"Fillmore was born into poverty in the Finger Lakes area of upstate New York. Though he had little formal schooling, he studied diligently to become a lawyer.
He became prominent in the Buffalo area as an attorney and politician, and was elected to the New York Assembly in 1828 and the House of Representatives in 1832. Fillmore initially belonged to the Anti-Masonic Party, but became a member of the Whig Party as it formed in the mid-1830s. He was a rival for the state party leadership with the editor Thurlow Weed and his protégé William H. Seward.
Throughout his career, Fillmore declared slavery evil but said it was beyond the federal government's power to end it."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard_Fillmore
"As the Whig Party broke up after Fillmore's presidency, he and many in its conservative wing joined the Know Nothings and formed the American Party.
Despite his party's emphasis on anti-immigration and anti-Catholic policies, during his candidacy in the 1856 presidential election, he said little about immigration, focusing on the preservation of the Union, and won only Maryland.
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"
"during Millard's formative years, the family endured severe poverty.
Nathaniel became sufficiently regarded that he was chosen to serve in local offices, including justice of the peace. Hoping that his oldest son would learn a trade, he convinced Millard, who was 14, not to enlist for the War of 1812 and apprenticed him to clothmaker Benjamin Hungerford in Sparta.
Fillmore was relegated to menial labor, and unhappy at not learning any skills, he left Hungerford's employ.
His father then placed him in the same trade at a mill in New Hope.
Seeking to better himself, Millard bought a share in a circulating library and read all the books that he could.
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."
*
"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).
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 proved effective anyway by promoting legislation
to provide court witnesses the option of taking a non-religious oath
and, in 1830, abolishing imprisonment for debt."
*
"In 1846 Fillmore was involved in the founding of what is now the University at Buffalo (earlier the University of Buffalo), became its first chancellor, and served until his death in 1874.
He had opposed the annexation of Texas, spoke against the subsequent Mexican–American War, and saw the war as a contrivance to extend slavery's realm.
Fillmore was angered when President Polk vetoed a river and harbors bill that would have benefited Buffalo, and he wrote, "May God save the country for it is evident the people will not."
*
"It was customary in the mid-19th century for a candidate for high office not to appear to seek it.
Thus, Fillmore remained at the comptroller's office in Albany and made no speeches."
"Through 1849, slavery was an unresolved issue in the territories.
Taylor advocated the admission of California and New Mexico,[f] which were both likely to outlaw slavery.
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.
There was anger across party lines in the South, where making the territories free of slavery was considered to be the exclusion of Southerners from part of the national heritage.
Fillmore presided over some of the most momentous and passionate debates in American history as the Senate debated whether to allow slavery in the territories.
*
"July 4, 1850, was a very hot day in Washington, and President Taylor, who attended the Fourth of July ceremonies
to lay the cornerstone of the Washington Monument,
refreshed himself, likely with cold milk and cherries.
What he consumed likely gave him gastroenteritis, and he died on July 9.
Taylor, nicknamed "Old Rough and Ready", had gained a reputation for toughness through his military campaigning in the heat, and his sudden death came as a shock to the nation."
"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. 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."
"Fillmore is the only president who succeeded by death or resignation not to retain, at least initially, his predecessor's cabinet. "
'The new department heads were mostly supporters of the Compromise, like Fillmore."
*
"Fillmore was the first president to return to private life without independent wealth or the possession of a landed estate. With no pension to anticipate, he needed to earn a living and felt that it should be in a way that would uphold the dignity of his former office. "
*
"He spent over a year, from March 1855 to June 1856, in Europe and the Middle East.
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.
Dorothea Dix had preceded him to Europe and was lobbying to improve conditions for the mentally ill. They continued to correspond and met several times.
In Rome, Fillmore had an audience with Pope Pius IX. He carefully weighed the political pros and cons of meeting with Pius.
He nearly withdrew from the meeting when he was told that he would have to kneel and kiss the Pope's hand.
To avoid that, Pius remained seated throughout the meeting."
"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.
The Know Nothing convention chose Fillmore's running mate: Andrew Donelson of Kentucky, the nephew by marriage and once-ward of President Jackson. Fillmore made a celebrated return in June 1856 by speaking at a series of welcomes, which began with his arrival at a huge reception in New York City and continued across the state to Buffalo.
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. "
*
"In the 1864 presidential election, Fillmore supported the Democratic nominee, George B. McClellan, since he believed that the Democratic Party's plan for immediate cessation of fighting and allowing the seceded states to return with slavery intact was the best chance to restore the Union.
After Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, black ink was thrown on Fillmore's house because it was not draped in mourning like others.
Fillmore was apparently out of town at the time and put black drapes in the windows once he returned"
"Fillmore supported President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies since he felt that the nation needed to be reconciled as quickly as possible.
He devoted most of his time to civic activities. He aided Buffalo in becoming
the third American city to have a permanent art gallery, the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy."
___
"Hannibal Hamlin
(August 27, 1809 – July 4, 1891) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 15th vice president of the United States from 1861 to 1865, during President Abraham Lincoln's first term.
He was the first Republican vice president."
"In the 1864 election, Hamlin was replaced as vice-presidential nominee by Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat chosen for his appeal to Southern Unionists"
___
"Fillmore is ranked by historians and political scientists as one of the worst U.S. presidents.
His handling of major political issues, such as slavery, has led many historians to describe him as weak and inept.
According to biographer Scarry: "No president of the United States ... has suffered as much ridicule as Millard Fillmore."
Scarry ascribes much of the abuse to a tendency to
denigrate the presidents who served in the years just before the Civil War
as lacking in leadership.
For example, President Harry S. Truman later "characterized Fillmore as a weak, trivial thumb-twaddler who would do nothing to offend anyone" and as partially responsible for the war.
Fillmore's name has become a byword in popular culture for easily forgotten and inconsequential presidents."
"Fillmore and his wife, Abigail, established the first White House library. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard_Fillmore
Again:
"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).
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 proved effective anyway by promoting legislation to provide court witnesses the option of taking a non-religious oath and, in 1830, abolishing imprisonment for debt"
*
Francis Bloodgood
"(June 12, 1775[a] - March 5, 1840) was an American lawyer who was mayor of Albany, New York, in 1831 and 1833.
Francis Bloodgood entered office in 1831 and paid all the debts of those in debtors' prison on the occasion of his swearing in."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bloodgood
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