This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Tyler, United States Senate - Biography of John Tyler, The White House - Biography of John Tyler, United States History - Biography of John Tyler, Maps of World - Biography of John Tyler the 10th President of US, John Tyler - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11), John Tyler - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Meet the first vice president to ascend to the presidency, following William Henry Harrison's death, presidency of the United States of America, vice president of the United States of America, John Canfield Spencer (from March 8, 1843), John Canfield Spencer (from October 12, 1841), Abel Parker Upshur (from October 11, 1841), Thomas Walker Gilmer (from February 19, 1844). [51] Following Clay's resignation, the idea for a new national bank lay dormant for the remainder of Tyler's presidency, and Congress moved on to other issues. [82], The return of the United States Exploring Expedition in 1842 stimulated American interest in trade with Asia. Mississippi Senator Robert J. Walker, in opposition, stated that the idea that Tyler was still vice president and could preside over the Senate was absurd. [16] Clay saw Tyler as the "vice-president" and his presidency as a mere "regency". Born on September 9, 1816, Robert Tyler was the eldest son of John Tyler and Letitia Christian in Charles City County, Virginia. [75], Tyler also sought a treaty with the British regarding the partition of Oregon Country, which the two countries had jointly occupied since the signing of the Treaty of 1818. It differed from Tyler's proposed treaty in that the United States would not take on the public lands or the public debt of Texas. John Tyler Featured here is the official portrait of John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States, created by George Healy in 1862. To forestall constitutional uncertainty, Tyler took the presidential oath of officeon A… [119], Following Tyler's break with the Whigs in 1841, he had begun to shift back to his old Democratic party, but its members, especially the followers of Van Buren, were not ready to receive him. A maverick Democrat who refused allegiance to the program of party leader Andrew Jackson, Tyler was rejected in office by both the Democratic Party and the Whig Party and functioned as a political independent. 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. Shortly before his death Tyler was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives. [107], Tyler and Upshur began quiet negotiations with the Texas government, promising military protection from Mexico in exchange for a commitment to annexation. This page was last edited on 16 February 2021, at 06:32. Secrecy was necessary, as the Constitution required congressional approval for such military commitments. Reports of meetings held throughout the country suggest that support for the president was not limited to officeholders. Tyler’s wife Letitia Christian Tyler died in 1842, the first president’s wife to die in the White House. The four rejected nominees were Caleb Cushing (Treasury), David Henshaw (Navy), James Porter (War), and James S. Green (Treasury). The treaty was considered at the same time that the Senate debated a treaty to annex Texas, and the hostile Whig Senate refused to ratify either treaty. [111], A ceremonial cruise down the Potomac River was held aboard the newly built USS Princeton on February 28, 1844, the day after completion of the annexation treaty. Crapol argued that Tyler "was a stronger and more effective president than generally remembered", while Seager wrote, "I find him to be a courageous, principled man, a fair and honest fighter for his beliefs. He died of either typhoid, pneumonia, or paratyphoid fever 31 days into his term, becoming the first president to die in office and the shortest-serving U.S. president in history. [24], Webster had long struggled with his role in the Whig Party and the Tyler administration, and he finally resigned from the cabinet in May 1843. [33] Two vacancies occurred on the Supreme Court during Tyler's presidency, as Justices Smith Thompson and Henry Baldwin died in 1843 and 1844, respectively. With Webster's work on the British treaty now completed, Tyler replaced Webster with Hugh S. Legaré of South Carolina. [69] As part of this conciliatory policy, the Tyler administration launched a secret propaganda campaign to influence public opinion in favor of an Anglo-American treaty that would settle the border between Maine and Canada. Tyler assumes the presidency After the death of President William Henry Harrison, Vice President John Tyler assumes the presidency. John Tyler became the nation’s 10th president on the death of William Henry Harrison. Baldwin's seat remained vacant until James K. Polk's nominee, Robert Grier, was confirmed August 4, 1846. Former Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky, former Secretary of War Lewis Cass of Michigan, and Senator James Buchanan of Pennsylvania also loomed as contenders for the 1844 Democratic presidential nomination. [98] Texas leaders simultaneously courted the British in the hopes that they would provide economic, military, and diplomatic aid against Mexico. I hope to have your hearty co-operation in carrying out its measures. After leaving office, Tyler continued to take an active interest in public affairs and remained a strong champion of Southern interests. [5] The first few weeks of the presidency took a toll on Harrison's health, and after being caught in a rainstorm in late March he came down with pneumonia and pleurisy. The positive reception of the public at these events contrasted with his ostracism back in Washington. The union covered Prussia and eighteen smaller states. The Mexican Congress refused to ratify the treaty, which had been obtained from Santa Anna under duress, and Mexico continued to regard Texas as a breakaway province. [77] Tyler also believed that the acquisition of part of the territory would help make the simultaneous annexation of Texas more palatable to Northerners. [112] A malfunction caused an explosion that killed Gilmer and Upshur, as well Virgil Maxcy, David Gardiner, Commodore Beverly Kennon, and Armistead, Tyler's black slave and body servant. A chain of pro-Tyler newspapers across the country put out editorials promoting his candidacy throughout the early months of 1844. [123] At the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Van Buren failed to win the necessary super-majority of Democratic votes. The committee published a report that did not formally recommend impeachment, but clearly established the possibility for impeachment proceedings. [8] Harrison's death while in office was an unprecedented event that caused considerable uncertainty regarding presidential succession. Tyler married Julia Gardiner (Julia Tyler) in 1844, thus becoming the first president to marry while in office. [95] Senators disliked having tariff rates fixed by treaty rather than by legislation. To forestall constitutional uncertainty, Tyler took the presidential oath of office on April 6, moved into the White House, and assumed full presidential powers, a precedent that would govern future extraordinary successions and eventually become codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment. In an unusual show of independence, Tyler resigned from the Senate in 1836 rather than yield to his state legislature’s instructions to reverse his vote on Senate resolutions censuring President Jackson for removal of deposits from the Bank of the United States. [126] Changing tactics, Tyler submitted the treaty to the House of Representatives. [115] Regardless of Tyler's motivations for appointing Calhoun, the decision was a serious tactical error that ruined any hopes Tyler had had for establishing his own political respectability. The act allowed settlers to buy 160 acre plots of land in the West without having to compete for the land in an auction. [68] Webster and other Whig leaders favored closer relations with Britain in order to spur British investment in the ailing U.S. economy, while Tyler pursued a conciliatory policy with the British in order to win their acquiescence to the U.S. annexation of Texas. William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States in 1841. Until the presidency of the Whigs' arch-enemy Andrew Jackson, presidents had rarely vetoed bills, and then, generally only on the grounds of whether or not the bill was unconstitutional. She suffered a second stroke and died on September 10, 1842. "[47] On September 13, when the president did not resign or give in, the Whigs in Congress expelled Tyler from the party. This anti-Jackson stand endeared Tyler to the opposition Whig Party, which in 1840 nominated him for the vice presidency in an effort to attract Southern support. John Tyler. [54] Congress tried again, combining the two into one bill; Tyler vetoed it again, to the outrage of many in Congress, who nevertheless failed to override the veto. She was 30 years his junior at 24. It reorganized the navy, established the United States Weather Bureau, brought an end to the Second Seminole War (1835–42) in Florida, and put down the rebellion (1842) led by Thomas Dorr against the state government of Rhode Island. The presidency of John Tyler began on April 4, 1841, when John Tyler became President of the United States upon the death of President William Henry Harrison, and ended on March 4, 1845. [43] Congress passed a bill based on Treasury Secretary Ewing's proposal, but Tyler vetoed that bill as well. American expansionists would instead focus on Mexico, while the British government under Robert Peel was freed to turn its attention to domestic and European issues. Tyler's action of assuming both the title of the presidency and its full powers would be legally recognized in 1967, when it was codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Clay dismissed the Tyler administration's proposal, and promoted his own legislation that would allow the bank to operate with or without the consent of states. [114], In April 1844, Calhoun and two Texas negotiators signed the treaty providing for the annexation of Texas. By 1836, Anglo-Americans outnumbered Hispanics in Texas by a two-to-one margin, and the American settlers continued to hold slaves despite a Mexican law barring slavery. Before Washington, D.C., became the nation’s capital in 1800, both Washington and John Adams took the presidential oath elsewhere. He voted against the protective tariffs of 1828 and 1832 but also condemned South Carolina’s attempted nullification of these measures. [125], The full Senate began to debate the Senate annexation treaty in mid-May 1844, and it rejected the treaty by a vote of 16–35 on June 8. Despite his disagreements with Congress, Tyler did sign the Tariff of 1842, which provided needed revenue to a government still dealing with the effects of the Panic of 1837. Not only did Tyler think that the bill was unconstitutional, but he also came to view the struggle over the national bank as a personal struggle between himself and Clay, with control of the country at stake. Webster attempted to convince the British to pressure Mexico to sell San Francisco, but neither the British nor the Mexicans were interested in this proposal. [154] His successful insistence that he was president, and not a caretaker or acting president, was a model for the succession of seven other presidents over the 19th and 20th centuries. He hoped to convince Congress to annex Texas by joint resolution, which required a simple majority vote in both houses of Congress rather than a two-thirds vote in the Senate. [65], With his domestic agenda frustrated in Congress, Tyler worked with Secretary of State Webster to pursue an ambitious foreign policy. [72], Senator Thomas Hart Benton led Senate opposition to the treaty, arguing that it "needlessly and shamelessly" relinquished American territory, but few others joined Benton in resisting the treaty. [88] As the Dorr Rebellion came to a head, Tyler pondered the request of the governor and legislature to send federal troops to help it suppress the Dorrite insurgents. It advocated a revival of the national bank and high tariffs, both of which would fund federal canals and roads. John Tyler’s Passionate White House Romance During his lone term as president, widower John Tyler launched into a passionate courtship with a … [139] Every Democratic senator voted for the bill, as did three Southern Whig senators. Adhering to his states' rights, strict-constructionist ideology and having joined the Whigs only in opposition to Andrew Jackson, he did not embrace the American System of internal improvements, protective tariffs, and national bank proposals of the party leaders. Representative (and former president) John Quincy Adams felt that Tyler should be a caretaker under the title of "acting president", or remain vice president in name. [79], Tyler's enthusiasm for an agreement with Britain regarding Oregon was not shared by Upshur and Calhoun, both of whom focused on the annexation of Texas. He voted in favor of Virginia seceding from the United States and … Tyler settled the matter by taking the oath of office as President. This view was at least partly rooted in how previous presidents had acted. [59][60] Ultimately, the Whigs did not impeach Tyler, since they believed that his likely acquittal would devastate the party. The rebels fled the state when the state militia marched against them, but the incident led to broader suffrage in Rhode Island. [145], Tyler still has one living grandchild, Harrison Ruffin Tyler who was born in 1928.[146]. Both parties, intent on electing their own candidates in the 1844 election, largely continued to oppose Tyler. [151] In Recarving Rushmore, libertarian author Ivan Eland ranked Tyler as the best president of all time. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Webster argued that the agency would be "the most beneficial measure of any sort ever adopted in this country, the Constitution only excepted." [64] Near the end of Tyler's term in office, on March 3, 1845, Congress overrode his veto of a minor bill relating to revenue cutters. His successor, Vice President John Tyler, a Democrat, discarded much of the Whig agenda. 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. [42], Tyler agreed to support an effort to craft a compromise bank bill that would meet his objections, and the cabinet developed another version of the bill. Sheet music for “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too! [71] The treaty clearly delineated Maine's Northern border, as well as other sections of the U.S.-Canada border that had been in dispute. [2] Seager wrote that Tyler "was neither a great president nor a great intellectual," adding that despite a few achievements, "his administration has been and must be counted an unsuccessful one by any modern measure of accomplishment". When did a U.S. president first appear on TV? in Joel H. Silbey, ed. [134] The candidate of the abolitionist Liberty Party, James G. Birney, won several thousand anti-annexation votes in New York, and his presence in the race may have cost Clay the election. Upshur and his adviser, Duff Green, believed that Britain sought to convince Texas to abolish slavery in a complicated scheme designed to undermine the interests of the Southern United States. [50] In early 1842, Clay resigned from Congress to focus on the upcoming presidential election. [56], In July 1842, Congressman John Botts introduced a resolution levying several charges against Tyler and calling for a nine-member committee to investigate his behavior, with the expectation that this committee would issue a formal impeachment recommendation. The United States frequently attempted to buy Texas, but Mexico consistently rejected these offers. Omissions? ", U.S. Corrections? [129] In the public letter announcing his withdrawal, Tyler stated his belief that Polk's administration "will be a continuance of my own, since he will be found the advocate of most of my measures. Despite Webster's enthusiasm, the plan was not seriously considered by Congress, as Whigs still wanted a national bank and Democrats favored the restoration of the Independent Treasury. [103], With the help of newly appointed Treasury Secretary John C. Spencer, Tyler cleared out an array of officeholders, replacing them with pro-annexation partisans, in a reversal of his former stand against patronage. William Henry Harrison's death demonstrated for the first time the importance of nominating a vice president who actually was qualified for the presidency. [38] Tyler also signed the Preemption Act of 1841, which was designed to facilitate settlement of the West. [138], On March 3, the final full day of his presidency, Tyler extended an offer of annexation and statehood to Texas through his envoy, Andrew Jackson Donelson. Clay's bill passed Congress on August 6, and Tyler vetoed the bill on August 16. Polk's arrival in Washington, and his support for immediate annexation, helped unite Democrats behind Tyler's proposal to annex Texas by joint resolution. This policy, which effectively extended the Monroe Doctrine to Hawaii, became known as the Tyler Doctrine. [109] Despite the continued skepticism of Texan leaders, the negotiators finalized the terms of an annexation treaty before the end of February 1844. Tyler knew that, with little chance of election, the only way to salvage his presidency and legacy was to move public opinion in favor of the Texas issue. [101] Norma Lois Peterson writes that Tyler believed annexation would be the defining accomplishment of his administration and boost his prospects for re-election. [46] When told by Webster that he was willing to stay, Tyler is reported to have said, "Give me your hand on that, and now I will say to you that Henry Clay is a doomed man.

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