John Tyler: Ghosts and the vice presidency

Presidential

The Washington Post

History, Government, Education

4.5 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2016

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Vice President Tyler took over the White House, he set a precedent that would forever shape the office. This episode features experts Barbara Bair and Joel Goldstein, as well as descendants who talk about the ghost who haunts the Tyler home.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, hello.
0:02.0	Hi.
0:03.0	I'm Lillian.
0:05.0	Thank you so much.
0:06.0	It's so nice to meet you.
0:08.0	All right.
0:09.0	This is Harrison Tyler, the grandson of our 10th president, John Tyler.
0:14.0	Well, his women Harrison is keen to meet you.
0:19.0	Harrison Tyler is also the great grandson on his mother's side of our 9th president, William Henry Harrison.
0:27.0	Harrison Tyler is 88 years old, and I went to visit him near Richmond, Virginia.
0:32.0	Unfortunately, he suffered a horrible stroke two years ago that erased his memory, so he couldn't share recollections of his family history.
0:41.0	But he has been reminded since, both by those he knows and those he doesn't know, that he has a special connection to American presidential history.
0:51.0	He let me sit with him as he signed letter after letter from people who've written asking for his signature.
0:59.0	And he told me about how just stays before he went to visit the grave of his grandfather.
1:05.0	He couldn't remember all the times he had visited in the past, so he wanted to go back to build a new memory, and to understand how his own story is intertwined with the story of US history.
1:17.0	I'm Lilian Cunningham with The Washington Post, and this is the 10th episode of Presidential.
1:24.0	The weather is so nice.
1:31.0	The weather is so nice.
1:38.0	The weather is so nice.
1:45.0	Tyler is the vice president who became president himself when William Henry Harrison died in office after only 32 days.
1:53.0	Tyler served as president, basically the entire term that Harrison was supposed to have served, from 1841 until 1845.
2:02.0	Tyler and Harrison grew up in the same county in Virginia, and both were from privileged families.
	...

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