Image: Millard Fillmore by James Reid Lambdin (National Portrait Gallery)

Description: Thirteenth president, 1850–1853 The arc of Millard Fillmore’s political career demonstrates how the issue of slavery destroyed the national party system during the late antebellum period. Although Fillmore found slavery repugnant, he did not think the federal government should interfere in the South’s “peculiar institution.” After Zachary Taylor’s untimely death, Fillmore’s policies as president reflected this ambivalence. He attempted to complete his predecessor’s work on the Compromise of 1850, whose final legislation aimed to balance various interests in an effort to avoid the impending crisis over slavery. While it prohibited the sale of slaves within Washington, D.C., and admitted California to the Union as a free state, it included the Fugitive Slave Act, which stipulated that escaped slaves should be returned to their owners. The inclusion of this mandate ultimately caused the breakup of the Whig Party and ended Fillmore’s career.
Title: Millard Fillmore by James Reid Lambdin (National Portrait Gallery)
Credit: Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery
Author: James Reid Lambdin
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No