John Tyler - Facts

Full Name:

• John Tyler

Birth Date:

• March 29, 1790

Birth Location:

• “Greenway”, family plantation in Charles City County, Virginia

Parents:

• John and Mary Marot Armistead Tyler

Education:

• College of William and Mary (1807)

Occupation:

• Lawyer
• Politician

Career Summary:

• Tenth U.S. President
• U.S. Senator
• U.S. Congressman
• Virginia Governor

Spouses:

• Letitia Christian (March 29, 1813)
• Julia Gardiner (June 26, 1844)

Nickname(s):

• His Accidency
• Accidental President

Place of Death:

• Richmond, Virginia

Date of Death:

• January 18, 1862

Place of Burial:

• Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia

Significance:

• John Tyler was the tenth President of the United States.
• John Tyler was born at Greenway, his family’s plantation in Charles City County, on March 29, 1790.
• John Tyler was the sixth of eight children of John and Mary Marot Armistead Tyler.
• John Tyler’s father was a prosperous tobacco grower and slaver owner. He was also a lawyer, judge, and personal friend of Thomas Jefferson.
• John Tyler’s mother died when he was seven years old.
• John Tyler graduated from the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1807, at the age of seventeen.
• John Tyler was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1809.
• In 1811, John Tyler began a long and notable political career when voters elected him to the first of five consecutive one-year terms representing Charles City County in the Virginia House of Delegates.
• John Tyler raised a militia company, but it saw no action during the War of 1812.
  In 1813, Tyler inherited Greenway plantation, along with its slaves, when his father died.
• On March 29 of that year, John Tyler wed Letitia Christian, the daughter of another wealthy Virginia planter. Their twenty-nine-year marriage produced seven children, all of whom reached adulthood.
• John Tyler represented the people of Virginia’s 23rd District in the 14th through 16th Congresses from December 17, 1816, to March 3, 1821.
• A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, John Tyler staunchly supported a strict interpretation of the Constitution, states’ rights, and limited federal powers.
• John Tyler opposed the Missouri Compromise on the grounds that the federal government had no authority to regulate slavery in the territories.
• John Tyler served a second stint in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1823 to 1825.
• John Tyler served two one-year terms as Governor of Virginia from 1825 to 1827.
• John Tyler served as a U.S. Senator from Virginia from March 4, 1827 to February 29, 1836, during the 20th to the 24th U.S. Congresses.
• John Tyler served as president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate during the 23rd Congress from March 3, 1835, until his resignation from the Senate on February 29, 1836.
• John Tyler was the only U.S. Senator to vote against the Force Bill during the Nullification Crisis of 1832-33.
  John Tyler resigned from the U.S. Senate on February 29, 1836.
• During the late 1830s, John Tyler joined forces with Daniel Webster and Henry Clay to become a leading member of the emerging Whig Party.
• John Tyler was an unsuccessful Whig candidate for Vice-President of the United States in the election of 1836.
  John Tyler served a third stint in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1839.
• In 1840, John Tyler was the Whig Party’s vice-presidential candidate, running with presidential candidate William Henry Harrison.
• The Whig slogan for William Henry Harrison and John Tyler during the 1840 presidential campaign was “Tippecanoe and Tyler too.”
• John Tyler served as Vice-President of the United States from March 4, 1841 to April 6, 1841.
• Following the death of President William Henry Harrison on April 5, 1841, John Tyler took the presidential oath of office on April 6, 1841.
• John Tyler served as President of the United States from April 6, 1841 to March 4, 1845.
• John Tyler’s detractors referred to him as “the Accidental President” and “His Accidency.”
  During his presidency, John Tyler did not get along with his cabinet or members of his own political party in Congress.
• In 1842 John Tyler’s administration ended the long-running Second Seminole War in Florida, although a formal peace treaty was never formulated.
• Also in 1844, Tyler’s Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which peacefully resolved some border disputes between the U.S. and Great Britain in North America.
  In 1844, diplomat Caleb Cushing negotiated the Treaty of Wanghia, which opened Chinese ports to American merchants.
• On March 1, 1845, just three days before Tyler left office, the lame-duck president signed the bill authorizing the annexation of Texas, effective December 29, 1845.
• John Tyler married twenty-four-year-old Julia Gardiner, on June 26, 1844, in New York City. Their marriage, which lasted until Tyler’s death in 1862, produced seven children–five sons and two daughters.
• After leaving the White House on March 3, 1845, John Tyler retired to his Virginia plantation, Sherwood Forest, which he described as “a good farm on the James River with plenty of slaves.”
• In 1861, John Tyler served as president of the Washington Peace Conference, an eleventh-hour attempt to stave off the impending Civil War.
• On the same day that the Washington Peace Conference convened, Virginia voters elected John Tyler to the Virginia convention to consider secession.
• Following the congressional rejection of the Washington Peace Conference proposals, Tyler became an ardent proponent of Virginia’s separation from the Union.
• On June 21, 1861, the Virginia Convention unanimously elected Tyler to a seat in the Provisional Confederate Congress.
• John Tyler served in the Provisional Confederate Congress from August 1, 1861, until his death in January 1862.
• In November 1861, Virginia voters elected John Tyler to serve in the Confederate House of Representatives, but he died before taking his seat.
• In early January, John Tyler suffered a stroke in Richmond. He died in his room at the Ballard House on January 18, 1862.
• John Tyler’s death prompted President Jefferson Davis to order Confederate flags flown at half-mast throughout the South. In the North, where Tyler was considered a traitor, President Lincoln and other Washington officials ignored Tyler’s passing.
• On January 21, 1862, John Tyler was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.