Millard Fillmore (7 January 1800-8 March 1874) was President of the United States from 9 July 1850 to 4 March 1853, succeeding Zachary Taylor and preceding Franklin Pierce. He previously served as a member of the US House of Representatives (W-NY 32) from 4 March 1833 to 3 March 1835 (preceding Thomas C. Love) and from 4 March 1837 to 3 March 1843 (succeeding Love and preceding William A. Moseley) and Vice President of the United States from 4 March 1849 to 9 July 1850 (succeeding George M. Dallas and preceding William R. King).
Biography[]
Millard Fillmore was born in Moravia, Cayuga County, New York in 1800, and he became a successful attorney in the Buffalo area before being elected to the State Assembly in 1828 and the US House of Representatives in 1832. Originally a member of the Anti-Masonic Party, he became a member of the conservative wing of the Whig Party in 1832. He saw slavery as an evil beyond the reach of the federal government, and he was defeated in his 1844 bids for the vice-presidency and the governorship of New York. Instead, he served as Comptroller of New York from 1848 to 1849, when he was selected as Zachary Taylor's presidential running mate.
Presidency[]
Taylor died in office in 1850, and Fillmore assumed the presidency on 9 July. Unlike his predecessor, he supported the Compromise of 1850 with regard to the extension of slavery to the Mexican Cession territories, and he set new policy priorities with a new cabinet. His passage of the Fugitive Slave Act damaged both his standing in his party and his national reputation, and he also failed to ensure the success of Narciso Lopez's filibuster expedition to Cuba; however, he supported the US Navy's successful expeditions to open trade in Japan and opposed French designs on Hawaii. In 1852, he sought re-election, but he was passed over for the nomination by Winfield Scott. As the Whig Party disintegrated over the issue of slavery, Fillmore joined the nativist Know Nothings, and he ran for President as the Know Nothing candidate in 1856, focusing on preserving the Union. He won only Maryland, and he went on to found the University of Buffalo and serve as its first chancellor; he also became a Democrat in 1857 and remained a Democrat until his death. During the American Civil War, he denounced secession, but he criticized President Abraham Lincoln's war policies. After the war, he supported President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies, and he died in Buffalo in 1874 at the age of 74.