#13 Millard Fillmore: Memorable Name for a Forgotten President. (July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853)

“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.

MF's doppelganger is Alec Baldwin?

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.

Abigail, teacher and big fan of education

  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.

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

platform).  New York had a lot of unusual small parties then, like the Labor party, Native Party, and the beginning of the Republican party.  Millard was elected to the state legislature for a few years. Meanwhile the Anti-Masonic party sort of got folded into the Whig party along with the Republicans and Labor party.

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. 

Fillmore signed these, alienating both extreme anti-slavery and slavery factions in his own party and the nation.   He did not really accomplish much else with his presidency.

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 for many years and the source of much of the mistaken historical criticism of him.

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. 

Its platform was anti-immigrant and anti-catholic.  It actually gained some political power and in 1856 Fillmore accepted their nomination for President, even though he really did not believe in their platform.  In order to avoid having to support their ideas, he did not campaign but left the country for a big trip to Europe- meeting Queen Victoria and, ironically, the Pope.

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.