Millard Fillmore’s Retrospective on His Life and Career
“I was just an apprentice with little hope of being anything but a mechanic, yet fortune has given me what I never anticipated in worldly honors or dared to hope for... I hope and trust in an Almighty and Merciful God for further blessings in time...".
Fillmore was not born to privilege, and though promising had to work his way up from the bottom rung. His father apprenticed him to a cloth maker at age fourteen to learn that trade. He struggled to obtain an education living on what was then the frontier. In 1819 he got a...
Fillmore was not born to privilege, and though promising had to work his way up from the bottom rung. His father apprenticed him to a cloth maker at age fourteen to learn that trade. He struggled to obtain an education living on what was then the frontier. In 1819 he got a break and began to clerk for a New York judge, under whom he began to study law. After buying out his apprenticeship, Fillmore moved to Buffalo, where he continued his studies. He was admitted to the bar in 1823 and began his law practice. He soon earned a reputation as a good attorney and reliable man. In 1828, Fillmore was elected to the New York State Assembly, and in 1832 he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served until 1843. After leaving Congress, Fillmore was the unsuccessful Whig candidate for Governor of New York in 1844. He next won office as New York State Comptroller, and was in office from 1848 to 1849. As comptroller, he revised New York’s banking system, making it a model for the future U.S. Banking System.
“Still my memory revives with ever fond delight to the companions of my early life; and their value, like that of the Sybiline Leaves, seems to increase as they grow less in number”
Luck smiled on Fillmore in 1848. At the Whig national convention, the nomination of Louisiana slaveowner Gen. Zachary Taylor for president angered opponents of allowing slavery in the territories gained in the Mexican War. Whig politicians needed to find a vice presential candidate from a free state, not considered extreme or unpredictable, universally well known and thought of, and preferably from populous New York where he might help carry that crucial state. William Seward was considered, but he had too many enemies. So very unexpectedly, Fillmore was nominated for vice president. President Taylor died in 1850, and the former cloth maker’s apprentice was President of the United States. In the Executive Mansion, Fillmore advocated and signed the Compromise of 1850, and sought to accommodate and intermediate both North and South in the confrontation over slavery. In foreign affairs, he sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry to open Japan to Western trade.
In 1872, just two years before his death, in a letter to his lifelong friend Day O. Kellogg, Fillmore reflected back on his life and career. Autograph Letter Signed, four pages, Buffalo, July 24, 1872, to Kellogg. “I avail myself of our first leisure moment to thank you from my inmost heart for your very welcome favor of the 17th & to assure you that the friends of my youth & especially yourself are always remembered with the tenderest regard. Your sister Debra, admiration of my youthful days, is gone. How well I remember her charming, fascinating manner, but then I was just an apprentice with little hope of being anything but a mechanic, yet fortune has given me what I never anticipated in worldly honors or dared to hope for. Still my memory revives with ever fond delight to the companions of my early life; and their value, like that of the Sybiline Leaves, seems to increase as they grow less in number. That affection which was diffused among many is now concentrated on a few; and I never hear of the death of one without a pang of sorrow. I am sorry to hear that you are not as well as usual and to learn that the weight of years bears heavily on you. For myself I have great reason to be thankful for perfect health, the greatest of earthly blessings. I have lost about 20 pounds of flesh, but feel none the worse for that, indeed if anything, the better.
“My life, upon the whole, has been a very happy one – the loss of relatives and friends almost my only grief – and I hope and trust in an Almighty and Merciful God for further blessings in time and in eternity. I hope to be ready to go whenever he may call. I feel that my work here is done, and others more competent will soon fill my place. Alas! how soon, I know not. You speak of the longevity of your family. The genealogy of mine is somewhat extraordinary. My Great Grandfather died at the age of 77. My Grand Father 73 and my own father 92. My Grand Father’s family consisted of 5 sons and one daughter whose average ages were over 86. I have lost 3 brothers, one sister and one daughter, all of whom, but one, died at the age of 22 and as you know, I was 72 on the 7th day of last January.
“I have never resumed my profession since I left the Presidential chair, but yet time never weighs heavy upon my hands. When I have nothing to do for myself or others, I take great pleasure in reading history, science and occasionally a play of Shakespeare or a novel. I am also fond of geography and books of travel. I am also (I may say to you in confidence) blessed with a very excellent and cheerful wife – but she has suffered lately from ill health and we visited New York for that only, calling on no one. I am happy to say she is improving & joins me in cordial regards to Mrs. K & yourself. As ever your friend, Millard Fillmore.”
According to his New York Times obituary of August 11, 1874, Day O. Kellogg was a leading merchant from Troy, NY who became Mayor of Troy “which position he subsequently resigned to accept that of Consul to Glasgow, tendered him by President Fillmore, with whom he maintained relations of the warmest personal friendship from boyhood.” By the time this obituary ran, Day’s friend Fillmore had been deceased for five months after a stroke. As for Mrs. Fillmore, she survived her husband by seven years.
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