Background
Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800, in Summerhill, New York, to Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard. He was the second of nine children in a family of modest means.
Millard Fillmore Statue - Buffalo, New York
lawyer politician president statesman
Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800, in Summerhill, New York, to Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard. He was the second of nine children in a family of modest means.
Millard received little formal education as a young boy and was apprenticed to a cloth maker at the age of 14. He desperately wanted to educate himself and embarked on a journey of self-education. He was finally able to attend New Hope Academy for six months in 1819. He then took up a job as a clerk and studied law under Judge Walter Wood.
Millard moved to Buffalo and continued his legal education in the law office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. He was admitted to the bar in 1823 and began practicing law in New York.
Millard entered politics in association with Thurlow Weed and William H. Seward, helping to organize the Anti-Masonic party as a major third party in the North. As one of the party's leaders in the New York Assembly, Fillmore sponsored reforms, including abolishing debtor imprisonment and a bankruptcy bill. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1830s and 1840s, he led his party into the newly formed Whig party. He was elected comptroller of New York State in 1846.
In 1848 Fillmore was elected vice president of the United States under Zachary Taylor. This proved an unpleasant experience, as he was excluded from all patronage and policy-making decisions. He was unable to prevent Taylor's opposition to Henry Clay's proposals for ending the sectional crisis over the extension of slavery into territories acquired by the Mexican War; but before Taylor could veto Clay's compromise bill, he died. Fillmore, now president, quickly accepted the five bills which made up the Compromise of 1850.
In 1852 Fillmore was repudiated by the Whigs. After he ran unsuccessfully for president in 1856 as the Know-Nothing party's candidate, he returned to Buffalo to devote himself to local civic projects. He died on March 8, 1874.
Fillmore had liberal ideas about religion. He had been raised by nominal Methodists, studied under a Quaker judge, and may have attended or visited a short-lived Unitarian society in Kelloggsville. In late 1831 a Unitarian church was organized near the Fillmores' home in Buffalo. Millard became a charter member.
Fillmore's policies all aimed at turning the country away from the slavery question. His most important recommendation was that the U.S. government build a transcontinental railroad. His foreign policy, formulated with Secretary of State Daniel Webster, had similar goals. In marked contrast to the aggressive policy followed by the United States during the rest of the 1840s and 1850s (when Democratic administrations made every effort to acquire additional territory), Fillmore sought to encourage trade through peaceful relations. One of his major undertakings was to send Commodore Matthew Perry to open Japan to American commerce.
Millard demonstrated his attempt to find a middle ground on the slavery question. However, he was attacked by antislavery groups, especially for his vigorous enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, which was part of the compromise. Fillmore believed that slavery was evil but, as long as it existed, had to be protected.
Quotations:
"God knows I detest slavery but it is an existing evil, and we must endure it and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the Constitution."
"Nations, like individuals in a state of nature, are equal and independent, possessing certain rights and owing certain duties to each other."
"It is not strange... to mistake change for progress."
Fillmore was a likable fellow. He mixed readily. He was most persuasive in small groups; his stolid style did not play well before large audiences. He spoke slowly, deliberately, usually using simple expressions and short sentences. His speeches lacked the flourish typical of the great orators of the day. A practical, unemotional man, he relied on logic and common sense to make a point in argument. He appealed to the mind rather than to the heart. Although basically a pragmatist, he was capable of genuine idealism if the cause struck his sense of righteousness. “A spark of idealism smouldered in his mind,” biographer Robert J. Rayback has written. “Because his whole training had been aimed toward making or improving his livelihood, nothing could ever ignite the spark that would place him in that class of complete idealists who steadfastly cling to their visions no matter ho inimical to their interests. But the trait was there, seldom dominating, yet always helping to shape his values.”
Physical Characteristics: As a young man, Fillmore was strikingly handsome, 6 feet tall, well built, with wavy, somewhat unruly hair, light complexion, a high forehead, blue eyes, and determined expression. With age, however, he became heavy, and his hair had turned white by the time he became president. He dressed meticulously. His health generally was sound.
Quotes from others about the person
"Fillmore was a likable fellow. He mixed readily. He was most persuasive in small groups; his stolid style did not play well before large audiences. He spoke slowly, deliberately, using simple expressions and short sentences. His speeches lacked the flourish typical of the great orators of the day. A practical, unemotional man, he relied on logic and common sense to make a point in argument. He appealed to the mind rather than to the heart. Although basically a pragmatist, he was capable of genuine idealism if the cause struck his sense of righteousness. "A spark of idealism smouldered in his mind," biographer Robert J. Rayback has written. "Because his whole trianing had been aimed toward making or improving his livelihood, nothing could ever ignite the spark that would place him in that class of complete idealists who steadfastly cling to their visions no matter how inimical their interests. But the trait was there, seldom dominating, yet always helping to shape his values.""
William A. DeGregorio, The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents (1984), p. 187
According to his biographer, Scarry: "No president of the United States ... has suffered as much ridicule as Millard Fillmore".
In 1819, Millard met and fell in love with Abigail Powers, a teacher at the New Hope Academy where he was a student. The couple dated for some years before tying the knot in 1826. They were blessed with two children. Abigail died in 1853 and in 1858 Fillmore married Caroline McIntosh, a wealthy widow.