Millard Fillmore was born in 1823 in New York. As a child, Fillmore experienced firsthand the hardships of frontier life. He worked on his father's farm until he turned fifteen when he 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.
For eight years, Fillmore held a position in the House of Representatives. In 1848, while comptroller of New York, he was elected vice president. A few days before President Taylor's death, he expressed that if there was a tie vote on a bill that Henry Clay drafted, he would vote on it. This marked the sudden rise to the presidency for Fillmore.
On August 6, 1850, Fillmore sent a message to Congress recommending that Texas be paid to abandon their 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.
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. It did little against slavery that was still high in the new country.
As the Whig Party disintegrated in the 1850s, 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.
Fun Facts:
- Fillmore protected the Hawaiian islands from being invaded by France.
- When he heard the Library of Congress was on fire, he ran down to help put it out.
- He opposed Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
Millard Fillmore:
Fillmore was sure young when he became vice president and then president. I did not realize that. Thanks for your presidential series!
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