Millard Fillmore — 13th President of the United States
13th President of the United States, Whig
Millard Fillmore
Term: Jul 9, 1850 – Mar 4, 1853
Millard Fillmore (1800–1874) was the thirteenth president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853 after the death of Zachary Taylor. His presidency is most associated with the Compromise of 1850, a package of legislation he helped pass that admitted California as a free state while also enacting a strengthened Fugitive Slave Act requiring northern states to assist in the return of escaped enslaved people. Fillmore was the last Whig president; the party collapsed shortly after his term ended over the divisions that compromise had only temporarily papered over.
“Nations, like individuals in a state of nature, are equal and independent, possessing certain rights and owing certain duties to each other, arising from their necessary and unavoidable relations.”