[99] He was particularly active in Asia and the Pacific, especially with regard to Japan, which then still prohibited nearly all foreign contact. When it reached Tyler's desk, he signed it but, in the process, offended his erstwhile Democratic allies. When Weed's replacement vice presidential hopeful, Willis Hall, fell ill, Weed sought to defeat Fillmore's candidacy to force him to run for governor. [106], Fillmore was the first president to return to private life without independent wealth or the possession of a landed estate. Although Fillmore disliked slavery, he saw no reason for it to be a political issue. A capable administrator and devoted public servant, Fillmore has largely been remembered for his ambivalent stance on slavery and his failure to prevent growing sectional conflict from erupting. [d] Minor party candidates took no electoral votes,[74] but the strength of the burgeoning anti-slavery movement was shown by the vote for Van Buren, who won no states but earned 291,501 votes (10.1%) and finished second in New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts. He spent over a year, from March 1855 to June 1856, in Europe and the Middle East. [100], The Venezuelan adventurer Narciso Lpez recruited Americans for three filibustering expeditions to Cuba in the hope of overthrowing Spanish rule. In 1857 Justice Curtis dissented from the Court's decision in the slavery case of Dred Scott v. Sandford and resigned as a matter of principle. The Fugitive Slave Act, expediting the return of escaped slaves to those who claimed ownership, was a controversial part of the compromise. His parents were Phoebe Millard and Nathaniel Fillmore,[1] and he was the second of eight children and the oldest son. After peace was restored, he supported the Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson. Fillmore's political career encompassed the tortuous course toward the two-party system that we know today. [55] Clay was beaten as well. [27] 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). The 1851 completion of the Erie Railroad in New York prompted Fillmore and his cabinet to ride the first train from New York City to the shores of Lake Erie, in the company with many other politicians and dignitaries. [8] Hoping that his oldest son would learn a trade, he convinced Millard, who was 14, not to enlist for the War of 1812[9] and apprenticed him to clothmaker Benjamin Hungerford in Sparta. The first modern two-party system of Whigs and Democrats had succeeded only in dividing the nation in two by the 1850s, and seven years later, the election of the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, would guarantee civil war. Senator-elect Judah P. Benjamin declined to serve. Tired of Washington life and the conflict that had revolved around Tyler, Fillmore sought to return to his life and law practice in Buffalo. Who was Millard Fillmore's Vice President? - Answers The Continentals trained to defend the Buffalo area in the event of a Confederate attack. Although he retained his position as Buffalo's leading citizen and was among those selected to escort the body when Lincoln's funeral train passed through Buffalo, anger remained towards him for his wartime positions. Fillmore remained on the fringes of that conflict by generally supporting the congressional Whig position, but his chief achievement as Ways and Means chairman was the Tariff of 1842. South Carolina did not yet use the popular vote for choosing electors, with the legislature electing them instead. How many brothers and sisters did Millard Fillmore have? [21] He moved to Buffalo the following year and continued his study of law, first while he taught school and then in the law office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. Millard Fillmore had two children, Mary Abigail Fillmore and Millard Power Fillmore. Many Americans were sympathetic to the Hungarian rebels, especially recent German immigrants, who were now coming in large numbers and had become a major political force. Millard Fillmore has 1 child. [122], Buchanan won with 1,836,072 votes (45.3%) and 174 electoral votes to Frmont's 1,342,345 votes (33.1%) and 114 electoral votes. [49] Seeking to return to Washington, Fillmore wanted the vice presidency. 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. Upon becoming president in July 1850, Fillmore dismissed Taylor's cabinet and pushed Congress to pass the compromise. His siblings were Olive, Cyrus, Almon, Calvin, Julia, Darius, Charles, and Phoebe. Did Millard Fillmore serve in the military? - Answers . The cabinet officers, as was customary when a new president took over, submitted their resignations but expected Fillmore to refuse and to allow them to continue in office. American merchants and shipowners wanted Japan "opened up" for trade, which would allow commerce and permit American ships to call there for food and water and in emergencies without them being punished. Fillmore was accused of complicity in Collier's actions, but that was never substantiated. [53], The Democrats nominated Senator Silas Wright as their gubernatorial candidate and former Tennessee Governor James K. Polk for president. His biographer, Paul Finkelman, suggested that after being under others' thumbs all his life, Fillmore enjoyed the independence of his East Aurora practice. [39] By 1836 Fillmore was confident enough of anti-Jackson unity that he accepted the Whig nomination for Congress. [113] Fillmore was encouraged by the success of the Know Nothings in the 1854 midterm elections in which they won in several states of the Northeast and showed strength in the South. Fillmore intended to lecture Congress on the slavery question in his final annual message in December but was talked out of it by his cabinet, and he contented himself with pointing out the prosperity of the nation and expressing gratitude for the opportunity to serve it. His friend Judge Hall assured him it would be proper for him to practice law in the higher courts of New York, and Fillmore so intended. President Fillmore and the Whigs: Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States of America, taking office upon the sudden. Many Southerners, including Whigs, supported the filibusters, and Fillmore's response helped to divide his party as the 1852 election approached. Fillmore warned that electing the Republican candidate, former California Senator John C. Frmont, who had no support in the South, would divide the Union and lead to civil war. Did Millard Fillmore have any siblings? | Homework.Study.com SIBLINGS Millard Fillmore was the second child in a family of nine. [134], In the 1864 presidential election Fillmore supported the Democratic candidate, George B. McClellan, for the presidency since he believed that the Democratic Party's plan for immediate cessation of fighting and allowing the seceded states to return with slavery intact to be the best possibility for restoring the Union. Nathaniel Fillmore (1771-1863), a farmer, was Millard Fillmore's father. [3], Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard moved from Vermont in 1799 and sought better opportunities than were available on Nathaniel's stony farm, but the title to their Cayuga County land proved defective, and the Fillmore family moved to nearby Sempronius, where they leased land as tenant farmers, and Nathaniel occasionally taught school. [31][32], In 1832 Fillmore ran successfully for the U.S. House of Representatives. Without the presence of the Great Triumvirate of John C. Calhoun, Webster, and Clay, who had long dominated the Senate,[i] Douglas and others were able to lead the Senate towards the administration-backed package of bills. Franklin Pierce: Life Before the Presidency | Miller Center California was admitted as a free state, the District of Columbia's slave trade was ended, and the final status of slavery in New Mexico and Utah would be settled later. 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. Cuba was a Spanish slave colony. Millard Fillmore met the mother of his children when he started his formal education. The U.S. Constitution designates the vice president as the Senate's presiding officer. Their combined wealth allowed them to purchase a large house on Niagara Square in Buffalo, where they lived for the remainder of his life. The comptroller regulated the banks, and Fillmore stabilized the currency by requiring that state-chartered banks keep New York and federal bonds to the value of the banknotes they issued. They were concerned that American sailors cast away on the Japanese coast were imprisoned as criminals. Before other senators intervened to separate them, Foote pointed a gun at his colleague as Benton advanced on him. [54] He was not friendly to immigrants and blamed his defeat on "foreign Catholics". The battle then moved to the House, which had a Northern majority because of the population. Fillmore prepared a second bill, now omitting distribution. What is Millard Fillmore nickname? - Answers Statue by Bryant Baker at Buffalo City Hall, Buffalo, New York, 1930. Accordingly, Fillmore's pro-Union stance mostly went unheard. According to the historian Smith, "They generously supported almost every conceivable cause. He took his lifelong friend Nathan K. Hall as a law clerk in East Aurora. 13, 1806, d. Jan. 17, 1830, Darius Ingraham Fillmore, b. Nov. 16, 1814, d. Mar. All these crises were resolved without the United States going to war or losing face. Don William Fullmer - Millard County Chronicle Progress [16] He left Wood after eighteen months; the judge had paid him almost nothing, and both quarreled after Fillmore had, unaided, earned a small sum by advising a farmer in a minor lawsuit. However, his financial worries were removed on February 10, 1858, when he married Caroline McIntosh, a well-to-do widow. Enjoying the holidays with his family on an early Christmas Eve morn, 1851, he heard the Washington, D.C. fire chiefs call "Fire! At the time, Congress convened its annual session in December and so Fillmore had to wait more than a year after his election to take his seat. [78][79], Fillmore countered the Weed machine by building a network of like-minded Whigs in New York State. For example, President Harry S. Truman later "characterized Fillmore as a weak, trivial thumb-twaddler who would do nothing to offend anyone" and as responsible in part for the war. Millard Fillmore Middle Name: None Millard Fillmore, our 13th president, was the second president to assume the presidency following the death of his predecessor (Taylor) but the first. When order had been restored, John A. Collier, a New Yorker who opposed Weed, addressed the convention. 1828-1889 . [77], Through 1849, slavery was an unresolved issue in the territories. He reinforced federal troops in the area and warned Bell to keep the peace. [69][70], Northerners assumed that Fillmore, hailing from a free state, was an opponent of the spread of slavery. [141] Fillmore's handling of major political issues, such as slavery, has led many historians to describe him as weak and inept. In 1832, Millard Fillmore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Although some Northerners were unhappy at the Fugitive Slave Act, relief was widespread in the hope of settling the slavery question. Abigail Powers. With the Whigs able to organize the House for the first time, Fillmore sought the Speakership, but it went to a Clay acolyte, John White of Kentucky. Since March 4 (which was then Inauguration Day) fell on a Sunday, the swearing-in was postponed to the following day. Thus Fillmore not only achieved his legislative goal but also managed to isolate Tyler politically. what happens when you drink cold water when you are hot? She was only six years old when her parents lived in Washington with her father's election to Congress. BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) One of the oldest hospitals in western New York has shut down. The former president expressed his regret at Fillmore's absence from the halls of Congress. Abigail Fillmore | eHISTORY - Ohio State University After hearing weeks of debate, however, Fillmore informed him in May 1850 that if senators divided equally on the bill, he would cast his tie-breaking vote in favor. [10] Fillmore was relegated to menial labor, and unhappy at not learning any skills, he left Hungerford's employ. Fillmore interceded with the editor and assured him that Taylor was loyal to the party. He died a month later, on April 4, from pneumonia. Millard Fillmore: Campaigns and Elections | Miller Center Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853, the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. Fillmore was an unsuccessful candidate for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives when the Whigs took control of the chamber in 1841, but he was made the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. A memorial to Fillmore on the gate surrounding his plot in Buffalo, Detail of the Fillmore obelisk in Buffalo, For further information on the procedures of American political conventions, see, Fillmore was Vice President under President, Nathaniel Fillmore, the first father of a President to visit his son at the White House, told a questioner how to raise a son to be president: "Cradle him in a sap trough.". [19][22] Later in life, Fillmore said he had initially lacked the self-confidence to practice in the larger city of Buffalo. Fillmore was apparently out of town at the time and put black drapes in the windows once he returned. Otherwise, Webster would withdraw in favor of Fillmore. However, Weed had sterner opponents, including Governor Young, who disliked Seward and did not want to see him gain high office. Some feared that they might elect another Tyler, or another Harrison. Believing that government funds should be lent to develop the country, Fillmore felt it would lock the nation's limited supply of gold money away from commerce. A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Upstate New York, Fillmore was elected as the 12th vice president in 1848, and succeeded to the presidency in July 1850 upon the death of Zachary Taylor. [17] Refusing to pledge not to do so again, Fillmore gave up his clerkship. Although the South was friendly towards Fillmore, many people feared that a Frmont victory would lead to secession, and some of those who were sympathetic to Fillmore moved into the Buchanan camp for fear of splitting the anti-Frmont vote, which might elect the Republican. Fillmore sought the Whig nomination to a full term in 1852 but was passed over by the party in favor of Winfield Scott. Millard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States who served from 1850 to 1853. When Fillmore discovered that after the election, he went to Taylor, which only made the warfare against Fillmore's influence more open. [j] The American Party ticket narrowly lost in several southern states, and a change of fewer than 8,000 votes in Louisiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee would have thrown the election to the House of Representatives, where the sectional divide would have made the outcome uncertain. In his 1856 candidacy, he had little to say about immigration, focused instead on the preservation of the Union, and won only Maryland. [132][133], Despite Fillmore's zeal in the war effort, he gave a speech in early 1864 calling for magnanimity towards the South after the war and counted its heavy cost, both in finances and in blood. He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in 1852 but gained the endorsement of the nativist Know Nothing Party four years later and finished third in the 1856 presidential election. Did Millard Fillmore had any other job before president? President Millard Fillmore - Constitution of the United States Millard Fillmore, (born January 7, 1800, Locke township, New York, U.S.died March 8, 1874, Buffalo, New York), 13th president of the United States (1850-53), whose insistence on federal enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 alienated the North and led to the destruction of the Whig Party. Children of Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard Fillmore Olive. 10 Things You Should Know About Millard Fillmore - History [38] Fillmore spent his time out of office building his law practice and boosting the Whig Party, which gradually absorbed most of the Anti-Masons. "[47], Weed deemed Fillmore "able in debate, wise in council, and inflexible in his political sentiments". 1798-1853. [42], Fillmore was active in the discussions of presidential candidates which preceded the Whig National Convention for the 1840 race. At the time, the presidential candidate did not automatically pick his running mate, and despite the efforts of Taylor's managers to get the nomination for their choice, Abbott Lawrence of Massachusetts, Fillmore became the Whig nominee for vice president on the second ballot. They continued operations after the war, and Fillmore remained active with them almost until his death. Weed was an influential editor with whom Fillmore tended to co-operate for the greater good of the Whig Party. [115], Dorothea Dix had preceded him to Europe and was lobbying to improve conditions for the mentally ill. Fearing that Taylor would be a party apostate like Tyler, Weed in late August scheduled a rally in Albany aimed at electing an uncommitted slate of presidential electors. [75], Fillmore was sworn in as vice president on March 5, 1849, in the Senate Chamber. Fillmore made public appearances opening railroads and visiting the grave of Senator Clay but met with politicians outside the public eye during the late winter and the spring of 1854. Webster was far more unhappy at the outcome than was Fillmore, who refused the secretary's resignation. Fillmore was a delegate to the New York convention that endorsed President John Quincy Adams for re-election and also served at two Anti-Masonic conventions in the summer of 1828. Children of Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard Fillmore, Olive Armstrong Fillmore, b. Dec. 16, 1797, Millard Fillmore, b. Jan. 7, 1800, d. Mar. [4][5] The historian Tyler Anbinder described Fillmore's childhood as "one of hard work, frequent privation, and virtually no formal schooling. Clay's bill provided for the settlement of the Texas-New Mexico boundary dispute, and the status of slavery in the territories would be decided by those living there, the concept being known as popular sovereignty. "[146] Rayback, however, applauded "the warmth and wisdom with which he had defended the Union". "[128] Among these were the Buffalo General Hospital, which he helped found.[129]. Southerners accused him of being an abolitionist, which he hotly denied. [62], With the nomination undecided, Weed maneuvered for New York to send an uncommitted delegation to the 1848 Whig National Convention in Philadelphia in the hope of being a kingmaker in a position to place ex-Governor Seward on the ticket or to get him a high federal office. On February 5, 1826, Millard Fillmore, who later becomes the 13th president of the United States, marries Abigail Powers, a New York native and a preacher's daughter. That led to lasting ill-feeling against Fillmore in many circles. Kossuth wanted the United States to recognize Hungary's independence. He secured an enlargement of Buffalo's canal facilities. When the Anti-Masons did not nominate him for a second term in 1834, Fillmore declined the Whig nomination, seeing that the two parties would split the anti-Jackson vote and elect the Democrat. [100], Fillmore was a staunch opponent of European influence in Hawaii. [15] Fillmore earned money teaching school for three months and bought out his mill apprenticeship. The Democrats nominated Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan for president, with General William O. Butler as his running mate, but it became a three-way fight since the Free Soil Party, which opposed the spread of slavery, chose ex-President Van Buren. [37], Anti-Masonry was still strong in Western New York though it was petering out nationally. The historian Elbert B. Smith, who wrote of the Taylor and the Fillmore presidencies, suggested that Fillmore could have had war against Spain had he wanted.