John Tyler

John Tyler is often rated as one of the worst presidents in American history. The most recent C-SPAN poll, for example, lists him alongside Franklin Pierce and Andrew Johnson as the sixth-worst president ever. This ranking, however, is, I believe, entirely rooted in the atrocious choice Tyler made in his post-presidency: Upon the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the ensuing secession of southern states, Tyler, who was still alive at this point, sided with the Confederacy. He was even elected to its House of Representatives, though died before he could assume office. It is for this reason that Tyler is the only president in American history to not be officially honored in Washington DC. Tyler was also an immoral person in other ways - he, like many other presidents, owned slaves and, unlike many other presidents, had several of his early political offices bought for him by his prestigious father. While I obviously condemn all these facts about Tyler, I find them irrelevant in any serious analysis of his performance as president. If one actually looks at what Tyler did in office, they will see that he was actually a good leader.

Tyler was the running mate of William Henry Harrison, the Whig nominee, in the 1840 presidential election. Because of how poorly the economy was doing under the Democratic Party's rule, the pair easily won the election. Harrison then became president on March 4, 1841. However, later that month, Harrison caught pneuomia and consequently died on March 4, 1841, just one month into his presidency. Obviously, this made Tyler for president. Everyone agreed that Tyler would manage the duties of president following Harrison's death. For how long he'd manage those tasks, however, was ferociously argued over.

Some believed that Tyler would only be the acting president until a special election could be held in which it would be decided who would take over as the official president for the remainder of what would have been Harrison's tenure. Others, though, argued that Tyler should just be president for the entirety of that period. By April 6, 1841, Tyler had successfully cemented himself as the de jure president and as the person who would hold that office until March 4, 1845, when Harrison's term would have expired had he lived. In doing this, he created the Tyler Precedent, the policy of a vice president taking over as the true president until the next inaugural ceremony once the president had died, resigned, or been expelled from office.

However, the Tyler Precedent isn't the only way Tyler fundamentally, permanently reformed the executive branch for the better. Prior to Tyler's presidency, presidential elections were long and tedious, dragging out for weeks, sometimes even months. But Tyler, on January 23, 1845, signed the Presidential Election Day Act. This law scheduled all future presidential elections for the Tuesday immediately after the first Monday in November. We still use this policy, and it has made our elections far quicker and far more efficient.

As previously mentioned, Harrison and Tyler took office in the midst of economic distress. More specifically, they were inaugurated during the Panic of 1837. This was a severe recession caused by the policies of President Andrew Jackson. In 1832, Jackson was offered a bill that would have postponed the date at which the Second Bank of the United States - a national bank founded in 1816 to help the economy recover from the War of 1812 - was set to expire from 1836 to 1851. Not only did Jackson veto the bill, but later in 1832, he also forcefully dissolved the SBUS and distributed its money across various state and local banks. This created an increased demand for loans, which the state banks literally printed money to keep up with. As a result, a severe inflation crisis began, harming the economy. A few other factors damaged the economy, resulting in the recession.

Because of how Jackson's actions following the collapse of the SBUS, many Whigs, the political party Harrison and Tyler belonged to, demanded its revival. They then drafted a bill that, assuming it was passed, would have re-established the institution. However, Tyler, who had replaced Harrison by the time the bill was written, vetoed it. I agree with this move. Not only do I dislike the idea of a national bank, the resurrection of the SBUS wouldn't have even helped the economy, as it wouldn't have reversed what Jackson did in 1832. Interestingly, the Whig establishment was so outraged by Tyler's rejection of the bill that they expelled him from their party. To this day, Tyler remains the only president to be expelled from a political party. 

From here, both Whigs and Democrats hated Tyler. The Democrats hated him for being a Whig, as the main distinguishing factor between the two parties was that the Democrats supported Jackson, while the Whigs opposed him. And the Whigs hated Tyler for vetoing the recreation of the national bank. In fact, a prominent Whig, Henry Clay, even hated Tyler so much that he proposed a constitutional amendment that would have allowed Congress to override a president's veto with a simple majority, rather than 2/3 majority. Clay literally wanted to permanently cripple the president just to spite Tyler. The amount of hatred targeting Tyler is worth mentioning, as it makes the amount of things accomplished by Tyler and his administration all the more impressive.

Tyler had a wonderful foreign policy. He completed the negotiation of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which diffused the argument over whether northern Maine was controlled by Washington DC or London. He also brokered a treaty that opened up trade with China. Furthermore, he instituted the Tyler Doctrine, a foreign policy initiative that required the American government to declare war on any European, Asian, African, or even Oceanian power that attempted to intervene in Hawaiian affairs. Millard Fillmore would later use the Tyler Doctrine to prevent a French annexation of Hawaii.

During Harrison's brief presidency, the Amistad Affair came to a close. In February of 1839, a group of African people were kidnapped by Spanish sailors and placed into enslavement in Cuba. On June 28, 1839, the slaves were taken on a ship called the Amistad, beginning the entire affair. On July 1, 1839, one of the slaves freed himself and then liberated the others, known collectively as the Amistad men. From there, they took control of the ship and demanded the crew take them back to Africa. Ostensibly, the crew complied. But in secret, they were actually taking them to the US, specifically Connecticut. The ship arrived on August 26, 1839. Upon arrival, the Amistad men were arrested and taken to New York.

However, the Spanish government, alongside Connecticut and New York, had already banned slavery. A group of American abolitionists realized this, and so sued the government, demanding the slaves be set free. The case went up to the Connecticut Supreme Court, which agreed that the Amistad men should be liberated. President Martin Van Buren, fearing for his popularity in southern states, ordered his attorney general to appeal the case to the United States Second Court of Circuits, which also wanted the Amistad men free. So, Van Buren appealed the case yet again, this time to the Supreme Court. After hearing the arguments of ex-president and adamant abolitionist John Quincy Adams, the institution liberated the set of slaves on March 9, 1841. Tyler, however, refused to finance the return of the Amistad men to Africa, even when the Supreme Court was actively telling him he needed to do that. Obviously, this pushes Tyler significantly down my list of presidents. However, Tyler did have some accomplishments in terms of civil rights, such as ending the Second Seminole War, a conflict between the Seminole tribe and federal government, sparked when Van Buren tried to force the Seminoles off their historic homelands.

Other factors keeping Tyler down are his annexation of Texas, an imperialistic move that led to the Mexican-American War, and his veto of An Act Relating to Revenue-Cutters and Streamers. The latter refers to a bill that revolved around the United States Revenue-Cutter Service, a government agency tasked with enforcing laws regarding the Ocean. The bill prohibited the president from using money owned by the federal government to fund the construction of ships to be used by this organization without the prior approval of Congress. As a supporter of checks on presidential power, I support this policy and oppose Tyler's rejection of it. Interestingly, Congress did override Tyler's veto of the bill, marking the first time in American history that a presidential veto was overridden.

Regardless of Tyler's flaws, he was still a good president. Outside of the accomplishments I've already mentioned, Tyler actually founded what would become the National Weather Service. Furthermore, he signed the Log Cabin Act, a law that increased funding for government projects. That actually wasn't the only instance where Tyler raised government funds. Just before leaving office, Tyler agreed to the creation of star routes, a policy allowing the postal service to put certain mail routes up for auction. In doing this, Tyler gave the postal service more money with which to fund its operations. Around this same time, he also admitted Florida into the Union. I also agree with Tyler's increase in tariffs.

Tyler, with all his flaws - both personally and politically - in mind, was absolutely a good president. He prevented the revival of the national bank, established several important precedents in the executive branch, improved America's relations with the outside world, helped strengthen Hawaii's independence, raised funding for government projects, and created the National Weather Service. While his personal life was smothered in hideous blots of depravity, his presidency was one of great accomplishments.