[00:07.00]Fillmore was from New York State.
[00:12.36]His family was poor.
[00:15.52]His early education came not from school teachers
[00:21.55]but from whatever books he could find.
[00:25.50]Later,Fillmore was avle to study law.He became a successful lawyer.
[00:34.51]He also served in the United States congress for eight years.
[00:41.14]He Whig Party chose him as its vice presidential candidate
[00:47.46]in the election of 1848.
[00:51.30]He served as vice president for about a year
[00:56.95]and half before the death of President Taylor.
[01:01.68]fillmore has disagreed with Taylor
[01:07.71]over the congressional compromise on slavery and the western territories.
[01:13.85]Unlike Taylor,Fillmore truly believed that the nation was facing a crisis.
[01:22.57]The compromise would help save the union.
[01:28.32]Now,as president,Fillmore offered his complete support to the bill.
[01:36.37]Its chances of passing looked better than ever.
[01:41.51]Fillmore asked the old cabinet to resign.
[01:46.95]He named his own cabinet members.
[01:51.67]All were strong supporters of the union.
[01:56.53]All supported the compromise.
[02:01.39]Congress debated the compromise throughout the summer of 1850.
[02:09.23]There were several proposals in the bill.
[02:13.67]Supporters decided not to vote on the proposals as one piece of legislation
[02:21.71]They saw a better chance of success
[02:26.73]by trying to pass each proposal separately.Their idea worked.
[02:34.38]By the end of September,both the senate and House of Representatives
[02:41.72]had approved all parts of the 1850 compromise.
[02:48.36]President fillmore signed them into law.
[02:52.88]One part of the compromise permitted California
[02:59.12]to enter the union as a free state.
[03:03.17]One established territorial governments in New Mexico and Utah.
[03:11.01]One settled the dispute between Texas and New Mexico.
[03:17.43]Another ended the slave trade in the district of Columbia.
[03:24.59]Many happy celebrations took place when citizens heard
[03:32.04]that Presisent Fillmore had signed the 1850 compromise.
[03:39.09]Many people believed the problem of slavery had been solved.
[03:45.33]They believed the union had been saved.
[03:50.58]Others,however,believed the problem had only been postponed.
[03:58.42]They hoped the delay would give reasonable men of the north
[04:04.35]and south time to find a permanent answer to the issue of slavery.
[04:12.19]Time was running out.
[04:15.63]It was true that the 1850 compromise had ended a national crisis.
[04:23.68]But both northern and southern extremists remained bitter.
[04:30.11]Those opposed to slavery believed the compromise law
[04:36.64]on runaway slaves violated the constitution.
[04:41.99]The new law said Negroes accused of being runaway slaves
[04:48.31]could not have a jury trial.
[04:51.76]It said government officials could send Negroes
[04:57.01]to whoever claimed to own them.
[05:00.07]It said Negroes could not appeal such a decision.
[05:06.21]Those who supported slavery had a different idea of the compromise.
[05:13.94]They did not care about the constitutional rights of Negroes.
[05:20.71]They considered the compromise a simple law
[05:25.33]for the return of valuable property.
[05:29.17]No law approved by congress,and signed by the president
[05:35.99]could change these beliefs.
[05:39.62]The issue of slavery was linked to the issue of secession.
[05:48.16]Did states have the right to leave the union?
[05:53.31]If Southern states rejected all compromises on slavery,
[06:00.07]did they have the right to secede?
[06:04.59]The signing of the 1850 compromise cooled the debate for a time.
[06:12.24]But disagreement on the issues was deep.
[06:17.39]It would continue to build over the next ten years.
[06:23.32]Those were difficult years for America's presidents. |