President Tyler burned in effigy, Aug. 16, 1841

On this day in 1841, President John Tyler vetoed an effort by Congress to re-establish the Second Bank of the United States.

In response, angry supporters of the bank gathered outside the Executive Mansion that evening and burned an effigy of Tyler, who had assumed the presidency on April 4 upon the death of President William Henry Harrison.


The rioters hurled stones at the residence and shot guns into the air before setting the effigy on fire. The protest was the most violent demonstration ever held near the mansion. In its aftermath, the District of Columbia created its own police force.

Tyler, the nation’s 10th president, was the first chief executive to be born after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. He was also the first vice president to assume the office of president upon the death of his predecessor.

Despite misgivings by members of his inherited Cabinet, Tyler took the presidential oath of office, initiating a custom that has governed all future successions.

Nonetheless, Tyler’s opponents usually referred to him as “the acting president” or “His Accidency.” The protesters, however, were mainly members of the political party Tyler had affiliated with, the recently organized Whigs, who controlled Congress at the time.

As president, Tyler inherited an economy marred by wildly fluctuating currency valuations and rampant bank fraud. Breaking with the Whigs, Tyler declared the U.S. bank a threat to states’ rights, enraging the bank’s congressional backers.

Before issuing his banking veto, Tyler had sought to forge a compromise. However, Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky, the founder and leader of the Whigs, wouldn’t budge. In retaliation for the veto, the Whigs expelled Tyler from its party ranks.

When informed that a Cabinet majority had dictated policy in the prior Harrison administration, Tyler responded by saying:

“I beg your pardon, gentlemen; I am very glad to have in my Cabinet such able statesmen as you have proved yourselves to be. And I shall be pleased to avail myself of your counsel and advice. But I can never consent to being dictated to as to what I shall or shall not do.

“I, as president, shall be responsible for my administration. I hope to have your hearty co-operation in carrying out its measures. So long as you see fit to do this, I shall be glad to have you with me. When you think otherwise, your resignations will be accepted.”

All the members of Tyler’s Cabinet resigned save for except Daniel Webster, the secretary of state, who left in 1842.

Until its demise in 1836, the bank, operating as a private corporation with public duties, the bank handled all fiscal transactions for the U.S. government. It was accountable to Congress and the U.S. Treasury.

Twenty percent of its capital was held by the federal government, the bank’s single largest stockholder. Some 4,000 private investors held their remaining 80 percent of the bank’s capital, including about 1,000 Europeans. Most of the shares were in the hands of a few hundred wealthy Americans — the “1 percent” of that era. In its time, the institution was the world’s largest financial corporation.

SOURCE: WWW.HISTORY.COM

