The Compromise of 1850 (1850)
Admitted California as a free state and ended the slave trade in the District of Columbia
US Presidents · 19th century
Millard Fillmore
1800–1874 · American
Whig (later American 'Know Nothing' Party)
In office: 1850–1853
Millard Fillmore, the 13th president, succeeded on the death of Zachary Taylor and signed the Compromise of 1850, including the Fugitive Slave Act. He sent Commodore Matthew Perry's expedition to open Japan. The last Whig president, he ran again in 1856 as the candidate of the nativist American (Know Nothing) Party.
How to spot them
- ▸The last Whig president; succeeded Zachary Taylor in 1850
- ▸Signed the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act
- ▸Sent Commodore Perry to Japan
- ▸Know Nothing candidate in 1856
In office
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (1850)
Required free states to assist in returning people who had escaped slavery; enraged Northern opinion
Commodore Matthew Perry's expedition to open Japan (1852–1854)
Dispatched by Fillmore with a presidential letter; Perry reached Edo Bay in 1853
American (Know Nothing) Party presidential candidacy (1856)
Won only the state of Maryland
Quick-fire facts
- •Born in a log cabin in Cayuga County, New York
- •The last president who was neither a Democrat nor a Republican
- •Helped found the University at Buffalo and was its first chancellor
- •With his wife Abigail he established the first permanent White House library
- •H. L. Mencken's 1917 hoax article falsely credited him with installing the first White House bathtub
Drill it — 5 cards
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Sources
- Miller Center, University of Virginia — Millard Fillmore