Like several other presidents, Millard Fillmore was born in a log cabin. He was an uninspiring individual with no particular talents (he refused an honorary degree from Oxford claiming to have "neither literary or scientific attainment"). Ascending to the presidency after the death of Zachary Taylor in 1850, Millard found the politics of his era dominated by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster's Compromise of 1850 and its ramifications. Fillmore's supportive position, however, deprived him of the Whig nomination in 1852. Learn more with this biography from American Experience: "The Presidents."