Autographs
Great Content President Millard Fillmore Signed Letter Regarding the Divisions of the “Whig” Party Over the Issue of Slavery
MILLARD FILLMORE (1800-1874). Thirteenth President of the United States, serving from 1850 until 1853, and the last member of the Whig Party to hold that office.
April 27, 1852-Dated, Important Slavery & Political Content Autograph Letter Signed, “Millard Fillmore” as President, 7 pages, measuring 8” x 10”, at Washington City, Choice Very Fine. Bright, exceptionally clean and fresh in appearance, having rich brown sharply penned text and signatures. To Dr. Thomas M. Foote. This President Millard Fillmore Signed Letter is written regarding the divisions of the “Whig” Party over the issue of Slavery. After discussing his reluctant candidacy in the upcoming presidential election, Millard Fillmore talks at length about the status of the splintered Whig Party, divided into both Pro- and Anti-Slavery camps, after the passage of the “Compromise of 1850.” Here, President Fillmore writes, in part:

“My Dear Sir, --- I regret having yielded so much to the solicitation of my friends, as to suffer my name to remain before the public as a possible candidate for nomination by the Whig Convention ... It is impossible now to foresee what is to be the result of this never dying contest between the North and the South. You have doubtless seen from the papers the difficulties which occurred in the Whig Caucus to fix the time and place for holding the Whig National Convention. My own impression was, and still is, that it was unwise to have introduced a resolution into that Caucus approving of the Compromise ... it was unnecessary to repeat it, and those who favored the Compromise were in danger ... of having it evaded, or having it voted down indirectly on points of order, thereby giving an impression to the world that the majority were against it, when this was not true ... But the question is really of such vital importance to the South, and indeed ... to the North ... It will present itself at every turn, and it must be settled at the National Convention, either by nominating an open and avowed supporter ... or by adopting resolutions approving it; or the South will undoubtedly secede in a body from the Convention ... You may have noticed that in the Congressional proceedings most measures are carried by a union of the Conservative Whigs and the Conservative Democrats, while the Secessionists of the South and the Abolitionists of the North vote together. It is not possible that this state of things should continue with its natural consequence of sectional parties, and this Union endure ... The Union Party of Georgia ... has refused to send delegates to either Convention, but the Secessionists of that state have elected delegates to the Democratic Convention ... it is not improbable that some of the Whigs may send delegates to the Whig Convention ... I doubt not the example set by the Union Whigs of Georgia will be followed by those of Alabama, and Mississippi, and possibly by the Cooperationists of South Carolina ... They are divided on principle, and contending fiercely about candidates ... [Lewis] Cass is probably the strongest man, but he cannot get 2/3rds of the vote ... [James] Buchanan is opposed with less ferocity and supported with less zeal ... and the same may be said of [Stephen A.] Douglass ... I am therefore inclined to think that the result will be, that all these prominent men will be dropped by the Convention, and some new name taken up, possibly Dickinson ... or Jim Boyd of Kentucky: and such a nomination would be more likely to succeed than that of any of the prominent candidates now before the public... --- (concludes)... I need not say that this must be considered as private and confidential. --- I am, as ever, -- Tryly Yours. - (Signed) Millard Fillmore”. --- “P.S. - I have not time to read ours.”

Fillmore was correct that the serious candidates for the nomination would not succeed. In the end, it was Franklin Pierce that secured the nomination from his party (Democratic) and, ultimately, the Presidency. Dr. Thomas M. Foote was editor of the "Commercial Advertiser" in Buffalo, NY. For the rest of his life, with a couple of brief intervals, he had editorial control of this newspaper. In 1849 he was appointed by President Zachery Taylor as Charge-d'-Affairs at Bogato, Columbia. In 1850, President Millard Fillmore appointed him to a similar post in Vienna, Austria