Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore was the thirteenth president of the United States. He was a Whig from New York. He became president when Zachary Taylor died in 1850 and Fillmore was vice president. He finished Taylor's term, from 1850 to 1853, and did not win a term of his own. The Whigs did not keep him as their nominee in 1852. Like Tyler, he had been the VP, so once he became president the office was empty — there was no replacement vice president.

Fillmore signed the Compromise of 1850, a famous package of laws meant to cool North-South anger. It was a bundle of bills that kept the Union together for a while. Under that deal, California joined the Union as a free state — a big Northern win. The compromise also dealt with new territories in the Southwest and a Texas boundary deal. Utah and New Mexico became territories, Texas's border was settled, and the slave trade was banned in Washington, D.C. One part, the Fugitive Slave Act, required the return of runaway slaves.

The Compromise of 1850 did not solve the slavery fight. It bought time — it delayed a split of the Union for another decade. Fillmore sent Commodore Matthew Perry toward Japan. Perry's mission was to open Japan to trade, a step toward new trade with Japan. The ships arrived as Fillmore's term ended. Soon after his term, the Whig Party split over slavery and it fell apart. New parties, including the Republicans, rose in their place.