Millard Fillmore was a Southerner
Millard Fillmore was the thirteenth President of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was a Southerner who was elected vice president in 1848 and became president after Zachary Taylor died of acute gastroenteritis. Fillmore’s administration was notable for his efforts to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, which alienated many in the North and destroyed the Whig Party.
Fillmore was a Southerner, but he embraced the Union Party’s cause in the aftermath of the American Civil War. In 1860, he hosted Abraham Lincoln in Washington and offered him advice on how to keep Britain out of the war. However, during the war, Fillmore was an outspoken critic of Lincoln’s war policies. He later backed the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, General McClellan. However, his political career was over once Lincoln was assassinated.
He was a lawyer
Millard Fillmore was born in Locke township, New York. Although his early years were rocky, he persevered and eventually found success as a lawyer. After serving in the House of Representatives, he was elected vice president in 1848. During his tenure in Congress, he helped pass the Fugitive Slave Act, alienating the North and destroying the Whig Party. His interest in law led him to serve as New York state lawmaker and eventually a candidate for governor of New York.
Fillmore served as the Whig Party’s vice president from 1850 to 1854. During the American Civil War, he opposed the policies of President Lincoln and supported Andrew Johnson, a member of the Democratic Party. He later became president of the Know-Nothing Party.
He was a politician
Millard Fillmore served as the thirteenth president of the United States from 1850 to 1853. He was born in Locke township, New York, in 1800. Before his presidency, Fillmore had served as a state legislator from 1828 to 1832, and then as a representative in the United States House of Representatives from 1833 to 1841. During the 1848 presidential campaign, Fillmore was nominated as the vice presidential candidate of Zachary Taylor. Fillmore was then elected to the presidency as Taylor’s running mate, and eventually succeeded him.
Fillmore was a lawyer by profession. His political career started in 1828, when he joined the Anti-Masonic Party and served in the New York legislature. He later moved his family to Buffalo, where he practiced law.
He was an antislavery activist
In addition to being the thirteenth president of the United States, Millard Fillmore was an antislavery advocate. He worked to help establish the University of Buffalo General Hospital. While Fillmore did a lot to help those in need in Buffalo, one of his most controversial acts was signing into law the Fugitive Slave Act. This law made it illegal for anyone to help a slave escape and imposed a $1,000 fine and six months in prison on those who did so.
While the Framers’ intentions were often in dispute, actions by the new government revealed their intents. In 1791, Congress authorized the admission of Vermont, a free state, and Kentucky, a slave state. Although few Americans made a big deal of this balancing act between free and slave states, it became a national issue in the 1820s.
He was shy
Millard Fillmore was born on the outskirts of civilization, living four miles from his nearest neighbor. He had no formal education and only a moderate knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic. He later became the president of the United States. Fillmore’s life lasted for 61 years and was marked by many events.
Fillmore rose through the political ranks, eventually serving as state comptroller and becoming vice president under Zachary Taylor in 1849. He finished the Whigs’ term as president, but was not re-nominated by the Whigs. After his presidency, Fillmore returned to his hometown of Buffalo. He died in Buffalo. Fillmore is regarded as one of the worst presidents of the United States.
He was a natural leader
Millard Fillmore entered politics in 1828 and became a member of the Anti-Masonic Party. He served as a member of the New York State Assembly for three years, and drafted a law banning debt imprisonment in New York. He also sponsored a bill repealing a law that required witnesses to swear to a belief in God. Fillmore deemed the law absurd and based on a narrow sense of prejudice, but his bill never emerged from committee.
Despite his low-class background, Millard Fillmore quickly rose through the ranks of the political system. Born to a poor family in rural New York, he studied the law and married a local teacher. At a young age, he was elected to the New York State Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives, and he was a successful legislator.
He was a bibliophile
President Millard Fillmore was a bibliophiler and avid reader. He personally fought the December 1851 Library of Congress fire, and is credited with creating the first permanent White House library. According to legend, Fillmore carried a dictionary at all times to improve his vocabulary. He later compiled the first White House library, which is still in the White House today.
Fillmore’s childhood was marked by poverty. His family owned only three books, so the young Fillmore would read everything he could find. After he grew up, his ravenous appetite for knowledge led him to study law. He eventually worked as an attorney, but he was also a dedicated bibliophile.