John Tyler “I can never consent to being dictated to”

Abstract

John Tyler’s selection of an independent strategy is initially quite surprising in the context of his unique position as the first accidental president. Even before he initiated actions as leader, Tyler faced a constitutional crisis. Whig Party leaders argued that Tyler was actually only an “acting president,” presumably with less power than a directly elected one. Henry Clay, at first, declared that Tyler would govern as a “regent” and Adams noted in his diary that “the event... made the Vice president … Acting President for four years less one month.”¹ Not only did Tyler aggressively resist this view from the moment he assumed office, but he also opposed and vetoed the legislative agenda of his putative party. Tyler thus has received sharply mixed assessments as the first accidental president. One the one hand, he has been praised for setting a major constitutional precedent that has aided all subsequent accidental presidents. Presidents who assume office as the result of death or resignation possess the same authority (at least in terms of rex) as directly elected ones.² Through his decisive actions in 1841, concludes one biographer, “John Tyler had placed all future vice presidents a heartbeat away from the presidency.”³