“In a land of strangers he will naturally desire your countenance and advice—

and I bespeak the extension of the one and the exercise of the other as matters of personal favors to myself”:

President Tyler introduces the 16-year-old son of a prominent former Senator

to the United States Minister to France

John Tyler, 1790–1862.  10th President of the United States.  Autograph letter signed as President, John Tyler, one page, with integral leaf attached, 8” x 10”, on plain stationery, Washington, [D.C.], September 28, 1841.  With docketing in the hand of Lewis Cass, 1782–1866, United States Minister to France, 1836–1842; United States Senator from Michigan, 1845–1848, 1849–1857; United States Secretary of State, 1857–1860.

Some 5½ months after he became President, Tyler writes this letter of introduction to Lewis Cass, whom he addresses as His Excellency, the U.S. Envoy Extraordinary in Paris.  He writes on behalf of Charles Clayton, the younger son of Delaware politician and statesman John Middleton Clayton (1796–1856), who served three stints as a United States Senator from Delaware and later served 18 months as President Zachary Taylor’s Secretary of State.  In beautiful, articulate prose, Tyler writes, in full:

This will be handed you by Mr. Charles Clayton a son of the Hon. J. M. Clayton of Delaware whose merits as a citizen and distinction as a politician are I doubt not most thoroughly, known to you, as they are to all his countrymen.  Young M^r Clayton visits Paris with a view to finish his education which has been of the most liberal character.  May I recommend him to your kindest attention—In a land of strangers he will naturally desire your countenance and advice—and I bespeak the extension of the one and the exercise of the other as matters of personal favors to myself.  I tender you assurances of my respect and confidence—

As Tyler mentioned, Cass was well acquainted with John Clayton.  Clayton was a Senator from Delaware March 4, 1829, through December 29, 1836, while Cass served as the Secretary of War from August 1, 1831, through October 4, 1836.  The two would later serve together in the Senate during two of Clayton’s three stints in the Senate.  Their terms overlapped beginning with their first terms, both of which began March 4, 1845.  They served together through the end of Cass’s first term on May 29, 1848, then served together again beginning at the start of Clayton’s third term on March 4, 1853, through November 9, 1856. 

Astoundingly—although the world is different today—Charles McClyment Clayton (1825–1849) was only 16 years old when made the trip alone to Paris that Tyler mentions in this letter.  He died young, at age 23, on February 17, 1849, in Mississippi.  The notice of his death in the Vicksburg Daily Whig said that he was “highly accomplished, and had traveled greatly in Europe.”  Both he and his older brother James Fisher Clayton (1823–1851) died in their twenties.  Their mother died before them, leaving Senator Clayton a widower to raise the sons alone.

Cass served as Governor of the Michigan Territory and later served three times as a United States Senator from Michigan.  He was Secretary of War under President Andrew Jackson, who later appointed him as the U.S. Minister to France, where he served 1836–1842, during which Tyler wrote this letter.  Cass’s battle with former President Martin Van Buren for the 1844 Democratic Party presidential nomination led to the nomination of dark horse James K. Polk, who went on to win the presidency.  Cass was the 1848 Democratic Party nominee for President, but his advocacy for popular sovereignty over slavery caused a split in the party, with Van Buren breaking away to lead the Free Soil Party.  Van Buren took anti-slavery Democratic votes from Cass, who lost the election to Whig Zachary Taylor. 

Tyler’s significant role in American history is well known.  Elected Vice President with President William Henry Harrison, he acceded to the presidency when Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration, the shortest presidency in history.  Due to an ambiguity in the Constitution, and no doubt due in part to the fact that, as an advocate of states’ rights, the Virginian Tyler disagreed with prominent members of his own party, the Whigs, many members of Harrison’s cabinet and members of Congress referred to Tyler as the “Acting President” and, derisively, as “His Accidency.”  But Tyler insisted that Harrison’s death made him the President.  He immediately took the presidential oath of office, and he moved into the White House and returned unopened all mail addressed to him as the Vice President or as the Acting President.  His staunch insistence that he was the President of the United States established the precedent for presidential succession upon the deaths in office, by assassination or natural causes, of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy until the succession of the Vice President was ensconced in law in the 25th Amendment to the Constitution in 1967.

Interestingly, despite Tyler’s claim to the presidency, Cass has referred to Tyler as “Governor Tyler” in his docket on the back of the letter.  Furthermore, although Tyler clearly dated the letter September 28, Cass has misdated the docket, writing, “Governor Tyler / introducing Mr. Clayton / 26 September.”

This is a very nice letter and an excellent example of Tyler’s holograph.  Tyler has written and signed in black.  The letter has intersecting mailing folds, which do not affect Tyler’s large, bold signature.  The letter also has a small tear at lower left corner of front leaf, some soiling, an old collector’s pencil notation in the lower right corner of the front page, and docketing both by Cass and in an unknown hand on back of the integral leaf.  Overall, the letter is in fine condition.

Unframed.