Why millard fillmore was a bad president

Fillmore, the second of eight children, was born into an impoverished family on January 7, His family's small farm in upstate Cayuga County, New York, could not support them, and Fillmore's father apprenticed his son to a cloth maker, a brutal apprenticeship that stopped just short of slavery.

Fillmore taught himself to read, stealing books on occasion, and finally managed to borrow thirty dollars and pay his obligation to the cloth maker. Free, he walked one hundred miles to get back home to his family. He was obsessed with educating himself.

He pored over every book he could get his hands on and attended school in a nearby town for six months. His teacher, Abigail Powers, encouraged and helped him. She would prove to be the most influential person in his life.

She was only nineteen—not even two years older than her pupil. After Fillmore received a clerkship with a local judge, he began to court Abigail Powers. The couple married in As a young lawyer, Fillmore was approached by a fledgling political party and asked to run for the New York State Assembly.

In , he began the first of three terms in the assembly, where he sponsored a substantial amount of legislation. In , Millard Fillmore was elected to the U. House of Representatives. At that time, Andrew Jackson was President. Jackson's repeated clashes with Congress and his ambitious attempts to expand presidential power united several parties against him. Fillmore's own Anti-Masonic Party merged with the Whigs, which represented the older, more entrenched power structure and opposed everything that Jackson and the Democrats represented.

In , at the end of four terms in Congress, which were interrupted by one defeat, Fillmore resigned from the legislature. After unsuccessfully lobbying for the vice presidential nomination on the Whig ticket with Henry Clay and losing an election for governor of New York, both in , Fillmore was elected New York State comptroller, or chief financial officer, in He won this election by such a wide margin that he was immediately considered a prospect for national office.

The Whigs selected the military hero General Zachary Taylor as their presidential nominee for the election of The nomination of a slave owner who held property in Louisiana, Kentucky, and Mississippi infuriated abolitionist Whigs from the North. The party decided to balance the ticket by putting a Northerner in the vice presidential slot. Then, President Taylor suddenly died after attending a July 4 event in The unknown Northerner, Fillmore, became President.

It became clear very quickly that Fillmore believed his constitutional duty was to preserve the union through what became known as the Compromise of Fillmore worked with a rising Senator, Stephen Douglas, from the rival Democratic Party on a package of laws that admitted California as a free state but granted some important concessions to pro-slavery forces.

Fillmore was conflicted over parts of the Compromise, especially because of his personal experiences. But, as he told Daniel Webster in a letter, he felt it was his constitutional duty to enforce the law. The result was that Fillmore had greatly upset members of the Democrats and the Whigs with the Compromise.

The passage of the Fugitive Slave Act angered Northerners, who saw that President Fillmore would act to compel federal marshals to track down slaves that had escaped to the north. Fillmore also sent government troops to the South to act against rumors of secession by South Carolina. Pro-slavery forces were also unhappy that slavery had been barred in California. Nathaniel Fillmore was the son of Nathaniel Fillmore Sr. Millard Fillmore would become the 13th president of the United States on July 9, , the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House.

A former U. He was instrumental in getting the Compromise of passed, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over slavery. He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in ; he gained the endorsement of the nativist Know Nothing Party four years later, and finished third in that election.

Fillmore was born into poverty in the Finger Lakes area of New York state — his parents were tenant farmers during his formative years. He rose from poverty through study, and became a lawyer with little formal schooling. He became prominent in the Buffalo area as an attorney and politician, was elected to the New York Assembly in , and to the U.

House of Representatives in Through his career, Fillmore declared slavery an evil, but one beyond the powers of the federal government, whereas Seward was not only openly hostile to slavery, he argued that the federal government had a role to play in ending it.

Fillmore was an unsuccessful candidate for Speaker of the House when the Whigs took control of the chamber in , but was made Ways and Means Committee chairman. Defeated in bids for the Whig nomination for vice president in , and for New York governor the same year, Fillmore was elected Comptroller of New York in , the first to hold that post by direct election. He was largely ignored by Taylor, even in the dispensing of patronage in New York, on which Taylor consulted Weed and Seward.

As vice president, Fillmore presided over angry debates in the Senate as Congress decided whether to allow slavery in the Mexican Cession. July 4, was a very hot day in Washington, and President Taylor, who attended Fourth of July ceremonies, refreshed himself, likely with cold milk and cherries.

What he consumed probably gave him gastroenteritis, and he died on July 9. After acknowledging the letter, and spending a sleepless night, Fillmore went to the House of Representatives, where, at a joint session of Congress, he took the oath as president from William Cranch, chief judge of the federal court for the District of Columbia, and the man who had sworn in President Tyler. The cabinet officers, as was customary when a new president took over, submitted their resignations, expecting Fillmore to refuse, allowing them to continue in office.

Fillmore had been marginalized by the cabinet members, and the new president accepted the resignations, though he asked them to stay on for a month, which most refused to do. He was already in discussions with Whig leaders, and on July 20 began to send new nominations to the Senate, with the Fillmore cabinet to be led by Webster as Secretary of State.

Fillmore appointed his old law partner, Nathan Hall, as Postmaster General, a cabinet position that controlled many patronage appointments. The new department heads were mostly supporters of the Compromise, as was Fillmore. The new president exerted pressure to gain the passage of the Compromise, which gave legislative victories to both North and South, and which was enacted by September.

The Fugitive Slave Act, expediting the return of escaped slaves to those who claimed ownership, was a controversial part of the Compromise, and Fillmore felt himself duty-bound to enforce it, though it damaged his popularity and also the Whig Party, which was torn North from South. In foreign policy, Fillmore supported U. He sought election to a full term in , but was passed over by the Whigs in favor of Winfield Scott.

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. There was little discussion of slavery during the lame duck session of Congress, and Fillmore left office on March 4, , succeeded by Pierce.

Fillmore was the first president to return to private life without independent wealth or possession of a landed estate. With no pension to anticipate, he needed to earn a living, and felt it should be in a way that would uphold the dignity of his former office.

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. A saddened Fillmore returned to Buffalo for the burial. The fact that he was in mourning limited his social activities, and he made ends meet on the income from his investments. He was bereaved again on July 26, , when his only daughter Mary died of cholera. In retirement, Fillmore was active in many civic endeavors — he helped in founding the University of Buffalo and served as its first chancellor.

During the American Civil War, Fillmore denounced secession and agreed that the Union must be maintained by force if necessary, but was critical of the war policies of Abraham Lincoln. He devoted most of his time to civic activities.

He aided Buffalo in becoming the third American city to have a permanent art gallery, with the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. Fillmore stayed in good health almost to the end, but suffered a stroke in February , and died after a second one on March 8.

Two days later, he was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo after a funeral procession including hundreds of notables; the U.