Presidency of Millard Fillmore

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Fillmore

The presidency of Millard Fillmore began on July 9, 1850, when Millard Fillmore became President of the United States upon the death of Zachary Taylor, and ended on March 4, 1853. Fillmore had been Vice President of the United States for 1 year, 4 months when he became the 13th United States president. Fillmore was the second president to succeed to the office without being elected to it, after John Tyler, as well as the last Whig president. He was succeeded by Democrat Franklin Pierce.

Upon taking office, Fillmore dismissed Taylor's cabinet and pursued a new policy with regards to the territory acquired in the Mexican-American War. He supported the efforts of Senators Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas, who crafted and passed the Compromise of 1850, which temporarily settled the status of slavery in the lands acquired as result of the Mexican–American War. The compromise led to a brief truce in the political battle between slave and free states. A controversial part of the Compromise was the Fugitive Slave Act, which expedited the return of escaped slaves to those who claimed ownership. Fillmore felt himself duty-bound to enforce it, but his support of the policy damaged his popularity and split both the Whig Party and the nation. In foreign policy, Fillmore's most important accomplishment was his launching of the Perry Expedition to open trade in Japan. He also opposed French designs on Hawaii, and avoided war in the aftermath of Narciso López's filibuster expeditions to Cuba.

Fillmore sought election to a full term, but the 1852 Whig National Convention instead nominated General Winfield Scott, who lost to Pierce in the general election. Historians generally rank Fillmore as a below average president.

Accession and Cabinet

The Fillmore cabinet
OfficeNameTerm
PresidentMillard Fillmore1850–1853
Vice Presidentvacant1850–1853
Secretary of StateDaniel Webster1850–1852
Edward Everett1852–1853
Secretary of the TreasuryThomas Corwin1850–1853
Secretary of WarCharles Magill Conrad1850–1853
Attorney GeneralReverdy Johnson1850
John J. Crittenden1850–1853
Postmaster GeneralNathan K. Hall1850–1852
Samuel Dickinson Hubbard1852–1853
Secretary of the NavyWilliam Alexander Graham1850–1852
John P. Kennedy1852–1853
Secretary of the InteriorThomas McKean Thompson McKennan1850
Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart1850–1853

Fillmore received the formal notification of Zachary Taylor's death, signed by the cabinet, on the evening of July 9 in his residence at the Willard Hotel. Fillmore had spent the previous night in a vigil with the cabinet outside of Taylor's White House bedroom. After acknowledging the letter, and spending a sleepless night,[1] Fillmore went to the House of Representatives, where, at a joint session of Congress, he took the oath as president. Nine years earlier, John Tyler's legitimacy as president had been questioned by many after he took office in similar circumstances, but Fillmore was widely accepted as the new President of the United States.[2] Fillmore had been marginalized during Taylor's short tenure in favor of Senator William Seward, a Fillmore rival for control of the New York Whig Party, and he had few allies in the Taylor administration.[3]

The biggest challenge facing Taylor had been the issue of slavery in the territories, and this issue immediately confronted the Fillmore administration as well.[4] Fillmore's views on the all-encompassing slavery issue were markedly different from his predecessor's, and everyone in Taylor's cabinet knew it. Days before Taylor's death, Fillmore had bluntly told Taylor that if the Compromise of 1850 came to a vote in the Senate, he would cast his vice presidential tie-breaking vote to pass it if necessary. The cabinet, who had barely spoken to Fillmore up to this point, saw the writing on the wall and unanimously resigned; the new President curtly accepted them all.[5] Fillmore is the only president who succeeded by death or resignation not to retain, at least initially, his predecessor's cabinet.[6]

He was already in discussions with Whig leaders, and on July 20 began to send new nominations to the Senate. For the post of Secretary of State, Fillmore chose Daniel Webster, who had previously served in the position under William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. Webster had outraged his Massachusetts constituents by supporting the proposed Compromise of 1850, and with his Senate term to expire in 1851, had no electoral future in his home state. Webster became Fillmore's most important adviser. Two other prominent Whig Senators, Thomas Corwin of Ohio and John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, also joined Fillmore's cabinet. Fillmore appointed his old law partner, Nathan Hall, as Postmaster General, a cabinet position that controlled many patronage appointments. Altogether, Fillmore's cabinet consisted of Whigs who were hostile to the antislavery movement and supported the Compromise of 1850.[7]

Judicial appointments

Fillmore had the opportunity to fill two vacancies on the Supreme Court during his presidency. He successfully filled one of them, while the other remained open until filled by his successor, Franklin Pierce in 1853.

On September 22, 1851, following the death of Associate Justice Levi Woodbury, Benjamin Robbins Curtis received a recess appointment from the president to fill the vacancy; nominated to the same position by Fillmore on December 11, 1851, Curtis was confirmed by the Senate on December 23, 1851, and received commission that same day.[8]

Associate Justice John McKinley's death in July, 1852, led to repeated, fruitless attempts by the president to fill the vacancy:[9]

Fillmore also made four appointments to United States District Courts, including that of his Postmaster General, and former law partner, Nathan Hall, to the federal district court in Buffalo.[10]

Domestic affairs

Compromise of 1850

The United States at the start of Fillmore's presidency. Much of the Mexican Cession remained unorganized.
Main article: Compromise of 1850

The brief pause from politics out of national grief at Taylor's death did not abate a crisis that developed over the land acquired after the Mexican–American War in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Aside from the issue of slavery in the territories, Taylor had faced four other major issues: demands that California be admitted to the Union, disputes over the Texas-New Mexico border, growing Northern opposition to the Washington D.C. slave trade, and Southern dissatisfaction with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. California, which extend across the western third of Mexican Cession, and whose population had grown larger than that of Delaware or Florida, was seeking immediate statehood. Texas claimed all of the Mexican Cession east of the Rio Grande, including parts of the former Mexican state of New Mexico that it had never exercised "de facto" control over, complicating the establishment of territorial governments there. The Washington, D.C. slave trade angered many in the North, who viewed the presence of slavery in the capital as a blemish on the nation. Disputes around fugitive slaves had grown since 1830 due to the improving means of transportation, as escaped slaves used improved roads, railroads, and ships to escape. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 had granted jurisdiction to all state and federal judges over cases regarding fugitive slaves, but several Northern states, dissatisfied by the lack of due process in these cases, had passed personal liberty laws that made it more difficult to return alleged fugitive slaves to the South. All of these issues would remain unsolved when Fillmore took office.[11]

As vice president, Fillmore had presided over some of the most momentous and passionate debates in American history as the Senate debated whether to allow slavery in the western territories. The ongoing sectional conflict had already excited much discussion when on January 21, 1850, President Taylor sent a special message to Congress urging the admission of California immediately and New Mexico later, and that the Supreme Court settle the Texas boundary dispute.[12] On January 29, Henry Clay introduced an Omnibus bill which combined the four diverse subjects under discussion. His legislative package included the admission of California as a free state, the cession by Texas of its conflicting northern and western territorial claims to the federal government in return for debt relief, the establishment of New Mexico and Utah territories, a ban on the importation of slaves into the District of Columbia for sale, and a more stringent fugitive slave law. The status of slavery in the territories of the Mexican Cession would be decided by those living there; this doctrine of "popular sovereignty" would overturn the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had outlawed slavery in territory West of Missouri and North of the 36°30′ parallel. Taylor was unenthusiastic about the bill, and it languished in Congress. In May 1850, Fillmore, after hearing weeks of debate, informed Taylor that if senators divided equally on the bill, he would cast his tie-breaking vote in favor.[13][14]

Territorial results of the Compromise:

Upon taking office, Fillmore reinforced federal troops in the disputed New Mexico region, and warned Texas Governor Peter H. Bell to keep the peace. Bell had sent belligerent letters to President Taylor regarding Texas's claim to the territory, and he continued this practice under Fillmore.[15] Fillmore abandoned Taylor's proposal to seek immediate admission of New Mexico, instead leaving it to Clay to craft a congressional compromise.[16] But by July 31, shortly after Fillmore took office as president, Clay's bill was effectively dead. All the significant provisions had been deleted by amendment other than the organization of Utah Territory—one wag put it that the "Mormons" were the only remaining passengers on the Omnibus.[17] Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois then stepped forward, and with Clay's agreement, proposed that the omnibus bill be split into individual bills that could be passed piecemeal.[17] With Fillmore's endorsement, five separate bills were crafted.[13]

Fillmore sent a special message to Congress on August 6, 1850, disclosing a letter from Governor Bell and his reply, warning that armed Texans would be viewed as intruders, and urging Congress to defuse sectional tensions by passing the Compromise. Without the Great Triumvirate of John C. Calhoun, Webster and Clay who had long dominated the Senate,[a] Douglas and others led that body towards the administration-backed package of bills. Each bill passed the Senate with the support of the section that wanted it, plus a few members who were determined to see all the bills passed. The battle then moved to the House, in which the more populous Northern states had a majority. Most contentious was the Fugitive Slave Bill, whose provisions were anathema to abolitionists. Fillmore applied pressure on Northern Whigs to abstain rather than oppose the bill. Among those he pressured were fellow New Yorkers, and Fillmore threatened to block the renomination of Congressman Abraham Schermerhorn of Rochester, whose constituents included Frederick Douglass, if he voted against the bill. Through the legislative process, various changes were made, including the setting of a boundary between New Mexico Territory and Texas—the state would be given a payment to settle any claims. California was admitted as a free state, the District slave trade was ended, and the final status of slavery in New Mexico and Utah would be settled later. Fillmore signed the bills as they reached his desk, holding the Fugitive Slave Bill for two days until he received a favorable opinion as to its constitutionality from the new Attorney General, John J. Crittenden. Although some Northerners were unhappy at the Fugitive Slave Act, relief was widespread, as was the hope this would settle the slavery question.[18][19]

Fugitive Slave Act

1851 poster warning that the Boston police enforce the Fugitive Slave Act

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 continued to be contentious after its enactment, and Fillmore's aggressive enforcement of the law became the central issue of the remainder of the Fillmore administration. The act created the first national system of law enforcement by appointing federal commissioner in every county to hear fugitive slave cases and enforce the fugitive slave law. As there were few federal courts operating during this time in American history, the appointment of commissioners allowed for the enforcement of a federal law without relying on state courts, many of which were unsympathetic to slave masters or unwilling to even take on fugitive slave cases. The law also penalized commissioners and federal marshals who allowed slaves to escape from their custody, and levied fines against anyone who aided a fugitive slave or interfered with the return of slaves. Fugitive slave proceedings lacked many due process protections such as the right to a jury trial, and defendants were not allowed to testify at their own hearing. Many in the North felt that the Fugitive Slave Act effectively brought slavery into their home states, and while the abolitionist movement remained weak, many Northerners increasingly came to detest slavery.[20]

Though the law was highly offensive to many Northerners, Southerners complained bitterly about perceived slackness in enforcement. Fillmore believed himself bound by his oath as president and by the bargain made in the Compromise to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. He did so even though some prosecutions or attempts to return slaves ended badly for the government, with acquittals or the slave taken from federal custody and to freedom by a Boston mob. Such cases were widely publicized North and South, and inflamed passions in both places, undermining the good feeling that had followed the Compromise.[21]

Other issues

In August 1850, the social reformer Dorothea Dix wrote to Fillmore, urging support for her proposal in Congress for land grants to finance asylums for the impoverished mentally ill. Though her proposal did not pass, they became friends, meeting in person and corresponding, continuing well after Fillmore's presidency.[22] In September of that year, Fillmore appointed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader Brigham Young as the first governor of Utah Territory.[23] In gratitude, Young named the first territorial capital "Fillmore" and the surrounding county "Millard".[24] Noting that many miners involved in the California Gold Rush were forced to sell their gold at a discount, Fillmore asked Congress to create a federal mint in California, resulting in the establishment of the San Francisco Mint.[25]

A longtime supporter of national infrastructure development, Fillmore called for investments in roads, railroads, and waterways.[26] He signed bills to subsidize the Illinois Central railroad from Chicago to Mobile, and for a canal at Sault Ste. Marie. The 1851 completion of the Erie Railroad in New York prompted Fillmore and his cabinet to ride the first train from New York City to the shores of Lake Erie, in company with many other politicians and dignitaries. Fillmore made many speeches along the way from the train's rear platform, urging acceptance of the Compromise, and afterwards went on a tour of New England with his Southern cabinet members. Although Fillmore urged Congress to authorize a transcontinental railroad, it did not do so until a decade later.[27]

Foreign affairs

Official White House portrait of Millard Fillmore

Fillmore oversaw two highly competent Secretaries of State, Webster, and after the New Englander's 1852 death, Edward Everett, looking over their shoulders and making all major decisions.[28] The president was particularly active in Asia and the Pacific, especially with regard to Japan, which at this time still prohibited nearly all foreign contact. American businessmen wanted Japan "opened up" for trade, and businessmen and the navy alike wanted the ability to visit Japan to stock up on provisions such as coal. Many Americans were also concerned by the fate of shipwrecked American sailors, who were treated as criminals in Japan. Fillmore began planning an expedition to Japan in 1850, but the expedition, led by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, did not leave until November 1852. Though the Perry Expedition did not reach Japan until after Fillmore's presidency, it served as the catalyst for the end of Japan's isolationist policy.[29]

Fillmore was a staunch opponent of European influence in Hawaii. France under Napoleon III sought to annex Hawaii, but backed down after Fillmore issued a strongly worded message warning that "the United States would not stand for any such action."[30] Taylor had pressed Portugal for payment of American claims dating as far back as the War of 1812, and had refused offers of arbitration; Fillmore gained a favorable settlement.[31]

Fillmore had difficulties regarding Cuba; many Southerners hoped to see the island part of the U.S. as slave territory: Cuba was a colony of Spain where slavery was practiced.[30] Venezuelan adventurer Narciso López recruited Americans for three filibustering expeditions to Cuba, in the hope of overthrowing Spanish rule there. After the second attempt in 1850, López and some of his followers were indicted for breach of the Neutrality Act, but were quickly acquitted by friendly Southern juries.[30] The final López expedition ended with his execution by the Spanish, who put several Americans before the firing squad, including the nephew of Attorney General Crittenden. This resulted in riots against the Spanish in New Orleans, causing their consul to flee; historian Elbert E. Smith, who wrote of the Taylor and Fillmore presidencies, suggested that Fillmore could have had war against Spain had he wanted it. Instead, Fillmore, Webster and the Spanish worked out a series of face-saving measures that settled the crisis without armed conflict. Many Southerners, including Whigs, supported the filibusters, and Fillmore's response helped divide his party as the 1852 election approached.[32]

A much-publicized event of Fillmore's presidency was the arrival in late 1851 of Lajos Kossuth, the exiled leader of a failed Hungarian revolution against Austria. Kossuth wanted the U.S. to recognize Hungary's independence. Many Americans were sympathetic to the Hungarian rebels, especially recent German immigrants, who were now coming to the U.S. in large numbers and had become a major political force. Kossuth was feted by Congress, and Fillmore allowed a White House meeting after receiving word that Kossuth would not try to politicize it. In spite of his promise, Kossuth made a speech promoting his cause. The American enthusiasm for Kossuth petered out, and he departed for Europe; Fillmore refused to change American policy, remaining neutral.[33]

Election of 1852 and completion of term

Main article: 1852 Whig National Convention

As the election of 1852 approached, Fillmore remained undecided whether to run for a full term as president. Secretary Webster had long coveted the presidency and, though past seventy, planned a final attempt to gain the White House. Fillmore was sympathetic to the ambitions of his longtime friend, but though he issued a letter in late 1851 stating that he did not seek a full term, was reluctant to rule it out, fearing the party would be captured by the Sewardites. Thus, approaching the national convention in Baltimore, to be held in June 1852, the major candidates were Fillmore, Webster and General Scott. Weed and Seward backed Scott; in late May, the Democrats nominated former New Hampshire senator Franklin Pierce, who had been out of national politics for nearly a decade before 1852, but whose profile had risen as a result of his military service in the Mexican War. The nomination of Pierce, a northerner sympathetic to the southern view on slavery, united the Democrats and meant the Whig candidate would face an uphill battle to gain the presidency.[34]

Fillmore was by then unpopular with northern Whigs for signing and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, but had considerable support from the South, where he was seen as the only candidate capable of uniting the party. Once the convention passed a party platform endorsing the Compromise as a final settlement of the slavery question, Fillmore was willing to withdraw, but found that many of his supporters could not accept Webster and his action would nominate Scott. The convention deadlocked, and this persisted through Saturday, June 19, when a total of 46 ballots had been taken; delegates adjourned until Monday. Party leaders proposed a deal to both Fillmore and Webster: if the secretary could increase his vote total over the next several ballots, enough Fillmore supporters would go along to put him over the top; if he could not, Webster would withdraw in favor of Fillmore. The president quickly agreed, but Webster did not do so until Monday morning. On the 48th ballot, Webster delegates began to defect to Scott, and the general gained the nomination on the 53rd ballot. Webster was far more unhappy at the outcome than was Fillmore, who refused the secretary's resignation. Bereft of the votes of much of the South, and also of Northerners who depended on peaceful intersectional trade, Scott was easily beaten by Pierce in November. Smith suggested that the Whigs might have done much better with Fillmore.[35]

The final months of Fillmore's term were uneventful. Webster died in October 1852, but during the final illness, Fillmore effectively acted as his own Secretary of State without incident, and Everett stepped competently into Webster's shoes. Fillmore intended to lecture Congress on the slavery question in his final annual message in December, but was talked out of it by his cabinet, and he contented himself with pointing out the prosperity of the nation and expressing gratitude for the opportunity to serve it. There was little discussion of slavery during the lame duck session of Congress, and Fillmore left office on March 4, 1853, succeeded by Pierce.[36]

Legacy and historical view

Statue of Fillmore outside City Hall in downtown Buffalo, New York

According to his biographer, Scarry: "No president of the United States ... has suffered as much ridicule as Millard Fillmore".[37] He ascribed much of the abuse to a tendency to denigrate the presidents who served in the years just prior to the Civil War as lacking in leadership. For example, later president Harry Truman "characterized Fillmore as a weak, trivial thumb-twaddler who would do nothing to offend anyone", responsible in part for the war.[38] Another Fillmore biographer, Finkelman, commented, "on the central issues of the age his vision was myopic and his legacy is worse ... in the end, Fillmore was always on the wrong side of the great moral and political issues".[39] Finkelman argues that the central accomplishment of Fillmore's tenure, the Compromise of 1850, should instead be called the "Appeasement of 1850" due to its abandoning of the Wilmot Proviso, thereby opening up all of the territories of the Mexican Cession to slavery.[19] Rayback, however, applauded "the warmth and wisdom with which he had defended the Union".[40]

Although Fillmore has become something of a cult figure as America's most forgettable chief executive, Smith found him to be "a conscientious president" who chose to honor his oath of office and enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, rather than govern based on his personal preferences.[41] Paul G. Calabresi and Christopher S. Yoo, in their study of presidential power, deemed Fillmore "a faithful executor of the laws of the United States—for good and for ill".[42] But, according to Smith, the enforcement of the act has given Fillmore an undeserved pro-southern reputation. Fillmore's place in history has also suffered because "even those who give him high marks for his support of the compromise have done so almost grudgingly, probably because of his Know-Nothing candidacy in 1856".[43] Smith argued that Fillmore's association with the Know Nothings looks far worse in retrospect than it did at the time, and that the former president was not motivated by nativism in his candidacy.[44]

Benson Lee Grayson suggested that the Fillmore administration's ability to avoid potential problems is too often overlooked. Fillmore's constant attention to Mexico avoided a resumption of the war and laid the groundwork for the Gadsden Treaty during Pierce's presidency.[45] Meanwhile, the Fillmore administration resolved a controversy with Portugal left over from the Taylor administration,[46] smoothed over a disagreement with Peru over guano islands, and peacefully resolved disputes with Britain, France, and Spain over Cuba. All of these crises were resolved without the United States going to war or losing face.[47] Grayson also applauded Fillmore's firm stand against Texas' ambitions in New Mexico during the 1850 crisis.[48] Fred I. Greenstein and Dale Anderson praised Fillmore for his resoluteness in his early months in office, noting that Fillmore "is typically described as stolid, bland, and conventional, but such terms underestimate the forcefulness evinced by his handling of the Texas–New Mexico border crisis, his decision to replace Taylor's entire cabinet, and his effectiveness in advancing the Compromise of 1850".[49]

According to the assessment of Fillmore by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia:

Any assessment of a President who served a century and a half ago must be refracted through a consideration of the interesting times in which he lived. Fillmore's political career encompassed the tortuous course toward the two-party system that we know today. The Whigs were not cohesive enough to survive the slavery imbroglio, while parties like the Anti-Masonics and Know-Nothings were too extremist. When, as President, Fillmore sided with proslavery elements in ordering enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, he all but guaranteed that he would be the last Whig President. The first modern two-party system of Whigs and Democrats had succeeded only in dividing the nation in two by the 1850s, and seven years later, the election of the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, would guarantee civil war.[50]

Notes

  1. ^ With, by then, Calhoun dead, Webster as Secretary of State, and Clay recovering from his exertions on behalf of the bill at Newport, Rhode Island.

References

  1. ^ Snyder, p. 43.
  2. ^ "VP Millard Fillmore". United States Senate. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  3. ^ Finkelman, pp. 56–57, 72–73.
  4. ^ Finkelman, pp. 58–59.
  5. ^ "Millard Fillmore: Domestic Affairs". Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  6. ^ Finkelman, pp. 72–73.
  7. ^ Finkelman, pp. 73–78.
  8. ^ "Biographical Directory of Federal Judges: Curtis, Benjamin Robbins". History of the Federal Judiciary. Washington, D.C.: Federal Judicial Center. Retrieved March 8, 2017.
  9. ^ "U.S. Senate: Supreme Court Nominations: 1789-Present". www.senate.gov. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  10. ^ "Biographical Dictionary of the Federal Judiciary". Washington, DC: Federal Judicial Center. Retrieved March 4, 2012. searches run from page, "select research categories" then check "court type" and "nominating president", then select U.S. District Courts (or U.S. Circuit Courts) and also Millard Fillmore.
  11. ^ Finkelman, pp. 58–62, 71.
  12. ^ Scarry, 3445–3467.
  13. ^ a b American National Biography.
  14. ^ Smith, pp. 138–139, 163–165.
  15. ^ Greenstein & Anderson, p. 48.
  16. ^ Finkelman, pp. 79–80.
  17. ^ a b Smith, pp. 158–160.
  18. ^ Scarry, 4025–4102.
  19. ^ a b Finkelman, pp. 82–85.
  20. ^ Finkelman, pp. 85–88, 103–104.
  21. ^ Smith, pp. 208–213.
  22. ^ Snyder, pp. 80–82.
  23. ^ "Millard Fillmore: The American Franchise". Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  24. ^ Winder, Michael Kent (2007). Presidents and Prophets: The Story of America's Presidents and the LDS Church. American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications. ISBN 978-1-59811-452-2.
  25. ^ Finkelman, pp. 93–94.
  26. ^ Finkelman, pp. 92–93.
  27. ^ Smith, pp. 199–200.
  28. ^ Smith, p. 233.
  29. ^ Smith, pp. 96–98.
  30. ^ a b c "Millard Fillmore: Foreign Affairs". Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  31. ^ Smith, pp. 72–73.
  32. ^ Smith, p. 228.
  33. ^ Smith, pp. 230–232.
  34. ^ Smith, pp. 238–244.
  35. ^ Smith, pp. 244–247.
  36. ^ Smith, pp. 247–249.
  37. ^ Scarry, 8151.
  38. ^ Scarry, 8157–8161.
  39. ^ Finkelman, p. 137.
  40. ^ Rayback, 6953.
  41. ^ Smith, pp. 257, 260.
  42. ^ Calabresi & Yoo, p. 151.
  43. ^ Smith, pp. 260–261.
  44. ^ Smith, p. 254.
  45. ^ Grayson, p. 120.
  46. ^ Grayson, p. 83.
  47. ^ Grayson, pp. 103–109.
  48. ^ Smith, pp. 288–289.
  49. ^ Greenstein & Anderson, p. 55.
  50. ^ "Millard Fillmore: Impact and Legacy". Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Retrieved March 9, 2017.

Works cited

  • Calabresi, Steven G.; Yoo, Christopher S. (2008). The Unitary Executive: Presidential Power from Washington to Bush. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12126-1.
  • Finkelman, Paul (2011). Millard Fillmore. The American Presidents. Times Books. ISBN 978-0-8050-8715-4.
  • Grayson, Benson Lee (1981). The Unknown President: The Administration of Millard Fillmore. University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-8191-1457-0.
  • Greenstein, Fred I.; Anderson, Dale (2013). Presidents and the Dissolution of the Union: Leadership Style from Polk to Lincoln. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-4641-2.
  • Rayback, Robert J. (2015) [1959]. Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President (Kindle ed.). Pickle Partners Publishing.
  • Scarry, Robert J. (2001). Millard Fillmore (Kindle ed.). McFarland & Co., Inc. ISBN 978-1-4766-1398-7.
  • Smith, Elbert B. (1988). The Presidencies of Zachary Taylor & Millard Fillmore. The American Presidency. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0362-6.
  • Snyder, Charles M. (1975). The Lady and the President: The Letters of Dorothea Dix and Millard Fillmore. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-1332-6.

Further reading

External links

U.S. Presidential Administrations
Preceded by Fillmore Presidency
1850–1853 		Succeeded by
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