American President
Millard Fillmore (1800–1874)
Facts at a Glance
- Term
- 13th President of the United States (1850–1853)
- Born
- January 7, 1800, Summerhill, New York
- Nickname
- "The American Louis Philippe"
- Education
- Six months of grade school; read law in 1822
- Religion
- Unitarian
- Marriage
- February 5, 1826, to Abigail Powers (1798–1853); February 10, 1858, to Caroline Carmichael McIntosh (1813–1881)
- Children
- Millard Powers (1828–1889), Mary Abigail (1832–1854)
- Career
- Lawyer
- Political Party
- Whig
- Died
- March 8, 1874, Buffalo, New York
- Buried
- Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York
- A Life in Brief
- Born into desperate poverty at the dawn of the nineteenth century, Millard Fillmore climbed to the highest office in the land—and inherited a nation breaking into fragments over the question of slavery. Despite his best efforts, the lines of the future battles of the Civil War were drawn, and Fillmore found himself rejected by his own dying party and denied renomination. More »
- The Constitution has made it the duty of the President to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
- December 2, 1850
Essays on Millard Fillmore and His Administration
- Millard Fillmore
- A Life in Brief
- Life Before the Presidency
- Campaigns and Elections
- Domestic Affairs
- Foreign Affairs
- Life After the Presidency
- Family Life
- The American Franchise
- Impact and Legacy
- Key Events
- First Lady
- Abigail Fillmore
- Vice President
- none
- Secretary of State
- John M. Clayton (1850–1850)
- Daniel Webster (1850–1852)
- Edward Everett (1852–1853)
- Secretary of War
- Charles M. Conrad (1850–1853)
- George W. Crawford (1850–1850)
- Postmaster General
- Jacob Collamer (1850–1850)
- Nathan K. Hall (1850–1852)
- Samuel D. Hubbard (1852–1853)
- Secretary of the Treasury
- Thomas Corwin (1850–1853)
- William M. Meredith (1850–1850)
- Thomas Ewing (1850–1850)
- Secretary of the Interior
- Alexander H. H. Stuart (1850–1853)
- Thomas M. T. McKennan (1850–1850)
- Attorney General
- John J. Crittenden (1850–1853)
- Reverdy Johnson (1850–1850)
- Secretary of the Navy
- William B. Preston (1850–1850)
- William A. Graham (1850–1852)
- John P. Kennedy (1852–1853)
Consulting Editor: Michael F. Holt
Professor Holt is the Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia. His writings include:
The Civil War and Reconstruction (Co-authored with Jean H. Baker and David Herbert Donald, W.W. Norton, 2001)
The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 1999)
Political Parties and American Political Development from the age of Jackson to the age of Lincoln (Louisiana State University Press, 1992)
Presidential Speeches
Below are selections from the Miller Center’s Millard Fillmore speech collection.
Scholarship and Speakers
The Miller Center of Public Affairs is a national nonpartisan center to research, reflect, and report on American government, with special attention to the central role and history of the presidency. Below is a selection of Miller Center resources on Millard Fillmore.
Listen Tony Coelho’s 1989 presentation at the Miller Center on the Electoral Process and the Selection of President and Vice Presidents
Learn more about the Center’s National Commission on the Vice Presidency and its relationship to Fillmore.
Scripps Library Reference Resources
Below are links to reference resources prepared by the Miller Center’s Scripps Library, designed to help students and scholars conduct their research quickly.
Information on Millard Fillmore’s Private and Public Papers
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