- Биографические и автобиографические материалы, интервью, дневники, письма и т.д. / 2005 неизвестный источник /
2005 неизвестный источник2005 unknown source
Fillmore, Millard Fillmore By courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (b. Jan. 7, 1800, Locke Township, N.Y., U.S.--d. March 8, 1874, Buffalo, N.Y.), 13th president of the United States (served 1850-53). Fillmore was a moderate Whig politician whose insistence on federal enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 alienated the North and led to the death of the Whig Party. Elected vice president in 1848, he became chief executive on the death of President Zachary Taylor (July 1850). Fillmore was born in a log cabin to a poor family and was apprenticed to a wool carder at age 15. He received little formal education until he was 18, when he managed to obtain six consecutive months of schooling. Shortly afterward he obtained his release as an indentured apprentice and started work in a law office. He was admitted to the bar in 1823 and entered politics in 1828. Fillmore was identified with the democratic and libertarian Anti-Masonic Party from 1828 until 1834, when he followed his political mentor Thurlow Weed to the Whigs and was soon recognized as an outstanding leader of the party's Northern wing. Following three terms in the state assembly (1829-32), he was elected to Congress (1833-35, 1837-43), where he became a devoted follower of Senator Henry Clay. Losing the New York gubernatorial election in 1844, he was easily elected the first state comptroller three years later. At the national Whig convention (1848), the Mexican War hero Zachary Taylor of Virginia was nominated for president and Millard Fillmore--the honest, experienced, dignified Northerner--for vice president, largely through Clay's sponsorship. Fillmore believed that Whig success at the polls heralded the rise of a truly national party that would occupy a middle ground between extremists of both North and South in the growing sectional controversy over slavery. This philosophy was embodied in Clay's Compromise of 1850, which sought to appease both sides on the slavery issue. When President Taylor died in the middle of the national debate, his successor, Fillmore--much as he personally abhorred slavery--felt it must be endured and given constitutional protection until it could be abolished without destroying the Union in the process. Thus he felt obligated to support the provision requiring the federal government to aid in the capture and return of runaway slaves to their former owners. He publicly announced that, if necessary, he would call upon the military to aid in the enforcement of this statute. Although this section of the compromise assuaged the South and postponed the Civil War for 10 years, it also meant political death for Fillmore because of its extreme unpopularity in the North. Throughout his career he was a constant advocate of U.S. internal development. He was also an early champion of expansion in the Pacific and in 1853 sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry with a U.S. fleet to Japan, forcing that government to alter its isolationist tradition and to enter into trade and diplomatic relations with the West. In 1852 Fillmore was one of three presidential candidates of a divided Whig Party in its last national election, which it lost. He also allowed his name to be put forth for president (1856) by the American, or Know-Nothing, Party, which took an ambivalent position on slavery. Overwhelmingly defeated, he retired to Buffalo and never again ran for public office, although he continued to be a civic and cultural leader there. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Documents written by Millard Fillmore are collected in Frank H. Severance (ed.), Millard Fillmore Papers, 2 vol. (1907, reprinted 1970). Works dealing with the life and presidency of Fillmore include Robert J. Rayback, Millard Fillmore (1959, reissued 1992); Benson Lee Grayson, The Unknown President (1981); and Elbert B. Smith, The Presidencies of Zachary Taylor & Millard Fillmore (1988). Related Internet Links: Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore: Thirteenth President 1850-1853 Fillmore, Millard Fillmore By courtesy of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (b. Jan. 7, 1800, Locke Township, N.Y., U.S.--d. March 8, 1874, Buffalo, N.Y.), 13th president of the United States (served 1850-53). Fillmore was a moderate Whig politician whose insistence on federal enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 alienated the North and led to the death of the Whig Party. Elected vice president in 1848, he became chief executive on the death of President Zachary Taylor (July 1850). Fillmore was born in a log cabin to a poor family and was apprenticed to a wool carder at age 15. He received little formal education until he was 18, when he managed to obtain six consecutive months of schooling. Shortly afterward he obtained his release as an indentured apprentice and started work in a law office. He was admitted to the bar in 1823 and entered politics in 1828. Fillmore was identified with the democratic and libertarian Anti-Masonic Party from 1828 until 1834, when he followed his political mentor Thurlow Weed to the Whigs and was soon recognized as an outstanding leader of the party's Northern wing. Following three terms in the state assembly (1829-32), he was elected to Congress (1833-35, 1837-43), where he became a devoted follower of Senator Henry Clay. Losing the New York gubernatorial election in 1844, he was easily elected the first state comptroller three years later. At the national Whig convention (1848), the Mexican War hero Zachary Taylor of Virginia was nominated for president and Millard Fillmore--the honest, experienced, dignified Northerner--for vice president, largely through Clay's sponsorship. Fillmore believed that Whig success at the polls heralded the rise of a truly national party that would occupy a middle ground between extremists of both North and South in the growing sectional controversy over slavery. This philosophy was embodied in Clay's Compromise of 1850, which sought to appease both sides on the slavery issue. When President Taylor died in the middle of the national debate, his successor, Fillmore--much as he personally abhorred slavery--felt it must be endured and given constitutional protection until it could be abolished without destroying the Union in the process. Thus he felt obligated to support the provision requiring the federal government to aid in the capture and return of runaway slaves to their former owners. He publicly announced that, if necessary, he would call upon the military to aid in the enforcement of this statute. Although this section of the compromise assuaged the South and postponed the Civil War for 10 years, it also meant political death for Fillmore because of its extreme unpopularity in the North. Throughout his career he was a constant advocate of U.S. internal development. He was also an early champion of expansion in the Pacific and in 1853 sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry with a U.S. fleet to Japan, forcing that government to alter its isolationist tradition and to enter into trade and diplomatic relations with the West. In 1852 Fillmore was one of three presidential candidates of a divided Whig Party in its last national election, which it lost. He also allowed his name to be put forth for president (1856) by the American, or Know-Nothing, Party, which took an ambivalent position on slavery. Overwhelmingly defeated, he retired to Buffalo and never again ran for public office, although he continued to be a civic and cultural leader there. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Documents written by Millard Fillmore are collected in Frank H. Severance (ed.), Millard Fillmore Papers, 2 vol. (1907, reprinted 1970). Works dealing with the life and presidency of Fillmore include Robert J. Rayback, Millard Fillmore (1959, reissued 1992); Benson Lee Grayson, The Unknown President (1981); and Elbert B. Smith, The Presidencies of Zachary Taylor & Millard Fillmore (1988). Related Internet Links: Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore: Thirteenth President 1850-1853