Church and state should be separate, not only in form, but fact. Religion and politics should not be mingled.
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Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the 13th President of the United States (1850–53), the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former U.S. Representative from New York, Fillmore was elected the nation's 12th Vice President in 1848, and was elevated to the presidency by the death of Zachary Taylor. He was instrumental in getting the Compromise of 1850 passed, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over slavery. He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in 1852; he gained the endorsement of the nativist Know Nothing Party four years later, and finished third in that election. Fillmore was born into poverty in the Finger Lakes area of New York state; his parents were tenant farmers during his formative years. He rose from poverty through study, and became a lawyer though he had little formal schooling. He became prominent in the Buffalo area as an attorney and politician, was elected to the New York Assembly in 1828, and to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1832. Initially, he belonged to the Anti-Masonic Party, but became a Whig as the party formed in the mid-1830s; he was a rival for state party leadership with editor Thurlow Weed and Weed's protégé, William H. Seward. Through his career, Fillmore declared slavery as an evil, but one beyond the powers of the federal government, whereas Seward was not only openly hostile to slavery, he argued that the federal government had a role to play in ending it. Fillmore was an unsuccessful candidate for Speaker of the House when the Whigs took control of the chamber in 1841, but was made Ways and Means Committee chairma
We cannot witness the struggle between the oppressed and his oppressor anywhere without the deepest sympathy for the former and the most anxious desire for his triumph.
It is not strange…to mistake change for progress and the invasion of the rights of others for national prowess and glory.
Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom. Our own free institutions were not the offspring of our Revolution. They existed before.
God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil, for which we are not responsible, and we must endure it, and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the constitution, till we can get rid of it without destroying the last hope of free government in the world.
The whole country is full of enterprise. Our common schools are diffusing intelligence among the people and our industry is fast accumulating the comforts and luxuries of life.
May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.
An honorable defeat is better than a dishonorable victory.
Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom. Our own free institutions were not the offspring of our revolution. They existed before.
The law is the only sure protection of the weak and the only efficient restraint upon the strong. When impartially and faithfully administered, none is beneath its protection and none above its control