Four More Years: Millard Fillmore's Attempted Comeback
Martin Van Buren and Theodore Roosevelt weren't the only former Presidents to run as a third party candidate for the office. One other former President sought to undertake this feat. In 1856, Millard Fillmore ran for President as the candidate for the American or "Know Nothing" Party.
Fillmore was chosen as the running mate of Whig Party candidate Zachary Taylor in 1848. He was selected in order to balance the ticket with a New Yorker who was acceptable to southern delegates. New York political boss Thurlow Weed had hoped to put William Seward on the ticket, but Seward was known to be an abolitionist and the Whigs knew that this would not play well in the south. Fillmore assured voters that he was not an abolitionist, though he sought to remain on good terms with Weed and other factions in the state party.
Fillmore became President upon Taylor's death in July of 1850. As Vice-President, Fillmore had expressed support for the compromise of 1850, and as such he believed that he would be acceptable to both sections of the country as the election of 1852 approached. He remained undecided about whether to run for a full term as president, and was mindful of the ambitions of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, who had long coveted the presidency and planned one more run for the big prize. In 1851 Fillmore wrote a letter stating that he did not seek a full term, but he was reluctant to rule it out, fearful that the party would be captured by the Seward and the abolitionist factor.
At the Whig national convention in Baltimore in June 1852, the major candidates were Fillmore, Webster and General Winfield Scott. Weed and Seward backed Scott. The previous month, the Democrats nominated former New Hampshire senator Franklin Pierce, who had been out of national politics for nearly a decade before 1852 but whose profile had risen as a result of his military service in the Mexican War. He was a northerner sympathetic to the southern view on slavery and this united the Democrats. Fillmore's efforts to appease both factions within his party ended up pleasing no one. He was unpopular with northern Whigs for signing and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. He had some support from the South, where he was seen as the only candidate capable of uniting the party. When the Whig convention deadlocked, and this persisted through Saturday, June 19, after a total of 46 ballots had been taken. The convention adjourned until Monday. Party leaders proposed a deal to both Fillmore and Webster. If Wester could increase his vote total over the next several ballots, enough Fillmore supporters would go along to put him over the top. If he could not, Webster would withdraw in favor of Fillmore. Fillmore agreed, but Webster did not. On the 48th ballot, Webster delegates began to defect to Scott, and the general gained the nomination on the 53rd ballot.
In the election of 1852, Scott was easily beaten by Pierce, and many Whigs later believed that they would have done much better with Fillmore at the top of their ticket. Fillmore had wanted to address Congress on the slavery question in his final annual message in December, but was talked out of it by his cabinet. Instead he simply pointed out how well the nation was doing economically, and thanked the nation for the opportunity to serve it. Fillmore left office on March 4, 1853, succeeded by Pierce.
Fillmore was not a wealthy man and with no pension, he needed to earn a living. He returned to the practice of law in New York. The Fillmores had planned a tour of the South after leaving the White House, but Fillmore's wife Abigail caught a cold at President Pierce's inauguration, developed pneumonia, and died in Washington on March 30, 1853. This saddened Fillmore greatly. He returned to Buffalo and was visited with more tragedy the following year when on July 26, 1854, his only daughter, Mary, died of cholera.
In early 1854, debate raged over Senator Stephen Douglas's Kansas–Nebraska Bill, a bill that proposed to open the northern portion of the Louisiana Purchase to settlement, and would end the northern limit on slavery under the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Fillmore made efforts to rally disaffected Whig politicians to preserve the Union, and back him in a run for president. He made a number of public appearances purporting to be for non-political purposes, but he also met privately with politicians during the late winter and spring of 1854 in an effort to plan a comeback.
The Whig Party was a badly divided party, and was on its deathbed. Many northern opponents of slavery, such as Seward, joined a new party, the Republicans. Fillmore did not believe he would be welcome there. He looked in a different direction for his comeback. In the early 1850s there was considerable hostility towards immigrants, especially Catholics, who had recently arrived in the United States in large numbers. Several nativist organizations such as the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, were created to promote these views. By 1854, the Order had become the American Party, which was better known as the Know Nothings. It was given this name because in its early days, members were sworn to keep what took place in its deliberations private, much like fight club. If asked what went on at their meetings, they were supposed to say that they knew nothing about them. Many of Fillmore's former supporters had joined the Know Nothings by 1854. They wanted the new party to to take up other issues and causes besides nativism.
Fillmore was encouraged by the success of the Know Nothings in the 1854 midterm elections, in which they won in several Northeastern states and showed strength in the South. On January 1, 1855, he sent a letter for publication, warning against immigrant influence in American elections, and he soon joined the Order of the Star Spangled Banner.
Later in 1854, Fillmore took a trip to Europe on the advice of political friends. It seems strange for a party to tell it's Presidential candidate to leave the country just as the election was approaching, but the Know-Nothing brain-trust believed that by being out of the country, Fillmore would avoid involvement in the contentious issues of the day. He spent over a year, from March 1855 to June 1856, in Europe and the Middle East. Queen Victoria is said to have called Fillmore the handsomest man she had ever seen. He was present at the same time as former President Martin Van Buren and the two made an appearance together in the gallery of the House of Commons.
Dorothea Dix, a famed advocate for the improving conditions for the mentally ill, was also in Europe at the time. They met several times and continued a correspondence afterward. In Rome, Fillmore had an audience with Pope Pius IX. He almost decided against the meeting, fearing that this might not play well with his nativist supporters back home, but he went ahead with the meeting, though he made arrangements so that he would not have to kneel and kiss the pope's hand.
Fillmore's supporters held strong influence in the American Party, and they arranged for him to get its presidential nomination while he was in Europe. The Know Nothing convention chose Andrew Jackson Donelson of Kentucky to be Fillmore's running mate. He was the nephew by marriage and onetime ward of President Andrew Jackson. Fillmore's return to the United States later in 1856 attracted much publicity. He spoke at a series of welcomes, which began with his arrival at a huge reception in New York City and continued across the state to Buffalo. These addresses were billed as expressions of thanks for his reception, rather than as campaign speeches, so as not to make it look as if he was office-seeking. With some prescience, Fillmore warned that if the Republican candidate, former California senator John C. Frémont, was elected President without any support in the South, this would divide the Union and lead to civil war. Both Fillmore and the Democratic candidate, former Pennsylvania senator James Buchanan, agreed that slavery was principally a matter for state and not federal government.
Though he was the candidate for a nativist party, Fillmore rarely spoke about the immigration question. He focused on the sectional divide, calling for preservation of the Union. Ironically, Fillmore bore no ill will against Catholics and had once even sent his daughter to a school run by the Catholic Church.
Fillmore's campaign failed to gather momentum. Many influential former Whigs, such as Thurlow Weed and William Seward, joined the Republican Party, and the Know Nothings lacked experience at knowing how to mount a national presidential campaign. Fillmore's pro-Union message went unheard. Although the South was friendly towards Fillmore, many there feared that if they voted for him it would split the vote and give Frémont a victory, which would lead to secession. This also caused some of Fillmore's supporters to join the Buchanan camp, once again so as not to split the anti-Frémont vote Many of the events of 1856, including the conflict in Kansas Territory and the caning of Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate, polarized the nation. There was little interest in Fillmore's call for moderation.
On Election Day, Buchanan was elected President, receiving 1,836,072 votes (45.3%) and 174 electoral votes to Frémont's 1,342,345 votes (33.1%) and 114 electoral votes. Fillmore and Donelson finished third, winning 873,053 votes (21.6%) and carrying the state of Maryland and its 8 electoral votes. The American Party ticket narrowly lost in several southern states, and a change of fewer than 8,000 votes in Louisiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee would have thrown the election to the House of Representatives, where the sectional divide would have made the outcome uncertain. If that had happened, Fillmore may well have been selected as the best option for compromise.
Many historians agree that Fillmore was not a Know Nothing or a nativist at heart. His interest was in preservation of the Union, and the American Party was nothing more than a convenient vehicle for him to try to achieve his goal.
Fillmore was chosen as the running mate of Whig Party candidate Zachary Taylor in 1848. He was selected in order to balance the ticket with a New Yorker who was acceptable to southern delegates. New York political boss Thurlow Weed had hoped to put William Seward on the ticket, but Seward was known to be an abolitionist and the Whigs knew that this would not play well in the south. Fillmore assured voters that he was not an abolitionist, though he sought to remain on good terms with Weed and other factions in the state party.
Fillmore became President upon Taylor's death in July of 1850. As Vice-President, Fillmore had expressed support for the compromise of 1850, and as such he believed that he would be acceptable to both sections of the country as the election of 1852 approached. He remained undecided about whether to run for a full term as president, and was mindful of the ambitions of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, who had long coveted the presidency and planned one more run for the big prize. In 1851 Fillmore wrote a letter stating that he did not seek a full term, but he was reluctant to rule it out, fearful that the party would be captured by the Seward and the abolitionist factor.
At the Whig national convention in Baltimore in June 1852, the major candidates were Fillmore, Webster and General Winfield Scott. Weed and Seward backed Scott. The previous month, the Democrats nominated former New Hampshire senator Franklin Pierce, who had been out of national politics for nearly a decade before 1852 but whose profile had risen as a result of his military service in the Mexican War. He was a northerner sympathetic to the southern view on slavery and this united the Democrats. Fillmore's efforts to appease both factions within his party ended up pleasing no one. He was unpopular with northern Whigs for signing and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. He had some support from the South, where he was seen as the only candidate capable of uniting the party. When the Whig convention deadlocked, and this persisted through Saturday, June 19, after a total of 46 ballots had been taken. The convention adjourned until Monday. Party leaders proposed a deal to both Fillmore and Webster. If Wester could increase his vote total over the next several ballots, enough Fillmore supporters would go along to put him over the top. If he could not, Webster would withdraw in favor of Fillmore. Fillmore agreed, but Webster did not. On the 48th ballot, Webster delegates began to defect to Scott, and the general gained the nomination on the 53rd ballot.
In the election of 1852, Scott was easily beaten by Pierce, and many Whigs later believed that they would have done much better with Fillmore at the top of their ticket. Fillmore had wanted to address Congress on the slavery question in his final annual message in December, but was talked out of it by his cabinet. Instead he simply pointed out how well the nation was doing economically, and thanked the nation for the opportunity to serve it. Fillmore left office on March 4, 1853, succeeded by Pierce.
Fillmore was not a wealthy man and with no pension, he needed to earn a living. He returned to the practice of law in New York. The Fillmores had planned a tour of the South after leaving the White House, but Fillmore's wife Abigail caught a cold at President Pierce's inauguration, developed pneumonia, and died in Washington on March 30, 1853. This saddened Fillmore greatly. He returned to Buffalo and was visited with more tragedy the following year when on July 26, 1854, his only daughter, Mary, died of cholera.
In early 1854, debate raged over Senator Stephen Douglas's Kansas–Nebraska Bill, a bill that proposed to open the northern portion of the Louisiana Purchase to settlement, and would end the northern limit on slavery under the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Fillmore made efforts to rally disaffected Whig politicians to preserve the Union, and back him in a run for president. He made a number of public appearances purporting to be for non-political purposes, but he also met privately with politicians during the late winter and spring of 1854 in an effort to plan a comeback.
The Whig Party was a badly divided party, and was on its deathbed. Many northern opponents of slavery, such as Seward, joined a new party, the Republicans. Fillmore did not believe he would be welcome there. He looked in a different direction for his comeback. In the early 1850s there was considerable hostility towards immigrants, especially Catholics, who had recently arrived in the United States in large numbers. Several nativist organizations such as the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, were created to promote these views. By 1854, the Order had become the American Party, which was better known as the Know Nothings. It was given this name because in its early days, members were sworn to keep what took place in its deliberations private, much like fight club. If asked what went on at their meetings, they were supposed to say that they knew nothing about them. Many of Fillmore's former supporters had joined the Know Nothings by 1854. They wanted the new party to to take up other issues and causes besides nativism.
Fillmore was encouraged by the success of the Know Nothings in the 1854 midterm elections, in which they won in several Northeastern states and showed strength in the South. On January 1, 1855, he sent a letter for publication, warning against immigrant influence in American elections, and he soon joined the Order of the Star Spangled Banner.
Later in 1854, Fillmore took a trip to Europe on the advice of political friends. It seems strange for a party to tell it's Presidential candidate to leave the country just as the election was approaching, but the Know-Nothing brain-trust believed that by being out of the country, Fillmore would avoid involvement in the contentious issues of the day. He spent over a year, from March 1855 to June 1856, in Europe and the Middle East. Queen Victoria is said to have called Fillmore the handsomest man she had ever seen. He was present at the same time as former President Martin Van Buren and the two made an appearance together in the gallery of the House of Commons.
Dorothea Dix, a famed advocate for the improving conditions for the mentally ill, was also in Europe at the time. They met several times and continued a correspondence afterward. In Rome, Fillmore had an audience with Pope Pius IX. He almost decided against the meeting, fearing that this might not play well with his nativist supporters back home, but he went ahead with the meeting, though he made arrangements so that he would not have to kneel and kiss the pope's hand.
Fillmore's supporters held strong influence in the American Party, and they arranged for him to get its presidential nomination while he was in Europe. The Know Nothing convention chose Andrew Jackson Donelson of Kentucky to be Fillmore's running mate. He was the nephew by marriage and onetime ward of President Andrew Jackson. Fillmore's return to the United States later in 1856 attracted much publicity. He spoke at a series of welcomes, which began with his arrival at a huge reception in New York City and continued across the state to Buffalo. These addresses were billed as expressions of thanks for his reception, rather than as campaign speeches, so as not to make it look as if he was office-seeking. With some prescience, Fillmore warned that if the Republican candidate, former California senator John C. Frémont, was elected President without any support in the South, this would divide the Union and lead to civil war. Both Fillmore and the Democratic candidate, former Pennsylvania senator James Buchanan, agreed that slavery was principally a matter for state and not federal government.
Though he was the candidate for a nativist party, Fillmore rarely spoke about the immigration question. He focused on the sectional divide, calling for preservation of the Union. Ironically, Fillmore bore no ill will against Catholics and had once even sent his daughter to a school run by the Catholic Church.
Fillmore's campaign failed to gather momentum. Many influential former Whigs, such as Thurlow Weed and William Seward, joined the Republican Party, and the Know Nothings lacked experience at knowing how to mount a national presidential campaign. Fillmore's pro-Union message went unheard. Although the South was friendly towards Fillmore, many there feared that if they voted for him it would split the vote and give Frémont a victory, which would lead to secession. This also caused some of Fillmore's supporters to join the Buchanan camp, once again so as not to split the anti-Frémont vote Many of the events of 1856, including the conflict in Kansas Territory and the caning of Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate, polarized the nation. There was little interest in Fillmore's call for moderation.
On Election Day, Buchanan was elected President, receiving 1,836,072 votes (45.3%) and 174 electoral votes to Frémont's 1,342,345 votes (33.1%) and 114 electoral votes. Fillmore and Donelson finished third, winning 873,053 votes (21.6%) and carrying the state of Maryland and its 8 electoral votes. The American Party ticket narrowly lost in several southern states, and a change of fewer than 8,000 votes in Louisiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee would have thrown the election to the House of Representatives, where the sectional divide would have made the outcome uncertain. If that had happened, Fillmore may well have been selected as the best option for compromise.
Many historians agree that Fillmore was not a Know Nothing or a nativist at heart. His interest was in preservation of the Union, and the American Party was nothing more than a convenient vehicle for him to try to achieve his goal.