Millard Fillmore were at this time Know Nothings, although Hunt presided over a "Whig" convention in 1856 which endorsed the Know Nothing candidate Fillmore for the presidency.
He did, however, deal with the crisis of the June 1857 Election Riots, in which the Know-Nothings recruited a street gang from Baltimore, the Plug-Uglies, to come to Washington on its local Election Day and intimidate the voters at the polls; the Plug-Uglies turned away anti-Know-Nothing voters with rocks, guns, and knives, until some citizens brought weapons of their own and the violence grew into mob rule.