FILLMORE, MILLARD
Millard Fillmore was a Whig, a member of the New York Assembly, a member of the U.S. Congress, vice president of the United States under ZACHARY TAYLOR, and the 13th president of the United States. Despite a personal dislike of
SLAVERY, he signed into law the FUGITIVE
SLAVE ACT OF 1850, among other bills that orig-
inated in the COMPROMISE OF 1850. His admin-
istration supported trade with foreign countries,
forging one of the first trade agreements with
Japan, but Fillmore was opposed to expansion-
ism and refused to support an attempted annex-
ation of Cuba in 1851.
Fillmore was born January 7, 1800, in Locke,
New York. His father, Nathaniel Fillmore, was a
farmer who wanted Fillmore to escape a life of
poverty. Fillmore left school at an early age to
become apprenticed, but a judge recognized his
talents and ambition and persuaded him to
study law. He was admitted to the bar at the age
of 24 and soon became a leading lawyer in the
state of New York.
In 1828, Fillmore was elected to the New
York Assembly, and in 1832, he was elected to
Congress, where he served three terms. In 1844,
he ran unsuccessfully for governor of New York
State. In 1848, the WHIG PARTY nominated him
for vice president to run with the Mexican War
hero Taylor. Fillmore and Taylor won the elec-
tion by appeasing both northern and southern
voters, taking the position that although slavery
was evil, it was a problem that had to be solved
by the states.
Fillmore was disappointed with his lack of
power and voice as vice president. The country
was facing a crisis over the issues of slavery and
the admittance of Texas, California, and New
Mexico into the Union. The Compromise of
1850, written by Senator HENRY CLAY, was an
omnibus that recommended that California be
admitted to the Union as a free state, the rest of
Mexican cession be formed without restrictions
on slavery, Texas end its boundary dispute with
New Mexico, and a new fugitive slave law be
passed. As president of the Senate, Fillmore was
involved in the debate over the compromise but
found himself unable to influence its course.
President Taylor was seen as the greatest
obstacle to the compromise because he refused
to sign it as one comprehensive piece of legisla-
tion, wanting to consider separately the issue of
California’s admission into the Union as a free
state. The South feared that if California was
admitted as a free state, other western territories
would eventually become free states, thereby
giving the antislavery movement a more power-
ful voice in Congress. In the summer of 1850,
Taylor became even more hostile to the South
when he threatened to lead the U.S. Army
against the Texas militia, which was trying to
spread slavery westward by threatening Texas’s
boundary with the territory of New Mexico.
This never transpired because on July 9, 1850,
Taylor died suddenly and Fillmore was sworn in
as president.
Fillmore supported the compromise, but he
too wanted the legislation divided into separate
bills.With the departure from the Senate of the
compromise’s strongest supporters—Clay,
DANIEL WEBSTER, and John C. Calhoun—and
the maneuvering of new leaders such as
