Video: 'Millard Fillmore: Last of the Whigs (1850 - 1853)'

(Sunday, March 8, 1874, 11:10 p.m. EST) — Millard Fillmore, the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853, died this evening in Buffalo, New York, at age 74, after suffering a second stroke in as many months.

Fillmore was last U.S. president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House.

A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from upstate New York, Fillmore was elected as the 12th vice president in 1848, and succeeded to the presidency in July 1850 upon the death of Zachary Taylor.

Fillmore was instrumental in passing the Compromise of 1850, a bargain that led to a brief truce in the battle over the expansion of slavery.

The Fugitive Slave Act, expediting the return of escaped slaves to those who claimed ownership, was a controversial part of the compromise. Fillmore felt duty-bound to enforce it, though it damaged his popularity and also the Whig Party, which was torn between its Northern and Southern factions.

Video: 'Millard Fillmore: A presidential portrait'

He failed to win the Whig nomination for president in 1852 but gained the endorsement of the nativist Know Nothing Party four years later and finished third in the 1856 presidential election.

During the American Civil War, Fillmore denounced secession and agreed that the Union must be maintained by force if necessary, but was critical of Abraham Lincoln’s war policies.

After peace was restored, he supported President Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction policies. Fillmore remained involved in civic interests in retirement, including as chancellor of the University of Buffalo, which he had helped found in 1846.

Historians consistently rank Fillmore among the worst presidents in American history, largely for his policies regarding slavery, as well as among the least memorable.

His association with the Know Nothings and support of Johnson’s reconstruction policies further tarnished his reputation and legacy.