Zachary Taylor'life history

Early life

Zachary Taylor was born on a farm on November 24, 1784, in Orange County, Virginia, to a prominent family of planters of English ancestry. He was the third of five surviving sons in his family, and had three younger sisters. His mother was Sarah Dabney  Taylor, and his father, Richard Taylor, had served as a lieutenant colonel in the American Revolution. Taylor was a descendant of Elder William Brewster, the Pilgrim colonist leader and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony, and passenger aboard the Mayflower and one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact; and Isaac Allerton Jr., a Colonial merchant and colonel who was the son of Mayflower Pilgrim Isaac Allerton and Fear Brewster. Descended from the same lineage was Taylor's second cousin, future President James Madison.
During his youth, Taylor lived on the frontier in Louisville, Kentucky, residing in a small woodland cabin during most of his childhood, before moving to a brick house as a result of his family's increased prosperity. The rapid growth of Louisville was a boon for Taylor's father, who would come to own 10,000 acres  throughout Kentucky by the turn of the century, in addition to twenty-six slaves. Since there were no formal schools on the Kentucky frontier, Taylor had a sporadic education growing up. Although one of his schoolmasters would recount Taylor as a quick learner, his early letters show a weak grasp of spelling and grammar, and his handwriting would later be described as "that of a near illiterate".

Military career

On May 3, 1808, Taylor joined the U.S. Army, receiving a commission as a first lieutenant of the Seventh Infantry Regiment. He was among the new officers commissioned by Congress in response to the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair. Taylor spent much of 1809 in the dilapidated camps of New Orleans and nearby Terre aux Boeufs. He returned to Louisville in May 1810, where he married Margaret Mackall Smith and purchased his first land in Jefferson County. He was promoted to captain in November 1810. His army duties were limited at this time, perhaps limited to recruiting, and he attended to his personal finances. Over the next several years, he would begin to amass slaves and a good deal of bank stock in Louisville. In July 1811 he was called to the Indiana Territory, where he assumed control of Fort Knox after the commandant fled. In only a few weeks, he was able to restore order in the garrison, for which he was lauded by Governor William Henry Harrison.
During the War of 1812, Taylor successfully defended Fort Harrison in Indiana Territory from an attack by Indians under the command of Shawnee chief Tecumseh. Taylor made a name for himself in the battle, and received a brevet  promotion to the rank of major. Later that year he joined General Samuel Hopkins as an aide on two expeditions: the first into the Illinois Territory, and the second to the Tippecanoe battle site, where they were forced to retreat in the Battle of Wild Cat Creek. Taylor moved his family to Fort Knox after the violence subsided, but in spring 1814 he was called back into action under Brigadier General Benjamin Howard. That October he built and commanded Fort Johnson, the last toehold of the U.S. Army in the upper Mississippi River Valley, but upon Howard's death a few weeks later, he was forced to abandon it and retreat to Saint Louis. Reduced to the rank of captain when the war ended in 1814, he resigned from the army, but reentered it after he was commissioned again as a major a year later.
Taylor spent two years in charge of Fort Howard at the Green Bay settlement. He then returned to Louisville, where he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in April 1819 and dined with President James Monroe. In late 1821, Taylor took the 7th Infantry to Natchitoches, Louisiana, on the Red River. On the orders of General Edmund P. Gaines they set out to locate a new post more convenient to the Sabine River frontier. By the following March, Taylor had established Fort Jesup, at the Shield's Spring site southwest of Natchitoches. That November he transferred to Fort Robertson at Baton Rouge, where he remained until February 1824. He spent the next few years on recruiting duty, and in late 1826 traveled to Washington, D.C., to sit on a committee which tried  to consolidate and improve military organization. In the meantime he acquired his first Louisiana plantation, and made Baton Rouge his home.

In May 1828 he was called back to action, spending a year in command of Fort Snelling on the northern Mississippi River, and another year at nearby Fort Crawford. After some time on furlough, where he expanded his landholdings, Taylor was promoted to colonel of the 1st Infantry Regiment in April 1832. At that time, the Black Hawk War was beginning. Taylor played an active role under General Henry Atkinson in pursuing and, later, staving off Chief Black Hawk's forces throughout the summer. The end of the war in August 1832 signaled the end of Indian resistance to U.S. expansion in the area, and the following years were relatively quiet. During this period Taylor resisted the courtship of his 18-year-old daughter Sarah Knox Taylor and Lieutenant Jefferson Davis: he respected Davis but did not approve of his daughter becoming a military wife. The two married in June 1835, but Sarah succumbed to malaria and died three months later.
The Second Seminole War was underway in 1837, when Taylor was directed to Florida. He defeated the Seminole Indians on the Christmas Day Battle of Lake Okeechobee, among the largest U.S.–Indian battles of the nineteenth century. He was promoted to brigadier general in recognition of his success. In May 1838, Brig. Gen. Thomas Jesup stepped down, placing Taylor in command of all American troops in Florida, a position he held for two years. His reputation as a military leader was growing, and with it, the nickname "Old Rough and Ready" began to spread. After his long-requested relief was granted, Taylor spent a comfortable year touring the nation with his family and meeting with military leaders. During this period he began to display an interest in politics, corresponding with President William Henry Harrison. He was made commander of the Second Department of the Army's Western Division in May 1841. This was a sizable territory running from the Mississippi River westward, south of the 37th parallel north. Stationed in Arkansas, Taylor enjoyed several uneventful years, spending as much time attending to his land speculation as to military matters.

Mexican–American War

In anticipation of the annexation of the Republic of Texas, Taylor was sent in April 1844 to Fort Jesup in Louisiana. He was ordered to guard against any attempts by Mexico to reclaim the territory, which they had lost in 1836. He remained until July 1845, when annexation became imminent, and President James K. Polk directed him to deploy into disputed territory in Texas, "on or near the Rio Grande" near Mexico. Taylor chose a spot at Corpus Christi, and his Army of Occupation encamped there until the following spring in anticipation of a Mexican attack.

Taylor's men advanced to the Rio Grande in March 1846. Polk's attempts to negotiate with Mexico had failed, and war appeared imminent. Violence broke out several weeks later, when some of Captain Seth B. Thornton's men were attacked by Mexican forces near the river. Polk, learning of the Thornton Affair, told Congress in May that a war between Mexico and the United States had begun.That same month, Taylor commanded American forces at the Battle of Palo Alto and the nearby Battle of Resaca de la Palma, defeating the Mexican forces which greatly outnumbered his own. These victories made him a popular hero, and within weeks he received a brevet promotion to major general and a formal commendation from Congress. The national press compared him to George Washington and Andrew Jackson, both generals who had ascended to the presidency, although Taylor denied any interest in running for office. "Such an idea never entered my head," he remarked in a letter, "nor is it likely to enter the head of any sane person."

In September, Taylor was able to inflict heavy casualties upon the Mexican defenders at the Battle of Monterrey. The city of Monterrey had been considered "impregnable", but was captured in three days, forcing Mexican forces to retreat. Taylor was criticized for signing a "liberal" truce, rather than pressing for a large-scale surrender. Afterwards, half of Taylor's army was ordered to join General Winfield Scott's soldiers as they besieged Veracruz. Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna discovered, through an intercepted letter from Scott, that Taylor had contributed all but 6,000 of his men to the effort. His remaining force included only a few hundred regular army soldiers, and Santa Anna resolved to take advantage of the situation. Santa Anna attacked Taylor with 20,000 men at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847, inflicting around 600 American casualties at a cost of over 1,800 Mexican. Outmatched, the Mexican forces retreated, ensuring a "far-reaching" victory for the Americans. Taylor remained at Monterrey until late November 1847, when he set sail for home. While he would spend the following year in command of the Army's entire western division, his active military career was over. In December he received a hero's welcome in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and his popular legacy set the stage for the 1848 presidential election.

Election of 1848

In his capacity as a career officer, Taylor had never reportedly revealed his political beliefs before 1848, nor voted before that time. He thought of himself as an independent, believing in a strong and sound banking system for the country, and thought that Andrew Jackson should not have allowed the Second Bank of the United States to collapse in 1836. He believed it was impractical to talk about expanding slavery into the western areas of the United States, as he concluded that neither cotton nor sugar  could be easily grown there through a plantation economy. He was also a firm nationalist, and due to his experience of seeing many people die as a result of warfare, he believed that secession was not a good way to resolve national problems. Taylor, although he did not agree with their stand on protective tariffs and expensive internal improvements, aligned himself with Whig Party governing policies; the President should not be able to veto a law, unless that law was against the Constitution of the United States; that the office should not interfere with Congress, and that the power of collective decision-making, as well as the Cabinet, should be strong.

Well before the American victory at Buena Vista, political clubs were formed which supported Taylor for President. His support was drawn from an unusually broad assortment of political bands, including Whigs and Democrats, Northerners and Southerners, allies and opponents of national leaders such as Henry Clay and James K. Polk. By late 1846 Taylor's opposition to a presidential run began to weaken, and it became clear that his principles more closely resembled Whig orthodoxy. Still, he maintained that he would only accept election as a national, independent figure, rather than a partisan loyalist. Taylor declared, as the 1848 Whig Party convention approached, that he had always been a Whig in principle, but he did consider himself a Jeffersonian-Democrat.[24] Many southerners believed that Taylor supported slavery, and its expansion into the new territory absorbed from Mexico, and some were angered when Taylor suggested that if he were elected President he would not veto the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed against such an expansion. This position did not enhance his support from activist antislavery elements in the Northern United States, as these wanted Taylor to speak out strongly in support of the Proviso, not simply fail to veto it. Most abolitionists did not support Taylor, since he was a slave-owner. Many southerners also knew that Taylor supported states' rights, and was opposed to protective tariffs and government spending for internal improvements. The Whigs hoped that he put the federal union of the United States above all else.

Taylor received the Whig nomination for President in 1848. Millard Fillmore of Cayuga County, New York was chosen as the Vice Presidential nominee. His homespun ways and his status as a war hero were political assets. Taylor defeated Lewis Cass, the Democratic candidate, and Martin Van Buren, the Free Soil candidate. Taylor was the last Southerner to be elected president until Lyndon Johnson, 116 years later in 1964.

Taylor ignored the Whig platform, as historian Michael F. Holt explains:
Taylor was equally indifferent to programs Whigs had long considered vital. Publicly, he was artfully ambiguous, refusing to answer questions about his views on banking, the tariff, and internal improvements. Privately, he was more forthright. The idea of a national bank 'is dead, and will not be revived in my time.' In the future the tariff "will be increased only for revenue"; in other words, Whig hopes of restoring the protective tariff of 1842 were vain. There would never again be surplus federal funds from public land sales to distribute to the states, and internal improvements 'will go on in spite of presidential vetoes.' In a few words, that is, Taylor pronounced an epitaph for the entire Whig economic program.

Presidency

Although Taylor had subscribed to Whig principles of legislative leadership, he was not inclined to be a puppet of Whig leaders in Congress. He ran his administration in the same rule-of-thumb fashion with which he had fought Native Americans.

Under Taylor's administration, the United States Department of the Interior was organized, although the legislation authorizing the Department had been approved on President Polk's last day in office. He appointed former Treasury Secretary Thomas Ewing the first Secretary of the Interior.

The dominant issue of American politics in the 1840s was whether slavery would be permitted in the western territories of the United States. Debate between extreme pro and antislavery viewpoints had become very pronounced. In 1849, Taylor advised the inhabitants of California and the inhabitants of New Mexico to establish constitutions and apply for statehood, correctly predicting that these constitutions would outlaw slavery. Taylor urged Congress to admit the two states when they presented their constitutions, rather than first establishing them as territories, as he expected the latter approach would cause a debate in Congress that would revive the dangerous conflict between pro and antislavery sections of the country.

Taylor and his Secretary of State, John M. Clayton, lacked much experience in foreign affairs before Taylor assumed the presidency, and Taylor was not directly involved in diplomacy or the development of American foreign policies. Taylor's administration attempted to stop a filibustering expedition against Cuba, argued with France and Portugal over reparation disputes owed to the US, and supported German liberals during the revolutions of 1848. The administration confronted Spain, which had arrested several Americans on the charge of piracy, and assisted the United Kingdom's search for a team of British explorers who had gotten lost in the Arctic.The United States had planned to construct a canal across Nicaragua, but the British opposed the idea, arguing that they held a special status in neighboring Honduras. In what was described by one source as Taylor's "most important foreign policy move", delicate negotiations were performed with Britain, and a "landmark agreement" was reached called the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty. Both Britain and the United States agreed not to claim control of any canal that might be built in Nicaragua. The treaty is considered to have been an important step in the development of an Anglo-American alliance, and "effectively weakened U.S. commitment to Manifest Destiny as a formal policy while recognizing the supremacy of U.S. interests in Central America".The creation of the treaty was Taylor's last act of state.

Compromise of 1850 & Judicial appointments

The slavery issue dominated Taylor's short term. Although he owned slaves on his plantation in Louisiana, he took a moderate stance on the territorial expansion of slavery, angering fellow Southerners. He told them that if necessary to enforce the laws, he personally would lead the Army. Persons "taken in rebellion against the Union, he would hang ... with less reluctance than he had hanged deserters and spies in Mexico." He never wavered. Henry Clay then proposed a complex Compromise of 1850. Taylor died as it was being debated
Taylor appointed four federal judges, all to United States district courts. Due in part to the length of his presidency, he is one of only four presidents who did not have an opportunity to nominate a judge to serve on the Supreme Court.


Death

The cause of Zachary Taylor's premature death is not fully established.On July 4, 1850, after watching a groundbreaking ceremony for the Washington Monument during the Independence Day celebration, Taylor sought refuge from the oppressive heat by consuming copious amounts of iced water, cold milk, and cherries. Within several days he became severely ill with an unknown digestive ailment, and it became clear to him that he was approaching death. At about 10 o'clock in the morning on July 9, Taylor called his wife to him and asked her not to weep, saying: "I have always done my duty, I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me." He died within the hour. Contemporary reports listed the cause of death as "bilious diarrhea, or a bilious cholera".

Taylor was interred in the Public Vault   of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. from July 13, 1850 to October 25, 1850. Taylor was then transported to the Taylor Family plot where his parents are buried, on the old Taylor homestead estate known as 'Springfield'. In 1883, the Commonwealth of Kentucky placed a fifty foot monument near Zachary Taylor's grave. It is topped by a life-sized statue of Zachary Taylor. By the 1920s, the Taylor family initiated the effort to turn the Taylor burial grounds into a national cemetery. The Commonwealth of Kentucky donated two pieces of land for the project, turning the half-acre Taylor family cemetery into 16 acres. There, buried in the Taylor family plot, Zachary Taylor and his wife remained, until he and his wife were moved to their final resting place on May 6, 1926 in the newly commissioned Taylor mausoleum , nearby. Today, President Taylor and wife Margaret rest in the mausoleum in Louisville, Kentucky, at what is now the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery.

Exhumation of 1991

In the late 1980s, college professor and author Clara Rising hypothesized that Taylor was murdered by poison and was able to convince Taylor's closest living relative and the Coroner of Jefferson County, Kentucky, to order an exhumation. On June 17, 1991, Taylor's remains were exhumed and transported to the Office of the Kentucky Chief Medical Examiner, where radiological studies were conducted and samples of hair, fingernail and other tissues were removed. The remains were then returned to the cemetery and received appropriate honors at re-interment. He was re-interred in the same mausoleum he had been interred in since 1926. A monolith was later constructed next to the mausoleum. Neutron activation analysis conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory revealed arsenic levels several hundred times lower than they would have been if Taylor had been poisoned. Rather, it was concluded that on a hot July day Taylor had attempted to cool himself with large amounts of cherries and iced milk. "In the unhealthy climate of Washington, with its open sewers and flies, Taylor came down with cholera morbus, or acute gastroenteritis as it is now called." He might have recovered, Samuel Eliot Morison felt, but his doctors "drugged him with ipecac, calomel, opium and quinine , and bled and blistered him too. On July 9, he died."

Assassination theories

Despite these findings, assassination theories have not been entirely put to rest. Michael Parenti devoted a chapter in his 1999 book History as Mystery to "The Strange Death of Zachary Taylor," speculating that Taylor was assassinated because of his moderate stance on the expansion of slavery – and that his autopsy was botched. It is suspected that Taylor was deliberately assassinated by arsenic poisoning from one of the citizen-provided dishes he sampled during the Independence Day celebration. Other dissenting historians claim as suspicious the facts that there were no eyewitness accounts of Taylor consuming cherries and milk on that day; that there are no confirmed cholera outbreaks in Washington in 1850; that Taylor's symptoms were not those of typhoid ; that Taylor was not given the aforementioned drugs until he was already deathly sick, on the third day of his acute illness; and that Taylor was not bled until near death on the fifth and last day of his illness.

Marriage and famil

In 1810, Taylor wed Margaret Smith. They had six children of whom the only son, Richard, would become a lieutenant general in the Confederate Army. One of Taylor's daughters, Sarah Knox Taylor, decided to marry in 1835 Jefferson Davis, the future President of the Confederate States of America, who at that time was a lieutenant. Taylor did not wish Sarah to marry him, and Taylor and Davis would not be reconciled until 1847 at the Battle of Buena Vista, where Davis distinguished himself as a colonel. Sarah had died in 1835, three months into the marriage. Another of Taylor's daughters, Margaret Anne, died of liver failure at age 33. Around 1841, Aria Taylor established a home at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and gained a large plantation and a great number of slaves.

Legacy

It is contended that Taylor was not President long enough to cause a substantial impact on the office of the Presidency, or the United States, and that he is not remembered as a great President. The majority of historians believe that Taylor was too nonpolitical, considering he was in office at a time when being involved in politics required close ties with political operatives. The Clayton–Bulwer Treaty is "recognized as an important step in  scaling down  the nation's commitment to Manifest Destiny as a policy."

Considering the shortness of his presidency, Taylor's most notable legacy may be that he was the last U.S. President to own slaves while holding the Office of the President of the United States, in 1850.

The US Post Office released the first postage stamp issue honoring Zachary Taylor on June 21, 1875, a full 25 years after his death. In contrast, Lincoln first appeared on US postage stamps in 1866, only one year after his death while James Garfield would be honored with a postage stamp only seven months after his assassination. Sixty three years later, in 1938 Taylor would appear again on a US Postage stamp, this time on the 12-cent Presidential Issue of 1938. Taylor's last appearance  on a US postage stamp occurred in 1986 when he was honored on the AMERIPEX presidential issue. After Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln, Zachary Taylor is the fifth American President to appear on US postage. In all there are three different postage issues that have honored Taylor.

Taylor became a military namesake after his death, for such sites as Camp Taylor in Kentucky and Fort Taylor in Florida. The SS Zachary Taylor, a World War II Liberty ship, was also named in his honor. In 1995, he was inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield, Louisiana, the honor bestowed on the only U.S. President to have lived in Louisiana.

James Knox Polk's life history

Early life

James Knox Polk, the first of ten children, was born in a farmhouse in what is now Pineville, North Carolina in Mecklenburg County on November 2, 1795, just outside Charlotte. His father, Samuel Polk, was a slaveholder, successful farmer and surveyor of Scots-Irish descent. His mother, Jane Polk, was a descendant of a brother of the Scottish religious reformer John Knox. She named her firstborn after her father James Knox. Like most early Scots-Irish settlers in the North Carolina mountains, the Knox and Polk families were Presbyterian. While Jane remained a devout Presbyterian her entire life, Samuel rejected dogmatic Presbyterianism. When the parents took James to church to be baptized, the father Samuel refused to declare his belief in Christianity, and the minister refused to baptize the child. In 1803, most of Polk's relatives moved to the Duck River area in what is now Maury County, Middle Tennessee; Polk's family waited until 1806 to follow. The family grew prosperous, with Samuel Polk turning to land speculation and becoming a county judge.
Polk was home schooled. His health was problematic and in 1812 his pain became so unbearable that he was taken to Dr. Ephraim McDowell of Danville, Kentucky, who operated to remove urinary stones. Polk was awake during the operation with nothing but brandy available for anesthetic, but it was successful. The surgery may have left Polk sterile, as he did not sire any children.
When Polk recovered, his father offered to bring him into the mercantile business, but Polk refused. In July 1813, Polk enrolled at the Zion Church near his home. A year later he attended an academy in Murfreesboro, where he may have met his future wife, Sarah Childress.At Murfreesboro, Polk proved a promising student. In January 1816, he transferred and was admitted into the University of North Carolina as a second-semester sophomore. The Polks had connections with the university, then a small school of about 80 students: Sam Polk was their land agent for Tennessee, and his cousin, William Polk, was a trustee.While there, Polk joined the Dialectic Society where he regularly took part in debates and learned the art of oratory. His roommate William Dunn Moseley later became the first governor of Florida. Polk graduated with honors in May 1818.The University later named its lower quad, Polk Place, on the main campus after Polk.
After graduation, Polk traveled to Nashville to study law under renowned Nashville trial attorney Felix Grundy. Grundy became Polk's first mentor. On September 20, 1819, Polk, with Grundy's endorsement, was elected clerk for the Tennessee State Senate. Polk was reelected as clerk in 1821 without opposition, and would continue to serve until 1822. Polk was admitted to the bar in June 1820 and his first case was to defend his father against a public fighting charge, and secure his release for a one dollar fine.Polk's practice was successful as there were many cases arising from debts after the Panic of 1819.

Early political career

In 1822 Polk joined the local militia and rose to the rank of captain, and was soon promoted to colonel. Polk's oratory became popular, earning him the nickname "Napoleon of the Stump." In 1822 Polk resigned his position as clerk to run his successful campaign for the Tennessee state legislature in 1823, in which he defeated incumbent William Yancey, becoming the new representative of Maury County. In October 1823 Polk voted for Andrew Jackson to become the next United States Senator from Tennessee.Jackson won and from then on Polk was a firm supporter of Jackson.

Polk courted Sarah Childress, and they married on January 1, 1824. Polk was then 28, and Sarah was 20 years old. Throughout their marriage they had no children. They were married until his death in 1849. During Polk's political career, Sarah assisted her husband with his speeches, gave him advice on policy matters and played an active role in his campaigns. An old story told that Andrew Jackson had encouraged their romance when they began to court.
In 1824, Jackson ran for President but was defeated. Though Jackson had won the popular vote, neither he nor any of the other candidates had won a majority of the electoral vote. The House of Representatives then had to select the verdict; Clay, who had received the least amount of electoral votes and dropped from the ballot, supported Adams. Clay's support proved to be the deciding factor in the House and Adams was elected President.Adams then offered Clay a position in the Cabinet as Secretary of State.
In 1825, Polk ran for the United States House of Representatives for the Tennessee's 6th congressional district.Polk vigorously campaigned in the district. Polk was so active that Sarah began to worry about his health.During the campaign, Polk's opponents said that at the age of 29 Polk was too young for a spot in the House, but he won the election and took his seat in Congress. When Polk arrived in Washington, D.C. he roomed in a boarding house with some other Tennessee representatives, including Benjamin Burch. Polk made his first major speech on March 13, 1826, in which he said that the Electoral College should be abolished and that the President should be elected by the popular vote.After Congress went into recess in the summer of 1826, Polk returned to Tennessee to see Sarah, and when Congress met again in the autumn, Polk returned to Washington with Sarah. In 1827 Polk was reelected to Congress. In 1828, Jackson ran for President again and during the campaign Polk and Jackson corresponded, with Polk giving Jackson advice on his campaign. With Jackson's victory in the election Polk began to support the administration's position in Congress. During this time, Polk continued to be reelected in the House. In August 1833, after being elected to this fifth term, Polk became the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Speaker of the House

In June 1834, Speaker of the House Andrew Stevenson resigned, leaving the spot for speaker open. Polk ran against fellow Tennessean John Bell for Speaker, and, after ten ballots, Bell won. However, in 1835, Polk ran against Bell for Speaker again and won.
Polk worked for Jackson's policies as speaker, and Van Buren's when he succeeded Jackson in 1837; he appointed committees with Democratic chairs and majorities, including the New York radical C. C. Cambreleng as Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, although he maintained the facade of traditional bipartisanship. The two major issues during Polk's speakership were slavery and the economy, after the Panic of 1837. Van Buren and Polk faced pressure to rescind the Specie Circular, an act that had been signed by Jackson to boost the economy. The act required that payment for government lands be in gold and silver. However, with support from Polk and his cabinet, Van Buren chose to stick with the Specie Circular.
Polk attempted to make a more orderly house. He never challenged anyone to a duel no matter how much they insulted his honor as was customary then. Polk also issued the gag rule on petitions from abolitionists.
Polk remains the only president who served as Speaker of the House.

Governor of Tennessee

In 1838, the political situation in Tennessee—where, in 1835, Democrats had lost the governorship for the first time in their party's history—persuaded Polk to return to help the party at home.Leaving Congress in 1839, Polk became a candidate in the Tennessee gubernatorial election, defeating the incumbent Whig, Newton Cannon by about 2,500 votes, out of about 105,000.
Polk's three major programs during his governorship; regulating state banks, implementing state internal improvements, and improving education all did not get approval by the legislature. In the presidential election of 1840, Van Buren was overwhelmingly defeated by a popular Whig, William Henry Harrison. Polk received one electoral vote from Tennessee for Vice President in the election. Polk lost his own reelection to James C. Jones, in 1841, by 3,243 votes. He challenged Jones in 1843, campaigning across the state and publicly debating against Jones, but was defeated again, this time by a slightly greater margin of 3,833 votes.

Election of 1844

Polk initially hoped to be nominated for vice-president at the Democratic convention, which began on May 27, 1844. The leading contender for the presidential nomination was former President Martin Van Buren, who wanted to stop the expansion of slavery. Other candidates included James Buchanan, General Lewis Cass, Cave Johnson, John C. Calhoun, and Levi Woodbury. The primary point of political contention involved the Republic of Texas, which, after declaring independence from Mexico in 1836, had asked to join the United States. Van Buren opposed the annexation but in doing so lost the support of many Democrats, including former President Andrew Jackson, who still had much influence. Van Buren won a simple majority on the convention's first ballot but did not attain the two-thirds supermajority required for nomination. When it became clear after another six ballots that Van Buren would not win the required majority, Polk emerged as a "dark horse" candidate. After an indecisive eighth ballot, the convention unanimously nominated Polk.
Before the convention, Jackson told Polk that he was his favorite for the nomination of the Democratic Party. Even with this support, Polk instructed his managers at the convention to support Van Buren if he could win the nomination. This assured that if a deadlocked convention occurred, initial supporters of Van Buren would pick Polk as a compromise candidate for the Democrats. In the end, this is exactly what happened as a result of Polk's support of westward expansion.[38]
When advised of his nomination, Polk replied: "It has been well observed that the office of President of the United States should neither be sought nor declined. I have never sought it, nor should I feel at liberty to decline it, if conferred upon me by the voluntary suffrages of my fellow citizens." Because the Democratic Party was splintered into bitter factions, Polk promised to serve only one term if elected, hoping that his disappointed rival Democrats would unite behind him with the knowledge that another candidate would be chosen in four years.
Polk's Whig opponent in the 1844 presidential election was Henry Clay of Kentucky. The annexation of Texas, which was at the forefront during the Democratic Convention, again dominated the campaign. Polk was a strong proponent of immediate annexation, while Clay seemed more equivocal and vacillating.
Another campaign issue, also related to westward expansion, involved the Oregon Country, then under the joint occupation of the United States and the United Kingdom. The Democrats had championed the cause of expansion, informally linking the controversial Texas annexation issue with a claim to the entire Oregon Country, thus appealing to both Northern and Southern expansionists.  Polk's consistent support for westward expansion—what Democrats would later call "Manifest Destiny"—likely played an important role in his victory, as opponent Henry Clay hedged his position.
In the election, Polk and his running mate, George M. Dallas, won in the South and West, while Clay drew support in the Northeast. Polk lost his home state, Tennessee, but won New York, where Clay lost votes to the antislavery Liberty Party candidate James G. Birney. Also contributing to Polk's victory was the support of new immigrant voters, who opposed the Whigs' policies. Polk won the popular vote by a margin of about 39,000 out of 2.6 million, and took the Electoral College with 170 votes to Clay's 105. Polk won 15 states, while Clay won 11.


Presidency (1845–1849) &Fiscal policy

When he took office on March 4, 1845, Polk, at 49, became the youngest man at the time to assume the presidency. According to a story told decades later by George Bancroft, Polk set four clearly defined goals for his administration:
Reestablish the Independent Treasury System.
Reduce tariffs.
Acquire some or all of Oregon Country.
Acquire California and New Mexico from Mexico.
Pledged to serve only one term, he accomplished all these objectives in just four years. By linking acquisition of new lands in Oregon  and Texas , he hoped to satisfy both North and South.
During his presidency James K. Polk was known as "Young Hickory", an allusion to his mentor Andrew Jackson, and "Napoleon of the Stump" for his speaking skills.

In 1846, Congress approved the Walker Tariff , which represented a substantial reduction of the high Whig-backed Tariff of 1842. The new law abandoned ad valorem tariffs and set rates independent of the monetary value of the product. Polk's actions were popular in the South and West; however, they were despised by many protectionists in Pennsylvania.
In 1846, Polk approved a law restoring the Independent Treasury System, under which government funds were held in the Treasury and not in banks or other financial institutions. This established independent treasury deposit offices, separate from private or state banks, to receive all government funds.

Rivers and Harbors Veto & Slavery

Congress passed the Rivers and Harbors Bill in 1846 to provide $500,000 to improve rivers and harbors, but Polk vetoed the bill. It would have provided for federally funded internal improvements on small harbors. Polk believed that this was unconstitutional because the bill unfairly favored particular areas, including ports which had no foreign trade. Polk believed that these problems were local and not national. Polk feared that passing the Rivers and Harbors Bill would encourage legislators to compete for favors for their home districts – a type of corruption that would spell doom to the virtue of the republic.In this regard he followed his hero Andrew Jackson, who had vetoed the Maysville Road Bill in 1830 on similar grounds.

During his presidency, many abolitionists harshly criticized him as an instrument of the "Slave Power", and claimed that spreading slavery was the reason he supported annexing Texas and later war with Mexico. Polk stated in his diary that he believed slavery could not exist in the territories won from Mexico, but refused to endorse the Wilmot Proviso that would forbid it there. Polk argued instead for extending the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific Ocean, which would prohibit the expansion of slavery above 36° 30' west of Missouri, but allow it below that line if approved by eligible voters in the territory. William Dusinberre has argued that Polk's diary, which he kept during his presidency, was written for later publication, and does not represent Polk's policy.
Polk was a slaveholder for his entire life. His father, Samuel Polk, had left Polk more than 8,000 acres  of land, and divided about 53 slaves to his widow and children after he died. James inherited twenty of his father's slaves, either directly or from deceased brothers. In 1831, he became an absentee cotton planter, sending slaves to clear plantation land that his father had left him near Somerville, Tennessee. Four years later Polk sold his Somerville plantation and, together with his brother-in-law, bought 920 acres  of land, a cotton plantation near Coffeeville, Mississippi. He ran this plantation for the rest of his life, eventually taking it over completely from his brother-in-law. Polk rarely sold slaves, although once he became President and could better afford it, he bought more. Polk's will stipulated that their slaves were to be freed after his wife Sarah had died. However, the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation and the 1865 Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution freed all remaining slaves in rebel states long before the death of his wife in 1891.

Foreign policy & Oregon territory

Polk strongly supported expansion. Democrats believed that opening up more land for yeoman farmers was critical for the success of republican virtue. Like most Southerners, he supported the annexation of Texas. To balance the interests of North and South, he wanted to acquire the Oregon Country as well. He sought to purchase California, which Mexico had neglected.

Polk put heavy pressure on Britain to resolve the Oregon boundary dispute. Since 1818, the territory had been under the joint occupation and control of the United Kingdom and the United States. Previous U.S. administrations had offered to divide the region along the 49th parallel, which was not acceptable to Britain, as they had commercial interests along the Columbia River. Although the Democratic platform asserted a claim to the entire region, Polk was willing to compromise. When the British again refused to accept the 49th parallel boundary proposal, Polk broke off negotiations and returned to the Democratic platform "All Oregon" demand. "54-40 or fight!" now became a popular rallying cry among Democrats
Polk wanted territory, not war, so he compromised with the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Aberdeen. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 divided the Oregon Country along the 49th parallel, the original American proposal. Although there were many who still clamored for the entire territory, the treaty was approved by the Senate. By settling for the 49th parallel, Polk angered many midwestern Democrats. Many of these Democrats believed that Polk had always wanted the boundary at the 49th, and that he had fooled them into believing he wanted it at the 54th parallel. The portion of Oregon territory acquired by the United States later formed the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and parts of the states of Montana and Wyoming.

Texas & Mexican-American War

President Tyler despised Polk as a person and politician Upon hearing of Polk's election to office, Tyler urged Congress to pass a joint resolution admitting Texas to the Union; Congress complied on February 28, 1845. Texas promptly accepted the offer and officially became a state on December 29, 1845. The annexation angered Mexico, which had lost Texas in 1836. Mexican politicians had repeatedly warned that annexation would lead to war. Nonetheless, just days after the resolution passed Congress, Polk declared in his inaugural address that only Texas and the United States would decide whether to annex.

After the Texas annexation, Polk turned his attention to California, hoping to acquire the territory from Mexico before any European nation did so. The main interest was San Francisco Bay as an access point for trade with Asia. In 1845, he sent diplomat John Slidell to Mexico to purchase California and New Mexico for $24–30 million. Slidell's arrival caused political turmoil in Mexico after word leaked out that he was there to purchase additional territory and not to offer compensation for the loss of Texas. The Mexicans refused to receive Slidell, citing a technical problem with his credentials. In January 1846, to increase pressure on Mexico to negotiate, Polk sent troops under General Zachary Taylor into the area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande—territory that was claimed by both the U.S. and Mexico.
Slidell returned to Washington in May 1846, having been rebuffed by the Mexican government. Polk regarded this treatment of his diplomat as an insult and an "ample cause of war", and he prepared to ask Congress for a declaration of war. Meanwhile Taylor crossed the Rio Grande River and briefly occupied Matamoros, Tamaulipas. Taylor continued to blockade ships from entering the port of Matamoros. Mere days before Polk intended to make his request to Congress, he received word that Mexican forces had crossed the Rio Grande area and killed eleven American soldiers. Polk then made this the casus belli, and in a message to Congress on May 11, 1846, he stated that Mexico had "invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil."
Some Whigs, such as Abraham Lincoln, challenged Polk's version of events, but Congress overwhelmingly approved the declaration of war. Many Whigs feared that opposition would cost them politically by casting themselves as unpatriotic for not supporting the war effort.
In the House, antislavery Whigs led by John Quincy Adams voted against the war; among Democrats, Senator John C. Calhoun was the most notable opponent of the declaration.

Military action

Polk selected the top generals and set the military strategy of the war. By the summer of 1846, American forces under General Stephen W. Kearny had captured New Mexico. Meanwhile, Army captain John C. Frémont led settlers in northern California to overthrow the Mexican garrison in Sonoma . General Zachary Taylor, at the same time, was having success on the Rio Grande, although Polk did not reinforce his troops there. The United States also negotiated a secret arrangement with Antonio López de Santa Anna, the Mexican general and dictator who had been overthrown in 1844. Santa Anna agreed that, if given safe passage into Mexico, he would attempt to persuade those in power to sell California and New Mexico to the United States. Once he reached Mexico, however, he reneged on his agreement, declared himself President, and tried to drive the American invaders back. Santa Anna's efforts, however, were in vain, as Generals Taylor and Winfield Scott destroyed all resistance. Scott captured Mexico City in September 1847, and Taylor won a series of victories in northern Mexico. Even after these battles, Mexico did not surrender until 1848, when it agreed to peace terms set out by Polk.

Peace: the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Polk sent diplomat Nicholas Trist to negotiate with the Mexicans. Lack of progress prompted the President to order Trist to return to the United States, but the diplomat ignored the instructions and stayed in Mexico to continue bargaining. Trist successfully negotiated the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, which Polk agreed to ratify, ignoring calls from Democrats who demanded that all Mexico be annexed. The treaty added 1.2 million square miles  of territory to the United States; Mexico's size was halved, while that of the United States increased by a third. California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming were all included in the Mexican Cession. The treaty also recognized the annexation of Texas and acknowledged American control over the disputed territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. Mexico, in turn, received $15 million. The war claimed fewer than 20,000 American lives but over 50,000 Mexican ones. It may have cost the United States $100 million. Finally, the Wilmot Proviso injected the issue of slavery in the new territories, even though Polk had insisted to Congress and in his diary that this had never been a war goal.
The treaty, however, needed ratification by the Senate. In March 1848, the Whigs, who had been so opposed to Polk's policy, suddenly changed position. Two-thirds of the Whigs voted for Polk's treaty. This ended the war and legalized the acquisition of the territories.
The war had serious consequences for Polk and the Democrats. It gave the Whig Party a unifying message of denouncing the war as an immoral act of aggression carried out through abuse of power by the president. In the 1848 election, however, the Whigs nominated General Zachary Taylor, a war hero, and celebrated his victories. Taylor refused to criticize Polk. As a result of the strain of managing the war effort directly and in close detail, Polk's health markedly declined toward the end of his presidency.

Cuba & Post-presidency

In mid-1848, President Polk authorized his ambassador to Spain, Romulus Mitchell Saunders, to negotiate the purchase of Cuba and offer Spain up to $100 million, an astounding sum at the time for one territory, equal to $2.69 billion in present day terms. Cuba was close to the United States and had slavery, so the idea appealed to Southerners but was unwelcome in the North. But Spain was still making huge profits in Cuba (notably in sugar, molasses, rum, and tobacco), and the Spanish government rejected Saunders' overtures.


Polk's time in the White House took its toll on his health. Full of enthusiasm and vigor when he entered office, Polk left on March 4, 1849, exhausted by his years of public service. He lost weight and had deep lines on his face and dark circles under his eyes. He is believed to have contracted cholera in New Orleans, Louisiana, on a goodwill tour of the South. He died at his new home, Polk Place, in Nashville, Tennessee, at 3:15 pm on June 15, 1849, three months after leaving office. He was buried on the grounds of Polk Place. Polk's last words illustrate his devotion to his wife: "I love you, Sarah. For all eternity, I love you." She lived at Polk Place for over forty years after his death. She died on August 14, 1891. Polk was also survived by his mother, Jane Knox Polk.
Polk had the shortest retirement of all Presidents at 103 days. He was the youngest former president to die in retirement at the age of 53. He and his wife are buried in a tomb on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee. The tomb was moved to this location in 1893 after his home at Polk Place was demolished.

Reputation

Polk's historic reputation was largely formed by the attacks made on him in his own time; the Whigs claimed that he was drawn from a well-deserved obscurity; Senator Tom Corwin of Ohio remarked "James K. Polk, of Tennessee? After that, who is safe?" The Republican historians of the nineteenth century inherited this view. Polk was a compromise between the Democrats of the North, like David Wilmot and Silas Wright, and the plantation owners who were led by John C. Calhoun; the northern Democrats thought that when they did not get their way, it was because he was the tool of the slaveholders, and the conservatives of the South insisted that he was the tool of the northern Democrats. These views were long reflected in the historical literature, until Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr and Bernard De Voto argued that Polk was nobody's tool, but set his own goals and achieved them.
Polk is now recognized, not only as the strongest president between Jackson and Lincoln, but the president who made the United States a coast-to-coast nation. When historians began ranking the presidents in 1948, Polk ranked 10th in Arthur M. Schlesinger’s poll. and has subsequently ranked 8th in Schlesinger’s 1962 poll, 11th in the Riders-McIver Poll , 11th in the most recent Siena Poll , 9th in the most recent Wall Street Journal Poll , and 12th in the latest C-Span Poll .
Polk biographers over the years have sized up the magnitude of Polk’s achievements and his legacy, particularly his two most recent. “There are three key reasons why James K. Polk deserves recognition as a significant and influential American president,” Walter Borneman wrote. “First, Polk accomplished the objectives of his presidential term as he defined them; second, he was the most decisive chief executive before the Civil War; and third, he greatly expanded the executive power of the presidency, particularly its war powers, its role as commander-in-chief, and its oversight of the executive branch." President Harry S. Truman summarized this view by saying that Polk was "a great president. Said what he intended to do and did it."
While Polk’s legacy thus takes many forms, the most outstanding is the map of the continental United States, whose landmass he increased by a third. “To look at that map,” Robert Merry concluded, “and to take in the western and southwestern expanse included in it, is to see the magnitude of Polk’s presidential accomplishments.”

Nevertheless, Polk's aggressive expansionism has been criticized on ethical grounds. He believed in "Manifest Destiny" even more than most did. Referencing the Mexican-American War, General Ulysses S. Grant stated that "I was bitterly opposed to the , and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory." Whig politicians, including David Wilmot, Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams contended that the Texas Annexation and the Mexican Cession enhanced the pro-slavery factions of the United States. Unsatisfactory conditions pertaining to the status of slavery in the territories acquired during the Polk administration led to the Compromise of 1850, one of the primary factors in the establishment of the Republican Party and later the beginning of the American Civil War.
On the other hand, Sam Houston is said to have observed that Polk was "a victim of the use of water as a beverage.

John Tyler's life history

Early life and law career

John Tyler was born on 29 March 1790, in the early years of the newly established nation. He was the first President to be born after the adoption of the Constitution. From birth he was politically tied to his future running mate William Henry Harrison: both were born in Charles City County, Virginia, and descended from aristocratic and politically entrenched families. The Tyler family proudly traced its lineage to colonial Williamsburg in the 17th century. John Tyler, Sr., popularly known as Judge Tyler, was a friend and college roommate of Thomas Jefferson and served in the Virginia House of Delegates alongside William's father Benjamin Harrison V. Judge Tyler served four years as Virginia Speaker of the House before becoming a state court judge. He would later serve as governor and as a judge on the U.S. District Court at Richmond. His wife, Mary Marot (Armistead), was the daughter of a prominent plantation owner, Robert Booth Armistead. She died of a stroke when her son John was seven years old.
The young Tyler was raised with his two brothers and five sisters on Greenway Plantation, a 1,200-acre  estate with a six-room mansion his father had built.Various crops including wheat, corn, and tobacco were grown at Greenway by the Tylers' forty slaves. Tyler was an unhealthy child, very thin and prone to chronic diarrhea. Such afflictions would continue to burden him throughout his life. At the age of twelve, he entered the preparatory branch of the elite College of William and Mary, continuing the Tyler family's tradition of attending the college. Tyler graduated from the school's collegiate branch in 1807, at age seventeen. Among the books that informed his economic views was Ada Smith's The Wealth of Nations. His political views were deeply shaped by Bishop James Madison, the college's president, who served as a second father and mentor to him.
After graduation Tyler went on to study law with his father, who was a state judge at the time. Tyler was admitted to the bar at the age of 19, in violation of bar regulations: the judge who administered the bar exam neglected to inquire about his age. By this time his father had become Governor of Virginia (1808–1811), and the young Tyler started a practice in Richmond.

Start in Virginia politics

At the age of 21, Tyler was elected by his fellow Charles City County residents to the Virginia House of Delegates, the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly. He served five successive one-year terms (and would return later in his career), seated on the Courts and Justice committee. The young politician's defining attributes were on display by the end of his first term: a strong support of states' rights and opposition to a national bank. He joined fellow legislator Benjamin W. Leigh in pushing for the censure of U.S. Senators William Branch Giles and Richard Brent from Virginia, who had voted for the recharter of the First Bank of the United States against the legislature's instructions.
In addition to infighting over the national bank, the United States was facing ongoing hostilities with Britain in the War of 1812. Tyler's education had impressed on him a strong sense of anti-British nationalism, and at the onset of the war he urged military action on the assembly floor. After the British capture of Hampton, Virginia in the summer of 1813, Tyler eagerly organized a small militia company of county residents to defend Richmond, but no attack came their way and he dissolved the company two months later. That same year his father died, and Tyler inherited thirteen slaves along with his father's estate. In 1816 he resigned to serve on the Governor's Council of State, a group of eight advisers elected by the legislature.

In addition to infighting over the national bank, the United States was facing ongoing hostilities with Britain in the War of 1812. Tyler's education had impressed on him a strong sense of anti-British nationalism, and at the onset of the war he urged military action on the assembly floor. After the British capture of Hampton, Virginia in the summer of 1813, Tyler eagerly organized a small militia company of county residents to defend Richmond, but no attack came their way and he dissolved the company two months later. That same year his father died, and Tyler inherited thirteen slaves along with his father's estate. In 1816 he resigned to serve on the Governor's Council of State, a group of eight advisers elected by the legislature.

U.S. House of Representatives

Tyler's three terms in the United States House of Representatives would be his foray into national politics. The death of U.S. Representative John Clopton in the fall of 1816 left a vacancy in the 23rd district which Tyler was well positioned to fill. He faced his friend and political ally Andrew Stevenson, then Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, in the congressional election. The race was amicable despite the high political stakes. Tyler's political connections and campaigning skills won him the election by a slim margin. He was sworn in as a Democratic-Republican to the Fourteenth Congress on December 17, 1816, to complete Clopton's term. He was re-elected to a full term the following spring.
While the Democratic-Republicans had a historical platform of states' rights, they had begun to adopt nationalist tendencies. In the wake of the War of 1812, Congress was pushing to fund the states' reconstruction and infrastructure projects. Tyler held fast to his strict constructionist beliefs, rejecting such proposals on both constitutional and personal grounds. Virginia was not "in so poor a condition as to require a charitable donation from Congress," he contended. He was chosen to participate in an audit of the Second Bank of the United States in 1818 as part of a five-person committee, and was appalled by perceived corruption within the bank. He argued for the annulment of the bank charter, although Congress rejected any such proposal. His first clash with then-General Andrew Jackson followed Jackson's 1818 invasion of Florida during the First Seminole War. While praising Jackson's character, Tyler condemned the general's zealous behavior and his execution of two British subjects. Tyler was re-elected without opposition in early 1819.
The defining issue of the Sixteenth Congress  was the admission of Missouri to the Union, and whether slavery would be permitted in the new state. Tyler was a slaveholder for his entire life, at one point keeping forty slaves at Greenway. While he regarded slavery as an evil, and never attempted to justify it, he never agreed with national emancipation, and never freed any of his slaves even at the dawn of the Civil War. The living conditions of his slaves are not well documented, but historians agree that he cared for their well-being and abstained from physical violence against them.
Tyler was a leader in opposing the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which would for the first time establish national boundaries for the establishment of slavery. In his view, the compromise served only to diminish and divide the states, while unnecessarily expanding federal authority. Acknowledging the ills of slavery, he argued that allowing it in Missouri would attract existing slave-owners from Southern states, dissipating the population of slaves and reducing each state's reliance on the practice. Thus, in his view, emancipation would occur organically at the state level without federal intervention. He voted against the Missouri Compromise—which passed regardless—and all bills which would restrict slavery in new territories.
Tyler declined to seek renomination to Congress in late 1820, citing illness. He privately acknowledged his dissatisfaction with the office, as his opposing votes were largely symbolic and did little to change the political culture in Washington; he also observed that funding his children's education would be difficult on a Congressman's low salary. He resigned on March 4, 1821, endorsing his former opponent Stevenson for the seat, and returned to private law.

Return to state politics

He was soon drafted for a second stint in the Virginia House of Delegates, which lasted from December 1823 to December 1825. Upon taking office he found the chamber thrust into debate over the impending presidential election of 1824. The congressional nominating caucus, an early system for choosing presidential candidates, was still in effect despite its growing unpopularity. Tyler attempted to bring the lower house to endorse the caucus system and choose William H. Crawford as the Democratic-Republican candidate. Despite the legislature's support of Crawford, opposition to the caucus system killed his proposal. Tyler's most lasting effort in this second legislative tenure was salvaging the College of William and Mary, which suffered from waning attendance and risked closure. Rather than move it from rural Williamsburg to the populous capital of Richmond, as some suggested, Tyler proposed that a series of administrative and financial reforms be enacted. His reforms were successfully adopted: by 1840 the school would see its highest-ever attendance.
Tyler's political fortunes were growing, with his name taken up for consideration in the 1824 U.S. Senate election. He was nominated in December 1825 for Governor of Virginia, a position which was then appointed by the legislature. He was elected 131–81 over John Floyd, whose candidacy had little traction. The office of governor was determinately powerless under the original Virginia Constitution , lacking even veto authority. Tyler enjoyed a prominent oratorical platform but could do little to influence the legislature. His most visible act as governor was delivering the funeral address for President Thomas Jefferson, a Virginia native who died on July 4, 1826. Tyler was deeply devoted to Jefferson, and his ornate eulogy was well received.
Tyler's governorship was otherwise uneventful. He promoted states' rights and adamantly opposed any concentration of federal power. In order to thwart federal infrastructure proposals, he suggested Virginia actively expand its own road system. A proposal was made to expand the state's poorly funded public school system, but no significant action was taken. Tyler was re-elected unanimously to a second term in December 1826.

Break with Democrats

Tyler's uneasy relationship with his party came to a head during the 22nd Congress, as the Nullification Crisis of 1832–33 began. The state of South Carolina, threatening secession, passed the Ordinance of Nullification in November 1832, declaring the "Tariff of Abominations" null and void within its borders. This raised the constitutional question of whether states had the right to nullify federal laws. President Jackson, who denied such a right, prepared to sign a Force Bill allowing the federal government to use military action to enforce the tariff in South Carolina. Tyler, who sympathized with South Carolina's reasons for nullification, rejected Jackson's use of military force against a state and gave a speech in February 1833 outlining his views. He supported Henry Clay's attempts to craft the Compromise Tariff of 1833. This bill would gradually reduce the tariff over ten years, alleviating tensions between the states and the federal government.
In voting against the Force Bill, Tyler knew he would permanently alienate the pro-Jackson faction of the Virginia legislature, even those who had tolerated his irregularity up to this point. This would jeopardize his re-election in February 1833, in which he faced the pro-administration Democrat James McDowell. With Clay's endorsement, Tyler was re-elected to a full term by a twelve-vote plurality; several legislators who had supported him only weeks beforehand were moved to vote against him as a result of the Force Bill vote.
Jackson further offended Tyler by moving to dissolve the Bank by executive fiat. In September 1833, Jackson issued an executive order directing Treasury Secretary Roger B. Taney to transferring federal funds from the Bank to state-run banks immediately. Tyler saw this as "a flagrant assumption of power", a breach of contract, and a threat to the economy. After months of agonizing, he decided to ally with Clay and the anti-Jackson factions of Congress on the bank issue, while still maintaining the Bank's unconstitutionality. Sitting on the Senate Finance Committee, he voted for two censure resolutions against the President in March 1834. By this time, Tyler was formally in line with Clay's newly formed Whig Party, which held control of the Senate. On 3 March 1835, with only hours remaining in the congressional session, the Whigs voted him President pro tempore of the Senate as a symbolic gesture of approval.
Shortly thereafter, the Democrats took control of the Virginia House of Delegates, and Tyler's seat in the Senate was threatened. That December, the legislature offered him a judgeship in exchange for resigning his seat, but he declined. Tyler understood what was to come: he would soon be forced by the legislature to cast a vote that went against his constitutional beliefs. Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri had repeatedly introduced a bill expunging the censure of Jackson from the record. With the support of Virginia's Democrats, Tyler could be instructed to vote for the bill. If he disregarded the instructions, he would be violating his own principles: "the first act of my political life was a censure on Messrs. Giles and Brent for opposition to instructions," he noted. Over the next few months he sought the counsel of his friends, who gave him conflicting advice. By mid-February he felt that his Senate career was likely at an end. He issued a letter of resignation to the Vice-President on 29 February 1836, saying in part.
I shall carry with me into retirement the principles which I brought with me into public life, and by the surrender of the high station to which I was called by the voice of the people of Virginia, I shall set an example to my children which shall teach them to regard as nothing place and office, when either is to be attained or held at the sacrifice of honor.

Presidential election, 1836

While Tyler wished to attend to his private life and family, he was soon swept up in the presidential election of 1836. He had been suggested as a Vice Presidential candidate since early 1835, and the same day the Virginia Democrats issued the expunging instruction, the Virginia Whigs nominated him as their candidate. The new Whig Party was not organized enough to hold a national convention and name a single ticket against Jackson's chosen successor, Martin Van Buren. Instead, Whigs in various regions each put forth their own preferred ticket, reflecting the party's tenuous coalition: the Massachusetts Whigs nominated Daniel Webster and Francis Granger, the Anti-Masons of the Northern and border states backed William Henry Harrison and Granger, and the states' rights advocates of the middle and lower South nominated Hugh Lawson White and John Tyler. Tyler, despite his strong following in the Virginia and Ohio conventions, only received 47 electoral votes in the November 1836 election, trailing both Granger and the Democratic candidate, Richard Mentor Johnson. Harrison was the leading Whig candidate for president, but he lost to van Buren.

Later state politics

Tyler had been drawn into Virginia politics even as a U.S. Senator. From October 1829 to January 1830, he served as a member of the state constitutional convention, a role which he was reluctant to accept. The original Virginia Constitution gave outsize influence to the state's more conservative eastern counties, as it allocated an equal number of legislators to each county  and oly granted suffrage to property owners. The convention gave the more populous and liberal counties of western Virginia an opportunity to expand their influence. Tyler, a slave-owner from eastern Virginia, supported the existing system. He largely remained on the sidelines during the debate, however, not wishing to alienate any of the state's political factions. He was focused on his Senate career, which required a broad base of support, and gave speeches during the convention promoting compromise and unity.
After the 1836 election, Tyler thought his political career was at an end, and planned to return to private law practic. In the fall of 1837 a friend sold him a sizable property in Williamsburg. He had barely settled in, however, when he was again elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. He took office in 1838 and his peers unanimously elected him Speaker. Tyler was a national political figure by this point, and his third delegate service touched on such national issues as disposal of public lands.
In February 1839, the legislature again considered a U.S. Senate election, this time the seat of incumbent William Cabell Rives, a Conservative Democrat who had succeeded Tyler. Rives had drifted away from his party, signalling a possible alliance with the Whigs. As Tyler had already fully rejected his party, he expected the Whigs would consider him as a candidate instead. Still, the Whigs found Rives a more politically expedient choice, as they hoped to draw a useful coalition with the Conservative Democrats for the 1840 presidential election. This strategy was espoused by Whig leader Henry Clay, who otherwise admired Tyler. Tyler was turned down for the nomination, while in-party squabbles delayed Rives' re-election until January 1841.

Presidential election, 1840

At the Whig convention of 1840, Tyler supported Henry Clay for Presidential candidacy. After Clay had been passed over in favor of William Henry Harrison, Tyler was named Harrison's running mate. Although this was ostensibly to balance the ticket by placing the Virginian, Tyler, with Harrison, who now resided in Ohio, Harrison originally came from a plantation along the same stretch of road in Charles City County, Virginia as Tyler.
The union of the Whigs in this year was a coalition of diverse elements joined to defeat their common opponent, the Democratic incumbent Martin Van Buren. This combination included both southern states' rights men such as Tyler, who had long opposed a national bank and unrestricted federal power, and economic nationalists such as Clay, whose "American system" called for a national bank, protective tariff, and federally financed internal improvements. To win the election, these differences were downplayed, in favor of portraying Harrison as hardy western frontiersman and Van Buren as an effete easterner. The Whig slogan was "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" - among the most famous in American politics.
But these differences reappeared later, dividing Tyler and the Whig Party after he succeeded Harrison as President.
Harrison and Tyler won the election by an electoral vote of 234–60 and a popular vote of 53 percent to 47 percent, and the Whigs gained control of both houses of Congress.

Vice-presidency, 1841

Harrison and Tyler was sworn in on 4 March 1841. Tyler delivered only a five-minute bromide about states' rights before the new President stepped in to give his two-hour address. Expecting few responsibilities, the Vice President stayed in Washington, D.C. only long enough to preside over the Senate confirmation of Harrison's cabinet. He then quietly repaired to his home in Williamsburg.Historian Robert Seager II later wrote, Had William Henry Harrison lived, John Tyler would undoubtedly have been as obscure as any Vice-President in American history.
Harrison, meanwhile, struggled to keep up with the demands of Henry Clay and others who sought offices and influence in his administration. He did not seek Tyler's advice regarding cabinet appointments, and Tyler reportedly offered none, only hoping that it "be cast of the proper material" and avoid factionalism and patronage. Harrison's old age and fading health were no secret during the campaign, and the question of the presidential succession was on every politician's mind. The first few weeks of the presidency took a clear toll on Harrison's health, and after being caught in a rainstorm in late March he came down with pneumonia and pleurisy.
Secretary of State Daniel Webster sent word to Tyler of Harrison's illness on 1 April; two days later, Richmond attorney James Lyons wrote with the news that the President had taken a turn for the worse, remarking that I shall not be surprised to hear by tomorrow's mail that Gen'l Harrison is no more. Tyler determined not to travel to Washington, not wanting to appear unseemly in anticipating the President's death. However, at dawn on 5 April, two couriersarrived at Tyler's home bearing the message that Harrison had died the day before.

Presidency, 1841–1845

Harrison's unprecedented death in office caused considerable disarray regarding his successor. The Constitution of the United States stated only 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.
This led to the question of whether the actual office of President "devolved" upon Vice President Tyler, or merely its powers and duties. By the time Tyler arrived in Washington at 4:00 a.m. on 6 April 1841, he had firmly resolved that he was now, in name and fact, the President of the United States, and acted on this determination by taking the oath of office in his hotel room. He considered the oath redundant to his oath as Vice President, but wished to quell any doubt over his accession. Immediately after his inauguration, Tyler called Harrison's cabinet into a meeting, having decided to retain its members. Webster informed him of Harrison's practice of making policy by a majority vote. The cabinet fully expected the new President to continue this practice. Tyler was astounded and immediately corrected them:
I beg your pardon, gentlemen; I am very glad to have in my Cabinet such able statesmen as you have proved yourselves to be. And I shall be pleased to avail myself of your counsel and advice. But I can never consent to being dictated to as to what I shall or shall not do. I, as President, shall be responsible for my administration. I hope to have your hearty co-operation in carrying out its measures. So long as you see fit to do this, I shall be glad to have you with me. When you think otherwise, your resignations will be accepted.
He delivered a de facto inaugural address on 9 April reasserting his fundamental tenets of Jeffersonian democracy and limited federal power. Tyler's claim was not immediately accepted by opposition members in Congress such as John Quincy Adams, who argued for Tyler to assume a role as a caretaker under the title of "Acting President", or remain Vice President in name. Among those who questioned Tyler's authority was Whig leader Henry Clay, who had intended to be "the real power behind a fumbling throne" and exercise considerable influence over Harrison, and who now transferred that ambition onto his close friend, Tyler. He saw Tyler as the "Vice-President" and his presidency as a mere "regency".
On 1 June, impressed by his authoritative actions, both houses of Congress passed resolutions declaring Tyler the 10th President of the United States. Tyler had thus become the first U.S. Vice President to assume the office of President upon the death of the incumbent, establishing a precedent that would be followed seven times in the 19th and 20th centuries. Yet it was not until 1967 that Tyler's action of assuming both the full powers and the title of the presidency was legally codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment.
Although his accession was given approval by both the Cabinet and, later, the Senate and House, Tyler's detractors  never fully accepted him as President. He was referred to by many nicknames, including "His Accidency," a reference to his having become President, not through election, but by the accidental circumstances regarding his nomination and Harrison's death. However, Tyler never wavered from his conviction that he was the rightful President; when his political opponents sent correspondence to the White House addressed to the "Vice President" or "Acting President," Tyler had it returned unopened.

Economic policy and party conflicts

Harrison had been expected to adhere closely to Whig Party policies and to work closely with Whig leaders, particularly Clay. When Tyler succeeded him, he at first was in accord with the new Whig Congress in signing into law such measures as a pre-emption bill granting "squatters' sovereignty" to settlers on public land, a Distribution Act, discussed below, a new bankruptcy law, and the repeal of the Independent Treasury enacted under Van Buren. But when it came to the great banking question, the former Democratic President was at odds with the Congressional Whigs. Twice he vetoed Clay's legislation for a national banking act following the Panic of 1837. Although the bills supposedly had been tailored to meet his stated objections in the first veto, its final version was not. This practice, designed to protect Clay from having a successful incumbent President as a rival in the next election, became known as "heading Captain Tyler," a term coined by Whig Representative John Minor Botts of Virginia. Tyler proposed an alternative fiscal plan to be known as the "Exchequer," but Clay's friends, who controlled the Congress, would have none of it.
On 11 September 1841, following the second bank veto, members of the cabinet entered Tyler's office one by one and resigned – an orchestration by Clay to force Tyler's resignation (and place his own lieutenant, Senate President Pro Tempore Samuel L. Southard, in the White House). The exception was Secretary of State Webster who remained to finalize what became the 1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty, as well as to demonstrate his independence from Clay. Two days later, when the President stood firm, the Whigs in Congress officially expelled Tyler from the party. A national backlash ensued, as Tyler was lambasted by Whig newspapers and received hundreds of letters threatening his assassination.

Foreign and military affairs

Tyler's difficulties in domestic policy were matched by adept accomplishments in foreign policy. He had long been an advocate of expansionism toward the Pacific and free trade, and was fond of evoking themes of national destiny and the spread of liberty in support of these policies. His presidency was largely continuous with Jackson's earlier efforts to promote American commerce across the Pacific. Eager to compete with Great Britain in international markets, he sent lawyer Caleb Cushing to China, where he negotiated the terms of the Treaty of Wanghia .The same year, he sent Henry Wheaton as a minister to Berlin, where he negotiated and signed a trade agreement with the German Zollverein. This treaty was rejected by the Whigs, mainly as a show of hostility toward the Tyler administration. The President also applied the Monroe Doctrine to Hawaii, told Britain not to interfere there, and began the process towards the eventual annexation of Hawaii by the United States.
In 1842, the Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, negotiated the Webster–Ashburton Treaty with Britain which concluded where the border between Maine and Canada lay. The issue of where the border lay had caused tension between the United States and Britain for a notable amount of time and had brought the two countries to the brink of war on several occasions. The treaty improved Anglo-American diplomatic relations. However, Tyler was unsuccessful in concluding a treaty with the British to fix the boundaries of Oregon. On Tyler's last full day in office, March 3, 1845, Florida was admitted to the Union as the 27th state.
Tyler advocated an increase in military strength. His administration drew the praise of naval leaders, who saw a marked increase in naval warships. Tyler brought the long, bloody Second Seminole War to an end in 1842, and expressed interest in the civilizing, so to speak, of the Native Americans.He also advocated the establishment of a chain of American forts from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to the Pacific.
In May 1842, when the Dorr Rebellion in Rhode Island came to a head, Tyler pondered the request of the governor and legislature to send federal troops to help it suppress the Dorrite insurgents. The insurgents under Thomas Dorr had armed themselves and proposed to install a new state constitution. Before such acts, Rhode Island had been following the same constitutional structure that was established in 1663. Tyler called for calm on both sides, and recommended the governor enlarge the franchise to let most men vote. Tyler promised that in case an actual insurrection should break out in Rhode Island he would employ force to aid the regular, or Charter, government. He made it clear that federal assistance would be given, not to prevent, but only to put down insurrection, and would not be available until violence had been committed. After listening to reports from his confidential agents, Tyler decided that the 'lawless assemblages' had dispersed and expressed his confidence in a "temper of conciliation as well as of energy and decision." He did not send any federal forces. The rebels fled the state when the state militia marched against them. With their dispersion, they accepted the expansion of suffrage.

Early attempts

In early 1843, having completed the Webster–Ashburton treaty and other diplomatic efforts, Tyler felt ready to pursue Texas. Now lacking a party base, he saw annexation of the republic as his only pathway to independent re-election in 1844. For the first time in his career he was willing to play "political hardball" to see it through. As a trial balloon he dispatched his ally Thomas Walker Gilmer, then a U.S. Representative from Virginia, to publish a letter defending annexation, which was well received. Despite his successful relationship with Webster, Tyler knew he would need a Secretary of State who supported the Texas initiative, and so he forced Webster's resignation and installed Hugh S. Legaré of South Carolina as an interim successor.
With the help of newly appointed Treasury Secretary John C. Spencer, he cleared out an array of officeholders, replacing them with pro-annexation partisans, in a reversal of his former stand against patronage. He elicited the help of political organizer Michael Walsh to build a political machine in New York. In exchange for an appointment as consul to Hawaii, journalist Alexander G. Abell wrote a flattering biography, Life of John Tyler, which was printed in large quantities and given to postmasters throughout the country to distribute. Seeking to rehabilitate his public image, Tyler embarked on a nationwide campaign tour in the spring of 1843. The positive reception of the public at these events contrasted starkly with his ostracism back in Washington. The tour centered around the dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston, Massachusetts. Shortly after the dedication, Tyler learned of Legaré's sudden death, which dampened the festivities and forced him to cancel the rest of the tour.
He appointed Abel P. Upshur, a popular Secretary of the Navy and close adviser, as his new Secretary of State, and nominated Gilmer to fill his former office. Tyler and Upshur began quiet negotiations with the Texas government, promising military protection from Mexico in exchange for a commitment to annexation. Secrecy was necessary, as the Constitution required Congressional approval for such military commitments. Upshur planted rumors of possible British designs on Texas to drum up support among Northern voters, who were wary of admitting a new pro-slavery state. By January 1844 Upshur told the Texas government that he had found a large majority of Senators in favor of an annexation treaty. The republic remained skeptical, and finalization of the treaty took until the end of February.

USS Princeton disaster

It was only one day after completing the treaty that Upshur and Gilmer were killed in a bad accident. A ceremonial cruise down the Potomac River was held aboard the newly built USS Princeton on February 28, 1844. Aboard the ship were 400 guests, including Tyler and his cabinet, as was the world's largest naval gun, the "Peacemaker". The gun was ceremoniously fired several times in the afternoon to the happiness of the onlookers, who then filed downstairs to offer a toast. Several hours later, Captain Robert F. Stockton was convinced by the crowd to fire one more shot. As the guests moved up to the deck, Tyler paused briefly to watch his son-in-law, William Waller, sing a ditty.
At once an explosion was heard from above: the gun had malfunctioned. Tyler was unhurt, having remained safely below deck, but a number of others were instantly killed, including his crucial cabinet members, Gilmer and Upshur. Also killed or mortally wounded were Virgil Maxcy of Maryland, Rep. David Gardiner of New York, Commodore Beverly Kennon, Chief of Construction of the United States Navy, and Tyler's black slave and body servant. For Tyler, any hope of completing the Texas plan before November (and with it, any hope of re-election) was instantly dashed. Historian Edward P. Crapol later wrote that "Prior to the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln," the Princeton disaster "unquestionably was the most severe and debilitating tragedy ever to confront a President of the United States."

Ratification and 1844 election

In what the Miller Center of Public Affairs considers "a serious tactical error that ruined the scheme ", Tyler appointed former Vice President John C. Calhoun in early March 1844 as his Secretary of State. Tyler's good friend, Virginia Representative Henry A. Wise, wrote that following the Princeton disaster, he went on his own to extend Calhoun the position through a colleague, who assumed that the offer came from the president. When Wise went to tell Tyler what he had done, the President was angry but felt that the action now had to stand. Calhoun was a leading advocate of slavery, and his attempts to get an annexation treaty passed were resisted by abolitionists as a result. When the text of the treaty was leaked to the public, it met political opposition from the Whigs, who would oppose anything that might enhance Tyler's status, as well as from foes of slavery and those who feared a confrontation with Mexico, which had announced that it would view annexation as a hostile act by the United States. Both Clay and Van Buren, the respective frontrunners for the Whig and Democratic nominations, decided in a private meeting at Van Buren's home to come out against annexation. Tyler sent the treaty to the Senate for ratification, accompanied by a message that extolled the benefits of annexation to the country and contained no mention of slavery.
Following Tyler's break with the Whigs in 1841, he had begun to shift back to his old Democratic party, but its members, especially the followers of Van Buren, were not ready to receive him. He knew that with little chance of re-election, the only way to salvage his presidency and legacy was to move public opinion in favor of the Texas issue. He formed a third party, the Democratic-Republicans, using the officeholders and political networks he had built over the previous year. A chain of pro-Tyler newspapers across the country put out editorials promoting his candidacy throughout the early months of 1844. Reports of Tyler meetings held throughout the country suggest that support for the President was not limited to officeholders, as is often inferred. The Tyler supporters, holding signs reading "Tyler and Texas!", held their nominating convention in Baltimore in May 1844, just as the Democratic Party was holding its presidential nomination. With their high visibility and energy they were able to force the Democrats' hand in favor of annexation. Ballot after ballot, Van Buren failed to win the necessary super-majority of Democratic votes, and slowly fell in the ranking. It was not until the ninth ballot that the Democrats discovered an obscure pro-annexation candidate named James K. Polk. They found him to be perfectly suited for their platform, and he was nominated with two-thirds of the vote. Tyler considered his work vindicated, and implied in an acceptance letter that annexation was his true priority rather than re-election.
Tyler was unfazed when the Whig-controlled Senate rejected his treaty by a vote of 16–35 in June 1844, as he felt that annexation was now within reach. He called for Congress to annex Texas by joint resolution rather than by treaty. Former President Andrew Jackson, a staunch supporter of annexation, persuaded Polk to welcome Tyler back into the Democratic party and ordered Democratic editors to cease their attacks on the him. Satisfied by these developments, Tyler dropped out of the race in August and endorsed Polk for the presidency. Polk's narrow victory over Clay in the November election was seen by the Tyler administration as a mandate for completing the resolution. Tyler announced in his annual message to Congress that "a controlling majority of the people and a large majority of the states have declared in favor of immediate annexation." In late February 1845, the House by a substantial margin and the Senate by a bare 27–25 majority approved a joint resolution offering terms of annexation to Texas. On March 1, three days before the end of his term, Tyler signed the bill into law. After some debate, Texas accepted the terms and entered the union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state.

Post-presidency and death

Tyler retired to a Virginia plantation, originally named Walnut Grove , located on the James River in Charles City County, Virginia. He renamed it Sherwood Forest, in a reference to the folk legend Robin Hood, to signify that he had been "outlawed" by the Whig Party. He did not take farming lightly and worked hard to maintain large yields throughout the 1840s. His neighbors, largely Whigs, appointed him "overseer" of his road in 1847 in an effort to mock him. To their displeasure he treated the title seriously, frequently summoning his neighbors' slaves to attend to road work, and continued to bear the title even after his neighbors asked him to stop. He withdrew from electoral politics, rarely receiving visits from his friends. He was asked to give an occasional public speech, but was not sought out as an adviser. One notable speech was at the unveiling of a monument to Henry Clay; acknowledging the political battles between the two, he spoke highly of his former colleague, whom he had always admired for bringing about the Compromise Tariff of 1833.
On the eve of the Civil War, Tyler re-entered public life as sponsor and chairman of the Virginia Peace Convention, held in Washington, D.C., in February 1861 as an effort to devise means to prevent a war. The convention sought a compromise to avoid civil war while the Confederate Constitution was being drawn up at the Montgomery Convention. When the convention's proposals were rejected by Congress, Tyler abandoned hope of compromise and saw secession as the only option. He was sanguine about a peaceful secession, predicting that a clean split of all Southern states would not result in war. When war ultimately broke out, Tyler unhesitatingly sided with the Confederacy and became a delegate to the Provisional Confederate Congress from February 4, 1861. He was then elected to the House of Representatives of the Confederate Congress. On January 5, 1862, he left for Richmond, Virginia, in anticipation of his congressional service, but he would not live to see the opening sessions.
Throughout Tyler's life, he suffered from poor health. As he aged, he suffered more frequently from colds during the winter. After his exit from the White House, he fell victim to repeated cases of dysentery. He had many aches and pains in the last eight years of his life. On January 12, 1862, after complaining of chills and dizziness, he vomited and collapsed. He was revived, yet the next day he admitted to the same symptoms. He was treated for the rest of the week, but his health did not improve, and he made plans to return to Sherwood Forest on the 18th. As he lay in bed the previous night he began suffocating, and Julia summoned his doctor. Just after midnight, Tyler took a last sip of brandy, and told his doctor, "I am going. Perhaps it is best." It is believed that he had suffered a stroke. Tyler is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, by the side of former President James Monroe.
Tyler's death was the only one in presidential history not to be officially recognized in Washington, because of his allegiance to the Confederacy. He had requested a simple burial, but Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his fellows delivered a grand, politically pointed funeral, painting Tyler as a hero to the Confederacy. Tyler's favorite horse named "The General" is buried at his Sherwood Forest Plantation with a gravestone which reads,
Here lie the bones of my old horse, "General,"
Who served his master faithfully for twenty-one years,
And never made a blunder.
Would that his master could say the same!

Family and personal life

With his two wives, Tyler fathered more children than any other President in history. His first wife was Letitia Christian Tyler , with whom he had eight children:
Early in his presidency, Tyler was attacked by abolitionist publisher Joshua Leavitt, who alleged that Tyler had fathered  several sons with his slaves, prompting a response from the Tyler administration–linked newspaper The Madisonian. A number of African American families today have an oral tradition of descent from Tyler, but no evidence of such a link has ever surfaced.
As of January 2012, Tyler has two living grandsons through his son Lyon Gardiner Tyler. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Jr., was born in 1924, and Harrison Ruffin Tyler was born in 1928. Harrison Tyler maintains the family home, "Sherwood Forest." Tyler is the oldest former President with living grandchildren, and none of the succeeding Presidents have living grandchildren until James A. Garfield, who served forty years after Tyler, with Abraham Lincoln and lifelong bachelor James Buchanan each having no living descendants of any kind.

Legacy

The Tyler presidency is generally held in low esteem by historians. Edward P. Crapol began his biography John Tyler, the Accidental President  by noting: "Other biographers and historians have argued that John Tyler was a hapless and inept chief executive whose presidency was seriously flawed." In The Republican Vision of John Tyler , Dan Monroe observed that the Tyler presidency "is generally ranked as one of the least successful". Robert Seager II wrote in And Tyler Too: A Biography of John and Julia Gardiner Tyler  that Tyler "was neither a great President nor a great intellectual," adding that despite a few achievements, "his administration has been and must be counted an unsuccessful one by any modern measure of accomplishment". A survey of 65 historians, conducted by C-SPAN in 2009, ranked Tyler as 35th of 42 men to hold the office.
Some have argued that Tyler's accomplishments and political resolve warrant a more favorable treatment. Tyler's assumption of complete presidential powers "set a hugely important precedent", according to a biographical sketch by the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. The article also noted that "Tyler could claim an ambitious, successful foreign policy presidency, due largely to the efforts of Secretary of State Webster." Monroe credits Tyler with "achievements like the Webster–Ashburton treaty which heralded the prospect of improved relations with Great Britain, and the annexation of Texas, which added millions of acres to the national domain." Crapol argued that Tyler "was a stronger and more effective President than generally remembered," while Seager wrote, "I find him to be a courageous, principled man, a fair and honest fighter for his beliefs. He was a President without a party." The book Recarving Rushmore , which rated Presidents in terms of peace, prosperity, and liberty, ranked John Tyler as the best President of all time.
Tyler has been the namesake of several U.S. locations, including the city of Tyler, Texas and one of its schools, John Tyler High School, along with John Tyler Community College in Virginia, located near Tyler's home. While academics have both praised and criticized Tyler, the general American public has little awareness of him at all. Several writers have noted that Tyler is among the nation's most obscure presidents. As Seager remarked, "His countrymen generally remember him, if they have heard of him at all, as the rhyming end of a catchy campaign slogan."