TYLER
TYLER
bank with the same national powers, passed the
senate, Sept. 4, 1841, and the President's veto was
read, Sept. 9, 1841. On Sept. 11, 1841, the entire
cabinet with the exception of Daniel Webster,
secretary of state, resigned, and on Sept. 13, 1841,
the President appointed "Walter Forward of Penn-
sylvania, secretary of the treasury, John McLean
of Ohio, secretary of war, Abel P. Upshur of
Virginia, secretary of the navy, Charles A.
Wickliffe of Kentucky, postmaster-general, and
Hugh S. Legare of South Carolina, attorney-
general. At the next session the President pro-
posed to congress a financial system which he
called the exchequer, but congress would not
agree to it, although it was highly endorsed by
Mr. Webster, and thus the revenue continued
in the hands of the President throughout his ad-
ministration. At the second session of congress
the tariff was the important subject under dis-
cussion. Tlie revenue had steadily diminished
since 1837, and the States were in debt $200,000,
000. A bankrupt bill, a loan bill for isll 3.000,000,
and a bill distributing the proceeds of the sales of
the public lands were passed at the extra session
in 1841, the distribution bill providing that the
distribution should suspend when the tariff was
raised above the twenty per cent, provided in
the compromise tariff act. On June 25, 1842, a
bill providing for a tariff above twenty per cent.,
and yet containing the distribution clause, passed
congress, but the President vetoed it as contrary
to the policy of the extra session. Another bill
passed with the same objectionable features, and
the President vetoed that also. A committee ap-
pointed by congress condemned this veto as an
•'unwarrantable assumption of power," and re-
ferred to the impeachment of the President.
But after this the distribution clause was
dropped, and the tariff bill, unencumbered with
this provision, received the President's approval
as a revenue measure. Congress passed the dis-
tribution bill, but the President disposed of it by
a pocket .veto, and on Aug. 31, 1842, congress ad-
journed. The elections in the fall resulted in a
general roiit of the Whigs, and after this time
the condition of the country rapidly improved.
The revenue soon exceeded the expenses, and the
national debt was reduced. At the last congress
of President Tyler's administration, the question
of internal improvements was taken up, to which
he had been opjsosed as he had been to the bank
and protective tariff. Then two bills passed, the
first of which, being for merely local improve-
ments, he vetoed, and the second, being for the
Mississippi river, the great common highway of
the nation, he approved. The principal state af-
fairs of his administration were the Ashburton
treaty of 1842, by which an arbitrary line was
adopted for the northeastern boundary, the Ore-
gon question, and the annexation of Texas,
March 1, 1845. In 1843, after closing the Ashbur-
ton treaty, Daniel Webster resigned the portfolio
of state and Hugh S. Legare of South Carolina
was appointed, May 9, 1843. On June 16, 1843,
Mr. Legare died, and the office was filled by Abel
P. Upshur of Virginia, who served until Feb. 28,
1844, when John C. Calhoun of South Carolina
succeeded. Other cabinet appointments made by
President Tyler were : John C. Spencer of New
York, to succeed John McLean of Ohio as secre-
tary of war in 1841, and upon Spencer's appoint-
ment to succeed Walter Forward as secretary of
the treasury in 1843, was succeeded by James M.
Porter, and the latter by William Wilkins in 1844.
George M. Bibb succeeded Spencer in the treas-
ury, 1844 ; David Henshaw of Massachusetts suc-
ceeded Abel P. Upshur, as secretary of the navy,
in 1843, and was succeeded by Thomas W. Gil-
mer of Virginia, and John Y. Mason of Virginia,
in 1844, and John Nelson of Maryland succeeded
Hugh S. Legare as attorney-general in 1843.
During President Tyler's administration the fol-
lowing diplomatic appointments were made :
Edward Everett of Massachusetts, minister to
Great Britain ; Lewis Cass of Ohio, minister to
France, until 1842, when Henry Ledyard of
Michigan became charge d'affaires, serving until
the appointment of William R. King of Alabama,
in 1844 ; Daniel Jenifer of Maryland, minister to
Austria ; Charles S. Todd of Kentucky, minister
to Russia ; Waddy Thompson, minister to Mexico ;
Washington Irving of New York, minister to
Spain, and Caleb Cushing, minister to China.
Mr. Tyler was nominated for President by a con-
vention of his friends, held in Baltimore, May 27,
1844, and at the same time James Knox Polk was
nominated for President, by the Democratic
national convention held in the same city, for
the purpose of securing the success of the Texas
question. Mr. Tyler withdrew from the presi-
dential contest in August, 1844, and threw his
influence in favor of Polk, and after Polk's in-
auguration he removed to his estate "Sherwood
Forest " on the James river. He was married,
secondly, June 26, 1844, to Juha, daughter of
David Gardiner of New York, and Juliana Mac-
Lachlan, his wife. A son by this marriage,
Lyon Gardiner Tyler (q.v.), wrote " The Letters
and Times of the Tylers " (3 vols., 1884-1896). In
1861 Mr. Tyler was appointed a commissioner from
Virginia to visit President Buchanan and delay
if possible any acts of hostility until the Wash-
ington peace congress, called for Feb. 4, 1861,
had met, and he was chosen president of the con-
vention. When that convention adjourned with-
out any satisfactory solution of the troubles,
Tyler, despairing of peace, advocated secession
of the state in the convention of Virginia, held in
