The first vice president to become president on the death of the incumbent, John Tyler (1790-1862) was derided by critics as "His Accidency." In this biography of the tenth president, Edward P. ...Crapol challenges depictions of Tyler as a die-hard advocate of states' rights, limited government, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. Instead, he argues, Tyler manipulated the Constitution to increase the executive power of the presidency. Crapol also highlights Tyler's faith in America's national destiny and his belief that boundless territorial expansion would preserve the Union as a slaveholding republic. When Tyler sided with the Confederacy in 1861, he was branded as America's "traitor" president for having betrayed the republic he once led.
The first vice president to become president on the death of the incumbent, John Tyler (1790@-1862) was derided by critics as His Accidency. In this biography of the tenth president, Edward P. Crapol ...challenges depictions of Tyler as a die-hard advocate of states' rights, limited government, and a strict interpretation of the Constitution. Instead, he argues, Tyler manipulated the Constitution to increase the executive power of the presidency. Crapol also highlights Tyler's faith in America's national destiny and his belief that boundless territorial expansion would preserve the Union as a slaveholding republic. When Tyler sided with the Confederacy in 1861, he was branded as America’s traitor president for having betrayed the republic he once led.
Pres John Tyler and his vision of the "national destiny" are examined. Traditionally, Tyler is not seen as having a vision, but simple study reveals that this was not the case.
At a time in the nation's history when public speaking was highly valued, Tyler, like Clay, was an accomplished orator with a mellifluous voice who at times during his presidency displayed that he ...could be an engaging speaker and popular public figure. Despite differences between them such as John Tyler's more aristocratic lineage and Henry Clay's admittedly more meteoric rise to national political prominence, the two shared much in common. Not wishing to endanger the Whig agenda by a prolonged dispute over presidential succession, Henry Clay acquiesced to Tyler's reading of the Constitution and acknowledged that indeed he was president of the United States. After his defeat in the 1844 presidential contest, a disappointed Henry Clay took solace in still being a popular icon to the Whig rank and file. In 1860, the women's association inaugurated a Henry Clay statue that was placed on the grounds of Richmond's capitol square.
US foreign relations policy during the later part of the 19th century is discussed. Many criticisms of this field remain, and new observations for the study of the so-called American empire are ...presented.
Young Queen Victoria was understandably perplexed about the American president’s unique proposal. In only the fourth year of her glorious and lengthy reign, the relatively inexperienced and ...impressionable monarch confessed to having never heard of such a thing. Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel shared Her Majesty’s bewilderment at President John Tyler’s amazing diplomatic gaffe. As he explained in late October 1841 to his twenty-two-year-old sovereign in the formal and deferential third person required when addressing the queen, “Sir Robert Peel humbly assures your Majesty that he fully participates in the surprise which your Majesty so naturally expresses at the extraordinary
Pacific Visions Crapol, Edward P
John Tyler the Accidental President,
01/2012
Book Chapter
In the first half of the nineteenth century, and particularly in the 1830s and 1840s, there existed a small but significant band of private citizens and public officials who persistently lobbied for ...American commercial and territorial expansion in the Pacific Rim. This disparate and unorganized brotherhood of merchants, missionaries, naval officers, whalers, commercial ship captains, and entrepreneurs composed what might be labeled an influential American Pacific community. Charter members of this unofficial and informal fellowship were the advance corps of “a great maritime people” that the French observer of young America, Alexis de Tocqueville, predicted would come to dominate the
Defending Slavery Crapol, Edward P
John Tyler, the Accidental President,
01/2012
Book Chapter
John Tyler spent much of his public career defending slavery from its enemies at home and abroad. This was especially apparent during his presidency, when the aristocratic, slaveholding Virginian ...unwaveringly guided the nation’s diplomacy in support of the South’s peculiar institution. In adopting a proslavery course in foreign relations, Tyler placed himself within a prevailing national tradition and he became part of a continuum in foreign policy that extended back to George Washington’s administration. Slavery was supported diplomatically by all presidents who preceded him, including later critics of this strange “species of property,” such as John Quincy Adams and Martin
Throughout the nineteenth century the country’s cultural, political, and religious leaders spewed forth an excessive amount of bombast and hyperbole about national greatness and America’s global ...mission. Not even a bloody and bitter Civil War tempered or moderated this patriotic excess. At century’s end a host of chauvinistic patriots, or “jingoes” as they were called, reveled in the fact that the United States had gained an overseas empire and had joined the club of imperial nations shouldering the white man’s burden. Years before, in the antebellum period, John Tyler was at the forefront of these shining lights among the post-Revolutionary
Retirement & Secession Crapol, Edward P
John Tyler the Accidental President,
01/2012
Book Chapter
It did not take long for ordinary Texans to thank John Tyler for annexing their country. Within a few short months after he left the White House to retire to the life of a tidewater Virginia planter ...the appreciative accolades began to appear. One of the first tributes came from the Ladies of Brazoria County, which is in eastern Texas, south of Houston. They presented the former president with a beautiful inscribed silver pitcher “as a small token of their gratitude for the benefits conferred upon their Country by procuring its Annexation to the United States.” In a letter sent
