Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1848-10-21
LIFE OF NlfLARD FILLMORE

LIFE OF NILLARD FILLMORE,
The Wing candidate for the Vice Pfesi.
dency is well entitled TO be p aced on the
same ticket with Zachary Taylor, and pro.
baby no man Of the whole party could
have been nominated who would have civ
en- more satisfaction to the independent
friends Of Gen. Taylor. Willard Fillmore
Is q native Of New York. He was born
10 Cayuga county, at a place called Sum.
mer Hill, on the 18th ofJanuary 1900. His
father, Nathaniel Fillmore, was born in
Burlington, Vermount, l77l he emigrat-
ed in early life to the western part of New
York, then a wilderness, and in 1919 pur.
chased a farm in Erie county, which he
still cultivates. The educational advan
iages enjoyed by young Fillmore were
very slender the Bible and such books as
were used in The very common schools then
existing, were the limits Of his literary
pursuits until the age of fifteen, when he
was a]pPrenticcJ to the wool.carding bust
ness in Livingston county. He was after.
wards placed with a person in the same
business in the town where his father re-
sided, and passed four years at the trade,
~devouring in the meanwhile the contents
OF a small village library. At the age of
nineteen fortune threw in bis way a bene-
VIOLENT man, who had the penetration to
discover the youths good paris, and the
kindness TO place him 10 a condition to cul.
tivate them.-This gentleman was the
late Waller Wood-a man whose name
should be held in reverence by all who
have kno wnwhat it is to struggle with ad-
versity and gather knowledge in the thorn.
beset waysides of early poverty. Judge
Wood, fol. this benevolent gentleman was
a lawyer, possessed a good library and a
handsome fortune. He prevailed upon
young Fillmore to quit T'be trade of wool.
carding and take to the study of law, thai
being looked upon as the only profession
which a qualify a man for high station.
A sad fact, bot one hat cannot be denied.
The clothier's apprentice purchased the
remainder Of bis time, and studied law and
surveying in the office of his benefactor
until he was twenty.one.--During this time
he partly supported himself by teaching
school. In 1921 he removed TO Erie coun.
ty, and entered a lawyers office Ia Buffalo,
where he pursued his legal studies, and
taught a school for bis support, until 1923,
when he was admitted to practice in the
Court Of Common Pleas. From that time
his course has been up, up, up, up. He
first commenced practising in the village Of
Aurora, in Cayuga county, but returned to
Buffalo in 1880, where he still resides. In
1929 he was elected o member of the state
legislature, and was re elected the two
succeeding years. Ii was during his men,
bership in the state Legislature that the
laws for the imprisonment for debt were
partially abolished, and il was in a great
degree owing 10 the activity, eloquence,
and interchangeable zeal with which he adj
yocated the removal of these villainous re.
lies of an age of superstition and darkness
that the friends Of humanity succeeded in
partially wiping the foul blot from our still
barbarous code Of Iaws.-A
person reared 10 the manner in which
MiIlarJ Fillmore has been, could have no
sympathy with laws which made poverty a
crime. We only regret that he had not
completely obliterated these horrid laws
from our statute book, and not left a rem
naut of them to Cypress the poor and un-
fortunate.
Mr. Fillmore is a. protectionist. Per.
haps it was his early occupation that has
given his mind a tendency to doctrines as
much the offspring of barbarous ignorance