[137] Fillmore devoted most of his time to civic activities. After the second attempt in 1850, Lpez and some of his followers were indicted for breach of the Neutrality Act but were quickly acquitted by friendly Southern juries. He continued to be active in the lame duck session of Congress that followed the 1842 elections and returned to Buffalo in April 1843. Upon becoming president in July 1850, Fillmore dismissed Taylor's cabinet and pushed Congress to pass the compromise. "[58] At the time, New York governors served a two-year term, and Fillmore could have had the Whig nomination in 1846 had he wanted it. [152] Meanwhile, the Fillmore administration resolved a controversy with Portugal left over from the Taylor administration;[153] smoothed over a disagreement with Peru over guano islands; and peacefully resolved disputes with Britain, France, and Spain over Cuba. The modern-day states of New Mexico and Arizona, less the. Buffalo was then rapidly expanding, recovering from British conflagration during the War of 1812, and becoming the western terminus of the Erie Canal. [11], His father then placed him in the same trade at a mill in New Hope. Fillmore's East Aurora house was moved off Main Street. Thus, approaching the national convention in Baltimore, to be held in June 1852, the major candidates were Fillmore, Webster, and General Scott. [20], In 1821 Fillmore turned 21, reaching adulthood. He suffered a stroke in February 1874, and died on March 8, 1874, at the age of 74 after suffering a second stroke. With the Whigs able to organize the House for the first time, Fillmore sought the Speakership, but it went to a Clay acolyte, John White of Kentucky. [108] The fact that he was in mourning limited his social activities, and he made ends meet on the income from his investments. [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. [109] He was bereaved again on July 26, 1854, when his only daughter, Mary, died of cholera. [53], The Democrats nominated Senator Silas Wright as their gubernatorial candidate and former Tennessee Governor James K. Polk for president. Southerners were surprised to learn the president, despite being a Southern slaveholder, did not support the introduction of slavery into the new territories, as he believed the institution could not flourish in the arid Southwest. Fillmore is the only president who succeeded by death or resignation not to retain, at least initially, his predecessor's cabinet. Most contentious was the Fugitive Slave Bill, whose provisions were anathema to abolitionists. [138], Fillmore stayed in good health almost to the end of his life. [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. Millard Powers Fillmore. However, his financial worries were removed on February 10, 1858, when he married Caroline McIntosh, a well-to-do widow. He was the last Whig president and also the last president not to be affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties. In the early 1850s, there was considerable hostility toward immigrants, especially Catholics, who had recently arrived in the United States in large numbers, and several nativist organizations, including the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, sprang up in reaction. How many children does Millard Fillmore have? [99] He was particularly active in Asia and the Pacific, especially with regard to Japan, which then still prohibited nearly all foreign contact. The Anti-Masonic presidential candidate, William Wirt, a former attorney general, won only Vermont, and President Jackson easily gained re-election. Seward, however, withdrew before the 1844 Whig National Convention. Millard Fillmore did not have a Vice President. When Weed's replacement vice presidential hopeful, Willis Hall, fell ill, Weed sought to defeat Fillmore's candidacy to force him to run for governor. 1800-1874. Fillmore was also successful as a lawyer. [14] Appreciating his son's talents, Nathaniel followed his wife's advice and persuaded Judge Walter Wood, the Fillmores' landlord and the wealthiest person in the area, to allow Millard to be his law clerk for a trial period. Fillmore had stated that a convention had the right to draft anyone for political service, and Weed got the convention to choose Fillmore, who had broad support, despite his reluctance. Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800, in a log cabin, on a farm in what is now Moravia, Cayuga County, in the Finger Lakes region of New York. The Whigs were initially united by their opposition to Jackson but became a major party by expanding their platform to include support for economic growth through rechartering the Second Bank of the United States and federally-funded internal improvements, including roads, bridges, and canals. Meanwhile, the recent Mexican War had made heroes of two generals, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. Abigail's brother Cyrus taught school in Sempronius from 1801 to 1803 in a double-log house built . [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. Fillmore made public appearances opening railroads and visiting the grave of Senator Clay but met with politicians outside the public eye during the late winter and the spring of 1854. [147] Smith, on the other hand, found Fillmore "a conscientious president" who honored his oath of office by enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act rather than govern based on his personal preferences. They were concerned that American sailors cast away on the Japanese coast were imprisoned as criminals. "[1], Over time Nathaniel became more successful in Sempronius, but during Millard's formative years, the family endured severe poverty. Fillmore's position in opposing slavery only at the state level made him acceptable as a statewide Whig candidate, and Weed saw to it the pressure on Fillmore increased. [87] Fillmore received another letter after he had become president. [91], In August 1850 the social reformer Dorothea Dix wrote to Fillmore to urge support of her proposal in Congress for land grants to finance asylums for the impoverished mentally ill. Fillmore was accused of complicity in Collier's actions, but that was never substantiated. 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. Become a. Meanwhile, he also became engaged to Abigail Powers. [161][162] On February 18, 2010, the United States Mint released the thirteenth coin in the Presidential $1 Coin Program, bearing Fillmore's likeness. A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Upstate New York, Fillmore was elected as the 12th vice president in 1848, and succeeded to the presidency in July 1850 upon the death of Zachary Taylor. Southern proslavery forces in the party mistrusted his compromise policies. [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. There isn't that much written about Fillmore, who was relegated to the dust bin of history by his own political party in 1852 after serving less than three years as President. Thus, Fillmore remained at the comptroller's office in Albany and made no speeches. As the Whig Party broke up after Fillmore's presidency, many in his conservative wing joined the Know Nothings and formed the American Party. Historians agree that "Fainting Frank" did not so much win the election; rather, "Old Fuss and Feathers" bungled the campaign with long, uninspiring speeches. 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. [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. On January 1, 1855, he sent a letter for publication that warned against immigrant influence in American elections, and he soon joined the order. Did Millard Fillmore have any siblings? He found that many of his supporters could not accept Webster and that his action would nominate Scott. Calhoun was dead, Webster was Secretary of State, and Clay was absent since he was recovering from his exertions on behalf of the bill at, Fillmore thus became the first former president to receive electoral votes, a distinction that later also included. Fillmore was apparently out of town at the time and put black drapes in the windows once he returned. Some feared that they might elect another Tyler, or another Harrison. The convention was deadlocked until Saturday, June 19, when a total of 46 ballots had been taken, and the delegates adjourned until Monday. [50], Fillmore hoped to gain the endorsement of the New York delegation to the national convention, but Weed wanted the vice presidency for Seward, with Fillmore as governor. [85] The new department heads were mostly supporters of the Compromise, like Fillmore. Historians consistently rank Fillmore among the worst presidents in American history, largely for his policies regarding slavery. The ongoing sectional conflict had already excited much discussion when on January 21, 1850, President Taylor sent a special message to Congress that urged the admission of California immediately and New Mexico later and for the Supreme Court to settle the boundary dispute whereby the state of Texas claimed much of what is now the state of New Mexico. Fillmore's second choice, George Edmund Badger, asked for his name to be withdrawn. Accordingly, Fillmore's pro-Union stance mostly went unheard. Smith suggested that the Whigs might have done much better with Fillmore. Since March 4 (which was then Inauguration Day) fell on a Sunday, the swearing-in was postponed to the following day. Millard Fillmore had two children, Mary Abigail Fillmore and Millard Power Fillmore. 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. Kossuth wanted the United States to recognize Hungary's independence. [86], By July 31 Clay's bill was effectively dead, as all significant provisions other than the organization of Utah Territory had been removed by amendment. [15] Fillmore earned money teaching school for three months and bought out his mill apprenticeship. He enjoyed one aspect of his office because of his lifelong love of learning: he became deeply involved in the administration of the Smithsonian Institution as a member ex officio of its Board of Regents. Fillmore came to the notice of the influential Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster, who took the new representative under his wing. He reinforced federal troops in the area and warned Bell to keep the peace. [88] Fillmore endorsed that strategy, which eventually divided the compromise into five bills. He died a month later, on April 4, from pneumonia. [1] Fillmore did his best to keep the peace among the senators and reminded them of the vice president's power to rule them out of order, but he was blamed for failing to maintain the peace when a physical confrontation between Mississippi's Henry S. Foote and Missouri's Thomas Hart Benton broke out on April 17. A saddened Fillmore returned to Buffalo for the burial. 8, 1874, Almon Hopkins Fillmore, b. Apr. France, under Emperor Napoleon III, sought to annex Hawaii but backed down after Fillmore issued a strongly-worded message warning that "the United States would not stand for any such action. Southerners complained bitterly about any leniency in its application, but its enforcement was highly offensive to many Northerners. Until 1913 senators were elected by the state legislatures, not by the people. Since he started his formal education at the age of 17 his teacher was only a few years older than him. Despite Fillmore's departure from office, he was a rival for the state party leadership with Seward, the unsuccessful 1834 Whig gubernatorial candidate. He received the formal notification of the president's death, signed by the cabinet, on the evening of July 9 in his residence at the Willard Hotel. Millard Fillmore Early Life and Family: Did Fillmore have any siblings? Nathaniel Fillmore (1771-1863), a farmer, was Millard Fillmore's father. On February 5, 1826, Millard Fillmore, who later becomes the 13th president of the United States, marries Abigail Powers, a New York native and a preacher's daughter. Franklin Pierce was that man. Martin Kelly. The 68-year-old Harrison was inaugurated on March 4, 1841. Before other senators intervened to separate them, Foote pointed a gun at his colleague as Benton advanced on him. All these crises were resolved without the United States going to war or losing face. Parents and Siblings. Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States who served from 1850 to 1853. He did not seek re-election in 1831.[27][29]. "[47], Weed deemed Fillmore "able in debate, wise in council, and inflexible in his political sentiments". [4][5] The historian Tyler Anbinder described Fillmore's childhood as "one of hard work, frequent privation, and virtually no formal schooling. [59] With a united party at his back, Fillmore won by 38,000 votes, the largest margin that a Whig candidate for statewide office would ever achieve in New York. 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. His friend Judge Hall assured him it would be proper for him to practice law in the higher courts of New York, and Fillmore so intended. At the time, Congress convened its annual session in December and so Fillmore had to wait more than a year after his election to take his seat. [10] Fillmore was relegated to menial labor, and unhappy at not learning any skills, he left Hungerford's employ. He actually came within one vote of it while he maneuvered to get the nomination for his supporter, John Young, who was elected. 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. The Whigs nominated him anyway, but he refused the nomination. Fillmore, Weed, and others realized that opposition to Masonry was too narrow a foundation to build a national party. [159] A statue of Fillmore stands outside the Buffalo City Hall. Democrats, led by their presidential candidate, Vice President Martin Van Buren, were victorious nationwide and in Van Buren's home state of New York, but Western New York voted Whig and sent Fillmore back to Washington.[40]. Queen Victoria is said to have pronounced the ex-president as the handsomest man she had ever seen, and his coincidental appearance with Van Buren in the gallery of the House of Commons provoked a comment from the MP John Bright. They continued to correspond and met several times. [1] At the conventions, Fillmore and one of the early political bosses, the newspaper editor Thurlow Weed, met and impressed each other. [89][90], The Fugitive Slave Act remained contentious after its enactment. The trip was at the advice of political friends, who felt that by touring he would avoid involvement in the contentious issues of the day. [41] When the Buffalo bar proposed Fillmore for the position of vice-chancellor of the eighth judicial district in 1839, Seward refused, nominated Frederick Whittlesey, and indicated that if the New York Senate rejected Whittlesey he still would not appoint Fillmore. Mary Abigail Fillmore Abbie was born on March 27, 1832, in Buffalo, New York. Fillmore, sympathetic to the ambitions of his longtime friend, issued a letter in late 1851 stating that he did not seek a full term, but Fillmore was reluctant to rule it out for fear the party would be captured by the Sewardites. Although he retained his position as Buffalo's leading citizen and was among those selected to escort the body when Lincoln's funeral train passed through Buffalo, anger remained towards him for his wartime positions. All pretense at friendship between Fillmore and Weed vanished in November 1849 when they happened to meet in New York City and exchanged accusations. In his 1856 candidacy, he had little to say about immigration, focused instead on the preservation of the Union, and won only Maryland. [86], The brief pause from politics out of national grief at Taylor's death did not abate the crisis. 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. As a young lawyer, Fillmore was approached by a fledgling political party and asked to run for the New York State Assembly. [55] Clay was beaten as well. Fillmore assured his running mate that the electoral prospects for the ticket looked good, especially in the Northeast. Fillmore, unlike Taylor, supported Henry Clay's omnibus bill, which was the basis of the 1850 Compromise. [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. Vice President Tyler was elevated to the presidency; the onetime maverick Democrat soon broke with Clay over congressional proposals for a national bank to stabilize the currency, which he vetoed twice and so was expelled from the Whig Party. He eventually suffered a stroke in 1874, which would soon lead to his death. [e][76], Fillmore had spent the four months between the election and the swearing-in being feted by the New York Whigs and winding up affairs in the comptroller's office. Fillmore applied pressure to get Northern Whigs, including New Yorkers, to abstain, rather than to oppose the bill. [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. Wiki User 2014-02-15 20:01:04 This answer. [31][32], In 1832 Fillmore ran successfully for the U.S. House of Representatives. In December, with Congress convened, Fillmore formally nominated Curtis, who was confirmed. Though he had little formal schooling, he rose from poverty by diligent study to become a lawyer. 1828-1889 . His association with the Know Nothings and his support of Johnson's reconstruction policies further tarnished his reputation and legacy. Party leaders proposed a deal to Fillmore and Webster: if the latter could increase his vote total over the next several ballots, enough Fillmore supporters would go along to put him over the top. The president-elect mistakenly thought that the vice president was a cabinet member, which was not true in the 19th century. [36] Fillmore supported building infrastructure by voting in favor of navigation improvements on the Hudson River and constructing a bridge across the Potomac River. Millard Fillmore was elected the nation's 12th Vice President in 1848 as the running mate of Zachery Taylor. [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. [95], Fillmore appointed one justice to the Supreme Court of the United States and made four appointments to United States district courts, including that of his law partner and cabinet officer, Nathan Hall, to the federal district court in Buffalo. 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. According to his biographer, Scarry, "Fillmore concluded his Congressional career at a point when he had become a powerful figure, an able statesman at the height of his popularity. Fillmore prepared a bill raising tariff rates that was popular in the country, but the continuation of distribution assured Tyler's veto and much political advantage for the Whigs. In the 1848. Seward, however, was hostile to slavery and made it clear in his actions as governor by refusing to return slaves claimed by Southerners. . Weed told out-of-state delegates that the New York party preferred to have Fillmore as its gubernatorial candidate, and after Clay was nominated for president, the second place on the ticket fell to former New Jersey senator Theodore Frelinghuysen. In the immediate aftermath of Harrison's death, there was confusion about whether Tyler. Born in a log cabin in central New York, Fillmore made his way to politics and the Whig Party via school teaching and the law. Fillmore warned that electing the Republican candidate, former California Senator John C. Frmont, who had no support in the South, would divide the Union and lead to civil war. 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. Each bill passed the Senate with the support of the section that wanted it, with a few members who were determined to see all the bills passed. Marriage: 5 February 1826. He had opposed the annexation of Texas, spoke against the subsequent MexicanAmerican War, and saw the war as a contrivance to extend slavery's realm. [139] The U.S. Senate sent three of its members to honor its former president, including Lincoln's first vice president, Maine's Hannibal Hamlin. [116] In Rome, Fillmore had an audience with Pope PiusIX. This page was last edited on 28 April 2023, at 16:38. 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. 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. [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. [106], Fillmore was the first president to return to private life without independent wealth or the possession of a landed estate. [b] Nathaniel became sufficiently regarded that he was chosen to serve in local offices, including justice of the peace. Any assessment of a President who served a century and a half ago must be refracted through a consideration of the interesting times in which he lived. The nomination of William C. Micou, a New Orleans lawyer recommended by Benjamin, was not acted on by the Senate. Nominated in 1852, after the convention deadlocked for 48 ballots, Pierce ran againt the Whig General Winfield Scott, his commander in the Mexican War. The law also permitted a higher payment to the hearing magistrate for deciding the escapee was a slave, rather than a free man. Some urged Fillmore to run for vice president with Clay, the consensus Whig choice for president in 1844. [9] By then much of Fillmore's legal practice was in Buffalo, and later that year he moved there with his family.