The LuLac Edition #4,469, February 15th, 2021

PRESIDENT TYLER FINDS LOVE THE SECOND TIME AROUND AMIDST TRAGEDY

John Tyler was the 10th President of the United States. He succeeded William Henry Harrison who only held office for 30 days. Tyler’s term was wrought with infighting between Senatorial giants like Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, He struggled with the burgeoning issue of slavery and free states. Some have regarded his Presidency as mediocre but what stands out is the way he came to office.
When Harrison died, the succession plan was never tested. The nation came close only once when James Madison fell gravely ill in 1812 but recovered. Tyler was told of Harrision’s death and it was suggested that he become “acting President” until the Cabinet picked a new leader. Tyler held fast to the fact that the founders never included the word “acting” in the succession plan and insisted on taking the oath as President. This of course set the precedent for other Vice Presidents to follow. In that regard, Tyler became a most consequential if not wildly successful President.
But Tyler had another worthy first. He was the first President to get married in office. His first wife died in 1842 leaving him alone with 7 children.
Tyler wanted to arm the Navy with the latest technology. The first USS Princeton was a pet project with a screw steam warship of the United States Navy. Commanded by Captain Robert F. Stockton, Princeton was launched on September 5, 1843.
On February 28, 1844, during a Potomac River pleasure cruise for dignitaries, one gun exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer, and four other high-ranking federal officials. The disaster on board the Princeton killed more top U.S. government officials in a single day than any other tragedy in American history. We came close on January 6th 2021.

 The ship's reputation in the Navy never recovered.  John Tyler, who was aboard but below decks, was not injured. Well according to many, he was a lucky man and it was all because of his pursuit of a young woman.
Here's the back story. President Tyler hosted a public reception for Stockton in the White House on February 27, 1844. On February 28, USS Princeton departed Alexandria, Virginia on a demonstration cruise down the Potomac with Tyler, members of his cabinet, former First Lady Dolly Madison, Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, and about 400 guests. Captain Stockton decided to fire the larger of her two long guns, Peacemaker, to impress his guests. Peacemaker was fired three times on the trip downriver and was loaded to fire a salute to George Washington as the ship passed Mount Vernon on the return trip. The guests aboard viewed the first set of firings and then retired below decks for lunch and refreshments.
Secretary Gilmer urged those aboard to view a final shot with the Peacemaker. When Captain Stockton pulled the firing lanyard, the gun burst. Its left side had failed, spraying hot metal across the deck and shrapnel into the crowd. Instantly killed were Gilmer; Secretary of State Upshur; Captain Beverley Kennon, who was Chief of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repairs; Virgil Maxcy, a Maryland attorney with decades of experience as a state and federal officeholder; David Gardiner, a New York lawyer and politician; who was accompanied by his 24 year old daughter Julia (who the President was furiously pursuing) and the President's valet, a black slave named Armstead.

Julia Gardiner, who was below deck on Princeton when her father David died in the Peacemaker explosion, became First Lady of the United States four months later. She had declined President Tyler's marriage proposal a year earlier, and sometime in 1843 they agreed they would marry but set no date. The President had lost his first wife in September 1842, and at the time of the explosion he was almost 54. Julia was not yet 24. She later explained that her father's death changed her feelings for the President: "After I lost my father I felt differently toward the President. He seemed to fill the place and to be more agreeable in every way than any younger man ever was or could be." Because he had been widowed less than two years and her father had died so recently, they married in the presence of just a few family members in New York City on June 26, 1844. A public announcement followed the ceremony. They had seven children before Tyler died in 1862, and his wife never remarried.
Tyler had the most children of any President in history, 14.
In 1888, Julia Gardiner told journalist Nellie Bly that at the moment of the Peacemaker explosion, "I fainted and did not revive until someone was carrying me off the boat, and I struggled so that I almost knocked us both off the gangplank". She said she later learned that President Tyler was her rescuer. Some historians question her account.
Whatever historians think, Tyler 30 years her senior got his wife and they lived happily ever after. The last child was born when Tyler was pre-viagra age 70.
The Peacemaker disaster prompted a reexamination of the process used to manufacture cannons. Fate placed a love sick John Tyler in the deck below when he found out Julia was holding court down there with younger men.
Decades and a century and a half later, the tune by Trent Harmon might be a song I’m sure John Tyler and many other men could identify with.

wikipedia, Tyler archives, history.com., LuLac archives)