Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 2001 John Tyler Before the Presidency: Principles and Politics of a Southern Planter. Christopher Joseph Leahy Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Leahy, Christopher Joseph, "John Tyler Before the Presidency: Principles and Politics of a Southern Planter." (2001). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 242. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/242 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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JOHN TYLER BEFORE THE PRESIDENCY: PRINCIPLES AND POLITICS OF A SOUTHERN PLANTER A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of History by Christopher Joseph Leahy B.A., Washington and Jefferson College, 1991 M.A., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993 May 2001 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3010375 ___ ® UMI UMI Microform 3010375 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For their assistance in the completion of this dissertation, I would like to thank the members of my committee, Dr. Charles Royster, Dr. Gaines Foster, and Dr. John Rodrigue. Their critical reading of my work and their incisive comments are greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank the Graduate School’s outside reader, Dr. Spencer Maxcy of the Department of Educational Leadership. I am grateful for the financial assistance provided by a Mellon Fellowship from the Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia. While many archivists and librarians aided my research, I would like to single out for special thanks Margaret Cook, Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at the Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. Thanks also to Megan Boccardi, Ben Cloyd, Jennifer Dominique, Rand Dotson, Robert Gudmestad, John Sacher and Bethany Sage. These friends have made graduate school bearable and for that, I am most appreciative. A special thanks is due Clay and Tracy KimbrelL, who provided me with employment as I neared the completion o f my graduate education. My major professor, Dr. William J. Cooper, Jr., deserves the most thanks. He has been a patient, understanding, prodding, and, at times, forceful adviser. I have learned a great deal about being an historian from him. I have tremendous respect for Professor Cooper and have been extremely fortunate to work under his direction. Finally, to Court Camey, huzzah! ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................................................................................ii ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................................iv INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................I CHAPTER ONE TIES TO THE PAST, LINK TO THE FUTURE..................................... 5 TWO FULFILLING AMBITION: LAW, LEGISLATURE AND MARRIAGE.......................................................................... 35 THREE CONGRESSMAN TYLER.....................................................................58 FOUR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S ASSAULT ON STATES’ RIGHTS......................................................................... 85 FIVE A SHORT-LIVED RETIREMENT AND RETURN TO PUBLIC LIFE................................................................................ 109 SEX AN UNEASY ALLIANCE: TYLER, THE OLD REPUBLICANS AND ANDREW JACKSON....................................................... 132 SEVEN “LET US BE TRUE TO OURSELVES, TO OUR CONSTITUENTS, BUT, ABOVE ALL, TO THE CONSTITUTION” ...............................................................165 EIGHT FROM JACKSONIAN TO WHIG.................................................... 192 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................................................................................................233 VITA.....................................................................................................................................247 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT This dissertation explores the political career and personal life of John Tyler from 1790 to 1840. Tyler, the tenth president of the United States, was bom into an influential planter family that lived in the Tidewater region of Virginia. His father, for whom he was named, instilled in him a devotion to principle and political service and an appreciation for the role of Virginia in America’s history. The elder Tyler, a prominent politician and judge, was also an admirer of Thomas Jefferson and an ardent republican. Tyler dedicated himself to a career in politics imbued with the belief that men of his class had a duty to serve in public life. His states’ rights political ideology was shaped by a conviction that only a strict interpretation of the Constitution—the Jeffersonian ideal—could best protect the interests of the slave South. Before succeeding to the presidency, Tyler enjoyed a long, productive, and often controversial, career. He became a member of the Old Dominion’s general assembly at age twenty- one and was later elected governor of the state. He also served in the United States House of Representatives and in the Senate, becoming an outspoken champion of Virginia and the South. My work traces the development of Tyler’s career before the White House, showing his importance in Virginia politics and analyzing his rhetoric and fundamental assumptions on such hotly-contested issues in the national arena as internal improvements, a national bank, the tariff^ and slavery. I examine his view of his constituency and conclude that he was a far shrewder politician than historians have traditionally maintained. I also explain the process by which he landed on the Whig ticket along with William Henry Harrison in the election of 1840. Finally, I probe his iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. private life. I detail the relationships he shared with family and colleagues and investigate the effects chronic illness had on these relationships and his career. I examine his efforts as both an attorney and slaveholder. I contend that the interplay between his private and public lives frustrated Tyler greatly, though he achieved tremendous personal fulfillment from politics. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Biographers have paid relatively little attention to John Tyler. In fact, only two—now dated—scholarly studies of his life exist.1 Overshadowed by more prominent contemporaries like John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay and generally dismissed as an unimportant president, Tyler has been largely overlooked. To be sure, historians have examined aspects of his controversial administration, including