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456 manner as to command the applause of senators. And when advanced to the highest office of our country, he so fulfilled his duties as to draw forth the commendation of the ablest men of the oppo- site party. . . . For the last two years of my offi- cial association with Mr. Fillmore," adds Mr. Stu- art, " our relations, both personal and political, were of an intimate and eonfidoniial character. He knew that I was his steadfast friend, and he reciprocated the feeling. He talked with me freely and without reserve about men and measures, and I take pleasure in saying that in all my intercourse with liim I never knew him to utter a sentiment or do an act which, in my judgment, would have been unworthy of Washington."

His gifted contemporary, Henry Clay, thought highly of Fillmore's moderation and wisdom, said his administration was an able and honorable one, and on his death-bed recommended his nomination for the presidency (by the Baltimore convention of 1853), as being a statesman of large civil experi- ence, and one in whose cai'eer there was nothing inconsistent with the highest purity and patriot- ism. After leaving Washington for the last time, Webster said to a friend that Fillmore's adminis- tx"ation — leaving out of the question his share of its work — was the ablest the country had possessed for many years. The same great statesman, in his speech at the laying of the corner-stone of the capitol extension, said : " President Fillmore, it is your snigularly good fortune to perform an act such as that which the earliest of your predeces- sors performed fifty-eight years ago. You stand where he stood ; you lay your hand on the corner- stone he laid. Changed, changed is everything around. The same sun, indeed, shone upon his head which shines upon yours. The same broad river rolled at his feet, and now bathes his last resting-place, which now rolls at yours. But the site of this city was then mainly an open field. Streets and avenues have since been laid out and completed, squares and public grounds inclosed and ornamented, until the city, which bears his name, although comparatively inconsiderable in numbei's and wealth, has become quite fit to be the seat of government of a great and united people. Sir, may the consequences of the duty which you perform so auspiciously to-day equal those which flowed from his act. Nor this only : may the principles of your administration and the wisdom of your political conduct be such that the world of the present day and all history here- after may be at no loss to perceive what example you made your study."

It should be stated as a part of Mr. Fillmore's public record that he was a candidate for nomina- tion as president at the Whig convention of 1852 : but although his policy, the fugitive-slave law in- cluded, was approved by a vote of 227 against 60, he could not command 20 votes from the free states. Four years later, while at Rome, he re- ceived the news of his nomination for the presi- dency by the American party. He accepted the nomination, but before the close of the campaign it became evident that the real struggle was be- tween the Republicans and Democrats. Many, with whom Fillmore was the first choice for presi- dent, cast their votes for Gen. Fremont or James Buchanan, believing that there was no hope of his election, and, although he received the support of large numbers in all the states, Maryland alone gave him her electoral vote. In the summer of 1864 Col. Ogle Tayloe, of Washington, wrote to Mr. Fillmore on the subject of the presidential nomination, and his response was : " I can assure you in all sincerity that I have no desire ever to occupy that exalted station again, and more espe- cially at a time like this." Apropos of letters, the writer has had the privilege of perusing a collec- tion of confidential correspondence written by President Fillmore during a score of years while in public life ; and, after a most careful examina- tion, has failed to find a single passage that would not stand the light of day, not a word of ignoble office-seeking, no paltry tricks to gain notoriety, no base designs of fattening upon public plunder.

Having thus glanced at the professional and political career of Mr. Fillmore, it now only re- mains to allude very briefly to his private life from 1853 onward. " The circles of our felicities make short arches." Who shall question the wise axiom of Sir Thomas Browne, the brave old knight of Norwich, a favorite author with the president? Three weeks after the close of his administration he sustained a severe affliction in the loss of his wife, Abigail Powers, the daughter of a clergyman, whom he married 5 Feb., 182G, and who was em- phatically her husband's " right-hand." She had long been a sufferer from ill health and was look- ing forward most eagerly to a return to her old home, when she was taken away to those temples not made with hands. Irving says that she received her death-warrant while standing by his side on the cold marble terrace of the capitol, listening to the inaugural address of Mr. Fillmore's successor. To this Christian lady the White House is in- debted for the books which to-day make the library one of the most attractive rooms in the presiden- tial mansion. In the following year their only daughter, who had grown to woman- hood, also passed away, leaving a memory precious to all who had the privilege of her ac- quaintance. His home now lonely from the loss of those who spread around it sunsliine and hap- piness, induced Mr. Fillmore to carry out a long-cherished project of visiting the Old World, and in May. 1855, he sailed in the steamer "Atlantic." During his visit to England he re- ceived numerous and gratifying attentions from the queen and her cabinet ministers, and was prof- fered the degree of D. C. L. by the University of Oxford, through its chancellor, the late Earl of Derby. This honor he however declined, as did Charles Francis Adams a few years later.

We can not dwell as we could wish on Mr. Fillmore's patriotic attitude during the early years of the late war ; of his warm interest in all the charitable Christian work of the city in which he passed nearly half a century; of his establishing the Buffalo historical society; how, as the first citizen of Buffalo, he was called upon to welcome distinguished visitors, including Mr. Lincoln, when on his way to Washington in 1861, and frequently to preside over conventions and other public gatherings, for the control of which he was so admirably qualified by his thorough parliamentary abilities, his widely extended knowledge, his broad views, and a personal urbanity which nothing could disturb ; of the method and exactness, the precision