Millard Fillmore

by Robert J. Scarry

From the time he left office in 1853, thirteenth United States president Millard Fillmore has become increasingly shrouded in mystery and stereotyped by traditional anecdotes that have come to be accepted as fact. The real Millard Fillmore was not the weak and boring figurehead many Americans today believe he was. This account of Fillmore's life is drawn largely from the Fillmore family's personal papers, many of which have previously been suppressed, unavailable, or believed lost for decades. Covering Fillmore's life from his ancestry to his presidency, and finally to his death and descent into obscurity, this history presents Fillmore as his own letters do, and as his friends, family members, and contemporaries saw him, as a distinguished and honorable man who was also a strong and effective president. This comprehensive work includes a genealogy of the Fillmore family, a brief chronology of Fillmore's life and career, a bibliography, and an index. Photographs complement this carefully researched portrait of a wrongfully underrated American leader.

Genres: Politics, History, Biography, Nonfiction

424 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2001

Reviews

[The other John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who would have expected a book about Millard Fillmore to have an agenda? I mean, you can expect a book about Lincoln or FDR to take sides in a controversy. But A bio of Millard Fillmore? How could there even be a controversy about him? Isn't it common knowledge that he's one of those dull one-termers who merely kept the presidential chair warm until Lincoln got elected? Well, that's the stereotype that Mr. Scarry hoped to dispel with his book. Rather than a weak, ineffectual leader, Mr. Scarry makes the case for Fillmore as a principaled man who made the hard choices to put aside his own popularity and preferences on slavery to preserve the Union and obey the Constitution. While his accomplishments were overshadowed by the Civil War, Mr. Scarry maintains that Fillmore truly made an impact on the course of American history. For me, the book revealed a generational shift in American politics. Millard Fillmore appeared to be at the tail of the the Clay-Calhoun-Webster generation, who were willing to maintain the nation's slave-free compromise for the greater "good". After 1850 that system crumbled as younger politicians started pushing for their ideals. All in all, Mr. Scarry did a good job of presenting Fillmore's life and times. His writing is a bit uneven at times--the flow of Fillmore's story is now and then broken up with paragraphs of simple facts. But really, that's the only complaint I have with the book.