President Millard Fillmore (1800 - 1874) - Genealogy President Millard Fillmore Loke Township, (now Summerhill), Cayga County, New York, United States Death: in Buffalo, Erie County, New York, United States Place of Burial: Buffalo, Erie County, New York, United States Immediate Family: Brother of Olive Armstrong Johnson ; Cyrus Fillmore ; Almon Hopkins Fillmore ; Calvin Turner Fillmore ; Julia Harris and 3 others ; Darius Ingraham Fillmore ; Charles DeWitt Fillmore and Phoebe Maria Shayler « less Occupation: 13th President of the United States, President of the United States, US President and Lawyer, Teacher, Attorney, NY Controller, Vice President, 13th President(1850-1853), 13th U.S.

President, President of the United States (#13), 13th President of the USA Managed by: Jan 7 1800 - Locke, Cayuga, New York, United States Death: Mar 8 1874 - Buffalo, Erie, New York, United States Parents: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 Text: "...in regard to the death of Millard Fillmore mid Charles Sumner. Articles of association of the Jefferson City Bunk were filed to-day i... Publication: Jefferson City, Cole, Missouri, USA Date: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 Text: ... summer." 0XT9A&T. Seatii of Sx-Presldtnt fillmore. Ex-President Millard Fillmore died at his rasidenoe in Huffalo, Sands? night ... sudd... Publication: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 Text: ... whiskey drinking and should he abandoned. BG7” The death of Millard Fillmore leaves Andrew Johnson as the only eq-Fresident of the Unite...

Publication: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 Text: "...Millard Fillmore, who was President of tho United States from July 10th, 1850, to March 4th, '53, died in llufTalo, N. Y., on .Sunday... Publication: Weston, Lewis, West Virginia, USA Date: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 Text: "..., MARCH 10, 1874. N0 169 jj j| StoSiMlifiircn Millard Fillmore. The death of Millard Fii.i.mour, 13th I'rcsldent ot the United Btatcs... Publication: Wheeling, Ohio, West Virginia, USA Date: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 Text: ... That the Benato has heard with deep regret of the death of Millard Fillmore, former Chlet ... , thus tapping and carrying off the trade ...

Publication: Wheeling, Ohio, West Virginia, USA Date: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 Text: "....Rdjefid& Aduertiser. Death of ex Prcsldwnt Fillmore. IUFFAO, N. Y., March 9.-Ex. Presidont Millard Fillmore died at his residence in... Publication: Winnsboro, Fairfield, South Carolina, USA Date: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 Text: ... 9th, Mr. I-Tnton, &lt;-j New York, announced the death of Millard Fillmore. Iirief eulogies upon tinlife ai.d character ... thousaml... Publication: York, York, South Carolina, USA Date: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 Text: "...longer. John R. Cochban. Death of Ex-President Fillmore. Ex-President Millard Fillmore died at his residence in Buffalo, N. Y., ou Su...

Publication: Anderson, Anderson, South Carolina, USA Date: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 Text: ... to be ex? cited by* intellectual exertions. ? The death of Millard Fillmore leaves Andrew Johnson as the only ex-President of the United... Publication: Anderson, Anderson, South Carolina, USA Date: Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, 1836-1922 Text: "...* f flwtwi OBITUARY. LX-P RESIDENT FILLMORE. A few days ago the country was startled by the announcement of the death of Millard Fill... Publication: brother About Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the USA 13th United States President. He was born in upstate New York in Cayuga County the second of eight children to such an impoverished family that they could not even afford to feed him. His father apprenticed (indentured servant) him to a cloth maker at age fifteen, so brutal it stopped just short of slavery. Millard Fillmore taught himself to read by stealing books. He finally managed to accumulate thirty dollars to pay the obligation to his master and was free.

He was obsessed with an education. He managed to enroll in a nearby town school where a fellow student was Abigail Powers. She began to tutor him while encouraging him to study law. She began teaching school and Millard Fillmore began a courtship which ended in marriage. He received a clerkship with a local judge then attained prosperity with his own law practice in Buffalo becoming interested in politics. First a Congressman, then State comptroller. Vice President under Zachary Taylor, he gained the Presidency with his death. President Fillmore was very effective in his one term. Stuck with the omnibus bill that became known as the Compromise of 1850 was passed: It would admit California as a free state, organize New Mexico and Utah as Territories and re-adjust the disputed boundary between Texas and New Mexico. It also established a Fugitive Slave Law that guaranteed that runaway slaves apprehended would be returned to their owners. On the international stage, Fillmore dispatched Commodore Perry to "open" Japan to western trade. His enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law in the Northern states became his downfall. Disgruntled Northerns denied him the nomination for a second term.

Tragedy struck - He and Abigail lingered in Washington to attend the outdoor inauguration of his successor President Pierce. Abigail became chilled, developed pneumonia and died. He returned to Buffalo and his mansion on Niagara Square. Millard Fillmore remarried, this time a wealthy middle aged widow. During his retirement years, he was active on behalf of animals. The year before his death, Fillmore founded the Buffalo chapter of the SPCA while lobbying for passage of a national law to prevent cruelty to animals which was enacted. While shaving, he suffered a paralytic stroke and did not recover. Death came to him at age 74. His funeral was held at his mansion and a procession took him to Forest Lawn Cemetery. Both his wives and a daughter are interred with him. Fillmore Glen State Park, Moravia, New York - His birthplace Log Cabin was torn down but the Millard Fillmore Memorial Association used materials from a similar cabin to construct a replica. It is located in a 900 acre park with five waterfalls with a deep limestone and shale glen. The Millard Fillmore Home located in East Aurora, New York was the home he built for his first wife.

It is a repository for many Fillmore artifacts including a carriage barn which contains a sleigh used by the family. The site is maintained by the Aurora Historical Society and has restored the property to its original condition. The John Hollister house was the Presidents last residence. It was the grandest of Buffalo's Gothic homes. This is the place of his death and where his funeral was held. However, it was demolished during World War I and replaced by the Statler Hotel. Finally, Millard Fillmore was honored by the city of Buffalo with the erection of a huge statue sculpted by Bryant Baker which is located next to the City Hall on Niagara Square which was opposite the location of the Fillmore Home. Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) 13th President of the United States of America Made president after the sudden death of President Taylor, Vice-President Millard Fillmore made his mark on the country by signing the Compromise of 1850 in an effort to avoid Civil War.

Biography: a Representative from New York, Vice President and 13th President of the United States; born in Locke Township (now Summerhill), Cayuga County, N.Y., January 7, 1800; reared on a farm; largely self-taught; apprenticed to a clothier; taught school in Buffalo while studying law; admitted to the bar in 1823 and commenced practice in East Aurora, N.Y.; moved to Buffalo, N.Y., in 1830; member, State assembly 1829-1831; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-third Congress (March 4, 1833-March 3, 1835); elected to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twen-ty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1837-March 3, 1843); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1842; unsuccessful Whig candidate for Governor in 1844; State comptroller 1847-1849; elected Vice President of the United States on the Whig ticket headed by Zachary Taylor in

 1848, and was inaugurated March 4, 1849; became President upon the death of President Taylor and served from July 10, 1850, to March 3, 1853; unsuccessful candidate for the Whig nomination for president in 1852; unsuccessful candidate for president on the National American ticket in 1856; commanded a corps of home guards during the Civil War; traveled extensively; died in Buffalo, N.Y., March 8, 1874; interment in Forest Lawn Cemetery.|Bibliography: Rayback, Robert J.

Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President. Buffalo: Buffalo Historical Society, 1959. Millard Fillmore In his rise from a log cabin to wealth and the White House, Millard Fillmore demonstrated that through methodical industry and some competence an uninspiring man could make the American dream come true. Born in the Finger Lakes country of New York in 1800, Fillmore as a youth endured the privations of frontier life. He worked on his father's farm, and at 15 was apprenticed to a cloth dresser. He attended one-room schools, and fell in love with the redheaded teacher, Abigail Powers, who later became his wife. In 1823 he was admitted to the bar; seven years later he moved his law practice to Buffalo. As an associate of the Whig politician Thurlow Weed, Fillmore held state office and for eight years was a member of the House of Representatives. In 1848, while Comptroller of New York, he was elected Vice President. . Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of nerve-wracking debates over the Compromise of 1850.

He made no public comment on the merits of the compromise proposals, but a few days before President Taylor's death, he intimated to him that if there should be a tie vote on Henry Clay's bill, he would vote in favor of it. Thus the sudden accession of Fillmore to the Presidency in July 1850 brought an abrupt political shift in the administration. Taylor's Cabinet resigned and President Fillmore at once appointed Daniel Webster to be Secretary of State, thus proclaiming his alliance with the moderate Whigs who favored the Compromise. A bill to admit California still aroused all the violent arguments for and against the extension of slavery, without any progress toward settling the major issues. Clay, exhausted, left Washington to recuperate, throwing leadership upon Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. At this critical juncture, President Fillmore announced in favor of the Compromise. On August 6, 1850, he sent a message to Congress recommending that Texas be paid to abandon her claims to part of New Mexico. This helped influence a critical number of northern Whigs in Congress away from their insistence upon the Wilmot Proviso--the stipulation that all land gained by the Mexican War must be closed to slavery.

Douglas's effective strategy in Congress combined with Fillmore's pressure from the White House to give impetus to the Compromise movement. Breaking up Clay's single legislative package, Douglas presented five separate bills to the Senate: 1. Admit California as a free state. 2. Settle the Texas boundary and compensate her. 3. Grant territorial status to New Mexico. 4. Place Federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking fugitives. 5. Abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Each measure obtained a majority, and by September 20, President Fillmore had signed them into law. Webster wrote, "I can now sleep of nights." Some of the more militant northern Whigs remained irreconcilable, refusing to forgive Fillmore for having signed the Fugitive Slave Act. They helped deprive him of the Presidential nomination in 1852. Within a few years it was apparent that although the Compromise had been intended to settle the slavery controversy, it served rather as an uneasy sectional truce.

As the Whig Party disintegrated in the 1850's, Fillmore refused to join the Republican Party; but, instead, in 1856 accepted the nomination for President of the Know Nothing, or American, Party. Throughout the Civil War he opposed President Lincoln and during Reconstruction supported President Johnson. He died in 1874. . On February 10, 1858, he married a widow Mrs. Caroline Carmichael McIntosh. The two bought a home at 52 Niagara Street in Buffalo, New York where Fillmore would live for the rest of his life. . He died at 11:10 p.m. on March 8, 1874, of the after-effects of a stroke, with his last words alleged to be, upon being fed some soup, "the nourishment is palatable." On January 7 each year, a ceremony is held at his grave site in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo. Millard Fillmore was the 13th president of the United States.

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the thirteenth President of the United States, serving from 1850 until 1853, and the last member of the Whig Party to hold that office. He was the second Vice President to assume the Presidency upon the death of a sitting President, succeeding Zachary Taylor who died of acute gastroenteritis. Fillmore was never elected President; after serving out Taylor's term, he failed to gain the nomination for the Presidency of the Whigs in the 1852 presidential election, and, four years later, in the 1856 presidential election, he again failed to win election as President as the Know Nothing Party and Whig candidate. Millard Fillmore (pronounced /ˈmɪlɚd ˈfɪlmɔər/; January 7, 1800 – March 8, 1874) was the thirteenth President of the United States, serving from 1850 until 1853, and the last member of the Whig Party to hold that office.

He was the second Vice President to assume the Presidency upon the death of a sitting President, succeeding Zachary TaylEarly life and career Fillmore was born in a log cabin in Cayuga County in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, to Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard, as the second of nine children and the eldest son.[1] (As this was three weeks after George Washington's death, Fillmore was the first U.S. President born after the death of a former president.) Though a Unitarian in later life,[2] Fillmore was descended from Scottish Presbyterians on his father's side and English dissenters on his mother's. His father apprenticed him to a brutal cloth maker in Sparta, New York, at age fourteen to learn the cloth-making trade. He left after four months but subsequently took another apprenticeship in the same trade at New Hope, New York. He struggled to obtain an education under frontier conditions, attending New Hope Academy for six months in 1819. Later that same year, he began to clerk for Judge Walter Wood of Montville, New York, under whom Fillmore began to study law.

He fell in love with Abigail Powers, whom he met while at New Hope Academy and later married on February 26, 1826. The couple had two children, Millard Powers Fillmore and Mary Abigail Fillmore. After leaving Wood and buying out his apprenticeship, Fillmore moved to Buffalo, New York, where he continue his studies in the law office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. He was admitted to the bar in 1823 and began his law practice in East Aurora. In 1834, he formed a law partnership, Fillmore and Hall (becoming Fillmore, Hall and Haven in 1836), with his good friend Nathan K. Hall (who would later serve in his cabinet as Postmaster General).[3] It would become one of western New York's most prestigious firms.[4] In 1846, he founded the private University of Buffalo, which today is the public State University of New York at Buffalo (UB, University at Buffalo), the largest school in the New York state university system. His military service was limited. He served in the New York militia during the Mexican War of 1846 and during the American Civil War.

Politics Engraving of Millard Fillmore Engraving of Millard Fillmore In 1828, Fillmore was elected to the New York State Assembly on the Anti-Masonic ticket, serving for one term, from 1829 to 1831. He was later elected as a Whig (having followed his mentor Thurlow Weed into the party) to the 23rd Congress in 1832, serving from 1833 to 1835. He was re-elected in 1836 to the 25th Congress, to the 26th and to the 27th Congresses serving from 1837 to 1843, declining to be a candidate for re-nomination in 1842. In Congress, he opposed the entrance of Texas as a slave territory. He came in second place in the bid for Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1841.

He served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1841 to 1843 and was an author of the Tariff of 1842, as well as two other bills that President John Tyler vetoed. After leaving Congress, Fillmore was the unsuccessful Whig candidate for Governor of New York in 1844. He was the first New York State Comptroller elected by general ballot, and was in office from 1848 to 1849. As state comptroller, he revised New York's banking system, making it a model for the future National Banking System. [edit] Vice Presidency 1849–1850 At the Whig national convention in 1848, the nomination of Gen. Zachary Taylor for president angered the supporters of Henry Clay as well as the opponents of slavery extension into the territory gained by the U.S.-Mexican War. A group of practical Whig politicians nominated Fillmore for vice president, believing that he would heal party wounds and help the ticket carry New York state.

Taylor/Fillmore campaign poster Taylor/Fillmore campaign poster Having worked his way up through the Whig Party in New York, Fillmore was selected as Taylor's running mate. It was thought that the obscure, self-made candidate from New York would complement Taylor, a slave-holding military man from the south. Fillmore was also selected in part to block New York state machine boss Thurlow Weed from receiving the vice presidential nomination (and his front man William H. Seward from receiving a position in Taylor's cabinet). Weed ultimately got Seward elected to the senate. This competition between Seward and Fillmore led to Seward's becoming a more vocal part of cabinet meetings and having more of a voice than Fillmore in advising the administration. The battle would continue even after Taylor's death. Taylor and Fillmore disagreed on the slavery issue in the new western territories taken from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Taylor wanted the new states to be free states, while Fillmore supported slavery in those states as a means of appeasing the South. In his own words: "God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil...

and we must endure it and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the Constitution." Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of nerve-wracking debates over the Compromise of 1850. During one debate, Senator Henry S. Foote of Mississippi pulled a pistol on Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Fillmore made no public comment on the merits of the compromise proposals, but a few days before President Taylor's death, Fillmore suggested to the president that, should there be a tie vote on Henry Clay's bill, he would vote in favor of the North. [edit] Presidency 1850–1853 [edit] Policies Official White House portrait of Millard Fillmore Official White House portrait of Millard Fillmore Fillmore ascended to the presidency upon the sudden and unexpected death of President Taylor in July 1850. The change in leadership also signaled an abrupt political shift as Fillmore appointed his own cabinet.

Taylor, himself, had been about to replace his entire scandal-ridden cabinet at the time of his death,[5] but now, beginning with the appointment of Daniel Webster as Secretary of State, Fillmore's cabinet would be dominated by individuals who, with the exception of Treasury Secretary Thomas Corwin, favored what would come to be called the Compromise of 1850. As president, Fillmore dealt with increasing party divisions within the Whig party; party harmony became one of his primary objectives. He tried to unite the party by pointing out the differences between the Whigs and the Democrats (by proposing tariff reforms that negatively reflected on the Democratic Party). Another primary objective of Fillmore was to preserve the Union from the intensifying slavery debate. Henry Clay's proposed bill to admit California to the Union still aroused all the violent arguments for and against the extension of slavery without any progress toward settling the major issues (the South continued to threaten secession). Fillmore recognized that Clay's plan was the best way to end the sectional crisis (California free state, harsher fugitive slave law, abolish slave trade in DC). Clay, exhausted, left Washington to recuperate, passing leadership to Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.

At this critical juncture, President Fillmore announced his support of the Compromise of 1850. On August 6, 1850, he sent a message to Congress recommending that Texas be paid to abandon its claims to part of New Mexico. This, combined with his mobilization of 750 Federal troops to New Mexico, helped shift a critical number of northern Whigs in Congress away from their insistence upon the Wilmot Proviso—the stipulation that all land gained by the Mexican War must be closed to slavery. Douglas's effective strategy in Congress combined with Fillmore's pressure gave impetus to the Compromise movement. Breaking up Clay's single legislative package, Douglas presented five separate bills to the Senate: * Admit California as a free state. * Settle the Texas boundary and compensate the state for lost lands. * Grant territorial status to New Mexico. * Place federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking escapees—the Fugitive Slave Act. * Abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Portrait of Millard Fillmore Portrait of Millard Fillmore Each measure obtained a majority, and, by September 20, President Fillmore had signed them into law.

Webster wrote, "I can now sleep of nights." Whigs on both sides refused to accept the finality of Fillmore's law (which led to more party division, and a loss of numerous elections), which forced Northern Whigs to say "God Save us from Whig Vice Presidents." Fillmore's greatest difficulty with the fugitive slave law was how to enforce it without seeming to show favor towards Southern Whigs. His solution was to appease both northern and southern Whigs by calling for the enforcement of the fugitive slave law in the North, and enforcing in the South a law forbidding involvement in Cuba (for the sole purpose of adding it as a slave state). Another issue that presented itself during Fillmore's presidency was the arrival of Lajos Kossuth (exiled leader of a failed Hungarian revolution). Kossuth wanted the United States to abandon its non-intervention policies when it came to European affairs and recognize Hungary’s independence. The problem came with the enormous support Kossuth received from German-American immigrants to the United States (who were essential in the re-election of both Whigs and Democrats). Fillmore refused to change American policy, and decided to remain neutral despite the political implications that neutrality would produce.

Fillmore appointed Brigham Young as the first governor of the Utah Territory in 1850.[6] Utah now contains a city and county named after Millard Fillmore. Another important legacy of Fillmore's administration was the sending of Commodore Matthew C. Perry to open Japan to Western trade, though Perry did not reach Japan until Franklin Pierce had replaced Fillmore as president. A less dramatic legacy is that Fillmore, a bookworm, found the White House devoid of books and initiated the White House library. Millard Fillmore was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 until 1853. He was the last member of the Whig Party to hold office. Millard Fillmore was the thirteenth President of the United States, serving from 1850 until 1853, and the last member of the Whig Party to hold that office. He was the second Vice President to assume the Presidency upon the death of a sitting President, succeeding Zachary Taylor who died of what is thought to be acute gastroenteritis or hyperthermia (heat stroke).

Fillmore was never elected President; after serving out Taylor's term, he failed to gain the nomination for the Presidency of the Whigs in the 1852 presidential election, and, four years later, in the 1856 presidential election, he again failed to win election as the Know Nothing Party and Whig candidate. Fillmore was born in a log cabin in Cayuga County in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, to Nathaniel Fillmore and Phoebe Millard, as the second of nine children and the eldest son.[1] (As this was three weeks after George Washington's death, Fillmore was the first U.S. President born after the death of a former president.) Though a Unitarian in later life,[2] Fillmore was descended from Scottish Presbyterians on his father's side and English dissenters on his mother's. His father apprenticed him to a brutal cloth maker in Sparta, New York, at age fourteen to learn the cloth-making trade. He left after four months but subsequently took another apprenticeship in the same trade at New Hope, New York. He struggled to obtain an education under frontier conditions, attending New Hope Academy for six months in 1819.

Later that same year, he began to clerk for Judge Walter Wood of Montville, New York, under whom Fillmore began to study law. He fell in love with Abigail Powers, whom he met while at New Hope Academy and later married on February 26, 1826. The couple had two children, Millard Powers Fillmore and Mary Abigail Fillmore. After leaving Wood and buying out his apprenticeship, Fillmore moved to Buffalo, New York, where he continue his studies in the law office of Asa Rice and Joseph Clary. He was admitted to the bar in 1823 and began his law practice in East Aurora. In 1834, he formed a law partnership, Fillmore and Hall (becoming Fillmore, Hall and Haven in 1836), with his good friend Nathan K. Hall (who would later serve in his cabinet as Postmaster General). It would become one of western New York's most prestigious firms. In 1846, he founded the private University of Buffalo, which today is the public State University of New York at Buffalo (UB, University at Buffalo), the largest school in the New York state university system. His military service was limited.

He served in the New York militia during the Mexican War of 1846 and during the American Civil War. In 1828, Fillmore was elected to the New York State Assembly on the Anti-Masonic ticket, serving for one term, from 1829 to 1831. He was later elected as a Whig (having followed his mentor Thurlow Weed into the party) to the 23rd Congress in 1832, serving from 1833 to 1835. He was re-elected in 1836 to the 25th Congress, to the 26th and to the 27th Congresses serving from 1837 to 1843, declining to be a candidate for re-nomination in 1842. In Congress, he opposed the entrance of Texas as a slave territory. He came in second place in the bid for Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1841.

He served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1841 to 1843 and was an author of the Tariff of 1842, as well as two other bills that President John Tyler vetoed. After leaving Congress, Fillmore was the unsuccessful Whig candidate for Governor of New York in 1844. He was the first New York State Comptroller elected by general ballot, and was in office from 1848 to 1849. As state comptroller, he revised New York's banking system, making it a model for the future National Banking System. At the Whig national convention in 1848, the nomination of Gen. Zachary Taylor for president angered the supporters of Henry Clay as well as the opponents of slavery extension into the territory gained by the U.S.-Mexican War. A group of practical Whig politicians nominated Fillmore for vice president, believing that he would heal party wounds and help the ticket carry New York state. Having worked his way up through the Whig Party in New York, Fillmore was selected as Taylor's running mate.

It was thought that the obscure, self-made candidate from New York would complement Taylor, a slave-holding military man from the south. Fillmore was also selected in part to block New York state machine boss Thurlow Weed from receiving the vice presidential nomination (and his front man William H. Seward from receiving a position in Taylor's cabinet). Weed ultimately got Seward elected to the senate. This competition between Seward and Fillmore led to Seward's becoming a more vocal part of cabinet meetings and having more of a voice than Fillmore in advising the administration. The battle would continue even after Taylor's death. Taylor/Fillmore campaign posterTaylor and Fillmore disagreed on the slavery issue in the new western territories taken from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Taylor wanted the new states to be free states, while Fillmore supported slavery in those states as a means of appeasing the South. In his own words: "God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil... and we must endure it and give it such protection as is guaranteed by the Constitution." Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of nerve-wracking debates over the Compromise of 1850. During one debate, Senator Henry S.

Foote of Mississippi pulled a pistol on Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Fillmore made no public comment on the merits of the compromise proposals, but a few days before President Taylor's death, Fillmore suggested to the president that, should there be a tie vote on Henry Clay's bill, he would vote in favor of the North. Fillmore ascended to the presidency upon the sudden and unexpected death of President Taylor in July 1850. The change in leadership also signaled an abrupt political shift as Fillmore appointed his own cabinet. Taylor, himself, had been about to replace his entire scandal-ridden cabinet at the time of his death,[5] but now, beginning with the appointment of Daniel Webster as Secretary of State, Fillmore's cabinet would be dominated by individuals who, with the exception of Treasury Secretary Thomas Corwin, favored what would come to be called the Compromise of 1850. As president, Fillmore dealt with increasing party divisions within the Whig party; party harmony became one of his primary objectives. He tried to unite the party by pointing out the differences between the Whigs and the Democrats (by proposing tariff reforms that negatively reflected on the Democratic Party).

Another primary objective of Fillmore was to preserve the Union from the intensifying slavery debate. Henry Clay's proposed bill to admit California to the Union still aroused all the violent arguments for and against the extension of slavery without any progress toward settling the major issues (the South continued to threaten secession). Fillmore recognized that Clay's plan was the best way to end the sectional crisis (California free state, harsher fugitive slave law, abolish slave trade in DC). Clay, exhausted, left Washington to recuperate, passing leadership to Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. At this critical juncture, President Fillmore announced his support of the Compromise of 1850. On August 6, 1850, he sent a message to Congress recommending that Texas be paid to abandon its claims to part of New Mexico. This, combined with his mobilization of 750 Federal troops to New Mexico, helped shift a critical number of northern Whigs in Congress away from their insistence upon the Wilmot Proviso—the stipulation that all land gained by the Mexican War must be closed to slavery. Douglas's effective strategy in Congress combined with Fillmore's pressure gave impetus to the Compromise movement.

Breaking up Clay's single legislative package, Douglas presented five separate bills to the Senate: Admit California as a free state. Settle the Texas boundary and compensate the state for lost lands. Grant territorial status to New Mexico. Place federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking escapees—the Fugitive Slave Act. Abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Each measure obtained a majority, and, by September 20, President Fillmore had signed them into law. Webster wrote, "I can now sleep of nights." Whigs on both sides refused to accept the finality of Fillmore's law (which led to more party division, and a loss of numerous elections), which forced Northern Whigs to say "God Save us from Whig Vice Presidents." Fillmore's greatest difficulty with the fugitive slave law was how to enforce it without seeming to show favor towards Southern Whigs. His solution was to appease both northern and southern Whigs by calling for the enforcement of the fugitive slave law in the North, and enforcing in the South a law forbidding involvement in Cuba (for the sole purpose of adding it as a slave state).

Another issue that presented itself during Fillmore's presidency was the arrival of Lajos Kossuth (exiled leader of a failed Hungarian revolution). Kossuth wanted the United States to abandon its non-intervention policies when it came to European affairs and recognize Hungary's independence. The problem came with the enormous support Kossuth received from German-American immigrants to the United States (who were essential in the re-election of both Whigs and Democrats). Fillmore refused to change American policy, and decided to remain neutral despite the political implications that neutrality would produce. Fillmore appointed Brigham Young as the first governor of the Utah Territory in 1850. Utah now contains a city and county named after Millard Fillmore. Another important legacy of Fillmore's administration was the sending of Commodore Matthew C. Perry to open Japan to Western trade, though Perry did not reach Japan until Franklin Pierce had replaced Fillmore as president. A less dramatic legacy is that Fillmore, a bookworm, found the White House devoid of books and initiated the White House library.

President Millard Fillmore 1850–1853 Vice President None 1850–1853 Secretary of State Daniel Webster 1850–1852 Edward Everett 1852–1853 Secretary of Treasury Thomas Corwin 1850–1853 Secretary of War Charles M. Conrad 1850–1853 Attorney General John J. Crittenden 1850–1853 Postmaster General Nathan K. Hall 1850–1852 Samuel D. Hubbard 1852–1853 Secretary of the Navy William A. Graham 1850–1852 John P. Kennedy 1852–1853 Secretary of the Interior Thomas M. T. McKennan 1850 Alexander H. H.

Stuart 1850–1853 Supreme Court appointments Fillmore appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States: Benjamin Robbins Curtis - 1851 (Associate Justice) States admitted to the Union California – September 9, 1850 Fillmore was one of the founders of the University of Buffalo. The school was chartered by an act of the New York State Legislature on May 11, 1846, and at first was only a medical school. Fillmore was the first Chancellor, a position he maintained while both Vice President and President. Upon completing his presidency, Fillmore returned to Buffalo, where he continued to serve as chancellor. After the death of his daughter Mary, Fillmore went abroad. While touring Europe in 1855, Fillmore was offered an honorary Doctor of Civil Law (D.C.L.) degree by the University of Oxford. Fillmore turned down the honor, explaining that he had neither the "literary nor scientific attainment" to justify the degree.

He is also quoted as having explained that he "lacked the benefit of a classical education" and could not, therefore, understand the Latin text of the diploma, adding that he believed "no man should accept a degree he cannot read." By 1856, Fillmore's Whig Party had ceased to exist, having fallen apart due to dissension over the slavery issue, and especially the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Fillmore refused to join the new Republican Party, where many former Whigs, including Abraham Lincoln, had found refuge. Instead, Fillmore joined the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic American Party, the political organ of the Know-Nothing movement. He ran in the election of 1856 as the party's presidential candidate, attempting to win a non-consecutive second term as President (a feat accomplished only once in American politics, by Grover Cleveland). His running mate was Andrew Jackson Donelson, nephew of former president Andrew Jackson. Fillmore and Donelson finished third, carrying only the state of Maryland and its eight electoral votes; but he won 21.6% of the popular vote, one of the best showings ever by a Presidential third-party candidate.

On February 10, 1858, after the death of his first wife, Fillmore married Caroline McIntosh, a wealthy widow. Their combined wealth allowed them to purchase a big house in Buffalo, New York. The house became the center of hospitality for visitors, until her health began to decline in the 1860s. Throughout the Civil War, Fillmore opposed President Lincoln and during Reconstruction supported President Johnson. He commanded the Union Continentals, a corps of home guards of males over the age of 45 from the Upstate New York area, during the Civil War. He died at 11:10 p.m. on March 8, 1874, of the after-effects of a stroke. His last words were alleged to be, upon being fed some soup, "the nourishment is palatable." On January 7 each year, a ceremony is held at his grave site in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo. Some northern Whigs remained irreconcilable, refusing to forgive Fillmore for having signed the Fugitive Slave Act. They helped deprive him of the Presidential nomination in 1852.

Within a few years it was apparent that although the Compromise had been intended to settle the slavery controversy, it served rather as an uneasy sectional truce. Robert J. Rayback argues that the appearance of a truce, at first, seemed very real as the country entered a period of prosperity that included the South. Although Fillmore, in retirement, continued to feel that conciliation with the South was necessary and considered that the Republican Party was at least partly responsible for the subsequent disunion, he was an outspoken critic of secession and was also critical of President Buchanan for not immediately taking military action when South Carolina seceded. Benson Lee Grayson suggests that the skillful avoidance of potential problems by the Fillmore administration is too often overlooked. Fillmore's constant attention to Mexico avoided a resumption of the hostilities that had only broken off in 1848 and laid the groundwork for the Gadsen Treaty during Pierce's administration. Meanwhile, the Fillmore administration ironed out a serious dispute with Portugal left over from the Taylor administration, smoothed over a disagreement with Peru, and then peacefully resolved other disputes with England, France, and Spain over Cuba.

At the height of this crisis, the Royal Navy had fired on an American ship while at the same time 160 Americans were being held captive in Spain. Fillmore and his State Department were able to resolve these crises without the United States going to war or losing face. Because the Whig party was so deeply divided, and the two leading national figures in the Whig party (Fillmore and his own Secretary of State, Daniel Webster) refused to combine to secure the nomination, Winfield Scott received it. Because both the north and the south refused to unite behind Scott, he won only 4 of 31 states, and lost the election to Franklin Pierce. After Fillmore's defeat the Whig party continued its downward spiral with further party division coming at the hands of the Kansas Nebraska Act, and the emergence of the Know Nothing party.

FILLMORE, Millard, a Representative from New York, Vice President and 13th President of the United States; born in Locke Township (now Summerhill), Cayuga County, N.Y., January 7, 1800; reared on a farm; largely self-taught; apprenticed to a clothier; taught school in Buffalo while studying law; admitted to the bar in 1823 and commenced practice in East Aurora, N.Y.; moved to Buffalo, N.Y., in 1830; member, State assembly 1829-1831; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-third Congress (March 4, 1833-March 3, 1835); elected to the Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1837-March 3, 1843); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1842; unsuccessful Whig candidate for Governor in 1844; State comptroller 1847-1849; elected Vice President of the United States on the Whig ticket headed by Zachary Taylor

 in 1848, and was inaugurated March 4, 1849; became President upon the death of President Taylor and served from July 10, 1850, to March 3, 1853; unsuccessful candidate for the Whig nomination for president in 1852; unsuccessful candidate for president on the National American ticket in 1856; commanded a corps of home guards during the Civil War; traveled extensively; died in Buffalo, N.Y., March 8, 1874; interment in Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Public Service: • Dates of Presidency: 7/10/1850 - 3/3/1853 • Presidency Number: 13 • Number of Terms: 1 • Why Presidency Ended: Not nominated • Party: Whig • His Vice President(s): None • Vice President For: Zachary Taylor (1849-1850) • House of Representatives: New York (1833-1835), New York (1837-1843) • State Legislative Service: NY (1829-1831) • Other Offices: Comptroller of New York american presidents.org Millard Fillmore - 13th President of the United States Millard Fillmore Birth: January 7, 1800 at Cayuga County, New York Death: March 8, 1874 at Buffalo, New York The Life of President Millard Fillmore Birthplace and Gravesite Fillmore did not have a Vice President Events During Fillmore's Administration & Lifetime Further Information about Millard Fillmore National Historic Sites, State Historic Sites, Landmarks, Memorials & Places to Visit Millard Fillmore and the Bathtub The purpose

 of this site is to provide researchers, students, teachers, politicians, journalists, and citizens a complete resource guide to the US Presidents.

Feel free to make a link to this or any other page on this web site. If you would like to suggest a Presidential link, report a broken link, or have any comments please contact presidents@presidentsusa.net Millard Fillmore | whitehouse.gov Air Force One Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore, a member of the Whig party, was the 13th President of the United States (1850-1853) and the last President not to be affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican parties. In his rise from a log cabin to wealth and the White House, Millard Fillmore demonstrated that through methodical industry and some competence an uninspiring man could make the American dream come true. Born in the Finger Lakes country of New York in 1800, Fillmore as a youth endured the privations of frontier life. He worked on his father's farm, and at 15 was apprenticed to a cloth dresser. He attended one-room schools, and fell in love with the redheaded teacher, Abigail Powers, who later became his wife. In 1823 he was admitted to the bar; seven years later he moved his law practice to Buffalo.

As an associate of the Whig politician Thurlow Weed, Fillmore held state office and for eight years was a member of the House of Representatives. In 1848, while Comptroller of New York, he was elected Vice President. Fillmore presided over the Senate during the months of nerve-wracking debates over the Compromise of 1850. He made no public comment on the merits of the compromise proposals, but a few days before President Taylor's death, he intimated to him that if there should be a tie vote on Henry Clay's bill, he would vote in favor of it. Thus the sudden accession of Fillmore to the Presidency in July 1850 brought an abrupt political shift in the administration. Taylor's Cabinet resigned and President Fillmore at once appointed Daniel Webster to be Secretary of State, thus proclaiming his alliance with the moderate Whigs who favored the Compromise. A bill to admit California still aroused all the violent arguments for and against the extension of slavery, without any progress toward settling the major issues. Clay, exhausted, left Washington to recuperate, throwing leadership upon Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.

At this critical juncture, President Fillmore announced in favor of the Compromise. On August 6, 1850, he sent a message to Congress recommending that Texas be paid to abandon her claims to part of New Mexico. This helped influence a critical number of northern Whigs in Congress away from their insistence upon the Wilmot Proviso--the stipulation that all land gained by the Mexican War must be closed to slavery. Douglas's effective strategy in Congress combined with Fillmore's pressure from the White House to give impetus to the Compromise movement. Breaking up Clay's single legislative package, Douglas presented five separate bills to the Senate: 1. Admit California as a free state. 2. Settle the Texas boundary and compensate her. 3. Grant territorial status to New Mexico. 4. Place Federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking fugitives. 5. Abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Each measure obtained a majority, and by September 20, President Fillmore had signed them into law.

Webster wrote, "I can now sleep of nights." Some of the more militant northern Whigs remained irreconcilable, refusing to forgive Fillmore for having signed the Fugitive Slave Act. They helped deprive him of the Presidential nomination in 1852. Within a few years it was apparent that although the Compromise had been intended to settle the slavery controversy, it served rather as an uneasy sectional truce. As the Whig Party disintegrated in the 1850's, Fillmore refused to join the Republican Party; but, instead, in 1856 accepted the nomination for President of the Know Nothing, or American, Party. Throughout the Civil War he opposed President Lincoln and during Reconstruction supported President Johnson. He died in 1874. United States of America,” by Frank Freidel and Hugh Sidey. Copyright 2006 by the White House Historical Association. Learn more about Millard Fillmore 's spouse, Abigail Powers Fillmore . Robert Millard, Sr. (c.1632 - 1699) - Genealogy Robert Millard, Sr.

Share your family tree and photos with the people you know and love Build your family tree online Share photos and videos Prob. Near Southampton, Hampshire, England Death: Warren, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA Immediate Family: 1632 - Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA Death: Mar 16 1699 - Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA Parents: Mar 16 1699 - Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA Parents: John Millard, Sr., Elizabeth Millard Wife: Elizabeth Millard Children: ...llard, Nathaniel Millard, Robert Millard, Nehemiah Millard, Josiah Millard, Solomon Millard, Mary Millard, Sarah Millard, Experience Millard Siblings: Circa 1632 - Southampton, Hampshire, ENGLAND Death: Mar 16 1699 - Rehoboth, MA Father: 1632 - Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA Death: Mar 16 1699 - Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts, USA Parents: mother About Robert Millard, Sr. Note: Waltham St.

Lawrence is a small village and civil parish in Berkshire County, England, about 62 miles from Southampton (believed to be his birthplace), so one of the two places is likely to be incorrect. Millard Genealogy Note that some descendants use the name "Miller". Robert Millard (c.1632-1699) & Elizabeth Sabin Millard (c.1642-1717) are 4th Great-Grandparents of the 13th President of the United States, Millard Fillmore Genealogy of Millard Fillmore Robert & Elizabeth Millard, parents of: Rev. Nehemiah Millard (b.1668-d.1751), father of: Robert Millard (b.1702-d.1764) father of: Dr.

Abiathar Millard (b.1744-d.1811), father of: Phoebe Millard-Fillmore (b1781-d.1831), mother of: President Millard Fillmore (b.1800-d.1874) New England marriages prior to 1700 by Clarence Almon Torrey, page 509 Robert, son of John Millard, married Elizabeth Sabin, daughter of William Sabin in 1662. Robert was also a tanner. In 1689 he was a proprietor of Rehoboth serving in King Phillip's War at Fall's Fight under Captain Turner. His will is dated March 11, 1698 and proven March 29, 1699. To his son Nehemiah he left 50 acres "he now lives upon" and also a piece of salt meadow. His inventory amounted to 271 pounds, 10 shillings in real estate consisting of Barks mill. The mill was used for grinding bark for the tanning. Robert Millard, c. 1632-Rehoboth, Mass.

16 March 1699, Rehoboth 24 Dec. 1662 49. Elizabeth Sabin, Rehoboth c. 1642-3-Rehoboth 7 Feb. 1717/8, m. (2) Samuel Hayward Robert Millard was born in 1632 in England or Rehoboth, MA. Died 16 March 1698/99 in Rehoboth, MA. Parents John Millard, b. 1608, St. Chadd, Cheshire, England, d. 07 February 1687/88. Elizabeth Millard (Baugh) Inscription on gravestone: Here lyes ye body of Robert Millard Senar Age 67 Years and Died March ye 16 1698/9 Marriages Elizabeth Millard (Sabin) on 24 December 1662, daughter of William Sabin and Mary Elizabeth Wright Children of Robert Millard and Elizabeth (Unknown) None known Children of Robert Millard and Elizabeth Sabin Elizabeth Millard, b. 05 February 1662/63, d.

09 September 1741, Bristol RI. Robert Millard, b. 12 June 1666, Rehoboth, MA, d. 07 August 1709. Nehemiah Millard, b. 08 June 1668, d. 23 July 1751. Joshia Millard, b. 26 July 1670, d. 28 May 1694. Nathaniel Millard, b. 31 March 1672, d. 16 March 1739/40. Soloman Millard, b. 06 March 1672/73. Ephraim Millard, b. 1676. Mary Millard, b. 14 June 1680. Sarah Millard, b. 25 September 1684. Experience Millard, b. 20 May 1687 . American President—Miller Center Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. “Millard Fillmore.” Accessed January 10, 2017. ­/president/fillmore. Consulting Editor Michael F.

Holt Professor Holt is the Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia. His writings include: The Civil War and Reconstruction (Co-authored with Jean H. Baker and David Herbert Donald, W.W. Norton, 2001) The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 1999) Political Parties and American Political Development from the age of Jackson to the age of Lincoln (Louisiana State University Press, 1992) Millard Fillmore | president of United States | Britannica.com president of United States John F. Kennedy Millard Fillmore, (born January 7, 1800, Locke township, New York , U.S.—died March 8, 1874, Buffalo , New York), 13th president of the United States (1850–53), whose insistence on federal enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 alienated the North and led to the destruction of the Whig Party .

Elected vice president in 1848, he became chief executive on the death of President Zachary Taylor (July 1850). (For a discussion of the history and nature of the presidency, see presidency of the United States of America .) Millard Fillmore. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Key events in the life of Millard Fillmore. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Early life and career Fillmore was born in a log cabin to a poor family and was apprenticed to a wool carder at age 15. He received little formal education until he was 18, when he managed to obtain six consecutive months of schooling. Shortly afterward he secured his release from apprenticeship and started work in a law office, and in 1823 he was admitted to the bar. He married his first wife, Abigail Powers ( Abigail Fillmore ), in 1826. Fillmore entered politics in 1828 as a member of the democratic and libertarian Anti-Masonic Movement and Anti-Masonic Party.

In 1834 he followed his political mentor, Thurlow Weed , to the Whigs and was soon recognized as an outstanding leader of the party’s Northern wing. Following three terms in the New York state assembly (1829–32), he was elected to Congress (1833–35, 1837–43), where he became a devoted follower of Senator Henry Clay . Losing the New York gubernatorial election in 1844, he was easily elected the first state comptroller three years later. At the national Whig convention in 1848, Zachary Taylor , hero of the Mexican War (1846–48), was nominated for president and Fillmore for vice president, largely through Clay’s sponsorship. Results of the American presidential election, 1848… Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Campaign banner for Whig Party candidate Zachary Taylor and vice presidential running mate Millard … Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (file no.

LC-USZC2-584 ) Presidency Fillmore believed that Whig success at the polls heralded the rise of a truly national party that would occupy a middle ground between sectional extremists of both North and South. This outlook was embodied in Clay’s Compromise of 1850 , which sought to appease both sides on the slavery issue. Fillmore, though personally opposed to slavery, supported the compromise as necessary to preserving the Union. When the legislation was finally passed two months after Taylor’s death, the new President Fillmore felt obligated to respect the provision that required the federal government to aid in the capture and return of runaway slaves to their former owners (the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850), and he publicly announced that, if necessary, he would call upon the military to aid in the enforcement of this statute. Although this section of the compromise assuaged the South and had the effect of postponing the Civil War for 10 years, it also meant political death for Fillmore because of its extreme unpopularity in the North. Millard Fillmore, engraving by J. Sartain. J. Sartain/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (file no.

LC-DIG-pga-02635) Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent Fillmore was an early champion of American commercial expansion in the Pacific, and in 1853 he sent a fleet of warships, under the command of Commodore Matthew C. Perry , to Japan to force its shogunate government to alter its traditional isolationism and enter into trade and diplomatic relations with the United States. The resulting Treaty of Kanagawa (1854) led to similar agreements between Japan and other Western powers and marked the beginning of Japan’s transformation into a modern state. USA Facts In 1852 Fillmore was one of three presidential candidates of a divided Whig Party in its last national election, which it lost. He ran again in 1856 as the candidate of the Know-Nothing party (also known as the American Party), finishing third behind Democrat James Buchanan and Republican John C. Frémont . Fillmore then retired to Buffalo, where he became a leader in the city’s civic and cultural life. In 1858, some five years after the death of his wife Abigail, he married Caroline Carmichael McIntosh.

Results of the American presidential election, 1852… Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Millard Fillmore - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) (1800-74). In 1850 the United States was close to civil war over the thorny problems of slavery. A proposed compromise had touched off the greatest political storm in the nation’s history. Amid this bitter struggle President Zachary Taylor suddenly died on July 9, 1850. Succeeding to the presidency was Vice President Millard Fillmore, a Whig from New York. Fillmore worked hard to secure the passage of five separate measures dealing with the slavery problem. This set of laws, called the Compromise of 1850, postponed war for another ten years. It also ended Fillmore’s political career. The Whig Party refused to nominate him for a second term in 1852, and Fillmore thus became the nation’s last Whig president. Article History Millard Fillmore - U.S.

Presidents - HISTORY.com Millard Fillmore A+E Networks Introduction Born of humble origins in New York State, Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) became a lawyer and won election to the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in 1833. He served four terms in Congress but left in 1843 to mount an unsuccessful run for the governorship of New York. In 1848, he emerged as the Whig Party candidate for vice president under Zachary Taylor, and after Taylor’s victory he presided over months of early debate in Congress over the controversial Compromise of 1850. Taylor died suddenly in mid-1850 and Fillmore succeeded him, becoming the nation’s 13th president (1850-1853). Though Fillmore personally opposed slavery, he saw the Compromise as necessary to preserving the Union and enforced its strong Fugitive Slave Act during his presidency. This stance alienated Fillmore from voters in the North, and in 1852 he failed to gain the Whig nomination.

Google Millard Fillmore’s Early Life Despite popular legend surrounding the humble origins of various politicians before and after him, Millard Fillmore was one of the few presidents actually born in a log cabin, in Cayuga County, part of New York’s Finger Lakes region, on January 7, 1800. He received little formal education, apprenticing to a wool carder as a teenager before switching to work in a law office. At 23, he was admitted to the New York bar. Fillmore had fallen in love with Abigail Powers, a teacher, when he was 19, but refused to marry until 1826, when he had established himself as a lawyer. Did You Know? Millard Fillmore's inconsistencies as president contributed to his largely forgettable status as a leader, which became the founding principle of the Millard Fillmore Society. Founded in 1963, the society once held a meeting every year on Fillmore’s birthday to celebrate his anonymity. Fillmore entered politics in 1828 as a member of the Anti-Masonic Party, built on democratic, libertarian principles and an opposition to exclusive societies like Freemasonry.

Elected to the state assembly, Fillmore became a close ally of the powerful New York political boss Thurlow Weed, who supported his run for the House of Representatives in 1831. Weed led the Anti-Masons into the new Whig Party in 1834. From Congress to the White House Millard Fillmore served four terms in Congress but declined to run for reelection after 1843. At Weed’s urging, he ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York in 1844. Four years later, Fillmore was serving as comptroller of New York when he was chosen as a dark horse pick for vice president under the Mexican War hero Zachary Taylor . As a pro-business northerner, Fillmore served to balance the victorious Whig ticket opposite Taylor, a slaveholder from Louisiana . At the time, sectional tensions over slavery and its extension into new western territories threatened to pull the nation apart. Taylor pushed for the immediate admission of California and New Mexico as states, a position that angered many southerners since both were likely to ban slavery.

Beginning in early 1850, Vice President Fillmore presided over the Senate during months of debate over a compromise package of legislation proposed by Whig Senator Henry Clay . While Taylor was against Clay’s bill, Fillmore privately told the president he would vote in favor if there were a tie in the Senate. Congress had been debating for five months when Taylor took ill suddenly after an Independence Day celebration in Washington . He died on July 9, 1850, and Fillmore became the nation’s 13th president. Millard Fillmore’s Presidency Millard Fillmore, who only learned of the seriousness of Taylor’s condition a few hours before he died, acknowledged in his first message to Congress that he had become president “by a painful dispensation of Divine Providence.” Taylor’s cabinet resigned, and Fillmore appointed Daniel Webster as his secretary of state, clearly aligning himself with the moderate Whigs who favored compromise. Clay’s legislation gained ground in Congress after Senator Stephen Douglas took up its defense, and Fillmore helped its cause by coming out publicly in its favor, calling the compromise “a means of healing sectional differences.” Adopted that September, the Compromise of 1850 would define Fillmore’s presidency.

California was admitted to the Union as a free state, while New Mexico was granted territorial status. The slave trade in Washington, D.C. , was abolished, while a strong Fugitive Slave Act put federal officers at the disposal of slave owners seeking their runaway slaves. Fillmore, who opposed slavery personally, was unwilling to touch it in states where it already existed for the sake of preserving the Union. Over the next few years, he consistently authorized the use of federal force in carrying out the return of slaves, further enraging northern abolitionists (including many in his own party). Aside from his handling of the growing sectional crisis, Fillmore focused on encouraging America’s expanding economy during his presidency. He favored federal support for the building of a transcontinental railroad and opened markets abroad, restoring diplomatic relations with Mexico and urging trade with Japan. He also took a strong stand against Napoleon III, invoking the Monroe Doctrine when France attempted to violate Hawaii’s independence in 1851. Millard Fillmore’s Post-Presidency Career In 1852, the Whigs denied Millard Fillmore their presidential nomination in favor of General Winfield Scott , who lost to Democrat Franklin Pierce in the general election.

Within a few years, it had become clear that the Compromise of 1850 was only a temporary truce, and as violence broke out in Kansas and Nebraska the Whig Party splintered into factions and disintegrated. Fillmore refused to join the new Republican Party and endorse its strong antislavery platform, and in 1856 he accepted the presidential nomination of the short-lived Know-Nothing (or American) Party. After finishing third behind Democrat James Buchanan and Republican John C. Fremont, Fillmore retired from politics. His wife Abigail had died in 1853, and in 1858 he married a wealthy widow, Caroline McIntosh. Fillmore opposed the policies of Abraham Lincoln , a Republican, throughout the Civil War (1861-1865), supporting the presidential candidacy of Lincoln’s Democratic rival, General George McClellan , in 1864. He died in 1874 after suffering a stroke. A capable administrator and devoted public servant, Fillmore has largely been remembered for his ambivalent stance on slavery and his failure to prevent growing sectional conflict from erupting into a full-blown civil war.

Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault . Start your free trial today. Tags WELCOME TO USA 4 KIDS - Presidents of The United States - Millard Fillmore 13th President Millard Fillmore would be 208 years old this yea BIOGRAPHY Millard Fillmore was second of eight children born to Nathaniel and Phoebe Millard Fillmore. He was born in Cayuga County, New York in a humble frontier cabin. The family was extremely poor. He was a self-made man and practically taught himself to be educated. His father tried to apprentice him to a clothier. During his spare time he managed to attend an academy in New Hope where he met his future spouse Abigail Powers. At about the same time he got a post as a clerk in the office of a judge. This gave him the chance to study law. He took up teaching jobs in schools and finally came to join the bar in 1823. He married a rich widow, Caroline, after the death of his first wife and slowly began to expand his law firm. Nathan Kelsey Hall became his partner in the legal trade and political associate. Fillmore was kind and modest.

He declined an honorary degree from Oxford because he thought it would not be fair to accept it because he did not know Latin and would not be able to read it. He was a bookworm but lacked political skills and foresight. He always took the path of least resistance out which his rivals took political mileage. Fillmore was a big built man with a benign nature and dignified air. His compromising attitude drew attention and he came to be well loved by many. He was one of the best leaders from western New York. Fillmore was with the National Republican party. In 1826 the excitement concerning abduction of Mason William Morgan, drew him into politics and he joined the anti-Masonic movement. He joined the Whig party but he did not accept nomination. Fillmore gained a friend in Thomas Foote, the editor of a Buffalo journal and thus ensured for himself media support. Fillmore disliked the practice of slavery also disliked interfering with it. Another issue was the wide scale influx of foreigners into New York sate. His sympathies were for those who resented the outsiders, while other leaders in the Whig party wanted to woo them.

When Zachary became President Fillmore was nominated vice president on the hope that he would mend fences between the pro and anti groups advocating extension of slavery. The sudden death of Taylor pushed Millard Fillmore to the forefront although as vice president he had strongly differed with his senior on many matters. Suddenly he found himself President of US. But being tired of compromise he had no wishes to run for a second term. In foreign affairs he had the foresight to open a trade mission with Japan. He was alert and firm to see that the Hawaii region and Central America did not fall into the hands of either England or France. In Europe although he expressed his sympathies for those struggling against oppressive regimes he did little by way of action. Fillmore devoted a lot of time to civic activities and was the first chancellor of Buffalo University and founded Buffalo General Hospital as well as Buffalo Historical Society. His second wife, Caroline was a rich widow and their joint income allowed them to live in style and opulence. She adorned their mansion with various paintings and busts of her husband. She became a chronic invalid in later life but her husband preceded her following two fatal strokes.

Millard Fillmore Biography - Presidential Pet Museum Presidential Pet Museum Served: July 9, 1850 – March 4, 1853 Born: January 7, 1800 Political Party: Anti-Masonic (pre-1832), Whig (1832-1856), American (1856-1860) Spouse: Abigail Powers An Outspoken President Millard Fillmore is known as being the last elected president belonging to the Whig party. He became the 13th president of the United States, following Zachary Taylor ’s death while in office. During his presidency, Fillmore was known for his support of anti-slavery laws and bills as well as his conflicts with foreign governments such as France and Great Britain. Earlier, Fillmore was the co-founder of the University at Buffalo. Later, he was outspoken in his views against Abraham Lincoln ’s presidential office during the Civil War. From Cloth Maker to Lawyer When Fillmore was 14, he became apprentice to a cloth maker in New York. However, later Fillmore attended school and studied law instead.

He was admitted to the bar in 1823 and began practicing law in New York, where he opened what would later become one of New York’s most prestigious firms. During the Mexican-American War , Fillmore served in the New York militia. In 1826 he married Abigail Powers, and they had two children. Millard Fillmore’s Pets MORE PETS! Check out our photo gallery of selected White House pets Fillmore’s Path to Presidency Fillmore began his political career as a New York assemblyman and additional positions included on the 23rd Congress, 25th Congress, 26th Congress, and 27th Congress. During this time, he supported and voted for the prohibition of the slave trade as well as other anti-slavery bills and measures that came up at the time. Fillmore was appointed as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee but was unsuccessful in getting elected as speaker of the House of Representatives in 1841 or as governor of New York. In 1848, he was nominated for vice president under Zachary Taylor.

While he had a well-known hatred of the slave trade, he still felt that because slavery already existed in the South, these areas should be protected and that some of the newer states being admitted should be allowed to practice slavery as well. Fillmore’s presidency began suddenly when Taylor died on July 9, 1850. Knowing that Fillmore would become president, all the cabinet members resigned. Fillmore filled the seats with members who he knew agreed with him on key points like the Compromise of 1850 , a law that was meant to appease both Northern and Southern citizens. Did You Know…? Fillmore brought many modern amenities into the White House, including the first stove — which he had to teach the cook how to use — and the first bathtub. He also set up the first official White House library. Although he became Taylor’s vice president in 1848, Fillmore had never actually met Taylor until his nomination. After President Taylor died, Fillmore was not sworn in as president until the next day, and so the country was technically without a president for more than a day. Fillmore also never gave an inaugural address. And because he didn’t seek election after his term ended, he became president without ever running.

© Presidential Pet Museum. May not be republished without permission . Our comprehensive list of White House pets begins here...

Question: Complete the name of the 13th President of the USA Millard ..............
Answer: FILLMORE