In honor of the recent plenitude of impeachment news I present a piece on the first President of the United States to ever face an impeachment attempt, John Tyler. John Tyler's New Kent connections are strong ones having married a woman from the county and having represented New Kent in Congress, in the Secession Convention of 1861 and in the Confederate Congress(well actually he died before he could take his seat). Several of his children, of which there was a multitude, lived in New Kent. In December of 1841, the period of these letters, he faced a firestorm from his own party after he vetoed numerous bills they favored (he was the first President to have a veto overridden). By the summer of 1842 he would face an impeachment attempt led by a member of his own party, Richmond representative, John Minor Botts.
The President returned to the Seat of Government on Thursday, from his visit to his home in Virginia, and in good health.
The subjoined interesting correspondence between the President and citizens of New Kent county, we find in the Richmond Whig- a paper that seems very much chagrined because the President was kindly received by his old friends and neighbors:
The above was from November 13, 1841 edition of the The Madisonian, of Washington D.C.. The rest of the article being rather garbled I found a better scan of the letters referenced in the Holly Springs, Mississippi Gazette of December 2, 1841.
To His Excellency JOHN TYLER,
President of the United Slates of America:
Sir: Your friends and old constituents in New Kent beg to avail themselves of your visit to their county to tender to you a public dinner, to be given at New Kent Court-house, on any day that it may be your pleasure to name, as a manifestation of their long Cherished love and respect for you, both as a man and a politician- which, they trust to be pardoned for saying, have been greatly enhanced by the firmness of purpose and devotion to principle which you have recently exhibited, under circumstances of a greatly embarrassing nature.
We hope, sir, that it may suit your convenience, and be entirely compatible with your views of propriety, to accept an invitation; and we flatter ourselves that we can give a reception at a festive board in old New Kent will in some measure, we trust compensate you for the invective you have received at the hands of another portion of your old
constituents.
With wishes for your long continued health and happiness, we subscribe ourselves truly your personal and political friends,ED. G. CRUMP,
GEO. WILLIAMSON,
JOHN G. CRUMP,
W. R. C. DOUGLASS,
CHESLEY JONES,
Committee.
CEDAR HILL¹, NEW KENT COUNTY. NOV. 8, 1841.
GENTLEMEN: Few things would afford me more pleasure than to meet my friends and old constituents of this county, at the festive board, in pursuance of your polite invitation, but the necessity which exists for my speedy return to the Seat of Government places it out of my power to do so. I can however, do no less than return to you, and those you represent, my grateful thanks for the kind Sentiments of regard and confidence which you have been pleased to express toward, me.
Shall I not be justified by the people of this ancient county in the declaration that, when, as long ago as twenty-five years, they did me the honor to confer their almost unanimous sufferages upon me as their Representative in Congress², the political principles which I then avowed have been the same which since my accession to the Presidency, I have dared to vindicate and maintain, at the expense of the bitterest denunciations which have ever heretofore assailed a public functionary.
The same opinions as to the power of Congress to charter a National Bank, which I then avowed in the presence of your fathers then and of many who still survive among you, and which as your Representative. I strenuously urged in 1819 are still mainlined with abiding and undiminished conviction. I was then sustained by the people of this district, with almost entire unanimity, and I therefore take leave to say, that if of them are converts to new opinions they at least might have granted to me, as Chief Magistrate, bound by oath to support the Constitution, the benefit of the new lights of reason which have been shed upon them, before they united with others in a spirit of unqualified denunciation. What would they have me do? Would they have me sacrifice the consistency of my past life for party ends? Or, what is of far more importance, both morally and politically, would they require of the Chief Magistrate of this glorious Union to surrender all claim to their respect, by violating his oath of office in order to gratify the moloch of party? If they would have so great a sacrifice, then, I am proud to say, they will not receive it at my hands. I censure no man for his opinion on this or any other subject; but, while I award to him the right to think for himself, should he not exempt me from his denunciations because I cannot think as he does?
I beg you to be assured, gentlemen, that the invectives to which I have been subjected, have in no degree disturbed my equanimity. Amid the torrents of abuse, no matter by what motives dictated, which have been uttered against me, "my pulse has kept as healthful music³," as if nothing had occurred. The light reflected from my burning effigies has only served to render the path of my duty more plain. In that I shall walk, my confidence being placed in the patriotism, discernment, and intelligence of the American People, whose interests are always best sustained by a firm observance of Constitutional requirements.
I tender to you, individually, assurances of great personal regard.
JOHN TYLER.
To.Edward G. Crump, Geo. Williamson, John G. Crump,
William R. C. Douglass, and Chesley Jones, committee.
¹- At first I wondered if this was a typo and it should be Cedar Grove, birthplace of his wife Letitia Christian and the site of their marriage (and where she is buried). However Cedar Hill was the home of Tyler's daughter Letitia, wife of James Simple. The young couple were already becoming bitterly estranged from each other by this time but we probably should not assume that this would preclude Tyler from staying there.
²- In 1817 John Tyler carried New Kent over Andrew Stevenson by 216 votes to 16. In 1819 he faced no opposition. NB. in the antebellum era Virginia's Congressional elections occurred in odd years not even.
³- Hamlet Act 3, Scene 4-
"My pulse as yours doth temperately keep time
And makes as healthful music. It is not madness
That I have uttered."
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