As a fifteen-year-old apprentice, Millard Fillmore was so enflamed by the threat of an unjust master to whip him in that the lad stood upon the log he had been chopping and raised his axe. "You will not chastise me, " young Millard warned, "If you approach me, I will split you down." Thirty-five years later, as the 13th President of the United States, Millard Fillmore would sign into law - and zealously enforce - the Fugitive Slave Act, arguably the most cruel and unjust piece of legislation ever enacted in the United States.
I MILLARD V directly addresses the very problematical legacy of Buffalo's most eminent early historical personage, and reckons with his lamentable compromise with slavery. But what if a young Millard were to take on the responsibilities of high office with a youth's sense of justice and fairness, instead of as a jaded lawyer? How might he act with the benefit of historical hindsight? What if he had a second - or fifth - chance to get it right?