Zachary Taylor
The military hero who never voted in a presidential election before winning one — Taylor died 16 months into office, possibly of gastroenteritis from tainted food at a July 4th ceremony. His death shifted the slavery compromise question to Fillmore, with enormous consequences.
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Often Compared To
William Henry Harrison
#2President / Whig — Charles City County, Virginia · 1841
Served 31 days. Gave the longest inaugural address in history (1 hour 45 minutes in cold rain without a hat), got pneumonia, and died. Harrison's presidency is simultaneously the shortest and the most consequential for the precedent it set — and for elevating John Tyler to the presidency.
Millard Fillmore
#3President / Whig — Summerhill, New York · 1850–1853
The president who signed the Fugitive Slave Act — a law that required Northerners to return escaped enslaved people to the South, radicalizing Northern public opinion and setting the stage for the Civil War. Fillmore thought he was preserving the Union; he was actually accelerating its destruction.