Millard Fillmore 1850 - 1853

Born: 1800, Cayuga County, NY
Died: 1874

Millard Fillmore became President after the sudden death of Zachary Taylor. Son of a poor farmer, Fillmore was apprenticed to a cloth maker, but studied law and entered politics, serving as Comptroller of New York, U.S. Congressman, and Vice-President. Although he personally opposed slavery, President Fillmore supported Henry Clay's Compromise of 1850. The Compromise allowed California to join the Union as a free state in exchange for Congressional enactment of the Fugitive Slave Act, which helped slaveholders recapture runaway slaves. Abolitionists were outraged, including many Northern Whigs, and passions were further inflamed by the 1852 publican of Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom Cabin.

Fillmore did manage to secure a trade agreement with Japan, but he came under increasing attack from both pro- and anti-slavery factions, and his ineptitude in resolving the slavery issue led to his demise. The Whigs nominated another candidate in 1852. the party eventually disintegrated, ruined by the same forces that were tearing the nation apart. In 1856 Fillmore ran unsuccessfully for President on the xenophobic American (nicknamed "Know-Nothing") party ticket.

Thirteenth President
Whig