January 15

It is not strange to mistake change for progress.

Millard Fillmore, 13^th President, 1850-1853

-From his State of the Union Address, December 6, 1852.-Fillmore, from The Fingerlakes region of upstate New York, was Vice President under Zachary Taylor. He became President when Taylor died in office July 9, 1850. Fillmore did not attain the highest of rankings as President but in this address he does provide a few insightful remarks regarding the future of the nation. As technological advancements decreased the travel time between the United States and Europe, many believed we should become more involved in European politics and help establish republican democracies. Such sentiments are still present today. Fillmore urges caution:"...Although no one proposes that we should join the fraternity of potentates who have for ages lavished the blood and treasure of their subjects in maintaining "the balance of power," yet it is said that we ought to interfere between contending sovereigns and their subjects for the purpose of overthrowing the monarchies of Europe and establishing in their place republican institutions...This is a most seductive but dangerous appeal to the generous sympathies of freemen...the world is governed less by sympathy than by reason and force; that it was not possible for this nation to become a "propagandist" of free principles without arraying against it the combined powers of Europe, and that the result was more likely to be the overthrow of republican liberty here than its establishment there...". He also cautioned against the unbridled march of technology and profit at the greater expense rights of individuals and the well being of the country in general:"...We live in an age of progress, and ours is emphatically a country of progress...The genius of one American has enabled our commerce to move against wind and tide and that of another has annihilated distance in the transmission of intelligence. The whole country is full of enterprise... Government must keep pace with the progress of the people...It is not strange, however much it may be regretted, that such an exuberance of enterprise should cause some individuals to mistake change for progress and the invasion of the rights of others for national prowess and glory. The former are constantly agitating for some change in the organic law, or urging new and untried theories of human rights. The latter are ever ready to engage in any wild crusade against a neighboring people, regardless of the justice of the enterprise and without looking at the fatal consequences to ourselves and to the cause of popular government.