Millard Fillmore

This c. 1858 portrait of Millard Fillmore (1800-1874) by James Reid Lambdin hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

“The arc of Millard Fillmore’s political career demonstrates how the issue of slavery destroyed the national party system during the late antebellum period. Fillmore, who himself found slavery repugnant, did not think the federal government should interfere with the South’s “peculiar institution.” He became president after Zachary Taylor’s untimely death and attempted to complete his predecessor’s work on the Compromise of 1850. The final legislation aimed to balance various interests in an effort to avoid the impending crisis over slavery. While it abolished slavery in Washington, D.C., and admitted California to the Union as a free state, it included the Fugitive Slave Act, which stipulated that escaped slaves should be returned to their owners. The inclusion of this mandate ultimately cause the breakup of the Whig Party and ended Fillmore’s national career.” – National Portrait Gallery

An 1848 campaign biography of Taylor and Fillmore includes this image of Millard Fillmore.

Fillmore's 1856 American Party campaign biography includes this bucolic image of Fillmore "Studying his Books".

 "At the 'the nooning' when the plough rested and the cattle grazed, Millard Fillmore, as the people remarked, 'studied his books'"

And this picture of Fillmore carding wool.

Millard Fillmore the Wool Carder -- "Here young Fillmore applied himself assiduously to learning his trade and advancing the interests of his employer."