President Without A Party

 The Past Isn’t Even Past: President John Tyler, Born in 1790, Still Has 2 Living Grandsons

A review of President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler (LSU Press, 2020) by Christopher Leahy

“His Accidency.” That’s the nickname given to John Tyler, earned, as it were, because of the way he became vice-president (no one else wanted the job) and president (William Henry Harrison died after just over a month in office). Fair enough. Those are facts from which no context could really remove Tyler.

What wasn’t an accident, however, is Tyler’s commitment to classical republican principles, including the principle of consent of the governed as the only basis of legitimate government.

In his biography of the tenth president — President Without a Party — Professor Christopher J. Leahy wends a very serpentine course through the life and times of Tyler. Leahy’s declared purpose was to bring John Tyler out of obscurity. 

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