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Millard Fillmore becomes President
After the untimely death of President Taylor, Millard Fillmore became the second VP to ascend to the presidency. -
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Millard Fillmore Presidency
After the untimely death of President Taylor, Millard Fillmore became the second VP to ascend to the presidency. While his predecessor opposed the Compromise if 1850, Fillmore was able to sign the legislation and postpone the Civil War. However, he failed to receive his party’s nomination, and was another one-term president. Learn More -
The Compromise of 1850 (VUS.6e)
The “Great Compromiser” – Henry Clay – devised a way to postpone a sectional crisis. California would be accepted as a “free state”, the slave trade (but not slavery) would be banned in Washington, D.C., the Texas boundary was drawn, and the people in the Southwestern territories would decide the issue of slavery on their own (popular sovereignty) and a strict Fugitive Slave Act was also included. Read MORE -
Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (VUS.7a)
A staunch abolitionist, this book went far to inflame anti-slavery feelings across the north, and causing great fear and resentment by Southern slaveholders. Abraham Lincoln, upon meeting her stated, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war." MORE -
Commodore Matthew Perry dispatched to Japan
To open up trade in the Far East, President Fillmore sent Matthew Perry with four warships to obtain permission from Japan to open trade and political agreements. The success of the mission resulted in the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854. MORE
