Details
FILLMORE, Millard. Letter signed ("Millard Fillmore") as Vice President, to Hamilton Fish (1808-1893), Governor of New York, Washington, D.C., 24 June 1850. 1 page, 4to (9 15/16 x 7 15/16 in.), in very fine condition.
EXTINGUISHING THE FLAMES OF SECTIONALISM: THE UNCERTAIN FATE OF CLAY'S COMPROMISE OF 1850
Less than two weeks before Zachary Taylor's untimely death elevated him to the Presidency, Vice President Fillmore sends a copy of the controversial 1850 Compromise bill to New York Governor Hamilton Fish, and expresses uncertainty about its passage: "I send you by to-day's mail, agreeably to your requests, a copy of Mr. Clay's Compromise Bill. It is still doubtful whether it will pass in the Senate."
President Taylor, anticipating the acquisition of new territory from Mexico, had requested funds from Congress for the negotiation of the treaty (signed February 2, 1850). Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot, anxious to prevent the extension of slavery, drafted an amendment, which became famous as the Wilmot Proviso, that prohibited "slavery or involuntary servitude" in those new territories. A bitter debate was precipitated in Congress and the 1850 sessions, which included the first overt southern threats of secession, proved to be among the most rancorous and heated in the history of Congress.
These divisions were heightened when California also sought statehood based upon a free constitution. In January, Henry Clay proposed an eight-part compromise bill, carefully calculated to bridge these differences. Under its provisions California would be admitted as a free state, slavery would not be prohibited from the territories of Utah and New Mexico, the fugitive slave law would be strengthened, and the slave trade though not slavery abolished in the District of Columbia. President Taylor opposed Clay's package, derisively referring to it as "the Omnibus Bill." America's greatest statesmen offered their opinions upon the floor of the Senate. The aged and infirm John C. Calhoun, unable to read his own speech, warned that "nothing will be left to hold the States together except force." William Seward, a dedicated opponent of slavery declared that "there is a higher law than the Constitution." Daniel Webster famously pleaded for compromise and an end of sectional dispute: "I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American."
The complex nature of Clay's Bill and Taylor's refusal to support it hindered passage of the critical Compromise. When he assumed the Presidency, Fillmore reversed Taylor's policy and supported the bill. With the aid of Stephen Douglas, who simplified the plan so a majority could be obtained for each segment, the Compromise of 1850 became law: "It lanced the boil of tension that had festered in Congress during one of its longest and most contentious sessions in history" (McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 75).
Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. Harry Spiro (sale, Christie's, 14 May 1992, lot 61).
EXTINGUISHING THE FLAMES OF SECTIONALISM: THE UNCERTAIN FATE OF CLAY'S COMPROMISE OF 1850
Less than two weeks before Zachary Taylor's untimely death elevated him to the Presidency, Vice President Fillmore sends a copy of the controversial 1850 Compromise bill to New York Governor Hamilton Fish, and expresses uncertainty about its passage: "I send you by to-day's mail, agreeably to your requests, a copy of Mr. Clay's Compromise Bill. It is still doubtful whether it will pass in the Senate."
President Taylor, anticipating the acquisition of new territory from Mexico, had requested funds from Congress for the negotiation of the treaty (signed February 2, 1850). Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot, anxious to prevent the extension of slavery, drafted an amendment, which became famous as the Wilmot Proviso, that prohibited "slavery or involuntary servitude" in those new territories. A bitter debate was precipitated in Congress and the 1850 sessions, which included the first overt southern threats of secession, proved to be among the most rancorous and heated in the history of Congress.
These divisions were heightened when California also sought statehood based upon a free constitution. In January, Henry Clay proposed an eight-part compromise bill, carefully calculated to bridge these differences. Under its provisions California would be admitted as a free state, slavery would not be prohibited from the territories of Utah and New Mexico, the fugitive slave law would be strengthened, and the slave trade though not slavery abolished in the District of Columbia. President Taylor opposed Clay's package, derisively referring to it as "the Omnibus Bill." America's greatest statesmen offered their opinions upon the floor of the Senate. The aged and infirm John C. Calhoun, unable to read his own speech, warned that "nothing will be left to hold the States together except force." William Seward, a dedicated opponent of slavery declared that "there is a higher law than the Constitution." Daniel Webster famously pleaded for compromise and an end of sectional dispute: "I wish to speak to-day, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American."
The complex nature of Clay's Bill and Taylor's refusal to support it hindered passage of the critical Compromise. When he assumed the Presidency, Fillmore reversed Taylor's policy and supported the bill. With the aid of Stephen Douglas, who simplified the plan so a majority could be obtained for each segment, the Compromise of 1850 became law: "It lanced the boil of tension that had festered in Congress during one of its longest and most contentious sessions in history" (McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 75).
Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. Harry Spiro (sale, Christie's, 14 May 1992, lot 61).