Millard Fillmore: The American Presidents Series: The 13th President, 1850-1853

The stigma of the number thirteen runs deep in certain parts of the Western psyche. Those who suspect a modicum of truth in this numerical superstitious myth may find reinforcement in the fact that the thirteenth president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, remains a largely forgotten and mostly reviled historical figure. Many remember this now obscure president only for his unusual first name with its subtle suggestions of waterfowl. At least one recent medium has exploited this extremely tempting pun, the conservative comic strip "Mallard Fillmore," which first appeared in the early-mid 1990s. Featuring an anthropomorphic duck reporter, it may have actually done more to preserve the real Fillmore's name today than any other source. Yet few consider Fillmore the "absolutely worst" president in history. That distinction usually goes to the fifteenth president, James Buchanan. So perhaps the number thirteen doesn't deserve its mystical reputation after all? In another paradox of human nature, the fact that Fillmore doesn't sit at the extreme bottom of presidential rankings also contributes to his neglected status. People tend to remember the very best and the very worst. Being the very worst at something carries its own bizarre distinction. Those in between, especially those towards the bottom, often become the historical equivalent of "fly-over states." Fillmore didn't even succeed at being the worst, though some believe that he deserves an even lower presidential ranking than he currently holds. That includes the author of the thirteenth volume of "The American Presidents" series.In a 2014 segment, still viewable on YouTube, CBS Sunday Morning sent a reporter to Buffalo, New York to inquire about the local status of Millard Fillmore. After making fun of his name, of course, and dancing around some of the ominous issues that still loom over his presidency, the reporter flashes a hardcover copy of the Fillmore installment of "The American Presidents" series at its author, Paul Finkelman, and asks him, almost accusingly, "You wrote a book on Millard Fillmore. Why?" Finkelman gives what seems like a very upfront and honest answer: "Lincoln was taken, Jefferson was taken, Fillmore was available." Then the reporter asks a second question: "where would you like to see Fillmore ranked among presidents?" Finkelman delivers another unapologetic and transparent answer: "he's now 7th or 8th from the bottom, and I hope my book puts him back where he belongs in the bottom 5." This gives a decent preview of the kind of portrait that the book paints of the thirteenth American president. It does credit Fillmore where he deserves credit, but it also brutally condemns him for some of his most irresponsible actions. One could probably categorize this book under the heading "things that Americans would rather forget about their country's history," but it contains events that no one should ever forget, especially today as political polarization becomes more volatile and those bleak words "civil war" begin to creep into public discourse with a frequency no one probably thought possible some 150 years after the real thing. Lets hope that more Fillmores don't push things to that extreme again. One was too much.Throughout, the book uses unflattering words to describe Fillmore, such as "unsophisticated," "socially awkward," "insecure" and "parvenu." Sometimes this seems like an unfair exaggeration. The man did become president, after all. Still, he did come from a very poor background in New York state, where he would not have had access to the upper classes. His family didn't even own land, which put them close to the bottom of the social hierarchy. The name "Millard" originated from a regional tradition where the son took his mother's maiden name as a first name. Born in 1800 into this condition, the young Millard apprenticed in a textile mill and, seeking self-education, he enrolled in a local school where he met his future wife, the teacher Abigail Powers. Apparently inspired by his learning abilities, his father persuaded a local lawyer to apprentice Millard in law. Though this gave him valuable experience, he had to buy his way out of the textile mill apprenticeship and he eventually fell out with the lawyer, which landed him back on the rented family farm. At 21 he moved to Buffalo and worked as a law clerk. Passing the bar at 23 allowed him to move to East Aurora where, probably not coincidentally, he was the only lawyer in town. Personal and financial success followed and he married Abigail in 1826. At this point the book makes a comparison between the similar backgrounds of Fillmore and Abraham Lincoln. Though their lives did have some similarities, the comparison doesn't reveal much and obviously Fillmore doesn't measure up whatsoever to Lincoln. Few can. The ultimate point of the exercise feels a little nebulous.Politics entered Fillmore's life at this time and he leaned towards the Anti-Mason camp, which evolved into Whig loyalty as that new party formed. He showed little to no sympathies for slaves, runaway slaves, freed slaves, immigrants or Catholics. He apparently saw "conspiracies from outside" from these same groups, and he also suspected an abolitionist plot. In the New York Assembly, he supported the pro-business Anti-Mason agenda. Rising in stature, he moved back to Buffalo in 1830 and became a prominent lawyer, eventually becoming a Whig protegé to Daniel Webster. New York sent him to Congress in 1832, then again in 1838 and 1840, when he even served as chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Rising higher, he sought, but didn't attain, the Whig Vice Presidential nomination in 1844, when Henry Clay lost to James Polk. How Fillmore had become a viable candidate for such a high office at this stage in his career the book calls "a mystery." That same year he also lost the New York's governor's race. Between 1844 and 1848 Fillmore practiced law, served as Chancellor of the University of Buffalo and watched the events of the Mexican War unfold from the sidelines. Here the book diverts from Fillmore and covers the Polk administration in great detail. Fillmore did not support what some called "Polk's war." He then became state comptroller in 1847 just before the election of 1848 would thrust him into the national spotlight and, unknown to anyone at the time, the presidency.The Whig party aimed high for the 1848 election and many thought that Zachary Taylor, a slave owner and southerner, required an appropriate northerner to balance the ticket. Four viable Vice Presidential candidates remained when balloting began, but one, Thomas Ewing, got duped by a rival who withdrew his name and the others proved too contentious, so the relatively unknown Fillmore won the nomination on only two ballots. Nobody apparently felt John Tyler's political ghost lurking. One would think that the Whigs had already learned a valuable lesson in choosing a Vice President from the then not too distant events of 1841. Many assumed that Fillmore opposed slavery. That oversight would rear its ugly head faster than anyone could imagine. They couldn't know in 1848 that the man they had nominated for the mostly ceremonial position of Vice President would ultimately destroy their party and bring the country closer to civil war. Taylor and Fillmore won the election, but, in retrospect, one could arguably call that 1848 Whig victory Pyrrhic.Ill-fated Zachary Taylor, the twelfth president, had little time to accomplish much, especially with Congress hopelessly deadlocked on slavery debates. Henry Clay, attempting to repeat his 1820 performance, drafted eight bills that would evolve into The Compromise of 1850. Presented in January of 1850, debates raged violently until the July 4th holiday. A Senator even brandished a pistol, but stopped short of firing shots. Fillmore told Taylor that he would vote for the bills, but Taylor seemed intent on vetoing them, especially the controversial new Fugitive Slave Act. Taylor and Fillmore always seemed diametrically opposed on many issues, but Fillmore had no qualms about voting for a bill that his party's president wanted to veto. Even the Whigs in congress, especially Clay, opposed Taylor. Little of that mattered a week after the July 4th holiday when President Taylor suddenly passed away, a victim of an infection and likely also the questionable medical treatments of his time. On July 10th, Fillmore took the oath of office, administered by the last surviving Federalist office holder. Maybe because he felt excluded by Taylor, or perhaps for other reasons, he shocked everyone by firing the entire cabinet on his first day in office. This left very little time to deliberate and vet new cabinet members, but Fillmore had refilled most of the positions by the end of July, mostly with pro-slavery men. Daniel Webster, his old mentor, became Secretary of State, but he was now anathema in the North for openly supporting Clay's compromise bills. It proved a very shaky beginning for the second "accidental" presidency.Right away, the Texas governor threatened military action against land claims in New Mexico. Fillmore, with zero military experience, caved in completely. The book summarizes the stunning absurdity of this situation by stating that Fillmore appeased Texas apparently over the fear that the United States and Texas would go to civil war over "who owned the New Mexico desert." He also "seems to have forgotten that he was both president and commander in chief." He even gave Texas nullification rights over the legislation. Taylor would have laughed off the threats, but Fillmore's appeasement helped ruin Clay's compromise bills and Clay left Congress early in frustration. This opened a door for Stephen Douglas to push the bills through Congress, which he did effectively. The book thinks the ensuing "Compromise of 1850" should actually carry the title "The Appeasement of 1850" because it heavily favored the South and slavery. It even allowed slavery beyond the lines agreed to in the Compromise of 1820. The North received little in return. Fillmore signed most of the bills into law on September 9th, including the Texas, New Mexico border, California statehood (already inevitably a free state) and the legality of slavery in new territories (including those above the 1820 Compromise line).Fillmore's most nefarious action took place on September 18th when he signed the new stronger Fugitive Slave Act. This act still defines his presidency today. The book calls it "one of the most repressive and unfair statutes ever adopted by the United States." The South had found the North's enthusiasm for returning fugitive slaves lacking. They demanded an "upgrade" to the 1793 Act and they got it. The law not only brought the politics of slavery to the North, it also threatened the freedom of free blacks. Those accused of being fugitive slaves could not testify in their own defense. Anyone found aiding a fugitive slave could find themselves fined or imprisoned. The law established the first national police force and officials found lax in enforcing the law could also face heavy fines. Not only that, judges received higher fees for ruling in favor of slave owners than if they ruled against them. Everything about the law blatantly favored one side. As the book says, in effect, "a farmer could be fined, sued or jailed for giving a cup of water to a black person walking down the road." Over 100 blacks were sent south as a result of the law. Fillmore never expressed reservations about the law nor did he allow any amendments to it, even after Whigs suggested adding anti-kidnapping clauses. As a lawyer, he must have known how much it violated basic rights. He and Webster enforced it with ferocious determination and to ridiculous extremes. When the backlash came and blacks were rescued from courtrooms by mobs, he sent troops to enforce the law in Boston and Philadelphia. When prosecutions of dissenters failed, he personally initiated treason trials, the infamous "Christiana Trials," still the largest treason trials ever organized in U.S. history. They fell apart quickly as "a dangerous precedence." The law radicalized and energized many northerners against slavery.A few positive things also occurred during Fillmore's short term, though they by no means compensate for the negatives. He decreased the price of postage, established the San Francisco Mint, signed a treaty with the Kingdom of Hawaii, either he or Abigail started the White House library. He planned Perry's voyage to Japan in 1850, which ultimately opened up that then isolated country to the world. The book deems this "one of Fillmore's most valuable contributions to American society," though Perry didn't arrive until Fillmore left office, so the next president, Franklin Pierce, ended up taking the credit. He also passed a large internal improvements bill, fulfilling one of his political passions. Back to negatives, sadly, a treaty with Switzerland seemed to only benefit white Christians while it openly discriminated against non-Christians, especially against the Jewish population. He did nothing to stop real threats to American security as Lopez planned to invade Cuba. This invasion led to the Spanish execution of 50 Americans by firing squad, which spurred riots in New Orleans and an attack on the Spanish consul. Fillmore once again did nothing despite the obvious federal jurisdiction of a foreign consul office.One of the most dumbfounding events of Fillmore's political career occurred when he tried to seek the Whig nomination for president. Webster, his Secretary of State, also announced his candidacy and this ended up splitting the votes, which allowed Winfield Scott, the Northern Whig favorite, to win the nomination over a sitting president. Had Webster bowed out Fillmore would have easily won. The book calls this "one of the great humiliations in American political history." Not only that, Fillmore kept Webster on for the remainder of his term. Why either of them allowed this to happen defies logic. The 1852 election resulted in a hideous defeat for the Whigs. The almost completely unknown northern Democrat Pierce won all but 4 states. This also spelled the beginning of the end for the Whigs. Fillmore waited out his term along with Webster, the man who had sabotaged his chance of being actually elected president. Personal tragedies accompanied the end of his term. Less than a month after leaving Washington, Abigail died. A year later his daughter Mary Abigail died. In 1855 he took a European tour and greeted many dignitaries. Queen Victoria called Fillmore "the handsomest man she had ever met." Pope Pius IX even gave Fillmore an audience, despite Fillmore's fervent Anti-Catholic past. He turned down an honorary Oxford degree because he couldn't read Latin and tried again for the presidency in 1856, this time under the "American" or "Know-Nothing" party. Not too surprisingly, he didn't win.Sensing the end of his political career, Fillmore married a rich widow, bought a mansion and settled in Buffalo to live "in honor and luxury" as the city's most famous citizen. Later in life he voted against Lincoln, opposed emancipation and black troop enlistment and openly denounced the war effort. As always, his sympathies seemed to rest with the South. This led to accusations of "Copperhead" and "doughface" and a diminution of his stature, but Buffalo continued to mostly adore him. Lincoln actually spent a night at the Fillmore mansion on the way to Washington following his election. Fillmore died in 1874 in Buffalo. He left a rather uninspiring pro-slavery legacy and he arguably even protected the "peculiar institution." Despite this, he never owned slaves himself (Taylor would remain the last president to own slaves while in office). His legacy includes not only the horrendous Fugitive Slave Act, but also laying the foundation for the notorious Kansas-Nebraska Act, which led directly to The Civil War and, as the book states more than once, "favoring slavery over liberty." Without doubt, Fillmore stands very much on the wrong side of history today.Countries can learn from their failures as well as from their successes. Though Fillmore leans much further towards the "failure" side of the spectrum, his administration still offers plenty of historical lessons, though usually through negative examples. For one, in this case party politics didn't allow for the nomination of a qualified candidate. The least contentious, and thus most palatable, had the least experience. After Tyler, the Whigs in particular should have exercised more caution in their VP nomination. Fillmore's inexperience showed rapidly after taking office, as did his surprising stance on slavery, which the Whigs apparently didn't fully scrutinize. Nobody won in this situation and the Whigs pretty much ended up annihilating themselves. The country also suffered and tensions that would erupt in the Civil War began to boil. Also, no one probably wants to believe that the United States could produce something as morally putrid as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. But it did and this should not be forgotten.The book itself tells the story effectively enough, but word choices once in a while veer towards sensationalism or overstatement. It also has a distinct narrative "echo" as numerous passages repeat themselves a page or two after their initial appearance. This reinforces the material, but also risks tedium. Overall, the thirteenth installment of the "American Presidents" series gives a decent outline of one of the country's least acclaimed leaders. Such stories often remain hidden or suppressed for various reasons, but they need to remain in the public consciousness, if for nothing else to raise awareness about the boundaries of possibility within political entities. In that respect, Millard Fillmore's story may not inspire, but it does inform.

Millard Fillmore was the next step in my quest to read the Presidential biographies, in order. Once again, I knew very little about Fillmore, and this biography helped show me why.At first, I need to scrutinize the author of this book. I agree with several of the other reviewers of this selection in that the author's anti-slavery bias ruins the objectivity of the analysis of this president. Obviously, and with good reason, this author did not like Millard Fillmore. Okay, we get that.The author obviously takes issue with the fact that Fillmore did very little in creating, or changing, legislation such as the ill-fated Compromise of 1850. While I detest this horrid legislation, which led to the proliferation of slavery in western states, I take issue with the author's characterization of Fillmore's response to his duty. I personally believe the United States government, as it currently employed, is far too "executive heavy." We rely on one person to create policy, to effectuate it, and blame him (or hopefully someday, her) if his legislative agenda is logjammed in Congress.Fillmore, who was never elected as President (he was Old Rough and Ready Zachary Taylor's VP) took a different approach to the executive. Rather than creating policy, or trying to undermine legislation passed by Congress, he acted as the Constitution likely intended in "faithfully executing" the duly passed law of the legislative body. So, in my opinion, whether he personally approved of the Compromise of 1850 is really irrelevant. Rather, Congress enacted it, he signed it into law, and enforced it. I think the author casts far too much aspersion on Fillmore for simply complying with his interpretation of the Constitution. I also don't think Fillmore considered his own role as being the individual to change the law.With all of this being said, I personally believe that Millard Fillmore was one of the most despicable Presidents we have ever had, and certainly the worst of the first 13. I find it ironic that he was number 13, as the negative unlucky connotation for the American people was clearly at display. Fillmore's appeasement of the South on slavery issues, while campaigning as a Northerner, was hypocritical in my opinion. Further, his post presidency disapproval of emancipation speak volumes of his character. He believed the white race was superior to any other, and for that Fillmore deserves condemnation. Also, he clearly used the separation of church and state to promote his view of protestant supremacy.I enjoyed the book, but found it to be too repetitive, too biased. The author seemed to forget passages from earlier chapters and repeated them, which I didn't like. Not trying to downplay the importance of slavery on American history, but this book was about little else. Did Fillmore do anything in his presidency unrelated to the Compromise of 1850? We don't know it from this book. So, a little more breadth would have been appreciated.I'm glad this man didn't get a second term. He contributed more to the Civil War actually occurring than I think we can truly appreciate. But, if he had gotten a second term, he might have hastened the War and might have prevented Abraham Lincoln his opportunity to preserve the Union.