.jpg?w=1)
ANOTHER PROPERTY
TYLER, John (1790-1862), President. Letter signed ("J. Tyler"), as President, to James I. Roosevelt (1795-1875), 30 May 1842. 2 pages, 8vo.
Details
TYLER, John (1790-1862), President. Letter signed ("J. Tyler"), as President, to James I. Roosevelt (1795-1875), 30 May 1842. 2 pages, 8vo.
"BOTH PARTIES MAKE WAR UPON ME. I AM A PRESIDENT WITHOUT A PARTY"
A great political letter, with Tyler using the phrase that has come to be associated with his presidency. "The two letters of Mr. Chute & Mr. Hassig I have referred to Mr. Forman that being all that I can now do. Mr Chute writes as a Freeman and shows himself to be a true Party man. Both parties make war upon me. I am a president without a party. So the citizenry of a party convention cannot concern me as alluded to by Mr Chute."
After succeeding to the presidency following Harrison's death, Tyler twice vetoed bills to create a third Bank of the United States. The holdover Cabinet members from the Harrison administration were stunned at what they saw as a betrayal of a core Whig program. All but Secretary of State Daniel Webster resigned in protest in September 1841. Tyler--who was put on the Harrison ticket to help win Southern electoral votes--was always something of a maverick. As a Congressman in the 1810s, he opposed the Bank and other northern-Federalist measures for internal improvements. He supported first John Quincy Adams, then Andrew Jackson. He sided with Jackson in his battle against the Bank. Yet when the party lines firmed up between Democrats and Whigs in the late 1830s, Tyler again shifted course and sided with the Southern Whigs. The breach within the Tyler administration had strong sectional overtones, and was an augury of the deadly divisions that would split first the Whig Party and then the entire nation into warring Southern and Northern factions. Tyler would end his career with the dubious distinction of being the only former President to serve the Confederate government. He was elected to the Confederate congress but died before he could take his seat. A very strong political letter.
"BOTH PARTIES MAKE WAR UPON ME. I AM A PRESIDENT WITHOUT A PARTY"
A great political letter, with Tyler using the phrase that has come to be associated with his presidency. "The two letters of Mr. Chute & Mr. Hassig I have referred to Mr. Forman that being all that I can now do. Mr Chute writes as a Freeman and shows himself to be a true Party man. Both parties make war upon me. I am a president without a party. So the citizenry of a party convention cannot concern me as alluded to by Mr Chute."
After succeeding to the presidency following Harrison's death, Tyler twice vetoed bills to create a third Bank of the United States. The holdover Cabinet members from the Harrison administration were stunned at what they saw as a betrayal of a core Whig program. All but Secretary of State Daniel Webster resigned in protest in September 1841. Tyler--who was put on the Harrison ticket to help win Southern electoral votes--was always something of a maverick. As a Congressman in the 1810s, he opposed the Bank and other northern-Federalist measures for internal improvements. He supported first John Quincy Adams, then Andrew Jackson. He sided with Jackson in his battle against the Bank. Yet when the party lines firmed up between Democrats and Whigs in the late 1830s, Tyler again shifted course and sided with the Southern Whigs. The breach within the Tyler administration had strong sectional overtones, and was an augury of the deadly divisions that would split first the Whig Party and then the entire nation into warring Southern and Northern factions. Tyler would end his career with the dubious distinction of being the only former President to serve the Confederate government. He was elected to the Confederate congress but died before he could take his seat. A very strong political letter.