Presidency of John Tyler

John Tyler's tenure as the tenth president of the United States began on April 4, 1841, after the death of President William Henry Harrison, and ended on March 4, 1845. He had been Vice President of the United States for only 31 days when he assumed the presidency. Tyler was the first to succeed to the office without being elected to it. To forestall constitutional uncertainty, Tyler took the presidential oath of office on April 6. He then moved into the White House, assumed full presidential powers, and served out the balance of Harrison's four-year term, setting the Tyler Precedent that would govern future extraordinary successions and eventually become codified in the Twenty-fifth Amendment. He was succeeded by James K. Polk of the Democratic Party.

Although nominated for the vice presidency on the Whig Party ticket in 1840, Tyler did not share the views held by some members of his party on various issues. That did not, however, become a problem until after the 1840 election, because during that campaign, the party had not taken clear stands on specific issues such as a national bank and protective tariff. Instead, it had emphasized attacking incumbent Democratic President Martin Van Buren and proclaiming colorful slogans about log cabins and hard cider. After the election, however, as a strict constructionist, Tyler found some of the program then introduced by the Whigs in Congress unconstitutional and thus vetoed several bills favored by party leader Henry Clay.