Wasn’t there a push later to have Tyler become President of the Confederacy? I know he was getting old, but I have a vague memory of that....can anyone clarify?
Tyler was not a popular president. He was expelled from the Whig Party over is support for slavery and the schism helped speed the party’s decline. He remained a staunch champion of states rights and supported Virginia’s secession in 1861. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected as the Confederate President before Virginia left the Union so Tyler was never a serious candidate for that office. But he was elected to a seat in the Rebel Congress. He died before taking the seat though.
Two interesting points of trivia...
*Tyler was the only US President to receive no official acknowledgement from the Federal Government on his death. The Confederates however, did accord him a formal funeral with full honors.
* John Tyler (b 1790) has TWO(!) living grandsons. Tyler married twice and his second wife was much younger. They kept begatting children well into his old age. And at least one of his sons carried on the family tradition of marrying younger women deep into his old age and also was busy begatting late in life.
Tyler served in the Confederate House of Reps but died in 1862. It would have been just more upheaval in the South had he been President.