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dignity, decorum and directness in the debates of the Senate, and declared it his sense of duty to hold each member to the order of debate and to be himself the judge of that order, subject always to an appeal. His statement of his idea of his duty gave great satisfaction; and although he presided through stormy debates, no one ever questioned his impartiality, fairness, or correctness.

MR. FILLMORE THE PRESIDENT.

On the ninth of July, 1850, President Taylor died, and it devolved upon vice-president Fillmore now to become president in his stead. He appointed an able cabinet, with Daniel Webster as his secretary of state. Mr. Fillmore came into the presidency at a time when the whole country was in one of its sharpest debates on the question of slavery. The war with Mexico, preceded by the annexation of Texas, had opened immense territories for the extension of southern institutions, and this had awakened the north to a new zeal against the extension of slavery and the abolitionists to new fervors in their opposition to slavery itself. Mr. Clay's compromise measures had failed in Congress. So Congress was open to do what it could. Both north and south were intent on doing something. Texas, the "lone star," warlike, pro-slavery, newly-made sister state, was threatening to invade New Mexico, and the president sent troops there at once to keep the peace, and laid the matter before Congress.

Various acts were soon passed by Congress instead of Mr. Clay's compromise bill, all carrying out the compromise features of that bill, among them, one for the return of fugitive slaves. Mr. Fillmore asked the attorney general's opinion as to its constitutionality. That officer gave a written opinion in favor of the bill's constitutionality. Mr. Fillmore was opposed to slavery in policy and principle. Yet he was a whig with Henry Clay. Mr. Clay was the great compromiser. Whenever slavery, or north and south difficulties, came up, Mr. Clay was ready with a compromise bill as a remedy. He was a great leader in the whig party, and led it into the compromise theory of legislation

and morality. The great majority of the whig party of the north was anti-slavery, as was Mr. Fillmore himself. Yet the compromise spirit that possessed it did not give it difference. enough from the democratic party to maintain its life. Mr. Fillmore signed the fugitive slave bill, and thus destroyed the possibility of his re-election and closed up the life of the party. The north demanded a more pronounced opposition to the extension of slavery.

The fugitive slave law created intense excitement in the north. Slaves could scarcely be captured anywhere without a mob. It was a law which many people felt themselves under no moral obligation to obey. The law was resisted in Boston, Syracuse, and Christiana, Pennsylvania, and would have been almost anywhere had the occasion occurred. The president announced his purpose to enforce the law, and issued a proclamation calling all officers to faithfulness of duty in executing it. All measures were taken that well could be to carry the law into practical effect, yet it was so unpopular, and made the president so unpopular, that all his merits as an executive officer were forgotten, and the many popular things of his administration were lost sight of. The truth was, that all other questions were eclipsed by the great one of slavery. It was felt that humanity, justice and honor were outraged by the law that made every man an abettor of slavery in compelling him to catch the runaway. The people of the south felt that all this was demanded by their constitutional right to property in slaves. But it was simply morally impossible for the people of the north to see that they were under any constitutional obligation to catch such departing property. No matter how many popular measures a president had approved, to attempt to force such a measure upon them was to make himself unpopular.

President Fillmore, in his messages, proposed many impor tant matters to Congress which were not acted upon, because the majority of Congress were democratic.

On the fourth of July, 1851, the president laid the cornerstone of the extension of the capitol. An immense concourse of people were present, who were addressed by Daniel Webster.

The slavery excitement quickened in the minds of some southern fanatics a desire to possess Cuba as a slave island, and they started an expedition under a man by the name of Loper, in the steamer Pampero. It left the port of New Orleans on the fourth of August, by the connivance of the collector of the port, and landed in Cuba. The president had issued a proclamation of warning against the expedition before it left, putting the Cubans on the lookout for it. It came to grief.

In the autumn of 1852 an expedition under the command of Commodore Perry was sent to Japan, which resulted in forming a treaty with that island country, which has been of mutual benefit to both countries. The changes and improvements which have been made in that country, resulting from that treaty, are among the wonderful and beneficent works of the century. Nothing more signalized Mr. Fillmore's administration than this. It is one of the most marked cases of the good which our republic is doing abroad. Our system of education, laws, and to a large degree our civilization, are being adopted by the Japanese.

During Mr. Fillmore's administration treaties were formed also with the South American States, Peru, Costa Rica, and Brazil. A steamer was sent by the government to explore the Plata and its tributaries. An expedition was sent by the president to explore the Amazon and its tributaries, to get instructive reports in the interests of science and general knowledge.

Mr. Fillmore conducted the intercourse of our government with foreign nations with ability and success. His messages were wise, strong and replete with the practical counsels of a statesman. His cabinet were in perfect harmony with himself and each other, and, upon his retiring from office, they did the unusual thing of addressing to him a congratulatory letter, expressing their "united appreciation of his abilities, his integrity, and his devotion to the public service."

Mr. Fillmore retired from office March 4, 1853, with the country at peace and in a state of great prosperity.

His first secretary of state, Daniel Webster, died October 24, 1852, and Edward Everett was appointed in his place; both

Daniel

men renowned for their great ability and learning. Webster will ever be held as one of the intellectual giants of the republic. But, like Mr. Fillmore, he was drawn into sympathy with the compromise measures on the subject of slavery, and lost favor with the northern public. This was a whirlpool that took in many great and ambitious men in those days. It was a time that tried the metal of the moral character of our statesmen.

THE EVENING REPOSE.

Mr. Fillmore was a candidate for nomination to the next presidency in the whig convention of 1852; but though as president he had given great satisfaction to the party and country, his signing the fugitive slave bill had put him in such ill odor in the north that he could command but twenty votes in the free states.

In the spring of 1855 Mr. Fillmore traveled through New England, then went to Europe, and while in Rome, 1856, he received intelligence of his nomination as a candidate for the presidency by the American party. He accepted the nomination, but before the election it became evident that the real struggle was between the democratic and the new republican party. The intense ambition in the south to extend slavery had produced a strong party in the north against its further extension; and the struggle was now between extension and non-extension of slavery.

Mr. Fillmore lived in peace in the evening of his days at his palatial home in Buffalo, New York, enjoying the honors and rewards of a nobly spent and successful life. He died March 8, 1874, aged seventy-four years and two months.

During the war of the rebellion he remained so quiet as to throw suspicion upon his loyalty in some minds; but his life of faithful public service; his long-avowed espousal of high principles of national rectitude and honor; his personal character, so above all suspicion, stand as the perpetual testimonials of his patriotism. He was a true representative of American character, and honored his country in both his private and public life.

THE GRAVE OF MILLARD FILLMORE.

Some three miles north of the city of Buffalo, and a little east of the Niagara river, is Forest Lawn cemetery, one of those beautiful cities of the dead which the affection and taste of the people of our time make in memory of the departed. The living city is already coming near to it, and the sounds and sights of the generation of to-day already mingle with the silence and sacredness of this home of mortal dust.

The Fillmore lot is thirty by forty feet, enclosed with an iron railing set in a stone curb. It contains five graves. The monument is of highly-polished Scotch granite, twenty-two feet high. The word "FILLMORE" is on the northern side of the base, in raised letters.

At the eastern side of the lot is Mr. Fillmore's grave.

Near its head is the monument, on the northern side of which is this inscription:

Millard Fillmore.

BORN

JANUARY 7, 1800.

DIED

MARCH 8, 1874.

In the lower and western side of the lot are four graves, that of his first wife, Mary Abigail Fillmore; that of her mother, Mrs. Abigail Powers Strong; that of their daughter, Mary Abigail Fillmore; and that of his last wife.

Near by are the graves of Mr. Fillmore's law partners, Hall and Havens, and a splendid centennial monument, erected by Mr. E. G. Spaulding to the memory of his ancestors who fought at Bunker Hill, making it possible for us to have a country, and presidents to rule over it.

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