In the midst of the exciting debates in Congress, and when the public anxiety was at its height respecting the agitation of the slavery-extension question, the troubles in Texas respecting the boundary with New Mexico, and the application for the admission of California into the Union, the nation was startled with the melancholy tidings of the death of General Taylor, president of the United States. In our memoir of the president, we have stated the particulars of his death, which took place on the evening of the 9th of July. This event was officially announced by Mr. Fillmore, the late vice-president, who, by the constitution, immediately succeeded to the presidency, in a message to both houses and in the following communication to the senate: "To the Senate of the United States: "WASHINGTON, July 10, 1850. "In consequence of the lamented death of Zachary Taylor, late president of the United States, I shall no longer occupy the chair of the senate; and I have thought that a formal communication to that effect, through your secretary, might enable you the more promptly to proceed to the choice of a presiding officer. "MILLARD FILLMORE." On the following day, William R. King was unanimously elected, by resolution, president pro tem. of the senate. The several members of the cabinet who had been appointed by President Taylor having immediately tendered their resignations to the new president, Mr. Fillmore, and the same having been accepted, the administration of General Taylor was terminated. No important acts of Congress having been matured previous to his death, the administration of General Taylor had no opportunity to develop itself, except by the actions of the executive in appointments to office, and such measures were intrusted to the president by the constitution and laws. Embarrassed as he was by the delay of settlement of important questions by Congress, the public, it is believed, were generally satisfied with the good intentions of General Taylor, and his exertions to preserve tranquillity, and to conscientiously perform the duties of his high office. His public character as a civilian during his brief career in the executive chair, must be known and appreciated by the principles avowed in his inaugural address; and by the recommendations in his communications to Congress. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MILLARD FILLMORE. JOHN FILLMORE, the great grandfather of MILLARD FILLMORE, and the common ancestor of all of that name in the United States, was of English origin, and was born about the year 1702, in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and feeling a strong propensity for a sea-faring life, at the age of about nineteen went on board a fishing vessel, which sailed from Boston. The vessel had been but a few days out when it was captured by a noted pirate-ship, commanded by Captain Phillips, and young Fillmore was kept as a prisoner. He remained on board the pirate-ship nine months, enduring every hardship which a strong constitution and firm spirit were capable of sustaining; and, though frequently threatened with instant death unless he would sign the piratical articles of the vessel, he steadily refused until two others had been taken prisoners, who also refusing to join the crew, the three made an attack upon the pirates, and, after killing several, took the vessel and brought it safe into Boston harbor. The narrative of this adventure has been for many years in print, and details one of the most daring and successful exploits on record. The surviving pirates were tried and executed, and the heroic conduct of the captors was acknowledged by the British government. John Fillmore afterward settled in that part of the town of Norwich now called Franklin, in Connecticut, where he died. His son, Nathaniel Fillmore, settled at an early day in Bennington, Vermont, then called the Hampshire grants, where he lived till his death, in 1814. He served in the French war, and was a true whig of the revolution, proving his devotion to his country's cause by gallantly fighting as a lieutenant under General Stark, in the battle of Bennington. NATHANIEL FILLMORE, his son, and father of Millard, was born at Bennington on the 19th of April, 1771, and early in life removed to what is now called Summer Hill, Cayuga county, New York, where MILLARD was born, January 7th, 1800. Nathaniel was a farmer, and soon after lost all his property by a bad title to one of the military lots he had pur BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MILLARD FILLMORE. JOHN FILLMORE, the great grandfather of MILLARD FILLMORE, and the common ancestor of all of that name in the United States, was of English origin, and was born about the year 1702, in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and feeling a strong propensity for a sea-faring life, at the age of about nineteen went on board a fishing vessel, which sailed from Boston. The vessel had been but a few days out when it was captured by a noted pirate-ship, commanded by Captain Phillips, and young Fillmore was kept as a prisoner. He remained on board the pirate-ship nine months, enduring every hardship which a strong constitution and firm spirit were capable of sustaining; and, though frequently threatened with instant death unless he would sign. the piratical articles of the vessel, he steadily refused until two others had been taken prisoners, who also refusing to join the crew, the three made an attack upon the pirates, and, after killing several, took the vessel and brought it safe into Boston harbor. The narrative of this adventure has been for many years in print, and details one of the most daring and successful exploits on record. The surviving pirates were tried and executed, and the heroic conduct of the captors was acknowledged by the British government. John Fillmore afterward settled in that part of the town of Norwich now called Franklin, in Connecticut, where he died. His son, Nathaniel Fillmore, settled at an early day in Bennington, Vermont, then called the Hampshire grants, where he lived till his death, in 1814. He served in the French war, and was a true whig of the revolution, proving his devotion to his country's cause by gallantly fighting as a lieutenant under General Stark, in the battle of Bennington. NATHANIEL FILLMORE, his son, and father of Millard, was born at Bennington on the 19th of April, 1771, and early in life removed to what is now called Summer Hill, Cayuga county, New York, where MILLARD was born, January 7th, 1800. Nathaniel was a farmer, and soon after lost all his property by a bad title to one of the military lots he had pur |