When it comes to forgotten presidents, Millard Fillmore's name is always in the discussion. Well, after you do a quick Google search and realize there was in fact a President named Millard Fillmore; then his name enters the discussion. If people remember Fillmore at all it is because of his unique name and little else. There aren't many Millards around any longer. Perhaps modern students of history will recognize Fillmore as the guy that social media always reminds us bares a striking resemblance to Alec Baldwin. However, even if you've heard his name, it's probably safe to assume that most Americans know very little about our 13th President. I'll make this short: there's not much to say. If ever someone wanted to make the argument that, in America, anyone can become President regardless of their upbringing, they needn't look further than Millard Fillmore. Like Lincoln, Fillmore was born in a log cabin and raised in poverty. Nearly everything the man achieved was accomplished as a result of work ethic and intelligence. An experienced and successful politician from the important state of New York, Fillmore was chosen by the Whig Party as the running mate of Zachary Taylor in the election of 1848. Zachary Taylor didn't last long in the presidency dying less than 2 years into his term (we'll talk more about that later) allowing Millard Fillmore to ascend the presidency. When Taylor died, Fillmore inherited a political mess threatening to tear the country apart. A few years earlier, the United States acquired much of modern day New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and California as a result of the Mexican American War. Whether this newly acquired territory would be free or slave was unclear. When gold was discovered in California in 1848, thousands of fortune seeking prospectors headed to the west coast in hopes of striking it rich. The rapidly growing population and need for law and order led California to apply for rapid admission into the Union as a state...free of slaves. As was typical of the day, Northern and Southern members of Congress viciously debated the issue of slavery in regards to the new territory. Southerners knew that if California was admitted to the Union as a free state, the balance of power in Congress would permanently tip in favor of Northern non-slaving holding states. As a result, they attempted to block California statehood unless significant pro-slavery concessions were made. The result was the infamous Compromise of 1850. The Compromise was a bundle of bills that instituted a wide array of measures to maintain peace, at any cost, within the Union. In addition to the admission of California as a free state, the compromise settled boundary disputes between New Mexico territory and Texas, allowed for the potential spread of slavery to New Mexico and Utah, banned the slave trade (but not slavery in Washington D.C.), and most notoriously enacted the Fugitive Slave Act. The Fugitive Slave Act is one of the more horrifying laws ever to be enacted in the history of the United States. Under the new law, slave catchers from the South were allowed to enter northern states in search of runaway slaves. With little more than an accusation, and no evidence needed, black men and women, regardless of whether or not the person was in fact an escaped slave, could be arrested. Northern states were forbidden from enforcing their own personal liberty laws that protected fugitive slaves. Captured individuals would be taken before a judge, without the luxury of a lawyer or jury, who would decide their fate. If a judge declared a person free they were paid substantially less than if they ordered them into slavery. So what does this have to do with Millard Fillmore? Everything. While presiding over the Senate as Vice President, Fillmore announced that he would be willing to cast a tie-breaking vote to support any compromise that settled the California question. That compromise became the Compromise of 1850 when he became President. Fillmore it seems, only viewed the question of slavery as a political one, divorced from the immorality of the practice. Sadly, this was an all too common view in the mid nineteenth century. Turning a blind-eye to the suffering of millions in bondage and failing to realize the turmoil and heartache that would be caused by ripping families apart in northern cities, Millard Fillmore signed the Fugitive Slave Act and vigorously enforced it. Perhaps the most infamous piece of legislation in American history bears Fillmore's signature and with it forever cements Millard Fillmore well within the bloody legacy of slavery in America.
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Derek Trent AshcraftA place to discuss, among other things, politics, culture, food, faith, and nonsense. Archives
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