Certain names evoke imagines in my head. Not all of them, mind you. I don’t see a thing when I hear Tom Smith or Pat Jones.
But Millard Fillmore? I see two things every time. A mallard duck. And the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Of course, neither of these things has any connection with him. It is just the sound of the words.
That’s my internal personal fact about Millard Fillmore. But there are others for the world to know. It’s his birthday, for one. January 7, 1800
He was president from 1850-1853. The 13th president. Some people say the number is unlucky. That may have been the case for Millard, as most people don’t consider him a good president. He ranks about 38th in the standings.
But. He’s the embodiment of the classic “rags to riches” story. He rose up out of extreme poverty. He was born in a beautiful land. I’ve been to the place, the Finger Lake region in New York. He was the oldest of nine kids, all crammed in a log cabin. He spent a great deal of his childhood helping his father on the farm — on land his father leased. There was no “getting ahead” for them.
So. His dad hoped to get Millard away, and above all that, and when he was 14, his father apprenticed him to a cloth dresser. But he soon returned home. Millard claimed he was being severely mistreated. Whatever that might mean.
Even still, this path turned out to be the way for Fillmore. He only had a tiny whiff of formal schooling. In spite of that, he worked hard to educate himself and eventually became a schoolteacher.
Then, he found an interest in the law. This was mostly spurred on by his father’s landlord, who was also a local judge. He clerked at law firms. Then, Fillmore was admitted to the bar at age 23. Later, he opened a practice near Buffalo, New York, and became good at this. He also started to hobnob with some political leaders in the area. And that was that. By age 50, he would become president.
As such, Millard Fillmore was one of five “accidental” presidents. He was vice-president to Zachary Taylor — they took the White House with 47 percent of the popular vote. But as VP, Taylor mostly left Fillmore out of the decision-making process. He sat around the White House, maybe knitting or something. Baking.
Anyway, on July 4, 1850, Taylor came down with a stomach bug after attending a Fourth of July celebration at the Washington Monument. Potato salad, I bet. Taylor, as president, had the best care in the land. In all their infinite wisdom, these doctors gave him a mercury compound called calomel and induced bleeding and blisters. Well, that took care of any stomach problems. Because a few days later, Taylor was dead as a doornail.
Fillmore ascended to the presidency. The only other U.S. presidents never elected to the office were John Tyler (1841-1845), Andrew Johnson (1865-1869), Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885), and Gerald Ford (1974-1977).
Perhaps the most notable thing about his presidency is that Fillmore attempted to reduce tensions between the North and South. Personally, he was opposed to slavery. But he also put a high value on the preservation of the Union above everything else. That led him to support and drive the so-called Compromise of 1850. It was a package of bills that did many different things:
It allowed the newly formed territories of New Mexico and Utah to decide the slavery question for themselves / It admitted California as a free state / the package banned the slave trade — but not slavery — in Washington, D.C. / it settled a Texas boundary dispute / and finally, it authorized the use of federal officers to capture runaway slaves.
But, when it was all said and done, Millard Fillmore was not elected to a second term. He ran again later, too, and only carried one state. So. That was Mallard Pillsbury Doughboy for you. In one little dollop.
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May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.
— Millard Fillmore
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Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom.
— Millard Fillmore
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The nourishment from barbecue is palatable.
— Millard Fillmore
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