Sparks Commentary: John Tyler: The only US president to take part in the Confederate government

“I do solemnly swear [that] I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

– Text of the presidential oath of office (as taken by John Tyler), from the United States Constitution (written 1787), Article 2, Section 1, Paragraph 7

When the American Civil War began in 1861, the former president John Tyler initially supported a peace conference. When that failed, John Tyler sided with the Confederacy. He was a slaveholding Virginian, and would preside over the opening of the Virginia Secession Convention. John Tyler would even serve as a member of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States. Later on, he won election to the Confederate House of Representatives, but died before it was first assembled. Earlier in his career, John Tyler had been the tenth president of the United States. He had presided over this very same Union, from which he was now voting to secede. John Tyler is thus the only president who took an active part in the Confederate government. When he died, John Tyler’s coffin was draped with a Confederate flag – the only president ever laid to rest, under a different flag from that of the United States. But who was John Tyler? What is the legacy of his presidency? And where did this man come from?

John Tyler

Early life and career, through the presidential elections of 1840

John Tyler was born in 1790, on a plantation in Virginia. The family owned some slaves. Tyler’s father had enjoyed a political career of his own, and was a friend and college roommate of Thomas Jefferson. The elder Tyler would serve in the Virginia House of Delegates, alongside Benjamin Harrison the Fifth – the father of future president William Henry Harrison, the future running mate of John Tyler. In addition to becoming Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, John Tyler’s father also served as a state court judge, and then as the Governor of Virginia. The father would then serve as a federal judge. Ironically, John Tyler was a fan of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations,” a book that opposed slavery. (More about that here.) John Tyler read for the law with his own father, and then with Edmund Randolph, a former Governor of Virginia and Founding Father. John Tyler then practiced law for a time. In 1811, Tyler began his own rise in Virginia state politics. John Tyler soon served as a United States Congressman from Virginia, and later became the Governor of Virginia like his father before him. He then became a United States Senator from Virginia, and even the President pro tempore of the United States Senate. Tyler had been a member of various parties at various times. These included the Democratic-Republican Party, and Andrew Jackson’s Democratic Party. But, in 1834, he joined the new Whig Party. In 1836, the Whigs were unable to unite behind a single candidate. Thus, they fielded four Whig candidates in 1836, including someone named Hugh L. White. Mr. White was the second-most-popular Whig candidate that year, and his running mate was then John Tyler. But the most popular Whig candidate was William Henry Harrison, Tyler’s future running mate. William Henry Harrison’s running mate was then Francis Granger. All of the Whig candidates combined got 49% of the popular vote, and 42.2% of the electoral vote. But Martin Van Buren won 50.8% of the popular vote, and 57.8% of the electoral vote. Thus, the election instead went to Martin Van Buren. Nonetheless, William Henry Harrison had gotten his name out there in 1836. And, four years later, Harrison would run against Van Buren again in 1840.

John Tyler

John Tyler becomes Harrison’s vice president, but Harrison soon dies of natural causes

In 1839, the Whigs held their first national convention. Again, there were other Whig candidates, like Henry Clay and Winfield Scott. But the Whigs were now finally able to unite behind one candidate: William Henry Harrison. To this day, it is not clear how his 1840 running mate was chosen. But it is clear that, this time, Harrison’s running mate would be 50-year-old John Tyler. Harrison had the nickname of “Old Tippecanoe,” from winning the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe. Thus, Harrison and Tyler’s slogan was “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.” On the Democratic side, President Martin Van Buren was easily re-nominated, but his vice president (Richard Mentor Johnson) was not. In fact, the Democrats did not have any vice-presidential candidate at all that year. Martin Van Buren then won 46.8% of the popular vote in 1840, and 20.4% of the electoral vote. Harrison and Tyler won 52.9% of the popular vote in 1840 (an actual majority), and 79.6% of the electoral vote. Thus, William Henry Harrison had just been elected the ninth president of the United States. And John Tyler had been elected as his vice president. William Henry Harrison took the oath of office in March 1841 (presidents were then inaugurated on March 4th). But, on April 4th, William Henry Harrison then unexpectedly died. Harrison had been in office for only 31 days. The causes of Harrison’s illness are still debated today, but we do know that Harrison died of natural causes. And, crucially for John Tyler, Harrison’s death was perceived by the public as being by natural causes.

John Tyler receives the news of William Henry Harrison’s death, 1841

Thus, John Tyler became the new president upon his predecessor’s death

But there was still some debate about the constitutional status of John Tyler’s presidency. The Constitution had said that “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, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.” (Source: Article 2, Section 1, Paragraph 5) Thus, people wondered whether John Tyler was just to “act” as president, or whether he would actually become president himself. But John Tyler then took the presidential oath of office, setting an important precedent. That is, the next in line would actually become president himself. It was the right decision to recognize John Tyler as the new president of the United States. But Tyler was promising to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” (see the citation at the beginning of this blog post). He would later break this oath, when he took part in the Confederacy after his presidency.

John Tyler

A brief overview of Mr. Tyler’s presidency, in which he fails to obtain a second term

But John Tyler was now to serve as the tenth president of the United States. As Wikipedia puts it, John Tyler “signed into law some of the Whig-controlled Congress's bills, but he was a strict constructionist and vetoed the party's bills to create a national bank and raise tariff rates. He believed that the president, rather than Congress, should set policy, and he sought to bypass the Whig establishment led by Senator Henry Clay. Most of Tyler's cabinet resigned shortly into his term and the Whigs expelled him from the party, dubbing him ‘His Accidency’. Tyler was the first president to have his veto of legislation overridden by Congress. He faced a stalemate on domestic policy, although he had several foreign-policy achievements, including the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain and the Treaty of Wanghia with China. Tyler firmly believed in manifest destiny and saw the annexation of Texas as economically advantageous to the United States, signing a bill to offer Texas statehood just before leaving office and returning to his plantation.” (Source: Their page on “John Tyler”) This page also says that “Tyler did make progress in combining the American and British navies to stop oceanic African slave trafficking under the Webster–Ashburton Treaty. That treaty also peacefully settled the border between Maine and Canada.” (Source: Their page on “John Tyler”) Since his expulsion from the Whig Party, John Tyler had become an Independent. But, in 1844, he launched the “Tyler Party” to support his own candidacy. It went nowhere in the 1844 elections. Tyler soon dropped out of the election, and endorsed the Democratic candidate James K. Polk. The Whigs nominated someone else (Henry Clay), who subsequently lost. And the election went to James K. Polk instead. John Tyler then returned to being an Independent, and also returned to his plantation in Virginia.

John Tyler

John Tyler sides with the Confederacy, and dies as a “Confederate hero”

Again, John Tyler sided with the Confederacy when the Civil War began, and was eventually elected to the Confederate House of Representatives. But Tyler died in 1862, before the Confederate Congress could be assembled. John Tyler was 71 years old. Tyler had requested a simple burial, but the Confederate president Jefferson Davis had other ideas. Jefferson Davis arranged a grand and politically charged funeral for John Tyler, honoring him as a “hero” to the new Confederacy. Like many other Southerners, John Tyler certainly had more allegiance to Virginia than to the Constitution that he had earlier sworn to uphold. His presidency is usually given a low ranking today, when his name is remembered at all.

If you liked this post, you might also like:

John Quincy Adams: A great statesman in his own right

A review of PBS’s “Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil, and the Presidency”

The complicated legacy of Martin Van Buren

William Henry Harrison: A great general and a 30-day president

James K. Polk: President during the Mexican-American War

Why is Zachary Taylor now considered a “forgettable” president?

Millard Fillmore: A moderate on slavery who pleased no one

Franklin Pierce: One of our most pro-slavery presidents

Part of a series about

The Presidents

1. George Washington
2. John Adams
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. James Madison
6. John Quincy Adams
7. Andrew Jackson