Presidential Highs and Lows: Millard Fillmore
July 4, 1850 was a very hot day in Washington, DC. President Zachary Taylor, who attended Fourth of July ceremonies, refreshed himself, it's said, with cold milk and cherries. What he consumed probably gave him gastroenteritis, and he died on July 9. Although he was 65 years of age (at a time when the average life expectancy for men was somewhere around 44 years), Taylor's death was still a shock to many people. His nickname was "Old Rough and Ready" and he had a reputation for toughness through his military career that included campaigning in the heat during the Mexican War.
Fillmore was presiding over the Senate on July 8, and had sat with members of the cabinet in a vigil outside Taylor's bedroom at the White House. He received the formal notification of the president's death on the evening of July 9 in his residence at the Willard Hotel. After spending a sleepless night, Fillmore went to the House of Representatives, where, at a joint session of Congress, he took the oath as president from William Cranch, chief judge of the federal court for the District of Columbia (coincidentally the same man who had sworn in President John Tyler.) The cabinet submitted their resignations, expecting Fillmore to refuse them. Fillmore had not been respected by many of the cabinet members during Taylor's Presidency and he was now able to turn the tables. He accepted the resignations, though he asked them to stay on for a month. Most refused to do so.
On July 20 Fillmore began to send new nominations to the Senate, by Daniel Webster as Secretary of State. Webster had offended his Massachusetts constituents by supporting Henry Clay's compromise bill. His Senate term was set to expire in 1851, had no electoral future in his home state. Fillmore appointed his old law partner, Nathan Hall, as Postmaster General, a cabinet position that controlled many patronage appointments.
The first crisis Fillmore faced was in the New Mexico Territory where Texas attempted to assert its authority. Texas governor, Peter H. Bell, sent a belligerent letter to Fillmore, who responded by sending additional federal troops to the area. He warned Bell to tow the line, and the Texan governor behaved himself. He sent a special message to Congress on August 6, 1850, disclosing the letter from Governor Bell and his reply, warning that armed Texans would be viewed as intruders.
When Taylor died, Henry Clay had been attempting to pass legislation which would effect a compromise between the north and the south on the issue of slavery. Fillmore (a New Yorker) supported the compromise, but Taylor (with ties to both Kentucky and Louisiana) did not. By July 31, it appeared that Clay's bill did not have enough support to pass. All the significant provisions had been deleted by amendment. Clay's health was failing, so Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas took up the torch, with Clay's agreement. He proposed break the compromise bill into five individual bills that could be passed piecemeal. Fillmore supported this strategy. He urged Congress to defuse sectional tensions by passing the Compromise.
Douglas was the quarterback for the bills in Congress. Each bill passed the Senate with the support of the section that wanted it, plus a few members who were determined to see all the bills passed. The battle then moved to the House, which had a Northern majority because of population. The most contentious issue was the Fugitive Slave Bill, vociferously opposed by abolitionists. Fillmore applied pressure to get Northern Whigs to abstain rather than oppose. Various changes were made to some of the bills, including the setting of a boundary between New Mexico Territory and Texas, with Texas being given a payment to settle any claims. California was admitted as a free state, and the slave trade in the District of Columbia was ended. The final status of slavery in New Mexico and Utah would be settled later.
The bills passed and Fillmore signed all of the bills as they reached his desk, except for the Fugitive Slave Bill. He deferred on signing that one for two days, waiting for a favorable opinion as to its constitutionality from the new Attorney General, John J. Crittenden. Many Northerners were unhappy at the Fugitive Slave Act, but there was also a widespread sense of relief, because many people hoped this would settle the slavery question once and for all. As we all know, this turned out to be a mistaken assumption.
The Fugitive Slave Act continued to be contentious after its enactment. Southerners complained bitterly about how it was not enforced in the north. Enforcement was highly offensive to many Northerners. Abolitionists were incensed by it. Under the law, it was an offense to provide any aid to an escaped slave, and if captured, the enslaved man or woman had no due process and could not testify before a magistrate. There was a built in bias in the law, because magistrates were paid more for deciding that a defendant was a slave than for deciding he or she was not. Nevertheless, many prosecutions or attempts to return slaves ended badly for the government, with acquittals or with the slave taken from federal custody and to freedom by an abolitionist mob. These cases were widely publicized North and South, and inflamed passions in both places, undermining the good feeling that had followed the Compromise.
It is likely in this issue that we find the high and low points of the Fillmore Presidency. Immediately after the passage of the Compromise bills, Fillmore likely enjoyed his highest approval, as many were glad that such a contentious issue had been resolved, and many hoped that the controversial debate over slavery that would split the country was now at an end. But as it became clear that the Fugitive Slave Act only served to enrage both northerners and southerers, for different reasons, Fillmore's popularity plummeted.
By the end of his term, it became clear the Fillmore did not have enough support to win re-election. As an example, when Justice John McKinley died in 1852, Fillmore made a number of repeated but fruitless attempts to fill the vacancy. In a scene much like President Barack Obama's effort to fill the vacancy of Antonin Scalia over 160 years later, the Senate took no action on the nomination of New Orleans attorney Edward A. Bradford. Fillmore's second choice, George Edmund Badger, asked that his name be withdrawn. Senator-elect Judah P. Benjamin declined to serve. The nomination of William C. Micou, a New Orleans lawyer recommended by Benjamin, was not acted on by the Senate. The vacancy was finally filled after Fillmore's term, when President Franklin Pierce nominated John Archibald Campbell, who was confirmed by the Senate.
Fillmore also had difficulties regarding Cuba. Many Southerners hoped to see the island part of the U.S. as slave territory. Cuba was a colony of Spain where slavery was practiced. Venezuelan adventurer Narciso López recruited Americans for three "filibustering" (mercenary) expeditions to Cuba, in the hope of overthrowing Spanish rule there. After the second attempt in 1850, López and some of his followers were indicted for breach of the Neutrality Act, but were quickly acquitted by friendly Southern juries. The final López expedition ended with his execution by the Spanish, who put several Americans before the firing squad, including the nephew of Attorney General Crittenden. This resulted in riots against the Spanish in New Orleans, causing the Spanish Consul there to flee. Fillmore could have gone to war against Spain, but instead, Fillmore (through Secretary of State Daniel) Webster and the Spanish worked out a compromise that settled the crisis without armed conflict. Many Southerners were angry over this, and Fillmore's response helped divide his party as the 1852 election approached.
As the election of 1852 approached, Fillmore remained unclear about whether he would run for a full term as president. He issued a letter in late 1851 stating that he did not seek a full term, but that he was reluctant to rule it out. The national convention of the Whig Party was held in Baltimore in June 1852. The major candidates were Fillmore, Webster and General Winfield Scott. New York Whigs backed Scott. In late May, the Democrats nominated former New Hampshire senator Franklin Pierce, who had been out of national politics for nearly a decade. Pierce's profile had risen as a result of his military service in the Mexican War. The nomination of Pierce, a northerner sympathetic to the southern view on slavery, united the Democrats.
Fillmore was by then unpopular with northern Whigs for signing and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. He had support in the South, where he was seen as the only candidate capable of uniting the party. The convention deadlocked through 46 ballots. On the 48th ballot, delegates began to defect to Scott, who gained the nomination on the 53rd ballot. Scott was easily beaten by Pierce in November.
Fillmore was presiding over the Senate on July 8, and had sat with members of the cabinet in a vigil outside Taylor's bedroom at the White House. He received the formal notification of the president's death on the evening of July 9 in his residence at the Willard Hotel. After spending a sleepless night, Fillmore went to the House of Representatives, where, at a joint session of Congress, he took the oath as president from William Cranch, chief judge of the federal court for the District of Columbia (coincidentally the same man who had sworn in President John Tyler.) The cabinet submitted their resignations, expecting Fillmore to refuse them. Fillmore had not been respected by many of the cabinet members during Taylor's Presidency and he was now able to turn the tables. He accepted the resignations, though he asked them to stay on for a month. Most refused to do so.
On July 20 Fillmore began to send new nominations to the Senate, by Daniel Webster as Secretary of State. Webster had offended his Massachusetts constituents by supporting Henry Clay's compromise bill. His Senate term was set to expire in 1851, had no electoral future in his home state. Fillmore appointed his old law partner, Nathan Hall, as Postmaster General, a cabinet position that controlled many patronage appointments.
The first crisis Fillmore faced was in the New Mexico Territory where Texas attempted to assert its authority. Texas governor, Peter H. Bell, sent a belligerent letter to Fillmore, who responded by sending additional federal troops to the area. He warned Bell to tow the line, and the Texan governor behaved himself. He sent a special message to Congress on August 6, 1850, disclosing the letter from Governor Bell and his reply, warning that armed Texans would be viewed as intruders.
When Taylor died, Henry Clay had been attempting to pass legislation which would effect a compromise between the north and the south on the issue of slavery. Fillmore (a New Yorker) supported the compromise, but Taylor (with ties to both Kentucky and Louisiana) did not. By July 31, it appeared that Clay's bill did not have enough support to pass. All the significant provisions had been deleted by amendment. Clay's health was failing, so Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas took up the torch, with Clay's agreement. He proposed break the compromise bill into five individual bills that could be passed piecemeal. Fillmore supported this strategy. He urged Congress to defuse sectional tensions by passing the Compromise.
Douglas was the quarterback for the bills in Congress. Each bill passed the Senate with the support of the section that wanted it, plus a few members who were determined to see all the bills passed. The battle then moved to the House, which had a Northern majority because of population. The most contentious issue was the Fugitive Slave Bill, vociferously opposed by abolitionists. Fillmore applied pressure to get Northern Whigs to abstain rather than oppose. Various changes were made to some of the bills, including the setting of a boundary between New Mexico Territory and Texas, with Texas being given a payment to settle any claims. California was admitted as a free state, and the slave trade in the District of Columbia was ended. The final status of slavery in New Mexico and Utah would be settled later.
The bills passed and Fillmore signed all of the bills as they reached his desk, except for the Fugitive Slave Bill. He deferred on signing that one for two days, waiting for a favorable opinion as to its constitutionality from the new Attorney General, John J. Crittenden. Many Northerners were unhappy at the Fugitive Slave Act, but there was also a widespread sense of relief, because many people hoped this would settle the slavery question once and for all. As we all know, this turned out to be a mistaken assumption.
The Fugitive Slave Act continued to be contentious after its enactment. Southerners complained bitterly about how it was not enforced in the north. Enforcement was highly offensive to many Northerners. Abolitionists were incensed by it. Under the law, it was an offense to provide any aid to an escaped slave, and if captured, the enslaved man or woman had no due process and could not testify before a magistrate. There was a built in bias in the law, because magistrates were paid more for deciding that a defendant was a slave than for deciding he or she was not. Nevertheless, many prosecutions or attempts to return slaves ended badly for the government, with acquittals or with the slave taken from federal custody and to freedom by an abolitionist mob. These cases were widely publicized North and South, and inflamed passions in both places, undermining the good feeling that had followed the Compromise.
It is likely in this issue that we find the high and low points of the Fillmore Presidency. Immediately after the passage of the Compromise bills, Fillmore likely enjoyed his highest approval, as many were glad that such a contentious issue had been resolved, and many hoped that the controversial debate over slavery that would split the country was now at an end. But as it became clear that the Fugitive Slave Act only served to enrage both northerners and southerers, for different reasons, Fillmore's popularity plummeted.
By the end of his term, it became clear the Fillmore did not have enough support to win re-election. As an example, when Justice John McKinley died in 1852, Fillmore made a number of repeated but fruitless attempts to fill the vacancy. In a scene much like President Barack Obama's effort to fill the vacancy of Antonin Scalia over 160 years later, the Senate took no action on the nomination of New Orleans attorney Edward A. Bradford. Fillmore's second choice, George Edmund Badger, asked that his name be withdrawn. Senator-elect Judah P. Benjamin declined to serve. The nomination of William C. Micou, a New Orleans lawyer recommended by Benjamin, was not acted on by the Senate. The vacancy was finally filled after Fillmore's term, when President Franklin Pierce nominated John Archibald Campbell, who was confirmed by the Senate.
Fillmore also had difficulties regarding Cuba. Many Southerners hoped to see the island part of the U.S. as slave territory. Cuba was a colony of Spain where slavery was practiced. Venezuelan adventurer Narciso López recruited Americans for three "filibustering" (mercenary) expeditions to Cuba, in the hope of overthrowing Spanish rule there. After the second attempt in 1850, López and some of his followers were indicted for breach of the Neutrality Act, but were quickly acquitted by friendly Southern juries. The final López expedition ended with his execution by the Spanish, who put several Americans before the firing squad, including the nephew of Attorney General Crittenden. This resulted in riots against the Spanish in New Orleans, causing the Spanish Consul there to flee. Fillmore could have gone to war against Spain, but instead, Fillmore (through Secretary of State Daniel) Webster and the Spanish worked out a compromise that settled the crisis without armed conflict. Many Southerners were angry over this, and Fillmore's response helped divide his party as the 1852 election approached.
As the election of 1852 approached, Fillmore remained unclear about whether he would run for a full term as president. He issued a letter in late 1851 stating that he did not seek a full term, but that he was reluctant to rule it out. The national convention of the Whig Party was held in Baltimore in June 1852. The major candidates were Fillmore, Webster and General Winfield Scott. New York Whigs backed Scott. In late May, the Democrats nominated former New Hampshire senator Franklin Pierce, who had been out of national politics for nearly a decade. Pierce's profile had risen as a result of his military service in the Mexican War. The nomination of Pierce, a northerner sympathetic to the southern view on slavery, united the Democrats.
Fillmore was by then unpopular with northern Whigs for signing and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. He had support in the South, where he was seen as the only candidate capable of uniting the party. The convention deadlocked through 46 ballots. On the 48th ballot, delegates began to defect to Scott, who gained the nomination on the 53rd ballot. Scott was easily beaten by Pierce in November.