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on slavery |
1838: After MF was nominated to Congress an abolitionist group sent him the following list of questions: “Do you believe that petitions to congress…on slavery and the slave trade, ought to be received…and…considered? Are you opposed to the annexation of Texas…? Are you in favor of congress (abolishing) the…slave trade between the states? Are you in favor of immediate… abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia?” Fillmore supposedly shouted “The Philistines are upon us,” but to all questions he answered: “Yes.” (Rayback, p162)
1846: MF called the Mexican War a “wild and wicked scheme of foreign conquest” to add “another slave territory to the United States.” He added that while the North had the majority, “the South has managed to have the Speaker of the House about two-thirds of the time, and the Presidency about two-thirds of the time…I cast no imputations upon the South for this, but ask: Shall we submit to our servile condition?” (Rayback, p162)
1850: MF signed the Fugitive Slave Act and warned that he would use federal troops to enforce it. “God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil, for which we are not responsible, and we must endure it, and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the constitution, till we can get rid of it without destroying the last hope of free government in the world.” (Rayback, p252 and 271)
1850: MF signed a law banning the slave trade (but not the ownership of slaves) in Washington, D.C. (Snyder, p45)
1850: MF responded to fears that the Fugitive Slave Act would lead to free Blacks being wrongly kidnapped: “The law having passed, must be executed. That so far as it provides for the surrender of ugitives from labor it is according to the requirements of the constitution and should be sustained against all attempts at repeal, but if there be any provision in it endangering the liberty of those who are free, it should be so modified as to secure the free blacks from such an abuse…” Two months later he added that the law should not be so modified: “until time and experience shall demonstrate the necessity of further legislation to guard against evasion or abuse.” (Rayback, p 277-8)
1852:
MF wrote about slavery in the draft of his last state-of-the-union message,
but his cabinet convinced him to leave that text out. He predicted
that within a century the population, White and Black, would
overwhelm the land. “It will give birth to a conflict of races
with all the lamentable onsequences which must characterize
such a strife… The terrific scenes of St. Domingo (i.e. the slave
rebellion in Haiti) are sooner or later to be re-enacted
here, unless something be done to avert it.” The only solution
would be to free the slaves and send them back to Africa.
“If emigration could take place at the rate of 100,000 per annum, that
would not only prevent the increase of the slave population, but
constantly
diminish it, and
at last…wipe it out entirely.” Asians would be permitted
in to replace the slave labor force. (Rayback, p368-9)
1860: MF to Dorothea Dix: “You have been at the South and you can best appreciate the feeling excited by John Brown’s foolish and criminal invasion of Virginia. He doubtless believed what these insane fanatics at the North have taught, that the slaves would rise in mass and join his insurrectionary standard, and the result, I think has had one good effect; and that is to show the people of the North, that the slaves themselves do not regard their condition as so bad that they have any strong desire to change it.” (Snyder, p 325-6)
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