I awoke from a particularly hard sleep after a night celebrating ten Cub Scouts’ earning their Arrow of Light awards and advancing into Boy Scout troops, to a missive from Carl Cannon (RealClear Politics) wondering why I’m asleep at the switch.
Millard Fillmore died on March 8, 1874, and he expected to see some note of that here at the Bathtub. This blog is not the chronicler of all things Millard Fillmore, but can’t we at least get the major dates right?
Carl is right. Alas, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub is avocation, and at times like these an avocation that should be far down the list of avocations.
To mark the date, here is a post out of the past that notes two key events on March 8 that Fillmore had a hand in, the second being his death. Work continues on several fronts, and more may splash out of the tub today, even about Fillmore. Stay tuned.
Fillmore died on March 8, 1874; exactly 20 years earlier, Commodore Matthew C. Perry landed in Japan, in the process of what may be the greatest and most overlooked legacy of Millard Fillmore’s presidency, the opening of Japan to the world. Here’s that post:
The Black Ships — Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s squadron in Japan, 1854 – CSSVirginia.org image from Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion, Boston, May 15, 1852 (also, see BaxleyStamps.com); obviously the drawing was published prior to the expedition’s sailing.
On March 8, 1854, Commodore Matthew C. Perry landed for the second time in Japan, having been sent on a mission a year earlier by President Millard Fillmore. On this trip, within 30 days he concluded a treaty with Japan which opened Japan to trade with the U.S. (the Convention of Kanagawa), and which began a cascade of events that opened Japan to trade with the world.
Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1852 photograph, Library of Congress via WikiMedia
Within 50 years Japan would come to dominate the seas of the the Western Pacific, and would become a major world power.
1854 japanese woodblock print of U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry. Peabody Museum: “The characters located across the top read from right to left, ‘A North American Figure’ and ‘Portrait of Perry.’ According to the Peabody Essex Museum, ‘this print may be one of the first depictions of westerners in Japanese art, and exaggerates Perry’s western features (oblong face, down-turned eyes, bushy brown eyebrows, and large nose).'” But compare with photo above, right. Peabody Museum holding, image from Library of Congress via WikiMedia
Then, 20 years later, on March 8, 1874, Millard Fillmore died in Buffalo, New York.
The Perry expedition to Japan was the most famous, and perhaps the greatest recognized achievement of Fillmore’s presidency. Fillmore had started the U.S. on a course of imperialistic exploitation and exploration of the world, with other expeditions of much less success to Africa and South America, according to the story of his death in The New York Times.
The general policy of his Administration was wise and liberal, and he left the country at peace with all the world and enjoying a high degree of prosperity. His Administration was distinguished by the Lopez fillibustering expeditions to Cuba, which were discountenanced by the Government, and by several important expeditions to distant lands. The expedition to Japan under Commodore Perry resulted in a favorable treaty with that country, but that dispatched under Lieut. Lynch, in search of gold in the interior of Africa, failed of its object. Exploring expeditions were also sent to the Chinese seas, and to the Valley of the Amazon.
More:
- Mr. Cannon mentioned Fillmore in his morning note
- Millard Fillmore: A Re-Assailing (breitbart.com)
- Street isn’t President Pierce’s road to fame (sfgate.com)
- This Day in History for March 8 (goerie.com)
- July 8, 1853: Perry anchors U.S. ships in Edo Bay, the beginnings of American imperialism (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
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Imperialism?
Oddly enough, Millard Fillmore had some thoughts about that. In his message to Congress earlier (the State of the Union), Fillmore said he thought the U.S. uniquely positioned to open relations to Japan from the world, since the U.S. would be prevented from imperialism by the Constitution.
No kidding.
This was after the Mexican/American War, mind you — barely four years past.
Sometimes Fillmore seems amazingly prescient, and sometimes he seems amazingly naive — in this case, in the same paragraph.
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[…] Millard Fillmore’s links to March 8: Hurrah! and R.I.P. (timpanogos.wordpress.com) […]
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Re. Portrait of Matthew Perry.
The Peabody Essex Museum doesn’t know what it’s talking about.
The Japanese made depictions of Europeans in their art more than 300 years before this print. The images included not just the Portugese sailors who had arrived to engage in the Nanban trade in Japan, but their African slaves and exotic wildlife. There were also numerous artistic depictions of (white) Jesus, Mary & European clerics made for the christian market, especially in Southern Japan.
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