By Edwin Cooney
Most 21st Century Americans, if asked to evaluate John Tyler, Jr. as both a man and a president, would probably turn thumbs down. After all, gentleman John was an unapologetic slave owner and a defender of states rights. True as that is, there's more than those two realities to consider when one thinks about the personhood of Virginia Gentleman John Tyler!
John was born the sixth child of John Tyler, Sr. and Mary Armistead Tyler at the family home called Greenway in Charles City County, Virginia. His father was a judge and Governor of Virginia between 1808 and 1811. James Madison appointed the elder Tyler to the federal circuit court from Virginia in 1811 and he died in 1813.
Physically, President Tyler was just over 6 feet, with wavy brown hair and blue eyes. He had a prominent forehead, a large but thin Roman nose, prominent cheekbones and a slightly week chin. He was soft spoken. He was friendly and even open around people of his aristocratic class, but often appeared aloof to working class people.
John Tyler married twice. On his 23rd birthday he married Letitia Christian following a 5 year courtship. It is said that not until a month or so before his wedding to Letitia did he kiss her -- and that was on her hand. She bore him 8 children before her death in the White House in 1842 following her second stroke in 3 years.
President Tyler, 54, married Julia Gardener of Long Island, New York on Friday, June 28th, 1844. Between the close of his presidency the following March and Tyler's death while attending the Confederate legislature on Saturday, January 18th, 1862, the couple had 5 sons and 2 daughters. Altogether, John Tyler fathered 15 children -- more than any other president. Before telling you a rather dramatic story, let's move briefly to his public life.
When the Whig party gathered on Wednesday, December 4th, 1839 to nominate William Henry Harrison for the presidency and ultimately John Tyler for vice president, obviously most of the delegates hardly knew either man. Harrison, like the retired President Andrew Jackson, was a military hero. He gained inevitable fame as the hero of the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe during which Indiana territory forces defeated and killed the Shawnee chief Tecumseh. Harrison was then governor of Indiana territory. The battle took place on Thursday, November 7th, 1811. Like Harrison and Whig Party leader Senator Henry Clay, John Tyler had become anti-Jackson by the late 1830s. He supported Clay's bill to censure President Jackson for prematurely withdrawing federal funds from the Bank of the United States three years before its charter ended. Even more, when he received orders from the Virginia Legislature in early 1836 to vote to expunge that censure from the record, Tyler resigned from the Senate rather than follow the Legislature's orders. (Note: From the beginning of the nation until 1913, United States Senators were elected in most states by state legislatures. Hence, a sitting Senator usually took orders from headquarters!)
While remaining a states' rights and slave-owning public servant, Tyler joined the Whig party and was elected to the House of Delegates in 1838. He was chosen Speaker of that body in January of 1839. That December, Tyler attended the Whig Convention as a Henry Clay delegate. Thus, after choosing Harrison as its standard bearer, delegates looked for a Clay supporter to balance the Whig ticket. Since the Whig party was more a coalition than a political party with a doctrine, party leaders were more interested in victory than in practical planning or in policymaking. Earlier, I asserted when it came right down to it, Whigs really knew neither Harrison nor Tyler well. Thus, it was “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too” throughout the 1840 campaign. Besides, as far as most political prognosticators were concerned, Democratic President Martin Van Buren was a political dead duck that year. In fact, the Democratic Party was so embarrassed over their incumbent Vice President Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, they didn't even nominate a vice presidential candidate in 1840.
President Van Buren was unpopular due to the depression started by former President Jackson. The public knew what had been done to them (or not done for them), but what Harrison ultimately had going for him was what the Democrats had going for them back in 1828 and again in 1832 — the reputation of a victorious general. Many presidents throughout the 19th Century were successful generals and people felt more secure voting for generals than they did voting for politicians! Thus Presidents Washington, Jackson, Taylor, Pierce, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and, later, “Rough Rider” Theodore Roosevelt and General Eisenhower were considered as being “above” politics and thus safer for the country's overall welfare.
Harrison and Tyler only won the popular vote by 146,315 popular votes, but they crushed "Little Van" in the Electoral College, 234 to 60. Here's another factor that would haunt John Tyler when he became president: Tyler had been a Jackson critic and expressed admiration for Henry Clay. Mr. Clay believed that he was the “real” leader of the Whig party both before and after President Harrison's death and that President Tyler would follow his leadership from Congress. After all, as a senator, Tyler had challenged executive authoritarianism just as he had. Even more, Henry Clay never got over not being selected by the party for president in 1840 which he supposedly led and he was determined not to be outflanked by President John Tyler. Finally, there was the manner in which Whigs governed. William Henry Harrison, for the most part throughout his 31 plus days as president, made many executive decisions via majority vote within the cabinet, all of whom were Whigs.
Therefore, on the morning of Monday, April 5th, 1841, when Fletcher Webster, Chief Clerk of the Department of State and son of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, rode up to the Virginia home of Vice President John Tyler, his news of President Harrison's passing the previous day was absolutely stunning. As he rode to Washington, Tyler had to ask himself the following questions: Am I president or merely acting president? How can I be an acting president as the Constitution suggests if I don't actually hold the presidential office?
Upon his arrival in Washington early on the morning of April 6th, he called a noon meeting of the cabinet and, with the cabinet's concurrence, announced that he would take the presidential oath. Thus Circuit Court Judge William Cranch administered the oath of office a short time later. Although the controversy over his presidential legitimacy continued, President Tyler successfully soldiered on.
Although elected by the Whigs, President Tyler wasn’t really a Whig. Henry Clay, still bitter about his not having been the party's presidential nominee the previous year, insisted that all Whigs, especially President Tyler, should endorse his determination to restore the Bank of the United States that Jackson had successfully crushed. When the Senate and House passed such a bill in July of 1841, Tyler vetoed it. That enraged Clay and his fellow Whigs. Believing as he did that the president shouldn't initiate legislation, Tyler only reluctantly tried negotiating with Congress through the Whigs in his cabinet. That too was disastrous and, in September of 1841, Tyler again vetoed another bill. This time all of the Whigs except Secretary of State Daniel Webster resigned their seats. The cabinet joined in a mass resignation and the Whig party expelled President Tyler from the party. However, President Tyler seems to have expected such a circumstance and appointed a mostly conservative Democratic cabinet filled with what historians have judged well-qualified men.
Over the next three years, President Tyler did have some successes. In 1842, Secretary of State Webster negotiated the Webster Ashburton treaty with Great Britain, settling nagging border disputes between the United States and Canada to the advantage of both nations. President Tyler also oversaw a dispute in the state of Rhode Island that only narrowly avoided a violent outcome. President Tyler also signed a bill granting the right to squatters to settle on public lands providing that the squatters made sufficient improvements to those lands. To assist this effort, the squatters could, over time, purchase those lands from the government at the low price of $1.25 per acre. Finally, President Tyler had the satisfaction of successfully working toward the annexation of Texas by signing that act just two days before his presidential term ended.
Early in 1843, President Tyler began seeing Julia Gardner, the beautiful daughter of David Gardner, a wealthy New York City businessman. A beautiful brunette, Julia shocked many in polite society when, at 18, she posed for a department store advertisement and was billed as “The Rose of Long Island.” Tyler proposed to her at the George Washington birthday ball in 1843 and she turned him down, but their relationship grew and they began discussing marriage. Then came the day Wednesday, February 28th, 1844 when the President, Julia, and her father along with members of the cabinet took a cruise on the new battleship, the Princeton. The main feature of the ship was a gigantic gun called “The Peacemaker” which twice during the cruise thrilled the crowd on board with its loud report. Late in the afternoon, its third firing exploded the gun at its breech, killing Julia's father along with Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur and Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer, among others. Fortunately, President Tyler and Julia were below deck and escaped injury. Their June wedding was thus restrained but the new First Lady managed to enjoy her new duties during the final months of the Tyler administration. It is said that Julia Tyler urged the Marine band to compose “Hail to the Chief” in her husband's honor.
Thus, the Tyler Administration has been regarded with respect.Unfortunately, however, John Tyler is the answer to the question: Who is the only president to die not a citizen of the United States? At the time of his passing, Tyler was a member of the Confederate Legislature and no official mention of his death came out of Washington D.C. Nevertheless, Julia Tyler was awarded a pension when it was adopted for First Ladies in 1869.
Although mostly gentle, John Tyler could be stubborn when necessary. Almost alone, he strengthened the ability of the United States to carry on even in the light of national tragedy.
How could he have done otherwise? After all, he was President Harry Truman's great uncle!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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