Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/485

and punctuality, with which he conducted his private affairs, as in earlier years he had performed his professional and public duties ; of another visit to Europe in 1866, accompanied by his second wife, Caroline C. Mcintosh, who survived him for seven years ; of his manner of life in dignified retire- ment, surrounded by all the com- fort and luxuries of a beautiful and well-appoint- ed mansion, in- eluding a large library, and with an attached wife to share his happy home (see accom- panying illustra- tion). In a letter written to his friend Mr. Corco- ran, of Washing- ton, but a few

weeks before the

inevitable hour came, lie remarks : " I am happy to say that ray health is perfect. I eat, drink, and sleep as well as ever, and take a deep but silent in- terest in public aifairs, and if Mrs. Fillmore's health can be restored. I should feel that I was in the en- joyment of an earthly paradise." The ex-president accepted an invitation to meet the surviving mem- bers of his cabinet and a few other valued friends at the residence of Mr. Corcoran. The month of January, 1874, was designated as the date of the meeting, but was afterward changed to April, by Mr. Fillmore's request. Before that time he was no longer among the living. After a short illness, at ten minutes past eleven o'clock, on Sunday even- ing, 8 March, Millard Fillmore

"Gave his honors to the world again,

His blessed part to heaven, and slept in peace." He was gathered to his fathers at the ripe age of seventy-four years, and passed away without the knowledge that his former partner. Judge Hall, with whom he had been so long and so closely united in the bonds of friendship, as well as in professional and political life, had also, a few days previous, rested from his labors, and was then lying in the Forest Lawn cemetery, where the ex-president now sleeps by his side.

Among the chief magistrates of our country there appear more brilliant names than Fillmore's, yet none who more wisely led on the nation to progress and prosperity, making her name great and preserving peace in most perilous times, with- out invoking the power of the sword, or one who could more truthfully say, " These hands are clean." Without being a genius like Webster or Hamilton, he was a safe and sagacious statesman. He pos- sessed a mind so nicely adjusted and well balanced that he was fitted for the fulfilment of any duty which he was called to perform. He was always ready to give up everything but conviction when once convinced. A single public act honestly and unflinchingly performed cost him his popularity. Posterity, looking from a distance, will perhaps be more just. AIL his acts, whether daily and com- mon or deliberate and well-considered, were maiked with modesty, justice, and sincerity. What Speak- er Onslow said of Sir Robert Walpole was equally true of President Fillmore. " He was the best man from the goodness of his heart, to live with and under, of any great man I ever knew." His was an eminently kindly nature, and the last time the writer saw him, in 1878, he was relieving, with a liberal hand, the necessities of an old and unfor- tunate friend. He was a sound, practical Chris- tian " without knowing it," as Pope remarked of a contemporary. His temper was perfect, and it is doubtful if he left an enemy on earth. Fred- erick the Great announced with energy that " Peter the First of Russia, to govern his nation, worked upon it liKe aquafortis upon iron." Fillmore, to win his way, like Lincoln and Garfield, from almost hopeless poverty to one of the most eminent posi- tions of the world, showed equal determination, oftentimes working for weeks and months together, till long past midnight, which happily his powers of physical endurance permitted him to do with impunity, and affording a fine illustration of the proud boast of our country, that its loftiest honors are the legitimate objects of ambition to the hum- blest in the land, as well as to those favored by the gifts of fortune and high birth. See Chamberlain's " Biography of Millard Fillmore " (Buffalo, 1856) ; Benton's " Abridgment of the Debates of Con- gress from 1789 to 1856," vol. xvi. (New York, 1861) ; Thompson's " The Presidents and their Administrations " (Indianapolis. 1873) ; Von Hoist's " Constitutional and Political History of the Unit- ed States," vol. iv. (Chicago, 1885).

FILSON, John, explorer, b. in Chester county, Pa., in 1747; d. in Ohio, in October, 1788. He was an early explorer of the western country, and before he was thirty-seven had traversed the territory now occupied by the states of West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. After spending several years in Kentucky collecting information for a history of the country, he purchased from Mathias Denman a one-third interest in the site of Cincinnati, which he called Losantiville, a name formed by Filson from the Latin “os,” mouth, the Greek “anti,” opposite, and the French “ville,” city, from its position opposite the mouth of the Licking river. While exploring the country between this place and the Great Miami, he disappeared, 1 Oct., 1788, having been killed, it is supposed, by hostile Indians. After his disappearance his interest in the site of Cincinnati was transferred by his partners, Denman and Patterson, to Israel Ludlow, and his heirs never reaped any benefit from the subsequent increase in the value of the land. Mr. Filson was the author of “The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke” (Wilmington, Del., 1784; London, 1793; Paris, 1785); “A Map of Kentucky” (Philadelphia, 1784); and “A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America,” in association with George Imlay (1793). He also left in manuscript “A Diary of a Journey from Philadelphia to Vincennes, Ind., in 1785”; “An Account of a Trip by Land from Vincennes, Ind., to Louisville, Ky., in 1785”; “A Journal of Two Voyages by Water from Vincennes to Louisville,” and an account of an attempted voyage in 1786. See “Life and Writings of John Filson,” by R, T. Durrett (Louisville, 1884).

FIMES VILLALPANDO, Ambrosio de (fee-mes), count of Ricla, captain-general of Cuba, b. in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1720; d. in Madrid in 1780. He entered the army, and in 1760 represented Spain at the court of Russia. In July, 1763, after the peace between England and Spain was signed at Paris, the count of Ricla took possession of the island of Cuba, in the name of the king of Spain, as governor and captain-general. He filled this