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Millard Fillmore Signed & Annotated His Copy of President Van Buren’s 1839 State of the Union Address Which Is Included in His Bound Collection of “Loco Foco Congressional Speeches 1840”
Millard Fillmore Signed & Annotated His Copy of President Van Buren’s 1839 State of the Union Address Which Is Included in His Bound Collection of “Loco Foco Congressional Speeches 1840”
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Description:

Millard Fillmore Signed & Annotated His Copy of President Van Buren’s 1839 State of the Union Address Which Is Included in His Bound Collection of “Loco Foco Congressional Speeches 1840”

Book Signed “Millard Fillmore / Buffalo” in ink, “M. Fillmore” in ink, and “M. Fillmore” in pencil twice. Over 1100 pages, 5.75” x 9”. Comprises over 100 speeches of members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate delivered on the floor of their respective chambers, with printed messages from some members, President Martin Van Buren (State of the Union Address), and the Secretaries of the Treasury and War. The speeches were printed in Washington: Globe Office, 1840. Bound in half calf and marbled papers over boards. Title “LOCO FOCO / CONGRESSIONAL / SPEECHES” in gilt on black label on spine, dated “1840.” Foxing on some pages, including the first pages of the individual speeches. Soiling inside covers. Overall, in very good condition.

Loco Foco was the name given to a radical wing of the Democratic Party organized in New York City in 1835. Made up primarily of workingmen and reformers, the Locofocos were opposed to state banks, paper money, tariffs, monopolies and any financial policies that favored others. At a Tammany Hall meeting in 1835, the regular Democrats nominated a slate of candidates. When the “Equal Rights” faction began to nominate their own slate, the gas lights were turned off. The group then lit candles and the new self-igniting friction matches known as locofocos to nominate their candidates. From then on they were known as Locofocos.

Active in New York, never a national party, their major issue was the complete separation of government from banking. Their strength was at its peak in 1840 when Congress passed the Independent Treasury Act which President Van Buren signed into law. Both Democrat Van Buren and Whig Fillmore were New Yorkers. By 1840, the Whigs referred to all Democrats as Locofocos; the Democrats were in control of both Houses of Congress. Hence, when Fillmore had his collection of “Congressional Speeches 1840” bound into this volume, including lengthy speeches for the Independent Treasury Bill, he had “LOCO FOCO” added to the title. In the elections of 1840, the Whigs took control of the House, the Senate, and the White House.

In addition to the inside cover, Fillmore has signed three of the speeches:

(1) “M. Fillmore” in pencil on first page of “Abolition!! / Infatuation of Federal Whig Leaders of the South.” The letter “B-” is penned in ink by Fillmore on the pencil signature; creased through signature.

(2) “M. Fillmore” in ink on the first page of “Speech of Mr. Benton, of Missouri” of January 6, 1840 “against the constitutionality and expediency of assuming, or providing for the payment of the State debts, or diverting the land revenue to that object."

(3) On the first page of “Message / from / the President of the United States, / to / the Two Houses of Congress, / at the / Commencement of the First Session / of / the Twenty-Sixth Congress” – President Martin Van Buren’s State of the Union address – he has signed “M. Fillmore” in pencil. Dated December 2, 1839, Van Buren’s “Message” was delivered to the House of Representatives by his private secretary, his son Abraham, at noon on December 24, 1839, and was read to the members present. Congressman Fillmore has handwritten 40 words in reddish-brown pencil in the margins of the 24 page speech. Half of the words are cut off due to the trimming of the pages during binding.

The complete or almost complete words written by Fillmore next to related passages of Van Buren’s State of the Union: “Peace with foreign,” “Turk[ey],” “Fina[nce],” “Treas Note,” “P emption Law” (Pre emption Law), “Defen[ce] Army,” “Florid[a] war,” “Navy,” “Departments,” “Judiciary,” “Territo[ry],” “[T]reasury,” “Foreign governments.” In addition, there are 21 partial words. Fillmore has also underlined a few words in the text.

Later in this book, at the conclusion of a January 3, 1840 letter from Secretary of the Treasury Levi Woodbury to the President of the Senate, Vice President Richard M. Johnson, relating to “fiscal regulations in force” in other nations, Fillmore has written in his reddish-brown pencil: “See Message p. 13.” On page 13 of his State of the Union, Van Buren refers to “inquiries made by the Secretary of the Treasury” concluding “that in twenty-two out of twenty-seven foreign governments ... the public moneys are kept in charge of public officers...”

At the head of the first page of “Speech of Mr. A.C. Hand of New-York ... June 27, 1840 ... on the Independent Treasury Bill,” is penned “Hon M Filmore,” but this is not in Fillmore’s hand.

In addition to Missouri’s Senator Thomas Hart Benton and President Van Buren, there speeches of Kentucky Senator Henry Clay and Pennsylvania Senator James Buchanan among other Senators and Congressmen. Topics in this volume include abolition, the Cumberland Road, a Treaty with the New York Indians, an Independent Treasury Bill, the establishment of a uniform system of bankruptcy, and the New Jersey Contested Election of 1838 (5 Whigs and 5 Democrats claimed 5 New Jersey House seats). Whig Congressman Fillmore was on the House Committee on Elections and was a prominent speaker on the subject; none of Fillmore’s speeches are in this book.

Abolition speeches include one by Rep. Sampson H. Butler of South Carolina on a resolution “to amend the rules relative to the reception and disposal of Abolition Petitions.” It begins, “Mr. Speaker: It has not been the habit of Southern members, and particularly from South Carolina, to discuss the subject now before the House. Nor, sir, do I intend, on the present occasion, to discuss the constitutional right to hold slaves, the moral influence of slavery, or its expediency ... We could show that slavery was coeval almost with the existence of the human race; that it was fully recognised under the Old and New Testament dispensations; and that to us it is a political blessing, instead of an evil. But, sir, no one has a right to coerce us into these matters, and no power on earth shall move us from our position...”

Congressman Fillmore favored the reception of petitions for the abolition of slavery, opposed by the South. Ten years later, as President, Fillmore signed the measures of the Compromise of 1850, including the Fugitive Slave Law which sought to prevent a Civil War. So close had the Union been to dissolution that when Congress passed the Compromise bills, a spontaneous celebration broke out in Washington. The Marine Band led a large parade of citizens to the lodgings of the legislators involved in crafting the Compromise which, unfortunately only delayed the war for ten years.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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