Millard Fillmore
Not too long ago, I bought Dad a book about American Presidents to help with his memory work and for us to engage in conversation about some of the more terrible Chief Executives in history, including one Millard Fillmore.
In fact, our discussion of Fillmore, one of the worst Presidents in American history, and that’s saying a lot, was so interesting that I bought a biography of the 13th President. And yes, someone wrote such a book. Actually there are multiple biographies of Fillmore and most likely a few full time academics who specialize in Millard Fillmore’s Presidency.
I remind myself again how fortunate I was not to choose an academic life.
The book arrived and I dived in expecting to be bored as how I might be bored if I read a biography of Chester Arthur.
But no, Millard Fillmore, written by the renowned historian Paul Finkleman, published in 2011, was a brilliant, scathing, fascinating and short read. It was also incredibly relevant to our fractured times, for you see, Fillmore is one of those awful Presidents whose pro-slavery policies exacerbated the tensions that led to the Civil War. And he was from Buffalo, New York!
As I read the biography, I shared what I learned with Dad and let me assure you, during those moments of our lengthy discussions about Millard Fillmore, we were the only two people in the United States then discussing Millard Fillmore. I liked that feeling and so did Dad.
Fillmore signed the Fugitive Slave Act into law and that pro-slavery law brought the issue into the North in such a repellent way that it galvanized many indifferent Northerners into abolitionism, including outright refusal to obey the law.
Fillmore’s Whig administration (remember the Whigs?) zealously prosecuted anyone who violated the Fugitive Slave Act, which Finkleman labeled the most immoral, oppressive and unconstitutional federal law ever passed. The similarities between this law and the various anti abortion laws being passed by various Red state legislatures are remarkably striking. The South wanted the Fugitive Slave Act and they got it. It destroyed the Whig Party, Fillmore’s Presidency and was a significant cause of the Civil War. The Red states got Roe overturned and now get to legislate on abortion, all the way to citizenship at conception. We are already seeing that the Dodds decision may be their own destructive version of a Fugitive Slave Act. Let’s hope so. The stakes are so high.
I cherish these political and historical discussions with my father. We won’t be living together much longer, but these conversations will continue as he transitions into assisted living.
Next up…Herbert Hoover. Dad never fails to remind me that his side of the family is directly related to Hoover, who happened to grow up in Newberg. Oh joy! I am related to Herbert Hoover! Maybe my distance relations to the poet Anne Bradstreet evens out the karma.