Customer Reviews

Millard Fillmore

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Historians have relegated Millard Fillmore to virtual obscurity. This biography, however, attempts to improve his image as a strong, effective, chief executive. The author traces Fillmore's lineage, childhood, law career, Congressional years, and presidency.

The author argues that Fillmore based his presidency on nationalism, Constitutional principles, and laissez-faire economy. Although opposed to slavery, Fillmore supported the Fugitive Slave Law as a compromise to avert Civil War. He supported the Compromise of 1850 that submitted California as a free state. To promote economic growth, he endorsed a moderate 20% tariff. He also appealed for the Transcontinental Railroad. According to the author, he strongly handled the Texas-New Mexico dispute. Fillmore advocated neutrality in foreign affairs with moderate diplomacy.

This book adroitly recognizes Millard Fillmore's accomplishments in an intelligent manner. The book has many interesting anecdotes and quotes that greatly embellish the narrative. For example, Fillmore's writings demonstrate an adherence to Constitutional principles, nationalism, and favorite foods, stand on slavery, and political ideology.

This book includes illustrations and thorough footnoting. The chronological format adds to my reading enjoyment. The appendix includes letters and notes at the end to supplement the text. An excellent bibliography gives the reader a list of books for further exploration. The book also includes a useful Millard Fillmore chronology about important dates and events. The lucid prose adds cogency in perhaps a too sympathetic biography.

While I agree with the author that Millard Fillmore has been unjustly maligned by historians as a weak boring president, I found this biography to more of a disservice to Fillmore than anything else.

Detail in a biography is nice, but this book reads more like a giant pamphlet, with endless recitation of one tidbit after another, than a coherent, analytical biography. The paragraphs often seem to have nothing to do with each other; the author states a single fact, cites his source, and then moves on. The facts being stated sometimes seem to be more than the reader really needs:

"Fillmore wrote home about accidents. In 1838, a head-on collision of locomotives occurred on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad which prevented a passenger train arriving with mail. In 1841, a flood on the Susquehanna River carried away a steamboat to Chesapeake Bay. A rescue boat was sent for relief." (p. 123)

What usefulness such information serves in understanding Fillmore (other than the fact that he wrote letters to his family) is beyond me. Unfortunately, the book is full of such paragraphs.

When he is not inundating the reader with minutiae, Scarry tends to sound like a character witness in Fillmore's trial. He clearly reacts personally to what he perceives as negative attacks on Fillmores character, and indignantly leaps to Fillmore's defense. Since I don't find Fillmore to be a particularly controversial historical figure, I find this passion to be somewhat misplaced. It tends to detract from a sense of objectivity on the author's part.

When all is said and done, I guess you can say that this is informative a biography on Fillmore as the reader can expect to find. Being informative does not necessarily equate with being a good biography. For example, one could read Robert Remini's biography of Daniel Webster to get a contrast on how one can write about this time period. Fillmore is important to a certain degree, but I really don't think his importance merits a biography as exhaustive as this.

This is not a terrible biography, and it does fill a void regarding Fillmore. However, the author would be well-advised to remove much of the minutiae, which would cut the book's length in half. The tedious nature of the book means many readers may lose interest halfway through.

Robert Scarry was a retired history teacher and town and village historian for Moravia, New York. Scarry's own study of Fillmore spanded several decades. In this work, Mr. Scarry has probably created the definative work on our country's thirteenth president.

Robert Scarry has shown that much of what is commonly held to be true of Millard Fillmore is not. His earlier work (1965) on Fillmore was a small booklet that underwent several printings. Now, in his book, Millard Fillmore, Scarry has presented new material that stands even some of his earlier research on its head.

As a much-misunderstood figure in American history, Fillmore has both received blame for that which he should not be held to account for and not enough credit for the his overlooked or forgotten successes during his pre-civil war presidency.

Civil War period buffs and anyone intersted in the early days of our country and the presidentcy should get this book.

I sympathize with chefdevergue who also reviewed this incredible biography. Is McFarland & Company a vanity press? Did the editors run out of time?
First, the good news:
I have read hundreds of biographies of which about two dozen are of American presidents. I remain surprised and disappointed at the futility of my search for cradle-to-grave biographies of the less famous presidents. For example, try to find such a biography of John Tyler. So I really appreciate the comprehensive, detailed treatment of Fillmore (although the author never explains how Fillmore supported himself from the time he left the presidency until he married a rich widow). I applaud the inclusion of a timeline, genealogy, illustrations, index, notes, and bibliography.

Now to the reasons why I shook my head till it started to rattle:
How can a book this long and expensive ($75.00) escape critical editing and some semblance of a peer review? Page after page, I shook my head in amazement as I wrestled with weak sentence construction, loose paragraph structure (as chefdevergue explained in an earlier review), frequent double prepositions, improper antecedents, and the ever present Department of Redundancy Department.
Of course the author is on a mission, not to rehabilitate Fillmore to the status of at least an "average" ranking among presidents, but just to rescue Fillmore from obscurity. I wonder how poor Millard would feel about becoming well known as a result of this biography.
If you want informed political analysis to set the context for Fillmore's adult life, look elsewhere but be prepared to look far and wide. This is not scholarly work, but rather a detailed story.
Considering the dearth of alternatives for adult readers, those who are interested in learning about the life of Fillmore should put on their neck braces so they don't shake their heads too much, get comfortable, and read this book.