Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President

It is the last Sunday of the month which means it is time for another book about a president, and this month’s President, picking up with the untimely death of Zachary Taylor, is Millard Fillmore, making this books book of the week Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President by Robert J Rayback.

Our 13th president was born on January 7, 1800, in Moravia, New York to Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard Fillmore. The family was extremely poor, his father was a tenant farmer, and the farmlands were not great, so the family actually moved several times while Fillmore was a child, looking for better opportunities. Nathaniel realized fairly early on that farming was no way to get rich, and wanting better for his son, Nathaniel placed Millard as an apprentice to a local clothmaker Benjamin Hungerford. Millard hated this work and soon left Hungerford’s employment. So, Nathaniel then placed Millard with a mill in New Hope, still part of the textile industry, but Millard was no happier there. However, the mill in New Hope had close proximity to a library. Millard could read, but not well, and his vocabulary was not well developed, so he took advantage of the proximity of the library to read. A lot. And he basically educated himself, enough so that when the family then moved to Montville, Nathaniel was able to convince a local judge, Walter Wood, to take Fillmore on as an apprentice.

Fillmore trained with Judge Wood for about 18 months, teaching school locally, while reading the law with Judge Wood, eventually leaving his training with Wood partially as a result of the family moving again, and partially due to an argument he had had with Wood over some legal advice Fillmore had offered someone. Wood wanted Fillmore to promise not to do that again, and Fillmore refused. So, the family moved to Buffalo. Fillmore, having reached the age of 21, studied for and passed the bar exam, setting up offices in East Aurora and marrying long time fiancée Abigail Powers in 1826. They had two children, Millard Powers Fillmore and Mary Abigail Fillmore.

Now, Fillmore was a fairly accomplished attorney, and had several successful practices run with friends over the course of several years. When a practice ended, it was never due to bad feelings or mismanagement on the part of the lawyers involved, it was due to one partner moving on to another avenue in life. While practicing law, Fillmore took in many law pupils as clerks and he greatly enjoyed teaching and was quite good at it.

The other thing Fillmore was quite good at was politics. And he found his political tribe quite early with the nascent Whig party, following the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828. However, within the Whig party in New York was Thurlow Weed, who was to become a lifelong nemesis politically speaking, basically doing everything he could to thwart Fillmore, and stab him in the back politically.

I think, politically, Fillmore was more likeable and more trustworthy, and so when the Whigs needed the party in Fillmore’s district to pull together, Fillmore was able to deliver that, based on the strength of his personality and the fact that people trusted him. He was not given to shady dealings, and pretty much believed his word was his bond. Weed, however, was a newspaper man. And much like today, the newspapers cared less about delivering actual news than they did about spin-doctoring to their own benefit. And Weed seriously hated Fillmore, and whenever he could, he would champion his own protégé, William H Seward. And Seward backed Weed’s every move, believing that ultimately, Weed would place him in the White House.

Fillmore, being the apt politician he was, did run for congressional office and served in congress from 1833 to 1835 and then again from 1837 to 1843, serving as the chairman of the house ways and means committee from 1841 to 1843. At this point, he decided to retire from politics and he and his wife returned to Buffalo where he was set to return to law practice. Then in 1848, he was voted comptroller of the State of New York, which he was really good at, and in which position he served until 1849 when he was sworn in as Vice President.

Now, when Zachary Taylor was nominated by the Whigs with Fillmore as his running mate, it was thought that Fillmore’s political experience would support and bolster Taylors military experience. Additionally, by running a ticket with someone from the deep south, as Taylor’s primary residence was Louisiana, and the industrial north, Fillmore being from New York, would act as a bridge over the rising tensions of the slavery question. More and more the south was clamoring for secession whenever the north started talking abolition. And to this end, the ticket was solid. Taylor, being a Jeffersonian in principle, did not seem to think that slavery should spread, and allowing California in as a free state would become one of the sticking points of his administration. Fillmore, having grown up dirt poor himself and never having owned a slave, believed slavery was evil, was fine with allowing CA to enter as a free state, but his overriding ambition was preservation of the Union, and it was thought that his seeking that preservation might temper Taylor’s idiosyncratic belief in freedom in CA, given that Taylor was himself a slave owner.

What happened, if you’ll recall from last months book on Taylor, is that Taylor didn’t want to be bothered with patronage. He was all too happy to delegate the task of who got which posting to his cabinet, who turned not to vice-president and able politician Millard Fillmore for advice, but to Thurlow Weed. And Weed rapidly filled posts with people who were toxic to Fillmore and his goals, effectively shutting out Fillmore, leaving him nothing to do but listen to the Compromise positions that raged across the senate floor on the matter of slavery, new states, and territorial expansion. And Fillmore tried, several times, to meet with the president and explain his positions and what was happening on the senate floor but was pretty much stonewalled by Weed’s handpicked cabinet members. This, incidentally, answers the question of why Fillmore did not retain Taylor’s cabinet on Taylor’s death in July of 1850.

So, the Compromise of 1850. While the process started under Taylor’s administration, Taylor wasn’t really interested in Compromise. He wanted California and New Mexico admitted as free states in the Union, skipping the territory step and going straight to statehood, and ignoring the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which would have required New Mexico coming in as a slave state. Taylor was not excited by the idea of another compromise, but Fillmore, having nothing else to do, watched every single debate in the senate, which essentially constructed the first omnibus bill in constructing the 1850 Compromise, which was introduced by that consummate statesman and longtime senator Henry Clay. The 1850 Compromise admitted California as a free state, organized territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah, and banned the slave trade in the District of Columbia. The South, for its part, would be placated by toughening the Fugitive Slave Act and allowing the residents of Texas and New Mexico to settle their own boundary disputes and decide the question of slavery for themselves.

While not popular with everyone, most of those in Congress and the Senate saw this as a viable way forward and a means to preserve the Union, which had become something of a battle cry among both Whigs and Democrats that had grown increasingly prone to sectionalism… just out of curiosity, does any of this sound at all familiar? Like, maybe a similar shit show is on going today? Like maybe our congress critters should read a damn history book now and then.

Now, while the compromise was not a popular offering, it was getting close enough in the Senate that Fillmore felt bound to advise the president that he, meaning Fillmore, may end up casting the tie breaking vote. And that if called upon to do so, he would vote for the compromise, to which Taylor gave no response, at least none that was recorded. And then, July 4, 1850, happened. And Taylor at the cherries, and drank the cold milk, and stayed too long in the sun, resulting in a fatal case of cholera. And on July 9, 1850, Fillmore was notified that the president had passed, and that Fillmore was now president.

While the nation mourned, Texas tried to redraw the New Mexico boundary lines, and the crises over compromise continued. Fillmore acted decisively and advised Twxas that federal troops would keep the peace and urged congress to pass the compromise. Into this fraught state of affairs, history dropped one Stephen A Douglas. Who suggested breaking up the omnibus bill and passing each section individually. Now, for my part, I’m cool with this. I think omnibus bills are how congress critters hide from the public what they are doing in private. And while failure of the compromise resulted in some truly heinous actions being passed by the Senate, and no doubt contributed to the blackening of Fillmore’s name historically, at least this way, history has a record of the villains, and the compromise bill was broken down in to five separate pieces of legislation. And Fillmore promised he would not veto any bill that was constitutionally passed.

The Senate rapidly passed all five provisions, which were Acceptance of California as a free state, transfer a part of the territory of Texas to the federal government in exchange for taking on Texas’s debts from the war with Mexico, Division of that territory into New Mexico and Utah territories, prohibition of slave trade in DC and the fugitive slave act. The first four passed handily in the House, but the House, being controlled heavily by the north, balked at the Fugitive Slave Act. Fillmore urged them to pass it in the name of preservation of the Union. Ultimately, this too was passed, and the nation rejoiced, believing the Union had been saved, rather than what actually happened, which was to delay civil war for another decade.

And then, Fillmore had to actually enact these laws that had been constitutionally passed. And he did. When marshals approved by southern states tracked down fugitive slaves in Pennsylvania, they sought assistance from local courts to help hold the slaves pending transport. The courts declined and the locals in Pennsylvania helped the fugitives to keep on running. Then southern marshal’s attempted to recapture fugitive’s William and Ellen Croft from Boston, Massachusetts. The Crofts were feted and celebrated as fugitives in Boston and when the marshals’ let it be known that’s what they were there for, Boston immediately rallied and began hiding the Crofts. The south, however, asked Fillmore for troops to enforce the law, the Fugitive Slave Act, which had been constitutionally passed. And Fillmore agreed and promised to send federal troops to enforce the law. Which…I mean ok. Yes, he was, at the time, legally allowed to, and I mean hell…that IS the point of the executive branch. To EXECUTE the law as passed. But damn son…no wonder you are kind of looked down on historically.

But this threat had the desired effect. Boston did not fight. They didn’t give up the Crofts. The Crofts were smuggled aboard an outbound ship and sent to England. But actual violence was avoided. I have a feeling this act is where the belief that the police were founded to round up fugitive slaves got it’s start. The police were not. I learned that reading Officer Tatum’s book. But quite frequently, urban legend has its foundation in a grain of truth. And marshal’s authorized to cross state lines to round up fugitive slaves with the full backing of the federal government fits that bill.

Anyway, having achieved his compromise, piecemeal if not comprehensive, Fillmore didn’t have much to do. The nation was running more or less smoothly, and at first Fillmore did not really want to run for election himself. But ultimately he became convinced that if he did not run, the Whigs would fall apart to sectionalism. So he had his name put forward as a candidate for the Whig’s convention. And so did his secretary of State Daniel Webster. Now, this was not back stabbery. Fillmore had already advised his cabinet that he did not intend to run again, so Webster had made it known he was interested. And after a horrifying 54 polls, General Winfield Scott was chosen as the Whig party candidate against Franklin Pierce for the 1852 presidential election, with Pierce winning.

Fillmore wasn’t sure what he was going to do next. He wasn’t sure if it was practical for him to return to law, having been president. And he floated the first idea of presidential pensions. Not sure why, John Quincy Adams was serving in the House of Representatives at the same time Fillmore was. He could easily have stood for Congress again and likely would have won. But it ultimately ended up not mattering. His wife Abigail fell very ill during Pierce’s inauguration and died about one month after Fillmore left office.

Fillmore was bereft. Adding to that misery, about a year later his daughter Mary died of cholera. Gradually, though, Fillmore decided his political career might not be over yet. The Whig party is essentially dissolved at this point, with the party splitting on sectional lines, with the Fillmore supporters creating the American Party, which came to be known as the Know Nothing Party, and the Republican party, headed by Seward and Weed. And once the Know Nothing party was able to prove their political chops by fielding candidates in the 1854 and 1855 elections, Fillmore put it out that he would be willing to run for president again. And then, while his loyalists laid that groundwork, Fillmore traveled to Europe for a year, and visited with crown heads and heads of state, and was basically feted across Europe. In an odd historical note, both Fillmore and former president Martin van Buren were in England at the same time, and even attended some of the same social events.

And when Fillmore returned, he ran for president in 1856 under his own steam on the Know Nothing Ticket. And during the four years of the Pierce presidency, the provisions of the 1850 compromise had fallen apart, resulting in bleeding Kansas and rising tensions between the new Republican party, which backed the abolitionists, and the Democratic party. Only the extreme violence the Republicans had already advocated for scared the tar out of the centrists who might have voted for moderate Fillmore, resulting in a Democratic win with President James Buchanan.

And with that, Fillmore truly retired from politics. And from the law. The small amount of savings he had had when he left the White House four years previously hadn’t seemed like enough to support himself and his wife. But with her death, it was enough for him. Then in 1858 he married the wealthy widow, Caroline McIntosh. Now, I doubt her wealth had anything to do with it. While I dislike his handling of the compromise and subsequent enforcement of the fugitive slave act, that very enforcement spoke strongly to his character being a man of his word. Marrying for money would have been out of character for him. So, I think the fact she was wealthy was incidental. She was wealthy enough that her estate was able to pay him $10,000 per year, approximately $350k per year in 2022, to manage her wealth, which he was responsible for reporting on to her, and as he had been comptroller of New York, he was meticulous and honest with his bookkeeping.

But managing her wealth required very little of his time and he spent the rest of his life basically as man about town and the town Patron of Buffalo, New York, contributing his time, efforts, and money, to building up an art museum, and various historical and science societies. The only hiccough during this time occurred about three years into the Civil War when he criticized how the war was being handled, which did not go over well with the residents of Buffalo. But once the war was over, he resumed his good graces and lived quietly, until his death on March 8, 1874.

Overall, this one was not too bad. It was well written, and the author had respect for his subject and the topic at hand. But no amount of respect can pretty up someone who goes against his own conscience for the “greater good.” Fillmore disliked slavery. He knew in his heart and soul that it was evil. Yet he was willing to sacrifice fugitive slaves on the false alter of national unity. Because of “the greater good.” I think he was probably a peaceful man who disliked conflict, and so compromised his morals…for the greater good. Maybe if he had read a little more history and a little less law, he’d have known that five for five, our first presidents disliked slavery, even though four of those five were slaveowners themselves. Those four were also sons of Virginia, so maybe if he had pushed their history of preferred liberty to all, things might have gone differently.

But as the saying goes, although probably not meant like this….he preferred peaceful slavery to dangerous liberty. And I have to place him near the bottom of my personal ranking, I’m putting him at 12 for now, just above Jackson but below William Henry Harrison. Harrison’s Indian policies were shit, but they were arguably not his, having been following direction by superior officers and congress. Fillmore’s enacting and enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act was entirely his own prerogative…for the greater good.

This book was originally reviewed on YouTube on April 24, 2022, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean.