Transcripts For CSPAN3 First Ladies Influence Image - Anna

She was not happy that her husband had been elected president. She was not looking forward to being the first lady. The problem was of course, that he died only one month into his presidency, and she never made it to washington. In 1836, when john tyler resigned from the United States senate, he and his wife laetitia and her family moved to williamsburg. It is right here that laetitia tyler suffered her stroke in 1839 and john tyler learned that he was elected as Vice President William Henri harrison, and it is also here in the spring of 1841 where he was informed that he became tenth president of the United States, and that laetitia tyler learned that she became the first lady. She has another terrible stroke and guys. Her husband goes into great morning and then he meets Julia Gardiner who is another young love in her twenties. Julia is the madonna of the first ladies. She loved publicity. She actually posed as a model which was frowned upon. She was bewitching. They had a total of almost 90 slaves, under her supervision. Julia did lobby for her husband. She supported him tremendously in everything that she did. Untimely deaths, a secret marriage, and outside personalities are part of the three stories featured in our program tonight. As our political system grapples with the first time a Vice President steps into the office of the presidency and sectional differences continue to grow and the country. Good evening and welcome to cspan series first ladies, influence and image. William Henri Harrison comes into office and just a month later, he dies. The first time a president dies in office. To learn about the tumultuous period of time, we have asked Edna Greene Medford to our set tonight. She is the chair at Howard University and has been working on our history series. Nice to be here. School children have all grown up with the phrase from the 1840 election, tipping canoe and tyler to. It was William Harrisons campaign. He was elected at the age of 68, a record that no one broke again until Ronald Reagan was elected. Who is this man and what did he so easily defeat Martin Van Buren . At the outset, i announced with a bit of pride that he was from Charles City County, virginia. My home county. He moved to ohio. He was a military man initially. He had actually studied medicine for a short period of time and decided to join the military shortly thereafter. Moved to ohio. He became the territorial governor of indiana, and was before that, a noted indian fighter. The term typical new comes from the battle of typical new. The two native americans were taken to establish an indian movement. As a territorial governor, tyler was instrumental, excuse me, harrison was instrumental in securing land for white settlers. That clashed with native american interests. At that battle, harrison was considered the victor. We are not so certain about that. But he became important enough in that battle that it carried him into public office. That was one of the things they did. His wife, and a harrison was not happy about him coming back to politics. In fact, we have a quote from Anna Harrison that says, i wish my husbands friends had left him where he is, happy and contented in retirement. How was he drawn into politics, again, and lets talk about what kind of a political spouse she was . It is an interesting time in american political history. It is the period of the second American Party system. There are two very distinct parties. The Democratic Party with Andrew Jackson as leader, and the whip party that grows out of opposition to jackson primarily. William lee harrison becomes a member of the whig party soon after it is abounded. He is the first candidate for that party in 1836. But because they did not have themselves together, there was no possibility of him winning. In 1840, they were organized well enough and that the democrats were divided enough that he was able to win. So Anna Harrison, his spouse had been with him through a long political career. What do we really know about this woman . We do not know an awful lot about her. We know that she was a reluctant first lady. She did not get to be first lady and the white house, of course because the day that her husband and other members of the family left to go to washington, she was too ill to travel. Curiously enough, or ironically enough, the day that she was all packed up and ready to join him in washington, was the day that she had notification that he had died. How did he die . That is an interesting question. The argument has always been that he died because he was not prudent enough to wear a top hat and coat, in his inauguration. He spoke too long and so he was exposed to very cold weather and he caught a cold and died. I think it is a little bit more complex than that. He was an older gentleman, as you said, he was 68. He was exhausted by all of the Office Secrets and the first month of his presidency. I think all of that compromised his health. He did eventually catch a very bad coal that turned into ammonia. He did die as a consequence. We do know, from ana harrison that she was the first lady to have a public education, and that she was an avid reader of political journals throughout her liked. We have the sense that she had more time at all from the historic, research about what kind of lady she might have been . She did read political journals but i dont know that she was a very political person. I do not believe that she would have or had the role that some other first ladies did later on, especially the person who follows her as first lady. The second person, actually. John tylers second wife. At least, she certainly, during the time that even though, she did not come to the white house, she did use her influence, the influence she had to get appointments for her nephews and for her sons and grandsons. She would have been political and that way, but not in the way that we would think of someone like julia tyler. We will learn much more about her as the Program Continues tonight. On twitter, president ponderings asked this question. Or makes this comment, ana harrisons husband became president , her son a congressman, her grandson also a president. She must have been she must have had good jeans. What was going on that the family produced so Many Political leaders . They were the first families of virginia. You would have had harrisons who were involved in the american revolution, one signing the declaration of independence. They have this long history of political involvement. I think as well, it is where they are located by the mid 1800s in that northwest territories, in this area that is opening up for the country, and these men are getting very politically involved because of. That related, our jay wilson on our Facebook Page ask, is it true that Anna Harrison helped raise her grandson Benjamin Harrison who became president. Any sense any kind of influence she had on him as a future president . She certainly did live with the family. Her home burnt and she went to live with one of her sons, and of course he was the father of benjamin. What influence she had on him, we really do not know. We have soon that as grandmothers are prone to do, we do have influence. There was a brief tenure, only a month in the white house, but there were some social things that have had to happen. How did that will get fulfilled with our first lady here . Because she was not there, there are two other women who carried out the duties. One was jane ervin harrison, who actually was a widow. She was married to one of the harrison men, that he had died. So William Henry apparently asked her to serve in that capacity. She was assisted by one of her aunts, by the same name, jane finley, who was an older woman and gave her guidance. She was not the official hostess of the white house but she did give her a lot of guidance. Is it true that Dolley Madison who seems to pop up often offer her advice . I think she did every time she could get away with it. Yes, she would have been nearby to help out from time to time. When Lasting Legacy is that she was the first president ial widow that was able to get a pension from her service. How did that happen . What were the politics of that . Her husband had died in office and she needed the assistance, and so congress did appropriate 25,000 dollars for her. Which is not an substantial money if you were to calculated today. In lump sum. When he dies in office, this is the first time that this has happened. Did create a constitutional crisis . The constitution does indicate that if the president is not there, it doesnt say specifically death, but if the president is unable to perform the duties, then those duties fall on the Vice President. But it did not say what the status of that person would be. Would he be carrying out the duties and responsibilities as Vice President . As acting president . Or as the new president . So john tyler decided that he was not going to let them think too long about that, so he declared himself the president. He had congress well, congress agreed to pass resolutions on both houses, to pass resolutions declaring him president. Not everyone agreed with that, however. Occasionally, khoury males came to the white house addressing the acting president. Those documents returned unopened. He was born he was born in Charles City County, virginia. He lyft only a couple miles down the road from the harrison estate. He was born he was an interesting president. Although he was elected with William Henri harrison, he had actually been a jacksonlee and democrat earlier on in his career. He had clashed with jackson and the democrats and had to join the when whig party. They expelled him from the party. We will learn more about the presidency and the two women who served as his first lady. We will do that by introducing new to the life that they had in what we call now today, colonial williamsburg. In 1836 when john tyler resigned from the United States senate, he and his wife laetitia and her family moved here to establish his law practice. In fact, we reconstructed his law office and his laundry. The house they lived in is no longer here, but here in williamsburg, it was situated at the center of the town. The legal part of the town. The courthouse is right across the street near all of the markets. Near all of the shops that are up and down the street. This is the beating heart of williamsburg, even in the 18 thirties. So all of the political activity social activity, they are really living at the center of it in this fantastic 18th century house that they were living in as john tyler is resurrecting his political career. After the move here, when laetitia is running the household and running the in tyler entire tyler family, she will be operating out of the house, the the business, that is the tyler family. Running the plantation. Letitia suffered a stroke that partly paralyzed her, although she was still able to retain control of the family accounts, all of the family business, while john tyler was back involved in politics. It is here in the space that john tyler learned that he was elected as Vice President william harrison, and in the spring of 1841 where he was informed that he became tenth president of the United States. It was here that Letitia Tyler learned that she became the first lady of the United States. We are back on the set. Joining us is the gentlemen that you saw in that video. Colonial williamsburg historian, he is an expert on the history of the Tyler Virginian area where the tylers were from. How important give us a sense of virginia and that period of time and what kind of characteristics a person in public life would bring with them into the office from having been there . I think when you are talking about virginia and that period, youre still getting over the american revolution. Maybe not quite yet. They are not letting go of the american revolution. Not letting go of Thomas Jefferson and the kind of revolutionary principles that are supposed to inform public conduct and virtue. By the time you get to the through john tylers career, to the 18 twenties and 18 thirties, those things start to be coalesced into notions about states rights. Notions about what is the proper use of the constitution. Notions about what the extent of federal authority is. You hear people like john tyler top a great deal about the principles of 1790, thinking about the kentucky and virginia resolutions and the ability of the states to override unconstitutional, or so they think unconstitutional, federal actions. Hes principles of the American Revolutionary are being still thought about. They are being fought over, but also the kind of things that come to what are the expectations of a public leader . They need to be virtuous, interested, and that is the only when you can actually make good public policy. Where did letitia and john tyler meet . They met where almost everybody met. Williamsburg. They actually lived not that far from one another. John tyler is from Charles City County. In a place called green way. Letitia tyler is from New Kent County which is a stones throw away from the other county. We do not know exactly where they met. We know that they met at about 1811 to 1812. John tyler went to william their families became involved with one another. They made it a very young age. They were both the exact same age. They were 21 or 22 when they met. They fell in love quite quickly. We have already been incorporating some of your tweets and Facebook Comments into our program tonight but you can also call us with your questions. We look forward to participation. If you live in the eastern or central time zones, our number is two zero two five eight five three eight eight one. Were hoping you texans will line up with your phone calls tonight, because this white house was responsible for the annexation for the union and we will learn more about the role that john tylers second wife played in that very momentous decision. So letitia and john tyler had a lot of children. They had a lot of children. It is one of the things that really kept them apart for a great chunk of their married life. John tyler was constitutionally incapable of being out of public office. He was addicted to it to a certain extent. That left laetitia at home to run the family, to run the business and to continue to manage this incredible brood of children that they had, almost from the very start. And running their plantation would have been how large of an operation . They had a number of different plantations. One of the issues with jon tyler and the family is that are always on the very edge of solvency. They never live in one place for longer than ten years. They are always moving around. They are plantations, they own probably know more than between 30 and 35 slaves at a particular time and they are growing mainly wheat and corn over about 600 and 900 acres. That is between their own plantations, several plantations and Charles City County, then move to bluster county on the other side, and so they are continuing to try to figure out a way, during these very striking economic changes to the country, like the panic of 1819 and that goes into what is going on in the late in 1837. To find a way that they can keep their heads economically above water. With john tyler gone for so long, and so often, six months out of every year, while he was in public office, and this leads a lot of that burden resting on letitias shoulders. She was a pretty tough woman. She had a stroke and was paralyzed, it continued to handle the operations. I think that is indicative of the kind of life that women live during that time. Even wealthy women. This was rural living and life was tough for them, but life was made easier for them by their enslaved laborers, and they certainly did use those to their greater advantage. Question for both of you about tylers attitude at this point with Letitia Tyler about their attitudes toward slavery. John tyler was one of the staunchest supporters of slavery that ever inhabited the white house. He believed firmly and he said that slavery is the greatest property that a southerner can own. He believes this is the backbone of the society. Letitia, we know a little bit less about. We know from a story that actually ends up in some of the abolitionist press later on in the 19th century of a former enslaved member of the Christian Family who recalled that john tyler actually, he may have been less kind to the enslaved men and women who are out in the fields, but when it came to the enslaved and women in the household, he stopped right there. They were under letitias protection and treated very well. You can read much into a story like that. But we have a clear understanding of what john tylers views are and they are consistent throughout his life. Weve looked at since the statistics for the time period. He is the 1840 view of america through the census. The population had reached 17 million and now 26 states. That is a 32. 7 growth since 1830 consensus. We consistently see 30 . The slaves number, 2. 5 million which was almost 15 of the population. New orleans joins the list of the largest cities in the United States. Two things. We heard about the tylers and their attitudes towards s