In those rare moments when historians bother to remember Millard Fillmore, the 13th President of the United States, it is usually with words of derision. Fillmore is blamed for his rigid enforcement of the odious Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, as well as scorned for having such a lust for power that he was willing to seek to regain the presidency as the standard-bearer of the discriminatory “Know-Nothing” political party which embraced anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic tenets at its core. … Others can’t get past poking fun of his odd first name. The Millard Fillmore story, however, is far more nuanced than these simplistic references. … Fillmore was for adherence to the Constitution and preservation of the Union against all hazards. Almost anything else could be sacrificed to attain these perpetual goals, leading him to associate with laws and groups that were founded on bigoted beliefs. … He would seemingly join any group if he felt it could accomplish that objective. In the end, Fillmore’s story ultimately provides useful insight into why no political solution – not even a grand compromise – could prevent a bloody Civil War as the only means to resolve the inherent conflict of America’s original sin of slavery, whose seeds had been firmly planted as a compromise in the Constitution itself.