|
 John Tyler
N 37° 32.028 W 077° 27.455
18S E 282854 N 4156929
Tenth President of the United States and the first Vice President to be elevated to the office of President by the death of his predecessor.
Waymark Code: WMQWF
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 09/19/2006
Views: 136
John Tyler was born on March 29, 1790 in Charles City County, Virginia. He studied law at the College of William and Mary and went on to serve in the Virginia General Assembly. After leaving the General Assembly he was twice elected Governor of Virginia. He also served in the United States Senate and helped for the Whig Party. He was a candidate for Vice President and was elected with President William Henry Harrison. On March 4, 1841 President Harrison and Vice-President Tyler were inaugurated. President Harrison’s delivered his inaugural address, which lasted for over 90-minutes and was delivered in the freezing cold. Shortly after the address Harrison was caught in a cold rain and contracted pneumonia. One month after taking office, William Henry Harrison died on April 4, 1841, making John Tyler the First Vice President to be elevated to the office of President due to the death of his predecessor. His presidency was rarely taken seriously in his time; he was usually referred to as the "Acting President" or "His Accidency" by opponents. Further, Tyler quickly found himself at odds with his former political supporters. Tyler was officially expelled from the Whig Party in 1841, a few months after taking office, and became known as "the man without a party". The entire cabinet he had inherited from Harrison resigned in September. In 1845, after nearly four turbulent years as President, John Tyler returned to Sherwood Forrest (http://www.sherwoodforest.org/ ),his plantation home near Richmond. He remained actived in politics in the years leading up to the Civil War and in November 1861 he was elected as a member of the Confederate House of Representatives. In January 1862, President Tyler arrived in Richmond for a meeting of the Confederate Congress. Shortly after his arrival he collapsed in a hotel dining room. Dianoised with bronchitis, President John Tyler never recovered and died on January 18, 1862. John Tylers body lay in state at the Confederate Congress with a Confederate Flag covering his casket. As a Confederate supported his death was virtually ignored by the government in Washington. Following his funeral at St. Paul’s Church in Richmond, President John Tyler was buried in Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery. His grave is located just a few steps away from the tomb of President James Monroe.
Description:
Dubbed "His Accidency" by his detractors, John Tyler was the first Vice President to be elevated to the office of President by the death of his predecessor.
Born in Virginia in 1790, he was raised believing that the Constitution must be strictly construed. He never wavered from this conviction. He attended the College of William and Mary and studied law.
Serving in the House of Representatives from 1816 to 1821, Tyler voted against most nationalist legislation and opposed the Missouri Compromise. After leaving the House he served twice as Governor of Virginia. As a Senator he reluctantly supported Jackson for President as a choice of evils. Tyler soon joined the states' rights Southerners in Congress who banded with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and their newly formed Whig party opposing President Jackson.
The Whigs nominated Tyler for Vice President in 1840, hoping for support from southern states'-righters who could not stomach Jacksonian Democracy. The slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" implied flagwaving nationalism plus a dash of southern sectionalism.
Clay, intending to keep party leadership in his own hands, minimized his nationalist views temporarily; Webster proclaimed himself "a Jeffersonian Democrat." But after the election, both men tried to dominate "Old Tippecanoe."
Suddenly President Harrison was dead, and "Tyler too" was in the White House. At first the Whigs were not too disturbed, although Tyler insisted upon assuming the full powers of a duly elected President. He even delivered an Inaugural Address, but it seemed full of good Whig doctrine. Whigs, optimistic that Tyler would accept their program, soon were disillusioned.
Tyler was ready to compromise on the banking question, but Clay would not budge. He would not accept Tyler's "exchequer system," and Tyler vetoed Clay's bill to establish a National Bank with branches in several states. A similar bank bill was passed by Congress, but again, on states' rights grounds, Tyler vetoed it.
In retaliation, the Whigs expelled Tyler from their party. All the Cabinet resigned but Secretary of State Webster. A year later when Tyler vetoed a tariff bill, the first impeachment resolution against a President was introduced in the House of Representatives. A committee headed by Representative John Quincy Adams reported that the President had misused the veto power, but the resolution failed.
Despite their differences, President Tyler and the Whig Congress enacted much positive legislation. The "Log-Cabin" bill enabled a settler to claim 160 acres of land before it was offered publicly for sale, and later pay $1.25 an acre for it.
In 1842 Tyler did sign a tariff bill protecting northern manufacturers. The Webster-Ashburton treaty ended a Canadian boundary dispute; in 1845 Texas was annexed.
The administration of this states'-righter strengthened the Presidency. But it also increased sectional cleavage that led toward civil war. By the end of his term, Tyler had replaced the original Whig Cabinet with southern conservatives. In 1844 Calhoun became Secretary of State. Later these men returned to the Democratic Party, committed to the preservation of states' rights, planter interests, and the institution of slavery. Whigs became more representative of northern business and farming interests.
When the first southern states seceded in 1861, Tyler led a compromise movement; failing, he worked to create the Southern Confederacy. He died in 1862, a member of the Confederate House of Representatives.
SOURCE/CREDIT: http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jt10.html
Date of birth: 03/29/1790
Date of death: 01/18/1862
Area of notoriety: Historical Figure
Marker Type: Monument
Setting: Outdoor
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Daily - 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Fee required?: No
Web site: [Web Link]
|
Visit Instructions:
To post a visit log for waymarks in this category, you must have personally visited the waymark location. When logging your visit, please provide a note describing your visit experience, along with any additional information about the waymark or the surrounding area that you think others may find interesting.
We especially encourage you to include any pictures that you took during your visit to the waymark. However, only respectful photographs are allowed. Logs which include photographs representing any form of disrespectful behavior (including those showing personal items placed on or near the grave location) will be subject to deletion.
|