(March 29, 1790–January 18, 1862), was the 10th President of the United States, 1841–45, responsible for the Annexation of Texas, 1844, the city of Tyler, Texas, being his namesake; the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, 1842, ending the border disputes with Canada; joint U.S.-British naval patrols off the African coast to suppress the slave trade; and the United States’ first commercial trade treaty with China; Chancellor of the College of William and Mary, 1860; married Julia Gardiner, 1844, after death of first wife; Vice-President under William Henry Harrison, 1841, being the first to assume the Presidency at the death of a President; U.S. Senator, 1827–36; Governor of Virginia, 1825–27; U.S. Representative, 1816–21; elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, 1838, 1823, 1811; married Letitia Christian, 1813; U.S. Army Captain during the War of 1812; admitted to bar, 1809, and graduated from the College of William and Mary, 1807.
On Friday, April 9, 1841, in his Inaugural Address delivered upon assuming the Presidency after the death of President Harrison, President John Tyler stated:
Fellow-citizens: Before my arrival at the seat of Government the painful communication was made to you by the officers presiding over the several Departments of the deeply regretted death of William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States. Upon him you had conferred your suffrages for the first office in your gift, and had selected him as your chosen instrument to correct and reform all such errors and abuses as had manifested themselves from time to time in the practical operation of the Government.
While standing at the threshold of this great work he has by the dispensation of an all-wise Providence been removed from amongst us, and by the provisions of the Constitution the efforts to be directed to the accomplishing of this vitally important task have devolved upon myself. This same occurrence has subjected the wisdom and sufficiency of our institutions to a new test.
For the first time in our history the person elected to the Vice-Presidency of the United States, by the happening of a contingency provided for in the Constitution, has had devolved upon him the Presidential office. …
My earnest prayer shall be constantly addressed to the all-wise and all-powerful Being who made me, and by whose dispensation I am called to the high office of President. …
Confiding in the protecting care of an everwatchful and overruling Providence, it shall be my first and highest duty to preserve unimpaired the free institutions under which we live and transmit them to those who shall succeed me in their full force and vigor.2027
On Tuesday, April 13, 1841, from Washington, D.C., President John Tyler issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Fasting and Prayer in respect of the death of President William Henry Harrison:
When a Christian people feel themselves to be overtaken by a great public calamity, it becomes them to humble themselves under the dispensation of Divine Providence, to recognize His righteous government over the children of men, to acknowledge His goodness in time past, as well as their own unworthiness, and to supplicate His merciful protection for the future.
The death of William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States, so soon after his elevation to that high office, is a bereavement peculiarly calculated to be regarded as a heavy affliction and to impress all minds with a sense of the uncertainty of human things and of the dependence of nations, as well as individuals, upon our Heavenly Parent.
I have thought, therefore, that I should be acting in conformity with the general expectations and feelings of the community in recommending, as I now do, to the people of the United States of every religious denomination that, according to their several modes and forms of worship, they observe a day of fasting and prayer by such religious services as may be suitable on the occasion; and I recommend Friday, the 14th day on May next, for that purpose, to the end that on that day we may all with one accord join in humble and reverential approach to Him in whose hands we are, invoking Him to inspire us with a proper spirit and temper of heart and mind under these frowns of His providence and still to bestow His gracious benedictions upon our Government and our country.2028
On June 13, 1841, in a letter to Mrs. Anna Symmes Harrison, wife of the late-President William Henry Harrison, President John Tyler wrote:
In conveying to you, my dear madam, the profound respect of the two Houses of Congress for your person and character, and their sincere condolences on the late afflicting dispensations of Providence, permit me to mingle my feelings with theirs and tender you my fervent wishes for your health, happiness, and long life.2029
On June 24, 1841, President John Tyler received a letter from Mrs. Anna Symmes Harrison:
Dear Sir. … I can not sufficiently express the thanks I owe to the nation and its assembled representatives for their condolence, so feelingly expressed, of my individual calamity and the national bereavement; but mingling my tears with the sighs of the many patriots of the land, pray to Heaven for the enduring happiness and prosperity of our beloved country.2030
On August 16, 1841, in a Veto Message, President John Tyler stated:
The bill entitled “An act to incorporate the subscribers to the Fiscal Bank of the United States,” … has been considered by me. … I can not conscientiously give it my approval. …
By the occurrence of a contingency provided for in the Constitution and arising under an impressive dispensation of Providence I succeeded to the Presidential office. Before entering upon the duties of that office I took an oath that I would “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Entertaining the opinions alluded to and having taken this oath, the Senate and the country will see that I could not give my sanction to a measure of the character described without surrendering all claim to the respect of honorable men, all confidence on the part of the people, all self-respect, all regard for moral and religious obligations, without an observance of which no government can be prosperous and no people can be happy. …
Let the history of the late United States Bank aid us in answering this inquiry. … It may be remarked, too, that notwithstanding the immense transactions of the bank in the purchase of exchange … in the line of discounts the suspended debt was enormous and proved most disastrous to the bank and the country. Its power of local discount has in fact proved to be a fruitful source of favoritism and corruption, alike destructive to the public morals and to the general weal.2031
On December 7, 1841, in his First Annual Message to the Senate and House of Representatives, President John Tyler declared:
We are in the enjoyment of all the blessings of civil and religious liberty. … We are all called upon by the highest obligations of duty to renew our thanks and our devotion to our Heavenly Parent, who has continued to vouchsafe to us the eminent blessings which surround us and who has so signally crowned the year with His goodness. If we find ourselves increasingly beyond example in numbers, in strength, in wealth, in knowledge, in everything which promotes human and social happiness, let us ever remember our dependence for all these on the protection and merciful dispensations of Divine Providence.2032
On August 30, 1842, in a Protest Message to Congress, President John Tyler stated:
It is true that the succession of the Vice-President to the Chief Magistracy has never occurred before. … But I found myself placed in this most responsible station by no usurpation or contrivance of my own. I was called to it, under Providence, by the supreme law of the land and the deliberately declared will of the people.2033
On December 6, 1842, in his Second Annual Message to the Senate and House of Representatives, President John Tyler stated:
We have continued reason to express our profound gratitude to the Great Creator of All Things for the numberless benefits conferred upon us as a people. Blessed with genial seasons, the husbandman has his garners filled with abundance, and the necessaries of life, not to speak of its luxuries, abound in every direction. While in some other nations steady and industrious labor can hardly find the means of subsistence, the greatest evil which we have to encounter is a surplus of production beyond the home demand, which seeks, and with difficulty finds, a partial market in other regions.
The health of the country, with partial exceptions, has for the past year been well preserved, and under their free and wise institutions the United States are rapidly advancing toward the consummation of the high destiny which an overruling Providence seems to have marked out for them. Exempt from domestic convulsion and at peace with all the world, we are left free to consult as to the best means of securing and advancing the happiness of the people.
Such are the circumstances under which you now assemble in your respective chambers and which should lead us to unite in praise and thanksgiving to that Great Being who made us and who preserves us as a nation. …
The schoolmaster and the missionary are found side by side, and the remnants of what were once numerous and powerful nations may yet be preserved as the builders up of a new name for themselves and their posterity.2034
In December 1843, in his Third Annual Message to Congress, President John Tyler stated:
If any people ever had cause to render up thanks to the Supreme Being for parental care and protection extended to them in all the trials and difficulties to which they have been from time to time exposed, we certainly are that people. From the first settlement of our forefathers on the continent, through the dangers attendant upon the occupation of a savage wilderness, through a long period of colonial dependence, through the War of the Revolution, in the wisdom which led to the adoption of the existing forms of republican government, in the hazards incident to a war subsequently waged with one of the most powerful nations of the earth, in the increase of our population, in the spread of the arts and sciences, and in the strength and durability conferred on the political institutions emanating from the people and sustained by their will, the superintendence of an overruling Providence has been plainly visible. As preparatory, therefore, to entering once more upon the high duties of legislation, it becomes us humbly to acknowledge our dependence upon Him as our guide and protector and to implore a continuance of His parental watchfulness over our beloved country.
Under the influence of our free system of government new republics are destined to spring up at no distant day on the shores of the Pacific similar in policy and in feeling to those existing on this side of the Rocky Mountains, and giving wider and more extensive spread to the principles of civil and religious liberty. …
When, under Providence, I succeeded to the Presidential office, the state of public affairs was embarrassing and critical. … I shall be permitted to congratulate the country that under an overruling Providence peace was preserved without a sacrifice of national honor.2035
On Tuesday, December 3, 1844, in his Fourth Annual Message to Congress, President John Tyler stated:
We have continued cause for expressing our gratitude to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for the benefits and blessings which our country, under His kind providence, has enjoyed during the past year. … The world has witnessed its rapid growth in wealth and population, and under the guide and direction of a superintending Providence the developments of the past may be regarded but as the shadowing forth of the mighty future. … The guaranty of religious freedom, of the freedom of the press, of the liberty of speech, of the trial by jury, of the habeas corpus, and of the domestic institutions of each of the States. … Thus it is that in the progress of time the inestimable principles of civil liberty will be enjoyed by millions yet unborn. …
Our prayers should evermore be offered up to the Father of the Universe for His wisdom to direct us in the path of our duty so as to enable us to consummate these high purposes.2036