56
JOHN
TYLER.
party. His friends still regarded him as a true
Jeffersonian, gave him a dinner, and showered
compliments upon him. He had now attained the age of
forty-six. His career had been very brilliant. In
consequence of his devotion to public business, his
private affairs had fallen into some disorder; and it
was not without satisfaction that he resumed the
practice of law, and devoted himself to the culture of
his plantation. Soon after this he removed to
Williamsburg, for the better education of his
children; and he again took his seat in the
Legislature of Virginia.
By the Southern Whigs., he was sent
to the national convention at Harrisburg to nominate a
President in 1839. The majority of votes were given to
Gen. Harrison, a genuine Whig, much to the
disappointment of the South, who wished for Henry
Clay. To conciliate the Southern Whigs and to secure
their vote, the convention then nominated John Tyler
for Vice President. It was well known that he was not
in sympathy with the Whig party in the North: but the
Vice President has but very little power in the
Government, his main and almost only duty being to
preside over the: meetings of the Senate. Thus it
happened that a Whig President, and, in reality, a
Democratic Vice President were chosen.
In 1841, Mr. Tyler was inaugurated
Vice President of the United States. In one short
month from that time, President Harrison died, and Mr.
Tyler thus found himself, to his own surprise and that
of the whole Nation, an occupant of the Presidential
chair. This was a new test of the stability of our
institutions, as it was the first time in the history
of our country that such an event had occured. Mr.
Tyler was at home in Williamsburg when he received the
unexpected tidings of the death of President Harrison.
He hastened to Washington, and on the 6th of April was
inaugurated to the high and responsible office. He was
placed in a position of exceeding delicacy and
difficulty. All his long life he had been opposed to
the main principles of the party which had brought him
into power. He had ever been a consistent, honest man,
with an unblemished record. Gen. Harrison had selected
a Whig cabinet. Should he retain them, and thus
surround himself with counsellors whose views were
antagonistic to his own? or, on the other hand, should
he turn against the party which had elected him and
select a cabinet in harmony with himself, and which
would oppose all those views which the Whigs deemed
essential to the public welfare? This was his fearful
dilemma. He invited the cabinet which President
Harrison had selected to retain their seats. He
reccommended (sic) a day of fasting and prayer, that
God would guide and bless us.
The Whigs carried through Congress a
bill for the incorporation of a fiscal bank of the
United States. The President, after ten days' delay,
returned it with his veto. He suggested, however. that
he would approve of a bill drawn up upon such a plan
as he proposed. Such a bill was accordingly prepared,
and privately submitted to him. He gave it his
approval. It was passed without alteration, and he
sent it back with his veto. Here commenced the open
rupture. It is said that Mr. Tyler was provoked to
this measure by a published letter from the Hon. John
M. Botts, a distinguished Virginia Whig, who severely
touched the pride of the President.
The opposition now exultingly
received the President into their arms. The party
which elected him denounced him bitterly. All the
members of his cabinet, excepting Mr. Webster,
resigned. The Whigs of Congress, both the Senate and
the House, held a meeting and issued an address to the
people of the United States, proclaiming that all
political alliance between the Whigs and President
Tyler were at an end.
Still the President attempted to
conciliate. He appointed a new cabinet of
distinguished Whigs and Conservatives, carefully
leaving out all strong party men. Mr. Webster soon
found it necessary to resign, forced out by the
pressure of his Whig friends. Thus the four years of
Mr. Tyler's unfortunate administration passed sadly
away. No one was satisfied. The land was filled with
murmurs and vituperation. Whigs and Democrats alike
assailed him. More and more, however, he brought
himself into sympathy with his old friends, the
Democrats, until at the close of his term, he gave his
whole influence to the support of Mr. Polk, the
Democratic candidate for his successor.
On the 4th of March, 1845, he
retired from the harassments of office, to the regret
of neither party, and probably to his own unspeakable
relief. His first wife, Miss Letitia Christian, died
in Washington, in 1842; and in June, 1844, President
Tyler was again married, at New York, to Miss Julia
Gardiner, a young lady of many personal and
intellectual accomplishments.
The remainder of his days Mr. Tyler
passed mainly in retirement at his beautiful
home,--Sherwood Forest, Charles-city Co., Va. A
polished gentleman in his manners, richly furnished
with information from books and experience in the
world, and possessing brilliant powers of
conversation, his family circle was the scene of
unusual attractions. With sufficient means for the
exercise of a generous hospitality, be might have
enjoyed a serene old age with the few friends who
gathered around him, were it not for the storms of
civil war which his own principles and policy had
helped to introduce.
When the great Rebellion rose, which
the State-rights and nullifying doctrines of Mr. John
C. Calhoun had inaugurated, President Tyler renounced
his allegiance to the United States, and joined the
Confederates. He was chosen a member of their
Congress; and while engaged in active measures to
destroy, by force of arms, the Government over which
he had once presided, he was taken sick and soon
died.
