The second of three (I erronously stated two earlier) former presidents to run as third party candidates, Fillmore had served as vice president under Zachary Taylor, and assumed the office upon Taylor's demise, serving from 1850-1853. He was selected in 1856 as the candidate for the American "know-nothing" party, which had formed in 1849 around a strong opposition to immigration, especially by Roman Catholics, who, they claimed, were subservient to a foreign prince (the pope). Claiming to "know nothing" about the clandestine meetings held by their members in which they threw support to sympathetic candidates on election day, they had initially formed under the name "the Ordewr of the Star Spangled banner". With Fillmore as their candidate, they received 21% of the popular vote and 8 electoral votes in the 1856 election.