This week’s Vice-President is: John Tyler!
Born: March 29, 1790
Died: January 18, 1862
Vice-President #: 10
Under: William Henry Harrison
Dates: March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841
Party: Democratic, Whig
Fun Facts:Tyler was the first Vice-President ever to accede to the presidency after the death of a sitting President (and our first Vice-President of the week that was also a president!). Article II of the Constitution is vague as to whether Tyler’s title should have been “President of the United States” or merely “Acting President of the United States” yet both houses of Congress in 1841 voted that he should be given the title of President (this vagary was cleared up by the 25th Amendment).
Harrison was a Whig (the only other Whig President was Zachary Taylor) yet Tyler vetoed almost every bill submitted by the Whig-controlled Congress. He was officially thrown out of the party in 1841 and thereafter became known as “the man without a party.” John Quincy Adams, former President and later a Congressman, proposed the first impeachment resolution against a President in 1843, arguing that Tyler misused his power of veto. The resolution did not pass.
The final year of his presidency was marred by a freak accident: 2 cabinet members (the Secretaries of State and Navy) were exploded when the main gun aboard the USS Princeton fired during a demonstration.
