OK, I have to admit, even after reading a book on Fillmore I don’t know what to say. To be honest, I couldn’t find a book on Fillmore, the only book I found was a combination of the Taylor and Fillmore presidencies. I do know a guy at work that brings in donuts every year on January 7th to commemorate Fillmore’s birthday; does that count? Seriously, he brings in donuts for Fillmore’s birthday. Apparently it’s a tradition that dates back to when he was in college and they threw a birthday party for Fillmore every year. Those crazy college kids will throw a party for anything (for us it was Dyngus Day).
Fillmore was born in Cayuga County, New York. He studied the law and ultimately passed the bar in 1823. He moved his young family to Buffalo in 1826. He then served 3 terms in the New York Assembly (1829 – 1831) before being elected as a Whig to a seat in the 23rd Congress (1832). He decided against running for re-election in 1834, but returned to Congress for 3 more terms (1836 – 1842). In 1848 he was selected as Taylor’s running mate as vice president. He was selected over the wishes of one of the Whig party’s bosses (Thurlow Weed). Weed had wanted William Seward to be the vice presidential candidate. Seward went on to serve as Secretary of State under Lincoln and arranged the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. Seward was also attacked on the night that Lincoln was assassinated, but survived being stabbed several times in the face and neck. This battle with Seward would have repercussions. Even though Fillmore was essential the number two person in the Whig party, Weed and Seward were able to strip much of his power from him to get political appointments.
Fillmore became only the second vice president to rise to the presidency following the death of the president. When Taylor died, there was a bitter debate related to the expansion of slavery into lands recently acquired from Mexico and England. Taylor had taken a strong stance against the spread of slavery into any of the new territories. This was unpopular in the south. Henry Clay put together a compromise bill that was not passed by Congress before Taylor died. Fillmore supported what became known as the Compromise of 1850 and signed it into law. The Compromise of 1850 was a collection of 5 bills:
- California was admitted as a free state
- Texas was compensated for the loss of territory to New Mexico
- New Mexico became a territory
- The slave trade was abolished in DC (slavery was still legal, just not the buying and selling of slaves)
- The Fugitive Slave Act
As in most compromises, no one was completed satisfied. The South had hoped that California would be split with slavery being allowed in southern California (based on the Missouri Compromise line). The South still held out hope that voters in the New Mexico and Utah territories would vote to allow slavery. The most controversial of the 5 items was the Fugitive Slave Act which stated that all fugitive slaves had to be returned to their owners. It even allowed the slave owners to use federal troops to return their slaves.
While nobody like the Compromise of 1850, it is generally credited with delaying the Civil War by 10 years.
Fillmore lost the nomination of his party to General Winfield Scott in 1852. In retirement, he opposed Lincoln throughout the Civil War and refused to join the new Republican Party as many of the former Whigs did. He did run for president again in 1856 as part of the American Party (more commonly referred to as the Know-Nothing Party), but came in 3rd place. His running mate in that election was the nephew of Andrew Jackson, Andrew Jackson Donelson. He only carried one state, but got over 20% of the popular vote. He died in 1874 after having a stroke.
There was a bit of controversy in 2010 when the Millard Fillmore presidential dollar coin was unveiled in Buffalo rather than his home town of Moravia, New York.
Trivia:
- Fillmore is one of 9 presidents that did not attend college: Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Lincoln, A. Johnson, Cleveland and Truman.
- He was the president who was born last in the 18th century (Jan 7th, 1800) although Buchanan was the last president born in the 18th century (1791).
- The last Whig president
- 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.
- He also founded the Buffalo Historical Society in 1862
- He started the White House library
- In 1850 he appointed Brigham Young as the first Governor of the Utah Territory
- Ordered the mission of Commodore Perry to Japan to open that country to western trade
- His first wife Abigail died on March 30th, 1853, just weeks after Fillmore left office
- He remarried in 1860 to Caroline McIntosh, a wealthy widow
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