geekyUp to that point John Tyler, Harrison's Vice-President, had been a non-entity in the new administration, and this only emboldened leaders in Congress to adopt an interpretation of the Constitution that inflated their powers and denigrated the authority of the Vice-President. John Tyler was sworn in as Vice-President on March 4, 1841, in the Senate chamber. He delivered a three-minute speech about states' rights, and then he began performing his first official duty of that office: before swearing in the new senators and attending President Harrison's inauguration. Following Harrison's two-hour speech on that cold March 4th, Tyler returned to the Senate to receive the President's Cabinet nominations. He hadn't offered his opinions to Harrison about who should be in the cabinet, and Harrison never solicited Tyler's advice on the matter. Tyler presided over the confirmations the following day on March 5th. That took him a total of two hours as President of the Senate. Expecting few responsibilities, he then left Washington, quietly returning to his home in Williamsburg, Virginia. In the words of historian Robert Seager, in his Tyler biography And Tyler Too: A Biography of John and Julia Gardiner Tyler, "Had William Henry Harrison lived, John Tyler would undoubtedly have been as obscure as any vice-president in American history." In those days the Vice-President didn't even attend cabinet meetings and John Tyler was no exception to that practice.
In late March after Harrison came down with pneumonia and became quite ill, Secretary of State Daniel Webster sent word to Tyler of Harrison's illness on April 1. Two days later, Richmond attorney James Lyons wrote with the news that the president had taken a turn for the worse. In his letter, Lyons wrote: "I shall not be surprised to hear by tomorrow's mail that Gen'l Harrison is no more." Tyler decided not to travel to Washington. He thought it might appear unseemly if he did, as if he was anticipating the president's death. At dawn on April 5, 1841 (176 years ago today) Daniel Webster's son Fletcher, who was the Chief Clerk of the State Department, arrived at Tyler's plantation with a letter from Webster, informing Tyler that Harrison had died the previous morning.
Harrison's unprecedented death caused considerable confusion as to who would perform the President's duties. At the time the Constitution 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.
A debate immediately ensued as to whether the actual office of President "devolved" upon Vice President Tyler, or only its powers and duties. But in John Tyler's opinion, there was nothing to debate about the matter. Tyler arrived in Washington at 4:00 a.m. on April 6, 1841, and he had made up his own mind that he was now the President of the United States. He took the oath of office in his hotel room. The oath was administered by Judge William Cranch, Chief Judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, a judge who hailed from Massachusetts. However in Tyler's opinion, the oath was redundant to the oath he had already taken as Vice President. Out of an abundance of caution, he took the oath anyway.
Immediately after his inauguration, Tyler called Harrison's cabinet into a meeting. At that meeting, Secretary of State Daniel Webster informed Tyler of Harrison's practice of making decisions by a majority vote of cabinet. The cabinet expected Tyler to continue this practice, but Tyler is quoted as having told them:
I beg your pardon, gentlemen. I am very glad to have in my Cabinet such able statesmen as you have proved yourselves to be. And I shall be pleased to avail myself of your counsel and advice. But I can never consent to being dictated to as to what I shall or shall not do. I, as President, shall be responsible for my administration. I hope to have your hearty co-operation in carrying out its measures. So long as you see fit to do this, I shall be glad to have you with me. When you think otherwise, your resignations will be accepted.
Tyler delivered an inaugural address on April 9, 1841, but his assertion that he was President was not immediately accepted by opposition members in Congress. Congressman (and former President) John Quincy Adams, took the position that Tyler was merely a caretaker and should either be called "Acting President", or remain Vice President. Another who questioned Tyler's authority was Whig leader Henry Clay. Clay wanted to be the real power behind the presidency. He too saw Tyler as the "Vice-President" and considered his presidency as a mere "regency".
But Tyler managed to convince a majority of legislators of his position and on June 1, 1841, both houses of Congress passed resolutions declaring Tyler the 10th President of the United States. In both houses of Congress, unsuccessful amendments were offered to strike the word "president" in favor of language suggesting a lesser rank such as "vice president" of "acting president", but these failed to pass.
John Tyler became the first U.S. Vice President to assume the office of President upon the death of the incumbent, establishing a precedent that would be followed seven times later. In 1967 Tyler's action of assuming both the full powers and the title of the presidency was legally codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
Despite the Senate and House resolutions of support, Tyler's detractors like Clay and Adams, refused to accept him as President. He was referred to by many nicknames by his detractors, including "His Accidency". However, Tyler never wavered from his conviction that he was the rightful President. When his political opponents sent correspondence to the White House addressed to him as "Vice President" or "Acting President," Tyler had it returned unopened.
In an assessment of the significance of Tyler's insistence on assuming the full mantle of the presidency, the Miller Center, an affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes on presidential scholarship, public policy and political history, concludes as follows:
"[T]he very stubbornness that undermined Tyler's work as President led to his greatest contribution to the office. By claiming the right to a fully functioning and empowered presidency instead of relinquishing the office or accepting limits on his powers, Tyler set a hugely important precedent. And while it is doubtless that the presidency's first veto override—on his last day in office—brought little joy to the troubled President, it was instrumental in establishing the critical system of inter-branch checks and balances. The orderly transfer of power at the beginning of Tyler's term and the veto override that ended it both demonstrated that the system worked."