Birthplace: Charles City County, Va.
was born in Charles City County, Va., on March 29, 1790. A William and
Mary graduate, he entered law practice and politics, serving in the
House of Representatives (1817–21), as governor of Virginia (1825–27),
and as senator (1827–36). A strict constructionist, he supported
Crawford in 1824 and Jackson in 1828, but broke with Jackson over his
United States Bank policy and became a member of the Southern
state-rights group that cooperated with the Whigs. In 1836, he resigned
from the Senate rather than follow instructions from the Virginia
legislature to vote for a resolution expunging censure of Jackson from
the Senate record.
Elected vice president on the Whig ticket in
1840, Tyler succeeded to the presidency on Harrison"s death. His
strict-constructionist views soon caused a split with the Henry Clay
wing of the Whig party and a stalemate on domestic questions. Tyler"s
more considerable achievements were his support of the
Webster-Ashburton Treaty with Britain and his success in bringing about
the annexation of Texas.
After his presidency he lived in
retirement in Virginia until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he
emerged briefly as chairman of a peace convention and then as delegate
to the provisional Congress of the Confederacy. He died on Jan. 18,
1862. He married Letitia Christian in 1813 and, two years after her
death in 1842, Julia Gardiner.Died: 1/18/1862