Fillmore ascended to the presidency upon the sudden and unexpected death of President Taylor in July 1850. The change in leadership also signaled an abrupt political shift in the administration, as Fillmore removed Taylor's entire cabinet, replacing them with individuals known to be favorable to the Compromise efforts. Fillmore signaled this shift by appointing
Daniel Webster as his Secretary of State.
As president, Fillmore dealt with increasing party divisions within the Whig party; party harmony became one of his primary objectives. He tried to unite the party by pointing out the differences between the Whigs and the Democrats (by proposing tariff reforms that negatively reflected on the
Democratic Party). Another primary objective of Fillmore was to preserve the Union from the intensifying slavery debate.
Henry Clay's proposed bill to admit
California to the Union still aroused all the violent arguments for and against the extension of slavery without any progress toward settling the major issues (the South continued to threaten secession). Fillmore recognized that Clay's plan was the best way to end the sectional crisis (California free state, harsher fugitive slave law, abolish slave trade in DC). Clay, exhausted, left Washington to recuperate, passing leadership to Senator
Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. At this critical juncture, President Fillmore announced his support of the Compromise of 1850.
On
August 6, 1850, he sent a message to Congress recommending that
Texas be paid to abandon its claims to part of
New Mexico. This helped shift a critical number of northern Whigs in Congress away from their insistence upon the
Wilmot Proviso-—the stipulation that all land gained by the Mexican War must be closed to slavery.
Douglas's effective strategy in Congress combined with Fillmore's pressure gave impetus to the Compromise movement. Breaking up Clay's single legislative package, Douglas presented five separate bills to the Senate:
*Admit California as a free state.
*Settle the Texas boundary and compensate the state for lost lands.
*Grant territorial status to New Mexico.
*Place federal officers at the disposal of slaveholders seeking escapees—the
Fugitive Slave Act.
*Abolish the slave trade in the
District of Columbia.
Each measure obtained a majority, and, by
September 20, President Fillmore had signed them into law. Webster wrote, "I can now sleep of nights."
Whigs on both sides refused to accept the finality of Fillmore's law (which led to more party division, and a loss of numerous elections), which forced Northern Whigs to say "God Save us from Whig Vice Presidents."
Fillmore's greatest difficulty with the fugitive slave law was how to enforce it without seeming to show favor towards Southern Whigs. His solution was to appease both northern and southern Whigs by calling for the enforcement of the fugitive slave law in the North, and enforcing in the South a law forbidding involvement in Cuba (for the sole purpose of adding it as a slave state).
Another issue that presented itself during Fillmore's presidency was the arrival of
Louis Kossuth (exiled leader of a failed
Hungarian revolution). Kossuth wanted the United States to abandon its non-intervention policies when it came to European affairs and recognize Hungary’s independence. The problem came with the enormous support Kossuth received from German-American immigrants to the United States (who were essential in the re-election of both Whigs and Democrats). Fillmore refused to change American policy, and decided to remain neutral despite the political implications that neutrality would produce.
Another important legacy of Fillmore's administration was the sending of
Commodore Matthew C. Perry to open
Japan to Western trade, though Perry did not reach Japan until
Franklin Pierce had replaced Fillmore as president.
