"3
V
to
.4
u>
o
BIOGRAPHY
MILLAKD FILLMORE.
BUFFALO :
THOMAS & LATHROPS, PUBLISHERS.
185G.
E42T
C44
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
5
CHAPTER I.
His BIRTH, ANCESTORS, AND EARLY LIFE, . . . . 17
CHAPTER II.
MR. FILLMORE S ENTRANCE INTO PUBLIC LIFE, . . . .31
CHAPTER III.
MR. FILLMORE S CAREER IN CONGRESS, 44
CHAPTER IV.
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, 59
CHAPTER V.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1844, 79
CHAPTER VI.
ELECTED COMPTROLLER OF NEW YORK, 9G
CHAPTER VII.
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 10G
P46
IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII.
MR. FILLMORE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, . . .119
CHAPTER IX.
THE COMPROMISE MEASURES AND FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW, . . 129
CHAPTER X.
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE, * . .156
CHAPTER XI.
CUBA AND THE FILIBUSTERS, 179
CHAPTER XII.
EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES, . . . 200
CHAPTER XIII.
AMERICAN PRINCIPLES, 205
INTRODUCTION.
In the spring of 1853, MILLARD FILLMORE, the subject of
the following biographical sketch, retired from the Presidency.
Several of our most illustrious statesmen, who, at the com
mencement of his administration, were master-spirits in the
national councils, had been gathered to their fathers. CAL-
HOUN, indeed, had been summoned away before the dispensa
tion of Providence which placed a new pilot at the helm of
State, and before the portentous storm, then raging, had
gathered all its blackness. His last speech in the Senate,
read for him by a friend because he was too feeble to deliver
it, is pervaded by dark forebodings scarcely relieved by a
gleam of hope. His two great compeers, who sympathized
in his apprehensions, although they did not share in his
despondency, were still spared to the country, and, at the
commencement of Mr. FILLMORE S administration, were leading
members of the Senate. CLAY had, some years before, bid a
formal, and, as he supposed, a final farewell to this theater
of his labors; but a great and perilous crisis had now sum
moned him again to the service of his country. WEBSTER,
VI . INTRODUCTION.
then also in the Senate, had recently put forth one of the
most powerful efforts of his eloquence for the preservation of
the endangered Union. Although, to use his own language,
"the imprisoned winds are let loose" although "the east,
the west, the north, and the stormy south, all combine to
throw the whole ocean into agitation, to toss its billows to the
skies, and to disclose its profoundest depths," he would neither
shrink from his duty nor abandon hope. " I am looking out
for no fragment," he says, " upon which to float away from
the wreck, if wreck there must be, but for the good of the
whole, and the preservation of the whole ; and there is that
which will keep me to my duty during this struggle, whether
the sun and stars shall appear, or shall not appear for
many days."
It was in the midst of an agitation which thus aroused the
energies in the midst of dangers which thus alarmed the
apprehensions of our greatest and most experienced statesmen,
that the administration of MILLARD FILLMOKE commenced.
Before he had been two months in power, there was a lull in
the storm the crisis had passed and although a heavy
ground- swell continued, for some time, to mark the violence
of the recent tempest, the country was fast settling into tran
quillity. As the ablest men of both political parties had lent
their influence to secure the compromise, so they now united
to give it stability by all the combined weight of their charac
ters. Two years afterwards, both the great political parties,
into which the country was then divided, solemnly endorsed
it, in their national conventions, as the FINAL SETTLEMENT of a
most dangerous controversy.
INTRODUCTION. Vll
But no sooner had the administration which had brought
about this auspicious result retired from power, than other
counsels began to prevail. The first Congress that met after
the inauguration of President PIERCE, signalized itself by
carrying out his wishes in the repeal of a compromise of more
than thirty years standing, regarded by the country as an
inviolable compact. Thus were the flood-gates of sectional
agitation wantonly re-opened, and during the whole period of
the present Democratic administration, the country has been
distracted by heated controversies, on a subject which it was
supposed the compromise of 1850 had withdrawn forever from
the arena of national politics.
We are still in the midst of these controversies. Two of
the three great parties into which the country is now divided,
insist on making the slavery question the leading issue in the
approaching presidential campaign. Granting the importance
of this question to be as great as these parties contend, in
whose wisdom can the American people so fully confide to
preside over its settlement, as in that of the statesman who,
three years ago, extricated the country from the same dangers
into which the Democratic party has re-plunged it? He who
has once piloted the tempest-tossed ship into a safe harbor,
is the most suitable man to be again placed at the helm, when
her moorings have been wantonly severed, and she is again
drifting on the same stormy sea, exposed to be split on the
same dangerous rocks.
But the present importance of the slavery question is
greatly over-rated. The repeal of the Missouri compromise,
which had no other object than to gain the favor of the South
Vlil INTRODUCTION.
by opening Kansas to slavery, will injure tho interest it was
intended to promote. Kansas is as certain to be a free State
as if the Missouri compromise were standing to-day, intact
and irrepealable. So far as relates to territorial extension for
their peculiar institutions, the South have gained nothing
the North lost nothing. Other laws than the Missouri com
promise laws which no congressional enactment can repeal
the laws of climate and soil laws which govern emigra
tion, and, above all, laws written on the human heart, have
decreed the exclusion of slavery from the whole territory to
which the Missouri compromise applied. The pretended
friends of the South have not only conferred no benefit on
that section of the country, but have called into existence the
most formidable party that has ever been arrayed against
southern interests, and armed that party with specious and
plausible arguments. Will the South support a policy so
fruitless in good, n, policy so teeming with evil, to them
selves ? Will they act with a party that has wantonly revived
an agitation which it was clearly foreseen would peril their most
cherished interests ? So far as regards the spread of slavery,
nothing has been gained or lost by the repeal of the compro
mise. That repeal is simply a fountain of political excitement,
furnishing topics of declamation to demagogues who aim to
purchase power at the expense of the public tranquillity. The
American parly, seeing that neither section of the country
has anything to gain by the continuance of the controversy,
refuse to take any part in it, except for the purpose of
restoring peace.
INTRODUCTION. IX
As the party which has nominated Mr. FILLMORE now
enters a presidential contest for the first time, it may not be
inappropriate, before sketching the history of its candidate, to
say a few words of its principles. They make no appeal to a
love of novelty, to that reckless passion for change which
delights in perpetual innovation. They address themselves,
on the contrary, to the sober sense, the calm conservative sen
timent of the country. They are founded on PATRIOTISM
the source of all public virtue, the parent of all the great
deeds that emblazon the pages of history. Love for the land
that gave us birth that instinctive feeling which alike leads
men to repel the invader, and to preserve their institutions
from the unhallowed touch of foreign influence that ennobling
sentiment which so constantly triumphs over the strongest of
the selfish instincts, the love of life which pours out its
blood like water in its country s cause and counts it glory
which feels that its native air is tainted and no longer worth
breathing its native soil polluted, and fit only to afford
graves for its sons, when they cease to be its sole sovereigns
this sentiment it is on which the American party is built,
and on which it rests its hopes for the success of its funda
mental maxim, that AMERICANS SHALL RULE AMERICA.
The principle is not new. Our fathers declared it when
they cast off their allegiance to the British crown, and refused
to be taxed by a foreign parliament. They embodied it in
the Constitution of the country when they inserted in that
instrument a provision that the two highest officers of the gov
ernment the President and Vice-president of the United
States shall be native-born citizens. They recognized it in
1*
X INTRODUCTION.
the provisions of the same instrument which forbid the election
of any person to the United States Senate who has not resided
in the country nine years in addition to the period Congress
might require for naturalization, or of any person to the
House of Representatives whose residence has not extended
seven years beyond the same period. The length of time
aliens shall reside in the country before they can become
citizens, was not fixed by the Constitution, but wisely left to
the discretion of Congress. Circumstances might arise requir
ing an extension of the period, and Congress was clothed with
the power to extend it as the exigencies of the country and
the safety of its institutions should render expedient.
Why raise an impassable barrier against a naturalized citi
zen becoming eligible, by any length of residence, to either
of the highest offices ? Why take such an apparent excess of
precaution as to exclude from those offices a person bora on
ship-board during the voyage of his parents hither and wholly
educated in this country ? We put the question to those who
ridicule the idea of danger to our institutions from foreign
influence, and ask if all this pains was taken to guard against
an unreal danger ?
From the preponderance of the native over the foreign pop
ulation, a calculation of probabilities will show that there must
always be a large majority of native-born members of both
Houses of Congress. As the framers of the Constitution must
have foreseen that the naturalized members would always be
a minority, it clearly follows that they apprehended danger
from the influence of even a few who might retain their foreign
prejudices and sympathies, and so excluded foreigners from
INTRODUCTION. - XI
the national councils for a long period after they had acquired
the privilege of citizenship.
The power granted to Congress over the whole subject of
naturalization, furnishes another conclusive argument in favor
of the same position. It was foreseen that the future increase
of immigration might become so great, and the danger from
foreign influence so augmented, that any rule of naturalization
inserted in the Constitution would prove ineffectual against the
increased pressure of the evil. Congress was, therefore, in
vested with unlimited discretion, and left at liberty to deal with
the danger according to the demands of its growing magnitude.
The first Congress judged a residence of five years a suffi
cient preparation for citizenship. At that time, and for a long
period previous, nearly all our immigrants came from Great
Britain. The present facilities for crossing the ocean did not
exist; the voyage had not become so cheap as to place it
within the means of the poorest part of the population, nor
was there in this country the great demand for rude and
unskilled labor which the growth of our cities and our exten
sive public works have since created. The bulk of our immi
grant population was, at that time, more intelligent and
respectable than it is now, and furnished materials for a
better class of citizens. They were nearly all Protestants;
a large majority of them were Englishmen. As Protestants,
they were inaccessible to the influence of a foreign hierarchy.
As Englishmen, they had come to live under a government
founded on the model of the British Constitution, and which, in
copying from that model, had retained a great deal more than
it discarded. Comparatively little transformation of character
Xll INTRODUCTION.
was needed to bring such immigrants into full sympathy with
our sentiments, into perfect harmony with our institutions.
Within the last twenty years all this has changed. Our
immigrants are no longer mainly Protestants. A majority of
them no longer come from the country whose language we
speak, by whose literature our minds are formed, from whom
we have borrowed the habeas corpus, trial by jury, represen
tative government, and the common law. We receive now,
with a great many estimable, industrious, self-respecting
people, the very dregs and scum of the population of Europe.
All that is benighted by ignorance all that is debased by
superstition all that is squalid by poverty all that is
besotted by intemperance all that is detestable in morals
all that is odious and abominable by crime have, for the
last few years, been poured upon our shores, to taint our moral
atmosphere, and add to the corruption of our large cities.
Without any knowledge of our institutions without even any
acquaintance with our language, they are invested with the
most sacred of our political privileges the elective franchise
and either sell their votes directly to demagogues for some
paltry bribe, or yield them indirectly through the influence
of priests, whose wishes they are too superstitious to resist.
If our fathers thought it necessary to guard so carefully
against foreign influence when our immigrants, comparatively
few in numbers, were of our own blood and lineage, our own
language and religion, and our own habits of thought, who can
consistently say that the necessity is not greatly enhanced, when,
besides the alarming increase of numbers, the character of our
foreign population has become so much changed for the worse ?
INTRODUCTION. Xlll
Another consideration of great weight in this connection, is
derived from the local laws of the several States at the adop
tion of the Constitution, and the passage of the present
naturalization law. It is well known that the State Consti
tutions then required a property qualification of some kind,
generally a freehold, as preliminary to the right of suffrage.
At that time an alien, when naturalized, did not necessarily
become a voter. Under the then existing State regulations,
none of that class of foreigners whose abuse of the elective
franchise has given origin to the American party, would have
been suffered to approach a ballot-box. None except those
who had some stake in the government were allowed a voice
in its policy. The extension of suffrage till it has, in most of
the States, become universal, seems a wise change, when
considered in relation to our native population. With the
enlightened love of country which springs from American
birth and education; with the habits of industry, thrift and
enterprise so characteristic of our people, which makes the
acquisition of property and social position the common aim of
all ; universal suffrage is not only free from danger, but is as
wise and just as it is safe. But the great increase of an igno
rant and debased foreign population creates an imperative
necessity for either restoring the property qualification, or
altering the naturalization laws. At all events, it must be
admitted, that naturalized citizens wield far more political
power, in proportion to their numbers, than if the possession
of a freehold had remained a qualification for the right of suf
frage. The law as it stands was framed with reference to a
different condition of things from that in which it now operates.
XIV INTRODUCTION.
When it was enacted, our foreign population was neither so
numerous, so ignorant, nor so dissimilar to ourselves as it has
since become ; nor was it immediately invested with the right
of suffrage, by the mere possession of naturalization papers;
and, above all, the country at that time had no experience
of the abuses of which we have been witnesses within a more
recent period.
To remedy the evils introduced into the politics of the
country by demagogues who pander to the prejudices and
purchase the votes of foreigners to remove the corruption
which taints the fountains of power to restore to Americans
the influence which rightfully belongs to them in the govern
ment of their own country to rekindle the fires of patriotism,
and foster that national spirit which is at once the cheapest
defence of the country and the surest conservator of its insti
tutions these are the purposes of the American party, which
now enters the field for the first time with a candidate for the
highest office of the government. That candidate having been
selected, it is thought that a simple and impartial recital of
the leading events of his life will be acceptable to the
American people.
The task of preparing the following unpretending sketch
has devolved on the present writer, in consequence of the
absence from the country of the gentleman whose literary
talents and long personal association with Mr. FILLMORE would
render him the most suitable biographer of his distinguished
friend. I refer to Dr. THOMAS M. FOOTE, late Minister to
Austria; Avho, summer before last, was urgently solicited by
some of Mr. FILLMORE S friends to write the history of his
INTRODUCTION. XV
administration. He at length yielded to their persuasions,
and promised to prosecute the work. The writer of these
pages, then in habits of daily intimacy with Dr. FOOTE, had
frequent conversations with him relating to the plan, topics,
arrangement, and mode of execution of the proposed history,
and was to have assisted him in the composition of some of its
chapters. The preparation of the work for the press was
postponed during the autumn of 1854 and the following
winter, in consequence of Dr. FOOTE S feeble health, and
during the summer of 1855, by his occupation in superintend
ing the building of a new house. All this while, however, it
continued to be a frequent topic of conversation; and when,
last fall, Dr. FOOTE left the country on his present European
tour, there seemed a propriety, if, during his absence, circum
stances should render advisable the publication of a brief
sketch of Mr. FILLMORE S life, that I should be entrusted with
its preparation. By abridging the materials Dr. FOOTE would
have used in a larger and less ephemeral work, and giving
more fullness and prominence than he had intended to Mr.
FILLMORE S early history, and his public life previous to his
elevation to the Presidency, it was thought that a more
authentic and acceptable biography could be written, than
would be likely to be produced by any person not conversant
with Dr. FOOTE S plan, and without access to his materials.
I have deemed it proper to make these statements, partly
as an apology to the reader, but principally to enable him to
judge of the authenticity of the following hastily written
sketch, by the opportunities the writer has enjoyed for ac
quiring correct information.
BIOGRAPHY
O P
MILLAED FILLMOKE.
CHAPTER I.
HIS BIRTH, ANCESTORS, AND EARLY LIFE.
MILLARD FILLMORE was born in Western New York, in the
township of Locke, Cayuga county, on the 7th of January,
1800. This settlement in the wilderness was at that time so
new, that his father was compelled, on the occasion of his
birth, to walk seven miles in the woods, in the dead of night,
to the nearest physician, through a fresh fallen snow half knee
deep, with wolves howling on either side of him as he pressed
on his errand. Not only Mr. Fillmore s father, but his ances
tors, for three generations, were pioneers in the forest: the fam
ily being a true type of the hardy enterprise of American
character, whose early mission on this continent was to subdue
the wilderness, and nourish, amid severe labors, that manly
self-reliance without which the world would never have heard
of American Independence or American Institutions. The
noble oak which stands erect and defies the tornado, is nur
tured by no green-house culture, shoots up with no mushroom
rapidity, but is slowly elaborated by centuries of exposure, its
fibres becoming tough and firm by long resistance to the rock
ing of rude storms. And so with a national character, that has
the elements of bold enterprise, and stable, enduring greatness.
18 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
It is formed and consolidated by long struggles with hardship
and difficulty. The unbroken forest which our fathers en
countered on these shores, and which it was one of their chief
labors to fell and clear, was the school ordained by Providence
for the acquisition of the self-relying and invincible energy, and
severe self-denial, which carried the country through the trials
of the Revolution, and infused a taste for the manly simplicity
of a republican government. The sturdy strokes of the pio
neer s axe not only felled the forest, but formed his own
character. Of this peculiarly American labor the ancestors of
Millard Fillmore performed their full share, transmitting from
generation to generation the manly firmness, vigor, and self-
reliance, the strong practical sense and moral robustness, to
-which the subject of this biography is indebted for his eminent
position.
Mr. Fillmore s ancestry, which had taken root in American
soil at least four generations before his birth, affords so favor
able an exemplification of American character, and furnishes
so many interesting incidents, that the reader will willingly
allow us to detain him while we briefly sketch its history.
The early town records of Essex county, Massachusetts,
enable us to date the commencement of our narrative more
than a century and a half ago. If we occasionally copy the
quaint spelling of the old town clerks, we shall perhaps convey
a more distinct impression of those olden times.
John Fillmore, "say lor," married Abagail, daughter of
Abraham and Deliverance Tilton, of Ipswich, June 19th,
1701. Their children were John, born in Ipswich, March 18lh,
1702 ; Ebenezer, born in Beverly, and baptized in Wenham,
July 21st, 1706 ; and Abagail, born likewise in Beverly, and
baptized in Wenham, August 1st, 1708. The difference be
tween the places of birth and baptism of the two youngest
of these children, is accounted for by the fact that the church
in Wenham was the one nearest the residence of their parents,
PARENTAGE AND ANCESTORS. 19
the North Parish in Beverly, to which the mother afterwards
belonged, not being organized till December, 1715. No men
tion is made of the baptism of John, the eldest son, as his
mother did not unite with the church until 1705, three years
after his birth.
By a deed executed November 24th, 1704, "Luke Perkins,
blacksmith, and Martha, his wife," conveyed for 50 to "John
Fillmore, mariner," a house and barn and two acres of land
on the road from Wenham to Beverly, near Wenham pond.
Abagail Fillmore, though called "widow" in 1711, did not
administer on her husband s estate till 1715. This delay is
accounted for by the fact that being a " saylor " or " mariner,"
he died at sea, and a long interval elapsed before legal evidence
was obtained of his decease. It was at length ascertained that on
a homeward voyage the vessel in which he sailed was captured
by a French frigate, and the crew carried prisoners to Martin
ique, where they suffered all the hardships of a close and cruel
confinement. This was during Queen Anne s war, which was
terminated by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Before the end
of the war, these prisoners were exchanged, but nearly all of
them, John Fillmore among the rest, died on board the cartel-
ship on their passage home, a circumstance which gave rise
to the suspicion that they were poisoned by the French.
The property of which his widow was appointed adminis
tratrix, consisted of the real estate already mentioned, which
was valued by the appraisers at the 50 for which it was pur
chased, and personal property valued at 22 13s. 6d., including
" one bible and sermon books." Abagail Fillmore, the widow,
who was again married in Beverly, November 7th, 1717, to
Robert Bell, relinquished the administration of her former
husband s estate, in March, 1723, when her eldest son, John,
became of age, who was then appointed administrator, " Abra
ham Tilton, carpenter, and William Young, fisherman," being
his sureties. By a decree of the court, the real estate is
20 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMOKE.
conveyed to John Fillmore, who immediately conveys it to
other parties whose names and occupations are preserved in the
old records.
This Fillmore estate in Beverly belonged, in 1850, to Col.
Jesse Sheldon, and is situated near the North Beverly station
on the Eastern Railroad. The house had not been standing
for many years, but the cellar was filled up by Col. Sheldon
after he became owner of the field. The well was still in a
good state of preservation in 1850, and the cinders, yet visible
about the premises, bore witness to their having been occupied
by " Luke Perkins, blacksmith," the original owner who deeded
it to John Fillmore, the elder. There is a tradition that Whit-
field held one of his famous revival meetings in the house.
We have omitted to mention a most daring and remarkable
exploit, which we will now describe. After the death of his
father, John Fillmore was apprenticed by his mother to a
carpenter. Like most boys in humble life who listen to the
conversation of sailors, he was seized with a passion for the
sea. Besides the dangers of a sea-faring life, the melancholy
fate of his father furnished his mother with reasons for resist
ing his inclination, and detaining him at his trade. Though
he yielded to her wishes, he could not repress his thirst for
adventure, and he continued to importune her to allow him to
make a voyage. As he approached his majority, his mother,
finding his passion for a sailor s life unabated, reluctantly
yielded her consent to its indulgence, on condition that instead
of going to the West Indies, with which the commerce of the
colonies was mostly carried on, he would merely make a fishing
voyage to the banks of Newfoundland. He accordingly
shipped for a fishing voyage on board the sloop Dolphin, of
Cape Ann, Mark Haskell, skipper. The sloop had scarcely
reached her destination, when she was surprised by what
proved to be a pirate ship, commanded by John Phillips, a
noted pirate who then infested the American waters. The
A DARING EXPLOIT. 21
discovery was made too late for escape; the crew was too
weak to resist; and Haskell could only abide his fate and
quietly await the event. When the pirate came alongside, a
boat was sent to the sloop, demanding of its master who he
was and where he was bound. From this boat s crew Haskell
learned the character of the ship which had approached him.
His crew, being mostly young, were struck with consternation
on finding that they were in the power of Captain Phillips,
the notorious pirate, from whose cruelty they had everything
to dread.
They were soon boarded by another boat from the pirate,
among whose crew Fillmore recognized a young man, three
years his senior, named White, whom he had formerly known
as a tailor s apprentice. When this boat returned to the ship,
Phillips ascertained that there was no property which he wanted
on board the sloop, but White mentioned young Fillmore to
him, describing him as a bold, stout, resolute fellow, who would
make a valuable addition to his crew. Phillips accordingly
sent a boat again to the sloop, demanding the surrender of
Fillmore, and saying that the rest of the crew might go free.
Fillmore remonstrated with Haskell against his surrender, and
after some hesitation, it was decided that he should not be
given up let the consequences be what they might. When
the boat returned without him, Phillips was greatly incensed,
and sent again with orders to bring Fillmore either dead or
alive, but offering, if he would come voluntarily, to release
him at the end of two months. Though placing little confi
dence in the pirate s word, the thought of relieving the rest of
the crew from danger, induced him to trust to future chances
of escape, and he reluctantly consented to go.
He was conscientious as well as stout-hearted, and immedi
ately resolved that no extremity of peril should induce him to
sign the piratical articles. Destruction seemed to stare him in
the face, and he was full of apprehension, which only showed
22 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMORE.
that the inexperienced young man did not understand human
nature as well as his captors. They, ten in number, were all
picked men a set of the most daring and hardy looking fel
lows young Fiilmore had ever set his eyes on. From White s
description they had formed the opinion that he would make
a worthy compeer in the bold qualities on which they prided
themselves, and they wished to secure themselves against
treachery by winning his voluntary consent to their wicked
partnership. He was therefore agreeably surprised to find
that they did not urge him very strenuously to sign their arti
cles, that they uttered no threats, and used arguments rather
of a persuasive than of a compulsory nature. The captain
renewed his promise to release him at the end of two months,
and young Fiilmore, assuming an appearance of satisfaction,
engaged to serve him during that term to the best of his abil
ities. He was however placed at the helm, the most labori
ous post on the ship, and made to feel that his failure to sign
the piratical agreement had increased the hardships of his
condition.
During the first two months no captures were made, except
of some small vessels whose loading was too inconsiderable to
tempt the cupidity of the pirates.
When, at the expiration of his time, Fiilmore reminded the
captain of his promise to release him, he was told that little
business had been done since he came aboard, and that he
could not yet be spared. Phillips, however, promised, " on his
honor," to set him free if he would serve faithfully three
months longer. There was no alternative, and he was com
pelled to comply.
During those three months there were no noteworthy occur
rences. A few small vessels were taken and plundered, but
their cargoes were of little value, and their crews dismissed
unharmed except two or three robust stout-looking men, whom
Phillips selected and compelled to sign his articles.
A DARING EXPLOIT. 23
When Fillmore again demanded his liberty, he was answered
by such oaths and imprecations as only a pirate could use.
Abandoning all hope of ever being liberated by the clemency
of the captain, he made up his mind to endure his condition
with as much fortitude as possible, and consoled himself with
the hope that prisoners might some day be taken in concert
with whom he could effect his release. From this time his
sufferings and hardships were of the most aggravated charac
ter. One day, when bearing down on a merchant vessel,
Phillips flew into a rage because Fillmore did not steer skill
fully, and swinging his broadsword around his head, cut
eleven holes through his hat and the skin underneath. They
chased the vessel during the whole day, and when, at night,
they lost sight of her, the captain laid all the blame on Fill-
more, and abused him accordingly. . Our space does not allow
us to give the details of his subsequent sufferings and his
narrow escapes from death, an account of which has long been
in print. After many trials, there were on board the pirate
ship two individuals besides Fillmore who had not signed the
piratical articles. Taking advantage of a drunken carousal by
which the pirates celebrated a recent success, these three per
sons concerted a plan for destroying the pirates and getting
possession of the ship. By burning the feet of some while
they were dead drunk, so as to disable them, and despatching
others, including the captain, with the ship carpenter s axes,
they got the upper hand of the pirates, and with the aid of
some prisoners on board, consisting of Frenchmen and negroes,
they carried the vessel safely into Boston. Of the pirates who
were brought in, two were executed in this country, and the
rest sent to England with the forfeited vessel. Fillmore had
been nine months on board the ship, and the Court of Admi
ralty, presided over by Lieutenant Governor Drummond,
which tried and condemned the pirates, expressed its sense of
the daring young man s valor by giving him " Captain Phillips
2i BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
gun, silver-hilted sword, silver shoe and knee buckles, a curious
tobacco box, and two gold rings that the pirate Captain Phil
lips used to wear." White and Archer, two of the pirates,
were executed June 2d, 1724, probably one or both of them
in chains, as we find the bill of Robert Dobney, " smith," for
" makeing of the chaines for John Rose Archer, one of the
pyratcs, and the hire of a man to fix him on the Gebbet at
Bird Island."
The Ipswich town records show that John Fillmore was
married, in the early part of the following winter, to Mary
Spiller. He subsequently emigrated, with his wife, to Frank
lin, in Connecticut, then a part of Norwich, where a number
of the inhabitants of Ipswich had purchased a large tract, of
land to which some of them removed. Here the great-grand
father of the ex-president, glad to abandon the sea, spent the
remainder of his days in clearing the wilderness, and cultivat
ing a new farm.
His son Nathaniel, while yet a youth, left the paternal roof
to seek his fortune in the wilds of Vermont, and settled in
Bennington, where he afterwards married, and reared a fam
ily of six children, all of whom, with one exception, are still
living. That one died, a few years ago, at the age of eighty-
one, and the average age of the five survivors, including the
venerable father of the ex-president, who is eighty-five, is up
wards of eighty years. This remarkable longevity is a bless
ing inherited from progenitors whose constitutions were impaired
by no vices, and rendered robust by temperate habits and
manly toil. This Nathaniel Fillmore fought as a lieutenant
under General Stark in the battle of Bennington. His son
Nathaniel, the father of Millard, who was then a boy of six
years, has a distinct recollection of the noise of the guns dur
ing the battle, having been at play, at the time, with other
little boys whose fathers were likewise in the engagement He
says their mothers were assembled at the house of a neighbor,
BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. 25
listening in anxiety and terror to the sound of the battle,
and when the boys came trooping in, in excellent spirits, and
were asked by one of these weeping wives if they were not
afraid their fathers would be killed, they promptly answered,
"No: they knew their fathers were more than a match for the
regulars." After having fought in his country s defence,
Nathaniel Fillmore continued to reside at Bennington, enjoying
the independence he had helped purchase, till he ended his
days in 1814.
Nathaniel Fillmore, his son, who was born at Bennington,
on the 19th of April, 17 71, removed, in early life, into Western
New York, which was then a wilderness, and settled in Cayuga
county. He married Phebe Millard, daughter of Doctor Abi-
ather Millard, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a woman of native
intellect, grace, and refinement, which, in a more exalted social
rank, would have attracted general homage. Mr. Fillmore is
no exception to the rule that distinguished men have generally
had superior mothers. Married at the early age of sixteen,
she at once evinced all the judgment of a mature and experi
enced woman in managing her domestic affairs, and counseling
her husband in the difficulties of his hard pioneer life. Never
was a mother more loved and venerated by her children, and
though she has been a quarter of a century in her grave, her
son, whose national reputation she did not live to witness, can
not even now mention her without evident emotion. Not long
after the birth of Millard, her husband lost his property by a
bad title to the military lands he had purchased, and removed
in 1802 to Sempronius, (now Niles,) in Cayuga county, where
he resided till 1819, when he removed to Aurora, about
eighteen miles from Buffalo, where he still resides, and where,
until within the last few years, he cultivated a small farm with
his own hands.
We have been thus particular in tracing the history of Mr.
Fillmore s ancestors, because the party by which he has been
26 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMOKE.
nominated will feel a just pride in knowing that lie is descended
from a long line of virtuous, hardy, patriotic and purely Am
erican progenitors, whose character was formed by purely
American influences. Including the son of the ex-president,
the family can be traced on American soil for six generations,
and, as has been said of that of Washington, its history gives
proof " of the lineal and enduring worth of the race." Though
none of Mr. Fillmore s ancestors rose to wealth or high public
station, none of them fell below the standard of industrious and
virtuous respectability, and when brought to the test, the fam
ily has always acquitted itself with courage, firmness, and
honor. " Hereditary rank may be an illusion ; but HEREDITARY
VIRTUE gives a patent of innate nobleness beyond all the
blazonry of the Herald s College."*
Millard remained with his father till he was about fifteen
years of age. During his early childhood he was a sickly and
somewhat backward boy, but when his constitution began to
acquire more vigor, he evinced that love of reading and eager
appetite for knowledge by which a superior mind usually gives
the first indications of its existence. The limited means of his
father prevented his enjoying any advantages of education
beyond the common schools of his neighborhood, which, from
the newness of the country, were probably not of a very
high order. He rapidly acquired all that his teachers had to
impart, and devoured, in the intervals of farm labor, every
stray book thnt fell in his \vay. This, assuredly, was not a
superior education ; but it has been substantially the education
of a great majority of American youth, since the first settle
ment of the country. Washington s early education was no
better; Franklin s not as good; and for a really robust mind,
the kind of training it affords is not without its advantages.
In such minds it fosters that strong intellectual thirst which
* Trving s Life of Washington.
EARLY EDUCATION. 27
is indispensable to the successful pursuit of knowledge, and
without which all schools, and all the elaborate appliances of
instruction, are idle and unavailing. The mind is not, as in
many institutions of learning, set to studying subjects which
are either above its capacity, or in which it feels no interest ;
it never, therefore, becomes cloyed or discouraged; curiosity
is never blunted ; and the keen mental hunger which results
from scanty aliment, not only keeps the attention vigorously
awake during the process of acquisition, but in the long inter
vals of labor, leads the mind back to the ground it has gone
over, and cultivates that habit of reflecting on one s knowledge,
without which it is of little use. It is a hard discipline, but
many great minds have been formed by it; and no American
youth, with the examples before him which the history of his
country affords, need despair, if he has brains and resolution,
of acquiring all the information requisite for eminent useful
ness. Not that colleges are either useless or unimportant;
but they have nothing better to impart than a keen appetite
for knowledge, energetic mental action, and confirmed habits
of reflection. These are the keys of the temple of science, and
whoever possesses them has nature s diploma, whether he has
or has not been honored with a college parchment.
At the age of fifteen, Millard was sent to learn the clothier s
trade, a business which, as then conducted, furnished employ
ment during only a portion of the year. When he had
remained four months with his master, he returned home to
spend the winter, and earnestly remonstrated with his father
against being sent back, assigning as a reason that he wished
to learn the trade, but had been kept, a great part pf the
time, at other employments. Thus early did he display one
of the leading characteristics to which he is indebted for his
success in life impatience of doing things by halves, or
of pretending to do a thing and not doing it thoroughly.
His father considered his request reasonable and granted it,
28 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMOEE.
promising to find him another place. Mr. Fillraore had a near
neighbor who was a clothier, but he declined to take Millard,
because he had already as many apprentices as he could
employ. The father, therefore, rode several days for the
purpose of looking up a place, but without any success.
Some time afterwards, one of his neighbor s apprentices was
taken sick, and he applied for Millard s services for a few
weeks till he should recover. Millard was permitted to go.
and during those few weeks showed so much assiduity, and
proved himself so capable, that his employer was unwilling to
part with him, and applied to his father to have him remain
as an apprentice. An arrangement was soon agreed upon, it
being one of the stipulations that the boy should work for his
master only when employed on the business he went to learn,
and that the rest of the time his services should belong to his
father. No indenture was drawn, each party considering the
word of the other a sufficient guarantee for the fulfillment of
the conditions.
While learning his trade, young Fillmore taught school
winters, and very soon becoming qualified for a teacher, he
was employed in that capacity, and for several years occa
sionally eked out his scanty means by this laborious but useful
occupation. As his faculties unfolded with increasing years,
the youth began to feel a dawning consciousness that he was
born for a higher destiny than carding wool and dressing
cloth. At the age of nineteen, he attracted the favorable
attention and made the acquaintance of the late Walter Wood,
Esq., of Cayuga county, who discovered, beneath the rude
exterior of the clothier s apprentice, indications of superior
talent, which he urged him to cultivate. By the assistance
of this estimable gentleman, he was enabled, with the consent
of his father, to buy his time and devote himself to study.
He was received into the office of Judge Wood, who had a
large law library, though he did but little professional business,
LAW STUDIES. 29
being principally occupied in the management of a large
estate. Here young Fillmore read law and general literature,
and, like Washington at the same age, he found employment
as a surveyor on the ^new lands of his patron. By the occa
sional practice of surveying, and teaching school a part of the
year, he avoided incurring a larger debt to his benefactor than
he was able afterwards easily to pay.
In the fall of 1821, Mr. Fillmore removed to Erie county,
and the next spring entered a law office in Buffalo, maintain
ing himself by teaching school while pursuing his legal studies.
After a year passed in this laborious manner, he was admitted
to the Court of Common Pleas, in the spring of 1823. He
immediately removed to the village of Aurora, where he
opened an office, and devoted himself to the practice of his
profession.
Such was the early life of a man who was subsequently
honored with responsible civil trusts, rose to fill the highest
office of the country in a great and memorable crisis, and now
ranks among the most eminent statesmen of his time. His
youth was marked by prudence, energy, perseverance, and
good sense, and gave evidence of talent; but though it showed
the promptings of a moderate and reasonable ambition, it
afforded no indications from which even a sagacious observer
could have predicted Mr. Fillmore s present eminence. He
was like one of those sites in the vast and then uncultivated
West, which have since risen to be great cities and important
marts of trade. When Millard Fillmore was a boy in the
backwoods, land in Buffalo or Chicago would have brought
no higher price in the market than millions of acres of the
surrounding country. The men who first got a glimpse of its
capabilities, and laid out village lots, showed by the prices at
which they sold them, that they had no suspicion of the im
mense fortune which was passing out of their hands. Who
was there, at that early day, that could have picked out the
30 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
particular acres whose value would be a thousand fold of that
of the average acres of the boundless West? Or who, from
the great mass of humble and laborious American youth, could
have then selected the particular one that should win the
highest honors of the Republic ? Who would have suspected
he was that unassuming young man who has just gone to a
country village to establish himself as a lawyer? But the
homespun garb of that young man covers talents which will
cause us to hear from him again in a wider theater.
ELECTION TO THE LEGISLATURE. 31
CHAPTER II.
Mr. Fillmore continued to reside at Aurora until the spring
of 1830. During these seven years, his professional practice,
(as would be inferred from his location, in a purely agricultural
district,) was not large; but all the cases in which he was em
ployed were managed with so much ability that his reputation
as a lawyer continued steadily to rise, until it attracted the
favorable attention of his professional brethren in Buffalo,
whither he was induced to remove by the offer of a highly
advantageous connection with an older member of the bar.
During his residence in Aurora, Mr. Fillmore was married,
in 1826, to Abagail, daughter of Rev. Lemuel Powers, a lady
of great moral worth, of modest and unobtrusive deportment,
and remarkable intelligence and good sense. She was of
Massachusetts descent, being of the stock of the Lelands, and
one of the 9,624 descendants of Henry Leland, of Sherburne,
one of the early settlers of the country. In the Leland family
magazine, published in 1850, the names of all its members
are recorded, and among other well executed engravings, it
contains a likeness of Mrs. Fillmore, accompanied by a brief
sketch of her life.
Mr. Fillmore s first appearance in public life was during his
residence in Aurora. In the fall of 1828 he had become so
favorably known to the citizens of Erie county, that he was
elected as their representative in the State Legislature, and
took his scat in that body the January following. In the
32 BIOGEAPHT OF MILLAKD FILLMORE.
"Political History of New York," written by Judge Hammond,
before Mr. Fillmore had become much known in national
politics, we find the following mention of his entrance into
public life: "Several of the western counties were represented
by anti-masons; and among the most prominent of them were
Millard Fillmore, from Erie; Philo C. Fuller, of Livingston
and Robert C. Nicholas, of Ontario."
The feet that Mr. Fillmore commenced his public life as a
prominent member of the anti-masonic party, which had then
. just arisen in Western New York, renders it proper that we
should make a few observations on the character of that party.
Mr. Fillmore s prominent position in it was the natural con
sequence of his superior talents; the fact that he belonged to
it, may require a different explanation.
Had it not been for recent local occurrences of remarkable
atrocity, which, from the mystery in which they were shrouded,
inflamed public curiosity in proportion as they baffled the
efforts of justice, and which kept the whole community in a
furor of excitement that has hardly a parallel in history,
Mr. Fillmore would have regarded the masonic order, as all
just minds had previously regarded it, and as all just minds
now regard it, as a perfectly innocent and harmless institu
tion ; in fact, merely a charitable and social club, designed for
the promotion of good feeling among its members, and the
relief of their indigent brethren. It is an ancient institution,
made respectable by the many eminent men who have be
longed to it; and, by the secrecy of its proceedings, appealing
strongly to a principle of human nature, which has displayed
its activity in every age of the world. The celebrated Eleu-
sinian and other mysteries of the Greeks and Romans; the
Esoteric doctrines of the ancient philosophers; the sect of
Essenes among the Jews; the Templars of the middle ages;
the order of Odd Fellows in our own times, and the secret
societies in our colleges, are illustrations of how congenial it is
ANTI-MASONRY. 33
to the human mind to participate in proceedings from all
knowledo-e of which curious outsiders are excluded. Provi-
S
ded the objects of such societies are innocent and praiseworthy,
their secrecy is no more deserving of censure than is that
honorable confidence by the violation of which one would
forfeit his claim to the character of a gentleman. The
secresy of the Free Masons was, therefore, in itself, no valid
ground of objection to their fraternity, and nothing could well
have been more frivolous than the formation of a party merely
to oppose this feature of the masonic institution.
The idea that the anti-masonic party was formed for this
purpose, is a misconception which does great injustice to the
many able and respectable men who were members of it.
The fundamental principle of the anti-masonic party was THE
SUPREMACY OF THE LAWS. Facts of a most extraordinary
nature, which had forced themselves on public attention, led
to the conclusion that the existence of masonry was incon
sistent with the regular administration of justice. This conclu
sion was, no doubt, founded on too narrow a basis of facts. It
was very much like the rejection of Christianity by a resident
of a Catholic country, who judges of the religion by the only
instances of which he has any knowledge, namely, those
which fall under his own observation. The fact that Wash
ington, and indeed most of the distinguished public men of
the country, had been members of the masonic order, ought
to have been regarded as a proof that masonry, as they under
stood it, required nothing inconsistent with their obligations to
their country, or which conflicted with the unlimited suprem
acy of the laws. But the same principle of human nature
which causes us to be more deeply impressed by the fall of a
building on the opposite side of the street, which kills half a
dozen men, than we should be by hearing that an earthquake
in China had engulphed a city of two millions of inhabitants,
will invariably color men s views of any particular institution
2*
34: BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
in accordance with the specimens with which they are most
intimately conversant.
The best apology for the anti-masons is to be found in the
facts in which the party had its origin. A simple relation of
these will be a sufficient justification for the opposition to ma
sonry with which Mr. Fillmore was identified, on his first
entrance into public life. Occurrences which so powerfully
aroused public indignation as to create a political party that
extended over a great part of the country, and embraced a
full proportion of able and experienced men, and whose nomi
nation for the presidency was accepted by a man of the char
acter and eminence of William Wirt occurrences which led
to these important results, could hardly have done otherwise
than make a deep impression on a young man of twenty-six,
residing in the section of country which was the scene of the
outrage. Had he been indifferent amid the deep excitement
of the whole community around him, it would have argued a
stoical apathy and callousness of feeling, not only discreditable
to the heart of a young man, but implying, in a person of any
age, a lack of human sympathy, and of that quick resentment
of injustice which is one of the best attributes of manhood.
At Batavia, a beautiful village in Western New York, which
had become a place of importance when Buffalo was a mere
cluster of rude dwellings, there resided, in 1826, a printer,
named William Morgan. His business was not thriving, and
being a royal arch mason, he hit upon the expedient of
replenishing his pockets by divulging the secrets of his order.
A rumor soon became current that Morgan was preparing a
book on masonry, and attracted the attention of several of the
masonic lodges of Western New York. On the llth of Sep
tember, the master of a masonic lodge at Canandaigua, a
town some fifty miles distant, procured a warrant to arrest
Morgan on the charge of stealing a shirt and cravat, and, with
two or three other masons, proceeded to Batavia, where they
ABDUCTION OF MORGAN. 35
caused him to be arrested, hurried him into a carnage, con
veyed him to Canandaigua, and brought him before the justice
of the peace who had issued the warrant. He was imme
diately discharged, there being no evidence that he was guilty
of the larceny complained of, but immediately re-arrested on
a small debt, which had been assigned to the same master-
mason who had procured the first warrant. Judgment was
rendered against Morgan for two dollars, an execution instantly
issued, and he was committed to close confinement in the
Canandaigua jail. Here he remained but a few hours. He
was discharged at a late hour of the same evening, and imme
diately after leaving the prison doors, he was seized, gagged,
and put into a covered carnage, which was driven two days
without interruption, until, on the evening of the 14th of Sep-
tember, it reached the Niagara river. This was accomplished
by relays of horses and the agency of many different individ
uals ; and Morgan was confined in the magazine of Fort Niag
ara, at the mouth of the river. This bold and unprecedented
outrage had been so skillfully planned, and was executed with
so much address and caution, that it was for a long time
impossible to penetrate the secrecy in which the conspirators
had veiled their movements.
The rumor which had been for some time current in Batavia
of Morgan s intention to publish a book revealing the secrets
of masonry, seemed to afford a clue to the motives of this great
outrage. It was known that he had been remonstrated with
by his brother masons, and that all their efforts to induce him
to suppress his book had produced no impression on him. A
public meeting was held, and a committee appointed, who
proceeded to Canandaigua to investigate the circumstances of
Morgan s disappearance. All they were able to ascertain was,
that Morgan had been seized immediately on his release from
prison, hurried into a carriage, and driven off by night, in the
direction of Rochester. When the result of this investigation
36 BIOGEAPJIY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
became known it created intense public excitement. A great
crime, the-result of an extensive and deep-laid conspiracy, bad
been committed. A citizen bad disappeared under circum
stances which justified the suspicion that the bands which
conveyed him away bad been stained with bis blood. Public
meetings were held in a great many towns, particularly those
through which the circumstances attending the conspiracy
indicated that Morgan had been carried, and committees were
appointed to investigate the facts. These meetings had no
political purpose, nor any other object than to ferret out an
unexampled crime, which was so shrouded in mystery that it
inflamed curiosity not less than it aroused resentment. They
were composed indiscriminately of men of both political parties,
and no motive was avowed but the praiseworthy one of inves
tigating a crime committed against the liberty, if not the life,
of an American citizen. Even the masons were appealed to,
to assist in these investigations, and told that if they wished to
wipe out a blot from their escutcheon, and protect themselves
from suspicion, they should lend their aid in vindicating the
violated majesty of the laws.
These committees of investigation encountered unexpected
obstacles, and a long time elapsed before they were able to
trace the course of the conspirators to Fort Niagara. At first,
the crime was supposed to be the work of a few misguided
persons, acting without the sanction of the fraternity ; although
there were some, who, from the beginning, held the whole
order responsible. As the investigations proceeded, the num
ber of these increased, until it finally embraced a large portion
of the community; It was observed that, with scarcely an
exception, no mason rendered any assistance in the investiga
tion. It was discovered that every person implicated in the
foul transaction was a mason. Masons attempted to cover the
whole investigation with ridicule, affected to disbelieve that
any crime had been committed, and some even went so far as
ABDUCTION OF MOEGAN. 37
to say, that if Morgan had been made away with, the trans
action was perfectly justifiable. They taunted the committees
with their inability to accomplish anything, when judges,
jurors and sheriffs were masons; witnesses were mysteriously
spirited away ; the committees vilified and abused ; and in the
exasperation which followed, the conviction became general
among those who were not masons, that the institution was
responsible for the crime which thus eluded public justice.
The precise fate of Morgan, after his confinement in Fort
Niagara, never became known. But at this day there remains
no doubt that he was murdered in cold blood, by members
of the masonic fraternity, to prevent the disclosure of their
secrets. It is not probable that, at the beginning, they con
templated the commission of so foul a crime; but when they
had once abducted their victim, they knew no other way to
dispose of him. A second crime became necessary for the
purpose of concealing the first.
The publication of Morgan s book, which was not prevented
by his abduction, made known the obligations taken by masons
in joining the order. Considering the circumstances under
whfch they were brought to light, it is no wonder that these
oaths received a literal interpretation. They were probably
regarded by most of those who took them, as a mere form,
without meaning, for it was established by the testimony,
both of adhering and seceding masons, that in one of them
(called the royal arch) the candidate swears that he will assist
a brother mason in distress, and espouse his cause, so far as to
extricate him from the same, if in his power, whether he le right
or wrong; that he will conceal the secrets of a brother, given
him in charge as such, murder and treason not excepted; and in
other oaths the candidate binds himself to avenge the violated
secrets of the lodge, by the infliction of death on the offender,
and to revenge the wrongs of a brother to the utmost
extremity.
38 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
These oaths being made public immediately after the com
mission of a great crime, by the agency of masons, and in the
face of their attempt to screen the perpetrators from justice,
nothing was more natural than that the community in which
it had been committed should suppose that the oaths were
not mere unmeaning forms, but obligations assumed -in good
faith, and to be strictly interpreted. " If this be masonry,"
said an outraged community, " it is the duty of good men to
unite and put it down." Had the masons of Western New
York co-operated in the efforts to bring the conspirators to
justice, the nature of their institution would not have been
so misconceived.
When, in January, 1827, Lawson and others were brought
to trial, the public expected developments which would clear
up the mystery. But, by a piece of adroit management, the
facts which the public curiosity so eagerly craved, were still
kept shrouded from view. Contrary to expectation, the "de
fendants pleaded guilty, and thus excluded all testimony.
The community was raised to a still higher pitch of excite
ment. Judge Throop, in sentencing the prisoners, addressed
them in the following language. " Your conduct has created,
in the people of this section of the country, a strong feeling
of virtuous indignation. The court rejoices to witness it to
be made certain that a citizen s person can not be invaded by
lawless violence, without its being felt by every individual in
the community. It is a blessed spirit, and we do hope that it
will not subside; that it will be accompanied by a ceaseless
vigilance and untiring activity, until every actor in this profli
gate conspiracy is hunted from his hiding-place, and brought
before the tribunals of his country, to receive the punishment
merited by his crime. We think we see in this public sensa
tion, the spirit which brought us into existence as a nation,
and a pledge that our rights and liberties are destined to
endure."
ABOLITION OF IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. o ( J
Up to this time, the excitement had not taken a political
turn. Baffled in their attempts to ascertain the facts, it is not
surprising that the community indulged in dark suspicions, nor
that horrible rumors got afloat, and were received with im
plicit credence. The public mind was lashed into a state
bordering on fury. Under any other government than ours,
there would have been serious outbreaks, ending in violence
and bloodshed. But, in accordance with the genius of our
institutions, a political direction was given to the excitement,
and it was aimed to bring the elective franchise to aid the
tribunals of justice, which were set at defiance.
From this account of the origin of anti-masonry, it will be
seen that it was not, as is generally supposed, founded on a
blind and indiscriminate opposition to secret societies, but
aimed at the less frivolous, and entirely commendable object
of sustaining the supremacy of the laws. That it mistook the
character of the institution it opposed, was an unavoidable
consequence of the extraordinary facts by which a previously
indifferent community were startled -into an active, but con
stantly baffled attempt to investigate the subject. In personal
character and influence, the anti-masonic party was one of the
most respectable that has ever appeared in our politics.
During the three years that Mr. Fillmore was a member of
the New York Legislature, it was a body of great ability, em
bracing some of the most distinguished men that have ever
figured in New York politics. As the Democratic party was
largely in the majority, and under the discipline of experienced
leaders, a young member of the opposition, naturally modest
and unassuming, had little opportunity to distinguish himself.
Mr. Fillmore, however, made a favorable impression from
the very first ; and in all measures not of a party character,
liis opinion soon came to be regarded as of great weight. He
made no attempts to show off his abilities ; he never spoke for
display ; but the clearness with which his views were formed,
4:0 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
the modest brevity with which he explained them, the candor,
discretion and good sense which he uniformly evinced, gained
for him a strong hold on the confidence of his associates. One
of the measures in which he felt great interest was the aboli
tion of imprisonment for debt. The bill, as it stands on the
statute book, was drafted by him and the late Hon. John C.
Spencer, and to their zealous advocacy it was principally in
debted for success. The impression which Mr. Fillmore a
young man without experience, and barely twenty-nine years
of age made during the first session he served in the Legis
lature, may be judged of by the manner his return to that
body the next year is mentioned by Judge Hammond. He
says: " The anti-masonic party had not increased their num
bers in the Assembly, but they had greatly added to the
talents of that branch of the Legislature. Mr. Granger, Mr.
Fillmore, Mr. Nicholas, and Mr. P. C. Fuller were again re
turned. To these strong and powerful representatives in the
Assembly, they this year added Thurlow Weed, of Monroe,
and Abner Hazeltine, of.Chautauque county."* Speaking in
another place of the anti-masonic members of the Legislature,
he mentions the names of several, including Mr. Fillmore, and
says, they " were all men whose talents would have done
credit to any deliberative body ; and the address and eloquence
of some of them would have added luster to any legislative
assembly in the world,"
It can not but be regarded as creditable to the talents of an
inexperienced young man from the new settlements of West
ern New York, that, notwithstanding the native modesty of
his character, he immediately took rank with the ablest mem
bers of the body. -Lest it should be thought that these views
of his early public career are colored by a knowledge of his
subsequent success, we insert the following description written
* Political History of New York.
A LEGISLATIVE POKTEAIT. 41
at the time. It is one of a series of " Legislative Portraits,"
which appeared in the Albany Evening Journal, during the
session of 1830. They were written by an experienced ob
server, and included only prominent members of the Legis
lature:
" No. VI. MILLARD FILLMORE, of Erie county, is of the
middle stature five feet nine inches in height. He appears to
be about thirty-five years of age, but it is said he is not more
than thirty, of light complexion, regular features, and of a
mild and benign countenance.
" His ancestors were among the hardy sons of the North,
and, during the war of the Revolution, were WHIGS, inhabiting
the Green Mountains of Vermont. Mr. Fillmore, from the
commencement of his political career, has been a republican.
He is, in the strictest sense of the term, a self-made man.
He was educated and reared in the western district of our
State. At an early period of life he went to the fulling busi
ness; but naturally of an inquiring mind, and anxious to in
crease his limited stock of knowledge, his leisure hours were
occupied in reading. When about twenty years of age, he
retired from his former pursuits, and after having studied the
law as a profession, he was licensed to practice. He was a
member of the last Legislature.
" Although the age of Mr. Fillmore does not exceed thirty
years, he has all the prudence, discretion, and judgment of an
experienced man. He is modest, retiring, and unassuming.
He appears to be perfectly insensible of the rare and happy
qualities of mind for which he is so distinguished. He ex
hibits, on every occasion, when called into action, a mildness
and benignity of temper, mingled with a firmness of purpose,
that is seldom concentrated in the same individual. His in
tercourse with the bustling world is very limited. His books,
and occasionally the rational conversation of intelligent friends,
seem to constitute his happiness. He is never to be found in
42 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMOKE.
the giddy mazes of fashionable life. And yet there is in his
manner an indescribable something which creates a strong im
pression in his favor, and which seems to characterize him as
a well bred gentleman.
"He possesses a logical mind; and there is not a member
of the house who presents his views, on any subject that he
attempts to discuss, in a more precise and luminous manner.
He seldom speaks unless there appears to be an absolute ne
cessity for the arguments or explanations which he offers.
Nor does he ever rise without attracting the attention of all
who are within the sound of his voice a tribute of respect
paid to his youthful modesty and great good sense.
"As a legislator, Mr. Fillmore appears to act with perfect
fairness and impartiality. He examines every subject dis
tinctly, for himself, and decides on its merits according to the
best lights of his own judgment or understanding. He is now
at an age when his character is to be irrevocably fixed. As a
politician, he is not formed to be great. He has none of the
qualities requisite for a political chieftain. He wants that self-
confidence and assurance (if the term may be allowed,) with
out which a partisan leader can never hope for followers. Mr.
Fillmore s love of books and habits of thinking, will, ulti
mately, conduct him to a more tranquil, but higher destiny, if
the one is not broken upon, and the other diverted from its
natural course, to the too often polluted, and always turbulent,
if not mortifying conflicts of faction. If he has not sufficient
moral firmness to resist the allurements which legislation pre
sents to the young and ambitious, then ought his friends to
act for him, and refuse him a re-nomination. It is a life which
not only casts to the winds of heaven all employment as a,
professional man, but it uproots, sooner or later, the germs of
industry, and the delights of study. These are the admoni
tions of age and experience.
"As a debater, Mr. Fillmore occupies a very elevated stand
MR. FILLMORE S MODESTY. 43
i
in the house. His manner is good; his voice agreeable. To
ward his opponents he never fails to evince a most studied
delicacy. He is mild and persuasive, sometimes animated.
His speeches are pithy and sententious; always free from idle
and vapid declamation. His arguments are logically arranged,
and presented to the house without embarrassment or con
fusion."
The advice which this writer tendered to Mr. Fillmore, to
retire from public life, was doubtless meant for his private
advantage, rather than that of the country. There can be no
doubt of the soundness of the general principle, that when a
young lawyer allows himself to be allured into politics, he
sacrifices his prospects of professional eminence. But in Mr.
Fillmore s case, the very love of study which is assigned as a
reason for retirement, has ensured a hearty devotion to quiet
pursuits whenever he has been released from the calls of pub
lic duty. The lack of the self-confidence and assurance deemed
essential to a great party leader, has not interfered, as was
predicted, with Mr. Fillmore s political success, but, on the
contrary, has inspired additional public confidence, from the
conviction that he is not governed by self-seeking ambition.
May the day be far distant when the American people shall
prefer bold assurance to modest merit! Washington possessed
as little of the self-confident and assuming qualities which are
considered essential in party leaders, as did Mr. Fillmore ; but
in both cases the American people have had the good sense
to recognize their merits.
44: BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
CHAPTER III.
MR. FILLMORE S CAREER IN CONGRESS.
Mr. Fillmore s term of service in the New York Legislature
expired in 1831. In the fall of 1832 he was elected by his
district as its representative in Congress. During the first
sessions in which he served, the national bank was the en
grossing political topic. General Jackson s celebrated veto and
his removal of the deposits had created great public excitement;
but Mr. Fillmore did not, as will afterwards appear, attach
that extreme importance to a national bank which was attrib
uted to it by his party. He would not, therefore, have made
a figure in the stirring debates of the period, even if he had
been less inexperienced and unassuming. More anxious to
discharge his duty faithfully than to make a display of his
abilities, he served in the twenty-third Congress, with credit,
indeed, but without any very marked distinction. At the
close of his term, he devoted himself, with the assiduity which
forms a part of his character, to the labors of his profession, in
which he had risen to a high rank and enjoyed a lucrative
practice. His fellow citizens, however, had too just an appre
ciation of his capacity for public usefulness to allow him to
remain long in retirement, and they elected him to the twenty-
fifth, the twenty-sixth, and the twenty-seventh Congress, hon
oring him at the last election with the largest majority ever
given in his district. His congressional career was terminated
by a letter to his constituents declining to serve them longer
in that capacity.
CONGRESSIONAL LABORS. 45
Up to the time of his last re-election, the party with which
Mr. .Fillraore acted was in a minority in the national councils,
and, as a necessary consequence, he was not assigned any
position in the organization of the House corresponding to his
eminent capacity. But when, after the great political revolu
tion of 1840, by which the Whig party came into power, a
Congress met to devise remedies for the financial distresses
which had overthrown the preceding administration, Mr. Fill-
more at once rose to his proper level, as a man fitted for
responsible leadership in great and trying emergencies. The
committee of ways and means, always the most important in
the House, became invested with unusual consequence at a
period when the chief duty of Congress was to introduce a
new revenue system which should relieve the country from
the embarrassments under which it was suffering. That Mr.
Fillmore was immediately made chairman of that committee,
on the accession of his party to power, not only proves their
sense of his capacity, but shows that during preceding sessions,
when acting with a minority, he must have discharged his
duties with singular ability and judgment. Confidence so
complete could not have been lightly or hastily won.
Before describing the manner in which Mr. Fillmore ac
quitted himself in this responsible position, it may be expected
that we should give some account of his previous congressional
labors. An examination of the proceedings of Congress shows
an active participation, on the part of Mr. Fillmore, in the
business of the House. He laboriously investigated all the
subjects which came before it, and frequently bore a part in
its debates. When he spoke, however, it was not to win
the applause of the galleries, but to advance the business of
the House. Confining himself to the matter in hand, he was
always clear and forcible, but never aimed at a reputation for
any other species of eloquence than that which consists in
speaking to the point, and producing conviction. The interests
46 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMOEE.
of his immediate constituents were very thoroughly attended
to and ably advocated, and, from their importance, demanded
a large amount of attention. On account of the local position
of Buffalo, that city has a great stake in all that affects the
safe navigation of the great lakes and western waters a large
commercial interest centering there which requires the protec
tion of the national government. As was to have been ex
pected, Mr. Fillmore gave his earnest and persevering support
to the internal improvement policy then advocated by the Whig
party. Of the other leading measures of that party, one had
been temporarily settled by Mr. Clay s compromise tariff of
1833. On the other the United States Bank Mr. Fill-
more did not fully sympathize with the views of his party, and
the public opinion of the country has since settled into the
conviction that such an institution is not demanded by the
public welfare. On the 25th of September, 1837, Mr. Fillmore
delivered a speech against the bill to postpone the fourth in
stalment under the deposit act of 1836. The purport of the
speech having been erroneously reported in the Globe, he
addressed to the publishers the following note:
" HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ")
September 27th, 1837. /
" GENTLEMEN : My attention has been this moment drawn to
a remark in the Globe of last evening, purporting to give the
proceedings of the House on Monday evening, in which I find
the following statement:
" Mr. Fillmore resumed and continued his remarks on the
subject, with the addition of a lengthy argument in favor of a
Bank of the United States. "
" Passing over some evident misapprehensions of your re
porter as to the purport of my remarks generally, I wish to
say that he is entirely and most singularly mistaken in saying
that I made a lengthy argument in favor of a United States
Bank. I made no argument in favor of the United States
Bank, nor of a United States Bank; but, on the contrary,
expressly disclaimed ever having been the particular friend of
UNITED STATES BANK. 47
the United States Bank,- and expressed my sincere doubts
whether the incorporation of a new United States Bank, at
this time, would relieve the present embarrassments of the
community. Will you do me the justice to correct the mis
take ? Respectfully yours,
"MlLLARD FiLLMORE.
" Messrs. BLAIR and RIVES."
We have made this quotation to show that Mr. Fillmore s
views were in advance of those of his party on a question
respecting which there has now ceased to be any difference
of opinion.
A subject which gave rise to much warm discussion in the
twenty-fifth Congress, and created great excitement in various
parts of the country, was the refusal to receive the abolition
petitions which were poured in great numbers into both Houses.
Mr. Fillmore, like Mr. Clay, was in favor of the reception of
such petitions and having them referred to an appropriate
committee and reported on. Mr. Fillmore supported this
policy only by his votes, but Mr. Clay spoke warmly and
strongly in its favor, urging reasons of great weight and force.
To say nothing of its injustice, there can be no doubt that the
refusal to receive such petitions was an insane and short-sighted
policy, and one of the chief agencies in fanning the flame of
sectional excitement and confirming sectional prejudices. While
very few in any part of the country were in favor of abolishing
slavery in the District of Columbia, large masses of the people
regarded the right of petition as sacred and inestimable, and
the abolitionists found themselves reinforced by multitudes
who disapproved of their leading purpose, but were willing to
unite with them in the assertion of what they regarded as an
inviolable right. Had the petitions been referred, no commit
tee would have reported in favor of granting their prayer, and
the only consequence would have been a more public state
ment of the reasons why the abolition of slavery in the District
48 BIOGRAPHY OF HILLARD FILLMOEE.
of Colurabia was both inexpedient in itself, and inconsistent
with implied obligations to the States of Maryland and Virginia.
Mr. Clay s views (in which Mr. Fillmore sympathized) as to
the proper manner of treating such petitions, are sufficiently
indicated in the following extract from the proceedings of the
Senate. A petition had been presented, signed by a large
number of ladies in the State of New Jersey, praying for the
immediate abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. A
motion was made to lay the petition on the table :
"Mn. HUBBARD moved to lay that motion on the table.
" MR. MORRIS asked for the yeas and nays.
" MR. CLAY wished the motion withdrawn for a moment.
It was manifest that the subject of slavery in the District of
Columbia was extending itself in the public mind, and daily
engaging more and more of the public attention. His opin
ions, as expressed in the Legislature of the country, were, he
believed, perfectly well known. He had no hesitation in say
ing that Congress ought not to do what was asked by the
petitioners without the consent of the people of the District
of Columbia. He was desirous of inquiring of the Senator
from New Jersey, or any other conversant with the subject,
whether the feeling of abolition in the abstract was extending
itself in their respective States, or whether it was not be
coming mixed up with other matters such, for instance, iti
the belief that the sacred right of petition had been assailed.
It became the duty of the Senate to inquire into this business,
and understand the subject well.
" There were many, no doubt, of these petitioners, who did
not mean to assert that slavery should be abolished, that were
contending for what they understood to be a great constitu
tional right. Would it not, then, under this view of the sub
ject, be the best course to allay excitement, and endeavor to
calm down and tranquilize the public mind ? Would it not be
wiser to refer the subject to the Committee for the District
of Columbia, or some other committee, that would elicit nil
the facts, reason coolly and dispassionately, presenting the
subject in all its bearings to the citizens of non-slaveholding
States, and in a manner worthy of the great subject? Would
ABOLITION PETITIONS. 49
not such a proceeding be well calculated to insure harmony
and amity in all parts of the Union? On this subject there
was, he was aware, a great diversity of opinion, and he rose
merely for the purpose of making these suggestions to the
Senate."
Mr. Fillmore s supporting the right of petition merely by
his vote, did not satisfy the abolitionists of his district, and left
them in doubt as to the precise character of his views. When,
therefore, in 1838, he was a candidate for re-election, they ad
dressed him a letter of inquiry, to which he made the follow
ing reply :
"BUFFALO, October 17th, 1838.
"Sin: Your communication of the 15th inst., as chairman
of a committee appointed by The Anti- Slavery Society of
the Count;/ of Erie] has just come to hand. You solioit my
answer to the following interrogatories:
" 1st. Do you believe that petitions to Congress on the
subject of slavery and the slave trade, ought to be received,
read, and respectfully considered by the representatives of the
people ?
" 2d. Are you opposed to the annexation of Texas to this
Union under any circumstances, so long as slaves are held
therein?
" 3d. Are you in favor of Congress exercising all the con
stitutional power it possesses, to abolish the internal slave trade
between the States?
" Are you in favor of immediate legislation for the abolition
of slavery in the District of Columbia?
"1 am much engaged, and have no time to enter into an
argument or to explain at length my reasons for my opinion.
I shall, therefore, content myself for the present, by answering
all your interrogatories in the affirmative, and leave for some
future occasion a more extended discussion of the subject. I
would, however, take this occasion to say, that in thus frankly
giving my opinion, I would not desire to have it understood in
the nature of a pledge. At the same time that I seek no dis
guises, but freely give my sentiments on any subject of in
terest to those for whose suffrages I am a candidate, I am
3
50 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
opposed to giving any pledges that shall deprive me hereafter
of all discretionary power. My own character must be the
guaranty for the general correctness of my legislative deport
ment. On every important subject I am bound to deliberate
before I act, and especially as a legislator, to possess myself
of all the i information, and listen to every argument that can
be adduced by my associates, before I give a final vote. If I
stand pledged to a particular course of action, 1 cease to be a
responsible agent, but L become a mere machine. Should
subsequent events show beyond all doubt that the course I
had become pledged to pursue was ruinous to my constituents
and disgraceful to myself, I have no alternative, no opportunity
for repentance, and there is no power to absolve me from my
obligation. Hence the impropriety, not to say absurdity, in
my view r s, of giving a pledge.
" I am aware that you have not asked any pledge, and I
believe I know your sound judgment and good sense too well
to think you desire any such thing. It was, however, to pre
vent any misrepresentation on the part of others, that I have
felt it my duty to say thus much on this subject.
" 1 am, respectfully,
" Your most ob t servant,
" MlLLARD FlLLMORE.
"W. MILLS, Esq., Chairman, &c."
This manly refusal to bind himself by any pledges, as to his
future course as a legislator, does honor to the independence
of his character. Mr. Fillmore was in favor of the right of
petition, and all his natural sympathies were opposed to hu
man slavery; but he was aware that the relations of the
national government to that institution are not to be deter
mined by the sympathies of the human heart. His letter
implies that the subject demanded inquiry, thought, and
deliberation; and he firmly asserts his right, when c;:lled to
investigate it in a legislative capacity, to be governed by such
views as mature investigation should lead him to adopt.
Another subject which was brought to the attention of the
twenty-fifth Congress, deserves mention for the leading part
THE STEAMER CAROLINE. 51
which Mr. Fillraore took in the* proceedings, and the illustra
tion they afford of his prompt and ardent patriotism.
In 1837, during the insurrection in Canada, known as "the
Patriot War," a steamer called the Caroline, and owned by a
Mr. Wells, of Buffalo, was employed on the Niagara river in
the transportation of freight and passengers. On the morning
of the 29th of December, the Caroline left Buffalo, and pro
ceeded down the river, running near the shore on the Ameri
can side, within the territorial limits of the United States.
She touched at Black Rock, and ran up the American flag,
but had hardly left the harbor of that village when a volley
of musketry was discharged at her from the Canada shore.
No injury was done, however, and the Caroline continued her
course down the river, without further molestation. On
reaching Navy Island, she landed her passengers and freight,
and in the course of the afternoon made two or three trips
between Navy Island and Schlosser, on the American side.
At six o clock in the evening, she was made fast with chains
to the dock at Schlosser, and besides the crew, consisting of
ten men, twenty-three other persons, who were unable to pro
cure lodgings at the tavern, took up their quarters on board
for the night. They had all retired to rest except those who
were stationed to watch, when, about midnight, the captain
was informed that several boats filled with men were making
their way through the. darkness, and approaching the Caro
line. An alarm was given, but before the sleepers could reach
the deck, the steamer was boarded by seventy or eighty armed
men. With oaths and imprecations they commenced an at
tack upon the defenseless crew, who, being unarmed, could
offer no resistance, and fled to escape slaughter. One man
was shot through the head, two were severely, and several
slightly wounded ; the steamer was cut loose from her dock,
sot on fire, towed into the current of the river, sent blazing
into the rapids, and extinguished by the fearful plunge over
52 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMOKE.
the mighty cataract. Beacon lights then appeared on the
Canada shore; and when the boats, still under the cover of
the night, returned from their dreadful errand, the loud and
vociferous cheers with which they were greeted, came rolling
throuffh the darkness to the American shore. The next
&
morning the captain of the Caroline found that twelve of the
thirty-three men who went on board the preceding evening-
were missing. It was believed that, disabled by their w r ounds,
they remained on the Caroline, and had been committed to a
fate which fills the imagination with horror.
It afterward appeared that this expedition for the destruc
tion of the Caroline had been fitted out by Col. Allen McNab,
then in command of twenty-five hundred British troops at
Chippewa, on the opposite side of the river. Two or three
years later, the responsibility of the affair was assumed by the
British government.
As this act was an invasion of our territory, and an affront
to our sovereignty, Mr. Fillmore felt, as every patriot ought
to feel, that it was the duty of the government to make a
prompt demand for satisfaction. Although the subject be
longed to the executive department, he thought it the duty
of Congress to express its sense of the outrage, and accord
ingly proposed and pressed repeated resolutions, calling on the
President to lay before the House such correspondence on the
subject as had passed between the two governments. In
order to insure greater promptitude, he made his proposition
as an amendment to another resolution, which had come up
for consideration in its order. Opposition being made,
" Mr. FILLMORE said he could not conceive how his propo
sition could possibly tend to embarrass the action of the House
upon the resolution offered by the committee on foreign
affairs. It was certainly very easy for the President to dis
tinguish between the different kinds of information sought for
by the different propositions. He iiad tried every other way
EXCITEMENT ON THE FRONTIER. 53
to bring his proposition before the House, and could not pre
sent it in any form which would secure its immediate consider
ation, excepting that in which it now stood. For if it were
offered as an independent resolution, it would take its place
behind all others now on the Speaker s table. Its great im
portance would not permit him to expose it to such a risk,
and he had, therefore, offered it in the form of an amendment
to the original resolution of the committee on foreign affairs,
in which shape he hoped it would pass.
"As to the expression which he had used in relation to the
disturbances of the Niagara frontier, that this country was on
the eve of a war with Great Britain, perhaps it was too strong
an expression. But certainly all the facts demonstrated that
there was imminent danger of such a result. The citizens of
the United States, while in the peaceful pursuit of their busi
ness, had been, attacked by an armed force from a foreign
nation, and a portion of the militia of the country is even now
ordered out to repel such hostility.
* He well knew that the spirit of the people on the United
States side of that frontier would not permit them to stand
tamely by, and witness such assaults. These were facts,
vouched for by respectable citizens as true and authentic ; and
he must ask if they were not such as to warrant the offering
of such a proposition as he had moved. It makes no differ
ence, he contended, whether one or one hundred miles of the
territory of the United States lias been invaded by the arms
of a foreign nation; the jurisdiction of this country is co-ex
tensive with the utmost limits of her territory. Even if the
vessel which was attacked had been carrying munitions of war
to the revolutionists on Navy Island, she was only liable, he
contended, to be attacked while within the British lines. As
it was, he agreed with the gentleman from Massachusetts,
(Mr. Adams,) that there was scarcely a parallel to this act
upon the pages of our history as a nation ; and it was to sup
pose an absolute impossibility, for a moment to imagine that
the people on that frontier will ever submit to the occurrence
of such acts without complaint and redress. It was, there
fore, in any view, highly important that the House should
obtain all possible information upon a subject so important"
In urging a similar resolution on a subsequent occasion,
Mr. Fillmore assigned as a reason, that the information might
54 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
be important to the House, in case it should become necessary
to arm the frontier. During the second session of the next
Congress, when the arrest and trial of McLeod had again
called attention to the subject, and renewed the excitement on
the frontier, a resolution calling on the Executive for informa
tion was again passed, at the instance of Mr. Fillmore. It
was responded to by the President, who communicated the
correspondence between the Secretary of State and the
British minister. This correspondence was referred to the
committee on foreign affairs, who.made a report which went
beyond the particular case, and entered into a general incul
pation of the British government. Jealous as Mr. Fillmore
was of the honor of his country, his sense of justice led him
to disapprove of the tone of that report, especially as lie
thought it had a tendency to inflame the excitement, which
already ran too high, and endangered the peace of the country.
In the course of his remarks, objecting to the printing of this
report, Mr. Fillmore said :
" But one thing, at all events, should be borne in mind by
all whose duty requires them to act on this subject here.
There is a great state of excitement on that frontier, which
might by possibility lead to an outbreak. My objection to
the printing of the report was, that it was calculated to inflame
the public mind; and I was governed in that vote by three
reasons. In the first place, I did not wish that anything
should be done here which might have a tendency to do in
justice to the individual who is soon to be tried by the laws
of the State of New York. I desire that the law should have
its free action, that no excitement should be raised against
McLeod, which might prevent a fair- and impartial trial. In
the second place, I do not desire that any action on the part
of this House should compromise or control the Executive of
this nation in the negotiations now pending between the
government of the United States and the government of
Great Britnin. I have all confidence in the incoming adminis
tration. If this controversy can be amicably and honorably
REMAKES IN CONGRESS. 55
settled between the two governments, I desire that it should.
But there is a third and very strong- reason in my mind
against anything being done to exasperate the public mind
on the subject of war with Great Britain. It is this: for
three or four years I have used all the exertions in my power
to induce this administration, which is responsible to the
country, to provide some means of defense on our Northern
frontier. But all my efforts were in vain. And yet the
gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Pickens) now tells us
that the course to be pursued to avoid a war with Great
Britain, is to stand up to her to threaten her to take a high
stand ; and that, he says, will avert a war. I may have been,
mistaken in the meaning. I know that those were not his
words. But I would submit to him that the best way to
avoid a war with Great Britain, is to show that we are pre
pared to meet her, if there is to be war; because reasonable
preparations for defense are better than gasconading.
"Mr. Fillmore then alluded to the defenseless condition of
the Northern frontier. He desired, and believed the whole
country desired, that we should yield nothing to the demands
of Great Britain, to which she was not fairly entitled. But,
at the same time, he regarded it as rather the act of a mad
man, to precipitate the country into a war before it was pre
pared for it, than the act of a statesman. In his section of
country, the. people would yield nothing to Great Britain to
which she was not justly entitled; or they would yield it only
with the last drop of their blood. But he did not wish pre
maturely to be drawn into w y ar; he did not wish to invite
Great Britain to invade our defenseless coast. The true plan
was to prepare for war if we had yet to come to it, but to do
nothing in the way of bragging. If it did come, gentlemen
would not find his (Mr. F. s) people- shrinking from their just
share of responsibility. All they had their property, their
lives, everything they were willing to devote, if need be, to
the service and honor of their country. But, was it not the
part of wisdom and prudence, before we made a declaration
of war, to prepare for it ? This was all he desired ; and if this
report was calculated to stir up a war feeling, without corre
sponding preparation being made to meet the consequences,
he, for one, was opposed to it. He did not wish the country
to be disgraced by defeat. When she must go to war, he
56 BIOGEAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMOEE.
desired to see her prepared for it ; he desired to see her placed
in a situation which would enable her to bid defiance to the
power of any government on earth."
This extract evinces the same combination of patriotism and
courage, with moderation and wisdom, which afterward dis
tinguished the foreign policy of his admirable administration.
Another subject in which Mr. Fillmore felt deep interest,
was connected with the organization of the House of Re
presentatives, at the opening of the twenty-sixth Congress.
In accordance with the usual custom, the clerk of the last
House proceeded to call the roll. When he reached New
Jersey, which was entitled to six members, he called the name
of one, and said there were five others, who likewise had cer
tificates of election from the governor of the State, but that
he had been furnished with papers questioning the validity of
their election, and therefore declined to call their names until
he should know the pleasure of the House. If the political
parties in the house had not been pretty equally balanced, a
circumstance of this kind would have occasioned no difficulty
or delay. The certificates of the governor, authenticated by
the seal of the State, would have been received without hesi
tation as prima facie evidence of election ; the members
would have been sworn; and if, after the organization, their
seats had been contested by othr claimants, the subject
would have been referred to a committee for investigation,
preparatory to the final decision of the House.
But in this case, parties were so nearly balanced that the
organization would be given to the Whigs or Democrats, accord
ing as the claimants holding the certificates of the governor
were admitted or rejected. The Democrats, therefore, con
tended that it was the duty of the House to decide this ques
tion before proceeding to elect a Speaker, while the Whigs, on
the contrary, claimed that certificates of the governor should
be regarded as conclusive, until the House was regularly
THE NEW JERSEY ELECTION CASE. 57
organized. On the fourtli day of the session, John Quincy
Adams was elected temporary chairman, and two weeks were
consumed before the House was ready to commence balloting
for a Speaker. The discussion in which all this time had been
consumed, hinged on the question whether the New Jersey
members who held the governor s certificates, should be per
mitted to take their seats and participate in the organization
of the House. Their places were lost (as was charged a day
or two afterward in debate) in consequence of Henry A.
Wise s lack in parliamentary skill in proposing an affirmative
resolution for their admission, instead of a negative one for
their rejection. The vote happened to be a tie, and the reso
lution was lost. Had it been negative instead of affirmative, it
would have been lost in the same manner, and by the failure
of a vote to reject them, the members would have been per
mitted to take their seats. As soon as the Speaker had been
chosen, the discussion of the New Jersey contested seats was
resumed, and occupied the House so entirely, to the obstruc
tion of all regular business, that the standing committees were
not announced till the end of December. Even then the case
had not been decided, and indeed had scarcely begun to be
investigated. The committee on elections, therefore, became
one of the most important in the House, from the great inter
est which attached to the New Jersey case, and the pervading
excitement of the public mind. Mr. Fillmore was assigned a
prominent place on that committee, and distinguished himself
by the zeal and ability with which he supported the claim of
the New Jersey members. But with a majority, both of the
House and the committee, against him, it was not to have been
expected that he would be successful in controlling a result
which was determined on strictly party grounds. The investiga
tion ran on until nearly the middle of March. Mr. Fillmore was
prevented from reading a minority report, and, by an appeal
iruin the decision uf the Cluiir, who, in determining a point of
3*
58 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
order, had assigned him the floor, he was silenced while attempt-
ing to make a speech. Mr. Fillmore was justly indignant at
treatment so unfair, and finding it impossible to gain a hearing
in the House, he addressed a long and very elaborate letter to
his constituents, in which he ably, and with great clearness,
argued all the questions involved in the New Jersey case.
The manner in which he was treated by the majority showed
how formidable they considered his opposition. The ability
and spirit he evinced in that celebrated controversy had a great
influence in gaining for him the confidence of his party and
giving him his important position in the next Congress, when
the Whigs came into power. His immediate constituents tes
tified their approbation of his course by bestowing on him at
the next election the largest majority ever given in his con
gressional district.
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. 59
CHAPTER IV.
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.
The twenty-seventh Congress was one of the" most memo
rable that lias ever assembled under our government. JN"o
presidential election has ever excited a deeper interest no
electioneering campaign has ever been conducted with greater
warmth and spirit no political revolution recorded in our
annals has ever been more complete, than that of 1840. This
great movement was the consequence of wide-spread financial
distress, which had pervaded the country for the two or three
preceding years. Banks, all over the country, had either
broken down or suspended specie payments ; merchants and
manufacturers were ruined ; business was in a state of stagna
tion ; and the public mind had become deeply impressed with
the idea that the general embarrassment and bankruptcy
under which the country suffered, was due to political causes.
Whether justly or unjustly, the party in power was held
responsible for the deplorable condition of the country. That
mighty uprising of the masses by which the administration of
Mr. Van Buren was overthrown, not only elected a new Presi
dent, but brought together a Congress entertaining political
principles the reverse of those which had prevailed in the
public councils during the remarkable period composed of the
twelve preceding years.
It is not our province to review the controversies which were
then conducted with so much vehemence, or to discuss the
policy of either of the great parties of that interesting period.
60 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMOKE.
At this distance of time, when the passions excited by hot
debate have subsided, the issues involved do not seem invested
with the all-absorbing importance they were then thought to
possess. The sub-treasury, then a principal object of partisan
assault, has come to be universally regarded as wise and sal
utary, none of the evils having followed which were predicted
from its operation; a national bank, then regarded by one
party as the great panacea for curing all the disorders of the
currency, is admitted to be as unnecessary as it is obsolete;
while within the last few months we have seen a Democratic
secretary of the treasury recommending a tariff which discrim
inates for the advantage of American manufacturers, and a
Democratic member of the United States Senate advocatin<>-
&
a bill to carry out the recommendation. It is a strong proof
of Mr. Fillmore s sagacity, that during the very heat and
fervor of those controversies, his views were substantially
those which the public opinion of the country has since en
dorsed. True, he was a party man, and his opinions were
colored by his political associations; but it is an evidence of
the clearness of his intellect that, so far as he differed from his
party he leaned toward the views which the progress of
opinion has shown to be correct. We saw, in our last chap
ter, that as early as 1837 he had ceased to attach any import
ance to a United States Bank. We shall see, in the course
of the present chapter, that while he was a tariff man, and
the author of the celebrated tariff of 1842, his views of the
protective policy were so moderate and rational, that few men
of any political party would be found to dissent from them at
present.
The prominent position assigned to Mr. Fillmore in the
twenty-seventh Congress, is a proof of the confidence inspired
by his previous congressional career. No sooner did his party
come into power, than they manifested their high appreciation
of his wisdom by assigning him the most difficult and responsible
CHAIltMAN OF WAYS AND MEANS. 61
post in the national legislature. The political revolution which
had just been achieved owed its success to the financial em
barrassments of the country and the general prostration of
business. Not only private but public credit had become
impaired, the resources of the government being as inadequate
to its wants as those of individuals. The annual revenues had
sunk to thirteen millions; the annual expenditures had gone
up to thirty-seven millions; and the government was largely
in debt. As financial difficulties had brought the new admin
istration into power, it was its chief duty to devise financial
remedies. The country looked to it for the restoration of con
fidence, the revival of credit, the recovery of business from its
prostration, and the extrication of the national treasury from
impending bankruptcy. The highest mark of confidence which
the Whig party could at that time have bestowed on any mem
ber of Congress, was to make him chairman of the committee
of ways and means. From the beginning of the government
all revenue bills have originated in the House of Representa
tives, and the labor of maturing such bills devolves on the
committee of ways and means. The chairman of that com
mittee, besides being its most prominent and influential mem
ber, is the organ through which it communicates with the
House. He not only takes a leading part in devising measures
and arranging their details, but is expected to explain them to
the House, defend them against objections, and ward off the
assaults of keen-sighted adversaries. These duties, at all times
arduous, became doubly so when a party newly elevated to
power was about to inaugurate a new financial policy. That
Millard Fillmore was placed in this responsible position shows
that he must have given previous proofs of great capacity.
The manner in which he acquitted himself in it, not only
justified the confidence of his friends, but won for him laurels
which any statesman might be proud to wear. When he
retired from Congress his reputation was as wide as the limits
62 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMORE.
of the country. By general acclamation he was declared to be
one of the ablest and most patriotic members of a party which
boasted the possession of many great men.
The course of our narrative takes us over ground which has
been the battle-field of contending political parties. That the
subject of this sketch belonged to one of those parties is im
plied in the fact that he acted a prominent part in the legisla
tion of the country. If we dwell at some length on those parts
of his public career by which he acquired distinction, it is not
for the purpose of defending the politics of the past, but to
fulfill the task we have assumed, of laying before the reader
a candid and impartial account of Mr. Fillmore s public life,
and exhibiting the proofs he has given of eminent capacity for
public affairs. If the political history of the country extended
back only twenty-five years, it could easily be made to appeal-
that a protective tariff was a purely party measure. But when
we go beyond that period, and take in the whole history of
the government, it will be seen that the principle of protection
is no more a Whig than it is a Democratic doctrine. All our
Presidents, down to John Quincy Adams, have publicly recom
mended protection ; and even Jackson himself, previous to his
elevation to the presidency, showed himself as strong a pro
tectionist as there was in the country. These facts are men
tioned, not as arguments either for or against protection, but
to prove that Mr. Fillmore s identification with that policy in
1842, does not necessarily identify him now with any particu
lar party of our past politics. When Mr. Clay named that
policy the AMERICAN SYSTEM, he disclosed the motive for its
adoption, which no doubt acted powerfully on his own mind
and on those of many other patriotic men. It was thought
that to protect American industry would foster an American
spirit and cultivate a deeper feeling of nationality. Whatever
may be thought of the means, the motive was truly patriotic.
The fires of American feeling which have recently burst forth
GEN. JACKSON S TARIFF LETTER. 63
with so much splendor, have always dimly smouldered beneath
the ashes of the old political parties. Desire for a distinctive
American nationality is a sentiment which has often sought
expression in the politics of the country, and nowhere can we
trace it more legibly than in the history of opinion on the sub
ject of a protective tariff. We will make one or two quotations
in illustration of this point, and prefer to draw them from Dem
ocratic sources.
The following is an extract from a letter of Gen. Jackson to
Dr. L. H. Coleman, of North Carolina, dated Washington,
August 26th, 1824:
* * * * a Heaven smiled upon and gave us liberty and
independence. The same Providence has blessed us with the
means of national independence and national defense. If we
omit or refuse to use the gifts which he has extended to us,
we deserve not the continuance of his blessing. He has filled
our mountains and our plains with minerals with lead, iron,
and copper and given us a climate and soil for the growing
of hemp and wool. These being the great materials of our
national defense, they ought to have extended to them ade
quate and fair protection, that our manufacturers and laborers
may be placed in a fair competition with those of Europe, and
that we may have within our country a supply of these lead
ing and important articles so essential to war.
"I will ask, what is the real situation of the agriculturist?
Where has the American farmer a market for his surplus pro
duce ? Except for cotton, he has neither a foreign nor a home
market. Does not this clearly prove, when there is no market
at home, or abroad, that there is too much labor employed in
agriculture ? Common sense at once points out the remedy.
Take from agriculture in the United States six hundred thou
sand men, women, and children, and you will at once give a mar
ket for more breadstuff s than all Europe now furnishes us with.
" Tn short, sir, we have been too long subject to the policy
of British merchants. It is time we should become a little
more AMERICANIZED, and instead of feeding paupers and labor
ers of England, feed our own ; or else, in a short time, by con
tinuing our present policy, we shall be paupers ourselves.
64: BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
"It is, therefore, my opinion, that a careful and judicious
tariff is much wanted, to pay our national debt, and to afford
us the means of that defense within ourselves, on which the
safety of our country and liberties depends; and last, though
not least, give a proper distribution of our labor, which must
prove beneficial to the happiness, wealth, and independence
of the community.
"I am very respectfully,
" Your obedient servant,
"ANDREW JACKSON."
The Tammany Society of New York is one of the oldest
Democratic associations in the country. In the year 1810, it
published an elaborate circular bearing the following title:
"Address of the Society of Tammany, or Columbian Order,
to its absent members, and the members of its several branches
throughout the United States." From this address we make
the following extracts:
"To divide and conquer, is the maxim of our constitutional
enemy. The encouragement of our domestic resources will
make us a united people. This nation will become one great
family, giving and taking from each other. Let us, then, trea
sure up the maxim of wisdom, that concert is stronger than
numbers. Another benefit, and not among the least which
would arise from the encouragement of domestic manufactures,
would be the exclusion of ail foreign agents, whether Scotch,
English, French, or German. This species of cormorant char
acter holds in its hand the capital of some man abroad, who
never intends to step his foot upon our shores, and with this
capital extracts from the country the profits of its traffic, on a
perfect commercial equality with the American citizen. This
is continued until he accumulates a given heap of riches for
himself and his patron, and then, after oppressing all around
him to wind up his u/airs, he modestly returns to his foreign
home, and, retiring in opulence, contributes to the wealth and
resources of that nation which might next declare war against,
us. This is, in fact, furnishing the sinews of war to other
nations, for it would be American profits on which this agent
would live in his own country. The truth is, that we have
THE TAMMANY ADDRESS. 65
progressed so far, that \ve want no population, and should
receive none, except those who intend to spend their lives and
increase their posterity among us. As the United States are
inhabited by more foreign agents than any nation on earth, in
proportion to their population, it will appear, upon calculation,
that this is a very improvident mode of parting with the na
tional treasure. Banish the foreign goods as far as our manu
factures, under the magnanimous care of Congress, can banish
them, and the visits of those vultures would soon cease. In
their place would stand the honest manufacturer, receiving a
fair profit for the fabric of his own hand. But the picture of
evil, arising from these foreign agents, has not been sufficiently
extended. Their transactions with our citizens are often insid
ious and oppressive. They have not the sympathies of coun
try or national fellow-feeling to meliorate their cupidity. In
their indulgences they are actuated by interest alone, and in
their enforcement of debts they are restrained by no princi
ples. They are at this moment to be seen in swarms, in their
visits to the interior of our country, and our remotest western
waters. And such is the prejudice with which they are viewed
by the honest, but embarrassed debtors in those places, that
they have entailed upon themselves the name of that gloom} 7
bird which hovers over and lives upon the carrion of the desert."
*********
"The want of reciprocity or rather the wise internal
policy of other nations as to the rights of foreign agents
the consumption of foreign productions, and the encourage
ment of foreign manufactures, are to us loud warnings to draw
to ourselves, and cherish the indigenous strength with which
Providence has blessed us. * * * It would be found
that the encouragement of domestic manufactures in the modes
above pointed out, would essentially lead to habits of economy,
both in the people and the government, as such. For when
this highly simple and American system shall have begun to
operate, many concomitant habits, partaking of its character,
will be seen in its train."
These extracts and General Jackson s letter to Dr. Coleman,
prove that a protective tariff is not a policy peculiar to any one
party of the past; and that whatever may be its merits or
66 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMORE.
demerits on other grounds, many of those who have cherished
it did so under the impression that it would be the means of
cultivating a more purely American spirit, and of preventing
foreigners from depriving us of advantages which belong to
our own people. Whatever may be thought of the doctrine,
members of the American party must pardon something to
the spirit in which it was cherished.
We have already remarked that although Mr. Fillmore was
the author of the tariff of 1842, and acquired great reputation
from the ability with which he advocated it, his views were so
moderate and just, that they would even at present command
nearly universal assent. Of course no one understands us to
mean that it would be wise to revive the tariff of 1842. That
was a system adapted to the peculiar exigencies of the time,
exigencies which have long since passed. But the general
principles on which it was founded may even now be pre
sented without incurring the hazard that they will run counter
to the general opinion of the country.
We make the following extract from a speech delivered by
Mr. Fillmore in the House of Representatives, June 9th, 1842:
"Although this is the view which I am disposed to take of
this bill, and although I am willing to listen to any amend
ments to add to or diminish the duty on any article, with a
view of increasing the revenue, yet I have no disguise of my
own sentiments on the subject of protecting our own industry.
1 am free to admit that I am not one of those who either feel,
or profess to feel, indifferent to our own interests. 1 prefer
my own country to all others, and my opinion is that we must
take care of ourselves; and while I would not embarrass trade
between this and any foreign country by any illiberal restric
tions, yet, if by legislation or negotiation, an advantage is to
be given to one over the other, I prefer my own country to all
the world besides. I admit that duties may be so levied,
ostensibly for revenue, yet designedly for protection, as to
amount to prohibition, and consequently to the total loss of
revenue. 1 arn for no such protection as that. I have no
SPEECH ON THE TARIFF. 67
disguise of my opinions on this subject. I believe that if all
the restrictive systems were done away with, here and in
every other country, and we could confidently rely on con
tinued peace, that would be the most prosperous and happy
state. The people of every country would then produce that
which their habits, skill, climate, soil, or situation enabled them
to produce to the greatest advantage; each would then sell
where he could obtain the most, and buy where he could pur-
. chase cheapest; and thus we should see a trade as free among
the nations of the world as we now witness among the several
States of this Union. But, however beautiful this may be in
theory, I look for no such political millennium ao this. Wars
will occur until man changes his nature; and duties will be
imposed upon our products in other countries, until man shall
cease to be selfish, or kings can find a more convenient mode
of raising revenue than by imposts.
" These, then, form the true justification for laying duties in
a way to protect our own industry against that of foreign
nations. First. A reasonable apprehension of war, for no
nation can always hope to be at peace. If, therefore, there is
any article that is indispensably necessary for the subsistence
of a nation, and the nation can produce it, that nation is not
independent if it do not. If it is necessary, the production
should be encouraged by high duties on the imported article.
This should be done, not for the benefit of persons who may
engage in the manufacture or cultivation of the desired article,
but for the benefit of the whole community: what though
each pays a little higher for the article in time of peace than
he otherwise would, yet he is fully compensated for this in
time of war. He then has this necessary, of which he would
be wholly deprived had he not provided for it by a little self-
sacrifice. We all act upon this principle individually; and
why should we not as a nation ? We accumulate in time of
plenty for a day of famine and distress. Every man pays,
from year to year, a small sum to insure his house against fire,
submitting willingly to this annual tax, that, when the day of
misfortune comes, (if come it shall,) the overwhelming calam
ity of having all destroyed may be mitigated by receiving
back from the insurer a partial compensation for the loss. It
is upon the same principle that we maintain an army and a
navy in time of peace, and pour out millions annually for their
68 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
support: not because we want them then, but because it is
reasonable to apprehend that war may come, and then they
will be wanted; and it is a matter of economy to provide
and discipline them in time of peace, to mitigate the evils
of war when it does come. The same reason requires us to
encourage the production of any indispensable article of sub
sistence. I shall not stop now to inquire what these articles
are. Every one can judge for himself. But that there arc
many such, no one can doubt.
" But, secondly, there is yet another case where I hold that
we are not only Justin ed, but required to encourage and pro
tect our own industry ; and I regret to say that this is a case,
which, for obvious reasons, always has, and 1 fear always will
exist: it is where foreign nations, by their ow r n legislation,
exclude our products from their markets. We, as a whole,
are an agricultural nation, occupying one of the broadest and
most fertile tracts of country in the world. The South pro
duces sugar, cotton, rice, and tobacco; and the North and
West produce beef, pork, and breadstuffs. It appears, by the
last census, that we have 3, 7 17, 756 persons engaged in agri
culture, and only 791,545 in manufactures and trades, being
nearly five to one employed in agriculture. Our lands are
cheap and our soils productive; but if other nations prohibit
the introduction of our agricultural products to their markets
by high duties, what is our remedy ? We want their manu
factures ; we offer them our breadstuffs in exchange ; but they
refuse to receive them : what shall we do ? I say, meet re
striction by restriction. Impose duties on their manufactures,
and thereby encourage a portion of our own people, now rais
ing wheat and corn to rot in their granaries, to engage in
manufactures, thus lessening the amount of agricultural pro
ducts by converting a part of your producers into consumers,
thereby creating a home market for your agricultural products,
and thus raising their price. Is not this just? Great Britain
has no right to complain that we meet restriction by restric
tion. We offer her our flour, pork and beef, for her, iron,
cloths, and other manufactures. She refuses our products,
and draws upon our specie, crippling our banks, deranging our
currency, and paralyzing our industry. We must protect
ourselves, create and preserve a market for our own products,
SPEECH ON THE TARIFF. 69
until she will consent to meet us on equal terms; and this,
not by way of retaliation, but in self-defense.
" But it may be said that this protection is given for the
purpose of benefiting those engaged in manufactures. I am
wholly opposed to legislating for one part of the community at
the expense of another. All are equally entitled to our pro
tection; and if duties are so levied as to protect any particular
manufacture, it must be because the nation has an interest in
encouraging it, and not for the benefit of those engaged in it.
It is all idle to think of benefiting any particular class by" pro
tection. This can only be done by giving a monopoly to a few
individuals. No monopoly can be created by laying duties.
If the duties raise the price so high as to tempt persons to
engage in the manufacture, every one is at liberty to do so;
and the consequence usually is, that so many engage that they
soon compete with each other ; and, instead of being profitable
to themselves, they cheapen the article to the consumer,
while the manufacturer makes little or nothing. I say, there
fore, again, that it is all idle to talk of protection for the benefit
of particular classes. It should never be given but for the
benefit of the community; and, if designed for any other
object, an over-ruling law of trade (as I have shown) will
inevitably defeat that design.
" But I take a distinction between the encouragement and
protection of manufacturers. It is one thing for the govern
ment to encourage its citizens to abandon their ordinary pur
suits and engage in a particular branch of industry ; and a
very different thing whether the government is bound to
protect that industry by laws similar to those by which it
encouraged its citizens to embark in it. In the first case,
there is no obligation on the part of the government. Its act
is entirely voluntary and spontaneous. It may or may not
encourage the production or manufacture of a particular article,
as it shall judge best for the whole community. Before at-
tem ting it, the government should weigh well the advantages
and disadvantages which are likely to result to the whole, and
not to the particular class which may be tempted to engage.
If a particular branch of industry is so important in its bear
ings upon the public wants, on account of its providing in time
of peace for some necessary article in time of war, then, as
the strongest advocates of free trade themselves admit, the
70 BIOGEAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMORE.
government may and should legislate with a view to encoilrage
its establishment; and so, likewise, if it be necessary to provide
a home market for our products in consequence of the prohibi
tory duties levied upon them "by foreign countries. But all
these are questions to be decided according to the circum
stances of each particular case; and (as I said) the decision
should be made with a view to the benefit of all, and not of a
few, or of any particular class or section of country. But
when the government has decided that it is best to give the
encouragement, and the citizen has been induced by our
legislation to abandon his former pursuits, and to invest his
capital and apply his skill and labor to the production of the
article thus encouraged by government, then a new question
arises for another party has become interested and that is,
whether we will, by our subsequent legislation, withdraw our
protection from the citizen whom we have thus encouraged to
embark his all in a particular branch of business for the good
of the public, and overwhelm him with ruin by our unsteady,
not to say perfidious, legislation. I can consent to no such
thing. It seems to me to be manifestly unjust. Our act in
the lirst instance is free and voluntary. We may give the
encouragement or not: but, having given it, the public faith
is, to a certain extent, pledged. Those who have accepted
our invitation, and embarked in these new pursuits, have done
so under the implied promise on our part that the encourage
ment thus given should not be treacherously withdrawn, and
that we would not tear down what we had encouraged them
to build up. This I conceive to be a just, clear, and broad
distinction between encouragement beforehand and protection
afterward. The former is voluntary, depending wholly upon
considerations of public policy and expediency ; the latter is a
matter of good faith to those who have trusted to the na
tional honor.
" These are my views on the subject of encouraging and
protecting home industry by legislation; not that I deem them
of any importance to the bill under consideration for I regard
this as a revenue bill, and to be passed and justified on that
ground. I do not deny that the effect will be to encourage
and protect home manufactures, and thereby create a home
market for our agricultural products and others, as well as
myself, may vote for it more willingly on this account; yet all
THE TAEIFF. 71
tins is a mere incident of raising revenue by imposing duties
on goods imported. It depends not on design or intent: it
results as a necessary and inevitable consequence. We can
not avoid it if we would. If we impose a duty of one dollar
on every yard of cloth imported, the duty is laid, not to in
crease the value of the cloth, and thereby protect the home
manufacturer, but to supply the wants of the treasury; yet, as
a consequence, it encourages and protects the home manufac
turer; and we can not avoid it. No human foresight can pre
vent it; no ingenuity can avoid it; and, indeed, no design can
aid it. Intention has nothing to do with the matter."
It may interest the reader to know what impression Mr.
Fillmore made on persons who visited the gallery of the House
during the sessions of the Congress in which he was achieving
a high standing in his party and a proud position among the
statesmen of the country. We therefore copy the following
from a series of sketches which appeared in a literary paper in
New York city in the summer of 1842 :
"MILLARD FILLMORE, OF NEW YORK. This is the distin
guished representative from the city of Buffalo, and at present
chairman of the committee of ways and means, a situation both
arduous and responsible. He stands in the same relation to
the United States government in the House of Representatives
that the chancellor of the exchequer does to the government
of Great Britain in the House of Parliament. He is emphati
cally the financial organ of the legislature. In the House of
Representatives all bills affecting the revenue originate. These
are presented by the ways and means committee matured
by it and its chairman has to explain their object and the data
upon which they are based. He is obliged to make himself
thoroughly acquainted with the situation of the national treas-
urv has to examine its details become familiar with its
wants its expenditure its income, present and prospect
ive and be ever ready to give to the house a full exposition
72 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMORE.
of all the measures he may present for consideration. To dis
charge the duties which this post enjoins, faithfully, requires
both physical and mental capacity of a high order, and I be
lieve they could not have devolved upon an individual better
qualified than the subject of this notice. In every respect will
he be found equal to the task assigned him.
" Mr. Fillmorc in person is perhaps five feet ten inches tall,
stout and finely formed. His limbs are graceful ; he has an erect
and easy walk, and a well developed chest. His complexion
is quite light; has lively blue eyes, a smooth forehead marked
by breadth rather than height, and retreats slightly into a head
of thin grayish hair. His face is broad and regular in its out
lines; has a small nose, and handsome Grecian mouth and
white teeth. His features, without being very strongly mark
ed, are decidedly expressive and agreeable, and in or out of
Congress there are few better looking men. His appear
ance would attract attention anywhere, as his abilities qualify
him for any station. In his temperament he is phlegmatic
is always self-composed, and all his acts are controlled
by the dictates of his judgment. He weighs everything
in the most prudent manner enters into a nice calcula
tion and is never misled by the promptings of his heart.
He is the incarnation of truth and integrity. Never would he
"hold the word of promise to the ear, and break it to the
sense." He would never raise hopes and then blast them.
He is frank, open and manly. In public life and in private he
is without guile; pure and untarnished. Indeed I question
whether he was ever tempted to go astray. He seems not to
have inherited the frailties generally found among the descend
ants of Adam, and hence he may possibly have too little charity
for, and judges too severely of, those less coolly constituted
than himself. His talents are of a high grade; is a sound
thinker, and very sagacious; not showy or brilliant, but plain
and sensible ; and never attempts to make a display or to
AN ESTIMATE OF HIS CHARACTER. 73
"show off." His judgment is very clear, and he has no emo
tions which ever over-ride it; is always to be relied upon, and
whatever he undertakes he will master. He never takes a
stride without testing his foothold. He belongs to that rare
class whose merits are developed with every day s use; in
whose minds new beauties and new riches are discovered as
they are examined into. He has a high legal reputation;
possesses great industry ; is agreeable in conversation, and his
information upon general subjects, without being profound, is
varied and extensive. As a shrewd, sagacious politician by
this I do not mean that he is particularly skilled in mere par
tisan strategy there are few men in the country superior to
him perhaps none.
"As a public speaker, Mr. Fillmore is not distinguished. He
is no orator, but a plain matter of fact debater. He never
soars into the regions of fancy, indulges in rhetorical flourishes,
or adorns his logic with poetry. The gaudy plumes of fiction
he leaves other hands to pluck, while he is garnering up the
stores of reality; nevertheless he is a good and interesting
speaker very intellectual, sound and perspicuous with a
distinct voice and a dignified easy manner. He speaks not to
the passions of men, or attempts to move their hearts. He
aims at their reason and judgment, and his arguments are
couched in language intelligible to the meanest capacity
avoids high-sounding phrases an evidence of good taste and
good sense none the less commendable for its rarity among
public speakers of the present day, who generally, when they
give birth to a new idea an occurrence that seldom hap
pens send it forth in a garb so unsuitable and fantastic as
to hide it from the view of ordinary visions. As a public man,
I know of none not one of greater promise than Mr. F.
He has many of the highest attributes of greatness, and is
still a young man, not to exceed forty-one years of age, and
must continue to rise in public estimation as his character shall
BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMORE.
be developed. He has been a member of Congress some six
years, and was previously an active member of the State As
sembly. As a useful, practical, efficient, and enlightened leg
islator, he has no superior, and very few equals among his
associates. And the Queen City of the Lakes may be justly
proud, as I know she is, of so able a representative, so eminent
a citizen, of a statesman whose public career is so bright and
so full of promise."
In July, 1842, Mr. Fillmore addressed a letter to his con
stituents declining a re-election. We copy the opening and
two or three of the closing paragraphs:
" FELLOW-CITIZENS: Having long since determined not to
be a candidate for re-election, I have felt that my duty to you
required that I should give you seasonable notice of that deter
mination. The chief causes which have brought me to this
resolution, being mostly of a personal character, are unimpor
tant, and would be uninteresting to you or the public. It is
sufficient to say, that I am not prompted to this course by
anything in the present aspect of political affairs. Many of
you know that I desired to withdraw before the last congress
ional election, but owing to the importance of that contest, the
desire for unanimity, and the hope that if the administration
were changed, I might render some essential local service to
my district and those generous friends who had so nobly sus
tained our cause, I was induced to stand another canvass.
But how sadly have all been disappointed! How has that
sun which rose in such joyous brightness to millions been
shrouded in gloom and sorrow! The lamented Harrison,
around whom clustered a nation s prayers and blessings, is
now no more. For reasons inscrutable to us, and known only
to an all-wise Providence, he was cut down in a moment of
triumph, and in his grave lie buried the long cherished hopes
of a suffering nation.
*********
" But, fellow-citizens, I have said more than I intended, and
regret that I have not time to say it more briefly. I can not.
however, consent to bring this hasty letter to a close without
DECLINES A EE-ELECTION TO CONGRESS. 75
expressing the deep emotions of gratitude that fill my heart
when 1 look back upon your kindness and devotion. Pardon
the personal vanity, though it be a weakness, that induces me
to recur for a moment to the cherished recollections of your
early friendship and abiding confidence. I can not give vent
to the feelings of my heart without it.
" It is now nearly fourteen years since you did me the un
solicited honor to nominate me to represent you in the State
Legislature. Seven times have I received renewed evidence
of your confidence by as many elections, with constantly in
creasing majorities ; and at the expiration of my present con
gressional term, I shall have served you three years in the
iState and eight years in the national councils. 1 can not call
to mind the thousand acts of generous devotion from so many
friends who will ever be dear to my heart, without feeling the
deepest emotion of gratitude. I came among you a poor and
friendless boy. You kindly took me by the hand and gave me
your confidence and support. You have conferred upon rne
distinction and honor, for which I could make no adequate
return but by an honest and untiring effort faithfully to dis
charge the high trusts which you confided to my keeping. If
my humble efforts have met your approbation, i freely admit
that next to the approval of my own conscience it is the high
est reward which I could receive for days of unceasing toil and
nights of sleepless anxiety.
" I profess not to be above or below the common frailties of
our nature. 1 will therefore not disguise the fact that 1 was
highly gratified at my first election to Congress, yet I can
truly say that my utmost ambition has been satisfied. I
aspire to nothing more, and shall retire from the exciting
scenes of political strife to the quiet enjoyments of my own
family and fireside with still more satisfaction than I felt when
first elevated to this distinguished station.
"In conclusion permit me again to return you my warmest
thanks for your kindness, which is deeply engraven upon my
heart. " I remain sincerely and truly,
" Your friend and fellow-citizen,
" MlLLARD FlLLMOUK."
This resolution to retire from public life occasioned profound
regret. In every part of the country the Whig press expressed
76 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMORE.
its sense of the loss the party was about to sustain, and passed
the highest eulogiums on the public services of a statesman
who had acquitted himself with so much honor to himself and
such eminent usefulness to the country. Not only the politi
cal press, but some of the most distinguished public men of
the country paid him compliments which evinced the highest
appreciation of his public services. John Quincy Adams, for
example, in a speech to his constituents delivered in the autumn
of 1842, took occasion to say of Mr. Fillmore that " he was
one of the ablest, most faithful, and fairest-minded men with
whom it had been his lot to serve in public life."
Since we have mentioned Mr. Adams, it may not be out of
place to remark that in the summer of 1843, the veteran
statesman made a tour to the West, and, among other places,
visited Buffalo, where the citizens gave him a public reception.
Mr. Fillmore, whose congressional career had closed, and who
was residing at home in the practice of his profession, was ap
pointed to welcome him, which he did in the following neat
and felicitous speech :
" SIR : I have been deputed by the citizens of this place to
tender you a welcome to our city. In the discharge of this
grateful duty, I feel that I speak not only my own sentiments,
but theirs, when I tell you that your long and arduous public
services your lofty independence your punctilious atten
tion to business, and, more than all, your unsullied and unsus
pected integrity, have given you a character in the estimation
of this republic, which calls forth the deepest feelings of ven
eration and respect.
" You see around you, sir, no political partisans seeking to
promote some sinister purpose; but you see here assembled
the people of our infant city, without distinction of party, sex,
age or condition all all anxiously vying with each other
to show their respect and esteem for your public services and
private worth.
" Here, sir, are gathered in this vast multitude of what must
appear to you strange faces, thousands whose hearts have
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 77
vibrated to the chord of sympathy which your written speeches
have touched. Here is reflecting age, and ardent youth,
and lisping childhood, to all of whom your venerated name
is as familiar as household words all anxious to feast their
eyes by a sight of that extraordinary and venerable man of
whom they have heard and read and thought so much all
anxious to hear the voice of that old man eloquent? on whose
lips wisdom has distilled her choicest nectar here, sir, you
see them all, and read in their eager and joy-gladdened counte
nances and brightly beaming eyes, a welcome a thrice-told,
heart-felt, and soul-stirring welcome to the man whom they
delight to honor. "
Mr. Adams made a long and eloquent reply, from which we
extract the paragraphs relating to Mr. Fillmore :
" MR. FILLMORE, MR. MAYOR AND FELLOW-CITIZENS : I must
ask your indulgence for a moment s pause to take breath. If
you ask me why I ask this indulgence, it is because I am so
overpowered by the eloquence of my friend the chairman of
the committee of ways and means, whom I have so long been
accustomed to refer to in that capacity, that, with your permis
sion, I will continue so to denominate him now, that I have no
words left to answer him. For so liberal has he been in be
stowing that eloquence upon me, which he himself possesses
in so eminent a degree that, while he was ascribing to me
talents so far above my own consciousness in that regard, I
was all the time imploring the god of eloquence to give me, at
least a<^ this moment, a few words to justify him before you in
making that splendid panegyric which he has been pleased to
bestow upon me; and that the flattering picture which he has
presented to you, may not immediately be defaced before your
eyes by what you should hear from me."
*********
" I congratulate you again upon your possession of another
dear and intimate friend of mine, in the person of the gentle
man who has just addressed me in your name, and whom I
have taken the liberty of addressing as chairman of the com
mittee of ways and means the capacity in which he has
rendered so recently services of the highest importance to
78 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMORE.
you bis constituents, by whose favor he was enabled to render
them to us, and our common country. And I can not for
bear to express here my regret at his retirement in the pres
ent emergency from the councils of the nation. There, or
elsewhere, I hope and trust he will soon return ; for whether
to the nation or to the State, no service can be, or ever will be
rendered by a more able or a more faithful public servant."
After his withdrawal from Congress, Mr. Fillmore continued
to reside in Buffalo, and was very much devoted to his profes
sion. A large and lucrative practice in the higher courts gave
him constant, and to a person of his laborious habits and love
of business, pleasant occupation. In this manner he passed
four or five years, enjoying the esteem of his fellow-citizens and
laying the foundations of a competency which has enabled him
to live with the dignity befitting his position, (although with
the simplicity which accords with his republican tastes,) since
his retirement from the highest office in the country.
OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. 79
CHAPTER V.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1844.
Mr. Fillmore s last congressional terra expired in March,
1843. During the following summer his name was mentioned
in connection with the Vice-presidency, and his claims as a
candidate were urged with much enthusiasm by a large num
ber of the most respectable Whig presses. By the spon
taneous and universal sentiment of the Whig party, it had
been settled, for a long period in advance of the national con
vention, that Henry Clay would be the candidate for the first
office. This eloquent and patriotic statesman was no doubt
the private choice of a majority of his party in 1840; but the
fact that he had been beaten, in 1832, by General Jackson,
on the bank issue, rendered it inexpedient, both in his own
estimation and that of his friends, that he should be again
brought forward until the prospects should preponderate
pretty strongly in favor of his success. Many of his friends
supposed this time had arrived in 184Q, and felt great dis
satisfaction when they were over-ruled by the majority of
the convention, who were of the opinion that General Har
rison was a more available candidate. No man in the United
States had so many personal friends as Mr. Clay, and his
vigorous opposition to the administration of John Tyler, re
moved all doubt of his availability in 1844 there never having
been any of his pre-eminent fitness.
The Whigs of New York, proud of Mr. Fillmore s talents
and standing, desired to see his name on the same ticket with
Mr. Clay s, and determined to present it to the national
80 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
convention. In October, 1843, the editor of the New York
Tribune made the following expression of opinion: "I have
just returned from a four weeks ramble at the West, and have
some comments to make in due season, on events and occur
rences in my absence. For the present, however, I must bo
content with a remark on a single point the Vice-presidency.
While I believe the selection of the Whig candidate should be
left, as nearly as may be, to the unbiassed and unembarrassed
choice of a national convention, and, therefore, do not care to
engage in any newspaper discussion on the subject, I shall
avoid misapprehension by stating that my own first choice has
long been Millard Fillmore." This preference was fully
shared by the Whigs of New York.
The Whig national convention met at Baltimore on the first
of May, 1844. Hon. Ambrose Spencer, of New York, was
chosen president, and twenty-six vice-presidents and six secre
taries were appointed. As soon as the organization was com
pleted, Henry Clay was nominated by acclamation, as the
Whig candidate for the Presidency. The convention merely
ratified a nomination that had been previously settled by the
people.
Respecting the candidate for Vice-president, there was con
siderable difference of opinion, and a choice was not effected
until the convention had balloted three times. John Davis,
of Massachusetts, was supported by the delegates from the
Eastern States; Mr. Fillmore by those from the State of New
York, and some of the Western States; Theodore Frelinghuy-
sen by those from New Jersey, and other States. On the
third ballot, Mr. Frelinghuysen received a majority of the
votes, and was declared nominated.
The author of the " Life and Times of Silas Wright," al
though a Democrat, in describing the proceedings of this
convention, speaks of the Whig candidates for Vice-president
in the following handsome terms:
CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR. 81
" It is remarkable that a great number, and we believe a
majority of the men who have most attracted public attention
and most influenced public opinion in the State of New York,
and indeed in several of the other States, are self-made men,
who have risen to distinction by their personal merit and their
own individual efforts, without the aid of wealth or influential
connections. This is eminently the case with Mr. Fillmore.
We believe he did not come to the bar very early in life. At
any rate, before he had practiced law a sufficient length of time
to distinguish himself in his profession, he was elected to the
Assembly of this State from the county of Erie. He had not
been long in public life when he was elected a member of
Congress from the district that included the county in which
he resided. In Congress, by his industry, talents, and great
moderation and prudence, he soon acquired a powerful and
commanding influence; and during the last Congress, of which
he was a member, he was chairman of the committee of ways
and means, a position the most honorable and responsible of
any in the House of Representatives. In that situation he
discharged so well and so ably his duties, that when he left
that body, perhaps no member of it held a higher standing in
the house or the nation than he. Mr. Frelinghuysen, however,
had been a senator of the United States; he was the favorite
of the Whigs in New Jersey, and the party were desirous of
strengthening themselves in that State; besides, he was a man
of respectable talents, great erudition, and highly distinguished
for purity of character, for piety, and all the private and social
virtues."
As soon as the result of the national convention became
known, there was a general expression of opinion among the
Whigs of New York, in favor of making Mr. Fillmore their
candidate for Governor. It was contrary to his wishes to run
for that office, and he addressed a letter to the editor of the
Albany Evening Journal, assigning the reasons why he did
not wish his name to be used. We copy his letter.
YORK, May 16th, 1844.
"THURLOW WEED, ESQ. My Dear Sir Being here in at
tendance upon the Supreme Court, my attention has been
82 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
called to an article in your paper of the 8th instant, and to
some extracts from other journals in yours since that time, in
which my name is mentioned as a candidate for nomination to
the gubernatorial office in this State. You do me the justice to
say that I have never desired the office of Governor, though
I admit the right of the people to the services of a public man
in any station they may think proper to assign him. My
maxim has always been that individuals have no claim upon
the public for official favors, but that the public has a right to
the service of any and all of its citizens. This right of the
public, however, must in some measure be qualified by the
titness and ability of the person whose services may be de
manded for the station designed, and the propriety of his ac
cepting the trust can only be properly determined when all
his relations, social and political, are taken into the account.
Of the former, I am ready to concede that the public must be
the proper and only judge. In regard to the latter, the indi
vidual himself has a right to be consulted. These notices of
the public press are from such sources, and so flattering, as to
leave no doubt either of the sincerity or friendship of the
authors. And the office itself, in my estimation, is second in
point of dignity, honor and responsibility only to that of
President of the United States. When we reflect that it has
been held by a Jay, a Tompkins, and a Clinton, who in the
discharge of its various and responsible duties acquired a fame
that has connected them with the history of our country, and
rendered their names immortal, all must agree that its honors
are sufficient to satisfy the most lofty ambition. For myself I
can truly say that they are more than I ever aspired to.
"Believing, as I now do, that whoever shall receive the
nomination of the Whig convention for that distinguished
station, will be elected, it is not from any apprehension of
defeat that I am disposed to decline its honors. But for
reasons partly of a public, and partly of a private character, I
have invariably expressed an unwillingness to become a candi
date for that nomination. This has been long known to most
of my intimate friends, and to few better than to yourself. But
a sense of delicacy, which all must appreciate, rendered me
reluctant to make a more public declaration of my wishes on
this subject at this time. It also occurred to me that sonic.
individuals, acting under a mistaken sense of my real motives,
LETTER TO THURLOW WEED. 83
might be led to reproach me with being influenced in my
course in this matter by the results of the Baltimore conven
tion. But when I saw from the public journals that many of
my friends were committing themselves on this subject, and
reflecting that no man- from any apprehension of subjecting
himself to unmerited censure, had a right to shrink from the
performance of any duty, i felt that the candor and frankness
due to my political friends would not suffer me longer to per
mit them to remain in doubt as to my wishes on this subject.
"Permit me then to say that I do not desire to be con
sidered as a candidate for that office. So far as my reasons
for this determination are founded upon private considerations,
it would be alike indelicate and obtrusive to present them to
the public. But if these could be removed or overcome, there
are others of a more public character that should, it appears
to me, be equally conclusive.
"In the first place, 1 greatly distrust my own ability to
discharge the varied and complicated duties of that high sta
tion in a manner -either creditable to myself or satisfactory to
the public. For the last twelve years my attention has been
mostly withdrawn from questions affecting State policy, and
directed to national affairs. My chief experience in public
matters has been in the national councils, and to my labors
there I am mainly indebted for whatever reputation I may
enjoy as a public man. It appears to me that the present
peculiarly trying emergencies in the great interests of the
State require a man for the executive chair of eminent
ability, long tried experience, and a greater share of public
confidence than I can hope to possess. I can not but feel
that many who have been mentioned are more deserving of
that honor, and better able to discharge those high trusts,
than myself. I recognize in each "an elder and a better
soldier."
" But secondly, it is known to all that I have recently been
a candidate for nomination to the Vice-presidency. I had
previously considered my political .career as ended for the
present, if not closed forever. Never at all sanguine of suc
cess, I yielded a reluctant assent to the presentation of my
name for that office. Grateful as I am, and ever shall be-,
for the generous devotion of my friends, I felt no disappoint
ment in the result, and unite most cordially with my Whig
84 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
bretliren in sustaining the excellent nominations of that con
vention. But a candidate is now to be selected from the Whig-
party of this State for the gubernatorial office. Such person
must be taken from among my political associates, and I feel
that I owe too much to them to suffer my name to come in
competition with theirs for this distinguished honor. To per
mit it would wear the semblance of ingratitude, or an over
weening ambition for political preferment. 1 know that I feel
neither, and I can perceive no reason why I should subject
myself to the imputation. This alone, if there were no other
reasons, would be to my mind an insuperable objection.
" But, nevertheless, while I thus decline to be considered a
candidate for nomination, it is due to myself to express the
grateful emotions of my heart to those friends who have so
kindly intimated a preference for me for that office. It implies
a confidence on their part which it has been the height of my
ambition to acquire ; and I shall cherish the recollection of it
through life. Believe me, also, when I say that I am not
insensible to the deep obligations which I am under to the
people of this, my native State; and more especially to those
in the western part of it, who have sustained me with such
generous devotion and unwavering fidelity through many
years of arduous public service. They could not call upon
me for any sacrifice, merely personal to myself, that I should
not feel bound to make. 1 owe them a debt of gratitude
which I never expect to be able to discharge. But the Whig-
party of this State now presents an array of talent and of well
tried political and moral integrity not excelled by that of any
other State in the Union. From this distinguished host it
can not be difficult to select a suitable candidate for the office
of Governor one who is capable, faithful, true to the cause
and the country, and who will call out the enthusiastic support
of the whole Whig party. To such a candidate I pledge in
advance my most hearty and zealous support. Let us add
his name to those of Clay and Frelinghuysen, and our success
is certain.
"But while I thus withdraw from competition for the honors,
be assured that I do not shrink from the labors or responsi
bilities of this great contest. We have a work to perform in
this State which calls for the united effort and untiling exer
tion of every true Whig. Here the great battle is to be
CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR. 85
fought. For myself I am enlisted for the war. Wherever I
can be of most service, there I am willing to go ; I seek no dis
tinction but such as may be acquired by a faithful laborer in
a good cause. I ask no reward but such as results to all from
a good government well administered; and I desire no higher
gratification than to witness the well merited honors with
which victory will crown my numerous Whig friends.
" 1 am truly yours,
" MlLLARD FlLLMORE."
Whatever force there may have been in the reasons assigned
in this letter, the current of Whig feeling was running too
strongly in favor of Mr. Fillmore s nomination for Governor, to
be arrested by any expression of his wishes. Whatever might
be the merits of other distinguished Whigs, the party was
united on him, and the movement was so spontaneous, that it
was feared an attempt to make any other nomination would
distract and embarrass the party. The unanimous voice of
the Whig press insisted that it was the duty of Mr. Fillmore
to yield his private inclinations, and of the party to nominate
him with the same unanimity they would have done had he
not publicly declined the honor.
The Whig State convention met on the eleventh of Sep
tember, and Hon. Francis Granger, formerly Postmaster
General, was chosen president. As soon as the organization
was completed, a delegate from Onondaga county, after a few
prefatory remarks, moved a resolution declaring Millard Fill-
more unanimously nominated as the Whig candidate for
Governor. The president having put the question, the reso
lution was carried by acclamation, the convention and spec
tators rising in a body and giving nine enthusiastic cheers.
Thus the Whigs of New York, too impatient to testify their
confidence in the man of their choice to await the formality of
a ballot, promptly made him their candidate with an enthusiasm
so spontaneous, a zeal so irrepressible, as to compel his
86 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMOEE.
acceptance of the nomination. We copy two of the resolu
tions which were unanimously adopted by the convention :
"Resolved, That we announce to the people of this great
commonwealth, with peculiar and triumphant satisfaction, the
name of our candidate for the chief magistracy of the State
a nomination which we were called together not to suggest
but to declare, as the previously expressed will of the people
a nomination which we have therefore made unanimously
without a moment s delay, and without a thought of dissent
and that we rejoice in the opportunity thus to show a grateful
people s high appreciation of the modest worth, the manly public
virtue, the spotless integrity and unchangeable fidelity of that
eminent champion of Whig principles, the dauntless vindicator
of the outraged popular suffrage in the case of the insulted
BROAD SEAL of New Jersey in 1840, the valiant and victori
ous leader of the patriotic Whigs of the immortal twenty-
seventh Congress in their long and trying warfare against
corruption and despotism, the laborious author and eloquent
defender of the Wmo TARIFF MILLARD FILLMORE.
"Resolved, That in him, known to the people by long and
faithful service in the Legislature of the State and nation,
we rejoice to present a true and worthy representative of
Democratic Republican principles, born in the forest of the
noble western region of our own State, trained among an
industrious kindred to hardy toil and manual labor on the
farm and in the manufactory democratic in all his associations
and sympathies called early into honorable public service,
and promoted to an unsought distinction by an intelligent con
stituency, who learned his capacity by experience free from
the degrading and contaminating association of partisan man
agers and spoilers one who never sought to rob the people
of the right to choose their own rulers, but ever distinguished
himself in contending for popular rights and constitutional
liberty, and in securing to the American laborer his labor s
just and high reward."
It is a well known matter of history, that in the presidential
campaign of 1844, the Whig party were disastrously beaten.
They had entered the canvass with high and confident hopes
LETTER TO MR. CLAY. , 87
of success, and deep and bitter was their disappointment, when
they found that Henry Clay, their great and cherished leader,
was defeated by a majority of sixty -six electoral votes. Mr.
Fillmore, of course, shared the defeat of his party. Person
ally, his failure to be elected Governor of New York was a
relief, for he had not wanted the office. But he felt, with the
whole Whig party, the sorest disappointment and chagrin that
the most illustrious statesman in the country should have been
vanquished in a contest before the people, by a man of the
moderate pretensions of his Democratic competitor. Under the
influence of these feelings, Mr. Fillmore wrote the following^
letter to Mr. Clay, in which he justly attributed his defeat in
the State of New York to the Abolitionists and foreign
Catholics :
BUFFALO, November llth, 1844.-
"Mr DEAR SIR: I have thought for three or four days that
I would write you, but really I am unmanned. I have no
courage or resolution. All is gone. The last hope, which
hung first upon the city of New York and then upon Virginia,
is finally dissipated, and I see nothing but despair depicted on
every countenance.
" For myself I have no regrets. I was nominated much
against my will, and though not insensible to the pride of suc
cess, yet I feel a kind of relief at being defeated. But not so
for you or for the nation. Every consideration of justice, every
feeling of gratitude conspired in the minds of honest men to
insure your election; and though always doubtful of my own
success, I could never doubt yours, till the painful conviction
was forced upon me.
" The Abolitionists and foreign Catholics have defeated us
in this State. I will not trust myself to speak of the vile hy
pocrisy of the leading Abolitionists now. Doubtless many
acted honestly but ignorantly in what they did. But it is clear
that Birney and his associates sold themselves to Locofocoism,
and they will doubtless receive their reward.
" Our opponents, by pointing to the Native Americans and
to Mr. Frelinghuyscn, drove the foreign Catholics from us and
defeated us in this State.
88 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
" But it is vain to look at the causes by which this infamous
result has been produced. It is enough to say that all is gone,
and I must confess that nothing has happened to shake my
confidence in our ability to sustain a free government so much
as this. If with such issues and such candidates as the na
tional contest presented, we can be beaten, what may we not
expect? A cloud of gloom hangs over the future. May God
save the country ; for it is evident the people will not."
Mr. Fillmore was not alone in supposing that its foreign
population had deprived the country of the services of a states
man pre-eminently fitted for its highest office, whose elevation
to the presidency would have been a matter of just national
pride. To show how widely this impression prevailed among
intelligent men, we make the following quotations from some
of the numerous letters addressed to Mr. Clay after the result
of the election became known.
The venerable Ambrose Spencer, formerly Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of the State of New York, wrote to Mr.
Clay as follows, under the date of Albany, Nov. 21st, 1844:
"You will perceive that the Abolition vote lost you the
election, as three-fourths of them were firm \Yhigs, converted
into Abolitionists. The foreign vote also destroyed your elec
tion, and there was yet another distinct cause. * * * *
This untoward event has produced universal gloom, and has
shaken public confidence to an unexpected extent. Even
many of those who voted for Polk, now that he is elected,
deeply regret the result. God only knows to what we are
destined. One sentiment seems to prevail universally, that
the naturalization laws must be .altered ; that they must be re
pealed, and the door forever shut on the admission of foreigners
to citizenship, or that they undergo a long probation. I am
for the former.
" The Germans and the Irish are in the same category ; the
one who know not our language, and are as ignorant as the
lazzaroni of Italy, can never understandingly exercise the fran
chise; and the other, besides their ignorance, are naturally
inclined to go with the loafers of our own population."
FOREIGN POLITICAL INFLUENCE. 89
Philip Hone, -of New York city, under date of Nov. 28th,
1844, writes:
" But the especial object of my writing is to remove any
unfavorable impressions (if such there be) from your mind as
to the miserable result here. The loss of New York was fatal
to the cause of the Whigs, but I pray you, dear sir, to attri
bute no part of this misfortune to a want of exertion on the
part of your friends in the city of New York. Never before
did they work so faithfully, and never, I fear, will they again;
the man and the cause were equally dear to the noble Whigs,
and every honorable exertion was made, every personal sacri
fice submitted to, every liberal oblation poured upon the altar
of patriotic devotion; nine-tenths of our respectable citizens
voted for Clay and Frelinghuysen the merchants, the profes
sional men, the mechanics and working men, all such as live by
their skill and the labor of their honest hands, who have wives
whom they cherish and children whom they strive to educate
and make good citizens men who go to church on Sundays,
respect the laws and love . their country such men, to the
number of twenty-six thousand three hundred and eighty-five,
redeemed their pledge to God and the country; but alas!
the numerical strength lies not in those classes. Foreigners
who have no lot or inheritance in the matter, have robbed us
of our birth-right, the scepter has departed from Israel. Ire
land has re-conquered the country which England lost, but
never suffer yourself to believe that a single trace of the name
of Henry Clay is obliterated from the swelling hearts of the
Whigs of New York."
The following is extracted from a letter to Mr. Clay, written
by John H. Westwood, dated Baltimore, Nov. 28th, 1844:
" I well recollect in the family circle, while a boy, sitting
around the domestic hearth, hearing my father recount your
patriotic deeds. One sentence from a speech of yours, The
colors that float from the mast-head should be the credentials
of our seamen, was indelibly fixed on my mind. Then judge
my deep mortification and disappointment to find the sailors
friend, the master-spirit of the late war, the noblest Roman
of them all, rejected by the American people, and such a man
90 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMORE.
as James K. Polk placed in the presidential chair. Did I say
American people? I recall that expression, for two thirds of
the native freemen of the United States are your fast friends.
"It was foreign influence aided by the Irish and Dutch vote
that caused our defeat. As a proof, in my native city alone,
in the short space of two months there were over one thousand
naturalized. Out of this number nine-tenths voted the Loco-
foco ticket. Thus men who could not speak our language were
made citizens and became politicians too, who at the polls were
the noisy revilers of your fair fame. Thus you have been well
rewarded for the interest you ever took for the oppressed of
other nations. Notwithstanding the ingratitude of the Irish
and German voters, if the Abolitionists of New York had done
their duty, all would have been well."
Mr. E. Pettigru, of Magnolia, North Carolina, wrote a letter
to Mr. Clay on the occasion of his defeat, from which the fol
lowing is an extract :
"But on this subject I need say no more. It is all plain to
you, and my remarks are only to show how much I deplore
the failure of our forefathers, the patriots of the Revolution.
But one word on the subject of naturalization. My opinion
has been for forty years that there should be no citizens of the
United States except those born within its limits. Let every
foreigner be satisfied to enjoy all the other privileges that the
State in which they chose to live thought proper to grant.
Had that been the law, we should not now be like men in a
thunder squall waiting, with trembling anxiety for the next clap."
Mr. C. L. L. Leary, of Baltimore, under the date of Nov.
14th, 1844, writes:
" I console myself, too, (and to you it must be a source of
unfailing gratulation,) that I find myself arrayed in this contest
on the same side with the enlightened intelligence, virtue, and
patriotism of the Union, with the line of discrimination so
broadly and vividly drawn, that the wayfaring man, though
a fool in other matters, need not err therein. Whatever
partial triumphs we have won, have been achieved bv honest
American hearts, and with unstained American hands; no levies
RISE OF THE AMERICAN PARTY. 91
have been made upon the prisons and lazar-houses of Europe;
no Canadian mercenaries or Hessian auxiliaries have been
either pressed or purchased into our service ; you are the only
choice of the great American party, standing upon a broad
American platform, supported and dependent upon an Ameri
can Constitution, as framed, understood, and construed by the
patriot fathers of the republic. We are told in Holy Writ
that The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are
exalted; and in this humiliating posture we now find American
affairs. The very fountain of our political system, from whence
all authority and power flow, is revoltingly corrupt. The bal
lot-box is poisoned by gross ignorance and wanton perjury."
Mr. Frelinghuysen, who was candidate for Vice-president on
the same ticket with Mr. Clay, says to him in a letter written
from New York, Nov. llth, 1844:
" And then the foreign vote was tremendous. More than
three thousand, it is confidently said, have been naturalized in
this city alone since the first of October. It is an alarming
fact, that this foreign vote has decided the great questions of
American policy, and counteracted a nation s gratitude."
We have made these numerous extracts for the purpose of
showing how deep, pervading and wide-spread was the impres
sion, among intelligent men in all parts of the country, in 1844,
that our foreign population had come to exert a very undue
influence in American politics. They show that the feeling out
of which the present American party has sprung is no hasty im
pulse, no sudden freak, no transient ebullition of passion, but a
deeply seated conviction of the American mind, which has
been growing and gathering strength for years. As it has not
suddenly sprung up, so it will not rapidly disappear
The quotations we have just made suggest the propriety of
our giving, in this connection, a slight sketch of the first rise
of the American party as a distinct political organization.
In the year 1834, Professor Samuel B. Morse, the inventor
of the electro-magnetic telegraph, a gentleman whose fame
92 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
will be as enduring as the records of science, was run as a candi
date for mayor of New York city, by a party which had just
been organized for the purpose of withstanding foreign influ
ence in our elections. He received nine thousand votes. An
address had previously been issued, which temperately but
ably set forth the dangers which threatened our institutions
from the abuse of the elective franchise, by the foreign popula
tion of the country, the convenient instruments of papal priests
and native demagogues. The truths presented in this address
were so forcible that they produced a powerful impression, led
to a distinctive American organization, and the nomination of a
purely American ticket. The vote polled in its favor seemed
so indicative of future success, that it excited the apprehen
sions of the old parties, whose leaders then controlled the po
litical press. They opened their batteries against the rising
party, and by the power of the press and the efficiency of party
discipline, succeeded in repressing temporarily the outward
expression of a sentiment which, though it might be checked,
could not be extinguished.
The mention of Professor Morse recalls an incident, which
as it connects his name with that of Mr. Fillmore, we will
briefly relate :
When Professor Morse had perfected his electric telegraph
and secured the patent, its exhibition in Washington excited
much attention. Mr. Fillmore, then chairman of the com
mittee of ways and means, was particularly interested in the
novel and extraordinary machine, and after making up the de
tails of the annual civil appropriation bill, he proposed an
amendment appropriating $30,000 for the construction of an
electric telegraph from Washington to Baltimore. A distin
guished member of the House, who was afterward Post
master General, violently opposed the appropriation, and, in the
excitement of the debate, denounced the invention as a worth
less humbug. By the urgent and impressive representations
RISE OF THE AMERICAN PARTY. 93
of Mr. Fillraore the amendment was carried, when the gen
tleman referred to, as a mode of expressing his derision,
rose in his place and proposed as a further amendment, an
appropriation of sixty thousand dollars to carry on experiments
in animal magnetism, as a doubly important and much more ra
tional object. But in spite of sneers and jibes, Mr. Fillmore
carried his point, and this great American invention was ena
bled to give a practical demonstration of its utility.
Although the American party of 1834 did not maintain its
organization, the occurrences of subsequent years deepened the
conviction of its necessity. Not only did the same corrupt in
fluences which it had tried to stem continue to prevail in the elec
tions, but the papal hierarchy seemed to have made a conquest
of the Governor of New York. In 1840, Gov. Seward proposed
to the Legislature of the State to innovate upon its school sys
tem, by setting apart a portion of its common school fund for the
support of sectarian schools, under the control of the Catholic
church. This project, warmly advocated by Bishop Hughes,
was again obtruded on the New York Legislature by Gov.
Seward in 1841, and pressed with all the arguments that
could be devised in its favor by an artful and ingenious mind.
Events like these, combined with the constantly increasing in
solence of foreign voters and office-seekers, deepened the re
pugnance of American citizens, and led to a revival of the
American party as - a distinct political organization. The for
eign residents in the large cities had not only become numer
ous, but they exerted a large influence in the elections in
proportion to their numbers. They held the balance of power
between the two old parties, and were conscious that they
could turn the scale whichever way they pleased. Presuming
on their strength, they demanded and received a large share
of the less important offices, to the exclusion of native born cit
izens. The services for which they were thus rewarded con
sisted in thronging caucuses and primary meetings, and so
94 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
degrading their character that self-respecting men would take
no part in managing the machinery by which nominations
were controlled ; and in hanging about the polls and bullying
quiet native citizens who went to deposit their votes.
These abuses led to the re-organization of the American party
in 1843. A declaration of principles was published, and in the
city of New York a full municipal ticket was nominated which
polled a very considerable vote. Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis,
New Orleans, and other cities followed the patriotic example,
and each of them elected either the whole or a part of the
American ticket. In the municipal election in New York city
in April, 1844, the Native American party nominated James
Harper, of the respectable publishing firm of Harper & Broth
ers, as their candidate for mayor, and elected him by a ma
jority of between four and five thousand. They also elected
a majority of the aldermen and assistant aldermen of the city.
The American feeling which gave these powerful evidences
of its strength in nearly all our large cities in 1844, was again
smothered, as it had been ten years before. True, it was much
deeper and more general than it had been in 1834, but be
sides the discipline of political parties which was put in requi
sition to crush it, it encountered obstacles in the absorbing top
ics which then engrossed public attention. The next year Texas
was annexed to the United States. Then followed the war
with Mexico, large acquisitions of new territory, the discovery
of the rich gold mines of California, and the exciting contro
versies consequent on the application of that rapidly matured
State for admission into the federal union. But no sooner had
the public mind time to settle into tranquillity after the excite
ment which attended the adoption of the compromise of 1850,
than American sentiments again found expression, and asserted
their power as they had never done before. As, in 1844,
they had shown themselves much more powerful than in 1834,
so,in 1P54, all preceding exhibitions of American feeling seemed
THE AMERICAN PARTY. 95
but as the drops which precede a copious and refreshing
shower. Although by the repeal of the Missouri compromise,
the country has been afflicted with another distracting slavery
agitation, even that has been unable to arrest or materially re
tard the progress of Americanism, and however the movement
may be obstructed or opposed, it will triumph over all obsta
cles, because it is founded in the deepest feelings of millions of
patriotic hearts.
96 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
CHAPTER VI.
ELECTED COMPTROLLER OF NEW YORK.
In the fall of 1847, Mr. Fillmorc was elected Comptroller of
the State of New York, and entered on the duties of the office on
the first of the following January. This office is one of great
importance, the Comptroller being the chief financial officer of
the State, and entrusted with the management of all its various
funds. These, in the State of New York, are numerous and
large, some half dozen distinct and separate funds being enu
merated, and their condition regularly described, in the annual
reports required of the Comptroller. To say nothing of the
school funds which amount to between two and three millions of
dollars, or the United States deposit fund, amounting to between
four and five millions, or the literature fund, or the trust funds,
the magnificent and almost gigantic system of public works
which are the property of the State, would alone require that
its principal financial officer should be a man of great business
capacity, experience and skill. At the time Mr. Fillmore held
the office, in addition to his other multifarious duties, the Comp
troller was superintendent of the bank department in the
wealthiest and the most commercial State in the Union, as well
as a leading member of the Canal Board. As the citizens of
other States have probably a very inadequate conception of the
importance of this office, and the high order of ability requisite
for the successful discharge of its duties, it may not be amiss
to copy the following paragraphs which appealed in the Albany
Argus the year previous to Mr. Fillmorc s election as Com])-
COMPTROLLERSHIP OF NEW YORK. 97
trollef. They are quoted from an article written by an able
and highly intelligent correspondent of that paper:
"There is at this day no officer of the State whose duties
and powers are so diversified, so extensive, and so complicated,
as those of the Comptroller; nor is there any who is placed in
a more commanding position for exercising a political influence.
From a simple auditor of accounts, and a watch upon the treas
ury, he has sprung up into an officer of the first eminence in
the administration ; supplanting by degrees some departments
which were once in equal, if not higher regard, as auxiliaries
and advisers of the executive power. He is the one-man of
the government. He is not simply an officer, but a bundle
of officers. There is hardly a branch of the administration of
which he is not a prominent member ; so prominent, in some
cases, that the affairs of that branch can not be conducted with
out his actual presence, although personally he may be a mi
nority of those having it in charge. He is the chief of the
finances; the superintendent of banks; and the virtual quo
rum of the commissioners of the canal fund, with all the power
which such a position gives him in the Canal Board. While
other State departments have no more than maintained their
original sphere and authority, or have suffered material dimin
ution, particularly of influence, the office of Comptroller has
been a favorite of the Legislature, and the chief object of its
confidence, entrusted with high if not extraordinary powers of
government. An examination of the statutes will show that
every year adds to its duties, until they have become, by contin
ual aggregation, a complicated mass, beyond the power of
performance by any one man, and almost beyond the reach of
his thorough and intelligent supervision."
********
"To form an adequate idea of the mass of duty he has in
charge, it is necessary not only to survey the summary contained
in the revised code of our laws, but to trace out the statutes
5
98 EiOGRArny OF MILLARD FILLMOEE.
from year to year ; to review the reports of his office ; and to
follow him and his numerous assistants in the actual discharge
O
of their various labors in the financial, banking, and tax bu
reaux of his department. But it is inconsistent with the de
signed brevity of these papers to enter into the details which
alone can convey a suitable notion of the magnitude and respon
sibility of his trust and influence. As the department is now
organized, it is overgrown and cumbersome ; and to perform
with thorough intelligence and conscientiousness, without error
or delay, all its requisite offices of supervision and of action,
requires the sight of Argus, with his hundred eyes, and the
activity of Briareus, with his hundred hands."
Mr. Fillmore s talents peculiarly fitted, him for the able
discharge of the duties of this office duties even more import
ant than those of the Governor of the State, and more compli
cated than any which devolve on the secretary of the national
treasury. He possesses in a very high degree the combina
tion of qualities which constitute eminent administrative ability.
A native cast of mind which prefers business to show, love of
labor, fondness for method, a comprehensive mental grasp
united to great capacity for details, energy, inventiveness these
are qualities for which Mr. Fillmore is distinguished, and which
form the solid basis on which his reputation as an executive
officer has been reared. In mentioning inventiveness as one
of his mental characteristics, we must not be understood to
mean that light play of fancy which supplies imagery to the
poet; for Mr. Fillmore s turn of thought is too earnest and
manly to feel much pleasure in frivolous ornaments. He is a
greater master of the figures of arithmetic than of the figures of
rhetoric ; but the mathematician may be original as well as the
orator, although it requires more skill to discern and appreciate
the originality of the former than of the latter. It is the
business of the statesman to deal with grave and important in
terests, and if he is a man of great resources he shows it rather
99
by proposing wise measures which will abide the test of time,
than by making ingenious speeches that die with the breath
that utters them. When Hamilton devised the financial sys
tem by which the country was extricated from its difficulties
and retrieved its ruined credit, he was as much entitled to the
praise of originality as was John Randolph in any of those ec
centricities of thought which rendered his speeches so entertain
ing. The kind of inventiveness by which a statesman becomes
fertile in resources, is not that which kindles into brilliant
coruscations in popular oratory, but that which enables him
to bring to great exigencies the measures best adapted to meet
them. In 1842, the national finances were in a most deplor
able condition. Millard Fillmore was made chairman of the
committee of ways and means, and when he had matured his
measures of relief, credit revived and the country entered on a
new career of prosperity. In 1850, sectional controversies ran
so high as to imperil the existence of the Union ; Millard Fill-
more became President of the United States, and harmony and
tranquillity were perfectly restored.
These remarks in relation to the originality of Mr. Fillmore s
mind have been suggested by his report as Comptroller of New
York. The merits one would expect to find in such a docu
ment are a clear exhibit of the financial condition of the com
monwealth and of the state of its various funds, accompanied,
perhaps, by suggestions relative to their management. Not
only did Mr. Fillmore s report possess these merits ; not only
did it display clear method, lucid statement and happy sug
gestions, but it proposed a plan for improving the banking
system of the State, which embodied the happiest solution that
has ever been offered of the great problem of devising a circu
lating medium which should combine the lightness and conve
nience of paper with the security of gold and silver. We
quote from his report all that he said on the subject of banks,
asking particular attention to the part which recommends
100 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMORE.
United States stocks as a basis of banking. The reader will
be struck with the comprehensiveness of view which so readily
combines a measure of State policy with a method for facilitat
ing the collection of the national revenues. The plan pro
posed by Mr. Fillmore would unite the advantages claimed for
both a United States Bank and the sub-treasury system, with
out the dangers and inconveniences of either :
" In order to determine this question properly, several things
are to be taken into consideration, and the first is, what is the
duty of the State in reference to banking? It would, doubt
less, be desirable to create banks which should be able to dis
charge every obligation, not only to the bill-holder, but to the
depositors, and all others to whom it should incur any liability.
But this is impossible. The safety fund, which was intended
to provide such security, would have been ample to redeem
all the circulation of the banks which have failed, but it has
been exhausted in paying depositors arid other creditors of the
insolvent banks, and is now mortgaged for all it will probably
produce for eighteen years to come. Thus by attempting
more than could be accomplished, the Legislature failed to
secure the bill-holder, which was in its power, and, for the
remaining eighteen years that some of these charters have to
run, the safety fund yields him no security. It is apparent,
then, that security for all liabilities can not be provided, and
the State is under no more obligation to attempt this impossi
bility than it would be the equally absurd one of making every
merchant capable of meeting all the obligations he should incur.
"It is humbly conceived the duty of the State in this case
begins and ends with furnishing a good and safe currency to
the people. To furnish this currency, so far as it consists of
paper or credit, is an exclusive privilege granted by the State,
and the State should take care that in granting it the people
are secured from imposition and loss. Any man may receive
deposits, or discount a note, or loan money, or draw a bill of
exchange.
" These, it is admitted, are banking operations. But they
are open to all. Those who engage in them enjoy no exclu
sive privilege. But not so with those who are authorized to
BANKS AND BANKING. 101
issue bank notes to circulate as money. This is a banking op
eration confined to the few. It is a prerogative enjoyed exclu
sively by the money kings of the country, and they should not
enjoy it without giving the most ample security. This duty is
justly imposed for the privilege which is granted.
" Assuming, then, that the great object of legislation on this
subject is to provide a sound currency by giving ample security
to the bill-holder, the question is, how can this best be accom
plished? It must be borne in mind that safety fund banks
derive much of their credit from the individuals who were in
corporated. -By granting a special charter in each case, the
Legislature had it in its power in some measure to control this
matter.
" But there was an attendant evil that in the opinion of many
outweighed the good. The practice of granting exclusive priv
ileges to particular individuals invited competition for these
legislative favors. They were soon regarded as part of the
spoils belonging to the victorious party, and were dealt out as
rewards for partisan services.
" This practice became so shameless and corrupt that it could
be endured no longer, and in 1838 the legislature sought a
remedy in the general banking law. This was the origin of
the free bank system. Since that time no safety fund bank
has been chartered; and in 1846 the people set their seal of
reprobation upon this practice of granting special charters for
banks, by providing in the new constitution that the Legisla
ture should have no power to pass any act granting any special
charter for banking purposes, but that corporations or associa
tions might be formed for such purposes under general laws. 1
"Would it be safe, then, to provide by general law that
voluntary associations or incorporations might be formed any
where and by any persons for banking? The Comptroller
thinks not. Suppose they were required to pay in all their
capital, and the most satisfactory proof should be required of
this fact. Even this- is no security to the bill-holder. The
capital paid in is left in the custody of those who pay it. They
can withdraw it at pleasure. It would only be necessary for
those who wished to practice a fraud upon the credulity of the
community, and reap a golden harvest, to associate together
and form a bank, pay in a large capital, appoint one of their
associates president, and another cashier, to take charge of it;
102 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
Erove to this department these facts, and obtain bills for circu-
ition to an equal amount, and then pay them out for property
easily transported take their capital and leave for California,
and in one week would be beyond the reach of process or the
power of coercion.
"But it has been suggested that each bank might be re
quired to deposit a certain amount, say ten per cent., in the
treasury, to constitute a fund for the redemption of its bills.
So far as this deposit goes it may be safe. It is on the princi
ple of the free bank system. But if the deposit be intended
for the redemption of the bank only which makes the deposit,
it is wholly inadequate. It is no more than the banks under
the old safety fund system paid to a general fund. Their
charters had twenty years to run. They paid half of one per
cent, per annum, making in all ten per cent. To say that one
dollar is deposited as a security for the redemption of ten, is
a mockery.
<l But it may be said that the bills constitute a common fund
for the redemption of the bills of the insolvent banks only.
Then, as many which are solvent will not want it, there will
be enough to redeem all the bills of those which shall prove
insolvent. This is doubted. This fund, instead of being
sufficient to redeem the notes of all insolvent banks, would
probably for a time give just credit enough to the fraudulent
associations which would be formed, to enable them to get
their notes in circulation, and then by withdrawing their capi
tal the more effectually defraud the community. It is believed
to be wholly inadequate for the object intended.
"The Comptroller believes that the safest way to make a
sound paper currency, is to have at all times ample security
for its redemption in the possession of the State. In order to
make this security ample, it should be not only sufficient in
amount, but should be of such a nature that it may be readily-
converted into cash without loss. It is not enough that the
security be ultimately good or collectable; delay in redeeming
the circulation causes it to depreciate, and is almost as fatal to
the poor man who can not wait, as ultimate insolvency. He
becomes at once the victim of the broker.
" A bond and mortgage may be good that is, the whole
amount secured by them may be collectable. But the bill-
holder can not wait for this. They must be convertible into
BANKING. 103
cash by sale, and if for any reason this can not be promptly
done, they ace not of that kind of security which should be
required. All the experience of this department shows that
bonds and mortgages are not the best security for this purpose,
and while better security can be had, it is deeply to be regret
ted that they were ever received. The apprehension that
there may be a defect of title, that the lands mortgaged may
have been appraised too high, or that there may be some legal
defense to a suit of foreclosure, all conspire to depreciate their
value in the estimation of purchasers, when offered for sale at
auction on the failure of a bank.
" Capitalists are cautious about purchasing, and the conse
quence is that they have sometimes sold for less than twenty
per cent, on the amount received by them, and the average
amount for which all have been sold, for the last ten years, is
only thirty-seven and seventy-one hundredths per cent., while
the average amount for which the five per cent, stocks of this
State have sold is ninety-two eighty-six one-hundredths per
cent., or ninety-two dollars and eighty-six one-hundredths for
every hundred dollars of stock. This shows that a six per
cent, stock, such as is now required, would doubtless have sold
at par, and the bill-holder would have received dollar for dol
lar for the circulation.
" Should the country remain at peace, it can not be doubted
that the stocks of the United States will be a safe and adequate
security. The Comptroller would therefore recommend that
the law be so changed as to exclude bonds and mortgages
from all free banks which shall hereafter commence business,
and to prevent the taking of any more from those now in op
eration, and to require that ten per cent, per annum of those
now held as security be withdrawn, and their places supplied
by stocks of this State, or of the United States. If this re
commendation be adopted, at the end of ten years the whole
security will be equal to a six per cent, stock of this State or
of the United States, which it is presumed will be ample se
curity for the redemption of all bills in circulation.
" Could this system of banking be generally adopted in the
several States, it can hardly be doubted it would prove highly
beneficial. It would create a demand for their own State
stocks. The interest paid upon them would be paid to their
own citizens. Every man who held a bank note, secured by
104: BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMORE.
such stock, would have a direct interest in maintaining invio
late the credit of the State. The blasting cry of repudiation
would never again be heard, and the plighted fartfri of the State
would be as sacred as national honor; and lastly, it would give
them a sound and uniform currency.
" If, then, in addition to this, Congress would authorize such
notes as were secured by stocks of the United States to be
received for public dues to the national treasury, this would
give to such notes a universal credit, co-extensive with the
United States, and leave nothing further to be desired in the
shape of a national paper currency. This would avoid all ob
jection to a national bank, by obviating all necessity fur one,
for the purpose of famishing a national currency. The na
tional government might be made amply secure. The law
might provide that all bills secured by United States stock
should be registered and countersigned in the treasury depart
ment, as the notes circulated by the banks in this State are
registered and countersigned in this office. This would enable
every collector, postmaster, or other receiver of public moneys,
to know that they were receivable for public dues.
" The stock of the United States by which their redemption
was secured, might be so transferred to the State officer hold
ing the same, that it could not be sold or transferred by him
without the assent of the secretary of the treasury, and in case
of the failure of the bank to redeem its notes, it might be op
tional with the secretary of the treasury to exchange the notes
held by the government for an equal amount of United States
stock held for their redemption, or let it be sold and receive
the government s share of the dividends. In this way the
national government would always be secure against loss.
" But this suggestion is foreign from the chief object of this
report, and is merely thrown out to invite attention to the sub
ject. But in conclusion, the Comptroller has no hesitation in
recommending that the free bank system be modified in the
particulars above suggested, and that it be then adopted in
preference to the safety fund system, as the banking system
of this State.
" It can not be supposed that the banking under this sys
tem will be as profitable as it has been under the safety fund
system. It is therefore desirable that every facility should be
given to capitalists who engage in it that can be granted con-
RESIGNS THE COMPTKOLLERSHIP. 105
sistent with the security of the public, and that no unreason
able or unjust system of taxation should be adopted which
discriminates invidiously against them; but persons engaged
in banking should be taxed like all other citizens."
The report from which this extract is taken is the only one
ever prepared by Mr. FilJmore as Comptroller of New York.
Soon after its transmission to the Legislature, he resigned that
office to enter upon his duties as Vice-president of the United
States.
5*
106 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
CHAPTER VII.
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
In accepting the office of Comptroller, Mr. Fillmore had
yielded to the urgent persuasions of his political friends at a
considerable sacrifice of private interest. He was reluctant to
relinquish a large and lucrative professional business, and, in con
senting to take the office, he determined that, on the expiration
of his term, he would return to private life and devote himself
to professional pursuits. When, therefore, he was solicited to
allow his name to be presented to the Whig National Conven
tion, in 1848, as a candidate for Vice-president, he refused to
entertain the proposal.
Previous to the assembling of the Convention, there existed,
in the Whig party, great diversity of opinion as to who should
be selected as candidate for President. A majority of the Whigs
of New York, and several other States, were in favor of Mr.
Clay ; but the great personal popularity which always attends
successful military exploits, seemed to render it expedient that
the Whigs should select one of the two generals who had won
great distinction in the war with Mexico. Besides his great
military talents, Gen. Scott was supposed to possess such a
knowledge of civil affairs as eminently fitted him to administer
the government; and in fact, he had been a prominent Whig-
candidate previous to his brilliant achievements in the Mexican
war. But the same objection which was urged against Mr.
Clay, applied, in some degree, to Gen. Scott. He too, had for
many years been talked of in connection with the presidency,
GEN. TAYLOK. 107
and was regarded by many in the light of an unsuccessful as
pirant. In deciding among the three, if eminent fitness for the
office were to determine the choice, there could be no doubt
that the nomination should be given to Mr. Clay, while the
reasons founded on personal availability seemed to preponder
ate in favor of Gen. Taylor. He had won the earliest and
some of the most brilliant victories in the Mexican war, and,
though entirely destitute of civil experience, the people seemed
impatient to testify their gratitude for his military services by
elevating him to the first office in the republic. In fact, he had
been spontaneously nominated, in various parts of the country,
without any regard to his party connections, and before it was
known in what direction his political sympathies leaned. The
principal objection made to him by such Whigs as opposed his
nomination, was that there was no evidence that he belonged
to their party. Palo Alto, and Resaca de la Pal ma, and Mon
terey, and Buena Vista, were charmed names which would at
tract a host of supporters ; but what evidence is there, inquired
many anxious Whigs who were not insensible to Gen. Taylor s
great personal strength, what evidence is there, that if elected
by Whigs he would carry out W hig principles ? The follow
ing letter, which found its way into the newspapers, had no
tendency to remove their doubts :
" BATON ROUGE, LA., January 30th, 1848.
" SIR: Your communication of the 15th instant has been re
ceived, and the suggestions therein offered duly considered.
" In reply to your inquiries, I have again to repeat, that I
have neither the power nor the desire to dictate to the American
people the exact manner in which they should proceed to nom
inate for the presidency of the United States. If they desire
such a result, they must adopt the means best suited, in their
opinion, to the consummation of the purpose ; and if they think
fit to bring me before them for this office, through their Legis
latures, mass meetings, or conventions, I can not object to
their designating these bodies as Whig, Democrat, or Native.
108 BIOGKAPIIY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
But in being thus nominated, I must insist on the condition
and my position on this point is immutable that I shall not
be brought forward by them as the candidate of their party,
or considered as the exponent of their party doctrines.
" In conclusion, I have to repeat, that if I were nominated
for the presidency, by any body of my fellow-citizens, designa
ted by any name they might choose to adopt, I should esteem
it an honor, and would accept such nomination, provided it had
been made entirely independent of party considerations.
" I am, sir, very respectfully,
" Your obedient servant,
"Z. TAYLOR.
"PETER SEEN SMITH, Esq., Philadelphia."
A letter to Captain Allison, which he wrote three months
later, did much to efface the impression which the one just
quoted was calculated to produce, and so far satisfied a great
portion of the Whigs, that General Taylor s name was promi
nently brought before the Whig Convention, which met at
Philadelphia, on the 1st of June, 1848. The portions of his
Allison letter in which Gen. Taylor avowed his Whig principles
are the following:
" I will proceed, however, now to respond to your inquiries :
"1. I reiterate what I have so often said: lam a Whig.
If elected, I would not be the mere president of a party. I
would endeavor to act independent of party domination. I
should feel bound to administer the government untrammeled
by party schemes.
"2. The Veto Power. The power given by the constitution
to the executive to interpose his veto, is a high conservative
power; but, in my opinion, should never be exercised except
in cases of clear violation of the constitution, or manifest haste
and want of consideration by Congress. Indeed, I have
thought that for many years past the known opinions and
wishes of the executive have exercised undue and injurious in
fluence upon the legislative department of the government;
and for this cause I have thought that our system was in
danger of undergoing a great change from its true theory.
The personal opinions of the individual who may happen to
THE VETO POWEK. 109
occupy the executive chair, ought not to control the action of
Congress upon questions of domestic policy ; nor ought his ob
jections to be interposed where questions of constitutional
power have been settled by the various departments of gov
ernment, and acquiesced in by the people.
"3. Upon the subject of the" tariff, the currency, the im
provement of our great highways, rivers, lakes, and harbors,
the will of the people as expressed through their representa
tives in Congress, ought to be respected and carried out by
the executive."
The principal feature of this avowal is the implied pledge
that, if elected President, he would not thwart the wishes of
Congress by the executive veto. The political history of the
country, for the preceding thirty years, had led the Whigs to
attach great importance to the views expressed by Gen. Taylor
respecting the exercise of the veto power. Gen. Jackson s
veto of the bill for rechartering the United States Bank, the
veto of various internal improvement bills by Democratic pres
idents, and particularly the vetoes of President Tyler, which
had stung them almost to madness, had caused the Whigs to
array themselves against the exercise of the veto power by the
national executive, except in cases of clear and palpable viola
tion of the constitution. A pledge not to defeat Whig meas
ures by a veto was therefore regarded as of more practical
importance than any declaration of principles which a Whig
candidate could make. Still there were many Whigs who pre
ferred the old and tried leaders, who had battled for their prin
ciples during a whole life-time. The first ballot taken in the
Convention, while it showed the popularity of Gen. Taylor,
disclosed, at the same time, a strong disposition to select some
one of the veteran champions of the party.
The vote stood, on the first ballot, as follows: For Zachary
Taylor, one hundred and eleven ; Henry Clay, ninety-seven ;
Winfield Scott, forty-three; Daniel Webster, twenty-two; John
M. Clayton, four; John M Lean, two. Necessary for a choice,
110 BIOGKAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMOEE.
one hundred and forty; the whole number of votes being two
hundred and seventy-nine. On the second ballot the vote stood
for Taylor, one hundred and eighteen ; Clay, eighty-six ; Scott,
forty-nine; Webster, twenty-two; Clayton, four. Third ballot,
Taylor, one hundred and thirty-three; Clay, seventy-four; Scott,
fifty-four; Webster, seventeen; Clayton, one. On the fourth
and final ballot Taylor received one hundred and seventy-one
votes, and was declared elected.
This result had been anticipated from the beginning, but
all except five or six of the delegates from New York, and the
Whigs of that State in a still larger proportion, preferred Mr.
Clay. The friends of Gen. Taylor were understood to favor
the nomination of Abbott Lawrence, of Massachusetts, as Vice-
president. Mr. Lawrence was a most estimable gentleman and
true Whig, personally unobjectionable to any member of the
party; but as he was known to have been a Taylor man from
the beginning, it was thought that some other name on the
ticket with Gen. Taylor would be more likely to insure his
success.
In this state of things some of the friends of Mr. Fillmore
called on him, on their way to the convention, and solicited his
permission to present his name as candidate for Vice-president.
He made objections, and expressed his intention to retire to
private life on the expiration of his term of office as Comp
troller. The representations of his friends were, however, so
urgent as finally to draw from him a promise not to refuse in
case he should be nominated.
As soon as the fourth ballot, which, as we have seen, re
sulted in the nomination of Gen. Taylor, was over, and the
cheering which greeted the announcement, both within and
without the building, had partially subsided, Hon. John A.
Collier, a State delegate from New York, and zealous Clay
man, took the floor and made a brief speech, which was
listened to with great attention. He did not conceal his
LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. Ill
disappointment at a result he had done all in his power to de
feat, but declared that he would neither bolt the nomination him
self, nor countenance bolting in others. And, as a pledge of
the good faith with which the friends of Mr. Clay in New York
would support Gen. Taylor, he proposed the name of Millard
Fillmore as the candidate for Vice-president.
These remarks were received with unbounded applause, and,
in a few minutes, the Convention proceeded to ballot. Of the
two hundred and seventy-five votes cast on the first ballot, Mr.
Fillmore had one hundred and fifteen, Mr. Lawrence one hun
dred and nine, and the rest were scattering. On the second
ballot Mr. Fillmore received one hundred and seventy-three
votes, (two more than had been given to Gen. Taylor,) and
was declared nominated.
To the letter of the president of the convention, informing
him of his nomination, Mr. Fillmore made the following reply:
"ALBANY, N. Y., June 17th, 1848.
" SIR : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter of the 10th inst., by which I am notified that at the late
Whig Convention held at Philadelphia, Gen. Zachary Taylor
was nominated for President and myself for Vice-president, and
requesting my acceptance.
" The honor of being thus presented by the distinguished
representatives of the Whig party of the Union for the second
office in the gift of the people an honor as unexpected as it
was unsolicited could not fail to awaken in a grateful heart
emotions which, while they can not be suppressed, find no
appropriate language for utterance.
" Fully persuaded that the cause in which we are enlisted is
the cause of our country, that our chief object is to secure its
peace, preserve its honor, and advance its prosperity ; and feel
ing, moreover, a confident assurance that in Gen. Taylor (whose
name is presented for the first office) I shall always find a firm
and consistent Whig, a safe guide, and an honest man, I can not
hesitate to assume any position which my friends may assign me.
"Distrusting, as I well may, my ability to discharge satis
factorily the duties of that high office, but feeling that, in case
112 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOEE.
of my election, I may with safety repose upon tlie friendly aid
of my fellow Whigs, and th.it efforts guided by honest inten
tions will always be charitably judged, I accept the nomination
so generously tendered, and I do this the more cheerfully, as
I am willing, for such a cause and with such a man, to take
my chances of success or defeat, as the electors, the final arbi
ters of our fate, shall, in their wisdom, judge best for the
interests of our common country.
" Please accept the assurance of my high regard and esteem,
and permit me to subscribe myself
" Your friend and fellow-citizen,
"MlLLARD FlLLMOKE.
" Hon. J. M. MORE HE AD."
The result of the presidential election which took place in
November, 1848, was that Taylor and Fillmore received each
one hundred and sixty-three electoral votes, against one hun
dred and twenty-seven votes given to Cass and Butler, the
Democratic candidates for President and Vice-president.
Mr. Fillmore happening to be in New York a few days after
the result of the election became known, the Whig general
committee, which was in session, waited on him in a body, and
tendered him their congratulations on his election. Hon.
Philip Hone, chairman of the general committee, addressed
Mr. Fillmore as follows:
"SiR: The Whig general committee wait upon you in a body
to express the pleasure they feel, not only in the triumph of
their principles, but a pleasure augmented by the agreeable
fact that it elects you to the second office in the federal gov
ernment you, a New York boy, born on our soil, a noble
son of our own institutions, who has made his own way ahead
by his own industry, and energy, and devotion to correct, sound
principles. It is known to you that the first choice of the
general committee was not the illustrious man just elected
President for our hearts were pledged elsewhere but for
the position you are to hold, you were our first choice ; and
whatever temporary disappointment we felt in the first result
of the Philadelphia nominations, was immediately alleviated by
RECEPTION IN NEW YOEK. 113
the agreeable intelligence that you were to share its fortunes
and its honors. New York knew you. Your name was fa
miliar in our ears. You were the real favorite son of the
State and from the moment the ticket was formed, we gave
to it our hearty, energetic, and undivided support.
" Sir, in tendering you our congratulations, we may add
that we look to you to contribute your part, and we know we
look now with no prospect of disappointment from you, to a
sound, healthy, and patriotic administration of the government.
You will do all you can to put the Ship of State on the right
tack. You will engage in no intrigue, and no corruptions,
that think only of a party, and nothing of the Republic. You
will exercise what influence you have to preserve the public
peace, when with honor peace can be preserved. Indeed, we
may say we look to you and to the illustrious man connected
with you to undo much of what has been done for four years
past. We want a patriotic, honest government. We want a
government for the good of the people, not the good of party
only, and we are sure that in looking to you, we look to one
who will ever maintain and never desert the right."
To this address Mr. Fillmore made the following reply :
"MR. CHAIRMAN: A compliment from a city like yours, the
Empire City, not only of the Empire State, but the commer
cial emporium of our whole common country, could never be
properly replied to by me, even if I had time to prepare but
the suddenness of your announcement, and the warmth and
heartiness with which you have welcomed me, quite unfit me
to make any reply at all. 1 can only thank you, in my embar
rassment; but I am sure it is not to me this tribute is rendered,
but to the illustrious man under whose name and whose prin
ciples we have achieved the brilliant civil victory that the tele
graph for the week past has been sending to us. In that man,
and his simplicity, energy and straightforwardness, I have the
highest confidence. I have never had the honor of taking him
by the hand, or of meeting him face to face, but I have studied
well his character, and I feel, therefore, that I know him well ;
for it is a character plain and open, to be read by every body,
and not of that complex nature that deludes and puzzles the
observer.
114: BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
" I have no doubt that under his administration you will
realize all the high and patriotic expectations that you enter-
tarn, and that the country will receive an impetus and a direc
tion, under his honest hands, that will go far, not only to make
it flourish, but to make its institutions endure. I look to him
with confidence for a restoration of sound republican principles,
and for an administration of honest men; and with him, I am
sure, we shall have the government of the popular voice not
the expression of the arbitrary will of one man. What the
people demand, the people will have, and upon them will de
pend the success of the administration of Zachary Taylor.
(Cheers.)
" Gentlemen, I thank you heartily for the kindness with
which you have welcomed me, and I wish you all happiness
and prosperity." (Prolonged cheering.)
About this time Mr. Fillmore wrote a private letter to a friend,
which was so honorable, patriotic and truly national, that we
copy the following extract :
* * * To me there is no manifestation of popular sen
timent which calls up such deep feelings of gratitude as that
generous vote of my old friends and early constituents of the
county of Erie. It is now twenty years since they first elected
me to the Assembly, and from that day to this they have stood
by me through good and through evil report, and sustained me
under all circumstances with a zeal and fidelity almost unknown
in this country; and the last crowning act of their continued
kindness and confidence awakens the deepest emotions of a
grateful heart.
" I trust, too, that you will not blame me for expressing the
gratification and pride which I feel in receiving so flattering a
vote in my native State. But these things are in a measure
personal to myself, and therefore of little importancce. But
the cordiality and unanimity with which the Whig ticket has
been sustained every where, North and South, East and West,
is a just cause of national felicitation. It proves that the great
Whig party is truly a national party that it occupies" that
safe and-conservative ground which secures to every section of
the country all that it has a right to claim under tne guaranty
of the constitution that such rights are inviolate and as to
VICE-PRESIDENT. 115
all other questions of mere policy, where Congress has the con
stitutional right to legislate, the will of the people, as expressed
through their representatives in Congress, is to control, and
that will is not to be defeated by the arbitrary interposition of
the veto power.
This simple rule which holds sacred all constitutional guar
antees, and leaves the law-making power where the constitution
placed it, in Congress, relieves the party at once from all the
embarrassing questions that arise out of sectional differences of
opinion, and enables it to act harmoniously for the good of the
country. When the President ceases to control the law-making
power, his individual opinions of what the law ought to be,
become comparatively unimportant. Hence we have seen
Gen. Taylor, though attacked as a slaveholder and a pro-
slavery man at the North, cordially supported and triumphantly
elected by men opposed to slavery, in all its forms ; and though
I have been charged at the South, in the most gross and wan
ton manner, with being an abolitionist and an incendiary, yet
the Whigs of the South have cast these calumnies to the
winds, and, without asking or expecting any thing more than
what the constitution guarantees to them on this subject, they
have yielded to me a most hearty and enthusiastic support.
This was particularly so in New Orleans, where the attack
was most violent.
"Really, these Southern Whigs are noble fellows. Would
you not lament to see the Union dissolved, if for no other cause
than that it separated us from such true, noble and high-minded
associates ? But I regard this election as putting an end to all
ideas of disunion. It raises up a national party, occupying a
middle ground, and leaves the fanatics and disunionists, North
and South, without the hope of destroying the fair fabric of our
constitution. May it be perpetual !"
In February, 1849, Mr. Fillmore resigned his office as
Comptroller of New York, and proceeded to Washington to
assume the duties of his new office.
The inauguration which took place on Monday, the 5th of
March, 1849, was an occasion of unusual ceremony and festiv
ity. Multitudes of citizens had assembled in Washington from
all parts of the Union, the attendance being greater than at
116 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
the accession to power of any previous administration. Strains
of martial music, the ringing of bells, the waving of hundreds
of flags, and the thronged procession, bore witness to the deep
interest the occasion had excited. Previous to the appearance
of the President elect, the Senate had convened and appointed
a temporary president. The diplomatic corps entered in their
rich and magnificent costumes, which contrasted finely with
the dark robes of the Justices of the Supreme Court, who sat
opposite to them.
Mr. Dallas, the late Vice-president, had been for some time in
the chamber, his hair of snowy whiteness and his perfect gen
tlemanly figure, naturally attracting attention. He occupied
a seat in front of the secretary s table facing the Senators.
Presently Mr. Dallas was observed to retire, and in the course
of a few minutes he was seen re-entering the chamber in com
pany with Mr. Fillmore, whom he conducted to the chair of
the Senate. The future presiding officer of that body took the
vacant seat of his predecessor, where the oath of office was ad
ministered to him by the president pro tempore, when amid
profound stillness he delivered, in the calm and dignified man
ner for which he is distinguished, the following brief address :
"SENATORS: Never having been honored with a seat on
this floor, and never having acted as the presiding officer of
any legislative body, you will not doubt my sincerity when I
assure you that I assume the responsible duties of this chair
with a conscious want of experience and a just appreciation
that I shall often need your friendly suggestions, and more
often your indulgent forbearance.
"I should indeed feel oppressed and disheartened did I not
recollect that the Senate is composed of eminent statesmen,
equally distinguished for their high intellectual endowments
and their amenity of manners, whose persuasive eloquence is
so happily tempered with habitual courtesy as to relieve your
presiding officer from all that would be painful in the discharge
of his duty, and render his position as agreeable as it must be
instructive.
PRESERVATION OF ORDER. 117
" Thus encouraged and sustained, I enter upon the duties
assigned me, firmly resolved to discharge them with impar
tiality and to the best of my ability. But I should do injustice
to the grateful emotions of my own heart, if I did not on this
occasion express my warmest thanks for the distinguished
honor that has been conferred upon me in being called by the
voice of the nation to preside over your deliberations.
"It will not, I trust, be deemed inappropriate to congratu
late you on the scene now passing before us. I allude to it in
no partisan aspect, but as an ever recurring event contemplated
by the constitution. Compare the peaceful changes of chief
magistrate of this Republic with the recent sanguinary revolu
tions in Europe.
"There the voice of the people has only been heard amid
the din of arms and the horrors of domestic conflicts; but here
in our own favored land, under the guidance of our constitu
tion, the resistless will of the nation has from time to time been
peaceably expressed by the free will of the people, and all have
bowed in obedient submission to their decree.
"The administration which but yesterday wielded the desti
nies of this great nation, to-day quietly yields up its power,
and, without a murmur, retires from the Capital.
"I congratulate you, Senators, and 1 congratulate my country
upon these oft-recurring and cheering evidences of our capac
ity for self-government. Let us hope that the sublime spec
tacle we now witness may be repeated as often as the people
shall desire a change of rulers, and that this venerated consti
tution and this glorious Union may endure forever."
Mr. Fillmore, while acting as Vice-president, presided over
the Senate with a dignity and urbanity which has never been,
surpassed. Mr. Calhoun, in 1826, had announced to the Sen
ate his opinion that the Vice-president had no authority to call
Senators to order for any violation of courtesy or transgres
sion of the rules of debate. He conformed his practice to his
opinion, and it had became a settled usage that a member was
on no occasion called to order for any words he might utter
on the floor of the Senate. Mr. Fillmorp made a speech in
which he explained the reasons why he thought that it was his
118 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
duty to preserve decorum, and, if occasion should render it nec
essary, reverse the usage of his predecessors. This determin
ation met the warm approval of the Senate, who ordered Mr.
Fillmore s speech to be entered at length on their journal.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 119
CHAPTER VIII.
MR. FILLMORE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
The large territorial acquisitions which were the conse
quence of the Mexican war occasioned controversies that made
the brief administration of Gen. Baylor a period of intense
public excitement. The annexation of Texas, in which the war
originated, met with general approval in the Southern States
on account of its supposed tendency to fortify the institution of
slavery. But if the territory ceded to the United States by
the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo should all be carved into free
States, the ultimate effect of annexation would be a great loss
of power by the South. The fact that a portion of the North
ern representatives in Congress insisted on the insertion of the
Wilmot Proviso in every act organizing a new territory, would
have been productive of considerable irritation, even if there
had been nothing else in the circumstances of the time to
favor sectional excitement. But the application of California for
admission into the Union as a free State, made the only ses
sion of Congress which took place under the administration of
Gen. Taylor one of the most exciting that had occurred in
many years.
The rapid growth of California was without a parallel in
history. The discovery of gold mines of extraordinary rich
ness and extent had caused an immense tide of emigration to
set toward the new El Dorado, not only from all the Atlantic
States, but from almost every quarter of the world. In less
than two years from the discovery of her gold mines, California,
120 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
previously almost without inhabitants, had become more pop
ulous than some of the old States, more wealthy than sev
eral of them, and, without passing through the usual territorial
pupilage, she had formed a State constitution, organized a State
government, and was applying for admission as one of the mem
bers of the federal Union. It was objected that her proceed
ings were irregular, that her territory was too large for a single
State, and that her boundaries had been assumed without the
authority of Congress. Under different circumstances, these
objections would have had but little influence, considering the
urgent necessity which existed for a government of some kind.
D J
California had, at that time, no authorized government either ter
ritorial or state ; and yet from the heterogeneous character of
her population and the absence of social restraints, no commu
nity stood in greater need of a firm and regular government
strictly enforced.
The question really in dispute related to the balance of
power between the slaveholding and the non-slaveholding
States. States had for many years been admitted into the
Union by pairs, one from each section of the country; and
when California adopted her constitution the two classes of
States had, for a long period, possessed an equal representation
in the United States Senate. When she applied for admission
as a free State, there was no slave State, either forming or
likely to be formed, to balance her. From a more rapid
growth of population the North had long had a growing pre
ponderance in the lower branch of Congress, and if California
were admitted as a free State the South would be in a minor
ity in both Houses, and without any power of effectual resist
ance to legislative measures, which it might consider hostile
to its interests. The Northern majority in the House of Rep
resentatives was certain to go on increasing, and if the equilib
rium of the Senate were once destroyed, there was no ground
to hope that it could ever be recovered. The admission of
ADMISSION OF CALIFORNIA. 121
California into the Union as a free State, therefore, seemed to
place Southern rights and interests forever afterward at the
mercy of the North.
It was this state of things which gave so deep a significance
to the admission of California, and rendered it the occasion of
such earnest and vehement controversy. It was foreseen that
the South would struggle against it as if its very existence were
in peril, for in all future legislation involving the question of
slavery it was regarded as a death blow to its interests. If
California were admitted, the South could see no safety except
in secession from the Union.
Mr. Clay, with the far-reaching sagacity for which he was
distinguished, at once comprehended the magnitude of the
crisis. He surrendered his whole mind to earnest and painful
reflection, with a view to discover some method by which con
flicting interests might be reconciled, and the Union rescued from
the imminent peril which threatened its existence. He clearly
saw that the loss of the balance of power between the two sec
tions of country would become a matter of trivial importance
to the South, if, together with the admission of California,
measures could be adopted which would forever remove all
questions affecting the interests of slavery beyond the sphere
of federal legislation. The South might reconcile themselves
to the necessity of passing into a perpetual minority by the
admission of California, if there could be coupled with her ad
mission a final settlement of all questions in which the interests
of the two great sections of the country were supposed to con
flict. It was with a view to accomplish such a settlement,
that he brought forward his celebrated Compromise scheme,
which its enemies named, in derision, the " Omnibus Bill."
It proposed to admit California into the Union as a free
State ; to organize territorial governments for New Mexico and
Utah, leaving the question of slavery to the decision of the in
habitants; to define the boundaries of Texas; and to make
6
122 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
more effectual provision for enforcing the requirements of the
constitution relating to fugitives from labor. The combining
of so great a variety of measures into one bill, Avas what led to
its being designated as the "Omnibus." Although it is, with
out doubt, a sound principle of legislation that every measure
ought, as far as possible, to stand on its own separate merits,
it seemed necessary, in order to accomplish the settlement
which Mr. Clav proposed, that these should stand together.
Whatever might be the ostensible pretexts for opposing the
admission of California, the actual reason was, that it destroyed
irrecoverably the balance of power between the Northern and
Southern States. This consideration aside, the reasons for her
admission were too powerful and urgent to be resisted. But
this consideration had so strong a tendency to inflame Southern
feeling, that the measure had little chance of success unless the
others could be joined with it. The South was not likely to
relinquish, voluntarily, all check upon legislation affecting sla
very, unless it could be assured that the whole subject was to
be withdrawn from future congressional action. Hence the
importance Mr. Clay attached to combining all these separate
measures into a single bill.
Other public men, who were equally patriotic, and equally
solicitous that all the distracting questions growing out of
slavery should receive a final settlement, while they admitted
the importance of all Mr. Clay s measures, and the indispens
able necessity for their all passing, considered it a matter of
indifference whether they were embodied in a single bill or
acted on separately. Among these was Mr. Webster, who was
as earnest in his devotion to the Union, and as ardent in his
efforts for the restoration of tranquillity, as any member of the
Senate. He thought it due to California that she should be
admitted into the Union ; to the South that the constitutional
provision for the recovery of fugitive slaves should be enforced ;
to the whole country, that the quarrel between the citizens of
THE SLAVERY QUESTION. 123
Texas and New Mexico should be settled ; but so far as related
to slavery in the territories, he thought it a question of no
practical importance, and not worth the ill feeling it had engen
dered. He contended in one of the ablest speeches ever
delivered in Congress, that there was not a foot of teriitory
within the limits of the United States whose condition, as re
gards slavery, was not already fixed by some irrepealable
law. Neither he nor any other statesman, North or South
neither he nor any other citizen of any section of the country,
supposed, at that time, that a repeal of the Missouri compro
mise would ever be proposed, much less ever become possible ;
and when he called it an irrepealable law excluding slavery
from all territory north of an established line, nobody ques
tioned or doubted that, as far as that went, he was perfectly
correct. Nobody could then have foreseen so gross a political
blunder, such a wanton violation of good faith, as has since
been committed by a Democratic administration, and sanctioned
by the Democratic party. With regard to the terri Lories to
which the Missouri compromise did not apply, slavery was ex
cluded from some of them by positive enactment, and from
the others by laws equally operative and entirely irrepealable.
As there was nothing which was susceptible of alteration in
any territory belonging to the United States, so far related
to the existence of slavery in it, Mr. Webster judged correctly
that agitation on this subject was as idle as it was mischievous.
But whatever foundation there might be for agitation, whether
much or little, he considered it important that a period should
be put to it. At the death of Gen. Taylor, Congress had been
in session upward of seven months, and the whole time had
been consumed in discussions relating to slavery. Not to dwell
on the violent sectional animosities which such discussions can
not fail to excite, this neglect of the usual business of leg
islation is in itself a great evil. It is a great evil to have
the wheels of useful legislation blocked by such discussions
BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
even for a single session; but when the whole time of Congress
is, year after year, wasted in this mischievous employment, and
all the great interests of the country permitted to suffer for
want of necessary legislation, it is high time that so troublesome
and pernicious a topic should be withdrawn from national poli
tics. This was the general feeling of patriotic men in 1850,
and although many statesmen thought the separate portions of
Mr. Clay s omnibus bill should receive separate action, they did
not doubt that the success of every measure was necessary to
the tranquillity of the country and the preservation of the Union.
It was in the midst of those discussions, which had already
continued more than seven months, that Gen. Taylor died.
His death was sudden and unexpected, and occurring at a time
when the public mind was profoundly agitated and full of ap
prehension, it was calculated to make a deep impression. It
was a most trying and critical period for the government to
pass into new hands, and the country appreciated the difficul
ties which would surround Gen. Taylor s successor.
President Taylor died on Tuesday, the 9th of July, 1850,
at half past ten in the evening. On the preceding Thursday,
which was the anniversary of American independence, he was
in the enjoyment of his usual health, and attended the cele
bration of the day at the Washington Monument. The oration
was long, and the President listened to it with his head uncov
ered, exposed to a breeze which it was feared at the time
mio-ht be detrimental to his health. Next morning he was at
tacked with cholera morbus; remittent fever supervened; the
disease baffled all the skill of able physicians, and an hour and a
half before midnight on Tuesday, his eyes were closed in their
last sleep. He retained his reason to the last, and was perfectly
calm and tranquil. His last words were, " I AM PREPARED
I HAVE ENDEAVORED TO DO MY DUTY."
Zachary Taylor was born in Orange county, in Virginia,
in 1784. He early displayed great energy and boldness of
PRESIDENT TAYLOR. 125
character, and at the age of twenty-four, was appointed a lieu
tenant in the army. This was during the administration of
President Jefferson. In 1812, he rose to the rank of captain,
and after the declaration of war with Great Britain in that
year, he was brevetted major by President Madison, for his
gallant defense of Fort Harrison against a large body of sav
ages. In 1832, he had been promoted to the rank of colonel,
and distinguished himself in the Black Hawk war. Ordered
to Florida in 1836, he distinguished himself by his signal
services against the Seminoles, and was created brevet brigadier
general and commander-in-chief of the United States forces in
Florida. He was afterward transferred to the command of the
division of the army on the south-western frontier; was ordered
to Texas in 1845; advanced to the left bank of the Rio Grande,
and, in the early part of the Mexican war, won battles whose
names are household words at every American fireside.
When, as a reward for illustrious services in the field, he
was called by an admiring and grateful people to the head of the
government, he exhibited patriotism, honesty and good sense,
united with a kindness and benignity of temper which en
deared him to his countrymen.
On the tenth of July, the next day after the decease of
Gen. Taylor, Mr. Fillmore sent to the Senate a brief message
announcing that he should no longer act as their presiding offi
cer, and another relating to the death of President Taylor, which
we copy :
"WASHINGTON, July 10th, 1850.
"Fellow -citizens of the Senate and of the House of Rep
resentatives : I have to perform the melancholy duty of an
nouncing 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 ten
o clock, in the midst of his family, and surrounded by affectien-
ate friends, calmly, and in the full possession of all his facul
ties. Among his last words were these, which he uttered with
126 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
emphatic distinctness: I have always done my duty I am
ready to die; my only regret is for the friends I leave be
hind me.
"Having announced to you, fellow- citizens, this most afflict
ing 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 twelve 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 de
volved on me.
" MILLARD FILLMORE."
Mr. Webster then submitted the following resolutions which
were unanimously agreed to:
" Resolved, That the two houses will assemble this day in
the hall of the House of Representatives, at twelve o clock, to be
present at the administration of the oath prescribed by the con
stitution to the late Vice-president of the United States, to ena
ble him to discharge the powers and duties of the office of
President of the United States, devolved on him by the death
of Zachary Taylor, late President of the United States.
"Resolved, That the secretary of the Senate present the
above resolution to the House of Representatives, and ask its
concurrence therein."
A message was then received from the House of Represent
atives transmitting a resolution and requesting the concurrence
of the Senate. The resolution was as follows :
"Resolved, That the lion. Messrs. Winthrop, Morse, and
Morehead, be appointed a committee on the part of this House,
to join such a committee as may be appointed by the Senate,
to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him
that the Senate and House of Representatives will be in read
iness to receive him in the hall of the House of Representatives
this day, at twelve o clock, for the purpose of witnessing the ad
ministration of the oath prescribed by the constitution to enable
him to enter upon the execution of the office."
DEATH OF PRESIDENT TAYLOR. 127
The Senate concurred in the resolution, appointed Mr.
Soule, Mr. Davis, of Massachusetts, and Mr. Underwood, a
committee on their part, and ordered their secretary to notify
the House of Representatives accordingly.
Mr. Soule afterward informed the Senate that the committee
appointed to wait on the President had performed the duty
assigned them, and that they had been informed by the Pres
ident that he would take the oath of office at twelve o clock, in
the hall of the House of Representatives, and that he desired the
attendance of the Senate. Whereupon the Senate proceeded
to the hall of the House of Representatives.
In the hall of the House of Representatives after the appear
ance of the Senate, the President entered accompanied by the
cabinet, the members remaining standing as a mark of respect.
The oath was administered by Judge C ranch, and after the
President of the United States, the cabinet and the Senate had
retired, the speaker announced that he had received another
messao-e from the President. It was then read as follows:
o
"WASHINGTON, July 10th, 1850.
"Fellow-citizens of the Senate and of the House of Repre
sentatives: A great man has fallen among us, and a whole
country is called to an occasion of unexpected deep and gen
eral mourning.
"I recommend to the two Houses of Congress to adopt such
measures as in their discretion may seem proper, to perform
with due solemnity the funeral obsequies of Zachary Taylor,
late President of the United States; and thereby to signify the
great and affectionate regard of the American people for the
memory of one whose life has been devoted to the public ser
vice; whose career in arms has not been surpassed in useful
ness or brilliancy; who has been so recently raised by the
unsolicited voice of the people to the highest civil authority in
the government, which he administered with so much honor
and advantage to his country ; and by whose sudden death so
many hopes of future usefulness have been blighted forever.
"To you, Senators and Representatives of a nation in tears,
128 BIOGEAPHY OF MILLA.BD FILLMOEE.
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, 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.
"I shall most readily concur in whatever measures the wis
dom of the two Houses may suggest, as befitting this deeply
melancholy occasion. "MILLARD FILLMORE."
The funeral of President Taylor was celebrated on Saturday
the 13th of July, with solemn ceremonies befitting the high
character and official dignity of the deceased.
We have already alluded to the agitating controversy in
Congress during the pending of which Gen. Taylor was stricken
down by a dispensation of providence, leaving the country in
a condition so critical as to devolve an immense weight of re
sponsibility on his constitutional successor. To add to the em
barrassment of President Fillmore, the cabinet immediately
tendered their resignation, and the first question he had to con
sider was whether he would solicit their continuance in office
or appoint a new cabinet.
It was understood that the cabinet of Gen. Taylor were
opposed to Mr. Clay s omnibus bill, then pending in the Sen
ate, with a great deal of doubt hanging over its success. The
President approved, in the main, of the measures embodied in
that bill, and thought it his duty to favor their adoption. He
rightly thought that on questions so important there should be
no difference of opinion between the President and his consti
tutional advisers, and that it was necessary to have a cabinet
who would sustain him in the course he had determined to
adopt, and whose reputation was identified with his success.
He therefore decided to accept the resignation of Gen. Taylor s
cabinet, and appoint a new one.
THE NEW CABINET. 129
CHAPTER IX.
THE COMPROMISE MEASURES AND FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.
On the 20th of July, ten days after President Fillmore took
the oath of office, he transmitted to the Senate a message nom
inating the following named gentlemen as his cabinet :
DANIEL WEBSTER, of Massachusetts, Secretary of State.
THOMAS CORWIN, of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury.
JAMES A. PEARCE, of Maryland, Secretary of the Interior.
WILLIAM A. GRAHAM, of North Carolina, Secretary of the
Navy.
EDWARD BATES, of Missouri, Secretary of War.
NATHAN K. HALL, of New York, Postmaster-General.
JOHN J. CRITTENDEN, of Kentucky, Attorney-General.
This cabinet embodied eminent ability, large experience in
public affairs, and great weight of character. The nominations
were all confirmed by the Senate, but Mr. Pearce and Mr.
Bates were prevented by circumstances from accepting the
places tendered them. After some delay, Alexander H. II.
Stuart, of Virginia, was appointed Secretary of the Interior,
and C. M. Conrad, of Louisiana, Secretary of War.
Only a few days elapsed after Mr. Fillmore s accession to the
presidency, before the "omnibus bill" was brought to a vote in
the Senate and defeated.
Affairs were now rapidly approaching a crisis which de
manded the calmest wisdom united with the greatest firmness.
Strong anti-slavery conventions were held in the North ; equally
6*
130 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMORE.
strong secession conventions were held in the South ; the spirit
of sectional strife seemed arming itself for a mighty conflict.
The Senators arid Representatives from California had became
weary of their long waiting at Washington knocking at the
doors of Congress ; Texas and New Mexico, in the midst of an
angry controversy relative to their boundaries, were arming
for civil war; the disaffected South was ready to sustain Texas
in her claims ; and it became necessary for the general gov
ernment to protect New Mexico against armed invasion by
that State.
The President ordered theTequisite military force and mu
nitions of war to be put in motion for New Mexico, and on the
sixth of August, 1850, he sent a message to Congress advising
that body of the imminent danger of a collision, and urging, in
the strongest terms, a speedy settlement of the controversy.
Congress appreciated the danger, renewed its efforts to settle
the vexed questions, and soon passed the several acts by which
California was admitted into the Union as a State; the bound
ary line between Texas and New Mexico defined, and an
indemnity provided for the claim of Texas; territorial govern
ments established for New Mexico and Utah ; the slave trade
abolished in the District of Columbia; and more effectual
provision made for the rendition of fugitive slaves. These
have since been collectively designated as the compromise
measures."
The President had some doubt whether the fugitive slave
<D
act did not conflict with the provision of the constitution re
lating to the writ of habeas corpus, and referred the subject to
the Attorney- General. Attorney-General Crittenden prepared
a written opinion, in which he showed by a clear and conclu
sive argument, supported by the decisions of the Supreme
Court, that there is nothing in the bill submitted to him,
which is in conflict with the constitution, or which suspends
or was intended to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. It is a
131
well known and admitted fact, proved by abundant historical
evidence, and assumed in all judicial decisions relating to the
subject, that the clause of the constitution which requires the
surrender of fugitive slaves was intended to secure to the citi
zens of slaveholding States complete ownership in their slaves
in every State or territory of the Union into which they might
escape. It devolved on the general government to make that
security effectual, and accordingly the act of 1793 was passed,
which, so far as it respects any constitutional question that
can arise out of it, is identical with the bill submitted to the
Attorney- General for his opinion. It authorized the like arrest
of the fugitive slave, the like trial, the like judgment, the like
certificate, with the like authority to the owner, by virtue of
that certificate as his warrant, to remove him to the State or
territory from which he escaped. And yet the constitutional
ity of the act of 1793 has been affirmed by the adjudications
of State tribunals, and by the courts of the United States,
without a single instance of dissent. The Supreme Court of
the United States has decided that, independent of any aid
from legislation, the owner of a fugitive slave may, in virtue
of the constitution and his own right of property, seize and
re-capture him in any State or territory in which he may find
him, and carry him back to the place from which he escaped.
The bill under consideration, therefore, conferred no right on
the owner of a fugitive slave, but only gave him an appointed
and peaceable remedy, in place of the more exposed and in
secure, but not less lawful mode of self-redress. The fugitive
has no reason to complain of the bill, for it adds no coercion
to that which the owner of the slave might himself exercise
without any resort to legal process. It is in fact a benefit to
the fugitive so far as it interposes judicial authority between
him and the power of his owner.
With regard to whether this act suspended the writ of
habeas corpus, which was the point to which the President had
132 BIOGEAPIIY OF MILLAED FILLMOEE.
more particularly called his attention, the Attorney-General
was clearly of the opinion that there was no incompatibility
between any of the provisions of the bill and the privilege of
that writ, in its utmost constitutional latitude. It is not within the
privilege or province of that great writ to loose those whom
the law has bound, but to discharge persons from illegal custody.
The writ follows the law and obeys the law. If on application
for this writ it shall appear to the court or judge that the con
finement of the person asking for it is lawful, the writ will al
ways be refused. If a person is in custody by the decision of
a court from which there is no appeal, the decision itself is to
be regarded as conclusive evidence that the confinement is
legal, and not only can the writ of habeas corpus not discharge
him, but no court or judge has any authority to grant it.
There is no process or tribunal by which the decisions of a
court of last resort can be reviewed, and there is nothing in
the writ of habeas corpus by which they can be set aside.
A provision of the constitution of the United States requires
that fugitive slaves shall be surrendered to their owners. The
bill for their rendition was intended to enforce this requirement.
It constitutes a tribunal with exclusive jurisdiction to determine
summarily and without appeal, who- are fugitive slaves. The
judgment of every tribunal of exclusive jurisdiction, where no
appeal lies, is of necessity conclusive upon every other tribunal ;
and therefore the judgment of the tribunal created by the
fugitive slave act is conclusive upon all the tribunals. When
ever this judgment is made to appear, it is conclusive of the
right of the owner to retain in his custody the fugitive from
his service, and to remove him back to the State from which
he escaped. If it is shown on the application of the fugitive
slave for the writ of habeas corpus, it prevents the issuing of
the writ if upon the return, it discharges the writ and re
stores or maintains the custody.
Such is the substance of the reasoning by which the Attorney-
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 133
General supported his opinion, and being satisfactory to the
President as to the constitutional question, he signed the fugi
tive slave law, as well as the other bills previously enumerated,
and known as " the compromise measures."
The act for the rendition of fugitive slaves was immediately
attacked with great violence by the anti-slavery party of the
North. Slaves were rescued from the custody of the United
States marshals at Boston, Syracuse, and at Christiana, in the
State of Pennsylvania, and, in the last named of these places,
one or two persons were killed. The President avowed his
intention to execute the law. When intelligence of the pro
ceedings of the Boston mob reached Washington, the President
issued his proclamation calling upon all officers to do their duty,
and prosecutions were instituted against the rioters, but the
prejudices of the jury and the difficulty of identifying the
criminals generally enabled them to escape. At Syracuse
one was convicted, but he died before sentence was passed
upon him.
The vehemence with which the fugitive slave act was as
sailed, renders it proper that we should explain its necessity
more fully than would otherwise be consistent with our limits.
The President was denounced for having given it his approval,
was even threatened with violence in anonymous communica
tions, and the most strenuous exertions were made to induce
the people to resist the execution of the law by force.
The opposition which was ostensibly directed against the
law, was really aimed at the provision of the constitution
which the law was intended to enforce. It was considered more
decorous to assail a particular act of legislation than to make
an open declaration of hostility against the constitution of the
country; but the transactions of this period will be wholly
misconceived unless we look beneath the pretences of the anti-
slavery party, and discern the motives by which they were
actually governed.
134: BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
The constitution of the United States declares that " no
person held to service or labor in one State under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law
,, or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor,
but SHALL be delivered up on the claim of the party to whom
such service or labor may be due."
That the real ground of opposition to the fugitive slave law
was a wish to defeat this provision of the constitution, is proved
by the fact, that in the violent attempts to rescue negroes from
their claimants, there was scarcely a case in which there was
any reasonable doubt that the person claimed was actually
a fugitive slave that he was really one of those persons whom
the constitution requires to be delivered up on the claim of the
owner.
Another reason for supposing the opposition was aimed at
the constitution itself, is found in the admissions and avowals
of the anti-slavery party itself. There would perhaps be an
unfairness in quoting the language of obscure and irresponsi
ble members of the party; we will therefore draw our proofs
from the speeches of the ablest and most respected of its re
cognized leaders. William H. Seward, of New York, has for
many years been regarded as the leading anti-slavery man of
the Northern States, and the principal expounder of anti-slavery
doctrines. He has repeatedly declared his opposition to that
provision of the constitution which requires the surrender of
fugitive slaves. In a speech delivered at Cleveland, Ohio, in
1848, Mr. Seward said: "It is written in the constitution of
the United States that five slaves shall count equal to three
free men, as a basis of representation ; it is also written, in
violation of the Divine law, that we shall surrender the fugitive
slave who takes refuge at our fireside from his relentless
pursuers." *
* Seward s Works, Vol. Ill, p. 300.
135
In the same speech Mr. Seward exhorts his hearers to use
their efforts to defeat the operation of that provision of the
constitution which he had told them was " in violation of th<
Divine law." He said : " Inculcate, then, the law of freedom
and the equal rights of man ; reform your own code extend
a cordial welcome to the fugitive who lays his weary limbs at
your door, and defend him a&you would your paternal gods;
correct your own error that slavery has any constitutional
guaranty which may not be released, and ought not to be re
linquished. Say to slavery when it shows its bond and demands
the pound of flesh, that if it draws one drop of blood, its life
shall pay the forfeit." * It is impossible to mistake the mean
ing of this reference to the bond of Shylock in Shakspeare s
Merchant of Venice. The " bond " is that provision in the
constitution which he had declared to be " in violation of the
Divine law," and the advice is to thwart its operation by sub
tleties of interpretation which would render its execution impos
sible. The speech from which these quotations are made, was
republished in 1853, with Mr. Se ward s approbation, in his col
lected works, and is introduced by the editor in terms of the
highest commendation.
In the year 1850, in the Senate of the United States, Mr.
Seward again asserts that the provision of the constitution
relating to the rendition of fugitive slaves, is of no binding
force. In his speech on the admission of California a speech,
which he had prepared with great care he said: "Your
constitution and laws convert hospitality to the refugee from
the most degrading oppression on earth into a crime, but all
mankind except you esteem that hospitality a virtue. * * *
I know of only two compacts found in diplomatic history that
admitted the extradition of slaves. Here is one of them."
(He then quotes from an old treaty between Russia and the
* Seward s Works, Vol. Ill, p. 301.
BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMOKE.
Greek Emperors of Constantinople, and says): "This was in
the -year of Grace, 902, in the period called the Dark Ages,
and the contracting powers were despotisms. And here is the
other." (After quoting it, he says): "This is from the con
stitution of the United States in 1787, and the parties were
the republican States of this Union. The laiv of nations dis
avows such compacts the law of nature written on the hearts
and consciences of men REPUDIATES them." * Further on in
the same speech he said: "But you answer that the Constitu
tion recognizes property in slaves. It would be sufficient then
to reply, that this constitutional recognition must be void, be
cause it is repugnant to the law of nature and of nations." *
These quotations are sufficient to show that the violent
hostility which was directed against the law of 1850, would
have been equally violent against any law which effectually
carried out the provision of the constitution. In fact, the act
of 1793, which was signed by Washington, was formerly de
nounced in much the same manner as that of 1850 has been
since its passage.
Neither the law of 1793, nor that of 1850, nor indeed any
enactment on the subject, is defensible, except on the supposi
tion that the provision of the constitution relating to fugitives
is of binding obligation, and that under it the owner of a fugi
tive is really entitled to have his property restored to him.
All argument in defense of any efficient law on the subject is
perfectly idle when addressed to those who, like Mr. Seward
and his followers, consider that constitutional provision " in
violation of the Divine law," and suppose it is therefore their
duty to "repudiate" it. As President of the United States,
Mr. Fillmore had taken a solemn oath to support the constitu
tion, and as he did not feel at liberty to violate his oath, his
approval of the fugitive slave law must be judged by its
* Scward s Works, Vol. I, pp. 65, 66, and 71.
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 137
conformity to the constitution, and not by the principles of
"the higher law."
By those who admit the binding force of the constitution,
the principal objection to the law of 1850 is, that the proceed
ings under it are summary. In judging of the validity of this
objection, it is necessary to bear in mind that the provision for
the surrender of fugitives from labor stands in the constitution
coupled with one for the surrender of fugitives from justice.
In the case of fugitives from justice, the proceedings are al
ways summary, both in cases arising under the constitution
and those arising under treaties with ,foreign nations for the
surrender of such fugitives. The alleged criminal is arrested
for the violation of the laws of the State from which he has
fled, and it conforms to reason that the laws of a State should
be administered by its own tribunals. When a fugitive from
justice is surrendered, the proceedings are therefore always
summary and preliminary, and the prisoner is carried for trial
to the State or country whose laws he has violated. In the
case of a fugitive from labor, the same principle applies. The
constitutional provision reads, " No person held to service or
labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into an
other, * etc. As he is made a slave by the laws of the State
from which he has escaped, the tribunals of that State are
deemed the appropriate ones for determining the question of
his liberty. The principles of freedom as much require that
a fugitive from justice shall have a trial before he is surren
dered to his claimant, as they do that a fugitive from labor
shall have such a trial. In all the slave States independent
judicial tribunals are always open to receive and decide upon
petitions or applications for freedom, and there is no proof that
the decisions of these tribunals are not always fair and upright
Under the act of 1793, the proceedings were likewise sum
mary, and there was no trial by jury. However desirable, on
some grounds, a trial by jury in such cases might seem, it
138 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMOEE.
would be practically impossible in several of the non-slavehold-
ing States. To say nothing of the prejudices of the jurors
which render it certain beforehand that they would never
agree on a verdict of surrender, however clear the evidence
that the person was actually a fugitive, the refusal by some of
the States of the use of their jails and of the assistance of their
officers, would make it impossible to detain the prisoner while
preparations could be made for his trial and witnesses sum
moned from a distant State. The fugitive would no doubt be
rescued by a mob in the interim, and sent out of the country
by " the underground railroad." Or even if the claimant should
finally recover his property, he would incur expenses so great
that the provision of the constitution in his favor would be
practically annulled.
, As President Fillmore s signing the fugitive slave bill is the
chief ground of all the assaults which have been made on his
public character from that day to this, it may not be out of
place to -state the reasons which rendered that act necessary.
The act passed February 12th, 1793, and approved by
President Washington, prescribed the manner in which fugi
tives should be claimed and given up. By this act the owner
was authorized to seize and arrest his slave wherever he could
find him, and take him before a judge of the United States
courts, or any magistrate of a county, city or town corporate
in the State in which the arrest was made, and if such judge
or magistrate was satisfied that his claim was well founded it
was made his duty to give a certificate which was declared to
be a sufficient warrant for removing the slave to the State
from which he had fled.
This law, which was passed soon after the adoption of the
constitution, and by a Congress of which some of the frame rs
of the constitution were members, met with general approval
in all parts of the country. Although the proceedings under
it were summary, without any other trial than an affidavit
TIIE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 139
before a magistrate, and a fine of five hundred dollars was im
posed on any person who should knowingly obstruct the
claimant or his agent, the bill passed the Senate without a
division, and the House of Representatives by a majority of
forty-eight to seven. (
After the passage of this law a strong sentiment grew up in
the northern States in opposition to slavery. Several States
that had previously tolerated it passed acts for its abolition,
and some even went so far as to prohibit State officers from
affording any assistance in executing the law of Congress for
the recovery of fugitives. It seemed to be conceded by the
highest authority the Supreme Court of the United States
that Congress had no power to compel such assistance.
The consequence was that the execution of the law devolved
on the judges of the United States courts alone; but they
were too much occupied to give it their attention r even if the
smallness of their number and the distances at which they
resided apart had not rendered them inaccessible. The pro
vision of the constitution, therefore, which the law was in
tended to carry out, was practically annulled.
A case illustrating this occurred -in Pennsylvania, in 1839.
A female slave from Maryland, who had escaped into the State,
was pursued by the agent of her master, arrested, and brought
before a Pennsylvania justice of the peace. He declined to
take cognizance of the matter, or to grant the certificate the
law required, whereupon the agent took her home to her mas
ter without any written warrant, was indicted in Pennsylvania
for kidnapping, tried and convicted. He appealed to the
United States Supreme Court. That tribunal reversed the
judgment of the Pennsylvania court, and held that no State
law could deprive the owner of the right to seize his slave,
even without process, and take him home.
This decision was rendered in 1843. Not long afterward
efforts began to be made in Congress for an amendment to the
140 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
existing law, which was seen to be defective in the following
particulars : First, it had not provided a sufficient number of
United States officers for its execution ; secondly, it had not
provided for the arrest of the fugitive in any other manner
than by the olaimant himself; thirdly, it had made no adequate
provision to resist the force which reckless fanaticism might
bring to rescue the slave; and fourthly, it had failed to define
the kind of proof necessary to justify a certificate for his sur
render. These are the defects which were sought to be rem
edied by the act of 1850.
By this act provision was made for the appointment of a
suitable number of commissioners who are to have concurrent
jurisdiction with the judges of the United States courts in
hearing and determining these cases. Process for the arrest
of the fugitive is to be executed by the marshal of the district,
who is empowered to call to his assistance any number of
persons to aid him in the performance of his duty. Proofs are
to be taken by a court in the State from which the fugitive
has fled, to establish the fact that he owed service to his claim
ant, and in case of apprehended resistance to his removal by
his master, the commissioner is authorized to direct the mar
shal to return him to the State whence he fled. These are
the leading provisions of the act about which so much clamor
has been raised, and we may safely appeal to any intelligent
man to say whether they, or some other provisions equally
effective, were not demanded of Congress by the requirements
of the constitution.
The majority of the people in every section of the country
respect the constitution and are disposed to obey the laws.
Furiously as the fugitive slave law was for a while resisted by
excited fanatics, it, as well as the other compromise measures,
gradually came to be acquiesced in by the general and almost
unanimous assent of the country. That this acquiescence and
the tranquillity which flowed from it have since been disturbed,
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. Ill
is the fault of a Democratic administration, which threw a new-
brand of discord among the States of this Union in the repeal
of the Missouri compromise.
The provision of the constitution for the surrender of fugi
tive slaves, and laws enacted for its enforcement, have encoun
tered so much intemperate opposition, that we devote space to
some extracts from the opinions of Justice M Lean, of the United
States Supreme Court, delivered in the Pennsylvania case, to
which we have already alluded; and in other cases which came
before him in the Seventh Circuit. We quote these in prefer
ence to the opinions of other members of the court, because
Judge M Lean is widely talked of as one of the gentlemen from
whom the present anti-slavery party will select its candidate for
the presidency.
In the following argument Judge M Lean not only assents
to the opinion of the Supreme Court that Congress has consti
tutional authority to pass effective laws for the rendition of
fugitive slaves, but he overturns the favorite theory of Mr.
Seward and other anti- slavery leaders, that the execution of
the constitutional provision for their surrender properly belongs
to the States. We quote from the sixteenth volume of Peters
Reports :
" That the constitution was adopted in a spirit of compro
mise, is matter of history. And all experience shows that to
at.tain the great objects of this fundamental law, it must be
construed and enforced in a spirit of enlightened forbearance
and justice. Without adverting to other conflicting views and
interests of the States represented in the general convention,
the subject of slavery was then, as it is now, a most delicate
and absorbing consideration. In some of the States it was
considered an evil, and a strong opposition to it, in all its forms,
was felt and expressed. In others it was viewed as a cherished
right, incorporated into the social compact and sacredly guarded
by law.
" Opinions so conflicting, and which so deeply pervaded the
elements of society, could be brought to a reconciled action
142 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
only by an exercise of exalted patriotism. Fortunately for the
country, this patriotism was not wanting in the convention and
in the States. The danger of discord and ruin was seen, and
felt, and acknowledged; and this led to the formation of the con
federacy. The constitution, as if, is, can not be said to have em
bodied, in all its parts, the peculiar views of any great section
of the Union ; but it was adopted by a wise and far-reaching
conviction, that it was the best which, under the circumstances,
could be devised; and that its imperfections would be lost sight
of, if not forgotten, in the national prosperity and glory which
it would secure.
" A law is better understood by a knowledge of the evils
which led to its adoption. And this applies most strongly to
a fundamental law.
" At an early period of our history, slavery existed in all the
colonies ; and fugitives from labor were claimed and delivered
up under a spirit of comity or conventional law among the
colonies. The articles of confederation contained no provision
on the subject, and there can be no doubt that the provision
introduced into the constitution was the result of experience
and manifest necessity. A matter so delicate, important, and
exciting, was very properly introduced into the organic law.
" Does the provision, in regard to the reclamation of fugitive
slaves, vest the power exclusively in the federal government?
" This must be determined from the language of the consti
tution, and the nature of the power.
" The language of the provision is general. It covers the
whole ground, not in detail, but in principle. The States are
inhibited from passing any law or regulation which shall dis
charge a fugitive slave from the service of his master; and a
positive duty is enjoined on them to deliver him up, on claim
of the party to whom his service may be due.
" The nature of the power shows that it must be exclusive.
" It was designed to protect the rights of the master, and
against whom ? Not against the State, nor the people of the
State in which he resides; but against the people and the
legislative action of other States where the fugitive from labor
might be found. Under the confederation, the master had no
legal means of enforcing his rights in a State opposed to
slavery. A disregard of rights thus asserted was deeply felt
in the South. It produced great excitement, and would have
143
led to results destructive to the Union. To avoid this, the
constitutional guarantee was essential.
" The necessity for this provision was found in the views and
feelings of the people of the States opposed to slavery ; and
who, under such an influence, could not be expected favorably
to regard the rights of the master. Now, by whom is this
paramount law to be executed ?
" It is contended that the power to execute it rests with the
States. The law was designed to protect the rights of the
slaveholder against the States opposed to those rights; and
yet, by this argument, the effective power is in the hands of
those on whom it is to operate.
"This would produce a strange anomaly in the history of
legislation. It would show an inexperience and folly in the
venerable framers of the constitution, from which, of all public
bodies that ever assembled, they were, perhaps, most exempt.
" The clause of the constitution under consideration declares
that no fugitive from labor shall be discharged from such labor,
by any law or regulation of the State into which he may have
fled. Is the State to judge of this? Is it left for the State to
determine what effect shall be given to this and other parts of
the provision ?
" This power is not susceptible of division. It is a part of
the fundamental law, and pervades the Union. The rule
of action which it prescribes was intended to be the same in
all the States. This is essential to the attainment of the objects
of the law. If the effect of it depended, in any degree, upon
the construction of a State by legislation or otherwise, its spirit,
if not its letter, would be disregarded. This would not proceed
from any settled determination in any State to violate the fun
damental rule, but from habits and modes of reasoning on the
subject. Such is the diversity of human judgment, that oppo
site conclusions, equally honest, are often drawn from the same
premises. It is, therefore, essential to the uniform efficacy of
this constitutional provision that it should be considered, exclu
sively, a federal power. It is in its nature as much so as the
power to regulate commerce, or that of foreign intercourse.
"To give full effect to this provision, was legislation neces
sary? Congress, by the passage of the act of 1793, legislated
on the subject, and this shows how this provision was con
strued shortly after its adoption : and the reasons which were
BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
deliberately considered, and which led to the passage of the
act, show clearly that it was necessary. These reasons will be
more particularly referred to under another head of the argu
ment. But looking only at the constitution, the propriety, if
not the necessity, of legislation is seen.
" The constitution provides that the fugitive from labor shall
be delivered up, on claim being made by the person entitled
to such labor; but it is silent as to how and on whom this
claim shall be made. The act of Congress provides for this
defect and uncertainty, by establishing the mode of procedure.
"It is contended, that the power to legislate on this subject
is concurrently in the States and federal government. That
the acts of the latter are paramount, but that the acts of the
former must be regarded as of authority, until abrogated by
the federal power. Ho\v a power exercised by one sovereignty
can be called concurrent, which may be abrogated by another,
I can not comprehend. A concurrent power, from its nature,
I had supposed must be equal. If the federal government by
legislating on the subject annuls all State legislation on the
same subject, it must follow that the power is in the federal
government and not in the State.
" Taxation is a power common to a State and the general
government, and it is exercised by each independently of the
other. And this must be the character of all concurrent
powers.
" It is said that a power may be vested in the federal gov
ernment which remains dormant, and that in such case a State
may legislate on the subject. In the case supposed, whence
does the Legislature derive its power? Is it derived from the
constitution of the State, or the constitution of the United
States ?
" If the power is given by the State constitution, it must
follow that it may be exercised independently of the federal
power; for it is presumed no one will sanction the doctrine
that Congress, by legislation, may abridge the constitutional
power of a State.
" How can -the power of the State be derived from the fed
eral constitution ? Is it assumed on the ground that Congress
having the power have failed to exercise it? Where is such
an assumption to end? May it not be applied with equal
force and propriety to the whole ground of federal legislation,
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 145
excepting only the powers inhibited to the States ? Congress
have not legislated upon a certain subject, but this does riot
show that they may not have duly considered it. Or, they
may have acted without exhausting the power. Now, in my
judgment, it is illogical and unconstitutional to hold that in
either of these cases a kState may legislate.
" Is this a vagrant power of the State, like a floating land
warrant, to be located on the first vacant spot that shall be
found ? May a State occupy a fragment of federal power
which has not been exercised, and, like a tenant at will, continue
to occupy it until it shall have notice to quit?
" No such power is derived by implication from the federal
constitution. It defines the powers of the general government,
and imposes certain restrictions and duties on the States. But
beyond this it in no degree affects the powers of the States.
The powers which belong to a State are exercised independent
ly. In its sphere of sovereignty it stands on an equality with
the federal government, and is not subject to its control. It
would be as dangerous as humiliating to the rights of a State,
to hold that its legislative powers were exercised to any extent
and under any circumstances, subject to the paramount action
of Congress. Such a doctrine would lead to serious and dan
gerous conflicts of power.
"The act of 1793 seems to cover the whole constitutional
ground. The third section provides, That when a person held
to labor in any State or territory of the United States, under
the laws thereof, shall escape into any other of the said States
or territories, the person to whom such labor or service may
be due, his agent or attorney, is empowered to seize or arrest
such fugitive from labor, and to take him or her before any
judge of the circuit or district courts of the United States re
siding or being within the State, or before any magistrate of a
county, city, or town corporate, wherein such seizure or arrest
shall be made, and upon proof, to the satisfaction of such judge
or magistrate, either by oral testimony or affidavit, &c., that
the person so seized or arrested, doth, under the laws of the
State or territory from which he or she fled, owe service or
labor to the person claiming him or her, it shall be the duty
of such judge or magistrate to give a certificate thereof to
such claimant, his agent, or attorney, which shall be sufficient
7
146 BIOGKAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
warrant for removing said fugitive to the State from which lie
or she fled.
" The fourth section imposes a penalty on any person who
shall obstruct or hinder such claimant, his agent, or attorney,
&c., or shall rescue such fugitive, when so arrested, &c.
" It seems to be taken as a conceded point in the argument,
that Congress had no power to impose duties on State officers,
as provided in the above act. As a general principle this is
true ; but does not the case under consideration form an ex
ception? Congress can no more regulate the jurisdiction of
State tribunals, than a State can define the judicial power of
the Union. The officers of each government are responsible
only to the respective authorities under which they are com
missioned. But do not the clauses in the constitution in re
gard to fugitives from labor, and from justice, give Congress
a power over State officers, on these subjects ? The power in
both the cases is admitted or proved to be exclusively in the
federal government.
" The clause in the constitution preceding the one in relation
to fugitives from labor, declares that, A person charged in
any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee
from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand
of the executive authority of the State from which he tied, be
delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of
the crime.
"In the first section of the act of 1793, Congress have pro-
ided that on demand being made as above, it shall be the
duty of the executive authority to cause the person demanded
to be arrested, <fec.
" The constitutionality of this law, it is believed, has never
been questioned. It has been obeyed by the governors of
States, who have uniformly acknowledged its obligation. To
some demands surrenders have not been made ; but the refu
sals have, in no instance, been on the ground that the constitu
tion and act of Congress were of no binding force ? Other
reasons have been assigned.
"Now, if Congress may by legislation require this duty to
be performed by the highest State officer, may they not on the
same principle require appropriate duties in regard to the sur
render of fugitives from labor, by other State officers? Over
these subjects the constitutional power is the same.
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 147
"In both cases the act of 1793 defines on what evidence
the delivery shall be made. This was necessary, as the con
stitution is silent on the subject. The act provides that on
claim being made of a fugitive from labor, it shall be the duty
of such judge or magistrate to give a certificate that the person
claimed owes services to the claimant.
"The constitution requires that such person shall be deliv
ered up, on claim of the party to whom the service is due.
Here is a positive duty imposed; and Congress have said in
what mode this duty shall be performed. Had they not power
to do so ? If the constitution was designed, in this respect, to
require, not a negative but a positive duty on the State and
the people of the State where the fugitive from labor may be
found of which, it would seem, there can be no doubt it
must be equally clear that Congress may prescribe in what
manner the claim and surrender shall be made. I am, there
fore, brought to the conclusion that, although, as a general
principle, Congress can not impose duties on State officers, yet
in the cases of fugitives from labor and justice, they have the
power to do so.
"In the case of Martin s Lessee v. Hunter, 1 Wheat. Rep.
304, this court says, The language of the constitution is im
perative on the States as to the performance of many duties,
it is imperative on the State legislatures to make laws pre
scribing the time, place, and manner of holding elections for
senators and representatives, and for electors of President and
Vice-president. And in these, as well as in other cases, Con
gress have a right to revise, amend, or supersede the laws
which may be passed by the State legislatures/
" Now, I do not insist on the exercise of the federal power
to the extent as here laid down. I go no farther than to say,
that where the constitution imposes a positive duty on a State
or its officers to surrender fugitives, that Congress may pre
scribe the mode of proof, and the duty of the State officers."
The opinion from which we have made this extract was de
livered several years before the passage of the law of 1850.
The following quotation from an opinion of Judge M Lean in
a case which came before him in Ohio, in 1853, fully sustains
the constitutionality of the act, for signing which Mr. Fillmore
148 BIOGEAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
lias been so fiercely denounced. Judge M Leari s well known
anti-slavery sympathies are a sufficient guarantee that he has
no bias in favor of the law whose constitutionality he defends.
We quote from the fifth volume of M Lean s Reports:
"It is contended that the law authorizing the reclamation
of fugitives from labor is unconstitutional; that the constitu
tion left the power with the States, and vested no power on
the subject in the federal government.
"This argument has been sometimes advanced, and it may
have been introduced into one or more political platforms. In
regard to the soundness of this position, I will first refer to ju
dicial decisions. In the case of Prigg v. The State of Penn
sylvania, 16 Peters R. 539, the judges of the Supreme Court
of the United Stales, without a dissenting voice, affirmed the
doctrine, that this power was in the federal government. A
majority of them held that it was exclusively in the general
government. Some of the judges thought that a State might
legislate in aid of the act of Congress, but it was held by no
one of them, that the power could be exercised by a State,
except in subordination of the federal power.
"Every State court which has decided the question, has
decided it in accordance with the view of the Supreme Court
No respectable court, it is believed, has sustained the view
that the power is with the State. Such an array of authority
can scarcely be found in favor of the construction of any part
of the constitution, which has ever been doubted. But this
construction, sanctioned as it is by the entire judicial power,
State as well as federal, has also the sanction of the legislative
power.
"The constitution of the United States, it will be observed,
was formed in 1787. Afterward it was submitted to the
respective States for their ratification. The subject was not
only largely discussed in the federal convention, but also in
every State convention. No question has ever arisen, in re
gard to our federal relations, which was of equal importance
to that of the adoption of the constitution; none in our politi
cal history was more thoroughly discussed. The men of
that day may be emphatically said to have understood the
constitution.
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 149
" In a very few years after the constitution was adopted by
the States, the fugitive act of 1793 was passed. That law is
still in force, except where the act of 1850 contains repugnant
provisions. In the Congress which enacted the act of 1793, it
is believed, that some of the members had been members of
the convention. They could not have been ignorant of the
provision of that instrument. And by the passage of that act
they exercised the power, as one that, belonged to the federal
government. Here is a force of authority, judicial and legis
lative, which can not be found on any other seriously litigated
point in the constitution.
" Such a weight of authority is not to be shaken. If the
question is not to be considered authoritatively settled, what
part of that instrument can ever be settled ? The surrender of
fugitive slaves was a matter deeply interesting to the slave
States. Under the confederation there was no provision for
their surrender. On the principles of comity amongst the
States the fugitives were delivered up ; at other times they
were protected and defended. This state of things produced
uneasiness and discontent in the slave States. A remedy of
this evil, as it was called, was provided in the constitution.
"An individual who puts his opinion, as to the exercise of
this power, against the authority of the nation in its legislative
and judicial action, must have no small degree of confidence in
his own judgment. A few individuals in Massachusetts may
have maintained, at one time, that the power was with the
States; but such views were, it is believed, long since aban
doned, but they are re-asserted now, more as a matter of ex
pediency than of principle.
"But whether we look at the weight of authority against
State power as asserted, or at the constitutional provision, we
are led to the same result. The provision reads: No person
held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof,
escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law or reg
ulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such ser
vice may be due.
" This, in the first place, is a federal measure. It was adop
ted by the national convention, and was sanctioned as a federal
law, by the respective States. It is the supreme law of the
land. Now a provision which can not be enforced, and which
150 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOBE.
has no penalty for its violation, is no law. The highly respect
able gentleman who read an ingenious argument in support
of these views, is too good a theologian to contend that any
rule of action which may be disregarded without incurring a
penalty, can be law. It .may be a recommendation, but it can
not be a law. This was the great objection to the articles of
confederation. There was no power to enforce its provisions.
They were recommendatory, and without sanctions.
"There is no regulation, divine or human, which can be called
a law, without a sanction. Our first parents, in the garden,
felt the truth of this. And it has been felt by violators of the
divine or human laws throughout the history of our race.
"The provision in the constitution is prohibitory and positive.
It prohibits the States from liberating slaves which escape into
them, and it enjoins a duty to deliver up such fugitives on
claim being made. The constitution vests no special power in
Congress to prohibit the first, or to enforce the observance of
the second. Does it, therefore, follow that effect can be given
to neither, if a State shall disregard it ?
"Suppose a State declares a slave who escapes into it shall
be liberated, or that any one who shall assist in delivering him
up shall be punished, if this power belongs to the States,
and not to the federal government, these regulations would be
legal, as within the exercise of their discretion. This is not an
ideal case. The principle was involved in the Prigg case, and
the Supreme Court held the act of the State unconstitutional
and void.
"It is admitted that there is no power in the federal govern
ment to force any legislative action on a State. But, if the
constitution guarantees a right to the master of a slave, and
that he shall be delivered up, the power is given to effectuate
that right. If this be not so, the constitution is not what its
framers supposed it to be. It was believed to be a fundamen
tal law of the Union. A federal law. A law to the States
and to the people of the States. It says that the States shall
not do certain things. Is this the form of giving advice or
recommendation? It is the language of authority, to those
who are bound to obey. If a State do the thing forbidden, its
acts will be declared void. If it refuse to do that which is
enjoyed, the federal government, bang a government, has the
means of executing it.
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 151
"The constitution provides, that full faith shall be given to
public acts, records, and judicial proceedings, of one State in
every other. If an individual claiming this provision as a right,
and a State court shall deny it, on a writ of error to the Su
preme Court of the Union, such judgment would be reversed.
And the provision .that, the citizens of each State shall be
entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the sev
eral States. Congress unquestionably may provide in what
manner a right claimed under this clause, and denied by a
State, may be enforced. And if a case can be raised under it,
without any further statutory provisions, so as to present the
point to the Supreme Court, the decision of a State court de
nying the right would be reversed. So a State is prohibited
from passing a law that shall impair the obligations of a con
tract. Such a law the Supreme Court has declared void. In
these cases, and in many others, where a State is prohibited
from doing a thing, the remedy is given by a writ of error,
under the legislation of Congress. The same principle applies
in regard to fugitives from labor.
"A fugitive from justice may be delivered up under a simi
lar provision in the constitution. It declares that, A person
charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who
shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on
demand of the executive authority of the State from which he
fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having juris
diction of the crime. This is contained in the same section as
the clause in relation to fugitives from labor, and they both
stand upon the same principle. In both cases Congress has
provided a mode in which effect shall be given to the provision.
No one, it is believed, has doubted the constitutionality of the
provision in regard to fugitives from justice.
"The men who framed the constitution, were adequate to
the great duties which devolved upon them. They knew that
a general government was essential to preserve the fruits of the
revolution. They understood the necessities of the country.
The articles of confederation had been found as a rope of sand,
in all matters of conflict between the different States, and the
people of the different States. Without a general government,
commerce could not be regulated among the States, or with
foreign nations ; fugitives from labor could not be reclaimed ;
State boundaries could not be authoritatively established.
152 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMOEE.
"I am aware it has been stated, that the subject of slavery
was not discussed in the convention, and that the reclamation
of fugitives from labor was not, at that time, a subject of much
interest. This is a mistake. It was a subject of deep and ex
citing interest, and without a provision on the subject no con
stitution could have been adopted. I speak from information
received from the late Chief-Justice Marshall, who was one of
the chief actors in that day, than whom no man then living-
was of higher authority.
"The want of a general regulation on the subject of fugitives
from justice and from labor was felt, and the above provisions
in the constitution were intended as a remedy. It has proved
to be an adequate remedy as against fugitives from justice. In
no instance, it is believed, has the constitutionality of this pro
vision been doubted. But the provision in relation to fugitives
from labor, resting upon the same principle, is now opposed.
"If the introduction of this provision into the fundamental
law of the Union was not intended to operate as the law of the
Union if it was recommendatory in its character only it
was useless. The power to surrender fugitives from labor,
under the confederacy, was with each State. It could be done,
or refused, at the discretion of the State. Did the framers of
the constitution intend to leave this matter as it was under the
confederation ? The provision introduced shows an intention
to make some provision on the subject. JJut by the argument,
it is said, the provision made left the power with the States,
and did not vest it in the general government. The answer to
this is, it was in the States before the provision, and on this
view, it added nothing to the power of the States. If such be
the true construction of the provision, it fixes an act of con
summate folly on the framers of the constitution, and on the
members of the State conventions who adopted it. In laying
the foundation of a general government, they incorporated
into the fundamental law a useless provision, and omitted to
provide for an emergency which was felt and complained of in
one half of the States. The men of that day were not likely
to be guilty of such an omission. They understood the federal
and State powers too well, not to know that without some ef
fective provision on this subject, the superstructure which they
were about to rear would soon be overthrown. These were
the circumstances under which the constitution was framed
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 153
and adopted. With the abstract principles of slavery, courts
called to administer this law have nothing to do. It is for the
people, who are sovereign, and their representatives, in making
constitutions, and in the enactment of laws, to consider the
laws of nature, and the immutable principles of right. This
is a field which judges can rfot explore. Their action is lim
ited to conventional rights. They look to the law, and to the
law only. A disregard of this, by the judicial powers, would
undermine and overturn the social compact. If the law be
injudicious or oppressive, let it be repealed or modified. But
this is "a power which the judiciary can not reach.
"The citizen of a slave State has a right, under the consti
tution and laws of the Union, to have the fugitive slave deliv
ered up on claim being made, and no State can defeat or
obstruct this constitutional right. The judiciary power of the
Union has the primary or eventual power to determine all
rights arising under the constitution. This will not be contro
verted by any legal mind, which has properly investigated the
great principles of the constitution. And the question now
made is not, in principle, different from a numerous class of
cases arising under powers prohibited to the States.
"The w rthy and estimable gentleman who read an argu
ment on this occasion, in commenting on the cases covered by
the fugitive law, embraced all cases of contract, and even that
between a minister and his congregation. He supposes if the
minister should leave his congregation before his stipulated
engagement had transpired, that he was liable to be arrested
and returned to his congregation under the fugitive law.
"This is a case, under this law, which no one before has
supposed to be embraced by it. And it the law did cover
such a case, it would be the most difficult to carry out of any
other which has been imagined. If the minister could be re
turned, neither the court nor the congregation could compel
him to preach. No profession or class of men would be less
likely to do anything on compulsion.
"But the law applies o no case of contract. Where the
parties to the agreement are capable of making a contract, the
remedy for a breach of it is by action at law. In the case of
slaves and of apprentices, there is no remedy against the indi
vidual who absconds, by an action.
"Various objections are stated to the fugitive slave law of
154: BIO&EAPHY OF MILLABD FILLMOliE.
1850. The duties of the commissioners, the penalties inflicted,
the bribe secured to the commissioner, for remanding the fugi
tive, are all objected to as oppressive and unconstitutional. In
regard to the live dollars, in addition, paid to the commissioner,
where the fugitive is remanded to the claimant, in all fairness,
it can not be considered as a bribe, or as so intended by Con
gress; but as a compensation to the commissioner for making
a statement of the case, which includes the facts proved, and
to which his certiticate is annexed. In cases where the wit
nesses are numerous, and the investigation takes up several
days, five dollars would scarcely be a compensation for the
statement required. Where the fugitive is discharged, no
statement is necessary.
"The powers of the commissioner, or the amount of the
penalties of the act, are not involved in this inquiry. If there
be an unconstitutional provision in an act, that does not affect
any other part of the act. But I by no means intimate that
any part of the act referred to is in conflict with the constitu
tion. I only say that the objections made to it do not belong-
to the case under consideration.
"The act of 1850, except by repugnant provisions, did not
repeal the act of 1793. The objection that no jury is given
does apply to both acts. From my experience in trying nu
merous actions for damages against persons who obstructed an
arrest of fugitives from labor, or aided in their escape, I am
authorized to say, that the rights of the master would be safe
before a jury. I recollect an instance where a strong anti-
slavery man, called an abolitionist, was on the jury in a case
for damages, but who, being sworn to find as the. evidence and
the law required, agreed to a verdict for the plaintiff. He
rightly determined that his own opinions could not govern him
in deciding a controversy between parties, but that under his
oath he was bound by the law and the evidence of the case.
"It was in the power of Congress to give a jury in cases
like the present, but the law contains no such provision,
and the question raised is, whether the act without it is con-
Istitutional.
"This question has been largely discussed in Congress, in
the public press, and in conventions of the people. It is not
here raised as a question of expediency or policy, but of power.
In that aspect only is it to be considered.
FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 155
"The act of 1793 has been in operation about sixty years.
During that whole time it has been executed as occasion re
quired, and it is not known that any court, judge, or other
officer has held the act, in this, or in any other respect, uncon
stitutional. This long course of decision, on a question so
exciting as to call forth the sympathies of the people, and the
astuteness of lawyers, is no unsatisfactory evidence that the
construction is correct.
" Under the constitution and act of Congress, the inquiry is
not strictly whether the fugitive be a slave or a freeman, but
whether he owe service to the claimant. This would be the
precise question in the case of an apprentice. In such a case
the inquiry would not be, whether the master had treated the
apprentice so badly as to entitle him to his discharge. Such
a question would, more probably, arise under the indenture
of apprenticeship, and the laws under which it was executed.
And if the apprentice be remanded to the service of his mas
ter, it would in no respect affect his right to a discharge, where
he is held, for the cruelty of his master or any other ground.
" The same principle applies to fugitives from labor. It is
true in such cases evidence is heard that he is a freeman.
His freedom may be established, by acts done or suffered by
his master, not necessarily within the jurisdiction where he is
held as a slave. Such an inquiry may be made, as it is re
quired by the justice of the case. But on whatever ground
the fugitive may be remanded, it can not, legally, operate
against his right to liberty. That right when presented to a
court in a slave State, has, generally, been acted upon with
fairness and impartiality. Exceptions to this, if there be
exceptions, would seem to have arisen on the claims of heirs
or creditors, which are governed by local laws, with which
the people of the other States are not presumed to be ac
quainted."
156 BIOGEAPHY OF MTLLAED FILLMOKE,
CHAPTER X.
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE.
Mr. Fillmore was suddenly called to the presidency while
Congress was in session, and amid the preparations for the
funeral of President Taylor. These circumstances prevented
liis deliverino- an inaugural address. He therefore took occa-
t> o
sion in his first annual message, at the opening of the next
session of Congress, to promulgate some general principles by
which he would be governed in his administration of the gov
ernment. This message is so admirable in style, so truly na
tional in its spirit, so statesmanlike in its recommendations, and,
compared with most documents of the kind, is such a model
of brevity and directness, that we copy it without abridgment:
"Fellow -Citizens of the Senate, and of the House of Repre
sentatives: Being suddenly called, in the midst of the last
session of Congress, by a painful dispensation of Divine Prov
idence, to the responsible station which I now hold, i contented
myself with such communications to the legislature as the exi
gency of the moment seemed to require. The country was
shrouded in mourning for the loss of its venerated chief magis
trate, and all hearts were penetrated with grief. Neither the
time nor the occasion appeared to require or to justify, on my
part, any general expression of political opinions, or any an
nouncement of the principles which would govern me in the
discharge of the duties to the performance of which I had
been so unexpectedly called. I trust, therefore, that it may
not be deemed inappropriate, if I avail myself of this opportu
nity of the re-assembling of Congress, to make known my sen
timents in a general manner, in regard to the policy which
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 157
ought to be pursued by the government, both in its intercourse
with foreign nations, and in its management and administration
of internal affairs.
" 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, they are rights and
duties, binding in morals, in conscience, and in honor, although
there is no tribunal to which an injured party can appeal, but
the disinterested judgment of mankind, and ultimately the
arbitrament of the sword.
* Among the acknowledged rights of nations is that which
each possesses of establishing that form of government which it
may deem most conducive to the happiness and prosperity of
its own citizens; of changing that form, as circumstances may
require ; and of managing its internal affairs according to its
own will. The people of the United States claim this right
for themselves, and they readily concede it to others. Hence
it becomes an imperative duty not to interfere in the govern
ment or internal policy of other nations; and, although we may
sympathize with the unfortunate or the oppressed, everywhere,
in their struggles for freedom, our principles forbid us from
taking any part in such foreign contests. We make no wars
to promote or to prevent successions to thrones; to maintain
any theory of a balance of power; or to suppress the actual
government which any country chooses to establish for itself.
We instigate no revolutions, nor suffer any hostile military ex
peditions to be h tled out in the United States to invade the
territory or provinces of a friendly nation. 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 justice and conscience
should form the rule of conduct between governments, instead
of mere power, self-interest, or the desire of aggrandizement.
To maintain a strict neutrality in foreign wars, to cultivate
friendly relations, to reciprocate every noble and generous act,
and to perform punctually and scrupulously every treaty obli
gation these are the duties which we owe to other States,
and by the performance of which we best entitle ourselves to
like treatment from them ; or if that, in any case, bo refused,
158 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAiil) FILLMORE.
we can enforce our own rights with justice and with a clear
conscience.
"In our domestic policy, the constitution will be my guide;
and in questions of doubt, I shall look for its interpretation to
the judicial decisions of that tribunal which was established to
expound it, and to the usage of the government, sanctioned by
the acquiescence of the country. I regard all its provisions as
equally binding. In all its parts it is the will of the people,
expressed in the most solemn form, and the constituted author
ities are but agents to carry that will into effect. Every power
which it has granted is to be exercised for the public good;
but no pretense of utility, no honest conviction, even, of what
might be expedient, can justify the assumption of any power
hot granted. The powers conferred upon the government and
their distribution to the several departments, are as clearly ex
pressed in that sacred instrument as the imperfection of human
language will allow; and I deem it my first duty, not to ques
tion its wisdom, add to its provisions, evade its requirements,
or nullify its commands.
" Upon you, fellow-citizens, as the representatives of the
States and the people, is wisely devolved the legislative power.
I shall comply with my duty, in laying before you, from time
to time, any information calculated to enable you to discharge
your high and responsible trust, for the benefit of our common
constituents.
" My opinions will be frankly expressed upon the leading
subjects of legislation; and if, which I do not anticipate, any
act should pass the two Houses of Congress which should ap
pear to me unconstitutional, or an encroachment on the just
powers of other departments, or with provisions hastily adopted,
and likely to produce consequences injurious and unforeseen, I
should not shrink from the duty of returning it to you, with my
reasons, for your further consideration. Beyond the due per
formance of these constitutional obligations, both my respect
for the legislature and my sense of propriety will restrain me
\from any attempt to control or influence your proceedings.
"With you is the power, the honor, and the responsibility*^
the legislation of the country.
" The government of the United States is a limited govern
ment. It is confined to the exercise of powers expressly
granted, and such others as may be necessary for carrying
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 159
those powers into effect; and it is at all times an especial duty
to guard against any infringement on the just rights of the
States. Over the objects and subjects intrusted to Congress,
its legislative authority is supreme. But here that authority
ceases, and every citizen who truly loves the constitution, and
desires the continuance of its existence and its blessings, will
resolutely and firmly resist any interference in those domestic
affairs which the constitution has clearly and unequivocally
left to the exclusive authority of the States. And every such
citizen will also deprecate useless irritation among the several
members of the Union, and all reproach and crimination tend
ing to alienate one portion of the country from another. The
beauty of our system of government consists, and its safety and
durability must consist, in avoiding mutual collisions and en
croachments, and. in the regular separate action of all, while
each is revolving in its own distinct orbit.
" The constitution has made it the duty of the President to
take care that the laws be faithfully executed. In a govern
ment like ours, in which all laws are passed by a majority of
the representatives of the people, and these representatives are
chosen for such short periods, that any injurious or obnoxious
law can very soon be repealed, it would appear unlikely that
any great numbers should be found ready to resist the execu
tion of the laws. But it must be borne in mind that the coun
try is extensive, that there may be local interests or prejudices
rendering a law odious in one part, which is not so in another,
and. that the thoughtless and inconsiderate, misled by their
passions or their imaginations, may be induced madly to resist
such laws as they disapprove. Such persons should recollect
that, without law there can be no real practical liberty ; that,
when law is trampled under foot, tyranny rules, whether it
appears in the form of a military despotism or of popular vio
lence. The law is the only sure protection of the weak, and
the only efficient restraint upon the strong. When impartially
and faithfully administered, none is beneath its protection, and
none above its control. You, gentlemen, and the country, may
be assured, that to the utmost of my ability, and to the extent
of the power vested in me, I shall at all times, and in all places,
take care that the laws be faithfully executed. In the dis
charge of this duty, solemnly imposed upon me by the consti
tution, and by my oath of office, I shall shrink from no
100 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLABD FILLMORE.
Ik
responsibility, and shall endeavor to meet events as they may
arise, with firmness, as well as with prudence and discretion.
" The appointing power is one of the most delicate with
which the executive is invested. I regard it as a sacred trust,
to be exercised with the sole view of advancing the prosperity
and happiness of the people. It shall be my effort to elevate
the standard of official employment, by selecting for places of
importance individuals fitted for the posts to which they are
assigned, by their known integrity, talents, and virtues. In so
extensive a country, with so great a population, and where few
persons appointed to office can be known to the appointing
power, mistakes will sometimes unavoidably happen, and un
fortunate appointments be made, notwithstanding the greatest
care. In such cases, the power of removal may be properly
exercised; and neglect of duty or malfeasance in office will be
no more tolerated in individuals appointed by myself than in
those appointed by others.
" I am happy in being able to say that no unfavorable change
in our foreign relations has taken place since the message at
the opening of the last session of Congress. We are at peace
with all nations, and we enjoy in an eminent degree the bless
ings of that peace, in a prosperous and growing commerce, and
in all the forms of amicable national intercourse. The unex
ampled growth of the country, the present amount of its pop
ulation, and its ample means of self-protection, assure for it the
respect of all nations, while it is trusted that its character for
justice, and a regard to the rights of other States, will cause
that respect to be readily and cheerfully paid.
" A convention was negotiated between the United States
and Great Britain, in April last, for facilitating and protecting
the construction of a ship canal between the Atlantic and Pa
cific Oceans, and for other purposes. This instrument has
since been ratified by the contracting parties, the exchange of
ratifications has been effected, and proclamation thereof has
been duly made.
" In addition to the stipulations contained in this convention,
two other objects remain to be accomplished between the con
tracting powers.
" First, the designation and establishment of a free port at
each end of the canal.
" Second, an agreement fixing the distance from the shore
FIEST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 161
within which belligerent maritime operations shall not be
carried on. On these points there is little doubt that the two
governments will come to an understanding.
"The company of citizens of the United States who have
acquired from the State of Nicaragua the privilege of con
structing a ship canal between the two oceans, through the
territory of that State, have made progress in their preliminary
arrangements. The treaty between the United States and
Great Britain, of the 19th of April last, above referred to,
being now in operation, it is to be hoped that the guarantees
which it offers will be sufficient to secure the completion of the
work with all practicable expedition. It is obvious that this
result would be indefinitely postponed, if any other than peace
ful measures, for the purpose of harmonizing conflicting claims
to territory in that quarter, should be adopted. It will conse
quently be my endeavor to cause any further negotiations on
the part of this government, which may be requisite for this
purpose, to be so conducted as to bring them to a speedy and
successful close.
" Some unavoidable delay has occurred, arising from distance
and the difficulty of intercourse between this government and
that of Nicaragua; but, as intelligence has just been received
of the appointment of an Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary of that government to reside at Washington,
whose arrival may soon be expected, it is hoped that no fur
ther impediments will be experienced in the prompt transac
tion of business between the two governments.
" Citizens of the United States have undertaken the connec
tion of the two oceans by means of a railroad across the Isthmus
of Tehuantepec, under grants of the Mexican government to
a citizen of that republic. It is understood that a thorough
survey of the course of the communication is in preparation,
and there is every reason to expect that it will be prosecuted
with characteristic energy, especially when that government
shall have consented to such stipulations with the government
of the United States as may be necessary to impart a feeling
of security to those who may embark their property in the
enterprise. Negotiations are pending for the accomplishment
of that object, and a hope is confidently entertained that, when
the government of Mexico shall become duly sensible of the
advantages which that country can not fail to derive from the
162 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
work, and learn that the government of the United States
desires that the right of sovereignty of Mexico in the isthmus
shall remain unimpaired, the stipulations referred to will be
agreed to with alacrity.
" By the last advices from Mexico it would appear, however,
that that government entertains strong objections to some of
the stipulations which the parties concerned in the project
of the railroad deem necessary for their protection and security.
Further consideration, it is to be hoped, or some modification
of terms, may yet reconcile the differences existing between
the two governments in this respect.
" Fresh instructions have recently been given to the Minister
of the United States in Mexico, who is prosecuting the subject
with promptitude and ability.
" Although the negotiations with Portugal, for the payment
of claims of citizens of the United States against that govern
ment, have not yet resulted in a formal treaty, yet a proposi
tion made by the government of Portugal for the final
adjustment and payment of those claims, has recently been
accepted on the part of the United States. It gives me pleas
ure to say that Mr. Clay, to whom the negotiation on the part
of the, United States had been entrusted, discharged the duties
of his appointment with ability and discretion, acting always
within the instructions of his government.
"It is expected that a regular convention will be immediately
negotiated for carrying the agreement between the two gov
ernments into effect.
"The commissioner appointed under the act of Congress for
carrying into effect the convention with Brazil, of the 27th of
January, 1849, has entered upon the performance of the duties
imposed upon him by that act. It is hoped that those duties
may be completed within the time which it prescribes. The
documents, however, which the imperial government, by the
third article of the convention, stipulates to furnish to the gov
ernment of the United States, have not yet been received.
As it is presumed that those documents will be essential for
the correct disposition of the claims, it may become necessary
for Congress to extend the period limited for the duration of
the commission. The sura stipulated by the fourth article of
the convention to be paid to this government has been
received.
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 163
"The collection in the ports of the United States of discrim
inating duties upon the vessels of Chili and their cargoes, has
been suspended, pursuant to the provisions of the act of Con
gress of the 24th of May, 1828. It is to be hoped that this
measure will impart a fresh impulse to the commerce between
the two countries, which, of late, and especially since our ac
quisition of California, has, to the mutual advantage of the
parties, been much augmented.
"Peruvian guano has become so desirable an article to the
agricultural interest of the United States, that it is the duty
of the government to employ all the means properly in its
power for the purpose of causing that article to be imported
into the country at a reasonable price. Nothing will be omit
ted on my part toward accomplishing this desirable end. I
am persuaded that in removing any restraints on this traffic,
the Peruvian government will promote its own best interests,
while it will afford a proof of a friendly disposition toward this
country, which will be duly appreciated.
"The treaty between the United States and His Majesty the
King of the Hawaiian Islands, which has recently been made
public, will, it is believed, have a beneficial effect upon the re
lations between the two countries.
"The relations between those parts of the Island of St. Do
mingo, which were formerly colonies of Spain and France,
respectively, are still in an unsettled condition. The proximity
of that island to the United States, and the delicate questions
involved in the existing controversy there, render it desirable
that it should be permanently and speedily adjusted. The
interests of humanity and of general commerce also demand
this ; and, as intimations of the same sentiment have been re
ceived from other governments, it is hoped that some plan may
soon be devised to effect the object in a manner likely to give
general satisfaction. The government of the United States
will not fail, by the exercise of all proper friendly offices, to do
all in its power to put an end to the destructive war which has
raged between the different parts of the island, and to secure
to them both the benefits of peace and commerce.
"I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury
for a detailed statement of the finances.
"The total receipts into the treasury, for the year ending
30th of June last, were forty-seven millions four hundred and
164 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
twenty-one thousand seven hundred and forty-eight dollars
and ninety cents, (847,421,748 90.)
"The total expenditures during the same period were forty-
three million two thousand one hundred and sixty-eight dol
lars arid ninety cents, (843,002,168 90.)
"The public debt has been reduced, since the last annual
report from the treasury department, four hundred and ninety-
five thousand two hundred and se/enty-six dollars and seventy-
nine cents, ($495,276 79.)
"By the nineteenth section of the act of 28th January, 1847,
the proceeds of the sales of the public lands were pledged for
the interest and principal of the public debt. The great
amount of those lands subsequently granted by Congress for
military bounties, will, it is believed, very nearly supply the
public demand for several years to come, and but little reliance
can, therefore, be placed on that hitherto fruitful source of
revenue.
"Aside from the permanent annual expenditures, which have
necessarily largely increased, a portion of the public debt,
amounting to eight million seventy-five thousand nine hundred
and eighty-six dollars and fifty-nine cents, ($8,075,986 59,)
must be provided for within the next two fiscal years. It is
most desirable that these accruing demands should be met
without resorting to new loans.
"All experience has demonstrated the wisdom and policy of
raising a large portion of revenue for the support of govern
ment from duties on goods imported. The power to lay these
duties is unquestionable, and its chief object, of course, is to
replenish the treasury. But if, in doing this, an incidental
advantage may be gained by encouragino- the industry of our
own citizens, it is our duty to avail ourselves of that advantage.
; A duty laid upon an article which can not be produced in
this country such as tea or coffee adds to the cost of the
article, and is chiefly or wholly paid by the consumer. But a
duty laid upon an article which may be produced here, stim
ulates the skill and industry of our own country to produce
the same article, which is brought into the market in competi
tion with the foreign article, and the importer is thus compelled
to reduce his price to that at which the domestic article can be
sold, thereby throwing a part of the duty upon the producer
of the foreign article. The continuance of this process creates
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 165
the skill, and invites the capital, which finally enables us to
produce the article much cheaper than it could have been pro
cured from abroad, thereby benefitting both the producer and
the consumer at home. The consequence of this is, that the
artisan and the agriculturalist are brought together, each
affords a ready market for the produce of the other, the whole
country becomes prosperous, and the ability to produce every
necessary of life renders us independent in war as well as
in peace.
"A high tariff can never be permanent. It will cause dis
satisfaction and will be changed. It excludes competition, and
thereby invites the investment of capital in manufactures to
such excess, that when changed it brings distress, bankruptcy,
and ruin, upon all who have been misled by its faithless pro
tection. What the manufacturer wants, is uniformity and per
manency, that he may feel a confidence that he is not to be
ruined by sudden changes. But to make a tariff uniform and
permanent, it is not only necessary that the law should not be
altered, but that the duty should not fluctuate. To effect this,
all duties should be specific, wherever the nature of the article
is such as to admit of it. Ad valorem duties fluctuate with
the price, and offer strong temptations to fraud and perjury.
(Specific duties, on the contrary, are equal and uniform in all
ports, and at all times, and offer a strong inducement to the
importer to bring the. best article, as he pays no more duty
upon that than upon one of inferior quality. I therefore
strongly recommend a modification of the present tariff, which
lias prostrated some of our most important and necessary man
ufactures, and that specific duties be imposed sufficient to raise
the requisite revenue, making such discrimination in favor of
the industrial pursuits of our own country as to encourage
home production, without excluding foreign competition. It is
also important that an unfortunate provision in the present
tariff, which imposes a much higher duty upon the raw ma
terial that enters into our manufactures than upon the manu
factured article, should be remedied.
"The papers accompanying the report of the Secretary of
the Treasury will disclose frauds attempted upon the revenue,
in variety and amount so great, as to justify the conclusion that
it is impossible, under any system of ad valorem duties levied
upon the foreign cost or value of the article, to secure an
160 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMOEE.
honest observance and an effectual administration of the laws.
The fraudulent devices to evade the law, which have been de
tected by the vigilance of the appraisers, leave no room to
doubt that similar impositions not discovered, to a large amount,
have been successfully practiced since the enactment of the
law now in force. This state of things has already had a pre
judicial influence upon those engaged in foreign commerce.
It has a tendency to drive the honest trader from the business
of importing, and to throw that important branch of employ
ment into the hands of unscrupulous and dishonest men, who
are alike regardless of Jaw and the obligations of an oath. By
these means the plain intentions of Congress, as expressed in
the law, are daily defeated. Every motive of policy and duty,
therefore, impel me to ask the earnest attention of Congress
to this subject. If Congress should deem it unwise to attempt
any important changes in the system of levying duties at this
session, it will become indispensable to the protection of the
revenue that such remedies, as in the judgment of Congress may
mitigate the evils complained of, should be at once applied.
"As before stated, specific duties would, in my opinion, afford
the most perfect remedy for tin s evil ; but, if you should not
concur in this view, then, as a partial remedy, I beg leave re
spectfully to recommend that, instead of taking the invoice of
the article abroad as a means of determining its value here,
the correctness of which invoice it is in many cases impossible
to verify, the law be so changed as to require a home valuation
or appraisal, to be regulated in such manner as to give, as far
as practicable, uniformity in the several ports.
" There being no mint in California, I am informed that the
laborers in the mines are compelled to dispose of their gold
-dust at a large discount. This appears to me to be a heavy
and unjust tax upon the labor of those employed in extracting
this precious metal ; and I doubt not you will be disposed, at
the earliest period possible, to relieve them from it by the es
tablishment of a mint. In the meantime, as an assayer s office
is established there, I would respectfully submit for your con
sideration the propriety of authorizing gold bullion, which has
been assayed and stamped, to be received in payment of gov
ernment dues. I can not conceive that the treasury would
suffer any loss by such a provision, which will at once raise
bullion to its par value, and thereby save, (if I am rightly
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 167
informed,) many millions of dollars to the laborers which are now
paid in brokerage to convert this precious metal into available
funds. This discount upon their hard earnings is a heavy tax,
and every effort should be made by the government to relieve
them from so great a burden.
"More than three-fourths of our population are engaged in
the cultivation of the soil. The commercial, manufacturing,
and navigating interests are all, to a great extent, dependent
on the agricultural. It is, therefore, the most important in
terest of the nation, and has a just claim to the fostering care
and protection of the government, so far as they can be ex
tended consistently with the prov isions of the constitution. As
this can not be done by the ordinary modes of legislation, f.
respectfully recommend the establishment of an Agricultural
Bureau, to be charged with the duty of giving to this leading*
branch of American industry the encouragement which it so
well deserves. In view of the immense mineral resources ef
our country, provision should also be made for the employment
of a competent mineralogist and chemist, who should be re
quired, under the direction of the head of the bureau, to collect
specimens of the various minerals of our country, and to ascer
tain, by careful analysis, their respective elements and proper
ties, and their adaptation to useful purposes. He should also
be required to examine and report upon the qualities of differ
ent soils, and the manures best calculated to improve their
productiveness. By publishing the results of such experiments,
with suitable explanations, and by the collection and distribu
tion of rare seeds and plants, with instructions as to the best
system of cultivation, much may be done to promote this great
national interest.
"In compliance with the act of Congress, passed on the 23d
of May, 1850, providing, among other things, for taking the
seventh census, a superintendent was appointed, and all other
measures adopted which were deemed necessary to ensure the
prompt and faithful performance of that duty. The appro
priation already made will, it is believed, be sufficient to defray
the whole expense of the work ; but furtber legislation may be
necessary in regard to the compensation of some of the marshals
of the territories. It will also be proper to make provision, by
law, at an early day, for the publication of such abstracts of
the returns as the public interests may require.
168 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLHORE.
"The unprecedented growth of our territories on the Pacific
in wealth and population, and the consequent increase of their
social and commercial relations with the Atlantic States, seem
to render it the duty of the government to use all its constitu
tional power to improve the means of intercourse with them.
The importance of opening a line of communication, the best
and most expeditious of which the nature of the country will
admit, between the valley of the Mississippi and the Pacific,
was brought to your notice by my predecessor, in his annual
message; and as the reasons which he presented in favor of
the measure still exist in full force, I beg leave to call your
attention to them, and to repeat the recommendations then
made by him.
"The uncertainty which exists in regard to the validity of
land titles in California is a subject which demands your early
consideration. Large bodies of land in that State are claimed
under grants said to have been made by authority of the
Spanish and Mexican governments. Many of these have not
been perfected, others have been revoked, and some are be
lieved to be fraudulent. But until they shall have been judi
cially investigated, they will continue to retard the settlement
and improvement of the country. I, therefore, respectfully
recommend that provision be made by law, for the appointment
of commissioners to examine all such claims with a view to
their final adjustment.
"I also beg leave to call your attention to the propriety of
extending, at an early day, our system of land laws, with such
modiiieations as may be necessary, over the State of California
and the territories of Utah and New Mexico. The mineral
lands of California will, of course, form an exception to any
general system which may be adopted. Various methods of
disposing of them have been suggested. I was at first inclined
to favor the system of leasing, as it seemed to promise the
largest revenue to the government and to atford the best se
curity against monopolies: but further reflection, and our
experience in leasing the lead mines and selling lands upon
credit, have brought my mind to the conclusion that there
would be great difficulty in collecting the rents, and that the
relation of debtor and creditor, between the citizens and the
government, would be attended with many mischievous con
sequences. I, therefore, recommend that, instead of retaining
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 169
the mineral lands under the permanent control of the govern
ment, they be divided into small parcels and sold, under such
restrictions, as to quantity and time, as will insure the best
price, and guard most effectually against combinations of capi
talists to obtain monopolies.
"The annexation of Texas and the acquisition of California
and New Mexico have given increased importance to our In
dian relations. The various tribes brought under our jurisdic
tion by these enlargements of our boundaries are estimated
to embrace a population of one hundred and twenty-four
thousand.
"Texas and New Mexico are surrounded by powerful tribes
of Indians, who are a source of constant terror and annoyance
to the inhabitants. Separating into small predatory bands, and
always mounted, they overrun the country, devastating farms,
destroying crops, driving off whole herds of cattle, and occa
sionally murdering the inhabitants or carrying them into cap
tivity. The great roads leading into the country are infested
with them, whereby traveling is rendered extremely dangerous,
and immigration is almost entirely arrested. The Mexican
frontier, which, by the eleventh article of the treaty of Guad-
alupe Hidalgo, we are bound to protect against the Indians
within our border, is exposed to these incursions equally with
our own. The military force stationed in that country (al
though forming a large proportion of the army) is represented
as entirely inadequate to our own protection and the fulfillment
of our treaty stipulations with Mexico. The principal deficien
cy is in cavalry ; and I recommend that Congress should, at as
early a period as practicable, provide for the raising of one or
more regiments of mounted men.
"For further suggestions on this subject, and others con
nected with our domestic interests, and the defense of our
frontier, I refer you to the reports of the Secretary of the
Interior and of the Secretary of War.
"I commend also to your favorable consideration the sug
gestion contained in the last mentioned report, and in the letter
of the general-in-chief, relative to the establishment of an asy
lum for the relief of disabled and destitute soldiers. This
subject appeals so strongly to your sympathies that it would
be superfluous in me to say anything more than barely to
express my cordial approbation of the proposed object.
8
170 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
"The navy continues to give protection to our commerce
and other national interests in the different quarters of the
globe, and, with the exception of a single steamer on the north
ern lakes, the vessels in commission are distributed in six dif
ferent squadrons.
"The report of the head of that department will exhibit the
services of these squadrons, and of the several vessels em
ployed in each during the past year. It is a source of gratiti-
cation that, while they have been constantly prepared for any
hostile emergency, they have everywhere met with the respect
and courtesy, due as well to the dignity as to the peaceful
dispositions and just purposes of the nation.
"The two brigantines accepted by the government from a
generous citizen of New York, and placed under the command
of an officer of the navy, to proceed to the Arctic seas in quest
of the British commander, Sir John Franklin, and his compan
ions, in compliance with the act of Congress, approved in May
last, had, when last heard from, penetrated into a high north
ern latitude ; but the success of this noble and humane enter
prise is yet uncertain.
"I invite your attention to the view of our present naval
establishment and resources presented in the report of the
Secretary of the Navy, and the suggestions therein made for
its improvement, together with the naval policy recommended
for the security of our Pacific coast, and the protection and
extension of our commerce with Eastern Asia. Our facilities
for a larger participation in the trade of the East, by means of
our recent settlements on the shores of the Pacific, are too
obvious to be overlooked or disregarded.
"The questions in relation to rank in the army and navy,
and relative rank between officers of the two branches of the
service, presented to the Executive by certain resolutions of
the House of Representatives, at the last session of Congress,
have been submitted to a board of officers in each branch of
the service, and their report mav be expected at an early day.
"I also earnestly recommend the enactment of a law autho
rizing officers of the army and navy to be retired from the
service, when incompetent for its vigorous and active duties,
taking care to make suitable provision for those who have faith
fully served their country, and awarding distinctions, by retain
ing in appropriate commands those who have been particularly
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 171
conspicuous for gallantry and good conduct. While the obli
gation of the country to maintain and honor those who, to the
exclusion of other pursuits, have devoted themselves to its
arduous service, this obligation should not be permitted to
interfere with the efficiency of the service itself.
"I am gratified in being able to state, that the estimates of
expenditure for the navy in the ensuing year are less, by more
than one million of dollars, than those of the present, except
ing the appropriation which may become necessary for the
construction of a dock on the coast of the Pacific, propositions
for which are now being considered, and on which a special
report may be expected early in your present session.
"There is an evident justness in the suggestion of the same
report, that appropriations for the naval service proper should
be separated from those for fixed and permanent objects, such
as building docks and navy-yards, and the fixtures attached,
and from the extraordinary objects under the care of the de
partment, which, however important, are not essentially naval.
"A revision of the code for the government of the navy
seems to require the immediate consideration of Congress. Its
system of crimes and punishments had undergone no change
for half a century, until the last session, though its defects
have been often and ably pointed out, and the abolition of a
particular species of corporal punishment, which then took
place, without providing any substitute, has left the service in
a state of defectiveness which calls for prompt correction. [
therefore recommend that the whole subject be revised with
out delay, and such a system established for the enforcement
of discipline, as shall be at once humane and effectual.
"The accompanying report of the postmaster-general pre
sents a satisfactory view of the operations and condition of that
department.
"At the close of the last fiscal year, the length of the inland
mail routes in the United States (not embracing the service in
Oregon and California) was one hundred and seventy-eight
thousand six hundred and seventy-two miles; the annual trans
portation thereon forty-six million five hundred and forty-one
thousand four hundred and twenty-three miles ; and the
annual cost of such transportation two millions seven hun
dred and twenty-four thousand four hundred and twenty-six
dollars.
172 BIOGKAPIIY OF MILLABD FILLMORE.
"The increase of the annual transportation over that of the
preceding year, was three millions nine hundred and ninety-
seven thousand three hundred and fifty-four miles, and the
increase in cost was three hundred and forty-two thousand
four hundred and forty dollars.
The number of post-offices in the United States, on the
first day of July last, was eighteen thousand four hundred and
seventeen being an increase of sixteen hundred and seventy
during the preceding year.
"The gross revenues of the department for the fiscal year
ending June 30th, 1850, amounted to five millions five hun
dred and fifty-two thousand nine hundred and seventy-one
dollars and forty-eight cents, including the annual appropria
tion of two hundred thousand dollars for the franked matter
of the departments, and excluding the foreign postages collected
for and payable to the British government.
"The expenditures for the same period were five millions
two hundred and twelve thousand nine hundred and fifty-three
dollars and forty-three cents leaving a balance of revenue
over expenditures of three hundred and forty thousand and
eighteen dollars and five cents.
" I am happy to find that the fiscal condition of the depart
ment is such as to justify the postmaster-general in recommend
ing the reduction of our inland letter postage to three cents
the single letter when prepaid, and five cents when not prepaid.
He also recommends that the prepaid rate shall be reduced to
two cents whenever the revenues of the department, after the
reduction, shall exceed its expenditures by more than five per
cent, for two consecutive years; that the postage upon Califor
nia and other letters sent by our ocean steamers shall be much
reduced ; and that the rates of postage on newspapers, pamph
lets, periodicals, and other printed matter, shall be modified,
and some reduction thereon made.
"It can not be doubted that the proposed reductions will, for
the present, diminish the revenues of the department. It is
believed that the deficiency, after the surplus already accumu
lated shall be exhausted, may be almost wholly met, either by
abolishing the existing privileges of sending free matter through
the mails, or by paying out of the treasury to the post-office
department a sum equivalent to the postage of which it is de
prived by such privileges. The last is supposed to be the
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 173
preferable mode, and will, if not entirely, so nearly supply that
deficiency as to make any further appropriation that may be
found necessary so inconsiderable as to form no obstacle to the
proposed reductions.
"I entertain no doubt of the authority of Congress to make
appropriations for leading objects in that class of public works
comprising what are usually called works of internal improve
ment. This authority I suppose to*be derived chiefly from the
power of regulating commerce with foreign nations, and among
the States, and the power of levying and collecting imposts.
Where commerce is to be carried on, and imposts collected,
there must be ports and harbors, as well as wharves and cus
tom-houses. If ships, laden with valuable cargoes, approach
the shore, or sail along the coast, light-houses are necessary at
suitable points for the protection of life and property. Other
facilities and securities for commerce and navigation are hardly
less important; and those clauses of the constitution, therefore,
to which I have referred, have received from the origin of the
government a liberal and beneficial construction. Not only
have light-houses, buoys, and beacons been established, and
floating lights maintained, but harbors have been cleared and
improved, piers constructed, and even breakwaters for the
safety of shipping, and sea walls to protect harbors from being
filled up, and rendered useless, by the action of the ocean, have
been erected at very great expense. And this construction
of the constitution appears the more reasonable from the con
sideration, that if these works, of such evident importance and
utility, are not to be accomplished by Congress, they can not
be accomplished at all. By the adoption of the constitution
the several States voluntarily parted with the power of collect
ing duties of impost in their own ports, and it is not to be ex
pected that they should raise money, by internal taxation,
direct or indirect, for the benefit of that commerce, the reve
nues derived from which do not, either in whole or in part, go
into their own treasuries. Nor do I perceive any difference
between the power of Congress to make appropriations for
objects of this kind on the ocean and the power to make ap
propriations for similar objects on lakes and rivers, wherever
they are large enough to bear on their waters an extensive
traffic. The magnificent Mississippi and its tributaries, and
the vast lakes of the north and the northwest, appear to me to
174 BIOGKAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMOKE.
fall within the exercise of the power, as justly and as clearly
as the ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It is a mistake to re
gard expenditures judiciously made for these objects as expen
ditures for local purposes. The position, or site of the work, is
necessarily local ; but its utility is general. A ship canal around
the falls of St. Mary of less than a mile in length, though local
in its construction, would yet be national in its purpose and its
beneiits, as it would remove the only obstruction to a naviga
tion of more than a thousand miles, affecting several States, as
well as our commercial relations with Canada. So, too, the
breakwater at the mouth of the Delaware is erected, not for
the exclusive benefit of the States bordering on the bay and
river of that name, but for that of the whole coastwise naviga
tion of the United States, and, to a considerable extent also, of
foreign commerce. If a ship be lost on the bar at the entrance
of a southern port for want of sufficient depth of water, it is
very likely to be a northern ship ; and if a steamboat be sunk
in any part of the Mississippi, on account of its channel not
having been properly cleared of obstructions, it may be a boat
belonging to either of eight or ten States. I may add, as some
what remarkable, that among ail the thirty-one States, there is
none that is not, to a greater or less extent, bounded on the
ocean, or the Gulf of Mexico, or one of the great lakes, or some
navigable river.
"in fulfilling our constitutional duties, fellow-citizens, on this
subject, as in carrying into effect all other powers conferred by
the constitution, we should consider ourselves as deliberating
and acting for one and the same country, and bear constantly
in mind, that our regard and our duty are due, not to a par
ticular part only, but to the whole.
"1 therefore recommend that appropriations be made for
completing such works as have been already begun, and for
commencing such others as may seem to the wisdom of Con-
^gress to be of public and general importance.
"The difficulties and delays, incident to the settlement of
private claims by Congress, amount in many cases to a denial
of justice. There is reason to apprehend that many unfortu
nate creditors of the government have thereby been unavoid
ably ruined. Congress has so much business of a public
character, that it is impossible it should give much attention
to mere private claims, and their accumulation is now so great
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 175
that many claimants must despair of ever being able to obtain
*a hearing. It may well be doubted whether Congress, from
the nature of its organization, is properly constituted to decide
upon such cases. It is impossible that each member should
examine the merits of every claim on which he is compelled to
vote; and it is preposterous to ask a judge to decide a case
which he has never heard. Such decisions may, and frequent
ly must, do injustice either to the claimant or the government;
and I perceive no better remedy for this growing evil than the
establishment of some tribunal to adjudicate upon such claims.
I beg leave, therefore, most respectfully to recommend that
provision be made by law for the appointment of a commission,
to settle all private claims against the United States; and, as
an ex parte hearing must in all contested cases be very unsat
isfactory, I also recommend the appointment of a solicitor,
whose duty it shall be to represent the government before
such commission, and protect it against all illegal, fraudulent
or unjust claims, which may be presented for their adjudication.
"This district, which has neither voice nor vote in your de
liberations, looks to you for protection and aid, and I commend
all its wants to your favorable consideration, with a full confi
dence that you will meet them not only with justice, but with
liberality. It should be borne in mind that in this city, laid
out by Washington, and consecrated by his name, is located
the capitol of our nation, the emblem of our Union and the
symbol of our greatness. Here also are situated all the public
buildings necessary for the use of the government, and all
these are exempt from taxation. It should bo the pride of
Americans to render this place attractive to the people of the
whole Republic, and convenient and safe for the transaction
of the public business and the preservation of the public
records. The government should, therefore, bear a liberal
proportion of the burdens of all necessary and useful improve
ments ; and as nothing could contribute more to the health,
comfort, and safety of the city, and the security of the public
buildings and records, than an abundant supply of pure water,
I respectfully recommend that you make such provisions for
obtaining the same as in your wisdom you may deem proper.
"The act passed at your last session, making certain propo
sitions to Texas for settling the disputed boundary between that
State and the territory of New Mexico, was, immediately on its
176 BIOGRAPHY ,OF MILLAED FII.LMOKE.
passage, transmitted by express to the Governor of Texas, to
be laid by him before the General Assembly for its agreement
thereto. Its receipt was duly acknowledged, but no official
information has yet been received of the action of the General
Assembly thereon; it may, however, be very soon expected,
as, by the terms of the propositions submitted, they were to
have been acted upon, on or before the first day of the present
month.
" It was hardly to have been expected that the series of
measures passed at your last session, with the view of healing
the sectional differences which had sprung from the slavery
and territorial questions, should a-t once have realized their
beneficent purposes. All mutual concession in the nature of a
compromise must necessarily be unwelcome to men of extreme
opinions. And though without such concessions our constitu
tion could not have been formed, and can not be permanently
sustained, yet we have seen them made the subject of bitter
controversy in both sections of the Ivepublic. It required
many months of discussion and deliberation to secure the con
currence of a majority of Congress in their favor. It would be
strange if they had been received with immediate approbation
by people and States, prejudiced and heated by the exciting
controversies of their representatives. I believe those meas
ures to have been required by the circumstances and condition
of the country. I believe they were necessary to allay asper
ities and animosities that were rapidly alienating one section
of the country from another, and destroying those fraternal
sentiments which are the strongest supports of the constitu
tion. They were adopted in the spirit of conciliation, and for
the purpose of conciliation. I believe that a great majority of
our fellow-citizens sympathize in that spirit, and that purpose,
and in the main approve, and are prepared, in all respects, to
sustain these enactments. I can not doubt that the American
people, bound together by kindred blood and common tradi
tions, still cherish a paramount regard for the Union of their
fathers, and that they are ready to rebuke any attempt to vio
late its integrity, to disturb the compromises on which it is
based, or to resist the laws which have been enacted under its
authority.
"The series of measures to which I have alluded are re
garded by me as a settlement, in principle and substance a
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 177
final settlement of the dangerous and exciting subjects which
they embraced. Most of these subjects, indeed, are beyond
your reach, as the legislation which disposed of them was, in
its character, final and irrevocable. It may be presumed from
the opposition which they all encountered that none of those
measures were free from imperfections, but in their mutual de
pendence and connection they formed a system of compromise,
the most conciliatory, and best for the entire country, that could
be obtained from conflicting sectional interests and opinions.
"For this reason I recommend your adherence to the ad
justment established by those measures, until time and expe
rience shall demonstrate the necessity of further legislation- to
guard against evasion or abuse.
"By that adjustment we have been rescued from the wide
and boundless agitation that surrounded us, and have a firm,
distinct, and legal ground to rest upon. And the occasion, I
trust, will justify me in exhorting my countrymen to rally upon
and maintain that ground as the best, if not the only means
of restoring peace and quiet to the country, and maintaining
inviolate the integrity of the Union.
"And now, fellow-citizens, I can not bring this communica
tion 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 pesti
lence, 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.
"MlLLARD FlLLMORE.
"WASHINGTON, December 2d, 1850."
As there was a large political majority against the President
in both Houses of Congress, none of his excellent recommend 8
S*
178 , BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
ations requiring legislation were adopted, except those for an
asylum for disabled and destitute seamen, and for the settle
ment of land claims in California, and the -survey -of the public
lands. A bill making appropriations for the improvement of
rivers and harbors passed the House, but was defeated in the
Senate, by Senators "talking against time" on the last day
of the session, and preventing a vote until the constitutional
term of Congress had expired.
CUBA AND THE FILIBUSTERS. 179
CHAPTER XI.
CUBA AND THE FILLIBUS T E RS.
The able and patriotic message which we have copied in the
preceding chapter, furnishes abundant proof of the wisdom of
Mr. Fillmore s views on questions of domestic policy. He
labored during the whole period of his administration under
the disadvantage of an adverse political majority in Congress;
but the fact that all his recommendations were not immediate
ly adopted, did not impair his confidence in their propriety, and
he repeated such as remained unacted on, in subsequent annual
messages.
Important as it is that the chief magistrate of the nation
should entertain sound and enlightened opinions on domestic
questions, it can hardly be disputed that his foreign policy is
fraught with still weightier consequences. In a country like
ours, whose commerce is second to that of none on the globe,
whose sails whiten every sea, and whose flag is seen in every
port, the most important of all our interests is the preservation
of peace and friendly relations with the other powers of the
world. Our foreign relations are more especially committed
to the management of the national executive, than any other
branch of the diversified interests which require the protection
of the government. The influence of the President on the
domestic policy of the country is comparatively limited. So
far as he is an executive officer, he has no choice but to enforce
the laws as they actually exist, whatever may be his opinion
of their wisdom. In the enaction of laws, he has merely the
180 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMOKE.
power of making recommendations which Congress adopts or
rejects at its pleasure. The veto power gives him a check on
hasty or unconstitutional legislation ; but the occasions are rare
on which the President would judge it necessary to thwart the
will of Congress, and even then, things are merely left as they
were. But while he is thus powerless to impress any change
on the domestic policy of the country, all changes in its foreign
policy are entirely in his hands. The Senate may revise his
action and refuse to ratify treaties negotiated by his authority,
but they have no power to initiate anything, nor any other
choice than either to sanction the foreign policy of the execu
tive or leave matters in their former condition. The President
negotiates treaties which, when ratified, become the supreme
law of the land; he receives and dismisses foreign ambassa
dors; he recognizes or refuses to recognize governments that
have been newly established; he orders our naval forces to
whatever part of the world, and charges them with whatever
duties he pleases; and by the exercise of these powers he can
promote or imperil the prosperity of the country to an extent
which is impossible by his participation in measures of domes
tic legislation. When the people are deliberating on the choice
of a chief magistrate, they should never overlook the important
fact, that while the domestic policy of the country is more
especially under the control of Congress, its foreign policy is
in the hands of the President, and demands that he should be
a wise, firm, experienced, and patriotic statesman. The party
which have nominated Mr. Fillmore appeal with confidence to
the history of his administration for sure guaranties that the
honor and interests of the country would be safe in his hands,
so far as they can be affected by the management of our for
eign relations.
Soon after the close of the session of Congress to which Mr.
Fillmore s first message was addressed, the public prints were
filled with rumors of a new expedition against Cuba, which
CUBA AND THE FILIBUSTERS. 181
was to sail from some of our southern ports. Armed expedi
tions against a foreign country with which we are at peace, are
in direct violation of our laws, and the President thought it his
duty to issue the following proclamation :
"Whereas, there is reason to believe that a military expedi
tion is about to be fitted out in the United States with in
tention to invade the island of Cuba, a colony of Spain, with
which this country is at peace; and whereas it is believed thai
this expedition is instigated and set on foot chiefly by foreign
ers, who dare to make our shores the scene of their guilty and
hostile preparations against a friendly power, and seek, by
falsehood and misrepresentation, to seduce our own citizens,
especially the young and inconsiderate, into their wicked
schemes an ungrateful return for the benefits conferred
upon them by this people in permitting them to make our
country an asylum from oppression, and in flagrant abuse of
the hospitality thus extended to them.
"And whereas, such expeditions can only be regarded as
adventures for plunder and robbery, and must meet the con
demnation of the civilized world, whilst they are derogatory to
the character of our country, in violation of the laws of nations,
and expressly prohibited by our own. Our statutes declare,
that, it any person shall, within the territory or jurisdiction
of the United States, begin or set on foot, or provide or pre
pare the means for any military expedition or enterprise, to be
carried on from thence against the territory or dominions of
any foreign Prince or State, or of any colony, district, or people,
with whom the United States are at peace, every person so
offending shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and
shall be fined not exceeding three thousand dollars, and im
prisoned not more than three years.
"Now, therefore, I have issued this, my proclamation, warn
ing all persons who shall connect themselves with any such
enterprise or expedition, in violation of our laws and national
obligations, that they will thereby subject themselves to the
heavy penalties denounced against such offenders, and will for
feit their claim to the protection of this government, or any
interference on their behalf, no matter to what extremities they
may be reduced in consequence of their illegal conduct. And,
182 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
therefore, I exhort all good citizens, as they regard our national
reputation, as they respect their own laws and the laws of na
tions, as they value the blessings of peace and the welfare of
their country, to discountenance, and by all lawful means pre
vent, any such enterprise ; and I call upon every officer of this
government, civil or military, to use all efforts in his power to
arrest for trial and punishment every such offender against the
laws of the country.
" Given under my hand the twenty-fifth day of April, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, and
the seventy-fifth of the independence of the United States.
" MILLARD FILLMORE.
"By the President:
"W. S. DERRICK, Acting Secretary of State."
If this proclamation warning them of the consequences of
their rash and unlawful enterprise, rendered the fillibusters
more guarded and cautious, it did not lead them to relinquish
their designs. As several months elapsed before their prepar
ations were matured, we will relate some intervening occur
rences, before completing the history of Mr. Fillmore s policy
in relation to Cuba.
The New York and Erie Railroad, the most costly work of
the kind in the United States, had just been finished, and the
President and his cabinet had been invited to assist, in cele
brating its completion. The interest which Mr. Fillmore had
always felt in works of internal improvement led him to accept
the invitation, and on the morning of the 12th of May, 1851,
he left Washington accompanied by Mr. Webster, Mr. Critten-
den, Mr. Graham, and Mr. Hall. Several months had elapsed
since the passage of the compromise measures, and notwith
standing the clamorous opposition of anti-slavery fanatics to the
execution of the fugitive slave law, the public mind was settling
into acquiescence. But it was not anticipated that the people
of the northern States were so soon ready to testify, by the
most impressive demonstrations, their warm approbation of that
TOUR TO THE NORTH. 183
settlement regarded as a whole, and their lively admiration of
the patriotism which had been willing to incur reproach in the
cause of the Union. All the way from Washington to Lake
Erie the presidential tour was a triumphal progress. Nothing
was ever more spontaneous, cordial and enthusiastic than the
greetings with which the President and his party were wel
comed. At Baltimore, at Philadelphia, at New York, at Buf
falo, at Rochester, at all the intermediate towns, at every
railroad station, multitudes thronged to see the President and
pay him their respects. Processions were formed, flags with
complimentary devices and mottoes were displayed, banquets
were spread, speeches were made, and all the cities through
which he passed vied with each other in the warmth, the
heartiness, and the extent of their demonstrations. Never
since the presidential tour of Mr. Monroe, in 1817, had a Pres
ident been received through the country with such hospitable
and enthusiastic cordiality.- Party spirit seemed to have been
forgotten, and every man was anxious to testify his admiration
of the eminent services of an honest and faithful public servant.
From this succession of splendid ovations, Mr. Fillmore returned
to Washington, on the 24th of May, after an absence of twelve
days. It must have been gratifying to him, after the obloquy
he had braved in the discharge of his duty, to find that the
praise of patriotic intentions and statesmanlike conduct was
freely awarded him in that section of the country where it was
supposed his course would have proved least acceptable.
Everywhere during his tour, the voice of factious opposition
had been hushed, and there had been no discord to mar the
general harmony.
A few weeks after his return to Washington, the cares of
office were relieved by an interesting event, in which he par
ticipated. Congress, during the preceding session, had made
an appropriation for the extension of the Capitol according to
such plan as might be offered by the President. By the plan
184: BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
which he adopted two wings were to be added to the previous
edifice, connected with it by corridors. Excavations for. the
foundation were immediately commenced, and agreeably to the
wishes of the President, the work was in sufficient forwardness
to allow the corner stone to be laid on the fourth of July.
This was done by the President s own hand, with imposing
ceremonies, and amid a great concourse of people, who were
eloquently addressed by Mr. Webster, the Secretary of State.
The President was assisted in laying the corner stone by the
Grand Master of the Masonic Grand Lodge, who wore the
same regalia and used the identical gavel which Washington
had used fifty-eight years before in laying the corner stone
of the original edifice.
During an interval of apparent quiet since the publication
of the President s proclamation, the filibusters had not been
idle. The memorable and disastrous expedition of Lopez was
fitted out, and sailed from the port of New Orleans by the
connivance of the collector. The history of that unfortunate
affair was so clearly and succinctly given in the President s
next annual message to Congress, that we transcribe that por
tion of the message which relates to it :
"Very early in the morning of the third of August, a
steamer called the Pampero departed from New Orleans for
Cuba, having on board upwards of four hundred armed men,
with evident intentions to make war upon the authorities of
the island. This expedition was set on foot in palpable viola
tion of the laws of the United States. Its leader was a Span
iard, and several of the chief officers, and some others engaged
in it, were foreigners. The persons composing it, however, were
mostly citizens of the United States.
"Before the expedition set out, and probably before it was
organized, a slight insurrectionary movement, which appears to
have been soon suppressed, had taken place in the eastern
quarter of Cuba. The importance of this movement was un
fortunately so much exaggerated in the accounts of it published
in this country, that these adventurers seem to have been led
HIE LOPEZ EXPEDITION. 185
to believe that the Creole population of the island not only de
sired to throw off the authority of the mother country, but had
resolved upon that step, and had begun a well-concerted enter
prise for effecting it. The persons engaged in the expedition
were generally young and ill-informed. The steamer in which
they embarked left New Orleans stealthily and without a
clearance. After touching at Key West, she proceeded to the
coast of Cuba, and, on the night between the llth and 12th
of August, landed the persons on board at Playtas, within
about twenty leagues of Havana.
" The main body of them proceeded to, and took possession
of, an inland village, six leagues distant, leaving others to fol
low in charge of the baggage, as soon as the means of trans
portation could be obtained. The latter, having taken up their
line of march to connect themselves with the main body, and
having proceeded about four leagues into the country, were
attacked on the morning of the 13th by a body of Spanish
troops, and a bloody con6ict ensued; after which they re
treated to the place of disembarkation, where about fifty of
them obtained boats and reembarked therein. They were,
however, intercepted among the keys near the shore by a
Spanish steamer cruising on the coast, captured, and carried to
Havana, and, after being examined before a military court,
were sentenced to be publicly executed, and the sentence was
carried into effect on the 16th of August.
"On receiving information of what had occurred, Commodore
Foxliall A. Parker was instructed to proceed in the steam-
frigate Saranac to Havana, and inquire into the charges against
the persons executed, the circumstances under which they
were taken, and whatsoever referred to their trial and sentence.
Copies of the instructions from the Department of State to
him, and of his letters to that department, are herewith sub
mitted.
"According to the record of the examination, the prisoners all
admitted the offenses charged against them, of being hostile
invaders of the island. At the time of their trial and execu
tion, the main body of the invaders was still in the field, mak
ing war upon the Spanish authorities and Spanish subjects.
After the lapse of some days, being overcome by the Spanish
troops, they dispersed on the 24th of August. Lopez, their
leader, was captured some days after, and executed on the 1st
186 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
of September. Many of his remaining followers were killed,
or died of hunger and fatigue, and the rest were made pris
oners. Of these none appear to have been tried or executed.
Several of them were pardoned upon application of their
friends and others, and the rest, about one hundred and sixty
in number, were sent to Spain. Of the final disposition made
of these we have no official information.
" Such is the melancholy result of this illegal and ill-fated
expedition. Thus, thoughtless young men have been induced,
by false and fraudulent representations, to violate the law of
their country, through rasli and unfounded expectations of
assisting to accomplish political revolutions in other States, and
have lost their lives in the undertaking. Too severe a judg
ment can hardly be passed, by the indignant sense of the com
munity, upon those who, being better informed themselves,
have yet led away the ardor of youth, and an ill-directed
love of political liberty. The correspondence between tnis
government and that of Spain relating to this transaction is
herewith communicated.
"Although these offenders against the laws have forfeited the
protection of their country, yet the government may, so far as
is consistent with its obligations to other countries, and its fixed
purpose to maintain and enforce the laws, entertain sym-
pathv for their unoffending families and friends, as well as a
feeling of compassion for themselves. Accordingly no proper
effort has been spared, and none will be spared, to procure
the release of such citizens of the United States, engaged in
this unlawful enterprise, as are now in confinement in Spain ;
but it is to be hoped that such interposition with the govern
ment of that country may not be considered as affording any
ground of expectation that the government of the United
States will, hereafter, feel itself under any obligation of duty
to intercede for the liberation or pardon of such persons as
are flagrant offenders against the law of nations -and the laws
of the United States. These laws must be executed. If we
desire to maintain our respectability among the nations of the
earth, it behooves us to enforce steadily the neutrality acts
passed by Congress, and to follow, as far as may be, the vio
lation of those acts with condign punishment.
" But what gives a peculiar criminality to this invasion of
Cuba is, that under the lead of Spanish subjects, and with the
THE LOPEZ EXPEDITION. 187
aid of citizens of the United States, it had its origin, with
many, in motives of cupidity. Money was advanced by indi
viduals, probably in Considerable amounts, to purchase Cuban
bonds, as they have been called, issued by Lopez, sold, doubt
less, at a very large discount, and for the payment of which
the public lands and public property of Cuba, of whatever
kind, and the fiscal resources of the people and government
of that island, from whatever source to be derived, were
pledged, as well as the good faith of the government expected
to be established. All these means of payment, it is evident,
were only to be obtained by a process of bloodshed, war, and
revolution. None will deny that those who set on foot military
expeditions against foreign states by means like these, are far
more culpable than the ignorant and the necessitous whom
they induce to go forth as the ostensible parties in the proceed
ing. These originators of the invasion of Cuba seem to have
determined, with coolness and system, upon an undertaking
which should disgrace their country, violate its laws, and put
to hazard the lives of ill-informed and deluded men. You will
consider whether further legislation be necessary to prevent
the perpetration of such offenses in future.
" No individuals have a right to hazard the peace of the
country, or to violate its laws, upon vague notions of altering
or reforming governments in other states. This principle is
not only reasonable in itself, and in accordance with public
law, but is engrafted into the codes of other nations as -well
as our own. But while such are the sentiments of this govern
ment, it may be added that every independent nation must
be presumed to be able to defend its possessions against unau
thorized individuals banded together to attack them. The
government of the United States, at all times since its estab
lishment, has abstained, and has sought to restrain the citizens
of the country from entering into controversies between other
powers, and to observe all the duties of neutrality. At an
early period of the government, in the administration of Wash
ington, several laws were passed for this purpose. The main
provisions of these laws were reenacted by the act of April,
1818, by which, amongst other things, it was declared that,
if any person shall, within the territory or jurisdiction of the
United States, begin, or set on foot, or provide or prepare the
means for any military expedition or enterprise, to be carried
188 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOBE.
on from thence against the territory or dominion of any foreign
prince or state, or of any colony, district or people, with whom
the United States are at peace, every person so offending
shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and shall be
fined, not exceeding three thousand dollars, and imprisoned
not more than three years; and this law has been executed
and enforced, to the full extent of the power of the govern
ment, from that day to this.
" In proclaiming and adhering to the doctrine of neutrality
and non-intervention, the United States have not followed the
lead of other civilized nations ; they have taken the lead them
selves, and have been followed by others. This was admitted
by one of the most eminent of modern British statesmen,
who said in Parliament, while a minister of the crown, that,
* if he wished for a system of neutrality, he should take that
laid down by America in the days of Washington and the
secretaryship of Jefferson ; and we see, in fact, that the act
of Congress of 1818 was followed, the succeeding year, by
an act of the Parliament of England, substantially the same
in its general provisions. Up to that time there had been no
similar law in England, except certain highly penal statutes
passed in the reign of George II, prohibiting English subjects
from enlisting in foreign service, the avowed object of which
statutes was, that foreign armies, raised for the purpose of
restoring the house of Stuart to the throne, should not be
strengthened by recruits from England herself.
"All must see that difficulties may arise in carrying the
laws referred to into execution in a country now having three
or four thousand miles of sea-coast, with an infinite number
of ports and harbors, and small inlets, from some of which
unlawful expeditions may suddenly set forth, without the
knowledge of government, against the possessions of foreign
states.
" Friendly relations with all, but entangling alliances with
none, has long been a maxim with us. Our true mission is
not to propagate our opinions, or impose upon other countries
our form of government, by artifice or force : but to teach by
example, and show by our success, moderation and justice,
the blessings of self-government, and the advantages of free
institutions. Let every people choose for itself, and make and
alter its political institutions to suit its own condition and con-
THE LOPEZ EXPEDITION. 189
venience. But, while we avow and maintain this neutral policy
ourselves, we are anxious to see the same forbearance on the
part of other nations, whose forms of government are different
from our own. The deep interest which we feel in the spread
of liberal principles and the establishment of free governments,
and the sympathy with which we witness every struggle
against oppression, forbid that we should be indifferent to a
case in which the strong arm of a foreign power is invoked to
stifle public sentiment and repress the spirit of freedom in any
country."
That portion of the misguided followers of Lopez who were
sent to Spain were finally pardoned, and Congress provided
for their expenses home. The collector of New Orleans was
removed from office for neglect of duty, and the Pampero was
seized by order of government, near Jackson, Florida, and
tried, condemned, and sold, for a violation of our neutrality laws.
President Fillmore s course in relation to Cuba was very
generally approved by the country. The fundamental prin
ciple of his policy was, that the people of one nation are no
proper judges of the political necessities of another, particularly
when they differ in language, religion, habits of thought, tra
ditions, prejudices, and training. By a powerful and instinctive
impulse, every people indignantly repel foreign interference in
their government; and this spontaneous dictate of patriotism
is reinforced by the conclusions of the calmest and most
enlightened reason. None except tfiose who live among a
people, and share their feelings and prejudices, are proper
iudf-es of the kind of p overnment that is suited to their
JO O
wants. It is therefore as absurd in itself as it is contrary to
the law of nations, for one people to attempt to revolutionize
the government of another. This principle, which lay at the
foundation of Mr. Fillmore s foreign policy, is also the cardinal
principle of the American party. It matters little whether a
foreign people, who have no appreciation of our political wants,
attempt to subvert our institutions by the force of arms or the
190 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
agency of the ballot box. In either case they are meddling
with matters they do not understand, and exercise a kind of
interference which a patriotic spirit can not brook.
Although it will involve a departure from strict chrono
logical order, we will complete the history of Mr. Fillmore s
policy respecting Cuba before concluding this chapter.
The unfortunate termination of the Lopez expedition did not
quell the fillibustering spirit in the United States, nor quiet the
suspicions of the* authorities of Cuba. In the autumn of 1852,
the steamer Crescent City, which plied regularly between
New York and New Orleans, touching at Havana, and carry
ing the United States mail, had a purser by the name of
Smith, who was suspected of being an agent of mischief be
tween the revolutionists in the island and their abettors in New
York. He was charged by the Cuban authorities with bear
ing messages back and forth, and communicating inflammatory
articles to the New York newspapers for the purpose of fo
menting the discontent which threatened the loss of the island
by Spain. This individual having thus become obnoxious, the
Captain-general of Cuba objected to his landing. This he had
an undoubted right to do; for no principle is better established
than that the government of every nation has a right to exclude
from its territories all persons whom it may consider dangerous
to its peace. The owner of the Crescent City, however, de
clined to remove purser Smith from his steamer insisted
that it should land at Havana with him on board, and threat
ened to seek redress by force if the vessel should not be per
mitted to land. This would amount to a declaration of war by
a private individual. Although the President did not approve
the conduct of the Captain-general of Cuba, and made it the
subject of diplomatic representations to the Court of Spain, he
did not recognize the right of a private citizen to take the
redress of his supposed grievances into his own hands, and he
addressed a letter to the collector of New York, stating that
CAPTAIN-GENERAL OF CUBA. 191
if the owner of the Crescent City should repeat his attempts
to enter the port of Havana, and by violating the laws of a
foreign nation within its own jurisdiction, should forfeit his
vessel, he could expect no indemnity for such an act of folly
from the United States government. As we regulate the con
ditions on which all foreign vessels may enter our ports, and
fix the penalties for the violation of our laws, and never allow
the right to do so to be questioned by foreigners, so we are
not permitted to question their right to make and enforce their
own regulations. The President, therefore, decided that the
owner of the Crescent City must wait the result of the nego
tiations between the two governments. It was not a question
to be settled between him and Cuba, nor even between the
United States and Cuba, but between the United States and
Spain, which is responsible for the conduct of the governor of
Cuba. The course of the President on this occasion was
warmly approved by the public press.
The forays against Cuba by armed fillibusters from this
country, attracted the attention of European governments, and
the supposed danger that the island would be wrested from
Spain and fall into the possession of the United States, alarmed
that jealousy of our growth which is habitual with those gov
ernments. In the early part of the year 1852, a proposal was
made to the Secretary of State, by the French and English
ministers, to enter into a tripartite treaty by which the three
powers should bind themselves for all coming time neither to
make any attempt to acquire Cuba for themselves, nor to
countenance any such attempts by others. Although this pro
posal evinced a disposition on the part of foreign governments
to impertinent interference in our affairs, the communication
of the French minister was treated respectfully. Mr. Webster
addressed him a note stating that the President would take
the proposal of the French and English governments into con
sideration and make the questions it involved the subject of
192 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMOKE.
mature reflection. Although the President had, with the most
unflinching determination, exerted his official authority for re
pressing the attempts of the filibusters, which were made the
occasion of this proposal, and was opposed, for reasons of do
mestic policy, to the immediate acquisition of Cuba, even if it
could be gained by purchase and without an interruption of
friendly relations with Spain, he was nevertheless decidedly
opposed to entering into any such arrangement as that pro
posed by France and England. He adhered to the wise policy
of Washington and Jefferson, which was opposed to entangling
alliances with foreign powers. He was not willing to place the
government of this country in such a condition that it would
be responsible to others for the proper discharge of its duty.
So far as related to the acquisition of Cuba by other powers,
he knew that this country had both the will and the ability to
prevent it, without foreign assistance. As to its acquisition by
ourselves, although we did not want it at present, he regarded
it as a geographical and political necessity that it would, at
some future time, fall into our hands; and he would not allow
a treaty with foreign nations to fetter the march of our destiny.
The final reply of our government to this proposal for a tri
partite treaty was not made until after the death of Mr. Web
ster. In the fall of 1852, Mr. Everett had accepted the office
of Secretary of State, and on the first of December, in that
year, he addressed to the Count de Sartiges, by the direction
of the President, a letter which ranks among the ablest state
papers ever issued by the American government.
Mr. Everett stated that the most serious attention had been
given to this proposal by the President, who at the same time
that he did not covet the acquisition of Cuba for the United
States, considered the condition of the island as an American
and not a European question, and objected to the proposed
treaty because it assumed that the United States have no
other or greater interest in it than France and England. If
NO TRIPARTITE TREATY. 193
the treaty should be assented to by the President, its certain
rejection by the Senate would leave the question of Cuba more
unsettled than when the arrangement was proposed. This,
however, would not require the President to withhold his con
currence, if no other objections existed. But the convention
would be of no value unless it were lasting; and the President
did not consider it within the competence of the treaty-making
power to bind the government for all time to come not to make
a purchase of Cuba. He was likewise unwilling to depart from
the traditionary policy of the government which had always
been averse to political alliances with European powers. After
stating these preliminary objections, Mr. Everett, in his admir
able letter, goes on to say :
" But the President has a graver objection to entering into
the proposed convention. He has no wish to disguise the
feeling that the compact, although equal in its terms, would be
very unequal in substance. England and France by entering
into it would disable themselves from obtaining possession of
an island remote from their seats of government, belonging to
another European power, whose natural right to possess it
must always be as good as their own a distant island in an
other hemisphere, and one which by no ordinary or peaceful
course of things could ever belong to either of them. If the
present balance of power in Europe should be broken up if
Spain should become unable to maintain the island in her pos
session, and England and France should be engaged in a death
struggle with each other, Cuba might then be the prize of the
victor. Till these events all take place, the President does not
see how Cuba can belong to any European power but Spain.
The United States, on the other hand, would by the proposed
convention disable themselves from making an acquisition
which might take place without any disturbance of existing
foreign relations, and in the natural order of things.
"The island of Cuba lies at our doors; it commands the
approach to the Gulf of Mexico, which washes the shores
of five of our States; it bars the entrance to that great river
which drains half the North American continent, and, with its
9
194: BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMOKE.
tributaries, forms the largest system of internal water com
munication in the world; it keeps watch at the doorway of our
intercourse with California by the Isthmus route. If an island
like Cuba, belonging to the Spanish crown, guarded the en
trance to the Thames or the Seine, and the United States
should propose a convention like this to England and France,
those powers would assuredly feel that the disability assumed
by ourselves was far less serious than that which we asked
them to assume.
"The opinion of American statesmen at different times, and
under varying circumstances, have differed as to the desirable
ness of the acquisition of Cuba by the United States. Terri
torially and commercially, it would in our hands be an
extremely valuable possession. Under certain contingencies,
it might be almost essential to our safety; still, for domestic
reasons on which, in a communication of this kind, it might not
be proper to dwell, the President thinks that the incorporation
of the island into the Union at the present time, although ef
fected with the consent of Spain, would be a hazardous meas
ure, and he would consider its acquisition by force, except in
a just war with Spain, should an event so greatly to be depre
cated take place, as a disgrace to the civilization of the age.
The President has given ample proof of the sincerity with
which he holds these views. He has thrown the whole force
of his constitutional power against all illegal attacks upon the
island. It would have been perfectly easy for him, without
any seeming neglect of duty, to allow projects of a formidable
character to gather strength by connivance. No amount of
obloquy at home, no embarrassments caused by the indiscre
tions of the colonial government of Cuba, have moved him from
the path of duty. In this respect the Captain-general of that
island, an officer apparently of upright and conciliatory charac
ter, but probably more used to military command than the
management of civil affairs, has, on a punctilio, in reference to
the purser of a private steamship, who seems to have been en
tirely innocent of the matters laid to his charge, refused to
allow passengers and the mails of the United States to be
landed from a vessel having him on board. This certainly is
a very extraordinary mode of animadverting upon a supposed
abuse of the liberty of the press by the subject of a foreign
government in his native country. The Captain-general is not
195
permitted by his government, three thousand miles off, to hold
any diplomatic intercourse with the United States. He is
subject in no degree to the direction of the Spanish Minister at
Washington ; and the President has to choose between a resort
to foice to compel the abandonment of this gratuitous interrup
tion of commercial intercourse, which would result in a war
and a delay of weeks and months, necessary for a negotiation
with Madrid, with all the chances of the most deplorable oc
currences in the interval, and all for a trifle, that ought to have
admitted of a settlement by an exchange of notes between
Washington and Havana. The President has, however, pa
tiently submitted to these evils, and has continued faithfully to
give to Cuba the advantage of those principles of the public
law under the shadow of which she has departed in this case
from the comity of nations. But the incidents to which I al
lude, and which are still in train, are among many others which
point decisively to the expediency of some change in the rela
tions of Cuba, and the President thinks that the influence of
England and France with Spain, would be well employed in
inducing her so to modify the administration of the government
of Cuba as to afford the means of some prompt remedy for
evils of the kind alluded to, which have done much to increase
the spirit of unlawful enterprise against the island. That a,
convention, such as is proposed, would be a transitory arrange
ment, sure to be swept away by the irresistible tide of affairs
in a new country, is to the apprehension of the President too
obvious to require a labored argument. The project rests on
principles, applicable, if at all, to Europe, where international
relations are in their basis of great antiquity, slowly modified
for the most part in the progress of time and events, and not
applicable to America, which, but lately a waste, is filling up
with intense rapidity and adjusting on natural principles those
territorial relations which on the first discovery of the continent
were in a good degree fortuitous. The comparative history of
Europe and America, even for a single century, shows this.
"In 1752, England, France, and Spain, were not materially
different in their political position in Europe from what they
now are. They were ancient, mature, consolidated States, es
tablished in their relations with each other and the rest of the
world the leading powers of Western and Southern Europe.
Totally different was the state of things in America. The
196 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
United States had no existence as a people a line of English
colonies not numbering much over a million of inhabitants,
stretched along the coast. France extended from the Bay of
St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Alleghanies
to the Mississippi, beyond which westward the continent was
a wilderness, occupied by wandering savages, and subject to a
conflicting and nominal claim on the part of France and Spain.
Everything in Europe was comparatively fixed everything
in America provisional, incipient, and temporary, except the
law of progress, which is as organic and vital in the youth of
States, as of individual men. A struggle between the provin
cial authorities of England and France, for the possession of a
petty stockade at the confluence of the Monongahela and the
Alleghany, kindled the seven years 1 war, at the close of which,
the great European powers, not materially affected in their
relations at home, had undergone astonishing changes on this
continent. France had disappeared from the map of America,
whose inmost recesses had been penetrated by her ze;ilous
missionaries, and her resolute and gallant adventurers. Eng
land had added the Canadas to her transatlantic dominions.
Spain had become the mistress of Louisiana, so that, in the
language of the Archbishop of Mexico, in 1770, she claimed
Siberia as the northern boundary of New Spain.
"Twelve years only, from the treaty of Paris, elapsed, and
another great change took place, fruitful of still greater changes
to come. The American revolution broke out. It involved
England, France, and Spain, in a tremendous struggle, and at
its close the United States of America had taken their place
in the family of nations. In Europe, the ancient States were
restored substantially to their former equilibrium, but a new
element, of incalculable importance in reference to territorial
arrangements, is henceforth to be recognized in America.
Just twenty years from the close of the war of the American
revolution, France, by a treaty with Spain, of which the pro
visions have never been disclosed, possessed herself of Louisia
na, but did so only to cede it to the United States, and in the
same year Lewis and Clark started on their expedition to plant
the flag of the United States on the shores of the Pacific. In
18L 9 Florida was sold by Spain to the United States, whose
territorial possessions, in this way, had been increased three
fold in half a century. This last acquisition was so much a
MR. EVEKETTS LETTER. 197
matter of course that it had been distinctly foreseen by the
Count Aranda, then Prime Minister of Spain, as long ago as
1783. But even these momentous events are but the. fore
runners of new territorial revolutions still more stupendous.
"A dynastic struggle, between the Emperor Napoleon and
Spain, commencing in 1808, convulsed the peninsula, the vast
possessions of the Spanish crown on this continent, vice-royal
ties and captain-generalships filling the space between California
and Cape Horn. One after another asserted their independ
ence; no friendly power in Europe, at that time, was able, or
if able, was willing, to succor Spain or aid her to prop the
crumbling buttresses of her colonial empire. So far from it,
when France, in 1823, threw an army of one hundred thou
sand men into Spain, to control her domestic politics, England
thought it necessary to counteract the movement by recogniz
ing the independence of the Spanish provinces in America; in
the remarkable language of the distinguished minister of the
day, in order to redress the balance of power in Europe, he
called into existence a new world in the" west, somewhat over
rating perhaps the extent of the derangement in the old world,
and not doing full justice to the position of the United States
in America, or their influence on the fortunes of their sister
republics on this continent.
"Thus, in sixty years from the close of the seven years war,
Spain, like France, had lost the last remains of her once im
perial possessions in this hemisphere. The United States,
meantime, were, by the arts of peace and the healthful pro
gress of things, rapidly enlarging their dimensions and consol
idating their power. The great march of events still went on.
Some of the new republics, from the effect of a mixture of races,
or the want of training in liberal institutions, showed themselves
incapable of self-government. The province of Texas revolted
from Mexico by the same right by which Mexico revolted from
Spain; at the memorable battle of San Jacinto, in 1836, she
passed the great ordeal of nascent States, and her independ
ence was recognized by this government, by England, by
France, and other European powers. Mainly peopled from
the United States, she sought naturally to be incorporated
into the Union. The offer was repeatedly rejected by Presi
dents Jackson and Van Buren, to avoid a collision with Mexico.
At last the annexation took place. As a domestic question, it
198 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMOKE.
is no fit subject for comment in a communication to a foreign
minister; as a question of public law, there never was an ex
tension of territory more naturally or justifiably made; it pro
duced a disturbed relation with the government of Mexico;
war ens ed, and in its results other extensive territories were,
for a large pecuniary compensation on the part of the United
States, added to the Union.
"Without adverting to the divisions of opinion which arose
in reference to this war as must always happen in free coun
tries in reference to great measures no person surveying
these events with the eye of comprehensive statesmanship, can
fail to trace in the main result the undoubted operation of the
law of our political existence. The consequences are before
the world; vast provinces, which had languished for three cen
turies under the leaden sway of a stationary system, are coming
under the influences of an active civilization, freedom of speech
and the press the trial by jury, religious equality, and rep
resentative government, have been carried by the constitution
of the United States into extensive regions in which they were
unknown before. By the settlement of California the great
circuit of intelligence round the globe is completed. The dis
covery of the gold of that region, leading as it did to the same
discovery in Australia, has touched the nerves of industry
throughout the world."
This fine picture of the territorial development of the United
States, must gratify the pride of every patriotic heart. When
Mr. Everett s letter was published in the newspapers, it was
greeted with a universal expression of satisfaction. The whole
country approved of the course of the President in repelling
the impertinent attempts of foreign governments to impose
diplomatic fetters on our future growth. The careful reader
of the foregoing extract will have discovered in it a full recog
nition of one of the leading principles of the American party.
In speaking of the melancholy fate of the republics of South
America, Mr. Everett attributes the incapacity which their
people had shown for self-government to " the effect of a mix
ture of races or the want of training in liberal institutions."
AMERICAN PRINCIPLES. 199
Knowing that like causes produce like effects, the American
party are disposed to take warning from the anarchy and mis
rule which have prevailed in our sister republics of South
America.
The President, likewise, in his next annual message, which
was presented to Congress a few days afterward, recognizes
the principles of the American party, in stating the reasons
why he did not consider the immediate acquisition of Cuba
desirable. He said: "Were this island comparatively destitute
of inhabitants, or occupied by a kindred race, I should regard
it, if voluntarily ceded by Spain, as a most desirable acquisition.
But under existing circumstances I should look upon its incor
poration into our Union as a most hazardous measure. It
would bring into the confederacy a population of a different
national stock, speaking a different language, and not likely to
harmonize with the other members. It would probably affect
in a prejudicial manner the industrial interests of the South,
and it might revive those conflicts of opinion between the dif
ferent sections of the country, winch lately shook the Union to
its center, and which have been so happily compromised."
This extract shows how deeply Mr. Fillmore was even then
impressed with the idea that the safety of our institutions
depends on our being a homogeneous people.
200 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAKD FILLMOKE.
CHAPTER XII.
EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
The disbanding of the Mexican army had thrown upon the
community a large number of idle but enterprising vagabonds,
who were ready to engage in any plausible expedition that
promised excitement, notoriety, and plunder. The discovery
of the gold mines of California had unsettled the public mind,
and instead of seeking a gradual accumulation of wealth by
the regular course of patient industry, the restless spirit of
the country was growing wild in the pursuit of foreign
enterprises.
While, therefore, strong measures were necessary to pre
vent marauding expeditions against our peaceful neighbors, it
seemed desirable to turn this spirit of enterprise to some good
account, by fitting out exploring expeditions to .foreign coun
tries, which should add to our geographical knowledge, extend
our commerce, offer a field of enterprise to some of the most
worthy of those who sought it, and present subjects of legiti
mate interest to occupy the public mind. With this view
great efforts were made by the President to secure to our
citizens the Tehuantepec route to the Pacific through Mexico,
and the Nicarauo-ua route through Central America.
o o
Japan also attracted attention. Some of our sailors, who
had been shipwrecked and cast upon her shores, were inhos
pitably treated; and the President determined to attempt a
negotiation with that country for their protection, and for such
EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 201
commercial privileges as could be obtained. With a view to
open commercial intercourse with this empire, which had for
several centuries been a sealed book to the various nations of
the civilized world, the President ordered Commodore Aulick
to the command of the East India squadron, and empowered
him to open negotiations with Japan. We copy the following
paragraphs from the letter of instructions to Commodore
Aulick, which was drawn up by Mr. Webster:
" The moment is near when the last link in the chain of
oceanic steam navigation is to be formed. From China and
the East Indies to Egypt; thence through the Mediterranean
and the Atlantic ocean to England ; thence again to our
happy shores, and other parts of this great continent; from
our own ports to the southernmost part of the isthmus that
connects the two western continents ; and from its Pacific
coast, north and southward, as far as civilization has spread,
the steamers of other nations, and of our own, carry intelli
gence, the wealth of the world, and thousands of travelers.
" It is the President s opinion, that steps should be taken at
once to enable our enterprising merchants to supply the last
link in that great chain which unites all nations of the world,
by the early establishment of a line of steamers from California
to China. In order to facilitate this enterprise, it is desirable
that we should obtain, from the Emperor of Japan, permission
to purchase from his subjects the necessary supplies of coal,
which our steamers, in their out and inward voyages, may
require. The well known jealousy with which the Japanese
Empire has, for the last two centuries, rejected all overtures
from other nations to open its ports to their vessels, embar
rasses all new attempts to change the exclusive policy of that
country.
**********
" The President, although fully aware of the great reluc
tance hitherto shown by the Japanese government to enter
into treaty stipulations with any foreign nation a feeling
which it is sincerely wished that you may be able to over
come has thought it proper, in view of this latter favorable
contingency, to invest vou with full power to negotiate and
9*
202 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
sign a treaty of amity and commerce between the United
States and the Empire of Japan."
Commodore Aulick became involved in difficulty in conse
quence of alleged misconduct to the Brazilian minister, who
was a passenger on board his vessel to Rio Janeiro. This
difficulty resulted in his recall ; and it was afterward con
cluded to give a more imposing aspect to the mission by send
ing out an independent fleet, under the command of Commo
dore Perry, who was clothed with full powers of negotiation.
The difficulty of obtaining sailors, and delay in finishing some
vessels intended for the squadron, detained it in port till the
fall of 1852, when it sailed from Norfolk with fewer vessels
than had been intended. The success of the expedition, how
ever, was complete, and its history is to be found in the State
and Navy Departments at Washington.
As soon as Rosas was driven from Buenos Ayres, and a
prospect began to dawn of opening to the commerce of other
nations the immense country bordering on the La Plata and
its confluents, our ministers at Rio and Buenos Ayres were
directed to go to the seat of power wherever it should be
found, whether in a confederation or in separate states, and
negotiate treaties of amity and commerce. Treaties had
already been made during this administration, with Peru, Costa
Rica, Uraguay, and Brazil; and the ministers just alluded to
secured others. In furtherance of the same object the Presi
dent sent one of our naval officers, with a small steamer, to
survey the La Plata and its branches.
Inferring from the gold washings of the rivers of Africa,
that when the interior mountains in which they take their rise
are discovered and examined, they may prove to be another
California ; and believing that, if the conjecture were con
firmed, the existence of gold mines would act as a power
ful motive in inducing the free blacks of this country to
SOUTH AMERICAN EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS. 203
emigrate to that part of the world, Lieutenant Lynch was sent
thither on an exploring- expedition, the result of which has
not yet been published. Like the reports of the Japan expe
dition, it sleeps in the archives of the Navy Department at
Washington.
By the act of August 31st, 1852, Congress provided for
an exploring expedition to the Chinese seas, which was dis
patched by the President under Captain Ring-gold, who was
sent home insane before the completion of the survey.
An expedition was also sent to explore the valley of the
Amazon, which accomplished its object. The reports of the
officers in command, which are printed among the Senate
documents, are well worthy a perusal.
Efforts were also made to open the guano trade, which is a
monopoly ; and an unfortunate letter was written by the Secre
tary of State to Mr. Jewett; and, without the knowledge of
the President, an order was sent to Commodore McAuley to
protect our vessels in taking guano from the Lobos Islands.
As soon as the President discovered it, the order was counter
manded, and an arrangement was made with the Peruvian
government to freight the vessels which had been sent out at
a stipulated price.
The various expeditions to which allusion has been made in
this chapter show that the administration of President Fill-
more was characterized not less by enterprise than by wise
and salutary caution, and that he fully sympathized with the
progressive spirit of the age, whenever its indulgence was con
sistent with our obligations to others. This happy union of
enterprise without rashness, with caution without timidity, is
as rare as it is fortunate, and entitles Mr. Fillmore to the very
first rank as a practical statesman. Firm when a right is in
volved; bold when occasion demands; far-sighted respecting
the consequences of measures; quick to perceive where an
advantage is to be gained for his country; cool, sagacious,
204: BIOGKAPIIY OF MILLA.RD FILLMOKE.
deliberate, and inflexibly just, he combines more of the requisites
for a great and able chief magistrate than any other man in
the country. Others may possess single qualifications in
greater perfection, and therefore be regarded as more brilliant ;
but no one combines so many of the requisites for eminent
usefulness in the discharge of high and responsible trusts.
AMERICAN PKINCIPLES. 205
CHAPTER XIII.
AMERICAN PRINCIPLES.
The limits to which we are restricted do not permit a detailed
account of all the measures of President Fillmore s adminis
tration. A number of domestic reforms, of which the reduc
tion of letter postage to the uniform rate of three cents, may
be considered a specimen, are necessarily passed over without
mention, in order that we may present with more fullness some
of those prominent features of Mr. Fillmore s policy which
afford critcrions of his wisdom and ability as a statesman.
After the passage of the compromise measures, no event
occurred during the administration of Mr. Fill more, which pro
duced so profound a sensation, and awakened so much popular
excitement, as the visit to this country of Louis Kossuth, the
ex-governor of Hungary. The participation of the adminis
tration in measures for the release of the Hungarian exiles
from their imprisonment in Turkey, and its refusal to partici
pate in measures for rescuing fallen Hungary from the do
minion of Austria, furnish illustrations of Mr. Fillmore s tone
of thinking on questions pertaining to immigration and foreign
influence, and will enable the reader- to understand why he so
promptly perceived the importance of the American move
ment, and so readily united with the American party. Mr.
Fillmore s accession to this party was a necessary consequence
of principles he had entertained and acted upon before the
party had risen into notice.
206 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
The American party is not founded, as its enemies repre
sent, on hostility to the residence of foreigners in this country,
but to their participation in our politics before they have be
come imbued with American sentiments. The American party
cherishes a lively sympathy with all efforts in favor of free
institutions in other countries, and cordially welcomes to our
shores the oppressed inhabitants of the old world, who have
either failed in such efforts, or, from any other cause, seek
protection and repose for themselves, and a home for their
posterity, in this free and happy republic. Our right to watch
the progress of liberty in other lands, to sympathize with its
struggles, and to recognize its achievements, was nobly and
eloquently vindicated by President Fillmore s administration,
in Mr. Webster s celebrated letter to the Chevalier Hulse-
mann, which was written by the direction of the President.
The following extracts will show that the policy of strict neu
trality and non-intervention, which was so firmly enforced
during Mr. Fillmore s administration, was not the fruit of cold
indifference to the fortunes of freedom on the eastern continent.
" The undersigned will first observe," says Mr. Webster,
" that the President is persuaded, his majesty the emperor of
Austria does not think that the government of the United
States ought to view, with unconcern, the extraordinary events
which have occurred, not only in his dominions, but in many
other parts of Europe, since February, 1848. The govern
ment and people of the United States, like other intelligent
governments and communities, take a lively interest in the
movements and events of this remarkable age, in whatever
part of the world they may be exhibited. But the interest
taken by the United States in those events, has not pro
ceeded from any disposition to depart from that neutrality
toward foreign powers, which is among the deepest principles
and the most cherished traditions of the political history of
the Union. Tt has been the necessary effect of the unex
ampled character of the events themselves, which could not
fail to arrest the attention of the cotemporary world; as they
SYMPATHY WITH STRUGGLING FREEDOM. 207
"will doubtless fill a memorable page in history. But the
undersigned goes further, and freely admits that in proportion
as these extraordinary ev r ents appeared to have their origin in
those great ideas of responsible and popular governments, on
which the American constitutions themselves are wholly
founded, they could not but command the warm sympathy of
the people of this country.
"The power of this republic, at the present moment, is
spread over a region, one of the richest and most fertile on the
globe, and of an extent in comparison with which the posses
sions of the House of Hapsburg are but as a patch on the
earth s surface. Its population, already twenty-five millions,
will exceed that of the Austrian empire within the period
during which it may be hoped that Mr. Hulsemann may yet
remain in the honorable discharge of his duties to his govern
ment. Its navigation and commerce are hardly exceeded by
the oldest and most commercial nations ; its maritime means
and its maritime power may be seen by Austria herself, in all
seas where she has ports, as well as it may be seen, also, in
all other quarters of the globe. Life, liberty, property, and
all personal rights, are amply secured to all citizens, and pro
tected by just and stable laws; and credit, public and | rivate,
is as well established as in any government of Continental
Europe. And the country, in all its interests and concerns,
partakes most largely in all the improvements and progress
which distinguish the age. Certainly the United States may
be pardoned, even by those who profess adherence to the
principles of absolute governments, if they entertain an ardent
affection for those popular forms of political organization which
have so rapidly advanced their own prosperity and happiness;
which enabled them, in so short a period, to bring their coun
try, and the hemisphere to which it belongs, to the notice and
respectful regard, not to say the admiration, of the civilized
world. Nevertheless, the United States have abstained, at all
times, from acts of interference with the political changes of
Europe. They can not, however, fail to cherish always a
lively interest in the fortunes of nations struggling for institu
tions like their own. But this sympathy, so far from being
necessarily a hostile feeling toward any of the parties to these
great national struggles, is quite consistent with amicable rela
tions with them all. The Hungarian people are three or four
208 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARb FILLMOKE.
times as numerous as the inhabitants of these United States
were when the American revolution broke out. They possess,
in a distinct language, and in other respects, important ele
ments of a separate nationality, which the Anglo-Saxon race
in this country did not possess; and if the United States wish
success to countries contending for popular constitutions and
national independence, it is only because they regard such
constitutions and such national independence, not as imaginary,
but as real blessings. They claim no right, however, to take
part in the struggles of foreign powers in order to promote
these ends. It is only in defense of his own government, and
its principles and character, that the undersigned has now ex
pressed himself on this subject. But when the United States
behold the people of foreign countries, without any such inter
ference, spontaneously moving toward the adoption of institu
tions like their own, it surely can not be expected of them to
remain wholly indifferent spectators."
A proof of the sincerity with which these sentiments were
entertained is furnished by the subsequent action of Mr. Fill-
more s administration in relation to Kossuth. When he was
an exile and a prisoner in the Turkish dominions, the Secre
tary of State was directed to write a letter to Mr. Marsh, the
American minister at Constantinople, instructing him to apply
to the Sublime Porte for the release of the Hungarian refugees,
and to offer them a passage to this country in national vessels.
The most prominent of the reasons for their release, which
were urged in that letter, was the great improbability of their
renewing any attempts tending to disturb the tranquillity of
the old world. They were invited and welcomed here as men
who sought an asylum from oppression, and without the most
distant expectation that Kossuth and his companions would
traverse the country with the avowed purpose of subverting
the settled policy of the American government.
"But at this time," says the letter of instructions, "all
possible apprehension of danger and disturbance, to result from
their liberation, has ceased.
LOUIS KOSSUTH. 209
" It is now more than a year since the last Hungarian army
surrendered, and the attempts at revolution and the establish
ment of an independent government, in which they were en
gaged, were most sternly crushed by the united forces of two
of the greatest powers of Europe.
"Their chief associates are, like themselves, in exile, or they
have perished on the field, or on the scaffold, or by military
execution; their estates are confiscated, their families dispersed,
and every castle, fortress, and city of Hungary is in the pos
session of the forces of Austria.
"They themselves, by their desire to remove so far from
the scene of their late conflict, declare that they entertain no
hope or thought of other similar attempts, and wish only to
be permitted to withdraw themselves altogether from all
European associations, and seek new homes in the vast regions
of the United States.
" For their attempts at independence they have most dearly
paid; and now, broken in fortune and in heart, without home
or country a band of exiles whose only future is a fearful
remembrance of the past; whose only request is to spend
their remaining days in obscure industry they want the per
mission of his imperial majesty to remove themselves, and all
that may remain to them, across the ocean to the uncultivated
regions of America, and leave forever a continent which has
become more gloomy than the wilderness, more lone and
dreary than the desert."
No foreigner ever approached our hospitable shores who
excited so much interest and sympathy as was felt for Kos-
suth. Little was it dreamed that in the very act of accepting
our hospitality he would turn our accuser. Little was it
thought that he would immediately arraign our government
as recreant to the cause of universal liberty, because it adhered
to the wise policy of Washington, and declined to take part in
the struggles of foreign nations. Little was it supposed that
this illustrious Hungarian exile would appeal from the Ameri
can government to the American people, and attempt to com
pel acquiescence in his schemes by influencing the presidential
election. But, little as it was expected, all this turned out to
210 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
be true. No one can have forgotten the effect produced on
the public mind by Kossuth s seductive eloquence. If, during
the two or three weeks when the excitement was at its height,
the proposal to abandon the neutral policy of the government
could have been decided by a popular vote, there would
probably have been a large majority in favor of Kossuth.
Happily, by the firmness of the government, and the returning
good sense of the people, this dangerous mania subsided, and
gradually disappeared; and Kossuth, who was received on his
arrival with great ovations, became so unpopular before he left
the country, that he deemed it prudent to engage his passage
on board the steamer under an assumed name.
His visit to this country was calculated to lead thoughtful
minds to reflect on the growing danger of foreign influence.
Had the President shown any marks of sympathy with the
popular excitement which, for several weeks, ran so high, there
is no doubt that the foreign policy of the government would
have undergone a complete revolution. Mr. Clay, who was
then living, fully coincided in the views of the President, and
in his interview with Kossuth explained, with his accustomed
eloquence, the reasons why it was not expedient for our gov
ernment to embark in the cause of Hungary. Colonel Benton,
in addressing a meeting of citizens in Missouri, paid a deserved
tribute to Mr. Fillmore and Mr. Clay, in connection with this
subject. I am opposed," said Colonel Benton, " to interven
ing, and under all its forms; and as much as any, in the form
of protest, to be unsupported by acts if the protest should
be disregarded. Of the eminent public men of our country
who have accosted this question most to my satisfaction, Mr.
Fillmore and Mr. Clay are the two foremost; they have given
it a prompt and unqualified opposition in all its forms. This, in
my opinion, is the American position."
When Kossuth had failed in his application to the American
government, and in his appeal to the great body of the Ameri-
FOREIGN INFLUENCE. 211
can people, he attempted to carry out his project by operating
on the* prejudices of our foreign-born citizens. His efforts in
this direction afford a striking illustration of the dangers which
result from having a Large body of voters in our midst, whose
political sympathies are more fully given to the revolutionary
movements of the old world than to the institutions of their
adopted country. In a speech to German citizens in the city
of New York, on the 14th of June, 1852, Kossuth said:
" Tbu are strong enough to effect the ejection of that candi
date for the Presidency who gives the most attention to the
European cause. I find that quite natural, because between
both parties there is no difference as regards the internal
policy, and because only by the inanity of the German citizens
of this country, the election will be such that, by and by, the
administration will turn their attention to other countries, and
give every nation free scope. Xo tree, my German friends,
falls with the first stroke ; it is therefore necessary that, inas
much as you are citizens, and can command your votes, you
support the candidate who will pursue the external policy in
our sense, and endeavor to effect that all nations become free
and independent, such as is the case in happy America."
On the 23d of the same month, Kossuth addressed a large
assemblage of Germans at the Broadway Tabernacle. After
the close of his speech a series of resolutions were adopted,
of which the following are specimens:
"Resolved, That, as American citizens, we will attach our
selves to the Democratic party, and will devote our strength to
having a policy of intervention in America carried out.
" Resolved, That we expect that the candidate of the Demo
cratic party will adopt the principles of this policy, which has
been sanctioned by all distinguished statesmen of his party.
"Resolved, That we protest against the manner in which,
heretofore, the government of the United States has inter
preted and applied the policy of neutrality, which is in viola
tion of the spirit of the constitution of the United States.
212 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
"Resolved, That we ask that every American citizen, not
being attached to the soil, may support the strength of any-
other people in the sense as the juries have interpreted the
principles of the American constitution, and especially of the
policy of neutrality."
A few days afterward, Kossuth prepared a secret circular,
which commenced as follows:
NEW YORK, June 28th, 1852.
Sm: I hope you have read already my German farewell
speech, delivered June 23d, in the Tabernacle at New York,
and also the resolutions of the meeting, which were passed
consequently.
" I hope, further, that the impression which this matter has
made upon both political parties has not escaped your attention.
" Indeed, it is not easy to be mistaken, that the German
citizens of America will have the, casting vote in the coming
election, if they are united in a joint direction upon the plat
form of the principles set forth in the speech aforementioned.
" They may decide upon the exterior policy of the next
administration of the United States, and with that upon the
triumph or the fall of liberty in Europe."
No careful reader of these extracts can fail to perceive that
they disclose a method by which the presidential election of
this country might be carried, and the policy of the govern
ment controlled by persons of foreign birth and sympathies.
The only sure preventive of so great an evil is to exclude from
any share in the government all except citizens who are thor
oughly imbued with American sentiments.
After the close of Mr. Fillmore s administration, it was his
intention, before returning to his home in Buffalo, to comply
with numerous invitations he had received to visit the South.
But severe domestic affliction compelled him to postpone this
intention, and it was not till the spring of 1854 that he was ablo
to make the proposed tour. lie then visited all the principal
south- western and southern cities, and was everywhere received
ME. FILLMORE S AMERICANISM. 213
with demonstrations of respect and welcome, more spontaneous,
cordial and extensive than had ever before been bestowed on
a private citizen. In the summer of that year Mr. Fillmore
was compelled again to drink deep of the cup of affliction, and
some months afterward he was induced to seek relief from the
loneliness of a home which death had rendered nearly deso
late, by a visit to the old world. During the season of retire
ment and domestic grief which preceded his embarkation for
Europe, Mr. Fillmore took no active part in politics, beyond
the exercise of the citizen s right of voting. When the Ameri
can party arose, he approved of its objects, and, in the first
election in which he had an opportunity to do so, voted for its
candidates. In the early part of the year 1855, he formally
united with the American party, and assumed its obligations.
How fully he appreciated the necessity of the American move
ment, and endorsed the principles in which it had its origin,
may be seen in the following private letter, written to a friend
in Philadelphia:
" BUFFALO, New York, Jan. 3d, 1855.
"RESPECTED FRIEND ISAAC NEWTON
" It would give me great pleasure to accept your kind in
vitation to visit Philadelphia, if it were possible to make my
visit private, and limit it to a few personal friends whom I
should be most happy to see. But I knjw that this would
be out of my power ; and I am therefore reluctantly compelled
to decline your invitation, as I have done others to New York
and Boston for the same reason.
" I return you many thanks for your information on the
subject of politics. I am always happy to hear what is going
forward ; but, independently of the fact that I feel myself with
drawn from the political arena, I have been too much depressed
in spirit to take an active part in the late elections. I con
tented myself with giving a silent vote for Mr. Ullman for
governor.
" W hile, however, I am an inactive observer of public events,
I am by no means an indifferent one ; and I may say to you,
in the frankness of private friendship, 1 have for a long time
214 BIOGRAPHY OF MILLAED FILLMORE.
looked with dread and apprehension at the corrupting influence
which the contest for the foreign vote is exciting upon our
elections. This seems to result from its being banded together,
and subject to the control of a few interested and selfish
leaders. Hence, it has been a subject of bargain and sale,
and each of the great political parties of the country have been
bidding to obtain it; and, as usual in all such contests, the
party which is most corrupt is most successful. The conse
quence is, that it is fast demoralizing the whole country; cor
rupting the very fountains of political power; and converting
the ballot-box that great palladium of our liberty into an
unmeaning mockery, where the rights of native-born citizens
are voted away by those who blindly follow their mercenary
and selfish leaders. The evidence of this is found not merely
in the shameless chaffering for the foreign vote at every elec
tion, but in the large disproportion of offices which are now
held by foreigners, at home and abroad, as compared with our
native citizens. Where is the true-hearted American whose
cheek does not tingle with shame and mortification, to see our
highest and most coveted foreign missions filled by men of
foreign birth, to the exclusion of native born? Such appoint
ments are a humiliating confession to the crowned heads of
Europe, that a republican soil does not produce sufficient
talent to -represent a republican nation at a monarchical court.
1 confess that it seems to me, with all due respect to others,
that, as a general rule, our country should be governed by
American-born citizens. Let us give to the oppressed of every
country an asylum and a home in our happy land ; give to all
the benefits of equal laws and equal protection; but let us at
the same time cherish as the apple of our eye the great prin
ciples of constitutional liberty, which few who have not had
the good fortune to be reared in a free country know how to
appreciate, and still less how to preserve.
* Washington, in that inestimable legacy which he left to his
country his farewell address has wisely warned us to
beware of foreign influence as the most baneful foe of a repub
lican government. He saw it, to be sure, in a different light
from that in which it now presents itself; but he knew that it
would approach in all forms, and hence he cautioned us against
the insidious wiles of its influence. Therefore, as well for our
own sakes, to whom this invaluable inheritance of self-govern-
AMERICAN PRINCIPLES. 215
ment has been left by our forefathers, as for the sake of the
unborn millions who are to inherit this land foreign and
native let us take warning of the father of his country, and
do what we can to preserve our institutions from corruption,
and our country from dishonor; but let this be done by the
people themselves in their sovereign capacity, by making a
proper discrimination in the selection of officers, and not by
depriving any individual, native or foreign-born, of any con
stitutional or legal right to which he is now entitled.
" These are my sentiments in brief; and although I have
sometimes almost despaired of my country, when 1 have wit
nessed the rapid strides of corruption, yet I think I perceive ;t
gleam of hope in the future, and I now feel confident that,
when the great mass of intelligence in this enlightened country
is once fully aroused, and the danger manifested, it will fear
lessly apply the remedy, and bring back the government to
the pure days of Washington s administration. Finally, let us
adopt the old Roman motto, Never despair of the republic.
Let us do our duty, and trust in that providence which has
so signally watched over and preserved us, for the result.
But I have said more than I intended, and much more than I
should have said to any one but a trusted friend, as I have
no desire to mingle in political strife. Remember me kindly
to your family, and, believe me,
" I am truly yours,
" MlLLARD FlLLMORE."
RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
TO ^ 202 Main Library
LOAN PERIOD 1
HOME USE
2
3
4
5
6
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
1 -month loans may be renewed by calling 642-3405
6-month loans may be recharged by bringing books to Circulation Desk
Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
MTO.D1SC.WR 2 3 W
DEC 21 W,
AUTO. DISC-
.
MAY 1 3 198it
FEB 7 2000
!
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
FORM NO. DD6, 60m, 12/80 BERKELEY, CA 94720
U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES
