Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800, in Cayuga County, New York, the second of eight children of Nathaniel and Phoebe Millard Fillmore, tenant farmers who lived in severe poverty.⁠[1]

At 15 Fillmore was apprenticed to a cloth dresser, and he attended one-room schools.⁠[2]

He borrowed thirty dollars to buy out his apprenticeship and then walked about one hundred miles home.⁠[3]

He had little formal education until the age of 18, when he obtained six consecutive months of schooling.⁠[4]

Before 1819 he bought a share in a lending library, and he later enrolled at New Hope Academy, where he met the teacher Abigail Powers.⁠[1]

Abigail Powers, then 19, encouraged his ambitions, and he went on to obtain a clerkship with a local judge and study law.⁠[5]

By 1821 Fillmore was teaching in East Aurora, near Buffalo.⁠[1]

In 1823 he was admitted to the Erie County bar in Buffalo; he then practiced as the only attorney in East Aurora and built a large practice.⁠[6]

On February 5, 1826, Fillmore married Abigail Powers (1798–1853).⁠[7]

That year Fillmore built a house in East Aurora, where the couple lived until 1830.⁠[6]

Fillmore entered politics in 1828 through the Anti-Masonic Movement and the Anti-Masonic Party, and served three terms in the New York State Assembly from 1829 to 1832.⁠[4]

In the Assembly he worked to end imprisonment for debt.⁠[5]

In 1830 Fillmore moved his law practice to Buffalo, which remained the base of his practice and his permanent residence.⁠[6]

Fillmore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1832 and served from 1833 to 1835 and from 1837 to 1843.⁠[1]

In 1834 he followed Thurlow Weed into the Whig Party, and in Congress he was a devoted follower of Senator Henry Clay.⁠[4]

From 1841 to 1843 he chaired the House Committee on Ways and Means, and in that role he helped frame the protective Tariff of 1842.⁠[5][8]

After leaving Congress in 1843, Fillmore sought the Whig vice-presidential nomination without success, and in 1844 he lost the election for governor of New York.⁠[1][4]

In 1846 Fillmore worked to establish a medical university in Buffalo, and on May 11 of that year the New York legislature chartered the University of Buffalo.⁠[9]

The University at Buffalo counts Fillmore among its founders; he served as its chancellor, a largely ceremonial post, from 1846 to 1874.⁠[10]

In 1847 Fillmore was elected comptroller of New York StateNew York (state)New York is a state in the eastern United States; its capital is Albany and its largest city is New York City. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on July 26, 1788, becoming the 11th state to join the Union, and its population in the 2020 census was 20,201,249.Open the full entry by a wide margin, which made him a leading Whig prospect.⁠[5]

As comptroller he enlarged Buffalo’s canal facilities and regulated state-chartered banks.⁠[1]

In 1848 the Whig convention nominated Zachary TaylorZachary TaylorZachary Taylor (1784–1850) was an American army general and politician who rose to fame through his victories in the Mexican-American War. He became the 12th president of the United States in March 1849 and died in office in July 1850, after about sixteen months.Open the full entry for president on the fourth ballot, with Fillmore as his running mate; Fillmore’s nomination owed much to the sponsorship of Henry Clay.⁠[1][4]

During the campaign Fillmore wrote in a reply to John Gayle: “I regard slavery as an evil, but one with which the national government has nothing to do.”⁠[1]

The Taylor–Fillmore ticket defeated MichiganMichiganMichigan is a state of the United States nearly surrounded by the Great Lakes and made up of the Upper and Lower peninsulas; its capital is Lansing and its largest city is Detroit. It was admitted to the Union on January 26, 1837, as the 26th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 10,077,331.Open the full entry senator Lewis Cass in the election.⁠[3]

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney swore Fillmore in as vice president on March 5, 1849.⁠[1]

As president of the Senate, Fillmore presided over the debates on the Compromise of 1850 without commenting publicly on the merits of the proposals; a few days before Taylor’s death he assured Taylor that he would vote for Henry Clay’s bill if the vote were tied.⁠[2]

Zachary Taylor died on July 9, 1850, and Fillmore was sworn in as president the following day.⁠[8]

Taylor’s cabinet resigned, and Fillmore appointed Daniel Webster as secretary of state, signaling his alliance with the moderate Whigs who favored the compromise.⁠[2]

Fillmore was the last president who was not affiliated with either the Democratic or the Republican Party.⁠[2]

Fillmore announced his support for the compromise and on August 6, 1850, asked Congress to pay TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry to give up its claims to part of New MexicoNew MexicoNew Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States. Its capital is Santa Fe and its largest city is Albuquerque. It was admitted to the Union on January 6, 1912, as the 47th state, and had a population of 2,117,522 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry. The White House biography judges that this moved a critical number of northern Whigs away from the Wilmot Proviso.⁠[2]

Senator Stephen A. Douglas split Henry Clay’s package into five bills: admitting CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a U.S. state on the Pacific coast; its capital is Sacramento and its largest city is Los Angeles. California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850, as the 31st state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 39,538,223, the largest of any state.Open the full entry as a free state; settling the Texas boundary and compensating Texas; granting territorial status to New Mexico; placing federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking fugitives; and abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Each passed by a majority, and by September 20, 1850, Fillmore had signed them all into law.⁠[2]

Personally opposed to slavery, Fillmore nevertheless felt obligated to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and said publicly that he would call on the military if necessary.⁠[4]

Fillmore backed federal grants for railroad construction and restored diplomatic relations with Mexico; he also pledged to protect HawaiiHawaiiHawaii is a U.S. state consisting of a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean; its capital is Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu. Hawaii was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, as the 50th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 1,455,271.Open the full entry’s independence against French plans for annexation.⁠[1]

He refused to support a Southern filibustering invasion of Cuba, which failed.⁠[3]

On July 4, 1851, Fillmore laid the cornerstone for the extension of the U.S. Capitol.⁠[8]

Fillmore sent a fleet under Commodore Matthew C. Perry to Japan to open the country to Western trade.⁠[3]

The resulting Treaty of Kanagawa was concluded in 1854; BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry judges that it marked the beginning of Japan’s transformation into a modern state.⁠[4]

Some northern Whigs who would not forgive Fillmore for signing the Fugitive Slave Act helped deny him the presidential nomination in 1852, which went instead to General Winfield Scott.⁠[2][3]

It was the Whig Party’s last national election, and the party lost.⁠[4]

Shortly after Fillmore left office, his wife Abigail Fillmore died of pneumonia on March 30, 1853.⁠[1]

Soon afterward his 22-year-old daughter, Mary, also died.⁠[3]

As the Whig Party disintegrated in the 1850s, Fillmore refused to join the Republican Party, and in 1856 he accepted the presidential nomination of the American (Know Nothing) Party.⁠[2]

He carried only MarylandMarylandMaryland is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States, deeply indented by Chesapeake Bay and bordered by Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, the District of Columbia and West Virginia; its capital is Annapolis and its largest city is Baltimore. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on April 28, 1788, as the seventh state to do so, and had a population of 6,177,224 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry’s eight electoral votes and won 21 percent of the popular vote, finishing third behind James BuchananJames BuchananJames Buchanan (1791–1868) was an American Democratic politician and diplomat who served as secretary of state (1845–1849) and as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861.Open the full entry and John C. Frémont.⁠[1][3][4]

On February 10, 1858, Fillmore married Caroline Carmichael McIntosh (1813–1881).⁠[7]

McIntosh was a wealthy 44-year-old widow; the couple honeymooned in Europe, and Fillmore bought a mansion on Niagara Square in Buffalo.⁠[1]

In the 1860 presidential election Fillmore voted for the Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. After Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States (1861–1865). Born to a frontier farming family in Kentucky, he had less than a year of formal schooling, taught himself law, and served in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives before winning the presidency as the Republican candidate in 1860. During the Civil War he preserved the Union, issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and pushed the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery through Congress. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865, and died the next day.Open the full entry’s election he was outraged by Southern secession, writing that the federal government could not coerce a state but that secessionists should be regarded as traitors.⁠[1]

During the war he remained loyal to the Union but opposed many of Lincoln’s policies and his reelection.⁠[1]

After Lincoln’s assassination, Fillmore supported Andrew JohnsonAndrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson (1808–1875) was an American politician who served as governor of Tennessee and as a U.S. senator, and who succeeded the assassinated Abraham Lincoln in April 1865 as the 17th president of the United States, serving until 1869.Open the full entry during Reconstruction.⁠[2]

Fillmore suffered a stroke in February 1874 and died on March 8, 1874.⁠[1]

He died in Buffalo and was buried in the city’s Forest Lawn Cemetery.⁠[9]

Fillmore and his first wife, Abigail Powers, had a son and a daughter: Millard Powers Fillmore (1828–1889) and Mary Abigail Fillmore (1832–1854).⁠[7]

Fillmore’s religion was Unitarian.⁠[7]

Fillmore helped frame the charter that made Buffalo an official city. He gave financial help to the Sisters of Charity in building a new Buffalo General Hospital, which officially opened in 1858, and joined its board of trustees within the following decade.⁠[9]

He helped organize the Buffalo Historical Society (now the Buffalo History Museum) and served five years as its first president; he also founded and presided over the Buffalo Club.⁠[9][10]

In 1862 he supported the founding of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy as a financial contributor and board member; he also helped lay the groundwork for the Grosvenor Library, serving as president of its board of trustees, and led a fundraising campaign for the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences.⁠[9]

In March 1867 he helped found a chapter of the newly formed American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; he was also a founder and vice president of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.⁠[1][9]

The marble bust of Fillmore in the Senate’s Vice Presidential Bust Collection was modeled by the New York sculptor Robert Cushing (1841–1896) in 1894, carved in 1895 and placed in the Senate Chamber that year.⁠[8]

Buffalo’s Homeopathic Hospital was renamed Millard Fillmore Hospital in 1923.⁠[9]

Fillmore’s East Aurora house was moved back on its lot in 1915, and in 1930 its front section was moved about a mile to Shearer Street and renovated. The house, now the Millard Fillmore Presidential Site, is operated by the Aurora Historical Society.⁠[6][11]

The University at Buffalo states that its recognition of Fillmore rested on his role as a founder and first chancellor and was not an endorsement of his presidential policies; in 2019 it ended its co-sponsorship of the annual ceremony at his gravesite, and on August 3, 2020, it announced that it would remove his name from the Millard Fillmore Academic Center.⁠[12]

Britannica’s essay judges that Fillmore’s insistence on enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 alienated the North and led to the destruction of the Whig Party, and that the Compromise of 1850 postponed the Civil War by ten years while ending his political career because of its unpopularity in the North.⁠[4]

The Miller Center’s essay describes the Compromise of 1850 as a patchwork that left every side with something to dislike, and judges that the 1856 result marked the end of Fillmore’s party.⁠[3]

University at Buffalo: Official website: https://www.buffalo.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[13]