III.

Political Career

In 1826, the year Fillmore was married, an incident in western New York set him on the road to the presidency. When William Morgan, a former member of the Masonic fraternal order who had written a book that claimed to expose the order's secrets, disappeared, the rumor spread that he had been murdered by avenging Masons. Thurlow Weed, a newspaper publisher and politician, seized on the incident to arouse public feeling against all secret organizations and helped to organize the Anti-Masonic Party.

Meanwhile, Millard Fillmore had been winning respect and popularity in East Aurora. People admired his professional ethics, temperate habits, careful speech and dress, and good looks. These qualities caught the attention of the Anti-Masonic politicians, who were looking for vote-winning candidates. In 1828, Weed and his group ran Fillmore for a seat in the New York state legislature, and he was elected. Four years later, again with Weed's backing, Fillmore was elected to the House of Representatives in the Congress of the United States.

A.

United States Congressman

When the Anti-Masonic Party merged with the new Whig Party in the mid-1830s, Fillmore became a Whig. In Congress he was a strong supporter of Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, the leader of the Whigs. The two men agreed that compromise on the slavery issue was necessary to preserve peace between the North and South.

In the important position of chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Fillmore took a leading part in framing the protective tariff (tax on imports) of 1842. The tariff raised rates to about the high level of the tariff of 1833. That tariff was opposed by the South and had provoked the state of South Carolina to pass its Ordinance of Nullification, declaring the tariff void within its borders.

Fillmore did not run for reelection in 1842. He hoped for the vice presidential nomination on Clay's Whig presidential ticket, but the party's national convention of 1844 gave that spot to Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. Fillmore then accepted the Whig nomination for governor of New York. In the election, however, Fillmore was beaten by his Democratic Party opponent, Silas Wright, and Clay lost the decisive New York vote.

A.1.

Comptroller of New York State

The Whigs nominated Fillmore for state comptroller in 1847. This office was second in power after the governor's and supervised public finances and superintended the banks. Fillmore defeated his Democratic opponent by 30,000 votes, the largest margin ever gained by any Whig over a Democrat in New York. The victory established Fillmore as a vote getter and put him in competition with former Governor William Henry Seward for the position of New York's leading Whig.

The presidential election of 1848 was dominated by the recently ended Mexican War and by the Wilmot Proviso of 1846, which had been inspired by the war. The proviso specified that slavery should not be introduced into any territory acquired by the United States from Mexico as a result of the war. Although the proviso was defeated in Congress, it raised the political issue of whether slavery should be extended beyond its prewar limits.

At the Whig convention of 1848 in Philadelphia, Fillmore's friend Henry Clay lost the presidential nomination to General Zachary Taylor. Clay's policy of compromise on the slavery issue was well known, whereas Taylor, a hero of the Mexican War, was associated with no particular point of view. He won the nomination largely through the efforts of Weed and Southern leaders. After Taylor was nominated, John A. Collier, a Whig delegate from New York and a political ally of Fillmore's, suggested to the convention that it lessen the disappointment of the Clay supporters by naming Fillmore as the vice presidential candidate. His plea was successful, and Fillmore was nominated. To avoid further controversy over slavery or any other issue, the national convention adopted no platform.

At its national convention the Democratic Party also avoided making an issue of slavery. It nominated U.S. Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan for president and William O. Butler of Kentucky for vice president. Cass favored having the settlers of new territories decide for themselves whether they would allow slavery or not, a policy later called popular sovereignty.

A third party took part in the election of 1848. Called the Free-Soil Party, it included Democrats and Whigs who disagreed with their parties, and abolitionists, who wanted an immediate end to slavery. The Free-Soil Party nominated former president Martin Van Buren of New York for president and Massachusetts legislator Charles Francis Adams for vice president.

In the election, Van Buren took enough Democratic votes from Cass in New York to give the state to Taylor, the Whig. The electoral vote was 163 for Taylor, 127 for Cass. In the New York state popular vote, Taylor got 219,000, Cass got 114,000, and Van Buren got 120,000.

B.

Vice President of the United States

During the first half of 1850, Fillmore as vice president presided over the United States Senate (the upper chamber of Congress) as angry debates raged between Northern and Southern sectionalists over the status of slavery in the recently acquired lands. His fairness and sense of humor in the chair were not enough to restore peace among the contending senators. The antislavery faction, led by Senator Seward (the former governor of New York) and Senator Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, clashed with the Southerners, led by Senator James M. Mason of Virginia, Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, and Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Angry words figuratively rocked the Senate hall, as they did the chamber of the House of Representatives.

Although President Taylor was a Louisiana slaveholder, he leaned more toward Seward's antislavery views. Determined to uphold the Constitution of the United States, the president threatened to send federal troops to protect disputed New Mexico territory from an invasion by proslavery Texans. Southerners countered that, if Taylor followed through with his threat, the act would be the signal for an armed Southern rebellion against federal power. Mississippi called for a convention to meet in June 1850 at Nashville, Tennessee, to consider secession.

B.1.

The Compromise of 1850

The best hope of compromise seemed to lie in a series of resolutions drawn up by Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and based on measures proposed by representatives from both parties and both sections. These resolutions were referred to a select committee of 13, headed by Clay. The committee recommended an omnibus bill, based on Clay's resolutions. According to the recommended compromise, California was to be admitted as a free state, while the Utah and New Mexico territories were to be organized without mentioning slavery. This meant the territories were open to all settlers, including slaveholders. The bill also included a new, tougher Fugitive Slave Law, which required that runaway slaves be returned to their owners. The new law had severe penalties for nonenforcement. A chief grievance of Southerners against the old law was that Northerners would not enforce it. Other sections of the bill abolished slavery in the District of Columbia and settled a boundary dispute between Texas and New Mexico.

President Taylor did not share the fear, held by Clay, Fillmore, and others who favored compromise, that the Union was threatened. He insisted on the admission of California as a free state, and he encouraged New Mexico to adopt a free status. Taylor's opposition hindered those who favored the compromise. However, he died suddenly on July 9, 1850, and Fillmore took the oath as president.