Third and final installment of examining the obscure Presidents on this long Presidents’ Day weekend. With William Henry Harrison, I played a little bit of “what if” with his presidency and argued that he’s more significant than he gets credit for. With Millard Fillmore, I argued that while not great, he is in no way terrible and deserves a fresh look. Today, with Franklin Pierce, I’m going to argue that he is a legitimately great President. Let’s examine Young Hickory of the Granite Hills.
“Born in poverty, poorly educated, and utterly unsophisticated, Millard Fillmore is one of our most obscure presidents, and one of our worst.” Yikes. This is the opening sentence on the back cover of Paul Finkelman’s Fillmore biography, which is part of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.’s American Presidents Series. Schlesinger isn’t some nobody, his father is a “renowned” presidential historian and one of the first to come up with a presidential ranking list. Yet, this grade-school level garbage is what passes for historical research. “I don’t know who he is, so he must have sucked.” And you people wonder why I hate the professional historian class so much? This Presidents’ Day weekend let’s give Millard Fillmore a fair shot and examine him under a new lens.
13th President Millard Fillmore
Happy Presidents’ Day weekend! Enjoy the three-day weekend if you’ve got it. The holiday itself is monarchical and un-American, but it’s also the American Way to use any excuse to take a day off from work. I want to focus on three of the lesser-known Presidents this weekend, the first being William Henry Harrison. Harrison is only known as the answer to a trivia question: which American President died after only 31 days in office? Or, he’s the butt of a joke: he was the best President because he didn’t stick around long enough to screw things up! But who was William Henry Harrison? And is his presidency more important than we give it credit for?
9th President William Henry Harrison
Life. Liberty. The pursuit of happiness. The right to self-determination. Freedom. The right to bear arms. Free speech. These are often cited as uniquely American principles; they’re what separates us from the rest of the world. I want to focus on just free speech. Is it truly a founding American principle? The answer to that question is complex.
Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798