Millard Fillmore

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 the nation's highest office. He succeeded from the Vice Presidency on the death of President Zachary Taylor, who died of acute indigestion, becoming the second U.S. President to gain the office in this manner. Fillmore was never elected President in his own right; after serving out Taylor's term he was not nominated for the Presidency by the Whigs in the 1852 Presidential election, and in 1856 he failed to win election as President as the Know Nothing Party candidate.

Presidency

Thus the sudden ascension 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.

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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.

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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 of 1850. On August 6, 1850, he sent a message to Congress recommending that Texas be paid to abandon her claims to part of New Mexico.

Related Topics:
Stephen A. Douglas - August 6 - 1850 - Texas - New Mexico

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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.

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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:

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• Admit California as a free state.
• Settle the Texas boundary and compensate her.
• Grant territorial status to New Mexico.
• Place Federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking fugitives.
• 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."

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Another important legacy of Fillmore's administration was the opening of Japan to American trade under Commodore Matthew Perry.

Related Topics:
Japan - Matthew Perry

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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.

Related Topics:
Fugitive Slave Act - 1852

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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.

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