Christopher J. Leahy - President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler

President without a Party

President without a Party

THE LIFE OF JOHN TYLER

Christopher J. Leahy

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
BATON ROUGE

Published with the assistance of the V. Ray Cardozier Fund

Published by Louisiana State University Press

Copyright 2020 by Louisiana State University Press

All rights reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

First printing

DESIGNER: Mandy McDonald Scallan

TYPEFACE: Whitman

PRINTER AND BINDER : Sheridan Books, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Leahy, Christopher J., author.

Title: President without a Party : The Life of John Tyler / Christopher J. Leahy.

Description: Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019041356 (print) | LCCN 2019041357 (ebook) | ISBN 978-0-8071-7254-4 (cloth) | ISBN 978-0-8071-7355-8 (pdf) | ISBN 978-0-8071-7354-1 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Tyler, John, 17901862. | PresidentsUnited StatesBiography. | United StatesPolitics and government18411845.

Classification: LCC E397 .L43 2020 (print) | LCC E397 (ebook) | DDC 973.5/8092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041356

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041357

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

To Sharon

and to the memories of

Patricia A. Leahy and

David R. Williams

Contents

Acknowledgments

Completing this work has taken far longer than I anticipated at the outset. During the course of my research and writing, I have benefited from the help of many people, and I am pleased at long last to be able to thank them for their assistance. I apologize in advance for anyone I inadvertently fail to mention. Any errors of fact or interpretation that may have remained in the book are entirely my own.

I spent weeks and months at various archives throughout the United States immersing myself in manuscript collections essential to understanding the life of John Tyler. At the Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William and Mary, Margaret Cook welcomed me at the very start of the project and alerted me to collections that proved crucial to my research. Her vast knowledge and good cheer made working at Swem Library one of the very best experiences of my career as a historian. I would also like to thank Susan Riggs, who often went above and beyond the call of duty to help me track down an obscure document. Susan also contacted me whenever William and Mary purchased another John Tyler letter.

The staff of the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond aided my research and writing in many ways. I would especially like to thank Nelson D. Lankford, whose support of my work was instrumental in me being awarded two Mellon Fellowships that allowed me to spend concentrated periods of time in the VHS collections. John McClure, director of library and research at the VHS, and Senior Archivist Eileen Parris helped with tying up loose ends as I completed the project. I thank Graham T. Dozier, Managing Editor of Publications and Virginius Dabney editor of the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, for permission to reprint portions of two articles I published with the journal.

Reference librarians at the Library of Virginia in Richmond helped me navigate through pertinent collections and state documents located there. Brent Tarter encouraged me as I began the project, and his unsurpassed knowledge of Virginias rich history helped me a great deal. Similarly, the staff at the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville was both welcoming and helpful. My research at the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University yielded unexpected treasures that (I hope) greatly enhanced the book. I am grateful to the staff there and would like to especially thank Elizabeth Dunn. The Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNCs Southern Historical Collection also proved important to my work. I thank the staff who helped me during my time in Chapel Hill. I would also like to thank the staff who aided me at the W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

I was able to complete most of the research in the John Tyler Papers of the Library of Congress by using microfilm. When I did find it necessary to travel to Washington, DC, to work through Tyler papers not collected on microfilm, or when I wanted to look through other collections relevant to my project, I received a great deal of help and expertise from the staff at the Library of Congress. By chance one day, while working in the Madison Building, I also met and talked with Caspar Weinberger, secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan, which was a welcome diversion from the seemingly endless William Cabell Rives Papers.

At Yale Universitys Sterling Memorial Library in New Haven, Connecticut, Michael Frost and Jessica Becker were especially helpful as I braved the massive collection of Gardiner-Tyler Family Papers. I requested hundreds of pages of photocopies of letters while I was at Yale, which the staff members cheerfully and expeditiously fulfilled to my great gratitude.

Archivists at libraries I did not visit personally also graciously provided me with photocopies of letters relevant to my project. I would like to thank the Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, New York; Julie Koven of the American Jewish Historical Society, New York City; Maggie Heran of the Cincinnati Historical Society, Cincinnati, Ohio; Brian Moeller of the Huntington Library, Huntington, California; Kay Vander Meulen of Seymour Library, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois; Elisabeth Proffen of the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore; the Fales Library and Special Collections, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University, New York City; Sigrid P. Perry of the Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois; Dr. Edwin Frank of the Ned R. McWherter Library, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee; and the Archives and Special Collections Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.

Judith Ledbetter of Charles City County, Virginia, kindly shared her work on John Tylers possible African American descendants with me.

Meghan Townes and Mark Fagerburg of the Library of Virginia facilitated the process whereby I secured permission to use the wonderful portrait from the library for the cover of the book.

A number of my former professors and colleagues encouraged me and provided feedback on my work on John Tyler over the years. They include Larry Shumsky at Virginia Tech University; Court Carney, John Rodrigue, Charles Royster, John Sacher, and Chad Vanderford at Louisiana State University; Jeffrey Bell, Sam Hyde, Michael Kurtz, Harry Laver, Peter Petrakis, and William Robison at Southeastern Louisiana University; and Sander Diamond and David Leon at Keuka College. My thanks to them all.

Bertram Wyatt-Brown offered words of wisdom as I began to revise my dissertation into this book and encouraged me to pursue publication with LSU Press. On a research trip to Duke University, I was fortunate to meet Robert Durden, who took an interest in my work and offered sound advice over lunch at the Duke Faculty Club.