Um, 'Happy President's Day', I guess. I'm old enough to remember when we celebrated Washington's birthday and Lincoln's birthday as individual holidays. But now we get one holiday to celebrate all our presidents, even the ones we'd rather forget (would anyone say "Happy Nixon Day"?). So today, I'm celebrating Millard Fillmore, our 13th president, because I doubt anyone else will. Ol' Millard should best be remembered for this:Fillmore was also a staunch defender against foreign intervention in Hawaii. France's Napoleon III attempted to annex the Hawaiian Islands, but was forced to withdraw after a strongly worded message from Fillmore suggesting that "the United States would not stand for any such action."[17]
Yes, he saved Hawaii from the French for us. Also, I seriously doubt we'll ever have another president named "Millard". Although we are at risk of a "Willard".
2 comments:
Thank you for honoring our unsung President. We still have the little house he built for his bride in our town. We do celebrate him in our quiet way.
I live near the birthplace of Grover Cleveland. He too had involvement with Hawaii as I recall but forget in what way. Maybe you can cover him next year! BTW, how does one get "Mitt" out of "Willard"?
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