Four More Years: John Tyler's Hopes for Re-election
An recent biography of John Tyler is entitled President Without a Party: The Life of John Tyler and the title pretty much says it all. (The book is reviewed here in this community). Tyler had once been a Democratic-Republican (a Jeffersonian in other words) from 1811 to 1828. He became a Jacksonian Democrat in 1828, but broke with Jackson and joined the Whigs in 1834. At the Whig Presidential Nominating Convention of 1841 he was a surprise choice as William Henry Harrison's running mate, and he became president, following Harrison's death. Harrison, who had defeated President Martin Van Buren in the 1840 general election, had died just 31 days into his presidency. Tyler became president.
As the first Vice-President to ascend to the presidency, no one was certain whether Tyler was acting president, a placeholder, or the President. Henry Clay believed that Tyler was just a figurehead and that he was the real de facto President. Tyler strongly disagreed. Tyler and Clay butted heads over the issue and Tyler was soon expelled from the Whig party later in 1841 for repeatedly vetoing his party's domestic finance legislation, and generally because he had clashed with leading Whigs such as Clay over his right to assume the presidency and for his unwillingness to follow their dictates. Tyler found himself isolated and outside the two-party mainstream. The Whigs didn't want him, and the Democrats were still resentful towards him for abandoning them seven years earlier.
Tyler hoped that foreign affairs would salvage his presidency. In his first address to Congress in special session on June 1, 1841, Tyler announced his intention to pursue an expansionist agenda. He believed that annexing Texas would win him a second term in the White House, and this became his personal obsession, calling the acquisition of Texas as the "primary objective of his administration".
Following the resignation of his anti-annexation Secretary of State Daniel Webster in June of 1843, Tyler appointed Abel P. Upshur, a Virginia states' rights champion and ardent proponent of Texas annexation. In late September 1843, Upshur sent communications to Great Britain, intended to raise concerns about British designs to acquire Texas. He leaked the communique to the press to inflame popular Anglophobic sentiments. He also leaked information about American abolitionists who had been meeting with Lord Aberdeen, British Foreign Secretary, to provide funds to the Texas in exchange for the emancipation of its slaves. American Minister (Ambassador) Edward Everett concluded that British interest in the abolitionists plan was weak, but Tyler downplayed this conclusion.
John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, a pro-slavery advocate, claimed that British designs on Texas were real and required immediate action to prevent a takeover of Texas by Great Britain. On September 18, 1843, Tyler ordered secret talks opened with Texas Minister to the United States Isaac Van Zandt to negotiate the annexation of Texas. Face-to-face negotiations commenced on October 16, 1843.
Meanwhile, Texas President Sam Houston was negotiating with the Mexican government to consider a treaty that would permit Texas self-governance, possibly as a state of Mexico, with Great Britain acting as mediator. Houston believed that Tyler lacked political support for Texas annexation. The 1844 general election in the United States was approaching and the leadership in both the Democratic and Whig parties remained unwilling to support Texas annexation and Houston thought that brokering a deal with Mexico, with British support, was his best option.
Secretary of State Upshur pursued Texas diplomats to begin annexation talks. He wrote President Sam Houston in January 1844 claiming that a two-thirds majority in Senate could be obtained to ratify a Texas treaty. Texans were reluctant to pursue a US-Texas treaty without a written commitment of military defense from America. Because only Congress could declare war, the Tyler administration lacked the constitutional authority to commit the US to support of Texas. Upshur provided a verbal assurance of military defense for Texas, and President Houston authorized the reopening of annexation negotiations.
Mexican diplomats soon learned that US-Texas talks were taking place. Mexican minister to the U.S. Juan Almonte warned Upshur that if Congress sanctioned a treaty of annexation, Mexico would break diplomatic ties and declare war. Upshur pressed forward with the negotiations, while lobbying US Senators to support annexation. By early 1844, Upshur told Texas officials that 40 of the 52 members of the Senate were pledged to ratify the Tyler-Texas treaty. Tyler, in his annual address to Congress in December 1843, did not mention the secret negotiations.
The Tyler-Texas treaty was in its final stages when Upshur and Secretary of the Navy Thomas W. Gilmer, died in an accident aboard USS Princeton on February 28, 1844, just a day after completing a preliminary treaty draft agreement with the Texas Republic. The Princeton disaster was a major setback for Texas annexation. Tyler relied on Secretary Upshur to obtain critical support from Whig and Democratic Senators during the upcoming treaty ratification process. To make matters worse, Tyler selected John C. Calhoun to replace Upshur as Secretary of State and to finalize the treaty with Texas. The choice of Calhoun was problematic, because it made it appear that the focus of the negotiations was all about the expansion of slavery, but Tyler believed Calhoun to be a strong advocate of annexation.
Senator Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, a key Tyler ally, issued a widely distributed letter, reproduced as a pamphlet, which made the case for immediate annexation of Texas. Walker argued that Texas referenced the Monroe Doctrine and claimed that annexation was necessary to prevent European involvement in North American affairs. He also appealed to racial prejudice and said that when slavery ultimately ended, freed slaves would have a corridor to South America to resettle, rather than remaining in the United States. Walker also warned that if annexation failed, imperialist Great Britain would manipulate the Republic of Texas into emancipating its slaves, forecasting a dangerous destabilizing influence on southwestern slaveholding states. Walker's pamphlet increased support for Texas annexation from pro-slavery expansionists in the South
The Tyler-Texas treaty was signed on April 12, 1844. It called for Texas to join the Union as a territory, following constitutional protocols. Texas would cede all its public lands to the United States, and the federal government would assume all its bonded debt, up to $10 million. Four new states could ultimately be carved from the former republic. Any reference to slavery was omitted from the document so as not to antagonize anti-slavery sentiments during Senate debates, although it provided for the "preservation of all [Texas] property". When the treaty was signed, Tyler complied with the Texans' demand for military and naval protection, sending troops to Fort Jesup in Louisiana and a fleet of warships to the Gulf of Mexico. Secretary of the Treasury John C. Spencer protested the constitutional implications of Tyler's application of military force without congressional approval. He refused to transfer contingency funds for the naval mobilization, and tendered his resignation.
Tyler submitted his treaty for annexation to the Senate on April 22, 1844. A two-thirds majority was required for ratification. Tyler had wanted the treaty to be debated secretly in Senate executive session, but news of Calhoun's warning to Great Britain leaked to the public. Critics of the treaty argued that the sole objective of Texas annexation was the preservation of slavery. Anti-annexation support in the North grew among both major parties. The leading presidential hopefuls of both parties, Democrat Martin Van Buren and Whig Henry Clay, each publicly denounced the treaty. Texas annexation became a key issue in the 1844 general election.
Tyler wanted to remain President. He began to organize a third party in hopes of inducing the Democrats to embrace a pro-expansionist platform. He called it the New Democratic-Republican Party. Tyler knew that he had little chance of winning the election, and that the only way to salvage his presidential legacy was to ride public opinion on the Texas issue. He formed his third party using the officeholders and political networks that he had built over his time as president. A number of supportive newspapers across the country issued editorials promoting his candidacy throughout the early months of 1844. Reports of meetings held throughout the country suggested that Tyler's support was not just limited to officeholders.
At the same day as the Democratic Convention was being held in Baltimore in May of 1844, thousands of Tyler supporters marched to the city and held their own convention. They clung to the belief that believing that the Democrats would be deadlocked between Martin Van Buren and Lewis Cass, and that neither man would be able to receive the necessary two-thirds of delegate support required to win the party's presidential nomination. Tyler supporters held signs reading "Tyler and Texas!" The plan was then to convince delegates to choose Tyler as a compromise candidate to unite the party. But the Democrats had other ideas. With the support of a large number of Andrew Jackson's supporters, the Democrats instead chose James K. Polk, the former Speaker of the House, as their candidate. The Tyler supporters were understandably disappointed. They gave their party's nomination on May 27, 1844, not surprisingly, to Tyler and Tyler announced his candidacy for the presidency after receiving the nomination. However Tyler also stated in his acceptance letter that annexation of Texas was his real goal rather than winning the election.
Over the summer, negotiations took place between Tyler and leading Democrats, led by Andrew Jackson. By late July and early August both Tyler and the Democrats were of one mind that neither wanted Tyler spoiling the election and giving the presidency to Henry Clay. Tyler was willing to go along with this as long as Polk was willing to commit to the annexation of Texas. Andrew Jackson sent word to Tyler saying that if the President withdrew from the race, that he would have the pleasure of taking Clay down with him, and that he and Polk were on the same page. Jackson also promised that Tyler's followers would be welcomed into the Democratic party, especially when it came to doling out patronage. In addition, Jackson ordered Democratic editors to stop their attacks on Tyler. That was enough for Tyler to announce the end of his candidacy on August 20th. He threw his support behind Polk.
Polk won a narrow victory over Clay in the November election. Tyler saw this a mandate for completing the annexation of Texas not by treaty, but by a resolution in both houses. Tyler announced in his annual message to Congress that "a controlling majority of the people and a large majority of the states have declared in favor of immediate annexation". In late February 1845, days before Polk's inauguration, the House approved a joint resolution offering annexation to Texas by a substantial margin—the Senate approved by a bare 27–25 majority, and three days before the end of his term, Tyler signed the bill into law.
After some debate, Texas accepted the terms and entered the union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state. Tyler's official White House portrait features him sitting with a large map of Texas on the table in front of him.
As the first Vice-President to ascend to the presidency, no one was certain whether Tyler was acting president, a placeholder, or the President. Henry Clay believed that Tyler was just a figurehead and that he was the real de facto President. Tyler strongly disagreed. Tyler and Clay butted heads over the issue and Tyler was soon expelled from the Whig party later in 1841 for repeatedly vetoing his party's domestic finance legislation, and generally because he had clashed with leading Whigs such as Clay over his right to assume the presidency and for his unwillingness to follow their dictates. Tyler found himself isolated and outside the two-party mainstream. The Whigs didn't want him, and the Democrats were still resentful towards him for abandoning them seven years earlier.
Tyler hoped that foreign affairs would salvage his presidency. In his first address to Congress in special session on June 1, 1841, Tyler announced his intention to pursue an expansionist agenda. He believed that annexing Texas would win him a second term in the White House, and this became his personal obsession, calling the acquisition of Texas as the "primary objective of his administration".
Following the resignation of his anti-annexation Secretary of State Daniel Webster in June of 1843, Tyler appointed Abel P. Upshur, a Virginia states' rights champion and ardent proponent of Texas annexation. In late September 1843, Upshur sent communications to Great Britain, intended to raise concerns about British designs to acquire Texas. He leaked the communique to the press to inflame popular Anglophobic sentiments. He also leaked information about American abolitionists who had been meeting with Lord Aberdeen, British Foreign Secretary, to provide funds to the Texas in exchange for the emancipation of its slaves. American Minister (Ambassador) Edward Everett concluded that British interest in the abolitionists plan was weak, but Tyler downplayed this conclusion.
John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, a pro-slavery advocate, claimed that British designs on Texas were real and required immediate action to prevent a takeover of Texas by Great Britain. On September 18, 1843, Tyler ordered secret talks opened with Texas Minister to the United States Isaac Van Zandt to negotiate the annexation of Texas. Face-to-face negotiations commenced on October 16, 1843.
Meanwhile, Texas President Sam Houston was negotiating with the Mexican government to consider a treaty that would permit Texas self-governance, possibly as a state of Mexico, with Great Britain acting as mediator. Houston believed that Tyler lacked political support for Texas annexation. The 1844 general election in the United States was approaching and the leadership in both the Democratic and Whig parties remained unwilling to support Texas annexation and Houston thought that brokering a deal with Mexico, with British support, was his best option.
Secretary of State Upshur pursued Texas diplomats to begin annexation talks. He wrote President Sam Houston in January 1844 claiming that a two-thirds majority in Senate could be obtained to ratify a Texas treaty. Texans were reluctant to pursue a US-Texas treaty without a written commitment of military defense from America. Because only Congress could declare war, the Tyler administration lacked the constitutional authority to commit the US to support of Texas. Upshur provided a verbal assurance of military defense for Texas, and President Houston authorized the reopening of annexation negotiations.
Mexican diplomats soon learned that US-Texas talks were taking place. Mexican minister to the U.S. Juan Almonte warned Upshur that if Congress sanctioned a treaty of annexation, Mexico would break diplomatic ties and declare war. Upshur pressed forward with the negotiations, while lobbying US Senators to support annexation. By early 1844, Upshur told Texas officials that 40 of the 52 members of the Senate were pledged to ratify the Tyler-Texas treaty. Tyler, in his annual address to Congress in December 1843, did not mention the secret negotiations.
The Tyler-Texas treaty was in its final stages when Upshur and Secretary of the Navy Thomas W. Gilmer, died in an accident aboard USS Princeton on February 28, 1844, just a day after completing a preliminary treaty draft agreement with the Texas Republic. The Princeton disaster was a major setback for Texas annexation. Tyler relied on Secretary Upshur to obtain critical support from Whig and Democratic Senators during the upcoming treaty ratification process. To make matters worse, Tyler selected John C. Calhoun to replace Upshur as Secretary of State and to finalize the treaty with Texas. The choice of Calhoun was problematic, because it made it appear that the focus of the negotiations was all about the expansion of slavery, but Tyler believed Calhoun to be a strong advocate of annexation.
Senator Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, a key Tyler ally, issued a widely distributed letter, reproduced as a pamphlet, which made the case for immediate annexation of Texas. Walker argued that Texas referenced the Monroe Doctrine and claimed that annexation was necessary to prevent European involvement in North American affairs. He also appealed to racial prejudice and said that when slavery ultimately ended, freed slaves would have a corridor to South America to resettle, rather than remaining in the United States. Walker also warned that if annexation failed, imperialist Great Britain would manipulate the Republic of Texas into emancipating its slaves, forecasting a dangerous destabilizing influence on southwestern slaveholding states. Walker's pamphlet increased support for Texas annexation from pro-slavery expansionists in the South
The Tyler-Texas treaty was signed on April 12, 1844. It called for Texas to join the Union as a territory, following constitutional protocols. Texas would cede all its public lands to the United States, and the federal government would assume all its bonded debt, up to $10 million. Four new states could ultimately be carved from the former republic. Any reference to slavery was omitted from the document so as not to antagonize anti-slavery sentiments during Senate debates, although it provided for the "preservation of all [Texas] property". When the treaty was signed, Tyler complied with the Texans' demand for military and naval protection, sending troops to Fort Jesup in Louisiana and a fleet of warships to the Gulf of Mexico. Secretary of the Treasury John C. Spencer protested the constitutional implications of Tyler's application of military force without congressional approval. He refused to transfer contingency funds for the naval mobilization, and tendered his resignation.
Tyler submitted his treaty for annexation to the Senate on April 22, 1844. A two-thirds majority was required for ratification. Tyler had wanted the treaty to be debated secretly in Senate executive session, but news of Calhoun's warning to Great Britain leaked to the public. Critics of the treaty argued that the sole objective of Texas annexation was the preservation of slavery. Anti-annexation support in the North grew among both major parties. The leading presidential hopefuls of both parties, Democrat Martin Van Buren and Whig Henry Clay, each publicly denounced the treaty. Texas annexation became a key issue in the 1844 general election.
Tyler wanted to remain President. He began to organize a third party in hopes of inducing the Democrats to embrace a pro-expansionist platform. He called it the New Democratic-Republican Party. Tyler knew that he had little chance of winning the election, and that the only way to salvage his presidential legacy was to ride public opinion on the Texas issue. He formed his third party using the officeholders and political networks that he had built over his time as president. A number of supportive newspapers across the country issued editorials promoting his candidacy throughout the early months of 1844. Reports of meetings held throughout the country suggested that Tyler's support was not just limited to officeholders.
At the same day as the Democratic Convention was being held in Baltimore in May of 1844, thousands of Tyler supporters marched to the city and held their own convention. They clung to the belief that believing that the Democrats would be deadlocked between Martin Van Buren and Lewis Cass, and that neither man would be able to receive the necessary two-thirds of delegate support required to win the party's presidential nomination. Tyler supporters held signs reading "Tyler and Texas!" The plan was then to convince delegates to choose Tyler as a compromise candidate to unite the party. But the Democrats had other ideas. With the support of a large number of Andrew Jackson's supporters, the Democrats instead chose James K. Polk, the former Speaker of the House, as their candidate. The Tyler supporters were understandably disappointed. They gave their party's nomination on May 27, 1844, not surprisingly, to Tyler and Tyler announced his candidacy for the presidency after receiving the nomination. However Tyler also stated in his acceptance letter that annexation of Texas was his real goal rather than winning the election.
Over the summer, negotiations took place between Tyler and leading Democrats, led by Andrew Jackson. By late July and early August both Tyler and the Democrats were of one mind that neither wanted Tyler spoiling the election and giving the presidency to Henry Clay. Tyler was willing to go along with this as long as Polk was willing to commit to the annexation of Texas. Andrew Jackson sent word to Tyler saying that if the President withdrew from the race, that he would have the pleasure of taking Clay down with him, and that he and Polk were on the same page. Jackson also promised that Tyler's followers would be welcomed into the Democratic party, especially when it came to doling out patronage. In addition, Jackson ordered Democratic editors to stop their attacks on Tyler. That was enough for Tyler to announce the end of his candidacy on August 20th. He threw his support behind Polk.
Polk won a narrow victory over Clay in the November election. Tyler saw this a mandate for completing the annexation of Texas not by treaty, but by a resolution in both houses. Tyler announced in his annual message to Congress that "a controlling majority of the people and a large majority of the states have declared in favor of immediate annexation". In late February 1845, days before Polk's inauguration, the House approved a joint resolution offering annexation to Texas by a substantial margin—the Senate approved by a bare 27–25 majority, and three days before the end of his term, Tyler signed the bill into law.
After some debate, Texas accepted the terms and entered the union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state. Tyler's official White House portrait features him sitting with a large map of Texas on the table in front of him.