U.S Presidents — Millard Fillmore
OVERVIEW Name: Millard Fillmore President: # 13 Term Number(s): 16 Term Length: 2.5 Took Office: July 9, 1850 Left Office: March 4, 1853 Age when Elected: 50 Party: Whig Also Known As: "The American Louis Philippe" BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Education: New Hope Academy Occupation: Lawyer Other Governmental Position: 12th Vice President of the United States, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 32nd District, Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, 14th New York State Comptroller. Military Service: New York Militia Religion: Unitarian Spouse(s): Abigail Powers Fillmore (February 5, 1826), Caroline Carmichael McIntosh Fillmore (February 10, 1858) Children: Millard Powers Fillmore, Mary Abigail Fillmore Birthdate: January 7, 1800 Birthplace: Summerhill, New York Deathdate: March 8, 1874 Deathplace: Buffalo, New York Age at Death: 74 Cause of Death: stroke Place of Internment: Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York Signature FIRST ELECTION Election: Not elected President, succeeded President Zachary Taylor CABINET AND COURT APPOINTMENTS Vice President: vacant Secretary of State: Daniel Webster (1850–1852), Edward Everett (1852–1853) Secretary of the Treasury: Thomas Corwin (1850–1853) Secretary of War: Charles M. Conrad (1850–1853) Secretary of the Navy: William A. Graham (1850–1852), John P. Kennedy (1852–1853) Secretary of the Interior: Thomas M. T. McKennan (1850), Alexander H. H. Stuart (1850–1853) Attorney General: John J. Crittenden (1850–1853) Postmaster General: Nathan K. Hall (1850–1852), Samuel D. Hubbard (1852–1853) Supreme Court Assignments: Benjamin Robbins Curtis (1851) PRESIDENT'S BIOGRAPHY In his rise from a log cabin to wealth and the White House, Millard Fillmore demonstrated that through methodical industry and some competence, an uninspiring man could make the American dream come true. Born in the Finger Lakes country of New York in 1800, Fillmore as a youth endured the privations of frontier life. He worked on his father's farm, and at 15 was apprenticed to a cloth dresser. He attended one-room schools, and fell in love with the redheaded teacher, Abigail Powers, who later became his wife. In 1823 he was admitted to the bar; seven years later he moved his law practice to Buffalo. As an associate of the Whig politician Thurlow Weed, Fillmore held state office and for eight years was a member of the House of Representatives. In 1848, while comptroller of New York, he was elected vice president. Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of nerve-wracking debates over the Compromise of 1850. He made no public comment on the merits of the compromise proposals, but a few days before President Taylor's death, he intimated to him that if there should be a tie vote on Henry Clay's bill, he would vote in favor of it. Thus the sudden accession of Fillmore to the presidency in July 1850 brought an abrupt political shift in the administration. Taylor's cabinet resigned and President Fillmore at once appointed Daniel Webster to be Secretary of State, thus proclaiming his alliance with the moderate Whigs who favored the Compromise. A bill to admit California still aroused all the violent arguments for and against the extension of slavery, without any progress toward settling the major issues. Clay, exhausted, left Washington to recuperate, throwing leadership upon Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. At this critical juncture, President Fillmore announced in favor of the Compromise. On August 6, 1850, he sent a message to Congress recommending that Texas be paid to abandon her claims to part of New Mexico. This helped influence a critical number of northern Whigs in Congress away from their insistence upon the Wilmot Proviso—the stipulation that all land gained by the Mexican War must be closed to slavery. Douglas's effective strategy in Congress combined with Fillmore's pressure from the White House to give impetus to the Compromise movement. Breaking up Clay's single legislative package, Douglas presented five separate bills to the Senate: 1. Admit California as a free state. 2. Settle the Texas boundary and compensate her. 3. Grant territorial status to New Mexico. 4. Place federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking fugitives. 5. Abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Each measure obtained a majority, and by September 20, President Fillmore had signed them into law. Webster wrote, "I can now sleep of nights." Some of the more militant northern Whigs remained irreconcilable, refusing to forgive Fillmore for having signed the Fugitive Slave Act. They helped deprive him of the Presidential nomination in 1852. Within a few years it was apparent that although the Compromise had been intended to settle the slavery controversy, it served rather as an uneasy sectional truce. As the Whig Party disintegrated in the 1850's, Fillmore refused to join the Republican Party; but, instead, in 1856 accepted the nomination for president of the Know Nothing, or American, Party. Throughout the Civil War he opposed President Lincoln and during Reconstruction supported President Johnson. He died in 1874. FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY Abigail Powers Fillmore First of first ladies to hold a job after marriage, Abigail Fillmore was helping her husband's career. She was also revealing her most striking personal characteristic: eagerness to learn and pleasure in teaching others. Abigail was born in Saratoga County, New York, in 1798, while it was still on the fringe of civilization. Her father, a locally prominent Baptist preacher named Lemuel Powers, died shortly thereafter. Courageously, her mother moved on westward, thinking her scanty funds would go further in a less settled region, and ably educated her small son and daughter beyond the usual frontier level with the help of her husband's library. Shared eagerness for schooling formed a bond when Abigail Powers at 21 met Millard Fillmore at 19, both students at a recently opened academy in the village of New Hope, New York. although she soon became young Fillmore's inspiration, his struggle to make his way as a lawyer was so long and ill-paid that they were not married until February 1826. She even resumed teaching school after the marriage. And then her only son, Millard Powers, was born in 1828. Attaining prosperity at last, Fillmore bought his family a six-room house in Buffalo, where little Mary Abigail was born in 1832. Enjoying comparative luxury, Abigail learned the ways of society as the wife of a congressman. She cultivated a noted flower garden; but much of her time, as always, she spent reading. In 1847, Fillmore was elected state comptroller; with the children away in boarding school and college, the parents moved temporarily to Albany. In 1849, Abigail Fillmore came to Washington as wife of the vice president; 16 months later, after Zachary Taylor's death at a height of sectional crisis, the Fillmores moved into the White House. Even after the period of official mourning, the social life of the Fillmore administration remained subdued. The first lady presided with grace at state dinners and receptions; but a permanently injured ankle made her Friday evening levees an ordeal—two hours of standing at her husband's side to greet the public. In any case, she preferred reading or music in private. Pleading her delicate health, she entrusted many routine social duties to her attractive daughter, Abby. With a special appropriation from Congress, she spent contented hours selecting books for a White House library and arranging them in the oval room upstairs, where Abby had her piano, harp, and guitar. Here, wrote a friend, Mrs. Fillmore "could enjoy the music she so much loved, and the conversation of...cultivated society..." Despite chronic poor health, Mrs. Fillmore stayed near her husband through the outdoor ceremonies of President Pierce's inauguration while a raw northeast wind whipped snow over the crowd. Returning chilled to the Willard Hotel, she developed pneumonia; Mrs. Fillmore died there on March 30, 1853. The House of Representatives and the Senate adjourned, and public offices closed in respect, as her family took her body home to Buffalo for burial. MAJOR EVENTS 1850: Compromise of 1850 and Fugitive Slave Act are passed. The controversial latter act prohibited U.S. citizens from aiding runaway slaves and angered many Northerners. 1850: President Fillmore appoints Brigham Young governor of the Utah territory. 1850: California joins the Union. 1852: Matthew Perry embarks on his first trip to Japan leading to the opening of Japan to Western trade. TRIVIA 1. Throughout the Civil War, Millard Fillmore opposed President Lincoln. 2. The White House's first library, kitchen stove, and bathtub were installed by the Fillmores. 3. Fillmore refused an honorary degree from Oxford University because he felt he had "neither literary nor scientific attainment."

U.S Presidents — Millard Fillmore

OVERVIEW

Name: Millard Fillmore
President: # 13
Term Number(s): 16
Term Length: 2.5
Took Office: July 9, 1850
Left Office: March 4, 1853
Age when Elected: 50
Party: Whig
Also Known As: "The American Louis Philippe"

BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

Education: New Hope Academy
Occupation: Lawyer
Other Governmental Position: 12th Vice President of the United States, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 32nd District, Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, 14th New York State Comptroller.
Military Service: New York Militia
Religion: Unitarian
Spouse(s): Abigail Powers Fillmore (February 5, 1826), Caroline Carmichael McIntosh Fillmore (February 10, 1858)
Children: Millard Powers Fillmore, Mary Abigail Fillmore

Birthdate: January 7, 1800
Birthplace: Summerhill, New York
Deathdate: March 8, 1874
Deathplace: Buffalo, New York
Age at Death: 74
Cause of Death: stroke
Place of Internment: Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York

Signature

FIRST ELECTION

Election: Not elected President, succeeded President Zachary Taylor

CABINET AND COURT APPOINTMENTS

Vice President: vacant
Secretary of State: Daniel Webster (1850–1852), Edward Everett (1852–1853)
Secretary of the Treasury: Thomas Corwin (1850–1853)
Secretary of War: Charles M. Conrad (1850–1853)
Secretary of the Navy: William A. Graham (1850–1852), John P. Kennedy (1852–1853)
Secretary of the Interior: Thomas M. T. McKennan (1850), Alexander H. H. Stuart (1850–1853)
Attorney General: John J. Crittenden (1850–1853)
Postmaster General: Nathan K. Hall (1850–1852), Samuel D. Hubbard (1852–1853)
Supreme Court Assignments: Benjamin Robbins Curtis (1851)

PRESIDENT'S BIOGRAPHY

In his rise from a log cabin to wealth and the White House, Millard Fillmore demonstrated that through methodical industry and some competence, an uninspiring man could make the American dream come true.

Born in the Finger Lakes country of New York in 1800, Fillmore as a youth endured the privations of frontier life. He worked on his father's farm, and at 15 was apprenticed to a cloth dresser. He attended one-room schools, and fell in love with the redheaded teacher, Abigail Powers, who later became his wife.

In 1823 he was admitted to the bar; seven years later he moved his law practice to Buffalo. As an associate of the Whig politician Thurlow Weed, Fillmore held state office and for eight years was a member of the House of Representatives. In 1848, while comptroller of New York, he was elected vice president.

Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of nerve-wracking debates over the Compromise of 1850. He made no public comment on the merits of the compromise proposals, but a few days before President Taylor's death, he intimated to him that if there should be a tie vote on Henry Clay's bill, he would vote in favor of it.

Thus the sudden accession of Fillmore to the presidency in July 1850 brought an abrupt political shift in the administration. Taylor's cabinet resigned and President Fillmore at once appointed Daniel Webster to be Secretary of State, thus proclaiming his alliance with the moderate Whigs who favored the Compromise.

A bill to admit California still aroused all the violent arguments for and against the extension of slavery, without any progress toward settling the major issues.

Clay, exhausted, left Washington to recuperate, throwing leadership upon Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. At this critical juncture, President Fillmore announced in favor of the Compromise. On August 6, 1850, he sent a message to Congress recommending that Texas be paid to abandon her claims to part of New Mexico.

This helped influence a critical number of northern Whigs in Congress away from their insistence upon the Wilmot Proviso—the stipulation that all land gained by the Mexican War must be closed to slavery.

Douglas's effective strategy in Congress combined with Fillmore's pressure from the White House to give impetus to the Compromise movement. Breaking up Clay's single legislative package, Douglas presented five separate bills to the Senate:

1. Admit California as a free state.
2. Settle the Texas boundary and compensate her.
3. Grant territorial status to New Mexico.
4. Place federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking fugitives.
5. Abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

Each measure obtained a majority, and by September 20, President Fillmore had signed them into law. Webster wrote, "I can now sleep of nights."

Some of the more militant northern Whigs remained irreconcilable, refusing to forgive Fillmore for having signed the Fugitive Slave Act. They helped deprive him of the Presidential nomination in 1852.

Within a few years it was apparent that although the Compromise had been intended to settle the slavery controversy, it served rather as an uneasy sectional truce.

As the Whig Party disintegrated in the 1850's, Fillmore refused to join the Republican Party; but, instead, in 1856 accepted the nomination for president of the Know Nothing, or American, Party. Throughout the Civil War he opposed President Lincoln and during Reconstruction supported President Johnson. He died in 1874.

FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY

Abigail Powers Fillmore

First of first ladies to hold a job after marriage, Abigail Fillmore was helping her husband's career. She was also revealing her most striking personal characteristic: eagerness to learn and pleasure in teaching others.

Abigail was born in Saratoga County, New York, in 1798, while it was still on the fringe of civilization. Her father, a locally prominent Baptist preacher named Lemuel Powers, died shortly thereafter. Courageously, her mother moved on westward, thinking her scanty funds would go further in a less settled region, and ably educated her small son and daughter beyond the usual frontier level with the help of her husband's library.

Shared eagerness for schooling formed a bond when Abigail Powers at 21 met Millard Fillmore at 19, both students at a recently opened academy in the village of New Hope, New York. although she soon became young Fillmore's inspiration, his struggle to make his way as a lawyer was so long and ill-paid that they were not married until February 1826. She even resumed teaching school after the marriage. And then her only son, Millard Powers, was born in 1828.

Attaining prosperity at last, Fillmore bought his family a six-room house in Buffalo, where little Mary Abigail was born in 1832. Enjoying comparative luxury, Abigail learned the ways of society as the wife of a congressman. She cultivated a noted flower garden; but much of her time, as always, she spent reading. In 1847, Fillmore was elected state comptroller; with the children away in boarding school and college, the parents moved temporarily to Albany.

In 1849, Abigail Fillmore came to Washington as wife of the vice president; 16 months later, after Zachary Taylor's death at a height of sectional crisis, the Fillmores moved into the White House.

Even after the period of official mourning, the social life of the Fillmore administration remained subdued. The first lady presided with grace at state dinners and receptions; but a permanently injured ankle made her Friday evening levees an ordeal—two hours of standing at her husband's side to greet the public. In any case, she preferred reading or music in private. Pleading her delicate health, she entrusted many routine social duties to her attractive daughter, Abby. With a special appropriation from Congress, she spent contented hours selecting books for a White House library and arranging them in the oval room upstairs, where Abby had her piano, harp, and guitar. Here, wrote a friend, Mrs. Fillmore "could enjoy the music she so much loved, and the conversation of...cultivated society..."

Despite chronic poor health, Mrs. Fillmore stayed near her husband through the outdoor ceremonies of President Pierce's inauguration while a raw northeast wind whipped snow over the crowd. Returning chilled to the Willard Hotel, she developed pneumonia; Mrs. Fillmore died there on March 30, 1853. The House of Representatives and the Senate adjourned, and public offices closed in respect, as her family took her body home to Buffalo for burial.

MAJOR EVENTS

1850: Compromise of 1850 and Fugitive Slave Act are passed. The controversial latter act prohibited U.S. citizens from aiding runaway slaves and angered many Northerners.

1850: President Fillmore appoints Brigham Young governor of the Utah territory.

1850: California joins the Union.

1852: Matthew Perry embarks on his first trip to Japan leading to the opening of Japan to Western trade.

TRIVIA

1. Throughout the Civil War, Millard Fillmore opposed President Lincoln.

2. The White House's first library, kitchen stove, and bathtub were installed by the Fillmores.

3. Fillmore refused an honorary degree from Oxford University because he felt he had "neither literary nor scientific attainment."

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