PR10
John Tyler
At a Glance
10th President of the United States (1841-1845)
Born: March 29, 1790, Charles City County, Virginia
Nickname: "Accidental President;" "His Accidency"
Formal Education: College of William and Mary (graduated 1807)
Religion: Episcopalian
Marriage: March 29, 1813, to Letitia Christian (1790-1842); June 26, 1844, to Julia Gardiner (1820-1889)
Children: Mary (1815-1848), Robert (1816-1877), John (1819-1896), Letitia (1821-1907), Elizabeth (1823-1850), Anne Contesse (1825), Alice (1827-1854), Tazewell (1830-1874), David Gardiner (1846-1927), John Alexander (1848-1883), Julia Gardiner (1849-1871), Lachlan (1851-1902), Lyon Gardiner (1853-1935), Robert Fitzwalter (1856-1927), Pearl (1860-1947)
Career: Lawyer
Political Affiliation: Democrat, Whig
Died: January 18, 1862, Richmond, Virginia
Buried: Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia
Presidential Life in Brief: On the day of his inaugural, William Henry Harrison gave a rambling two-hour speech outdoors in freezing weather without coat or hat. A month later he was dead. Tyler, who was Harrison’s Vice President and had returned to his Virginia plantation after the inaugural, was rushed to Washington to fill the vacant presidency. Because no President had ever died in office before, some felt that Tyler was merely an acting or interim President. Tyler firmly asserted that the Constitution gave him full and unqualified powers of office and had himself sworn in immediately as President, setting a critical precedent for an orderly transfer of power following a President's death. Fearing that he would alienate Harrison's supporters, Tyler decided to keep the dead President's entire cabinet even though several members were openly hostile to Tyler and resented his assumption of the office. After Tyler vetoed a bill to resurrect the Bank of the United States, his entire cabinet resigned in protest, with the exception of Secretary of State Webster, then in the midst of sensitive negotiations with Great Britain. During his second year in office, the Whigs, led by Henry Clay, expelled him from the party and tried to have him impeached. The Whigs had to settle for one of their committees passing a resolution of censure against the President.
In a bid for reelection, Tyler worked to annex Texas, against the wishes of abolitionists who feared that it would become another slave state. Tyler's Democratic rival, James Polk, blunted the issue by also endorsing Texas statehood. Tyler pushed ahead though, introducing Texas annexation to Congress as a joint resolution requiring only a majority vote of each chamber of Congress, thereby dodging the two-thirds majority required to ratify a treaty. This approach succeeded in achieving Texas's incorporation into the Union.
The 1844 presidential election boiled down to a fight between Tyler, Polk, and Henry Clay. Fearing that he and Polk might split the vote, handing the election to Clay, Tyler voluntarily withdrew, consoling himself that at least he took Clay down with him. In a final insult, Congress overrode his veto of a military appropriation, marking the first override of a presidential veto in American history.