John Tyler

10th President of the States

### Political party

Democratic-Republican (1811–1828); Democratic (1828–1834); Whig (1834–1841); New Democratic-Republican (1844); Independent (1841–1844, 1844–1862)

### Residence

Sherwood Forest Plantation,Charles City County, Virginia, U.S.

### Spouse

Letitia Christian​​(m. 1813; died 1842)​Julia Gardiner​(m. 1844)

### Children

Mary Tyler Jones (daughter), Robert Tyler (son), John Tyler III (son), Letitia Tyler Semple (daughter), Elizabeth Tyler Waller (daughter), Anna Contesse Tyler (daughter), Alice Tyler Denison (daughter), Tazewell Tyler (son), David Tyler (son), John Alexander Tyler (son), Julia Tyler Spencer (daughter), Lachlan Tyler (son), Lyon Tyler (son), Robert Fitzwalter Tyler (son), Margaret Pearl Tyler Ellis (daughter)

### Parents

John Tyler Sr. (father)Mary Armistead (mother)

### Siblings

Elizabeth Armistead Tyler Pryor (sister), William Tyler (brother), Martha Jefferson Tyler Waggaman (sister), Maria Henry Tyler Seawell (sister), Wat H. Tyler (brother), Anne Contessse Tyler (sister), Christianna Booth Tyler Curtis (sister)

### Hair color

Brown

**John Tyler** became the tenth President of the United States (1841-1845) when President William Henry Harrison died in April 1841. He was the first Vice President to succeed to the Presidency after the death of his predecessor.

*The Presidency of John Tyler spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Westward Expansion. President John Tyler represented the Whig political party which influenced the domestic and foreign policies of his presidency.*

## Biography

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.

Born in Virginia in 1790, he was raised believing that the Constitution must be strictly construed. He never wavered from this conviction. He attended the College of William and Mary and studied law.

Serving in the House of Representatives from 1816 to 1821, Tyler voted against most nationalist legislation and opposed the Missouri Compromise. After leaving the House he served as Governor of Virginia. As a Senator he reluctantly supported Jackson for President as a choice of evils. Tyler soon joined the states’ rights Southerners in Congress who banded with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and their newly formed Whig party opposing President Jackson.

The Whigs nominated Tyler for Vice President in 1840, hoping for support from southern states’-righters who could not stomach Jacksonian Democracy. The slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” implied flag waving nationalism plus a dash of southern sectionalism.

Clay, intending to keep party leadership in his own hands, minimized his nationalist views temporarily; Webster proclaimed himself “a Jeffersonian Democrat.” But after the election, both men tried to dominate “Old Tippecanoe.”

Suddenly President Harrison was dead, and “Tyler too” was in the White House. At first the Whigs were not too disturbed, although Tyler insisted upon assuming the full powers of a duly elected President. He even delivered an Inaugural Address, but it seemed full of good Whig doctrine. Whigs, optimistic that Tyler would accept their program, soon were disillusioned.

Tyler was ready to compromise on the banking question, but Clay would not budge. He would not accept Tyler’s “exchequer system,” and Tyler vetoed Clay’s bill to establish a National Bank with branches in several states. A similar bank bill was passed by Congress. But again, on states’ rights grounds, Tyler vetoed it.

In retaliation, the Whigs expelled Tyler from their party. All the Cabinet resigned but Secretary of State Webster. A year later when Tyler vetoed a tariff bill, the first impeachment resolution against a President was introduced in the House of Representatives. A committee headed by Representative John Quincy Adams reported that the President had misused the veto power, but the resolution failed.

Despite their differences, President Tyler and the Whig Congress enacted much positive legislation. The “Log-Cabin” bill enabled a settler to claim 160 acres of land before it was offered publicly for sale, and later pay $1.25 an acre for it.

In 1842 Tyler did sign a tariff bill protecting northern manufacturers. The Webster-Ashburton treaty ended a Canadian boundary dispute; in 1845 Texas was annexed.

The administration of this states’-righter strengthened the Presidency. But it also increased sectional cleavage that led toward civil war. By the end of his term, Tyler had replaced the original Whig Cabinet with southern conservatives. In 1844 Calhoun became Secretary of State. Later these men returned to the Democratic Party, committed to the preservation of states’ rights, planter interests, and the institution of slavery. Whigs became more representative of northern business and farming interests.

When the first southern states seceded in 1861, Tyler led a compromise movement; failing, he worked to create the Southern Confederacy. He died in 1862, a member of the Confederate House of Representatives.

## Personality

The character traits of President John Tyler can be described as reserved, charming, elegant, gracious and courteous but unable to make small talk with strangers. It has been speculated that the Myers-Briggs personality type for John Tyler is an INTP (introversion, intuition, thinking, perceiving). A modest, reserved, stoic character with a preference to work informally with others as equals. John Tyler Personality type: Quiet, analytical, impatient and thoughtful.

## Nicknames

* "His Accidency"

*Meaning: The nickname of President John Tyler provides an insight into how the man was viewed by the American public during his presidency. The meaning of the nickname "His Accidency" refers to his unexpected elevation to the President of the United States by the death of his predecessor, William Henry Harrison.*

## Inauguration

The **inauguration of John Tyler**, the tenth president of the United States, was held on Tuesday, April 6, 1841 at the Brown's Indian Queen Hotel in Washington, D.C. following the death of President William Henry Harrison two days earlier. The inauguration marked the commencement of John Tyler's only term (a partial term of 3 years, 334 days) as president; the first non-scheduled, extraordinary inauguration to ever take place in American history. William Cranch, the chief judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, administered the presidential oath of office to Tyler during the proceedings.

## Accomplishments and major events

*The major accomplishments and the famous, main events that occurred during the time that John Tyler was president included the resignation of the Cabinet (1841), Labor Unions were legalized (1842), the Texas Annexation Treaty (1844) and the Treaty with China (1845). In 1842 the first wagon train headed westward via the Oregon Trail. The grain elevators or "Prairie Skyscrapers" were also invented during the period solving the problem of storing and transporting wheat to the nation.*

**The Webster-Ashburton Treaty**

Summary: The Webster-Ashburton Treaty with Great Britain was made following the bloodless border conflict  between Maine and the province of New Brunswick, from February to May, 1839, known as the Aroostook War. The Maine-New Brunswick boundary was settled by the treaty during the presidency of John Tyler.

**The Repeal of the Gag Rule**

Summary: The Repeal of the Gag Rule was enacted on December 3, 1844 when the House of Representatives led by John Quincy Adams and the pro-abolitionists overturned the infamous gag rule on abolitionist petitions.

**The Oregon Trail**

Summary: The first Important migration along the Oregon Trail took place in 1843 when a large wagon train consisting of 120 wagons and 500 people made the 2000 mile long, dangerous journey from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City. The opening of the Oregon trail was of major importance to Westward Expansion.

**Texas Annexation**

Summary: On March 1, 1845, Congress passed a "Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States", the Texas Annexation. John Tyler preempted James Polk on the issue by drafting the proposals on 27 February, 1844 and presenting the bill to annex Texas on March 1, 1845. Before Texas was actually admitted to the union John Tyler had ceased to be President, but James Polk continued to support the policy.

**The Invention of Grain Elevators**

Summary: Another important invention during the presidency of John Tyler was the Invention of Grain Elevators that were invented in 1842 by Joseph Dart and Robert Dunbar and became known as the "Prairie Skyscrapers". The new invention enabled fast loading and efficient storage of grains transported from farmlands via the railroad.

## Post Presidency

Tyler left Washington with the conviction that the newly inaugurated President Polk had the best interest of the nation. Tyler retired to a Virginia plantation, originally named Walnut Grove (or "the Grove"), located on the James River in Charles City County. He renamed it Sherwood Forest, in a reference to the folk legend Robin Hood, to signify that he had been "outlawed" by the Whig Party. He did not take farming lightly and worked hard to maintain large yields. His neighbors, largely Whigs, appointed him to the minor office of overseer of roads in 1847 in an effort to mock him. To their displeasure, he treated the job seriously, frequently summoning his neighbors to provide their slaves for road work, and continuing to insist on carrying out his duties even after his neighbors asked him to stop. The former president spent his time in a manner common to Virginia's First Families, with parties, visiting or being visited by other aristocrats, and spending summers at the family's seaside home, "Villa Margaret". In 1852, Tyler happily rejoined the ranks of the Virginia Democratic Party and thereafter kept interested in political affairs. However, Tyler rarely received visits from his former allies and was not sought out as an adviser. Occasionally requested to deliver a public speech, Tyler spoke during the unveiling of a monument to Henry Clay. He acknowledged their political battles but spoke highly of his former colleague, whom he had always admired for bringing about the Compromise Tariff of 1833.

### Prelude to the American Civil War

After John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry ignited fears of an abolitionist attempt to free the slaves or an actual slave rebellion, several Virginia communities organized militia units or reenergized existing ones. Tyler's community organized a cavalry troop and a home guard company; Tyler was chosen to command the home guard troops with the rank of captain.

On the eve of the Civil War, Tyler re-entered public life as presiding officer of the Washington Peace Conference held in Washington, D. C., in February 1861 as an effort to prevent the conflict from escalating. The convention sought a compromise to avoid civil war even as the Confederate Constitution was being drawn up at the Montgomery Convention. Despite his leadership role in the Peace Conference, Tyler opposed its final resolutions. He felt that they were written by the free state delegates, did not protect the rights of slave owners in the territories, and would do little to bring back the lower South and restore the Union. He voted against the conference's seven resolutions, which the conference sent to Congress for approval late in February 1861 as a proposed Constitutional amendment.

On the same day the Peace Conference started, local voters elected Tyler to the Virginia Secession Convention. He presided over the opening session on February 13, 1861, while the Peace Conference was still underway. Tyler abandoned hope of compromise and saw secession as the only option, predicting that a clean split of all Southern states would not result in war. In mid-March he spoke against the Peace Conference resolutions, and on April 4 he voted for secession even when the convention rejected it. On April 17, after the attack on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops, Tyler voted with the new majority for secession. He headed a committee that negotiated the terms for Virginia's entry into the Confederate States of America and helped set the pay rate for military officers. On June 14, Tyler signed the Ordinance of Secession, and one week later the convention unanimously elected him to the Provisional Confederate Congress. Tyler was seated in the Confederate Congress on August 1, 1861, and he served until just before his death in 1862. In November 1861, he was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives but he died of a stroke in his room at the Ballard Hotel in Richmond before the first session could open in February 1862.

## Death

Throughout his life, Tyler suffered from poor health. As he aged, he suffered more frequently from colds during the winter. On January 12, 1862, after complaining of chills and dizziness, he vomited and collapsed. Despite treatment, his health failed to improve, and he made plans to return to Sherwood Forest by the 18th. As he lay in bed the night before, he began suffocating, and Julia summoned his doctor. Just after midnight, Tyler took a sip of brandy, and told his doctor, "Doctor, I am going", to which the doctor replied, "I hope not, Sir." Tyler then said, "Perhaps it is best." Tyler died in Richmond shortly thereafter, most likely due to a stroke. He was 71.

Tyler's death was the only one in presidential history not to be officially recognized in Washington, because of his allegiance to the Confederate States of America. He had requested a simple burial, but Confederate President Jefferson Davis devised a grand, politically pointed funeral, painting Tyler as a hero to the new nation. Accordingly, at his funeral, the coffin of the tenth president of the United States was draped with a Confederate flag; he remains the only U.S. president ever laid to rest under a flag not of the United States. Tyler had been more loyal to Virginia and his own principles than to the Union of which he had been president.

## Facts and trivia

* John Tyler was the first president born after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.
* Like his future running mate, William Henry Harrison, Tyler hailed from Charles City County, Virginia, and was descended from the First Families of Virginia. The Tyler family traced its lineage to English immigrants and 17th century colonial Williamsburg.
* Tyler's father, John Tyler Sr., commonly known as Judge Tyler, was a friend and college roommate of Thomas Jefferson and served in the Virginia House of Delegates alongside Benjamin Harrison V, William Henry Harrison's father.
* With two brothers and five sisters, Tyler was reared on Greenway Plantation, a 1,200-acre (5 km2) estate with a six-room manor house his father had built. Enslaved labor tended various crops, including wheat, corn and tobacco. Judge Tyler paid high wages for tutors who challenged his children academically.
* Tyler was of frail health, thin and prone to diarrhea throughout life.
* At the age of twelve, he continued Tyler family tradition and entered the preparatory branch of the College of William and Mary. Tyler graduated from the school's collegiate branch in 1807, at age seventeen. Adam Smith's *The Wealth of Nations* helped form his economic views, and he acquired a lifelong love of William Shakespeare. Bishop James Madison, the college's president, served as a second father and mentor to Tyler.
* Tyler was admitted to the Virginia bar at the age of 19 (too young to be eligible, but the admitting judge neglected to ask his age). By this time, his father was Governor of Virginia (1808–1811), and the young Tyler started a legal practice in Richmond, the state capital.
* According to the 1810 federal census, one “John Tyler” (presumably his father) owned eight slaves in Richmond, and possibly five slaves in adjoining Henrico County, and possibly 26 slaves in Charles City County.
* With a total of fifteen children, John Tyler fathered more children than any other American president. His first wife was Letitia Christian (November 12, 1790 – September 10, 1842), with whom he had eight children. Tyler's first wife Letitia died of a stroke in the White House in September 1842. He married again on June 26, 1844, to Julia Gardiner (July 23, 1820 – July 10, 1889), with whom he had seven children.
* In December 1841, Tyler was attacked by abolitionist publisher Joshua Leavitt, with the unsubstantiated allegation that Tyler had fathered several sons with his slaves, and later sold them. A number of black families today maintain a belief in their descent from Tyler, but there is no evidence of such genealogy.
* As of December 2021, Tyler has one living grandson through his son Lyon Gardiner Tyler, making him the earliest former president with a living grandchild. Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928 and maintains the family home, Sherwood Forest Plantation, in Charles City County, Virginia.
* Although Tyler's family was dear to him, during his political rise he was often away from home for extended periods. When Tyler chose not to seek re-election to the House of Representatives in 1821 because of illness, he wrote that he would soon be called upon to educate his growing family.
* Tyler was a slaveholder, at one point keeping forty slaves at Greenway. Although he regarded slavery as an evil, and did not attempt to justify it, he never freed any of his slaves. Tyler considered slavery a part of states' rights, and therefore the federal government lacked the authority to abolish it. The living conditions of his slaves are not well documented, but historians surmise that he cared for their well-being and abstained from physical violence against them.
* Tyler was initially a Democrat, but he opposed President Andrew Jackson during the Nullification Crisis as he saw Jackson's actions as infringing on states' rights and criticized Jackson's expansion of executive power during the Bank War. This led Tyler to ally with the Whig Party.
* During his political career, Tyler served as a Virginia state legislator and governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator.
* Tyler was one of two regional Whig vice-presidential nominees in the 1836 presidential election and the sole nominee on the 1840 Whig presidential ticket as William Henry Harrison's running mate. Under the campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", the Harrison-Tyler ticket defeated incumbent president Martin Van Buren.
* President Harrison died just one month after taking office, and Tyler became the first vice president to succeed to the presidency without being elected. Amid uncertainty as to whether a vice president succeeded a deceased president, or merely took on his duties, Tyler immediately took the presidential oath of office, setting a lasting precedent, though some denied he was fully president. This incident led to the creation of the 25th amendment.
* During his time in office, Tyler believed that the president, rather than Congress, should set policy, and he sought to bypass the Whig establishment led by Senator Henry Clay
* Most of Tyler's Cabinet resigned shortly into his term and the Whigs expelled him from the party, dubbing him "His Accidency".
* Tyler was the first president to have his veto of legislation overridden by Congress, as well as the first president to have impeachment proceedings brought against him.
* Tyler was a firm believer in manifest destiny and saw the annexation of Texas as economically advantageous to the United States, signing a bill to offer statehood to Texas just before leaving office.
* Tyler retired to a Virginia plantation, originally named Walnut Grove (or "the Grove"), located on the James River in Charles City County. He renamed it Sherwood Forest, in a reference to the folk legend Robin Hood, to signify that he had been "outlawed" by the Whig Party. He did not take farming lightly and worked hard to maintain large yields.
* Throughout his life, Tyler suffered from poor health. As he aged, he suffered more frequently from colds during the winter.
* When the American Civil War began in 1861, Tyler sided with the Confederacy despite his initial support of the Peace Conference. He presided over the opening of the Virginia Secession Convention and won election to the Confederate House of Representatives shortly before his death.
* On January 12, 1862, after complaining of chills and dizziness, Tyler vomited and collapsed. As he lay in bed the night before, he began suffocating, and his wife Julia summoned his doctor. Just after midnight, Tyler took a sip of brandy, and told his doctor, "Doctor, I am going", to which the doctor replied, "I hope not, Sir." Tyler then said, "Perhaps it is best." He died shortly thereafter, most likely due to a stroke. He was 71.
* Tyler was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, near the gravesite of President James Monroe. Tyler has since been the namesake of several U.S. locations, including the city of Tyler, Texas, named for him because of his role in the annexation of Texas.
* Tyler is the only American president not to buried under the flag of the United States, as he swore his allegiance to the Confederacy.
* Some scholars have praised Tyler's political resolve, but historians have generally given his presidency a low ranking. Today, he is seldom remembered in comparison to other presidents and maintains only a limited presence in American cultural memory.

## References

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John\_Tyler
* https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/john-tyler/
* https://www.american-historama.org/presidents-united-states/john-tyler.htm
* https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Tyler-150