John Tyler: President without a Party
The year was 1841. No president had ever before died in office. And then one did. Who would take over as chief executive? The Constitution was surprisingly vague on this question — until Vice President John Tyler took a firm stance. His actions changed the direction of American history. Jared Cohen, author of Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America, tells Tyler’s little-known story.
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Script:
A loud, persistent rapping woke United States Vice President John Tyler out of a sound sleep.
Clad in his sleeping frock and a cloth hat, an irritated Tyler opened the door. Two young men stood before him.
One of them handed the Vice President a document.
Tyler broke the seal and read.
“My God, the President is dead.”
The president was William Henry Harrison. He had been in office for only 31 days.
In America’s short history, this had never happened before. And no one, including the Vice President, was quite sure what to do.
It was April, 1841.
John Tyler, tall, thin, with an aquiline nose and regal bearing, was the quintessential southern gentleman. A long-time fixture in Virginia politics, he had served both as governor and senator. When Harrison, who was looking for someone to shore up his Southern base, offered him the VP slot, Tyler felt duty bound to accept.
The two men rode to an easy victory on the catchy slogan — one of the most memorable in presidential politics — “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.” (“Tippecanoe” referred to Harrison’s 1811 victory over hostile Indians at the Tippecanoe River in Indiana.)
On March 4, 1841, Harrison gave a rambling two-hour inauguration speech on a cold, rainy afternoon. Soon after, Tyler left town and returned to his plantation. He figured he could be vice president there just as well as he could in Washington, and a lot more comfortable.
It was at Tyler’s plantation that the messengers had delivered their fateful news.
When Tyler arrived in the nation’s capital, the only person who assumed that he was now president was Tyler.
Here’s why:
Article II of the Constitution reads as follows: “In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President.”
What does that mean?
It could easily mean that the Vice President was just a placeholder until a new President could be chosen by Congress or by a special election. That’s what John Quincy Adams the former President and now Massachusetts congressman believed. And many agreed with him.
Tyler took a decidedly different view.
If possession is nine-tenths of the law. Tyler had possession. And he wasn’t going to let go.
Thus, an historical precedent was forever established: in the event of the death of the President, the Vice President serves out the remaining term. We take this smooth transition for granted now, but only because of what Tyler did.
His first crisis solved, he immediately stepped into another.
Tyler was a member of the Whig Party. The Whigs were formed to oppose the Democrats which had been created and dominated by the seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson. The big issue for the Whigs was the establishment of a national bank which they saw as a way to get cheap credit to farmers to finance westward expansion. The Democrats, taking their lead from Jackson, hated the idea of giving power to what they believed were corrupt New York money interests.
Tyler, even though he was Whig, disliked the idea of a national bank as much as Jackson did. When Congress, then dominated by the Whigs, passed a national bank bill, Tyler vetoed it — twice. The Whigs were so incensed, they kicked Tyler out of the party.
By his second year in office, he was a President without a party.
One could fairly ask, why, if Tyler opposed the National Bank, was he Whig at all. The answer reveals both the strength and weakness of that party. The strength was that it was catch-all for anyone who didn’t like the Democrats — this included, oddly enough, both Northern abolitionists and Southern slave-owners like Tyler. Abraham Lincoln, it should be remembered, was elected to Congress as a Whig. The weakness of the party was that it had no unifying platform. No two members could agree on any one thing — except that they hated the Democrats, of course.
Tyler thought he could use this confusion to his advantage to win a second term. His plan depended on achieving one enormous goal, bringing the Lone Star Republic of Texas into the United States. Texas, Tyler believed, would unite Whigs who favored westward expansion and Southern Democrats who liked the idea of adding a new slave state.
For the full script, visit: https://www.prageru.com/video/john-tyler-president-without-a-party
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I forgot to tell that he’s the first of two presidents Congress failed to impeach. He wasn’t that great of a president; but at least, he’s not as awful as James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson were
The story you told about how Tyler was notified of Harrison’s death is almost as interesting as how Calvin Coolidge would be sworn in almost a century later after Harding died. When notified for Harding’s death, Coolidge took the oath in his parlor and then went back to bed.
Poor guy, I thought the constitution was going to force them to kill him too🤣
John Tyler is one of our best President
He was buried with the confederate flag.☹️
Just hearing it put so matter-of-factly: "…a traitor to The Union…" really brings the sadness home.
Since taking office, leader of the Senate, Henry Clay, hated John Tyler because he believed that it should have been him to take the office since he was close behind Harrison during the Whig National Convention and considered himself leader of the Whigs. Regardless, after the two vetoes of a national bank bill pushed by a Congress controlled by the Whigs, Clay pushed to kick Tyler out of the party and demanded his cabinet resign as well, which all but one did. Just to spite Tyler, it would be Clay that would spearhead the opposition toward Tyler's interest in annexing Texas. It would of course backfire against him during the Presidential election of 1844.
One of the more forgotten Presidents (along with Hayes, Taylor, and both Harrisons).
Tyler, in the 1860s could not be called a "Traitor to the Union", as there were no persons at the time who considered themselves "Americans". Rather, everyone considered themselves as citizens of the various states.
Those people, who were citizens of the states that voted to secede from the union of states and elected to remain loyal to those states were not, by definition "Traitors". They were, in fact "Patriots".
Fun fact: Prior to the US Civil War, US official correspondence with foreign entities always stated "The United States of America ARE……..", but after the war: "The United States of America IS…."
Only after the war did the nation consider itself one, single entity.
Let me get this straight… a man that says that Tyler "died a traitor to the union" is telling us what to think about John Tyler? If you assert things like that then you can not possibly understand John Tyler. Also, Tyler acknowledged secession as a right but he was not a supporter of secession itself. He thought that secession was a bad idea but he believed it was a right. he served in the Confederate congress not because he was a supporter of the Confederacy itself but because his people had elected him to represent them in a body of government and he agreed to represent them. We need more politicians like that today. Politicians who acknowledge that they are there to serve their people not the other way around.
Also, this video misses one of the the most interesting facts about Tyler. His father was a dear friend of Thomas Jefferson and he grew up at the knee of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson loved to have debates with Tyler's father and invited him over quite frequently, multiple times a week sometimes. Monticello was basically Tyler's second home.
Do you get tiny hats when you graduate from Prager U
A traitor? Knock it off.
I can't fap to this 0/10.
I waited the whole video for the shoe to drop, but in the end it's just an informative video and fairly even handed about a president. Never thought I'd say this but well done prageru.
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." John Tyler levied war against the US and was in support of the breakup of the union. He was absolutely a traitor, and anyone here that denies that is either mislead, or a confederate apologist.
So the Whigs were the Libertarian party of their day.
Jared tarnished his reputation by his traitorous comment.
The only “traitors to the union” were the ones who clearly levied war against what they considered to be States within the USA union. One of the foundations to any union is the fact that it’s members have the sovereignty to continually choose to be in the union. Lincoln cowardly and treasonously fought against that so as to destroy the union and form one government overpowering what otherwise would be sovereign nations.
He wasn’t a traitor and his legacy has not been tarnished merely because he was elected to serve in the Confederate Congress. You need to read the US Constitution’s definition of Treason, which does not include being a Secessionist nor being a member of a foreign Congress.
Tyler was NOT a traitor. He adhered to the principles that were the foundation of the United States. Lincoln took office with 41% of the popular vote, abolished the Bill Of Rights, and proceeded to kill over 600,000 Americans and countless American Indians.
Looks like most of us thought this was fairly even-handed and useful until the end and the "traitor" comment. Keeps us wary of PU and only partaking with a grain of salt.
This is exactly why PragerU should never be taken seriously: John Tyler fought heroically unconstitutional acts by the Congress. When it came time to defend his State against Unconstitutional usurpation by Lincoln he once again sided with his State of Virginia. Lincoln was the one who continually tarnished his legacy.
Right…because invoking your Constitutional rights and not wanting to be under the thumb of a bloodthirsty lunatic who got off to stories of slaughter makes you a traitor.
You say traitor I say hero for states rights.
For the love of God please revert back to the previous thumbnails.
John G. Paton was a missionary who evangelised a violent island where everyone, both men and woman, wear little to no clothing. In his book, The Story of John G. Paton or Thirty Years Among South Sea Cannibals, John G. Paton records this incident about a native man and woman who became Christians and then wanted to marry but feared they would be killed because there were a few men who wanted to marry the woman.
In a few seconds, Yakin entered and if Nelwang’s bearing and appearance were rather inconsistent with the feeling of worship (he was wearing a shirt, kilt and tommahawk, John G. Paton felt it inappropriate to wear an emblem of violence to church)– and what on earth was I to do when the figure and costume of Yakin began to reveal itself marching in?
The first visible difference betwixt a Heathen and a Christian is that the Christian wears some clothing, the Heathen wears none. Yakin had determined to show the extent of her Christianity by the amount of clothing she could carry upon her person. Being a Chief’s widow before she became Nelwang’s bride, she had some idea of state occasions and appeared dressed in every article of European apparel, mostly portions of male attire, that she could beg or borrow from about the premises!
Her bridal gown was a man’s drab-coloured great-coat, put on above her native grass skirts and sweeping down to her heels, buttoned tight. Over this she had hung on a vest and above that, again, most amazing of all, she had superinduced a pair of men's trousers, planting the body of them on her neck and shoulders and leaving her head and face looking out from between the legs – a leg from either side streaming over her bosom, arid, dangling down absurdly in front! Fastened to the one shoulder also there was a red shirt and to the other a striped shirt waving about her like wings as she sailed along. Around her head, a red shirt had been twisted like a turban, and her notions of art demanded that a sleeve thereof should have a loft over each of her ears! She seemed to be a moving monster-loaded with a mass of rags.
The day was excessively hot, and the perspiration poured over her face in streams. She, too, sat as near to me as she could get on the woman’s side of the church. Nelwang looked at me and then at her smiling quietly, as if to say, “You never saw in all your white world, a bride so grandly dressed!”
I little thought what I was bringing on myself when I urged them to come to church. The sight of that poor creature sweltering before me constrained me for once to make the service very short – perhaps the shortest I ever conducted in all my life! The day ended in peace. The two souls were extremely happy, and I praised God that what might have been a scene of bloodshed had closed thus, even though it were in a kind of wild grotesquerie!
Tyler was a constitutionalist. One of the best imo. Many presidents broke their oath, I don’t feel he did. How was he a traitor lol?
I wonder what a Harrison administration would have been like.
Oh what a switch! A DEMOCRAT HATED the idea of giving power to corrupt New York money interests!
I did not know Tyler was a traitor like Bennidict Arnold or Joe Biden.