Tyler's Troubles

John Tyler, who became president in 1841 after the death of William Henry Harrison, was a thin, rather delicate-appearing man with pale blue eyes and a long nose. Courteous, tactful, and soft-spoken, he gave the impression of being weak, an impression reinforced by his professed belief that the president should defer to Congress in the formulation of policy. This was a false impression; John Tyler was stubborn and proud, and these characteristics combined with an almost total lack of imagination to make him worship consistency, as so many second-raters do. He had turned away from Jackson because of the aggressive way the president had used his powers of appointment and the veto, but he also disagreed with Henry Clay and the northern Whigs about the Bank, protection, and federal internal improvements. Being a states’ rights Southerner, he considered such measures unconstitutional. Nevertheless, he was prepared to cooperate with Clay as the leader of what he called the “more immediate representatives” of the people, the members of Congress. But he was not prepared to be Clay’s puppet. He asked all of Harrison’s Cabinet to remain in office.

Tyler and Clay did not get along, and for this Clay was chiefly to blame. He behaved in an overbearing manner that was out of keeping with his nature, probably because he resented having been passed over by the Whigs in 1840. (When news of Harrison’s nomination reached him in Washington, he was half drunk. His face darkened. “I am the most unfortunate man in the history of parties,” he said, “always run. . . when sure to be defeated, and now betrayed for a nomination when I, or anyone, would be sure of an election.”) He considered himself the real head of the Whig party and intended to exercise his leadership.

In Congress, Clay announced a comprehensive federal program that ignored Tyler’s states’ rights view of the Constitution. Most important was his plan to set up a new Bank of the United States. When Congress passed the new Bank bill, Tyler vetoed it. The entire Cabinet except Secretary of State Daniel Webster thereupon resigned in protest.

Abandoned by the Whigs, Tyler attempted to build a party of his own. He failed to do so, and for the remainder of his term the political squabbling in Washington was continuous.