How a lame duck president signed Washington Territory’s birth certificate on Inauguration Eve
January 20, 2021 at 12:20 pm
President Millard Fillmore was a lameduck when he signed legislation creating Washington Territory on March 2, 1853 -- two days before Franklin Pierce was inaugurated. (Library of Congress)
It was on March 2, 1853 – two days before the presidential inauguration of Pierce County namesake Franklin Pierce – when lame duck President Millard Fillmore signed the legislation creating the Washington Territory. Pierce was a Democrat; Fillmore was a member of the Whigs, one of the predecessors of the Republican Party.
Dr. Paul Finkelman is the president of Gratz College near Philadelphia. He’s also author of a book about Millard Fillmore published a decade ago. He says the process of Oregon Territory, which was created in 1848, being split up a few years later to create Washington Territory, was “pretty normal.”