FILLMORE, MILLARD, late President of the United States of North America, was born on the 7th of January, 1800, at Summer in the state of New York. His father cultivated a small farm, and Millard Fillmore was apprenticed to a wool-carder, and worked at the trade four years, during which he employed his hours of leisure diligently in supplying the defects of his early education. In the year 1819 the late Judge Wood of Cayuga County, having become acquainted with Fillmore, and observed that he possessed qualities of mind worthy of cultivation, received him into his office, and offered to pay the extra expenses requisite to qualify him for the profession of a lawyer. Fillmore-however, in order to press as lightly as possible on the bounty of his patron, devoted his leisure hours to the teaching of a school. In 1829 he was iu successful practice as a lawyer, and had acquired sufficient reputation to be elected a representative of the county of Erie in' the State-Assembly of New York. Towards the end of 1832 he was elected a representative to Congress, and took his seat in March 1833. From 1835 to 1837 he continued in the exercise of his profession, but in the latter year he was again elected a member of Congress, and was successively re-elected to the two following con gresses. At the termination of the first session of the 27th Congress,
ho resumed hie practice as a lawyer in the city of Buffalo, and informed his constituents that he should not be a candidate for re-election. In 1844, under the auspices of the Whig party, he stood • contented election for the office of Governor of the State of New York. He was unsuccessful ; but in 1S47 was elected Controller of the State. In 1848 he was proposed as the Whig candidate for the office of Vice President of the United States, and was elected. Early in 1849 ho resigned his office of Controller, in order to devote himself entirely to his duties as Vice-President. When General Taylor died July 9, 1850, Millard Fillmore succeeded him as President of the United States, according to a law of the Constitution, which provides that, should • President expire while in office, ho shall be immediately and without election succeeded by the Vice-President for the remainder of the term of office. Mr. Fillmore ceased to be President on the 3rd of March 1853, when he was succeeded by Franklin Pierce, the present President. He ie now (August 1856) • candidata for the presidency.