fairly representing the sentiments of our common constituents, the people of Virginia, to whom alone you are amenable if you have mistaken their wishes.

ses.

"In voting for the resolution of the senate, against which you are now so indignant, I did no more than carry out the people's declared views of the legislature, as expressed in their resolutions of that day, and which were passed by overwhelming majorities of more than two to one in both houThe terms employed by the legislature were strong and decided. The conduct of the president was represented as dangerous and alarming. I was told that it could not be too strongly condemned; that he had manifested a disposition greatly to extend his official influence; and because, with these declarations before me, I voted for a resolution which declares that the president, in the late executive proceedings, has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the constitution and laws, but in derogation of both,' I am now ostracized by your fiat, which requires obedience or resignation. Compare the resolutions of the general assembly of that day with the above resolution, and its mildness will be entirely obvious. I submit, with all due deference, to yourselves, what is to be the condition of the senator in future, if, for yielding obedience to the wishes of one legislature, he is to be called upon to resign by another? If he disobeys the first, he is contemned; if he obeys the last, he violates his oath, and becomes an object of scorn and contempt. I respectfully ask, if this be the mode by which the great right of instructions is to be sustained, may it not degenerate into an engine of faction-an instrument to be employed by the outs to get in, instead of being directed to noble purposes-to the advancement of the cause of civil liberty? May it not be converted into a political guillotine, devoted to the worst of purposes? Nor are these anticipations at all weakened by the fact, as it existed in the case now under consideration, that several of those who constitute the present majority in the general assembly, and who now call upon me to expunge the journal or to resign my seat, actually voted for the very resolutions of a previous session, to which I have referred.

The constitution forbids

"I dare not touch the journal of the senate. it. In the midst of all the agitations of party, I have heretofore stood by that sacred instrument. It is the only post of honor and of safety. A seat in the senate is sufficiently elevated to fill the measure of any man's ambition; and as an evidence of the sincerity of my convictions that your resolutions can not be executed, without violating my oath, I surrender into your hands three unexpired years of my term. I shall carry with me into retirement, the principles which I brought with me into public life, and by the surrender of the high station to which I was called by the voice of the people of Virginia, I shall set an example to my children which shall teach them to regard as nothing place and office, when to be either obtained or held at the sacrifice of honor."

VOL. II.-32

1

At the same time, Mr. Tyler placed in the hands of the president of the senate, Mr. Van Buren, a letter informing the senate that he had resigned into the hands of the general assembly of Virginia his seat as a senator from that state. Mr. Rives was elected, by the legislature of Virginia, to fill the vacancy occasioned by Mr. Tyler's resignation, and the latter retired once more to his home and the practice of his profession. His course was highly commended, not only in Virginia, but throughout the Union. Soon after his retirement, a public dinner was given to Mr. Leigh and himself, and the following was among the toasts expressing similar feelings: "Our honored guest, John Tyler-Expunged' from a post that he adorned, and the functions of which he ever faithfully and ably discharged, by the complying tools of an unprincipled aspirant, he is but the more endeared to the hearts of his countrymen."

He

Some time in 1830, Mr. Tyler had removed from Charles City county to Gloucester, where his family had resided until the present year. now again removed to Williamsburg, the ancient dwelling-place of his fathers; and though his name was, in 1836, placed upon the electoral ticket of some of the states, as a candidate for the vice-presidency, he mingled very little, for a time, in political matters, devoting himself exclusively to his private pursuits.

He was first nominated for vice-president in Maryland, in December, 1835, and in that state placed on the ticket with General Harrison, the whig candidate for president. He also received, in 1836, the support of the friends of Judge White in the states where that gentleman was the candidate for president against Mr. Van Buren; but Maryland was the only state that voted for Harrison which gave its electoral vote to Mr. Tyler. He, however, received the votes of South Carolina (which state gave its vote to Mr. Mangum, of North Carolina, for president), Georgia, and Tennessee, for vice-president, in addition to the votes of Maryland, making 47 in all; Francis Granger receiving the votes of the other states in the opposition, including Kentucky. It thus appears that Mr. Tyler was not in 1836 considered the whig candidate for vice-president, his principal support for that office being derived from the state-rights party of the south and west, who in some respects co-operated with the whigs in opposition to Jackson and Van Buren. Virginia refused to vote for Richard M. Johnson for vice-president, but as the friends of Jackson and Van Buren controlled the electoral vote of the state, it was not given to Mr. Tyler, but to William Smith, of Alabama.

In the spring of 1838, Mr. Tyler was elected by the whigs of James City county, a member of the house of delegates of Virginia; and during the subsequent session of the legislature he acted with the whig party, under which name the different sections of the opposition to Mr. Van Buren's administration gradually became amalgamated in Virginia.

In 1839, Mr. Tyler was elected one of the delegates from Virginia to

the whig national convention which met at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to 'nominate candidates for president and vice-president of the United States. It is well known that Mr. Clay, of Kentucky, was the favorite candidate of the delegates from the southern states, in that convention. The course of Mr. Clay in the senate, on many occasions, particularly in bringing about a settlement of the controversy respecting the tariff and South Carolina nullification, had rendered him popular with the state-rights section of the whigs, and they were anxious for his nomination to the presidency. In this feeling Mr. Tyler warmly participated, with all the Virginia delegation. He was chosen one of the vice-presidents of the convention, and exerted his influence in favor of Mr. Clay. General Harrison, however, was nominated for president, and Mr. Tyler was among those who expressed their deep regrets at the defeat of Mr. Clay as a candidate.

The question of a candidate for president had so much absorbed the attention of the whigs, that the subject of a candidate for vice-president had attracted but little attention. When General Harrison was nominated for the first office, it became necessary, in the judgment of the delegates, to take a candidate for vice-president from the south, and, after a brief consultation, the nomination was offered to Mr. Tyler, and accepted. As he was an ardent friend of Mr. Clay, it was supposed that this nomination would be popular with the friends of that gentleman, under the feelings of disappointment with which it was anticipated they would receive the nomination of General Harrison. Had the event of Mr. Tyler's succession to the presidency been contemplated, it can not be doubted that a scrutiny of his principles, and the remembrance of his course and action on cherished whig measures, would have caused more hesitancy in placing him on the presidential ticket, if not his prompt rejection, by the whig convention.

The speeches, letters, and declarations of Mr. Tyler, during the canvass of 1840, were generally satisfactory to the whigs, and gave reasonable expectation that he would co-operate with General Harrison and Mr. Clay in carrying out the wishes of the whig party, if successful in the election.

The triumph of the whigs, which elevated General Harrison to the presidency, Mr. Tyler to the vice-presidency, and secured a whig majority in both houses of Congress, we have elsewhere related in this volume. It only remains to mention, in this place, that the sudden and lamented death of President Harrison, in one month after his inauguration, devolved upon Mr. Tyler, in April, 1841, the high and responsible duties of president of the United States. The events of the succeeding four years will be found in our history of his administration.

There can be no doubt that Mr. Tyler mistook his position in attempting to act with the whig party, and in accepting their nomination for one of the highest offices in the nation, which, by the dispensation of Providence,

placed him in the presidential chair, clothed with the power and patronage of that high station. That the whigs also acted without due reflection, in his nomination, is alike evident; and from these two causes flowed the consequences which resulted in the embarrassment, difficulties, and total loss of popularity with both the great parties of the country, on the one side, of the president, and bitter disappointment and chagrin on the part of the whigs.

In person, Mr. Tyler is rather tall and thin, with light complexion, blue eyes, and prominent features. His manners are plain and affable, and in private life he is amiable, hospitable, and courteous. His errors as a politician are ascribed, by some, to a want of judgment, to an inordinate vanity, and the influence of bad advice; to which may be added, extreme obstinacy in persisting in opinions once formed, without regard to consequences.

In 1813, at the age of twenty-three, Mr. Tyler married a lady about his own age, Miss Letitia Christian, daughter of Robert Christian, Esq., of New Kent county, Virginia. She was a lady much esteemed by her acquaintances, as a wife, a mother, a friend, and a Christian, being for many years a member of the episcopal church. She died at Washington, September 10, 1842, leaving three sons and three daughters. While president of the United States, Mr. Tyler was again married, to Miss Julia Gardiner, of New York, daughter of the late David Gardiner, Esq., of that city, who was killed by an explosion on board the steamship Princeton, in February, 1844. The marriage of the president took place at New York, on the 26th of June, 1844. Since his retirement from the presidency, Mr. Tyler has resided at his seat near Williamsburg, Virginia.

TYLER'S

ADDRESSES AND MESSAGES.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS.

APRIL 9, 1841.

To the People of the United States :

FELLOW-CITIZENS: Before my arrival at the seat of government the painful communication was made to you, by the several departments, of the deeply-regretted death of WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, late president of the United States. Upon him you had conferred your suffrages for the first office in your gift, and had selected him as your chosen instrument to correct and reform all such errors and abuses as had manifested themselves from time to time in the practical operation of the government. While standing at the threshold of this great work, he has, by the dispensation of an all-wise Providence, been removed from among us, and, by the provisions of the constitution, the efforts to be directed to the accomplishment of this vitally-important task have devolved upon myself. This same occurrence has subjected the wisdom and sufficiency of our institutions to a new test. For the first time in our history the person elected to the vicepresidency of the United States, by the happening of a contingency provided for in the constitution, has had devolved upon him the presidential office. The spirit of faction which is directly opposed to the spirit of a lofty patriotism, may find in this occasion for assaults upon my administration. And in succeeding, under circumstances so sudden and unexpected, and to responsibilities so greatly augmented, to the administration of public affairs, I shall place in the intelligence and patriotism of the people my only sure reliance. My earnest prayer shall be constantly addressed to the all-wise and all-powerful Being who made me, and by whose dispensation I am called to the high office of president of this confederacy, understandingly to carry out the principles of that constitution which I have sworn to "protect, preserve, and defend."

The usual opportunity which is afforded to a chief magistrate, upon his induction to office, of presenting to his countrymen an exposition of the policy which would guide his administration, in the form of an inaugural address, not having, under the peculiar circumstances which have brought me to the discharge of the high duties of president of the United States, been afforded to me, a brief exposition of the principles which will govern me in the general course of my administration of public affairs would seem to be due as well to myself as to you.