President John Tyler and Lessons From the Past

Poor John Tyler is generally considered one of the 10 worst presidents in the United States.  Of course, that only puts him in the bottom quartile, a section that is rapidly filling up with much more worthy participants.  But for right now we do know that Tyler gets an almighty poor score by all but one historian. 

            Tyler holds the dubious distinction of being the first of those unhappy souls who landed the job of President after the death of their predecessor.  While eight Presidents have died in office (four from assassination, four from natural causes) only a few of the Vice Presidents who succeeded to office had any real desire to be President.  Tyler was not one of those men.

            In 1841 William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia which “begat” John Tyler.  A scant nine years later, in 1850, Zachary Taylor died of, for want of a better diagnosis, over-eating and he begat Millard Fillmore who probably holds the record for jokes about a President with a name and administration that begs ridicule.

            Then we enter an era of assassinated Presidents.  In 1865 Lincoln is killed and Andrew Johnson becomes President.  Then in 1881 James A. Garfield is killed and that elevated Chester A. Arthur, one of our few Presidents who achieved office without ever holding a previous elective office—and we see how that works out for the country.  Then, in 1901, William McKinley is shot and Theodore Roosevelt becomes President. 

            Warren G. Harding died of a heart attack (though if I had been married to his wife I might have just given up the ghost spontaneously) and we got Calvin Coolidge.  Then in 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt died in Warm Springs, Georgia, accompanied not by his wife but his mistress and Harry Truman became President. 

            All of us remember 1963 when John F. Kennedy was assassinated and Lyndon Baines Johnson succeeded. 

            Of this list, only Johnson and Roosevelt, could be characterized as having been actively seeking the Presidency.  Truman certainly rose to the occasion and while he may have not been seeking the office must have known it would be his when he was chosen as Vice President for a deathly ill FDR. 

            The rest of the men named accepted the Vice Presidency quite sure that they would be a place holder for four years and then move on with their lives.  Chester A. Arthur was frozen with terror when he found he now had an office for which he never once considered himself qualified.  [To his credit, Arthur turned his back on Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed, adopted the cloak of respectability and honor that the Presidency engenders and did his best.]

            Tyler, Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur each served only one term.  Tyler is unique in that he was our last President representing the Whig Party.  He is also our only (though perhaps not our last) President to be expelled by his party.  It seems that once Tyler achieved the Presidency, he decided to run things his way instead of the Party’s way and they ended up showing him the door.

            The Whig’s wanted to restore the Bank of the United States.  Tyler vetoed the bill.  The Whig’s wanted to institute stiff tariffs to suppress foreign trade.  Tyler vetoed it.  Henry Clay then tried to impeach Tyler for inappropriate use of the veto.  It failed because—well—it was an invalid reason.  But political parties are private clubs and you get to vote someone off the island any time you want.  So, Tyler was no longer a Whig. 

            In the next election, Democrat James K. Polk was elected.   

            Read a little Presidential history and keep the faith.