Home About Chat Users Issues Party Candidates Polling Firms Media News Polls Calendar Key Races United States President Senate House Governors International

New User Account
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource." 
Email: Password:

  Fillmore, Millard
CANDIDATE DETAILS
AffiliationDemocratic  
<-  1861-01-01  
 
NameMillard Fillmore
Address24 Shearer Ave
East Aurora, New York , United States
EmailNone
WebsiteNone
Born January 07, 1800
DiedMarch 08, 1874 (74 years)
ContributorJake
Last ModifedRob Ritchie
Jan 07, 2024 06:24pm
Tags Unitarian -
InfoIn his rise from a log cabin to wealth and the White House, Millard Fillmore demonstrated that through methodical industry and some competence an uninspiring man could make the American dream come true.

Born in the Finger Lakes country of New York in 1800, Fillmore as a youth endured the privations of frontier life. He worked on his father’s farm, and at 15 was apprenticed to a cloth dresser. He attended one-room schools, and fell in love with the redheaded teacher, Abigail Powers, who later became his wife.

In 1823 he was admitted to the bar; seven years later he moved his law practice to Buffalo. As an associate of the Whig politician Thurlow Weed, Fillmore held state office and for eight years was a member of the House of Representatives. In 1848, while Comptroller of New York, he was elected Vice President.

Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of nerve-wracking debates over the Compromise of 1850. He made no public comment on the merits of the compromise proposals, but a few days before President Taylor’s death, he intimated to him that if there should be a tie vote on Henry Clay’s bill, he would vote in favor of it.

Thus the sudden accession of Fillmore to the Presidency in July 1850 brought an abrupt political shift in the administration. Taylor’s Cabinet resigned and President Fillmore at once appointed Daniel Webster to be Secretary of State, thus proclaiming his alliance with the moderate Whigs who favored the Compromise.

A bill to admit California still aroused all the violent arguments for and against the extension of slavery, without any progress toward settling the major issues.

Clay, exhausted, left Washington to recuperate, throwing leadership upon Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. At this critical juncture, President Fillmore announced in favor of the Compromise. On August 6, 1850, he sent a message to Congress recommending that Texas be paid to abandon her claims to part of New Mexico.

This helped influence a critical number of northern Whigs in Congress away from their insistence upon the Wilmot Proviso–the stipulation that all land gained by the Mexican War must be closed to slavery.

Douglas’s effective strategy in Congress combined with Fillmore’s pressure from the White House to give impetus to the Compromise movement. Breaking up Clay’s single legislative package, Douglas presented five separate bills to the Senate:

1. Admit California as a free state.
2. Settle the Texas boundary and compensate her.
3. Grant territorial status to New Mexico.
4. Place Federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking fugitives.
5. Abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

Each measure obtained a majority, and by September 20, President Fillmore had signed them into law. Webster wrote, “I can now sleep of nights.”

Some of the more militant northern Whigs remained irreconcilable, refusing to forgive Fillmore for having signed the Fugitive Slave Act. They helped deprive him of the Presidential nomination in 1852.

Within a few years it was apparent that although the Compromise had been intended to settle the slavery controversy, it served rather as an uneasy sectional truce.

As the Whig Party disintegrated in the 1850’s, Fillmore refused to join the Republican Party; but, instead, in 1856 accepted the nomination for President of the Know Nothing, or American, Party. Throughout the Civil War he opposed President Lincoln and during Reconstruction supported President Johnson. He died in 1874.

[Link]

JOB APPROVAL POLLS
DateFirmApproveDisapproveDon't Know
06/13/2007-06/24/2007 Rasmussen Reports 17.00% ( 0.0) 25.00% ( 0.0) 56.00% ( 0.0)

BOOKS
Title Purchase Contributor

EVENTS
Start Date End Date Type Title Contributor

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor

DISCUSSION
Importance? 9.75000 Average

FAMILY
Wife Abigail Powers Fillmore 00, 1826-Mar 30, 1853
Wife Caroline Carmichael McIntosh Fillmore Feb 10, 1858-Mar 08, 1874
Son Millard Powers Fillmore 1828-1889
Daughter Mary Abigail "Abby" Fillmore 1832-1854

INFORMATION LINKS
Millard Fillmore - First Annual Message (December 2, 1850)  Discuss
Millard Fillmore - State of the Union Address (1851)  Discuss
Millard Fillmore - State of the Union Address (1852)  Discuss
RACES
  12/03/1856 US President Lost 2.70% (-56.08%)
  11/04/1856 GA US President Lost 42.86% (-14.28%)
  11/04/1856 MA US President Lost 11.54% (-52.08%)
  11/04/1856 PA US President Lost 17.85% (-32.26%)
  11/04/1856 NC US President Lost 43.22% (-13.56%)
  11/04/1856 IA US President Lost 10.46% (-38.42%)
  11/04/1856 MI US President Lost 1.32% (-55.83%)
  11/04/1856 RI US President Lost 8.45% (-49.40%)
  11/04/1856 AL US President Lost 37.92% (-24.16%)
  11/04/1856 IL US President Lost 15.68% (-28.41%)
  11/04/1856 MS US President Lost 40.56% (-18.89%)
  11/04/1856 TN US President Lost 47.82% (-4.36%)
  11/04/1856 AR US President Lost 32.88% (-34.24%)
  11/04/1856 IN US President Lost 9.50% (-40.91%)
  11/04/1856 MO US President Lost 45.57% (-8.86%)
  11/04/1856 TX US President Lost 33.35% (-33.30%)
  11/04/1856 CA US President Lost 32.83% (-15.55%)
  11/04/1856 KY US President Lost 47.35% (-5.08%)
  11/04/1856 NH US President Lost 0.59% (-53.12%)
  11/04/1856 VT US President Lost 1.08% (-76.98%)
  11/04/1856 CT US President Lost 3.25% (-49.90%)
  11/04/1856 LA US President Lost 48.30% (-3.39%)
  11/04/1856 NJ US President Lost 24.26% (-22.97%)
  11/04/1856 VA US President Lost 40.04% (-19.92%)
  11/04/1856 DE US President Lost 42.99% (-11.84%)
  11/04/1856 ME US President Lost 3.03% (-58.27%)
  11/04/1856 NY US President Lost 20.89% (-25.38%)
  11/04/1856 WI US President Lost 0.48% (-55.19%)
  11/04/1856 FL US President Lost 43.19% (-13.63%)
  11/04/1856 MD US President Won 54.64% (+9.61%)
  11/04/1856 OH US President Lost 7.29% (-41.29%)
  11/04/1856 US President National Vote Lost 21.53% (-23.75%)
  09/18/1856 US President - W Convention Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  02/25/1856 US President - Amer Convention Won 65.33% (+55.47%)
  02/06/1855 NY US Senate Lost 3.33% (-54.67%)
  06/20/1852 US President - W Convention Lost 40.43% (-7.90%)
  07/09/1850 US President - Deceased Successor Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/07/1848 US Vice President Won 56.21% (+12.41%)
  06/09/1848 US Vice President - W Convention Won 53.07% (+19.63%)
  11/02/1847 NY Controller Won 54.41% (+12.06%)
  01/18/1845 NY US Senate Special Lost 30.38% (-28.48%)
  11/05/1844 NY Governor Lost 47.42% (-2.06%)
  05/01/1844 US Vice President - W Convention Lost 16.16% (-30.79%)
  02/07/1843 NY US Senate Lost 16.30% (-53.33%)
  11/04/1840 NY District 32 Won 63.85% (+28.09%)
  11/07/1838 NY District 32 Won 65.66% (+31.33%)
  11/09/1836 NY District 32 Won 61.43% (+22.86%)
  11/07/1832 NY District 32 Won 69.59% (+39.19%)
ENDORSEMENTS
US President - Dec 05, 1860 CU John Bell