Millard Fillmore

Autograph Letter Signed, 1p, 8vo, Buffalo, NY, October 14, 1835, written on blue stationery as an attorney and member of Congress to the Clerk of the Court, Utica. In part:

Please to search for judgments and decrees against Samuel Tucker for ten years past and send us a certificate of the amount…and charge us.

The verso contains the address leaf franked “Free M. Fillmore, M.C.” and addressed in his hand. In all, Fillmore provides three examples of his signature. Very good condition.

MILLARD FILLMORE (1800-1874) was the thirteenth President of the United States, serving from 1850 until 1853, and the last member of the Whig Party to hold that office. He was the second Vice President to assume the Presidency upon the death of a sitting President, succeeding Zachary Taylor who died of what is thought to be acute gastroenteritis or hyperthermia (heat stroke). Fillmore was never elected President; after serving out Taylor’s term, he failed to gain the nomination for the Presidency of the Whigs in the 1852 presidential election, and, four years later, in the 1856 presidential election, he again failed to win election as the Know Nothing Party and Whig candidate.

Fillmore ascended to the presidency upon the sudden and unexpected death of President Taylor in July 1850. The change in leadership also signaled an abrupt political shift as Fillmore appointed his own cabinet. Taylor, himself, had been about to replace his entire scandal-ridden cabinet at the time of his death, but now, beginning with the appointment of Daniel Webster as Secretary of State, Fillmore’s cabinet would be dominated by individuals who, with the exception of Treasury Secretary Thomas Corwin, favored what would come to be called the Compromise of 1850.

As president, Fillmore dealt with increasing party divisions within the Whig party; party harmony became one of his primary objectives. He tried to unite the party by pointing out the differences between the Whigs and the Democrats (by proposing tariff reforms that negatively reflected on the Democratic Party). Another primary objective of Fillmore was to preserve the Union from the intensifying slavery debate.

Most of Fillmore’s correspondence was destroyed in pursuance of a direction in his son’s will.

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