Millard Fillmore
1850 - 1853
Thirteenth President
Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800 in Cayaga County, New York. He was the last president born in the 18th century.
Millard was his mother's maiden name.
He was the second of nine children.
He was one of four Presidents born in New York State (As of 2013). He was also one of six Presidents born in a log cabin. He was born in poverty and had little education. He was mostly self taught.
His father apprenticed him to a textile mile. He learned about wool carding and cloth dressing.
Fillmore married his teacher, Abigail Powers, who was 2 years older than her husband. Abigail arranged for the purchase of the first cooking stove in the White House. But the cook couldn't figure out how to work the stove, so the president went to the U.S. Patent Office, read the patent for the stove, and went back to the White House and taught the cook how to use it. Abigail also set up the first White House library and had the first bathtub installed.
Until he was 17, he had read little besides the Bible.
He was 6' tall.
He was in the military, but saw no action.
Millard Fillmore did not drink, gamble or smoke.
His was a fisherman. While he was working as a fisherman his ship was capture by pirates. After several months of forced labor he and the other fisherman recaptured their ship. The pirates were taken to Boston where they were hanged.
Millard Fillmore was a founding member of the Buffalo Chapter of he American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
He belonged to the Whig Political Party.
Millard Fillmore was admitted to the bar (became a lawyer) at age 23.
In 1828, he won election to the New York State Assembly.
In 1832, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was re-elected in 1836, 1838, and 1840.
Millard Fillmore ran for Vice President under Henry Clay. Clay and Fillmore were defeated in the election by Polk.
Millard Fillmore was Vice President under Zachary Taylor in 1848. Taylor and Fillmore had never met until Fillmore was nominated.
He supported colonization (sending blacks back to Africa) but no one knew that until later.
As vice president he had little power. He could handout very few favors. He failed to get a friends son into West Point and had only a few patronage positions to fill. Patronage is when a political person has the right to fill jobs with there friends or supporters.
When he was Vice President he lived at the Willard Hotel. His wife came to Washington but quickly returned to Buffalo leaving her husband alone with few friends.
President Fillmore never ran for President. He became President after the death of Zachary Taylor. When Taylor died Millard was very grief stricken. He set the swearing in for noon the next day. The United States went a day and a half without a president. He was sworn into office on July 10, 1850.
Millard Fillmore was the first President to have a stepmother.
Fillmore did not give an inaugural address.
Millard Fillmore.
Brady, Mathew B., 1823 (ca.)-1896, photographer.
Library of Congress
Fillmore was the only "accidental" president to remove the entire cabinet from office. (Secretary of State, Treasure, War etc.) Other vice president who became president due to a death of a president kept all of some of the cabinet.
Fillmore appointed Daniel Webster Secretary of State. Webster was very passionate about enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. It was one of the most repressive acts ever passed.
When the Library of Congress burned in 1851, Fillmore and his Cabinet helped fight the blaze.
Fillmore tried to avoid the slavery issue. He disliked the abolitionist and tried not to take a stand on slavery. He was anti Catholic and anti immigrant.
Fillmore was president when California (1850) became a state.
Millard Fillmore supported building Great Lake lighthouses and improving harbors and river systems.
In 1852, Fillmore lost the nomination for president to Winfield Scott on the 53 ballot of the whig Convention. His chance were hurt by his Secretary of State who also ran for president and took votes away from Fillmore.
Abigail died less than a month after he had left office. Abigail had caught a cold at Pierces inauguration. She was buried in Washington, D.C.
His daughter Mary died two years later.
He married again in 1858.
Fillmore served as chancellor of the University of Buffalo.
Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln spent a night at Fillmore's mansion in Buffalo. They were on there trip to Washington and Lincoln's inauguration.
When Great Britain's Oxford University offered him an honorary degree, he replied that he had done nothing to deserve the honor and would not accept the degree.
Millard Fillmore died in Buffalo, New York, on March 8, 1874. He was 74 years and 60 days old. He is buried in Forest Lawn, Buffalo, New York.
Quotes:
"The man who can look upon a crisis without being willing to offer himself upon the altar of his country is not fit for public trust." July 10, 1850
"It is better to wear out than rust out."
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