination. Fillmore was at best a reluctant candidate: though eager for the popular endorsement that the nomination would convey, he believed that no Whig could win in 1852. Despite Fillmore's strength in the South, the Whig convention eventually nominated Winfield Scott, who suffered a crushing defeat.

At the end of his term, Fillmore returned to Buffalo. He remained politically active and in 1855 joined the secret nativist American party, which nominated him for president in 1856. Hoping to transform the party into a national, conservative organization, Fillmore downplayed nativism in the campaign and emphasized the Union issue instead. His candidacy alienated both antislavery forces and fervent nativists, and he finished a distant third in the election.

Following his defeat, Fillmore devoted his energies to civic affairs. Alienated from the Republican party, which was controlled by his personal enemies, he opposed the Lincoln administration during the war and sympathized with Andrew Johnson in his clash with congressional Republicans during Reconstruction.

Although honest and hardworking, Fillmore manifested a habitual lack of self-confidence that significantly limited his political effectiveness. He was a pompous, colorless individual who rose far beyond his ability, and as such he left only a limited mark on his generation.

Bibliography:

Robert J. Rayback, Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President (1959); Elbert B. Smith, The Presidencies of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore (1988).

Author:

William E. Gienapp

See also Anti-Masons; Elections: 1848 , 1856; Know-Nothing Party; Nativism; Whig Party. For events during Fillmore's administration, see Compromise of 1850; Fugitive Slave Law.

Millard Fillmore was a Whig, a member of the New York Assembly, a member of the U.S. Congress, vice president of the United States under Zachary Taylor, and the thirteenth president of the United States. Despite a personal dislike of slavery, he signed into law the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, among other bills that originated in the Compromise of 1850. His administration supported trade with foreign countries, forging one of the first trade agreements with Japan, but Fillmore was opposed to expansionism and refused to support an attempted annexation of Cuba in 1851.

Fillmore was born June 7, 1800, in Locke, New York. His father, Nathaniel Fillmore, was a farmer who wanted Fillmore to escape a life of poverty. Fillmore left school at an early age to become apprenticed, but a judge recognized his talents and ambition and persuaded him to study law. He was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-four and soon became a leading lawyer in the state of New York.

In 1828, Fillmore was elected to the New York Assembly, and in 1832, he was elected to Congress, where he served three terms. In 1844, he ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York State. In 1848, the Whig party nominated him for vice president to run with the Mexican War hero Taylor. Fillmore and Taylor won the election by appeasing both northern and southern voters, taking the position that although slavery was evil, it was a problem that had to be solved by the states.

Fillmore was disappointed with his lack of power and voice as vice president. The country was facing a crisis over the issues of slavery and the admittance of Texas, California, and New Mexico into the Union. The Compromise of 1850, written by Senator Henry Clay, was an omnibus that recommended that California be admitted to the Union as a free state, the rest of Mexican cession be formed without restrictions on slavery, Texas end its boundary dispute with New Mexico, and a new fugitive slave law be passed. As president of the Senate, Fillmore was involved in the debate over the compromise but found himself unable to influence its course.

President Taylor was seen as the greatest obstacle to the compromise because he refused to sign it as one comprehensive piece of legislation, wanting to consider separately the issue of California's admission into the Union as a free state. The South feared that if California was admitted as a free state, other western territories would eventually become free states, thereby giving the antislavery movement a more powerful voice in Congress. In the summer of 1850, Taylor became even more hostile to the South when he threatened to lead the U.S. Army against the Texas militia, which was trying to spread slavery westward by threatening Texas's boundary with the territory of New Mexico. This never transpired because on July 9, 1850, Taylor died suddenly and Fillmore was sworn in as president.

Fillmore supported the compromise, but he too wanted the legislation divided into separate bills. With the departure from the Senate of the compromise's strongest supporters—Clay, Daniel Webster, and John C. Calhoun—and the maneuvering of new leaders such as Stephen A. Douglas, Jefferson Davis, and William H. Seward, the bill was split up. Only three months after Taylor's death, all the separate bills were passed by Congress and signed into law by Fillmore.

Fillmore was opposed to slavery and had difficulty signing one of those bills, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The act forbade both government and individuals to help slaves escape from their master. It also made the federal government responsible for recovering and returning runaway slaves. Fillmore believed it was his constitutional responsibility to enforce the law even though he disagreed with it. In a letter to Webster, he wrote,

God knows I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil, for which we are not responsible, and we must endure it and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the constitution, till we get rid of it without destroying the last hope of free government in the world.

In the area of foreign policy, the Fillmore administration achieved one of the first trade agreements ever reached between the empire of Japan and a foreign country. This agreement opened up new sources of coal to power the United States' seagoing steamers, and it helped establish a Pacific trade route between the United States and Asia. Fillmore opposed the popular nineteenth-century philosophy of Manifest Destiny, which regarded U.S. expansion into the Pacific as inevitable. He thought seizing another nation's land was dishonorable. In August 1851, he refused to give military support to an attempted annexation of Cuba by four hundred U.S. citizens, mostly veterans of the Mexican War. The invasion of the Spanish colony failed, and most of the invaders, including their leader, Narciso Lopez, were captured and executed.

Early in his presidency, Fillmore had determined that he would not seek reelection, but in the months leading up to the 1852 election, it became clear that the southern Whigs would support only Fillmore. Even though he did not desire his party's nomination, Fillmore left his name on the convention ballot to prevent the nomination of General Winfield Scott. Fillmore knew the general would be a hopeless candidate in the South because of his connections with abolitionists like Seward. But on the fifty-third ballot, Scott was nominated. As Fillmore predicted, Scott lost the general election to Democrat Franklin Pierce.

Fillmore's last venture into politics came in 1856 when he accepted the presidential nomination of the Know-Nothing party. This political party was formed as a result of a division in the Whig party between those who favored national expansion and those who were against slavery. The Know-Nothings, created by the national Whigs, used their opposition to mass immigration from Europe to unite northern and southern voters. U.S. citizens never took the party seriously, and Fillmore lost the election to southern Democrat James Buchanan.

After the election, Fillmore settled down in Buffalo, New York, and became the city's leading citizen. He participated in many committees and supported institutions such as the University of Buffalo and the Orphan Asylum. When the nation fell into civil war in 1861, he pledged his support to the Union cause and worked to enlist Buffalo men in the war effort. His support dwindled as the war raged on, and in 1863, he publicly denounced Abraham Lincoln's administration's handling of the conflict and supported George B. McClellan in the 1864 presidential election.

Fillmore died March 8, 1874.

Millard Fillmore
President Fillmore, taken in 1850 by Mathew Brady; retouched.
13th President of the United States
In office July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853
Vice President	None
Preceded by	Zachary Taylor
Succeeded by	Franklin Pierce
12th Vice President of the United States
In office March 4, 1849 – July 9, 1850
President	Zachary Taylor
Preceded by	George M. Dallas
Succeeded by	William R. King
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 32nd district
In office March 4, 1833 – March 3, 1835
Preceded by	new district
Succeeded by	Thomas C. Love
In office March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1843
Preceded by	Thomas C. Love
Succeeded by	William A. Moseley
Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means
In office 1841 – 1843
Preceded by	John W. Jones
Succeeded by	James I. McKay
14th New York State Comptroller
In office January 1, 1848 – February 20, 1849
Governor	John Young Hamilton Fish
Preceded by	Azariah C. Flagg
Succeeded by	Washington Hunt
Born	January 7, 1800(1800-01-07) Summerhill, New York
Died	March 8, 1874 (aged 74) Buffalo, New York
Nationality	American
Political party	Anti-Masonic, Whig, American
Spouse(s)	Abigail Powers (dissolved by her death; 1826-1853) Caroline Carmichael McIntosh (married at death; 1858- his death;1874)
Children	Millard Powers Fillmore Mary Abigail Fillmore
Alma mater	New Hope Academy
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Unitarian
Signature
Military service
Service/branch	New York Militia
Battles/wars	Mexican-American War American Civil War

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th President of the United States, serving from 1850 until 1853 and the last member of the Whig Party to hold that office. He was the second Vice President to assume the presidency upon the death of a sitting president, succeeding Zachary Taylor, who died of what is thought to be acute gastroenteritis. Fillmore was never elected president; after serving out Taylor's term, he failed to gain the nomination of the Whigs for president in the 1852 presidential election, and, four years later, in the 1856 presidential election, he again failed to win election as the Know Nothing Party and Whig candidate.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Politics 2.1 Vice Presidency 1849–1850 3 Presidency 1850–1853 3.1 Policies 3.2 Administration and cabinet 3.3 Judicial appointments 3.3.1 Supreme Court 3.3.2 Other courts 3.4 States admitted to the Union 4 Later life 5 Legacy 5.1 Places named after Fillmore 6 Electoral history 7 Plaques to Fillmore 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

Early life and career

Fillmore was born in a log cabin^[1] in Moravia, Cayuga County, in the Finger Lakes region of New York State on January 7, 1800, to Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard, as the second of nine children and the eldest son.^[2] (As this was three weeks after George Washington's death, Fillmore was the first U.S. President born after the death of a former president.) He was the first future American President to be born in the 1800s. He later lived in East Aurora, New York in the southtowns region south of Buffalo, New York.^[3] Though a Unitarian in later life,^[4] Fillmore was descended from Scottish Presbyterians on his father's side and English dissenters on his mother's. His father apprenticed him to a brutal cloth maker in Sparta, New York, at age fourteen to learn the cloth-making trade. He left after four months but subsequently took another apprenticeship in the same trade at New Hope, New York. He struggled to obtain an education under frontier conditions, attending New Hope Academy for six months in 1819. Later that year, he began to clerk for Judge Walter Wood of Montville, New York, under whom Fillmore began to study law.

Millard Fillmore helped build this house in East Aurora, New York, and lived here 1826-1830.

He fell in love with Abigail Powers, whom he met while at New Hope Academy and later married on February 5, 1826.^[5] The couple had two children, Millard Powers Fillmore and Mary Abigail Fillmore. After leaving Wood and buying out his apprenticeship, Fillmore moved to Buffalo, New York, where he continued his studies in the law office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. He was admitted to the bar in 1823 and began his law practice in East Aurora, in 1825, he built a house in East Aurora for his new bride, Abigail. In 1834, he formed a law partnership, Fillmore and Hall (becoming Fillmore, Hall and Haven in 1836), with his good friend Nathan K. Hall (who would later serve in his cabinet as Postmaster General).^[6] It would become one of western New York's most prestigious firms.^[7]

In 1846, he founded the private University of Buffalo, which today is the public State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo), the largest school in the New York state university system.

His military service was limited. He served in the New York militia during the Mexican War of 1846 and during the American Civil War.

Politics

In 1828, Fillmore was elected to the New York State Assembly on the Anti-Masonic ticket, serving for one term, from 1829 to 1831. He was later elected as a Whig (having followed his mentor Thurlow Weed into the party) to the 23rd Congress in 1832, serving from 1833 to 1835. He was reelected in 1836 to the 25th Congress, to the 26th and to the 27th Congresses serving from 1837 to 1843, declining to be a candidate for re-nomination in 1842.

In Congress, he opposed the entrance of Texas as a slave territory. He came in second place in the bid for Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1841. He served as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1841 to 1843 and was an author of the Tariff of 1842, as well as two other bills that President John Tyler vetoed.

After leaving Congress, Millard Fillmore was the unsuccessful Whig candidate for Governor of New York in 1844. He was the first New York State Comptroller elected by general ballot, and was in office from 1848 to 1849. As state comptroller, he revised New York's banking system, making it a model for the future National Banking System.

Engraving of Millard Fillmore

Vice Presidency 1849–1850

At the Whig national convention in 1848, the nomination of Gen. Zachary Taylor for president angered both the supporters of Henry Clay and the opponents of the extension of slavery into the territories gained in the Mexican–American War. A group of practical Whig politicians nominated Fillmore for vice president, believing that he would heal party wounds because he came from a non-slave state even though he was relatively obscure, and because he would help the ticket carry the populous state of New York.

Taylor/Fillmore campaign poster

Fillmore was also selected in part to block New York state machine boss Thurlow Weed from receiving the vice presidential nomination (and his front man William H. Seward from receiving a position in Taylor's cabinet). Weed ultimately got Seward elected to the Senate. This competition between Seward and Fillmore led to Seward's becoming a more vocal part of cabinet meetings and having more of a voice than Fillmore in advising the administration. The battle would continue even after Taylor's death.

Taylor and Fillmore disagreed on the slavery issue in the new western territories taken from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Taylor wanted the new states to be free states, while Fillmore supported slavery in those states as a means of appeasing the South. In his own words: "God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil ... and we must endure it and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the Constitution."

Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of nerve-wracking debates over the Compromise of 1850. During one debate, Senator Henry S. Foote of Mississippi pulled a pistol on Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Fillmore made no public comment on the merits of the compromise proposals, but a few days before President Taylor's death, Fillmore suggested to the president that, should there be a tie vote on Henry Clay's bill, he would vote in favor of the North.

Presidency 1850–1853

Policies

Official White House portrait of Millard Fillmore

Upon the unexpected death of President Taylor on July 9, 1850, Fillmore ascended to the presidency. The change in leadership also signaled an abrupt political shift as Fillmore appointed his own cabinet. Taylor, himself, had been about to replace his entire scandal-ridden cabinet at the time of his death,^[8] but now, beginning with the appointment of Daniel Webster as Secretary of State, Fillmore's cabinet would be dominated by individuals who, except for Treasury Secretary Thomas Corwin, favored what would become the Compromise of 1850.

As president, Fillmore dealt with increasing party divisions within the Whig party; party harmony became one of his primary objectives. He tried to unite the party by pointing out the differences between the Whigs and the Democrats (by proposing tariff reforms that negatively reflected on the Democratic Party). Another primary objective of Fillmore was to preserve the Union from the intensifying slavery debate.

Henry Clay's proposed bill to admit California to the Union still aroused all the violent arguments for and against the extension of slavery without any progress toward settling the major issues (the South continued to threaten secession). Fillmore recognized that Clay's plan was the best way to end the sectional crisis (California free state, harsher fugitive slave law, abolish slave trade in DC). Clay, exhausted, left Washington to recuperate, passing leadership to Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. At this critical juncture, President Fillmore announced his support of the Compromise of 1850.

On August 6, 1850, he sent a message to Congress recommending that Texas be paid to abandon its claims to part of New Mexico. This, combined with his mobilization of 750 Federal troops to New Mexico, helped shift a critical number of northern Whigs in Congress away from their insistence upon the Wilmot Proviso—the stipulation that all land gained by the Mexican War must be closed to slavery.

Douglas's effective strategy in Congress combined with Fillmore's pressure gave impetus to the Compromise movement. Breaking up Clay's single legislative package, Douglas presented five separate bills to the Senate:

• Admit California as a free state.
• Settle the Texas boundary and compensate the state for lost lands.
• Grant territorial status to New Mexico.
• Place federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking escapees—the Fugitive Slave Act.
• Abolish the slave trade, but not slavery, in the District of Columbia.

Portrait of Millard Fillmore

Each measure obtained a majority, and, by September 20, President Fillmore had signed them into law. Webster wrote, "I can now sleep of nights." Whigs on both sides refused to accept the finality of Fillmore's law (which led to more party division, and a loss of numerous elections), which forced Northern Whigs to say "God Save us from Whig Vice Presidents."

Fillmore's greatest difficulty with the fugitive slave law was how to enforce it without seeming to show favor towards Southern Whigs. His solution was to appease both northern and southern Whigs by calling for the enforcement of the fugitive slave law in the North, and enforcing in the South a law forbidding involvement in Cuba (for the sole purpose of adding it as a slave state).

Another issue that presented itself during Fillmore's presidency was the arrival of Lajos Kossuth (exiled leader of a failed Hungarian revolution). Kossuth wanted the United States to abandon its nonintervention policies when it came to European affairs and recognize Hungary's independence. The problem came with the enormous support Kossuth received from German-American immigrants to the United States (who were essential in the reelection of both Whigs and Democrats). Fillmore refused to change American policy, and decided to remain neutral despite the political implications that neutrality would produce.

Fillmore appointed Brigham Young as the first governor of the Utah Territory in 1850.^[9] In gratitude for creating the Utah Territory in 1850 and appointing Brigham Young as governor, Young named the territorial capital "Fillmore" and the surrounding county "Millard".^[10]

Another important legacy of Fillmore's administration was the sending of Commodore Matthew C. Perry to open Japan to Western trade, though Perry did not reach Japan until Franklin Pierce had replaced Fillmore as president. A less dramatic legacy is that Fillmore, a bookworm, found the White House devoid of books and initiated the White House library.

Administration and cabinet

Statue of Fillmore outside City Hall in downtown Buffalo, New York

The Fillmore Cabinet
Office	Name	Term
President	Millard Fillmore	1850–1853
Vice President	None	1850–1853
Secretary of State	Daniel Webster	1850–1852
	Edward Everett	1852–1853
Secretary of Treasury	Thomas Corwin	1850–1853
Secretary of War	Charles M. Conrad	1850–1853
Attorney General	John J. Crittenden	1850–1853
Postmaster General	Nathan K. Hall	1850–1852
	Samuel D. Hubbard	1852–1853
Secretary of the Navy	William A. Graham	1850–1852
	John P. Kennedy	1852–1853
Secretary of the Interior	Thomas M. T. McKennan	1850
	Alexander H. H. Stuart	1850–1853

Judicial appointments

Supreme Court

Fillmore appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

Judge	Seat	Began active service	Ended active service
Benjamin Robbins Curtis	Seat 2	18510922September 22, 1851[11]	18570930September 30, 1857

Other courts

Fillmore was able to appoint only four other federal judges, all to United States district courts:

Judge	Court	Began active service	Ended active service
John Glenn	D. Md.	01852-03-19 March 19, 1852	01853-07-08 July 8, 1853
Nathan K. Hall	N.D.N.Y.	01852-08-31 August 31, 1852	01874-03-02 March 2, 1874
Ogden Hoffman, Jr.	N.D. Cal. S.D. Cal.	01851-02-27 February 27, 1851	01866-07-23 July 23, 1866 January 18, 1854[12]
James McHall Jones	S.D. Cal.	01850-12-26 December 26, 1850	01851-12-15 December 15, 1851

States admitted to the Union

• California – September 9, 1850

Later life

Millard Fillmore
Know-Nothing/Whig nominee for President of the United States
Election date November 4, 1856
Running mate	Andrew Jackson Donelson
Opponent(s)	James Buchanan (D) John C. Fremont (R)
Incumbent	Franklin Pierce
Political party	Know-Nothing/Whig

Fillmore/Donelson campaign poster

Fillmore was one of the founders of the University of Buffalo. The school was chartered by an act of the New York State Legislature on May 11, 1846, and at first was only a medical school.^[13] Fillmore was the first Chancellor, a position he maintained while both Vice President and President. Upon completing his presidency, Fillmore returned to Buffalo, where he continued to serve as chancellor.

After the death of his daughter Mary, Fillmore went abroad. While touring Europe in 1855, Fillmore was offered an honorary Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) degree by the University of Oxford. Fillmore turned down the honor, explaining that he had neither the "literary nor scientific attainment" to justify the degree.^[14] He is also quoted as having explained that he "lacked the benefit of a classical education" and could not, therefore, understand the Latin text of the diploma, adding that he believed "no man should accept a degree he cannot read."^[5]

By 1856, Fillmore's Whig Party had ceased to exist, having fallen apart due to dissension over the slavery issue, and especially the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Fillmore refused to join the new Republican Party, where many former Whigs, including Abraham Lincoln, had found refuge. Instead, Fillmore joined the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic American Party, the political organ of the Know-Nothing movement.

He ran in the election of 1856 as the party's presidential candidate, attempting to win a nonconsecutive second term as President (a feat accomplished only once in American politics, by Grover Cleveland). His running mate was Andrew Jackson Donelson, nephew of former president Andrew Jackson. Fillmore and Donelson finished third, carrying only the state of Maryland and its eight electoral votes; but he won 21.6% of the popular vote, one of the best showings ever by a Presidential third-party candidate.

On February 10, 1858, after the death of his first wife, Fillmore married Caroline McIntosh, a wealthy widow. Their combined wealth allowed them to purchase a big house in Buffalo, New York. The house became the center of hospitality for visitors, until her health began to decline in the 1860s.

Fillmore helped found the Buffalo Historical Society (now the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society) in 1862 and served as its first president.

Throughout the Civil War, Fillmore opposed President Lincoln and during Reconstruction supported President Johnson. He commanded the Union Continentals, a corps of home guards of males over the age of 45 from the Upstate New York area.

He died at 11:10 p.m. on March 8, 1874, of the aftereffects of a stroke. His last words were alleged to be, upon being fed some soup, "the nourishment is palatable." On January 7 each year, a ceremony is held at his grave site in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.

Legacy

A pink obelisk marks Fillmore's grave at Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Some northern Whigs remained irreconcilable, refusing to forgive Fillmore for having signed the Fugitive Slave Act. They helped deprive him of the Presidential nomination in 1852. Within a few years it was apparent that although the Compromise had been intended to settle the slavery controversy, it served rather as an uneasy sectional truce. Robert J. Rayback argues that the appearance of a truce, at first, seemed very real as the country entered a period of prosperity that included the South.^[15] Although Fillmore, in retirement, continued to feel that conciliation with the South was necessary and considered that the Republican Party was at least partly responsible for the subsequent disunion, he was an outspoken critic of secession and was also critical of President James Buchanan for not immediately taking military action when South Carolina seceded.^[16]

Benson Lee Grayson suggests that the Fillmore administration's ability to avoid potential problems is too often overlooked. Fillmore's constant attention to Mexico avoided a resumption of the hostilities that had only broken off in 1848 and laid the groundwork for the Gadsen Treaty during Pierce's administration.^[17] Meanwhile, the Fillmore administration resolved a serious dispute with Portugal left over from the Taylor administration^[18], smoothed over a disagreement with Peru, and then peacefully resolved other disputes with England, France, and Spain over Cuba. At the height of this crisis, the Royal Navy had fired on an American ship while at the same time 160 Americans were being held captive in Spain. Fillmore and his State Department were able to resolve these crises without the United States going to war or losing face.^[19]

Millard Fillmore postage stamp

Because the Whig party was so deeply divided, and the two leading national figures in the Whig party (Fillmore and his own Secretary of State, Daniel Webster) refused to combine to secure the nomination, Winfield Scott received it. Because both the north and the south refused to unite behind Scott, he won only 4 of 31 states, and lost the election to Franklin Pierce.

After Fillmore's defeat the Whig party continued its downward spiral with further party division coming at the hands of the Kansas Nebraska Act, and the emergence of the Know Nothing party.

Most of his correspondence was destroyed in pursuance of a direction in his son's will.^[20]

The myth that Fillmore installed the White House's first bathtub was started by H. L. Mencken in a joke column published on December 28, 1917, in the New York Evening Mail. (See Bathtub hoax.) In February 2008, a television commercial for a sales event by Kia Motors featured Millard Fillmore, referring to him as "Unheard of," repeated the Bathtub hoax, and presented a Millard Fillmore bust as a 'Soap-on-a-Rope.'.^{[21][22][23][24]}

Places named after Fillmore

• Fillmore Glen State Park, New York.
• Fillmore County, Minnesota.
• Millard Fillmore Elementary School, Moravia NY.
• Fillmore County, Nebraska.
• Millard County, Utah and its county seat, Fillmore, Utah.
• Fillmore Elementary School, Davenport, IA
• Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital, Buffalo.
• Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, Williamsville, New York.
• Millard Fillmore Academic Center at the University at Buffalo's Ellicott Complex.
• Fillmore's Tavern, a landmark restaurant in the Fresh Meadows neighborhood of New York City.
• Fillmore Street, and the surrounding neighborhood in San Francisco, California,^[25] after which, in turn, the Fillmore Auditorium was named.
• Fillmore Avenue in Buffalo, New York^[26]
• Fillmore Avenue in Las Vegas, Nevada

Electoral history

United States presidential election, 1848

• Zachary Taylor/Millard Fillmore (Whig) - 1,361,393 (47.3%) and 163 electoral votes (16 states carried)
• Lewis Cass/William Orlando Butler (Democrats) - 1,223,460 (42.5%) and 127 electoral votes (15 states carried)
• Martin Van Buren/Charles Francis Adams, Sr. (Free Soil) - 291,501 (10.1%) and 0 electoral votes

United States presidential election, 1856

• James Buchanan/John C. Breckinridge (Democrats) - 1,836,072 (45.3%) and 174 electoral votes (19 states carried)
• John C. Fremont/William L. Dayton (Republicans) - 1,342,345 (33.1%) and 114 electoral votes (11 states carried)
• Millard Fillmore/Andrew Jackson Donelson (Know Nothing/Whig) - 873,053 (21.6%) and 8 electoral votes (1 state carried)

Plaques to Fillmore

Fillmore's East Aurora house was moved off Main Street.	The house is designated a National Historic Landmark.	The DAR placed this plaque on the house in 1931.	A memorial to Fillmore on the gate surrounding his plot in Buffalo.
Detail of the Fillmore obelisk in Buffalo.	Historical marker denoting Fillmore's birthplace in Summerhill, New York

Notes

1. ^ The original log cabin was demolished in 1852, but in 1965, the Millard Fillmore Memorial Association, using materials from a similar cabin, constructed a replica, which is located in Fillmore Glen State Park in Moravia."Millard Fillmore Log Cabin" American Presidents Life Portraits
2. ^ "Millard Fillmore". Encarta Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2009-11-01. http://www.webcitation.org/query?id=1257052070494645. 
3. ^ Smyczynski, Christine A. (2005). "Southern Erie County - "The Southtowns"". Western New York: From Niagara Falls and Southern Ontario to the Western Edge of the Finger Lakes. The Countryman Press. p. 136. 
4. ^ Deacon, F. Jay (1999). "Transcendentalists, Abolitionism, and the Unitarian Association". UUA Collegium Lectures. Chicago. http://www.uua.org/ga/ga00/514.html. Retrieved 2006-12-28. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Facts on Millard Filmore
6. ^ Fillmore, Millard; Severance, Frank H. (1907). Millard Fillmore Papers. Buffalo Historical Society. 
7. ^ Paletta, Lu Ann; Worth, Fred L (1988). The World Almanac of Presidential Facts. World Almanac Books. ISBN 0345348885. 
8. ^ Grayson 1981, p. 5.
9. ^ "The American Franchise". American President, An Online Reference Resource. Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/fillmore/essays/biography/8. Retrieved 2008-03-13. 
10. ^ The book Presidents and Prophets: The Story of America's Presidents and the LDS Church (Covenant, 2007)
11. ^ Recess appointment; formally nominated on December 11, 1851, confirmed by the United States Senate on December 20, 1851, and received commission on December 20, 1851.
12. ^ Hoffman was reassigned several times, beginning on January 18, 1854, as the California federal courts were redistricted. Hoffman, Ogden Jr., Federal Judicial Center.
13. ^ University of Buffalo bio
14. ^ Millard Fillmore bio from the Internet Public Library
15. ^ Rayback 1959, pp. 286-292
16. ^ Rayback 1959, pp. 420-422
17. ^ Grayson 1981, p. 120
18. ^ Grayson 1981, p. 83
19. ^ Grayson 1981, pp. 103-109
20. ^ This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
21. ^ Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
22. ^ H. L. Mencken: "A Neglected Anniversary"
23. ^ White House Plumbing
24. ^ Plumbing History in The White House
25. ^ Lewis, Gregory (February 8, 1997). ""Fillmore Street name change urged"". SFGate.com. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/e/a/1997/02/08/NEWS10248.dtl&hw=jonestown&sn=164&sc=132. Retrieved 2008-02-25. 
26. ^ Vaughan, Bill (17 March 1974) "Vaughan at Large: Prunes and Fillmore have something in common" Great Bend Tribune (Kansas) page 4

References

• Holt, Michael F. "Millard Fillmore". The American Presidency. Ed.Alan Brinkley,Davis Dyer.2004. p. 145-151.
• Deusen, Van Glydon. "The American Presidency" Encyclopedia Americana. Accessed 9 May 2007.* Rayback, Robert J. Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President. Buffalo, New York: Buffalo Historical Society, 1959
• Grayson, Benson Lee. The Unknown President: The Administration of Millard Fillmore. University Press of America, 1981

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Millard Fillmore

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Millard Fillmore

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Millard Fillmore

• Millard Fillmore at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Millard Fillmore: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• First State of the Union Address
• Second State of the Union Address
• Third State of the Union Address
• White House Biography
• Biography by Appleton's and Stanley L. Klos
• Works by Millard Fillmore at Project Gutenberg
• Millard Fillmore Internet Obituary
• Millard Fillmore House, Buffalo, NY
• Millard and Abigail Fillmore House, East Aurora, NY
• Millard Fillmore at Encyclopedia American: The American Presidency
• Essays on Fillmore and each member of his cabinet and First Lady

Political offices
Preceded by Zachary Taylor	President of the United States July 9, 1850³ – March 4, 1853	Succeeded by Franklin Pierce
Preceded by George M. Dallas	Vice President of the United States March 4, 1849¹ – July 9, 1850²	Vacant Title next held by William R. King
Preceded by Azariah C. Flagg	New York State Comptroller 1848 - 1849	Succeeded by Washington Hunt
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Thomas C. Love	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 32nd congressional district March 4, 1837 – March 3, 1843	Succeeded by William A. Moseley
New district	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 32nd congressional district March 3, 1833 – March 3, 1835	Succeeded by Thomas C. Love
Preceded by John W. Jones	Chairman of the United States House Ways and Means Committee 1841 – 1843	Succeeded by James I. McKay
Party political offices
Preceded by Winfield Scott	Whig Party presidential candidate 1856	Succeeded by John Bell
New political party	American Party presidential candidate 1856	Party disbanded
Preceded by Theodore Frelinghuysen	Whig Party vice presidential candidate 1848	Succeeded by William A. Graham
Honorary titles
Preceded by James Buchanan	Oldest U.S. President still living June 1, 1868 – March 8, 1874	Succeeded by Andrew Johnson
Notes and references
1. Although Fillmore's term started on March 4, he did not take the oath of office until March 5. 2. President Zachary Taylor died on July 9. 3. Fillmore took the oath of office on July 10.

v • d • e Presidents of the United States George Washington · John Adams · Thomas Jefferson · James Madison · James Monroe · John Quincy Adams · Andrew Jackson · Martin Van Buren · William Henry Harrison · John Tyler · James K. Polk · Zachary Taylor · Millard Fillmore · Franklin Pierce · James Buchanan · Abraham Lincoln · Andrew Johnson · Ulysses S. Grant · Rutherford B. Hayes · James A. Garfield · Chester A. Arthur · Grover Cleveland · Benjamin Harrison · Grover Cleveland · William McKinley · Theodore Roosevelt · William Howard Taft · Woodrow Wilson · Warren G. Harding · Calvin Coolidge · Herbert Hoover · Franklin D. Roosevelt · Harry S. Truman · Dwight D. Eisenhower · John F. Kennedy · Lyndon B. Johnson · Richard Nixon · Gerald Ford · Jimmy Carter · Ronald Reagan · George H. W. Bush · Bill Clinton · George W. Bush · Barack Obama

v • d • e Vice Presidents of the United States John Adams · Thomas Jefferson · Aaron Burr · George Clinton · Elbridge Gerry · Daniel D. Tompkins · John C. Calhoun · Martin Van Buren · Richard Mentor Johnson · John Tyler · George M. Dallas · Millard Fillmore · William R. King · John C. Breckinridge · Hannibal Hamlin · Andrew Johnson · Schuyler Colfax · Henry Wilson · William A. Wheeler · Chester A. Arthur · Thomas A. Hendricks · Levi P. Morton · Adlai E. Stevenson I · Garret Hobart · Theodore Roosevelt · Charles W. Fairbanks · James S. Sherman · Thomas R. Marshall · Calvin Coolidge · Charles G. Dawes · Charles Curtis · John Nance Garner · Henry A. Wallace · Harry S. Truman · Alben W. Barkley · Richard Nixon · Lyndon B. Johnson · Hubert Humphrey · Spiro Agnew · Gerald Ford · Nelson Rockefeller · Walter Mondale · George H. W. Bush · Dan Quayle · Al Gore · Dick Cheney · Joe Biden

v • d • e United States Whig Party Presidential Nominees William Henry Harrison / Daniel Webster / Hugh Lawson White / Willie Person Mangum · William Henry Harrison · Henry Clay · Zachary Taylor · Winfield Scott · Millard Fillmore · John Bell

v • d • e United States Whig Party Vice Presidential Nominees Francis Granger / John Tyler · John Tyler · Theodore Frelinghuysen · Millard Fillmore · William Alexander Graham · Andrew Jackson Donelson · Edward Everett

v • d • e Buffalo, New York Attractions Martin's Fantasy Island • Darien Lake Theme Park Resort • Erie County Fair Entertainment Shea's Performing Arts Center • Albright-Knox Art Gallery • National Buffalo Wing Festival • Kleinhans Music Hall • Buffalo Zoo • Riviera Theatre • Taste of Buffalo • Friendship Festival Military & Municipal Niagara Falls International Airport • Buffalo Niagara International Airport • Buffalo City Hall • HSBC Arena • Coca-Cola Field • Ralph Wilson Stadium • War Memorial Stadium • Buffalo Memorial Auditorium Research & Education State University of New York at Buffalo • Bryant & Stratton College • Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus • Buffalo Public Schools • Buffalo State College • Canisius College • D'Youville College • Erie Community College • Medaille College People Grover Cleveland • Ani DiFranco • Millard Fillmore • Jack Kemp • O. J. Simpson • Gilbert Perreault • Bob McAdoo • Ralph Wilson • Dominik Hasek • Jim Kelly • Thurman Thomas • Bruce Smith • Seymour Knox I • Seymour Knox II • Seymour Knox III • Ani DiFranco • Goo Goo Dolls • Tim Russert • Wolf Blitzer • Nelson Baker • Rick James Shopping Walden Galleria • Boulevard Mall • McKinley Mall • Eastern Hills Mall • The Summit • Fashion Outlets Niagara Falls USA Other Buffalo Museum of Science • Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra • Anchor Bar • Lafayette Square • The French Connection • Delaware Park • Niagara Square • FBI Buffalo Field Office

v • d • e New York State Comptrollers Sands* • Curtenius** • Jones • Henry • Jenkins • McIntyre • Savage • Marcy • S Wright • Flagg • Cooke • Collier • Flagg • Fillmore • Hunt • Fuller • J Wright • Cook • Burrows • Church • Denniston • Robinson • Hillhouse • Allen • Nichols • Hopkins • Robinson • Olcott • Wadsworth • Davenport • Chapin • Wemple • Campbell • Roberts • Morgan • Gilman • Knight • Miller • Kelsey • Wilson • Glynn • Gaus • Kelsey*** • Williams • Sohmer • Travis • Wendell • Maier • Fleming • Murphy • Tremaine • Yates*** • O'Leary • Moore • McGovern • Levitt • Regan • McCall • Hevesi • Sanzillo*** • DiNapoli * as Auditor General, ** as Auditor, *** Acting

v • d • e Cabinet of President Zachary Taylor (1849-1850) Vice President Millard Fillmore (1849-1850) Secretary of State John M. Clayton (1849-1850) Secretary of the Treasury William M. Meredith (1849-1850) Secretary of War George W. Crawford (1849-1850) Attorney General Reverdy Johnson (1849-1850) Postmaster General Jacob Collamer (1849-1850) Secretary of the Navy William B. Preston (1849-1850) Secretary of the Interior Thomas Ewing (1849-1850)

v • d • e Cabinet of President Millard Fillmore (1850-1853) Vice President None (1850-1853) Secretary of State Daniel Webster (1850-1852) • Edward Everett (1852-1853) Secretary of the Treasury Thomas Corwin (1850-1853) Secretary of War Charles M. Conrad (1850-1853) Attorney General John J. Crittenden (1850-1853) Postmaster General Nathan K. Hall (1850-1852) • Samuel D. Hubbard (1852-1853) Secretary of the Navy William A. Graham (1850-1852) • John P. Kennedy (1852-1853) Secretary of the Interior Thomas M.T. McKennan (1850) • Alexander H.H. Stuart (1850-1853)

Persondata
NAME	Fillmore, Millard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	13th President of the United States, 12th Vice President of the United States
DATE OF BIRTH	January 7, 1800
PLACE OF BIRTH	Summerhill, New York
DATE OF DEATH	March 8, 1874
PLACE OF DEATH	Buffalo, New York

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