Worst Presidents: Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)

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The question of why theses antebellum presidents are ranked so poorly has less to do with their stance on slavery itself, and more to do with their inaction and appeasement around the issue. When the nation is in crisis, it needs a President who will make sound, thoughtful, and ethical decisions to avert crisis. Most of these presidents failed to do that. In fact, they all seem to fit into one (or more) of four categories: failure in preventing succession, failure in preventing/ending financial crisis, failure to end corruption in their administration, and failure to stay alive long enough to enact policies. It seems that Americans value wrong decision more than indecision.

salemowalk of TX 5:26PM January 19, 2012

Fillmore's accidental presidency helped destroy his own Whig Party, then he had the opportunity to join the new Republican Party. But instead, he enlists in the Know-Nothing Party, which seems to know nothing except hatred of Catholics. They lynch an occasional priest and then, about the time that Fillmore joins, in 1855, they kill 22 people in Louisville in an effort to keep Catholics from voting in a tight Kentucky governor's race. Yet Fillmore is really comfortable around these bigots.

Steve of FL 10:57PM August 20, 2011

Shakespeare was fairer to Richard III that Paul Finkleman is to Fillmore in the recent addition to the American Presidents series. He oughta shorten his last name to Fink!

ted snyder of NY 9:22PM July 30, 2011

anyone casting this president as anything other than an imbecile is one themselves

jack of CA 6:27PM March 05, 2011

hey this helped me a lot with my research, i had to find a president to put in on my 10 worst presidents list. i had to find a president to take place of one that i disagreed with on an article.

casey of NY 10:38AM May 27, 2010

Most historians would agree that slavery would inevitably boil over into direct sectional conflict (i.e. the Civil War), so the question was one of timing and type. I would further propose that violent conflict was inevitable as soon as it appeared slavery would be seriously threatened, in turn threatening to undermine the Southern economy - indeed, that's exactly what did happen when Lincoln came to office with a platform of "free soil" and gradual emancipation.
What remains is timing, which is key, since, at the signing of the Compromise of 1850, the North didn't really have a decisive military advantage over the South. The Confederacy, after all, only needed to fight a defensive war and preserve its territorial integrity, while the Union could only win with a massive invasion. It took an additional decade for railroads and Northern manufacturing to take off, and delaying the the outbreak of war until 1863 enabled that development to cement the Union victory in a bloody war of attrition. So, while the Civil War was ugly, it was also necessary to save the United States, and, regardless of his personal morals, we can thank Millard Fillmore for making that possible. =)

GD of WA 11:03PM April 28, 2010

The life of Fillmore was actually an all-American success story. Born in a log cabin, with only a public school education, he worked his way up from a clothmaker's apprentice to become a Congressman described by John Quincy Adams as one of the ablest and fairest minded he ever saw. He should be listed among the 10 most UNDERRATED Presidents when considered in the context of his time.

ted snyder of NY 10:04PM April 20, 2010

hey i stole this paper and tuned it in as my own!! got an A+ teach said it was a outbreak for me! tanks!!!!!!!!!!

jert of MN 11:34PM April 07, 2010

How are you pro-abortion. Do you like the killing of babies. You can be pro-choice (which I am), which means that people should have the right to decide what they want. Pro-abortion means you incourage people to get abortions.
Second I don't agree with the poll. Millard did what anyone would have done in his place, kept the country together. Lincoln himself said that if he could keep the country together by accepting slavery, he would. The southern states just didn't give him the chance.

HP of WA 3:39PM March 02, 2010

Your poll is more amusing than Accurate. HOW is 'ol Millard worst than the total total pondscum America produced like Carter, Reagan and 'W'? Carter was, next to Jefferson, THE SMARTEST TESTABLE PRESIDENT who ever occupied the Whitehouse. He was a skipper of a Nucular Submarine and taught Nucular Propotion classes. Yet his ruinous Presidency (entirely self inflicted) damn near caused America to go under. Reagan, the 'Mr. Feelgood' President started displaying onset of Alheimers during HIS FIRST TERM. His second term was so bad, Don Reagan, SEN Jim Baker and the White House Physcian were sent in to monitor him and possible invalid him out of the Presidentcy. As for the 'certified war criminal' George W. Bush, don't get me started there.
You people have a strange FIXATION on anything remotely touching the issue of Slavery. SLAVERY WAS LEGAL, deal with it. A better look at Millard is to compare his stance on Slavery to that of Abortion, Euthenasia or Gay Marrage. Mention Abortion today and you get into a fist fight between Liberal "Pro-Choicers" vrs Conservative 'Right to Lifers'. How is it is wrong for Millard to want to compromise over the 'slavery' issue and not Obama over Abortion or Stem Cell Research? Me, I'm pro slavery (No rights for Clones or 'bots!!!), pro abortion, pro death penality, pro stem cell research, anti gay marrage. I deal with it like Millard did with it---through compromise!!!

CPTG of CA 3:25PM December 21, 2009