Oliver Perry Chitwood (1874–1971)

2135 John Tyler: Champion of the Old South, by Oliver Perry Chitwood (read 12 Mar 1988) This is a 1939 biography. It is old-fashioned in style, but it did say some things unfavorable to Tyler, although it is generally favorable to him. He was rejected by the Whigs in 1841 and for most of his presidency he was a man without a party. When he left office Mar 4, 1845, ;he went to his plantation in Virginia and did nothing much until the eve of the Civil War--when he was a "peace commissioner" and then pro-secession. I found this not a bad book.… (más)

Tyler was born into the Virginian aristocracy in 1790, two years before the ratification of the US Constitution. His unremarkable childhood was followed by an unremarkable marriage to another member of the Virginian aristocracy and an unremarkable career in law and local, state and national politics.

He was card-carrying member of the state's rights wing of the Democratic Party and broke with Jackson, when Jackson faced down So. Carolina during the nullification crisis in 1833.

His alienation from the Dems drove him into the Whig Party, with other disaffected Southerner's in an unholy alliance betweent the Northern nationalists and the Southern State's Rights proponents. In 1840 he was nominated by the Whigs for Vice-President on William Henry Harrison's ticket.

Harrison's death in 1841 put Tyler in the Presidency and in conflict with the Whigs, and Henry Clay in particular, whose nationalist principals he never espoused.

Two vetos of bills to create a national Bank brought this conflict into the open and war between Clay/Whigs and Tyler was constant for the next four years. Clay orchestrated the resignation of Tyler's cabinet in 1841 (all but Webster complied) in an effort to force Tyler to resign.

Post his Presidency, Tyler went back to his unremarkable life in Virginia, until the tension over slavery vaulted him into the spotlight again as one of the prime movers behind Virginia's decision to seceed. His final public office was representative to the Conferate House of Representatives.

Chitwood is generally favorable towards Tyler, but at times hints at a stubbornness, lack of vision and close-mindedness that led to bad decisions, like splitting from the Democrats, like accepting the VP nomination for a party whose platform he did not espouse.

Tyler was probably one of the many calcified Virginia politicians too blind to see that the policy of freedom they so vigorously shouted should have applied to all, not just their social circle. This blindness led them to absurd doctrines like State's Rights that ended up bringing on the Civil War.… (más)