NOTES, VOLUME TWO

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T the risk of unduly loading these pages, it is desirable to supplement the data contained in the Introduction, volume one, with a few further notes chiefly relative to matters touched on in volume two.

The present volume opens with Mr. Fillmore's speeches in the campaign of 1856, when he was the candidate of the American party as President. It will be borne in mind that he was also the candidate of the National Whig convention at Baltimore, Sept. 17-18; but this tardy endorsal gave him no appreciable advantage. In his letter accepting the Whig nomination (II., pp. 366, 367) Mr. Fillmore apparently confuses his dates.

It was charged by his political adversaries in this campaign, with the air of forever condemning him in the regard of good citizens, that Mr. Fillmore submitted to an initiation in a Know-nothing lodge, lending himself to a great deal of tomfoolery. Nothing worthy of acceptance on this point has been found by the editor. Certainly nothing less in keeping with Mr. Fillmore's character could be conceived. He did, however, receive a formal endorsal by the Order of United Americans, which in some sections appears to have developed elaborate secret features of ritual and lodge-work. Mr. Fillmore's acceptance of this source of support-absurdly feeble as the outcome showed-will be found at page 361 of the present volume.

Mr. Fillmore's views at a later period are readily gathered from his own utterances. On June 1, 1860, the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser announced that it was "authorized and requested" by Mr. Fillmore to deny a current report that "he had openly declared that he will support the Chicago nominations" of Lincoln and Hamlin. "So far as we know Mr. Fillmore's sentiments," adds the Commercial, “they remain the same as they were in 1856. He deprecates all sectional parties as dangerous to the welfare and peace of the country. In that category he includes the Republican party. We do not. If he has any preferences we doubt not that they are directly for Bell and Everett."

In regard to Mr. Fillmore's remarks to the Senate, on preserving order, April 3, 1850 (I., pp. 289-295), a further word is needed. It is true that "certain disorderly tendencies were checked," but it is not true that they ceased. Just two weeks after the Vice-President made his plea for decency, Senator Henry S. Foote of Mississippi made his famous spectacular attack on Thomas H. Benton, when the latter, tearing aside his shirt-bosom, turned his bared breast to the assailant and cried, "Let the assassin shoot!" Foote appears to have been quite ready to turn the melodrama into tragedy, but was stopped by the rush of many senators, rather than by the impotent appeal of Mr. Fillmore that the gentlemen should resume their seats and maintain order. It was beyond question one of the most trying episodes in Mr. Fillmore's career. An investigation was ordered, but before the committee reported (July 30) Mr. Fillmore had passed to the Presidency.1

That Mr. Fillmore had a pleasant acquaintance with Washington Irving is intimated by his letter of Feb. 26, 1854, to John P. Kennedy, in which he expresses the hope that Mr. Irving may accompany them on the proposed Southern tour. Irving was on intimate terms with Mr. Kennedy-President Fillmore's last Secretary of the Navy-and with his family, whose home in Baltimore was for many years a social and literary center of distinction. Spending the last days of Mr. Fillmore's Administration there and in Washington, Mr. Irving made numerous allusions in his letters to the President. February 25, 1853, he wrote from Washington:

"I went down, yesterday, in the steamer Vixen, with a large party, to visit the caloric ship Ericsson. In our party were the two Presidents (Fillmore and Pierce), all the Cabinet, and many other official characters. . . . This evening I have been at the last reception of President Fillmore. It was an immense crowd, for the public seemed eager to give him a demonstration, at parting, of their hearty good-will."

Some weeks later (Apr. 4, 1853), writing to his friend Robert C. Winthrop of Boston, Mr. Irving said:

"You have no doubt been shocked, like myself, at the sad bereavement which has afflicted the worthy Fillmore family. I almost think poor Mrs. Fillmore must have received her death-warrant while standing by my side on the marble terrace of the Capitol, exposed to chilly wind and snow, listening to the inaugural speech of her husband's successor. This sad event, as you perceive, has put an end to the Southern tour, which did not seem to meet your approbation, and has left Kennedy to the quiet of his home and his library, which I should think he would relish after the turmoil of Washington."

I. On the Foote-Benton affair, see Cong. Globe, 31st Cong., 1st sess.

The Southern tour, as the reader knows, was postponed until the following year. Then, although Mr. Kennedy urged Mr. Irving to join the party. the jaunt had little attraction for the aged author. "I have no inclination," he wrote with characteristic pleasantry, "to travel with political notorieties, to be smothered by the clouds of party dust whirled up by their chariot-wheels, and beset by the speech-makers and little great men and bores of every community who might consider Mr. Fillmore a candidate for another presidential term." To Mrs. Kennedy he wrote (Feb. 21, 1854): "Heaven preserve me from any tour of the kind! . . . To have to listen to the speeches that would be made, at dinners and other occasions, to Mr. Fillmore and himself [Mr. Kennedy]; and to the speeches that Mr. Fillmore and he would make in return! . . . I would as lief go campaigning with Hudibras or Don Quixote."

To Mrs. Kennedy Mr. Irving could write with all the playfulness of a fond father. His allusion to Mrs. Fillmore, above quoted, was very likely a true surmise as to the origin of her fatal illness.

Mr. Fillmore was much criticized for his participation in the Southern Commercial Convention of 1869, over which he presided. He was beyond doubt absolutely free from political aspirations in connection therewith. One outcome of this convention, which may be assumed as of advantage to our country, was the work of a commission, appointed by Mr. Fillmore, which visited the great Russian fairs at St. Petersburg and Novgorod, and also the chief commercial cities of Europe, for the purpose of attracting immigration, and capital, to the South and West.

In view of the local character of the series in which these Fillmore Papers appear, it has been deemed desirable to make note of as many matters of local consequence, with which Mr. Fillmore was connected, as were worthy of record. One matter, merely touched on, was an early educational movement. Mr. Fillmore was one of a number of residents of Buffalo who, in July, 1831, signed a circular calling on the citizens of the county to see that their towns were represented at a meeting to be held in September, when it was proposed to organize the Erie County School Association, as auxiliary to the New York State Lyceum. One of the original circulars, preserved by the Buffalo Historical Society, sets forth the purposes of the association, and contains also an offer from the Buffalo Literary and Scientific Academy, Theodotus Burwell, principal, of free tuition to young men fitting themselves for teachers.

At I. Fillmore, p. 51, a note gives the history of the old town of Erie, now Newstead. It may be added, on the authority of Crisfield

Johnson (History of Erie County, p. 394), that the new name was chosen by Mrs. Fillmore, who chanced at the time to be reading Byron, and suggested the name of his ancestral home, "Newstead Abbey." Mr. Johnson records sundry anecdotes of Mr. Fillmore; one of which, telling how he was accustomed to sit "of a summer evening, in the midst of a group of villagers, smoking his pipe" (p. 388), is squarely contradicted by Mr. Fillmore's own statement, "I never smoked or chewed tobacco." (I., Int. p. xxxvi.)

Mr. Fillmore was an honorary member of several historical societies, those of Massachusetts and Maryland among others. The records of the Buffalo society contain many minutes, resolutions, etc., written in his hand. These, although of value in the society's records, lack public interest, and are omitted from our collection. One resolution written by Mr. Fillmore, on the death of Edward Everett, his former Secretary of State, Jan. 15, 1865, may be here included:

Resolved, That the sudden death of the Hon. Edward Everett is a national misfortune which we deeply deplore. In him were most happily blended all the qualities and accomplishments that adorn human nature-the clear intellect; the learned scholar; the sagacious diplomatist; the eloquent orator; the profound statesman, and above all the honest man, devoted patriot and humble Christian, forming a character equally beloved and admired, the memory of which will be cherished by every American citizen.

That Mr. Fillmore took a genuine interest in things historical, is attested by the thoroughness with which he examined available maps and documents, to learn if possible the origin of the name of Buffalo. (See in this volume, pp. 72-77, 421-425.) Genealogy did not attract him. Several of his letters indicate an absence of curiosity regarding his own ancestry which has been, perhaps still is, a widely characteristic American trait. While he had none of the pride which seeks distinction from the reputation of remote forebears, he had a very warm attachment for the living men and women of his family, no matter how humble their station. On account of the connection of his ancestry with Norwich, Conn., but especially that he might greet living relatives, both near and remote, he attended the bi-centennial celebration in that town, Sept. 7 to 9, 1859, and rode in a procession, but does not appear to have made any address on that occasion.

His connection with many Buffalo institutions has been sufficiently indicated. One not heretofore noted, was the Buffalo Orphan Asylum, to which he bequeathed $1000-the only bequest to a public institution in his will.

Soon after his death, agitation was begun by his friends for the erection of a worthy memorial. One proposition was to rename

Delaware avenue-Buffalo's finest residence street-for him. Later a new parkway was given his name.

Mr. Fillmore's first residence in Buffalo was in the old Phoenix hotel. The house most associated with him, described in 1853 as “the plain white two-story house with green blinds, and a little yard in front," is still standing at No. 180 Franklin street, though so modernized that its street front has little resemblance to the house Mr. Fillmore knew. The gothic house on Niagara Square, now a part of a hotel bearing another name, was bought by Mr. Fillmore after his retirement from public life; and there it was he died.

Not many years since the suggestion of a local newspaper that a statue of Mr. Fillmore be erected in the square opposite his former home precipitated an acrimonious correspondence which well showed that his townsmen were by no means ready to join in a memorial. Although numerous portraits and busts have been made, Buffalo is still without any suitable memorial of Millard Fillmore.

Mr. Fillmore gathered a considerable property, most of which passed to his son. When the latter died, Nov. 15, 1889, the inventory of his estate showed a value of $285,705.66, and contained the following items: Railroad bonds and other securities, $174,590; cash, bank deposits, bond and mortgage, $58,910.74; silver plate, $318.99; library, $1493.40. The silver plate may have included the memorial service spoken of in this volume (pp. 304, 305). There were also "a sword, a sabre, two guns and a pistol," presumably relics, in part at least, of the John Fillmore whose adventures with pirates have been given. These souvenirs are supposed to have passed into the possession of other relatives.

Many a resident of Buffalo will recall the auction sale of Mr. Fillmore's library, held in Buffalo, Dec. 29, 30 and 31, 1890. Since his father's death it had belonged to Millard Powers Fillmore, but the collection remained for the most part as the elder man had formed it. It was in no wise a notable library. There were few books of monetary value, and fewer yet that were rare. It contained many Government reports, and other works valuable only for the information they might offer. The printed catalogue, of fifty odd pages, is pathetic in its arid lack of poetry, of belles lettres, of well nigh everything that breathes of beauty and of spirit. A touch of personal association attaches to one item, the “Voyages and Adventures of Captain Robert Boyle" (Liverpool, 1745), containing a note by Mr. Fillmore, saying it was the first novel he ever read. A number of Mr. Fillmore's books are now in the library of the Buffalo Historical Society.