John Tyler (1790-1862)/biography

John Tyler, Jr. (, –, ) was the tenth (-). A long-time, he was elected on the  ticket and on becoming president in 1841, broke with that party. His term as Vice President began on, 1841 and one month later, on , incumbent President died of what is today believed to have been. Harrison's death left Tyler, the, and the American nation briefly confused on the. members in argued for an acting  that would continue to use only the title Vice President. The act of taking over as official president, rather than as, came from the influence of the and some members of Congress. Members of Harrison's cabinet feared an acting leader would compromise the ability to successfully run the country. Tyler took the, initiating a custom that would govern future successions, and became the first U.S. vice president to assume the office of president upon the death of his predecessor. It was not until, that Tyler's action of assuming full powers of the presidency was legally codified in the. His most famous achievement was the annexation of the in. Tyler was the first president born after the adoption of the.

Biography
John Tyler was born the son of (1747-1813) and  (1761-1797), in, as the second of eight children. He was educated at the and went on to study law with his father, who became  (1808-1811). Tyler was admitted to the bar in 1809 and commenced practice in Charles City County. He served as a captain of a volunteer military company in 1813 and became a member of the 1811-1816 and was later a member of the  in 1816.

Tyler was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the to fill the vacancy caused by the death of. He was reelected to the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Congresses and served from December 17, 1816, to March 3, 1821 in the House of Representatives. Tyler declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1820 because of impaired health. He became a member of the Virginia State house of delegates 1823-1825. Tyler was elected to be the (1825-1827). He was popularly known as voting against nationalist legislations and for his open opposition of the.

Tyler was elected as a (later ) to the  in 1827. He was reelected in 1833 and served from March 4, 1827, to February 29, 1836, when he resigned. He served as of the Senate during the Twenty-third Congress, and was chairman of the  (Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses), as well as the Committee on Manufactures (Twenty-third Congress), a member of the Virginia State constitutional convention in 1829 and 1830 and a member of the Virginia State House of Delegates in 1839.

He was drawn into the newly-organized, and was elected in 1840 as running mate to. Their campaign slogans of "Log Cabins and Hard Cider" and "" are among the most famous in American politics. "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" not only offered the slight sectionalism that would further be apparent in the presidency of Tyler, but also the nationalism that was imperative to gain the American vote. He was inaugurated March 4, 1841, and served until the death of President Harrison on April 4, 1841. Upon Harrison's death, Tyler became the new President.

Tyler was the first Vice President to assume the Presidency in this manner. He acceded to the Presidency upon the death of President Harrison on, , and took the as specified by the Constitution on. The and  agreed with Tyler that he was President and not merely, and as the Constitution was not explicit on that aspect of succession (until the 1967 ratification of the ), both the House and Senate passed resolutions recognizing Tyler as President. He even delivered an Inaugural Address, proving his formal entrance into the position.

After his presidential career Tyler became a delegate to and president of the peace convention held in in 1861 as an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war. Tyler was a delegate to the in 1861; elected to the House of Representatives of the Confederate Congress, but died in Richmond, Virginia, January 18, 1862, before he could assume office. He is buried in.

John Tyler was married twice. His first wife was Letitia Christian Tyler with whom he had 8 children; she died in the White House in September 1842. His second wife was Julia Gardiner Tyler ( July 23, 1820 - July 10, 1889), with whom he had 7 children. As of 2007, one of his grandsons,, is still alive.

Policies
Tyler's Presidency was rarely taken seriously in his time. He was usually referred to as the "Acting President" or "His Accidency" by opponents. Further, Tyler quickly found himself at odds with his former political supporters. Harrison had been expected to adhere closely to policies and work closely with Whig leaders, particularly. Tyler shocked Whigs by vetoing virtually the entire Whig agenda, twice vetoing Clay's legislation for a national banking act following the  and leaving the government deadlocked. Tyler was officially expelled from the Whig Party in 1841, a few months after taking office, and became known as "the man without a party." The entire cabinet he had inherited from Harrison resigned in September, aside from, Secretary of State, who remained to finalize the in 1842, demonstrating his independence from Clay.

For two years, Tyler struggled with the Whigs, but when he nominated as Secretary of State, to 'reform' the Democrats, the gravitational swing of the Whigs to identify with "the North" and the Democrats as the party of "the South," led the way to the sectional party politics of the next decade.

The last year of Tyler's presidency was marred by a freak accident that killed two of his Cabinet members. During a ceremonial cruise down the on, , the main gun of the  blew up during a demonstration firing, instantly killing , the , and , the. Julia Gardiner (whom Tyler had met two years earlier at a reception, and would go on to become his second wife) was also aboard the Princeton that day. Her father, David Gardiner, was among those killed during the explosion. Upon hearing of her father's death, Gardiner fainted into the President's arms. Tyler and Gardiner were married not long afterwards in New York City, on,.

Annexation of Texas
Tyler advocated annexation of to the Union. Whigs opposed this expansion because it would upset the balance between North and South and risked war with Mexico. However the Whigs lost the 1844 election to, who favored annexation. When the Senate blocked a treaty (which needed a 2/3 vote), Tyler pushed Congress to annex Texas through an adopted joint resolution. The tactic worked and it passed the House 132-72 and the Senate 27-25. The helped to promise security to the west of the United States with the line of 36°30'N. Such meant that any states north of the line would be free and those south of the line would be open to slavery. The option to potentially have four more states south of the line, left the House ready and willing to pass the bill. On March 3, Tyler sent instructions to his representative in Texas,, to announce the annexation. The next day, he left office. Even with a brief period of skeptical instinct, Polk told Donelson to carry out the orders of Tyler. Texas formally joined the Union on December 29, 1845, when James K. Polk was President.

Rhode Island's Dorr Rebellion
In May 1842, when the in  came to a head, Tyler pondered the request of the governor and legislature to send in Federal troops to help it suppress the Dorrite insurgents. The insurgents under Thomas Dorr had armed themselves and proposed to install a new state constitution. Previous to such acts, Rhode Island had been following the same constitutional structure that was established in 1663. Tyler called for calm on both sides, and recommended the governor enlarge the franchise to let most men vote. Tyler promised that in case an actual insurrection should break out in Rhode Island he would employ force to aid the regular, or Charter, government. He made it clear that federal assistance would be given, not to prevent, but only to put down insurrection, and would not be available until violence had been committed. After listening to reports from his confidential agents, Tyler decided that the 'lawless assemblages' were dispersing and expressed his confidence in a "temper of conciliation as well as of energy and decision." He did not send any federal forces. The rebels fled the state when the state militia marched against them. With their dispersion, they accepted the expansion of suffrage.

Separation of Church and State
On July 10, 1843, President Tyler wrote a letter to Joseph Simpson which included the following text.

Impeachment attempt
In 1843, after he vetoed a tariff bill, the House of Representatives considered the first resolution against a president in American history. A committee headed by former president concluded that Tyler had misused the veto, but the impeachment resolution did not pass.

Supreme Court appointments
Tyler appointed the following Justices to the :
 * - 1845

Nelson's successful confirmation in February 1845 was a surprise. Tyler had failed to fill the vacancy left by, as the Whig-controlled Senate rejected his multiple nominees of John Spencer, Ruben Walworth, Edward King and John Read. King was rejected twice. Nelson, while a Democrat, had a reputation as a careful and noncontroversial jurist.

States admitted to the Union

 * – March 3, 1845

Post-Presidency
Tyler retired to a Virginia located on the  in  and originally named "Walnut Grove." He renamed it "" to signify that he had been "outlawed" by the Whig party. He withdrew from electoral politics, though his advice continued to be sought by states-rights Democrats.



Confederate allegiances and death
Tyler had long been an advocate of, believing that the question of a state's "free" or "slave" status ought to be decided at the state level, with no input from federal government. He was a slaveholder for his entire life. He re-entered public life to sponsor and chair the in February  1861. The convention sought a compromise to avoid while the  was being drawn up at the. When the Senate rejected his plan, Tyler urged 's immediate.

Having served in the provisional in 1861, he was elected to the  but died of  and bilious fever before he could take office. His final words were "I am going now, perhaps it is for the best." Tyler is buried in in. The city of is named for him.

Throughout Tyler's life, he suffered from poor health. Frequent colds occurred every winter as he aged. After his exit from the White House, he fell victim to repeated cases of dysentery. He has been quoted as having many aches and pains in the last eight years of his life. In 1862, after complaining of chills and dizziness, he vomited and collapsed during the Congress of Confederacy. He was revived, yet the next day he admitted to the same symptoms. It was likely that John Tyler died of a stroke.

Children
By

Mary Tyler (1815-48); Robert Tyler (1816-77); John Tyler (1819-96); Letitia Tyler (1821-1907); Elizabeth Tyler (1823-50); Anne Contesse Tyler (1825); Alice Tyler (1827-54); Tazewell Tyler (1830-74);

By

David Gardiner Tyler (1846-1927); John Alexander Tyler (1848-83); Julia Gardiner Tyler (1849-71); Lachlan Tyler (1851-1902); Lyon Gardiner Tyler (1853-1935); Robert Fitzwalter Tyler (1856-1927); Pearl Tyler (1860-1947)

Trivia

 * Tyler is the only to have served as.
 * Tyler's favorite horse was named "The General". He is buried at his with a gravestone which reads, "Here lies the body of my good horse 'The General'. For twenty years he bore me around the circuit of my practice an in all that time he never made me blunder. Would that his master could say the same."
 * In all, Tyler had fifteen children, eight with his first wife and seven with his second wife . His last surviving child, Pearl Tyler, who was also his last child born, died on, , one hundred years, one week and six days after the death of his first child, Mary Tyler.
 * claimed to be the son of John Tyler, a child of Tyler and one of his female slaves. There was also a mulatto woman who frequently traveled with the Tyler family who was alleged to be the president's daughter.
 * John Tyler, born, , is the first President born after the Ratification of the Constitution of the United States (Virginia having ratified it in 1788) making him a contender for the first President to be born a United States Citizen. Because Rhode Island (the last of the original thirteen colonies to ratify the Constitution) didn’t ratify the Constitution until , , the second contender is James Buchanan, born , . However, because the tenth Amendment wasn’t ratified until , , James Polk is the third contender being born ,.
 * Tyler's death in January 1862 was the only one in presidential history not to be officially mourned in Washington, because of his allegiance to the.
 * Tyler is sometimes considered the only president to die outside the seeing that his place of death,, was part of the  at the time.