Millard Fillmore

Raised in poverty on the New York frontier, he had little formal schooling and educated himself largely through determined study. He trained as a lawyer, built a successful practice in Buffalo, and entered public life as a member of the Anti-Masonic movement before joining the Whig Party.

He served in the U.S. House of Representatives and was elected vice president in 1848 on the ticket with Zachary Taylor. After Taylor died in 1850, he became president and served until 1853. His administration is most closely associated with the Compromise of 1850, especially his support for enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, a decision that deeply damaged his reputation in the North even as supporters argued it helped hold the Union together for a time.

After leaving the White House, he failed to regain the presidency and later ran in 1856 as the candidate of the American, or Know-Nothing, Party. He spent much of his later life in Buffalo, remaining active in civic and educational causes. Today he is remembered as a self-made statesman whose presidency reflects the tensions and moral crises of the years just before the Civil War.