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Not to beat a dead horse, but a lot of presidents are forgotten faces. This week we've got another one, John Tyler. Tyler's call to the White House came when he was napping on the job.

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According to a popular legend in the dead of night, someone came to Virginia to tell him that President William Harrison was dead from pneumonia.

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In a split second, Tyler's hopes to be a low key vice president were crushed. He'd have to pack up and head out to Washington, D.C., you know, to lead America.

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Welcome to very presidential APAs cast original, I'm your host, Ashleigh Flowers, you can find all episodes of very presidential and all other podcast originals for free on Spotify. And if you like what you're hearing, reach out on Facebook and Instagram app, podcast and Twitter at podcast network. Today, we're going to look back at the tenth president that no one knows much about, aside from his catchy campaign slogan, Tippecanoe and Tyler, too. Just a month into office in 1841, President William Henry Harrison died suddenly, leaving John Tyler pretty unprepared to take over.

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I mean, he had zero plans for how to handle the nation's highest office. And honestly, Tyler was too bland to drastically change the presidency like some of his peers. It would, though, drastically change him. Four years of being commander in chief turned the stuffy Virginian into a man who drank champagne, flirted with socialites and danced until dawn.

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All of that is coming up. Stay with us. Once William Henry Harrison was president in March of 1841, Vice President Taylor spent all of two hours doing his actual job, swearing in new senators. Then he ducked out from the session. He was so ready to go home that he didn't even bother to drop by any of Harrison's inaugural parties. Tyler might have had English roots, but he definitely knew how to Irish goodbye. He went back to Virginia to lie low for a grand total of 32 days before pneumonia abruptly killed.

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President Harrison said during his inaugural speech, Harrison had refused to wear a coat, so he'd been outside in the freezing cold for nearly two hours. Lo and behold, he was soon bedridden. But after spending a few weeks nearly at death's door, he seemed to be getting better. So he tried to take a walk to go buy some veggies, and he ended up back in bed the next day, sicker than ever. And he was dead just a few days later.

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Make no mistake, this was a huge deal. America was a young country at this point. No president had ever died in office before. So the question then was, was John Tyler actually the president or does he just like stepping in to hold down the fort for a little while till we find someone new?

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Because the language in the Constitution wasn't really clear. It only said the powers and duties devolved onto the vice president, not that he became the president, which get this, what comes next is pretty wild. John Tyler basically told the cabinet, what I'm president now, swear me and y'all.

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Tyler invited a judge over to his tiny D.C. hotel room to swear him in, but he knew that no one really could object at that point, since America didn't have a president after all. So that was it.

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His accident, as Tyler was called for, how he fatefully ended up in office was now his permanency. Tyler's choice to put his foot down was huge. It meant that for the rest of history, every veep whose president died in office also became president. So at 51 years old, Tyler was the youngest man ever to lead the country. But being young didn't mean he was spry. John Tyler definitely wasn't in great health, and his wife, Leticia, was also really frail.

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On top of that, she was constantly pregnant. She gave birth to seven of Tyler's children. Sadly, Leticia's held meant that she was more or less always bedridden. It was an all day affair just to get her into the bathtub filled with salt so that she could soak and rest. So you won't be surprised then that John and Leticia's marriage had, let's say, cooled, though it had never really been particularly exciting. Tyler didn't even hug his wife before they got married.

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How they managed to steal one whole kiss during their five years of courtship is a mystery. A chilly marriage was problem enough, but that was just the beginning. With Letitia so fragile, the White House was without a hostess. You see, keeping a lively party calendar was a big presidential responsibility. It's signal to the city's powerful families and more widely to the country that the politicians were playing nice. And especially after Harrison's death, it was important to show everyone around town that things were fine.

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So in May of 1841, once the dust had settled after taking office, Tyler thought that it'd be nice to have a little bash to ease the tension. But Letitia clearly couldn't plan it.

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So Tyler looked at his daughter in law, Priscilla Cooper Tyler, to take charge, and Priscilla did it up nice. She threw a massive dinner with fresh flowers, candles, the fine China. I mean, the whole night. Clearly, the woman had a knack for hosting and Tyler was relieved. Even his cabinet seemed happy to attend. Everything was going off without a hitch. That is, until Priscilla passed out. Apparently, the excitement of the evening was just too much and she fainted right there at the table.

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Luckily, Tyler, Secretary of State Daniel Webster caught her before she actually hit the floor. In fact, he actually swept her and hoisted her away from the table in search of help. This show of strength definitely did not go over well with Priscilla's husband, Robert.

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Maybe he just didn't like seeing his wife sitting with Secretary Webster, who entertained her with charming gossip, as she put it. So Robert does what any jealous husband might do. He snatched a big pitcher of water from the table and went after Webb. Unfortunately, when he chucked the water at Daniel, he doused his wife to when Priscilla came to, she was both soaked and angry. After dinner, Priscilla was terrified that they'd made a fool of her father in law.

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But luckily, Washington breezed right by it. They wanted to keep the party invitations coming, drama and all. So Priscilla threw her shoulders back and kept at it. In fact, she wouldn't let anything stop. Her party's not even being extremely pregnant. Just two months before giving birth, she had over 3000 people over to honor writers Charles Dickens and Washington Irving. And even Dickens couldn't help but notice that President Taylor needed to lighten up a little bit.

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According to Charles, the president, quote, looked somewhat worn and anxious and, well, he might being at war with everybody and quote, Tyler wasn't shy about complaining.

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He apparently told Dickens how stressful his job was. He claimed to be working tirelessly day in and day out. But from what we know, after three p.m., Taylor mostly kicked his feet up and shot the breeze with White House visitors. Still, Tyler thought the parties were a chance for people to see him let loose. And it kind of worked. Even those who criticized him changed their minds after a party at sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue like John Quincy Adams, who notably hated Tyler, all it took was one fun night to change Adams tune from bashing the president to praising what great parties he threw.

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Adams called the party all that the most accomplished European courts could have displayed. Call it the wine talking, but it seemed like Priscilla was doing a pretty good job of keeping President Taylor afloat socially.

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And she was basically the only thing keeping him afloat, because when the sun came up and it was back to work, John Taylor was the least popular man in Washington.

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Coming up, President Taylor goes to war with his own cabinet.

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Stay with us. Hey, listeners, I want to take a quick moment to introduce you to the newest part cast original on the Block. It's called Incredible Feats, and it's a short weekday show hosted by comedian Dan Cumins. Every weekday, Dan shares a true account of physical strength, mental focus or genuine bizarre behavior going behind the scenes and into the achievements of world class athletes like Dean Kanavis, who once ran for nearly 81 hours without stopping, and performance artists like Lucky Diamond Rich, who boasts layers of tattoos in the most unlikely places, and even everyday people thrown into extraordinary circumstances like Juliana Koepka, who was forced to survive alone in a rainforest for 11 days.

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Incredible feats is offbeat entertainment that sometimes weird, sometimes wonderful and always surprising. New episodes air daily Monday through Friday, search incredible feats and follow free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Now back to the story. Moving into his second year in the White House, John Tyler hadn't done all that much, mostly because he didn't support anything the wigs his own party wanted when he came in to replace Harrison. He kept on the whole cabinet, but he basically told them, I'm the boss now.

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You don't like it, feel free to quit, which they did. Back when Tyler vetoed a bank bill in 1841, his entire cabinet resigned. Only his secretary of state, Daniel Webster, hung around and it didn't end there. The Whigs then kicked Taylor out of the party entirely. I mean, that's right. His own party gave him the boot. And while this was a pretty bold way to treat the sitting president, considering what came next, the wig treatment almost look tame.

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When the public learned that Taylor blocked the National Bank bill, rioters camped out on the White House lawn. They screamed to give us a bank as they banged on kettles and fired off ammunition into the sky. Oh, and of course, they actually burned Tyler in effigy without the Internet.

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In those days, burning someone in effigy was the next best thing you could do. If the hope was to rile up the president with protests, it didn't work, Tyler basically looked at the burning likeness of himself and just shrugged. He probably close the drapes and just went to bed. But the anger against him still wasn't done. The next summer, in July of 1840 to the Whigs even drew up impeachment proceedings. No president before had ever been threatened with such measures.

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Impeachment was a bit of a stretch. That plan quickly fizzled out. The accusation, though, was definitely a bruise for Tyler's reputation. He'd have to tooele about town. The shame of everyone knowing he might have been impeached. So you can imagine what another blow it was when just a month later, in August of 1842, Tyler's wife, Leticia, suffered another stroke and passed away. Though it was emotional, it wasn't a total surprise given her health.

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Maybe this was as good a time as any for Tyler to pause, you know, lie low, reorient and reflect on how to be a better president.

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But that's not what happened.

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Tyler was ready to be front and center and get back out there. And he started with ramping that presidential social life right back up. Remember, Priscilla couldn't stand in as first lady forever. The president also knew that Robert and Priscilla wanted to move to Philadelphia. So almost right after his wife died, Tyler had his eyes on a new lady friend, Julia Gardner, the rose of Long Island.

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From his perspective, the young socialite seemed like she'd be a great second first lady. Julia came from a well-to-do Hamptons family and was the daughter of a New York senator. But she also made a few waves in her day.

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After secretly posing for a department store lithograph, which was basically like getting a saucy billboard in Times Square, people recognized her.

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So when she visited Washington, many politicians already had their eyes on her.

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Tyler definitely knew it wasn't the time to be shy. By February of 1843, the president had not only tried to court her, but he even proposed at the White House's masquerade ball. She said no and she continued to say no repeatedly for the next year or so. Not that this dissuaded President Tyler in the slightest.

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He just thought Julia was a little reluctant, granted, maybe their age difference and all because at the time he was 50 for 30 years, her senior, and was the same age as her dad. Actually, a few of Tyler's children with Letitia were older than Julia. Still, he kept putting her rejections aside and kept up his courtship.

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And that all came to a head one February day in 1844 when Tyler arranged for a boat cruise on the USS Princeton across the Potomac River. No less than 400 passengers were invited aboard for the bash.

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And of course, no naval ship was complete without a large scary gun guest convinced the captain to actually fire the peacemaker. Yes, that was the name of the cannon for their own amusement. President Tyler nearly missed this since he was below deck with Juliet. Now, they weren't like doing anything, but the president was still making toast to her and laying on the charm thick in hopes of making Miss Gardner.

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Mrs. Tyler. But everyone on deck was like, come on, just come out, come see the gun. So Tyler says, all right, all right. And he is nearly ready to bring himself up to watch the cannon salute. When the cannon explodes, debris went everywhere. And those closest to the cannon, mainly Tyler's secretary of the Navy and of state, were hit with flying shrapnel and killed. The blast also took the life of New York Senator David Gardner, who was Julia's father.

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If Tyler and Julia hadn't been flirting below deck, who knows what could have happened? The president could have been dead and America rudderless. Julia was absolutely crushed by her father's death. She said to have fainted right there on deck. President Taylor then whisked her up and took her back to the White House to grieve in peace. And if you're thinking that, it seems kind of funny that Tyler brought Julia to Washington instead of sending her home to be with her widowed mother.

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Well, I think you're right.

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But he did this because he wanted her close by, because after all of the funerals had been held, word spread that 24 year old Julia and President Tyler were engaged, not wanting to be too grand.

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Just four months after the Princeton tragedy, they more or less eloped after a small ceremony. The couple took a quick spin on the ferry through New York Harbor. Then they made stops in Philly and Baltimore for some public parades so America could Orgel at the new first lady almost immediately. Julias Taste for Life's Finer Things rubbed off on President Tyler in Washington. She insisted on traveling around in a coach drawn by no less than eight white Arabian horses. Tyler's personality was the complete opposite with Julia.

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Remember when he barely touched Leticia during five years of dating, while he was just fine with Julia kissing him in public, which was pretty taboo, to be honest, in this time. The stuffy Tyler, who had once scolded his daughter for dancing the waltz, was now right next to Julia stepping to the music and rolling out the good champagne. Most importantly, Tyler knew being flashy and cultured made him look worldly, which he definitely needed if he wanted to seem like an educated diplomatic president.

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In truth, the man barely left the East Coast. He'd never made it to California, let alone Texas. As for China and the Pacific, no and no. His Excellency was quite the homebody problem was the general election of 1844 was coming up and Tyler's still hadn't done anything to make America want to vote for him, remember? By this point, he not only been kicked out of the Whig Party, most of Congress still hated him. With the Whigs out of the question, Tyler basically had two options.

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He could go back hat in hand to the Democratic Party and try to wheedle them into nominating him. Or he could go a little rogue, maybe if he promised to make Texas a state tailor, wouldn't even need a political party to get re-elected. Coming up, John Tyler makes it clear he will mess with Texas.

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Stay with us. Now back to the story. OK, so it's time to buckle up for a minute, because we're going to talk about Texas and there was a lot going on in Texas in 1843. As we all know, Texas is now a state. So it's clear that some part of John Tyler's annexation plan stuck, not that he could take all the credit the Texas territory had requested to join the United States years ago. I mean, like back in the summer of eighteen, thirty seven.

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But by the time Tyler was in office, Texas was still hanging out in limbo. Half the country thought annexing Texas might start a war with Mexico. The other half really didn't mind.

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President Tyler wanted to win the next election more than he cared about starting a war, though let's not forget, not doing anything for his first three years really didn't set him up well for the second term. If he could secure Texas for the union, that might change to make sure it all went according to plan, Tyler said about firing anyone who didn't agree with him, then he'd replace them with his own cronies who'd support antics in Texas. And let's be clear, this wasn't a handful of men that he wanted to swap out, Tyler told his secretary of the Treasury to start firing left and right.

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Few were safe. More than a hundred postmasters and diplomats got the boot. You may be wondering why he was shaking down the post office. Well, Tyler was crafty. He used his position to scare America's postmaster's into distributing his biographies. So that's right. Mailmen were forced to buy and then deliver these sugary books meant to hype up Tyler and help his re-election. And they gave these to thousands of American households, which, you know, not unethical at all.

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Right. It was clear the president would have to strong arm his support.

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I mean, it was a daunting task. Texas was the first sovereign nation in history that was willing to give up that status to join another country. Figuring out how to make that work legally was dicey. And the last thing Tyler wanted was it to fail on some technicalities. So he decided to grease the wheels by drawing up a secret treaty with Texas ahead of time. In light of all the controversy, the treaty was specifically vague about slavery, which was a huge issue at the time.

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But if you read carefully, it ensured that Texas would join the union as a slave state. When the president slid the treaty over to Congress in April, he thought the details would be kept under wraps until it was approved, not jinx it, you know, but that was wrong. Almost immediately, a letter discussing the treaty got leaked to the press. And as the press does, they had themselves a field day. The new secretary of state, number three at this point was on the books promoting the secret treaty and saying that slavery was a, quote, blessing and that it needed to be protected.

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So, of course, this created chaos. The newspapers ran with the story like they stole it. And they told the country that the only reason the president wanted to annex Texas was to keep slavery alive. Remember, this was just months before the election. And the two candidates who were running against Tyler for president now had the best ammunition they could have asked for. They stirred the pot by reminding Americans that anex in Texas might start a war with Mexico, not to mention split up the union.

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By this point, even Tyler's secretary of the Treasury was like, Mr. President, this is a bad idea. The treaty wasn't illegal, per say. It was just a very gray area and it didn't seem like they had the support to make it happen. And Tyler was getting desperate. He'd basically staked his whole campaign on annexation. That June, just weeks after it went to the Senate, his Tyler, Texas treaty was rejected. It was a sign America didn't want him or his treaty any more.

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A second term was pretty much a pipe dream. So Tyler, ever the wild card did another 180. He threw in the towel and dropped his re-election campaign completely. By then, he'd sunk so much into Texas, he decided it'd be his last hurrah to see it through. Tyler made one last speech as president, more or less holding Congress's feet to the fire, telling America that they should get Texas into the union once and for all. And miraculously, it worked.

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After some feet dragging, the treaty was passed by joint resolution the next spring, just three days before his term was up, Tyler finally signed off on making Texas a state in typical fashion. Tyler made a meal out of signing the document using a fancy gold pen for his signature. Maybe a little nostalgic afterward, he had the pen made into a necklace for his wife, Julia, and to really end things on a high note, the Tylers threw one last party to celebrate the annexation.

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The grand, a presidential ball had no less than 3000 guests, and everyone toasted their champagne, which reportedly flowed like water. Tyler looked around and tried his best to be funny. Yes, they cannot say now that I am a president without a party, but that was pretty much the end of the good times. Soon, Tyler returned to his Virginia home, Sherwood Forest, a reference to him being a political outlaw. And you heard that right?

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He named his plantation, which had dozens of enslaved people working on it after a Robin Hood reference. And unfortunately, Tyler was about to cap off his career with a heavy side of racism. Adding Texas to the union did make the tensions over slavery much worse, as everyone had feared. And when the Civil War broke out, Tyler was elected to the Confederate Congress. Apparently, he had every intention to serve until he died of a stroke in 1862.

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You know who wouldn't shed any tears for Tyler? President Abraham Lincoln. He didn't issue a mourning statement as was typical, and he certainly didn't drop any American flags in the north to half mast. It was a clear message. Any honor Tyler had stopped with the Confederacy. And, of course, who better than the biggest newspaper in the country, The New York Times, to have the last word, the obit that ran for John Tyler read simply he ended his life suddenly last Friday in Richmond, going down to death amid the ruins of his native state.

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He himself was one of the architects of its ruin. And beneath that melancholy wreck, his name will be buried instead of being inscribed on the Capitol's monumental marble as a year ago he'd so much desired. Yikes.

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So it's probably for the best that his accident. He was a one and done president. Thanks for listening, if you want to hear more episodes of very presidential, you can find them all for free on Spotify. Very presidential was created by Max Cutler and Ashley Flowers and his Sparkasse studio's original starring Ashley Flowers, it's executive produced by Max Cutler, Sound Design by Carrie Murphy with production assistance by Ron Shapiro and Carly Madden. This episode of Very Presidential was written by Mackenzie Moore with writing assistants by Drew Cole.

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To hear more stories hosted by me, check out Crime Junkie and Audio Chuck Originals.

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Hey, podcasters, don't forget to check out the brand new Spotify original from podcast Incredible Feats, join host Dan Cummins as he explores true accounts of weird, wonderful and all out wild achievements. New Episodes premiered daily Monday through Friday, search incredible feats and follow free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.