Millard Fillmore born January 7, 1800

[Jack Rabbit]

Portrait of Millard Fillmore by Matthew Harrison Brady
from Historical Portraits (Austria)

As a thought for today, let us size up our current occupant of the White House (whom I still refuse to call President) with Millard Fillmore, one of the patron saints of presidential mediocrity.

Bush will go down in history as a liar and a war criminal. In his twilight years, as he contemplates life and his place in history from an 8x10' cell in The Hague, Bush may come to envy Fillmore's august status as a mediocrity.

Fillmore, like Bush, was never elected president. Vice President Fillmore succeeded to the office on the death of President Zachery Taylor in July 1850. President Taylor had reservations about the Compromise of 1850 making its way through Congress when he died, but Fillmore supported the compromise and signed the five acts that comprised it as soon as it reached his desk.

Among the five laws was the Fugitive Slave Act. Thus, as Bush is forever to be associated with the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act, Fillmore is linked to one of the most odious pieces of legislation ever passed by Congress. Like the Patriot Act of our time, the Fugitive Slave Act was met by numerous local ordinances and a state law in Vermont prohibiting local officials from cooperating with federal enforcement of the act.

On the other hand, unlike Bush, Fillmore recognized the limits of presidential authority and didn't try to be a law until himself.

Unlike Bush, Fillmore was a self-made man. He was born to a poor family near Buffalo, New York. An apprentice fuller, he was determined to get an education and married his teacher, Abagail Powers (1798-1853). He read law and was admitted to the bar at the age of 23. Prior to becoming Vice President, Fillmore served in the New York state legislature, four terms in Congress, as New York state comptroller and ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York. He was also the chancellor of the University of Buffalo, which he founded.

Fillmore was rejected by the Whig Party for a term in his own right in 1852 because northern Whigs were distasteful of his support and enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. He was the last Whig to serve as President. In 1856, he was nominated by the Whigs and the American Party (the "Know-Nothings"), thus becoming the last presidential candidate of the Whigs.

After leaving the White House, Fillmore returned to his duties as chancellor of the University of Buffalo. A modest man (again unlike Bush), Fillmore was touring Europe in 1855 when he turned an honorary degree from Oxford University on the grounds that he lacked a classical education and couldn't read the diploma, which was in Latin. Fillmore died in 1874.

[gordianot]

1. Bush is unique, without equal.

He has rejected mediocrity for true villainy. Historians will have a lot of fun with George W. Bush.

[Benhurst]

4. At last America has achieved parity with England. We have our

own Richard III.

[Faygo Kid]

2. Damn, I forgot to send a card.

Interesting stuff, though. He was followed by the tragic Franklin Pierce (Nathaniel Hawthorne's buddy, Pierce was an alcoholic whose only child, his son, was crushed to death in a train accident before his and his wife's eyes on their way to DC) and the incomptent Buchanan (so much for a great resume - Buchanan on paper was as highly qualified as any president ever). All three men were giants, absolute giants in their political and moral stature compared to Bush. Happy birthday, Mill.

[Virginia Dare]

3. He married his teacher?

the first victim of pedophilia who became President?

[piedmont]

5. She was 2 yrs older than Fillmore

[Jack Rabbit]

6. She was only two years older than he

They met when he was 19 and she 21. The got married at 26 and 28. They had two children; one died in infancy.

Mrs. Fillmore was an invalid by the time her husband became president. The ceremonial duties of first lady fell on their daughter, Mary. Mrs. Fillmore died only three weeks after her husband left office. He remarried several years later.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. "The nourishment is palatible"

were his last words, I believe. (His doctor was trying to get him to eat some soup.)

[Ishoutandscream2]

8. He should have rejected the Know-Nothing nomination

Anti-Catholic, racist group.