The Obscure Presidents: Millard Fillmore-Part 1
This month let's look at the Presidents who get the least mention in this community (according to the tags count). Coming in last in tags (and therefore first in this series) is Millard Fillmore, the man I facetiously refer to as the Rodney Dangerfield of Presidents (because he often gets "no respect"). Who was Millard Fillmore and why is he among the least remembered of the presidents?
Fillmore was the first president to be born in the 1800s. In fact he was born at the end of the first week in the 1800s on January 7, 1800, in a log cabin in Moravia, Cayuga County, in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. His parents were Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard. Millard was the second of nine children and the eldest son. Fillmore's ancestors were Scottish Presbyterians on his father's side and English dissenters on his mother's side. When Millard was fourteen, his father apprenticed him to cloth maker Benjamin Hungerford in Sparta, New York. But the cloth-making trade was not for young Millard, who left after four months, although he subsequently took another apprenticeship in the same trade at New Hope, New York.
Fillmore attended New Hope Academy for six months in 1819 and it was there where he fell in love with his future wife Abigail Powers, who was a teacher at the school. She was two years older than him and he was her oldest student. Their courtship lasted seven years and the two were married on February 5, 1826, by the Reverend Orasius H. Smith at the home of the bride's brother Judge Powers in Moravia, New York.
It was later in 1819 that Fillmore began to clerk and study law under Judge Walter Wood of Montville, New York. He later moved to Buffalo, where he continued his legal training at the law office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. Fillmore was admitted to the bar in 1823 and opened his own law practice in East Aurora, New York. In 1825, he built a house there for himself and his bride-to-be. After the wedding, Fillmore continued to practice law, forming a law partnership with his close friend Nathan K. Hall in 1834. The firm was called Fillmore and Hall (later Fillmore, Hall and Haven). Hall would later serve in Fillmore's cabinet as Postmaster General. (The firm still exists, under the name of Hodgson Russ LLP.)
While practicing law, Fillmore was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1828 on the Anti-Masonic ticket. He served three one-year terms from 1829 to 1831 and in his final term he chaired a legislative committee tasked with creating a new bankruptcy law that eliminated debtors' prisons. Fillmore was a supporter and associate of political boss Thurlow Weed, who had been a leading Anti-Mason. When Weed left the Anti-Masons in 1832, Fillmore went with him, and both became members of New York's Whig Party, with Weed becoming the leading Whig organizer in the state.
In 1832, Fillmore was elected U.S. Representative from New York's 32nd congressional district, serving in the 23rd Congress from 1833 to 1835. He was replaced in 1834 by "Anti-Jacksonian" Thomas C. Love, but when Love declined renomination in 1836, Fillmore was elected once again and was re-elected twice, serving from 1837 to 1843, in the 25th, 26th, and 27th Congresses. He declined re-nomination in 1842.
While in Congress, Fillmore took a number of anti-slavery positions. He opposed admitting Texas as a slave territory. He favored internal improvements and a protective tariff, and he supported John Quincy Adams by voting to receive anti-slavery petitions. He he advocated the prohibition by Congress of the slave trade between the states, and he favored the exclusion of slavery from the District of Columbia. In 1841 he ran for Speaker of the House, but finished second in the voting, losing to John White of Kentucky. He served as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1841 to 1843.
After leaving Congress, Fillmore was the Whig Party candidate for Governor of New York in the 1844 election, but lost the election to Democrat Silas Wright. He was the first New York State Comptroller elected by general ballot, holding the office from 1848 to 1849. As Comptroller, he is credited with positive changes to New York's banking system.
When the 1848 Whig National Convention selected General Zachary Taylor for President, this upset factions within the party that were opposed to the expansion of slavery in territories gained in the Mexican–American War. The Whigs sought to balance the ticket with a northerner agreeable to the anti-slavery members of the party, and the convention nominated Fillmore for Vice President. Fillmore came from a free state, he had moderate anti-slavery views, and it was felt that he could help carry the important state of New York. Fillmore was also chosen in part to prevent the nomination of the stronger anti-slavery William H. Seward, and also to prevent Seward from receiving a position in Taylor's cabinet.
The Taylor-Fillmore team won the election, receiving 1,361,393 votes (47.3%) and 163 electoral votes (16 states carried). Lewis Cass and William Orlando Butler, the Democratic candidates, received 1,223,460 votes (42.5%) and 127 electoral votes (15 states carried). The third-party Free Soil candidate in the election was fellow New Yorker and former President Martin Van Buren. His running mate was Charles Francis Adams, Sr. of the famous Massachusetts family. They received 291,501 votes (10.1%) and no electoral votes.
By the second year of Fillmore's term as Vice-President, the nation was in the midst of the "Crisis of 1850", a political struggle concerning whether or not slavery would be permitted in newly acquired territories. Pro-slavery Southerners demanded that all of the new territories should be open to slavery, while anti-slavery Northerners demanded complete exclusion. The recently admitted state of Texas wanted the U.S. to assume the "national debt" of the former Republic of Texas, while California settlers were petitioning for immediate admission as a free state, with no territorial stage. There were also other disputes about slavery including about the slave trade in the District of Columbia, the arrest and return of slaves who escaped to the free states, and about the territorial status of Utah, newly settled by the Mormons.
Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of debate over these issues. President Taylor surprised his fellow Southerners by urging the immediate admission of California and New Mexico as free states. Ironically, it was Fillmore, the Northerner, who supported slavery in at least part of the territory to avoid an open break with the South. He wrote in a letter: "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."
Henry Clay constructed a compromise bill which included provisions desired by both sides. A few days before President Taylor's death, Fillmore suggested to the President that if the vote on Clay's bill was tied, he as President of the Senate would cast his tie-breaking vote in favor.
Everything changed on July 9, 1850 when Taylor died suddenly and unexpectedly, and Fillmore became President. The change in leadership also signaled an abrupt political shift. Many believe that Taylor would have vetoed the Compromise bill, but with Fillmore in the President's chair, history would take a different path.
Tomorrow, Part 2: The Presidency and Post-Presidency of Millard Fillmore.
Fillmore was the first president to be born in the 1800s. In fact he was born at the end of the first week in the 1800s on January 7, 1800, in a log cabin in Moravia, Cayuga County, in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. His parents were Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard. Millard was the second of nine children and the eldest son. Fillmore's ancestors were Scottish Presbyterians on his father's side and English dissenters on his mother's side. When Millard was fourteen, his father apprenticed him to cloth maker Benjamin Hungerford in Sparta, New York. But the cloth-making trade was not for young Millard, who left after four months, although he subsequently took another apprenticeship in the same trade at New Hope, New York.
Fillmore attended New Hope Academy for six months in 1819 and it was there where he fell in love with his future wife Abigail Powers, who was a teacher at the school. She was two years older than him and he was her oldest student. Their courtship lasted seven years and the two were married on February 5, 1826, by the Reverend Orasius H. Smith at the home of the bride's brother Judge Powers in Moravia, New York.
It was later in 1819 that Fillmore began to clerk and study law under Judge Walter Wood of Montville, New York. He later moved to Buffalo, where he continued his legal training at the law office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. Fillmore was admitted to the bar in 1823 and opened his own law practice in East Aurora, New York. In 1825, he built a house there for himself and his bride-to-be. After the wedding, Fillmore continued to practice law, forming a law partnership with his close friend Nathan K. Hall in 1834. The firm was called Fillmore and Hall (later Fillmore, Hall and Haven). Hall would later serve in Fillmore's cabinet as Postmaster General. (The firm still exists, under the name of Hodgson Russ LLP.)
While practicing law, Fillmore was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1828 on the Anti-Masonic ticket. He served three one-year terms from 1829 to 1831 and in his final term he chaired a legislative committee tasked with creating a new bankruptcy law that eliminated debtors' prisons. Fillmore was a supporter and associate of political boss Thurlow Weed, who had been a leading Anti-Mason. When Weed left the Anti-Masons in 1832, Fillmore went with him, and both became members of New York's Whig Party, with Weed becoming the leading Whig organizer in the state.
In 1832, Fillmore was elected U.S. Representative from New York's 32nd congressional district, serving in the 23rd Congress from 1833 to 1835. He was replaced in 1834 by "Anti-Jacksonian" Thomas C. Love, but when Love declined renomination in 1836, Fillmore was elected once again and was re-elected twice, serving from 1837 to 1843, in the 25th, 26th, and 27th Congresses. He declined re-nomination in 1842.
While in Congress, Fillmore took a number of anti-slavery positions. He opposed admitting Texas as a slave territory. He favored internal improvements and a protective tariff, and he supported John Quincy Adams by voting to receive anti-slavery petitions. He he advocated the prohibition by Congress of the slave trade between the states, and he favored the exclusion of slavery from the District of Columbia. In 1841 he ran for Speaker of the House, but finished second in the voting, losing to John White of Kentucky. He served as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1841 to 1843.
After leaving Congress, Fillmore was the Whig Party candidate for Governor of New York in the 1844 election, but lost the election to Democrat Silas Wright. He was the first New York State Comptroller elected by general ballot, holding the office from 1848 to 1849. As Comptroller, he is credited with positive changes to New York's banking system.
When the 1848 Whig National Convention selected General Zachary Taylor for President, this upset factions within the party that were opposed to the expansion of slavery in territories gained in the Mexican–American War. The Whigs sought to balance the ticket with a northerner agreeable to the anti-slavery members of the party, and the convention nominated Fillmore for Vice President. Fillmore came from a free state, he had moderate anti-slavery views, and it was felt that he could help carry the important state of New York. Fillmore was also chosen in part to prevent the nomination of the stronger anti-slavery William H. Seward, and also to prevent Seward from receiving a position in Taylor's cabinet.
The Taylor-Fillmore team won the election, receiving 1,361,393 votes (47.3%) and 163 electoral votes (16 states carried). Lewis Cass and William Orlando Butler, the Democratic candidates, received 1,223,460 votes (42.5%) and 127 electoral votes (15 states carried). The third-party Free Soil candidate in the election was fellow New Yorker and former President Martin Van Buren. His running mate was Charles Francis Adams, Sr. of the famous Massachusetts family. They received 291,501 votes (10.1%) and no electoral votes.
By the second year of Fillmore's term as Vice-President, the nation was in the midst of the "Crisis of 1850", a political struggle concerning whether or not slavery would be permitted in newly acquired territories. Pro-slavery Southerners demanded that all of the new territories should be open to slavery, while anti-slavery Northerners demanded complete exclusion. The recently admitted state of Texas wanted the U.S. to assume the "national debt" of the former Republic of Texas, while California settlers were petitioning for immediate admission as a free state, with no territorial stage. There were also other disputes about slavery including about the slave trade in the District of Columbia, the arrest and return of slaves who escaped to the free states, and about the territorial status of Utah, newly settled by the Mormons.
Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of debate over these issues. President Taylor surprised his fellow Southerners by urging the immediate admission of California and New Mexico as free states. Ironically, it was Fillmore, the Northerner, who supported slavery in at least part of the territory to avoid an open break with the South. He wrote in a letter: "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."
Henry Clay constructed a compromise bill which included provisions desired by both sides. A few days before President Taylor's death, Fillmore suggested to the President that if the vote on Clay's bill was tied, he as President of the Senate would cast his tie-breaking vote in favor.
Everything changed on July 9, 1850 when Taylor died suddenly and unexpectedly, and Fillmore became President. The change in leadership also signaled an abrupt political shift. Many believe that Taylor would have vetoed the Compromise bill, but with Fillmore in the President's chair, history would take a different path.
Tomorrow, Part 2: The Presidency and Post-Presidency of Millard Fillmore.