President Millard Fillmore Rejoices in the Receipt of a Japanese Gift, After the Success of the 1851 Perry Expedition and the First Formal Communication Between the US and Japan, in a Letter to the Man Who Made the 2nd Expedition Possible

A remarkable letter touching foreign affairs, the domestic state in 1852, and the imminent death of the Whig Party

Commodore Matthew Perry’s famous 1852-1854 mission to Japan was not the first American overture to the Japanese. In the 1830s, the Far Eastern squadron of the U.S. Navy sent several missions from its regional base in Guangzhou (Canton), China, but in each case the Japanese did not permit them to land, and they lacked the authority from the U.S. Government to force the issue. In 1851, President Millard Fillmore authorized a formal naval expedition to Japan to return shipwrecked Japanese sailors and request that Americans stranded in Japan be returned to the United States. He sent Commodore John Aulick to accomplish these tasks, but before Aulick left Guangzhou for Japan, he was relieved of his post and replaced by Commodore Matthew C. Perry. Perry was given a letter from Fillmore to deliver to the Emperor of Japan, the first formal communication between the leaders of the two countries. Although the letter was addressed to the Emperor, it was the Tokugawa shôgun, the actual ruler of Japan, who received the letter.

Perry’s mission was to complete an agreement with the Japanese Government for the protection of shipwrecked or stranded Americans and to open one or more ports for supplies and refueling. Displaying his audacity and readiness to use force, Perry’s approach into forbidden waters around Tokyo convinced the Japanese authorities to accept the letter. The following spring, Perry returned to receive Japan’s acquiescence to the terms. The agreement also allowed trade between the two nations at two ports in Japan.

George Folsom was the US Charge d’Affaires in the Netherlands, which country had knowledge of Japan and a desire to have access to its ports and economy. In 1851, the U.S. applied to the Dutch government for maps and charts of Japan and its environs through Folsom. For centuries, Japan’s only trade with the West had been with the Dutch and so jealousy was expected. Nevertheless, the Dutch East India company, through Folsom, complied, in part because of US promises that the country would benefit from a US entree into the Japanese sphere.

Incumbent Whig President Millard Fillmore had succeeded to the Presidency in 1850 upon the death of President Zachary Taylor. Endorsement of the Compromise of 1850 and enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law earned Fillmore Southern voter support and Northern voter opposition.

Fillmore had long regarded his accession to the presidency sufficient reward for his political endeavors; he had little desire for another term. He remained silent on the matter of his candidacy and engaged in no political maneuvering to assure his nomination in 1852. When Daniel Webster announced his candidacy, Fillmore decided to withdraw formally from the race. Yet his friends prevailed on him to sustain his candidacy, at least passively, until by campaign time his public support rendered a withdrawal of his name almost impossible. Shortly before his death in 1852, Henry Clay endorsed Fillmore. The Whig convention opened in Baltimore on June 16, 1852. From the outset it was at an impasse as Fillmore, Mexican War hero General Winfield Scott, and Webster (supported only by New England), divided the vote. Finally, on the fifty-third ballot, Pennsylvania bolted to Scott, permitting him to win the Whig nomination. Fillmore accepted the decision with magnanimity; the party did not. The widespread distrust of Scott among the party faithful left the Whig standard in shreds. No longer was the national Whig party capable of fulfilling the political ambitions of its adherents. In the subsequent election Scott carried four states—Massachusetts, Vermont, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The Whig party had entered its last presidential campaign.

In 1852, Abraham Lincoln was a Whig National Committee member from Illinois.

Letter signed, as President, three pages, Washington, April 1, 1852, to George Folsom at The Hague in the Netherlands, predicting a Whig debacle in the upcoming election, expressing his concern over the slavery question and disinclination to run for reelection, and giving thanks for some Japanese gifts Folsom had sent from The Hague as the expedition to Japan was in its planning stage

“Your favor of the 30th of December last came to hand on the 18th of January, and it was gratifying to Mrs. Fillmore and myself, to know that you and Mrs. Folsom remembered us so kindly at the commencement of the New Year. I was much interested in the description you gave of persons with the court of the King of Holland, but I delayed answering your letter until I should have received the mementos of friendship which you and Mrs. Folsom were so kind as to send us. Yesterday, however, the splendid Japanese silk gown for myself, and the beautiful and elegant porcelain and lacquered ware for Mrs. Fillmore came safely to hand, for which we beg leave to return our sincere thanks. Last evening I put on the robe by way of experiment, and I think I should have passed very well for a Mandarin. My appearance afforded much amusement to the family, but I can’t hardly venture to expose myself in so gorgeous a robe to any other spectators. Mrs. Fillmore is delighted with the four cups and and saucers of porcelain. They are the finest specimens of earthen ware that I have ever seen, so thin, light and transparent. She says she intends to preserve them as a souvenir from Mrs. Folsom. The lacquered ware appears to be of wood, and is the only specimen I have ever seen.

“We have had an unusually cold winter and especially at the South. Spring is just beginning to dawn upon us here. Congress has made little progress in the public business being mostly engaged in debating the presidential question. Previous to the commencement of the session I had made up my mind to withdraw my name from the contest, but upon this being known, the remonstrances from my friends at the North and especially from the Whigs of the South induced me to forego, at least for the present, the execution of my design. The truth is, the chances are very slight for electing any Whig. If we can succeed at all, it must be by the division of our opponents and the Union of our party. The prospect now seems very fair for a division among the Democrats, but I am sorry to say it is not so promising of an entire union among the Whigs. You have doubtless from the papers, that an angry discussion between the several factions of the a Democratic party has been carried on in Congress, in reference to the several candidates of that party who aspire to the Presidency. It would seem hardly possible that anyone who is now prominent can be nominated under the two thirds rule of their convention, and the consequence may be that all will be thrown overboard, and some new name taken, on which for the sake of the spoils, all will be ready to unite. In such an event I think the Whigs stand little or no chance of success.

“Genl. Cass at the present time appears to be the most prominent, and probably next to him Mr. Douglass but the nomination of either would be much more favorable to us than the nomination of a man who had no other merit than that of being unknown. You will regret to see that the Whig party is yet distracted upon the question of slavery between the North and the South, and time alone will determine whether it is possible to unite upon any candidate that can command the strength of the party in both sections of the Union. Personally, I feel no desire to enter the contest. I am wholly indifferent even to an election, and, of course, would greatly prefer not to be a candidate than to be defeated. I am, therefore, making no efforts to secure a nomination, and regret that I am compelled, for the sake of my friends, to occupy a position of seeming to desire a nomination, which I do not.

“Mrs. Fillmore joins me in most cordial regards to yourself and Mrs. Folsom.”

Pierce, a dark horse candidate for the Democrats, won the Democratic nomination and election, followed in 4 years by Buchanan, and then Abraham Lincoln. Fillmore was right. The Whig Party would die and the two sections of the country would fail to unite around one candidate, leading to secession over the very issue named by Fillmore: slavery. As for Perry, in November, just after the election, he left for Japan.

This is the most interesting and wide-ranging letter of Fillmore as President that we’ve had in over a decade.