“Millard Fillmore: Biography of a
President” by Robert Rayback 1959
“To even discuss Millard Fillmore
is to overrate him” said one historian.
Undeserving criticism for a man who went from a dirt-poor farming family
to the presidency. Granted that his
actual term as president showed some poor judgment and indecision, but from
what I can tell he seemed to be a decent fellow with good intentions. Since it was almost impossible to find a
recent book on Fillmore, you will notice that it is a pretty old one- and a
boring one as well. And in the interest
of full disclosure, it was published by the Buffalo Historical Society which
was founded by Fillmore in his hometown.
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| MF's doppelganger is Alec Baldwin? |
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| Or is it Trump? |
Millard Fillmore was born to a
very poor tenant farmer in upstate New York.
He was named Millard for his mother’s maiden name and his family was so
poor they could not afford to give him a middle name. (HAHA) As the oldest
child, he had to work very hard on the farm and did not even get to go to
school until age 10. Even then he only
went a couple of months each year. At
the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a clothing mill and hated it. He would read everything he could get his
hands on and so his father helped him to get a chance to study law with a local
lawyer in Aurora, New York. He constantly read and took adult learning classes
as well, meeting his wife Abigail who was one of his teachers.
He also began teaching some classes. They
became engaged for many years until he passed the bar. Abigail shared his
obsession with books, starting the first White House library. They had a son and daughter, who actually did
a lot of the work as first lady since Abigail was in poor health by that time.
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| Abigail, teacher and big fan of education |
Millard opened a law practice that
seemed to specialize in title and land issues- eventually moving his family and
practice to Buffalo. He did well and became pretty involved in the
community. When he met a newspaper
editor and political party boss named Thurlow Weed, Millard joined the
Anti-Masonic party- a group obsessed with getting Masons out of office (a
totally weird political
Millard Fillmore was elected to US
congress from Buffalo in 1832. The Whig party continued to expand nationwide
with Thurlow Weed’s newspaper and political scheming leading their way.
Fillmore did a solid job as the chairman of the Ways and Means committee-
successfully revising the tariff system.
Fillmore started challenging Weed’s machinations within the Whig party
and this made Weed try to undercut Fillmore for the rest of his life. After four terms. Fillmore was tired of
bucking Weed and went home to Buffalo to work on his law practice and stump for
other Whig candidates. Eventually he was elected comptroller for the state of
New York.
For the presidential election of
1848, the Whig party was in chaos and trying to take the White House back from
the Democrats under James K. Polk. Trying
to find a winning candidate, they selected Zachary Taylor, the victorious
general from the Mexican War and a southern slave owner. To balance the ticket, the Whigs picked
Fillmore as vice president to ensure that they carried the state of New York. While he personally disliked slavery,
Fillmore felt it was protected by the constitution.
After Fillmore was elected vice
president, Weed once again tried to minimize Fillmore’s power and
influence. But all that changed when Zachary
Taylor died after only a year in office. The nation was really struggling with
the issue of slavery in regards to the admission of new states- specifically
California which wanted to come in as free state. Congress created the
Compromise of 1850 which allowed them to come in as a free state but gave the
south a tough new Fugitive Slave Law.
As the Whig party was becoming
more divided on this issue as well, it started splintering and eventually anti-slavery
Whigs started the Republican party.
Fillmore did not really pursue a second term in 1852 and the Whigs were
too disorganized by then to be any sort of threat. He was the last Whig president. Thurlow Weed
continued to be a jerk to Fillmore and then wrote a scathing biography of him,
really the only book about
Fillmore’s wife Abigail died three
weeks after leaving the White House, weakened by exposure to extreme cold when
she attended the inauguration of Franklin Pierce. His daughter died shortly
after. A heartbroken Fillmore moved back
to Buffalo but did not think a former president should have to work for a
living. He went on a big tour of the
south and west US and was unexpectedly popular. Meanwhile another new weird
party arose in New York called the American or “Know Nothing” party.
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| Fillmore's 2nd Wife, Caroline |
In the 1856 election, he finished
third with only 22% of the vote and considered his political career over. He became very involved in local charities
and helped found the University of Buffalo. He remarried to a wealthy widow who
put him on an allowance. During the civil war, he raised money for local troops
and was a staunch Union supporter. He
is buried in Buffalo.
Millard Fillmore committed
political suicide by not only signing the Fugitive Slave Act but strongly
enforcing it as well. He truly believed
that the constitution protected slavery so the federal government should as
well. He also thought it would avoid the
south seceding, something they were already threatening during his
presidency. While this may have
postponed the civil war a while, it galvanized abolitionists and lead to the
formation of the Republican party and ultimately the election of Lincoln.
