February 22, 2024 – Theme Week Day 4

We’re still in our theme week of Obscure Presidents! Today we’re talking about our 10th president, John Tyler. He was born into a prominent Virginia family and served as a Virginia state legislator and governor, U.S. representative and U.S. senator.
In 1840, he was elected Vice President on the Whig ticket with president William Henry Harrison. Harrison died just 31 days into his term, and Tyler became the first vice president to succeed to the presidency. There was some uncertainty about whether a VP succeeded a deceased president or just took on his duties. But, resolute that he was the rightful president, Tyler had himself sworn in immediately, moved into the White House, and assumed full presidential powers. This set a critical precedent for an orderly transfer of power after a president’s death, which wasn’t formalized until the passage of 25th Amendment in 1967.
Tyler’s opponents never fully accepted him as president, giving him the nickname “His Accidency”. He faced a stalemate on domestic policy, but was more successful with international issues. His administration negotiated a treaty that settled a contentious territorial dispute with the United Kingdom, and Tyler also emphasized American interests in the Pacific and brokered a commercial treaty with China. During his last two years in office, Tyler pressed for the annexation of Texas, which the senate approved as his term was expiring in 1845. Tyler signed the bill for Texas statehood just 3 days before leaving office. The city of Tyler, Texas was named after him.
Tyler fathered more children than any other president – 15! He had 8 children with his first wife, Letitia. Two years after she died of a stroke, Tyler remarried, wedding Julia Gardiner who was 30 years younger than him. They had 7 children. Tyler still has one living grandson, who was born in 1928. That makes him the earliest former president with a living grandchild.
After leaving Washington, Tyler retired to his plantation in Virginia. He remained popular in the South, and when the Confederacy seceded at the start of the Civil War, Tyler was elected to the Congress of the Confederate States of America. He died before it assembled in 1862 at the age of 71. Because of his allegiance to the Confederate States of America, Tyler’s death was the only one in presidential history not to be officially recognized in Washington. Tyler’s presidency is generally held in low esteem by historians and scholars. Learn more here.