Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/100

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
88
TYLER

The surface is level and the soil fertile, and timber is abundant. The chief productions in 1870 were 121,723 bushels of Indian corn, 41,580 of sweet potatoes, 13,666 Ibs. of rice, and 2,236 bales of cotton. There were 1,303 horses, 10,350 cattle, 3,175 sheep, and 16,781 swine. Capital, Woodville.


TYLER, Bennet, an American clergyman, born in Middlebury, Conn., July 10, 1783, died in South Windsor, May 14, 1858. He graduated at Yale college in 1804, was pastor of the Congregational church in South Britain, Conn., from 1808 to 1822, president of Dartmouth college from 1822 to 1828, and pastor of the second Congregational church in Portland, Me., from 1828 to 1833. The controversy on the "new divinity" awakened by the writings of Dr. Taylor (see TAYLOR, NATHANIEL WILLIAM), of which he was the principal opponent, resulted in the formation of a pastoral union in September, 1833, by the Connecticut clergymen who held to Dr. Tyler's opinions, and the resolution to found a theological seminary at East Windsor, of which he was president and professor of Christian theology till his death. His principal works are: "History of the New Haven Theology, in Letters to a Clergyman" (1837); "A Review of Day on the Will" (1837); "Memoir of Rev. Asahel Nettleton, D. D." (Hartford, 1844); "Nettleton's Remains" (1845); "A Treatise on the Sufferings of Christ" (New York, 1845); "A Treatise on New England Revivals" (1846); and two series of "Letters to Dr. Horace Bushnell on Christian Nurture" (1847-'8). After his death appeared his "Lectures on Theology," with a memoir by his son-in-law, the Rev. Nahum Gale, D. D. (1859).


TYLER, John, tenth president of the United States, born in Charles City co., Va., March 29, 1790, died in Richmond, Jan. 17, 1862. He was the second son of John Tyler, who was a prominent revolutionary patriot, governor of the state from 1808 to 1811, afterward judge of the federal court of admiralty, and died in 1813. He graduated at William and Mary college in 1807, and in 1809 was admitted to the bar. Two years later he was elected a member of the legislature, and he was reelected for five successive years. In 1816 ho was elected to congress to fill a vacancy, and was twice reflected. He voted for the resolutions of censure on Gen. Jackson's conduct during the Seminole war, and opposed internal improvements by the general government, the United States bank, the protective policy, and all restrictions on slavery. Ill health compelled him to resign before the expiration of his term. In 1823 and the two following years he was a leading member of the state legislature. In December, 1825, he was chosen governor by the legislature, and at the next session was reëlected by a unanimous vote. He succeeded John Randolph as United States senator in March, 1827, and was reëlected in 1833. In the presidential election of 1824 he had supported Mr. Crawford, who received the vote of Virginia. He however approved the choice of Mr. Adams in preference to Gen. Jackson by the house of representatives; but seeing in Adams's first message "an almost total disregard of the federative principle," he sided in the senate with the opposition to him, consisting of the combined followers of Jackson, Crawford, and Calhoun. He voted against the tariff bill of 1828, and against all projects of internal improvement. During the debate on Mr. Clay's tariff resolutions in 1831-'2, he made a three days' speech against a tariff for direct protection, but advocating one for revenue with incidental protection to home industry. In 1832 he avowed his sympathy with the nullification movement in South Carolina, and made a speech against the force bill, which passed the senate with no vote but his in the negative, Mr. Calhoun and the other opponents of the bill having retired from the chamber; but he voted for Mr. Clay's compromise bill. In the session of 1833-'4 he supported Mr. Clay's resolutions of censure upon President Jackson for the removal of the deposits, which he regarded as an unwarrantable assumption of power, although he considered the bank unconstitutional. The legislature of Virginia having in February, 1836, adopted resolutions instructing the senators from that state to vote for expunging those resolutions from the journal of the senate, Mr. Tyler resigned and returned to his home, which about this time he had removed to Williamsburg. In 1836, as a whig candidate for vice president, he obtained the votes of Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In 1838 he was elected to the legislature by the whigs of James City co., and during the subsequent session of that body he acted entirely with the whig party. He was a delegate from Virginia to the whig national presidential convention which met at Harrisburg, Dec. 4, 1839, and was nominated for vice president with Gen. Harrison as president, and elected in November, 1840. President Harrison died just one month after his inauguration, and the administration devolved on the vice president. Mr. Tyler requested the members of the cabinet to remain in the places they held under President Harrison. Three days later he published an inaugural address, which in its indications of political principle was satisfactory to the whigs, and he at once began to remove from office the democrats appointed by previous administrations, and to fill their places with whigs. In his message to the congress which convened in extra session, May 31, 1841, he discussed at considerable length the question of a national bank, at that period a leading feature of whig policy; and he intimated to several members his desire that congress should request a plan for a bank from the secretary of the treasury. Resolutions for this purpose were adopted by both houses, and Mr. Ewing sent in a bill for the incorporation of the