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U.S Presidents — John Tyler

OVERVIEW Name: John Tyler President: # 10 Term Number(s): 14 Term Length: 3.9 Took Office: April 4, 1841 Left Office: March 4, 1845 Age when Elected: 51 Party: Whig, Independent Also Known As: "Accidental President, His Accidency" BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Education: The College of William and Mary Occupation: Lawyer Other Governmental Position: 10th Vice President of the United States, 23rd Governor of Virginia, President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate, United States Senator from Virginia, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 23rd District. Military Service: Volunteer Military Company Religion: Episcopal (possibly Deist) Spouse(s): Letitia Christian Tyler (March 29, 1813), Julia Gardiner Tyler (June 26, 1844) Children: Mary Tyler, Robert Tyler, John Tyler, Letitia Tyler Semple, Elizabeth Tyler, Anne Contesse Tyler, Alice Tyler, Tazewell Tyler, David Gardiner Tyler, John Alexander Tyler, Julia Gardiner Tyler Spencer, Lachlan Tyler, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Robert Fitzwalter Tyler, Pearl Tyler, (allegations of Tyler being the father of John Dunjee have also risen) Birthdate: March 29, 1790 Birthplace: Charles City County, Virginia Deathdate: January 18, 1862 Deathplace: Richmond, Virginia Age at Death: 71 Cause of Death: bilious fever, respiratory failure Place of Internment: Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia Signature FIRST ELECTION Election: Not elected President, succeeded President William Henry Harrison CABINET AND COURT APPOINTMENTS Vice President: vacant Secretary of State: Daniel Webster (1841–1843), Abel P. Upshur (1843–1844), John C. Calhoun (1844–1845) Secretary of the Treasury: Thomas Ewing, Sr. (1841), Walter Forward (1841–1843), John C. Spencer (1843–1844), George M. Bibb (1844–1845) Secretary of War: John Bell (1841), John C. Spencer (1841–1843), James M. Porter (1843–1844), William Wilkins (1844–1845) Secretary of the Navy: George E. Badger (1841), Abel P. Upshur (1841–1843), David Henshaw (1843–1844), Thomas W. Gilmer (1844), John Y. Mason (1844–1845) Attorney General: John J. Crittenden (1841), Hugh S. Legaré (1841–1843), John Nelson (1843–1845) Postmaster General: Francis Granger (1841), Charles A. Wickliffe (1841–1845) Supreme Court Assignments: Samuel Nelson (1845) PRESIDENT'S BIOGRAPHY Dubbed "His Accidency" by his detractors, John Tyler was the first vice president to be elevated to the office of president by the death of his predecessor. Born in Virginia in 1790, he was raised believing that the Constitution must be strictly construed. He never wavered from this conviction. He attended the College of William and Mary and studied law. Serving in the House of Representatives from 1816 to 1821, Tyler voted against most nationalist legislation and opposed the Missouri Compromise. After leaving the House, he served as Governor of Virginia. As a Senator, he reluctantly supported Jackson for president as a choice of evils. Tyler soon joined the states' rights Southerners in Congress who banded with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and their newly formed Whig party opposing President Jackson. The Whigs nominated Tyler for vice president in 1840, hoping for support from southern states'-righters who could not stomach Jacksonian Democracy. The slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" implied flagwaving nationalism plus a dash of southern sectionalism. Clay, intending to keep party leadership in his own hands, minimized his nationalist views temporarily; Webster proclaimed himself "a Jeffersonian Democrat." But after the election, both men tried to dominate "Old Tippecanoe." Suddenly President Harrison was dead, and "Tyler too" was in the White House. At first the Whigs were not too disturbed, although Tyler insisted upon assuming the full powers of a duly elected president. He even delivered an Inaugural Address, but it seemed full of good Whig doctrine. Whigs, optimistic that Tyler would accept their program, soon were disillusioned. Tyler was ready to compromise on the banking question, but Clay would not budge. He would not accept Tyler's "exchequer system," and Tyler vetoed Clay's bill to establish a national bank with branches in several states. A similar bank bill was passed by Congress. But again, on states' rights grounds, Tyler vetoed it. In retaliation, the Whigs expelled Tyler from their party. Except for Secretary of State Webster, the entire cabinet resigned. A year later when Tyler vetoed a tariff bill, the first impeachment resolution against a president was introduced in the House of Representatives. A committee headed by Representative John Quincy Adams reported that the president had misused the veto power, but the resolution failed. Despite their differences, President Tyler and the Whig Congress enacted much positive legislation. The "Log-Cabin" bill enabled a settler to claim 160 acres of land before it was offered publicly for sale, and later pay $1.25 an acre for it. In 1842 Tyler did sign a tariff bill protecting northern manufacturers. The Webster-Ashburton treaty ended a Canadian boundary dispute; in 1845 Texas was annexed. The administration of this states'-righter strengthened the presidency. But it also increased sectional cleavage that led toward civil war. By the end of his term, Tyler had replaced the original Whig Cabinet with southern conservatives. In 1844 Calhoun became Secretary of State. Later these men returned to the Democratic Party, committed to the preservation of states' rights, planter interests, and the institution of slavery. Whigs became more representative of northern business and farming interests. When the first southern states seceded in 1861, Tyler led a compromise movement; failing, he worked to create the Southern Confederacy. He died in 1862, a member of the Confederate House of Representatives. FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY Letitia Christian Tyler Letitia Tyler had been confined to an invalid's chair for two years when her husband unexpectedly became president. Nobody had thought of that possibility when he took his oath of office as vice president on March 4, 1841; indeed, he had planned to fill his undemanding duties from his home in Williamsburg where his wife was most comfortable, with her bible, prayer book, and knitting at her side. Born on a Tidewater, Virginia, plantation in the 18th century, Letitia was spiritually akin to Martha Washington and Martha Jefferson. Formal education was no part of this pattern of life, but Letitia learned all the skills of managing a plantation, rearing a family, and presiding over a home that would be John Tyler's refuge during an active political life. They were married on March 29, 1813, his twenty-third birthday. Thereafter, whether he served in Congress or as Governor of Virginia, she attended to domestic duties. Only once did Mrs. Tyler join him for the winter social season in Washington. Of their eight children, seven survived. After 1839, Mrs. Tyler was a cripple, though "still beautiful now in her declining years." So her admiring new daughter-in-law, Priscilla Cooper Tyler, described her as "the most entirely unselfish person you can imagine ... Notwithstanding her very delicate health, mother attends to and regulates all the household affairs and all so quietly that you can't tell when she does it." In a second-floor room at the White House, Letitia Tyler kept her quiet but pivotal role in family activities. She did not attempt to take part in the social affairs of the administration. Her married daughters had their own homes; the others were too young for the full responsibility of official entertaining; Priscilla at age 24 assumed the position of White House hostess, met its demands with spirit and success, and enjoyed it. Daughter of a well-known tragedian, Priscilla Cooper had gone on the stage herself at 17. Playing Desdemona to her father's Othello in Richmond, she won the instant interest of Robert Tyler, whom she married in 1839. Intelligent and beautiful, with dark brown hair, she charmed the president's guests—from visiting celebrities like Charles Dickens to enthusiastic countrymen. Once she noted ruefully, "Such hearty shakes as they gave my poor little hand too!" She enjoyed the expert advice of Dolley Madison, and the companionship of her young sister-in-law Elizabeth until she married William N. Waller in 1842. For this wedding, Mrs. Tyler made her only appearance at a White House social function. "Lizzie looked surpassingly lovely," said Priscilla, and "our dear mother" was "far more attractive to me... than any other lady in the room," greeting her guests "in her sweet, gentle, self-possessed manner." The first president's wife to die in the White House, Letitia Tyler ended her days peacefully on September 10, 1842, holding a damask rose in her hand. She was taken to Virginia for burial at the plantation of her birth, deeply mourned by her family. "She had everything about her," said Priscilla, "to awaken love..." FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY Julia Gardiner Tyler "I grieve my love a belle should be," sighed one of Julia Gardiner's innumerable admirers in 1840; at the age of 20 she was already famous as the "Rose of Long Island." Daughter of Juliana McLachlan and David Gardiner, descendant of prominent and wealthy New York families, Julia was trained from earliest childhood for a life in society; she made her debut at 15. A European tour with her family gave her new glimpses of social splendors. Late in 1842 the Gardiners went to Washington for the winter social season, and Julia became the undisputed darling of the capital. Her beauty and her practiced charm attracted the most eminent men in the city, among them President Tyler, a widower since September. Tragedy brought his courtship poignant success the next winter. Julia, her sister Margaret, and their father joined a presidential excursion on the new steam frigate Princeton; and David Gardiner lost his life in the explosion of a huge naval gun. Tyler comforted Julia in her grief and won her consent to a secret engagement. The first president to marry in office took his vows in New York on June 26, 1844. The news was then broken to the American people, who greeted it with keen interest, much publicity, and some criticism about the couple's 30-year difference in age. As young Mrs. Tyler said herself, she "reigned" as first lady for the last eight months of her husband's term. Wearing white satin or black lace to obey the conventions of mourning, she presided with vivacity and animation at a series of parties. She enjoyed her position immensely, and filled it with grace. For receptions she revived the formality of the Van Buren administration; she welcomed guests with plumes in her hair, attended by maids of honor dressed in white. She once declared, with truth, "Nothing appears to delight the president more than... to hear people sing my praises." The Tylers' happiness was unshaken when they retired to their home at Sherwood Forest in Virginia. There the couple had five of their seven children; and Mrs. Tyler acted as mistress of the plantation until the Civil War. As such, she defended both states' rights and the institution of slavery. She championed the political views of her husband, who remained for her "the president" until the end of his life. His death in 1862 came as a severe blow to her. In a poem composed for his sixty-second birthday, Mrs. Tyler had assured him, "What e'er changes time may bring, I'll love thee as thou art!" Even as a refugee in New York, Julia devoted herself to volunteer work for the Confederacy. Its defeat found her impoverished. Not until 1958 would federal law provide automatic pensions for presidential widows; but Congress in 1870 voted a pension for Mary Lincoln, and Julia Tyler used this precedent in seeking help. In December 1880 Congress voted her $1,200 a year. After Garfield's assassination, it passed bills to grant uniform amounts of $5,000 annually to Mrs. Garfield, Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Polk, and Mrs. Tyler. Living out her last years comfortably in Richmond, Julia died there in 1889 and was buried there at her husband's side. MAJOR EVENTS 1841: Vice President John Tyler assumes the presidency after President William Henry Harrison dies, thereby setting the precedent for presidential succession and leading to the Twenty-fifth Amendment. 1841: In an attempt to force his resignation, Tyler's entire cabinet resigns (with the exception of Secretary of State, Daniel Webster) after he vetoes a second bill for the organization of a National Bank of the United States. 1842: Because of Tyler's veto and the use of it, the House of Representatives led by John Quincy Adams initiates the first impeachment proceedings against a U.S. president. It is unsuccessful. 1844: Treaty of Wanghia. A treaty with China is signed giving the U.S. the same trading rights in China as Great Britain and opens the East to Western traders. 1845: The Texas Annexation Treaty. The Republic of Texas votes to accept Tyler's resolution for annexation. War with Mexico is soon to follow. 1845: Florida joins the Union. TRIVIA 1. John Tyler was the first vice president to ascend to the presidency upon the death of a president. He did not make an inaugural address, and he never ran for the office of the Presidency. 2. Tyler was the president with the most children—he had 15. 3. The first president's wife to die in the White House was Letitia Tyler. She was 51 years old, making her the youngest First Lady to die. 4. The tradition of playing "Hail to the Chief" whenever a president appeared at a state function was started by Tyler’s second wife.