John Tyler

VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

(MUSIC)

As we reported in our last program of THE MAKING OF A NATION, the
national elections of eighteen-hundred-forty put a new man in the
White House: General William Henry Harrison. He became the ninth
president of the United States. He was a member of the Whig Party.
The defeat of President Martin Van Buren was expected. Still, it was
a sharp loss for the Democratic Party. President Harrison died soon
after becoming president. And his vice president, John Tyler, moved
into the White House.

The Whig Party leaders, especially
Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky, tried to control the new president.
But Tyler soon showed his independence. Clay proposed detailed
legislative programs for the new Whig administration. Among them:
the establishment of a national bank. This was high on Senator
Clay's list of proposals. Tyler did not approve these plans as
proposed by Clay. Tyler wanted peace and party unity. But he also
wanted to show that he -- not Clay -- was president. Tyler vetoed
two bills calling for the creation of a national bank.

VOICE TWO:

Clay's supporters in the cabinet did their best to get Tyler to
sign the bank bills. When the president refused to do so, Whig Party
leaders urged the cabinet to resign. This would show that the
president, alone, was responsible for the veto of the bills. All
cabinet members, but one -- Daniel Webster -- resigned. Secretary of
State Webster was with the president when one of the letters of
resignation arrived.

"What am I to do, Mr. President?" asked Webster. "You must decide
that for yourself," Tyler said. "If you leave it to me, Mr.
President, I will stay where I am." President Tyler stood up. "Give
me your hand on that," he said, "and I will say to you that Henry
Clay is a doomed man from this hour. " Tyler named a new cabinet.
And there was not one Clay supporter in it.

VOICE ONE:

The president's veto of the second bank bill brought strong
public protests from those who wanted a national bank. A large group
of Whig congressmen met and voted to expel Tyler from the party.
During the struggle over the bank bills, the Whigs did not forget
the other parts of Senator Clay's legislative program. Clay
especially wanted approval of a bill to give the different states
money from the sale of public land. Tyler liked this idea himself.
Many of the states owed large amounts of money. The distribution
bill, as it was called, would help them get out of debt.

VOICE TWO:

The president was willing to support the bill. But he saw one
danger in it. If all the money from land sales was given to the
states, the federal government might not have enough money. Tyler
feared that Congress then would raise import taxes to get more money
for the federal government. As a Southerner, the president opposed
taxes on imports. He finally agreed to accept the distribution bill,
but on one condition. The distribution of money to the states would
be suspended if import taxes rose higher than twenty percent. Tyler
signed the bill, and it became law.

VOICE ONE:

The next year, the government found itself short of money. It was
spending more than it had. Congress decided that import taxes should
be raised, some even higher than twenty percent. The bill was passed
by close votes in the House and Senate.

When it got to the White House, President Tyler vetoed it. He
said it was wrong to raise the tax so high and, at the same time,
continue to give the states the money from land sales. He said the
federal government itself needed the land-sale money. The Whigs were
angry.

Still, they did not have enough votes to pass the bill over the
president's veto. Then they approved a new bill. This one raised
import taxes, but said nothing about distribution of federal money
to the states. And president Tyler signed it.

VOICE TWO:

While the Whigs made bitter speeches about the failure of the
party's legislative program, Tyler worked to improve relations with
Britain. The United States and Britain disputed the border that
separated Canada from the northeastern United States. Both Canada
and the state of Maine claimed t he disputed area. Britain was also
angry because Americans had helped Canadian rebels.

Canadian soldiers had crossed the Niagara River and burned a boat
that was used to carry supplies to the rebels. Secretary of State
Daniel Webster wanted peace with Britain. And there was a new
government in Britain. Its foreign minister, Lord Aberdeen, also
wanted peace.

VOICE ONE:

Lord Aberdeen sent a special representative, Lord Ashburton,-to
the United States. Lord Ashburton had an American wife. And he was a
friend of Daniel Webster. He arrived in Washington in the spring of
eighteen-hundred-forty-two with the power to settle all disputes
with the United States.

Lord Ashburton said Britain regretted that it had not made some
explanation or apology for the sinking of an American boat in the
niagara river. The two men discussed the border dispute between
Canada and Maine.

Webster proposed a compromise border line. Lord Ashburton
accepted the compromise. The agreement gave almost eighteen-thousand
square kilometers of the disputed area to Maine. Canada received
more than twelve-thousand square kilometers.

VOICE TWO:

The Senate approved the Webster-Ashburton agreement. And
American-British relations showed improvement. President Tyler then
turned to another problem: Texas. Texas asked to become a state
during President Van Buren's administration. But nothing was done
about the request.

Tyler was interested in Texas and wanted to make it part of the
Union. Secretary Webster was cool to the idea of Texas statehood.

As a Northerner, he did not want another slave state in the
Union. Webster and his supporters were Tyler's only real strength in
the Whig Party outside of Virginia. The president, therefore, did
not push the issue of Texas.

After Senate approval of his treaty with Lord Ashburton, Webster
decided that he could be of no more real use to the administration.
He resigned as secretary of state. Tyler named one of his Virginia
supporters, Abel Upshur, to the job in the summer of
eighteen-hundred-forty-three.

VOICE ONE:

Upshur was a firm believer in slavery. He felt slaves were
necessary in the agricultural economy of the south. Upshur was
worried about reports that Britain was interested in ending slavery
in Texas. These reports said Britain had promised to defend Texas
independence and to give economic aid, if the slaves were freed.
Upshur and other southerners feared what might happen if this were
done. Slaves from nearby southern states would try to escape to
freedom in Texas. And the abolitionists might use Texas as a base
for propaganda against the south.

VOICE TWO:

There was another reason for President Tyler's interest in Texas.
He believed it possible to make political use of the question of
Texas statehood. It could help him build a new political party, a
party that might elect him president for another four years. Four
months after becoming secretary of state, Upshur offered a statehood
treaty to Texas.

At first, Texas President Sam Houston refused the offer. He
finally agreed to negotiate, but said the United States must accept
two conditions. It must agree to protect Texas if Mexico attacked
it. And it must promise that the United States Senate would approve
the treaty.

Upshur told the Texas representative in Washington that Texas
would be given military protection just as soon as the treaty was
signed. And he said the necessary two-thirds of the senators would
approve the statehood treaty. Houston was satisfied. And his
representative began secret negotiations with Upshur.

VOICE ONE:

A few weeks later, before the talks could be completed, Upshur
joined the president and congressional leaders for a trip down the
Potomac River. They sailed on a new American warship that carried
two large cannons. The new guns were to be fired for the president.
Upshur was standing near one of the cannons during the firing. He
and two other men were killed when the gun exploded. The president
was not injured. But nineteen others were hurt.

President Tyler named John C. Calhoun -- a Democrat -- as his new
secretary of state. He did so for two reasons: Calhoun believed that
Texas should be part of the United States. And Tyler -- a Whig --
hoped that Calhoun might be able to get him nominated as the
presidential candidate of the Democratic Party.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Lew Roland and Bud Steele.
Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A NATION
can be heard thursdays.