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Sale 86
Lot 100
Fillmore, Millard (1800-1874) 13th President of the United States (1850-1853). Autograph letter signed as President, 3 pages, 10 x 7¾ in., Washington, Dec. 27, 1850. To a fellow New Yorker, Governor Hamilton Fish (1808-1893), regarding the Fugitive Slave Law, which had been passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850: "I…am gratified to learn that you 'acquiesce in the wisdom and foresight which dictated my late message.' I felt…that if I were acting only for the North, your policy was the true one; but the public mind was inflamed North and South. No attempted modification of the fugitive Slave law, would be conceded at that moment by the South that would be satisfactory to the North. It was therefore not the proper time to attempt it. It would have reopened the dangerous sectional agitation without the hope of benefit to any one. Time will show its defects and enable us to correct them without excitement or danger to the Union. I know that I hazarded much in making so heavy a draft upon my Whig friends at the North, and I feared with you that they might refuse to honor the draft, but I feel it indispensible [sic] to save the country and I feel relieved and rejoiced that my sentiments have met with such general approbation. It is a guaranty, not only that the Union is safe, but that the Whig party will be a unit."
Concerned about the Whig party in New York, Fillmore asks Fish if the two antagonistic papers in Albany can be united under one editor "who has not participated in these controversies and is entirely independat of both factions. I ask it not for myself but for the cause. I ask…only that it be a good Whig, true and independant….you and [Governor-elect ]Hunt are the men to do it….I feel that my political career is at an end. I have received more than I deserved; and I am content to retire; but both of you have a bright political prospect before you. If the Whig party can be made National it will be triumphant. Let the reward be yours." He thanks Fish for a politcal appointment of a friend in New York and bemoans the "cold manner in which the Register noticed the appointment," continuing "I do hope that the appointment by the canal Board as well as in organizing the Assembly, will be such as to show that one faction is not preferred to the other…."
Fillmore was correct that his political career was over but wrong in thinking that the Union was safe or that the Whig Party would last. Both Northerners and Southerners were outraged by the Fugitive Slave Law, which was one of five separate bills making up the Compromise of 1850. It required that all escaped slaves were, upon capture, to be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate in this law. Officials who did not cooperate were liable to heavy fines and anyone who aided a runaway by providing food or shelter was subject to imprisonment and a fine. The suspected slave was not permitted a jury trial or to testify on his or her behalf. The issue of slavery was not solved by the law and the sectional agitation which Fillmore hoped would not be reopened was only allowed to percolate until it finally boiled over.
As for the Whigs, the anti-slavery faction refused to support Fillmore as their candidate in the 1952 presidential election, nominating General Winfield Scott. Many Whig members, such as Abraham Lincoln, abstained from politics temporarily, then joined the new Republican party. Millard Fillmore was the fourth and last Whig to be President.
Estimated Value $10,000 - 15,000.
The Forbes Collection, Christie's New York, Nov. 15, 2005, lot 67.
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