(1800–74). Millard Fillmore was the 13th president of the United States. Elected vice president in 1848, he became chief executive on the sudden death of President Zachary Taylor in 1850. From the start of his presidency, Fillmore was forced to deal with a national crisis over the issue of slavery. He worked hard to secure a compromise between antislavery Northerners and proslavery Southerners. His efforts ultimately lost him the support of the North, however, and led to the breakup of his political party, the Whigs. Early life and marriageMillard Fillmore was born in a log cabin in Locke Township, New York, on January 7, 1800. His family was poor. Young Millard was not able to attend school regularly because he had to work on his father's farm. At age 15 he started working as a helper to a woolworker. Later he worked in a law office and studied law. He began practicing law in 1823. In 1826 Fillmore married Abigail Powers. They had two children, Millard Powers and Mary Abigail. State and national politicsIn 1828 Fillmore was elected to the New York legislature. After serving three terms, he was elected to the United States Congress in 1832. Except for one term (1835–37), Fillmore served in Congress continuously until 1843. In 1834 he joined the Whigs, a new political party formed to oppose President Andrew Jackson. Soon Fillmore was recognized as an outstanding leader of the party's Northern wing. Fillmore lost the election for governor of New York in 1844. Three years later, however, he was elected as the first state comptroller. In 1848 the Whigs nominated Fillmore as the vice-presidential running mate of presidential candidate Zachary Taylor. The two won the election. The presidencyFillmore became president when President Taylor died in July 1850. When he took office, the country was close to civil war over the slavery problem. Fillmore was personally opposed to slavery. However, he believed that the North and South had to find a middle ground to preserve the Union. Therefore he supported the Compromise of 1850, a series of laws that tried to satisfy both sides on the slavery issue. One of these laws, the Fugitive Slave Act, required the federal government to help in returning runaway slaves to their owners. Fillmore's enforcement of this act angered many Whigs in the North. In foreign affairs, Fillmore made an important contribution to world trade by sending an expedition under Commodore Matthew Perry to Japan. This led to a treaty of 1854 that opened Japanese ports to U.S. ships. The agreement helped set Japan on its way to modern industrialization. Political defeat and retirementThe Compromise of 1850 postponed the American Civil War for ten years. It also ended Fillmore's political career, however. In 1852 Fillmore was one of three presidential candidates of the divided Whig Party. All of them lost. After the defeat, the Whigs did not take part in another national election. Fillmore was nominated again for the presidency in 1856, this time by the Know Nothing (or American) Party. He finished a distant third in the election behind Democrat James Buchanan and Republican John C. Frémont. Fillmore then retired to Buffalo, New York, where he devoted himself to civic and cultural affairs. In 1858, five years after the death of his wife Abigail, he married Caroline Carmichael McIntosh. Fillmore died in Buffalo on March 8, 1874. |