John Tyler: His Accidency

Early Life and Family

John Tyler was born on March 29, 1790 in Charles City County, Virginia — the son of a judge and Governor of Virginia. He graduated from the College of William & Mary at 17 and was admitted to the bar at 19. A Virginia states'-rights Democrat by conviction, he had broken with Andrew Jackson over the Nullification Crisis and drifted into the Whig party almost by accident — sharing their opposition to Jackson without sharing much else.

His first wife, Letitia Christian, died in the White House in 1842 — the first First Lady to die while her husband was president. In 1844, Tyler married Julia Gardiner, a woman 30 years his junior, becoming the first president to marry while in office. He had 15 children total — more than any other president — and his family longevity was extraordinary: two of his grandsons were still alive as recently as 2020.

Before the Presidency

Tyler served in the Virginia legislature, as Governor of Virginia, and in the U.S. Senate. He resigned his Senate seat in 1836 rather than follow instructions from the Virginia legislature to vote for censure expunction — a principled stand that left him politically homeless. He was added to the Whig ticket in 1840 purely for geographic and electoral balance, with little expectation that he would ever actually govern.

The Presidency (1841–1845)

Establishing Succession

When Harrison died, Tyler immediately declared himself president — not "acting president" — moved into the White House, and refused all correspondence addressed otherwise. His insistence on full presidential authority was contested but ultimately prevailed, establishing the Tyler Precedent that governed vice presidential succession for 126 years until the 25th Amendment.

What He Built

• Annexation of Texas (1845): Tyler's most consequential act — signed into law just three days before leaving office. Texas had been an independent republic since 1836; its annexation set the stage for the Mexican-American War and the eventual addition of the Southwest to the United States.
• Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842): Resolved long-standing boundary disputes between the U.S. and Canada, averting potential war with Britain.
• Preemption Act (1841): Allowed settlers to purchase land they had already settled at the minimum price — a significant opening of western land.

Controversies and Failures

• Expelled from the Whig Party: Tyler vetoed the core Whig legislative agenda — twice. His entire Cabinet resigned (except Secretary of State Webster). The Whigs formally expelled him from the party, leaving him the only president with no party affiliation.
• Impeachment proceedings: The House voted to investigate impeachment charges against Tyler — the first such proceedings in American history. The impeachment resolution failed, but the proceedings established that Congress could hold a president accountable.
• Confederate sympathiser: Near the end of his life Tyler was elected to the Confederate Congress. He died in January 1862 before taking his seat, and the U.S. government did not officially mourn his passing — the only president so treated.

Death

Tyler died on January 18, 1862 in Richmond, Virginia, at age 71 — of bronchitis and bilious fever. He had been elected to the Confederate House of Representatives and was preparing to take his seat. The U.S. government did not announce his death or fly flags at half-staff. He was mourned in the Confederacy; the Union largely ignored him.

Legacy and Writings

Tyler's legacy is ambiguous. His constitutional contribution — establishing that the vice president fully becomes president, not merely acting president — is immense and shapes American government to this day. His annexation of Texas permanently changed the map of the country. But his Confederate sympathies cast a shadow over his final years, and he is the only president whose death went officially unacknowledged by the federal government.