He was the last Whig president and also the last president not to be affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties. [12] In 1819 he took advantage of idle time at the mill to enroll at a new academy in the town, where he met a classmate, Abigail Powers, and fell in love with her. Without the presence of the Great Triumvirate of John C. Calhoun, Webster, and Clay, who had long dominated the Senate,[i] Douglas and others were able to lead the Senate towards the administration-backed package of bills. Though her proposal did not pass, they became friends, met in person, and continued to correspond well after Fillmore's presidency. A similar plan was adopted by Congress in 1864. Millard Fillmore, author, Frank H. Severance, editor, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Navy expeditions to open trade in Japan, Tour of Millard Fillmore House Museum, East Aurora, New York, August 19, 1995, United States presidential nominating convention, federal court for the District of Columbia, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ranked by historians and political scientists, List of vice presidents of the United States, List of presidents of the United States by previous experience, Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps, "Millard Fillmore: Life Before the Presidency", "Biographical Dictionary of the Federal Judiciary", "Supreme Court Nominations, 1789Present", "Millard Fillmore was deservedly forgotten, but his politics sound familiar", "No Joke: Buffalo and Moravia Duke It Out Over Millard Fillmore", "Millard Fillmore's achievements should be celebrated, not vilified", "Millard Fillmore Academic Center (MFAC)", "Millard Fillmore Presidential $1 Coin 13th President, 18501853", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Presentation on Millard Fillmore by Paul Finkelman, June 23, 2011, Biography by Appleton's and Stanley L. Klos, Finding Aid to Millard Fillmore Letters, 18291859, Millard and Abigail Fillmore House Museum, East Aurora, NY, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Millard_Fillmore&oldid=1152168452. Fillmore actually agreed with many of Clay's positions but did not back him for president and was not in Philadelphia. California was admitted as a free state, the District of Columbia's slave trade was ended, and the final status of slavery in New Mexico and Utah would be settled later. Fillmore remained involved in civic interests in retirement, including as chancellor of the University of Buffalo, which he had helped found in 1846. Fillmore was born into poverty in the Finger Lakes area of New York, and his parents were tenant farmers during his formative years. [69] Taylor and Fillmore corresponded twice in September, with Taylor happy that the crisis over the South Carolinians was resolved. Become a. [97], Justice John McKinley's death in 1852 led to repeated fruitless attempts by the president to fill the vacancy. Millard Fillmore did not have a Vice President. Millard Powers Fillmore. [41], The rivalry between Fillmore and Seward was affected by the growing anti-slavery movement. Cuba was a Spanish slave colony. He was already in discussions with Whig leaders and, on July 20, began to send new nominations to the Senate, with the Fillmore Cabinet to be led by Webster as Secretary of State. Abolitionists recited the inequities of the law since anyone aiding an escaped slave was punished severely, and it granted no due process to the escapee, who could not testify before a magistrate. They continued operations after the war, and Fillmore remained active with them almost until his death. Franklin Pierce was that man. Children of Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard Fillmore, Olive Armstrong Fillmore, b. Dec. 16, 1797, Millard Fillmore, b. Jan. 7, 1800, d. Mar. [68] There was a crisis among the Whigs when Taylor also accepted the presidential nomination of a group of dissident South Carolina Democrats. Southerners complained bitterly about any leniency in its application, but its enforcement was highly offensive to many Northerners. The Senate took no action on the nomination of the New Orleans attorney Edward A. Bradford. Van Buren's sub-treasury and other economic proposals passed, but as hard times continued, the Whigs saw an increased vote in the 1837 elections and captured the New York Assembly, which set up a fight for the 1838 gubernatorial nomination. Fillmore was angered when President Polk vetoed a river and harbors bill that would have benefited Buffalo,[57] and he wrote, "May God save the country for it is evident the people will not. [8] Hoping that his oldest son would learn a trade, he convinced Millard, who was 14, not to enlist for the War of 1812[9] and apprenticed him to clothmaker Benjamin Hungerford in Sparta. [96] When Supreme Court Justice Levi Woodbury died in September 1851 with the Senate not in session, Fillmore made a recess appointment of Benjamin Robbins Curtis to the Court. [122], Buchanan won with 1,836,072 votes (45.3%) and 174 electoral votes to Frmont's 1,342,345 votes (33.1%) and 114 electoral votes. Fillmore did not attend the convention but was gratified when it nominated General William Henry Harrison for president, with former Virginia Senator John Tyler his running mate. [83], Fillmore had been called from his chair 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. The Lincoln administration saw the speech as an attack on it that could not be tolerated in an election year, and Fillmore was criticized in many newspapers and was called a Copperhead and even a traitor. They formed the broad-based Whig Party from National Republicans, Anti-Masons, and disaffected Democrats. Millard Fillmore Early Life and Family: Did Fillmore have any siblings? [87] Fillmore received another letter after he had become president. What he consumed likely gave him gastroenteritis, and he died on July 9. Millard Fillmore lived a long life after leaving office in 1852. [44], At the urging of Clay, Harrison quickly called a special session of Congress. He reinforced federal troops in the area and warned Bell to keep the peace. [1] Fillmore's 1828 election contrasted the victories of the Jacksonian Democrats (soon the Democrats), who swept the general into the White House and their party to a majority in Albany and so Fillmore was in the minority in the Assembly. He eloquently described the grief of the Clay supporters, frustrated again in their battle to make Clay president. [92], In September 1850 Fillmore appointed the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader Brigham Young as the first governor of Utah Territory. [4][5] The historian Tyler Anbinder described Fillmore's childhood as "one of hard work, frequent privation, and virtually no formal schooling. He had three sisters and five brothers. [138], Fillmore stayed in good health almost to the end of his life. Marriage: 5 February 1826. Yes, he was the second oldest of nine children. The battle then moved to the House, which had a Northern majority because of the population. A new constitution for New York State provided the office of comptroller to be made elective, as were the attorney general and some other positions that were formerly chosen by the state legislature. 1800-1874. [31][32], In 1832 Fillmore ran successfully for the U.S. House of Representatives. Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800-March 8, 1874) served as America's 13th president from July 1850 to March 1853 having taken over after the death of his predecessor, Zachary Taylor. [15] Fillmore earned money teaching school for three months and bought out his mill apprenticeship. Fearing that Taylor would be a party apostate like Tyler, Weed in late August scheduled a rally in Albany aimed at electing an uncommitted slate of presidential electors. Birthday: November 24, 1784 ( Sagittarius) Born In: Barboursville, Virginia, United States 71 30 Presidents #44 Leaders #124 Quick Facts Died At Age: 65 Family: Spouse/Ex-: Margaret Smith father: Richard Taylor mother: Sarah Dabney (Strother) Taylor siblings: Joseph Pannell Taylor Fillmore supported the leading Whig vice-presidential candidate from 1836, Francis Granger, but Weed preferred Seward. Although Fillmore worked to gain support among German-Americans, a major constituency, he was hurt among immigrants by the fact that in New York City, Whigs had supported a nativist candidate in the mayoral election earlier in 1844, and Fillmore and his party were tarred with that brush. When President Millard Fillmore was born on 7 January 1800, in Locke, Cayuga, New York, United States, his father, Nathaniel Fillmore Jr., was 28 and his mother, Phoebe Millard, was 18. . Fillmore, Weed, and others realized that opposition to Masonry was too narrow a foundation to build a national party. Millard Fillmore has 1 child. Fillmore had been marginalized by the cabinet members, and he accepted the resignations though he asked them to stay on for a month, which most refused to do. He was a rival for the state party leadership with the editor Thurlow Weed and his protg, William H. Seward. My 7 year old has to answer questions about Millard Fillmore, and one question is about his favorite food.Rick, owner of Fillmore's Restaurant in NY was contacted.According to him his. He persuaded Fillmore to support an uncommitted ticket but did not tell the Buffalonian of his hopes for Seward. His biographer, Paul Finkelman, suggested that after being under others' thumbs all his life, Fillmore enjoyed the independence of his East Aurora practice. According to Rayback, "by mid-1849, Fillmore's situation had become desperate. Fillmore was also successful as a lawyer. [21] He moved to Buffalo the following year and continued his study of law, first while he taught school and then in the law office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. How many children does Millard Fillmore have? [55] Clay was beaten as well. Fillmore came to the notice of the influential Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster, who took the new representative under his wing. 1798-1853. Fillmore initially belonged to the Anti-Masonic Party, but became a member of the Whig Party as formed in the mid-1830s. Abigail's brother Cyrus taught school in Sempronius from 1801 to 1803 in a double-log house built . Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States who served from 1850 to 1853. [81] On January 29, Clay introduced his "Omnibus Bill",[h] which would give victories to both North and South by admitting California as a free state, organizing territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah, and banning the slave trade in the District of Columbia. He became prominent in the Buffalo area as an attorney and politician, and he was elected to the New York Assembly in 1828 and to the House of Representatives in 1832. Despite Fillmore's departure from office, he was a rival for the state party leadership with Seward, the unsuccessful 1834 Whig gubernatorial candidate. She began work as a schoolteacher at the age of 16, where she took on Millard Fillmore, who was two years her junior, as a student. [69][70], Northerners assumed that Fillmore, hailing from a free state, was an opponent of the spread of slavery. Perry and his ships reached Japan in July 1853, four months after the end of Fillmore's term. Through the legislative process, various changes were made, including the setting of a boundary between New Mexico Territory and Texas, the state being given a payment to settle any claims. He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in 1852 but gained the endorsement of the nativist Know Nothing Party four years later and finished third in the 1856 presidential election. At the time, the presidential candidate did not automatically pick his running mate, and despite the efforts of Taylor's managers to get the nomination for their choice, Abbott Lawrence of Massachusetts, Fillmore became the Whig nominee for vice president on the second ballot. [j] 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. The president-elect mistakenly thought that the vice president was a cabinet member, which was not true in the 19th century. The 68-year-old Harrison was inaugurated on March 4, 1841. Delegates hung on his every word as he described himself as a Clay partisan; he had voted for Clay on each ballot. [66][67], It was customary in the mid-19th century for a candidate for high office not to appear to seek it. All pretense at friendship between Fillmore and Weed vanished in November 1849 when they happened to meet in New York City and exchanged accusations. The DAR placed this plaque on the house in 1931. He fulfilled his "big brother" role with dedication, and was a great help to his parents and siblings throughout his life. Thus Fillmore not only achieved his legislative goal but also managed to isolate Tyler politically. Fillmore was a delegate to the New York convention that endorsed President John Quincy Adams for re-election and also served at two Anti-Masonic conventions in the summer of 1828. "[150] Smith argued that Fillmore's association with the Know Nothings looks far worse in retrospect than at the time and that the former president was not motivated by nativism in his candidacy,[151] contradicted by the letter Fillmore provided for publication that stoked fear about immigrant influence in elections. She helped him in is studies and they eventually married. Fillmore was accused of complicity in Collier's actions, but that was never substantiated. Fillmore is the only president who succeeded by death or resignation not to retain, at least initially, his predecessor's cabinet. [106], Fillmore was the first president to return to private life without independent wealth or the possession of a landed estate. During the American Civil War, Fillmore denounced secession and agreed that the Union must be maintained by force if necessary, but was critical of Abraham Lincoln's war policies. Van Buren proposed to place funds in sub-treasuries, government depositories that would not lend money. Fillmore prepared a second bill, now omitting distribution. It was common at that time to use the mother's maiden name. [15] Wood agreed to employ young Fillmore and to supervise him as he read law. Hall later became Fillmore's partner in Buffalo and his postmaster general during Fillmore's presidency. Weed was an influential editor with whom Fillmore tended to co-operate for the greater good of the Whig Party. Taylor's uncertain political views gave others pause: his career in the Army had prevented him from ever casting a ballot for president though he stated that he was a Whig supporter. He took his lifelong friend Nathan K. Hall as a law clerk in East Aurora. Smith suggested that the Whigs might have done much better with Fillmore. The 1848 campaign was conducted in the newspapers and with addresses made by surrogates at rallies. Some urged Fillmore to run for vice president with Clay, the consensus Whig choice for president in 1844. [37], Anti-Masonry was still strong in Western New York though it was petering out nationally. Until 1913 senators were elected by the state legislatures, not by the people. [141] Fillmore's handling of major political issues, such as slavery, has led many historians to describe him as weak and inept. Fillmore's East Aurora house was moved off Main Street. [52], Putting a good face on his defeat, Fillmore met and publicly appeared with Frelinghuysen and quietly spurned Weed's offer to get him nominated as governor at the state convention. Webster died in October 1852, but during his final illness, Fillmore effectively acted as his own Secretary of State without incident, and Everett stepped competently into Webster's shoes. The Fugitive Slave Act, expediting the return of escaped slaves to those who claimed ownership, was a controversial part of the compromise. [102], A much-publicized event of the Fillmore presidency was the late 1851 arrival of Lajos Kossuth, the exiled leader of a failed Hungarian revolution against Austria. [100] Fillmore and Webster dispatched Commodore Matthew C. Perry on the Perry Expedition to open Japan to relations with the outside world. [140], Fillmore is ranked by historians and political scientists as one of the worst presidents of the United States. Throughout his career, Fillmore declared slavery an evil but that it was beyond the powers of the federal government. [3], Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard moved from Vermont in 1799 and sought better opportunities than were available on Nathaniel's stony farm, but the title to their Cayuga County land proved defective, and the Fillmore family moved to nearby Sempronius, where they leased land as tenant farmers, and Nathaniel occasionally taught school. [21] He taught school in East Aurora and accepted a few cases in justice of the peace courts, which did not require the practitioner to be a licensed attorney. 13, 1806, d. Jan. 17, 1830, Darius Ingraham Fillmore, b. Nov. 16, 1814, d. Mar. Seward, however, was hostile to slavery and made it clear in his actions as governor by refusing to return slaves claimed by Southerners. All these crises were resolved without the United States going to war or losing face. "[142] He ascribed much of the abuse to a tendency to denigrate the presidents who served in the years just prior to the Civil War as lacking in leadership. Nathaniel Fillmore (1771-1863), a farmer, was Millard Fillmore's father. Fillmore felt duty-bound to enforce it, though it damaged his popularity and also the Whig Party, which was torn between its Northern and Southern factions. Thus, approaching the national convention in Baltimore, to be held in June 1852, the major candidates were Fillmore, Webster, and General Scott. Fillmore's place in history has also suffered because "even those who give him high marks for his support of the compromise have done so almost grudgingly, probably because of his Know-Nothing candidacy in 1856. [64], Weed had wanted the vice-presidential nomination for Seward, who attracted few delegate votes, and Collier had acted to frustrate them in more ways than one, since with the New Yorker Fillmore as vice president, under the political customs of the time, no one from that state could be named to the Cabinet. [127] There, the Fillmores devoted themselves to entertaining and philanthropy. He was buried in Buffalo. This page was last edited on 28 April 2023, at 16:38. BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) One of the oldest hospitals in western New York has shut down. That greatly increased Weed's influence in New York politics and diminished Fillmore's. [158] There are a number of remembrances of Fillmore; his East Aurora house still stands, and sites honor him at his birthplace and boyhood home, where a replica log cabin was dedicated in 1963 by the Millard Fillmore Memorial Association. [27] Fillmore was the leading citizen in East Aurora, having successfully sought election to the New York State Assembly, and served in Albany for three one-year terms (1829 to 1831). Collier warned of a fatal breach in the party and said that only one thing could prevent it: the nomination of Fillmore for vice president, whom he depicted incorrectly as a strong Clay supporter. . They continued to correspond and met several times. [d] Minor party candidates took no electoral votes,[74] but the strength of the burgeoning anti-slavery movement was shown by the vote for Van Buren, who won no states but earned 291,501 votes (10.1%) and finished second in New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts. [114], Benson Lee Grayson suggested that the Fillmore administration's ability to avoid potential problems is too often overlooked. [2], Nathaniel Fillmore was the son of Nathaniel Fillmore Sr. (17391814), a native of Franklin, Connecticut, who became one of the earliest settlers of Bennington, Vermont, when it was founded in the territory that was then called the New Hampshire Grants. [137] Fillmore devoted most of his time to civic activities. [117][118], Fillmore's allies were in full control of the American Party and arranged for him to get its presidential nomination while he was in Europe. [16] He left Wood after eighteen months; the judge had paid him almost nothing, and both quarreled after Fillmore had, unaided, earned a small sum by advising a farmer in a minor lawsuit. [10] Fillmore was relegated to menial labor, and unhappy at not learning any skills, he left Hungerford's employ. While he was in office, the Compromise of 1850 was passed, staving off the Civil War for 11 more years. The comptroller regulated the banks, and Fillmore stabilized the currency by requiring that state-chartered banks keep New York and federal bonds to the value of the banknotes they issued. [46], Fillmore received praise for the tariff, but in July 1842 he announced he would not seek re-election. He actually came within one vote of it while he maneuvered to get the nomination for his supporter, John Young, who was elected. Fillmore was apparently out of town at the time and put black drapes in the windows once he returned. [71] Fillmore responded to one Alabamian in a widely published letter that slavery was an evil, but the federal government had no authority over it. "[76] Despite his lack of influence, office-seekers pestered him, as did those with a house to lease or sell since there was no official vice-presidential residence at the time. He initially supported General Winfield Scott but really wanted to defeat Kentucky Senator Henry Clay, a slaveholder who he felt could not carry New York State. [19][22] Later in life, Fillmore said he had initially lacked the self-confidence to practice in the larger city of Buffalo. [111], Such a comeback could not be under the auspices of the Whig Party, with its remnants divided by the KansasNebraska legislation, which passed with the support of Pierce. Nevertheless, Fillmore believed himself bound by his oath as president and by the bargain that had been made in the Compromise to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. A capable administrator and devoted public servant, Fillmore has largely been remembered for his ambivalent stance on slavery and his failure to prevent growing sectional conflict from erupting. Despite his promise, Kossuth made a speech promoting his cause. The Whigs were not cohesive enough to survive the slavery imbroglio, while parties like the Anti-Masonics and Know-Nothings were too extremist. [155] Fred I. Greenstein and Dale Anderson praised Fillmore for his resoluteness in his early months in office and noted that Fillmore "is typically described as stolid, bland, and conventional, but such terms underestimate the forcefulness evinced by his handling of the Texas-New Mexico border crisis, his decision to replace Taylor's entire cabinet, and his effectiveness in advancing the Compromise of 1850. Some feared that they might elect another Tyler, or another Harrison. [141] According to biographer Scarry: "No president of the United States has suffered as much ridicule as Millard Fillmore. [98], Fillmore oversaw two highly-competent Secretaries of State, Daniel Webster, and after the New Englander's 1852 death, Edward Everett. In 1857 Justice Curtis dissented from the Court's decision in the slavery case of Dred Scott v. Sandford and resigned as a matter of principle. Fillmore took the oath from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney and, in turn, swore in the senators beginning their terms, including Seward, who had been elected by the New York legislature in February. Abigail Fillmore was the wife of Millard Fillmore and the first of the First Ladies to hold a job after marriage. [21] In 1823 he was admitted to the bar, declined offers from Buffalo law firms, and returned to East Aurora to establish a practice as the town's only resident lawyer. [110], The former president ended his seclusion in early 1854, as a debate over Senator Douglas's KansasNebraska Bill embroiled the nation. His siblings were Olive, Cyrus, Almon, Calvin, Julia, Darius, Charles, and Phoebe. South Carolina did not yet use the popular vote for choosing electors, with the legislature electing them instead. The convention was deadlocked until Saturday, June 19, when a total of 46 ballots had been taken, and the delegates adjourned until Monday. Fillmore intended to lecture Congress on the slavery question in his final annual message in December but was talked out of it by his cabinet, and he contented himself with pointing out the prosperity of the nation and expressing gratitude for the opportunity to serve it. The American enthusiasm for Kossuth petered out, and he departed for Europe. Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 - March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853, the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. Kossuth wanted the United States to recognize Hungary's independence. [149] However, according to Smith, the enforcement of the Act has given Fillmore an undeserved pro-southern reputation. Abbie was highly-educated and musically talented. Although Fillmore urged Congress to authorize a transcontinental railroad, it did not do so until a decade later. In exchange for support, Seward and Weed were allowed to designate who was to fill federal jobs in New York, and Fillmore was given far less influence than had been agreed. [124], The historian Allan Nevins wrote that Fillmore was not a Know Nothing or a nativist, offering as support that Fillmore was out of the country when the nomination came and had not been consulted about running. Horace Greeley wrote privately that "my own first choice has long been Millard Fillmore," and others thought Fillmore should try to win back the governor's mansion for the Whigs. Once the convention passed a party platform endorsing the Compromise as a final settlement of the slavery question, Fillmore was willing to withdraw. Upon becoming president in July 1850, Fillmore dismissed Taylor's cabinet and pushed Congress to pass the compromise. The addresses were portrayed as expressions of thanks for his reception, rather than as campaign speeches, which might be considered illicit office-seeking if they were made by a presidential hopeful. Fillmore was instrumental in the passing of the Compromise of 1850, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over the expansion of slavery.
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