"May God save the country, for it is obvious the people will not."- Millard Fillmore
He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1832, the same year the Paris
riots took place described in Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables.
This was Millard Fillmore, born JANUARY 7, 1800.
When Zachary Taylor died unexpectedly, Millard Fillmore became the 13th President, stating July 10, 1850:
"I have to perform the melancholy duty of announcing to you that it has
pleased Almighty God to remove from this life Zachary Taylor, late
President of the United States."
After being sworn into office, President Millard Fillmore addressed Congress. July 10, 1850:
"A great man has fallen among us, and a whole country is...mourning...
I dare not shrink; and I rely upon Him who holds in His hands the
destinies of nations to endow me with the requisite strength for the
task and to avert from our country the evils apprehended from the heavy
calamity which has befallen us."
In his Third Annual Message, December 6, 1852, Millard Fillmore stated:
"Our own free institutions were not the offspring of our Revolution. They existed before.
They were planted in the free charters of self-government under which
the English colonies grew up, and our Revolution only freed us from the
dominion of a foreign power whose government was at variance with those
institutions.
But European nations have had no such training
for self-government, and every effort to establish it by bloody
revolutions has been, and must without that preparation continue to be,
a failure.
Liberty unregulated by law degenerates into anarchy, which soon becomes the most horrid of all despotisms...
We owe these blessings, under Heaven, to the happy Constitution and
Government which were bequeathed to us by our fathers, and which it is
our sacred duty to transmit in all their integrity to our children."
President Millard Fillmore sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry to open trade with Japan.
He admitted California, which just began the Gold Rush, into the Union as a free state.
When the Library of Congress caught fire, Fillmore formed a bucket brigade to extinguish the flames.
Millard Fillmore was the last President belonging to the Whig Party,
which subsequently dissolved and members filtered into the Know Nothing
Party, Free Soil Party, Constitutional Union Party and National
Union-Republican Party.
Endeavoring to keep the United States together prior to the Civil War, his mixed record included:
-Keeping France from annexing Hawaii;
-Preventing Britain and France from expanding into the Americas;
-Resisting Cuba from being brought into the United States;
-Nonintervention in Europe-refusing to aid Hungary;
-Recognizing Utah and New Mexico territories;
-Abolishing slave trade in the District of Columbia; and
-Signing the ignoble Compromise of 1850.
Averting hostilities with Mexico, President Millard Fillmore addressed Congress, August 6, 1850:
"The treaty, being a part of the supreme law of the land, does extend
over all such Mexicans, and assures to them perfect security in the free
enjoyment of their liberty and property, as well as in the free
exercise of their religion."
President Millard Fillmore stated in his First Annual Message to Congress, December 2, 1850:
"Being suddenly called in the midst of the last session of Congress by a
painful dispensation of Divine Providence to the responsible station
which I now hold...
Nations, like individuals in a state of
nature, are equal and independent, possessing certain rights and owing
certain duties to each other...which rights and duties there is no
common human authority to protect and enforce. Still, there are rights
and duties, binding in morals, in conscience, and in honor....
The great law of morality ought to have a national as well as a
personal and individual application. We should act toward other nations
as we wish them to act toward us....
And now,
fellow-citizens, I cannot bring this communication to a close without
invoking you to join me in humble and devout thanks to the Great Ruler
of Nations for the multiplied blessings which He has graciously
bestowed upon us..."
Get the book, Prayers and Presidents-Inspiring Faith from Leaders of the Past
President Millard Fillmore continued:
"His hand, so often visible in our preservation, has stayed the
pestilence, saved us from foreign wars and domestic disturbances, and
scattered plenty throughout the land.
Our liberties, religious
and civil, have been maintained, the fountains of knowledge have all
been kept open, and means of happiness widely spread and generally
enjoyed greater than have fallen to the lot of any other nation.
And while deeply penetrated with gratitude for the past let us hope
that His all-wise providence will so guide our counsels as that they
shall result in giving satisfaction to our constituents, securing the
peace of the country, and adding new strength to the united Government
under which we live."
President Millard Fillmore stated in his Second Annual Message to Congress, December 2, 1851:
"None can look back to the dangers which are passed or forward to the
bright prospect before us without...a grateful sense of our profound
obligations to a beneficent Providence, whose paternal care is so
manifest in the happiness of this highly favored land."
In his Third Annual Message to Congress, December 6, 1852, President Millard Fillmore stated:
"Our grateful thanks are due to an all-merciful Providence, not only
for staying the pestilence which in different forms has desolated some
of our cities, but for crowning the labors of the husbandman with an
abundant harvest and the nation generally with the blessings of peace
and prosperity....
Is it prudent or is it wise to involve
ourselves in these foreign wars? Is it indeed true that we have
heretofore refrained from doing so merely from the degrading motive of a
conscious weakness? For the honor of the patriots who have gone before
us, I cannot admit it..."
American Minute-Notable Events of American Significance
President Fillmore continued:
"Men of the Revolution, who drew the sword against the oppressions of
the mother country and pledged to Heaven 'their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor' to maintain their freedom, could never have
been actuated by so unworthy a motive....
The truth is that
the course which they pursued was dictated by a stern sense of
international justice, by a statesmanlike prudence and a far-seeing
wisdom, looking not merely to the present necessities but to the
permanent safety and interest of the country."
President Millard Fillmore, who was a member of the Episcopalian Church, stated:
"I owe my uninterrupted bodily vigor to...life-long habits of
regularity and temperance. Throughout all my public life I maintained
the same regular and systematic habits of living...The Sabbath day I
always kept as a day of rest. Besides being a religious duty, it was
essential to health.
On commencing my Presidential career, I
found that the Sabbath had frequently been employed by visitors for
private interviews with the President. I determined to put an end to
this custom, and ordered my doorkeeper to meet all Sunday visitors with
an indiscriminate refusal."
No comments:
Post a Comment