Succession amid crisis July 4, 1850, was a very hot day in Washington, and President Taylor, who attended the
Fourth of July ceremonies to lay the cornerstone of the
Washington Monument, refreshed himself, likely with cold milk and cherries. What he consumed likely gave him
gastroenteritis and he died on July 9, aged 65. Nicknamed "Old Rough and Ready", Taylor had gained a reputation for toughness through his military campaigning in the heat, and his sudden death shocked the nation. Fillmore had been called from his chair presiding over the Senate on July 8 and had sat with members of the cabinet in a vigil outside Taylor's bedroom at the White House. He received formal notification of the president's death on the evening of July 9 in his residence at the
Willard Hotel. After acknowledging the letter and spending a sleepless night, Fillmore went to the House of Representatives, where, at a
joint session of Congress, he took the oath as president from
William Cranch, the chief judge of the
federal court for the District of Columbia, and the man who swore in President Tyler. The cabinet officers, as was customary when a new president took over, submitted their resignations but expected Fillmore to refuse and allow them to continue in office. He had been marginalized by the cabinet members, and he accepted the resignations though he asked them to stay on for a month, which most refused to do. Fillmore is the only president who succeeded by death or resignation not to retain, at least initially, his predecessor's cabinet. He was already in discussions with Whig leaders and, on July 20, began to send new nominations to the Senate, with the Fillmore Cabinet to be led by Webster as Secretary of State. Webster had outraged his Massachusetts constituents by supporting Clay's bill and, with his Senate term to expire in 1851, had no political future in his home state. Fillmore appointed his old law partner, Nathan Hall, as Postmaster General, a cabinet position that controlled many patronage appointments. The new department heads were mostly supporters of the Compromise, like Fillmore. The brief pause from politics out of national grief at Taylor's death did not abate the crisis. Texas had attempted to assert its authority in New Mexico, and the state's governor,
Peter H. Bell, had sent belligerent letters to President Taylor. Fillmore received another letter after he had become president. He reinforced federal troops in the area and warned Bell to keep the peace. By July 31 Clay's bill was effectively dead, as all significant provisions other than the organization of Utah Territory had been removed by amendment. As one wag put it, the "Mormons" were the only remaining passengers on the omnibus. Illinois Senator
Stephen A. Douglas then stepped to the fore, with Clay's agreement, proposing to break the omnibus bill into individual bills that could be passed piecemeal. Fillmore endorsed that strategy, which eventually divided the compromise into five bills. Fillmore sent a special message to Congress on August 6, 1850; disclosed the letter from Governor Bell and his reply; warned that armed Texans would be viewed as intruders; and urged Congress to defuse sectional tensions by passing the Compromise. Without the presence of the
Great Triumvirate of
John C. Calhoun, Webster, and Clay, who had long dominated the Senate, Douglas and others were able to lead the Senate towards the administration-backed package of bills. Each bill passed the Senate with the support of the section that wanted it, with a few members who were determined to see all the bills passed. The battle then moved to the House, which had a Northern majority because of population. Most contentious was the
Fugitive Slave Bill, whose provisions were anathema to abolitionists. Fillmore applied pressure to get Northern Whigs, including New Yorkers, to abstain, rather than to oppose the bill. Through the legislative process, changes were made, including the setting of a boundary between
New Mexico Territory and Texas, the state being given a payment to settle any claims.
California was admitted as a free state, the District of Columbia's slave trade was ended, and the final status of slavery in New Mexico and Utah would be settled later. Fillmore signed the bills as they reached his desk and held the Fugitive Slave Bill for two days until he received a favorable opinion as to its constitutionality from the new Attorney General,
John J. Crittenden. Although some Northerners were unhappy at the Fugitive Slave Act, relief was widespread in the hope of settling the slavery question.
Domestic affairs The Fugitive Slave Act remained contentious after its enactment. Southerners complained bitterly about any leniency in its application, but its enforcement was highly offensive to many Northerners. Abolitionists recited the inequities of the law since anyone aiding an escaped slave was punished severely, and it granted no due process to the escapee, who could not testify before a magistrate. The law also permitted a higher payment to the hearing magistrate for deciding the escapee was a slave. Nevertheless, Fillmore believed himself bound by his oath as president and by the bargain that had been made in the Compromise to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. He did so even though some prosecutions or attempts to return slaves ended badly for the government; there were acquittals, and in one incident a slave
was taken from federal custody and freed by a Boston mob. Such cases were widely publicized North and South, inflamed passions in both places, and undermined the good feeling that had followed the Compromise. In August 1850 the social reformer
Dorothea Dix wrote to Fillmore to urge support of her proposal in Congress for land grants to finance asylums for the impoverished mentally ill. Though her proposal did not pass, they became friends, met in person, and continued to correspond well after Fillmore's presidency. In September 1850 Fillmore appointed
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader
Brigham Young as the first governor of
Utah Territory. In gratitude, Young named the first territorial capital "
Fillmore" and the surrounding county "
Millard". A longtime supporter of national infrastructure development, Fillmore signed bills to subsidize the
Illinois Central railroad from Chicago to
Mobile, and
a canal at
Sault Ste. Marie. The 1851 completion of the
Erie Railroad in New York prompted Fillmore and his cabinet to ride the first train from New York City to Lake Erie, in the company of many other dignitaries. Fillmore made many speeches along the way from the train's rear platform, urged acceptance of the Compromise, and later went on a tour of New England with his Southern cabinet members. Although Fillmore urged Congress to authorize a
transcontinental railroad, it did not do so until a decade later. Fillmore appointed one justice to the
Supreme Court of the United States and four to
United States district courts, including his law partner and cabinet officer, Nathan Hall, to the
federal district court in Buffalo. When Supreme Court Justice
Levi Woodbury died in September 1851 with the Senate not in session, Fillmore made a
recess appointment of
Benjamin Robbins Curtis to the Court. In December, with Congress convened, Fillmore formally nominated Curtis, who was confirmed. In 1857 Justice Curtis dissented from the Court's decision in the slavery case of
Dred Scott v. Sandford and resigned as a matter of principle shortly after. Justice
John McKinley's death in 1852 led to repeated fruitless attempts by the president to fill the vacancy. The Senate took no action on the nomination of the
New Orleans attorney
Edward A. Bradford. Fillmore's second choice,
George Edmund Badger, asked for his name to be withdrawn. Senator-elect
Judah P. Benjamin declined to serve. The nomination of
William C. Micou, a New Orleans lawyer recommended by Benjamin, was not acted on by the Senate. The vacancy was filled after Fillmore's term, when President
Franklin Pierce nominated
John Archibald Campbell, who was confirmed by the Senate.
Foreign relations , Fillmore oversaw two highly competent Secretaries of State: Daniel Webster, and after Webster's 1852 death,
Edward Everett. Fillmore made all major decisions. He was particularly active in Asia and the Pacific, especially with regard to Japan, which then still
prohibited nearly all foreign contact. American merchants and shipowners wanted Japan "opened up", which would allow commerce and permit American ships to call there for provisions and in emergencies without being punished. They were concerned that American sailors cast away on the Japanese coast were imprisoned. Fillmore and Webster dispatched
Commodore Matthew C. Perry on the
Perry Expedition to open Japan to the outside world. Perry and his ships reached Japan in July 1853, four months after the end of Fillmore's term. Fillmore was a staunch opponent of European influence in Hawaii. France, under Emperor
Napoleon III, sought to annex Hawaii but backed down after Fillmore issued a strongly-worded message warning that "the United States would not stand for any such action." Taylor had pressed Portugal for payment of American claims dating as far back as the
War of 1812 and had refused offers of arbitration, but Fillmore gained a favorable settlement. Fillmore had difficulties regarding the Spanish colony of
Cuba since many Southerners hoped to see the island as an American slave territory. The Venezuelan adventurer
Narciso López recruited Americans for three
filibustering expeditions to Cuba in the hope of overthrowing Spanish rule. After the second attempt in 1850, López and some of his followers were indicted for breach of the
Neutrality Act but were quickly acquitted by friendly Southern juries. The final López expedition ended with his execution by the Spanish, who put several Americans before the firing squad, including the nephew of Attorney General Crittenden. That resulted in riots against the Spanish in New Orleans, which caused their consul to flee. The historian
Elbert B. Smith, who wrote of the Taylor and the Fillmore presidencies, suggested that Fillmore could have had war against Spain had he wanted. Instead, Fillmore, Webster, and the Spanish worked out a series of face-saving measures that settled the crisis without armed conflict. Many Southerners, including Whigs, supported the filibusters, and Fillmore's response helped to divide his party as the 1852 election approached. A much-publicized event of the Fillmore presidency was the late 1851 arrival of
Lajos Kossuth, the exiled leader of a failed
Hungarian revolution. Kossuth wanted the United States to recognize Hungary's independence. Many Americans were sympathetic to the Hungarian rebels, especially recent German immigrants, who were now coming in large numbers and had become a major political force. Kossuth was feted by Congress, and Fillmore allowed a White House meeting after he had received word that Kossuth would not try to politicize it. Despite his promise, Kossuth made a speech promoting his cause. The American enthusiasm for Kossuth petered out, and he departed for Europe. Fillmore refused to change the American policy of remaining neutral.
Election of 1852 and completion of term As the
presidential election of 1852 approached, Fillmore remained undecided on whether to run for a full term as president. Secretary Webster had long coveted the presidency and was past 70 but planned a final attempt to gain the White House. Fillmore, sympathetic to the ambitions of his longtime friend, issued a letter in late 1851 stating that he did not seek a full term, but Fillmore was reluctant to rule it out for fear the party would be captured by the Sewardites. Thus, approaching the
national convention in Baltimore, to be held in June 1852, the major candidates were Fillmore, Webster, and General Scott. Weed and Seward backed Scott. In late May, the Democrats nominated former New Hampshire senator Franklin Pierce, who had been out of federal politics for nearly a decade but whose profile had risen since his military service during the Mexican War. His nomination as a Northerner sympathetic to the southern view on slavery united the Democrats and meant that the Whig candidate would face an uphill battle. Fillmore had become unpopular with northern Whigs for signing and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act but still had considerable support from the South, where he was seen as the only candidate capable of uniting the party. Once the convention passed a
party platform endorsing the Compromise as a final settlement of the slavery question, Fillmore was willing to withdraw. He found that many of his supporters could not accept Webster and that his action would nominate Scott. The convention was deadlocked until Saturday, June 19, when a total of 46 ballots had been taken, and the delegates adjourned until Monday. Party leaders proposed a deal to Fillmore and Webster: if the latter could increase his vote total over the next several ballots, enough Fillmore supporters would go along to put him over the top. Otherwise, Webster would withdraw in favor of Fillmore. The President quickly agreed, but Webster did not do so until Monday morning. On the 48th ballot, Webster delegates began defecting to Scott, and the general gained the nomination on the 53rd ballot. Webster was far more unhappy at the outcome than was Fillmore, who refused the secretary's resignation. Without the votes of much of the South and also of Northerners who depended on peaceful intersectional trade, Scott was easily beaten by Pierce in November. Smith suggested that the Whigs might have done much better with Fillmore. The final months of Fillmore's term were uneventful. Webster died in October 1852, but during his final illness, Fillmore effectively acted as his own Secretary of State without incident, and Everett stepped competently into Webster's shoes. Fillmore intended to lecture Congress on slavery in his final
annual message in December but was talked out of it by his cabinet. He contented himself with pointing out the prosperity of the nation and expressing gratitude for the opportunity to serve. There was little discussion of slavery during the lame-duck session of Congress. Fillmore left office on March 4, 1853, succeeded by Pierce. ==Post-presidency (1853–1874)==