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Sunday, April 17, 2011

Another President

Millard Fillmore has shown up on more than one list as a worst President. Its beyond me why. Maybe it was because he was number 13, or maybe it was because he appointed Brigham Young Governor of Utah, or maybe it was because he joined the Know-Nothing Movement, or maybe it was because he was the last member of the Whig Party to become President, or maybe it was because he opposed the proposal to keep slavery out of the Western Territories, or maybe it was because as Vice Pres he became Pres after Zachary Taylor died in office on Jan 9, 1850 and he served until 1853, or maybe it was because the aforementioned Mr. Young named the capital of Utah Fillmore and the county Millard in retaliation for the appointment as Governor. or maybe it was because he detested slavery, but was pro-slavery, thinking it would help win more votes., or maybe it was because he signed the bill admitting California as a free state and also the one settling the Texas boundaries and the one making New Mexico a territory, and the one called the Fugitive Slave Act which placed federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking escapted slaves,  and the one that abolished the slave trade but not slavery in the District of Columbia, all bills of Stephen A. Douglas.

In any event, the three men classed as among the worst Preisdents were all in a row, one after the other, in office just prior to the Civil War, and maybe that's why. Maybe the people were discombobulated during that period and no one fit the bill, or maybe it's the historians that are discombobulated feeling they have to name somebody the worst. And since they were in office more than 150 years ago, I'm not going to waste any more time today thinking about it. Maybe tomorrow or the next day. .

3 comments:

  1. Their inability (regardless of whether they're fully to blame) to handle the slavery issue did them in.

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  2. LOL...some things never change...do they?

    Hawk

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  3. David, I agree.

    Hawk, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

    ReplyDelete