Why Every President Sucked

No. 10 · The Presidents

John Tyler’s Biggest Failures

1841–1845

The first vice president to inherit the job. He lost his party, his cabinet and eventually his country.

Who was John Tyler?

John Tyler was the 10th president of the United States, serving from April 1841 to March 1845. A Virginia planter and states’ rights Democrat turned Whig, he had been governor and a U.S. senator before the Whigs put him on the 1840 ticket with William Henry Harrison. The slogan was “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.” Harrison died on April 4, 1841, a month after his inauguration, and Tyler became the first vice president to take over after a president’s death.

Why is John Tyler considered one of the worst presidents?

Tyler is bottom-tier in every major survey. C-SPAN’s 2021 survey of historians ranked him 39th of 44, tied on score with William Henry Harrison. Siena’s 2022 survey of presidential scholars also ranked him 39th of 45, and the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project placed him 37th. His worst scores are on relations with Congress, where C-SPAN ranks him 41st, and in Siena’s survey he is 43rd on party leadership and 42nd on ability to compromise. His best category is international relations, 35th, which reflects a treaty and Texas.

In my book, Tyler’s entry is about how he took over and promptly alienated everyone. What follows is the record around it, with the song I wrote for him threaded through.

Chords: Em, C, G, D/F♯

john tyler was the first
to take over from the hearse
that vp upgrade slot
tradition now, it once was not

1. “His Accidency” seized the presidency

The Constitution was unclear about whether the vice president became president or only acted as president. Tyler took the oath on April 6, 1841 and insisted he was the president in full. Congress recognized him with resolutions in the spring of 1841, but his opponents never conceded, calling him “His Accidency.” Today the “Tyler Precedent” is settled practice, and the 25th Amendment later wrote it into the Constitution. It is Tyler’s best-known legacy.

and once began to reign
he stepped up and complained
that both parties were bad
and overreaching, he was willing to teach 'em

2. He vetoed his own party’s program

The Whigs, led by Henry Clay, wanted a new national bank. Tyler vetoed the first bank bill on August 16, 1841, and a second version on September 9. The House sustained the second veto, 92 to 87. On September 11, every member of his cabinet resigned except Secretary of State Daniel Webster. On September 13, Whigs in Congress issued a statement declaring that Tyler had “voluntarily separated himself” from the party. Strictly, it was a caucus of lawmakers and not a formal expulsion, but the effect was the same. He had a president’s title and almost no party.

3. Congress tried to impeach him

In January 1843, Representative John Minor Botts introduced a resolution reading, “I do impeach John Tyler, Vice-President, acting as President of the United States.” The House rejected it on January 10, 127 to 83. It was the first impeachment resolution ever aimed at a president, and the wording shows his opponents still refused to call him president.

Tyler vetoed ten bills, six regular and four pocket vetoes. On March 3, 1845, Congress overrode one for the first time in history, on a bill about revenue cutters.

But it ain't enough to know you're right
you've got to yell
you've got to fight

4. Texas, slavery and a deadly cruise

The Webster-Ashburton Treaty of August 9, 1842 settled the Maine boundary with Britain, and it is Tyler’s best achievement. His second is the Treaty of Wanghia with China in 1844. Texas is more complicated.

On February 28, 1844, the new warship USS Princeton fired a demonstration gun, which exploded. Secretary of State Abel Upshur and Navy Secretary Thomas Gilmer were killed, along with Julia Gardiner’s father David Gardiner and Armistead, an enslaved man who served Tyler. Tyler was below deck. John C. Calhoun became Secretary of State and pushed annexation explicitly to protect slavery. Tyler married Julia Gardiner that June, when he was 54 and she was 24.

When the Senate would not ratify an annexation treaty, Tyler used a joint resolution instead. He signed it on March 1, 1845, three days before he left office. Texas entered as a slave state.

or else you're dead
and it's them instead

5. He enslaved people

Tyler’s plantation, Sherwood Forest, says that 43 enslaved people worked there in 1860 and 46 in 1850. The White House Historical Association gives 44 for 1860. Figures near 60 or 70 sometimes circulate, but they come from loose remarks and not the census. Armistead, who died on the Princeton, was one of them.

6. He became a Confederate

In February 1861, Tyler presided over the Washington Peace Conference, a last attempt at compromise. When it failed he voted for Virginia’s secession. He served in the Provisional Confederate Congress and was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, but never took his seat. He died in Richmond on January 18, 1862, at 71. His coffin was draped in a Confederate flag, according to C-SPAN, and he is buried in Hollywood Cemetery. Historians often note that Washington did not mark his death officially, though I found only secondary sources for that.

After the White House

One last fact. Tyler’s grandsons were alive well into this century. Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. died on September 26, 2020, and Harrison Ruffin Tyler died on May 25, 2025, at 96. Neither remains alive, so the old line that a president born in 1790 has living grandsons is out of date.

john tyler was the first
to take over from the hearse

Hear the song

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Sources

By Eric Olsen · Published