The 9th President William Henry Harrison is dead. And just 32 days after he took office. The government has been thrown into chaos, and Vice President John Tyler is stuck in limbo. William Henry Harrison’s cabinet met within one hour of his death, and debate about Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution began. This particular clause governed intra-term presidential succession, which had never had to be used up until this point. The cabinet determined that this clause only gave Vice President Tyler the powers of the presidency, and not the actual office of the Presidency. Well John Tyler whole heartedly disagreed with this. He quickly summed William Cranch the Chief Judge of the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia to this hotel room. In that hotel room Tyler had Cranch administer the oath of office of the Presidency, and John Tyler became our 10th President.
Tyler, like Harrison, was born into a prominent Virginia family descending from colonial Williamsburg. His father, John Tyler Sr. was a great friend and college roommate of Thomas Jefferson, served in the Virginia House of Delegates (with William Henry Harrison’s father), became a state judge, and U.S. district judge, and governor of Virginia. So as you can see, John Tyler was familiar with politics from birth.
Tyler entered college at William and Mary at the age of 12 and graduated from college at 17. He then studied and apprenticed in law for 2 years, and at age 19 was admitted to the Virginia bar (which was under the 21 years of age limit, but the admitting judge never asked him how old he was….). And 2 years after that, he would enter politics for the first time after being elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. He was elected to this position in 1811, and war was quickly looming over the horizon.
When the War of 1812 broke out, it wasn’t long until the British would invade Virginia. When they did so, Tyler organized a militia, and led it as their captain. They helped to defend the capital of Richmond
Over the next two decades, Tyler would serve in the U.S House of Representatives and the Virginia House of Delegates. And in 1824 as the Governor of Virginia, just like this father. Then in 1828 he would be elected to the U.S. Senate. Throughout Tyler’s career he was known to be an extremely strong supporter of state’s rights. Voting again and again against anything that would add more government oversite or regulation. This came to a crescendo with him being alienated from his party, which prompted him to join the newly formed Whig party, and eventually becoming President Pro Tempore of the Senate when the Whig party took control.
With the economy in it’s first recession largely due to Martin Van Buren’s administration, the election of 1840 was a critical one. William Henry Harrison was chosen as the Whig’s Presidential candidate. And John Tyler was chosen as the Vice-Presidential candidate. To be frank, not much thought was given into making Tyler the Vice-Presidential candidate. No President had ever not finished their term, and the role of Vice President was very minimal at that time. Tyler was a southern slave owner, and had support state’s slave rights, and they figured he would better be able to help secure the southern vote against the northern Van Buren.
This election of 1840 would go on to set the standard for the modern Presidential campaign. You would see the first true campaign ticket slogan and theme song, complete with attack ads and mudslinging. This was mainly due to the fact that the newly formed Whig party had no platform, they were brand new. Their opposition and distain for Van Buren was all they had to run on. They started out on a national speaking tour, included speeches given by Tyler, which was unusual for a Vice President candidate at the time. They were also the first campaign to mobilize women in their efforts, despite the fact that women couldn’t vote.
When the mudslinging started, the modern campaign was born. The Whigs labeled Van Buren as a wealthy snob, and out of touch with the common man. And in turn the Democrats labeled Harrison and Tyler as backwoods country boys, who would just want to sit around drinking hard cider and living in log cabins (a reference to Harrison’s time living in a log cabin in the western frontier), and Harrison as an old washed up military man. The Whigs used these insults as fuel, and the “Log Cabin Campaign” was born. They turned around the insults and labeled Harrison “the log cabin and hard cider candidate”, who understood and could relate to the everyday citizen (even though both Harrison and Tyler were likely both wealthier than Van Buren). The two candidates created the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler too”. Referring to William Henry Harrison’s nickname from the battle of Tippecanoe and his military service.
Playing to the insult, an image of a log cabin was used on all campaign materials, and hard cider was dispersed at their political rallies. Then came the songs. Glee clubs sprang up all across the U.S. singing campaign songs in support of the two. The most famous of which read “What has caused this great commotion, motion, our country through? It is the ball a-rolling on, for Tippecanoe and Tyler too, Tippecanoe and Tyler too, and with them, we’ll beat little Van, Van, Van. Van is a used-up man”. And “We shall vote for Tyler therefore/without a why or wherefore”.
As was discussed in the Martin Van Buren article, due to the country’s hard economic times, and Harrison and Tyler being seen as more in touch with the common man, they easily won the election. Tyler would travel to Washington and be sworn in as Vice President. He was also present during Harrison’s two-hour inauguration speech. Again, going back to an earlier point, Tyler was seen as unimportant, and even left Washington D.C. to go back and spend his time in Virginia. If Harrison had a question for his Vice President, he would send a letter down to Virginia for Tyler to respond too (which wasn’t often). Then Tyler started to get letters of Harrison’s sickness and rapidly degrading health. Not wanting to seem like he was anticipating Harrison’s death, Tyler didn’t even travel to Washington until he received word that Harrison had already passed away.
Now the man who was serving in the Vice Presidency as more of a formality, was all of a sudden in the role of President after only 32 days since the start of the term. Tyler would serve as President without being elected to the office longer than any other person who took over the office mid-term. As Tyler had always demonstrated in his political beliefs, he held to the fact that federal power should be limited (which isn’t often the President’s political thought process haha), and his Presidency was no different. His political opponents referred to him as “His Accidency” for the way he grabbed the position, and any mail they sent to him they labeled “vice president” or “acting President” (which he promptly returned unopened every time).
Adhering to his beliefs in limited federal power and decision making, Tyler vetoed numerous pieces of legislation dealing with things from national banks, to raising tariffs to pay for the recession’s budget deficit, to funds to make necessary repairs to the White House. His own party became so frustrated with his lack of support, that his whole cabinet resigned, and his Whig party-controlled Congress started impeachment proceedings against him (the first impeachment proceedings to ever take place against the President).
Even to the point that in the election on 1844 he tried to run as President representing the other party! (which obviously didn’t work). He formed his own third party but took so much heat that he stated he would drop out of the Presidential race and back the other candidate if the media and the party members would cease the attacks on him. They agreed, and Tyler removed himself from the election and endorsed the Democratic Party candidate.
After the presidency, some years later, Tyler would vote for Virginia to secede from the Union and was even elected to the Confederate House of Representatives. But he passed away from a stroke before the Confederate House’s first session.
Fun fact, John Tyler was born in 1790, and has two living grandsons in 2019 (yes, you read that correctly, but feel free to read again. GRANDSONS). Tyler’s son Lyon was born when Tyler was 63 (he had a daughter at 70), and Lyon’s two sons were born in 1924 and 1928 when Lyon was 71 and 75……. One currently lives in Franklin, TN and the other lives in John Tyler’s home town and in the family home in Charles City County, Virginia. The home is open daily for tours from 9am-5pm and you can meet grandson Harrison Ruffin Tyler. It’s the longest frame house in the United States and features 25 acres of gardens and landscaping.
Next week we will look at the man who Tyler promised he would endorse for President, who would go on to win the election of 1844.