John Tyler (1790 - 1862) was an American politician who served as the tenth president of the United States from 1841 to 1845. [1] He was the first vice president elevated by the death of a sitting president, and his insistence on assuming the office outright rather than acting in it established a precedent followed for more than a century. Expelled from his own party and without a political base, he presided over the annexation of Texas and later endorsed Virginia's secession. [2]
Early life and Virginia career
Tyler was born on 29 March 1790 at Greenway Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia, into a slaveholding planter family; his father served as governor of the state. [1] He graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1807, read law, and was admitted to the bar while still in his teens.
His public career advanced rapidly through the Virginia House of Delegates, the United States House of Representatives, the governorship of Virginia, and from 1827 the United States Senate. [1] A strict constructionist who opposed a strong federal government, he broke with President Andrew Jackson over the nullification crisis and the removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States, and resigned his Senate seat in 1836 rather than follow instructions from the Virginia legislature to expunge his censure vote against Jackson.
Accession to the presidency
In 1840 the Whig Party nominated Tyler for vice president alongside William Henry Harrison, running on the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too". [2] Harrison died on 4 April 1841, a month after inauguration. The Constitution was ambiguous about whether the vice president became president or merely discharged the duties of the office, but Tyler took the presidential oath, moved into the White House, and refused to answer to any lesser title. [3]
Presidency
Tyler's states' rights convictions quickly collided with the Whig programme of Henry Clay. He vetoed bills to re-establish a national bank, prompting nearly his entire cabinet to resign in September 1841 and the Whig Party to expel him. [2] He governed thereafter without a party, facing the first serious impeachment attempt against a president.
His administration nonetheless recorded significant achievements in foreign affairs. The Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 settled the disputed border between Maine and British North America, and the Treaty of Wanghia in 1844 opened formal commercial relations with China. [1] Tyler pursued the annexation of Texas persistently and signed a joint resolution authorising it days before leaving office in March 1845.
Later life and the Civil War
Tyler retired to his Virginia plantation, Sherwood Forest. In 1861 he chaired a peace conference in Washington that sought unsuccessfully to avert civil war. [1] When it failed he supported secession, served in the Provisional Confederate Congress, and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, though he died in Richmond on 18 January 1862 before taking his seat. He remains the only former president to have held office under the Confederacy, and his death was not officially mourned by the United States government. [3]
Legacy
Historians generally rank Tyler's presidency poorly, citing his political isolation and his commitment to slavery and its expansion. [4] His lasting constitutional contribution is the succession precedent, which removed doubt about the transfer of power at eight subsequent presidential deaths. [3]
