Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/195

 FILLMORE 1ST new financial system, and an entirely new tariff, were to be devised and put in operation. Under the circumstances the position of chair- man of the committee of ways and means was the most prominent in the house. It was as- signed to Mr. Fillmore. The session continued nine months, during which time he was not absent a single hour from the house, though he did his full share of the labors of the com- mittee. The preparation of the new tariff bill involved a laborious examination, digestion, and arrangement of figures and statistics. Al- though Mr. Fillmore did not profess to be the discoverer of any original system of revenue, still the tariff of 1842 was a new creation, and he is justly entitled to the distinction of being its author. At^the same time, with great labor, he prepared a digest of the laws authorizing all appropriations reported by him to the house as chairman of the committee of ways and means, so that on the instant he could produce the legal authority for every expenditure which he recommended. Sensible that this was a great safeguard against improper expenditures, he procured the passage of a resolution re- quiring the departments, when they submitted estimates of expenses, to accompany them with a reference to the laws authorizing them in each instance. This has ever since been the practice of the government. Mr. Fillmore retired from congress in March, 1843. He was the candidate for vice president, supported by his own state and by some of the western states, in the whig national convention which met at Baltimore, May 1, 1844. In the con- vention of the whigs of the state of New York, which met Sept. 11, he was nominated for gov- ernor, but was defeated by Silas Wright, Mr. Clay being defeated at the same time in the presidential election by Mr. Polk. In 1847 Mr. Fillmore was elected comptroller of the state of New York, an office which at that time included in its sphere many duties now distributed among various departments. In his report of Jan. 1, 1849, he suggested that a national bank, with the stocks of the United States as the sole basis upon which to issue its currency, might be established and carried on so as to prove a great convenience to the gov- ernment, with entire safety to the people. This idea involves the essential principle of our pres- ent system of national banks. In June, 1848, he was nominated by the whig national con- vention for vice president, with Gen. Zachary Taylor for president, and was elected in the ensuing November. In February he resigned the office of comptroller, and on March 5, 1849, was inaugurated as vice president. In 1826 Mr. Calhoun, then vice president, had estab- lished the rule that that officer had no power to call senators to order. During the contro- versies in the session of 1849-'50 occasioned by the application of California for admission into the Union, the question of slavery in the new territories, and that of the rendition of fugitive slaves, in which the most acrimonious language was used, Mr. Fillmore in a speech to the senate announced his determination to preserve order, and that, should occasion re- quire, he should reverse the usage of his pre- decessors upon that subject. This announce- ment met with the unanimous approval of the senate, which ordered Mr. Fillmore's remarks to be entered at length on its journal. He presided during the controversy on Mr. Clay's "omnibus bill" with his usual impartiality. No one knew which policy he approved except- ing the president, to whom he privately stated that should he be required to deposit his cast- ing vote, it would be in favor of Mr. Clay's bill. More than seven months of the session had been exhausted in angry controversy, when, on July 9, 1850, President Taylor died. Mr. Fillmore took the oath of office as president on July 10 ; President Taylor's cabinet at once resigned, and a new cabinet was nominated on the 20th. Its members were : Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, secretary of state ; Thomas Corwin of Ohio, secretary of the treasury ; A. H. H. Stuart of Virginia, secretary of the interior ; Charles M. Conrad of Louisiana, sec- retary of war ; William A. Graham of North Carolina, secretary of the navy; Nathan K. Hall of New York, postmaster general; and John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, attorney gen- eral. Of these, Mr. "Webster died and Messrs. Graham and Hall retired in 1852, and were re- spectively replaced by Edward Everett of Mas- sachusetts, John P. Kennedy of Maryland, and Samuel D. Hubbard of Connecticut. Mr. Fill- more immediately ordered a military force to New Mexico, with instructions to protect that territory from invasion by Texas, on ac- count of its disputed boundary. Mr. Clay's bill having been in the mean time defeated, Mr. Fillmore on Aug. 6 sent a message to congress advising that body of the danger of a collision with Texas, and urging a set- tlement of the controversy in respect to its boundary. Various acts known as the com- promise measures, and embracing substantially the provisions of Mr. Clay's bill, were passed before the end of the month. The president referred to the attorney general the question whether the act respecting the rendition of fugitive slaves was in conflict with the provi- sions of the constitution relating to the writ of habeas corpus. That officer prepared a written opinion in favor of its constitutionality. The president concurred in this opinion and signed the act, together with the rest of the compro- mise measures. The fugitive slave law was exceedingly offensive to great numbers of the whig party of the north, as well as to those known strictly as anti-slavery men. Its exe- cution was resisted, and slaves were rescued from the custody of the marshals by mobs at Boston, Syracuse, and Christiana in Pennsyl- vania, in the last of which places one or two persons were killed. The president announced his intention to enforce the law, and issued a proclamation calling upon all officers to per-