But at this point a new method of chosing a Comptroller was introduced in the organic law. Section 1 of article 5 of the Constitution of 1846 provides that "The Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer and Attorney-General shall be chosen at a general election, and shall hold their offices for two years." The constitutional provision was supplemented by chapter 240 of the Laws of 1846. The first man elected by the people to the office was Millard Fillmore, of Buffalo, an able lawyer and a Whig. He had been a Member of Assembly from Buffalo in 1829, 1830 and 1831, and a Member from his district to the Twenty-third, Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh Congresses. During his term as Comptroller he was nominated and elected Vice-President on the ticket with Zachary Taylor, and upon the latter's death, on July 9, 1850, he succeeded to the Presidency. As President he is, perhaps, more distinguished as the signer of the "Fugitive Slave Law" than for any other one thing. He was elected Comptroller and Vice-President as a Whig, but by the signing of that obnoxious measure he alienated very many of his old Whig associates. He was, however, a clean, able man. In politics he was thought by many to have been a favorite of fortune. Some one of his acquaintances is said to have remarked, at the time of his election as Vice-President, that he felt sorry for General Taylor, because the General never could live out his term against Fillmore's luck. Mr. Fillmore resigned the office of Comptroller on the 17th of February, 1849, to assume the duties of Vice-President. The Legislature appointed Washington Hunt, a lawyer of prominence and a Whig, of Lockport, to succeed him. Mr. Hunt had been County Judge of Niagara county from 1836 to 1841, and had been a member of the Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Congresses. He was nominated and elected Comptroller in the fall of 1849. In 1850 he was elected Governor over Horatio Seymour, but in 1852 he was in turn defeated in his run for the second term by Seymour. He made an excellent record as Governor during the years 1851 and 1852. It was upon Mr. Hunt's recommendation that the duties of supervising and superintending the banking business of the State was transferred to the Banking Department, specially created for the purpose. He felt that a greater burden of responsibility was being imposed upon the office of Comptroller than could be satisfactorily sustained. This is one of the rare illustrations of a desire to surrender power. But what relief was gained by the transfer of the supervision of the banks was replaced by the duty which was imposed of superintending the business of insurance in this State.