Fillmore, Millard (Administration of)

Millard Fillmore (1800–74) was born in a log cabin at Moravia, Cayuga County, New York. He was apprenticed at age 14 to the cloth-making trade; however, he was able to gain enough education so that he could read for the law. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1823. He served in the New York militia during the Mexican-American War.

In 1828, Fillmore won election to the New York State Assembly as a member of the Anti-Masonic Party. While in the assembly, he promoted a bill [Page 611]that would improve bankruptcy procedures and would also eliminate ...