awake
After being sworn in as Vice-President on March 4, 1841, Tyler stayed in Washington, D.C., long enough to preside over the next day's Senate confirmation of Harrison's cabinet. On March 5 he returned to his home in Williamsburg, Virginia, not even staying through the close of the Senate session. Harrison never sought out Tyler's advice, and Tyler reportedly never offered any.
When President Harrison became ill, Secretary of State Daniel Webster sent word to Tyler of Harrison's illness on April 1. In spite of this, Tyler made no plans to travel to Washington. At dawn on April 5, two couriers from the State Department — one of them Webster's son — arrived at Tyler's home to inform him that Harrison had died the day before.
No president had ever died in office before, so there was no precedent for the situation. The Constitution of the United States read as follows:
In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President.
This led to a debate about whether the office of the presidency itself "devolved" upon Vice President Tyler, or merely its powers and duties. Secretary of State Daniel Webster discreetly asked for advice on this point from Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, but Taney declined, citing concerns about the separation of powers.
Tyler arrived in Washington at 4 a.m. on April 6. He had firmly resolved in his own mind that he was now, in name and fact, the President of the United States. He took the oath of office in his hotel room with the cabinet looking on, then immediately calling them into a meeting where he asserted his authority by terminating Harrison's practice of making policy by cabinet majority.
Tyler faced opposition from some members of Congress such as John Quincy Adams, who argued that Tyler should assume a role as a caretaker under the title of "Acting President", or remain Vice President in name. Whig leader Henry Clay, intended to be a "power behind the throne" and exercise great influence over Tyler. Clay kept referring to Tyler as the Vice-President and insisted that his administration would be more in the nature of a regency. Tyler didn't like this. He made it clear to Clay and others that he was not merely "acting president" but had in fact acquired the full powers of the presidency. Tyler is said to have told Clay "Go you now, Mr. Clay, to your end of the avenue, where stands the Capitol, and there perform your duty to the country as you shall think proper. So help me God, I shall do mine at this end of it as I shall think proper."
On June 1, 1841, both houses of Congress passed resolutions declaring Tyler the 10th President of the United States. Tyler had become the first U.S. vice president to assume the office of president upon the death of his predecessor, establishing a precedent that would be followed seven times subsequently. In 1967 that Tyler's action of assuming both the full powers and the title of the presidency was legally codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
Although his accession was given approval by both the Cabinet and, later, the Senate and House, Tyler's critics referred to him by many unflattering nicknames, including "His Accidency". Tyler never wavered from his conviction that he was the rightful president. When Clay or some other political opponent sent correspondence to the White House addressed to the "Vice President" or "Acting President," Tyler would send it back unopened.