(1800–74), 13th president of the US 1850–53. A New York Whig, he served in the US House of Representatives 1833–35, 1837–43 and became US vice president in 1849. Seventeen months later, he succeeded to the presidency upon the death of President Zachary Taylor. Fillmore was an advocate of compromise on the slavery issue, but his unpopular enforcement of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act hastened the end of the Whig Party.