John Tyler in 1841

Electoral Brawlage, #10

“Electoral Brawlage” examines the first inaugural address of each president in U.S. history, with some commentary and analysis. This is the tenth installment. Check back on Mondays for more.

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“Look at me. I’m the president now.”

John Tyler was a bit of a character. You guys remember that Senator from Arizona, John McCain, who called himself a maverick but basically did what the Democrats wanted him to like, all the time? Well, John Tyler was a real maverick, because once he became president, everybody disavowed him and he kind of did his own thing.

He was a slaveholder who didn’t want the institution expanded to D.C., but also opposed abolition. As a Senator, he voted to censure President Jackson for removing deposits from the Bank of the United States, causing his state legislature to order him to reverse his vote, and rather than do so, he flipped them the bird and resigned. Then, AFTER he was president, he served in the Confederate Congress from 1861-62, when he died in office. Straight-up Maverick $#!&.

When he ran as William Henry Harrison’s VP, only to find the executive chair vacant after a month, he basically declared himself the president while Congress was still sitting on their hands, trying to figure out what to do. By that act alone, the precedent for executive succession was established, though only as a matter of tradition and not as codified law. (Presidential succession wouldn’t be constitutionally established until the 25th Amendment, over a hundred years—and three presidential assassinations—later.)

So, with all that established, what the heck did John Tyler have to say to the American people after he assumed the presidency?

Here’s his erstwhile inaugural address. It boils down to the following points and principles:

—He cared a great deal about the separation of powers, the order of the political process, and the safeguards against the subversion of that process.

—He focused on sound fiscal policy and stressed that we should refuse the urge to go into unnecessary debt in peacetime.

—He was an advocate of the barrier between the powers of “sword” and “purse,” once again emphasizing that the president had control over one (with limits) while Congress controlled the other (also, with limits.)

—And he was especially mindful of the rights of the states to resist federal tyranny. Factionalism or division were both bad; we need to be a Union, with broad and popular support, and any rupture was likely to spread. People would realign themselves by other loyalties, like to their birthplace, and not to the flag or the Union. (The next twenty years proved that, especially when Tyler went back to his native Virginia and aided with the secession.)

It wasn’t a proper inaugural address, and Tyler said as much in the preamble to his remarks here. With Van Buren being the first president to address slavery in his inauguration, the issue (and its pertinent satellite concerns) was gaining greater focus at the presidential level. We’re seeing the kettle start to fill and the kindling is being arranged for the Civil War in two decades.

Keep watch.

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