Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore Curriculum Vitae

Presidential Number: 13th 

Years President: 1850 –1853

Party Affiliation: Whig

Main Contender: none (became president after Taylor died in office)

State Represented: New York

Birthday: January 7, 1800

Place of Birth: Summerhill, New York

Higher Education: None

Prior Occupations: cloth maker, fisherman, farmer, lawyer, soldier, congressman, vice president 

Nickname: The American Louis Philippe, Last of the Whigs, the Accidental President

Height: 5’ 9”

Favorite Food: hearty soups 

Hobbies: book collecting

Pets: Ponies Mason and Dixon

Legacy: Fillmore welcomed California into the union, separated the New Mexico territory from Texas, abolished slave trade within the boundaries of Washington DC and strengthened the hated Fugitive Slave Law that put US Marshals at the disposal of slave catchers seeking runaways in the north. He is known for the Compromise of 1850, which gave a little bit to everyone while glossing over sectional differences, eventually boiling over to secession and Civil War.

Trivia: Millard was his mother's maiden name; born into poverty and mostly self-taught; married his school teacher Abigail, who created first White House library and had first bathtub installed; did not give an inaugural address; had first stove installed in White House and taught cook how to use it after reading the patent; when Oxford University offered him an honorary degree, he replied that he had done nothing to deserve it and would not accept it.