The Final Whig

Part 13 of My Presidential Review Series

On the unlucky 13th article, there is Millard Fillmore. Fillmore was the last president under the Whig party. He was the second Vice President to ascend from the death of the President. He was also the last to do so until Andrew Johnson. He approved the Compromise of 1850, which cost him Northern Whig support, and with them, the nomination. He had one last hurrah in 1856, when he ran for president under the Know-Nothing party. He served July 10, 1850 to March 3, 1853.

In an attempt to avert civil war, Henry Clay wrote the Compromise of 1850. Zachary Taylor had opposed the compromise, supporting the admission of California as a free state without passage of the pro-slavery parts. Fillmore, however, supported every part of the package. The compromise was split into 5 bills, and Fillmore signed each into law. The bills stated: California was to be admitted as a free state, and residents from territory acquired from Mexico would decide whether or not to allow slavery; Texas' borders were defined, Texas was paid $10 million to pay its debts, and the territory of New Mexico was established; Utah territory was created; The Fugitive Slave Act, the most controversial part of the bill, was passed, which forced the government to take an active part in returning slaves to their masters. Suspected fugitives were denied right to trial. Because of this bill, many blacks living in the North legitimately were turned over to Southern slaveholders. Helping slaves escape their masters became an even more serious crime; the slave trade, but not slavery, was banned in Washington, D.C.

The compromise successfully averted civil war, satisfying northern moderates and temporarily mollifying the South. Only South Carolina would rather secede than accept it, but they realized the futility of maintaining independence by themselves. The compromise fatally divided the Whig party, which collapsed after putting up one more struggle in the election of 1852.

In an attempt to open up trade in the Far East, Fillmore sent 4 warships under Commodore Matthew C. Perry to Japan. Perry successfully negotiated the Treaty of Kanagawa, in which the Japanese government pledged to assist shipwrecked American soldiers, to provide U.S. vessels with coal and other supplies, and to open 2 ports to U.S. trade.

Fillmore died on March 8, 1874.

The only thing Fillmore himself did was the Compromise of 1850. The compromise, namely the Fugitive Slave Law, was highly impractical. It may have held off civil war for a little while, but it eventually, and inevitably, raised tensions in the North and made civil war all the more likely. It is a sad thing Zachary Taylor died, for he would have vetoed the bill.

Overall Ranking: 35

"The government of the United States is a limited government. It is confined to the exercise of powers expressly granted, and such others as may be necessary for carrying those powers into effect; and it is at all times an especial duty to guard against any infringement on the just rights of the States."

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