| Show 65 years ago occurred the death of the president denis nobody knows encyclopedias and dictionaries of biography give little space to millard fillmore Fill moro yet ho he was ono one of tho the most interesting characters who ever occupied the white house and many important measures were passed during his administration 0 western newspaper union ily by ELMO SCOTT WATSON 4 C TIIE president no T body knows 1 L that title could bo be given and not inappropriately to an american who died 65 years ago this month he was millard fillmore lath president of tile the united st states ates but lie he has boon been the subject subie ct of fewer biographies and less space Is devoted to him in the encyclopedias and dictionaries of biography than has boon been tile the cose case with any other of our chief executives so the average american knows very little if anything about him as a man orasa president yet he was one of the mos most t interesting characters who ever occupied the white louse house and during his dency events of ou standing importance in american history fillmore was born in a log cobin on n farm in cayuga county counts now york a fow few miles southeast of tho the little city of moravia on F february 7 1800 opportunities for on an education were limited in the primitive schools which existed in that region and which young F allmore attended less than three months of each year there were no newspapers or magazines available and his fathers ill library consisted of only two books tho the bible and a collection of hymns in fact it is said that young fillmore never saw a history of the united states nor a map of ills his country until ho he was 10 19 years olal when fillmore Fill was 15 lie he was apprenticed to a wool carder and olo clothier and with his farst wages purchased a small dictionary which he studied while attending tho the carding machine by the time he was 19 16 he ha liaa resolved to become a lawyer ills ilis lorm form of apprenticeship had two more inore years to run but he made on an arrangement with his employer whereby li he agreed to relinquish his wages for the last years services and also promised to pay 30 for his time next lie ho made nn an arrangement with judge wood of moravia a retired country lawyer by which he was to receive ills board in payment for working in the office ile he began reading law under the judges direction and to supplement his income lie he taught school a part of the time by 1823 he had learned enough law to be admitted as an attorney by the court of common pleas picas of erie county even though ho he had not completed the course of study tk LW it 7 v M statue of fillmore Fill moro in buffalo N Y usually required the influence of several leading buffalo I 1 lawyers aw whose lie he had won was mainly responsible for that F Fill Ill mores father was then living in aurora and ho he went there to begin practice he won his first case and for doing so was rewarded with a fee of 41 but more important than that to his future career was an event which took place in 1826 during his term as an apprentice he had met and fallen in love with a young schoolteacher named abigail powers they became engaged before fillmore moved to eric county but he was ro EO poor that for three y ars he could not afford to travel the aniles to see her in february 1826 he journeyed at last to moravia and they were married in the home of her brother judge powers then fillmore took his bride back to the home he had 11 X 7 k Z L KA P 1 MILLARD FILLA built for her with his own hands and they began their struggle to live on the monger meager earnings of the young lawyer to help her husband continue his studies abigail fillmore went back to school teaching in 1827 fillmore Fill moro was admitted to the bar as a full fledged attorney at low law and the next year he was elected to the state legislature at that time tim the anti mason excitement was at its height lind and F billmore Fill moro was sent to albany as the representative senta tive from erie county of that wing I 1 of the whig party in 1829 he was granted tho the right to plead before the state supreme court and the next year ho he was reelected to the legislature fillmore Fill moro distinguished himself by drafting the bill passed in 1831 which abolished imprisonment for debt in new york the next year lie ho was elected ele i acted to congress and after serving one term retired until 1830 when ho he was reelected elected re ile he was again returned to washington in 1838 and 1840 1040 but declined a in 1842 in 1847 he was elected comptroller of the state of new york and in his annual report for 1848 suggested the establishment of a national bank with the stocks of the united states as the sole basis upon which to issue its currency out of this suggestion grow grew eventually our present system of national banks during this some same year fillmore again entered the arena of national politics conspicuous for his antislavery views lie he was chosen by tile the whigs as their candidate for vice president and running mate for gen zachary taylor in the campaign of 1848 by bv virtue of his election to that office fillmore presided over tho the united states senate during tho the heated debate in ili the session of 1849 1840 50 over the slavery question angered by the bitter language used by the senators fillmore mode made a forcible speech announcing his determination to maintain order older and declaring that he would rescind the rule established by vice president calhoun in 1826 which deprived the vice president of authority to call senators to order instead of resenting this encroachment upon their procedure by an executive order tile the senators cheered fillmore at tile the conclusion of his speech and directed that ills his remarks be entered in full on the pages of the senate journal fillmore Fill moro presided with equal firmness during the exciting debate over henry clays omnibus bill which dragged on for weeks then tile the controversy ended abruptly when president died on july 1850 and millard fillmore left the senate senat e to take up ills his new duties as president at the other end of pennsylvania avenue in accordance with his wishes the severest simplicity marked his inauguration fillmore faced one of the most difficult tasks ever undertaken by a president already the united states was a house divided against itself over the issue of slavery and his conciliatory policies won him tho the condemnation of both sides and the wholehearted approval of neither due to the fact that his party was in the minority in both houses of congress many wise measures measure s which he recommended failed to pass however the united states is indebted to him for cheap postage for the extension of the national capitol the corn cornerstone erston e of 01 which ho he laid on july 4 1851 and for extension of contemporary knowledge of the west through various exploring expeditions which lie he authorized even more notable than domestic affairs were the international relations developed during the fillmore administration ile he sent perry on the famous expedition which opened tile the ports of japan to the world and estal cutah dished diplomatic relations with that country carrying out a strict policy of nonintervention intervention non in tho the affairs of foreign nations ho fie used stern measures to suppress filibustering expeditions to tile the latin american countries and with equal firmness exacted from other countries respect for our hag flag but so unpopular did he make himself with the antislavery anti slavery element in tho the north by his signing the bill which admitted california Call for thus virtually abrogating the missouri compromise and more especially by his signing the fugitive slave low law and his attempts to have it enforced that the whigs denied him a re nomina tion in 1852 during all his career as a statesman in washington his right hand had been his wife who has been described as perhaps tho the most remarkable of the wives of our presidents and the wings by which her hus hua band soared so high finding tho the white house destitute of books when she become became the first lady of the land mrs fillmore Fill moro prevailed upon her husband to obtain an appropriation from congress for a library in the executive mansion so the famous collection of books in the white walto house today is a cerp perpetual e t memorial to abigail fillmore mrs fillmore died soon niter after the inauguration of her husbands successor on march 30 1853 A year later their only daughter also died and in 1855 the ion lonely ely ex president took a 0 trip to england where ho he received num numerous crous attentions from queen victoria and her cabinet ministers returning to the united states the next year he became a third party candidate for the dency when he was nominated by the american or know nothing party in the election he received thu the electoral vote of only I 1 A X ABIGAIL FILLMORE one state maryland Maryln nd and after that retired from public life to ills his law practice in buffalo in 1858 he married again this time a widow mrs caroline C mcintosh As the first citizen of buffalo he was frequently called upon to welcome distinguished visitors to his city including abraham lincoln when he was on his way vay to washington in 1861 to become president he helped establish the buffalo historical society and although he took no active part in the civil war he gave his support to the cause of preserving the union fillmore died in buffalo on march 8 1874 and was buried in forest hill cemetery in that city ills his fame somewhat eclipsed by that of another president whom buffalo had given to the nation grover cleveland it was not until recent years t that haf its citizens honored him by erecting a statue ot of him within its boundaries but it is different in the little city of moravia it is prouder of the fact that it can call millard fillmore its own than of the fact that it was the childhood home of john D rockefeller 0 timers there will tell you th tradition of how the anIt ambitious Ious young lawyer not yet 21 first farst attracted attention by his delivery of a fourth of july oration which caused some of his hearers to prophesy that he would make his mark and perhaps become a judge apparently though no one was so brash as to predict that he would become president of the united states 1 they will show you the old fashioned home on smith street marked by a tablet erected by the D A R which tells you that in this house the thirteenth president millard fillmore and abigail abig a il powers pow e rs were married on february 5 1820 and they will take you outside tile the town to a scenic spot which bears the name of fillmore glen now a state park where rushing streams that come tumbling down flower stud ded forest clad slopes and flow across green carpeted meadows keep fresh the memory of mil lard fillmore for in cayuga county at least he is not the president nobody knows knowli |
