JOHN TYLER 85 After the war he edited the "Mail and Advertiser" in Montgomery, Ala. He published "Ahasuerus," a poem (New York, 1842) ; "Death, or Medora s Dream," a poem (1843) ; "Is Virginia a Repudiat ing State? and the States Guarantee," two letters (Richmond, Va., 1858). President Tyler s second wife, JULIA GARDINER, born on Gardiner s island, near Easthampton, N. Y., May 4, 1820; died in Richmond, Va., July 10, 1889, was a descendant of the Gardiners of Gardiner s island. She was educated at the Chegary institute, New York city, spent several months in Europe, and in the winter of 1844 accompanied her father to Washington, D. C. A few weeks afterward he was killed by the explosion of a gun on the war-steamer "Princeton," which occurred during a pleasure excursion in which he and his daughter were of the presidential party. His body was taken to the White House, and Miss Gardiner, being thrown in the society of the presi dent under these peculiar circumstances, became the object of his marked attention, which resulted in their marriage in New York city, June 26, 1844. For the succeeding eight months she presided over the White House with dignity and grace, her resi dence there terminating with a birth-night ball on February 22, 1845. Mrs. Tyler retired with her husband to "Sherwood Forest" in Virginia at the
