Most people remember American Presidents like Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. But we can learn things from the examples of lesser known Presidents as well.
Millard Fillmore was President from 1850 to 1853. He became President because while he served as Vice President, President Taylor died in office. Fillmore’s Presidency was filled with mediocrity. He didn’t lead his nation in a new direction. He didn’t challenge great evil. He just was President.
He was born in a log cabin in New York. Self educated, he eventually became a lawyer and served as a Representative for New York. He was selected as Vice President because of his experience in the Mexican American War, and his good looks. (Queen Victoria once called him the most handsome man she had ever met.)
He inherited a Presidency of troubles. The slavery issue was hotly debated, and Fillmore accepted a compromise offered by the main debaters in which California was admitted to the Union as a Free State, and the Fugitive Slave Act (by which slave owners were allowed to re-capture escaped slaves in a vigilante-like way) was more fully enforced. But the end result was not contentment. Abolitionists (those who opposed slavery most strongly) continued to ignore the Fugitive Slave Act; and the balance of power upset caused by the entrance of California became a thorn in his political side.
However, Fillmore endured to the end. Was dropped by his Party, and after a couple of failed attempts to run as a third-party candidate, retired to obscurity.
He was the first President to have running water in the White House. He negotiated a treaty with Peru involving bird droppings. He turned down an honorary Doctorate from Oxford on the grounds, “that no one should have a degree that he can’t read.” His nickname was “His Accidency.” Political satirists made much of his first name, usually replacing it with “Mallard.”
But he was President of the United States. And that encourages me. Our job (as was Fillmore’s) is simply to do what is set before us. It doesn’t always involve averting world war. It doesn’t always involve curing the common cold. It doesn’t always involve being amazing.
Just do your job. The absolute best you can do.
The Millard Fillmore way.