Images and More: Passed Presidents - # 10

January has not been a good month for presidents’ longevity. The day after # 19 R.B. Hayes bought the farm marks the 152^nd anniversary of the passing of John Tyler. He now rests a stone’s throw from President Monroe in Richmond’s magnificent Hollywood Cemetery. Hollywood is a vast, historic burial ground with a number of significant residents, including 18,000 Confederate veterans.

John Tyler’s Grave, Richmond, VA (28 June 2005)

Tyler occupies that span of, shall we say, ‘undistinguished’ presidents between Jackson and Lincoln. Of course, a closer look can reveal something notable about anyone. Our tenth president was the son of the governor of Virginia and an ardent supporter of states’ rights, slavery and procreation. His first wife bore him eight children before she became the first president’s wife to die in the White House. Two years later, he married a woman 30 years his junior and she delivered seven more. The man had 15 children over a span of 45 years...a presidential record that will be difficult to beat.

John Tyler’s Grave, Richmond, VA (28 June 2005)

Apart from making babies, Tyler’s claim to fame is that he was the first vice president to become the Top Dog after the Top Dog we elected died on the job. William Henry Harrison became the first Whig president after a long public and military career. We still remember the campaign slogan from 1840 – “Tippecanoe and Tyler too”. Tippecanoe was the battle in which Harrison defeated Native Americans led by Tecumseh in 1811.

Anyway, no one thought much about the vice president until he became president. Since the Constitution was vague on presidential succession [until the 25^th Amendment was passed in 1967!], there were many who didn’t agree that the job was entirely his. This earned him the nickname “His Accidency”. He then asserted himself by vetoing important banking bills. That effrontery to the Whig Party platform had him expelled from the party. Furthermore, his entire cabinet except for Daniel Webster, the Secretary of State, resigned in protest. He completed his term with little cooperation from Congress. Needless to say, The Whigs didn’t nominate him for another term and he retired to his plantation to oversee the slaves and make more babies.

He died during the Civil War. As a leading secessionist and newly-elected Representative to the Confederate Congress, he was considered a traitor to the United States. His passing was essentially ignored by the U.S. government.