FILLMORE,
MILLARD
(January 7, 1800–March 8, 1874), was the 13th President of the United States, 1850–53; Vice-President under Zachary Taylor, 1848–50, assuming the Presidency upon Taylor’s death; sent Commodore Perry to Japan, opening the trade routes to the Far East; signed the Compromise Act of 1850; admitted California, which had just begun the Gold Rush, into the Union as a free state; when the Library of Congress caught fire, 1851, President Fillmore and his Cabinet formed a bucket brigade to extinguish the flames; president of the Buffalo Historical Society, 1862; married Caroline Carmichael McIntosh, 1858, after death of first wife; Comptroller of New York State, 1847; Chancellor of the University of Buffalo, 1846; U.S. Representative, 1833–35, 1837–45, becoming the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, 1840; member of New York State Legislature, 1828–31; married Abigail Powers, 1826; and admitted to bar 1823.
On July 9, 1850, after an illness of only 5 days, President Zachary Taylor died. Millard Fillmore, who had been Vice-President under President Taylor, informed Congress, Wednesday, July 10, 1850:
I have to perform the melancholy duty of announcing to you that it has pleased Almighty God to remove from this life Zachary Taylor, late President of the United States. He deceased last evening at the hour of half-past 10 o’clock, in the midst of his family and surrounded by affectionate friends, calmly and in the full possession of all his faculties. Among his last words were these:—“I have always done my duty. I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me.”
Having announced to you, fellow-citizens, this most afflicting bereavement, and assuring you that it has penetrated no heart with deeper grief than mine, it remains for me to say that I propose this day at 12 o’clock, in the Hall of the House of Representatives, in the presence of both Houses of Congress, to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution, to enable me to enter on the execution of the office which this event has devolved on me.2138
On Wednesday, July 10, 1850, after being sworn into office, President Millard Fillmore addressed Congress:
A great man has fallen among us, and a whole country is called to an occasion of unexpected, deep, and general mourning.
To you, Senators and Representatives of a nation in tears, I can say nothing which can alleviate the sorrow with which you are oppressed. I appeal to you to aid me, under the trying circumstances which surround me, in the discharge of the duties from which, however much I may be oppressed by them, I dare not shrink;
and I rely upon Him who holds in His hands the destinies of nations to endow me with the requisite strength for the task and to avert from our country the evils apprehended from the heavy calamity which has befallen us.2139
On August 6, 1850, in an address to Congress, President Millard Fillmore stated:
It is plain, therefore, on the face of these treaty stipulations that all Mexicans established in territories north or east of the line of demarcation already mentioned come within the protection of the ninth article, and that the treaty, being a part of the supreme law of the land, does extend over all such Mexicans, and assures to them perfect security in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property, as well as in the free exercise of their religion.2140
On Monday, December 2, 1850, in his First Annual Message to Congress, President Millard Fillmore stated:
Being suddenly called in the midst of the last session of Congress by a painful dispensation of Divine Providence to the responsible station which I now hold, I contented myself with such communications to the Legislature as the exigency of the moment seemed to require. …
Nations, like individuals in a state of nature, are equal and independent, possessing certain rights and owing certain duties to each other, arising from their necessary and unavoidable relations; which rights and duties there is no common human authority to protect and enforce. Still, there are rights and duties, binding in morals, in conscience, and in honor. … The great law of morality ought to have a national as well as a personal and individual application. We should act toward other nations as we wish them to act toward us. …
And now, fellow-citizens, I can not bring this communication to a close without invoking you to join me in humble and devout thanks to the Great Ruler of Nations for the multiplied blessings which He has graciously bestowed upon us. His hand, so often visible in our preservation, has stayed the pestilence, saved us from foreign wars and domestic disturbances, and scattered plenty throughout the land.
Our liberties, religious and civil, have been maintained, the fountains of knowledge have all been kept open, and means of happiness widely spread and generally enjoyed greater than have fallen to the lot of any other nation. And while deeply penetrated with gratitude for the past let us hope that His all-wise providence will so guide our counsels as that they shall result in giving satisfaction to our constituents, securing the peace of the country, and adding new strength to the united Government under which we live.2141
On Tuesday, December 2, 1851, in his Second Annual Message to Congress, President Millard Fillmore stated:
None can look back to the dangers which are passed or forward to the bright prospect before us without feeling a thrill of gratification, at the same time that he must be impressed with a grateful sense of our profound obligations to a beneficent Providence, whose paternal care is so manifest in the happiness of this highly favored land.2142
On December 6, 1852, in his Third Annual Message to Congress, President Millard Fillmore stated:
Our grateful thanks are due to an all-merciful Providence, not only for staying the pestilence which in different forms has desolated some of our cities, but for crowning the labors of the husbandman with an abundant harvest and the nation generally with the blessings of peace and prosperity. …
Is it prudent or is it wise to involve ourselves in these foreign wars? Is it indeed true that we have heretofore refrained from doing so merely from the degrading motive of a conscious weakness? For the honor of the patriots who have gone before us, I can not admit it. Men of the Revolution, who drew the sword against the oppressions of the mother country and pledged to Heaven “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” to maintain their freedom, could never have been actuated by so unworthy a motive. … The truth is that the course which they pursued was dictated by a stern sense of international justice, by a statesmanlike prudence and a far-seeing wisdom, looking not merely to the present necessities but to the permanent safety and interest of the country. …
Our own free institutions were not the offspring of our Revolution. They existed before. They were planted in the free charters of self-government under which the English colonies grew up, and our Revolution only freed us from the dominion of a foreign power whose government was at variance with those institutions. But European nations have had no such training for self-government, and every effort to establish it by bloody revolutions has been, and must without that preparation continue to be, a failure. Liberty unregulated by law degenerates into anarchy, which soon becomes the most horrid of all despotisms. …
We owe these blessings, under Heaven, to the happy Constitution and Government which were bequeathed to us by our fathers, and which it is our sacred duty to transmit in all their integrity to our children.2143
President Millard Fillmore, who was a member of the Episcopalian Church,2144 stated:
I owe my uninterrupted bodily vigor to an originally strong constitution, to an education of a farm, and to life-long habits of regularity and temperance. Throughout all my public life I maintained the same regular and systematic habits of living to which I had previously been accustomed. I never allowed my usual hours for sleep to be interrupted. The Sabbath day I always kept as a day of rest. Besides being a religious duty, it was essential to health. On commencing my Presidential career, I found that the Sabbath had frequently been employed by visitors for private interviews with the President. I determined to put an end to this custom, and ordered my doorkeeper to meet all Sunday visitors with an indiscriminate refusal.2145
May God save the country, for it is obvious the people will not.2146