No one was more surprised than Millard Fillmore when the Wig Party chose him to be Zachary

Taylor's running mate in the 1848 election.

Working as the cop troller, essentially the treasurer of New York State at the time, Fillmore

was well known in Washington.

He had been a New York congressman for a decade, but the VP slot?

Fillmore didn't see it coming.

And he didn't hesitate to say yes when offered the job.

On the surface, Taylor and Fillmore seemed to be a good fit.

Taylor had never run for elective office.

He was the great hero of the Mexican-American War.

When he wasn't soldiering, he lived on a plantation in the deep south.

Fillmore, a northerner, spent his professional life in politics.

Both had grown up on the edge of the frontier.

Both were entirely self-made.

It was a marriage made in machine politics, heaven.

And it worked.

Well, to be more accurate, it worked for Taylor.

It didn't work for Fillmore.

When they won the 1848 election, Fillmore figured that as vice president, he could dispense

lucrative, federal jobs to his supporters, securing his future as a major force in New York,

and maybe even national politics.

He also figured that with his knowledge of Congress and his vast experience in the political

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