Happy Birthday Your Accidency
On March 29, 1790 (223 years ago today) John Tyler, the 10th President of the United States and the first Vice-President of the United States to become President upon the death of a sitting President, was born in Charles City County, Virginia.
Tyler was born into an aristocratic Virginia family. Initially a Democrat, his opposition to Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren led him to alliance with the Whig Party. Tyler had been a state legislator, governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator before being elected Vice President in 1840. He succeeded William Henry Harrison when Harrison died suddenly on April 4, 1841 after only 31 days in office. A brief Constitutional crisis arose over how the succession process was supposed to work. Tyler asserted his right to the presidency and immediately moved into the White House, took the oath of office, and assumed full presidential powers. His precedent that would govern future successions and eventually be codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
Tyler's strong support of states' rights endeared him to his fellow Virginians but alienated him from the members of his Whig Party in Washington. His presidency was hamstrung by opposition from both parties. As President, Tyler opposed the Whig platform and vetoed several of their proposals. As a result, most of his cabinet resigned, and the Whigs expelled him from the party. They facetiously called him "his accidency."
In spite of his battles with Congress, he still had several foreign policy achievements, including the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain and the Treaty of Wanghia with Qing China. Tyler dedicated his last two years in office to the annexation of Texas. He sought re-election to a full term, but he had made enemies with both Whigs and Democrats and his efforts to form a new party failed. In the last days of his term, Congress passed the resolution authorizing the annexation of Texas.
Tyler retired from electoral politics until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. He sided with the Confederate government, and won election to the Confederate House of Representatives shortly before his death. Tyler's legacy is a matter of debate. In this excerpt from the American Presidents Series biography of John Tyler, author Gary May writes, at pages 147-8:
[John Tyler] felt personally connected to Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe and vigorously fought to belong to the Virgina dynsasty of Presidents. In retirement, he quickly answered his critics, who not only affected his future standing, but , despite all his wounds, still hurt him personally. "Every slight, every misrepresentation of his motives, cut him deeply," wrote biographer Robert Seager. Julia Tyler was especially worried about her husband's status and asked Robert Tyler and brother Alexander Gardiner to watch for hostile articles in the Eastern press and bring them immediately to the former president's attention. Tyler answered nearly every one and had his responses reprinted and distributed nationally. After his death, his children continued to promote his reputation. In 1885, son Lyon, soon to be president of the College of William and Mary, published a long and loving multivolume history of the family entitled The Letters and Times of the Tylers. It defended his father's administration against its critics, whom the family called "poor old fools." Lyon was still hard at work forty-four years later when he answered Time magazine's assertion that, compared to Abraham Lincoln, John Tyler was "historically a dwarf."
So far, the "poor old fools" have won - when they've remembered him at all, most analysts have concluded that John Tyler was a historical dwarf. Clinton Rossiter, the distinguished political scientist, believed that American political history from 1836 to 1860 was "a dull void" with "one bright spot": James K. Polk. When journalist-turned-historian Nathan Miller wrote about the presidency, he skipped Tyler, because, Miller believed, he was one of those lost nineteenth-century presidents once famously described by Thomas Wolfe: "Their gravely vacant and bewhiskered faces mixed, melted, swam together in the sea-depth of the past, intangible, immeasurable and unknowable." Indeed, the last two full Tyler biographies were written in 1939 and 1960, and in the latter, Tyler shared the stage with the colorful Gardner family.
Nor has Tyler fared well in the many presidential polls taken in the last forty years. From 1848, when Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. first asked historians to rate our chief executives, to a 2005 Wall Street Journal survey, Tyler has appeared near the bottom of every list. A 2007 U. S. News & World Report cover story on "America's Worst Presidents" placed Tyler sixth among the ten "most dismal Commanders-in-Chief." Adding insult to injury, Tyler's picture was on the magazine's red, white and blue cover beside three other honorees - Richard Nixon, Herbert Hoover and Ulysses S. Grant.
Some historians have been more positive. Norma Lois Peterson called the Tyler presidency "flawed", but insisted that others, especially the arrogant and vindictive Henry Clay, must share the blame for Tyler's failures on the domestic front. His solid achievements, especially in foreign policy, have been overlooked, and he often "demonstrated exemplary executive skill and common sense." William and Mary's Edward Crapol also concluded that Tyler "was a stronger and more effective president than generally remembered." But ultimately he considered Tyler "a tragic figure" in American history. Tyler's "self-inflicted" wound lay in a Republican philosophy that sought the extension and preservation of a slaveholding America, Crapol argued. When that vision collided with "a competing anti-slavery nationalism dedicated to free soil, free men and an end to slavery's expansion," Tyler found himself on the wrong side of history, left the Union, and died a traitor, his good deeds forever tainted by his final years.
It is unlikely that Tyler's historical reputation will ever recover from his last acts. Nevertheless, they should not obscure the importance of his presidency. For good and ill, Tyler preserved and defended the office from those who wished to fundamentally change it. By boldly assuming the full powers and prerogatives of the presidency upon Harrison's death, he established what came to be known as the "Tyler Precedent," not only by ensuring the orderly transfer of power in his time, but, by making the office the office "independent of death," guaranteeing that future accidental presidents could govern with authority. Americans apparently approved Tyler's decisive action when, in 1967, they ratified the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing that "In every case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President."
Tyler was born into an aristocratic Virginia family. Initially a Democrat, his opposition to Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren led him to alliance with the Whig Party. Tyler had been a state legislator, governor, U.S. representative, and U.S. senator before being elected Vice President in 1840. He succeeded William Henry Harrison when Harrison died suddenly on April 4, 1841 after only 31 days in office. A brief Constitutional crisis arose over how the succession process was supposed to work. Tyler asserted his right to the presidency and immediately moved into the White House, took the oath of office, and assumed full presidential powers. His precedent that would govern future successions and eventually be codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
Tyler's strong support of states' rights endeared him to his fellow Virginians but alienated him from the members of his Whig Party in Washington. His presidency was hamstrung by opposition from both parties. As President, Tyler opposed the Whig platform and vetoed several of their proposals. As a result, most of his cabinet resigned, and the Whigs expelled him from the party. They facetiously called him "his accidency."
In spite of his battles with Congress, he still had several foreign policy achievements, including the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain and the Treaty of Wanghia with Qing China. Tyler dedicated his last two years in office to the annexation of Texas. He sought re-election to a full term, but he had made enemies with both Whigs and Democrats and his efforts to form a new party failed. In the last days of his term, Congress passed the resolution authorizing the annexation of Texas.
Tyler retired from electoral politics until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. He sided with the Confederate government, and won election to the Confederate House of Representatives shortly before his death. Tyler's legacy is a matter of debate. In this excerpt from the American Presidents Series biography of John Tyler, author Gary May writes, at pages 147-8:
[John Tyler] felt personally connected to Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe and vigorously fought to belong to the Virgina dynsasty of Presidents. In retirement, he quickly answered his critics, who not only affected his future standing, but , despite all his wounds, still hurt him personally. "Every slight, every misrepresentation of his motives, cut him deeply," wrote biographer Robert Seager. Julia Tyler was especially worried about her husband's status and asked Robert Tyler and brother Alexander Gardiner to watch for hostile articles in the Eastern press and bring them immediately to the former president's attention. Tyler answered nearly every one and had his responses reprinted and distributed nationally. After his death, his children continued to promote his reputation. In 1885, son Lyon, soon to be president of the College of William and Mary, published a long and loving multivolume history of the family entitled The Letters and Times of the Tylers. It defended his father's administration against its critics, whom the family called "poor old fools." Lyon was still hard at work forty-four years later when he answered Time magazine's assertion that, compared to Abraham Lincoln, John Tyler was "historically a dwarf."
So far, the "poor old fools" have won - when they've remembered him at all, most analysts have concluded that John Tyler was a historical dwarf. Clinton Rossiter, the distinguished political scientist, believed that American political history from 1836 to 1860 was "a dull void" with "one bright spot": James K. Polk. When journalist-turned-historian Nathan Miller wrote about the presidency, he skipped Tyler, because, Miller believed, he was one of those lost nineteenth-century presidents once famously described by Thomas Wolfe: "Their gravely vacant and bewhiskered faces mixed, melted, swam together in the sea-depth of the past, intangible, immeasurable and unknowable." Indeed, the last two full Tyler biographies were written in 1939 and 1960, and in the latter, Tyler shared the stage with the colorful Gardner family.
Nor has Tyler fared well in the many presidential polls taken in the last forty years. From 1848, when Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. first asked historians to rate our chief executives, to a 2005 Wall Street Journal survey, Tyler has appeared near the bottom of every list. A 2007 U. S. News & World Report cover story on "America's Worst Presidents" placed Tyler sixth among the ten "most dismal Commanders-in-Chief." Adding insult to injury, Tyler's picture was on the magazine's red, white and blue cover beside three other honorees - Richard Nixon, Herbert Hoover and Ulysses S. Grant.
Some historians have been more positive. Norma Lois Peterson called the Tyler presidency "flawed", but insisted that others, especially the arrogant and vindictive Henry Clay, must share the blame for Tyler's failures on the domestic front. His solid achievements, especially in foreign policy, have been overlooked, and he often "demonstrated exemplary executive skill and common sense." William and Mary's Edward Crapol also concluded that Tyler "was a stronger and more effective president than generally remembered." But ultimately he considered Tyler "a tragic figure" in American history. Tyler's "self-inflicted" wound lay in a Republican philosophy that sought the extension and preservation of a slaveholding America, Crapol argued. When that vision collided with "a competing anti-slavery nationalism dedicated to free soil, free men and an end to slavery's expansion," Tyler found himself on the wrong side of history, left the Union, and died a traitor, his good deeds forever tainted by his final years.
It is unlikely that Tyler's historical reputation will ever recover from his last acts. Nevertheless, they should not obscure the importance of his presidency. For good and ill, Tyler preserved and defended the office from those who wished to fundamentally change it. By boldly assuming the full powers and prerogatives of the presidency upon Harrison's death, he established what came to be known as the "Tyler Precedent," not only by ensuring the orderly transfer of power in his time, but, by making the office the office "independent of death," guaranteeing that future accidental presidents could govern with authority. Americans apparently approved Tyler's decisive action when, in 1967, they ratified the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing that "In every case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President."