Millard Fillmore

Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800 (Gengshen)-March 8, 1874 (Jiaxu)) was the 13th President of the United States. The most famous achievement during his tenure was the dispatch of the U.S. East Indies Fleet to Japan, and fleet commander Matthew Perry sent his personal credentials to the shogunate, promoting the founding of Japan. He has always adopted a compromising attitude towards slavery, but he has also played an important role in the international status of the United States and promoted the development of the American economy. After leaving office, he ran for president of the United States again, but unfortunately lost.

In 1823, at the age of 23, Fillmore passed the bar exam and became a lawyer. Seven years later he practiced what he had learned in Buffalo, New York. A colleague of Whig politician Throweed, Fillmore has been a member of the House.

In 1828, he participated in the Anti-Masonic Movement.

In 1829, he was elected to the New York State Legislature.

In 1834, he joined the Whig Party and became an outstanding leader in the North.

Elected to the U.S. Congress in 1832.

In 1848, at the Whig convention, Z. Taylor was nominated for president, and Fillmore was nominated for vice president.

After the death of President Taylor in 1850, he succeeded him as president. Throughout his political career, he has been an advocate of domestic development in the United States and an early advocate of expansion into the Pacific.

In 1853, an American fleet was sent to Japan to force the Japanese government to change its traditional policy of isolation and develop diplomatic and trade relations with the West.

In 1852 he was one of three candidates nominated by the Whig Party. He also allowed the American Party to nominate him for president. After the election failed, he retired.

Due to the high cost of his presidency, he left office with little savings and was in financial trouble. He made a formal proposal to the US government: to give each outgoing president an annual salary of $12,000. He said: "It is a national disgrace that our presidents should be left out in the cold, ignored, and perhaps forced to open a grocery store on the corner of the street." We elected a man to be president, expecting him to do things honestly and perhaps give up a profitable career. However, after we took advantage of him, we put him in seclusion, and perhaps left him impoverished. 'But there was no answer. After losing again in the 1856 election, Fillmore devoted himself to public service in his hometown of Buffalo. He raised money to build Buffalo's high school, its YMCA, its historical society, its general hospital, its library, but he was too deep in debt to pay it.

Fortunately, in February 1858, he fell in love with a wealthy widow, Carolyn. After marriage, Carolyn paid off his debts, allowing him to continue his passion for the future. On March 8, 1874, Fillmore died of a stroke at the age of 74.

Fillmore was only the second person in American history to succeed the presidency as vice president, in office for only two years and eight months. Fillmore was always compromising on the issue of slavery. In 1850, he signed the bill of compromise with the slaveholders of the South. This bill was both dissatisfied by the North and failed to win the trust of the South. He lost the presidential election in 1852 due to two unflattering sides. He also had no significant achievements in foreign policy. The biggest diplomatic action of his term was to send Rear Admiral Perry to Japan with a fleet to force the Japanese government to open the sea to trade with the United States, thereby "opening the door to Japan". Another of his achievements was to vigorously build railroads in the west. Before 1840, most of the railways in the United States were east of the Appalachian Mountains, and there were no railways in the western region. In 1852, the East-West Railway connected in Chicago, making Chicago the center of the American railway network and promoting the development of the capitalist economy in the West.