Born January 7, 1800

Cayuga County, New York

Died March 8, 1874

Buffalo, New York

Thirteenth U.S. president and candidate of the anti-immigrant Know-Nothing Party

Millard Fillmore. © Corbis.

"May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not."

Millard Fillmore became president unexpectedly in 1850 upon the sudden death from a stomach ailment of President Zachary Taylor (1785–1850; served 1849–50). As a conservative politician from New York, Fillmore shared in widespread prejudice against immigration that arose after a large influx of German and Irish immigrants during the 1840s. Some of the anti-immigrant prejudice reflected the fact that Irish immigrants in particular were overwhelmingly Catholics, which aroused long-standing religious prejudices by many American Protestants. In 1856, four years after losing the Whig nomination as the incumbent, or current, president, Fillmore was nominated for president by the anti-immigrant American Party (popularly known as the Know-Nothing Party). But in the election...