Throughout the relatively short history of the US, it’s become a tradition that presidents have their coffins draped in the American flag at their funeral. Of the 39 US presidents who have died, all have received this burial rite – except one: John Tyler, the 10th president of the US, who was laid to rest under a Confederate flag.
Born to a rich, slave-owning Virginian family in 1790, Tyler served as president between 1841 and 1845, not long before the American Civil War started in 1861.
The strong-willed politician started off as a Democrat but eventually ran under the ticket of the Whig Party, a defunct party that was a major political force in the mid-19th century. Initially elected as vice president, he quickly ascended to the top office after the death of President William Henry Harrison just 31 days after getting into office.
Tyler was a big believer in a limited federal government and states’ rights, including their right to slavery. As president, he supported the annexation of Texas in 1845, a move that became a flashpoint in heightened tensions between the North and South.
A portrait of US President John Tyler.
Image credit: US Library of Congress (No known restrictions on publication)
After his presidency, these tensions overflowed and the Civil War erupted. Tyler ardently sided with the Confederacy and encouraged his home state, Virginia, to secede from the Union. He was even elected to the Confederate Congress in 1861, although he died in January 1862 before taking his seat.
Dying in the midst of the Civil War, he was branded as a traitor by the Union and the US government refused to officially recognize his passing.
Tyler had requested a simple burial, but Confederate leaders had smelt an opportunity to give weight to their cause and depict Tyler as a hero of the new nation. Before providing him with a ceremonious funeral, the former president was laid in state at the Hall of Congress in Richmond where his coffin was draped by the Confederate flag.
The body of Tyler lays buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, not far from the gravesite of President James Monroe, beneath a grand obelisk. Simply stating “John Tyler, President of the United States, 1841 – 1845″, the gravestone makes no mention of his relationship with the Confederate States of America.
Unsurprisingly, his legacy remains deeply controversial. Tyler is frequently listed at the bottom of historian’s rankings of US presidents and scholars continue to see him as an unfavorable, if not highly unusual, leader.
However, he did leave his mark on US history in other (slightly less controversial) ways. His term in office set the “Tyler Precedent”, which says the vice president automatically becomes head of state upon the death of a sitting president. Although the maneuver is loosely explained in the US Consitution, the wording isn’t crystal clear and Tyler had to fight to be treated as the full president, not an interim leader. Thanks to his insisting efforts, that accession to power is now a given.
