Presidential Biographies | Tyler Administration - Post-presidential Years

Post-presidential Years

Cast out by the Whigs and rejected as a candidate by the Democrats, who chose the "dark horse," or long shot, James Polk, Tyler did not mount an 1845 campaign for the presidency. He retired to his Virginia plantation, Sherwood Forest, shortly after leaving office. He remained active in politics, however, and in 1861 he led a peace mission to Washington from the southern states in an effort to avert the impending American Civil War (1861–65). Tyler met with President Buchanan, but mostly served as a figurehead and seldom participated in the debates. The Convention produced ten compromise measures, designed mainly to preserve some measure of slavery in the South. The U.S. Senate, however, defeated these proposals resoundingly. After the mission failed, Tyler supported the South's secession from the Union. He was elected to the Confederate House of Representatives, the legislative body for the 11 southern...