John Tyler Timeline

Tyler took the oath of office as vice president in Washington, D.C., just weeks before President Harrison would fall gravely ill, setting up an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

Image source: Vice President of the United States

President Harrison died of what was diagnosed as pneumonia just thirty-one days into his term, making him the first U.S. president to die in office and creating uncertainty about presidential succession.

Image source: William Henry Harrison

Despite objections from some cabinet members who argued he should merely act as president, Tyler insisted on assuming the full title and powers of the presidency. This precedent eventually became codified in law and later constitutional amendment.

During the special session called after Tyler's accession, Congress debated fiscal policy. Tyler vetoed bills to reestablish a national bank twice, alienating his own party, while the independent treasury system remained a key issue.

Image source: Independent Treasury

After Tyler vetoed the second bill establishing a national bank, furious Whig leaders expelled him from the party and his cabinet resigned in protest, with Secretary of State Daniel Webster remaining to complete negotiations with Britain.

A short-lived armed uprising against Rhode Island's restrictive voting requirements prompted calls for federal intervention; Tyler chose a cautious approach, urging compromise rather than sending troops.

Image source: Dorr Rebellion

Tyler's first wife died in the White House after suffering a paralytic stroke earlier that year, becoming the first First Lady to die while her husband held the presidency.

Image source: Letitia Christian Tyler

During a demonstration cruise of the new warship USS Princeton on the Potomac, a gun exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer, and others. Tyler, below decks, survived unharmed.

Image source: USS Princeton (1843)

Widowed less than two years, the president married Julia Gardiner, a wealthy New Yorker more than thirty years his junior, in a private ceremony. She became a vibrant First Lady for the rest of his term.

Image source: Julia Gardiner Tyler

Tyler briefly sought a third-party candidacy to promote annexation but withdrew when Democrat James K. Polk, an expansionist, secured the nomination. Polk narrowly defeated Whig Henry Clay.

Image source: 1844 United States presidential election

On his final full day in office, Tyler signed the congressional joint resolution offering statehood to Texas, achieving his top foreign policy goal through a simple majority rather than treaty ratification.

Image source: Texas annexation

On his last day in office, Tyler signed the legislation admitting Florida into the Union as a slave state, balancing Iowa's anticipated entry as a free state.

Image source: Florida

Secretary of State Daniel Webster and British diplomat Lord Ashburton signed a treaty settling the disputed Maine–New Brunswick border and resolving other issues between the United States and British North America.

Image source: Webster–Ashburton Treaty

The Senate rejected Tyler's proposed treaty to annex the Republic of Texas by a vote of 35 to 16, largely due to opposition over slavery expansion, forcing Tyler to pursue a joint resolution instead.

Negotiated by Commissioner Caleb Cushing, the Treaty of Wanghia opened Chinese ports to American trade and granted the United States most-favored-nation status, the first treaty between the two countries.

Image source: Treaty of Wanghia

Tyler was elected to the Provisional Confederate Congress and then to the permanent Confederate House of Representatives, though he died before taking his seat.

Image source: Confederate States Congress

Former president Tyler chaired the Washington Peace Conference convened to prevent Southern secession, but he ultimately opposed the conference's proposed constitutional amendments and sided with secessionists.

Image source: Peace Conference of 1861

Tyler, a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention, voted in favor of Virginia's ordinance of secession following the attack on Fort Sumter, breaking definitively with the Union he had once led.

Image source: Virginia in the American Civil War

Tyler died in Richmond after suffering a stroke, likely brought on by illness. He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, and his death went officially unremarked in Washington because he had joined the Confederacy.

Image source: John Tyler