Millard Fillmore
From Philosopedia
Fillmore, Millard [President] (7 January 1800 - 8 March 1874)
Fillmore, the 13th United States President, was born in a log cabin. Once a lieutenant in the Anti-Masonic party, he joined the Whig Party and was reelected three times to the House of Representatives. Becoming Vice President on the Whig ticket with Zachary Taylor, he succeeded to the Presidency when Taylor in 1850 died of cholera. Upon learning of Taylor’s death, he wrote to the cabinet, “I have no language to express the emotions of my heart. The shock is so sudden and unexpected that I am overwhelmed.” As Vice-President, he presided over the Senate during the debates on the "Compromise Measures of 1850."
In the 1856 election, Fillmore ran on the Know-Nothing Ticket. Although opposed to slavery, Fillmore felt it best if the nation be held together. In supporting bills that the antislavery people opposed, he said, “I well know that by so doing, I must lose the friendship of many men. The man who can look upon a crisis without being willing to offer himself upon the altar of his country is not fit for public trust.”
During his administration a treaty was approved with the help of Commodore Perry which opened trade with Japan. On the lighter side, the Fillmores were responsible for starting the first library in the White House and replacing a fireplace with a cook stove for kitchen use, according to Elizabeth Gillis. (Gillis also credits the Fillmores with installing the first bathtub there, but actually this story was a hoax perpetuated by H. L. Mencken.)
Daniel Webster was his Secretary of State, but because of a division of the slavery issue he was not renominated by the Whig convention in 1852. Fillmore opposed Lincoln’s election and supported the Fugitive Slave Law, which required the return of escaped slaves to the South.
Fillmore was twice married: in 1826 to Abigail Powers (who died in 1853, leaving him with a son and daughter), and in 1858 to Mrs. Caroline C. McIntosh. Fillmore was a charter member of the First Unitarian Church of Buffalo, holding pew #70.
In 2009, some noted historians have judged Fillmore to be one of America's worst presidents, citing his support of the Compromise of 1850 that delayed the Southern secession by allowing slavery to spread.
