Presidents and Their Cabinets: John Tyler
In this series I have generally not looked at those Presidents who became president as the result of the death of an incumbent because they generally kept their predecessor's cabinet for the first part of the presidency and played little role in the cabinet-making process. Today's subject, John Tyler, was never elected president, and at first he kept his predecessor's cabinet. He is the subject of today's entry in the series for two reasons: (1) his cabinet resigned shortly after he became president, so he embarked on some cabinet making early in his presidency; and (2) today is his birthday.
John Tyler was born into a prominent Virginia family. He had initially been a Democrat, but had opposed Andrew Jackson during the Nullification Crisis. This caused Tyler to join the Whig Party. He had served as a Virginia state legislator, governor of that state, a member of the U.S. House of Representative, and a U.S. senator. He was put on the 1840 presidential ticket to attract states' rights Southerners to a Whig coalition to defeat Martin Van Buren's re-election bid.
Up to that point, the selection of a vice presidential candidate was considered unimportant. Up to then no president had failed to complete his elected term. Tyler did not help the ticket when his prediction that the Whigs would easily take Virginia was proven wrong. Nevertheless, the team of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler were victorious in the 1840 election, winning by an electoral vote of 234–60 and with 53 percent of the popular vote. The Whigs also gained control of both houses of Congress.
Tyler did not participate in the selection of William Henry Harrison's Cabinet. Harrison only asked his advice about whether two of Martin Van Buren's appointees should be dismissed from their government jobs. In both cases, Tyler recommended against it and Harrison followed his advice. The two men met briefly in Richmond in February, and reviewed a parade together but they did not talk about the make-up of the new cabinet.
Tyler was sworn in as the nation's 10th vice president on March 4, 1841, the same day as President Harrison's inauguration. Following Harrison's two-hour speech, Tyler returned to the Senate to receive the president's cabinet nominations. The next day he presided over the confirmations of the new cabinet members, a process that took a total of two hours. He then left Washington, returning to his home in Williamsburg.
Harrison's appointment of Daniel Webster as Secretary of State upset Henry Clay. In late March he came down with pneumonia and pleurisy. Webster sent word to Tyler of Harrison's illness on April 1. Two days later, Richmond attorney James Lyons wrote Tyler with the news that Harrison had taken a turn for the worse, remarking that "I shall not be surprised to hear by tomorrow's mail that General Harrison is no more." Tyler did not travel to Washington, afraid that doing so might appear unseemly, as if he was anticipating the president's death. On, April 5, Tyler learned that Harrison had died on the preceding day.
Harrison's death while in office was an unprecedented event that caused considerable uncertainty regarding presidential succession. No firm consensus existed about whether or not the vice president would fully assume the office of the presidency. Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the United States 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." The debate was whether this meant that the actual office of president "devolved upon the Vice-President", or merely the president's powers and duties. The Cabinet met within an hour of Harrison's death. They believed that Tyler would be "Vice-President acting President". John Tyler disagreed. Tyler firmly asserted that the Constitution gave him full and unqualified powers of the Presidency. He had himself sworn in immediately as president. This would come to set an important precedent for an orderly transfer of power following a president's death. The presidential oath was administered by Chief Judge William Cranch of the U.S. Circuit Court of the District of Columbia in Tyler's hotel room. Tyler at first questioned the necessity of taking the oath, arguing that it was redundant to his oath as vice president, but agreed to it out of an abundance of caution, in order to quell any doubt over his accession.
Tyler delivered an inaugural address before Congress on April 9 in which he reasserted his claim that he was now the President of the United States. This claim was met with resistance from many members of Congress. Representative (and former president) John Quincy Adams believed that Tyler should be a caretaker under the title of "Acting President", or remain vice president in name.This view was shared by Senator Henry Clay, who had planned to be the real power behind the throne while Harrison was President, and saw no reason why this shouldn't be the case with Tyler.
After some heated debate, a majority in Congress confirmed that Tyler's understanding was the correct one. But Tyler's opponents never fully accepted him as president. He was referred to by many mocking nicknames, including "His Accidency". They sent correspondence to the White House addressed to the "vice president" or "acting president", and Tyler would have it sent back to them unopened.
Tyler decided that he would retain Harrison's entire cabinet, but he soon found that many of them were openly hostile to him and resented him for assuming the presidency as he had done. At his first cabinet meeting, Tyler was informed that Harrison had let major policy decisions be resolved by a majority vote. According to Tyler's biographer Oliver Perry Chitwood, Tyler immediately dispelled them of the notion that this would be the case under his administration. He 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."
That is precisely what most of them did. When Tyler vetoed several Whig banking bills, in September 1841 all the members of the cabinet except Webster resigned in protest. Henry Clay was said to have engineered this. Undeterred, Tyler went about selecting a new cabinet.
Webster stayed on for two more years, but in May 1843 he resigned as Secretary of State. Tyler then replaced Webster with Abel Upshur, who had been a judge in Virginia. Upshur was first appointed as Secretary of the Navy in October of 1841 after the mass resignation of the rest of Harrison's old cabinet. When he became Secretary of State, Upshur focused on Tyler's priority of annexing the Republic of Texas. At that time, another Tyler loyalist, Thomas Gilmer, replaced Upshur as Secretary of the Navy.
The battles between Tyler and the Whigs in Congress resulted in four people he nominated to replace Harrison's cabinet being rejected, the most of any president. These were Caleb Cushing (for Treasury Secretary), David Henshaw (Navy), James Porter (War), and James S. Green (Treasury). Henshaw and Porter served as recess appointees before their rejections. Tyler repeatedly renominated Cushing, who was rejected three times in the same day, March 3, 1843.] Tyler was the first president to have his Cabinet nominees rejected by the Senate.
Tyler picked Pennsylvania lawyer Walter Forward as Treasury Secretary. Forward was an active supporter of the Harrison-Tyler ticket in 1840 and on March 6, 1841 he was appointed to be First Comptroller of the Treasury by Harrison. He served in that post until September 13, 1841, when he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Tyler. During his tenure as Treasury Secretary, the Independent Treasury System of 1840 was abolished, and the government's funds were once again deposited with commercial banks. Millard Fillmore, then chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, asked Forward to devise a plan to increase the tariff and to develop plans for a "Board of Exchequer" to receive and disburse customs revenue. In August 1842 a strongly protective tariff was passed. There was constant friction between Tyler and Forward because of Forward listening to what Congress wanted and not what the new President wanted. As a result, Forward left Tyler's cabinet on February 28, 1843.
New York Judge John Spencer, another Whig, was chosen as Secretary of War. As War Secretary, he recommended that the government adhere to agreements made by Army commanders for compensation of the Creek Indians, who had been forced to move west of the Mississippi. In 1842, his nineteen-year-old son, Philip Spencer, a midshipman, was executed without court-martial along with two other sailors aboard the USS Somers for allegedly attempting mutiny. In 1843, Spencer was appointed Secretary of the Treasury after the resignation of Walter Forward.
Former Sough Carolina Congressman Hugh S. Legaré was picked by Tyler to be the Attorney-General. He served in that office until his death. He also served as Secretary of State ad interim for just over a month from May 8, 1843, until his death on June 20 of that year. He died in Boston while attending ceremonies for the unveiling of the Bunker Hill Monument.
As Postmaster-General, Tyler picked Kentucky Congressman Charles Wickliffe. He had campaigned on behalf of Harrison and Tyler in 1840 and was a friend of Tyler's. The two of them had shared a room when they were both in Congress. Tyler's appointment angered Henry Clay because, though Clay and Wickliffe were both Kentucky Whigs, they disagreed on a number of issues. In the election of 1824, Wickliffe had unsuccessfully urged Clay to support Andrew Jackson. Wickliffe served in Tyler's administration for the remainder of Tyler's presidency. Wickliffe supported the annexation of Texas, an issue that helped seal Clay's defeat in the 1844 presidential canvass. In 1845, President James K. Polk sent Wickliffe as an envoy on a secret mission to the Republic of Texas.
Many of Tyler's later appointments, including Upshur and Gilmer, were followers of Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Their motive to assist in the annexation of Texas was to help Calhoun's 1844 presidential candidacy. Upshur and Gilmer were both killed in the explosion about the USS Princeton in February of 1844, following which Tyler brought in Calhoun as Secretary of State and John Y. Mason of Virginia as Secretary of the Navy. Later that year, when Secretary of the Treasury John C. Spencer left the cabinet and was replaced by George M. Bibb, Tyler's cabinet was left with just one Northerner, Secretary of War William Wilkins.
While many consider Tyler to be one of the more obscure presidents, his assertion of presidential authority without precedent is quite remarkable. Tyler believed that the president should set policy rather than Congress. He refused to kowtow to the Whig establishment, most notably Henry Clay. Tyler was the first president to see his veto of legislation overridden by Congress and although his lack of support in Congress resulted in a stalemate on domestic policy, he had several foreign-policy achievements, including the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain and the Treaty of Wanghia with Qing China. Tyler saw the annexation of Texas as providing an economic advantage to the United States, and he worked diligently to make it happen. He hoped to win election to a full term as president, but after failing to gain the support of either Whigs or Democrats, he withdrew in support of Democrat James K. Polk, who favored annexation. Polk won the election, and Tyler signed a bill to annex Texas three days before leaving office. Annexation was completed under Polk. There is more to President John Tyler than his historical obscurity suggests.
John Tyler was born into a prominent Virginia family. He had initially been a Democrat, but had opposed Andrew Jackson during the Nullification Crisis. This caused Tyler to join the Whig Party. He had served as a Virginia state legislator, governor of that state, a member of the U.S. House of Representative, and a U.S. senator. He was put on the 1840 presidential ticket to attract states' rights Southerners to a Whig coalition to defeat Martin Van Buren's re-election bid.
Up to that point, the selection of a vice presidential candidate was considered unimportant. Up to then no president had failed to complete his elected term. Tyler did not help the ticket when his prediction that the Whigs would easily take Virginia was proven wrong. Nevertheless, the team of William Henry Harrison and John Tyler were victorious in the 1840 election, winning by an electoral vote of 234–60 and with 53 percent of the popular vote. The Whigs also gained control of both houses of Congress.
Tyler did not participate in the selection of William Henry Harrison's Cabinet. Harrison only asked his advice about whether two of Martin Van Buren's appointees should be dismissed from their government jobs. In both cases, Tyler recommended against it and Harrison followed his advice. The two men met briefly in Richmond in February, and reviewed a parade together but they did not talk about the make-up of the new cabinet.
Tyler was sworn in as the nation's 10th vice president on March 4, 1841, the same day as President Harrison's inauguration. Following Harrison's two-hour speech, Tyler returned to the Senate to receive the president's cabinet nominations. The next day he presided over the confirmations of the new cabinet members, a process that took a total of two hours. He then left Washington, returning to his home in Williamsburg.
Harrison's appointment of Daniel Webster as Secretary of State upset Henry Clay. In late March he came down with pneumonia and pleurisy. Webster sent word to Tyler of Harrison's illness on April 1. Two days later, Richmond attorney James Lyons wrote Tyler with the news that Harrison had taken a turn for the worse, remarking that "I shall not be surprised to hear by tomorrow's mail that General Harrison is no more." Tyler did not travel to Washington, afraid that doing so might appear unseemly, as if he was anticipating the president's death. On, April 5, Tyler learned that Harrison had died on the preceding day.
Harrison's death while in office was an unprecedented event that caused considerable uncertainty regarding presidential succession. No firm consensus existed about whether or not the vice president would fully assume the office of the presidency. Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the United States 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." The debate was whether this meant that the actual office of president "devolved upon the Vice-President", or merely the president's powers and duties. The Cabinet met within an hour of Harrison's death. They believed that Tyler would be "Vice-President acting President". John Tyler disagreed. Tyler firmly asserted that the Constitution gave him full and unqualified powers of the Presidency. He had himself sworn in immediately as president. This would come to set an important precedent for an orderly transfer of power following a president's death. The presidential oath was administered by Chief Judge William Cranch of the U.S. Circuit Court of the District of Columbia in Tyler's hotel room. Tyler at first questioned the necessity of taking the oath, arguing that it was redundant to his oath as vice president, but agreed to it out of an abundance of caution, in order to quell any doubt over his accession.
Tyler delivered an inaugural address before Congress on April 9 in which he reasserted his claim that he was now the President of the United States. This claim was met with resistance from many members of Congress. Representative (and former president) John Quincy Adams believed that Tyler should be a caretaker under the title of "Acting President", or remain vice president in name.This view was shared by Senator Henry Clay, who had planned to be the real power behind the throne while Harrison was President, and saw no reason why this shouldn't be the case with Tyler.
After some heated debate, a majority in Congress confirmed that Tyler's understanding was the correct one. But Tyler's opponents never fully accepted him as president. He was referred to by many mocking nicknames, including "His Accidency". They sent correspondence to the White House addressed to the "vice president" or "acting president", and Tyler would have it sent back to them unopened.
Tyler decided that he would retain Harrison's entire cabinet, but he soon found that many of them were openly hostile to him and resented him for assuming the presidency as he had done. At his first cabinet meeting, Tyler was informed that Harrison had let major policy decisions be resolved by a majority vote. According to Tyler's biographer Oliver Perry Chitwood, Tyler immediately dispelled them of the notion that this would be the case under his administration. He 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."
That is precisely what most of them did. When Tyler vetoed several Whig banking bills, in September 1841 all the members of the cabinet except Webster resigned in protest. Henry Clay was said to have engineered this. Undeterred, Tyler went about selecting a new cabinet.
Webster stayed on for two more years, but in May 1843 he resigned as Secretary of State. Tyler then replaced Webster with Abel Upshur, who had been a judge in Virginia. Upshur was first appointed as Secretary of the Navy in October of 1841 after the mass resignation of the rest of Harrison's old cabinet. When he became Secretary of State, Upshur focused on Tyler's priority of annexing the Republic of Texas. At that time, another Tyler loyalist, Thomas Gilmer, replaced Upshur as Secretary of the Navy.
The battles between Tyler and the Whigs in Congress resulted in four people he nominated to replace Harrison's cabinet being rejected, the most of any president. These were Caleb Cushing (for Treasury Secretary), David Henshaw (Navy), James Porter (War), and James S. Green (Treasury). Henshaw and Porter served as recess appointees before their rejections. Tyler repeatedly renominated Cushing, who was rejected three times in the same day, March 3, 1843.] Tyler was the first president to have his Cabinet nominees rejected by the Senate.
Tyler picked Pennsylvania lawyer Walter Forward as Treasury Secretary. Forward was an active supporter of the Harrison-Tyler ticket in 1840 and on March 6, 1841 he was appointed to be First Comptroller of the Treasury by Harrison. He served in that post until September 13, 1841, when he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Tyler. During his tenure as Treasury Secretary, the Independent Treasury System of 1840 was abolished, and the government's funds were once again deposited with commercial banks. Millard Fillmore, then chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, asked Forward to devise a plan to increase the tariff and to develop plans for a "Board of Exchequer" to receive and disburse customs revenue. In August 1842 a strongly protective tariff was passed. There was constant friction between Tyler and Forward because of Forward listening to what Congress wanted and not what the new President wanted. As a result, Forward left Tyler's cabinet on February 28, 1843.
New York Judge John Spencer, another Whig, was chosen as Secretary of War. As War Secretary, he recommended that the government adhere to agreements made by Army commanders for compensation of the Creek Indians, who had been forced to move west of the Mississippi. In 1842, his nineteen-year-old son, Philip Spencer, a midshipman, was executed without court-martial along with two other sailors aboard the USS Somers for allegedly attempting mutiny. In 1843, Spencer was appointed Secretary of the Treasury after the resignation of Walter Forward.
Former Sough Carolina Congressman Hugh S. Legaré was picked by Tyler to be the Attorney-General. He served in that office until his death. He also served as Secretary of State ad interim for just over a month from May 8, 1843, until his death on June 20 of that year. He died in Boston while attending ceremonies for the unveiling of the Bunker Hill Monument.
As Postmaster-General, Tyler picked Kentucky Congressman Charles Wickliffe. He had campaigned on behalf of Harrison and Tyler in 1840 and was a friend of Tyler's. The two of them had shared a room when they were both in Congress. Tyler's appointment angered Henry Clay because, though Clay and Wickliffe were both Kentucky Whigs, they disagreed on a number of issues. In the election of 1824, Wickliffe had unsuccessfully urged Clay to support Andrew Jackson. Wickliffe served in Tyler's administration for the remainder of Tyler's presidency. Wickliffe supported the annexation of Texas, an issue that helped seal Clay's defeat in the 1844 presidential canvass. In 1845, President James K. Polk sent Wickliffe as an envoy on a secret mission to the Republic of Texas.
Many of Tyler's later appointments, including Upshur and Gilmer, were followers of Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Their motive to assist in the annexation of Texas was to help Calhoun's 1844 presidential candidacy. Upshur and Gilmer were both killed in the explosion about the USS Princeton in February of 1844, following which Tyler brought in Calhoun as Secretary of State and John Y. Mason of Virginia as Secretary of the Navy. Later that year, when Secretary of the Treasury John C. Spencer left the cabinet and was replaced by George M. Bibb, Tyler's cabinet was left with just one Northerner, Secretary of War William Wilkins.
While many consider Tyler to be one of the more obscure presidents, his assertion of presidential authority without precedent is quite remarkable. Tyler believed that the president should set policy rather than Congress. He refused to kowtow to the Whig establishment, most notably Henry Clay. Tyler was the first president to see his veto of legislation overridden by Congress and although his lack of support in Congress resulted in a stalemate on domestic policy, he had several foreign-policy achievements, including the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain and the Treaty of Wanghia with Qing China. Tyler saw the annexation of Texas as providing an economic advantage to the United States, and he worked diligently to make it happen. He hoped to win election to a full term as president, but after failing to gain the support of either Whigs or Democrats, he withdrew in support of Democrat James K. Polk, who favored annexation. Polk won the election, and Tyler signed a bill to annex Texas three days before leaving office. Annexation was completed under Polk. There is more to President John Tyler than his historical obscurity suggests.