Lincoln Lore Bulletin of the Louis A. Warren Lincoln Libro.ry and Museum. Mark E. Neely.Jr.. Edit<lr. Mary Jane Hubler. Editorial Assistant. Published each month by the July, 1978 Lincoln National Life lnsuran~ Company, Port Wttyneo, Indiana 46801. Number 1685 FIVE EX-PRESIDENTS WATCHED THE LINCOLN ADMINISTRATION Presidents who retire from office are expected to become Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan - ''elder statesmen." f."'ormcr President Richard M. Nixon seems did have enough reputation for being above the party battles currently to be bidding for that status by promising to speak for it to be suggested more than once that they meet to find occasionally "in non-political forums." He wil1 stress foreign remedies for the secession crisis. That such a meeting never policy, he says, because partisanship is supposed to end at took place is eloquent testimony to the weskness of the non· America's shores. lie promises to be above the partisan partisan ideal in the nineteenth century. The broad publicdid battles of the day; he will become an elder statesman. not regard these men - and the ex·Presidents did not regard In Lincoln's day, Presidents who left office did not auto­ each other - as passionless Nestors we11 on their way to matically assume the status of elder statesmen. 'l'he five sur· becoming marble statues. They proved, in fact, to be fiercely viving ex-Presidents in 1861-Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, partisan. />Tom th~ Wu1s A. Wanton /,.4ncoln L1brary and M'US(>4!m FIGURE I. Lincoln met two former Presidents shortly before bis inauguration in 1861: Millard Fillmore grooted him in Buffalo. New York, and he met the incumbent, James Buchanan, twice in Washington. Reporters indicated that in both cases Lincoln chatted amiably, but no one knows the subjects of their conversations. 2 LINCOLN LORE It was an irony that fJohn Tyler c-ame nearest to assuming fore, when Fillmore was Lincoln'sofficial hostduring his stay an official s-tatus as a nonpartisan adjudicator in a confer­ in Buffalo. New York, on the way to Washington for the ence meant to reconcile the sections. for he would later dcm· inaugural ceremonies. Fillmore took him to the 1-lrst Uni· onstrate the greatest partisan difference from the Lincoln ad· tarian Church in the morning and at night to a meeting in be­ ministration of any of the former Presidents. By November of half of Indians. but no one knows what they talked about. 1860, Tyler already though< it too late for a convocation of When war brokeoul in ApriJ, Fillmore rallied quickly to the representatives of all the states to arrive at a compromise colors. F'our days after the fall of Fort Sumter. the ex-Presi­ settlement which would save the Union. He did recommend a dent was speaking to a mass Union rally in Buffalo, saying meeting of·'bordcr states" which would bear the brunt of any that it was ..no time now to inquire by whosefaultorfollythis sectional war in the event a eotnpromise was noL reached. state of things ha:; been produced:" it was time for "every man New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi· to stand to his post, and ... let pOsterity ... fmd our skeleton gan, Delaware, Mar-yland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee. and armor on the spot where duty required us to stand." He and Missouri could at least arrange a peaceful separation of gave five hundred dollars for the support of families of volun­ the South if they could not keep the Union together. Tyler's teers and soon organiU'd the Union Continentals, a company proposal never bore fruit, but. when the Virginia General As· of men too old to fight. Enrolling Buffalo's older men ofsulr sem bly proposed a stance in the Union peace conference of all cause. the Continen· states in Washington tals dressed in colorful for February, 1861, unifonns, pn,wided es­ Tyler became one of corts for ceremonial Virginia•s five com· and patriotic occa· mjssioners at the con· sions, and provided vention. The delegates leverage for procuring in Washington elected donations for the U n· Tyler president of Lhc ion cau.se. Fearing conference unanimous· Briti sh in vasion ly. but the convention through Canada to aid was so divided in the Confederacy, Fill· voting on recommen­ more hounded the dations that it was government to provide largely ignored by Con· arms and men to pro­ gres.s. Tyler returned to tect t.he Niagara fron· Virginia and became tier. an advocate of seces· Suddenly in Febru· slon. When urged t.o ary or 1864. ~'illmore lead a compromise performed an abrupt movement after the fall about-face. In the open­ of Fort Sumter in the ing address for the spring, Tyler though< it Great Central Fair of hopeless. Lincoln, he the Ladies Christian said, .. having weighed Commission in Buffa­ in the scales the vaJuc lo, Fillmore rehearsed or a mere local Fort a catalogue of war· against the value of the induced suffering and Union i<self" had announced that "last­ brought on "the very ing peace•· would come <..'OIIision he well knew only when much was would arise whenever "forgiven. if not forgot· Fort Sumter was ten." When ~he war end­ attempted to be rein· ed. the United States forced or provisioned." should restore the In November. Tyler South ··to all their was elected to serve in rights under the Con­ the Confederate House stitution." Republi· of Representatives. Far cans were outraged. rrom becoming an elder The ex-President had statesman. John Tyler turned a nonpartisan played a role in destroy- Fr(JI'Il th~ IAu4s A 1Vorrtn patriotic rally into a ing the nation which Lincoln Mbr<lry cu1d .Mru~um veiled criticism of the had once elected him f'lCURE 2. Millard Fillmore. administration's con· Vice-President. duct of the war. Millard Fillmore despised Republicans as Lhreats to the Personally, Fillmore felt that the country was "on the verge Union he loved and had once helped to preserve (by suppOrt­ of ruin ... Without a change in the administration, he said, "we ing the Compromise of 1850). In the secession crisis, he felt must soon end in national bankruptcy and military that the burden lay upon Republicans to give "some as· despOtism." The ex-President, once a Whig and a Know-Noth· surance ... that they, ... are ready and willing to . .• repeaJ ing, endorsed Democrat George B. McClellan for the Presi­ all unconstitutional state Jaws; live up to the compromises of dency in 1864. the Constitution, and .. h·eat our Southern brethren as After Lincotn·s assassination, Fillmore led the delegation friends.'' Nevertheless, he disagreed with the cautious policy which met the President's funeral train and escorted it to of lame-duck President James Buchanan, who felt Lhat Lhe Buffalo. This did not expunge from Republican's memories gover-tunent had no authority to "coerce a state." The men Fillmore's partisan nets of 1864. Nor did it cool his dislike of who passed ordinances of secession. Fillmore argued. should Republicans. In 1869. he stated thatit would be "a blessing to be ''·regarded as an unauthorized 8.1;sembly of men conspiring break the ranks of the corrupt proscription radical party, that to commit treason. and as such liable to be punished like any now curses the country. Could moderate men of both parties other unlawful assembly engaged in the same business." unite in forming a new one .. it. would be weu.•· Though no one knows how Fillmore votOO in 1860, it is Among the five living ex-Presidents, none was more hostile doubtful that he voted for Lincoln. Jt seemed awkward. ther~ to President Lincoln Lhan Franklin Pierce. In 1860, he hot>ed LINCOLN LORE 3 that a united Democratic party would choose Southern can· sion in the bud.lt was commonly asserted that Buchanan oon· didt•te John C. Breckinridge. The New Hampshire Demo· spired with secessionists to let.t.heSouthoutofthe Union. Lin· crats endorsed Stephen A. Douglas instead, but Pierce went. coin's Vice-Pre.ident Hannibal Hamlin. forexample,fel' that along with the decision, though without enthusiasm. Lin· the Buchanan administration uconnives at acts of treason at coin's election was, for this Democratic ex-President, a "dis· the South." Despite the findings of a Congressional investi· tinct and unequivocal denial of the coequal rights'' of the gation. many persisted in the belief that the administration state.. In a letter written on Christmas Eve, 1861, PierC<> had allowed a disproportionate share or arms to now to urged the South to delay action for six months. If the North Southern arsenals and a dangerously large amount of money did not right the wrongs done the South, then she could depart to remain in Southern mints. When war broke out.. feelings in peace. were so strong against Buchanan that he required a guard It was hoped that all ofthe ex-Presidents might attend John from the local Masonic Lodge in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Tyler's Washington Peace Conference. Pierce declined, say· protect his home, Wheatland, from vandalism and himself ing that ''the North have been the first wrong doers and [he from personal injury. President Lincoln did not. help hadI never been able to see how a successful ap1>eal <'Ould be Buchanan's plight when, in his message of July 4, 1861, he made to the south without first placing (the North) right." charged that he found the following upon entering office: a After newsofFortSumter's fa11, however, he reconsidered and "disproportionate share. of the Federal muskets and rifles" in ·wrote ex-President Martin Van Buren, suggesting that Van Southern armories, money in Southern mints, the "Navy ..