REPORT OF THE PHYSICIANS. [From the Daily National Intelligencer, April 5, 1841.] Hon. D. WEbster, Secretary of State. WASHINGTON, April 4, 1841. DEAR SIR: In compliance with the request made to us by yourself and the other gentlemen of the Cabinet, the attending and consulting physicians have drawn up the abstract of a report on the President's case, which I herewith transmit to you. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, THO. MILLER, On Saturday, March 27, 1841, President Harrison, after several days' previous indisposition, was seized with a chill and other symptoms of fever. The next day pneumonia, with congestion of the liver and derangement of the stomach and bowels, was ascertained to exist. The age and debility of the patient, with the immediate prostration, forbade a resort to general blood letting. Topical depletion, blistering, and appropriate internal remedies subdued in a great measure the disease of the lungs and liver, but the stomach and intestines did not regain a healthy condition. Finally, on the 3d of April, at 3 o'clock p. m., profuse diarrhea came on, under which he sank at thirty minutes to 1 o'clock on the morning of the 4th. The last words uttered by the President, as heard by Dr. Worthington, were these: "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the Government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more." THO. MILLER, M. D., Attending Physician. FRED. MAY, M. D., N. W. WORTHINGTON, M. D., J. C. HALL, M. D., ASHTON ALEXANDER, M. D., Consulting Physicians. OATH OF OFFICE ADMINISTERED TO PRESIDENT JOHN TYLER IN THE PRESENCE OF THE CABINET.* [From the Daily National Intelligencer, April 7, 1841.] I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. APRIL 6, 1841. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, City and County of Washington, ss: JOHN TYLER. I, William Cranch, chief judge of the circuit court of the District of Columbia, certify that the above-named John Tyler personally appeared before me this day, and although he deems himself qualified to perform the duties and exercise the *The Secretary of the Navy was absent from the city. powers and office of President on the death of William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States, without any other oath than that which he has taken as Vice-President, yet as doubts may arise, and for greater caution, took and subscribed the foregoing oath before me. W. CRANCH. APRIL 6, 1841. PROCLAMATION. TO THE PEOple of the UNITED STATES. A RECOMMENDATION. WASHINGTON, April 13, 1841. When a Christian people feel themselves to be overtaken by a great public calamity, it becomes them to humble themselves under the dispensation of Divine Providence, to recognize His righteous government over the children of men, to acknowledge His goodness in time past, as well as their own unworthiness, and to supplicate His merciful protection for the future. The death of William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States, so soon after his elevation to that high office, is a bereavement peculiarly calculated to be regarded as a heavy affliction and to impress all minds with a sense of the uncertainty of human things and of the dependence of nations, as well as individuals, upon our Heavenly Parent. I have thought, therefore, that I should be acting in conformity with the general expectation and feelings of the community in recommending, as I now do, to the people of the United States of every religious denomination that, according to their several modes and forms of worship, they observe a day of fasting and prayer by such religious services as may be suitable on the occasion; and I recommend Friday, the 14th day of May next, for that purpose, to the end that on that day we may all with one accord join in humble and reverential approach to Him in whose hands we are, invoking Him to inspire us with a proper spirit and temper of heart and mind under these frowns of His providence and still to bestow His gracious benedictions upon our Government and our country. JOHN TYLER. [For "A resolution manifesting the sensibility of Congress upon the event of the death of William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States,'' see p. 1908.] QUESTION. I. What three unsatisfactory schemes of finance have been tried by the United States? Page 1898. SUGGESTIONS. The untimely death of William Henry Harrison one year and four months after his inauguration prevented the making of much history during his administration; but his able inaugural address is an excellent summary of the history of the country at the time. Pages 1860 to 1876. Read Harrison's Foreign Policy. Page 1873. NOTE. For further suggestions on Harrison's administration, see Harrison, William Henry, Encyclopedic Index. By reading the Foreign Policy of each President, and by scanning the messages as to the state of the nation, a thorough knowledge of the history of the United States will be acquired from the most authentic sources; because, as has been said, "Each President reviews the past, depicts the present and forecasts the future of the nation." 1887-A TYLER No president of the Republic has created greater extremes of opinion respecting his merits than John Tyler; and perhaps another generation must pass before his administration can be justly or impartially weighed. He came of an old English family, which settled in Virginia, in the early days of that colony, and he was the fifth John Tyler in the line of descent in his section of the State. Some have traced the family origin to Watt Tyler, the celebrated English agitator, who became famous by his rebellion near the close of the 14th Century. John Tyler seems to have foreseen even in his early manhood the inevitable clash to come between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States. As a pro-slavery man he accepted and followed the lead of John C. Calhoun in the nullification branch of the Democratic party; and he soon became a power to be reckoned with in the politics of the country. His prominence was such that he was put on the ticket with General W. H. Harrison in 1840, when the "Tippecanoe and Tyler" campaign developed into one of the most exciting episodes of American politics. This campaign produced a singular combination, the Whigs, the "National Republicans" and the "Democratic Republicans," uniting on a ticket incongruous in its candidates, but claimed with frantic enthusiasm, to represent the cherished views of both the North and the South. Tyler was expected to uphold and conserve the tenets of the Staterights party, and to see that the Constitution was strictly construed in all matters affecting the institution of slavery. In one month after the inauguration, General Harrison died, and Tyler became President. Instead of reorganizing the Cabinet on lines of his own, he adopted the policy of retaining the existing Cabinet, although many, and possibly all, of them felt more or less distrust of Mr. Tyler's fidelity to the platform on which the party had come into power. The truth is, that the combination ticket of Harrison and Tyler was the usual party trick, intended to unite discordant elements, and having the sole object of obtaining votes enough to insure success. Slavery agitation had already then become exciting if not violent. Harrison was recognized as an anti-slavery man, while Tyler was notoriously allied in sentiment with the extreme section of the pro-slavery party of the South. His nomination, therefore, in 1840, on the Whig ticket, was to reap the fruits of disaffection in the Democratic party rather than to make sure of fealty to Whig principles or to reward Mr. Tyler for any services rendered to that party. When Tyler vetoed the National Bank Bill in 1841, his party abandoned him with curses and maledictions accompanied with unpardonable vehemence and violence. 1887-B In all other respects his administration proved to be eminently successful. A bankruptcy law, admittedly necessary to relieve the failures following the panic of 1837, was passed, and a tariff law looking to both revenue and protection was approved in 1842. Just before the expiration of his term in 1845, Texas was admitted into the Union with the mutual consent of the parties in interest, and on the true principles of peaceable and healthful expansion, under which the inhabitants of the new territory became at once clothed with every constitutional right, and the State itself took its place as an equal member of the federal union. The Northeastern boundary question which had long threatened the public peace was honorably and satisfactorily settled during his administration. President Tyler's critics of that day aspersed his name with immoderate abuse and seem to have delighted in calumniating his character, but in the clearer light of subsequent history, it is admitted that much of this detraction may be fairly attributed to the smarting anguish of party disappointments, stimulated and aggravated by the fierce and unreasonable passions which disgraced the politics of that period. It is now perfectly clear that the advantages of the independent treasury system, then recently adopted under the administration of Mr. Van Buren, are far better for both government and people than any benefits to be derived from the fiscal agencies of a national bank. Time, indeed, sets all things even. And Tyler's friends may now, with some justification, claim that his treason to party proved to be a blessing to his country. When the great war of the Rebellion began in 1861, he came as a delegate from Virginia to a "Peace Convention" at Washington, with the vain hope of averting the horrors which he had already seen in the prophetic visions of his youth, but it was too late. He returned home from his fruitless mission to join the fortunes of his State just then being hurried on with frantic zeal into a war more fruitless still. John Tyler was not without faults, but he was better than many who, with shameless contumely, have aspersed his name. He disregarded the behests of his party; and no man can survive this act of disobedience, however justified he may be in the eyes of God or of sensible men. The more ignorant or corrupt his party, the more swift and certain in his ruin. D. Rondoren 1887-C |