Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President by Robert J. RaybackMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was actually a pretty enlightening book. I knew nothing about Millard Fillmore, but had the general impression that he was a failure as a president. He pretty much was a failure, but then again he's one of those people who had been successful until becoming Vice President and then, when Zachary Taylor died, was thrust into the presidency. To his credit he had no intention of ever running for another term. To his discredit, he got bullied into doing it anyway, and in a pretty hopeless situation to be used as a pawn.
Having said that, however, I imagine all presidents will be mediocre until Lincoln comes around. Slavery is obviously a pressure cooker waiting to explode (if that's an expression), and all these presidents keep trying to compromise and, frankly, pass on the buck. Fillmore certainly compromised, and I don't think it's wrong to judge him unfavorably for not taking a stand. People knew slavery was wrong and counter to everything the United States stood for, but they also were political, to the point of literally approving slavery (not sure how to make that point more obvious).
Anyway, aside from this, kudos to Fillmore for being against the annexation of Hawaii or Cuba (suddenly he had morals here). The book also mentions some apparently embarrassingly bad correspondence sent to the emperor of Japan, but doesn't say what was so embarrassing about it, which is a bit disappointing.
I got the impression from this book that the skills that landed Fillmore the Vice presidency are the same skills that made him a bad president and made him lose reelection. He was good at working with others and tried to mediate and compromise, without being boastful or showy or really making a stand for anything.
3.5 stars rounded up because I doubt a 5 star biography could ever be written for this president.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment