Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore, thirteenth president of the United States, was born in Locke (now Summerhill), New York, on January 7, 1800. The second of nine children, Fillmore was raised in extreme poverty and spent most of his childhood working on the family farm. As a teenager, Fillmore’s father apprenticed him to a local cloth maker and then to a textile mill.
Despite receiving little formal education, Fillmore was ambitious and self-motivated, teaching himself to read in his spare time. When he was nineteen, Fillmore briefly attended a nearby school in New Hope where he was taught by his future wife, Abigail Power, who was only two years his senior. They eventually married in 1826 and had two children. After a brief stint teaching school, Fillmore clerked for a local judge and then opened a law practice in East Aurora, a small town near Buffalo. Fillmore’s political career began in 1828 when he was elected to the New York State Assembly as a member of the Anti-Masonic Party, the first of three one-year terms.
Fillmore then moved his family to Buffalo, where, in 1832, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He declined to run again in 1834, but subsequently was reelected to the House in 1836 as a member of the Whig Party, serving until 1843. Like most members of Congress at the time, Fillmore lived in a boardinghouse near the U.S. Capitol when Congress was in session. During his second term, Fillmore and his wife resided in Mrs. Pittman’s boardinghouse, leaving their children behind in Buffalo with relatives. Also living in the same boardinghouse was future president James Buchanan.
After an unsuccessful bid for New York governor in 1844, Fillmore helped found the University of Buffalo and served as its first chancellor, a position he would hold until 1874. He then went on to be elected the Comptroller of the State of New York.
In 1848, General Zachary Taylor, a hero of the Mexican War, was selected as the Whig Party’s presidential nominee. The nomination of Taylor, a slave owner from Louisiana, angered antislavery Whigs and threatened to split the party. In an effort to balance the ticket, the party searched for a vice-presidential nominee who would appeal to northern Whigs. When Daniel Webster refused the offer, Fillmore was selected as Taylor’s running mate.
The critical issue of the day was the expansion of slavery into the new territories acquired in the Mexican War. Attempting to seek a compromise between North and South, Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions in early 1850. The legislation languished in Congress until the death of President Zachary Taylor on July 9, 1850, just sixteen months into his administration. After Fillmore was sworn in as president, he replaced Taylor’s cabinet with moderate Whigs, including Daniel Webster as Secretary of State. Fillmore offered his support for the compromise legislation, which eventually passed in September 1850. The Compromise of 1850 consisted of five laws that dealt with the issue of slavery and territorial expansion, including the controversial Fugitive Slave Act, a law met with vehement opposition by abolitionists in the North.
As president, Fillmore also authorized an expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry to open diplomatic and trade relations with Japan, which eventually led to the Treaty of Kanagawa.
In 1852, Fillmore was denied the Whig Party presidential nomination, primarily over his support and enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. After leaving the presidency, he suffered twin tragedies with the death of his wife in 1853, and then his daughter, Mary, the following year.
Fillmore went on to lose the 1856 presidential election as the nominee of the American Party, or Know-Nothing Party, a nativist movement that was anti-immigration and anti-Catholic. With his political career over, Fillmore married Caroline McIntosh in 1858 and returned to Buffalo where he served in a variety of positions, including president of the Buffalo Historical Society. Fillmore died in 1874 and is interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Learn More
- The Millard Fillmore Papers contain approximately thirty-five items spanning the years 1839-1925, with the bulk dating from 1839 to 1870. The collection includes correspondence relating primarily to political issues such as slavery, Compromise of 1850, Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, and congressional politics.
- Millard Fillmore: A Resource Guide compiles links to digital materials related to Fillmore such as manuscripts, broadsides, government documents, newspaper articles, and images that are available throughout the Library of Congress website. In addition, it provides links to external websites focusing on Fillmore and a bibliography containing selected works for both general and younger readers.
- Fillmore’s personal map collection was purchased by the Library of Congress’s Geography & Map Division in 1916. The collection consists of over 200 maps, many of which have been digitized and are available on the Library’s website.