Presidential Biographies | Tyler Administration - The Tyler Administration Legacy

The Tyler Administration Legacy

On March 2, 1845, the eve of Tyler's exit from office, the Tylers hosted a gala cabinet dinner—at which president-elect James Polk and his wife, Sarah, were honored guests—to celebrate the passage of the joint resolution approving the annexation of Texas. Thus, much of the work that Polk had pledged to do had already been accomplished by Tyler. However, the real difficulties of Texas annexation—the war with Mexico and the escalating animosity between the North and the South—were Polk's to handle. Likewise, it would be up to Polk to finally settle the controversy of the Oregon Territory.

In annexing Texas, Tyler was arguably hastening the inevitable. It was the will of a proannexation majority, after all, that had voted Polk into office. The shooting war that followed with Mexico and the deepening sectional crisis that resulted would almost certainly have ensued without Tyler's...