John Tyler Inaugurates Precedential Succession

• Author: Allen Pusey
• Pages: 72-72

PHOTOS BY BETTMANN/CCONTRIBUTOR; SMITH COLLECTION/GADO/GETTY IMAGES

72 || ABA JOURNAL APRIL 2019

John Tyler Inaugurates Precedential Succession

Precedents || By Allen Pusey

FOLLOWING ON THE HEELS of the Panic of 1837,

the election of 1840 made the incumbent presi-

dent, Democrat Martin Van Buren, an e asy mark.

At its national convention, the Whig Part y tapped

the former governor of the Indiana Territory,

William Henr y Harrison , to run against “Mar tin

Van Ruin ” in what became by far the liveliest

election the nascent nation had yet s een.

The aggressive ban k lending that drove west-

ern expansion slowed almost over night, fuel-

ing the emergence of the Whig Party, which had

been formed in 1834 in react ion to Andrew Jackson’s

heavy-handed presidency . As 1840 approached, the

Whigs banked on widespre ad moral resentment toward

unchecked government policies like India n removal and

the continued expansion of slavery .

So as not to alienate Souther n voters, the Whigs paired

Harrison wit h John Tyler, virtually ignor ing the poli-

tics that might travel wit h a Southern aristocrat. And

although both men were born on plantations in t he very

same county of Virg inia , their candidacy assumed a pop-

ular tone.

“Gen. Harrison,” who led Indian a troops in a decisive

victory over a confe deration of Indian tribes in the Battle

of Tippecanoe, was d isingenuously portrayed as a man of

humble log-cabin origins whose preference for hard c ider

was that of the every man. And behind a memorable and

alliterative elect ion slogan (“Tippecanoe and Tyler too!”)

accompanied by car nival-style electioneering, the “Log

Cabin and Hard Cider” ca mpaign of Harrison and Tyler

carried the elec tion in a landslide.

On March 4, 1841, a 68-year-old Har rison took the

oath of o ce, sp eaking uncovered for two hours in a cold,

driving rai n. Within days, he grew ill and was promptly

confi ned t o bed with pneumonia. By April 4, just 31 days

after his inaug uration, Harrison was dead.

No president before him had died in o ce, and any

strict read ing of the Constitution left the question of suc-

cession ambiguous at best. A nd in a letter dispatched to

Tyler, who had left the inauguration for William sburg,

Virginia , Secretary of State Dan iel Webster asked the

vice president to retur n immediately to Washington to

help settle the transition.

But where others were unclear about succession, Tyler

was not. Having been wa rned of Harrison’s

imminent death, Tyler had contemplated his

response, and af ter a 230-mile journey, Tyler

arrived in Washingt on early on April 6, ready

to assume control.

Meeting with Harr ison’s six-member

Cabinet th at morning, Tyler made it clear that

he had no intention of being “acting presi-

dent” and that he planned to fu lly assume

the o ce a s he believed the founders had

intended. During Har rison’s illness, e xecutive

decisions had been made by a vote of Cabi net o cials , a

practice Tyler told them he would not continue.

In short order, Tyler took a new oath of o ce, moved

into the White House and issued a lengt hy inaugural

statement to Congress reassuring the public that the gov-

ernment would continue to function f ully in terms of

public policy and national defense.

Tyler’s quick and authoritative action during a time

of crisis was ac cepted peacefully, if grudgi ngly, as some

dubbed him “His Accidency.” Tyler’s response wa s stub-

born. Letters a ddresse d to the “v ice president” or “act-

ing president ” were ret urned unopened. Still, the “Tyler

precedent” endured through the nex t seven unexpected

changes of government—four after a ssassinations —until

it was codifi ed in 1967 by the 25th Amendment .

Tyler’s administration, however, didn’t fare as well.

Charting a more independent course , Tyler quickly found

himself at odds wit h important Whig priorities. When

he twice vetoed t he re-establishment of a central bank,

he was denounced as an apost ate, provoking the resigna-

tions of all but Webster from his Cabinet . His persistent

support for slavery as a necessa ry element of continued

American ex pansion prompted a call for Tyler’s impeach-

ment—the fi rst presidential i mpeachment attempt

in U.S. history . D eprived of party, Tyler returned to

Virginia in 1845 w ithout his own bid for election .

But it was his treasonous post-pre sidency support for

secession t hat fi nalized Tyler’s descent to political obliv-

ion. His death in 1862 received no o cial acknowledg-

ment in Washington , where even The odore Roosevelt,

who exercised the Tyler precedent after Willi am

McKinley’s assass ination, dismissed Tyler as “a politician

of monumental littleness.” Q

April 6, 1841

President John Tyler

A depiction of th e

death of William

Henry Harrison