Millard Fillmore knew something

No January 7 is complete without a short mention of Millard Fillmore, born on this day in 1800.  Like Gerald Ford, Mr. Fillmore was an attorney and accidental president (1850 to 1853), who retired from office without attaining great popularity or losing public respect.  He lived what was then considered a long life, and his death in 1874 was lamented in a dignified manner. 

I became interested in his career when I read that he had run for the presidency in 1856 as the candidate of the "Know-Nothing" party, a group that apparently claimed only modest intellectual attainments, and then became even more interested when I learned that the party had nominated him but that he, disliking its antediluvian positions on slavery and civil rights, snubbed the party and refused to campaign as its candidate.  Somewhere in Mr. Fillmore’s story lies a lesson for our current crop of national politicians, but I know nothing of how to bring it to their attention.