By Michael Gerhardt
John Tyler remains one of the most interesting, active, and constitutionally significant presidents we have ever had.
To begin with, he is the first vice president to be elevated to the presidency because of the death of the incumbent, William Henry Harrison. Harrison died 31 days after his inauguration in 1841. Many congressional leaders and the cabinet believed that the vice president, Tyler, did not automatically become the president upon Harrison’s death. They argued that he merely became the acting president or remained the vice president but was eligible to use some of the powers of the presidency with the full power and authority of the office. Tyler contested the claim. In his first meeting with Harrison’s cabinet, he convinced them to accept the legitimacy of his claim to take the presidential oath. He persuaded skeptical congressional leaders as well. In doing so, he established a practice and understanding that was later enshrined within the Constitution in the Twenty-fifth Amendment and is still followed to this day.
Second, John Tyler is the only American president whose party expelled him while he was the president. Tyler had been a life-long Democrat who left his party to become the running mate of William Henry Harrison, a Whig, in 1840. After Tyler became the president, Whigs did not trust him. After he exercised power in ways that Whigs did not approve, they formally expelled him from the party. For the remainder of his presidency, Tyler was, as he himself said, a man “without a party.”
Third, throughout his presidency, Tyler battled successfully against congressional efforts to thwart a number of unique presidential powers. As a result, he successfully consolidated the nominating, removal, and veto powers of future presidents.
Fourth, Tyler was also the only president to have had virtually all of his cabinet resign in protest over his actions. When Tyler vetoed a tariff bill, which his entire cabinet thought he should sign, all but Secretary of State Daniel Webster resigned in protest. Tyler happily accepted their resignations and replaced all but Webster with people who actually supported him politically.
Fifth, Tyler set a record for the numbers of cabinet and Supreme Court nominations that were rejected or forced to be withdrawn. In fact, he made eight nominations to fill two Supreme Court vacancies, only one of which the Senate confirmed.
As a bonus, Tyler also took unilateral action to clear the path for Texas to become a state. Though the Senate refused to ratify a treaty which would have made Texas statehood possible, Tyler got a majority in the House and a majority in the Senate to approve an annexation bill. Tyler signed the annexation bill three days before leaving office.
Through all of these and other actions, Tyler made the presidency stronger, but at the cost of his own political fortunes. He left office widely politically unpopular and ended his days as a member of the Confederate Congress.
Michael Gerhardt is Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. A nationally recognized authority on constitutional conflicts, he has testified in several Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and has published five books, including The Forgotten Presidents and The Power of Precedent. Read his previous blog posts on the American presidents.
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Image credit: “Official White House Portrait of John Tyler” by George Peter Alexander Healy, February 1859. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
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By Caitlin Tyler-Richards
This week, in the spirit of our upcoming special issue on oral history’s evolving technologies, we want to (re)introduce everyone to the website Oral History in the Digital Age
, a substantial collaboration between several institutions to “put museums, libraries, and oral historians in a position to address collectively issues of video, digitization, preservation, and intellectual property and to provide both a scholarly framework and regularly updated best practices for moving forward.”
We especially want to direct people to the site’s “Thinking Big” video series, which features reflections by top scholars on the evolving relationship between oral history and digital media. Below is one of the videos from the series, an interview with United States Senate historian and author of Doing Oral History Don Ritchie. We’ve also include a quiz to test readers on the oral history and digital media.
Click here to view the embedded video.
“And I discovered that the basic fundamental practices of doing oral history have not changed. The face to face interviews, the types of things you need to do to research and to engage a person, to draw them out and to ask non-leading questions, open ended questions and things like that — that stayed the same regardless of what the technology is. But everything around it changed.”
Your Score:
Your Ranking:
Caitlin Tyler-Richards is the editorial/ media assistant at the Oral History Review. When not sharing profound witticisms at @OralHistReview, Caitlin pursues a PhD in African History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research revolves around the intersection of West African history, literature and identity construction, as well as a fledgling interest in digital humanities. Before coming to Madison, Caitlin worked for the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice at Georgetown University.
The Oral History Review, published by the Oral History Association, is the U.S. journal of record for the theory and practice of oral history. Its primary mission is to explore the nature and significance of oral history and advance understanding of the field among scholars, educators, practitioners, and the general public. Follow them on Twitter at @oralhistreview and like them on Facebook to preview the latest from the Review, learn about other oral history projects, connect with oral history centers across the world, and discover topics that you may have thought were even remotely connected to the study of oral history. Keep an eye out for upcoming posts on the OUPblog for addendum to past articles, interviews with scholars in oral history and related fields, and fieldnotes on conferences, workshops, etc.
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Young readers may already be familiar with Farmer Greenstalk and his farm thanks to Chickens to the Rescue, a 2006 picture book featuring a flock of poultry that responds every time there’s a crisis on the farm.
In the follow-up, Pigs to the Rescue (Henry Holt, 2010), the pigs respond to small farm disasters, but they’re a bit … over eager.
Here’s what Booklist had to say: “Eight excitable pigs mount overachieving rescue missions to cope with minor problems at the farm. Does the rooster have a sore throat? Pigs to the rescue! Eight pigs, perched on the barn roof, wake the farm at daybreak with oinks, squeals, and snorts. Emily broke her shoelace? Pigs to the rescue! The weirdly costumed swine lasso her and tie her up, mummy style. Written with a minimum of fuss and illustrated with comic delight, this picture book from the To the Rescue series offers plenty of laughs for the read-aloud crowd.”
Now, let’s see what Tyler has to say:
Today’s reviewer: Tyler
Age: 5
I like: Playing with my cars, going to Wisconsin to visit my cousins, eating ham-and-cheese sandwiches.
This book was about: Pigs coming to the rescue!
The best part was when: The cows came to the rescue at the end.
I laughed when: The pigs were carrying on in the pool. When the pigs tied up Emily.
I was worried when: The tractor broke and Farmer Greenstalk couldn’t plow his fields.
I was surprised that: The pigs were helping people and other animals.
This book taught me: About helping people.
Other kids reading this book should watch for: The silly noises the pigs make.
Three words that best describe this books are: “Funny.” “Colorful.” “Fast.”
My favorite line or phrase in the book is: “Pigs to the rescue!”
You should read this book because: It teaches people about helping.
Thanks, Tyler!
To learn more about author and illustrator John Himmelman, visit his website. You also can listen to an interview with him on Just One More Book.
If you’d like to see other blog reviews of Pigs to the Rescue, visit:
