Details
TYLER, JOHN, 1790-1862, President. Autograph letter signed ("John Tyler") to Howard Shields, Charleston, 2 November 1821. 1 1/2 pages, 4to, 253 x 205mm. (9 7/8 x 8 1/2 in.), lightly browned.
DECLINING TO RUN FOR OFFICE, TYLER IS CONVINCED "MY ELECTION WOULD BE CERTAIN"
An unusually early letter of Tyler, 20 years before he became President. About a year after resigning from his seat in the House of Representatives, Tyler explains his decision not to run for state office. He writes that "when I last had the pleasure of seeing you in Williamsburg" he had promised to report his decision "relative to the vacancy in the State Senate, which you were kind enough to express some solicitude that I should fill. It has been with some difficulty that I have brought myself to determine on remaining in that retirement which I have voluntarily sought. The solicitations of my friends have been numerous and urgent and have left me under the impression that my election would be certain, but the reasons which have fixed my determination are with me insuperable. My health has long been delicate...yet my indisposition having been produced by a sedentary life, I fear to encounter at this time any peril from the same cause. I...desire quiet and ease in the bosom of my family to which I have been in a great measure alien...Did any political crisis which the public should believe me capable of meeting exist, I would then unhestitatingly overlook all private considerations either of health or of ease. [A]s things are I must decline being a candidate for the honor which yourself and others of my friends have urged upon me..."
Tyler served as a U.S. Representative for Virginia from 1816 until 1821, when he retired, due to poor health. Re-elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1823, he was elected Governor in 1825, Senator in 1827, Vice-President under Harrison in 1840 and succeeded William Henry Harrison as President in 1841.
DECLINING TO RUN FOR OFFICE, TYLER IS CONVINCED "MY ELECTION WOULD BE CERTAIN"
An unusually early letter of Tyler, 20 years before he became President. About a year after resigning from his seat in the House of Representatives, Tyler explains his decision not to run for state office. He writes that "when I last had the pleasure of seeing you in Williamsburg" he had promised to report his decision "relative to the vacancy in the State Senate, which you were kind enough to express some solicitude that I should fill. It has been with some difficulty that I have brought myself to determine on remaining in that retirement which I have voluntarily sought. The solicitations of my friends have been numerous and urgent and have left me under the impression that my election would be certain, but the reasons which have fixed my determination are with me insuperable. My health has long been delicate...yet my indisposition having been produced by a sedentary life, I fear to encounter at this time any peril from the same cause. I...desire quiet and ease in the bosom of my family to which I have been in a great measure alien...Did any political crisis which the public should believe me capable of meeting exist, I would then unhestitatingly overlook all private considerations either of health or of ease. [A]s things are I must decline being a candidate for the honor which yourself and others of my friends have urged upon me..."
Tyler served as a U.S. Representative for Virginia from 1816 until 1821, when he retired, due to poor health. Re-elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1823, he was elected Governor in 1825, Senator in 1827, Vice-President under Harrison in 1840 and succeeded William Henry Harrison as President in 1841.