Tyler, John (1790-1862), was the first vice president to become president because his predecessor died. He succeeded William Henry Harrison, who died a month after taking office. Tyler was a Southern Democrat. But he had split with his party and run with Harrison on the Whig Party ticket.
As president, Tyler soon became a man without a party. The Whig program clashed with many of Tyler’s lifelong beliefs. He vetoed almost every important bill. Angry Whigs tried to impeach him. It was the first such attempt against a president. The Whigs failed. But the resulting friction destroyed the Whig program.
For more than 75 years after Tyler left office, historians dealt harshly with him. President Theodore Roosevelt said: “Tyler has been called a mediocre man, but this is unwarranted flattery. He was a politician of monumental littleness.”
Many historians today take a different view. They regard Tyler as a president of courage and imagination. He displayed devotion to the principles of Thomas Jefferson. He inherited a political situation he had never expected and could not support. He could not have acted other than the way he did.
Historians also point to Tyler as the man who established the right of the vice president to succeed to the presidency. When Harrison died, many Whig leaders suggested that Tyler be called only “acting president.” Tyler took over the presidency in fact as well as in name.
During Tyler’s administration, many regions began to show signs of their future importance. Pittsburgh became the home of busy ironworks. Cincinnati boasted of its well-paved streets and its schools. Texas won its long fight to join the Union. Fighting with the Seminole Indians in Florida ended in 1842. Just two days after he signed the bill approving statehood for Texas, Tyler signed a bill making Florida a state. Texas formally became a state after Tyler left office.
Early life
John Tyler was born at Greenway estate in Charles City County, Virginia, on March 29, 1790. He was the second son of John and Mary Armistead Tyler. His father served at various times as governor, as speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, and as a judge.
John’s father sent him to William and Mary College in 1802. The boy studied hard and became interested in political subjects. He relaxed from his studies by writing poetry and playing the violin. John graduated at the age of 17. He then studied law under his father. He was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1809.
Public and political career
State legislator.
At the age of 21, Tyler won election to the Virginia House of Delegates. He became a captain of volunteers in the summer of 1813, during the War of 1812. But his company saw no action. Tyler resigned and returned to the legislature after a month.
Tyler’s family.
On March 29, 1813, Tyler married Letitia Christian (Nov. 12, 1790-Sept. 10, 1842). She was the daughter of a Virginia planter. The Tylers had five daughters and three sons. Letitia Tyler died during her husband’s presidency. Tyler remarried 22 months later.
Congressman.
Tyler ran for a vacant seat in the United States House of Representatives in 1816. He won an easy victory. He then was elected to a full term. In Congress, Tyler fought for a strict interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. He opposed any measure that extended the powers of the federal government. Tyler opposed the American System. The system was an economic plan proposed by Representative Henry Clay of Kentucky. The plan called for increased federal spending on roads and other internal improvements. It also called for high tariffs to aid American manufacturers. Tyler also denounced the Bank of the United States (see Bank of the United States ). Tyler resigned his seat in the House in January 1821 because of poor health.
Governor and senator.
Tyler served briefly as chancellor of William and Mary College. He then held office as governor of Virginia from 1825 to 1827. He was elected to the Senate in 1827. His convictions on strict interpretation of the Constitution soon put him in an awkward position. He denounced South Carolina’s attempt to nullify acts of Congress. But he also believed that President Andrew Jackson’s measures against nullification were illegal (see Nullification ). Tyler became dissatisfied with Jackson’s policies. In 1836, the Virginia legislature instructed Tyler to vote for the removal of a vote that censured (condemned) Jackson. Tyler refused. He resigned from the Senate.
Tyler becomes a Whig.
In 1840, the Whig Party was a loose coalition of groups. They had no agreed policies or political beliefs. In hope of luring Southern votes, the Whigs chose Tyler as the vice presidential running mate of William Henry Harrison. Tyler accepted. He believed that the Whigs had dropped their fight for a national bank and protective tariffs. Tyler opposed these measures. The Whigs barnstormed to victory, shouting the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler too.” Harrison and Tyler defeated President Martin Van Buren by a huge majority. See Harrison, William Henry .
Tyler’s administration (1841-1845)
Opposition to the Whigs.
President Harrison died one month after his inauguration. Tyler was sworn in as president on April 6, 1841. He kept all the members of Harrison’s Cabinet. Henry Clay was by then a senator and the Whig leader in Congress. Clay quickly submitted a legislative program. It called for a new Bank of the United States and for higher tariffs. Congress passed these bills. Tyler replied with a sharply worded veto. That night, an armed mob marched to the White House. Hoodlums shouted insults at Tyler. The mob hurled rocks through the windows. Tyler calmly issued guns to the White House servants. He stood firm against the mob. The rioters melted away. When Congress passed a second bank bill, Tyler vetoed it again. He said it included all the abuses of a private banking monopoly.
The Whigs disown Tyler.
Tyler’s second veto set off more Whig demonstrations against the president. Mobs burned him in effigy. The entire Cabinet resigned, except for Secretary of State Daniel Webster. Clay resigned from the Senate. Soon afterward, the Whigs rushed through a bill to give the states money from public-land sales. Tyler vetoed it. The Whigs came back with another measure linking distribution of this money with a higher tariff. Tyler vetoed that bill, too.
Attempt at impeachment.
The fight between Tyler and his own party became increasingly bitter. On Jan. 10, 1843, Whigs introduced impeachment resolutions in the House of Representatives. But the charges were far-fetched. Even some Whigs sided with the Democrats to defeat the resolutions by a vote of 127 to 83.
Tyler’s accomplishments.
In 1841, Tyler approved the Pre-emption Act. The act allowed a settler to claim 160 acres (64.7 hectares) of land by building a cabin on the property. This law sped settlement of Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. Tyler brought an end to the Seminole War in Florida in 1842. That same year, a dispute with the United Kingdom over the boundary between Maine and Canada was settled. The settlement terms were set up by Webster. He had remained in the Cabinet for this purpose (see Webster-Ashburton Treaty ). The United States signed a treaty with China in 1844 that opened Asia to American traders for the first time.
The annexation of Texas
provided the chief issue during the last half of Tyler’s term. The Texans had declared their independence from Mexico in 1836. They had petitioned to join the Union. Tyler favored annexation. But Northern congressmen opposed him because Texas would have been a slave state. Congress did not act until after the election in 1844 of James K. Polk. He supported annexation. With annexation then a certainty, the House and Senate passed a joint resolution admitting Texas. Tyler signed it on March 1, 1845. Two days later, on Tyler’s last full day in office, he signed a bill admitting Florida to the Union. Texas formally joined the Union on Dec. 29, 1845, after Tyler had left office.
Life in the White House.
Letitia Tyler had suffered a paralytic stroke when her husband became president. Her only public appearance in the White House was at the wedding of her daughter Elizabeth on Jan. 31, 1842. Mrs. Tyler died on Sept. 10, 1842. Tyler’s daughter-in-law Priscilla Cooper Tyler served as White House hostess until the spring of 1844. Tyler’s daughter Letitia Tyler Semple then served as hostess until June of that year.
In 1844, Tyler was cruising on the USS Princeton to watch the firing of a new naval gun. The gun exploded, killing eight people. The dead included David Gardiner, a former New York state senator. Tyler had been courting Gardiner’s daughter Julia (1820-1889). She was also among the guests on the ship. The death brought Tyler and Julia closer. They married in New York City on June 26, 1844. Tyler was the first president to marry while in office. Julia was first lady for eight months. She delighted the capital with her brilliant entertaining. President Tyler and his second wife had seven children.
Later years
Spurned by both Whigs and Democrats, Tyler retired to Sherwood Forest, his estate near Charles City, Virginia. He lived quietly until just before the American Civil War (1861-1865). Then, in February 1861, he headed a Southern peace mission to Washington seeking a compromise on the issues that threatened the Union. Congress rejected the Southerners’ proposals. In April, at a Virginia secession convention, Tyler voted in favor of Virginia leaving the Union. He won election to the Confederate House of Representatives in November 1861. But he died on Jan. 18, 1862, before taking his seat. In 1915, Congress dedicated a monument to Tyler’s memory in Hollywood Cemetery, at Richmond, Virginia. He is buried there beside his second wife.
