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President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler
Historians and the American public have long viewed President John Tyler as one of the nation’s least effective heads of state. In President without a Party―the first full-scale biography in more than fifty years and the first new academic study of him in eight decades―Christopher J. Leahy explores the life of the tenth chief executive of the United States.
Born in the Virginia Tidewater into an elite family sympathetic to the ideals of the American Revolution, Tyler, like his father, worked as an attorney before entering politics. Leahy uses a wealth of primary source materials to chart Tyler’s early political path, from his entry into the Virginia legislature in 1811, through his stints as a congressman and senator, to his vice-presidential nomination on the Whig ticket for the campaign of 1840. When newly elected William Henry Harrison died unexpectedly a mere month after assuming the presidency, Tyler became the first vice president to become president because of the death of the incumbent. Leahy traces Tyler’s ascendance to the highest office in the land and unpacks the fraught dynamics between Tyler and his fellow Whigs, who ultimately banished the beleaguered president from their ranks and stymied his election bid three years later.
Leahy also examines the president’s personal life, especially the relationships he shared with his two wives and fifteen children. In the end, Leahy suggests, politics fulfilled Tyler the most, often to the detriment of his family relationships. Such was true even after his presidency, when Virginians elected him to the Confederate Congress in 1861, and northerners and Unionists branded him a “traitor president.”
The most complete accounting of Tyler’s life and career, Leahy’s biography makes an original contribution to the fields of politics, family life, and slavery in the antebellum South. Moving beyond the standard, often shortsighted studies that describe Tyler as simply a defender of the Old South’s dominant ideology of states’ rights and strict construction of the Constitution, Leahy offers a nuanced portrayal of a president who favored a middle-of-the-road, bipartisan approach to the nation’s problems. This strategy did not make Tyler popular with either the Whigs or the opposition Democrats while in office―or with historians and biographers ever since. Moreover, his most significant achievement as president―the annexation of Texas―exacerbated sectional tensions and put the United States on the road to civil war.
Born in the Virginia Tidewater into an elite family sympathetic to the ideals of the American Revolution, Tyler, like his father, worked as an attorney before entering politics. Leahy uses a wealth of primary source materials to chart Tyler’s early political path, from his entry into the Virginia legislature in 1811, through his stints as a congressman and senator, to his vice-presidential nomination on the Whig ticket for the campaign of 1840. When newly elected William Henry Harrison died unexpectedly a mere month after assuming the presidency, Tyler became the first vice president to become president because of the death of the incumbent. Leahy traces Tyler’s ascendance to the highest office in the land and unpacks the fraught dynamics between Tyler and his fellow Whigs, who ultimately banished the beleaguered president from their ranks and stymied his election bid three years later.
Leahy also examines the president’s personal life, especially the relationships he shared with his two wives and fifteen children. In the end, Leahy suggests, politics fulfilled Tyler the most, often to the detriment of his family relationships. Such was true even after his presidency, when Virginians elected him to the Confederate Congress in 1861, and northerners and Unionists branded him a “traitor president.”
The most complete accounting of Tyler’s life and career, Leahy’s biography makes an original contribution to the fields of politics, family life, and slavery in the antebellum South. Moving beyond the standard, often shortsighted studies that describe Tyler as simply a defender of the Old South’s dominant ideology of states’ rights and strict construction of the Constitution, Leahy offers a nuanced portrayal of a president who favored a middle-of-the-road, bipartisan approach to the nation’s problems. This strategy did not make Tyler popular with either the Whigs or the opposition Democrats while in office―or with historians and biographers ever since. Moreover, his most significant achievement as president―the annexation of Texas―exacerbated sectional tensions and put the United States on the road to civil war.
528 pages, Hardcover
First published May 6, 2020
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August 13, 2020
https://bestpresidentialbios.com/2020...
Christopher J. Leahy’s “President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler” was published earlier this year. It is the first major biography of the 10th president since Edward Crapol’s (published in 2006) and is the most substantial Tyler biography since Oliver Chitwood’s classic (published in 1939). Leahy is a professor of history at Keuka College in upstate New York.
More than a decade in the making, this comprehensive 415-page biography of John Tyler is notable in several ways. First, it is increasingly uncommon for an author to dedicate such significant time and effort to a widely-panned president about whom most Americans know virtually nothing.
Second, while biographies of 19th-century antebellum presidents tend to be achingly dull, this book is surprisingly interesting. In fact, it often reads like an engrossing set of lecture notes in which Leahy observes, analyzes, considers, postulates and evaluates Tyler’s life and actions in a way designed to stimulate and retain his reader’s interest.
Finally, biographers of unsuccessful presidents tend to either vilify their subjects or, on rare occasions, apologize for them. Leahy avoids this tendency and, instead, provides a remarkably balanced and keenly perceptive assessment of the life and legacy of a man who, in the weeks before the Civil War, publicly abandoned the country he once served.
The book’s introduction does an excellent job laying groundwork and presenting the author’s thesis; these half-dozen pages are well-organized and thought-provoking. And throughout the ensuing twenty chapters Leahy consistently injects a nearly ideal amount of social and political context – enough to understand the man and his times, but not so much it becomes cumbersome.
Rather than simply accepting Tyler's actions at face value, Leahy frequently looks "beneath the surface" in an attempt to fully understand his subject - to understand how he thought - while being careful to distinguish between fact and conjecture. And while this book occasionally seems to be a political biography, there are excellent chapters dedicated to his first marriage (which yielded seven children) as well as his second marriage and domestic life (which included eight post-presidential offspring).
But as commendable as this biography is, it does exhibit a few shortcomings. While coverage of Tyler’s pre-presidency consumes about 30% of the book, some early moments in his life feel shortchanged including his law studies, early career, and his marriage to Letitia (who Tyler meets and weds in the span of three sentences). Later, Tyler’s nomination as the Whig Party VP candidate and the accompanying campaign of 1840 pass with surprisingly little attention. And the presidential election of 1844, in which he once hoped to run as a third-party candidate, occupies just a single paragraph.
Tyler's 1,430-day presidency consumes about half the book; his first year in office accounts for nearly half of that. Some readers may feel this portion of the biography is unduly burdened by the scrupulous examination of relatively dull or unimportant political battles...or may simply find these chapters tedious. Such is the nature of many presidential biographies, however, where politics is frequently central to the story. In this particular case, any tedium is articulately and thoughtfully reported.
Overall, Christopher Leahy’s biography of John Tyler is a welcome addition to the limited collection of biographies covering the 10th president. While not as colorful or as consistently engaging as the very best presidential biographies, this is a remarkably interesting, admirably objective and extremely thoughtful exploration of Tyler and his era. This is not only the best biography of John Tyler I’ve ever read, but it may well be the best biography of John Tyler which can be written.
Overall rating: 4¼ stars
Christopher J. Leahy’s “President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler” was published earlier this year. It is the first major biography of the 10th president since Edward Crapol’s (published in 2006) and is the most substantial Tyler biography since Oliver Chitwood’s classic (published in 1939). Leahy is a professor of history at Keuka College in upstate New York.
More than a decade in the making, this comprehensive 415-page biography of John Tyler is notable in several ways. First, it is increasingly uncommon for an author to dedicate such significant time and effort to a widely-panned president about whom most Americans know virtually nothing.
Second, while biographies of 19th-century antebellum presidents tend to be achingly dull, this book is surprisingly interesting. In fact, it often reads like an engrossing set of lecture notes in which Leahy observes, analyzes, considers, postulates and evaluates Tyler’s life and actions in a way designed to stimulate and retain his reader’s interest.
Finally, biographers of unsuccessful presidents tend to either vilify their subjects or, on rare occasions, apologize for them. Leahy avoids this tendency and, instead, provides a remarkably balanced and keenly perceptive assessment of the life and legacy of a man who, in the weeks before the Civil War, publicly abandoned the country he once served.
The book’s introduction does an excellent job laying groundwork and presenting the author’s thesis; these half-dozen pages are well-organized and thought-provoking. And throughout the ensuing twenty chapters Leahy consistently injects a nearly ideal amount of social and political context – enough to understand the man and his times, but not so much it becomes cumbersome.
Rather than simply accepting Tyler's actions at face value, Leahy frequently looks "beneath the surface" in an attempt to fully understand his subject - to understand how he thought - while being careful to distinguish between fact and conjecture. And while this book occasionally seems to be a political biography, there are excellent chapters dedicated to his first marriage (which yielded seven children) as well as his second marriage and domestic life (which included eight post-presidential offspring).
But as commendable as this biography is, it does exhibit a few shortcomings. While coverage of Tyler’s pre-presidency consumes about 30% of the book, some early moments in his life feel shortchanged including his law studies, early career, and his marriage to Letitia (who Tyler meets and weds in the span of three sentences). Later, Tyler’s nomination as the Whig Party VP candidate and the accompanying campaign of 1840 pass with surprisingly little attention. And the presidential election of 1844, in which he once hoped to run as a third-party candidate, occupies just a single paragraph.
Tyler's 1,430-day presidency consumes about half the book; his first year in office accounts for nearly half of that. Some readers may feel this portion of the biography is unduly burdened by the scrupulous examination of relatively dull or unimportant political battles...or may simply find these chapters tedious. Such is the nature of many presidential biographies, however, where politics is frequently central to the story. In this particular case, any tedium is articulately and thoughtfully reported.
Overall, Christopher Leahy’s biography of John Tyler is a welcome addition to the limited collection of biographies covering the 10th president. While not as colorful or as consistently engaging as the very best presidential biographies, this is a remarkably interesting, admirably objective and extremely thoughtful exploration of Tyler and his era. This is not only the best biography of John Tyler I’ve ever read, but it may well be the best biography of John Tyler which can be written.
Overall rating: 4¼ stars
May 31, 2020
Well, it's that time again, the quadrennial American sport of electing our nation's leader.* It seemed an appropriate time to dip back into my reading of Presidential biographies and histories. I went back to Lincoln, but that's a well-worn path for me. I have a few others waiting on my TBR shelves, secret for now. But then I found this work on John Tyler, just published. I'd never read a biography of Tyler before. This was just what I needed.
There aren't a lot of biographies of Tyler, the few that were written are dated, of questionable scholarship and largely unavailable. Christopher Leahy doesn't explain, not really, what spurred his fascination with Tyler. But he's a professor of History and seems to have made the study of Tyler his life's work. Without duplicating the research, it seems to me that his scholarship is impeccable; and, although this is definitely a scholarly work, the writing is quite good.
Here's what you need to know about Tyler. He was Vice-President to President William Henry Harrison, and became the tenth President when Harrison died very early into his term. Tyler was thus the first President not to be elected in his own right. He was elected as a Whig but he was a "states-right Whig," which was a kind of contradiction in terms. He was a strict constructionist of the Constitution, defending the sovereignty of individual states and the institution of slavery. It wasn't long before the other Whigs saw him for what he was and officially ousted him from their Party. Hence the title of this biography.
He was married twice and fathered fifteen children, eight by his first wife and seven by his second wife, who was thirty years his junior.** He owned slaves. Worse, he sold slaves. His real love was Politics, and he was often an absentee father, especially with his children by his first wife. He wanted very much to be elected to a second term, but that was never going to happen. He joined the Confederacy, as an elected delegate, when his home state Virginia seceded. A contemporary wrote: "time alone can shew whether [Tyler] died too soon or too late." As the author explains:
In terms of his private family, Tyler had died too soon. He was not there to help Julia raise their seven children. . . . In terms of his historical reputation, Tyler died too late. Had he passed away before Lincoln's election to the presidency--indeed, he was at death's door at least once during the 1850s--he never would have been able to give his sanction to succession and would not have had the opportunity to join the Confederate government. Tyler would have been remembered as a traitor to the Whig Party but not viewed as a traitor to his country.
Recent Presidents (plural) have alleged that they received a harsher press than even Lincoln. Tyler could have joined their self-pity. "Imbecile" was the favorite word used by opposition press. There was this: "Of all the shallow, ignorant, weak, vain & obstinate fools that ever cursed a free people, Tyler is the worst." This: "a fool guided by the counsels of a maniac." This: "weak and conceited" . . . "out of his depth." And this: "the greatest ass I ever see that had the name of an educated man."
The author summarized: His words are at once astute and muddled, prudent and bewildering. As one historian put it, he "displayed that capacity for confusing the minds of others." Some might even say he had a particular talent for doing so. . . . Being thin-skinned was part of who he was. . . . Contradiction defined his behavior.
A medical interlude: I learned that the disease beriberi, caused by a vitamin B-1 deficiency, often stimulates a nearly irresistible urge to eat dirt. How did this come up in a biography of John Tyler? Well, one of Tyler's young, male slaves died and Tyler supposed it was because the boy kept eating dirt even though admonished not to. The author informs that this also indicates that the person has been chronically undernourished. Tyler was constantly underfinanced, hounded by creditors, and may have scrimped on food for his slaves (there's other evidence of that too).
I also learned that Tyler was almost constantly in ill-health and that his second wife treated him with various drugs, all containing mercury. The author points out that mercury poisoning is almost certainly what killed him. End medical interlude
(Looking at the portrait of Tyler on the front cover, it appears that he is either attempting, or could use, a comb-over. Just saying.)
I understand that a book about the Life of John Tyler might have a limited audience. Still, I was definitely a part of that audience. And, there are lessons here, lessons that still could be learned. It's an election year.
_____ _____ _____
*We're all very different people. We're not Watusi. We're not Spartans. We're Americans, with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts! . . . We're mutants. - John Winger, Stripes. So, you know, what could go wrong?
**The Tylers are apparently fertile octogenarians. A child John Tyler fathered when he was 63, in turn fathered sons when he was 72 and 75. Both of these grandsons were alive (and may still be) and were interviewed by the author. He even attended a Thanksgiving dinner with them. They are very Southern gentlemen and charming in their own way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svwg0... And very entertaining.
There aren't a lot of biographies of Tyler, the few that were written are dated, of questionable scholarship and largely unavailable. Christopher Leahy doesn't explain, not really, what spurred his fascination with Tyler. But he's a professor of History and seems to have made the study of Tyler his life's work. Without duplicating the research, it seems to me that his scholarship is impeccable; and, although this is definitely a scholarly work, the writing is quite good.
Here's what you need to know about Tyler. He was Vice-President to President William Henry Harrison, and became the tenth President when Harrison died very early into his term. Tyler was thus the first President not to be elected in his own right. He was elected as a Whig but he was a "states-right Whig," which was a kind of contradiction in terms. He was a strict constructionist of the Constitution, defending the sovereignty of individual states and the institution of slavery. It wasn't long before the other Whigs saw him for what he was and officially ousted him from their Party. Hence the title of this biography.
He was married twice and fathered fifteen children, eight by his first wife and seven by his second wife, who was thirty years his junior.** He owned slaves. Worse, he sold slaves. His real love was Politics, and he was often an absentee father, especially with his children by his first wife. He wanted very much to be elected to a second term, but that was never going to happen. He joined the Confederacy, as an elected delegate, when his home state Virginia seceded. A contemporary wrote: "time alone can shew whether [Tyler] died too soon or too late." As the author explains:
In terms of his private family, Tyler had died too soon. He was not there to help Julia raise their seven children. . . . In terms of his historical reputation, Tyler died too late. Had he passed away before Lincoln's election to the presidency--indeed, he was at death's door at least once during the 1850s--he never would have been able to give his sanction to succession and would not have had the opportunity to join the Confederate government. Tyler would have been remembered as a traitor to the Whig Party but not viewed as a traitor to his country.
Recent Presidents (plural) have alleged that they received a harsher press than even Lincoln. Tyler could have joined their self-pity. "Imbecile" was the favorite word used by opposition press. There was this: "Of all the shallow, ignorant, weak, vain & obstinate fools that ever cursed a free people, Tyler is the worst." This: "a fool guided by the counsels of a maniac." This: "weak and conceited" . . . "out of his depth." And this: "the greatest ass I ever see that had the name of an educated man."
The author summarized: His words are at once astute and muddled, prudent and bewildering. As one historian put it, he "displayed that capacity for confusing the minds of others." Some might even say he had a particular talent for doing so. . . . Being thin-skinned was part of who he was. . . . Contradiction defined his behavior.
A medical interlude: I learned that the disease beriberi, caused by a vitamin B-1 deficiency, often stimulates a nearly irresistible urge to eat dirt. How did this come up in a biography of John Tyler? Well, one of Tyler's young, male slaves died and Tyler supposed it was because the boy kept eating dirt even though admonished not to. The author informs that this also indicates that the person has been chronically undernourished. Tyler was constantly underfinanced, hounded by creditors, and may have scrimped on food for his slaves (there's other evidence of that too).
I also learned that Tyler was almost constantly in ill-health and that his second wife treated him with various drugs, all containing mercury. The author points out that mercury poisoning is almost certainly what killed him. End medical interlude
(Looking at the portrait of Tyler on the front cover, it appears that he is either attempting, or could use, a comb-over. Just saying.)
I understand that a book about the Life of John Tyler might have a limited audience. Still, I was definitely a part of that audience. And, there are lessons here, lessons that still could be learned. It's an election year.
_____ _____ _____
*We're all very different people. We're not Watusi. We're not Spartans. We're Americans, with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts! . . . We're mutants. - John Winger, Stripes. So, you know, what could go wrong?
**The Tylers are apparently fertile octogenarians. A child John Tyler fathered when he was 63, in turn fathered sons when he was 72 and 75. Both of these grandsons were alive (and may still be) and were interviewed by the author. He even attended a Thanksgiving dinner with them. They are very Southern gentlemen and charming in their own way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Svwg0... And very entertaining.
July 25, 2021
There’s likely not a huge general audience for a biography of one of our country’s least notable presidents, but if you’re looking for the definitive modern biography of John Tyler - this is it.
Christopher Leahy has written a detailed, balanced, readable, thorough and thoughtful account of Tyler’s life and presidency that far surpasses any Tyler biography that has come before. Paying particular attention to Tyler’s upbringing, his early political career and his personal life, in addition to his presidency and political philosophy, Leahy paints a well-rounded portrait of a man too often dismissed and forgotten as a failed president who died a traitor to the country he once led. The book is not meant to rehabilitate his reputation, but to help us understand who Tyler was, what he did and why.
The book ably tracks Tyler’s rise to political prominence in post-Revolutionary Virginia and his father's strong influence on his career, values, beliefs and Jeffersonianism - it’s a nice change of pace to see a future president who actually had a good and healthy relationship with his father in this way. In fact, the book is strong in its discussion of all of Tyler’s relationships, with his two wives and all of his children, which helps you get to know Tyler as a person and not just a politician.
As the birth-to-death narrative progresses, Leahy pauses at times for a closer examination of Tyler’s actions and motivations instead of merely plunging ahead to the next event. He deftly describes Tyler’s ideology, but also his penchant for sometimes acting contrary to that ideology - like his political progenitor Thomas Jefferson, Tyler could be flexible when it proved necessary or expedient.
In Tyler’s case, though, this flexibility could come across as waffling and contribute to a reputation for indecision and vacillation, which could lead to undue delay and deliberation when it came time to act. Tyler struggled to occupy a middle ground, straddling both the Democratic and Whig parties while fitting into neither, as he tried to reconcile his ideology with what needed to be done. All of this, of course, climaxed with his becoming a president without a party, shunned by both sides.
Leahy is particularly strong when analyzing Tyler’s ideology and actions when it came to the issue of slavery. Tyler’s desire to annex Texas, and the ensuing debate over expanding the country’s slave territory, is often considered one of the initial sparks that lit the fuse that ultimately led to the Civil War. But Leahy perceptively considers the nuances and differences between being pro-slavery and pro-expansion, which, while linked, weren’t quite the same thing, particularly in Tyler’s case. Like many Virginia slaveholders, Tyler considered slavery a “necessary evil” but hoped for its eventual extinction. While he failed to do much of anything to actually bring about its extinction, he drew the line at expanding it. So while there is much to dislike about Tyler’s views on slavery, Leahy does effectively dispute the shorthanded notion that Tyler’s aim in acquiring Texas was to defend and expand the institution of slavery for the good of the South, as opposed to expanding the country’s territory for the good of everyone.
Tyler’s failure was in allowing his Secretary of State John Calhoun to define the annexation of Texas as a pro-slavery endeavor, thereby tarnishing the achievement for posterity - just as Tyler’s ultimate failure in joining the Confederacy before his death overshadowed any achievements he could claim as president. When painted with a broad brush, some bad decisions on Tyler’s part sullied his entire life and presidency in the eyes of history.
While Leahy’s analysis is superb and his storytelling is compelling, I did find it curious that he sometimes skims over key events in Tyler’s life and presidency. A mere one and a half pages spans Tyler’s nomination as Vice Presidential candidate, the entire 1840 campaign, winning the election, being sworn in, William Henry Harrison's brief presidency, and Tyler becoming president himself. The disaster on the USS Princeton, perhaps the most dramatic and devastating moment of Tyler’s presidency, is described in a disappointingly perfunctory way, in just a couple of paragraphs. And Tyler’s triumphant national tour in 1843, where the public’s enthusiastic response served as a great contrast to the way Tyler was treated in Washington, is mentioned a couple of times in passing but isn’t described in any detail. Perhaps Leahy thought these events were already well-covered elsewhere, but they’re important enough in Tyler’s life to deserve more space in a book that’s otherwise a definitive biography.
Leahy is also somewhat fond of apocryphal stories - many of them he introduces with some skepticism, saying they probably didn’t happen, but it makes one wonder why he includes them at all then. Other stories he doesn’t seem to question. There’s little documented evidence of the precise moment when Tyler was informed that Harrison had died, so previous Tyler biographer Oliver Chitwood in his 1939 book invents a scene where Tyler “may have been sleeping” and “if such was the case, he was rudely awakened by some loud knocks on his front door.” Leahy describes a scene in which Tyler “awoke to sharp knocks on the front door… jumped out of bed and hurried down the stairs” - and his sole footnoted source for these details is Chitwood, whose source appeared to have been his imagination.
It’s also a minor irritation of mine when footnotes or endnotes only appear at the end of paragraphs, to cite sources used earlier in that paragraph, instead of placing the note within the paragraph exactly where the citation is. So when Leahy provocatively ended one paragraph by saying local historians in Virginia seeking to determine whether Tyler had fathered children with slaves have “yielded fairly convincing evidence that he did” - followed by an endnote - I eagerly flipped to the back of the book to see what more he had to say about this evidence, only to find that the endnote referred to an unrelated quotation earlier in the paragraph and the “convincing evidence” is disappointingly never cited or expanded upon at all.
There’s also a lot of “perhaps” and “possibly” and “may have” sprinkled throughout the book, to fill gaps in what we simply don’t know. But I was inclined to give Leahy a pass on that, since most of his suppositions are plausible and serve to add to, rather than subtract from, the story.
Don’t miss the extremely thorough “Note on Sources” at the end of the book, for a detailed discussion about nearly everything else ever written about Tyler or his times. The epilogue, titled “History’s Judgment,” is also strong, though it focuses more on the judgment of Tyler’s entire life and career and not his presidency. His life and career are forever colored by his late-in-life decision to advocate for secession and serve in the Confederate Congress. But what are we to make of his presidency? Buchanan, Pierce, Andrew Johnson and now Trump are deservedly at the bottom of the most recent poll of presidential greatness, but Tyler is right down there with them. Do we judge him harshly because of his post-presidency, because his position on expansionism vs. expanding slavery is misunderstood, because his status as a president without a party prevented him from getting much done, or because he was really that bad of a president?
A theme throughout Leahy’s book is how good timing often played an important part in Tyler’s political career. But ultimately it was bad timing that got him in the end. My takeaway was that Tyler was a southern slaveholder states’-rights president like so many before him, and that didn’t prevent his predecessors from being successful. But Tyler was a southern slaveholder states’-rights president during a time of growing antislavery sentiment, which was not good timing at all. A generation earlier, he could have been a James Monroe. Instead, he became a Confederate.
Leahy concludes that Tyler “died too late” - if he had departed the scene before Lincoln’s election to the presidency, he would not be remembered today as a traitor to his country, and history might actually have been kinder to him and his presidency. Tyler’s story is not necessarily uplifting, but it’s an important one during a noteworthy time in our country’s history - and Leahy tells it about as brilliantly as it can be told.
Christopher Leahy has written a detailed, balanced, readable, thorough and thoughtful account of Tyler’s life and presidency that far surpasses any Tyler biography that has come before. Paying particular attention to Tyler’s upbringing, his early political career and his personal life, in addition to his presidency and political philosophy, Leahy paints a well-rounded portrait of a man too often dismissed and forgotten as a failed president who died a traitor to the country he once led. The book is not meant to rehabilitate his reputation, but to help us understand who Tyler was, what he did and why.
The book ably tracks Tyler’s rise to political prominence in post-Revolutionary Virginia and his father's strong influence on his career, values, beliefs and Jeffersonianism - it’s a nice change of pace to see a future president who actually had a good and healthy relationship with his father in this way. In fact, the book is strong in its discussion of all of Tyler’s relationships, with his two wives and all of his children, which helps you get to know Tyler as a person and not just a politician.
As the birth-to-death narrative progresses, Leahy pauses at times for a closer examination of Tyler’s actions and motivations instead of merely plunging ahead to the next event. He deftly describes Tyler’s ideology, but also his penchant for sometimes acting contrary to that ideology - like his political progenitor Thomas Jefferson, Tyler could be flexible when it proved necessary or expedient.
In Tyler’s case, though, this flexibility could come across as waffling and contribute to a reputation for indecision and vacillation, which could lead to undue delay and deliberation when it came time to act. Tyler struggled to occupy a middle ground, straddling both the Democratic and Whig parties while fitting into neither, as he tried to reconcile his ideology with what needed to be done. All of this, of course, climaxed with his becoming a president without a party, shunned by both sides.
Leahy is particularly strong when analyzing Tyler’s ideology and actions when it came to the issue of slavery. Tyler’s desire to annex Texas, and the ensuing debate over expanding the country’s slave territory, is often considered one of the initial sparks that lit the fuse that ultimately led to the Civil War. But Leahy perceptively considers the nuances and differences between being pro-slavery and pro-expansion, which, while linked, weren’t quite the same thing, particularly in Tyler’s case. Like many Virginia slaveholders, Tyler considered slavery a “necessary evil” but hoped for its eventual extinction. While he failed to do much of anything to actually bring about its extinction, he drew the line at expanding it. So while there is much to dislike about Tyler’s views on slavery, Leahy does effectively dispute the shorthanded notion that Tyler’s aim in acquiring Texas was to defend and expand the institution of slavery for the good of the South, as opposed to expanding the country’s territory for the good of everyone.
Tyler’s failure was in allowing his Secretary of State John Calhoun to define the annexation of Texas as a pro-slavery endeavor, thereby tarnishing the achievement for posterity - just as Tyler’s ultimate failure in joining the Confederacy before his death overshadowed any achievements he could claim as president. When painted with a broad brush, some bad decisions on Tyler’s part sullied his entire life and presidency in the eyes of history.
While Leahy’s analysis is superb and his storytelling is compelling, I did find it curious that he sometimes skims over key events in Tyler’s life and presidency. A mere one and a half pages spans Tyler’s nomination as Vice Presidential candidate, the entire 1840 campaign, winning the election, being sworn in, William Henry Harrison's brief presidency, and Tyler becoming president himself. The disaster on the USS Princeton, perhaps the most dramatic and devastating moment of Tyler’s presidency, is described in a disappointingly perfunctory way, in just a couple of paragraphs. And Tyler’s triumphant national tour in 1843, where the public’s enthusiastic response served as a great contrast to the way Tyler was treated in Washington, is mentioned a couple of times in passing but isn’t described in any detail. Perhaps Leahy thought these events were already well-covered elsewhere, but they’re important enough in Tyler’s life to deserve more space in a book that’s otherwise a definitive biography.
Leahy is also somewhat fond of apocryphal stories - many of them he introduces with some skepticism, saying they probably didn’t happen, but it makes one wonder why he includes them at all then. Other stories he doesn’t seem to question. There’s little documented evidence of the precise moment when Tyler was informed that Harrison had died, so previous Tyler biographer Oliver Chitwood in his 1939 book invents a scene where Tyler “may have been sleeping” and “if such was the case, he was rudely awakened by some loud knocks on his front door.” Leahy describes a scene in which Tyler “awoke to sharp knocks on the front door… jumped out of bed and hurried down the stairs” - and his sole footnoted source for these details is Chitwood, whose source appeared to have been his imagination.
It’s also a minor irritation of mine when footnotes or endnotes only appear at the end of paragraphs, to cite sources used earlier in that paragraph, instead of placing the note within the paragraph exactly where the citation is. So when Leahy provocatively ended one paragraph by saying local historians in Virginia seeking to determine whether Tyler had fathered children with slaves have “yielded fairly convincing evidence that he did” - followed by an endnote - I eagerly flipped to the back of the book to see what more he had to say about this evidence, only to find that the endnote referred to an unrelated quotation earlier in the paragraph and the “convincing evidence” is disappointingly never cited or expanded upon at all.
There’s also a lot of “perhaps” and “possibly” and “may have” sprinkled throughout the book, to fill gaps in what we simply don’t know. But I was inclined to give Leahy a pass on that, since most of his suppositions are plausible and serve to add to, rather than subtract from, the story.
Don’t miss the extremely thorough “Note on Sources” at the end of the book, for a detailed discussion about nearly everything else ever written about Tyler or his times. The epilogue, titled “History’s Judgment,” is also strong, though it focuses more on the judgment of Tyler’s entire life and career and not his presidency. His life and career are forever colored by his late-in-life decision to advocate for secession and serve in the Confederate Congress. But what are we to make of his presidency? Buchanan, Pierce, Andrew Johnson and now Trump are deservedly at the bottom of the most recent poll of presidential greatness, but Tyler is right down there with them. Do we judge him harshly because of his post-presidency, because his position on expansionism vs. expanding slavery is misunderstood, because his status as a president without a party prevented him from getting much done, or because he was really that bad of a president?
A theme throughout Leahy’s book is how good timing often played an important part in Tyler’s political career. But ultimately it was bad timing that got him in the end. My takeaway was that Tyler was a southern slaveholder states’-rights president like so many before him, and that didn’t prevent his predecessors from being successful. But Tyler was a southern slaveholder states’-rights president during a time of growing antislavery sentiment, which was not good timing at all. A generation earlier, he could have been a James Monroe. Instead, he became a Confederate.
Leahy concludes that Tyler “died too late” - if he had departed the scene before Lincoln’s election to the presidency, he would not be remembered today as a traitor to his country, and history might actually have been kinder to him and his presidency. Tyler’s story is not necessarily uplifting, but it’s an important one during a noteworthy time in our country’s history - and Leahy tells it about as brilliantly as it can be told.
December 9, 2020
Given the tumultuous life and presidency of John Tyler, I’m amazed there aren’t more books about him. Leahy’s work is in fact the first full-scale bio in half a century. Consider the following:
Tyler was the first Vice President to take over after the death of a POTUS. It was an actual Constitutional crisis; Tyler took the title and office, but not everyone was happy about that.
He was kicked out of his own political party and wasn’t accepted into the other party. As the title of the book notes, this president truly had no formal political affiliation and wasn’t even nominated to run after his “accidental” term.
He was the only ex-president to openly support the Confederacy, making the former POTUS a traitor to his nation. He was even elected to the Confederate government, but died before he could take his seat.
He had 8 kids with his first wife and 7 kids with his second (much younger) wife, the last being born when he was 70(!). His 15 children make for the most of any president in history, and he even has two grandsons alive TODAY. It’s not much more than a fun fact, of course, but it’s incredibly interesting.
Thankfully, professor Christopher Leahy has given us the complete story in spectacular fashion. His approachable and remarkably engaging writing shows the full picture of the man. While the narrative understandably leans towards criticism, there’s more to it than just the traitorous ending. As with every person who ends up the wrong side of history, seeing the context of their lives makes for a clearer window into the past and provides a greater appreciation for the complexity of humanity.
President Without a Party is, without a doubt, the new go-to biography of John Tyler, and well worth reading for any history buff. I wish it was getting more attention.
Tyler was the first Vice President to take over after the death of a POTUS. It was an actual Constitutional crisis; Tyler took the title and office, but not everyone was happy about that.
He was kicked out of his own political party and wasn’t accepted into the other party. As the title of the book notes, this president truly had no formal political affiliation and wasn’t even nominated to run after his “accidental” term.
He was the only ex-president to openly support the Confederacy, making the former POTUS a traitor to his nation. He was even elected to the Confederate government, but died before he could take his seat.
He had 8 kids with his first wife and 7 kids with his second (much younger) wife, the last being born when he was 70(!). His 15 children make for the most of any president in history, and he even has two grandsons alive TODAY. It’s not much more than a fun fact, of course, but it’s incredibly interesting.
Thankfully, professor Christopher Leahy has given us the complete story in spectacular fashion. His approachable and remarkably engaging writing shows the full picture of the man. While the narrative understandably leans towards criticism, there’s more to it than just the traitorous ending. As with every person who ends up the wrong side of history, seeing the context of their lives makes for a clearer window into the past and provides a greater appreciation for the complexity of humanity.
President Without a Party is, without a doubt, the new go-to biography of John Tyler, and well worth reading for any history buff. I wish it was getting more attention.
June 1, 2020
4.5 stars: Really great coverage of the topic, interesting read. Would recommend to people interested in the topic and time period. But not a book I would recommend to a general interest book club.
This book was a fair and well researched biography of America's tenth president. I was interested in reading a Tyler biography after completing Robert Remini's biography of Henry Clay which left me with the impression that Tyler's presidency was more interesting than I previously thought. After doing some research into Tyler biographies I was initially disappointed by the options. They tended to be short or laudatory, and I was searching for a detailed and fair assessment. I was happy to learn that there was a new (in 2020) biography available, so thought I would give this one a chance.
In general the text flowed well, and the writing was easy to read. It covered Tyler's life in sufficient detail to keep me interested, while also avoiding getting bogged down in minutiae. Leahy gives historical context, and I appreciated his explanations of antebellum issues in 21st century language. Tyler was a Southerner, a states rights advocate, slave owner, and ultimately renounced the Union and was elected to the Confederate Congress. Leahy covers these parts of the story in a fair manner. He doesn't overlook the appalling nature of these actions, and he does not take the white sources detailing the life of Tyler's slaves at face value. He also avoids condemning Tyler unfairly, as if Tyler should have had 21st century values in the mid-19th century.
Roughly half of the book is devoted to Tyler's presidency. He successfully asserted himself as being fully the President of the United States after Harrison's death, defeating factions wishing to declare Tyler merely Acting President. The rancorous issue of the Bank of the United States largely determined the course of Tyler's domestic policy. Tyler vetoed the Whig bank bills and this action led to his ejection from the Whig party, leaving him with no Congressional base, and largely powerless on domestic issues. This fight over the bank also resulted in serious political damage to Henry Clay, who ended up resigning his Senate seat thereafter. Tyler's most important accomplishment, the annexation of Texas, later upended Henry Clay's and Martin Van Buren's presidential prospects.
Tyler was a man of principles and not compromise, and that made it hard for him to fit in ideologically with any party. He took his principles seriously, and I thought that admirable on some level. For example, early in his career he stated that a Senator must vote the way his state's legislature directs. When Tyler was instructed to expunge Andrew Jackson's censure, Tyler chose to resign since he could not in good conscience vote as instructed.
While Tyler stuck to his principles, he also was a politician of ambition, and not a politician of purpose. I felt like Tyler wanted the presidency more to fulfill his ambition, and less because there was something he wanted to do with presidential power. He unsuccessfully tried to strike a middle ground between Whigs and Democrats to create a third party that would elect him. But Tyler never really had an issue or purpose that could draw in support.
There were a few things I think this biography could have done better. There was really no explanation of who the Locofocos were, although the term came up several times. Fortunately I have read enough about the time period that I had the necessary background. I also would have appreciated a little more information about the end of Julia Gardiner's life and the life of her children. It's an interesting fact that Tyler has grandchildren still alive in 2020.
Overall the book was a great read. I'd recommend it to anybody interested in American history, and especially someone interested in the history of the National Bank and the "Jacksonian" and antebellum time periods.
This book was a fair and well researched biography of America's tenth president. I was interested in reading a Tyler biography after completing Robert Remini's biography of Henry Clay which left me with the impression that Tyler's presidency was more interesting than I previously thought. After doing some research into Tyler biographies I was initially disappointed by the options. They tended to be short or laudatory, and I was searching for a detailed and fair assessment. I was happy to learn that there was a new (in 2020) biography available, so thought I would give this one a chance.
In general the text flowed well, and the writing was easy to read. It covered Tyler's life in sufficient detail to keep me interested, while also avoiding getting bogged down in minutiae. Leahy gives historical context, and I appreciated his explanations of antebellum issues in 21st century language. Tyler was a Southerner, a states rights advocate, slave owner, and ultimately renounced the Union and was elected to the Confederate Congress. Leahy covers these parts of the story in a fair manner. He doesn't overlook the appalling nature of these actions, and he does not take the white sources detailing the life of Tyler's slaves at face value. He also avoids condemning Tyler unfairly, as if Tyler should have had 21st century values in the mid-19th century.
Roughly half of the book is devoted to Tyler's presidency. He successfully asserted himself as being fully the President of the United States after Harrison's death, defeating factions wishing to declare Tyler merely Acting President. The rancorous issue of the Bank of the United States largely determined the course of Tyler's domestic policy. Tyler vetoed the Whig bank bills and this action led to his ejection from the Whig party, leaving him with no Congressional base, and largely powerless on domestic issues. This fight over the bank also resulted in serious political damage to Henry Clay, who ended up resigning his Senate seat thereafter. Tyler's most important accomplishment, the annexation of Texas, later upended Henry Clay's and Martin Van Buren's presidential prospects.
Tyler was a man of principles and not compromise, and that made it hard for him to fit in ideologically with any party. He took his principles seriously, and I thought that admirable on some level. For example, early in his career he stated that a Senator must vote the way his state's legislature directs. When Tyler was instructed to expunge Andrew Jackson's censure, Tyler chose to resign since he could not in good conscience vote as instructed.
While Tyler stuck to his principles, he also was a politician of ambition, and not a politician of purpose. I felt like Tyler wanted the presidency more to fulfill his ambition, and less because there was something he wanted to do with presidential power. He unsuccessfully tried to strike a middle ground between Whigs and Democrats to create a third party that would elect him. But Tyler never really had an issue or purpose that could draw in support.
There were a few things I think this biography could have done better. There was really no explanation of who the Locofocos were, although the term came up several times. Fortunately I have read enough about the time period that I had the necessary background. I also would have appreciated a little more information about the end of Julia Gardiner's life and the life of her children. It's an interesting fact that Tyler has grandchildren still alive in 2020.
Overall the book was a great read. I'd recommend it to anybody interested in American history, and especially someone interested in the history of the National Bank and the "Jacksonian" and antebellum time periods.
June 12, 2024
Oh brother this guy stinks!
Fun facts I didn’t know: J.T. married his second wife when he was 52 and she was 22. He had his 15th child at the age of 70. He is the only president to renounce his oath to the Union, which he did about a year before his death, joining the Confederacy.
Fun facts I didn’t know: J.T. married his second wife when he was 52 and she was 22. He had his 15th child at the age of 70. He is the only president to renounce his oath to the Union, which he did about a year before his death, joining the Confederacy.
July 8, 2025
Well written, but one of the least interesting presidents to read about.
May 22, 2020
I was really not excited to get into the antebellum period after Jackson in my reading of Presidential Bios where they were mostly one termers that were pretty unsuccessful in a historic context. Along with the lack in good presidential...content... a lot of these presidents had a handful of books, mostly written in the early 20th century, and after reading "Old Tippecanoe" I wasn't especially excited for a dusty John Tyler tome.
When researching what book to get for John Tyler, I saw this one for preorder, so I put my order in and waited. I think it was worth it.
This book is a serious breath of fresh air, really looking at John Tyler as both a politician and a man, something I really enjoy in my bios. Along with this survey of his public and personal lives it was written in a way that takes historical context into view and really has a clear thesis regarding how John Tyler's legacy was viewed during his lifetime, shortly after his death in the CSA, and in the 21st century today.
John Tyler was a president I had never really considered before but after reading this book, I think think that he is a worthy person to study and that if he hadn't poisoned his own legacy by joining the CSA maybe we would have seen him different today.
When researching what book to get for John Tyler, I saw this one for preorder, so I put my order in and waited. I think it was worth it.
This book is a serious breath of fresh air, really looking at John Tyler as both a politician and a man, something I really enjoy in my bios. Along with this survey of his public and personal lives it was written in a way that takes historical context into view and really has a clear thesis regarding how John Tyler's legacy was viewed during his lifetime, shortly after his death in the CSA, and in the 21st century today.
John Tyler was a president I had never really considered before but after reading this book, I think think that he is a worthy person to study and that if he hadn't poisoned his own legacy by joining the CSA maybe we would have seen him different today.
July 28, 2022
Operation Read Every President's Biography #10
The first President never elected, the first President to get kicked out of his own part, and the only President to ever renounce American citizenship, John Tyler ("Ol' Shitass") routinely ranks among the dregs of those who have occupied the White House, and with good reason. Leahy's book, while hardly intending to resuscitate Tyler's reputation, does offer some more nuance and reasoning behind his perennial shittiness.
This is a fine biography, balancing Tyler's horrendous political career, which from the very beginning was defined by an eerily familiar almost-Taliban like adherence to the Constitution, a disdain for abolitionist sentiment, and an ad hoc approach to politics and politicking, with his bizarre family life.
On the first bit, Tyler's political career, Leahy digs in deep but without ever getting tedious. Tyler was a consummate political opportunist but also ideologically stale and rigid, a holdover from his politician father. Tyler's early career was that of a fickle, uneven partisan, but despite his conservative bent, he never quite fell into step with the Jacksonian Democrats. After falling out with the Democratic party, he entered into a marriage of convenience (maybe a whoring out to might be more apt...) with the nascent Whig Party, whose tenets he could hardly embrace with his strict, old-school Constitutional constipationalism. That is the main point about Tyler and his failures: he was a "man of principles", aware that these principles were insufficient, but too stupid to know what to do instead. He lived his political life by the flawed idea that letting ideology guide political practice would make things right in the end, which, of course, it can't.
Once "His Accidency" succeeded Harrison (many wouldn't even address Tyler as President! Or accept his succession!) shit went south. Place a fool on a throne and you get what you get.
His tenure as Prez was consumed by political infighting, especially his duel with Clay over the National Bank amidst a depression and his own party, the Whigs, swiftly abandoning him and even denouncing him as a member. His unwavering support of slavery and his (very familiar) mantra of states-rights trumping pretty much fucking anything, including morality, secured him a spot among the worst of the worse, and his tenure, and eventually his post-Presidential political career was tarred by his defense of slavery and the South. The only real thing of note he accomplished, and this is dubious at best, was the annexation of Texas, but his approach and open sympathy with the slave South meant this only exacerbated sectional tensions.
A one-term sad sack, Tyler "retired" from politics but ended up support secession and the South, to the point of actively participating in the Confederate government, if briefly, and loaned his slaves to the Confederate army, effectively renouncing his citizenship to the USA and rightly branded as a traitor for posterity.
On the biographical side, Leahy gives a lot more personal detail than a lot of these biographies do, which is nice because it humanizes these terrible people somewhat. Tyler was married twice and had 47 children. I kid, he had 15 children from his two wives. He basically killed his first wife due to the sheer number of pregnancies, and fathered children with his second wife into his 60s, no mean accomplishment. His first family he basically had little time for, but his second wife--30 years his junior--he was devoted to and after leaving the White House he became quite the jolly family man. It's nice to get a peek at this kind of life since family lives in this period are often obscured.
Anyway, all around a fine work if you're interested in a crappy President!
The first President never elected, the first President to get kicked out of his own part, and the only President to ever renounce American citizenship, John Tyler ("Ol' Shitass") routinely ranks among the dregs of those who have occupied the White House, and with good reason. Leahy's book, while hardly intending to resuscitate Tyler's reputation, does offer some more nuance and reasoning behind his perennial shittiness.
This is a fine biography, balancing Tyler's horrendous political career, which from the very beginning was defined by an eerily familiar almost-Taliban like adherence to the Constitution, a disdain for abolitionist sentiment, and an ad hoc approach to politics and politicking, with his bizarre family life.
On the first bit, Tyler's political career, Leahy digs in deep but without ever getting tedious. Tyler was a consummate political opportunist but also ideologically stale and rigid, a holdover from his politician father. Tyler's early career was that of a fickle, uneven partisan, but despite his conservative bent, he never quite fell into step with the Jacksonian Democrats. After falling out with the Democratic party, he entered into a marriage of convenience (maybe a whoring out to might be more apt...) with the nascent Whig Party, whose tenets he could hardly embrace with his strict, old-school Constitutional constipationalism. That is the main point about Tyler and his failures: he was a "man of principles", aware that these principles were insufficient, but too stupid to know what to do instead. He lived his political life by the flawed idea that letting ideology guide political practice would make things right in the end, which, of course, it can't.
Once "His Accidency" succeeded Harrison (many wouldn't even address Tyler as President! Or accept his succession!) shit went south. Place a fool on a throne and you get what you get.
His tenure as Prez was consumed by political infighting, especially his duel with Clay over the National Bank amidst a depression and his own party, the Whigs, swiftly abandoning him and even denouncing him as a member. His unwavering support of slavery and his (very familiar) mantra of states-rights trumping pretty much fucking anything, including morality, secured him a spot among the worst of the worse, and his tenure, and eventually his post-Presidential political career was tarred by his defense of slavery and the South. The only real thing of note he accomplished, and this is dubious at best, was the annexation of Texas, but his approach and open sympathy with the slave South meant this only exacerbated sectional tensions.
A one-term sad sack, Tyler "retired" from politics but ended up support secession and the South, to the point of actively participating in the Confederate government, if briefly, and loaned his slaves to the Confederate army, effectively renouncing his citizenship to the USA and rightly branded as a traitor for posterity.
On the biographical side, Leahy gives a lot more personal detail than a lot of these biographies do, which is nice because it humanizes these terrible people somewhat. Tyler was married twice and had 47 children. I kid, he had 15 children from his two wives. He basically killed his first wife due to the sheer number of pregnancies, and fathered children with his second wife into his 60s, no mean accomplishment. His first family he basically had little time for, but his second wife--30 years his junior--he was devoted to and after leaving the White House he became quite the jolly family man. It's nice to get a peek at this kind of life since family lives in this period are often obscured.
Anyway, all around a fine work if you're interested in a crappy President!
June 4, 2025
The number of pages suggests this would be a slog similar to a McCullough biography. I was pleasantly surprised though how the author mixed excerpts from Tyler's letters, narration of the events of the 1800s, and their own interpretations of his behavior. By the end I felt I now completely understood Tyler as a person.
He was brought up in the antebellum south obsessed with social status and "honor". His father, a Judge, closely managed his career and taught him to idolize Jefferson. That particular ideology made him a terrible pick for the Whigs, a new party founded as an antidote response to Jackson and Van Buren. On the surface he opposed Jackson. He found Jackson's heavy-handed response to South Carolina's nullification crisis (South Carolina is extremely problematic in the 1800s, they were also the first state to secede) and use of the executive veto as going against his strong states rights principles. Those same principles mean when he becomes president after Old Tippencanoe's death he is suddenly the only thing standing in the way of large, federally-funded, internal improvements and most notably a central bank (suddenly that veto doesn't feel so gross to him).
There are three details that stuck with me from his presidency.
The first is that bank bill. The nation was reeling from an economic crash in Van Buren's term in 1837 (a crash that killed his re-election chances). That crash couldn't be managed in part because Andrew Jackson's had vetoed the rechartering of what had been the second bank of the United States five years prior. The Whigs were looking to replace that central function. Tyler, wary of expanding the power of the federal government, was not going to help them. But realizing that defeating any attempt at making the state of the nation better would kill his future political ambitions (he wanted to win the presidency as the first choice on the ticket) he began to think of what bank bill he might accept.
I think this moment is fascinating. Tyler begins communicating to lawmakers about what he wants to see in the bill. He is equally exact, but careful to not APPEAR as if he is dictating legislature. In all the biographies I've read so far this appears to be the first instance that a president is obsessed with the exact political narrative of his presidency. I think this obsession might just last through the presidents I was alive for. I think it ENDS in Donald Trump's presidency and his use of Twitter (or Truth Social) to pierce the veil of presidential intentions.
The second moment begins on the Potomac on February 28, 1844 aboard the newly sailing USS Princeton. The crew is showing off their 27,000 pound gun. They fire it twice to the delight of guests, including John Tyler. They decide to do one more encore performance and fire it a third time. And the moment is utter chaos. The gun explodes sending metal shrapnel across the ship's deck. Six people are killed instantly. Secretary of State Abel Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer, US Navy Bureau of Construction and Repair Head Beverly Kennon, Virgil Maxcy (distinguished attorney), John Tyler's valet (enslaved) Armistead, and David Gardiner, the father of John Tyler's future wife Julia. In that moment, the United States came its closest to further stressing its designated line of succession. John Tyler never bothered selecting his own vice president. It would have fallen to "senate president pro-tempore" Willie Mangum.
The third is the fact that John Tyler likely dies of mercury poisoning. His young new wife Julia Gardiner Tyler is in love with the quack medical industry of the time. He is fed "blue-pill" after pill of trace amounts of mercury to deal with every ailment. I consider this karma for signing up so quickly to the new confederacy's congress (unique amongst presidents, when civil war breaks out he chooses to be a traitor to the union).
He was brought up in the antebellum south obsessed with social status and "honor". His father, a Judge, closely managed his career and taught him to idolize Jefferson. That particular ideology made him a terrible pick for the Whigs, a new party founded as an antidote response to Jackson and Van Buren. On the surface he opposed Jackson. He found Jackson's heavy-handed response to South Carolina's nullification crisis (South Carolina is extremely problematic in the 1800s, they were also the first state to secede) and use of the executive veto as going against his strong states rights principles. Those same principles mean when he becomes president after Old Tippencanoe's death he is suddenly the only thing standing in the way of large, federally-funded, internal improvements and most notably a central bank (suddenly that veto doesn't feel so gross to him).
There are three details that stuck with me from his presidency.
The first is that bank bill. The nation was reeling from an economic crash in Van Buren's term in 1837 (a crash that killed his re-election chances). That crash couldn't be managed in part because Andrew Jackson's had vetoed the rechartering of what had been the second bank of the United States five years prior. The Whigs were looking to replace that central function. Tyler, wary of expanding the power of the federal government, was not going to help them. But realizing that defeating any attempt at making the state of the nation better would kill his future political ambitions (he wanted to win the presidency as the first choice on the ticket) he began to think of what bank bill he might accept.
I think this moment is fascinating. Tyler begins communicating to lawmakers about what he wants to see in the bill. He is equally exact, but careful to not APPEAR as if he is dictating legislature. In all the biographies I've read so far this appears to be the first instance that a president is obsessed with the exact political narrative of his presidency. I think this obsession might just last through the presidents I was alive for. I think it ENDS in Donald Trump's presidency and his use of Twitter (or Truth Social) to pierce the veil of presidential intentions.
The second moment begins on the Potomac on February 28, 1844 aboard the newly sailing USS Princeton. The crew is showing off their 27,000 pound gun. They fire it twice to the delight of guests, including John Tyler. They decide to do one more encore performance and fire it a third time. And the moment is utter chaos. The gun explodes sending metal shrapnel across the ship's deck. Six people are killed instantly. Secretary of State Abel Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer, US Navy Bureau of Construction and Repair Head Beverly Kennon, Virgil Maxcy (distinguished attorney), John Tyler's valet (enslaved) Armistead, and David Gardiner, the father of John Tyler's future wife Julia. In that moment, the United States came its closest to further stressing its designated line of succession. John Tyler never bothered selecting his own vice president. It would have fallen to "senate president pro-tempore" Willie Mangum.
The third is the fact that John Tyler likely dies of mercury poisoning. His young new wife Julia Gardiner Tyler is in love with the quack medical industry of the time. He is fed "blue-pill" after pill of trace amounts of mercury to deal with every ailment. I consider this karma for signing up so quickly to the new confederacy's congress (unique amongst presidents, when civil war breaks out he chooses to be a traitor to the union).
April 24, 2024
I was actually excited to read this book because I had heard good things about the writing in it and it is always fun to read about someone that everyone actually just hates lol. It did not disappoint. Leahy’s writing is really good and I thoroughly enjoyed this book and how he structured it. A full scale biography of the “Accidental President” seems like something that can’t be done well, but he defied the odds. For readability, I give this book an 8.5/10. I understood all the writing in it and I think Leahy’s writing was very fluent and not only gave me a look into Tyler’s life, but this era of American history. For depth, I think this book does a great job of covering everything you would want to know about Tyler. It spends a ton of time on his presidency which I think is important to do so I enjoyed how in depth he went. It gave me a decent idea of how he grew up and what he did after his term was finished, and that is all I can ask for, so I’ll give a 8.5/10. For engagement, I thought Leahy first an excellent job keeping the book as interesting as possible for someone this mediocre, and I really respect that, but, Tyler still had a boring presidency so not top tier engagement, so I give a 7.75/10. This book is really good and I am glad I got to read this even if the subject was meh, Overall Rating: 8/10. Now for Tyler, these ratings will help significantly different. He was a bum no doubt about it. He was a staunch states’ rights supporter but flipped flopped all over the place. He was addicted to politics and neglected his family, resulting in his first wife’s death. He sucked as a president and never should have been one in the first place (RIP W.H.H). For accomplishments, I can’t give him really anything because he didn’t do anything. I guess he was governor of Virginia which was cool, and was elected VP, and senator and all that, but in office he really just fought clay all the time and failed to get any of his agenda across, 3/10. For “Great Scale,” he was not great at all. He was a slaver owner, he ignored his family and didn’t give much attention to his kids because he was all in on politics, but he kept pumping them out forcing his wives to deal with them. In office, he couldn’t get anything done and was constantly in battle with someone. He was a traitor of the United States at the end of his life and just was not great in any aspects of his life, except maybe sticking to his principles, which I can always respect, so 1.5/10. Overall he wasn’t that bad of a guy and he was much better with his family towards the end of his life, but just a was too invested in politics, and he still sucked at it. And he didn’t even get elected president, so that doesn’t help.
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May 4, 2024Leahy has composed a compelling narrative of the ninth US President, John Tyler. Having noticed his looming presence in my prior reading, I appreciated revisiting these events from Tyler’s perspective, given how he struggled to fit neatly into one political party throughout his life (a bit like John Quincy Adams).
The author is astute in his observation that Tyler had the political misfortune of living long enough to witness his home state of Virginia secede from the Union at the beginning of the Civil War. While this fact certainly stung more in subsequent years, it has probably played a role in solidifying the man’s obscurity and perceived mediocrity among US Presidents.
Nonetheless, I have learned to appreciate what can be gleaned from these ‘lesser’ figures, and Leahy’s effort here is admirable. Tyler’s long career has plenty to look at for history enjoyers, and his Presidency is fascinating given the unpredecented circumstances.
The author is astute in his observation that Tyler had the political misfortune of living long enough to witness his home state of Virginia secede from the Union at the beginning of the Civil War. While this fact certainly stung more in subsequent years, it has probably played a role in solidifying the man’s obscurity and perceived mediocrity among US Presidents.
Nonetheless, I have learned to appreciate what can be gleaned from these ‘lesser’ figures, and Leahy’s effort here is admirable. Tyler’s long career has plenty to look at for history enjoyers, and his Presidency is fascinating given the unpredecented circumstances.
January 3, 2021
This is the second Tyler biography I have read this year. The other was Gary May’s, Tyler bio from the American Presidents Series. It was intriguing enough for me to take a deeper dive which led me to Christopher J. Leahy’s most recent entry. Tyler is widely judged as one of the worst presidents in history, well at least until the scholarly bios are written on the current resident of the White House.
Leahy provides a remarkably balanced assessment of the life and legacy Tyler who, in the weeks before the Civil War, publicly betrayed the Union and joined the Confederacy. The book provides both social and political context to understand Tyler and his times. Leahy often goes deeper into Tyler’s thought. The book is both a political biography, and a detailed summary of Tyler’ personal and family life. Tyler fathered fifteen children, eight by his first wife and seven by his second. He owned and sold slaves and defended the institution at every chance. His passion was politics and was generally not involved with the children from his first wife. Although he coveted a second term, but that was never going to happen.
As commendable as this biography is, it does exhibit a few shortcomings. While coverage of Tyler’s pre-presidency consumes 1/3rd of the book it gives surprising little attention to Tyler’s early life and career, his marriage to Letitia, his nomination as the Whig Party VP candidate, the 1840 campaign, and the presidential election of 1844.
Overall, Christopher Leahy’s biography of John Tyler is a quite good and remarkably interesting of a man so widely regarded as a failed president. As another review said: “This is not only the best biography of John Tyler I’ve ever read, but it may well be the best biography of John Tyler which can be written.”
Leahy provides a remarkably balanced assessment of the life and legacy Tyler who, in the weeks before the Civil War, publicly betrayed the Union and joined the Confederacy. The book provides both social and political context to understand Tyler and his times. Leahy often goes deeper into Tyler’s thought. The book is both a political biography, and a detailed summary of Tyler’ personal and family life. Tyler fathered fifteen children, eight by his first wife and seven by his second. He owned and sold slaves and defended the institution at every chance. His passion was politics and was generally not involved with the children from his first wife. Although he coveted a second term, but that was never going to happen.
As commendable as this biography is, it does exhibit a few shortcomings. While coverage of Tyler’s pre-presidency consumes 1/3rd of the book it gives surprising little attention to Tyler’s early life and career, his marriage to Letitia, his nomination as the Whig Party VP candidate, the 1840 campaign, and the presidential election of 1844.
Overall, Christopher Leahy’s biography of John Tyler is a quite good and remarkably interesting of a man so widely regarded as a failed president. As another review said: “This is not only the best biography of John Tyler I’ve ever read, but it may well be the best biography of John Tyler which can be written.”
November 17, 2025
I respect John Tyler a tiny bit more than I did before I read this. He was still a bad president, and history (properly) judges him for being on the wrong side of history, but he did believe in what he was doing, and he did do a few things in office that are forgotten but could have been crises.
I believed, before this book, that states' rights was a post-facto justification for the South seceding, and I still mostly think that, but there were a few, including Tyler, who were talking about it since Jackson was president. They thought he was too powerful (sound familiar?), and that the federal government overstepped its bounds.
He also believed in the nineteenth century equivalent of the Laffer curve - a theory that if we allowed slavery in new states, slaves from the already-slave states would be sent to those states, diluting the slave population, and then slavery would, you know --evaporate!-- over a couple decades. It's a grand theory for justifying what you want to happen, when you have decided what you want to happen, and then back into whatever "reasoning" you think can sell it.
He did establish a couple of precedents, just by virtue of being the first guy to assume the presidency upon the demise of the sitting president - he insisted, and it has stuck, that he wasn't just acting as president, he was president. And while Tyler and the constitution seem to imply that immediately upon the previous president's death, the veep becomes president, he thought it added some warm fuzzies to take the oath of the office. That, too, has remained.
He handled a possible war with Great Britain well - so well nobody remembers it. But we could have had one over the border between Maine and Canada, and England's belief that as the then cop of the world they could stop any ship in international waters they suspected was transporting slaves.
Still, all in all a guy who made a couple of big, awful choices, including siding with the Confederacy when southern states seceded. Thinking about that in the same moment you think about him making the conscious choice to take the oath of office of the US presidency, and you see a man who puts his ego ahead of principle.
Fascinating book, and well written.
I believed, before this book, that states' rights was a post-facto justification for the South seceding, and I still mostly think that, but there were a few, including Tyler, who were talking about it since Jackson was president. They thought he was too powerful (sound familiar?), and that the federal government overstepped its bounds.
He also believed in the nineteenth century equivalent of the Laffer curve - a theory that if we allowed slavery in new states, slaves from the already-slave states would be sent to those states, diluting the slave population, and then slavery would, you know --evaporate!-- over a couple decades. It's a grand theory for justifying what you want to happen, when you have decided what you want to happen, and then back into whatever "reasoning" you think can sell it.
He did establish a couple of precedents, just by virtue of being the first guy to assume the presidency upon the demise of the sitting president - he insisted, and it has stuck, that he wasn't just acting as president, he was president. And while Tyler and the constitution seem to imply that immediately upon the previous president's death, the veep becomes president, he thought it added some warm fuzzies to take the oath of the office. That, too, has remained.
He handled a possible war with Great Britain well - so well nobody remembers it. But we could have had one over the border between Maine and Canada, and England's belief that as the then cop of the world they could stop any ship in international waters they suspected was transporting slaves.
Still, all in all a guy who made a couple of big, awful choices, including siding with the Confederacy when southern states seceded. Thinking about that in the same moment you think about him making the conscious choice to take the oath of office of the US presidency, and you see a man who puts his ego ahead of principle.
Fascinating book, and well written.
June 14, 2025
I'm on a self-assigned quest to read at least one biography of every US president in order. This is easier for some presidents (Jackson, Washington, Jefferson) who command entire cottage industries of biography and historical research. Others are not so lucky. This is the only substantive Tyler biography outside of the American Presidents series (a fine series that I go back to when I have no other choice), and has the benefit of being quite recent. The scholarship is thorough, and Leahy's research pays off as a comprehensive portrait of a political inflection point.
Five stars for the depth and breadth of his scholarship. One star off because this is bone dry, and it took me longer than usual to get through because it was such an effective sleep aid that for some months I would only progress by one chapter or so because it would knock me out flat within 15-20 minutes. Friends would ask me about the project and then laugh when I would say "I'm stuck on John Tyler" and I stubbornly refused to start on a Polk book to compensate. I would not be defeated by a confederate turncoat. Finally someone else (who???) in my library system made a renewal impossible and I powered through. No president forged against me shall prosper.
Five stars for the depth and breadth of his scholarship. One star off because this is bone dry, and it took me longer than usual to get through because it was such an effective sleep aid that for some months I would only progress by one chapter or so because it would knock me out flat within 15-20 minutes. Friends would ask me about the project and then laugh when I would say "I'm stuck on John Tyler" and I stubbornly refused to start on a Polk book to compensate. I would not be defeated by a confederate turncoat. Finally someone else (who???) in my library system made a renewal impossible and I powered through. No president forged against me shall prosper.
August 31, 2020
An excellent biography of a forgotten president. Very well done.
February 2, 2023
Very interesting biography! Could be dense and slow at times.
October 10, 2021
A waffling president who sought praise and recognition from his constituents but that path ended up leading him to the exact opposite conclusion.
Let me split this review into 3 parts.
1. The book itself;
The author does a great job of explaining his mindset and the times of which he lived. The chapters are in order for the most part and the focuses are narrow in each chapter. This helps as their are multiple things happening at the same time that would confuse the read if it was discussed at the same time. The one negative is that some times the author exaggerates John Tyler's opinions through themselves like "Of course he wanted to run!!" with exclamation points.
The Author does a great job in taking the reader through the early life of Tyler, through congress, semi- retirement, presidency assumption(and related discussion how the VP assumed the presidency), post presidency and last of all his decision to join the CSA. What is the least covered is one of the most famous political campaigns in US history "Tippecanoe and Tyler too". Also, the relationship that William Henry Harrison had with John Tyler. This would of been great insight to know what the relationship was there and where did they see eye to eye.
2. The President Tyler
If George Washington is going to be given praise for being the first president and setting all the precedents that would follow then must John Tyler be given that same praise? There was hardly any detail in the constitution about how the VP would take control of the Presidency in the event of the Presidents death. Tyler does a great job here in being assertive and taking the lead in his cabinet and the country. While his politics may have varied from the Whigs(the Whigs knew this and yet supported him for VP as at the time it was assumed the VP had a small role in government), he tried to work with the Whigs on putting forth different policies. The result of which Tyler ends up being kicked out and banished and now does not have a party of his own. The ensuing years is a battle with himself and everyone else. His policies fail rather good or bad from politics from either the Whigs or the Democrats. In an act of desperation to put a golden star on his presidency he rushes through the annexation of Texas with a majority vote in both houses of congress. In a broad view of his term he would waffle on his views at one point agreeing on a bill and the very next day saying he disagreed. This was in due part because he wanted praise from his constituents and that type of agenda would come back to hurt his legacy overall after his leave of the presidential office.
3. The CSA Tyler
He initially makes a strong stance for the union in the lead up to the civil war. He even helps and backs a constitutional amendment to go back to the Missouri compromise line. Yet again, he waffles on the constitutional amendment he helped create and instead attacks it at a joint secession of states to bring the union back together. Again, going back to seeking praise for others he starts to push for secession from the Union as the momentum grows in VA. Finally when VA does seceded from the union he even runs for and obtains a CSA congress seat.
This does not even touch on the very complicated personal life of Tyler with 2 marriages and 15 children..
I believe if he would of not joined the CSA he would have received higher praise for his presidential career and the precedents he would set that would carry all the way to Lyndon B Johnson's presidency.
In the end, judging only his presidency I would have to rank him a C.
Let me split this review into 3 parts.
1. The book itself;
The author does a great job of explaining his mindset and the times of which he lived. The chapters are in order for the most part and the focuses are narrow in each chapter. This helps as their are multiple things happening at the same time that would confuse the read if it was discussed at the same time. The one negative is that some times the author exaggerates John Tyler's opinions through themselves like "Of course he wanted to run!!" with exclamation points.
The Author does a great job in taking the reader through the early life of Tyler, through congress, semi- retirement, presidency assumption(and related discussion how the VP assumed the presidency), post presidency and last of all his decision to join the CSA. What is the least covered is one of the most famous political campaigns in US history "Tippecanoe and Tyler too". Also, the relationship that William Henry Harrison had with John Tyler. This would of been great insight to know what the relationship was there and where did they see eye to eye.
2. The President Tyler
If George Washington is going to be given praise for being the first president and setting all the precedents that would follow then must John Tyler be given that same praise? There was hardly any detail in the constitution about how the VP would take control of the Presidency in the event of the Presidents death. Tyler does a great job here in being assertive and taking the lead in his cabinet and the country. While his politics may have varied from the Whigs(the Whigs knew this and yet supported him for VP as at the time it was assumed the VP had a small role in government), he tried to work with the Whigs on putting forth different policies. The result of which Tyler ends up being kicked out and banished and now does not have a party of his own. The ensuing years is a battle with himself and everyone else. His policies fail rather good or bad from politics from either the Whigs or the Democrats. In an act of desperation to put a golden star on his presidency he rushes through the annexation of Texas with a majority vote in both houses of congress. In a broad view of his term he would waffle on his views at one point agreeing on a bill and the very next day saying he disagreed. This was in due part because he wanted praise from his constituents and that type of agenda would come back to hurt his legacy overall after his leave of the presidential office.
3. The CSA Tyler
He initially makes a strong stance for the union in the lead up to the civil war. He even helps and backs a constitutional amendment to go back to the Missouri compromise line. Yet again, he waffles on the constitutional amendment he helped create and instead attacks it at a joint secession of states to bring the union back together. Again, going back to seeking praise for others he starts to push for secession from the Union as the momentum grows in VA. Finally when VA does seceded from the union he even runs for and obtains a CSA congress seat.
This does not even touch on the very complicated personal life of Tyler with 2 marriages and 15 children..
I believe if he would of not joined the CSA he would have received higher praise for his presidential career and the precedents he would set that would carry all the way to Lyndon B Johnson's presidency.
In the end, judging only his presidency I would have to rank him a C.
March 3, 2024
This book has great information and showed the actions of John Tyler as both a member of Congress and "accidental president" in a nuanced light. Looking at our present political parties, most people would be delighted to have a more impartial "caretaker" president (hesitant to act) than what is now essentially a one to two term dictator who rules by uniparty objectives, and is more of a figurehead.
The downside of this read is that Tyler's life was essentially humdrum because he was not an activist president like the Roosevelts, Grant, Lincoln, etc. The writing about his rivalry with Clay was the most interesting, and the failure of the Whigs to get a national bank during Tyler's tenure surely influenced who was picked for Vice President in future races. Never again would one be picked with less regard about what would happen if the president were to die in office.
I disagree strongly with the author stating that Tyler was treasonous for siding with the Confederacy when the war began. Lincoln's lack of diplomacy when the initial states seceded and calls for the border states to arm against South Carolina caused more states to secede. Furthermore, at this time period it is natural that a federalist like Tyler would identify and support his state over the general government when no Southerner at the time identified with the sectional Republican Party who had won literally no states in the 1860 presidential election, viewing Lincoln as a tyrant who disregarded states' rights.
The author's viewpoint shows a myopic lack of understanding about how Southerners viewed political authority in this era of history, which is baffling after he clearly did heavy research regarding his subject.
The downside of this read is that Tyler's life was essentially humdrum because he was not an activist president like the Roosevelts, Grant, Lincoln, etc. The writing about his rivalry with Clay was the most interesting, and the failure of the Whigs to get a national bank during Tyler's tenure surely influenced who was picked for Vice President in future races. Never again would one be picked with less regard about what would happen if the president were to die in office.
I disagree strongly with the author stating that Tyler was treasonous for siding with the Confederacy when the war began. Lincoln's lack of diplomacy when the initial states seceded and calls for the border states to arm against South Carolina caused more states to secede. Furthermore, at this time period it is natural that a federalist like Tyler would identify and support his state over the general government when no Southerner at the time identified with the sectional Republican Party who had won literally no states in the 1860 presidential election, viewing Lincoln as a tyrant who disregarded states' rights.
The author's viewpoint shows a myopic lack of understanding about how Southerners viewed political authority in this era of history, which is baffling after he clearly did heavy research regarding his subject.
June 29, 2022
Within a forgotten era of unpopular presidents from Van Buren through Buchanan it is a genuine accomplishment that the best single biography of all these men came from that of John Tyler. Leahy’s pace, attention to detail, critical eye, and ability to engage the reader is fantastic. Tyler didn’t lead an extraordinary life, nor was he a highly effective president. Leahy’s ability however to paint history through the eyes of a man spilt from his family, married to politics, and shunned by his own party and worked like a drama Stanly Kubrick might have given filmgoers. Biographer’s in this era also tend to make excuses for poor behavior or even try to convince the reader they were more important in history than us reality. Again the author pulls no punches when painting his flaws or studying why Tyler has been viewed as ineffective despite spearheading a great deal of legislation with no support other than his own grit. Perhaps the only criticism of this book is that it tends to be too wordy or bloated in areas dealing with legislation. Well over half of the book takes place over his 4 years as president. To be fair to Leahy, along with many other authors writing about this time period, the most recorded years of those men’s lives would have been the presidency. Also, let’s face it, if you’re reading this book it’s because your interested in history. If that is what you’re interested in, this book will not disappoint. Is it as quick a page turner as something written by Chernow or Jean Edward Smith? No. But I doubt any book about John Tyler will ever be topped.
October 30, 2023
I got stalled on my presidential challenge on this one. Overall it’s a well written book and very interesting in describing the history of the time and the political challenges of John Tyler. Since I’m mostly reading this as a curious way to delve into American history, I did find the depth of detail around John Tyler’s family life a little boring. It also seems that there was a lot going on from his presidency to the Civil War, where in it seems likely that he was more involved, but the available history was concerning his family so that is where the biography predominantly went. So I was busy and put the book down for a long while. During which time I read the biography of Fredric Douglas (which I am including in my presidential challenge reading as nearly presidential persons on the times along with Hamilton and Franklin). So much crazy stuff happening leading up to the Civil War. Anyway, the ending was both interesting and crazy. John Tyler joining Jefferson Davis’ Confederation is an act of betrayal beyond measure. Kind of a crazy part about reading history if that the assholes of history do make for more interesting reads that the boring stay the course politicians. Thankfully there are those that do good and lead that also make for interesting and a more uplifting view of the building of our sometimes great sometimes morally bankrupt empire. Cheers!
January 27, 2021
This past fall I decided to read a biography of every president of the United States. I'm going in no particular order, just picking ones that spark my fancy or are available immediately when I want one.
I picked up this book because I never really knew anything about John Tyler other than that he existed. I feel like my U.S. History education mostly glossed over antebellum stuff, and, as the author points out, we've mostly written Tyler off because he joined the government of the Confederacy. But this bio read well, fleshing out Tyler as a man torn between serving his family and country, who acted on principle, rather than following the will of any particular political party. While some of his beliefs are flat out reprehensible by today's standards, he certainly seems like someone worth reading about. Especially because his administration opened the door to the annexation of Texas.
I also learned a fair amount about antebellum politics. It was a pretty tumultuous time, which saw the formation of both the Democrat and Republican parties. I'm excited to read contemporary president bios to flesh that out even more.
I picked up this book because I never really knew anything about John Tyler other than that he existed. I feel like my U.S. History education mostly glossed over antebellum stuff, and, as the author points out, we've mostly written Tyler off because he joined the government of the Confederacy. But this bio read well, fleshing out Tyler as a man torn between serving his family and country, who acted on principle, rather than following the will of any particular political party. While some of his beliefs are flat out reprehensible by today's standards, he certainly seems like someone worth reading about. Especially because his administration opened the door to the annexation of Texas.
I also learned a fair amount about antebellum politics. It was a pretty tumultuous time, which saw the formation of both the Democrat and Republican parties. I'm excited to read contemporary president bios to flesh that out even more.
October 26, 2021
Christopher Leahy’s “President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler” is a stunning portrait of a president often overlooked in modern discourse. Leahy’s portrayal of Tyler is an excellent attempt at a neutral evaluation of the first Vice President to ascend to the role due to the death of an incumbent.
Leahy’s analysis of Tyler’s relationship with his first wife Letitia is one of the few small disappointments (alongside Tyler’s upbringing) I have with the book - although this is likely down to the fact that Tyler spent little to no time with Letitia and thus, has little to no source material (like his upbringing). Leahy makes up for this with wonderful coverage and detail into the relationship with Tyler’s second wife, Julia Gardiner - an evaluation that carries through to the end of the book. Tyler’s various cabinets while in office are also presented well as is his relationship with his Secretary of State, Daniel Webster.
Overall, this is an excellent read about an often slated President (for rightfully correct reasons) and is a must read for anyone desiring a further look into the 10th President of the United States.
Leahy’s analysis of Tyler’s relationship with his first wife Letitia is one of the few small disappointments (alongside Tyler’s upbringing) I have with the book - although this is likely down to the fact that Tyler spent little to no time with Letitia and thus, has little to no source material (like his upbringing). Leahy makes up for this with wonderful coverage and detail into the relationship with Tyler’s second wife, Julia Gardiner - an evaluation that carries through to the end of the book. Tyler’s various cabinets while in office are also presented well as is his relationship with his Secretary of State, Daniel Webster.
Overall, this is an excellent read about an often slated President (for rightfully correct reasons) and is a must read for anyone desiring a further look into the 10th President of the United States.
November 12, 2021
The first thing that stands out about this book is that it is exceptionally well written. Leahy has some serious skill. I read (and love!) a lot of history books, but even I can acknowledge how dry many of them are. This one does not suffer from that common ailment.
Considering the subject, John Tyler, is a little more complicated. He is a pretty interesting political figure, and I felt that reading this book really helped me to better understand the large-scale ideological tensions that turned into out and out armed conflict. Tyler was, it seems, pretty emblematic of his time- it's not shocking that a book that explains his political career would do a good job shedding light on the political situation as a whole.
As always, I enjoyed learning about the man behind the mask, and peering into who Tyler was as a human. His second marriage, to a woman about 30 years his junior, really stands out, but it seems to have been a marriage of remarkable happiness for both parties.
And also as always, this book merely brushes against the fact that Tyler believed he owned people. I've yet to read a biography that chooses to really wrestle with that fact, but I continue to hope.
Considering the subject, John Tyler, is a little more complicated. He is a pretty interesting political figure, and I felt that reading this book really helped me to better understand the large-scale ideological tensions that turned into out and out armed conflict. Tyler was, it seems, pretty emblematic of his time- it's not shocking that a book that explains his political career would do a good job shedding light on the political situation as a whole.
As always, I enjoyed learning about the man behind the mask, and peering into who Tyler was as a human. His second marriage, to a woman about 30 years his junior, really stands out, but it seems to have been a marriage of remarkable happiness for both parties.
And also as always, this book merely brushes against the fact that Tyler believed he owned people. I've yet to read a biography that chooses to really wrestle with that fact, but I continue to hope.
July 5, 2021
This was the 19th book on my list of Presidential biographies. It took me a long time to read, not because of the book's quality, but just because I lost interest in the subject matter for a while. However, Leahy did a superb job. This is sure to become the standard for John Tyler. Tyler was a decent man, but not an overly successful politician. He cared deeply about his family and fathered the most children of any US President. He definitely cared about the country in his own way, but in hindsight, his policies and decisions weren't the most beneficial. His own party left him and he almost faded out of the public memory. However, he was so stuck on states rights and slavery, that he endorsed the Confederacy once Lincoln won, and was even won an election to the provisional Confederate Congress. All of these things tarnished his reputation so much that his widow had a tough time receiving any benefits or compensation because of her marriage to the "traitor President." If you want to know about John Tyler, look no further!
December 23, 2021
Really interesting biography of a rather interesting president who tends to get very little attention. Tyler was the first man to come to the office without being elected to it (he was VP when President Harrison died), which created a constitutional crisis, setting a precedent that we take for granted today.
In addition, he went against the congressmen in his own party and ended being excommunicated. His wife dies, and while in office, he gets remarried to a woman more than 20 years younger than he. The nation later falls apart, and he becomes a traitor to the country he had served as president.
A fascinating life, and Leahy's prose is quite engaging and accessible. I wish there had been an audiobook version, as Leahy's style is conversational enough to lend itself to that medium.
In addition, he went against the congressmen in his own party and ended being excommunicated. His wife dies, and while in office, he gets remarried to a woman more than 20 years younger than he. The nation later falls apart, and he becomes a traitor to the country he had served as president.
A fascinating life, and Leahy's prose is quite engaging and accessible. I wish there had been an audiobook version, as Leahy's style is conversational enough to lend itself to that medium.
September 11, 2023
An interesting and in-depth biography of the 10th president. Tyler was the first vice-president to become president due to the president dying in office. I found the section detailing how Tyler basically came up with the way this situation is handled to be very interesting. The book also spends a lot of time on what did and didn't happen during Tyler's presidency including a National Bank and the annexation of Texas. The author spent time detailing both of Tyler's marriages and his 15! children. I do think a bit more time could have been spent at the end of the book discussing why Tyler decided to join the Confederate House of Representatives, turning a former president into a traitor to his country. Overall an interesting book that I recommend.
November 7, 2023
This is how a biography needs to be written. Filled with great details and stories and most importantly the author is attempting to understand the individual they are writing about. Doing this through analyzing and compiling different historical records and synthesizing their own conclusions. Also creating a narrative that allows the reader to see the evidence of the author's conclusions.
This biography will take you on a journey in the life of a president that you most likely have heard little about. And at the end of it, you will obtain a thorough understanding of John Tyler, not just the former president turncoat, but John Tyler the human.
This biography will take you on a journey in the life of a president that you most likely have heard little about. And at the end of it, you will obtain a thorough understanding of John Tyler, not just the former president turncoat, but John Tyler the human.
February 2, 2021
A very well written book about a very mediocre President. The book is substantial in its scholarship, generous in its detail, and is very well structured. The often uninspiring subject poses the greatest obstacle—it is frustrating to read of the missteps of a political figure who repeatedly made poor decisions based on poor motives. There are moments of brief redemption culminating in a disappointing conclusion.
January 15, 2022
Whilst Tyler certainly chose to stand on the wrong side of history, this biography proves to be a very humanising portrait of him. Despite deciding to betray the oath of office he once took as President by joining the Confederacy, that is not all John Tyler was. Neither fawning nor hypercritical of the tenth President, Leahy brings to life a person who was (and should be) more than just a footnote to Presidential history.
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